Reviews Written By: A2LDWYW38O4N6Hprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Xbox 360 Elite Bundle (includes 120GB Hard Drive, Kung-Fu Panda, LEGO Indiana Jones) | |
 | "Great games, poor multimedia" | 2009-08-27 |
| I'll make this review quick. The 360 has great games, the exclusives are good but the multi-platform games are even better. COD4, Batman, etc... They typically slightly outperform the PS3 equivelents but this isn't always true. The controller has a great shape to it but the sticks are not as precise and smooth as the PS3's dual shock 3 and the digital pad is a joke. Those a generally fairly minor issues though.
XBLA is overrated, the PSN has just as good as or arguably better downloadable games. XBLA does have a few starts though like Shadow Complex, Castle Crashers and Braid. If you're buying this for A/V along with some gaming, stop. The A/V is down right horrible. It outputs only Dolby Digital, the interface is bad for multimedia and it's limited to DVD. XBox Live is a really capable service. It's got pretty much every feature you'd hope for. The seemless chatting across games is really the only major difference between it and PSN but it is _huge_. I'd take that over Home anyday. Reliability is poor, no question about that but the warranty is pretty good. The 3 years only covers a couple of things like RROD and some new issue they are having. Frequent lockups are not covered. I got mine for $299 with a Dell sale. I recommend waiting for that price as $399 is a rip-off considering the PS3 Slim is only $299. If you are a hardcore gamer, you already own one of these and a PS3. | ||
 | Playstation 3 80GB System (CECHK01) | |
 | "Great multimedia console, this is my second, a few notes" | 2009-08-16 |
| I used my 60GB every day for 2 1/2 years and it finally died. I had an extended warranty which paid me the original purchase price so I bought the 80GB to replace it. It was our main multimedia hub in the family room. I absolutely loved it. When it died I tried to make due with my 360 for multimedia for awhile and there is no comparison. I upgrade to a 320GB with my original and managed to back it up before it died. Here are a few things that are different: 1. No Backward Compatibility, there are rumors this is coming. I was playing GoW II at the time so it's a bit dissapointing. 2. No SACD support. This is hardly mentioned but I have a small collection so again, this is dissapointing. 3. Less USB, no card readers. I plan to buy the Nyko USB port and memory stick reader. The memory stick is handy to quickly backup you saved games after you play them. 4. Runs cooler, less chips, 45nm chips. 5. Video you purchased will not work on the new PS3. It's basically DRM. I was told I could call Sony to get help in this area. The 360 has been fine for games while my PS3 was gone but there is no comparison for movies, music, video, pictures, etc... | ||
 | Panasonic KX-TG1033S Dect 6.0 Cordless Telephone w/Digital Answering machine, 3 Handsets Total | |
| "Poor features, decent quality" | 2009-05-26 |
| First the quality, it seems to work fine. The speaker phone and regular phone all work without issue so far. Volume can be low for the hard of hearing but it is clear. My problem with this phone system is the features and usability quirks. 1. The base has no speaker phone (I knew this before buying). 2. Each handset will display "N Missed Calls" until you manually go through each missed call in the CID list and erase them one by one. Once you've done this the handset will display the date/time which is what I would expect. There is no, erase all feature. 3. The phone system rings at a serious delay. The caller may have waited one to two rings before you actually hear it. 4. Both the listening and ringer volumes don't get very loud. 5. The usability of speaker phone is odd. You cannot toggle it. Instead hitting the speaker phone button does nothin if speaker phone is already on. You have to hit the talk button to turn off speaker phone. 6. The customer service menu item give you a internet URL instead of dialing customer service for you. I don't consider this a minus because at least something is on there. 7. The base set has no display. You can't view CIDs or manage anything from it visually. 8. The belt/shoulder piece on the back of the phone is to thin to be useful for anything. It's not that this is a bad phone system. It's that there are a lot better designed phone systems out there. This is my first 1.9 GHZ phone but as for the 5.8 GHZ systems the Uniden TRU-8885-3 5.8 GHz Digital Cordless Phone System has much better features and usability. We had that system for about 6 years without issue. The batteries were starting to get flakey so we decided it was time to "upgrade". We sacrificed a lot of functionality for 1.9 GHZ which I hear absolutely no difference. I don't recommend buying old tech but be careful with these Amazon reviews. It seems people will give anything that's shiney and does the basic job of a phone a 5 star rating. | ||
 | Joy of Home Wine Making | |
 | "Poor writing, poor focus" | 2008-07-16 |
