Reviews Written By: A2QVSQFCJRDRX5provided by Amazon.com |
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 | Kodak EasyShare LS743 4MP Digital Camera with 2.8x Optical Zoom | |
 | "Great Starter Camera" | 2005-01-15 |
| I decided to purchase this camera for my daughter for Christmas. I have been encouraging her to take pictures since she was five, and I was, frankly, tired of buying disposables. Since she is 10, I felt she was old enough to appreciate a camera that she wouldn't abuse, yet would let her share her vision of her world with me. At a little over $200, I wasn't worried if she dropped it in a pool or a toilet; I gave her the camera with the caveat: it's yours, treat it with care and make it last.
If you have children (8-15), you know that they are more technically competent than we were at their age; just as we were more technically competent than our parents during our formative years (think TRS-80, Commodore 64...). My daughter opened the camera, charged the battery, and took digipics within the first 4 hours. Combined with the printer dock, she was printing digipics of Cliff, our cat, Toby, our dog, and a great group digipic (using the timer function and tripod) with no help from me or the instruction manual. Online services certainly offer more inexpensive per print costs, but how can you compare instant Kodak-quality prints with wait-a-week-save-fifty-cents for slumber parties and last minute science projects. The LS743 certainly is not the most advanced camera in the world, which is why I rate it 4 stars. However, Kodak has made a camera that is as simple to use as a disposable, and coupled with the printer dock, is a rock-solid introduction to digital photography for your 10 year old daughter or your 70 year old mother. | ||
 | LS-743 Easyshare Digital Camera - Exclusive Digital X-tra Package | |
| "Great Starter Camera" | 2005-01-15 |
| I decided to purchase this camera for my daughter for Christmas. I have been encouraging her to take pictures since she was five, and I was, frankly, tired of buying disposables. Since she is 10, I felt she was old enough to appreciate a camera that she wouldn't abuse, yet would let her share her vision of her world with me. At a little over $200, I wasn't worried if she dropped it in a pool or a toilet; I gave her the camera with the caveat: it's yours, treat it with care and make it last.
If you have children (8-15), you know that they are more technically competent than we were at their age; just as we were more technically competent than our parents during our formative years (think TRS-80, Commodore 64...). My daughter opened the camera, charged the battery, and took digipics within the first 4 hours. Combined with the printer dock, she was printing digipics of Cliff, our cat, Toby, our dog, and a great group digipic (using the timer function and tripod) with no help from me or the instruction manual. Online services certainly offer more inexpensive per print costs, but how can you compare instant Kodak-quality prints with wait-a-week-save-fifty-cents for slumber parties and last minute science projects. The LS743 certainly is not the most advanced camera in the world, which is why I rate it 4 stars. However, Kodak has made a camera that is as simple to use as a disposable, and coupled with the printer dock, is a rock-solid introduction to digital photography for your 10 year old daughter or your 70 year old mother. | ||
 | Monster Video 3 2m Component Video Cable - MV3CV-2M | |
 | "What's your budget?" | 2004-09-01 |
| Do you own a 27 inch TV with a $27 DVD player? Don't bother. Do you own a $5000 amp, a $3000 DVD player, and a set of speakers that you might bury yourself in? Don't bother buying, unless you want to burn money. Monster may look pretty, and the performance of Monster vs. no name is certainly proven in the quantifiable scientific analysis...but your ear can't hear it.
Simply put, buy comparable cables with and without the Monster name and run a test with your ears. You will probably find that you can save yourself significant $ by purchasing equally constructed cabling without the Monster name... | ||
 | Monster Cable MV3CV-1M Monster Video 3 High-Resolution Component-Video Cable - 3.28 ft | |
| "What's your budget?" | 2004-09-01 |
| Do you own a 27 inch TV with a $27 DVD player? Don't bother. Do you own a $5000 amp, a $3000 DVD player, and a set of speakers that you might bury yourself in? Don't bother buying, unless you want to burn money. Monster may look pretty, and the performance of Monster vs. no name is certainly proven in the quantifiable scientific analysis...but your ear can't hear it.
