Que es?
The Weblog of Brett Singer. Bringing the world what it needs most - a blog.
Note: Sorry about all of the 'hot deals' entries (someone referred to this blog as
CorporateShill.com).
The deals and things are being fed into Multineedia.com. We will
soon move the deals category over to Multineedia so you don't have to read it, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
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Tue, 26 Jul 2005
This bears further investigating. Can I power a laptop through an ethernet cable only? That would be nice.
Sat, 09 Jul 2005For those who want to know:
The Deals feed will not be here on this blog anymore. You can view it at Multineedia.com; it actually lives here on Blogger. We're pulling the feed from Blogger into Multineedia. Anyway, this way this will go back to being a blog again, and not 'CorporateShill.com'.
Tue, 28 Jun 2005Two day clearance sale going on now at
CompGeeks: Save up to 85% on hundreds of items
Ends tomorrow, Wednesday, June 29th 11:59 pm Pacific Time
Lots of things on sale, including:
A few of the items on sale:
Want to see Star Wars early? Buy the game.
According to ZDNet, the new Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith video game has scenes from the actual film. So screw waiting in line, just buy the game. Yeah, I wasn't waiting on line either. This one can't be worse than Attack of the Clones, right?
Fri, 22 Apr 2005Sunbeam 20-in-1 Superior Panel - way cool.
Sunbeam packs a helluva punch into a tiny space with the 20-in-1 Superior Panel. Combining the features of a Multi-Card Reader/Writer, an I/O panel, and a fan controller into a 5.25” drive bay, the Superior panel brings convenience and organization to the front of your computer.
Sun, 10 Apr 2005
Robert Ludlum kidnaps the Pope
For a completely different, and highly irreverent, story featuring a pope, read The Road to Gandolfo by Robert Ludlum. It's not a typical Ludlum novel in that it's basically a very intelligent farce. It has the usual military aspects, and a world-spanning plot, but it's no Bourne Identity, which in my opinion is a good thing. I happened to be reading it for the first time recently and the Pope just passed away, so I suppose it's slightly more timely than it was a couple of months ago - the plot deals with a disgraced general's plan to kidnap the pope and get $1 from every Catholic in the world as ransom ($400 million, at least in the early 1980's when the book was written). It's a fun read, and if you like it you can pick up the sequel which has the same characters. Used copies are available for, literally, one cent, so give it a try.
Wed, 30 Mar 2005Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro sounds intriguing. From The Village Voice:
Imagine Caliban as an adolescent girl. Like Shakespeare's monster who learns enough to curse learning, Kathy H., the narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro's devastating new novel Never Let Me Go, comes to doubt what she learned at Hailsham, an isolated boarding school where students spent their time making arts and crafts to exchange with each other. "Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that? If we're just going to give donations anyway, then die, why all of those lessons?" Kathy asks once her best friend is dead and Tommy, the love of her life, is about to die. This question could be asked by anyone about any school, but Hailsham students are clones being raised and trained to donate their organs to people with cancer and other incurable diseases. Today the test tube is the witch who gave birth to Caliban.
Not out yet.
Mon, 28 Mar 2005
Keyboard with built-in card reader
This looks neat. Haven't researched it yet or found the best prices, but it's worth mentioning. Too many wires on my desk.
The tag line for this item says See Plasma - Love Plasma. I agree, I guess, but how big a TV does one need?
Obviously it's a high-end product for people with enough room to have a room for the set. But it is amazing how far the price has come down on these.
Mon, 07 Mar 2005
MultiScreen Computers
Once again, these look like fun.
Music Recording PC
This looks like fun. Specialized computers should be more mainstream.
Ergonomic Busty Mousepads
Okay, this is good. Via Dvorak.org.
The Popular Comics Store on eBay looks dangerous in a spending-too-much-money kind of way.
Tue, 18 Jan 2005
Neat site for keyboards and stuff
Notestation has stuff that I want, like this wireless keyboard with a built-in mouse. These things are usually a little bit too tiny for my simian-sized hands, but the idea of everything being at my fingertips is very appealing. Never really liked mice, computer or otherwise.
This page on the CappucinoPC site has the following statement:
Processor
Your processor is the brain of your computer. The faster the processor, generally the faster the computer will usually be able to perform those instructions and tasks.
This is a site that seems to cater to enthusiasts, or at least people who know what a processor is. It's not Dell or something. Actually, Dell should borrow some of Cappucino's verbiage:
Hard Drive
The hard drive is the primary storage unit of the computer. It is where the operating system, applications, files and data are kept.
