Nerf N-Force Longshot CS-6
The N-Force line of soft foam dart guns are made by Nerf, famous for their soft foam toy versions of real weapons. The Longshot forms part of the CS-6 Clip System guns and sits in the long range sniper rifle section. The -6 denotes the number of rounds in the clip.
It's recently been superceded by the Longstrike but it's divisive whether or not the Longstrike is a better gun. What is unanimous is that the Longstrike looks WAY better than the longshot. This isn't to say that the Longshot looks bad. It just doesn't look as impressive when strapped to your back.
The first thing you notice about these sniper rifles is just how big the box is. The next thing you notice is that once assembled, the gun actually dwarfs the size of the box it came in.
The Longshot lies over a meter long, but due to the modular nature of the gun, can be shortened to about 55cm. The front half of the gun actually has it's own single shot barrel and trigger and can separate from the main body to produce 2 guns. This is good if you are going to share the gun with a sibling, however one of you will be handicapped with having to reload after each shot.
It also only comes with a single clip and 6 rounds, even though there is a storage area in the stock for a loaded clip.
There is a detachable scope with crosshairs and the reload is bolt-action.
When I picked up this gun, I saw 2 youths eyeing off the boxes on the shelf, one of the kids extolling the many features and awesomeness of said sniper rifle.
Playing with the gun is an absolute joy. I've used other smaller Nerf guns and the range of the Longshot is in a different league. There are numerous modification that can be googled or looked up on YouTube which can increase the distance even further.
The Good:
- Range. This gun outranges all other stock Nerf guns bar the Longstrike. This gun will make you a happy camper.
- Bolt-action. Sliding the bolt back and forth to cock the next round is addictive. Is has a satisfying 'shlunk' sound when the bolt is slid back to the ready position after priming the spring.
- Modular. Being able to modify the size of the gun is handy and having the ability to create 2 guns means you can buy a single toy for 2 kids.
- Size. This thing is intimidating. Awesome!
- Potential. Can be modified for more power/distance. Uses standard phillips head screws. Mods are relatively easy.
- Bipod. The main gun has fold down bipod legs for better prone firing.
- Clip. The clip system on this is very well thought out. It's almost impossible to damage the firing mechanism due to incorrect loading.
- Price. I got my Longshot for $35 at Kmart. Down from $45. This is a pretty good price. You can get a Maverick handgun for $9 on sale. $35 seems about right. For $45 would want a decent magnifying scope, a second clip with rounds, and better fit and finish overall.
The Bad:
- Camoflage. If the land of Nerf is bright yellow and orange you would be hard pressed to spot a sniper using one of these. The good news is you can paint these.
- Reduced power. When the front of the gun is connected, the power and distance are reduced. Accuracy appears to improve though.
- Fit. Some of the parts don't fit snugly. There is a lot of rattling and plastic against plastic.
- Bipod. The bipod legs are quite clunky.
- Scope. The scope on this is terrible. It's also HUGE. At best, it's a tube this attaches to the upper section of the main body and has two clear plastic ends, one with a crosshair painted on it. At worst, it's a useless attachment that doesn't even magnify. My gun doesn't even fire within the angle of view of the scope. Terrible terrible terrible. I will modify this later with an actual magnifying scope that can be adjusted.
- Non-intuitive. I tried playing with this gun without looking at the instructions. Mistake. I almost broke the firing mechanism. RTFM on this one.
Conclusion:
- I got hooked on the Maverick 6-shooter after the first shot. Since then I've been looking up YouTube clips and online posts about some of the modifcations that can be done to them. Some of the paint jobs are sensational. If you look at them as being more than a toy and more of a hobby item that you can modify and paint, then Nerf guns such as the Longshot are great. If you just want shooting fun, then a simple handgun like the Maverick and suction cup rounds will suit, and are really cheap.
There are some bad points about this gun, but all of that pales to the sound og that sweet bolt-action.
Score:
8/10.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Mercury AV leather flip smartphone cover
MercuryAV leather flip down smartphone cover
I bought a smartphone recently, and it is all kinds of awesome. However, I'm on not going to go into any more detail than that, other than to say it is quite thin. There are enough phone review sites out there already.
This post is about the case that I bought for my new phone.
The MercuryAV leather flip-down smartphone cover (which I will refer to as 'the case' from now on) is black, with a stitched tan-leather interior, afixed to a black plastic hardshell backing which surrounds the edges of the phone and the back leaving the leather front to cover the screen. There is a hard flat piece of plastic stitched inside the front cover to protect the screen. It was purchased for ~$20 at Allphones in Vic.
The good
- Material. The outer (faux??) leather feels extremely durable and looks like it could take a few knifings without breaking a seam.
- Lining. The inner leather lining is extremely soft and won't scratch a plastic screen let alone the fancier gorrilla glass on the phone the case was designed for.
- Latch. The latch is magnetic but the contact plane runs along the bottom edge of the phone. This keeps the latch small and flush with the edge so is very compact. It also means there is no unbuttoning to open the cover and it can even be pulled open without touching the latch as the magnets slide past each other. The other neat thing I've noticed is that as you close the cover, the latch will rise above the edge due to the particular poling of the magnet, so there is never any chance the latch lip will close into the screen rather than around the edge as it's supposed to.
- The Look. The unit looks very slylish and it would be hard to not be able to accessorise around it. Unless you are wearing a clown suit or a white tuxedo, it won't look out of place.
The bad.
- Size. Considering this case is meant for one of the slimmest phones in the market today, I can't see the point in making this case so thick. It's at least twice the thickness of the device and it really doesn't need to be. While the outer leather looks nice, since it was going to be reinforced with plastic, it didn't need to be, it just needed to be a facia. The plastic backing where the phone clips onto is also way too thick. There is bulge on the phone, which fits into a cutout of the plastic, but they've based their minimum thickness on this, rather than the larger area of the phone back, so the entire plastic section is about 2-3mm thicker than it needs to be. Even with a thinner plastic, the leather on the back is also too thick for the purposes of protecting the phone. Another 1-2mm wasted.
- Weight. The case weighs almost as much as the phone. Same arguments as above.
- Finish. On the inside of the plastic are some rough edges and raised sections where there shouldn't be. I'm not sure if this is on purpose or not, but it looks slightly poor.
- Price. $20 seems a bit much for this. I can understand the materials cost, but the design seems to be based on a cookie cutter template rather than a custom design specifically for this phone, even it is meant to fit that phone. I've seen this case design on other phones and I'm sure they just input the alternate dimensions and extrude the plastic without a second though.
Conclusion:
A nice looking phone cover that ultimately won't get used except when taking the phone to rough environments, as it negates most of the selling hilights of the phone, and even then other cases would be more appropriate as they would be designed for harsh conditions.
Score: 6/10
I bought a smartphone recently, and it is all kinds of awesome. However, I'm on not going to go into any more detail than that, other than to say it is quite thin. There are enough phone review sites out there already.
This post is about the case that I bought for my new phone.
The MercuryAV leather flip-down smartphone cover (which I will refer to as 'the case' from now on) is black, with a stitched tan-leather interior, afixed to a black plastic hardshell backing which surrounds the edges of the phone and the back leaving the leather front to cover the screen. There is a hard flat piece of plastic stitched inside the front cover to protect the screen. It was purchased for ~$20 at Allphones in Vic.
The good
- Material. The outer (faux??) leather feels extremely durable and looks like it could take a few knifings without breaking a seam.
- Lining. The inner leather lining is extremely soft and won't scratch a plastic screen let alone the fancier gorrilla glass on the phone the case was designed for.
- Latch. The latch is magnetic but the contact plane runs along the bottom edge of the phone. This keeps the latch small and flush with the edge so is very compact. It also means there is no unbuttoning to open the cover and it can even be pulled open without touching the latch as the magnets slide past each other. The other neat thing I've noticed is that as you close the cover, the latch will rise above the edge due to the particular poling of the magnet, so there is never any chance the latch lip will close into the screen rather than around the edge as it's supposed to.
- The Look. The unit looks very slylish and it would be hard to not be able to accessorise around it. Unless you are wearing a clown suit or a white tuxedo, it won't look out of place.
The bad.
- Size. Considering this case is meant for one of the slimmest phones in the market today, I can't see the point in making this case so thick. It's at least twice the thickness of the device and it really doesn't need to be. While the outer leather looks nice, since it was going to be reinforced with plastic, it didn't need to be, it just needed to be a facia. The plastic backing where the phone clips onto is also way too thick. There is bulge on the phone, which fits into a cutout of the plastic, but they've based their minimum thickness on this, rather than the larger area of the phone back, so the entire plastic section is about 2-3mm thicker than it needs to be. Even with a thinner plastic, the leather on the back is also too thick for the purposes of protecting the phone. Another 1-2mm wasted.
- Weight. The case weighs almost as much as the phone. Same arguments as above.
- Finish. On the inside of the plastic are some rough edges and raised sections where there shouldn't be. I'm not sure if this is on purpose or not, but it looks slightly poor.
- Price. $20 seems a bit much for this. I can understand the materials cost, but the design seems to be based on a cookie cutter template rather than a custom design specifically for this phone, even it is meant to fit that phone. I've seen this case design on other phones and I'm sure they just input the alternate dimensions and extrude the plastic without a second though.
Conclusion:
A nice looking phone cover that ultimately won't get used except when taking the phone to rough environments, as it negates most of the selling hilights of the phone, and even then other cases would be more appropriate as they would be designed for harsh conditions.
Score: 6/10
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Strike Bowling Nightclub, Melbourne
Strike.
Strike is a nightclub situated in Melbourne which has bowling as its main feature. There are multiple lanes set up across two areas with an arcade/dance floor style area in between. There are also Karaoke rooms beside the bar. The club is actually down one level from the street and the bowling reception greets you as you decend the stair with the first four lanes visible on your left as you enter.
Even though bowling is main feature, don't expect to find any bowling gloves on the clientelle. The lanes a strickly for show-boating. Complete with flashy lights and disco LEDs, the only thing missing was a smoke machine. The music is loud but you can still hear yourself talk.
The bar has beer on tap, and other drinks too. I didn't get a chance to purchase one, but I assume standard club prices with a slight markup. The karaoke rooms are quite large but not airlocked, so everytime you open the door, music from each area will spill into the opposing one.
The atmosphere is hard to pinpoint and it could swing either to bowling or to dancing at any given moment.
The good:
Atmosphere. The feeling of the place is a mix of the seediness of a club, with the pedestrian vibe of a bowling alley, but by having both intertwine, they create something fun with the potential to very entertaining.
Staff. The staff were exceptionally polite, and this includes the doormen. IDs were checked, even for the older members of our group, which might seem annoying but is reassuring in the end.
Registration. The registration process for bowling was painless, although by using pen and paper, a few names were lost in translation.
Shoes. The bowling shoes are comfy velcro instead of laces, and sprayed with deodouriser after each return. This is a cut above even some well established alleys. Original footwear is stored in a box with your group and was returned without issue.
Standing room. Not everyone likes to sit and watch bowling. There were a plethora of standing and leaning areas which still had a good view of the lanes.
The bad:
Lanes. The lanes aren't very good. Plain and simple, but as I pointed out before, they aren't being used for (official) competition. I felt there was a slight drift to the left on our lane which seemed to help the intermediate bowlers, but hinder both the very good and the very inexperienced.
Ball selection. The number of heavy balls available seemed to be less than the number of light balls, which seemed to indicate a more female biased crowd than the normally male dominated sport. This ties in to the club aspect with a high chance of being knocked back at the door to maintain the female:male ratio.
Toilets. The facilities for the males was sorely lacking. If the venue was packed, a trip to the toilet could end up being a long wait.
DJ. The DJ serving the music seemed very unenthusiastic. Maybe because no one was dancing, but that shouldn't discourage you from putting some effort into your set. Still, the music choice on the night was better than most clubs.
Pervs. As stated before, there are a lot of standing areas to watch what's going on in the lanes. With a high female ratio though, there were a number of onlookers who's interest didn't extend to bowling.
Price. Bowling was quite pricey and the premium is assumed to offset the upkeep of the other facilities.
Conclusion:
If you were looking purely for bowling, then you would be better served elsewhere. If you were looking to dance, there are better option. If you want to be able to hot the dancefloor or karaoke with an option to bowl, only then does Strike look like a good option and cuts down on the walking.
Overall, a niche place but not a bad one.
Score: 7/10
Strike is a nightclub situated in Melbourne which has bowling as its main feature. There are multiple lanes set up across two areas with an arcade/dance floor style area in between. There are also Karaoke rooms beside the bar. The club is actually down one level from the street and the bowling reception greets you as you decend the stair with the first four lanes visible on your left as you enter.
Even though bowling is main feature, don't expect to find any bowling gloves on the clientelle. The lanes a strickly for show-boating. Complete with flashy lights and disco LEDs, the only thing missing was a smoke machine. The music is loud but you can still hear yourself talk.
The bar has beer on tap, and other drinks too. I didn't get a chance to purchase one, but I assume standard club prices with a slight markup. The karaoke rooms are quite large but not airlocked, so everytime you open the door, music from each area will spill into the opposing one.
The atmosphere is hard to pinpoint and it could swing either to bowling or to dancing at any given moment.
The good:
Atmosphere. The feeling of the place is a mix of the seediness of a club, with the pedestrian vibe of a bowling alley, but by having both intertwine, they create something fun with the potential to very entertaining.
Staff. The staff were exceptionally polite, and this includes the doormen. IDs were checked, even for the older members of our group, which might seem annoying but is reassuring in the end.
Registration. The registration process for bowling was painless, although by using pen and paper, a few names were lost in translation.
Shoes. The bowling shoes are comfy velcro instead of laces, and sprayed with deodouriser after each return. This is a cut above even some well established alleys. Original footwear is stored in a box with your group and was returned without issue.
Standing room. Not everyone likes to sit and watch bowling. There were a plethora of standing and leaning areas which still had a good view of the lanes.
The bad:
Lanes. The lanes aren't very good. Plain and simple, but as I pointed out before, they aren't being used for (official) competition. I felt there was a slight drift to the left on our lane which seemed to help the intermediate bowlers, but hinder both the very good and the very inexperienced.
Ball selection. The number of heavy balls available seemed to be less than the number of light balls, which seemed to indicate a more female biased crowd than the normally male dominated sport. This ties in to the club aspect with a high chance of being knocked back at the door to maintain the female:male ratio.
Toilets. The facilities for the males was sorely lacking. If the venue was packed, a trip to the toilet could end up being a long wait.
DJ. The DJ serving the music seemed very unenthusiastic. Maybe because no one was dancing, but that shouldn't discourage you from putting some effort into your set. Still, the music choice on the night was better than most clubs.
Pervs. As stated before, there are a lot of standing areas to watch what's going on in the lanes. With a high female ratio though, there were a number of onlookers who's interest didn't extend to bowling.
Price. Bowling was quite pricey and the premium is assumed to offset the upkeep of the other facilities.
Conclusion:
If you were looking purely for bowling, then you would be better served elsewhere. If you were looking to dance, there are better option. If you want to be able to hot the dancefloor or karaoke with an option to bowl, only then does Strike look like a good option and cuts down on the walking.
Overall, a niche place but not a bad one.
Score: 7/10
Friday, August 12, 2011
Google Chrome browser
Google Chrome
Chrome is an HTML browser program designed by Google to compete with the likes of MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera Browser.
I've only just recently installed it on my PC to see how it fares against my current Firefox 5 installation.
So far, seems rather snappy and quite fast at rendering pages that bog down on Firefox. The interface is clean (if a little spartan) and add-on integration appears to work well. Searching is integrated into to address bar. Overall, I would say it is a very focused browsing experience, and if set up well, can make using the internet very efficient.
It may be that I've been using Firefox for too long and my history of browser experience can be traced back to the days of Netscape Navigator 2.0, but I find the uncluttered layout and multifunction widgets a little unnerving. For an analogy, it's almost as if I've stepped out of my 'homely country cottage' and right into a 'fast-paced city apartment'. Sure the latter has everything I need at arms reach, but I can't customise it much, it's cold, and nothing is where I want it.
I get the feeling each time a open a new tab that Chrome wants me to do what I need to do with the page and then close it.
I know that probably countless hours of design and programming have gone into making Chrome as fast and intuitive to interact with but I just don't like it (yet).
The Good:
Fast. Chrome seems to perform better than Firefox in almost all my browsing situations.
Uncluttered. There isn't much on the screen by default so more room for the actual page contents.
Small. The download and setup for it were extremely easy to setup and didn't take long at all. So far, it's been the smoothest browser install/update of any browser ecosystem I've used.
Pretty. There's no other word for it, but the interface is pretty and very easy on the eyes. There are themes that can be downloaded too.
Fullscreen Mode. Fullscreen mode is awesome and switching in and out of it is way slicker than Firefox. It even forgoes the menu when you hover over the top of the screen (which makes sense since there aren't any menus) and this avoids the graphical slowdown present on firefox which annoys the hell out of me on my netbook which is when I am most likely to use fullscreen mode.
Compatible. So far I haven't had any incompatibility with any of the sites I normally visit so substituting for an existing browser is painless.
Memory. Chrome seems to handle memory usage better than Firefox. One Firefox session I had went up to 300+ MB of used memory and I had only a blank tab open.
Management Utils. There are lots of informative windows available once you dig into the Options menu to the right of the address bar. These can show memory usage and active windows and even allow you to kill off any rogue tabs. The memory usage window will even show the memory usage of concurrently running browsers from other companies.
