Stino Da Napoli

One of the restaurants that we have tried recently is Stino da Napoli [stinodanapoli.com] in Rocky River, OH. Several people have told us how great it is and how they enjoyed their experience there. We have been looking forward to trying it out for a long time, since we had heard so many good things about the restaurant.

We visited on a Saturday night, and unfortunately, it was a disappointment. We ordered salads, and they were swimming in dressing. Usually, I remember to ask for it on the side (which most of the time still works out ok), and it was definitely a mistake to forget at this place.

Heimlich ordered an entree with chicken, and it was swimming in butter. One of our other friends ordered the gnocchi, and it was gummy.

Not recommended.

Creative Zen Review, Part 7

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is the 7th and final part of the review.

Here is a list of the previous review portions:

• part 1 - Size and layout
• part 2 - Resume function doesn't work properly
• part 3 - Bookmark function doesn't work properly
• part 4 - Converting video formats for the Zen
• part 5 - Transferring files to the Zen
• part 6 - Volume, music sorting, screen brightness, and battery life

In summary, the device has several great features, and several features that could be improved greatly.

The Good:

• Small size, good layout, attractive
• Buttons are clicky (good feel)
• Device is easy to use, and there is a configurable shortcut button
• USB cable uses standard connections (finding a replacement is easy)
• Great battery life

The Bad:

• Resume function doesn't work properly (see Part 2)
• The way bookmarks are handled could be improved greatly (see Part 3)
• The bundled video converter software is rubbish (see Part 4)
• Comically short bundled USB cable (see Part 5)
• Can't charge device from a computer and listen to audio at the same time (see Part 5)
• Slow rate of transfer between computer and device (see Part 5)
• Screen is unreadable in direct sunlight (see Part 6)
• Music can't be sorted by folder (in my opinion, this problem makes this PMP almost useless for listening to music)
• Documentation is terrible/non-existent

The good news is that most of the drawbacks of the device could be fixed in firmware. So, it is possible that these shortcomings could be addressed, making the device a complete standout in a sea of mediocre media players.

A lot of other reviews I have read have complained about a slow or sluggish interface on the device. I have not seen any evidence of this on my PMP, so I can only assume that sluggishness was a problem with older firmware versions.

So far, the device has been pretty stable. My average usage is probably around 12 hours/day. In the 2 months that I have been using it, I have only had to perform a hardware reset 4 times (almost all occuring during data transfer). The number of required resets is far fewer than with any previous device I have owned.

Creative Zen Review, Part 6

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is part 6. [Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 7.]

As a device for listening to talk radio or audio books, the Creative Zen does an admirable job. However, as a tool for listening to music, this PMP fails in many areas.

First off, even at the lowest volume setting, the audio is too loud. Fortunately, there is a customizable equalizer that you can use to make it quieter.


The steps between volume levels are also too large.

The next problem is that you can't sort your music by folder. The player only lets you sort by genre, artist, album, etc. This is pretty irritating, and it forces you to have very clean tags on all of your files.

The screen on the player is very good. It's just large enough, and it is fairly bright. Unfortunately, the screen is almost impossible to read in sunlight outdoors, but I haven't had too much difficulty seeing it in the car.

In normal playing mode, the backlight on the screen never turns off. NEVER. The backlight does dim after a configurable delay, but the only way that you can get it to turn completely off is to engage the keypad lock.

I regularly use the PMP for 11 hours between recharging, which is plenty for me. However, when I am worried about battery life, I do engage the keypad lock whenever possible (which turns off the backlight and thus saves power). Your mileage will vary of course, but running with the keypad lock engaged as much as possible seems to at least double the battery life (in my unscientific tests) -- meaning that you should be able to run at least 20 hours between recharging.

As a final note, the fast-forward/rewind does have acceleration (which is a detail left out of most reviews). The acceleration is relatively fast, so it isn't irritating to use. When you are fast-forwarding and rewinding, you do not hear any audio. I wish that you would hear little blips of audio that you are scanning over, which would help to determine when you have fast-forwarded or rewound enough (I have had older MP3 players that did this).

[Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 7.]

Creative Zen Review, Part 5

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is part 5. [Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, part 7.]

With the Creative Zen comes a comically short USB cable:


Is this a joke? Forget about using it with any USB ports on the back of your computer (laptop or otherwise). The good news is that both ends are standard USB connectors, so I already had at least one spare cable lying around that I could use. Both a previous digital camera and a previous MP3 player use those exact same connectors, so I was all set. This cable is both used to transfer data to and from the PMP, and also to recharge it.

