uvageek

Well, after having a rocking time this afternoon with my cousin, going and getting the next Harry Potter Novel in the series (not the new one, just the one that I’m reading now) and getting a book on C# as well as the Garden State Soundtrack, I was back to home with a happy tummy full of burrito from Baja Fresh (mmm, Burrito Ultimo, how do I cherish you…).

Nonetheless, after reading through the first three chapters of Harry Potter, I decided to do a little more researching on line, reading through blogs and what not. I started thinking about the replacement phone that Anna had picked up and I started to think more about what I would like to replace my current cell phone with. So I did a looking around and I think that I’m going to save up for a Blackberry — have it connected to both my personal e-mail and my work e-mail, wow that would rock Okay, so maybe I’m getting a little giddy, but really it’s nice to be able to just disconnect and use this… and the fact that it’s Bluetooth enabled makes the Dan happy too… So yeah, my eyes are currently set on the Blackberry 7250 from Verizon Wireless. Any thoughts or recommendations?

Just a heads up that Logitech is coming out with Bluetooth Headphones that will be able to be used for their iPod. I’m curious if these will be useable with anything else — I would love to have a pair to be able to listen to stuff from my computer while I’m downstairs reading.
Nonetheless, the price is semi high right now at $149.99. Check out the news release if you’re interested — Click here.

To all the gamers out there that remember the Voodoo cards and the 3d rendering cards that required a 2d card as well for the general out put, look no further than the ATI Crossfire. From the review over on Anandtech my tongue is definitely hanging out of my mouth. The catch behind it all is that it requires that you have two PCI-Express slots, one for your video card and one for the Crossfire. For a picture of how this setup works - click here. Apparently a couple of motherboard manufacturers out there are beginning to make motherboards with two slots, but still, it’s pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I’d defintiely be interested in seeing a computer with this running though

Okay, so I heard about the Zen Neeon one morning before work while I was going through Bloglines reading a posting on the Register about the Creative Labs Zen Neeon. The first thing that came to mind was the Dodge Neon at which point I thought of a horn honking “beep beep”. Not a very manly beep at that though. Don’t get me wrong I’m blown away at the technological genius of the different major players (Apple, etc. ;-)). But what cracks me up is apparently you can change the backlight between seven different background colors, “to match your mood” as the site states. Oh and beyond that, check this out, it comes in “10 different brushed-metal blackplate covers.” No offense, but I like the colors that the Apple iPod come in, oh wait, white or black Get this it has a 5GB capacity, enough for 2500 songs. This is something that I don’t quite get. The Apple iPod shuffle that I’ve got can hold about 270 songs on it depending on what I throw on there. Now, it’s the gigabyte size. Let’s do the math here. 1 GB x 5 = 5 GB. Okay, hopefully you’re following me here so far. Now we take the linear relationship that we’ve just seen and apply it to the songs (no compression algorithms I know of ladies and gents)… ~270 songs x 5 = 1,350 songs. So, how is it that they’re saying 2500 songs? Are these songs that are shorter than regular? Songs that are like a minute long? Come on now Creative, do some real marketing analysis, no one listens to short songs anymore… it’s all ball bearings (name that movie).
I will give them credit that they’re able to squeeze 16 hours of battery life out of their Neeon (beep beep), but I still think that the design could be better, it looks almost like the size of an old Nokia cell phone.
Oh but wait, a couple of slides in they mention how it is “Faster and easier than ever. Playing your songs that is. Thoughtfully located on the Zen Neeon’s side, the scroll-wheel lets you select and scroll single handedly…” Now, I hate to break it to you, but I can navigate my iPod 20 GB regular and my iPod Shuffle single handedly. Take that Creative! Beware the Charisma of the Zen Neeon, it might just draw you in and make you love it, even if it’s of a different political party Viva Las iPod!

