April 2006 Archives

Genuine Honda Accessories, News, and Information from College Hills Honda. Here's a good online place to get Honda accessories.

nuxx.net - Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review. But don't get the Honda Music Link. It has software that is supposed to allow voice recognition and selection from the stereo, but as this user notes, it doesn't work. Instead, I'd recommend getting a Tendeck flexible thingy that plugs into the cigarette lighter and then using the auxiliary MP3 iinput.

Hybrid Cars - Honda Fit Hybrid. More details on this rumored car. The high points:

• Will probably be about $3K more than the $16K list.
• Target is 60 mpg (!!!)
• Will use a 90 hp engine with Honda inline electric motor (20 hp)
• They will probalby allow the electric motor only to power the car at low speeds (<30 mph) and for a short time (< 5 minutes).
• Doesn't have regenerative braking
• Probalby will launch in a few month

1<http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/il/features/driving/honda.fit/06.honda.fit.prf.160.jpg!! Consumer Guide, Edmunds review Honda Fit - Autoblog. The Honda Fit just got the top rating from Car and Driver this month. It is a subcompact that is the size of the original Civic (if you remember that car, we had a 79 Civic called the rollerskate). It is the best selling car in Japan. and gets an amazing 32 mpg without any fancy hybrid technology.

Also it is the car tuners dream and lots of folks at Hondatuner.com would agree with that.Stock it weighs just 2500 pounds and has a 110 horsepower motor. Not far from the original Civic with its 90 hp that we had. It only comes in a hatchback.

The main innovation as Edmunds points out is not the nice tight suspesiuon of the 5 speed manual, but the "magic seat" which with one button lets you slide the front seats forward to get in and then the rear seats drop flat if you want without removing the head rests. Also the gas tank is moved to the front so there is lots more leg room.

For the cool folks, the 5 speed automatic has paddle shifters so you can handle it like a manual if you want it gets elssentially identical fuel economy. The so called Sprot trim level (higher end trim) adds security system, fog lights, power windows, cruise control, those cool paddle shifers, stereo with iPod input and about $1300 to put the list price at $15970.

And of course there is a rumor of a hybrid version coming out in later this year. Now of course this will be the so called light hybrid, so the fuel economy won't be anythingl9ike the toyota models.,

Consumer Guide, Edmunds review Honda Fit - Autoblog. The Honda Fit just got the top rating from Car and Driver this month. It is a subcompact that is the size of the original Civic (if you remember that car, we had a 79 Civic called the rollerskate). It is the best selling car in Japan. and gets an amazing 32 mpg without any fancy hybrid technology.

Also it is the car tuners dream and lots of folks at Hondatuner.com would agree with that.Stock it weighs just 2500 pounds and has a 110 horsepower motor. Not far from the original Civic with its 90 hp that we had. It only comes in a hatchback.

The main innovation as Edmunds points out is not the nice tight suspesiuon of the 5 speed manual, but the "magic seat" which with one button lets you slide the front seats forward to get in and then the rear seats drop flat if you want without removing the head rests. Also the gas tank is moved to the front so there is lots more leg room.

For the cool folks, the 5 speed automatic has paddle shifters so you can handle it like a manual if you want it gets elssentially identical fuel economy. The so called Sprot trim level (higher end trim) adds security system, fog lights, power windows, cruise control, those cool paddle shifers, stereo with iPod input and about $1300 to put the list price at $15970.

And of course there is a rumor of a hybrid version coming out in later this year. Now of course this will be the so called light hybrid, so the fuel economy won't be anythingl9ike the toyota models.,

Putt Putt Golf. There are two municipal places. Interbay has putt putt, but Green Lake has pitch and putt.

King County Library System. It's impossible to figure out how to do this, but King County has a bunch of relationships. On the main page are links to Overdrive, to get to Netlibrary, you have to find this magic page, type in your library number and these audio books re available to you.

The new Panasonic DVD-D300 needs an SD card for still photos. It is only 3Mp resolution, but OK for snap shots. So what to get. Well, the main issue is read/write speed. The benchmark is 20MBps or 133x as the standard interface was once 133 times less thatn 20MBps. A 1GB card has probably the best price/performance.

Here are some good SDs to choose, but basically, you can buy 30x (5Mbps), 60x (10Mbps) and 133x (20Mbps) cards as noted in Pricegrabber, the best selling card is right now the Corsair 133x in 512MB and 2GB forms. The 2GB is a screaming deal at $63 with a $20 rebate right now.