The (in my opinion) bad:
No menu. There is no menu system so trying to find out how to use the program might be difficult as it doesn't match classic windows design.
No bookmarks button. There is no bookmarks drop-down. You can set up a bookmarks bar, but that shows an entire bar and takes up the same amount of screen real-estate. Not a good thing on the netbook, unless you want to go into fullscreen mode...and then out again when you want bookmarks.
Flash installed by default. Normally, I load up flashblock before installing flash. This made it slightly more annoying having to see all those flash ads before I got to install flashblock.
Homepage. I don't like the idea of the Chrome homepage. Security-wise it erks me a little. But sometimes I just want to go to 20 or so of my usual pages. If it only shows 8 that's fine for those 8 but the rest then need a different set of actions to get to them and that makes me angry.
Sensitive zoom. The touchpad zooming in Chrome is extremely sensitive by default. The zoom is also stepped, so it's not the same as on a mobile device like the iPhone. I there is zoom lag, then you can get into all sorts of trouble with buffered zoom commands sending your screen into vertigo mode.
Lots of processes. Chrome opens up several child processes while running. This might be to aid in memory management and cleanup for closed tabs, but is confusing when trying to investigate certain problems or even inspect the Task Manager.
Firefox open concurrently. Trying to install it while Firefox is open in the background (as will happen because the Chrome download page doesn't have a link to an offline installer) will cause the Chrome import function to fail. Trying to continue after closing Firefox will cause the installer to hang. There isn't any fallout from this, but it was quite scary when I couldn't figure out if the installer was still working or not an whether or not it was safe to kill off all those hung chrome
processes.
Conclusion:
Chrome is a great browser. It just does things a little but different to a classical browser and this might divide the target audience. I'm sure with a bit more use, I'll get to know how to do things in Chrome that I used to do in Firefox, and get them done faster.
Score:
7.5/10 (as of the date of this post)
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Durarara!!
Durarara!!
Durarara!! is a Japanese animation base on a manga and is set in present day Ikebukuro, a suburb on the south western side of Tokyo, Japan. It revolves around the lives of some of the inhabitants of the area and the fate that befalls them.
There are 25 episodes in the first season and rumors about a seconds season have appeared although it looks like the writers and production house are trying to gauge the response before first committing to anything.
This review is of the Japanese dialogue version with English subtitles.
WARNING: Although I've tried my best to avoid them, there may be some spoilers below, so if you would prefer not to know before watching, please stop reading this post now.
Ryugamine Mikado travels to Ikebukuro looking to escape his mundane rural hometown life. He meets up with his old childhood friend, Masaomi Kida who shows him around and lets him know about all the important figures living in Ikebukuro. He points out Simon, a black Russian who works at a Sushi restaurant and can be found most of the time out the front handing out flyers for the restaurant, and they meet up with Kida's friends Yumasaki, Karisawa, Togusa, and Kadota, who are local otaku (geeks) that drive around together in a van checking out the various curio and manga/anime in the local stores.
Kida warns Mikado about Izaya (whom they meet with), and Heiwajima. Two people whom not to get involved in, and also about The Dollars, a recent underground gang supposedly with no identifying traits, and no known hierarchy system.
As the story unfolds, Mikado soon meets various other important people, the most bizarre of which is Celty, a motorbike rider dressed in black with a yellow helmet with little cat ears coming out the top. Her bike is fully black and seems to make horse noises when moving. Rumor has it that Celty has no head beneath her helmet.
There are also other rumors flying around the place, and there have been incidents where people have been atacked and cut by the mysterious 'Slasher', who never kills the victim but just cuts them.
Mikado also attends the local high school and becomes a class rep, and meets fellow classmate Anri as part of the job.
At the start of the series we see everything from a third person's perspective as apparently random events take place. As the series progresses though, we get to see more and more details that link the initial events and characters together, and get to see those events from the perspective of the various involved people.
It soon becomes apparent that a lot of what was previously seen and taken for granted actually has a significant impact on the bigger picture. Characters in the series are anything but one dimensional and often aren't what they appear to be at first.
The story line is complex and the vast array of characters make the show hard to wrap your head around sometimes, but the rewards at the end are well worth it.
It should also be noted that there are a few supernatural elements to the series, some of which form the crux of various plot elements.
The Good:
- Animation. The animation is really good. No the best I've seen, but still very good.
- Voice acting. The voice acting is also very good and I would say all the voices suited their chararters.
- Plot. The plot is quite simple in structure, but the fact we get pieces at a time, and the general execution means the show is highly addictive, sucking you into it's story. I ran with it and some of the twists in the show are mind boggling.
- Characters. The characters in this anime are characters in the true sense of the word. All have their own backstory and all have their secrets.
- Humour. There is a lot about this show that is funny. Some people might not think so though.
The Bad:
- Addictive. Near the end of each episode, the show always reveals something new about someone and almost every episode ends in a cliffhanger. I found myself wanting for more.
- Complexity. Some people may find that there are so many characters in the show that it's too hard to follow. Also, there are many plot elements that are just unbelievable, however, this is pure fantasy it doesn't detract. The characters are what makes this show.
- Slow start. The start of this show takes a long time and some characters aren't shown at all until after midway through the episode list.
Conclusion: As far as anime goes, this was one of favourites.
Score: 10/10
Durarara!! is a Japanese animation base on a manga and is set in present day Ikebukuro, a suburb on the south western side of Tokyo, Japan. It revolves around the lives of some of the inhabitants of the area and the fate that befalls them.
There are 25 episodes in the first season and rumors about a seconds season have appeared although it looks like the writers and production house are trying to gauge the response before first committing to anything.
This review is of the Japanese dialogue version with English subtitles.
WARNING: Although I've tried my best to avoid them, there may be some spoilers below, so if you would prefer not to know before watching, please stop reading this post now.
Ryugamine Mikado travels to Ikebukuro looking to escape his mundane rural hometown life. He meets up with his old childhood friend, Masaomi Kida who shows him around and lets him know about all the important figures living in Ikebukuro. He points out Simon, a black Russian who works at a Sushi restaurant and can be found most of the time out the front handing out flyers for the restaurant, and they meet up with Kida's friends Yumasaki, Karisawa, Togusa, and Kadota, who are local otaku (geeks) that drive around together in a van checking out the various curio and manga/anime in the local stores.
Kida warns Mikado about Izaya (whom they meet with), and Heiwajima. Two people whom not to get involved in, and also about The Dollars, a recent underground gang supposedly with no identifying traits, and no known hierarchy system.
As the story unfolds, Mikado soon meets various other important people, the most bizarre of which is Celty, a motorbike rider dressed in black with a yellow helmet with little cat ears coming out the top. Her bike is fully black and seems to make horse noises when moving. Rumor has it that Celty has no head beneath her helmet.
There are also other rumors flying around the place, and there have been incidents where people have been atacked and cut by the mysterious 'Slasher', who never kills the victim but just cuts them.
Mikado also attends the local high school and becomes a class rep, and meets fellow classmate Anri as part of the job.
At the start of the series we see everything from a third person's perspective as apparently random events take place. As the series progresses though, we get to see more and more details that link the initial events and characters together, and get to see those events from the perspective of the various involved people.
It soon becomes apparent that a lot of what was previously seen and taken for granted actually has a significant impact on the bigger picture. Characters in the series are anything but one dimensional and often aren't what they appear to be at first.
The story line is complex and the vast array of characters make the show hard to wrap your head around sometimes, but the rewards at the end are well worth it.
It should also be noted that there are a few supernatural elements to the series, some of which form the crux of various plot elements.
The Good:
- Animation. The animation is really good. No the best I've seen, but still very good.
- Voice acting. The voice acting is also very good and I would say all the voices suited their chararters.
- Plot. The plot is quite simple in structure, but the fact we get pieces at a time, and the general execution means the show is highly addictive, sucking you into it's story. I ran with it and some of the twists in the show are mind boggling.
- Characters. The characters in this anime are characters in the true sense of the word. All have their own backstory and all have their secrets.
- Humour. There is a lot about this show that is funny. Some people might not think so though.
The Bad:
- Addictive. Near the end of each episode, the show always reveals something new about someone and almost every episode ends in a cliffhanger. I found myself wanting for more.
- Complexity. Some people may find that there are so many characters in the show that it's too hard to follow. Also, there are many plot elements that are just unbelievable, however, this is pure fantasy it doesn't detract. The characters are what makes this show.
- Slow start. The start of this show takes a long time and some characters aren't shown at all until after midway through the episode list.
Conclusion: As far as anime goes, this was one of favourites.
Score: 10/10
Friday, July 29, 2011
Cobi nostalgia themed USB1.1/2.o Webcam and Spotlight
Cobi nostalgia themed USB1.1/2.o Webcam and Spotlight
The Cobi USB webcam and spotlight are USB devices that have been shaped to look like an early model movie camera and spotlight. Other than the design, there isn't much out of the ordinary about the camera or the light. The camera is a standard USB webcam and the spotlight is just an LED that is on the end of a flexible arm. Accessories include a small extendable tripod and a screen mount for the camera.
There is no software supplied in the box.
Windows 7 detects the USB camera and install the correct device driver for use with video conferencing software like Skype or Gmail video chat. The camera also works with security focused software and any program that can interface with a generic USB video input device.
The frame rate of the camera isn't known and the resolution of 640x480 can't be changed using the default windows 7 software. So far, I haven't been able to change the default resolution and haven't been able to find a frame rate control, even in the options of various software programs.
The Good:
- Design. The plastic moulding of the camera, while not designed for utility, is quite pleasing to look at and when combined with the spotlight can add to a creative mood.
- Spotlight. The spotlight has it's own hard switch and is on a separate USB plug so it can be used as a standard USB light. The flexible arm has very good articulation and can even snake between various paths to give the best vantage point. Twisting the arm in one direction can stiffen the arm, and twisting the other way can loosen it (to an extent).
- Focus. You can focus the camera. This is great as a lot of inbuilt camera's don't provide this.
- Instructions. The instruction pamphlet is concise and easy to read and has 4 languages. Even without the instruction, the entire setup is quite straight forward.
- Cheap. The whole package was really cheap.
The Bad:
- Screen mount. The screen mount is a 'C' shaped plastic thing with rubber on the ends and a standard screw-type camera mount on the mid section. The mount is supposed to sit on the top edge of the LCD screen or a laptop and the screw mount is to mount the camera. The mount is not a clip (which would have been infinitely more useful) so it won't stay still on the screen where you place it. It also won't fit on most shaped that aren't like that of a laptop lid when open. There also seems to be an issue with the screw mount and the locking system for it. If you tighten the screw on the camera, the camera faces the wrong way. If you spin the camera, the screw loosens on the mount, so the camera tends to swing left or right either way you tighten it.
- Tripod. The tripod is really cheap. You can tell as soon as you pick it up. The extendible legs don't extend much and even when they do, they don't lock so it's not really a sure thing. It can support a point and shoot though, so the webcam which is a lot lighter should strain it too much.
- Light bleed. The baffles on the LED spotlight have been modeled on the real thing, but on a real spotlight, the light source is mounted far back in the barrel. The LED on this light is mounted in front of the barrel, so light shines out the sides and into people's eyes. You can get away with it by carefully positioning the barrel, but it would have been nice if the LED was mounted further back. The actual LED and power transistor circuitry wouldn't be longer than the barrel, so this is a design flaw.
- Frame rate. I haven't been able to change the frame rate and I'm convinced that it may be at maximum of the sensor. This is a shame as the frame rate I've been able to attain is quite slow.
- Image quality. At 640x480, the image is fine for a face directly in front of the camera, but anything else is just washed out.
- Camera mount thread. The thread in the camera is part of the housing which is plastic. Too many attachments or detachments and the thread will wear out.
- Spotlight arm. The spotlight arm is too loose by default for the weight of the light, and it isn't immediately obvious that twisting will tighten it.
Conclusion:
The camera portion of the package isn't much to talk about, but the spotlight is quite useful as a generic light. The articulated arm is great for aiming and lighting up the keyboard if the screen doesn't happen to aim at the keys or the screen image is actually dark.
Coupled with the free YAWCAM software you can set the camera up to detect movement and take a picture if the movement is above a certain threshold and it also has many other useful security focused functions.
I just wish the camera was a little bit more functional or at the very least had a faster frame rate.
Score: 5.5/10
Up next: I was going to review the last item I got from CotD but it may end up being a present. So instead, I will review an Anime: Durarara!!
The Cobi USB webcam and spotlight are USB devices that have been shaped to look like an early model movie camera and spotlight. Other than the design, there isn't much out of the ordinary about the camera or the light. The camera is a standard USB webcam and the spotlight is just an LED that is on the end of a flexible arm. Accessories include a small extendable tripod and a screen mount for the camera.
There is no software supplied in the box.
Windows 7 detects the USB camera and install the correct device driver for use with video conferencing software like Skype or Gmail video chat. The camera also works with security focused software and any program that can interface with a generic USB video input device.
The frame rate of the camera isn't known and the resolution of 640x480 can't be changed using the default windows 7 software. So far, I haven't been able to change the default resolution and haven't been able to find a frame rate control, even in the options of various software programs.
The Good:
- Design. The plastic moulding of the camera, while not designed for utility, is quite pleasing to look at and when combined with the spotlight can add to a creative mood.
- Spotlight. The spotlight has it's own hard switch and is on a separate USB plug so it can be used as a standard USB light. The flexible arm has very good articulation and can even snake between various paths to give the best vantage point. Twisting the arm in one direction can stiffen the arm, and twisting the other way can loosen it (to an extent).
- Focus. You can focus the camera. This is great as a lot of inbuilt camera's don't provide this.
- Instructions. The instruction pamphlet is concise and easy to read and has 4 languages. Even without the instruction, the entire setup is quite straight forward.
- Cheap. The whole package was really cheap.
The Bad:
- Screen mount. The screen mount is a 'C' shaped plastic thing with rubber on the ends and a standard screw-type camera mount on the mid section. The mount is supposed to sit on the top edge of the LCD screen or a laptop and the screw mount is to mount the camera. The mount is not a clip (which would have been infinitely more useful) so it won't stay still on the screen where you place it. It also won't fit on most shaped that aren't like that of a laptop lid when open. There also seems to be an issue with the screw mount and the locking system for it. If you tighten the screw on the camera, the camera faces the wrong way. If you spin the camera, the screw loosens on the mount, so the camera tends to swing left or right either way you tighten it.
- Tripod. The tripod is really cheap. You can tell as soon as you pick it up. The extendible legs don't extend much and even when they do, they don't lock so it's not really a sure thing. It can support a point and shoot though, so the webcam which is a lot lighter should strain it too much.
- Light bleed. The baffles on the LED spotlight have been modeled on the real thing, but on a real spotlight, the light source is mounted far back in the barrel. The LED on this light is mounted in front of the barrel, so light shines out the sides and into people's eyes. You can get away with it by carefully positioning the barrel, but it would have been nice if the LED was mounted further back. The actual LED and power transistor circuitry wouldn't be longer than the barrel, so this is a design flaw.
- Frame rate. I haven't been able to change the frame rate and I'm convinced that it may be at maximum of the sensor. This is a shame as the frame rate I've been able to attain is quite slow.
- Image quality. At 640x480, the image is fine for a face directly in front of the camera, but anything else is just washed out.
- Camera mount thread. The thread in the camera is part of the housing which is plastic. Too many attachments or detachments and the thread will wear out.
- Spotlight arm. The spotlight arm is too loose by default for the weight of the light, and it isn't immediately obvious that twisting will tighten it.
Conclusion:
The camera portion of the package isn't much to talk about, but the spotlight is quite useful as a generic light. The articulated arm is great for aiming and lighting up the keyboard if the screen doesn't happen to aim at the keys or the screen image is actually dark.
Coupled with the free YAWCAM software you can set the camera up to detect movement and take a picture if the movement is above a certain threshold and it also has many other useful security focused functions.
I just wish the camera was a little bit more functional or at the very least had a faster frame rate.
Score: 5.5/10
Up next: I was going to review the last item I got from CotD but it may end up being a present. So instead, I will review an Anime: Durarara!!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Flexi-Pod SLR camera tripod
Flexi-Pod SLR camera tripod
The SLR is the big brother of the standard Flexi-Pod camera tripod. Both have the same unique flexible ball-jointed legs that allow the camera to be positioned in almost any orientation and also attached to beams and tree branches. The SLR variant is just larger and can hold up to 1kg (although I suspect it can actually hold more in certain configurations). When straightened, the legs serve the same function as a standard small non-extendable tripod.
Each leg is made up of 8 interlocking joints that meet at the base of the main joint which is also flexible with a joint between it and the tripod head. The ball joints have a rubber ring on them which helps grip onto various sized cylindrical extrusions (poles, branches, beams, etc.).
The head itself has a further base plate that can be quickly detached and reattached with the flick of a small lever. There is also a safety ring that needs to be twisted before the plate will detach so you can lock the base plate to the tripod head securely.
The good:
- Grip. The Flexi-Pod can use its three flexible legs to wrap around many objects and this opens up many opportunities which a normal tripod or monopod would find difficult. The rubber rings mean the camera will resist slipping around smooth objects that it is wrapped around. The angle the camera sits does not have to be horizontal, which opens up creative options. The feet at the end of each leg is also rubberized so it shouldn't slip on most surfaces when in standard upright form.