When you connect the Creative Zen to a computer, it goes into "Docked Mode" and prepares itself to receive files. In "Docked Mode", it disables the UI on the device itself -- thus preventing you from recharging it and listening to music on it at the same time. If you want to recharge it while listening to it, you will have to plug it into a USB power adapter [amazon.com].

When you plug it into a computer, it will show up as an "other device" in Windows Explorer (see below screenshot), but doesn't get assigned a drive letter. That is annoying to me, because I use custom scripts to transfer data to my MP3 players (which require drive letters) instead of using a UI like Windows Explorer.


Transfers of files to the device are rather slow. I typically copy groups of 50MB files to the PMP. In my unscientific tests, it takes about 100 seconds to transfer just under 500MB to the Creative Zen, averaging about 4.8MB/sec (well under the theoretical max transfer rate of USB, and significantly slower than many of my other devices and older MP3 players).

One last note about data transfers... I have two WinXP SP2 computers. On one computer, I was able to transfer files to and from the Zen without installing any drivers. On the other computer, I did have to install the software suite that comes with the PMP to be able to transfer anything to it. Unlike many other devices, you can't count on being able to plug it into your friend's computer and assume that it will work.

[Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, part 7.]

Creative Zen Review, Part 4

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is part 4. [Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

I've had a few chances to watch some videos on the Zen. The screen is just large enough to be able to watch a movie and read the captioning, holding it at about the same distance you would normally hold a book. Unfortunately, the process converting videos could be better. Bundled with the Creative Zen is a program that can be used to convert videos from one format to one that can be played on the Zen. It is pretty self-explanatory -- the program asks you to select a bunch of files, and after you do, you will see the following screen while all of the files are converted:


Click for larger version.
The unfortunate thing about this program is that (in my experience) it takes forever to convert a group of files, and it frequently fails to convert them properly (reporting errors).

So, I have switched to using eRightSoft's SUPER [erightsoft.com] to convert videos for my Zen (scroll to the bottom of the link for the download section). Use the following settings in the screenshot below to correctly convert videos for the Zen:


Click for larger version.
When you drag and drop movie files onto it, they will be added to the queue. Once you hit the "Encode (Active Files)" button, you will be prompted for optimizer settings, in which you should choose the DIVX option (like in the below screenshot).


SUPER converts videos much faster (although I haven't actually measured times), and I have yet to have it report an error.

[Go to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

Wiser in Battle

I have recently finished reading Wiser in Battle, by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of coalition forces in Iraq.

In it, Sanchez recounts his military career, with the vast majority devoted to his experiences in Iraq. In particular, he feels that he was made a scapegoat for the development of a coordinated insurgency in after the Iraqi regular forces were defeated, and for the prisoner abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib.

The book is especially damning of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for micromanagement of the military, for various political decisions that set up the military for failure, among other things. It is also damning of Ambassador Bremer, when he was head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, for failing to properly manage post-war Iraq and not attempting to achieve military, economic, and political tasks simultaneously. Furthermore, the way that Sanchez tells it, Bremer went out of his way to prevent progress from being made among the Iraqis and encourage reconciliation among the major tribal groups.

On one hand, it is a pretty convincing narrative. Each accusation is described in detail and with plenty of evidence. On the other hand, this is only one side of the story, and you would expect any author to paint themselves in the best light. To his credit, Sanchez does criticize himself for many decisions made in Iraq, and does not find himself completely faultless for the development of the insurgency or Abu Ghraib.

One of the more interesting points in the book was that Abu Ghraib was a blessing in disguise, because it pushed the treatment of prisoners to the forefront and forced similar institutions to abide by the Geneva Conventions.

Overall, it was a very interesting read (albeit dry in many sections). Particularly interesting are all of the details of the Abu Ghraib fiasco, most of which were not covered in the mainstream press.