• Legit Reviews - Kingston Ultimate 1-GB SD Card Review. Runs at 133x
• Sandisk Extreme III. Another 133x card that performs well.

There are lots of reviews on the web on DVD writers, but very little on the media itself. The right kind of media can make a big difference. I've used the Verbatim Data Life Plus line for CDs for a long time with great results, but with the plethora of DVDs out, what's the right choice. Here are some places to look:

• Dvd Media Reviews. They have a pretty large set of reviews and do a bunch of burning with different drives that covers most of the major labels.
• DVD-Recordable. These folks have a great set of media test for the "off brand stuff". In particular Ritek makes really cheap media as does Titanium, so you can se their tests.
• CDR-Zone Media Forum. Some of the best data are on these forums as various hobbiest try different media.
• DVDInfoPro. This is a utility program that lets you do your own testing. What you find quite a bit is that if you record at 16x, then quality is tough, so slowing down to 12x is sometimes smart and is only a little bit slower.

So here are some things that I learned mainly from the CDR-Zone Guide to high quality DVD media:

Premium Media

This is the best quality and it costs more but you get great DVD burns:

• Taiyo Yuden. They also OEM to Plextor and Miflop Extreme
• Verbatim . It depends who manufactured this for Verbatim. For 8x media look for made in Japan. DataLifePlus is another indicator of quality
• Sony. The most surprising recommendation, I personally haven't seen such great reviews.
• Ricoh. But only for DVD+R media
• Panasonic. Look for Made In Japan on the packaging

Much of this is hard to find, but Super Media Store has a huge selection of DVD media (and CD media for that matter) at good prices and they have a special Taiyo Yuden section with good prices. Or see the Taiyo prices at Pricegrabber.

Recommended Media

This is good stuff, but you have to make sure that your particular drive with your particular firmware does well with it. So caveat emptor here, you need to read the reviews carefully and see if they tested your drive. Or test it yourself. This stuff has the best price/performance:

• Traxdata. always uses Ritek A grade dyes - it's as good as Ritek media gets
• Ridata
• Ridisc Xtreme
• HP
• Ricoh. DVD-R versions only
• Infiniti
• Philips
• TDK
• BeAll
• BenQ
• Fujifilm
• Imation
• Samsung
• Optodisc
• Thats Write
• 3A Media
• 4M Media
• Piodata
• ToPrint
• Emtec
• Daxon
• Mitsui
• Maxell
• MAM-E
• MAM-A

They have lists for Budget and "landfill". To me, don't be penny-wise and pound foolish, stick with the best quality you can afford.

Individual media reviews

• Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL. This is both big and fast media made by Mitsubishi Kageku Media. (Along with Taiyo Yuden, one of the best). It had great quality and was particularly good with the Benq 1640.

• Philips DVD+R 16x. This burns particularly well on the Benq 1640 since Philips actually OEMs these drives. The media is made by Infomatics, which is a decent vendor.

Costco Costco Auto Buying Program. Well I always knew that Costco had a program for buying cars. I didn't realize how online it is. Now you can contact dealers online.

Also if you are an executive member and you go to a participating dealer, you get 15% off of service, parts and accessories. That alone could be worth the $100 membership. I don't know what participating means though. Probably for dealers way too far off the beaten path.

If you buy a DVD camcorder, then you are going to need lots of:

• Verbatim Mini DVD-R 1.4GB 4X DigitalMov (Verbatim-95089) - PriceGrabber.com. This is a 5 pack and Verbatim has been reliable for me in the past. They are about $13, so about $3.50 each from buy.com
• Sony 3 Pack DVD-RW. These are the read writeable versions. So you can record and when you are done, you can delete and start all over. They are just slightly more expensive at $15 for a 3 pack or $5 each.
• Memorex 10 pack DVD-R. If you are feeling lucky, these are just $22 or about $2.20 each. No idea if they will work reliably though and it ain't a great time to find out right after the big piano recital you taped.

For my money, I'd say the DVD-RWs are the deal because if you use them even once again, you are saving money.

Mini DVD (DVD-R) Mini DVD (DVD-RW) Camcorder Video Media - PriceGrabber.com. If we are going to get a mini DVD Camcorder, you need special 8cm media to put in there. Here is Pricegrabbers list.

The choices are essentially

• DVD-R which is write once and stores 20 minutes worth of video. They are about $5 per disk from Sony
• Sony DVD-RW which lets you read and write and is great if you are going to copy off to a PC and edit. These are $11 a pop,
• JVC DVD-RW dual sided. You can actually flip these over to double recording times. They are really expensive at $15 a 1crack.