| I read the reviews on Amazon prior to buying this book but mainly I bought because it seemed to be modeled after it's home brewing counter part, (The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing). I've been brewing beer for sometime and have spoken with several wine makers aboout making a transition to wine. The first thing I noticed when I started reading this book is that it's poorly written. I'll provide some examples. There is a chapter in the beginning for making your first gallon of wine. The author starts with a list of equipment and then goes into instruction. She forgets to mention that you need 2 jugs, she gives you easy to follow steps but never explains why you need to do it. One part she tangents off of her destilled instruction to give you detailed syphoning (racking) instructions. Even the technique she gives you is horrible. She tells you to sanitize your mouth with alcohol and suck the wine to then of the tube then quickly stick in the jug. Gimme a break! If she wanted to offer a good technique there are plenty of better ones like an auto-syphon for $10 or to cap the jug and blow through a seperate hose. Her poor writing style continues where she speaks goes off on other tangents about her husband, then suddenly starts using his name but never links the two things. In later chapters she refers back to things she justified in the beginning like using PA (potential alcohol) instead of SG (specific gravity) readings. If you actually go back she doesn't ever offer a good explanation as to why. Some of her instructions are just dumb. As I stated she tells you not to use gravity reading on a hydrometer because you don't need it. She says to use PA. The she gives you methods for adjusting your reading for temperature by using SG. Huh!? Her rationale is that the only way to adjust the reading is by using SG then re-converting. This is idiotic. Both scales are completely linear. Even the adjustments she gives you are wrong. She says add .9 instead of .009. This is fine for us experienced brewers and wine makers but this is in the beginners chapter of her book. Someone could be very confused by this. Lastly the book seems to completely wrip off the title, format, etc... of Charlie Papazian's book but is nothing like it. It leaves critical steps out, never gets passed being a beginners book, barely touches on grape wine making and is generally a poor instructional guide to wine making. Charlie has a motto in his book, "relax, have a homebrew". She tries to offer a couple of her own but they're obviously just poor ripoffs from his. Her index is missing several terms she uses frequently such as "PA". In summary you can learn everything this book has to offer by reading online "how to" articles. I suggest then going to some wine making forums and meeting people. Either that or find a better book. | ||
 | Playstation 3 40GB Spider-Man Movie Pack | |
| "Just like the 80GB with these differences" | 2007-11-04 |
| See my 80GB review for a full and detailed look atht ePS3, it's capabilities and games. The 40GB was a very smart move for Sony. Let's first address what detracters will say is a problem. Lack of backward compatibility with PS2 titles. First, almost all people who own PS2 games currently, own a PS2. The disadvantage is they can't sell it off and have to support running two consoles. Of course, selling it won't net you the $100 price drop this PS3 gives you so financially it's still advantages. Some XBox owners will use this as a point to detract people from going with the PS3. They fail to mention that the XBox core edition also has no backward compatibility. In fact, it doesn't even have a hard drive. The XBox premium edition has somewhat poor backward compatibility as well. Really, people are buying PS3s to play PS3 games and watch high definition Blu-ray movies. For $399 you get two in one. Back to that in a second. What else in the 40GB missing? It's missing memory card readers. Rarely to people use these. Most people use USB and/or already have a USB memory card reader for their PC which will work fine for the PS3. It also has 2 USB slots instead for 4 but USB hubs are dirt cheap. Lastly, it uses a 65nm process instead of a 90nm meaning the chips are smaller and use less power. This is good. It has all the same movie and gaming capability, built in wireless internet, Blu-ray, HDMI 1.3, etc... So for $399 you get a high definition player and a next-gen console with wireless internet. The cost of this for the 360 would be: 1. $349 for premium (20GB) 360 2. $179 for HD-DVD player 3. $100 for wireless internet Total: $628 That's expensive! If you don't need wireless internet you're still paying $528! You might as well go get a cheaper HD-DVD drive on Ebay but of course now you probably have multiple consoles and movie players. Of course the PS3 upscales regular DVDs to 1080p as well so you can get rid of your old DVD player. Some people will argue the games aren't there yet. See my 80GB review for details on that. Here's some quick examples of great games for the PS3 in stores now or released before the end of 2007: I've rated each game from 1-5. I've excluded many games and tried to focus on the games I like. 1. Heavenly Sword (Exclusive to PS3) 4/5, incredible game, just too short. 2. Warhawk (Exclusive to PS3) 5/5 3. Folklore (Exclusive to PS3) 4/5 4. Guitar Hero III 4/5 5. Eye of Judgement (Exclusive to PS3) 5/5 - Niche audience 6. Haze (Exclusive to PS3) Not out yet 7. Ratchet & Clank Future (Exclusive to PS3) 5/5 8. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Exclusive to PS3) Not out yet 9. UT3 (Maybe for this year) (Timed exclusive to PS3) - only console version that supports PC mods, and mouse/keyboard 10. Ghost Recon ADW2 5/5 11. Rainbow Vegas Six 5/5 12. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 5/5 13. Fight Night Round 3 5/5 14. Super Stardust HD 5/5 (Exclusive to PS3, downloadable under $10) 15. Everyday Shooter 5/5 (Exclusive to PS3, downloadable under $10) 16. Calling all Cars 4/5 (Exclusive to PS3, downloadable under $6) 17. Super Puzzle Fighter HD Remix 4/5 18. Madden 08 4/5 19. NHL 2K8 4/5 20. NBA 2K8 5/5 21. MLB 07: The Show 4/5 And there's a lot more to come. For instance Gran Turismo 5 Proglogue is free this year, with Gran Turismo 5 coming out next year. Little Big Planet may be the biggest and most innovative title since Mario and will be out in January/February time frame. And of course there's Metal Gear Solid 4. This game looks incredible and will undoubtly be the biggest game of 2008. Good luck with your purchases! | ||
 | Sony PlayStation3 (60Gb) | |
| "Great system, content quickly catching up" | 2007-07-17 |
| The PS3 is a great machine. Here's a few features the other consoles don't have: 1. Blu-ray, which is clearly winning the format war. PS3 games can come on Blu-ray, the XBox 360 can't ship games on the optional HD-DVD player. 2. HDMI 1.3, supports future video formats but more practically supports the new sound formats. HDMI 1.3 is extremely rare in today's equipment. 3. Bluetooth. 4. DLNA, XBox does have media center extender. PS3 works directly with DLNA to allow content sharing between your PC (Media Player 11) or any other DLNA device. 5. Built-in WiFi. It costs $[...] for XBox 360 WiFi. 6. Hard drive. Of course the XBox 360 comes optional with a hard drive. The problem here is that developers can't develop for optional hardware. It can be used for a bunch of things but doesn't help game performance by allowing caching like the PS3 does. 7. Price. Am I crazy? How could I be using price as and argument for the PS3. Well, Take an XBox 360 Pro for $[...] and add a Wifi and you end up with the same price but still lacking HDMI and all the features above. The XBox 360 elite is a better deal than the Pro but add the HD-DVD drive and we're talking about a $[...] price tag. With an equal feature comparison the PS3 is cheaper than the XBox 360. The one advantage in price the 360 is, is that it's equipment is optional. Unfortunaly for the 360, optional equipment can't be developed for. Right now the XBox360 is the clear content winner. However, if you go to [...] and look at the reviews you'll find only 6 or so games above a 9.0 review. The PS3 already has 3 and potentially by the end of the XMas season will have already passed XBox360 in quantity of superb games. PS3 is quickly catching up and will soon pass XBox in sports games. With other exclusives like Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Little Big Planet, Home, Metal Gear Solid 4, MLB 07: The Show, and much more Sony is not just offering up a bunch of first person shooter exclusives. It's offering a wide variety of interative experiences. While XBox 360 is the current leader, Wii has found a great and fun market, PS3 is truly taking things to the next level in addition to eventually surpassing the other consoles at their own games. The one exception I'd like to make is this. For kids and people who love Nintendo games, you may wish to buy both a Wii and PS3. No one makes games like Nintendo. Not that they are superior to all other games but because they are completely unique. Many XBox "exclusives" will also be available on PC and will look and run better. | ||
 | Radiohead - Amnesiac | |
| "Missconceived as electronica, full of soul." | 2001-07-15 |
| I love this album. Almost every song represents a simple but complete thought and theme. I've heard a few people call it electronica, but a lot of the piano sounds are done with a beutiful sounding organ, some of that bass tracks are stand up bass and there's still plenty of guitar. I love the mixing of electronic drums with real drums as well. I actually don't care what they used, they pulled it of live and it was better then the album. I think they played 6 songs from Amnesiac at Santa Barbara and they were some of the best songs they did. Truly a great album, maybe even better then Kid A, that's hard to say, but there close. Who wants every album to sound like OK Computer, OK Computer was new, fresh and very good all at the same time. That's why I liked it, and now Amnesiac is new,fresh and very good as well. | ||
 | The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide: Programmer's and Developers Exams (With CD-ROM) | |
 | "Excellent Read but falls short of helping you pass the test" | 2001-06-26 |
| I learned a lot from this book. I do recommend it as a starting point for Sun Certified Java Programmer exam. If I were to rate is on how well it was written and the things I learned from it, I might offer it 5 stars. Instead, I'm rating it on that and how well it did in helping me pass the test. If you need a starting point for the certification this is it, if you think this is all you need, then think again. | ||
 | Applying UML and Patterns | |
