cover
Henry B.

Henry B.

Joined on 07/16/03

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

amzing little device

ASUS WL-330N 5-in-1 Wireless-N150 Mobile Router IEEE 802.11b/g/n
ASUS WL-330N 5-in-1 Wireless-N150 Mobile Router IEEE 802.11b/g/n

Pros: Versatile Powerful Inexpensive Compact Multiple power options

Cons: Might be confusing to setup

Overall Review: I own five of these little boxes. Every time I want to add wireless ability to a wired device I buy another one. Whenever I want to connect to a wireless network without installing drivers and messing with Windows settings, I buy another one. Recently I had a chance to use a different mode of this gadget. I wanted to create a WiFi private network from a simple DSL Ethernet jack coming out of the wall. No problem-o. Just set the mode and configure it with the PC, then plug it into the jack of the modem and you've got yourself your own private network. On earlier versions of the firmware there was occasion where it would come up in a foreign language rather than English. But, I took that more of a challenge than an obstacle.

Most Critical Review

Not so good for mac

Logitech V470 Blue 3 Buttons Tilt Wheel Cordless Laser Notebook Mouse for Bluetooth
Logitech V470 Blue 3 Buttons Tilt Wheel Cordless Laser Notebook Mouse for Bluetooth

Pros: Great for laptops as an alternative to the trackpad

Cons: Crashed OS X when turned off

Overall Review: OS X is a little cranky when it looses a USB device, so I should have anticipated that Bluetooth mouse wasn't the ideal device for a mac. When I turned the mouse off, OS X appeared to go into a "panic" reboot. I bought the mouse for my WinXP laptop, so no worries. It has a 2-3 second hibernation if there is no movement, then it takes a little while for it to wake up, making the cursor jerky. Best way to overcome this is to reduce the tracking speed to diminish the effect. Overall - it's better than a touchpad, but avoid using on a mac laptop.

Great coffee pot

Presto 02822 6-Cup Stainless-Steel Coffee Percolator & Free Mini Tool Box (cog)
Presto 02822 6-Cup Stainless-Steel Coffee Percolator & Free Mini Tool Box (cog)

Pros: Fast brewing, solid construction, 500 watts

Cons: Doesn't have the traditional clear plastic top to show it perking.

Overall Review: Nobody makes 'em like they used to. Black And Decker bought then ruined the Farberware Superfast coffee maker. Farberware also a hefty 1000 watts vs. this sweet Presto at 500 watts. So, this little maker is twice as efficient and a bit safer for older electrical wiring. It's not quite as solid as the old percolators they used to make decades ago, but it's not of poor quality either. With everyone ramming drip coffee makers down out throats, I am very happy to see someone still making a good 'ol percolator. It takes about 9-10 minutes to make a full pot with water at room temperature and it tastes about as good as a French Press. I'm using #2 coffee filters - I have to punch a hole in the bottom of the filter, but it wraps up around the edges of the coffee to keep most of the grinds out, unlike the disc filters. I've added a mechanical timer to make coffee in the morning before I wake up.

Best case in this price range

StarTech InfoSafe SAT3510U2V Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Enclosure
StarTech InfoSafe SAT3510U2V Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Enclosure

Pros: This is a clever design. All the connectors and electronics are on the side which opens. Rather than dropping in a drive and crossing your fingers that it will mate up on the other end this allows you to connect the drive first. It also allows you to troubleshoot it before closing the case. It's much smaller than most external drive cases. Solid brushed aluminum case keeps fingerprints off. Space saving brick power supply. On/off switch. And, LEDs which aren't so bright requiring black tape to tone them down.

Cons: If I had to really be picky I would say the plastic could have been made to look a little more pleasing in the rear of the case but this doesn't distract from the design. This is USB only, no firewire.

Overall Review: There's a sticker on the inside which advises people to format new drives before using them. Ok, who has been phoning into tech support because their harddrive wasn't formatted? I bought a bare drive and dropped it in. OS X could not read the drive and it did not show up in Disk Utility. I needed to partition it on Windows, half NTFS, then went back to the Mac and formatted the other partition as FAT. I'm sure it was something I was doing wrong but it works fine now. Under Windows, I can read/write to the whole drive. Under OS X, I can read/write to the FAT half while NTFS is read-only (for the moment)

Best trimmer I've bought

Panasonic Wet/Dry Vacuum Nose & Ear Hair Trimmer ER430K
Panasonic Wet/Dry Vacuum Nose & Ear Hair Trimmer ER430K

Pros: Effective, battery operated, carry case, easy to clean.

Cons: No complaints

Overall Review: This highly effective trimmer replaces a non-motorized trimmer. My previous trimmer's blades would spin as I squeezed a lever. The result was a most painful ripping of many nose hairs. After this experience I decided to spend a little money and get something really good, perhaps something with a motor. The blades are very sharp and do a nice job. It's painless and the cutter is easy to clean.

Best external enclosure

ICY DOCK MB559UEA-1S-B Aluminum body with partial plastic 3.5" SATA USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure
ICY DOCK MB559UEA-1S-B Aluminum body with partial plastic 3.5" SATA USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure

Pros: Slim design, vertical or horizontal operation, firewire/usb, easy to replace/upgrade drives, small power supply

Cons: A little expensive

Overall Review: This is hands-down the best external drive enclosure I've used. Unbelievably, it's smaller than dedicated external drives I've used from Maxtor and Buffalo. Swapping out the SATA drive takes nothing more than flip a lever and unscrew four screws. If you order an extra cage, you can setup additional drives to swap in and out in less than a minute - although, I'm unsure how the contacts would hold up to using it like a docking station. I used a Seagate 250gig drive and formatted it GUID/HPFS for Mac OS X under Tiger. The drive came right up under firewire. The performance is better than my existing internal drive. I was able to boot the Mac easily off the drive.