Seems like the best choice is actually the DVD-R for most common use. That way, you just produce a DVD. If you want to edit it, read it into a computer and go. This media is much more expensive than tape, but it just pops into a DVD player which is nice.

From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road: Web 2.0 Companies. _I've been starting to use del.icoi.us a bunch so it is fun to randomly go through links that others are using. Kind of like the days before I could really look through all the blogs on the Internet. Anyway, here's a list of Web 2.0 companies. I've absolutely no idea what a web 2.0 company means exactly, but it is fun to see all these sites to try. Knock yourself out!.

The list is truly awe inspiring. It will take me weks to go through all these companies. The bubble is back!

If you want a shorter best of, then seomoz.org seems to have a good list that is at least easier to understand.

King County Library System - eCollection - Home. How amazingly cool. King County now has a deal where you can download IMAX and other films onto your PC. Check them out and watch them. They also do classical music and books-on-tape as well.

These do use Windows encryption so they won't work on your iPod :-( but will work on your PC or if you really need to you can buy a Creative M:Vision or other iPod clone that uses Windows Media formats.

CSI:guide.com - CSI and CSI:Miami Music. CSI Miami in particular has just the best music. Unlike the unofficial Alias soundtracks, no one seems to have complied them, but at least there is a list of some of the songs on the CSI Guide.

United Airlines - Promotions: Air. These folks run an amazing number of promotions, but in order to participate, like a robot, you have to go to the promitoin site and sign up.

So check there every so often. Big ones are win a million miles if you fly once. If you fly inside Asia, get 25,000 miles. If you fly from Denver get miles,etc.

And to me quite important. United, ADRIA Airways, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian Airlines Group, BLUE1 Air Botnia, bmi, CROATIA Airlines, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, TAP Portgual, THAI, US Airways and Varig. Now the flight miles you earn on all paid, qualifying Star Alliance member-operated flights count toward your Mileage Plus® Premier, Premier Executive® or 1K® membership status.

So in particular, if you fly SAS to Europe or Singapore Air or US Air, it counts as elite qualifying miles.

Oh well, I've long had a failing 250GB hard drive (a Western Digital Caviar) in our old Athon XP 3200 system.

Now it has finally given up the ghost. It won't format and it won't boot. When I diagnosed it last time, some sectors had failed and it wouldn't boot properly. Now it looks like those sectors at the beginning of the drive are giving it major headaches. So, the big question, is do you junk a computer or do you upgrade it.

Seems a shame that this computer is perfectly fine and only needs a new hard drive. Since Intel and AMD are in the middle of model changes right now with the new Intel dual core low power about to come out and AMD shifting to the M2 socket, I think we'll just hold the fort and get a 400GB SATA drive plus a SATA adapter to throw into this machine and get it working.

Looking at Storage Review, things have changed quite a bit. The Western Digital folks have doubled the density of the venerable WD740GB and now have a 150GB version. That's super attractive for a high performance system.

Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD4000YR is another one to look at. Actually, the desktop version is called the Caviar SE2 and this drive is super fast. Wins all the benchmarks. Don't get the RE2 by the way, it is designed to be used with a RAID controller and if it begins to fail, it won't be pretty without one. Essentially, it will give up on error correction way too soon. The 250GB version is just $91 according to Pricegrabber and the OEM version comes with a three year warranty while the 400GB drive is $182 and good if you don't have that much space in your machine, but is about 1/3 more per gigabyte than the 250GB version.

To get this working on our old ASUS A7N8X-X, you need a "$25" SATA to IDE adapter, so it plugs into the motherboard properly. It got a good review and Pricegrabber has it.

Chinese Software, Japanese Software & Korean Software by NJStar 南极星. In writing Chinese, I've mainly been using the free inpute method editor (IME) that comes with Windows XP.

Our Chinese tutor says that I should give NJStar a try. There is a free trail, but she likes the word processor and the communicator better. The later lets you type email, etc.

Some special friends and their favoriate broadway tunes:

• Amazon.com: With a Song In My Heart (from the 1952 film)/ Pal Joey (with 1952 cast members): Music: Harold Arlen,Sammy Fain,George Gershwin,Peggy Lee,Matt/ Livingston, Fud Malneck,Alfred Newman,Richard Rodgers,Arthur Schwartz,Jule Styne,Various Composers,. With A Song from my Heart from the 1952 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical called Spring is Here. See the Sheet Music at musicnotes.com.