Creative Zen Review, Part 3

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is part 3. [Go to part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

Previously, I had alluded to the bookmarking leaving a lot to be desired. Allow me to explain in more detail. First off, you can set a total of 10 bookmarks at any one time. I really only use one bookmark (overwriting it every time I need to set a new one). The bookmark screen shows the title of the song that each bookmark is set in, along with how far into the song the bookmark was set:


Anyway, let's say that you have told the player to play all of the MP3s in a particular genre or by a certain artist, etc. It will then create a playlist on the fly (as expected):


Then, in the middle of playing a file, you decide that you are going to set a bookmark, intending on coming back later. It turns out that when you use the main menu to select a bookmark to resume from, it will create another playlist on the fly with only the file that contains the bookmark:


What I really would like is the ability to tell the player to load all of the files of a particular genre or from a particular artist, and then tell it to start playing that list from the bookmark that I have set. But I haven't been able to figure out how to do that (and the documentation is TERRIBLE). As a result, whenever I want to resume from a bookmark, I do the following:

1. Load up the list of files that I want to play,
2. Look at the bookmarks screen (which tells me which file and how far into the file the bookmark is set),
3. Make a mental note of where I was,
4. and then manually fast-forward through the file to get to where the bookmark was set.

It really shouldn't be that difficult or user-unfriendly.

[Go to part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

Creative Zen, Part 2

Previously, I had described some of the experiences I have had with my new Creative Zen [creative.com] portable media player (PMP). This is part 2. [Go to part 1, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

I use my PMP mostly to listen to talk radio. I have my computer record hour long chunks and covert them to MP3s. New ones are constantly being uploaded to my PMP, while the ones I have already listed to are being deleted. So, there is a constant churn of files on the device. I know that a lot of people use theirs to listen to e-books (which I consider to be a very similar usage pattern), but there wasn't a lot of information out there for people who use PMPs like this (most focused on playing music).

Because the files that I listen to are so big, it is important that the resume function on the PMP work properly; that is, when I turn the player on, I want it to start playing at the exact point in the file where I was when I turned it off. Unfortunately, the Creative Zen fails in this regard.

There appear to be two different shutdowns for the Zen. If you turn it off (or allow it to turn itself off after a configurable period of inactivity), and then turn it back on after a few minutes, it will almost instantly come back on (takes about 1 second). It will start up at the "Now Playing" screen, displaying the file information, and it will be exactly at the point in the file where you last left off:


However, if the player stays off for an extended period of time (say, a few hours), then the Zen will really shutdown. When you turn it back on, instead of almost instantly turning on, it will take about 10 seconds to boot up. The duration required for boot up really doesn't bother me. The thing that DOES bother me is that when it starts up and goes to the "Now Playing" screen, it will start at the beginning of the file (see below image). So, if you don't remember where you were (and hadn't remembered to set a bookmark), you're going to have to manually seek through a big file to find your place again.


And unfortunately, the bookmarks and fast-forward/rewind functions leave a lot to be desired (more on this in another segment of the review).

Similarly, if you connect the PMP to your computer to upload files to it, the player will forget where it was and start you off at the beginning of the file again. THIS IS INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. There have been resume functions built into MP3 players for nearly a decade now. There is absolutely no excuse for having not implemented it correctly in this unit. And yes, I am running the latest firmware (version 1.21.01).

[Go to part 1, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

Shooter

I had previously mentioned reading War of the Rats, which has kind of put me into the mood of reading about snipers. War of the Rats [amazon.com] and Kill Zone [amazon.com] (which are both about snipers) are some of the best novels that I have read in a while.

One of the authors (Jack Coughlin) of Kill Zone actually wrote an autobiography called Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper [amazon.com], which I decided to read next. In the book, Coughlin recounts his role in several conflicts, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Coughlin spends a bit of the book on top of a soapbox, describing his ideas on how the role of the sniper can/must change along with the recent changes in warfare. The authors seem to think that the role of the sniper is being marginalized in mobile, fast-attack forces; but that snipers are now needed more than ever and can be better utilized in these kinds of military operations.

Many of the chapters of the book focus on conflicts in which he was given greater flexibility to demonstrate how snipers could be better utilized, to devastating effect.

Of course, one of the most interesting aspects to me was to hear the accounts from the ground (especially in Iraq), which sound very different than how they were reported by the media.

Creative Zen Review, Part 1

Previously, I had mentioned that I was buying a new Portable Media Player (PMP), and that I had basically narrowed it down to the Creative Zen [creative.com]. Well, it has arrived and I have a lot of comments about it. This is part 1 of my review. [Go to part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

There are a plethora of reviews of this device out there. So, I will try to skip the basic stats, which are repeated everywhere. The things that are hard to find reviews are on specifics on the usability of this device. That's why my multi-part review is going to focus on the usability with respect to my specific usage patterns.