- Light. The tripod itself is quite light with no extending legs and the ball joints are narrow between each connection, so there is minimal material where it is not needed.
- Versatile. By bending or straightening the legs, you can set the camera up in almost any vantage point. It also works just like a normal small tripod and you can move the legs together for a quasi-monopod form. It has a standard mount that is tightened with any small coin so you don't need to carry any special tools or keys.
- Fast. The detachable base plate is very quick to attach and reattach so you can have your camera setup for a steady shot but you can also detach the camera anytime for an impromptu shot very easily and very quickly.
- Cheap. The version from Flexi-Pod is a cheaper knock-off of another brand. It's made from cheaper parts and probably cheaper labor and as such, is much cheaper to buy than the other brand. This doesn't mean it sacrifices much in terms of functionality though. At most you may find the rubber wears a bit quicker or the joints don't stay as stiff when new, but if you look after it, it will function just as well.
The Bad:
- Ugly. The Flexi-Pod is very ugly. The design requires it to be so, so you may find your subject getting distracted by it or drawing unwanted attention to yourself.
- Limited. Unlike a traditional tripod, it cannot support large heavy lenses attached to full body SLRs. The joints are all potential failure points, so nearing the maximum load may be dangerous, and potentially costly. It also doesn't extend so it's limited in height. You will need to prop it up onto something first for something like a portrait shot.
- Wobble. The rubber and joint design allows a lot of flexing to take place, which can turn into vibrations in the camera. A useful companion to this setup would be a cable or wireless remote shutter release. Alternatively you can use the timer to give it enough time to settle down before the shot is taken.
- Packaging. The packaging is plastic. This could have easily been packaged in a cardboard box or even free standing. It seems a bit wasteful.
- Fit. The baseplate is somewhat loose after inserting into the head socket, and could have used some cushioning material. There is already some of this on top of the baseplate so I don't understand why a small amount wasn't put around the socket. It would have made the for a much snugger fit and reduced vibrations/movement of the camera.
- Colour scheme. Black and grey. It should have just stuck with black for everything. I find it hilarious that the packaging actually shows a picture of a different tripod with much better all-black looks. It almost makes me want to hunt down this better looking version.
Conclusion:
The Flexi-Pod SLR definitely has some drawbacks in both function and build quality, but it more than makes up for it with versatility. Used as a companion tripod it would fill in all the gaps where a traditional tripod falls short. I would have liked to have seen a master locking mechanism for all the legs so once you had them set up, you could trust the tripod wouldn't collapse or shift position due to weight. If you want to avoid using the camera's timer, definitely invest in a remote shutter release with this tripod. A remote release is a handy tool anyway and you will find much use for it and even away from a tripod.
Score:
8.5/10
Up next: Cobi nostalgia themed USB1.1/2.o Webcam and Spotlight.
The SLR is the big brother of the standard Flexi-Pod camera tripod. Both have the same unique flexible ball-jointed legs that allow the camera to be positioned in almost any orientation and also attached to beams and tree branches. The SLR variant is just larger and can hold up to 1kg (although I suspect it can actually hold more in certain configurations). When straightened, the legs serve the same function as a standard small non-extendable tripod.
Each leg is made up of 8 interlocking joints that meet at the base of the main joint which is also flexible with a joint between it and the tripod head. The ball joints have a rubber ring on them which helps grip onto various sized cylindrical extrusions (poles, branches, beams, etc.).
The head itself has a further base plate that can be quickly detached and reattached with the flick of a small lever. There is also a safety ring that needs to be twisted before the plate will detach so you can lock the base plate to the tripod head securely.
The good:
- Grip. The Flexi-Pod can use its three flexible legs to wrap around many objects and this opens up many opportunities which a normal tripod or monopod would find difficult. The rubber rings mean the camera will resist slipping around smooth objects that it is wrapped around. The angle the camera sits does not have to be horizontal, which opens up creative options. The feet at the end of each leg is also rubberized so it shouldn't slip on most surfaces when in standard upright form.
- Light. The tripod itself is quite light with no extending legs and the ball joints are narrow between each connection, so there is minimal material where it is not needed.
- Versatile. By bending or straightening the legs, you can set the camera up in almost any vantage point. It also works just like a normal small tripod and you can move the legs together for a quasi-monopod form. It has a standard mount that is tightened with any small coin so you don't need to carry any special tools or keys.
- Fast. The detachable base plate is very quick to attach and reattach so you can have your camera setup for a steady shot but you can also detach the camera anytime for an impromptu shot very easily and very quickly.
- Cheap. The version from Flexi-Pod is a cheaper knock-off of another brand. It's made from cheaper parts and probably cheaper labor and as such, is much cheaper to buy than the other brand. This doesn't mean it sacrifices much in terms of functionality though. At most you may find the rubber wears a bit quicker or the joints don't stay as stiff when new, but if you look after it, it will function just as well.
The Bad:
- Ugly. The Flexi-Pod is very ugly. The design requires it to be so, so you may find your subject getting distracted by it or drawing unwanted attention to yourself.
- Limited. Unlike a traditional tripod, it cannot support large heavy lenses attached to full body SLRs. The joints are all potential failure points, so nearing the maximum load may be dangerous, and potentially costly. It also doesn't extend so it's limited in height. You will need to prop it up onto something first for something like a portrait shot.
- Wobble. The rubber and joint design allows a lot of flexing to take place, which can turn into vibrations in the camera. A useful companion to this setup would be a cable or wireless remote shutter release. Alternatively you can use the timer to give it enough time to settle down before the shot is taken.
- Packaging. The packaging is plastic. This could have easily been packaged in a cardboard box or even free standing. It seems a bit wasteful.
- Fit. The baseplate is somewhat loose after inserting into the head socket, and could have used some cushioning material. There is already some of this on top of the baseplate so I don't understand why a small amount wasn't put around the socket. It would have made the for a much snugger fit and reduced vibrations/movement of the camera.
- Colour scheme. Black and grey. It should have just stuck with black for everything. I find it hilarious that the packaging actually shows a picture of a different tripod with much better all-black looks. It almost makes me want to hunt down this better looking version.
Conclusion:
The Flexi-Pod SLR definitely has some drawbacks in both function and build quality, but it more than makes up for it with versatility. Used as a companion tripod it would fill in all the gaps where a traditional tripod falls short. I would have liked to have seen a master locking mechanism for all the legs so once you had them set up, you could trust the tripod wouldn't collapse or shift position due to weight. If you want to avoid using the camera's timer, definitely invest in a remote shutter release with this tripod. A remote release is a handy tool anyway and you will find much use for it and even away from a tripod.
Score:
8.5/10
Up next: Cobi nostalgia themed USB1.1/2.o Webcam and Spotlight.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
STM 11" Netbook glove
STM 11" Netbook glove
The Netbook Glove is a neoprene cover for a netbook or small computing device of 11" dimensions. It has a zipper along the short end with a narrow length of neoprene to prevent the zipper from scratching the device.
Overall construction is excellent and the zipper feels durable and sturdy. The neoprene is soft but feels like it could take a solid hit or cut and still survive. It's quite slippery on the inside so inserting or removing a device is very smooth and easy. It has a slight memory effect so leaving it on a sharp edge will indent the surface, and any feet of protrusions on the device itself will indent the interior (which turns out to be a good thing).
The cover only weighs a few hundred grams or so it won't stop you carrying your device. The only issue you might have is if you previously carried the device in a snug pocket, and it may not fit anymore with the glove on.
The glove is specified as 11" so most 10" netbooks and tablets will find there is a bit of play when the glove is on. As the interior is so soft, you shouldn't notice any scratching due to the movement. Still, it definitely isn't a snug fit for most 10" devices. I don't have any 11" devices to test, but I assume an 11" Macbook Air would be too slim to fit properly either.
The good:
- Protective. The thickness, smoothess, and padding all combine to protect the device extremely well. The neoprene should also absorb any liquid that doesn't run off it's surface so spills don't pool and end up in the device.
- Flexible. Due to the stretch, it's able to form around most shapes and stretch to most devices within the 10"-11" class.
- Cheap. At less than AU$10, it's not the cheapest cover and probably still more than the constituent parts and labour combined, but relatively cheap compared to other covers available which can run upwards of $60.
- Colours. The glove comes in a variety of colours and if you find older models you can get access to the old colours such as blue like i did.
The Bad:
- 11". There are a lot more 10" devices than 11" and STM do not make a generic 10" cover. Most are targeted at particular device (which makes sense from a marketing perspective). As such, the cover never feels quite snug when covering any of the 10" netbooks I own, but it does fit all of them, regardless of the shape and battery size.
- Not waterproof (?). I haven't tested it, but it never says anything about being waterproof on any of the accompanying literature.
- Thick. It does add a bit of bulk to the standard size of a device when covered making it harder to fit into other carriers such as pockets and carrying satchels.
- No handle. The glove doesn't have a handle or strap so you will have to put it into another container or bag to carry it hands free. In saying that, with the cover on, I'm less likely to worry about it crashing around in my backpack with other things like cameras and power packs/plugs.
- No extra pockets. If your device has a power adapter/brick, it will not fit into the glove or anywhere else on it. It would have been nice if STM added an elastic strap or loops along one of the edges where you could hook the brick and cords of a power adapter. More loops on the outside could hold SD cards, CD's, or disks. This would help keep all the related accessories together and make the glove a lot more useful.
Conclusion:
Not the most complete implementation of a cover, and could have been made much better with a few small additions, but overall a solid performing and protective cover.
Score:
8.5/10
Update: STM have changed their webpage to target the 11" glove at a Macbook toting audience. As such they have updated their colour range and also the internal lining. Functionally, they should prove better, but the colours apart from black look gross to me and rather pretentious. Perfect for all you MBA owners. ;P
Next up: Flexi-pod SLR camera tripod.
The Netbook Glove is a neoprene cover for a netbook or small computing device of 11" dimensions. It has a zipper along the short end with a narrow length of neoprene to prevent the zipper from scratching the device.
Overall construction is excellent and the zipper feels durable and sturdy. The neoprene is soft but feels like it could take a solid hit or cut and still survive. It's quite slippery on the inside so inserting or removing a device is very smooth and easy. It has a slight memory effect so leaving it on a sharp edge will indent the surface, and any feet of protrusions on the device itself will indent the interior (which turns out to be a good thing).
The cover only weighs a few hundred grams or so it won't stop you carrying your device. The only issue you might have is if you previously carried the device in a snug pocket, and it may not fit anymore with the glove on.
The glove is specified as 11" so most 10" netbooks and tablets will find there is a bit of play when the glove is on. As the interior is so soft, you shouldn't notice any scratching due to the movement. Still, it definitely isn't a snug fit for most 10" devices. I don't have any 11" devices to test, but I assume an 11" Macbook Air would be too slim to fit properly either.
The good:
- Protective. The thickness, smoothess, and padding all combine to protect the device extremely well. The neoprene should also absorb any liquid that doesn't run off it's surface so spills don't pool and end up in the device.
- Flexible. Due to the stretch, it's able to form around most shapes and stretch to most devices within the 10"-11" class.
- Cheap. At less than AU$10, it's not the cheapest cover and probably still more than the constituent parts and labour combined, but relatively cheap compared to other covers available which can run upwards of $60.
- Colours. The glove comes in a variety of colours and if you find older models you can get access to the old colours such as blue like i did.
The Bad:
- 11". There are a lot more 10" devices than 11" and STM do not make a generic 10" cover. Most are targeted at particular device (which makes sense from a marketing perspective). As such, the cover never feels quite snug when covering any of the 10" netbooks I own, but it does fit all of them, regardless of the shape and battery size.
- Not waterproof (?). I haven't tested it, but it never says anything about being waterproof on any of the accompanying literature.
- Thick. It does add a bit of bulk to the standard size of a device when covered making it harder to fit into other carriers such as pockets and carrying satchels.
- No handle. The glove doesn't have a handle or strap so you will have to put it into another container or bag to carry it hands free. In saying that, with the cover on, I'm less likely to worry about it crashing around in my backpack with other things like cameras and power packs/plugs.
- No extra pockets. If your device has a power adapter/brick, it will not fit into the glove or anywhere else on it. It would have been nice if STM added an elastic strap or loops along one of the edges where you could hook the brick and cords of a power adapter. More loops on the outside could hold SD cards, CD's, or disks. This would help keep all the related accessories together and make the glove a lot more useful.
Conclusion:
Not the most complete implementation of a cover, and could have been made much better with a few small additions, but overall a solid performing and protective cover.
Score:
8.5/10
Update: STM have changed their webpage to target the 11" glove at a Macbook toting audience. As such they have updated their colour range and also the internal lining. Functionally, they should prove better, but the colours apart from black look gross to me and rather pretentious. Perfect for all you MBA owners. ;P
Next up: Flexi-pod SLR camera tripod.
Schwinn quick attach bicycle cargo rack
Schwinn quick attach bicycle cargo rack.
The Schwinn bicycle cargo rack is a compact flat storage shelf that attaches to the seat post of a standard push bike and supports up to 20lbs/9kgs of cargo. The flat area is probably a bit larger than one side of a 1-litre milk carton laid horizontally.
The shelf itself is made of plastic with two aluminium shafts running along it and is mounted on a square steel bar that runs about 3/4 of the length under the shelf.The steel bar attaches to the seat post via a screwed clamp with a plastic inner sleeve. The clamp uses a pair of allen key bolts with thumbscrew heads to secure it. The allen key is included.
An elastic drawstring/bungee cord wraps around shelf and allows items to be held down securely. The cord lashes around mouldings in the opposing sides of the shelf and can be quickly uncrossed to strap or release an item. There is a screw hole in the rear pointing side of the shelf to attach a reflector.
In use, the rack blends seamlessly into the outline of a standard mountain bike. On an older road racer or ladies single speed casual bike, it might stand out a little more due to the black plastic, but overall it's not too noticeable visually. It also doesn't affect ride comfort or functionality and only gets in the way when leaning the bike against a wall due to the width.
With a small carton of milk attached, it was barely noticeable when riding on bitumen, and up driveways and curb crossings.
The good:
- Unobtrusive. When not in use, the entire cargo rack barely registered in my mind. I couldn't notice any difference in ride experience on standard roads and bikepaths with and without the rack installed.
- Strong. Supports up to 20lbs/9kgs.
- Versatile. Can carry odd shapes due to the cord.
- Mud guard. Due to the design it acts as a rear mudguard when installed.
- Cheap. RRP for it is ~AU$25, but you can pick one up for around $15 at most places. CotD (see Catch of the Day post) price was <$10.
The Bad:
- Not hardcore. If you want to look cool on your bike, you don't attach a cargo device, a reflector, or a mudguard. The Schwinn cargo rack facilitates all three of these.
- Heavy. The first thing you notice about the rack when you first pick it up is the weight. The steel bar might be strong, but it's because it is thick-walled. Also, the aluminium runner shafts add weight. It's not noticeable while riding but that doesn't mean it isn't sapping precious energy with each pedal stroke.
- Wide. The shelf is wider than most, if not all, frames and wheels. When resting the bike against a wall, the shelf will be the first thing to touch the wall, meaning the resting weight is taken by the rack and hence turned into a twisting force on the seat post. This might require readjustment of the rack or seat post after time.
- Tight. While the cord on the shelf is adjustable, it is still elastic, and this tension can bite into soft items such as rubber, foam, cardboard, and to a lesser extent, twinkies. Even items such as a milk carton might not escape unscathed if the cord isn't loosened enough before strapping.
- Industrial. Personally, I think that all bike accessories should be made of carbon fiber. Since this is made of plastic, steel, and aluminium, it belongs in the last century and will make any bike it is attached to also look dated by association.
- Slow attach. The 'quick attach' in the name refers to attaching cargo items to it, not attaching it to the bike. It actually took quite a (relatively) long time to install and it isn't the most straightforward installation either. The seat post needs to be removed from the frame to fit the plastic inner sleave.
Conclusion:
I think the Schwinn cargo rack is neat. It is a good idea, with an...efficient execution, although it is definitely built to a price point. That being said, it does everything it claims to do and it does it well. If you need a cargo device that is unobtrusive and functional, I can definitely recommend the Schwinn cargo rack.
Score:
7/10
Stay tuned for the next review item: "STM netbook glove".
The Schwinn bicycle cargo rack is a compact flat storage shelf that attaches to the seat post of a standard push bike and supports up to 20lbs/9kgs of cargo. The flat area is probably a bit larger than one side of a 1-litre milk carton laid horizontally.
The shelf itself is made of plastic with two aluminium shafts running along it and is mounted on a square steel bar that runs about 3/4 of the length under the shelf.The steel bar attaches to the seat post via a screwed clamp with a plastic inner sleeve. The clamp uses a pair of allen key bolts with thumbscrew heads to secure it. The allen key is included.
An elastic drawstring/bungee cord wraps around shelf and allows items to be held down securely. The cord lashes around mouldings in the opposing sides of the shelf and can be quickly uncrossed to strap or release an item. There is a screw hole in the rear pointing side of the shelf to attach a reflector.
In use, the rack blends seamlessly into the outline of a standard mountain bike. On an older road racer or ladies single speed casual bike, it might stand out a little more due to the black plastic, but overall it's not too noticeable visually. It also doesn't affect ride comfort or functionality and only gets in the way when leaning the bike against a wall due to the width.
