Category: acquired things

Best Buy Part Deux

February 24, 2005

Well, I went to the Utica Best Buy location on the way home. They were not able to duplicate the issue at all. Fortunately after talking to the (much nicer) service guy, I came away with a potential solution. If I can record a video of the problem happening, that will be acceptable as proof. Well, the problem happens a lot, and my phone can record video, so next time it happens I’ll (try) to get video of it. Interestingly, it happened in the car on the way home, but I was so excited that it was happening that I bumped another button before I was able to get the video. Ah well…

Best Buy Woes

February 24, 2005

So, for the last while the MENU button on my iPod has been intermittantly non-responsive. I can’t help but think that this is a systemic problem with the third generation iPods, partially leading Apple to switch to mechanical buttons (via a rocker wheel) on the latest iPods.

Regardless, I have a four-year warranty for my iPod through Best Buy. I took the device in today to see if they’d swap it, and while the “tech” had the problem happen to him, he noted that it “wasn’t happening anymore” after the first problem with it. Based on that, he determined the iPod wasn’t having problems anymore. He offered to send it out to the repair center for 3-4 weeks to see what they could do… Well… That’d be nice, not having an iPod for 3-4 weeks.

I had been hoping that the “tech”, after having it demonstrated to him that the button occasionally fails to work, would realize that the device really does have issues and get it replaced with a new one. Best Buy’s support isn’t going to be able to repair a capacitive switch that occasionally fails after the device has been sitting for a few minutes.

acquired things computers moved from livejournal

TiVo…

February 23, 2005

Well, that went well. I just bought an 80 hour TiVo off of eBay, and it should end up costing absolutely nothing.

Here’s how the deal went…

It seems that last week Sam’s Club was selling Humax-branded 80 hour TiVos (the are the same as the normal ones, just with a different looking case) for $49 or so. This guy bought as many as he could find and is now selling them on eBay for $99.99 Buy-it-Now with $15 DHL shipping. He runs a shop and sells car parts on eBay normally, so they just do billing via CC over the phone. So, I used MBNA’s Shop Safe stuff to generate a one-time number, gave him a call, and paid for things.

When purchasing these he also got separate receipts for each one, and he’ll be including the original store receipt with the unit. This means that I can legally and honestly file for the $100 mail-in rebate when I activate the unit. In addition, he said that if I use his email address as person-who-referred-me when signing up for TiVo service, that I should drop him a piece of email and he’ll refund me the shipping cost. This should bring the total cost for the TiVo down to $0, with my only having to pay the $11.95/mo charge. This seems like a really good deal.

In addition, it should be wholly possible to add / replace hard drives in the unit, should I find that I want more storage.

Oh, if you are wanting to get one yourself from this same guy, look here for his auctions. It’s a guy named Brian who seemed to be really friendly. He’s also in Xenia, Ohio so shipping to the Detroit area should be real fast.

So, I think it’s a good thing that Costco was all out of them at lunch. How interesting that it worked out that way… :D

acquired things moved from livejournal movies

TiVo…

February 23, 2005

So I’m thinking of getting a TiVo. Here’s why… Costco has 80GB (80 hour) TiVos for $269, with a $100 mail-in rebate. The monthly charge is $12.95. I’ve been thinking of resubscribing to Netflix, but that’s $20/mo, and I mostly tend to want content to watch while eating dinner or whatnot. This means :30 tv shows or so. Netflix has a harder time providing this…

I’ve thought about building a MythTV box, but with the cost of a large hard drive, memory, quiet case, and a MPEG2 video capture board, I’m looking at around $400 to get things going this route, plus my time. At this rate the break-even point would be 17 months… Granted, MythTV would allow me to do more with the captured files, but if I want a captured show, I’ll be doing it in DV, not MPEG2, and thusly using the capture device on my Mac. So, that’s kinda out the window…

Hmm, does anyone who reads this have a Series 2 TiVo and actually use it? The price isn’t too bad, and I think it’d be pretty handy… Costco’s price is also a lot cheaper than buying it from Best Buy or Netflix.

One other neat thing… Hopefully Tivo will get around to releasing a new Mac version of TiVo Desktop fairly soon, which will allow me to watch recorded shows on my Mac. Right now it’d be PC-only. Poo.

acquired things moved from livejournal movies

Tie Rod + Tee Vee

February 21, 2005

Well, it seems that I’ll be going to get a tie rod replaced after work today. When at Belle Tire on Friday to get an oil change, tire rotation, and alignment check, it was noted that they could do nothing about the alignment because I have a worn passenger side tie rod. After doing some driving and paying VERY close attention today, it appears that my car shuffles around the lane as if it were windy, even when it isn’t. I guess I’ve just been subconciously correcting for this and should get it fixed before the tie rod breaks. The quoted price was $75 for the tie rod, $35 for labor, and $69.95 for a four-wheel alignment. $49.95 for the alignment if only a two-wheel version is needed. I guess I should get this done, eh?

Also, I’ve been thinking about getting a new TV. I’ve been looking at this Philips 30PW8402 (PDF Specs) set from Costco for the last few weeks. It’s a true 16:9 HDTV 30″ tube, with HDMI inputs. This would allow me to hook a computer to it fairly easily, and with it being an HDTV, the resolution would be high enough that a PC (or Mac mini) could be used with it properly. It’s $599.99 for the TV, and they have a stand that seems to match fairly nicely for $99.99. There is a picture of the box shot of the stand here, and here is the front and rear if the TV itself.