Michael Dell, are you listening? Steal their text and I won't have to answer nearly as many questions from people buying your stupid computers.
Thu, 16 Dec 2004A useful link from a great site:
DivX DVD Player Comparison
These are DVD Players that play DivX format movie files. So you can burn your DivX files to a CDR and play them on your TV.
Here's the thing: the only reason products like this exist is to play downloaded content, and a lot of that downloaded content is unauthorized - DVD rips of movies, for instance. If you own a DVD, are you really going to go to the trouble of ripping it to your hard drive, converting it to a lower-resolution format, and burning it to a CDR, just so you can watch it on your fancy new DVD player? You might rip something to your hard drive and leave it there, which is what a streaming media set-top box like the Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver. Even that is a product that probably wouldn't exist if people didn't have content downloaded from P2P networks. This isn't a comment on P2P. But I think these things are the bongs of consumer electronics.
Wed, 15 Dec 2004Four completely unrelated albums:
All from some site called Hip-O Select which sells a strange variety of music.
Tue, 14 Dec 2004
Teeny Little Computers from Gumstix
From the "if I had nothing but time on my hands" file comes Gumstix, who make embedded computer systems and also some neat looking little computers called "Waysmall". For some reason they have MMC slots, which is the least popular memory card format (other than really stupid formats like xD). They run Linux and don't cost much. What to do with one? Well, I guess that's the point - it you have to ask, don't buy one.
Just Say Noel looks like a fun holiday CD. The enjoyment is increased by idiotic comments like this one:
1 out of 5 stars This is Christmas?, November 12, 1998
Reviewer: A music fan
This is some of the most ditastefull holiday music I have ever heard
Wed, 08 Dec 2004
Army Dogtags
For the militarily obsessed in your family. Nothing says holidays like a Dog tag.
The HP 160GB Personal media drive and the HP iPAQ rz1715 Mobile Media Companion are interesting products that I'll never buy.
The first is a hard drive that plugs directly into an HP Media Center PC. Mostly this is a hard drive that pops into a docking station, something that is similar to a device I saw at PCExpo a few years ago (can't remember what it was called) which never really came out on the market (it was sold in a couple of places, very briefly, and it was unclear who the company was that put it out). It's a good idea, especially since A/V files take up so much friggin' room, and there's only so much you can fit onto a DVD, even a double-layer. In this case the problem is that Media Center PCs want to lock you in to using Media Center PCs forever, and frankly, they just aren't good enough. In addition, lock-in sucks. I suppose you could say a Tivo locks you in to using a Tivo (unless you hack it), but Tivo is (a) inexpensive and (b) cool. It would be nice to be able to take files with you, however, but that's another topic.
The second device, basically an iPaq that is being marketed to be used to handle media files, streaming and otherwise, is a clever idea but again, it wants you to use Windows-based products. This review is pretty scathing, and gives one the idea that this thing is all hype and no muscle, which is probably somewhat true. The basic idea is good, however: a portable device that can stream content from a PC as well as play it itself. Now, if it ran Linux, could be used as a remote control, and had a hard drive, even a small one, THAT would be sweet.
Wed, 01 Dec 2004Tue, 30 Nov 2004
If you think iPods are for weenies, read this article.
Then ignore the conclusion (which is that iPods are better), and go shopping!
I can't vouch for whether or not this thing works, but it sounds good (no pun intended - SORRY!). Developed for professional builders and contractors, this sonic measuring device uses sound waves to give length, area and volume measurements at the click of a button. No more wrestling with tape measures and calculators to figure out how much paint or tile they'll need for their next project. By simply pointing its laser at a target and pressing a button, the dimensions are provided instantly in their choice of feet or meters, up to 50 feet.
So it measures the sound waves, and then you 'know' exactly how much tile or wallpaper to use (say 'I KNOW' like Jay Mohr doing his Christopher Walken impression). Neat idea.
Another Interesting USB Audio Device
Yet another intriquing USB audio device, this time for laptops specifically (although I suppose you could use it for any computer). Noise-Canceling Headphones + Audio Advantage Micro USB sound device - sounds good (no pun intended). As near as I can tell, the USB port is used to get clean digital audio out of the PC, and then the device has a built-in amplifier which pumps out sound to your headphones/speakers. I'm very happy with my (under $20 at Benwin 2-piece ECCO USB-P 2.0 Multimedia Speakers from Computer Geeks (turns out they can even be used when plugged into a USB hub, which is very handy for laptop users); as far as I can see, these work on the same principle. Viva USB Audio!
More PC Remotes
Another one, found through Froogle.
This one looks good.
