Gadgets, Gizmos, and Other Good Stuff

Mediacom’s Last Chance

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 18:15:10 +0000

Our local cable and Internet provider sent a repair guy over yesterday (for the third time this week) to fix the Internet line coming into the house. For the last TWO YEARS every month or two we would lose the signal, sometimes for as many as five days while we waited for them to send someone out to fix it. I called their wonderful India based tech support branch eight days ago complaining about service being down. Three days later they sent someone out who “adjusted the levels.” I complained that that was what they always did (three times in the last six months at least). Sure enough, the guy’s adjustment worked fine, until five hours after he left when suddenly it stopped working again.

Considering that we had recently got rid of our cable TV plan I would normally have expected a conspiracy had it not been for the fact that this had been such a chronic problem over the years.

I called again, got routed to India again, and was told that this time it would be FIVE DAYS MORE before they would get out to me. No amount of arguing would change things. So five days later here comes a different guy and I go out to meet him at the box and tell him of my troubles. He checked it, said the levels were indeed off again but that there must be something wrong with the cable or a piece of hardware somewhere if I was continually having these problems. He said he was going to put in a work order to have some other techie subgroup come out and do a more thorough inspection of the equipment at the box but also proceeded to adjust the levels again and got me up and running.

Mediacom, you should really thank that guy because until I talked to him I was minutes away from calling up Qwest and ordering DSL even though I knew it would have crappy bandwidth compared to the 12 Mbps that Mediacom can provide. Qwest is still an option though. The next time our line goes dead I’m done with them, and their annoying overseas tech support people. Just once I would love to call in and get someone local!

My Experience of Getting Rid Of Cable- Installing The Antenna

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:02:51 +0000

So today we truly cut the cord. No more cable TV, only cable Internet. It should save our household nearly $1000 a year (as long as they don’t raise the Internet rates any time soon). So what now? In the absence of cable our kids won’t be constantly trying to turn the TV to iCarly and Spongebob (BIG plus there!). On the down side we will now be relying on over the air stations, Hulu, Netflix, and possibly some other kind of media player like XBMC. We’ll see how it goes. My wife is happy with the idea, but she grew up the first 19 years of her life without having cable TV. I on the other hand, was apparently spoiled and am told that having HBO rotted my brain to some extent.

The Hard Part- Finding The Right Antenna

So here we are. The first thing we had to do after deciding to make the switch was to actually buy an antenna since our house didn’t have one already. We literally tried out four different styles of antenna before finally finding one that would actually pull in all of the local stations (even though we live in a suburb of a major city. Take it from me, unless you live right next door to the transmitter the cheapo little $15 bow tie antennas that you can find at Walmart and Target will not do the trick. But, it does sell for only about ten bucks at Amazon.Even the next model up, an amplified indoor disc antenna was insufficient to pull in everything, especially our local ABC affilliate whose tower was a little farther away than the others. Finally the fourth time was a charm, and we invested in an outdoor flat antenna made by RCA, the ANT 800. I got it for around $60 over at Menards.The Easy Part- Hooking Up The Antenna

I hooked it up and let it sit out on our deck to test it and once we hooked in the amplifier insert it pulled in everything nicely. I finally got around to mounting it high up on the side of our house, not under the gutters because I didn’t want it getting broken off by ice or snow, but on the north side of the house so that I could point it in the general direction of the towers. If you are wondering how I got all this information you can go to AntennaWeb.org, and type in your address to get a detailed description of all of your local channels, what direction they are from your house, and what kind of antenna they recommend that you use to pull them in. If only I had seen this site to begin with it would have saved me a ton of trouble and three return visits to the department stores to take back the ineffective ones.

Hooking the Antenna Into The House Cable System

I wasn’t about to run new cable to every TV in the house so I took the easy route. I had a long spool of coax sitting in the garage and ran it up a rain gutter to the peak of the roof. Mounting the antenna in the right place was fairly easy, even though I hate heights. I had told my wife that I would be outside for about thirty minutes, and true to form it took me twice that. Once it was up and wired though I ran the wire down to where the cable company had a splitter set up and connected it to the house system, went inside and tried to program the televisions. Even without hooking in the amplifier that comes with the antenna I was able to get thirteen channels. Once I added the amplifier that number went up to fifteen, finally pulling in the elusive ABC stations and doing so with plenty of signal.

