iriver - iFP-700 Series Support. I haven't use this little guy in a while because I've been too lazy to podcast and since this unit doesn't control volume well, it is useless for that.
But it lets me list to WMA protected files, so it will be useful for listening to books on tape and other music from KCLS where they have a deal with Overdrive for audio books and music that you can check out.
AnandTech - Chaintech VNF3-250 Motherboard Question. Well, I've just lost another memory module. Been running 2×512MB PC3700 OCZ Gold Rev 2 for a while now in the Chaintech rig, but I've been getting random BSODs. Ran memtest and see intermittent errors on the first stick, so I bought some fancy OCZ PC4000 Platinum's for the higher end DFI LanParty UT Ultra-D and moved the OCZ PC4000 Gold to this machine.
Essentially, I have to redo the settings of the memory. Running at 2250MHz CPU, 250MHz FSB and the new ram at 1T 2.8V, I only run Prime95 for 3 minutes. This post shows that it can be done, but the timings are different and in fact some report very mild overclocking only to 215MHz at newegg
Heck, I guess I just appreciate every form of pizza for what it is supposed to be, but your question reminds me that every slice bring back another memory so in reverse order the top 10 best pizzas are so intimately tied to the who, where and when, so here goes in Letterman format, the best pizza in the world are:
10. Dominos Delivers. I didn't realize you could have so much fat in a pizza, but I can't look at one without looking down at the 10 pounds of gut I still have from consuming 2 slices a day for 10 years at the big Microsoft for dinner. I still get nausea seeing the ads.
9. 'Sroom 'Za from the college pizza delivery agency. I bet that now you just order it online from somewhere real, but there was nothing quite like the disgusting plastic taste plus the fury of finals studying and the starvation of not having time to make it to the Eating Hall for dinner of limp Turkey Divine.
8. Mad Pizza. Anything you can get that's hot. The cheese tastes like plastic and it is slow, but somehow I'll always think of this as the place to go after a baseball game with the kids. And then the ice cream next door.
7. San Diego. On the beach in San Diego, after a bike ride on the boardwalk, you walk a block and they serve 36" pizzas. If you eat one plus 2 things of beer, it is free. Enough said. Best thing there were all the surfing and boarding videos and the 'tats on the guy making the pizza.
6. Home made. OK, we never really figured this out, but it has not been for want of trying, but its fun to try to peel the burnt edges from the cookie sheet :-)
5. Pagiliacci. OK, this is the closest to authentic in Seattle (barring Tutta Bella and Cafe Lagos which I haven't tried). But, the best thing about it is the salad that goes with it and the memories. See entry #2.
4. Chicago Stuffed Pizza. OK, this is another variant and you have to *not* think about the calories, but the first time I had it in Chicago, all I remember was the beer. Loads of it plus the smell of all that pepperoni. That plus the Ramones and Rock N Roll High School or watching the Blues Brothers in Chicago. It was a summer full of movies.
3. Beverly Hills. OK, my girlfriend (then fiancee, then wife, now super mom) was dressed in all white as they still do down there. We end up at California Pizza Kitchen and try the Thai chicken for the first time. Thin crust and lots of flavor, but it aint' real pizza, but it is fun. Still think of it everytime we go to CPKs.
2. Middletown NJ. OK, I date myself, but I still have the burn on my thigh where an incredibly hot mozzarella burned me. This was truest to the thin pizzas. NY Style I guess, but the main thing is that it is burning hot and there is so much grease that you crack the back of the pizza and let it drip out. Delicious. To this day, I try to approximate this by getting a plain cheese pizza from Paggliaci's and putting in the oven at 450 degrees to get the cheese that warm. No grease though. I'm a purest by the way, just cheese and tomatoes please.
1. Amalfi Pizza. Ah, Amalfi, its 102 degrees and blazingly hot, we have a nice dinner, but our guide says, the crew is having the best pizza in the world. It sure is, we get a slice or two and devour it. The crust is light and thin, but the main thing is that the tomatoes are like eating candy. I haven't had a chance to try Tutta Bella, but I can't imagine it can be better than that. Heck, let's charter a plane and get our butts to the marina at Amalfi right now. We can be there by dinner time!