With a small carton of milk attached, it was barely noticeable when riding on bitumen, and up driveways and curb crossings.
The good:
- Unobtrusive. When not in use, the entire cargo rack barely registered in my mind. I couldn't notice any difference in ride experience on standard roads and bikepaths with and without the rack installed.
- Strong. Supports up to 20lbs/9kgs.
- Versatile. Can carry odd shapes due to the cord.
- Mud guard. Due to the design it acts as a rear mudguard when installed.
- Cheap. RRP for it is ~AU$25, but you can pick one up for around $15 at most places. CotD (see Catch of the Day post) price was <$10.
The Bad:
- Not hardcore. If you want to look cool on your bike, you don't attach a cargo device, a reflector, or a mudguard. The Schwinn cargo rack facilitates all three of these.
- Heavy. The first thing you notice about the rack when you first pick it up is the weight. The steel bar might be strong, but it's because it is thick-walled. Also, the aluminium runner shafts add weight. It's not noticeable while riding but that doesn't mean it isn't sapping precious energy with each pedal stroke.
- Wide. The shelf is wider than most, if not all, frames and wheels. When resting the bike against a wall, the shelf will be the first thing to touch the wall, meaning the resting weight is taken by the rack and hence turned into a twisting force on the seat post. This might require readjustment of the rack or seat post after time.
- Tight. While the cord on the shelf is adjustable, it is still elastic, and this tension can bite into soft items such as rubber, foam, cardboard, and to a lesser extent, twinkies. Even items such as a milk carton might not escape unscathed if the cord isn't loosened enough before strapping.
- Industrial. Personally, I think that all bike accessories should be made of carbon fiber. Since this is made of plastic, steel, and aluminium, it belongs in the last century and will make any bike it is attached to also look dated by association.
- Slow attach. The 'quick attach' in the name refers to attaching cargo items to it, not attaching it to the bike. It actually took quite a (relatively) long time to install and it isn't the most straightforward installation either. The seat post needs to be removed from the frame to fit the plastic inner sleave.
Conclusion:
I think the Schwinn cargo rack is neat. It is a good idea, with an...efficient execution, although it is definitely built to a price point. That being said, it does everything it claims to do and it does it well. If you need a cargo device that is unobtrusive and functional, I can definitely recommend the Schwinn cargo rack.
Score:
7/10
Stay tuned for the next review item: "STM netbook glove".
Catch of the Day (website)
Catch of the Day (CotD)
Catch of the Day (www.catchoftheday.com.au) is one of those retail websites that has a special that runs only for a day. Each day they post a new item or sale that is usually at or below the cost of any other online source (other than eBay, etc.).
The trouble with these sites is that the item for any particular day could be anything and there is no forewarning about what is going to be on sale in the upcoming days. Therefore, you need to either check the website each day or subscribe to an RSS/news/push feed to keep up to date with the current sale. Also, since there is usually only one or small selection of items, the current sale might not be attractive to everyone.
It is the equivalent of an online impulse rack at the checkout of a bricks and mortar store.
Recently, CotD had a sale of many different items all on the same day and all with a single capped shipping charge for all items purchased in the same order. My sister was buying a few things and asked me if I wanted anything as it would all be under the one shipping charge.
I couldn't resist.
Over the next few posts, you will see reviews of most of the items I bought. Some of them are quite good. Some of them are quite bad. Some of them are downright tacky.
Anyway, I'll start the list off with the first item, - Schwinn quick attach bicycle cargo rack.
Navigate to the next post to read the review.
Catch of the Day (www.catchoftheday.com.au) is one of those retail websites that has a special that runs only for a day. Each day they post a new item or sale that is usually at or below the cost of any other online source (other than eBay, etc.).
The trouble with these sites is that the item for any particular day could be anything and there is no forewarning about what is going to be on sale in the upcoming days. Therefore, you need to either check the website each day or subscribe to an RSS/news/push feed to keep up to date with the current sale. Also, since there is usually only one or small selection of items, the current sale might not be attractive to everyone.
It is the equivalent of an online impulse rack at the checkout of a bricks and mortar store.
Recently, CotD had a sale of many different items all on the same day and all with a single capped shipping charge for all items purchased in the same order. My sister was buying a few things and asked me if I wanted anything as it would all be under the one shipping charge.
I couldn't resist.
Over the next few posts, you will see reviews of most of the items I bought. Some of them are quite good. Some of them are quite bad. Some of them are downright tacky.
Anyway, I'll start the list off with the first item, - Schwinn quick attach bicycle cargo rack.
Navigate to the next post to read the review.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
VLC Media Player 1.1.10
VLC Media Player 1.1.10 (The Luggage)
VLC is a free media player program which has been made available on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. The source is freeware so any platform that can compile it should be able to run it.
It's most recognisable by it's icon picture which depicts an orange traffic cone with white horizontal stripes on it.
It's biggest asset is that it is compatible with a wide variety of media formats from Audio, Video, and picture formats. It also contains various options for output, including streaming and realtime effects.
Most users will be using it for it's playback ability though.
The Good:
- Versatile. It can open and play a wide variety of video formats and most of the time it plays them flawlessly. It has many options for tweaking the output and handles subtitle formats quite well.
- Free. It doesn't require any payment to use VLC but if you find it useful, you can donate to the developer which might allow them to improve on the code.
- Skinnable. Like most media players nowadays, the interface is skinnable. These skins can be user-created so you can customise how the player looks when not in fullscreen mode.
- Lightweight. The entire package (for Windows) is around 20MB which is smaller than a number of alternate media players.
- Codec. It comes with the option of using the default codec, or you can use system codecs for decoding certain media types.
The Bad (as of 1.1.10):
- Efficiency. VLC is not the most processor efficient player and the default codecs are built for compatibility rather than speed. This is most notable on devices with limited processing power playing high bitrate/compression streams.
- Robustness. It struggles to play a number of formats well. .MKV files above 720p are one example. These files usually contain chapter information and oggvorbis audio streams which VLC has had trouble playing or keeping sync (at least on my system).
1080p/i files also exhibit strange artifacting at regular intervals when other system operations occur, even if the system isn't bottlenecked. The only good thing in this respect is that VLC can happily co-exist with other media players on the same system so you aren't locking your choices out by choosing VLC and can switch to another player such as Media Player Classic when VLC isn't able to handle the file.
- Multi-level options. The options menu has two views. Basic and Full. The Basic view shows the most popular options for quick and simple adjustments. This is fine for most people. Sometimes though, there are times when you need to access a certain option or function to let you play the media correctly, and it isn't immediately obvious where the option is in the settings. Then , once you find the option to turn on Full options, the menu structure changes and the finding settings can be difficult, even though everything is labelled appropriately.
- Update isn't an updater. The update system on VLC doesn't update your installation. All it does is initiate a download of the file from an arbitrary server and loads it in an arbitrary location. There is no control over the download and the process is manual. It also downloads the entire installer (not too much of an issue at 20MB) instead of just the parts that need updating.
- Window default size. Sometimes, the window size defaults to the size of one of the most recently played files. This isn't necessary the most recently played file, and sometimes this can get irritating at the end of a file where the window ends up being bigger than the actual viewport.
Summary:
- VLC is a great little program that is indispensable to the media enthusiast, who might have a slew of media all in different fomats. It's akin to a swiss army knife of media players. With the exceptions mentioned above, there is little it cannot play well, and with a bit of tweaking it should be able to play anything. Having this installed alongside something like Media Player Classic should cover you for all media playback need.
Score:
- 9/10
VLC is a free media player program which has been made available on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. The source is freeware so any platform that can compile it should be able to run it.
It's most recognisable by it's icon picture which depicts an orange traffic cone with white horizontal stripes on it.
It's biggest asset is that it is compatible with a wide variety of media formats from Audio, Video, and picture formats. It also contains various options for output, including streaming and realtime effects.
Most users will be using it for it's playback ability though.
The Good:
- Versatile. It can open and play a wide variety of video formats and most of the time it plays them flawlessly. It has many options for tweaking the output and handles subtitle formats quite well.
- Free. It doesn't require any payment to use VLC but if you find it useful, you can donate to the developer which might allow them to improve on the code.
- Skinnable. Like most media players nowadays, the interface is skinnable. These skins can be user-created so you can customise how the player looks when not in fullscreen mode.
- Lightweight. The entire package (for Windows) is around 20MB which is smaller than a number of alternate media players.
- Codec. It comes with the option of using the default codec, or you can use system codecs for decoding certain media types.
The Bad (as of 1.1.10):
- Efficiency. VLC is not the most processor efficient player and the default codecs are built for compatibility rather than speed. This is most notable on devices with limited processing power playing high bitrate/compression streams.
- Robustness. It struggles to play a number of formats well. .MKV files above 720p are one example. These files usually contain chapter information and oggvorbis audio streams which VLC has had trouble playing or keeping sync (at least on my system).
1080p/i files also exhibit strange artifacting at regular intervals when other system operations occur, even if the system isn't bottlenecked. The only good thing in this respect is that VLC can happily co-exist with other media players on the same system so you aren't locking your choices out by choosing VLC and can switch to another player such as Media Player Classic when VLC isn't able to handle the file.
- Multi-level options. The options menu has two views. Basic and Full. The Basic view shows the most popular options for quick and simple adjustments. This is fine for most people. Sometimes though, there are times when you need to access a certain option or function to let you play the media correctly, and it isn't immediately obvious where the option is in the settings. Then , once you find the option to turn on Full options, the menu structure changes and the finding settings can be difficult, even though everything is labelled appropriately.
- Update isn't an updater. The update system on VLC doesn't update your installation. All it does is initiate a download of the file from an arbitrary server and loads it in an arbitrary location. There is no control over the download and the process is manual. It also downloads the entire installer (not too much of an issue at 20MB) instead of just the parts that need updating.
- Window default size. Sometimes, the window size defaults to the size of one of the most recently played files. This isn't necessary the most recently played file, and sometimes this can get irritating at the end of a file where the window ends up being bigger than the actual viewport.
Summary:
- VLC is a great little program that is indispensable to the media enthusiast, who might have a slew of media all in different fomats. It's akin to a swiss army knife of media players. With the exceptions mentioned above, there is little it cannot play well, and with a bit of tweaking it should be able to play anything. Having this installed alongside something like Media Player Classic should cover you for all media playback need.
Score:
- 9/10
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
For those of you who are too young or those of you who have been living under a rock for the past 2 decades, Transformers are a franchise based on toys from the 198o's. The premise behind it is an alien race of super advanced robots that can change from one form to another to adapt to their environment.
Recently, there have been 3 live action movies released based on this franchise. Dark of the Moon is the 3rd and most recent installment. The version I saw was in 3D using custom 3D glasses I made by cutting out the lenses from those nerdy glasses they give you and clicking them inside the frames of my regular glasses behind the traditional lenses. This didn't really work all that well as the angles were off a little. I was getting a lot of double vision for a lot of the effects and onscreen text. I would suggest wearing the nerd glasses in front of your regular ones, or getting contact lenses.
In a word, Transformers 3 is Unbelievable. But I mean this in the bad way. There is not a single thing about this movie that was believable.
The main human character is an idiot. He has no job, yet he hooks up with supermodels. Not once, but twice. During the entire movie, said supermodel wears high heels. Even running, army-rolling, falling, sliding along the floor of a building that is about to fall over, getting shot at, jumping onto the hull of moving hover plane, all the time the high heels stay on.
Megatron is back. I can't remember if he came back at the end of the second movie, but the second movie was so shit-boring I must have dozed off. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he die at the end of the first movie? I'm calling BS. Bull. Shit.
The CGI is well integrated into the live action throughout the movie, but there are times when you can actually tell you are looking at fake, to the point that it hurts your brain. Not the main action sequences. They are done perfectly. It's more the little things like when they zoom out and view Optimus in truck more from above, driving down the road. It just looked unpolished.
Also, apparently super advances robots that can travel across space and bend the laws of physics, cannot hit a moving human from about 10 meters away with the particle projectile beams built into their arms.
All robots speak with an American accent, regardless of where in the universe they came from.
Anyway, the storyline of this movie revolves around the initial moon landing and the supposed coverup of what actually happened. Apparently, the US knew about a crash landing of an alien craft on the dark side of the moon and went to investigate, and covered up the investigation by disguising it as man's first footsteps on the moon. Everything seems straightforward from here, but this is only a ruse to the real story that lies behind the coverup. In terms of plot, this movie would have to be the best of the three, with the first being very apt at introducing the series, and the second movie being completely crap.
The good:
- Leonard Nimoy. I'm pretty sure he's voicing some giant robot in there.
- Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime kicks ass. It great that they got the original voice actor to do him.
- Megatron. Megatron is an egomaniac. Finally we get to see this side of his personality in the full and the huge fault that comes with it.
- Action. There is a lot of action in this movie, and while the camera gets up close and personal with people's faces, it doesn't get too up close and personal with the characters. AKA, they don't use the camera as a story telling device. This is one thing that Michael Bay has done well here.
- The best extra in the world. I won't spoil it for hunters, but the worlds most famous extra is in this movie. He has appeared in countless other blockbusters and when I saw him, I totally pissed myself. Kudos to whoever cast him. WIN.
- Bumblebee's Shouryuken. In one of the slo-mo fight scenes, Bumblebee totally dragon uppercut's a deceptacon and blows off it's head with his blaster. Forward-down-eighth-circle-forward-heavy-punch FTW.
- Shockwave. Shockwave finally makes an appearance and he actually resembles Shockwave from the original G1 cartoon series. His weapon/pet is also kick ass (if a little bit too Dune sandwormish).
- Comedy. There are heaps of jokes in the movie, and some of them are harder to spot than others. Some are a bit too obvious like the Asian co-worker, but I liked when he made the boss flinch.
The Bad:
- Sound. It could have just been the cinema we were in, but I found it hard to hear what Shaia LeDouche was saying. Most of his lines are gibberish anyway, but at some points it was just painful. Also when the military guys are trying to talk over the sound effects, it's quite tiring.
- Female eye-candy. The main character's girlfriend is a Victoria's Secret model, and they have found every opportunity to squeeze in as much fan service as they can. At one point there is a slo-mo of her just standing there, while stuff blows up in the background. I wanted to shout out "Get the f#ck out of the way, I want to see the robots fighting you stupid bitch!"
That being said though, she was actually a great actress and probably gave the most realistic performance of the entire cast, along with the main human male antagonist, who also happens to be the character that arouses jealousy in the main male protagonist.
- Complex visuals. While it's nice to see a robot transforming, it's just too complex. There is no need for Optimus's legs to deform into millions of pieces only to reform back into a shape that was already present in the other form. This is the equivalent of a robot being a Broadway drag queen. Overly camp. I wished they stuck to simpler transformation such as with the old cartoon series.
- Heels. See heels section in above rant.
- Michael Bay. It say's "A Micheal Bay film in the credits. I would be surprised if any other name appeared there.
- Patriotism. American symbolism is strewn throughout this movie. It's very subtle, and most people won't even notice, but it still makes we want to evacuate my bowels violently.
- Deaths. Humans explode on screen and vaporize into nothing. This is cool. When a robot dies, it just crumbles into bits. This is lame. To quote the movie, "The bad guys always get the good stuff". This applies to deaths too.
- Music. The music in this tries to make you feel a certain way, rather than accentuating what the visuals should be making you feel. A pushy soundtrack will annoy.
- Annoying characters. There are a ton of annoying characters in the movies. Some of them make a return.
- Soundwave. Soundwave is one of the better deceptacons but his screen time was limited in this movie. Less Starscream, more Soundwave = good.
- Length. This movie felt very long. It could have had a few unneeded parts cut out of it.
Conclusion:
There are a ton of things to dislike about this movie, and someone could pick at it for days and find so many things to outnumber the good, but at the end of the day, it's a quite enjoyable film. It's so unbelievable but also so easy to escape into. The immersion factor of the film is quite high and I found myself on the edge of my seat during one of the car chase scenes. It snuck up on me so readily that I had to remind myself that it was just CGI effects and that wasn't a real Ferrari Dino getting hit with debris.
I love Transformers, and this movie made up for the second movie.
Score: 7/10. (+1 for being in 3D)
For those of you who are too young or those of you who have been living under a rock for the past 2 decades, Transformers are a franchise based on toys from the 198o's. The premise behind it is an alien race of super advanced robots that can change from one form to another to adapt to their environment.
Recently, there have been 3 live action movies released based on this franchise. Dark of the Moon is the 3rd and most recent installment. The version I saw was in 3D using custom 3D glasses I made by cutting out the lenses from those nerdy glasses they give you and clicking them inside the frames of my regular glasses behind the traditional lenses. This didn't really work all that well as the angles were off a little. I was getting a lot of double vision for a lot of the effects and onscreen text. I would suggest wearing the nerd glasses in front of your regular ones, or getting contact lenses.
In a word, Transformers 3 is Unbelievable. But I mean this in the bad way. There is not a single thing about this movie that was believable.
The main human character is an idiot. He has no job, yet he hooks up with supermodels. Not once, but twice. During the entire movie, said supermodel wears high heels. Even running, army-rolling, falling, sliding along the floor of a building that is about to fall over, getting shot at, jumping onto the hull of moving hover plane, all the time the high heels stay on.
Megatron is back. I can't remember if he came back at the end of the second movie, but the second movie was so shit-boring I must have dozed off. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he die at the end of the first movie? I'm calling BS. Bull. Shit.