While I'm at it, the new Fuji F10 and the Canon SD550 have been great recommendations for snapshot cameras. The F10 in particular because it is so fast and doesn't need a flash in most situations. Even though these are just 6Mp or so, the lense begins to make a real difference with these small cameras. So onto a final replacement for my Nikon N80 35mm camera. The resolutions are such that it is time to get one. Here are the sources:

• DPReview. They have really detailed reviews and very indepth technically.
• DigitalCameraInfo. This is the sister site to camcorderinfo
• DCResource. Another less popular site.
• Popular Photography. This is the big print publication

As usual, I'll divide the things to get into three categories. Sub $1000 for the serious amateur, $1-2K for the major gadget geek or budding professional and then of course the $3K monster for the true professional or wannabe. In this category, although others play, the leaders seem to be Canon (#1 IMHO right now) and then Nikon. The net recommendation, is that from a pure resolution point of view, getting the Canon 350D Digital Rebel XT at $800 list is the price/performance leader, you really don't get significantly better quaity until you buy the $3,300 list Canon 5D because it is full frame.

If you are a Nikon lover, best I can say is it is either the 200D, or wait for the full frame Nikon coming up to be competitive with the 5D. It's pretty clear why Canon has 50% of the market and Nikon only 35% right now. Canon is doing a great job with its cameras. It makes its own imagers and it shows.

Sub $1000

In this category, the Canon Rebel XT rules. Its won ever major award because it has terrific picture quality, 8Mpixel sensor and is incredibly light at 1.3 pounds. It streets for $800 and for $400 more you get a lenses that is all most folks will ever need. From wide angle to telephoto.

Catching up however are the EVF (electronic view finder) cameras. These don't have interchangeable lenses, but at this level most folks won't need it, what with the super lenses that go from wide to telephoto. The main issue is that there are lots of compromises. Probably the closest is the Sony RSC-1 with a 10 mpixel sensor and a incredible lense, but it has numerous ergonomic and picture quality issues. Stay tuned, its a good bet that a good EVF will beat a DSLR at the low end.

Prosumer $1-2,000

This is my category. I can't really justify at $3-5K camera, but would like more quality. The winner here seems to be either the Nikon D200 or the Canon EOS-30D which was just announced. The picture quality for both is amazing, so it probably comes down more to if you have Nikon lenses already or Canon lenses. Right now on pure price/performance, the Canon probably wins since it is $400 cheaper than the Nikon with roughly the same performance, although the true nerd would probalby get the D200 because it is a notch up in terms of features and usability.

• Nikon D200 Review. Its a 2 lb camera (the Canon 5D is actually 100grame lighter) and you have to remember to set the white balance manually (automatic doesn't work well. Also, you should set the in camera sharpenting to +2 as the default is too mild for good results. In A/B comparison, it isn't much sharper than the much cheaper EOS-20D (and presumably the EOS 30D will be similar). The EOS 5D is of course slightly sharper, but it isn't extreme. Going from 8 to 10 isn't a big deal and going from 10 to 12 isn't a big deal either in the real world. There are also reports of banding problems with some 200Ds in the real world. Not sure the cause, but something that is reported on the forums.
• DCResource did the numbers and found that it resolves 1918 lines per inch and had a bit of color error (4% oversaturate).
• Ken Rockwell has a personal view of the D200 and loves it as well.

For the Canon EOS 30D, check out:

• DPReview. This update to the 20D adds a bigger LCD screen. It is cheaper than the D200 listing at $1,300 Euros. The net is that 8Mp vs. 10Mp in D200 really don't make much imaging difference, but that the D200 interface, etc. are better, so on balance, the nod goes by a hair to the slightly $1700 list D200.

Professional $3-5K

Here the value leader seems to be the new Canon 5D. This is a 12 megapixel (gasp) sensor that is full frame. That means, you get real wide angle. The thing is huge though at just under two pounds, so its not for the casual shootist. Image quality is amazing.

With our Canon 100MC dying and eating tapes, its time to plumb the markets again. A quick A9/Google search for google""hd camcorder reviews" reveals that there are four big camcorder review sites listed below. What is clear is that right now, with CES just having happened, there is tremendous innovation.

