John's Random Review » Gadgets http://blog.my-is300.com A totally random collection of stuff. Though now that facebook exists, its mostly guns and video games... Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:54:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 A dichotomy of purchases! http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/a-dichotomy-of-purchases/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/a-dichotomy-of-purchases/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:44:32 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=62 A dichotomy of purchases! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> This weekend, I purchased 2 items which are almost the complete opposite of each other. While they are very different items, they have some interesting similarities! Both are going to be a lot of fun, in their own little way!

Item #1 Item #2
It is: Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360 A General International Table Saw!
It looks like gh2! General International

For a more detailed table of differences and similarities, follow the jump!

Simply put A guitar playing video game a manly table saw
Difficulty of assembly

★
literally plug and play!

★★★★★
The stand alone was 20 pieces, about 120 assorted nuts, bolts, washers, and an exploded parts diagram!
Probable cause of injury?

★
Its basically a whiffle ball bat with some electronics. you could probably choke yourself with the cord?

★★★★★
Its a table saw! it has a giant, sharp metal blade spinning at like 10000 rpm.

But before we use any power tools, lets take a moment to talk about shop safety. Be sure to read, understand, and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools. Knowing how to use your power tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury. And remember this: There is no more important safety rule than to wear these, safety glasses.

Norm Abrams, host of the New Yankee Workshop, every episode before using the first power tool.
Actual injuries caused

★★
Oh god! the muscles in my forearms that are used to close my hands are killing me! Remember to stretch!

0
But probably because it didn’t come with a saw blade! :P

Fun at parties?

★★★★★
Definitely a party game.

★
I’m sure it would be fun. once. after the lawsuit, it probably wouldn’t be fun anymore.
Practice/training to use well/correctly

★★★★★
On easy, its not too hard to grasp, or play. on medium it’s picked up the pace and the difficulty real fast. i can’t even imagine hard and hardest!

★★★★★
I could use it to cut something right now. but it probably wouldn’t be straight :) Using it well is a long time coming! I don’t know that i’ve used a table saw since Dad’s back in the garage in high school or college!

Cost

★
Again, its basically a whiffle ball bat with some electronics. Plus, i finally got to use a Toys’R'Us gift card we got for our wedding!

★★★★★
This thing is awesome. Heavy, industrial strength. Cast iron, steel, high power motor, means not cheap!
Chances of buying again/another.

★★★★★
Well, to play it at parties, you need to have 2 guitars, don’t you? Plus, guitar hero 3 is coming out by the end of the year… and they’ve said that the next one will be wireless!

★
Other tools, yes! Another table saw? hopefully never!

A dichotomy of purchases! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/a-dichotomy-of-purchases/feed/ 1 Not my week for technology… http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/02/not-my-week-for-technology/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/02/not-my-week-for-technology/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:49:23 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=59 Not my week for technology… was originally posted at John's Random Review.

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egads

So on Saturday my Xbox360 died a horrible death. Well, horrible for me anyway. It hasn’t apparently affected Laura very much.. :( Tonight, for the very first time during my long tenure of TiVo ownership, i got the “Green Screen of Death”. I’ve had 4 TiVo boxes in my lifetime, and 3 of them have died of various hardware failures. 1 dead tuner, 2 dead drives, and now the newest one (which is several years old) is apparently having issues. 2 of the dead ones, including my original series 1 TiVo, are now External HDD Enclosures in my office!

By the time I edited, uploaded the photo of the greenscreen, the TiVo had restarted and is working. But it appears a little more sluggish than usual, though. Ruh-roh!

Not my week for technology… was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/02/not-my-week-for-technology/feed/ 2 iPhone? Not for me! http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/iphone-not-for-me/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/iphone-not-for-me/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:41:20 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=52 iPhone? Not for me! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

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my phone
My Phone!
Am I going to get sued for this pic?