The CGI is well integrated into the live action throughout the movie, but there are times when you can actually tell you are looking at fake, to the point that it hurts your brain. Not the main action sequences. They are done perfectly. It's more the little things like when they zoom out and view Optimus in truck more from above, driving down the road. It just looked unpolished.
Also, apparently super advances robots that can travel across space and bend the laws of physics, cannot hit a moving human from about 10 meters away with the particle projectile beams built into their arms.
All robots speak with an American accent, regardless of where in the universe they came from.
Anyway, the storyline of this movie revolves around the initial moon landing and the supposed coverup of what actually happened. Apparently, the US knew about a crash landing of an alien craft on the dark side of the moon and went to investigate, and covered up the investigation by disguising it as man's first footsteps on the moon. Everything seems straightforward from here, but this is only a ruse to the real story that lies behind the coverup. In terms of plot, this movie would have to be the best of the three, with the first being very apt at introducing the series, and the second movie being completely crap.
The good:
- Leonard Nimoy. I'm pretty sure he's voicing some giant robot in there.
- Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime kicks ass. It great that they got the original voice actor to do him.
- Megatron. Megatron is an egomaniac. Finally we get to see this side of his personality in the full and the huge fault that comes with it.
- Action. There is a lot of action in this movie, and while the camera gets up close and personal with people's faces, it doesn't get too up close and personal with the characters. AKA, they don't use the camera as a story telling device. This is one thing that Michael Bay has done well here.
- The best extra in the world. I won't spoil it for hunters, but the worlds most famous extra is in this movie. He has appeared in countless other blockbusters and when I saw him, I totally pissed myself. Kudos to whoever cast him. WIN.
- Bumblebee's Shouryuken. In one of the slo-mo fight scenes, Bumblebee totally dragon uppercut's a deceptacon and blows off it's head with his blaster. Forward-down-eighth-circle-forward-heavy-punch FTW.
- Shockwave. Shockwave finally makes an appearance and he actually resembles Shockwave from the original G1 cartoon series. His weapon/pet is also kick ass (if a little bit too Dune sandwormish).
- Comedy. There are heaps of jokes in the movie, and some of them are harder to spot than others. Some are a bit too obvious like the Asian co-worker, but I liked when he made the boss flinch.
The Bad:
- Sound. It could have just been the cinema we were in, but I found it hard to hear what Shaia LeDouche was saying. Most of his lines are gibberish anyway, but at some points it was just painful. Also when the military guys are trying to talk over the sound effects, it's quite tiring.
- Female eye-candy. The main character's girlfriend is a Victoria's Secret model, and they have found every opportunity to squeeze in as much fan service as they can. At one point there is a slo-mo of her just standing there, while stuff blows up in the background. I wanted to shout out "Get the f#ck out of the way, I want to see the robots fighting you stupid bitch!"
That being said though, she was actually a great actress and probably gave the most realistic performance of the entire cast, along with the main human male antagonist, who also happens to be the character that arouses jealousy in the main male protagonist.
- Complex visuals. While it's nice to see a robot transforming, it's just too complex. There is no need for Optimus's legs to deform into millions of pieces only to reform back into a shape that was already present in the other form. This is the equivalent of a robot being a Broadway drag queen. Overly camp. I wished they stuck to simpler transformation such as with the old cartoon series.
- Heels. See heels section in above rant.
- Michael Bay. It say's "A Micheal Bay film in the credits. I would be surprised if any other name appeared there.
- Patriotism. American symbolism is strewn throughout this movie. It's very subtle, and most people won't even notice, but it still makes we want to evacuate my bowels violently.
- Deaths. Humans explode on screen and vaporize into nothing. This is cool. When a robot dies, it just crumbles into bits. This is lame. To quote the movie, "The bad guys always get the good stuff". This applies to deaths too.
- Music. The music in this tries to make you feel a certain way, rather than accentuating what the visuals should be making you feel. A pushy soundtrack will annoy.
- Annoying characters. There are a ton of annoying characters in the movies. Some of them make a return.
- Soundwave. Soundwave is one of the better deceptacons but his screen time was limited in this movie. Less Starscream, more Soundwave = good.
- Length. This movie felt very long. It could have had a few unneeded parts cut out of it.
Conclusion:
There are a ton of things to dislike about this movie, and someone could pick at it for days and find so many things to outnumber the good, but at the end of the day, it's a quite enjoyable film. It's so unbelievable but also so easy to escape into. The immersion factor of the film is quite high and I found myself on the edge of my seat during one of the car chase scenes. It snuck up on me so readily that I had to remind myself that it was just CGI effects and that wasn't a real Ferrari Dino getting hit with debris.
I love Transformers, and this movie made up for the second movie.
Score: 7/10. (+1 for being in 3D)
Monday, July 4, 2011
Nutella (by request)
Nutella.
Nutella is sold as a spreadable condiment, but it's closer to a confectionery. Based on Hazelnuts, it appears as a dark brown paste in a transparent plastic or glass container. Sizes vary from 15g travel packs all the way up to 625g special value edition packaging. There may be larger sizes but I haven't seen them. Available in the supermarket and some department stores such as K-mart and BigW, it can be found in the spreadables section and competes with the like of Peanut butter and the various conserves like Jam and Marmalade, and is targeted to young families with schoolchildren.
As a spread, it's just as versatile as a jam but comes into it's own when baking. Whereas jams are quite tart in their flavour, they lend themselves to accenting rather than being the base of a recipe. Mixing in Nutella with a large amount of base ingredients lends the entire mixture a pleasant hazelnut backing, but by increasing the proportions, you can create a very strong overtone. Companion products for Nutella in baking are liqueurs like Frangelico.
The good:
- Taste. Nutella tastes great, as long as you are a fan of nutty tastes. Even if you aren't a fan of nuts, the cocoa aspect is very good too. This will appeal to chocolate lovers, except perhaps fans of dark chocolates or chocolates that come with an acquired taste.
- Versatility. The fact that you can spread it over a slice of toast, plain bread, or use it in or on a cake or biscuits means that Nutella can find a use in almost any kitchen.
- Health. Compared with the likes of (regular) peanut butter, Nutella contains less fats both saturated and unsaturated. It's also around the same or less sugar then a comparable conserve.
The Bad:
- Hazelnut. It's a nut. Nutella is made from it. It may contain traces of nut and is produced on a machine that may also process nuts or nut derivative products. If you are allergic to nuts, then this is not the spread for you. If you are allergic to nuts, I pity you. I have to conclude that's it's god's way of saying, "You are not allowed to live an exciting culinary life, because of something you did in a former life. Here, have some tofu."
- The price. Unless you can get it on special, Nutella is in the 'Nicety' range, rather than the 'Necessity' range. If you have kids though, sometimes it's worth it just to shut them up.
- Health. Although it may appear to have the edge over other similar products in terms of healthiness, due to it being so more-ish it ends up being an indulgence item, and you may find it not being consumed in moderation. This applies to both kids and adults. Uni students and flatmates are especially at risk. It should be kept on the top shelf out of reach of young ones, or in a place that takes a bit of effort to reach so they are at least getting a bit of exercise.
- Jar. The distinctive Nutella jar is retarded to the consumer. To the producer, it's brilliant marketing. The opening of the jar is round, but tapers into a flat tube with rounded edges. This leaves crevices where a spoon or knife cannot reach. While this may cost the manufacturer a small amount of product, it induces a need in the consumer to get more. If the jar allowed you to get to all of the contents, what you would be left with would be an empty jar and a lack of need for more Nutella. If there a little bits left in the jar, your mind subtly encourages you to get it. When you try but can't succeed, the brain switches to path-of-least-resistance mode and soon you think about heading back to the supermarket, or at least putting it on the shopping list. Also, because the jar isn't completely empty, there is an urge to put it back on the shelf, just in case someone else is able to get the last bits out, where it will weave it's magic on the next unsuspecting victim.
- Spoons. It's very easy to get a spoon into the opening. I'll leave this for you to think about.
- Sizes. While there are a large number of recipes that incorporate Nutella, they usually ask for strange amounts, none of which seem to coincide with the sizes of Nutella jars available. This means you may have to buy multiple jars or a larger jar which just leaves near empty-jars lying around that can be too tempting to some people.
- Greasy. If you get some on your fingers, it transfers very readily to porous products such as cloth and also to shiny surfaces such as media tablet screens and counter tops.
- Ads. All Nutella ads are lame. They usually feature young mothers with kids. The mothers are usually hot, but they have kids so you end up going, "Wow she's hot, maybe I should buy some Nutel...oh but she has kids, maybe I shouldn't after al...OMG what an ugly kid."
Conclusion:
A sweet, nutty, versatile spread that can be used for many things but is quite addictive and the work of the devil.
Score: 6/10...7/10...8/10...I want some NOOOOOWW!!!
Nutella is sold as a spreadable condiment, but it's closer to a confectionery. Based on Hazelnuts, it appears as a dark brown paste in a transparent plastic or glass container. Sizes vary from 15g travel packs all the way up to 625g special value edition packaging. There may be larger sizes but I haven't seen them. Available in the supermarket and some department stores such as K-mart and BigW, it can be found in the spreadables section and competes with the like of Peanut butter and the various conserves like Jam and Marmalade, and is targeted to young families with schoolchildren.
As a spread, it's just as versatile as a jam but comes into it's own when baking. Whereas jams are quite tart in their flavour, they lend themselves to accenting rather than being the base of a recipe. Mixing in Nutella with a large amount of base ingredients lends the entire mixture a pleasant hazelnut backing, but by increasing the proportions, you can create a very strong overtone. Companion products for Nutella in baking are liqueurs like Frangelico.
The good:
- Taste. Nutella tastes great, as long as you are a fan of nutty tastes. Even if you aren't a fan of nuts, the cocoa aspect is very good too. This will appeal to chocolate lovers, except perhaps fans of dark chocolates or chocolates that come with an acquired taste.
- Versatility. The fact that you can spread it over a slice of toast, plain bread, or use it in or on a cake or biscuits means that Nutella can find a use in almost any kitchen.
- Health. Compared with the likes of (regular) peanut butter, Nutella contains less fats both saturated and unsaturated. It's also around the same or less sugar then a comparable conserve.
The Bad:
- Hazelnut. It's a nut. Nutella is made from it. It may contain traces of nut and is produced on a machine that may also process nuts or nut derivative products. If you are allergic to nuts, then this is not the spread for you. If you are allergic to nuts, I pity you. I have to conclude that's it's god's way of saying, "You are not allowed to live an exciting culinary life, because of something you did in a former life. Here, have some tofu."
- The price. Unless you can get it on special, Nutella is in the 'Nicety' range, rather than the 'Necessity' range. If you have kids though, sometimes it's worth it just to shut them up.
- Health. Although it may appear to have the edge over other similar products in terms of healthiness, due to it being so more-ish it ends up being an indulgence item, and you may find it not being consumed in moderation. This applies to both kids and adults. Uni students and flatmates are especially at risk. It should be kept on the top shelf out of reach of young ones, or in a place that takes a bit of effort to reach so they are at least getting a bit of exercise.
- Jar. The distinctive Nutella jar is retarded to the consumer. To the producer, it's brilliant marketing. The opening of the jar is round, but tapers into a flat tube with rounded edges. This leaves crevices where a spoon or knife cannot reach. While this may cost the manufacturer a small amount of product, it induces a need in the consumer to get more. If the jar allowed you to get to all of the contents, what you would be left with would be an empty jar and a lack of need for more Nutella. If there a little bits left in the jar, your mind subtly encourages you to get it. When you try but can't succeed, the brain switches to path-of-least-resistance mode and soon you think about heading back to the supermarket, or at least putting it on the shopping list. Also, because the jar isn't completely empty, there is an urge to put it back on the shelf, just in case someone else is able to get the last bits out, where it will weave it's magic on the next unsuspecting victim.
- Spoons. It's very easy to get a spoon into the opening. I'll leave this for you to think about.
- Sizes. While there are a large number of recipes that incorporate Nutella, they usually ask for strange amounts, none of which seem to coincide with the sizes of Nutella jars available. This means you may have to buy multiple jars or a larger jar which just leaves near empty-jars lying around that can be too tempting to some people.
- Greasy. If you get some on your fingers, it transfers very readily to porous products such as cloth and also to shiny surfaces such as media tablet screens and counter tops.
- Ads. All Nutella ads are lame. They usually feature young mothers with kids. The mothers are usually hot, but they have kids so you end up going, "Wow she's hot, maybe I should buy some Nutel...oh but she has kids, maybe I shouldn't after al...OMG what an ugly kid."
Conclusion:
A sweet, nutty, versatile spread that can be used for many things but is quite addictive and the work of the devil.
Score: 6/10...7/10...8/10...I want some NOOOOOWW!!!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Nokia 1110
Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone (on Optus pre-paid)
The 1110 is an old 'dumb' mobile phone which my parents bought for me to replace an even older Nokia that was having battery issues. It was purchased outright for the huge sum of $64 and runs pre-paid on Optus $30/6month recharge plan.
The phone has a monochrome screen, about 2 inches square in size. Instead of a gray/white pixel colour it has a nice green glow. It has dedicated hardware keys covered in a soft gel-like plastic. It weighs next to nothing, and the battery will last on standby for about 6 days. Talk time is about 2 hours. It comes pre-installed with Snake, has an alarm, and a calculator. All these features are buried in the menu, but there is a shortcut key that when combined with a numeric or directional key, can go straight to feature pages.
The Good:
- Battery life. This phone beats most modern phones on standby. When used primarily as a SMS device and for receiving calls, this is very convenient.
- Alarm. Because of the low standby power drain, this phone can work as a miniature alarm clock. It even has snooze!
- Standby clock. In standby mode, the screen backlight turns off, and a digital clock is displayed that can be seen in daylight. So the phone can double as a timepiece without having to unlock.
- SMS. By limiting the phone to SMS, messages are kept brief and to the point.
- Physically diminutive. Due to the small non-touch screen, the phone size and weight is not an issue. It can fit in almost any pocket. I've even been able to temporarily hold it in those tiny coin pockets that are inside one of the normal pocket on a pair of tight jeans. It sticks out a bit and I can't bend forward, but you get the picture.
- Rugged. I could drop this phone from shoulder height and it would...break. But being so cheap, I wouldn't care. I'd just buy a new one.
- Phone. It makes and receives phone calls. There isn't a special way to hold it to get it to do this.
- It's dumb. Being a dumb phone, you will never find yourself using it like a smart phone. You won't be looking through it at a concert, because it doesn't have a camera. You won't be ignoring other people while they talk to you because it doesn't have internet. You won't find yourself addicted to it because it doesn't have anything fun on it (unless you find snake fun).
- Price. At $64 for the handset, plus $30 recharge that lasts 6 months, my total cost over ownership over the past 24 months is <$200. Since there is no data, there is no chance of going over caps or anything like that.
- Composer. You can write your own ringtone on the niftly included composer. It's only monophonic, but you can still create something that resembles the theme to Indiana Jones. You can even assign this tone to incoming calls, SMS, reminder, or the alarm.
- Simple. This phone is so simple to use, a senior citizen could use it. I was going to say so simple a baby could use it, but these days babies are able to write the driver code to get H.264 video to play natively on a 600x480 screen at 30fps. Most older folk I know prefer the uncomplicated things in life.
The Bad:
- No colour. Apart from the green and black, this phone has no colour. Since you can't put anything colourful on it anyway, this isn't such a bad thing.
- No pictures. This phone doesn't support pictures or any picture services. There a graphics but they are treated as text objects and won't be compatible with the graphical text systems used by modern smartphones.
- Talk time. Talk time is quite short as the electronics used to facilitate the audio transmission systems are old and their rated power envelopes are from the 1900s...oops, I mean 1990s.
- Radiation. From memory, this particular model had a lower than average radiation index, but this was compared to phones of the day. It doesn't have any other antenna's other than 2G, so this may mean less overall radiation, but I'm sure that when this thing handshakes the basestation I'm getting more rads pumped into the side of my head than the modern smartphone counterparts.
- Isolation. This phone has no social accessibility above the normal talk and SMS. As long as you use this phone you will never be a Foursquare champion.
- No music. There are polyphonic ringtones. This phone doesn't support them. I also haven't found out how to import/export the mono ringtones, so anything I want I have to create myself in the composer. This can actually be quite fun, so not such a bad thing.
- Storage. The memory capacity of the phone is quite small. If all the custom ringtone slots are full, then you can fit about 50 old SMS's alongside about 150 phone numbers. The memory is all shared, so having a lot of one reduces the space available to the other.
- Old. This phone is old. It looks old, it smells old, it is old. If you were a retro nut, or have trouble with complex devices, then this is a good phone for you. If you are anybody else, this phone is crap.
Conclusion:
- This phone is the premier phone in it's class. The trouble some people may find is that this is the only phone in it's class (as long as you don't count the updated 1110i), and that class is waaaay down the list.
If you don't make a lot of calls and only intend to receive calls, this phone and prepaid combo is perfect. There is just enough credit on the plan to lead a normal social life using SMS only. If you need simple functions like an alarm, calendar reminder, stopwatch, clock/watch, light to find your house keys, then this phone will service all those needs. If you need anything above this, then you should look into getting a more advanced phone.
Score: 5/10.