Basically, the DVD camcorder has taken over because of convenience at the loss of picture quality, but the 2nd generation of flash based (mainly SD card) and hard disk based camcorders are maturing quickly. For high definition, them models are still miniDV based mainly because tape still have incredible information density. This it seems is the year that consumers are going to buy DVD and soon hard disk; and SD card camcorders that are utlra small at 480i while prosumers are going to get miniDV tape based systems that produce 1080i HD content.

• Camcorderinfo.com. As usual, a dedicated web site appears to be one of the best sources.
• SonyHDVinfo.com. This board has the most on Sony HD camcorders
• CNet. These I take with a large grain of salt since they normally don't do any real testing. In the case of camcorders, it largely agrees with Camcorderinfo with the exception that it rates the DVD505 above the Panasonic D300.
• DVspot.com. Another good webonly source although it is more about all the professional tools needed
• PC Magazine. I usually take these reviews with a grain of salt, they are only semi-deep.

The main things we are looking for are in order are for Connie:

1. Light and small. The smaller the camera, the more likely we are to carry it and actually take a shot. For travel, the other important thing are all those cables and chargers. For instance, using USB instead of firewire to connect to a PC would be a huge plus. And getting rid of the charger brick and using USB instead would really save weight.
2. Image quality. That is the whole point of it all after all. Most consumer camcorders aren't very accurate, they "red push" and ideally you want a very large chip and the best ones have three chips, one for each color so you get very accurate color. Finally, the lense and the optics have to be good with most typically have a remarkable 10x optical zoom. The other things are good low light performance because a light is very big and ungainly and also low noise.
3. Reliable. Our Canon lasted 10 years of light usage, would hope this one would too. The big camera vendors are Canon and Sony and they look reasonably reliable.
4. DVD conversion. Tapes are a real pain as is editing. The fastest way to get it to a DVD is a big consideration. The new cameras used SD flash memory cards, hard drives or can burn directly to DVDs. These are way better than tape in terms of convenience. The main issue though is that SD and DVD based camcorders can only write 8.5MBps where the tape-based mini-DV can write 25MBps, so picture quality is lower unless the camera is much better at compression. Most of these use MPEG-2 (2x denser than the DV format) and the latest are at the edge with MPEG-4 (another 2x improvement). But for right now, the best DVD camcorders don't have as much bandwidth
5. Still camera. If you can get a decent 5 megapixel picture, then it solves lots of problems
6. Battery and film life. We take short pictures, so just need 40 minutes or so per media and the battery has to last a day of on and off
7. HD. Hey we are in a high definition world, so why not be prepared. Would be a great bonus

So here are some choices in order based mainly on camerainfo.com along with their video quality and resolution scores:

For Connie, the list is sorted with DVD camcorders first because they are easy to get, you produce a DVD and view it. Next are the hard disk camcorders that should IMHO in the long term be the best. They won't have the 9MBps limit in the long term, but right now, they are no better in picture quality typically than the DVD camcorders. Finally at the bottom is the SD card based camcorders. These are really small, but with today's MPEG-2, the capacity is just so small and expensive.

• Panasonic VDR-D300. This is the successor to the very nice D250 that they liked. Just announced at CES, so a full review wasn't done, but image quality was very good for this DVD camcorder.The big improvements are that it can write to the more common DVD-R, DVD-RW but not DVD+R or DVD+RW (confused yet). This is still better than the D250 which could only write limited availability DVD-RAM. As with most DVD-based camcorders, a low cost miniDV will have better image quality for the true afictionado. The D300 is sharper than the DVD505 but has more noise as well and the other drawback is that with three smaller CCDs, it has less low light performance. It has 3 1/6" CCDs so that's why image quality and particular color should be better but low light performance will suffer. Other drawback is that a DVD-R only has room for 20 minutes of video, so beware of that if you like taking lots and lots of video. This is fine for us since we don't like to take too much. It all ends up not being viewed anyway :_) Pricegrabber has it for $725 right now.
• Panasonic VDR-D250 is the next model down and promises roughly similar image quality with a few less bells and whistles, so not a bad compromise for a few bucks less. But the D300 offers optical image stabilization, 16:9 aspect ratio chips (as opposed to the zoom and crop method the D250 employs), and 3.1 MP stills (vs. 2.3 MP). All this for only a hundred dollars more seems like a bargain to get the D300.
• Sony DCR=DVD505. This is the 1/3" CMOS imager of the 405 and although $100 more expensive, the Camcorderinfo folks didn't think the overall image quality was that much better, although low light performance was. The main issue is lack of sharpness compared with miniDV camcorders. It is rated lower than the DVD405 because its image quality isn't much better and it is $200 more although personally, I think the bigger the LCD screen the better.
• Sony DCR-DVD405. This could be the perfect casual camcorder because it writes DVDs directly. It is also small and lightweight. It has one 1/3" CCD, but compared with the D300, it doesn't have as sharp an image nor as true color.
• Sony DCR-SR100 . This is Sony's hard disk based camcorder. Just out, no details on quality of image yet. Previous really small models like the Sony DCR-PC1000 had great image quality, but very low resolution. This new version one is close to the DVD405 with a 1/3" CCD imager so should have better resolution. Unlike other hard disk camcorder, this one is quite big. As large as the DVD based ones. Very interested to see it does review-wise.
• "JVC GX-MG77" could solve more problems with a better imager so stay tuned for that although the earlier MG70 was terrible. But it is very compact unlike the SR100 and is also hard disk baed.
• Panasonic SDR-S100 . A SD card camcorder that writes MPEG-2. It is quite sharp and decent resolution. It is small, but the battery is tiny so you'll have to change batteries often. Its low light performance is terrible though and you still have the problem of how to produce a DVD when the 2GB SD card fills up after 20 minutes and these cards are way more expensive that 3.5" DVD-Rs.

