Yet Another Free HD TV Player
Adobe has released their own software HD TV player -- the Adobe Media Player.
Did we need another one?
Apparently so. At least the wise guys at Adobe think so.
Maybe this one will be different. It is frustrating to get crap signal designed for a laptop screen and to try to put it on a large screen HD TV. This one looks like it will actually do real, usable HDTV. There aren't many of those. So "yay" for that.
Then there's the library that Adobe has lined up. It's already pretty huge and growing. It looks like Adobe has put themselves into the internet TV business -- like the TV networks of old. They've built the player -- like the diamond in the "Field of Dreams" -- and the HD content owners are coming to them. Adobe is taking a piece of the advertising revenue. Smart for them and good for us. More HD TV that you can actually use! Yay!
DualDisk Format - Mostly Cool
I just got a hybrid "DualDisc" for review. Cool idea, but with a toch of Frankenstein weirdness.
A DualDisc has DVD content on one side and an audio-only CD on the other. The DVD side works OK. That is, our regular living room DVD player read it OK, as expected. No problems jumping "chapters" or doing other DVD tricks. Good.
The CD side was not as easy. It played in my computer with some retries needed, but wouldn't play in my old standby CD player at all.
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Posted September 28, 2006 Permalink
Cuisinart Brew Central
If you love your coffee, this is the coffeemaker for you.
The Cuisinart® Brew Central Coffeemaker is an evolutionary step in coffeemakers. This one looks terrific and makes fantastic coffee but it also does at least two new things that instantly seem like all other coffeemakers should learn to do them.
Visually the Cuisinart Brew Central makes a tech-industrial statement with a monolithic brushed stainless steel finish. The design murmurs "elegant efficiency" and will fit well in any kitchen. It seems large but is actually not larger than a typical 12-cup brewer and may actually be more compact than some. It is very easy to keep clean but is also cleverly designed to minimize or eliminate the unsightly staining that always appears when coffee and plastics come together. (The matte-black and stainless/black color combos are especially so.)
The Cuisinart Brew Central is programmable from start to finish. And we're not just talking about what time you want it to brew your java; no, no. This machine will let you set the temperature that your coffee should be brewed and the temperature for the variable heater plate and how long the heater plate should stay on. You can even program a slower brew cycle for those times when you want to brew a "short pot" of just a few cups.
This coffee machine even tells you when it's time to decalcify! That's one of the two new evolutionary tricks that it does. Not only that, but it has a self-cleaning cycle built into it's programming. Fantastic!
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Posted June 12, 2006 Permalink
Netflix is the Nefizzle. eh. Rocks.
How many ways can you say "awesome"?
Netflix is truly awesome. Truly. Literally. Awe inspiring.
Does what it says it will do. Makes life more fun or at least easier.
Netflix does what it says it will do. Every movie published on DVD except porn, most TV shows on DVD. Shipped to your house in a couple of days. Three movies at your house or in transit -- and Netflix turns them around FAST!
It is just plain AWESOME!
Pick a movie. Any movie.
If it's on DVD you can add it to your list -- or "queue" in Netflixese -- and probably have it within days. If you have three movies out to your account, then as soon as you send one back the next one in your queue that is available will be mailed out to you.
And it really is almost as soon as you put a movie in the mailbox to go back. Our experience is that within 24 hours Netflix will confirm that we've returned a DVD and that the next available one on our list is being shipped.
And the next "available" DVD is almost always the one that is next in our queue. The exceptions to that are for movies that haven't actually been released yet and -- very, very rarely -- a popular movie that may not be available because all the copies are out. We actually only had that happen once or twice in the years that we've been with Netflix.
No driving to the "Blockbuster" (ballbuster) video store to search through the remnants of whatever is available. The movies actually come to you! It's amazing! It's wonderful! It makes sense!
Netflix is AWESOME!
Netflix does not suck. Netflix exhales goodness.
If you aren't using Netflix to rent DVDs, you are dark ages. You should have your computer taken away. Permanently
If you don't have Netflix, GET IT NOW!.
Posted June 9, 2006 Permalink
Free Calls To US & Canada!
Skype has announced free calls to any US or Canadian landline number! They say that the free program will run until at least the end of 2006. (The date of the announcement is 15 May, 2006.)
Amazing. Free calls from anywhere in the world to any landline phone number in the US and/or Canada!
If you're not familiar with Skype, it is an amazing internet telephone service. The software is free, and with it you can make calls from your computer to other Skype equipped computers or to any real telephone number in the world.