The price seems pretty good, and I’ve heard real good things about it from a friend of mine who has one.

Also, if I get this, I’ll be selling my current TV, if anyone is interested. It’s a Sony KV-32FS13, 32″ flat screen Wega TV. It’s a very, very nice model, but I want to replace it with an HDTV. I’d like $400 for it, with the matching stand. If anyone is interested, there is a picture of it here, and it comes with the remote (of course) and I’m fairly certain I’ve also got the original manual and receipt. I paid around $1200 for the TV, and $80 for the stand when I first got it. It works great, but I really want something that is natively widescreen.

So, if you’re interested, let me know… This price seems to be the going rate without the stand, but since I have no need for the stand, I figured I’d just throw it in anyway.

UPDATE: Hmm, I just realized that acquiring this TV would necessitate the purchase of a component video input switcher, a component output cable for the Gamecube, and a progressive scan DVD player. I guess it’s at least a reason to pick up a nicely region hackable Daewoo and sign back up for Netflix.

acquired things automotive moved from livejournal

Amazon Prime

February 2, 2005

I’m not sure what I think of this… Amazon is now offering Amazon Prime, where you pay US$79/year, and all your shipments are sent from Amazon with two-day shipping for free. Well, free after the US$79/year.

I think that this could actually be a boon to people who order a lot of things from Amazon… I’m considering signing up myself, then ordering all my CDs and DVDs from there. Typically I don’t order because I don’t want to pay for quick shipping, and I don’t want to order enough things to get free shipping. Also, free shipping has a bit of a wait.

Thinking about it, one can figure that this would be a flat-rate $2 for second day shipping on your first 40 items. This is a good price if one orders that much stuff from Amazon.

I wonder if I really would order more stuff from Amazon. I think I would, as Amazon’s prices are almost always cheaper than other local alternatives for music and DVDs.

Hmm…

acquired things moved from livejournal

New Camera!

January 29, 2005

[Crossposted to and .]

Click for more…

As people here might have seen, I rather like to take pictures. Well, back in December I replaced my aging Kodak DC4800 with a Nikon Coolpix 3200. While the Coolpix 3200 is a really nice pocket sized point and shoot camera, I was running into problems with not being able to adjust the aperture, autofocus areas, things like that.

I had been thinking of getting a Digital SLR like the well-known Nikon D70, but the price on them was a bit high.

Well, one day when shopping at one of my favorite good-food stores Costco, I saw they had Nikon Coolpix 5400 cameras for $499.99, with a $200 instant rebate. I ended up picking one up, and I just have to say wow. This seems to do exactly what I’ve been wanting, and for right about $300!

I must recommend that anyone looking for a very controllable pro-am digital camera check out this deal. The price is great and so is the camera. It even supports RAW mode after you upgrade the firmware. Yay!

Here’s some photo links:

· Quick test pictures I took with the Coolpix 5400 while making lunch.
· Example of the depth of field problems I was having with the Coolpix 3200.
· Lacking a center spot mode, this photo was also hard to capture with the Coolpix 3200

Oh, I forgot to mention the noodle bowl. It was very good, although rather high on sodium. It was a nice sesame miso soup with a well-textured noodle. There was whole sesame seeds along with oil, and quite a bit of flavor. I’ll definitely be buying this one again. They are available at Meijer stores in the ‘International Foods’ section, and most likely lots of other stores.

acquired things food moved from livejournal

New Camera!

January 29, 2005

Well, I went and got it after all… A Nikon Coolpix 5400. From what I’ve read it’s a pretty good camera, despite it’s lack of AF assist lamp.

Not a bad price, either. At Costco it’s $499.99 plus tax, then minus a $200 instant rebate. So, $329.99 after tax.

As long as I like it, I’ll still need to get a second battery, 1GB card, and a carrying case. The starter card it came with was only 16MB. Ah well… I would get the 1GB card locally, but the cheapest I’ve found it for was $126 plus tax. That’s a lot when Amazon wants around $100.

acquired things moved from livejournal

Griffin SmartDeck

January 11, 2005

[Crossposted to and .]

I hadn’t seen this mentioned yet, but it appears to be really slick. Griffin has released a tape adapter that also handles volume level adjustment and bunches of other things. It seems that it detects what your tape player is doing (FF/RW/Play/Whatever) and tells your iPod to do the same.

This just might be *the* cassette adapter to buy, and at $24.99 it’s marginally more than decent-quality cassette adapters originally meant for CD players.

More info available here: http://www.griffintechnology.com/images/products/prod_image_deck.jpg

acquired things found things moved from livejournal

I, for one, welcome our new white trash overlords…

December 22, 2004

Click for bigger!

Heh. Today UPS delivered, straight from Amazon, the world’s trashiest piece of cooking gear. It surpasses any Ronco product, and even the mighty Pasta Pot. Yes, it is a turkey fryer…

That said, it (fortunately) will not be used for it’s intended purpose. See, it was US$20, delivered, for a 30qt pot on a nice powerful gas burner. This is just about exactly what I need to make beer, as doing it in a smaller pot on the stove is kinda half-assed. See, if you don’t boil the full volume of what gets made into beer (the wort) the beer can have a bit darker color… Going this route should just make things a bit nicer, and it should allow me to get it all up to a boil in a bit less time. I’ll just have to work outside. Ah well. :)

acquired things beer moved from livejournal