The 1110 is an old 'dumb' mobile phone which my parents bought for me to replace an even older Nokia that was having battery issues. It was purchased outright for the huge sum of $64 and runs pre-paid on Optus $30/6month recharge plan.
The phone has a monochrome screen, about 2 inches square in size. Instead of a gray/white pixel colour it has a nice green glow. It has dedicated hardware keys covered in a soft gel-like plastic. It weighs next to nothing, and the battery will last on standby for about 6 days. Talk time is about 2 hours. It comes pre-installed with Snake, has an alarm, and a calculator. All these features are buried in the menu, but there is a shortcut key that when combined with a numeric or directional key, can go straight to feature pages.
The Good:
- Battery life. This phone beats most modern phones on standby. When used primarily as a SMS device and for receiving calls, this is very convenient.
- Alarm. Because of the low standby power drain, this phone can work as a miniature alarm clock. It even has snooze!
- Standby clock. In standby mode, the screen backlight turns off, and a digital clock is displayed that can be seen in daylight. So the phone can double as a timepiece without having to unlock.
- SMS. By limiting the phone to SMS, messages are kept brief and to the point.
- Physically diminutive. Due to the small non-touch screen, the phone size and weight is not an issue. It can fit in almost any pocket. I've even been able to temporarily hold it in those tiny coin pockets that are inside one of the normal pocket on a pair of tight jeans. It sticks out a bit and I can't bend forward, but you get the picture.
- Rugged. I could drop this phone from shoulder height and it would...break. But being so cheap, I wouldn't care. I'd just buy a new one.
- Phone. It makes and receives phone calls. There isn't a special way to hold it to get it to do this.
- It's dumb. Being a dumb phone, you will never find yourself using it like a smart phone. You won't be looking through it at a concert, because it doesn't have a camera. You won't be ignoring other people while they talk to you because it doesn't have internet. You won't find yourself addicted to it because it doesn't have anything fun on it (unless you find snake fun).
- Price. At $64 for the handset, plus $30 recharge that lasts 6 months, my total cost over ownership over the past 24 months is <$200. Since there is no data, there is no chance of going over caps or anything like that.
- Composer. You can write your own ringtone on the niftly included composer. It's only monophonic, but you can still create something that resembles the theme to Indiana Jones. You can even assign this tone to incoming calls, SMS, reminder, or the alarm.
- Simple. This phone is so simple to use, a senior citizen could use it. I was going to say so simple a baby could use it, but these days babies are able to write the driver code to get H.264 video to play natively on a 600x480 screen at 30fps. Most older folk I know prefer the uncomplicated things in life.
The Bad:
- No colour. Apart from the green and black, this phone has no colour. Since you can't put anything colourful on it anyway, this isn't such a bad thing.
- No pictures. This phone doesn't support pictures or any picture services. There a graphics but they are treated as text objects and won't be compatible with the graphical text systems used by modern smartphones.
- Talk time. Talk time is quite short as the electronics used to facilitate the audio transmission systems are old and their rated power envelopes are from the 1900s...oops, I mean 1990s.
- Radiation. From memory, this particular model had a lower than average radiation index, but this was compared to phones of the day. It doesn't have any other antenna's other than 2G, so this may mean less overall radiation, but I'm sure that when this thing handshakes the basestation I'm getting more rads pumped into the side of my head than the modern smartphone counterparts.
- Isolation. This phone has no social accessibility above the normal talk and SMS. As long as you use this phone you will never be a Foursquare champion.
- No music. There are polyphonic ringtones. This phone doesn't support them. I also haven't found out how to import/export the mono ringtones, so anything I want I have to create myself in the composer. This can actually be quite fun, so not such a bad thing.
- Storage. The memory capacity of the phone is quite small. If all the custom ringtone slots are full, then you can fit about 50 old SMS's alongside about 150 phone numbers. The memory is all shared, so having a lot of one reduces the space available to the other.
- Old. This phone is old. It looks old, it smells old, it is old. If you were a retro nut, or have trouble with complex devices, then this is a good phone for you. If you are anybody else, this phone is crap.
Conclusion:
- This phone is the premier phone in it's class. The trouble some people may find is that this is the only phone in it's class (as long as you don't count the updated 1110i), and that class is waaaay down the list.
If you don't make a lot of calls and only intend to receive calls, this phone and prepaid combo is perfect. There is just enough credit on the plan to lead a normal social life using SMS only. If you need simple functions like an alarm, calendar reminder, stopwatch, clock/watch, light to find your house keys, then this phone will service all those needs. If you need anything above this, then you should look into getting a more advanced phone.
Score: 5/10.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sugarfree cola.
Sugarfree Cola.
As far as I'm concerned there are only 2 players in the sugarfree cola market. For legal reasons, I will use fake names to represent each. Let's call the first one "Coco-Koalla Zoro" and the second one "Poopsie-Mix".
Firstly, for those who think there isn't a difference between the two and that they are actually the same product and that the companies are pulling the wool over our eyes in an attempt to produce a false sense of diversity, I can say without hesitation that they are in fact different. Regardless of whether they taste the same, there must be something in one of them that isn't present in the other, or is in differing quantity than the other. How do I know? Well, apart from the labeling on the side of the can, I get a neck ache from drinking the Zoro which I don't from drinking the Mix. This neck ache is unpleasant, so you can probably guess which one I prefer.
It might also interest you to know that the poopsie is usually the cheaper of the two, and also cheaper on a regular basis including sale times.
Due to fridge size restrictions at my place of work, large bottles (bigger than 600ml) are not able to be chilled without the threat of theft (we have a mini fridge at work next to my desk and the main building fridge is ages away and gets stuff stolen out of it sometimes). The only option is therefor cans. There is no difference in the quality and construction of the cans from both producers. They are equally able to contain the liquid within for approximately 7-10 years before the contents chew through the aluminium. I found this out the hard way (goodbye Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace themed cans. Goodbye).
The good:
- Stealth. For a quick pick-me-up or a refreshing beverage, nothing is stereotypically better than a cold can of cola. No one will judge you for cracking one open halfway through an intense keyboard workout session at the office.
The bad:
- Addictive. The caffeine present in these in on par with a cup of coffee, but whereas coffee has a tendency to leave one satisfied for the good part of the morning, I find a can of cola gets downed fast, and immediately induce a craving for more. Currently I'm running about 2-3 cans a day, up to 4 on a hectic or overly long day. This is bad. I can feel it eating away at my soul.
- Lies. The fact that these are sugarfree may lead one to believe that they will not contribute to you putting on weight. This is not always true. If you only drink the cola, then you aren't adding more sugar into your system. However, the increased stimulation from the caffeine may cause you to crave sugar. Adding a small 15g-30g chocolate bar to the can of 'diet' cola is defeating the purpose. Plus, the artificial sweeteners are thought to cause cancer. I'm not sure if this is true, but given the choice, I'd prefer to have a sugar loaded drink and no need for anything extra, than a drink and a chocolate and get cancer. Unfortunately, being a pig I would eat the chocolate bar anyway, so I'm sticking with the sugarfree.
Conclusion:
Sugarfree cola is like anything else. Use it in moderation. Unfortunately, it's been specifically designed to avert moderated usage. My suggestion: Switch to a skinny latte in the morning. This should get you past the halfway mark and curb any cravings. If you still find yourself needing a boost later in the day, drink a glass of water first. You may find what you're actually needing is hydration. Am I going to follow my own advice? Hell no. Should you? I don't care.
Score: 6/10. The only reason I drink this instead of coffee is because I can't fit a small barrista next to my feet where I work and even if I could, they probably wouldn't enjoy me chilling cheese and sliced meats inside them. Probably...
As far as I'm concerned there are only 2 players in the sugarfree cola market. For legal reasons, I will use fake names to represent each. Let's call the first one "Coco-Koalla Zoro" and the second one "Poopsie-Mix".
Firstly, for those who think there isn't a difference between the two and that they are actually the same product and that the companies are pulling the wool over our eyes in an attempt to produce a false sense of diversity, I can say without hesitation that they are in fact different. Regardless of whether they taste the same, there must be something in one of them that isn't present in the other, or is in differing quantity than the other. How do I know? Well, apart from the labeling on the side of the can, I get a neck ache from drinking the Zoro which I don't from drinking the Mix. This neck ache is unpleasant, so you can probably guess which one I prefer.
It might also interest you to know that the poopsie is usually the cheaper of the two, and also cheaper on a regular basis including sale times.
Due to fridge size restrictions at my place of work, large bottles (bigger than 600ml) are not able to be chilled without the threat of theft (we have a mini fridge at work next to my desk and the main building fridge is ages away and gets stuff stolen out of it sometimes). The only option is therefor cans. There is no difference in the quality and construction of the cans from both producers. They are equally able to contain the liquid within for approximately 7-10 years before the contents chew through the aluminium. I found this out the hard way (goodbye Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace themed cans. Goodbye).
The good:
- Stealth. For a quick pick-me-up or a refreshing beverage, nothing is stereotypically better than a cold can of cola. No one will judge you for cracking one open halfway through an intense keyboard workout session at the office.
The bad:
- Addictive. The caffeine present in these in on par with a cup of coffee, but whereas coffee has a tendency to leave one satisfied for the good part of the morning, I find a can of cola gets downed fast, and immediately induce a craving for more. Currently I'm running about 2-3 cans a day, up to 4 on a hectic or overly long day. This is bad. I can feel it eating away at my soul.
- Lies. The fact that these are sugarfree may lead one to believe that they will not contribute to you putting on weight. This is not always true. If you only drink the cola, then you aren't adding more sugar into your system. However, the increased stimulation from the caffeine may cause you to crave sugar. Adding a small 15g-30g chocolate bar to the can of 'diet' cola is defeating the purpose. Plus, the artificial sweeteners are thought to cause cancer. I'm not sure if this is true, but given the choice, I'd prefer to have a sugar loaded drink and no need for anything extra, than a drink and a chocolate and get cancer. Unfortunately, being a pig I would eat the chocolate bar anyway, so I'm sticking with the sugarfree.
Conclusion:
Sugarfree cola is like anything else. Use it in moderation. Unfortunately, it's been specifically designed to avert moderated usage. My suggestion: Switch to a skinny latte in the morning. This should get you past the halfway mark and curb any cravings. If you still find yourself needing a boost later in the day, drink a glass of water first. You may find what you're actually needing is hydration. Am I going to follow my own advice? Hell no. Should you? I don't care.
Score: 6/10. The only reason I drink this instead of coffee is because I can't fit a small barrista next to my feet where I work and even if I could, they probably wouldn't enjoy me chilling cheese and sliced meats inside them. Probably...
Friday, June 24, 2011
WD 2TB Elements external HDD
WD 2TB Elements external HDD.
I recently purchased a 2TB WD Elements external HDD for backing up media and what-not that was chewing up room on my PCs intenal HDD.
This was the third WD drive that I have bought (not including the WD Green internal 750GB drive in my PC). The previous two were 1TB each and but they are completely different models. The first one is housed in a metal casing with rubber ends that raise the shell above the desk surface regardless of which way you place it down. The connector is a large square USB type on the drive end of the wire and standard USB on the other. It's quite noisy and vibrates a lot. There is a bright blue (in colour, not intensity) activity LED on the back where the plugs go in. It's possible to open the case and get to the drive but I believe the drive and small circuit board are keyed to each other so salvaging is not possible with this product, other than moving the drive to an internal location within a standard PC.
The next drive has an all plastic enclosure and small rubber feet on the bottom to stop it vibrating against the desk surface. It's a lot lighter than the first drive and is silent, even when writing and reading data. It has a white LED for activity. The connector is the smaller micro-USB type often found on compact digital cameras.
The latest drive looks identical to the second drive and only differs in the model name on the sticker on the bottom. You can't really tell which is which is you have them side-by-side. The latest drive is actually noisier than the 1TB version but not nearly as noisy as the very first drive. I also think the two newer drives are the slowest rotating of the three. This is fine as the USB 2.0 interface is the limiting factor with these devices.
All three devices stack quite easily and there are no odd shapes to contend with.
I bought the 2TB drive to house media files which had become too large for the 1TB drive. The older 1TB drive holds system backups and old archive data which don't require so much space.
The Good:
- Price. The new drive cost AU$114 which is less than the $140 I paid for the first drive and only $15 more for double the capacity of the second drive. At the moment, the 2TB drive is on sale at Officeworks and various other retailers for $99. That kind of price is ridiculous considering the amount of space you get.
- Support. The power adapter on my first drive blew up when I plugged it into a friend's power outlet. The drive wasn't plugged in at the time so it didn't suffer any damage. A quick bit of researching on the net showed that this particular power brick was prone to failure and a short stint on the WD support website, and a couple of tech emails later and another power adapter was on it's way to me in the mail. As far as component support and warranty dealings are concerned this has been the best experience I have had with a company, including all face-to-face conversations with retail stores. WD didn't even bother asking for the old brick back.
- Stealth. Apart from the writing and reading noise when the disk is running, the drive is quite unassuming sitting next to my monitor. The black plastic case blends into the rest of the desktop equipment and the activity light is quite muted when pointed at the wall.
- Convenience. Having 2TB spare area at the flick of a switch (or plug of a ...plug), is very nice, especially if you need to move large amounts of data a far distance.
The bad:
- Noise. The latest drive has a gurgling noise as the read/head moves back and forth. It's very low frequency so not too annoying but as the previous drive was virtually silent, it makes you wonder about the longevity of the drive components.
- Bland. The black plastic case, while sleek, is quite boring. If you want something fancy looking to go with your fancy case you are better off with an aftermarket external drive case.
- Powered. These drives require power. Some say this is a good thing as you will never be caught out by an unpowered USB as you are sometimes with USB powered drives. I would have to agree with this view, but the opposing view is that you now have to carry around a power brick wherever the drive goes. I would argue that that is what USB key drives are for. Anything this large and you should really be seated somewhere where there is power. Still, I will put this as a negative since extra weight and equipment isn't really ideal.
- Default FAT32. These drives are preformatted to FAT32 which is fine for all Windows operating systems and Linux flavours but Mac may need some extra preparation. The problem with FAT32 is that files over 4GB will not be able to be stored on the drive out of the box, so you can forget about storing DVD ROM images unless you reformat to NTFS (or similar). This will lose you a few hundred MB of storage due to NTFS overhead, and it may take a while to perform the reformat. It also may limit the flexibility of operating systems that can read the drive. The worst part about this is if you want to store over 4GB and only realise AFTER copying heaps of data across already. I learned this the hard way.
- Slow. These drives are slow. The bottleneck is the USB2.0 interface but the drives themselves are slow by nature. When USB3.0 models come out expect a decent price hike to go with the hike in performance.
- Always on. If you want to leave the drive plugged in, the power brick will consume power even when the drive is powered down. I always unplug the data cable first which puts the drive into power down mode, then I unplug the power cable at BOTH ends. I always plug the power brick into the wall first before attaching to the drive. If something fails and the power spikes, at least it wont take the data with it.
- Seagate drive spins faster. The Seagate version of this drive spins at 7200rpm so it might have better raw performance. It's been stated though the WD drives have smarter hardware and firmware that make performance comparable, even though the drive spins closer to 5400rpm. For the average user, you won't see any noticable difference by going to a faster spindle speed, other than less money in your pocket after the purchase.
Conclusion:
- With SSDs becoming more popular, mass storage magnetic drive will only drop in price. The price is so low right now already that these drives are perfect for backing up systems and storing infrequently used files. They work great as a secondary cheap photo storage box for dSLR images captured in the RAW format.
Score: 7.5/10
I recently purchased a 2TB WD Elements external HDD for backing up media and what-not that was chewing up room on my PCs intenal HDD.
This was the third WD drive that I have bought (not including the WD Green internal 750GB drive in my PC). The previous two were 1TB each and but they are completely different models. The first one is housed in a metal casing with rubber ends that raise the shell above the desk surface regardless of which way you place it down. The connector is a large square USB type on the drive end of the wire and standard USB on the other. It's quite noisy and vibrates a lot. There is a bright blue (in colour, not intensity) activity LED on the back where the plugs go in. It's possible to open the case and get to the drive but I believe the drive and small circuit board are keyed to each other so salvaging is not possible with this product, other than moving the drive to an internal location within a standard PC.
The next drive has an all plastic enclosure and small rubber feet on the bottom to stop it vibrating against the desk surface. It's a lot lighter than the first drive and is silent, even when writing and reading data. It has a white LED for activity. The connector is the smaller micro-USB type often found on compact digital cameras.
The latest drive looks identical to the second drive and only differs in the model name on the sticker on the bottom. You can't really tell which is which is you have them side-by-side. The latest drive is actually noisier than the 1TB version but not nearly as noisy as the very first drive. I also think the two newer drives are the slowest rotating of the three. This is fine as the USB 2.0 interface is the limiting factor with these devices.
All three devices stack quite easily and there are no odd shapes to contend with.
I bought the 2TB drive to house media files which had become too large for the 1TB drive. The older 1TB drive holds system backups and old archive data which don't require so much space.
The Good:
- Price. The new drive cost AU$114 which is less than the $140 I paid for the first drive and only $15 more for double the capacity of the second drive. At the moment, the 2TB drive is on sale at Officeworks and various other retailers for $99. That kind of price is ridiculous considering the amount of space you get.