Calls from your PC to any other Skype PC are free. No matter where in the world they are located; the call is free. Nice.
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Posted May 24, 2006 Permalink
Kiehl's Shaving Cream.
Kiehl's "Close Shavers' Squadron Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream"
If you are a part of the population that shaves regularly, this is a mouthful that's worth comitting to memory: Kiehl's "Close Shavers' Squadron Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream". Long name, but worth the effort. Hard to find and a touch expensive, but still well worth the effort.
This is going to sound strange, but using Kiehl's actually makes shaving enjoyable. I'm not kidding. It's what every shave cream / lotion / lather / foam wishes it was and sometimes promises but fails.
The first time I used it, it was a strange and slightly weird experience. It is not like any other shaving, uhm, ... spread ... that I've ever used. For starters, it doesn't lather up or foam. It sort of just spreads around. You can try to foam it up if you want, but you're wasting your time and, worse, you're wasting the Kiehl's! If you're used to using a foaming style of shave cream then this is a quite mysterious thing. How is it supposed to hold up the little hairs so that they can be shaved?
But when it spreads around, oh my. It has a sort of tingle that is simultaneously warm and cool, soothing and astringent. It says on the (very wordy) package that it is "spiked with menthol and camphor" and I guess that's the trick. They could add "yin and yang" to the already long name. You can almost feel the hairs on your cheeks start to stand up.
That's a very nice thing; the whiskers on your face stand up. At attention. Ready to be shorn smooth! As you spread the cream around your face you actually feel the whiskers stand up under your fingers. Strangely you also feel your fingers get kind of dull feeling. Like there's some menthol or minty something that's making the first layer of skin a little numbish.
That's ok, because they also feel slick and your face feels even slicker. (And coool. And waaarrmmm. and ... ok, ok.) Hairs are standing up stiff and ready to be shaved, face is slick and smooth. You can see where this is going, right. You bring your razor over and the blade just finds it's own natural glide over your face and the skin left in it's path is smooth as it was after your very first shave. That's nice.
Kiehl's "Close Shavers' Squadron Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream". It works. Oh my, it works.
Posted May 6, 2006 Permalink
Feliway Cat Problem Fixer.
Last year a family acquaintance had the sad necessity to get rid of their 9 year old cat. The cat had been an only-cat for her entire life and, aside from trips to the vet, had never been outside. We were happy to welcome her to our house where we already had three cats who, as far as we could tell, all got along very well.
We carefully introduced the newcomer to the house by first giving her a separate room that she could explore at her own speed. We started with the door closed then, after a few days, we screened off the door so that the cats could easily smell each other's presence and even catch a glimpse. After awhile we lowered the barrier enough so that the new cat could get over it if she wished. When she came out on her own, then we took down the screen entirely, but left her own litter box in there. It took a month over all, but eventually she came out and joined the house and the other cats went into "her room" again (and she permitted it) and all seemed to be well down in cat world.
Then sadly, over the past year, two of our cats separately became very ill and died within a few months of each other. We hadn't realized it until they passed that the two who died had been performing a cat-culture role in our cat household. The third of our original three cats is an aggressively playful (former) male. He grew up from a very, very young age in the presence of the other two cats so that they knew him and his "moves" and knew how to deal with him when he came a-stalking.
If he pounced on the new cat, she didn't know how to return the rough-house play. She would jump (mistake), hiss, spit, swipe (all only encouraging) and then run away and hide (always a serious mistake). Except for an occasional ambush, rough-boy cat generally left the new cat alone. To put it nicely, she was no fun. But after the other two cats died, rough-boy turned all his attention to her. In short order, he was the only creature in the house having any fun. We had to keep making peace or sweeping up pieces. (Of fur, that is.) She -- the new cat -- just couldn't figure out how to deal with rough-boy and only stared blankly when we tried to explain the "don't run away" rule.
She'd never been to kitty kindergarten and was missing some crucial kitty social skills. New cat became so stressed out that she was sometimes afraid to use the cat box for fear of being jumped by rough-boy and even developed a slight urinary tract distress because of it.
Enough is enough. Over on the Coffeerooms gURLfriends Pets board we heard about a book called Cat vs. Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett and found, in there, that we'd basically done everything right but that, because of the way that they'd developed socially, the cats were in a sort of habitual groove that was going to be very difficult to break.
We tried more interactive play. (Stop laughing!) And we tried catching and modifying certain of their habits and traits. He clearly was "hunting" her before dinner time and immediately after, and she was just getting into a state of perpetual anxiety.