Once I knew it was working I finally cut the cable. Not literally of course, but I called the local cable company and told them I wanted to drop the channels and just keep internet. I was expecting a hard sell to keep me going but surprisingly it went quick and painless. Bye bye cable and hello an extra $70 a month!

Zippy LED Keyboard First Look

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:48:16 +0000

I’m reviewing a new LED keyboard this week for the site. Made by a company named Zippy and called the BL-741 it is getting read to ship with high hopes and promises. So far I’m on the fence about it. Pretty compact, which means some of the buttons are in weird places. The LED backlight is really cool though. Supposedly 512 different color schemes. I’ll post the full review later this week.

Free Audio Tours of Europe iPhone App Now Available

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:31:02 +0000

Rick Steves is a well known world traveler with a very popular PBS television series that has over the years produced some great audio walking tours of famous places all over the world. He has recently released his iPhone versions of these tours for free and are now available as such for download through the iTunes store.

Once you have the app you can browse through dozens of different walking tours and download only the ones you want. You can also do the same thing in podcast format for use on other players like standard iPods. Rick Steves’ Europe app is now available for free from the iTunes store.

Introducing Plug and Print Printers From HP

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:42:12 +0000

How many times have you had to reinstall a printer on a system only to be unable to find the installation CD that has the drivers on it? Sure you can go on the web and probably find an updated driver that will fit the bill but it is still a hassle. HP appears to have solved this little problem by storing the drivers for popular operating systems on the printer itself. When you plug the printer into the USB port it automatically launches the driver installation software (or so says the guys over at EverythingUSB). HP’s new printers that feature HP Smart Install are now shipping and more are expected in the future. Hopefully other manufacturers will jump on the bandwagon and do the same.

Hubble 3D in IMAX

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:05:11 +0000

In case you were not aware there are only four space shuttle launches left before NASA retires the fleet. Seeing a space shuttle launch first hand has always been a dream of mine but sadly probably one that I will never be able to take off of my bucket list. I was thinking the other day that the whole 3D revolution is interesting and all, but there is one thing I really wish producers would try to do before it is too late, capture a shuttle launch in 3D . I guess it turns out that they may have done that, and in IMAX to boot.

On March 12, 2010 a new IMAX film called Hubble 3D was released. Hopefully the entire movie is in 3D and not just the stuff taken in orbit. Of course, you have to have a 3D IMAX theater in your area in order to see it, and as far as I can tell our local one at the Science Center of Iowa doesn’t do 3D. Might have to make a trip in to Chicago or something to see it someday. Of course, anyone with a way to get me to a real launch can give me a call too….

Free iPad Giveaways on Twitter

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:44:41 +0000

Want to win a free iPad? Check out these links!

In case you have not heard about it there is this new device coming out this week called the Apple iPad. If you have not heard about it then honestly, you probably need one more than the techies who are all drooling over them even before they have shipped. For those of us too cheap to shell out $500 for a new iPad take a look at the list below to get some entries into some free ipad giveaways on Twitter. If you hear of any more of them feel free to leave a comment and add them to the list.

Please remember that I am only providing this information that I have seen on Twitter over the last few days for ways to sign up to win a free iPad. I have no idea if each individual contest is authentic or not. The only thing for certain is that apparently giving away a free iPad is darn good publicity on Twitter!

Be sure to follow @gadgetstuff for new iPad contests as they appear in the Twitter feeds. I will keep this list up to date as best I can.

From Webs.com – #websdotcom AND http://bit.ly/ipadme

From iPadInsider – go to http://www.ipadinsider.com/free-ipad/ and read the details to send the tweet

PriceGrabber – @PriceGrabber: Who’s the lucky gal or lad, who will win our FREE Apple iPAD?! FOLLOW us, RT now, and find out on April 5 #PriceGrabber10K

jtgraphic – Follow @jtgraphic and RT to #WIN a #free #apple #iPad!! One RT per day is a valid entry – unlimited entries!

Digg.com – tweet this: the free @digg app comes to your iphone! to celebrate they’re giving out a custom colorware ipad each day for 2 weeks! http://bit.ly/diggapp

Picksthatmove – Follow @picksthatmove and RT to win 1 of 5 free iPads http://bit.ly/dCYG0J #contest #iPad

Happy Owl Studio – go to web site and read instructions then tweet about it http://www.happyowlstudio.com/win-an-ipad.html

Got more? Add them as a comment below!