Then these are models that sound great, but image quality means you shouldn't get them:

• Sanyo VPC-HD1. This is a camera that has incredible specs, but terrible performance. It is SD based and only 8 ounces, but the video quality is very poor. It is essentially a still camera that has been adapted to take video, so has lots of compromises.
• JVC GX-MG37. This is a hard disk based camcorder which should look great, because it has the bandwidth, but in reality just has terrible image quality.
• JVC GX-MG70 was similarly lackluster in image quality despite the 30GB hard drive.

High quality HD camcorder

If you don't need super compact, then miniDV tape continues to dominate. Assuming you want HD. That is 1080i recording at least, then the choices are bigger. Sony is pretty much running away with the prosumer HD market and there is lots more data in the Sonyhdinfo forums:

• Sony DCR-HC1. The leader for the last year as the best HD camcorder. It has excellent quality but is expensive at $1300 street. Its image quality is amazing even though it is as large as a 1995 camcorder, so compact is definitely not what this guy is all about. This model is being discontinued in favor of the new HC3, so if you want its prosumer features, get it now. There is now a big gap between the HC3 and the $2K professional camcorders. You can still get the HC1, so if you want something close to professional, then maybe getting an HC1 before they are all gone is a smart thing.
• Sony DCR-HC3. This is just coming out at $1500 list and the buzz is that it is not as high quality in output. This uses the same imaging chip as the DVD505 and is much smaller than the HC1 but the quality is lower. See the forum as well.
• JVC GZ MC500. This isn't an HD camcorder, but has a high price. 3 CCD imager so quality is good, but ships with a microdrive It is small, but expensive, so the HC1 or HC3 are winners compared with it.

Well, Iwe have a variety of speakers sets now, so a quick long term review and then on to finding a good portable system:

• JBL Creature II. These are PC speakers so for listening in a whole room and is the 21st century version of bookshelf speaker set. They sound OK. 4/4 on playlist, the main thing is that they are cheap at $80 and good looking. The sound quality is OK and works well for near field. I don't turn it up too much because it is at work, but a good, but not great choice. 4/5
• JBL Onstage. These are the nicest looking speaker sets and looks nicer that the iM3. It's main use is for casual listening. Think clock radio. I don't use it anymore, because, I torqued the dock connector by pushng in. The new Creature II now includees a wireless remote but is otherwise the same. It doesn't have batteries, but is way prettier. 4.5/5
• Altec-Lansing iM3. This was the first portable system. It includes 4 AA batteries and a charging brick. Its sound quality is OK and it makes the iPod a portable clock radio really. It sounds tinny to me and there is no bass. The best use I've found for it is as a clock radio for waking up in the morning. For me as ultralight traveler, it is really too big to carry on the road. 4/5

Now hoever, real boomboxes that have great sounjd are coming out that have a Ipod dock and look nice. Playlist: Product Guide: Speakers for your iPod has a good overview. The basic idea is a high quality speaker set, portable and ideally with batteries. The Apple Hifi is $350 and probably the best compromise although it doesn't sound as good. Here4 are some other choices if you don't want to give everything to Apple:

Boombox transportables.