Johnson-Bennett did mention one thing in the book, Cat vs. Cat, that we'd heard of in the past but had never tried: "Feliway". Feliway is a synthetic analog of cat facial pheremones that has the effect of calming cats.
No kidding.
You don't spray it on the cats (that is a warned against bad thing to do), but you spray it on the places around your house where cats rub their cheeks. When they or another cat smells the Feliway, they get a signal that says that a friendly, non-agressive cat has been here and is in a very good and relaxed frame of mind. When your cats get this signal they relax. They mellow out. They chill.
And it works. Feliway is amazing. You can almost see the cats start passing peace signs at each other.
And here's how it works for us. Cats are creatures of habit. The habit we needed to break was that he would stalk and pounce and she would scream and run away. We knew where his favorite places are to ambush her and we new where she was most nervous to be. So, a couple of times a day, about an hour before meal times (which is about when the "me hunter, me catch food" cycle starts) we go around and spritz the cat cheek-marking spots in those places. Generally corners of walls and chair legs, about 6-8 inches off the floor.
It's remarkable. We can watch him come out of bed to start his stalking, come down the hall and encounter a whiff of Feliway and just, like, go all mellow. Sit and lick something. Play with a rag mouse. Roll over.
She will walk by like it's no big deal. The packaging calls it "Feliway Comfort Zone" and that's really what it's like; all of a sudden there's a large "zone of comfort" that comes down around the cats.
Very cool. Very quiet. No fur to clean up. Happiness in the cat box. Life in cat world is very good indeed.
According to the books and the paper in the Feliway box, it can also be used to help correct bad habits -- like urine marking or the dreaded "box aversion". I believe it.
It comes in two forms: a spray bottle and a plug-in difussion device that's sort of like a plug-in room deodorizers. Feliway has no human-discernable odor though some of the it's packed with has a little scent to it. (Either that or I'm part cat.) (Nah.)
If you have multiple cats, or just a cat with issues this stuff if definitely recommended. It's a little expensive, but very effective. (We paid $26 for our first spray bottle at a local Pet Barn, but happily we found it for just $15.99 at Amazon! [Yay Amazon!]) And the book, Cat vs. Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett is also a great help, pleasant to read and easy to understand.
And come over to the gURLfriends' Pets board at Coffeerooms too. Lots of nice people over there sharing thoughts, ideas and advice. You and your cats (or whatever) will be very welcome there.
Posted May 1, 2006 Permalink
"Refurbs" Are a Great Deal!
There are some fantastic deals to be had in "refurbished" computers or other electronic equipment.
Refurbished -- sometimes called "refurbs" -- has become a catchall term these days. It now seems to mean any product that's been returned to the manufacturer after it's been sold once to a retailer.
Note; not necessarily "returned by a consumer" but just sold once to a retailer.
Oh sure; refurbished can actually mean "refurbished" -- i.e., returned to the factory and fixed & cleaned up. But, these days, at least as often as not it means simply that the device was sold once and then returned to the manufacturer. That might simply mean that it was overstocked at a big-box store like Wal-Mart or mis-ordered by an end-user. In either case it was simply returned unopened.
These days, consumer liability issues being what they are, a reputable manufacturer won't want to try to resell the product as "brand new". Instead they'll sell it as refurbished "like-new" and complete with warranty and complete packaging. Cool!
Even if they were "returned for repair", the refurbished deals are still as good as new when they go back on sale. Maybe even better if you go by the "pre-disastered" strategy of consumerism. That means that somebody else worked out the kinks and shook out the bugs for you.
Lately I've been finding some fantastic deals on refurbs at eBay, Overstock.com and especially at TigerDirect.com.
The best refurb deals are not at the manufacturers sites -- though many do have sections where they sell refurbs. The best deals seems to be at places like TigerDirect.com where they seem to be making bulk deals with the manufacturers. That's my guess at what's happening anyway. You can find these deals hidden away for fantastic computers at prices that are sometimes half or better of what you'd expect to pay at a big-box discount. Full warranty, full software package, complete documentation and accessory hardware. The whole deal!
So; here's the thing. If you're shopping around for a computer -- desktop or laptop or handheld -- or a stereo or an MP3 player (including all iPod models) or even a flat screen TV (HDTV or ... whatever), be sure to take a look at refurbs! That's where the good deals are.
It works!
Posted April 26, 2006 Permalink
The Perfect Mouse Trap
"Mice Cube" -- a perfectly elegant mouse trap.