MSI Big Bang Fuzion Motherboard

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:12:20 +0000

An Almost Perfect Gaming Motherboard With Multi-Vendor Video Card Support

The MSI Big Bang Fuzion Motherboard

Running multiple video cards in a computer is one of several ways that gamers can tweak their frame rates to achieve the highest possible gaming experience. Until now however, users wanting to do this were limited to using identical video cards and connecting them together using the proprietary technology used by NVIDIA or ATI. With the new MSI Big Bang Fuzion Motherboard however, users have a new option. Thanks to a very special new chipset on the board known as the Lucid Hydra chip multiple video cards from different vendors can be used in the same system.

The Hydra chip literally looks at the graphic rendering tasks being sent by the game and distributes different portions of those rendering tasks to the different cards. Those completed images are then put back together by the Hydra and sent out to the monitor. While this is perhaps the most innovative aspect of the Big Bang Fuzion motherboard the mobo has a great number of additional benefits and tweaks that make it one of the year’s most intriguing pieces of PC hardware and the preliminary reviews seem to reflect that statement.

MSI Big Bang Fuzion Motherboard Specifications

As Ryan Shrout of PC Perspective points out in an interview and walk through video, the MSI Big Bang Fuzion motherboard is packed with features, enough that it will fill the needs of even the most demanding computer user:

3 PCI Express x16 2.0 Slots
2 PCI Express Slots
2 Standard PCI Slots
ATX Form factor
Up to 16 GB RAM
6 SATA connectors plus on board RAID support
8 Channel Realtek Audio
Gigabit LAN
12 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire port, and 2 eSATA ports
Ability to use Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors (LGA 1156 Socket)

The only significant power user features missing from the Big Bang Fuzion are the lack of USB 3.0 support and the lack of a front panel eSATA port.

Conclusions About The MSI Big Bang Fuzion Motherboard

In terms of features and convenience the MSI Big Bang Fuzion truly provides everything in one beautifully crafted motherboard, but these conveniences come with a price tag that places it out of range for all but the most die hard gamers. At the time of its release the Big Bang Fuzion Motherboard was listing for nearly $400. Once the price starts to drop though, grab it!

Emergency Radio Buying Guide

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:40:50 +0000

The Eton FR300 Emergency Radio

No home should be without an emergency radio of some kind to use in times of crisis. These small, self powered, portable emergency radios are also great to take along on camping trips and to keep in the car in the winter in case of trouble. This side by side comparison of several popular emergency radios is intended to help the reader make a reasonable and informed choice when shopping for an emergency radio for the home.

	Eton FR300	Eton FR400	Kaito KA500

AM Band	YES	YES	YES
FM Band	YES	YES	YES
Shortwave	NO	NO	YES
Weather	YES	YES	YES
TV Band	YES*	YES*	NO
Crank Power	YES	YES	YES
Solar Power	NO	NO	YES
AC Power	YES**	YES	YES
Flashlight	YES	YES	YES
Siren	YES	YES	NO

* TV audio is no longer available since the switch to digital television that took place in summer 2009
** AC adapter not included

Star Trek (2009) To Be Available On Collector USB Flash Drive

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:11:14 +0000

In my closet at home I have two boxes full of old collectible plates with images of the old Star Trek series on them. Once you have finished laughing and making snide southern country boy jokes at my expense I will point out that they were investments, not love affairs with the franchise. Still, today when I saw a post over at Everything USB mentioning the upcoming release of the new Star Trek reboot will be available on USB stick I was intrigued.

Apparently starting November 17th you can get a special collectors edition USB key in the shape of a Star Trek logo that holds on it a standard definition DivX copy of the movie. It is DRM encrypted and can only be played on up to five different computers but apparently you can also burn it to DVD. Read the whole article to find out more, but they make a good point that the movie is only taking up around 1gig of the 4gig flash drive, so it would have been possible to throw out a Hi-Def version if they had wanted to.

Unable so far to find this available in the USA, but Amazon and other stores are preselling the Star Trek 2009 DVD and Star Trek 2009 Blu-Ray already. Looks like you get far more on the discs than you would with the simple little USB key so my money will probably be going for the discs.