PC Remote Control
Software and hardware, inexpensive. Must look at it later.
At VideoHelp.com, a handy chart of blank DVD Media, sorted by compatibility.
This is handy because blank DVDs are extremely unreliable. Annoyingly so. If blank CDs were that fragmented (CD+/-R anyone?), well, it would be even more annoying.
Some good blank DVD deals from Compusa this week:
Sony
4x DVD+R Media, 120 Minute / 4.7GB, Spindle, 25 Pack
Sony
4x DVD+RW Media, 120 Minute / 4.7GB, Jewel Case, 10 Pack
: these are cool because Sony DVDs are fairly reliable in my experience, and with a DVD+RW you can test the burn before finalizing it.
So I'm on my second pair of Benwin speakers, and they are, in my opinion, solid products. I have these: 
Benwin 60w USB Powered Speaker, and they work well enough. Not fantastic sound, but certainly adequate, and for the price (usually $4 or so), plus not having to use an AC adapter (it gets power from a USB port and audio from the speaker jack), it's worth it. Even cooler are the Benwin 2-piece ECCO USB-D 2.0 True Multimedia Speakers, which don't need a sound card OR an AC adapter. For a laptop user, this is a fantastic idea, and the speakers even have something that most USB devices should have - a little rubber cover to put over the USB plug when its not plugged in. Only weird thing I've seen so far is that it bypasses my laptop's hardware volume controls (Thinkpad T40, which I highly recommend), making it hard to quickly mute the sound, which is made slightly more difficult because the volume control for the speakers themselves is on the back. Still, you can use the volume control on whatever app is generating audio. Plus, these things can get LOUD, something that my laptop speakers simply can't handle. Very cool, inexpensive (under $20 at
Computer Geeks, and available elsewhere for about the same amount. Get some.
Cigarette Plug to USB and FireWire Adapter
This is neat, assuming you have a need for this sort of thing. To expand, it feeds into my theory that power is power and a network is a network - you can get power from any source and you can network anything together with anything else, as long as you have the right converters. Maybe I think this because of my noodling with digital video formats - for some reason, I like converting quicktime to mpeg, or asf to mpeg, or mpeg to realvideo (and I've done a lot more than that in my efforts to find the 'right' format). With networking, homeplug devices are a perfect example: they use the electrical system to move data around. Homeplug never really caught on, although it's still mentioned here and there, usually as an afterthought, or as a way to reach parts of a large home that wi-fi can't get to. Personally, I love my wireless router, and you can now find them very cheap if you look around (I'll post some when I find 'em). Still, there are times when it's nice to just plug in and not having to configure anything, and that's what Homeplug does. It works. To come full circle: you can get power, or network connectivity, from anywhere, provided you have the right adapter.
No, not the band.
(Here's that Power Station, if you like that kind of thing.) This one is a little doohickey that lets you organize the stuff that you're charging - PDA, cell phone, etc. I've tried to do this manually without much success. For 20 bucks, this thing looks like a winner.
USB speakers, no sound card needed
This is kinda neat. Speakers, but you don't need a sound card or AC power. The site says the speakers 'are especially great for use with portable audio devices including MP3 players and CD players', but that doesn't make any sense since those devices don't have a USB port. Maybe they work unpowered on a standalone CD player? Anyway, these could be used on a laptop, or even just to reduce wires. Basically, the speakers have a built-in amp. I like this. I have a pair of Benwin speakers, which work fine (they were nine bucks) and don't require an AC adapter. They do require a sound card, though. Still, they're little, get power from the USB port, and for crappy speakers, they sound fine. These are probably similar, but one less wire.
brett MINUET Piano-Black Slimline PC Case
Tue, 28 Sep 2004brett Slammin' hard drive deal
Sat, 20 Dec 2003
bs
http://store.yahoo.com/cyberdiscountwarehouse-buys/usbhispeedmu.html
this is the worst price i've ever seen for a card reader. this feature:
"Write protect switch prevents accidental erasures"
is something i haven't seen before. i just bought an 8-in-1 card reader
for $19.99, and it was usb 2.0. i wonder if anyone bought this.
bs
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3259733886
check out this person's other stuff for sale:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3644506180
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=tw.inc&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=50
oh boy. jesus and a brunette woman. bizarro.
bs
oooo, i want this:
http://www.dynamism.com/iduck/
bs
yahoo has a story about different gift sites. might be useful. i know i get stuck this time of year.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ttpcworld/20031204/tc_techtues_pcworld/113725&cid=1740&ncid=1729
bs
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2914490,00.html
must have fewer remotes. have so many now.