cover
Mark C.

Mark C.

Joined on 01/05/04

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 32
Most Favorable Review

Nice

Rosewill RDF-104 10.4" 10.4'' 4:3 Ratio Digital Frame with MP3/Video Player
Rosewill RDF-104 10.4" 10.4'' 4:3 Ratio Digital Frame with MP3/Video Player

Pros: Big and cheap. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly it could process the raw 7MP pictures dumped straight from my camera, I had assumed it would slow the slideshow to a crawl (set to 3 secs between pics) but it doesn't add much time at all and the higher res pictures deserve a few extra seconds anyway.

Cons: Came with one of the metal speakers rattling around inside, they are glued in! - the glue had all come off and was rattling around as hard little balls, too. Slight over saturation in pictures that are already "colorful". Infra red remote control doesn't work at all, but I didn't really need that feature anyway.

Overall Review: I'm giving this to parents as a christmas present with all the family pics on, so I had to open it to perform minor surgery rather than OEM (doubtlessly voiding the warranty) - despite this, I'm still happy with a cheap and cheerful, better than expected product, (image quality wise for the price) and I think the glue/speaker issue is just what you get for the low price, it was QA tested at least (not DOA is all I ask). I will even likely buy another for myself.

Most Critical Review

Not Recommeded

BELKIN F5D8001 N1 Wireless Desktop Card IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 32bit PCI Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates
BELKIN F5D8001 N1 Wireless Desktop Card IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 32bit PCI Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: Cheap

Cons: I work in 802.11 penetration testing and have a very high understanding of wireless technology. This product simply didn't work - it detected the existence of wireless networks, but would not connect to any of them with the latest drivers downloaded, using either the native driver, or the windows zero config servive. This was for my daughter's PC, so I didn't bother trying it in another O/S where it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. The antenna doesn't even "click" or stay properly in the connector, pushing it firmly in, I could see the networks in my neighborhood, but I think the only way to get this to work would be to use no encryption, or maybe WEP, which I'm not prepared to do.

Overall Review: Found the link via a dealnews link, was probably too good to be true.

Impressed

Aukey PB-N15 20000mAh Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank with AIPower Tech for USB Powered Devices - Black
Aukey PB-N15 20000mAh Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank with AIPower Tech for USB Powered Devices - Black

Pros: Impressive capacity Faster charging disaster recovery champ

Cons: A little bulky LED could be a bit brighter

Overall Review: Used this recently to power several LED lights during a power outage and it didn't lost any charge indicators, it even fully charged my phone before losing one. I use it as my main bank now, replacing two ravpower 10,000s

1/2 DOA

Seagate NAS HDD ST3000VN000 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive
Seagate NAS HDD ST3000VN000 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive

Pros: Fairly quiet and fast when it works

Cons: One of the drives spins up, makes a couple of sounds and dies off again (initialize fail)

Overall Review: Looks like there's no QA control on these products.

On special these are a steal

Sennheiser HD 202 II Over-Ear DJ Headphones
Sennheiser HD 202 II Over-Ear DJ Headphones

Pros: I have three pairs of these now, always pick another set up when I see them for fifteen. Punchy, deep bass, and great sound isolation from how tight they push against the ear. You can listen to these at high volume in public (e.g. on the plane) and no-one around will be able to tell what you're listening to.

Cons: Getting through about 2 hours can be tough, eventually these hurt my ears. Where the tightness can be a good thing for up to an hour of private listening, it becomes a literal pain when trying to get through a long movie.

Overall Review: Inline controls would be nice, but can't complain for the price.

Like this brand a lot

SunSun Lighting A19 LED Light Bulb / E26 Base / 9.5W / 60W Replace / 800 Lumens / Dimmable / UL / 2700K / Warm White
SunSun Lighting A19 LED Light Bulb / E26 Base / 9.5W / 60W Replace / 800 Lumens / Dimmable / UL / 2700K / Warm White

Pros: Bright - easily the advertised ~800 lumens of a 60watt incandescent equivalent Nice warm light - 2700K again as advertised. I've been buying a lot of LED bulbs from other vendors and the interpretation of "warm" can often be loose, even including some that looked kinda green and made my dining room look like a scene from the matrix. Instant on, zero lag No noticeable flicker, which I'm very sensitive to (I can see the difference between 60, 70, 80 Hertz on a display.)

Cons: Runs a little hot, nothing to be concerned over, or that the metals fins cannot dissipate, I just wouldn't put three of them into a small enclosure, not because I think it would be a hazard, but because it would probably shorten their life as it did with multiple 13w CF lamps in a small ceiling enclosure in my kitchen.

Overall Review: I've been trying the Chinese budget LEDs from *online auction site* and they're often the wrong temperature of light, or heavily overrated, with 9W bulbs usually being around 5W measured, ~500 lumen. This brand is easily my favorite bulb of the many I've bought, producing a very pleasant, warm bright light that is very much like an incandescent 60Watt.