- Support. The power adapter on my first drive blew up when I plugged it into a friend's power outlet. The drive wasn't plugged in at the time so it didn't suffer any damage. A quick bit of researching on the net showed that this particular power brick was prone to failure and a short stint on the WD support website, and a couple of tech emails later and another power adapter was on it's way to me in the mail. As far as component support and warranty dealings are concerned this has been the best experience I have had with a company, including all face-to-face conversations with retail stores. WD didn't even bother asking for the old brick back.
- Stealth. Apart from the writing and reading noise when the disk is running, the drive is quite unassuming sitting next to my monitor. The black plastic case blends into the rest of the desktop equipment and the activity light is quite muted when pointed at the wall.
- Convenience. Having 2TB spare area at the flick of a switch (or plug of a ...plug), is very nice, especially if you need to move large amounts of data a far distance.
The bad:
- Noise. The latest drive has a gurgling noise as the read/head moves back and forth. It's very low frequency so not too annoying but as the previous drive was virtually silent, it makes you wonder about the longevity of the drive components.
- Bland. The black plastic case, while sleek, is quite boring. If you want something fancy looking to go with your fancy case you are better off with an aftermarket external drive case.
- Powered. These drives require power. Some say this is a good thing as you will never be caught out by an unpowered USB as you are sometimes with USB powered drives. I would have to agree with this view, but the opposing view is that you now have to carry around a power brick wherever the drive goes. I would argue that that is what USB key drives are for. Anything this large and you should really be seated somewhere where there is power. Still, I will put this as a negative since extra weight and equipment isn't really ideal.
- Default FAT32. These drives are preformatted to FAT32 which is fine for all Windows operating systems and Linux flavours but Mac may need some extra preparation. The problem with FAT32 is that files over 4GB will not be able to be stored on the drive out of the box, so you can forget about storing DVD ROM images unless you reformat to NTFS (or similar). This will lose you a few hundred MB of storage due to NTFS overhead, and it may take a while to perform the reformat. It also may limit the flexibility of operating systems that can read the drive. The worst part about this is if you want to store over 4GB and only realise AFTER copying heaps of data across already. I learned this the hard way.
- Slow. These drives are slow. The bottleneck is the USB2.0 interface but the drives themselves are slow by nature. When USB3.0 models come out expect a decent price hike to go with the hike in performance.
- Always on. If you want to leave the drive plugged in, the power brick will consume power even when the drive is powered down. I always unplug the data cable first which puts the drive into power down mode, then I unplug the power cable at BOTH ends. I always plug the power brick into the wall first before attaching to the drive. If something fails and the power spikes, at least it wont take the data with it.
- Seagate drive spins faster. The Seagate version of this drive spins at 7200rpm so it might have better raw performance. It's been stated though the WD drives have smarter hardware and firmware that make performance comparable, even though the drive spins closer to 5400rpm. For the average user, you won't see any noticable difference by going to a faster spindle speed, other than less money in your pocket after the purchase.
Conclusion:
- With SSDs becoming more popular, mass storage magnetic drive will only drop in price. The price is so low right now already that these drives are perfect for backing up systems and storing infrequently used files. They work great as a secondary cheap photo storage box for dSLR images captured in the RAW format.
Score: 7.5/10
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
StarCraft2
StarCraft2
Today's review will be very short as I need to get more sleep.
Overview:
SC2 is a Real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC that came out in 2010(I think???). It allows you to control an army of either of 3 distinct races. Terrans, Zerg, or Protoss. Google it to find out more.
The good:
- Single player. The single player portion of the game is storyline driven and quite immersive. It allows you to learn all the controls and strategies in a tiered manner so by the end of the campaign, your skills are quite polished.
- Multi-player. All the action in the campaign is just a precursor to where the real fun in the game is. Multi-player. Opponents are selected intelligently based on your win-loss record, so you are usually never overpowered and vice-versa. This makes the online experience very enjoyable.
- Voice chat built-in. Very convenient and simple to use (albeit a bit buggy with some microphones).
- Achievements. Achievements are obtained by completing various specific tasks in the campaign and within a multiplayer match. Your score also leads to unlocking portraits that you can assign to your character profile so people can see how good you are at a glance. You can use this to intimidate, or throw opponents off with a low level portrait. Most of the time people use the former approach. Getting achievements is not easy and can end up becoming addictive.
- Price and availability. The game should be going fairly cheap now, and I think you can download it. As far as games go, I believe it's a worthwhile investment. There is no ongoing subscription and I've played many hours of it.
The bad:
- Addiction. I've just played a game and there is nothing like the feeling of winning a match that has been very close, or coming back from the brink of death only to steal victory at the last minute. That being said, I find this sort of entertainment to be addictive, with all the connotations of an addiction to go with it. I find myself itching for a 'fix' every so often.
- Not as good as the first. Overall I would say this is a more well rounded game than the first one, but I still love the first game a lot more.
Conclusion:
- It's probably one of the best RTS games I've played.
Score: 9.5/10 (not as good as SC1 IMHO but better than most).
Today's review will be very short as I need to get more sleep.
Overview:
SC2 is a Real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC that came out in 2010(I think???). It allows you to control an army of either of 3 distinct races. Terrans, Zerg, or Protoss. Google it to find out more.
The good:
- Single player. The single player portion of the game is storyline driven and quite immersive. It allows you to learn all the controls and strategies in a tiered manner so by the end of the campaign, your skills are quite polished.
- Multi-player. All the action in the campaign is just a precursor to where the real fun in the game is. Multi-player. Opponents are selected intelligently based on your win-loss record, so you are usually never overpowered and vice-versa. This makes the online experience very enjoyable.
- Voice chat built-in. Very convenient and simple to use (albeit a bit buggy with some microphones).
- Achievements. Achievements are obtained by completing various specific tasks in the campaign and within a multiplayer match. Your score also leads to unlocking portraits that you can assign to your character profile so people can see how good you are at a glance. You can use this to intimidate, or throw opponents off with a low level portrait. Most of the time people use the former approach. Getting achievements is not easy and can end up becoming addictive.
- Price and availability. The game should be going fairly cheap now, and I think you can download it. As far as games go, I believe it's a worthwhile investment. There is no ongoing subscription and I've played many hours of it.
The bad:
- Addiction. I've just played a game and there is nothing like the feeling of winning a match that has been very close, or coming back from the brink of death only to steal victory at the last minute. That being said, I find this sort of entertainment to be addictive, with all the connotations of an addiction to go with it. I find myself itching for a 'fix' every so often.
- Not as good as the first. Overall I would say this is a more well rounded game than the first one, but I still love the first game a lot more.
Conclusion:
- It's probably one of the best RTS games I've played.
Score: 9.5/10 (not as good as SC1 IMHO but better than most).
Monday, June 20, 2011
Borders Bookstore.
Borders.
Borders is a 'large bricks and mortar' bookstore that has recently gone into Administration. As I understand it, this means that they are unable to pay their ongoing debts and need to pay back the money they owe, so they have handed over the business to an administrator who will try and recoup as much money from the sale of assets as possible.
Borders has an online component to the business as well, and I'm not sure if this will affect that too, of if they are two separate entities.
Personally, I like Borders. I have always liked the way the stores are laid out, not to mention how big they are. Entering a store always feels more like going into a library rather than a bookstore. This is in part to their policy which allows you to go in and read a book before you decide if you want to buy it. I've been to many bookstores that don't allow this and I always feel like when they ask me if I need any help, what they are actually trying to say is 'Just buy the book or get out'. Borders never made me feel that way.
Until recently, a few of the stores had a fully functioning coffee store inside, with tables and chairs around where you could read any book while enjoying a beverage. This has always been one of the great things about this chain and it will be sad when they close the doors for the last time.
The other great thing I liked about Borders is that they are among the few non-niche bookstores that source and sell Manga. All of it is in English too (the only exception being a few titles that are specifically for non-english readers). There are also a lot of graphic novels stocked too which you would only usually be able to see in smaller stores or comic book stores, and every comic store I've been to has been small, cramped, and smelly.
The good:
- Freedom. Able to read any book without being harrassed or made to feel like a free-loader. This actually made me want to enter the store regardless of if I was particularly looking for a book or not, and usually ended up in a sale.
- Range. The range of books has always been good. Much better than other stores due to the larger floorspace. Also allowed for more non-book items like boardgames and CDs/DVDs.
- Instore Coffee stand. Strategic placing of Borders stores around shopping centrers where there are other activities, such as movies and bowling, meant that you could plan to meet there, and while you wait have something to do. It might be inconvenient for me to buy a book while I waited 15 minutes and then have to carry it with me, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy a coffee and a muffin before a movies and grab a book to read. After the movie, I may end up going back to buy that book.
- Price. As of the adminitration anouncement, Borders have been selling everything in their store. Everything. Books, games, shelves, chairs, computers, displays, posters, magazines, trolleys, everything. They've also slashed prices by up to 50% so getting a hardcopy of something that previously put you off by the price is now a no-brainer(if someone hasn't already taken what little copies there are left).
The bad:
- Sometimes, their open atmosphere was taken advantage of by genuine freeloaders. Most of them are OK, but there were times when you would get the odd troublemaker, spoiling the experience for everyone. This wasn't often, but it wouldn't happen at a regular bookstore.
- Heating. Trying to create a cozy atmosphere in a store that large means there are going to be compromises in climate control in certain areas of the store. Unfortunaltey, these always seem to be located right under the Manga section and the computer book sections, so nerds like me got sweaty a lot.
- Goodbye. The fact that ereaders and tablet devices have made reading digital content more accessible has made real book sales take a dive. Large floorspace stores like Borders have huge rents, and the larger number than normal staff all need to be paid. Recently, even Borders have been offering an ereader branded the Kobo (which a friend of mine owns and works wonderfully). They also had the Sony ereader for sale at a few stores.
Conclusion:
As of writing, Borders is currently still open, but going into finale Administration soon. It is one of the best bookstore chains I have ever shopped at and it will be sad to see them go.
They did have a go at getting into elecrtonic distribution but I think they got into the game just a but too late and with such a large backlog of stock, it just isn't going to survive in it's current form.
That being said, I really hope something comes out of this, or another store opens up to fill the gap that Borders leaves behind. I would love if they could take the best parts of what Borders is, which is the freedom and the atmosphere, and migrate that across to the electronic book distribution scene.
I was speaking with a work colleague the other day and we came up with a few napkin ideas, such as making the coffee bar the central theme of the 'store' and have wifi acess to customers with free ebooks to read while within the wifi radius.
For those people with no device of their own, a separate section where they provide wired devices that basically offer the same thing at no extra charge to the customer. Apart from the inital cost, there would be not much maintenance, and the coffee part of the business would have minimal additional training requirements for staff, with the possible exception of a technical person on hand or on call if something goes pear-shaped. They could leverage that staff member too by offering technical support for customers' with ereader questions issues.
They could also still have various ereaders available for sale and do offers with pre-loaded books to make theirs more attractive than online or other standalone retail ereaders. I think giving the customer the option of buying the book at a reduced rate than elsewhere online might also be a good incentive. Deals like coffee plus the morning paper to download onto your device while you wait would be awesome.
Rating: 9/10 (as far as book stores go).
Borders is a 'large bricks and mortar' bookstore that has recently gone into Administration. As I understand it, this means that they are unable to pay their ongoing debts and need to pay back the money they owe, so they have handed over the business to an administrator who will try and recoup as much money from the sale of assets as possible.
Borders has an online component to the business as well, and I'm not sure if this will affect that too, of if they are two separate entities.
Personally, I like Borders. I have always liked the way the stores are laid out, not to mention how big they are. Entering a store always feels more like going into a library rather than a bookstore. This is in part to their policy which allows you to go in and read a book before you decide if you want to buy it. I've been to many bookstores that don't allow this and I always feel like when they ask me if I need any help, what they are actually trying to say is 'Just buy the book or get out'. Borders never made me feel that way.
Until recently, a few of the stores had a fully functioning coffee store inside, with tables and chairs around where you could read any book while enjoying a beverage. This has always been one of the great things about this chain and it will be sad when they close the doors for the last time.
The other great thing I liked about Borders is that they are among the few non-niche bookstores that source and sell Manga. All of it is in English too (the only exception being a few titles that are specifically for non-english readers). There are also a lot of graphic novels stocked too which you would only usually be able to see in smaller stores or comic book stores, and every comic store I've been to has been small, cramped, and smelly.
The good:
- Freedom. Able to read any book without being harrassed or made to feel like a free-loader. This actually made me want to enter the store regardless of if I was particularly looking for a book or not, and usually ended up in a sale.
- Range. The range of books has always been good. Much better than other stores due to the larger floorspace. Also allowed for more non-book items like boardgames and CDs/DVDs.
- Instore Coffee stand. Strategic placing of Borders stores around shopping centrers where there are other activities, such as movies and bowling, meant that you could plan to meet there, and while you wait have something to do. It might be inconvenient for me to buy a book while I waited 15 minutes and then have to carry it with me, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy a coffee and a muffin before a movies and grab a book to read. After the movie, I may end up going back to buy that book.
- Price. As of the adminitration anouncement, Borders have been selling everything in their store. Everything. Books, games, shelves, chairs, computers, displays, posters, magazines, trolleys, everything. They've also slashed prices by up to 50% so getting a hardcopy of something that previously put you off by the price is now a no-brainer(if someone hasn't already taken what little copies there are left).
The bad:
- Sometimes, their open atmosphere was taken advantage of by genuine freeloaders. Most of them are OK, but there were times when you would get the odd troublemaker, spoiling the experience for everyone. This wasn't often, but it wouldn't happen at a regular bookstore.
- Heating. Trying to create a cozy atmosphere in a store that large means there are going to be compromises in climate control in certain areas of the store. Unfortunaltey, these always seem to be located right under the Manga section and the computer book sections, so nerds like me got sweaty a lot.
- Goodbye. The fact that ereaders and tablet devices have made reading digital content more accessible has made real book sales take a dive. Large floorspace stores like Borders have huge rents, and the larger number than normal staff all need to be paid. Recently, even Borders have been offering an ereader branded the Kobo (which a friend of mine owns and works wonderfully). They also had the Sony ereader for sale at a few stores.
Conclusion:
As of writing, Borders is currently still open, but going into finale Administration soon. It is one of the best bookstore chains I have ever shopped at and it will be sad to see them go.
They did have a go at getting into elecrtonic distribution but I think they got into the game just a but too late and with such a large backlog of stock, it just isn't going to survive in it's current form.
That being said, I really hope something comes out of this, or another store opens up to fill the gap that Borders leaves behind. I would love if they could take the best parts of what Borders is, which is the freedom and the atmosphere, and migrate that across to the electronic book distribution scene.
I was speaking with a work colleague the other day and we came up with a few napkin ideas, such as making the coffee bar the central theme of the 'store' and have wifi acess to customers with free ebooks to read while within the wifi radius.
For those people with no device of their own, a separate section where they provide wired devices that basically offer the same thing at no extra charge to the customer. Apart from the inital cost, there would be not much maintenance, and the coffee part of the business would have minimal additional training requirements for staff, with the possible exception of a technical person on hand or on call if something goes pear-shaped. They could leverage that staff member too by offering technical support for customers' with ereader questions issues.
They could also still have various ereaders available for sale and do offers with pre-loaded books to make theirs more attractive than online or other standalone retail ereaders. I think giving the customer the option of buying the book at a reduced rate than elsewhere online might also be a good incentive. Deals like coffee plus the morning paper to download onto your device while you wait would be awesome.
Rating: 9/10 (as far as book stores go).
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Synopsis: Google it. There are much better synopses out there on the interwebs than anything I could ever write. Below is just a personal opinion so please read it as such.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you haven't read the book or seen the film, please be aware that there are spoilers in this post.
Village Cinemas are currently screening the first 6 Harry Potter movies prior to the new movie, running one each weekend up until Deathly Hallows Pt1 (which will screen immediately before the last film).
I have been going to see each one so far and today I saw the third installment in the movie series.
I like the Harry Potter films, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't call myself a HUGE fan. I don't relate particularly with the main character much and I'm not really a fan of Daniel Radcliffe. His performances in the first two films felt too forced. That might have been to do with the director though. I believe there was a change in director going from the second movie to the third movie and it can clearly be seen in the film. Suffice to say that Daniel Radcliffe's performance in this movie is much better, by a long shot. He seemed to have come out of his shell and emotions and intensity was conveyed much better. The third movie also saw the change to Michael Gambon as the actor portraying Dumbledore. This was due to the passing of Richard Harris.
For me, Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite (pending seeing the last 2 films) of the series. It also happens to be my favourite book in the series too. I'm not sure if it was the opening scene where Mrs. Dursley Snr. gets inflated to a balloon, Sirius Black's wanted poster on the walls, or Hermione's straight jab to the face, but this film seems to draw me into the story much more so than any of the others.
The Good:
- Time Travel. Anything that involves time travel outside of the normal 'forward at regular speed' variety is awesome.
- Emotion: The main characters (Ron not so much) show a much wider range of emotions than the first two films.
- CGI. The CGI effects in this film are better than the first two although more so for the things you don't notice such as integrating the CGI in with the live action sequences.
- Gary Oldman. Anything that involves Gary Oldman is usually awesome. I suppose in some ways he is quite similar to Time Travel.
- Hogsmeade etc. . We get to see the widening landscape of the wizarding world and this is a precursor to the expansion that will be witnessed in later films.
- School attire. The school uniforms are ditched in favour of casual wear.
- Plot Twists. The major plot twist in this movie got me. I could see it coming but I felt I could really relate to the main characters' confusion.