Simply put, buy comparable cables with and without the Monster name and run a test with your ears. You will probably find that you can save yourself significant $ by purchasing equally constructed cabling without the Monster name... | ||
 | Avia Guide to Home Theater Home theater information and setup DVD | |
| "Feature rich, navigation poor" | 2004-09-01 |
| You've spent hours in the big box retailers under crappy flourescent lights. You've spent hours in the local value added retailers under perfect lighting conditions. And then the set gets home, and the picture sucks.
Enter Avia. After you use Avia in your home (with your lighting conditions), you may, in fact, say, "This picture sucks worse." The pictures in the big box retailers are (more than likely) so juiced up on contrast that anything less than staring into a flourecent bulb will be considered "dim" The VARs sync the perfect signal for their perfect rooms. This is where Avia shines. The DVD gives you (I wish alt-I worked for posts) a ring-side seat to video tweaks. You get the CRT-killing contrast tweak patterns. You get brightness, sharp, color, and tint tweak patterns. A fine lineup for $35. You won't get a 'certified' calibration, but as long as you keep the contrast adjustment at the recommended levels (for burn-in prone sets), you're well on your way to a much improved TV watching experience. As for Avia's audio calibration tools.....well. The 3 star rating is based on three factors: this is the best video calibration you can do at home with your own eyes, good audio calibration requires a sound level meter, the DVD navigation is the absolute worst. I left the worst marks for the end. DVD navigation is pathetic at best. If you want to tune your video, be prepared for long winded explanations, coupled with second-tier video, just to access test patterns. The DVD authoring is sophomoric at best, but the results are, visually speaking, spectacular. Buy this DVD. | ||
 | Monster Cable MV3CV-4M Monster Video 3 High-Resolution Component Video Cable | |
| "What's your budget?" | 2004-09-01 |
| Do you own a 27 inch TV with a $27 DVD player? Don't bother. Do you own a $5000 amp, a $3000 DVD player, and a set of speakers that you might bury yourself in? Don't bother buying, unless you want to burn money. Monster may look pretty, and the performance of Monster vs. no name is certainly proven in the quantifiable scientific analysis...but your ear can't hear it.
Simply put, buy comparable cables with and without the Monster name and run a test with your ears. You will probably find that you can save yourself significant $ by purchasing equally constructed cabling without the Monster name... | ||
 | Dwight Yoakam - If There Was a Way | |
| "It's Dwight" | 2004-08-25 |
| If you grew up on 60s AM radio, but you prefer Led Zeppelin or Linkin Park, Dwight's for you. The finest thing in country music since Bill Monroe. DY will get your toes tappin' or your money back. | ||
 | "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character | |
 | "Yes, he is. No, he isn't." | 2003-09-01 |
| I developed an interest in (quantum) physics ever since reading Gary Zukhov's The Dancing Wu-Li Masters sometime in the '80s. I was mesmerised by the whole Shrodinger's Cat thought experiment; if these really smart people could have a little fun, then, by golly, the science can't be all that impossible to understand. Then I read Nick Herbert's Quantum Reality. More of the same...lots of counter-intuitive fun science that has little to do with how my world works [well, it has everything to do with how my world works, but I just don't get to experience it at a primary level]. The last thing I read was Brian Greenes's The Elegant Universe. I searched high and low for something stimulating, put in terms my little brain could understand. Nothing. I had picked up Surely You're Joking on numerous occasions. But I deferred, simply because it was about the scientist instead of the science. I was interested in the science, not the people behind the science. I thought, 'A bunch of technically astute individuals who talk waaay above my technically incompetent level.' It's too bad, really. The scientist behind the science is just as counter-intuitive and remarkable as the science. A master story teller, Feynman gives wonderful insight into the irreverent antics of one scientist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. He gives the reader a layman's view of the world as it is from that of a brilliant thinker. Safe-cracker, ladies man, artist, anthropologist. Feynman will not disappoint in keeping you mesmerized by his antics and analysis. The book is an easy and comfortable read that might just inspire you to find that artist or physicist or lock-pick in you. Enjoy. | ||
 | Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi (2 Pack) | |
| "Life distilled into a shot of on-screen espresso" | 2003-08-18 |
| After viewing Naqoyqatsi at SA's NPR CinemaTuesday event, I had to watch the first of the Qatsi trilogy to help me understand why I never forgot the haunting vision. Perhaps, I thought, being an idealistic second year Philosophy major made me believe something that wasn't really there: Life distilled into a shot of on-screen espresso. No. Twenty years later and the film is still relevant. The wonderful cinematography and soundtrack combine in a synergistic dance that forces the viewer to contemplate their existence among the mighty forces of man and nature. Powaqqatsi is no different. The cinematography and soundtrack offer a stunning experience for the viewer to contemplate man's struggle with himself. This DVD set should be a welcome addition for people who experienced Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi on the big screen. YMMV when you consider the experience in a movie theater vs. home theater. For my experience, I had a 16 x 9 TV, and a very high-end sound system, a perfect pairing for recreating those feelings from 20 years ago. | ||
 | Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant (Reprise) | |
| "8 x 10s" | 2003-08-09 |
| I've never listened to the entire CD. So hunt me down and kill me. There is only one relevant song, and that is Alice's Restaurant Massacree. I was 3 when this song came out, my pop was a captain in the US Army, and I remember none of it. What I do remember is, years later, when I was like 6 or 7, my pop still in the US Army, playing this LP over and over again, him and my mom laughing like coked-up hyenas. Laughing. Fast forward 30 plus years. How is it possible not to laugh like a coked-up hyena when you listen to Arlo. The LP represents a time, a feeling, and a belief. We'd be better today to subscribe to just a bit of that optimism. Well, ...er.... | ||
 | A Short History of Nearly Everything | |
| "Inevitable odds and magic" | 2003-08-09 |
| If you've ever read 'The Dancing Wu Li Masters', 'The Mind's Eye', or 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman' and liked them, then you're in for a real treat, with a caveat. Bryson does an impressive job of bringing us (the subject of the 'short history') up to date with the current formulations of what makes us what we are, and everything else, what it is. He writes about, news flash, everything related to the physical sciences as they relate to who we are, how we know who we are, how we know from where we came, and how the physical world that we are a part of interacts with us (and plays strange hide-and-seek games with us). The Big Bang, primordial soup, the enlightenment, industrialism -- it's covered. He's a master story-teller; the book flows with ease. Bryson details a theory, and then gives the back story of the discovery. What you wind up with is a formula of a renaissance-man coupled to Jerry Springer. In fact, some of the stories Bryson recounts are made-for-reality TV set in the age before Springer and TV. The caveat: Bryson himself becomes the Springer episode. To wit, Bryson affixes an inordinate amount of blame to our current suffering to a man who advocated the use of lead in household products. The departure of objectivity in this relatively short passage in the book is a minor inconvenience. | ||
 | Punch-Drunk Love (Two Disc Special Edition) (Superbit Collection) | |
| "A Simple Love Story" | 2003-08-05 |
| If you're expecting the Adam Sandler of SNL or Big Daddy, you'll have to wait for the comedic chase scenes of the show. If you're expecting the fetching/haunting gaze of Emily Watson a la Breaking the Waves, you're in luck. Barry Egan (Sandler) has issues. Serious issues. He's a full-fledged sociopath given to fits of fear and rage. The character forever seems to be looking for the next 'big thing'. And he finds it in Emily Watson. Except, the next big thing is not a money-making proposal, but a life-altering, long-sought real relationship with a woman. He didn't get it growing up in a household full of sisters, his contempt for which is readily displayed in scenes full of fear and rage that punctuate the film. In the end, this movie is about nothing more than a pursuit of happiness and love. The journey, to that end, oftentimes demands that the audience falls for familiar clichés. I had no problem with that. Even Shakespeare relied on clichés. | ||
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