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Richard H.

Richard H.

Joined on 01/08/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 22
Most Favorable Review

Not bad

POWMAX DX-3535-BU (BLUE) Aluminum 3.5" IDE USB & Ethernet LAN Server External Enclosure
POWMAX DX-3535-BU (BLUE) Aluminum 3.5" IDE USB & Ethernet LAN Server External Enclosure

Pros: Compact, easy to set up, USB interface makes it easy to reformat drive to FAT32. USB can access a hard drive formatted with MacOS, Linux, NTFS, whatever.

Cons: REQUIRES hard drive be a FAT32 volume for network sharing. Very easy to plug USB into ethernet port, causing a short circuit.

Overall Review: This is designed cheap and somewhat smart, but not optimally well. I personally don't like the power brick used, its DIN connector can unplug pretty easily. Windows XP can get in your face regarding INTRAnet communications with a SMB volume, which is what this is. The net interface can also give similar intranet problems.

Most Critical Review

Forget it

Kensington K72283US Blue 3 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Wireless Laser SlimBlade Presenter Mouse
Kensington K72283US Blue 3 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Wireless Laser SlimBlade Presenter Mouse

Pros: Slender, low-profile design. Laser precision. Store-in-mouse USB receiver. Very small USB receiver.

Cons: Scroll wheel is so slick, it's extremely difficult to scroll. This also gets in the way of sideways scrolling. Mac users (like me) especially will not like the driver as there is no System Preferences panel - therefore, programmable button actions are not available. "SteerMouse" driver will make up for these shortcomings.

Overall Review: Too expensive for the poor functionality. The presenter mode basically keypresses left and right arrows, again not programmable actions (at least on Mac). I have no idea what the PC functions may be, but the scroll wheel difficulty affects everyone.

Insanely Great

Apple iPod touch (1st Gen) 3.5" Black 8GB MP3 / MP4 Player MA623LLA
Apple iPod touch (1st Gen) 3.5" Black 8GB MP3 / MP4 Player MA623LLA

Pros: Incredible functionality, especially with current firmware; great wide screen; awesome multi-touch interface; wonderful shopping experience with iTunes Store; iPod Dock compatible - even some hard cases will still allow it to fit into larger dock adapters; iTunes Store offering movie rentals; iTunes Store purchases may be sync'd to PC; actual OS X inside - "Jailbreak" for hackers allows many 3rd party applications to be loaded and run (at your own risk); overall "Roll On Floor In Awe" impression.

Cons: Price; low memory capacity; difficult to manage songs and music using something other than iTunes; requires iTunes account for integrated music shopping; iTunes Store billing must be set up on your PC.

Overall Review: This device has given me one of the first "WOW, I'm actually in the 21st Century" feelings of Sci-Fi like future.

Several primium features

D-Link DGL-4500 Gigabit Gaming Router 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4/5GHz Selectable Dual Band Xtreme N
D-Link DGL-4500 Gigabit Gaming Router 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4/5GHz Selectable Dual Band Xtreme N

Pros: Sweet and fancy display; firmware upgradable; good web interface configuration; good help understanding settings; specific settings for many games and applications; optimized QoS scheduling of data traffic.

Cons: Price; display is harder to read when in vertical orientation; cables will tend to tip the unit over when in vertical orientation; easily collects fingerprints; MANY tweaks to functionality, some necessary for game console, voice, streaming media, and online gamers.

Overall Review: If you are very good at knowing how to optimally configure a router, this is a choice to make especially with multi-console and multi-PC use with gaming, voice, and streaming media. Horrible choice for people expecting the simple setup wizard to give them optimal performance with this same complexity of devices in their location.

Infrared can only do so much

NYKO Blu Wave Remote for PS3
NYKO Blu Wave Remote for PS3

Pros: Universal remote control of PS3; cheaper than Sony remote; simpler/smaller remote; can perform simple game functions adequate to turn-based games and crossbar menu.

Cons: Needs line-of-sight; cannot control power of PS3; no 6-axis; no PS3 button; definitely NOT a substitute for a game controller.

Overall Review: I agree with the "one use only" review completely. I wanted universal remote control of the PS3 and as far as I know, there is no universal remote that sends Bluetooth signals.

HUGE

ZALMAN RESERATOR 1 Plus Fanless Water Cooling System
ZALMAN RESERATOR 1 Plus Fanless Water Cooling System

Pros: Very effective cooling system; silent as a mouse (yes even the water pump is lots quieter than a fish tank); big water reservoir so you need to refill lots less often.

Cons: It's 26 POUNDS heavy and stands half again as tall as my mini ATA tower system. (2+2 bay) It must sit next to the computer, not significantly (more than 3" or so) above or below because of water pressure issues. It acts like a space heater eventually, steam radiator type, except here there's just hot water instead of steam. Heated tubing can smell odd - rubbery. Are you part mechanical assembler, part plumber, and part technician? Then this isn't hard for you to install. If you aren't all these things, it's not for inexperienced people. A wet computer is a DEAD computer. Leaks must not happen from the moment you switch this on for the first time!

Overall Review: You really must have serious heat issues to give this unit consideration. It will do the job better and quieter than copper heatsink/fan combinations. Remember, your power supply probably has a fan and you need to remember to remove your case fan... Becoming totally fan-less in a PC may require you to get a northbridge water block and hard drive water block(s), and maybe a liquid cooling compatible power supply.