- Hermione Granger. In the first two films Hermione was a nerd, and an annoying nerd at that. In this movie, Hermione is HOT! Her femininity also starts to come through. This is contrasted quite well when she punches Malfoy. This is extremely attractive and makes me wish I was Harry or Ron, or to a small extent Malfoy (but lets not get into my personal life now, shall we? :D )
The Bad:
- Kids. I had to sit next to two extremely young children who couldn't understand the film and one of them kept asking the older one what was happening. It took all of my willpower to stop myself from back-fisting that 5 year old in the face when he fumbled around with his bag of chips, making scrunching sounds and asking his brother if that was Dumbledore or not, through a mouthful of chips, when quite obviously it was Cornelius Fudge.
- Final shot. The very last scene was ripped right out of The Matrix. It worked equally well in both films. That is to say, I didn't like it. You're mileage may vary though.
- Plot holes. Not so much holes but rather missed opportunities. There is a scene in the later part of the movie where Harry and Hermione witness themselves in the past entering a secret entrance, and then waiting for themselves to emerge later, knowing full well that they will be entering a rather difficult situation. During that time, I'm sure they could have done some preparation that would have allowed them to capture Peter Pettigrew without their past selves knowing of the future selves involvement.
- Age disparity. The actors are older than the characters they portray. This isn't something new to the world of movies, but is noticeable when watching the movie, especially the male cast members like Malfoy, Ron, and Longbottom.
- Hermione. It completely sucks that Hermione is now hot and if she were a real person that there is no chance in hell that she would ever go out with me.
Not much Hagrid. I like Hagrid, but we don't see much of him this time around.
Conclusion:
A great film that loses out slightly because it's not meant to be viewed as a standalone and needs to be in context of the other films. Much better (from a production point of view) than the previous two films, but which loses a little of the 'magic' that seemed to be evident previously.
Score: 7.5/10 (an average film is a 5.0)
Synopsis: Google it. There are much better synopses out there on the interwebs than anything I could ever write. Below is just a personal opinion so please read it as such.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you haven't read the book or seen the film, please be aware that there are spoilers in this post.
Village Cinemas are currently screening the first 6 Harry Potter movies prior to the new movie, running one each weekend up until Deathly Hallows Pt1 (which will screen immediately before the last film).
I have been going to see each one so far and today I saw the third installment in the movie series.
I like the Harry Potter films, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't call myself a HUGE fan. I don't relate particularly with the main character much and I'm not really a fan of Daniel Radcliffe. His performances in the first two films felt too forced. That might have been to do with the director though. I believe there was a change in director going from the second movie to the third movie and it can clearly be seen in the film. Suffice to say that Daniel Radcliffe's performance in this movie is much better, by a long shot. He seemed to have come out of his shell and emotions and intensity was conveyed much better. The third movie also saw the change to Michael Gambon as the actor portraying Dumbledore. This was due to the passing of Richard Harris.
For me, Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite (pending seeing the last 2 films) of the series. It also happens to be my favourite book in the series too. I'm not sure if it was the opening scene where Mrs. Dursley Snr. gets inflated to a balloon, Sirius Black's wanted poster on the walls, or Hermione's straight jab to the face, but this film seems to draw me into the story much more so than any of the others.
The Good:
- Time Travel. Anything that involves time travel outside of the normal 'forward at regular speed' variety is awesome.
- Emotion: The main characters (Ron not so much) show a much wider range of emotions than the first two films.
- CGI. The CGI effects in this film are better than the first two although more so for the things you don't notice such as integrating the CGI in with the live action sequences.
- Gary Oldman. Anything that involves Gary Oldman is usually awesome. I suppose in some ways he is quite similar to Time Travel.
- Hogsmeade etc. . We get to see the widening landscape of the wizarding world and this is a precursor to the expansion that will be witnessed in later films.
- School attire. The school uniforms are ditched in favour of casual wear.
- Plot Twists. The major plot twist in this movie got me. I could see it coming but I felt I could really relate to the main characters' confusion.
- Hermione Granger. In the first two films Hermione was a nerd, and an annoying nerd at that. In this movie, Hermione is HOT! Her femininity also starts to come through. This is contrasted quite well when she punches Malfoy. This is extremely attractive and makes me wish I was Harry or Ron, or to a small extent Malfoy (but lets not get into my personal life now, shall we? :D )
The Bad:
- Kids. I had to sit next to two extremely young children who couldn't understand the film and one of them kept asking the older one what was happening. It took all of my willpower to stop myself from back-fisting that 5 year old in the face when he fumbled around with his bag of chips, making scrunching sounds and asking his brother if that was Dumbledore or not, through a mouthful of chips, when quite obviously it was Cornelius Fudge.
- Final shot. The very last scene was ripped right out of The Matrix. It worked equally well in both films. That is to say, I didn't like it. You're mileage may vary though.
- Plot holes. Not so much holes but rather missed opportunities. There is a scene in the later part of the movie where Harry and Hermione witness themselves in the past entering a secret entrance, and then waiting for themselves to emerge later, knowing full well that they will be entering a rather difficult situation. During that time, I'm sure they could have done some preparation that would have allowed them to capture Peter Pettigrew without their past selves knowing of the future selves involvement.
- Age disparity. The actors are older than the characters they portray. This isn't something new to the world of movies, but is noticeable when watching the movie, especially the male cast members like Malfoy, Ron, and Longbottom.
- Hermione. It completely sucks that Hermione is now hot and if she were a real person that there is no chance in hell that she would ever go out with me.
Not much Hagrid. I like Hagrid, but we don't see much of him this time around.
Conclusion:
A great film that loses out slightly because it's not meant to be viewed as a standalone and needs to be in context of the other films. Much better (from a production point of view) than the previous two films, but which loses a little of the 'magic' that seemed to be evident previously.
Score: 7.5/10 (an average film is a 5.0)
Friday, June 17, 2011
The first post!
Hello World! Welcome to the first entry of my blog which will aim to review a random item or subject with each post. There isn't really a limit to what gets reviewed but most likely it will be something that relates to me or that I can relate to in one form or another, so without further ado, on to the next post for the first review...
ASUS EeePC 1015PEM-BLK
ASUS EeePC 1015PEM-BLK Netbook.
The 1015PEM is a 10" form factor netbook from ASUS. There are a few varying models(SKUs) available but the one I have has a matte screen, matte lid, and a 4400mAh 6-cell battery rated for 10hrs. It was purchased for AU$249 from Harvey Norman in June 2011.
Specs: Google them. The ASUS website has the full specs for this netbook.
First Impressions:
This is the 4th netbook I've ever used extensively and would have to be the one of the top 2. There is a lot to like about this unit, and only a few small downsides. Compared to the other units I've used, the interface elements (screen, trackpad, keyboard) are much better than those appearing on other brands, and also some of the older ASUS devices.
The good (things that are better than average):
- Price. At <$250(discounted from $428), this was a steal. The last netbook I owned cost $250(-$37 rebate) but felt like a $250 device. This one feels like a more expensive piece of equipment. If you have to pay over $375 for a mobile device though, you may want to consider spending a little more and getting a full fledged laptop which would be a much better buy in terms of value for money.
- Screen. The 1024x600 resolution matte screen is quite cramped but not unusable. It's on par with most of the other units in this class, but the fact that it's not glossy will come in handy if you happen to be outdoors or have a bright light source behind you. The screen is able to go quite bright if you turn it all the way up so using it in a park in the afternoon shouldn't be a problem.
- Trackpad. The trackpad is a standard layout and is large with a definite defined edge. This is good. You will find it very difficult to mislocate any mouse actions with this trackpad.
- Keyboard. I'm typing this blog on the 1015PEM right now and I have to admit it is a very nice experience coming from the previous netbooks. It's a chicklet/island style Windows keyboard with the cursor keys sitting below the return/enter key so the right side shift key is a lot shorter than a standard keyboard. There is a Fn (function) button on the left between the Ctrl and Windows key and another one to the right of the Up cursor key. F1-F12 function keys sit above the numeric keys and are slightly smaller than the rest of the keys. The F- keys also have most of the advanced functions accessible by use of the Fn key combo.
The feel and response of the keys are superb. Not much force is needed but there is surety when you have pressed a button. There is also a large amount of space between keys so mistyping is not as evident as with other key styles.
- Battery. The 6-cell battery I have doesn't protrude beyond the rubber feet on the base of the netbook when installed. This keeps the unit slim while also allowing for longer running times off mains power. This convenience is something that shouldn't be overlooked. The 3-cell netbooks don't come out much slimmer or lighter and their running times are less than half.
- Features. The 1015PEM has a lot of features that my previous netbooks either didn't have or were limited in some way. Here are a few:- BluetoothV3, dedicated button for lightweight alternate OS, dual-core processor, 3x USB2.0 ports across both sides, teeny-tiny power supply/brick, separate WiFi/Bluetooth enabling, sliding cover over the webcam.
The bad(niggling little things that I didn't like about it):
- Bezel. The case finish around the screen and between the keys is glossy. While this make the unit attractive, it kind of negates some of the benefit of a matte screen and makes the unit as a whole look slightly cheap. It wouldn't cost ASUS any more to make a matte surface and I think they have done this on later models.
- Trackpad. The trackpad buttons are integrated into a single rocker style bar. Some people prefer this. I don't. The trackpad also doesn't support gestures like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger rotate that can be found on most touch-enabled devices.
- Hard drive power management. The Western Digital hard drive installed supports Advanced Power Management to spin down the disk when idle, and to park the drive heads to prevent accidental damage due to sudden movement (such as dropping it on the ground). The algorithm used to park the heads is way too aggressive and I notice an audible 'click' each time it parks and unparks. This gets annoying very quickly as it happens every few seconds. It can be disabled but you need separate downloadable software and in my opinion is a pain to set.
- Webcam. The webcam is fixed in position and only 1.3megapixel. This is fine for Skype and video conferencing but useless for any creative content. The exception might be low quality video blogging.
- Bloatware. This netbook comes with tons and tons of bloatware. It's easy enough to remove, but takes a while. This isn't something that is specific to ASUS or even computers in general and I wish manufacturers would give the option at first-boot during the setup to select the options to be installed.
- Intel Integrated 3150 graphics. The 3150 based graphics system is slow. There isn't really any way around this. The 1015PEM is not a gaming laptop, but should have been paired with something with a little more grunt. Unfortunately nothing was available that could have take it's place without blowing out the production costs.
- Screen tilt. The screen opens up to about 135degrees which is just that little bit below ideal. When typing on a low surface (such as my lap), I found myself having to crane my neck down at times, or trying to open the lid just a little bit more but being unable to.
- No easy access to the hard drive bay. I like to tinker with my computers. My previous netbook allowed access to the hard drive bay so it would be possible to install an SSD once they come down in price. This would be an ideal upgrade for the 1015PEM as it would get rid of the biggest speed bottleneck and also eliminate once of my biggest gripes about this unit, being the noise from the hard drive parking which I mentioned above. It's doable, but ASUS haven't made it easy when it would have been no effort for them to do so.
Conclusion:
- As far as netbooks go, this is one of my favourites. I would go so far as to say it is the best one I have ever interacted with. The interface components are great and this makes using it on a daily basis less painful than with other netbooks. You could seriously spend a long time working on this device without much bother and that speaks volumes about the effort that has gone into designing it. With other netbooks, I have found that there is a certain threshold of inconvenience versus utility, below which the device effectively deterred me from using it.
With the 1015PEM, there are so few inconveniences or they are so small that I find myself actually wanting to use it.
Most of the newer ASUS netbooks going forward have adopted the same Seashell chassis design used on the 1015PEM and they are packing more powerful processors and graphics sub-systems. If you can pick up any of these for cheap, and if your needs fit into the netbook usage model, then you won't be disappointed.
Score: 8/10
The 1015PEM is a 10" form factor netbook from ASUS. There are a few varying models(SKUs) available but the one I have has a matte screen, matte lid, and a 4400mAh 6-cell battery rated for 10hrs. It was purchased for AU$249 from Harvey Norman in June 2011.
Specs: Google them. The ASUS website has the full specs for this netbook.
First Impressions:
This is the 4th netbook I've ever used extensively and would have to be the one of the top 2. There is a lot to like about this unit, and only a few small downsides. Compared to the other units I've used, the interface elements (screen, trackpad, keyboard) are much better than those appearing on other brands, and also some of the older ASUS devices.
The good (things that are better than average):
- Price. At <$250(discounted from $428), this was a steal. The last netbook I owned cost $250(-$37 rebate) but felt like a $250 device. This one feels like a more expensive piece of equipment. If you have to pay over $375 for a mobile device though, you may want to consider spending a little more and getting a full fledged laptop which would be a much better buy in terms of value for money.
- Screen. The 1024x600 resolution matte screen is quite cramped but not unusable. It's on par with most of the other units in this class, but the fact that it's not glossy will come in handy if you happen to be outdoors or have a bright light source behind you. The screen is able to go quite bright if you turn it all the way up so using it in a park in the afternoon shouldn't be a problem.
- Trackpad. The trackpad is a standard layout and is large with a definite defined edge. This is good. You will find it very difficult to mislocate any mouse actions with this trackpad.
- Keyboard. I'm typing this blog on the 1015PEM right now and I have to admit it is a very nice experience coming from the previous netbooks. It's a chicklet/island style Windows keyboard with the cursor keys sitting below the return/enter key so the right side shift key is a lot shorter than a standard keyboard. There is a Fn (function) button on the left between the Ctrl and Windows key and another one to the right of the Up cursor key. F1-F12 function keys sit above the numeric keys and are slightly smaller than the rest of the keys. The F- keys also have most of the advanced functions accessible by use of the Fn key combo.
The feel and response of the keys are superb. Not much force is needed but there is surety when you have pressed a button. There is also a large amount of space between keys so mistyping is not as evident as with other key styles.
- Battery. The 6-cell battery I have doesn't protrude beyond the rubber feet on the base of the netbook when installed. This keeps the unit slim while also allowing for longer running times off mains power. This convenience is something that shouldn't be overlooked. The 3-cell netbooks don't come out much slimmer or lighter and their running times are less than half.
- Features. The 1015PEM has a lot of features that my previous netbooks either didn't have or were limited in some way. Here are a few:- BluetoothV3, dedicated button for lightweight alternate OS, dual-core processor, 3x USB2.0 ports across both sides, teeny-tiny power supply/brick, separate WiFi/Bluetooth enabling, sliding cover over the webcam.
The bad(niggling little things that I didn't like about it):
- Bezel. The case finish around the screen and between the keys is glossy. While this make the unit attractive, it kind of negates some of the benefit of a matte screen and makes the unit as a whole look slightly cheap. It wouldn't cost ASUS any more to make a matte surface and I think they have done this on later models.
- Trackpad. The trackpad buttons are integrated into a single rocker style bar. Some people prefer this. I don't. The trackpad also doesn't support gestures like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger rotate that can be found on most touch-enabled devices.
- Hard drive power management. The Western Digital hard drive installed supports Advanced Power Management to spin down the disk when idle, and to park the drive heads to prevent accidental damage due to sudden movement (such as dropping it on the ground). The algorithm used to park the heads is way too aggressive and I notice an audible 'click' each time it parks and unparks. This gets annoying very quickly as it happens every few seconds. It can be disabled but you need separate downloadable software and in my opinion is a pain to set.
- Webcam. The webcam is fixed in position and only 1.3megapixel. This is fine for Skype and video conferencing but useless for any creative content. The exception might be low quality video blogging.
- Bloatware. This netbook comes with tons and tons of bloatware. It's easy enough to remove, but takes a while. This isn't something that is specific to ASUS or even computers in general and I wish manufacturers would give the option at first-boot during the setup to select the options to be installed.
- Intel Integrated 3150 graphics. The 3150 based graphics system is slow. There isn't really any way around this. The 1015PEM is not a gaming laptop, but should have been paired with something with a little more grunt. Unfortunately nothing was available that could have take it's place without blowing out the production costs.
- Screen tilt. The screen opens up to about 135degrees which is just that little bit below ideal. When typing on a low surface (such as my lap), I found myself having to crane my neck down at times, or trying to open the lid just a little bit more but being unable to.
- No easy access to the hard drive bay. I like to tinker with my computers. My previous netbook allowed access to the hard drive bay so it would be possible to install an SSD once they come down in price. This would be an ideal upgrade for the 1015PEM as it would get rid of the biggest speed bottleneck and also eliminate once of my biggest gripes about this unit, being the noise from the hard drive parking which I mentioned above. It's doable, but ASUS haven't made it easy when it would have been no effort for them to do so.
Conclusion:
- As far as netbooks go, this is one of my favourites. I would go so far as to say it is the best one I have ever interacted with. The interface components are great and this makes using it on a daily basis less painful than with other netbooks. You could seriously spend a long time working on this device without much bother and that speaks volumes about the effort that has gone into designing it. With other netbooks, I have found that there is a certain threshold of inconvenience versus utility, below which the device effectively deterred me from using it.
With the 1015PEM, there are so few inconveniences or they are so small that I find myself actually wanting to use it.
Most of the newer ASUS netbooks going forward have adopted the same Seashell chassis design used on the 1015PEM and they are packing more powerful processors and graphics sub-systems. If you can pick up any of these for cheap, and if your needs fit into the netbook usage model, then you won't be disappointed.
Score: 8/10
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