So yeah, the iPhone is pretty, but what’s the big deal. The only thing i like is the big button on the UI. My requirements are pretty specific:

  • usb (mini) connector. no stupid proprietary connectors.
  • sync with my pc (mostly for work appts, tasks)
  • keyboard (flip out, or slide out, i’ve had both)
  • camera (preferrably with video)
  • 802.11x wireless
  • web+email
  • software!
  • Big screen (preferrably touch!)
  • Memory card of some kind

The iPhone meets most of those requirements. So why won’t i buy one? Read on for more!

touch screen

Yes, the iPhone has a big, shiny screen. Yes, it is a touch screen. even multi touch, which is pretty neat. But no buttons? the hard buttons on my phone are life savers. one physical button to answer the phone, one physical button to ignore, one to start up the camera and take a picture, a directional pad, buttons to jump right to mail/text/sms, one to open the browser, etc. All in all, there are 8 hard buttons and the 4 way directional button. i don’t have to look at the screen to figure out which way is up, i don’t have to look at the screen to answer the phone or mute it.

The biggest reason i think you NEED buttons is that the touch screen is going to drift. Its not a matter of “if”, it is a matter of when. The touchscreen on my wizard drifts all the time, and is even worse with a screen protector on it. And you better believe that people are going to have screen protectors on those screens. Look how easy ipods scratch, and you never even have to touch the ipod screen! So now imagine trying to answer the phone when the screen thinks you are touching somewhere else…at least with buttons i can navigate to the settings to get back to align the screen!

The winner here is… My phone. it has buttons. tactile feedback is a good thing. I’m sure the iphone screen will look amazing, though!

keyboard

I text a lot (well, not a TON, but enough!) that i like to have a keyboard. Its also nice for entering names into the address book, sending email, etc. i just am not a big fan of the t9 or using the phone pad to type. so if the iphone was a little thicker and had a slide out keyboard, it might make it to the top of my list!

The winner here is…My phone. software keyboard only on the iphone. Not gonna cut it!

sync

It looks like this won’t be a big issue, the iphone will sync using itunes, to it can grab my stuff. hypothetically it would sync with office/exchange, so i could get my appointments and tasks, but i’m not positive on that one. I do sync at two locations though! from work i only sync appointments and tasks, and from home i sync my contacts, notes, files, etc.

The winner here is… probably a tie. Edge to my phone because i have it! :P

wireless, web, email

Not a whole lot to talk about here, they both have all 3.

The winner here is… iPhone probably wins with a better browser, better email.

other software

Apple has said that the phone is not running OSX, and they aren’t going to let third parties put software on them. Jobs even said something like “we’re not going to let some third party software crash cingular’s west coast network.” Uh.. yeah. I don’t think any WinCE / Windows Mobile software has crashed any cell networks… Microsoft will let just about anybody make software that will run on a windows device. And i used 3 of them (2 that were free) to make my phone look pretty much like the iPhone.

The winner is…my phone by a mlle. If the phone doesn’t do something i want i to, i can download the windows mobile sdks and make it do what i want. or i can find something that someone else has already made it do!

connector

The stupid ipod connector brings it down a big notch. why does everyone think they need a special connector? Sheesh. Even if you do, make the middle part a mini-usb! Even the Nintendo DS fails me on this one. The DS connector is SO close to being mini-usb, but noooooo. At least the 360 (and i think the PS3) have usb connectors on them. everyone has one of those usb mini cords. if i can’t find an outlet at the airport to chart my phone, i can plug it into my laptop and steal some battery power from that.

The winner here is… My phone. It has usb, so it connects to everything.

memory cards

No extra memory on the iphone? they probably don’t want you stealing more music! 8 gigs is all we want you to have! (although that is a LOT of space for a phone, so memory wise, the iphone wins here). But i have a gig card in mine, and i can swap that out with any other number of cards, so..

The winner here is…My phone. for now.

extras

My phone has windows media player, the iphone has ipod software. My phone doesn’t have gps…

The winner here is…the iPhone if it has gps. Does it?

price!

Jinkies, that iphone’s gonna be expensive…. and i already have a 30g zune, so i don’t need a new ipod…

The winner here is…my phone because i already paid for it!

What i used to make my phone look like an iPhone

My phone is running Windows Mobile 5, these are the applications i used.

  • An all black default theme allBlack.tsk (free)
  • the top 2 rows of icons are using the application cLaunch (free) with custom icons.