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - Cingular Phones. As I said, Howard has the best phone data, but they are amazingly good for Cingular which is where they started.
Their current recommendation is to get an unlocked Motorola V3i on eBay since that costs $300 as mpire +z510 shows and you can get it now and it is unlocked, whereas the expected Cingular release is May and it will cost the same since the V3 is so popular they don't have to subsidize it. Hattip to Howard
The real story here is that Cingular has high speed UMTS, so lots of interest there. The hot phone seems to be the LG CU320 and the upcoming Nokia. These are both sliders. It's $250 right now.
The upcoming Nokia 6282 is also a slider and looks nice and should be out in a few weeks with an estimated price of $350-400.
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - Best Looking Thin T-Mobile phone?. Darn it, I was just going to get the new Samsung t809 from T-mobile, but Howard Forums, really the best resource I've found for phone shopping says:
the t809 is horrible... Don't buy it! Dust gets under the screen cover, the battery life sucks, and your callers will complain of a buzzing sound whenever you are near a wi-fi network, which is much more often than you might think.
They recommend getting an unlocked Motorola V3i with an SD memory card and just putting on T-mobile or wait for the V3x which has a 2mp camera although some folks think the new V3x is bigger because of the larger screen and the camera is now very sharp.
The best phone in the T-mobile lines look to me to be the V3 or the Blackberry 8700t shipping in mid April
Motorola Motorola H5 MINIBLUE. This may be the ultimate headset. It is incredibly small because the microphone actually picks up your voice through bone conductance. So, it just slips inside your ear and there is no microphone externally at all. It is just 33mm x 41mm and has a little chargine station.
The other thing is that since it listen inside your ear, it is very noise resistent. Sign me up, ships sometime in 1H2006. Engadget points us to Bengalboy who says it finally make it look like a fashion thing rather than a geek thing. It actually has a carrying case that has a battery inside it, so when you put it away, it actually recharges the tiny thing but that case is pretty big. For me this is a good ting since I always lose these little guys.. Very clever.
These are the size of the NextLink earpieces I had, but broke because they were so delicate, so these will hopefully be more durable. But the wya, the NextLink 5G is probably the smallest little thing I've ever seen. The main issue he found was that the volume is pretty low and also compared with the NextLink AX2 (which I found fine), this one is uncomforable because it completely seals the ear. That's how it works. For me, that's not that big an issue, I love my Etymotics that do the same thing. As an aside, the new AX2 got a nice review from PocketNow, maybe it is more reliable and maybe Calvin won't step on it again :_)
This could be the perfect, take a ride on your bike and do a conference call since the noise cancelling and sealing really works.
It is going to cost $200, so cool costs.
Lewis and Clark . Interactive Trail Map | PBS same site new things!
iPod only shows an Apple logo and doesn't start up. This means that the firmware in the iPod won't start up. It is the equivalent of hanging at the Windows logo screen on your PC.
You have a just one depressing option. You reset your iPod by:
Putting iPod into Disk Mode. This is a very confusing mode and lots of folks seem to get stuck in. Basically, if you run a reset and then press Select and Play right afterwards, you get into a low level mode called (badly IMHO) disk mode. What this means is that only the very low level loader is running since presumably your iPod firmware is messed up. You then connect it to your PC/Mac and run iPod Updater (you get that from Apple.com). You can then "restore" your iPod which is another bad term IMHO, that means it wipes the whole iPod and you start over with a blank iPod (all your music is deleted) but a fresh copy of the firmware.
BTW, if you get into this accidentally, just reset the iPod again.
MoiMeme : iPod. Wow, a cool point, there is a magic diagnostic mode for iPod that you get a particular way, hit Select and back right after reset
Diagnostics menu (4th generation iPods only, these may be different for previous versions):
* Reset the iPod : Toggle the Hold switch on and off. Press and hold the Menu and Select buttons until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds.
* Disk mode : Reset the iPod and press Select and Play when you see the Apple logo.