[Listening to: Heaven - Live - Birds of Pray (3:49)]

So I tend to sleep through my alarm clock… not quite sure why. Typically I just don’t hear it, though apparently it does go off as I’ve had reports from one of my housemates that he hears it in the morning and actually uses it to get up in the morning to read for a while before going back to sleep.
Well, enter a new invention by the students at Brown University. Apparently it measures the sleep cycle of the person that’s sleeping and then goes off in a soothing manner at the lightest point in the sleep cycle. Now, I think that this is quite a cool invention, but do you think that it will work for even people like me?
To read more, check out this article on Yahoo!.
But wait, doesn’t this look like a cheap knock off of MIT’s Clocky, the clock that runs away from you? I wonder which I would be more suitable for someone like me. My guess is that if Brown and MIT combined forces they might be able to make the alarm clock that is soothing and runs away, though if it were soothing you might reach out and snuggle with it… hmmm…

Okay, so I won’t deny it, I have a problem. If there were such a thing as Gadget Owners Anonymous, I would be a weekly attender. My desktop alone is ridiculous. The Dell 2001FP 20.1″ flat panel monitor, the IBM Thinkpad T40, the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse, the 1 GB Sport Drive from Lexar, the Dlink Blue tooth transceiver that is broken :-\. The VeNture True North stainless steel mug, the 20gb 3rd generation iPod, the 40gb Western Digital ATA hard drive, the other 256 mb thumb drive, the 6 in 1 card reader, the gigabit 5 port netgear switch, the Cambridge Soundworks speakers. Yeah, like I said, I see it, I see it as being an improvement, I procure it.
So AnandTech has an article about Dell putting out the Intel Dual Core processor chips in their high end machines (Dimension XPS and Precision 380). Check out the specks:

Dell Precision 380:
* Intel 955X Express Chipset supports up to four SATA II drives and RAID 0,1,5,10
* DDR2 ECC memory for reliable operation
* Future support for Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64
* Rack-mountable chassisDimension XPS:
* Intel 955X Express chipset with integrated Intel XD antivirus protection
* Six expansion slots (1) PCIe x16, (1) PCIe x4, (1) PCIe x1 and (3) PCI
* Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Media Center Edition 2005

Needless to say that it will require a considerable amount of will power to steer myself from procuring said computer. Granted, I’m content right now, with the Dimension 8300 and Dimension 8400 happily crunching away and Folding proteins from Stanford when I’m off at work.
I must say though that the Dell Precision 380 is looking mighty tempting… must resist

[Listening to: Who Said - Planet Funk - The Italian Job (3:45)]

You’re probably thinking, whoa, I didn’t realize that Dan listens to NSync. Actually I don’t, I just remember the phrase from having sung the song a capella a few years ago with a group of friends from The University. Yes, I sing, something you probably didn’t know about me (tenor 1).
So this past week, I cancelled my account with Vonage.
When you initially sign up for the service they mail you a Linksys router that has two phone lines built into it, for free essentially. What they failt to mention, or maybe they do and it’s obscure to the average user like myself, you have to mail it back or get hit for a $42 fee. Can we say ouch? Good thing that there’s a UPS store just around the corner from where I live, so it got mailed back pretty quickly. Honestly, I thought that it was going to be a kickin’ service to have. VoIP, or voice over internet protocol to be precise. I figured that since we have a cable modem that has a fairly big but non-consistent pipe for information to flow in and out of that we would be good to go and have some kickin’ telephony. We pay $55 a month total between myself and one of my roommates. We signed up for the “premier” plan which gives a best effort to give 6 mega bits down and 786 kilobits up. The best we’ve ever seen down was actually about 5.5 megabits and the best up was 620 kilobits. Not too shabby, and you’d thiking that this would be more than sufficient, however apparently not. Even doing router QoS (quality of service) tuning, that I might be able to have a phone that didn’t sound like there was static interference going on in the background. Maybe it’s just the ghost in the machine, but something tells me that until we have consistent broadband speeds, VoIP isn’t going to hit it off that well in the consumer market very well. Now in the business market where you have things such as business DSL and business cable which has actual service level agreements, you might actually benefit from VoIP and save a buck or two. For the consumer with a cable modem, we sadly live in a world that does not have sustained bandwidth since it’s shared in a hub configuration. There have been times using different speed tests where we see our download speed drop to 50 kilobits per second or our upload speeds drop to 20 kilobits per second — it’s at times like this where I start to think about using dialup again.
As a sidenote, when I lived by myself this would have been a much better option to have had rather than a convential POTS phoneline. I only say this because a bare minimum telephone line was approximately $42. You can’t beat $27 a month from Vonage. If you’ve got a stable internet connection that has high bandwidth with good pressure (my way of saying that it’s consistent rather than what we have where it drops here and there as though you’re white water rafting through the Grand Canyon), then give it a try.