    The icons themselves i found on the web. if you can’t find them, you aren’t looking hard enough.

    the lock button is another free app, vjdevicelock(free) with a custom icon.
  • the time in the middle is using rlToday (free) with a custom skin.
  • the bottom part is phoneAlarm (not free, but free trial), with a custom skin, with more icons from above.
    i made a battery icon (not shown when i took that picture) myself, so that bottom right icon is a battery remaining icon instead of a settings icon. there are a couple phoneAlarm skins that incorporate icons like this. I made my own icons so that the whole icon was red instead of green when i had missed calls or texts.

Update: Here’s a pic a flickr that has notes for the various parts: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gardnerjr/374223166/

iPhone? Not for me! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/iphone-not-for-me/feed/ 5 naviPod Remote Control http://blog.my-is300.com/2004/08/navipod-remote-control/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2004/08/navipod-remote-control/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2004 03:42:13 +0000 John Gardner /?p=11 naviPod Remote Control was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I recently purchased a naviPod remote for my iPod, because I use my iPod every day at work. Because of the layout of my office, there isn’t a convenient place to put the ipod and control it. I used the Apple supplied corded remote for a while, but then when I took my iPod somewhere else, I had to untangle even more cords. I love having a remote, but I do have some issues with the design of the remote…

Its nice that the remote looks like something that should attach to my iPod. And, sure, it is very iPod-y. But it also looks a lot like the standard Apple 1 button round mouse, that a lot of people don’t like.

But the real problem comes because the remote is round. Not only is it round, but the bottom is curved. The only flat spot on the remote is the top, where the buttons are.

The buttons are well placed, and they are a good size. The remote itself is not a bad width, and the curved bottom makes it pretty comfortable in your hand.

The problem comes when you try to pick up the remote. As you can see to the left, almost every remote in the history of the world is rectangular. Some of the better ones nowadays are contoured in some way, so that they fit naturally in your hand. There’s a reason for that rectangular shape. When you set it down, you can just pick it back up. You might pick it up upside-down, but thats the only wrong way to pick it up.

The naviPod is round. Perfectly circular, round.

See where i’m going with this? When you pick it up, there are 359° of wrongness!

Not only is the naviPod round, but remember that i said the bottom is curved? The bottom of every other remote in the world is flat. Do you know why? So that when you set it down, it stays where you put it. If you’ve ever used a TiVo remote, you’ll see that it has curved edges, but there are flat spots on the bottom. Even if you set the TiVo remote down on its side, it ends up right side up, sitting on the flat spots.

Not so with the naviPod! If you set the naviPod down at even a tiny angle, it rocks like a weeble wobble! And while it is wobbling, it spins! So when you go back to pick it up, its now laying in a totally different place at a different angle! To see it in action, watch me set the remote down on my desk. In the video i’m not spinning it, i simply set it down. If it is sitting on the desk, you can press down on any edge and let up, and it will do the same wobbly spinning move.

So now when you pick it up, you have to look at it, and probably have to use the other hand to rotate the remote in your hand so that you can press the buttons.

What could they do to make it better? One of two things.

  1. Make the remote oval. You still get the ipod “look”, but only 1 wrong way to pick it up. It also wouldn’t spin when you set it down. it might still wobble but it won’t spin!
  2. Make the bottom of the remote flat. Then you still have an infinite amount of wrong ways to pick it up, but it wouldn’t spin when you set it down

So from me, the remote gets a 75% review. It does its job, but could do it better! I might take the remote apart and mount the buttons and circuitry inside of another remote, or sand down the bottom so that it doesn’t wobble.

naviPod Remote Control was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2004/08/navipod-remote-control/feed/ 0 Memory stick walkman! http://blog.my-is300.com/2000/06/memory-stick-walkman/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2000/06/memory-stick-walkman/#comments Wed, 07 Jun 2000 03:45:26 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=116 Memory stick walkman! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> What’s new? Not a whole hell of a lot! I got a Memory Stick walkman, and i’m playing with that a lot (its pretty cool!) but other than that, no news is good news!

This post recovered from my really old blog on the internet archive @ http://web.archive.org

Memory stick walkman! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

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