* Diagnostic screen: Reset the iPod and when the Apple logo shows, press the Select and Back buttons.
o 5 In 1 Performs a series of tests including checking the backlight, memory, and USB ports.
o RESET resets the iPod. This is one way to exit the Diagnostic screen.
o KEY you press the keys, it tells you if they work.
o CHGRCUR I'm guessing on this one. Seems to allow you to turn on and off charging methods.
o REMOTE Allows you to test the buttons on the remote control.
o HP STAT Indicates if something is plugged into the headphone jack and the state of the hold switch.
o SLEEP Puts the iPod to sleep.
o BATT A2D Checks the iPod's power supply and (maybe?) indicates the amount of charge in the battery.
o A2D STAT Battery and power supply related.
o FIREWIRE Checks Fire Wire chip.
o HARD R/W Read and write hard drive test. Reads HDD pass if all goes well.
o SMRT DAT Another hard drive test. Reads RETRACTS 4 REALLOCS 0 PENDING 0.
o SMRT SCAN Appears to be akin to a regular iPod's Disk Scan test. This takes several minutes so don't perform this test unless the iPod is plugged into a power source.
o DRV TEMP Displays drive temperature.
o DISKMODE Throws the iPod into Disk Mode.
o WHEEL Run your thumb around the wheel and watch the values change.
o CONTRAST Runs contrast test. My Diagnostic screen was really light. Running this test made it much darker and more legible. Proceed through the screens by pressing the Play button.
o AUDIO Displays audio gain. Can move up as high as 127 by pressing Forward button. Default is 120.
o STATUS tells you what's plugged into your iPod -- whether it's being charged via Fire Wire and has something plugged into the headphone port, for example.
To move from test to test, use the Previous and Forward buttons. To initiate a test, press the Select button. To exit tests when they're completed, press the Play button.
:: LAPTOP Magazine • iHome iH5 ::
One look at iHome’s iH5 iPod alarm clock prompts an immediate question, “why didn’t somebody come out with this thing sooner?” The device features an input jack for a number of audio devices, but it’s primarily designed to fit iPods, featuring special inserts that plug into a top-mounted dock. The idea is that you can wake up to your pick of thousands of songs while charging your favorite player.
It's a good idea and at $99, but the main problem you can see from Engadget comments is that the alarm sound can't be adjusted and jams to deafening in 3 seconds. I love the web for telling what not to buy.
Moderate Via Delay - Revives the MT-Blacklist functionality to moderate or junk comments and trackbacks on older entries. This fills a major gap in the Spam Lookup plugin as a replacement for MT-Blacklist.
_Hat tip to Wizbang, this is a good ting to load, lots of spam happens on old entries.
:: LAPTOP Magazine • Linksys Wireless-G Travel Router ::. What a great idea. This is a 802.11G router and the power is actually built in. It wouldn't be a bad home access point, but is perfect for the road given its size. It is more expensive than a regular home router like the WPC54G ($60), but it sur is convenient and great for conference rooms being on the road, etc. A great gift too!
Pricegrabber has it for about $75, so not a bad deal and it is small.
I've broken two now (both the very small ones) and lost one, a cheapy that looked ugly, so time for another. Here's the current reviews and some good choices, one for car and another for portable use from The Travel Insider" and Design Technica. Newegg carries most of these now and you can see what is popular at Pricegrabber
Here are some close also rans:
It's hard to believe, but I never posted about the cool back half of a trip to Europe. Specifically some of the great places we found outside of Naples (Napoli for the affictionados). Here are some notes of great places to hang out in. This is a region called Campania and is just incredibly for cruising and hanging out on the many islands.
Actually, I have to admit that I remembered a much better Ettas than what I had. It is not that Etta's has gotten worse, it is that in the last 15 years (gosh, I'm getting old, I can actually remember Etta's opening all those many years ago), that the quality of restaurants in Seattle has just increased so much.
They have pretty much the now "standard" light northwest seafood. There is wild salmon (I didn't inquire what river), halibut and the crab cakes are the standards. They are great if you've never had them, but this is the third time I've been to a Tom Douglas http://tomdouglas.com restaurant in as many weeks, so it gets a little old to have the same cakes.
The service is great too and very friendly, but if you are looking for some adventure, I do think the menus at Dalias is more interesting and there is alse Shea Chea's which I still recommend as an awesome spot. Also up the street is Campagnes, although I like the lighter fare of Cafe Campagnes.