| "Should be titled "A Classic Into to OOAD"" | 2001-06-11 |
| A realistic book, with realistic topics. I have no idea what the reader before me was claiming. Let me start by correcting that person: 1. The book is for everybody who wants to be walked through a OO process and shown how to implement consumable artifacts, then carry them foward into the next phase. I would not recommend this for absolute beginners, just beginners to OOAD. 2. Learn UML from the source? The UML User Guide is not that good of a book. Fowler's UML distilled is excellent but he's not the source. 3. Learn Design Patterns from GoF? This book is meant to address fundamentals. GRASP is applied before GoF. Besides this is an intro to OOAD, the GoF book is far beyond an introduction and on applies to OOD. 4. The reviewer said that Craig uses patterns as a comercial tactic. Obviously this person doesn't understand what patterns are. It serves as a method of communication. When you say, "Which pattern did you use?" it allows people to coomunicate based on expert advice instead of their own opinion. Anti-Patterns aren't like Design Patterns but they are patterns. GRASP patterns are the best way I've seen to explain fundamental OO concepts. 5. AS far as the comment, "in the small", this is an introduction! It walks you through a sample process, since it is an intro to OOAD, it walks you through the MOST IMPORTANT aspects, which includes use cases, conceptual modeling, and reusable design techniques. 6. I really don't know what to say about the contracts. I typically don't use them, and wouldn't get to hung up about it. This review turned out to be more of a review on a previous review. Let me end that section with: Why is this expert in OOAD reading an intro book? How could somebody who needs an introduction be so critical of one? If you need to read an introduction, it means you don't know all that much, and thus how would you judge it so critically. For those of you interested. This book is the ultimate classic introduction to OOAD. I read it, then adopted a few different techniques from other authors. I prefer Alistair Cockburn's Use Case style and from what I've heard, Craig Larman likes it to. I would recommend something like this: Read: Applying UML and Patterns UML Distilled Writing Effective Use Cases then a process book... - David Roberts | ||
 | Data Modeling | |
| "Simple, complete and straight to the point" | 2001-03-26 |
| This book was really great. I found myself understanding every concept the first read. The book gave me the most info in the shortest amount of time, compared to any other book I've read. For those of you who have been working informally with databases for awhile, this book is the next step. I believe the book helps beginners all the way to the experienced. The only thing I would suggest is to have some knowledge of relational databases. Even if all you've used is Access, that will do. | ||
 | Design Patterns | |
| "The place to start for learning design patterns" | 2001-03-08 |
| I felt the book was as clear and concise as possible. It did a great job in quickly introducing me to patterns and is an essential reference in my collection. The best part about this book is it's organization and use of Case Studies. I am not a C++ or a SmallTalk programmer so Java examples would be nice, but this was released around 1995 so I can't possibly be critical of there choices. I recommend anyone involved with software design read this. | ||
 | Pattern Hatching : Design Patterns Applied (Software Patterns (Paperback)) | |
| "A great follow up to the GoF design patterns book." | 2001-03-08 |
| This is superb book. I felt it was easy to understand, of course I had already read the GoF book. It has a complete chapter filled with a great case study. It walks your through designing a UNIX style file system. There is nothing bad to say about this book, I recommend it to anyone who wants more after reading the original Design Patterns. | ||
 | Writing Effective Use Cases | |
| "Great book on how to ACTUALLY WRITE use cases." | 2001-03-08 |
| This book was very informative. It really teaches you great techniques for writing Use Cases. It is the best book I've found for writing Use Cases but introduces a couple of concepts that it falls short in conveying understanding. There was never any explanation referring to Extensions meaning Alternative Flow Of Events. This is obvious, so I presumed it to be true. I'm sure many of you know, but nothing explained it, and every example said: None. Even the example that states that an Extension Point is used in the next Use Case, still says: None. There are grammatical mistakes throughout the book (Not a big deal). I felt, that if you read this and stay within the realm of the authors suggestions, and disregard the alternative methods, you should be alright. I would suggest to the author improving the explanations of a White Box Use case, instead of supplementing content with examples. I know what White Box is in Design, but It would be wrong of me to presume the same behavior in a Use Case. The icons are a very handy reminder, and even with all the the perceived problems with the book, I think it's the best one available that I've seen. ESPECIALLY when compared to the Unified Process books. | ||
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