I would have to say that the past few days have been quite a bit different than the past. They have been filled with music that is unlike any other. When I bought my car this past May, the only upgraded that I decided to get for it was the Bose Sound Package (FYI, I drive a 2004 Nissan Maxima SE). I typically go out to my car and attach my iPod or take a CD burnt from iTunes and will listen to it with the keys in the ignition, my eyes closed, just hanging out and relaxing. Now don’t get me wrong, I love taking my iPod with me to work and using the headphones that come with the iPod, but there’s just something different now using the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones. I’ve tried Sony’s MDR-NC5 Noise Canceling headphones in the past (these are actually the ones that I take to the gym with me) and I’ve tried Apple’s In Ear buds, but the Bose earphones blow them out of the water.
I received them this past Wednesday evening when I returned home from a long day in the lab where there is a constant whir of noise from fans keeping servers and routers cool. I opened the package to find a decent carrying case the shape of a small set of binoculars inside the box. Inside I removed headphones, plugged the cord in (yes, you can use them as just something to tune noise out if you don’t want to listen to music and have a cord dangling) and popped the battery in. I was pretty enamored by the quality and feel of the headphones from the beginning.
I pulled out my iPod and queued up one of my favorite playlists and set things in motion, experiencing music as I had never experienced it before. Actually, experiencing it like I was in my car, only more personally. I could hear everything, I could feel the bass, I almost started crying. I’ve been using them quite a bit since then, four days later and they have yet to make me think that the $300 investment was not worthy. In the lab, it’s actually quite eerie, there’s usually a loud rumble and high pitched whir. The dampening that the headphones create is phenominal and it becomes a very quite whir that is a lot easier to deal with, and when you’re playing music I rarely hear it since the music rides over it.
Speaking of purchasing a pair, I would suggest going with Crutchfield. My first intention was to use the discount that I get over at the Apple store and since there’s one in Tyson’s Corner I thought I would just go pick up a pair, however they don’t give the discount on Bose products (apparently very few places do). So after doing a little bit of research I found that Crutchfield had the best intentions of the customer in mind. Not only is their shipping free for these because of their cost, but they also provide free return shipping if you’re not satisfied with the product. In addition, they have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee for returns — Apple on the other hand has a 14 day return period which they exercise. So you make the call, same price, same product, but free return shipping, free shipping and a longer period to truly test them out, something tells me that in this situation Crutchfield wins (sorry Apple store, I still love you). If you are interested getting a pair, might I ask that you use my referral code? If you do you’ll get a slight discount on the item (click here for details). Nevertheless, my referral code is pe42r-hf14u-9gb6p… use it wisely.

Okay, so for the past few weeks I’ve really been trying hard to be good. I’ve been attempting to not spend money on gadgets, not spend money on frivalous things. I even disconnected my Vonage phone line (sorry DP, you’re still connected) and got rid of my NetFlix account as well (sorry Tool, we’re still on for Terminator 3 this Friday though). So in this time of great consternation of trying to pay off my car, my school loans and a little bit of credit card debt, I started looking at the IBM web site, specifically at Think Pad T42’s. I went through and customized the one that I liked and the price came out to be about $3250. I would sell both of my desktops and my monitor (though I think that I would keep the Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard) and maybe even be willing to part with my 3rd generation iPod…maybe not So here is what I found… an IBM Think Pad T42, 2.10 GHz Pentium 4 765 processor, 15″ TFT with 1600 x 1200 resolution, 128 MB video card, 1 gigabyte of memory, 60 gigabyte 7200 RPM harddrive, bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g, gigabit ethernet, and an extended life battery (lasts about four hours, eat that Dell!). It can be accessed on the IBM site at: Click here.

Looking for a new flashlight? Look no further than the Inova X1. It’s small, cute, compact and did I mention that I can’t see much out of my right eye these days? Yes, they’re bright kids… Check out my new best friend — http://www.inovalight.com/site.html?X1-ov. As the little cute fluffy guy from Gremlins would say, “Bright Light! Bright Light!’