These are models to consider if you want something semi-portable. That is, they are small enough to move around. Kind of in the boombox category, but sounding better. Some have batteries, but some don't. In order of what looks good right now I'd get:

• "Monitor i-Fi".http://playlistmag.com/reviews/2006/04/monitorideck/index.php. 4.5/5. $250. These guys make really great speakers for audiophiles and the sound quality is very good. This isn't actually technically a boombox. The spekaers separate and it doesn't have a battery mode., The sound quality is very good though, although not as loud and "boomy" (e.g., it is more accurate than others). It has less bass, but is more accurate.
• Audioengine 5. $350. 4.5/5. These are bookshelf speakers with a builtin amplifier. Sound quality is very good as you would expect with real bookshelf speakers. Not surprisingly, its bass is better, but the Monitor's are more accurate in the treble.

Boombox with batteries

• Altec Lansing iM7. IMHO this is the coolest looking speaker set, it looks like a big tube with an iPod embedded in it. $150. 4.5/5 by Playlist. It's portable and sounds as good as the Bose SoundDock so not a bad choice. It is really a boombox and competes with the Apple iPod Hi-fi directly.
• Apple iPod Hi-Fi. 4/5. $250. This is Apple's own boom box system. It is nice looking, but it is "boomy" so it sounds a little muffled. Also, the iPod kind of sits at the top, so it doesn't fit very well into an enclosed area like the Altec Lansings do.

bookshelf on home speakers

While we are at it, there are more and more speaker systems that are powered that work well for computers or iPods including:

• Altec Lansing FX-6021. Like the JBL Creatures, these are really designed for PC listening, so called near field listening. $150., The nice thing is that it has two audio inputs, so you can hook it up to your computer and also your iPod without having to reconnect the 3.5mm plug.
• Audioengine 5. 4.5/5. $350. These are bookshelf speakers that include an amplifier inside them. The sound quality is on par with the Apple iPod Hi-fi. You can also plug in an Apple Airport Express so that you can stream music from your PC to these speakers. Kind of cool if you like streaming. Most folks find the Hi-Fi mid heavy, but these apparently sound more balanced and accurate.

Clock radio iPod

The key features here are that it has to be small..

• Tivoli Audio iSongbook. $330. 4.5/5. I actually have a Tivoli Clock Radio for Connie and its sound quality isn't bad. This is the dedicated iPod version.with a flip down connector set. It also has an AM/FM radio and a pair of 2.5" speakers so it doesn't have the bass, but the speakers are actually very good for "clock radio" listening.

Portable iPod

This has to be small and portable but decent sounding. You could also use this as a standard clock radio but then you don't need the batteries and get a better sounding system (see the above).

• Logitech mm50. 4.5/5. $150. It is larger than the iM3, but has a rechargeable lithium ion battery and sounds much better. So its not a boom box, but for putting on your desk as a clock radio, it competes with the JBL OnStage but with better sound and it is a good portable system.

AOL City Guide: San Diego - City's Best Brunch, Restaurants. Some brunch recommendations.

Neimans

SignOnSanDiego Essential Eats Dining Guide - Your Top 10 guide to dining in San Diego restaurants, from romantic to family friendly to views to vegetarian

Sony Media Software - Downloads - Vegas Update. Sony is one of the few companies that make finding their updates easy. Here they are. The latest version is 6.0d. I've used the Video Explosion Deluxe for a long time and like it. Sony bought Sonic Foundry which OEMed to Video Explosion, so this is the latest version.

Also, our trusty Canon Optura 100MC is finally dying after 8 years of hard use. It is now eating tapes. So, time to find a new camcorder that is either smaller and lighter. I like the idea behind the new Sony DVD Camcorder that Jeff has. Or is bigger and does high definition like the Sony that Bill has. On to shopping :-)

Mpire Researcher Presents: Cell Phone Sell-a-thon. This is the most amazing thing. You can find unlocked phones on ebay sure. But my buddy Dave is working hard on this and it is so cool

Switches - PriceGrabber.com. I have a single router at home, but upstairs, I have two printers and a notebook. The issue is that wireless networking is just unreliable I'm finding. I constantly find that the connection is broken, so I'm back to wired networking for now. Fortunately there is an ethernet jack upthere, so off to find a cheap hub that I can plug things in.