First off, I was going from possibly the largest PMP to one of the smallest. Below is the Creative Zen (left) and my old Archos 504 (right):


The Archos unit was really a portable video player that I was using mostly as an MP3 player, whereas the Creative Zen is really an MP3 player that happens to play videos. That works for me, because my highest priority right now is durability. I really only watch videos on my PMP when I travel (which isn't all that often these days). Anyway, the Creative Zen is really about the size of a credit card (but thicker):


It has physical buttons (instead of touchpads or touchscreens that are not great for usability while driving, IMHO). The buttons are also pretty "clicky" -- you definitely know when you have registered a click, both from the tactile feedback and an audible clicking noise -- which many users have complained about, but I actually like.

It does fall flat in many areas. For instance, why doesn't the resume function work properly? More on this later...

[Go to part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.]

War of the Rats

Out of all of the books that I have read this year, War of the Rats [amazon.com] has to be my favorite.

Ok, imagine that you're transported back to the middle of World War II. The Germans are rolling over everyone in Europe. The Russians have to make their stand in Stalingrad, which German bombing has reduced to a pile of rubble at this point. Due to the overwhelming German air superiority, the Russians tried to keep their front line as close to the Germans as possible (so that the Luftwaffe couldn't support their own troops). So, they're running around in a maze of rubble (like rats), fighting a ferocious battle house-to-house. More on the Battle of Stalingrad [wikipedia.org].

Now that you know the backdrop, the book is a novel about a Russian sniper who is wreaking havoc on the Germans inside the city. He gets permission to start up a sniper school, so that he can teach his skills to a new breed of snipers who will continue the havoc on a larger scale.

The Germans become so worried that they bring in their best sniper to try to take out the Russian sniper. This is the concept that was eventually turned in to the movie Enemy at the Gates [imdb.com].

A lot of the book focuses on the tactics of the Russian sniper. In that era, snipers took hours and hours to set up a kill. And you would think that it would be boring to follow someone who spends hour after hour waiting for their prey to make a mistake. But it's not. It is actually really exciting the way the battles and individual hunts are portrayed.

This is a book that I am considering buying, because I enjoyed it so much that I will definitely want to read it again.

Body of Lies

One of the books that I have read lately was Body of Lies by David Ignatius [amazon.com]. It's a spy novel, in which CIA agents are going after Al Qaeda.

Actually, the basic premise of the novel is very formulaic, and reminds me of most of the other spy novels I have read. The agents are in black ops, where there is little/no government oversight over what they are doing, and they're running around doing all kinds of crap. Then there is the obligatory spy novel theme where the main character realizes that there is no one he can trust (a la Jason Bourne [wikipedia.org]).

Plus, the characters were comically two-dimensional. All of the other CIA guys (other than the main character) were like robots. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the story was too similar to all of the other books in the genre.

That being said, there were some really interesting plot elements. And it was very suspenseful; I didn't want to put the book down, once I got into it. So, from that point of view, it was pretty enjoyable to read.

Double Cross

One of the books that I have read recently is James Patterson's Double Cross [amazon.com]. I had previously read Cross, which is another book in this series of novels. The main character is a brilliant detective, who works or consults for the FBI in solving high-profile homicide cases.

I had previously thought that this author did a great job of making Cross a suspenseful book, but the characters were two-dimensional and lacking in personality and development.

As far as the plot goes, it is very suspenseful. Actually, the premise of the story is great, and sets up all kinds of interesting events. Patterson does a great job of building up intrigue and keeping the reader hooked into the story.

The downfall of the book is the ending. The ending is very rushed, and is a bit of a let down. He spends 300 or so pages building up all of this suspense, which is then resolved in about 10 pages. Not the best denouement.

Since these two were both letdowns (albeit in different ways), I probably won't be reading any other books in this series.

Toshiba Satellite A205-S5871 laptop

Last week [fluggart.com], I mentioned that we replaced Heimlich's laptop. What we bought was a TOSHIBA Satellite A205-S5871 laptop [newegg.com]. The description on Newegg has the full system specs and lots of pictures. We ended up buying it from Sears for $100 less than the price at Newegg (!), and it came with a case, a USB hub, and a mouse with retractable cord.

For all of the computer geeks out there, the vital specs are:

• Intel Pentium dual-core T2390(1.86GHz)
• 2GB DDR2 667 RAM
• 160GB HDD
• 15.4" WXGA screen (1280x800)

To reiterate my previous post, Heimlich's applications really don't require any horsepower whatsoever, so this is way more than adequate for her needs. And at well under $500, it was a steal.

