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ian s.

ian s.

Joined on 09/17/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 28
Most Favorable Review

Does what it says

LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 8204ELP 3Gb/s PCI-Express 1.0  RAID Controller Card, Kit
LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 8204ELP 3Gb/s PCI-Express 1.0 RAID Controller Card, Kit

Pros: Easy installation. 64-bit drivers readily available. Solid so far.

Cons: A little pricey for what it is...

Overall Review: Using for two 15K Cheetah SAS drives.

Most Critical Review

Good, bad, and ugly

TRENDnet TV-IP512WN Built-in Microphone & Speaker, Removable 6mm, F1.8, CS Mount Lens , Micro SD Card Slot, Wireless IP Camera
TRENDnet TV-IP512WN Built-in Microphone & Speaker, Removable 6mm, F1.8, CS Mount Lens , Micro SD Card Slot, Wireless IP Camera

Pros: -Easy to use interface. -Standard 12V power easy to integrate into other systems. -Dual detachable antennas. -Stable wireless connection. -Night time performance isn't horrible, but it isn't great. -Top and bottom mounting holes. -LEDs can be turned off. -Can flip and mirror image depending on mounting direction. No 90' rotation. -2 Digital in/out can trigger recording or report motion detection. -Email function works.

Cons: -Camera lens is way too cheap. It has internal play and wobble leading to non-focused areas in the picture. If I didn't intend to use this as a temporary movable camera I'd send it back. -FTP will not upload and overwrite to a single filename. It ALWAYS date/timestamps each file and puts them in a new folder every hour. Don't bother trying to use the FTP for a webcam to a single filename. My old Trend TV-IP100W seems to handle this without a problem and has a better daytime picture. -Does not support WPA2-Enterprise/RADUIS auth. -Night time performance isn't horrible, but it isn't great.

Overall Review: -Bought it on sale, glad I didn't pay more cause its not worth full price. -Flash the firmware immediately to get an indoor/outdoor setting on the "Video and Audio" screen. This will help with washout in high light environments. -Can record to removable SD Card and to "samba network drive" (shared folder). Didn't try either yet. -JPEG and streams can be accessed with regular URLs.

12/10/2011

Does what it says

P3 International P4330 6 Feet Kill A Watt PS-10
P3 International P4330 6 Feet Kill A Watt PS-10

Pros: It works. 10 outlets-more than most normal strips. Decent display, simple buttons, no menus. Max load feature might be useful if running from an underpowered generator or renewable source. Quite accurate--similar to original Kill-a-Watt.

Cons: No way to leave backlight on. What good is it under the desk? No way to disable "no load shutdown" No way to turn off the "leakage" beeper function.

Overall Review: P3 is a little too heavy with these feel-good enviro safety features which just get in the way. No continuous backlight--obviously to "save" power. If I want to worry about "leakage" currents well I better stop using computer equipment especially UPS's causes it all leaks. If I don't want power on my cords "for safety", I'll turn the unit off or unplug it. I had this unit on my off-grid solar system with just the fridge plugged in for measurement over a couple weeks. The no load shutdown nonsense turns off the light in the fridge for 5+ seconds until it senses and turns power on after opening the door. How does leaving the fridge open longer and waiting for the light to come on so I can find my beer, save energy? hahaha! I have more plugged in now so this "feature" is suppressed but it's still dumb. Give us the choice to turn off this junk and the unit would be perfect. The original Kill-A-Watt is still the best and does the same thing without drama for 1/3 the cost.

11/23/2015

1310nm laser

Tripp Lite Fiber Optic - 10/100/1000 to 1000BaseLX SC Gigabit Multimode Media Converter, 2km, 1310nm (N785-001-SC)
Tripp Lite Fiber Optic - 10/100/1000 to 1000BaseLX SC Gigabit Multimode Media Converter, 2km, 1310nm (N785-001-SC)

Pros: Small size. Solid metal construction. No frills or switches to mess with.

Cons: 1310nm laser. This is a 1000Base-LH wavelength laser on multimode fiber. Nothing about this is standard. There is no such thing as 1000Base-FX either. I guess that should have been a clue. DO NOT bother attempting to use with standard 1000Base-SX equipment due to the 1310nm laser. I suspect these units only work back-to-back cause they certainly don't work with anything else. And if they are getting "2km" over multimode, an extremely dubious claim, more power to them.

Overall Review: Look elsewhere at something standards-based.

Quality Control

Avocent 8SV1000-001 SwitchView 1000 8-port KVM Switch
Avocent 8SV1000-001 SwitchView 1000 8-port KVM Switch

Pros: Simple to use. No frills. One, albeit thick, cable to the computer makes for a clean installation.

Cons: These units WILL fail over time with some sort of internal power regulator issue, which often takes out the wall wart first (replaceable-9volt 1amp), then the whole unit after a while. We have been through 8 of these units at six different desks, both 8 and 16-port versions, over the past 3 years in 24/7 operation under controlled temps and on clean UPS power. All after the warranty expired of course, however I will be testing the warranty process on one that's 3 only weeks old tomorrow. If we didn't have a substantial investment of about 50 cables, I would switch brands. Avocent has always been good in their higher products like AutoView, but the SwitchView is clearly the low-budget low-quality import product line.

Overall Review: I'm not sure why the previous reviewer is having problems with USB. That's all we use and it works just fine. Don't try to use the PS/2 cables with a USB adapter. Be sure to buy the native USB cables.

10/22/2012

Windows 7 OK

Rosewill PCIe Serial Card 4 Ports Model RC-305E
Rosewill PCIe Serial Card 4 Ports Model RC-305E

Pros: Works good with Windows 7 x64. Infinately better than some USB converter cable nonsense. Works on Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H mobo (a UEFI BIOS). Comes with all hardware to put 4 ports on 2 full size slots or 4 low profiles. Can use any number you need as the cables are removable.

Cons: Wish the 2nd cables were a couple inches longer in case you don't have an adjacent slot. You can skip one slot if the adjacent card isn't too tall, but just barely and it seems like it might stress out the cable over time. No, it won't stradle your doublewide video card!