Finally, the after evening thing if you aren't there with Chris and Andy, the Judy's Book founders, or with Brad (http://feld.com) is to take in the view and then have a desert at Cafe Dilletente up the way a bit.
Yahoo! Widgets - Get Weather, Photos, Calendar, and More on Your Mac or Windows Desktop. Just had a great dinner with Brad. What a smart guy. Had three suggestions for folks who invest in or build companies on the Internet:
To this I would add my own fourth point which is to use the up and comers outside of your sector alot to see what other folks (e.g., the non-bloggers are doing). That for right now would be the top "movers and shakers" on Alexa which are myspace and facebook
Facebook's on the Block. Now this is an amazing statistic. I just wish we had invested. Facebook started two years ago with sophomores at Harvard, today, they are #7 in MediaMetrix, do 5.5 billion page views and are ahead of Amazon.com, Ask.com and Disney).
Facebook, the Web site where students around the world socialize and swap information, has put itself on the block, BusinessWeek Online has learned. The owners of the privately held company have turned down a $750 million offer and hope to fetch as much as $2 billion in a sale, senior industry executives familiar with the matter say.
Creative Zen Micro Photo (8GB, black) Reviews. MP3 players Reviews by CNET.. This thing looks like an iPod Mini killer, so it is larger with 8GB microdrive of storage, but not as small as the nano. Got a good review from Cnet though and as emntioned before if need WMA compatibility to listen to Yahoo unlimited for example or for audio books, you need something like this.
It is probably too big for me though, but a good study in what folks other than Apple are doing.
Welcome to Salt Spring Island. We are taking a trip up north. Went to Salt Spring decades ago.
Getting to Salt Spring Island is EASY! There are 3 ferry routes using BC Ferries and a multitude of other ferry lines running from Vancouver, Seattle, & Victoria. Also, the float plane is a delightful, fast and fun way to get to Salt Spring, and see the other islands from a point of view like no other on the way!
4 new Dell monitors - BeHardware. Hat tip to Google Desktop on this one.
Hey, Dell has announced a bunch of amazing monitors. There is a 27" (!!!) monitor and a 30"
Right now I got Connie a 24" monitor and I have to say it is a terrific experience to use Windows at 1900×1200 with a dual core machine. The way it was meant. Dell has been leading the way on affordability, so something to track. I actually got the HP because the image quality was better, but the Dells are very cheap.
Cnet? has gone through a list of alternatives. None as easy as the iPod, but they can all at least play WMA format which is need for KCLS content:
DailyTech - SanDisk announces several new flash-based MP3 players. I love our iPods, but King County only does WMA format files for audio books. Given that a book costs about $30 even from Audible, just five books would payback.
Look at the options, assuming they aren't horrible, there is the new Sony Bean (I think it does WMA) and this Sansa. There is a shuffle-like model at is $120 for 1GB and a iPod nano lik model that is the 3200 that costs $249 for 4GB. Will have to see if they are easy to use though. It olooks nice, but Cnet gave it 8/10 mainly because the mecahnics of the thing aren't that great.
Eric runs this (Marat used to) and they are reliable. The Russian emigrants seem to dominate this, like my cousins do restaurants for instance.
In any case, they don't have the huge humeersines, but basic Lincoln Town Cars. Very reliable though and terrific folks.
20 dollar bill new - front & back.jpg (JPEG Image, 669×585 pixels). Alex needs for his project. $20 is all his grandmother had in her pocket when she came to the US.
This is a kids wonder. They really liked the computers and the roller coaster simulation. The DNA things was terrific too where you actually extract DNA. Also they have RFID cards, so you can record what you are doing.
The other part that they loved were the various experiments. Actually the Shanghai Science Museum is probably better (but a little farther away :-)
We went through the Science Fiction Museum and it was OK. As P.M. says, it takes just an hour to through there and it really isn't super worth it. Nice to see some of the trivia, but seems like they should just throw it in as part of the EMP fees. If you are looking for fun and interesting, the Burke Museum at UW is way better.
Our kids just love that. It is amazing how entertaining it is. Just make sure you get the plastic mallets and not the hard wood ones.