Our initial experiences with the machine have all been positive. The touchpad has a sufficient recess so that you don't touch it inadvertently while typing. The screen is huge and bright, the keyboard is comfortable (and has a large backspace key), there are 4 USB ports on the sides, and the system is plenty responsive.

A common problem that used to happen with computers was that the hard drive would come with a single partition, and there wasn't much you could do about that because you only received recovery disks. So, unless you knew your way around a Linux live-CD, there weren't really many options you could use to repartition the hard drive into a system partition and a data partition (vital for the annual reinstalls that I perform). The Toshiba recovery disks that came with this unit actually allow you to change the partition table, so that you can do this yourself. I suspect that this is a standard feature nowadays, but this is the first computer we have bought in 4 years.

So far, we're really happy with Toshiba.

TigoTago

Like many people, I have a huge mp3 collection. Many of the ID3 tags (the metadata like artist, song title, album, etc) in those files are incorrect, so I started looking for a way to batch edit large numbers of mp3s. What I have started using is TigoTago [tigotago.com], which is freeware. TigoTago can also manage other types of files (avi, wav, wma, wmv, and asf).

You can select a directory of files to edit, and then batch edit them in many different ways:


Typically, I have renamed the files from the tags or created new tags from the filenames, but as you can see, there are a bunch of other options (including getting tag info from online databases).

If you choose to create new tags from filenames, you are asked to enter in a mask to be applied:


In this particular case, my files have a dash in between the artist and song title, and it warns me if it finds more than one dash in the filename.

After renaming the files or rewriting the tag information, you can review the changes in the application before the changes are actually made. This is handy as I frequently make a lot of mistakes.


The ones in beige are the ones that have been modified. And writing out hundreds of files doesn't take much time at all.

There are currently two versions available for download: 1.0 and 2.0.0.3 beta. Each also requires you to install a version of the .NET framework. I already had version 2.0 of the .NET framework installed for another application, so I chose to use the beta version of TigoTago (TigoTago 1.0 requires version 1.1 of the .NET framework). On the TigoTago download page are links to the install files for the .NET framework (which are also free).

Anyway, this software does everything I have wanted it to do, and it's free! Managing my mp3 collection is way easier now.

Roundcube

The provider for one of my numerous email accounts is trying to transition people over to a new webmail client - Roundcube [roundcube.net].


In general, I don't have a problem with it, and it is an improvement over whatever was available before. But there are some peculiarities. One is that the search field looks suspiciously like Spotlight in Apple's OS X:


That is obviously a total ripoff. At least Firefox makes an attempt to cover up that they are ripping the idea off.

One of the major dealbreakers for other people is that you can't highlight and select text if you are using Internet Explorer. I have no idea why that is, but I have tried it using two different versions of IE, and when I try to select text, all of the text on the page ends up getting selected. Selecting text is no problem when using Firefox -- but there are some places, like work, where I have no choice but to use IE.

You have no idea how much you copy and paste text into and out of email until you can't do it anymore.

GE Packaging

I have a bone to pick with the people who designed the packaging for these GE compact florescent light bulbs.


I was looking for a bulb for an exterior light fixture, in which the bulb is partially exposed. So, I picked up some bulbs at the store, and started to read the packaging.

Some of them specifically said that they were for indoor use only, but the one above (which I bought) did not. After I opened the packaging, I read the fine print on the base of the bulb itself, where I found that this one shouldn't be used outside, either.

The thing is that the stupid packaging covers up the fine print on the bulb itself (this is the portion outlined in the red square in the picture). So, even though I probably should have known better, there would have been no way for me to determine from the outside, whether this bulb was appropriate or not.

Rob Rife

When Heimlich and I got married 2 years ago, we hired Rob Rife [rifephoto.com] to be our photographer, based on the reviews that he got on TheKnot.com [theknot.com] (which we used heavily for all of our wedding planning).

We ended up being so glad that we hired him, because he was perfect for us. He used to be a photo-journalist, so he was perfect for capturing all of the candid moments that we wanted. At our reception, he uses these long zoom lenses to take pictures of everyone, and no one even realized he was there taking pictures of them.

He was also very knowledgeable about weddings, as you can imagine. There were several moments where we realized we didn't know what we were supposed to do. For instance, when it came time to cut the cake, we realized that we didn't really know exactly how to do it. And he was able to tell us exactly how we should cut the cake, and it turned out great. Here's one of the pictures he took:


He was so easy to work with, and very patient. Our friends have recently hired him for their wedding, which we were happy to see. If anyone else is getting married in the Cleveland area and wants a photographer, we recommend him.