Low and behold, I'm amazed at how pricing has changed. It used to be $10/port for a hub was a good price. Now I find that you can get a switch (this technically means that you get lots more bandwidth when you have lots of transfers, instead of everyone sharing say 100Mbps, each computer gets a full 100Mbps) and you now get gigabit Ethernet that is theoretically 10x faster than 100Mbps and way faster than any Wifi network at 54Mbps (where you rarely get even half that effectively). In practical use, you need to get a better cable, called the Cat-5E and can realistically see 350Mbps or 3x faster than the typical speed of 100Mbps Ethernet which is more like 86Mbps. You don't get 10x faster mainly because at these network speeds, the PCs themselves end up being bottlenecks.

Looking at Pricegrabber, you can see that the prices are very low. For the top three in terms of popularity, the choices are:

• Netgear GS108 . This has 8-ports for $63 (wow!) and you get 1Gbps. The only issue is that in the past, I've found that my other Netgear devices blew their power supplies in a year. OTOH for $63 who cares :-)
• D-Link DGS1008D . This is the D-link equivalent of the above at $61 from netwegg. It looks smaller but is more plastic looking. Good reviews though from PC World.
• Netgear GS605. This is a 5 port model that you can get for $39 with a $10 rebate, so the price scales at about $5/port.

Net, net, I'll probalby get the $30 model as I don't need the 8 ports and it is smaller, plus if it breaks in a year I won't feel bad.

Hardware Router Chart | Tom's Networking. They have Den Guru now and they list the throughput of the various devices. It is amazing to see how fast these are. The Netgear WPNT834 for instance can up/download at 94Mbps. That should be fast enough for any broadband connection.

The D-Link DGL4300 is the same at 93Mbps, so the newer routers are really running at wirespeeds. The Linksys WRT54GX runs at 73/77 down/upload.

However, the older ones never did and were stuck at lower speeds. So the very pouplar WRT54G runs a 20/22Mbps as an example. The WRT54GS at 34/34Mbps

Las Vegas - Features - Be Anyone. Wow, what a great ad campaign. It lets you build an identity for yourself.

It is a very cool Flash application.

Printer drivers are so specialized and are so deeply linked, I can never find them. Here are the quick links for the printers we use at "

• HP LaserJet 4050 Printer series - Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center. This is our old printer at work
• Ricoh 3235C. This is our color printer.

Converting Videos for iPod, Take 2 (Twelve Black Code Monkeys). My buddy at Twelve Black Monkeys went through the hard work of encoding in different formats and then figuring out what the tradeoffs are.

The basic points from his spreadsheet are that basically recommends H.264 at a CBR (constant bit rate) if you are only doing viewing on the iPod. It is quite a bit (50% smaller) and he also points out that using 1 pass is fine, he at least didn't see any benefit. They also have a variable bit rate mode called (FQ VBR or Fixed quality Variable Bit Rate). His measurement shows that a 384Kbps CBR is equivalent in length to FQ VBR at a Qscale (Quality Scale) of 30. While a QScale of 20 is equivalent to 768Kpbs, 768K is the maximum bit rate for the iPod using H.264.

I've actually used Q20 and found that there are times when the bit rate exceeds 768Kbps and it won't play. Q30 sometimes has the same problem, so unfortunately, you pretty much want to go to a CBR.

On MPEG 4, you have to get up to 2.5Mbps to get the same quality, H.264 is a better codec. That makes sense, it was developed later and is new with more advanced encoding.

Net, net, if you have time, I'd recommend encoding at H.264 768Kbps 2 pass 320×240 for most reliable if bigger encoding. If you have time, the theory is that Q20 should be better but at least for this test, it didn't show it and there is some chance that it won't playback at all since complicated scenes will not play in the iPod.

KSDD:Articles:Getting Video into the iPod Video.
I've been using Videola for a while and some of the videos won't playback at all on my iPod. I suspect, I'm exceeding the maximum bitrate or other limits. I've been using the very compact .mp4 format with h.264. The limits are below:

1. File formats: .m4v, .mp4 or .mov
2. Video data rate: 768 Kbps
3. Profile: Baseline
4. Frame size: 320 × 240
5. Frame rate: 30 frames per sec.
6. Audio data rate: 160 Kbps
7. Audio sample rate: 48 Khz stereo

There is also the MPEG-4 format:

1. File formats: .m4v, .mp4 or .mov
2. Video data rate: 2.5 mbps
3. Profile: Simple
4. Frame size: 480 × 480
5. Frame rate: 30 frames per sec.
6. Audio format: AAC-LC
7. Audio data rate: 160 Kbps
8. Audio sample rate: 48 Khz stereo