Joined on 01/28/05
Pamper Your Ears

Pros: Sennheisers have been my personal favorites since 1974. I've owned other brands but always recommend this company's offering to any and everyone. I have 2 pairs of the HD555's and the HD280's as well. These by far are the most ergonomic and comfortable open air I've ever tried. For discriminating listing my Ultrasone 2500's reveal more naturally accurate Piano, Horns, tympani, acoustic guitar etc,but cost 4 times as much. Those are worth it but are not as comfortable: Round versus oval shaped and too much headband pressure. There is a very pleasant yet moderate noise isolation that allows you to hear ambient noises like the doorbell, phone rings and people talking next to you but masks the distracting noise. Sometimes I put these on to soothe the headaches of lawn mowers, leaf blowers, car alarms or anything else causing a headache. I fall asleep faster with these even with nothing playing!
Cons: You'll have to hear them for yourself to decide if they are the best $sounding headphone Value.
Overall Review: Bose invests a heap of money on their marketing and and has convinced a lot of people to overspend for what sounds slightly dull and over compressed to me. And I have been in and out of recording studios enough to have a good listen to live music and think Sennheisers are always on your sort list since this is what many Pros use.
Wonderful Compartments!

Pros: Lots of protective padding for the Laptop and the interior fabric [Silver] makes it very easy to "see" what is in the pack. So many backpack linings are completely black making it very difficult to see the contents. This item is a real Winner. My favorite pack in 40+years of back packing!!!
Cons: Not available at gas stations, supper markets or drug stores....
Overall Review: Construction is excellent. I wish i bought this long ago: North Face like quality!!!
A Bargain at TWICE the price!

Pros: Remarkable build quality and includes a "better mousetrap" feature: a magnetized base! If you have a metallic surface opposite your viewing area, your hands (and mouth...) are freed up. The brightness and uniformity of the beam pattern impresses even the most demanding light-a-holic (me...) I have many LED headlights from Petzl, Coast, and Niterider and handhelds as well. This 220 Lumen rating seems very realistic and usually the equivalent cost per lumen is many times greater than the Redline. The front of the light is clearly sharp edged for self defense if ned in an emergency
Cons: The on/off button is flush with the magnetic ring base and is difficult to depress with the thumb but once on it's just a light touch to toggle with either index finger or thumb.
Overall Review: This is the light Jason Bourne would have in his glovebox. Buy one. Heck, buy two!
Highly Recommended

Pros: Replaced 4GB OEM memory on my 11/2009 MacBook Pro because Safari was using up to 2GB from Youtube streams and nearly maxed out the rest with iTunes , mail or iPhoto running. Very impressive improvement as I also use a 30" Dell display and there used to be some stuttering playing podcasts in the full 4MB display (2560 X 1600) along with the 1440 X 900 from the MBP. iPhoto now snaps the over 4,000 pictures from the library immediately for scrolling display making finding any thumbnails a breeze. Every program opens faster and it's easier to navigate between open applications like Keynote, iMovie, Pages etc. Mostly, the swap files: Page In's and Page Outs have less work especially since the 250 GB drive is full and begs to be upgraded with the 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT waiting to be installed.
Cons: No trade in program for the OEM sticks... ;)
Overall Review: Newegg shipped free of charge and used DHL/USPS so I got it within 3-days on Saturday! At the current 64.95 this is a terrific cost to benefit ratio. I haven't booted into Windows 7 on the Bootcamp partition yet which was another reason to upgrade so Office 2010 Pro would hopefully improve. The real surprise was seeing "Disc Inventory X" (a graphically intensive display of all content on the hard drive) load significantly quicker like 7-minutes vs. 15-plus.
2011 Inventory

Pros: A welcome surprise: the SKU and Intellectual Property Rights claim indicates this is a 2011 product from AT&T. So, that should be "iPad 2" and definitely iPhone 4G compatible. The package claims it's:"AT&T tested and certified" providing a one Year Warranty. Ignore the old posts as they were only relevant for last generation products. The $29.99 price is clearly printed just as Apple would justly do.
Cons: Coiled cord is on the short side but appears well constructed.
Overall Review: I bought four of these and it's a good thing I did as they were sold out in 48-hours. Can't confirm whether they are iPad 2 compatible, but there's no reason not to expect it to work.
My Favorite (30-years a Java Nut)

Pros: Slow percolating option offers a richer coffee flavor: takes 18-22 minutes VS. normal near 10-minutes for full 12 cups water. Patience has it's rewards. Very fine metal screen filter is easy to empty (folding loop handle sits right on top) and clean ( basket is side screened and solid plastic bottom allows better steeping action.) Easy to program. You will never have escaping steam rise above the unit! The cord has a interior cavity to hold excess slack. Looks like Darth Vader would have rewarded it the Dark Side aesthetic approval! DeLonghi brand highly regarded for ultra expensive gourmet products: think Lamborghini.
Cons: Fit and finish mixes the black plastic and stainless steel parts that appear more utility than luxury.
Overall Review: Brews nearly as good a cup of coffee as a Starbucks french press without the fussy cleanup. I paid full retail at Crate and Barrel and highly recommend this unit as a sweet spot price for value.