Capital One Auto Finance

One of our friends kind of owns a car dealership. The kind that he owns looks like a lot of fun, because he has a lot of turnover in the types of cars that I could never afford -- classic Mustangs and GTOs that look pristine, along with almost new Porsches and Land Rovers.

Recently, he gave us an interesting bit of information. Capital One Bank has Auto Financing [capitalone.com] now. They typically have the best rates. And you can apply for auto financing on-line and find out if you are approved within minutes. If you are approved, they next-day air you a blank check (authorized for a reasonable range, based on what you asked for) that you can then use to buy the car with.

Apparently, Capital One has been getting very aggressive at getting people to take out loans with them, and have a great system for doing so. The last time we bought a car, we had to make a million phone calls to find out who had the best rates... Capital One's system sounds so much easier, and we'll have to keep them in mind the next time we are ready to buy a car.

Bitching About Google Maps

Has anyone else tried to use the traffic monitor in Google Maps? It took
me a while to figure out that grey roadways are sections with no data,
and not roadways with mostly free-flowing traffic.

It is a good first effort, but is mostly useless without being real-time.
It would be far more useful if you could click on a section of roadway,
and it would bring up a traffic webcam of that area.



Just having the map itself isn't very useful. Above is a map of Cleveland
during morning rush hour. And shockingly -- SHOCKINGLY -- there is a lot
of traffic and congestion going into downtown. I never would have
guessed. It's a good thing that Google is on top of it.

As the data evolves into a real-time traffic and congestion map, it would
be amazing to be able to see that screen in a car. An accident occurs?
That section starts blinking red, catches your eye, and you know to
re-route.

But right now, it really doesn't tell me anything I don't already know,
and is far worse than the traffic report on local radio.

A Tale of Two Razors

For the past 10 or so years, I have been using a Gillette Trac II Plus razor, which is the one on the left:


It has two straight blades, with a fixed head. I am, perhaps, the only person left on the planet using one of these on my face. Any guy who shaves with a razor who is reading this is probably cringing right now. Although, a month ago, I would not have anticipated that reaction.

Gillette recently sent me a free Fusion, which is the one on the right in the picture. It has 5 blades and a swiveling head. And I have just discovered what I am sure that every guy has known for years -- despite the exorbitant cost of the refill cartridges, the five blades and swiveling head is an enormous leap forward.

I liken the invention of this razor type to the invention of turbo-charging in cars, or the invention of double- or quad-pumping of a computer bus, or Krispy Kreme Donuts.

My face no longer gets ripped up. I don't show up for work in the morning, looking like I have a case of poison ivy on my face. I have been shown the light.

High-Efficiency Laundry Detergent

A little while ago, I wrote about how we were going to buy a new washing machine. Well, we bought it (having gotten a great deal, because fewer people are buying appliances right now), and we took delivery of it recently. The one we bought is a Whirlpool Duet Sport.

One of the things that I wrote about in my previous post was the increased cost of the special high-efficiency (HE) laundry detergent. Now that we are actually using our new washing machine, I can see that I was wrong.

The cost of Tide HE is around twice as much as for regular Tide detergent, but it turns out that you get twice the number of laundry loads out of the same volume. So, the cost of detergent per load is almost exactly the same. On top of that, we have discovered that we can put around twice the number of clothes into a load in our new front-load washer, as compared to our 20+ year old top-loader.

Time will tell, but preliminary numbers suggest that we will only have half of the number of laundry loads to do per week, and therefore the detergent costs will be way, way down. It looks like our electricity bills will be down also, due to the sharply reduced time needed in the dryer -- the spin cycle of this washing machine results in clothes coming out of the washer half-way dry.

We are currently in a laundry frenzy, washing everything that we couldn't fit into our old washer.

Archos 504: Long Term Review

A few months ago, I wrote about how I bought an Archos 504 to replace my aging MP3 player. Since then, my experience with it has generally been good. I am still happy with my purchase, and I still use the device a ton.

But as most of you know, I can find a way to complain about anything -- even when I am 99% happy with something (as I probably am in this case). So, here are the nit-picky details:

• The buttons are difficult to distinguish without looking at the player. I need to be able to operate the player while driving, which means that I can't look down at it. Early on, I started putting tape over some of the buttons, so that I could more easily distinguish between them when feeling around (see below picture).
  
  
  The buttons are all on the right edge of the face, and two rocker buttons (so, really 4 buttons total) are covered in tape right now.