"A" mouse showed up under our sink last week. A hole in the side of the house for some heating renovation must have let it in.
Good news! We caught it -- or it caught itself -- within a couple hours in a sublimely simple little plastic box trap called a "Mice Cube". 
It's sort of like a Havahart trap but smaller & simpler. It's just a smoked plastic oblong box with an inward opening hinged flap in one end. The mouse goes in by pushing up the flap to enter and the flap closes behind. No triggers, no springs, no catches, loops, wires. Just a box and a flap powered by curiousty and gravity. As the beer guys say, "Brilliant!"
So; the mouse caught itself. We didn't want to kill it just for coming into the warmth, so I took it out to the woods and let it loose. (Also simple; just turn the trap over so that the flap falls open. The mouse figures it out in about 0.001 seconds and is gone.) Rinsed the trap out and put a bit more cheese in it just to be sure we got all the mice and waited.
Caught another a few hours later. And another over night. Then two more the next day. Hmmm. Catching one at a time isn't doing the job. Need more traps.
Here's a rub. I'd picked up this excellent little trap a few years earlier and the store where'd I'd bought it was long gone. Tried a local hardware and a building supply and a big box building supply (Home Depot) but no luck. No "Mice Cube" traps anywhere. But they did have alternatives. We wanted live capture but found that didn't limit the number of choices much, if at all. 
We ended up getting two different models from Victor, the company with the big red "V" logo that you see on nearly every standard snap-type mousetrap in the universe. We picked the fairly simple looking Victor model M007 and the "Mutliple Live Capture" model M313.
The M007, despite its name and our very best efforts, is not the James Bond of live mouse capture. It's actually a bit of a joke that serves better as a mouse toy and feeder than as a trap. For starters, it provides no way to tell for sure if it has captured a mouse or not. We've discovered that, for a live-trap device, this is a serious drawback.
The M007 has an external door that sort of swings down to do the trapping, as it were, when a mouse steps to the rear of the box. When the door has dropped down there is a clear implication is that there's a mouse captured inside. 
Unfortunately the implication rarely pans out and the fallen door only indicates what you can see -- that the door has dropped. Usually after the mouse has left the building. With the bait.
We've set two of these M007 devices 3 or 4 times a day for the last week plus. Call it 40 attempts to give the trap the benefit of the low end. Out of those forty or so, we have positively captured and released one mouse with the M007 though the the mice have captured the bait about half the time. That makes the W-L-T for the mice 20-1-19. Everybody say, "eek" or "Go Mice", depending on your team.
During that same period we captured more mice with the single "Mice Cube" trap. (A completely different take on "go mice".)
The other model we tried is also a Victor. This baby looks like some more thought has gone into it. Maybe some actual field testing?
Teh M313 is also a plastic box, though about twice the size of the others. Victor says it can capture three or four mice at a time and this is a feature that we could use. The M313 is semi-translucent so that you can sort of see if there's a mouse inside. That's good. It has a metal ramp and door assembly powered by gravity. More complex than the "Mice Cube" to be sure, but built by Victor, the mouse trap company. The ACME of mouse trap companies. Right?
Nah.
We set up the M313 immediately; diligently following the instructions and the baiting tips that are offered at the Victor mouse trap website. Then we waited.
While we waited the Mice Cube turned up another mouse. Over night the M313 did get a mouse. One. I saw it in there at around four in the morning, but left it to catch another one or two before cat feeding time at 7:00.
(Yes; we have cats. Two. They seem disturbed to know that we have mice.)
At seven I expectantly checked the M313 for more of the family. Alas and alack! The Mice Cube has yet another, but the M313 is empty. (Probably the same guy, right?)
It seems that the mouse had found the achilles bit of plastic in the M313 and had chewed through it. (it was a little tab that sticks down from the top -- to keep the mouse from getting back onto the metal ramp?) I found mouse poo and plastic shavings in the trap, but no mouse.
Victor has a few other live capture traps in its product line, including one called the "Tin Cat." Apparently I know more about cats than they do. We won't be trying that one. Three losers is enough.
Not to be totally negative; the Victor bait tips are useful and they do work -- just not in the Victor traps. Even the one that says just "water".
Good news: our order of four new Mice Cubes arrived today. So simple and excellent.
Better news is that our supply of mice seems to have stopped. But its good to know that we have a stash of perfect traps on hand. Bring it on mice.
The near perfect, certainly elegant "Mice Cube" mouse trap.
Posted March 27, 2006 Permalink