Also for that age, I'm assuming you mean summer toys, other things that the kids loved (I'm afraid ours are past that age now!) are:
* Stomp rockets. These are things at toyrus, but basically they are air powered and shoot out
* Kites. They last about 10 minutes at that age, but great fun at gasworks park
* Pool toys. For the summer, anything that floats will do. We had a blow up alligator and that was incredible fun. Costco has them for 10 dollars.
* Scooters. Amazing how fun these are. Get a helmet though.
If there is anything else, you can come by and grab them from our garage, we are always giving away to folks. With three kids, we have lots of stuff.
Smarthouse - iPods Bill Shope of J.P Morgan believes Apple will introduce the phone by the fourth quarter of this year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients last week that he estimates there to be a 75% chance that we'll seen an iPhone in the next 12 months.
karen pernick - karen pernick - HOME. Karen is awesome. We are so happy she is back into music. We sponsored her first album in the days before Internet promotion, now she has a website and everything and even a blog :_) 
Parking downtown is just unreal and expensive I agree. On Pike you do find some reasonable deals. I don't know where you are downtown. One of the companies I work with Melodeo is in 520 Pike, this is just across from Pacific Place. Their deal is in before 10AM and you park on level E. They give you a hokey little ticket stub and it is $10.
It takes a while to get up there, but it has never been full mainly because folks don't read the fine print about level E and/or they get so dizzy driving up the tight loop that folks pass out.
The main thing is that they only take cash, so beware of that.
It is hard to figure out where this is listed, but thanks to Google (Chris and Andy lets fix having to constantly leave Judysbook for queries like this :-) you find http://www.soundparking.com/locations/ and they have some locations. Judy's Book doesn't list parking very well, but this one is at 520 Pike.
Also if you are willing to go a little farther, near the Cinerama (4th and Virginia) it drops to $8.
My Ta-da Lists and LaLa. Well, onlky beta users can try La La, but Tadalist, is a great example of the new style of development. Start with the simple feature and then wait for users to tell you what to do.
To me that is the heart of what Web 2.0 is really about.
OK, this place ain't fancy, but it is perfect for folks with families. It is actually a converted apartment building that is about two blocks from Stanley Park and it is three blocks from English Beach.
They have everything there though, they have 1, 2 and 3 bedroom suites. It is not fancy as I said, but it is a good place if you have young kids.
I don't think judysbook indexes it (arrggh!) but see http://www.coasthotels.com/home/sites/vancouvercoastplaza/ thanks to google.
Fort Clatsop built by Lewis and Clark near Astoria, Oregon. I was there this Saturday learning how to be a good guide. Was fun, although pretty far from Seattle I must say! And definitely cold. I now know what Lewis and Clark must have felt like!
http://remotetag.filefront.com/29;728×90;1;FFFFFF-605739. I've been addicted to this game for a while, but now with these mods, it gets more interesting. I've mainly been playing single player and here are some great mods to add:
Timelines - 1804. National Park Service has a good timeline of the journey.
Tong Family Blog: Calvin Archives
a great site for the mind!
King County Library System - Digital Books - Search Results The King County library has them all on audio book, so get them now!
NARNIA...the land beyond the wardrobe door, a secret place frozen in eternal winter...a magical country waiting to be set free.
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the...
Downloadable Online Audio Books available at Audible.com. Lewis and Clark Audio books. None at King County though :-
Your doctor may immobilize your shoulder in a sling or other device for several weeks following treatment. You should get plenty of rest and ice the sore area 3-4 times a day. After the pain and swelling go down, your doctor will prescribe rehabilitation exercises for you. These help restore your shoulder's range of motion and strengthen your muscles. Rehab may also help you prevent dislocating your shoulder again in the future. You begin by doing gentle muscle toning exercises. Later, you can work up to using weights.
I think I already posted this, but search really doesn't help much on this site (yet). Try Bradley's. They give a 10% discount if you ask and mention that you know someone. They are super attentive and car freaks. It is definitely not cheap and you'll see lots of Microsoft millionaires with their cars there, but they really do a great job.
A great gift for someone too. A family business and they care.