• You can't hear anything while fast-forwarding or rewinding (using the regular fast-forward, or the ultra-speedy fast-forward). My old player used to play little blips while you were fast-forwarding, which gave you an indication how much farther you had to go. With this player, you have to fast-forward for a bit, then take your finger off the fast-forward button so that you can hear where you are, then fast-forward more, etc.


• The button presses don't always register. If you hit a button to skip to the next track, for instance, there will be a split second where the player is devoting all of its resources to loading the new track. If, during that split second, you hit a button, that button press won't actually get registered. It would be nice if they could fix that, because skipping several tracks in a row takes too long now.


• The player occasionally locks up. I would say that on average, this occurs about once every 100 hours that I use the player (so, not very often). But it is annoying, and I can't figure out what triggers it.

Again, though, I'm really nit-picking. Generally, I am very happy with the player. And on my trip to Europe in March, I watched tons of movies on it while I was riding on trains and buses and planes, etc.

Archos 504 Review, Part 3

Previously (Part 1 and Part 2), I had posted parts of a review of my new Archos 504 [archos.com] personal media player (PMP). This is the third and final portion of the review.


Transferring mp3s, video, or pictures to the device couldn't be easier. Just hook up the included data cable to the port on the bottom of the unit (see above), and plug the other end into a USB port on your computer.


You will then be prompted by a menu, asking you what mode you want to transfer data to it (or if you just want to charge the device). You can change the default option on this menu, but you will still have to confirm every time you connect it (which is kind of annoying, but I understand why). If you choose "PC Hard Drive mode" or "Windows Media Device mode", you will not be able to use the controls on the player itself until you disconnect the unit.


If you choose "PC Hard Drive mode" (which is what I always do), it'll show up as a drive in Windows Explorer, just like a USB stick would (see above image). There are separate directories for music, pictures, and movies, and you can create subdirectories in any of those. To transfer, you can just copy files to it, with whatever technique you usually use to copy files. When you disconnect the player from the computer, it will scan for new files and add them to the appropriate playlist. That's it! No special software needed. No drivers to install in WinXP. And it should work on anyone else's computer, and in any OS that supports Mass Storage Class devices (WinXP, OS X, Linux, etc).

Playing a video is almost identical to playing music, so I won't overload this review with specifics.


The photo browser is pretty nice. Thumbnails are displayed, and as you navigate through them, the one selected will be displayed larger than the others (see above image). You can choose to display them in a slideshow mode, or show them individually.


Once you are displaying a particular picture, you can hit the Menu button which will give you several options. You can zoom in, rotate, set the picture as your wallpaper, start a slideshow, etc. The screen is very bright, so in general, it is very easy for people to see detail in pictures.

Navigation through the photo browser (or any other menu, for that matter) is very quick, and there are seldom any slowdowns in navigation.

Overall, it is a very good unit. About the only things you could really complain about are the accessories, which are either not included or are not available. I've been happy with it so far, and are not bothered by its size.

Archos 504 Review, Part 2

On Monday, I posted Part 1 of my review of the Archos 504 [archos.com] personal media player (PMP). This is Part 2. [Go to Part 3.]

I primarily wanted a device to replace my MP3 player, with additional function as a video player, etc. So, the most important features to me were the ones related to music.


In the above image, you can see the default screen that is displayed when playing music. It tells you the previous track that was playing, the song title, artist and genre of the current track, how many tracks are in the current playlist, and the next track that will be played. Along the bottom, meters tell you progress through the current track, and volume level.


Each button on the front of the player is actually two buttons. If you push the left part of the button, it performs one function, and if you push the right part of the button, it performs a different function. From top to bottom, in the music mode, the functions are:

1. (left) 30 second forward skip, (right) increase volume
2. (left) skip to previous track/rewind, (right) skip to next track/fast-forward
3. (left) 30 second backwards skip, (right) decrease volume
4. (left) stop, (right) play/pause
5. (left) switch to alternate screen, (right) display menu

Each button has a great tactile feel when you push it -- you definitely know if it was pushed or not (lack of tactile feedback with the click-wheel is one thing I really don't like about iPod). The buttons do feel a little different, but it is very difficult to easily figure out what button you have your finger on without looking at the player.

Immediately below button 5 is an external speaker. The speaker is weak, as a lot of reviewers have complained about. But it's better than nothing.

The different fast-forward/rewind buttons are what really sold me on this line of PMPs. The 30-second-forward-skip button reminds me of a Tivo. It allows an almost instant skip 30 seconds forward into the file (which is convenient for skipping over commercials). If you hold down the 30-second-forward-skip button, you can really fly through a long mp3. There is also a "normal" fast-forward button, which advances slower, with more precision. One thing I liked about my Rio Karma is that when you fast-forwarded, you would hear little blips from the file you were playing, which allowed you to know when you had fast-forwarded enough. With the Archos 504, you don't get any audio output when fast-forwarding or rewinding. That forces you to look at the display (not practical when driving), or to just hit the 30-second-skip button a bunch of times, instead of holding it down. I wish they would fix that.


The browser (see above image) is adequate. You can sort by genre, etc. If you tell it to play a bunch of files that are stored in a directory, and then you upload more files into that directory, the new files will automatically be added to the playlist (this is one feature that I wish my Rio Karma had). Unlike many players on the market right now, you can play music while you are browsing through a list of videos, displaying pictures, or browsing through a list of mp3s.


When you are playing music, if you hit the menu button, a menu appears on the right (see above image). You can set bookmarks (this works in video mode, too), rate your music (which you can later use to sort music and make playlists), etc.


The Settings option (see above image) in the menu allows you to toggle shuffle and repeat modes.


The Sound option (see above image) in the menu allows you to adjust the bass boost, graphic equalizer (either manually, or by choosing presets), and adjust the balance.

The layout and navigation are pretty good. After the first two days, I no longer had to search around to remember how to get to a particular option.

The little icons around the border of the screen are pretty much always visible, no matter where you navigate to. They tell you whether there are other screens available, options that you can select by hitting the Menu button, the volume, the battery level, etc.

Go to Part 3.

Archos 504 Review, Part 1

Last week, I mentioned just receiving an Archos 504 [archos.com] personal media player (PMP). This is Part 1 of the review of the device. [Go to Part 2 or Part 3.]

When you receive the device, you get the player, a data cable (which doubles as the charger), a set of headphones, and a half-decent case.


A lot of people have written reviews complaining about the lack of accesories that come with the device. For instance, you don't get an A/C adapter. To charge it, you have to use the included data cable, and charge the player via your computer's USB port. It's true that it would have been nice if they would have included an A/C adapter (since where I want to charge it isn't near a computer, and I don't have USB ports in my car), but the iPod doesn't come with an A/C adapter either (and that hasn't stopped iPod from crushing all of its competition).


You also can't buy an A/C adapter that connects directly to the player. You can buy an A/C adapter, but it plugs into a dock (which is yet another accessory that you will need to buy). You can't buy another data cable directly from Archos either. I will probably buy a 3rd part data cable, and then buy a USB Power Adapter [amazon.com] to turn that data cable into an A/C adapter. It's annoying enough that you have to buy extra accessories, but the fact that you can't buy the ones you want (such as an A/C adapter or another data cable) directly from Archos is even more annoying.

It is marketed as a DVR, but you can't record video (or display video on an external source) without an optional accessory (a special cable). This is fine with me, because I am not intending to use it as a DVR. The list goes on and on. I wanted a device that would primarily be used to play MP3s, and occasionally play video that I have ripped from a DVD. Everything that I need for these jobs is included.


There seems to be a feature on the device that detects shock, and parks the hard drive to protect it from damage. If you shake the device too much, the screen will fade out (telling you that it has parked the hard drive), and then after a few seconds, it will restart automatically. Unfortunately, this is a feature that is undocumented. And not a lot of people were too specific about it in their reviews (although enough alluded to it to give me confidence that it is not a defect). I can tell you that the feature was overly sensitive when I first received the unit. When I had it in my car, every time I hit a large bump, the hard drive would get parked. It was pretty annoying. However, after I upgraded the firmware, the sensitivity shifted to more reasonable levels. I carry it around hooked to my belt all of the time (where it is constantly shaken), and it almost never detects too much shock anymore.


The device is large, as you can see from the pictures. It is quite a bit larger than the iPod both in facial area, and in thickness (obviously, the protective case on the iPod is going to make it look a lot thicker than it actually is). Although I do carry it around in my pants pockets when I'm around the house, it is not really comfortable to do so, and I can't imagine anyone doing it on a regular basis. The tradeoff for the large size is, of course, the huge screen. The screen is not only large and bright, but it can be viewed from any angle (see above and below). The beautiful screen makes it easy to show movies or pictures to friends. It also is nice, because if you put the player down, you can still easily read anything on the screen, even when it is sitting at an odd angle.


Go to Part 2 or Part 3.