Back Again after a long hiatus

Reviews coming for the following:

Mini Cooper Clubman R55
Creative Vado Video Camera
Sony Location-Free LF-V30 Base Station
Polk Audio Floor-Standing Speakers R50
Polk Audio Monitor 30
Logitech Driving Force Wheel for PS3
Insignia BD-LIVE01 Bluray Player
HP Pavilion G60 Notebook
HP Slimline s3710t Mini Desktop PC
Acer 23" LCD H233H
Motorola T305 Bluetooth Speaker
Netgear WNR2000-100NAR Wireless N Router
Buffalo LinkStation Live 1TB NAS
D-Link DCS-910 Wired Network Camera
Motorola S805 Bluetooth DJ Heaphone
Insignia 32" 720P LCD TV
Insignia 50" 720P Plasma TV
LG 47" 1080P LCD TV
Nintendo Wii
Microsoft XBox360
Sony Playstation3

Acer Aspire 5720

The Acer Aspire 5720

Powerful enough for the casual surfer. It has a Pentium Core Duo with 2GB RAM and a large 160GB hard drive. Bright LCD with Super DVD Burner. Firewire, lots of USBs, S-Video Out and all the nice bells and whistles. My only complaint is the Atheros Wi-fi which was mother of pain in the 4ss to troubleshoot! If you're using Vista, don't forget to install SP1.

I tried Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and OpenSuse 11 and everythnig worked fine. Ubuntu was snappier but Suse has more "mature" software.

Don't even try to downgrade to WindowsXP. The drivers available are old and outdated.

Ideal machine to make your wife happy for 2 years!

4.4 stars out of 5

Im back again!!

I've been blog-lazy lately. Been working (hard!) and organizing some personal stuffs. This totally unknown blog is like a diary. So, if you stumble upon this boring site, make the most of it :)

Some gizmos I purchased will be posted later.

I'm back!!!

After almost 2 weeks in limbo, I'm back again. Been busy with my day job recently but it's manageable. So far, since my last posting, Mavs lost against the Hornets. This is the 2nd year they exited in first round. In spite of the talent they have they missed
another year. Avery got fired and this will be a long summer for the team.

Othe other hand, the Dallas Stars are winning again. Hopefully, I can get some cheap tickets. Stubhub has $400 tickets! Wow!

Will probably just watch the struggling Texas Rangers!

:)

Deal and Gear of the Day: Olympus Digital Camera

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1365

Sleek, colorful, ample 2.5" LCD screen, supports SDHC (bigger than 2GB memory cards), face detection, in-camera panoramic mode and 3x zoom :(

Sound like a normal digital camera? heh?

But it has also these features:
Shockproof! (5ft)
Waterproof! (10ft)
Freezeproof! (14degrees F)
+ Underwater movie mode!
Circuit City sells them online @299 with free 2GB xD Card. Google this and you can probably find a cheaper one.

Shopping and Banking Online?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Gear of the Day: $4000 THX Home Audio for only $300?

This is what some reviewers described the Logitech Z-5500. CNet gave it an excellent rating. This 5-piece wonder has no separate AV receiver but a small console containing the controls. The amplifier sits on the massive sub-woofer. There are 5 satellite speakers and a programmable remote control. You can connect your DVD players via the optical link to gain DTS and Dolby
Surround Sound. It supports 4 input device (DVD, Game System, MP3 and PC)

What is really interesting is that this baby is THX-certified - meaning that it's great hi-fi movie 
and gaming system. This is ideal for those practical ears who wanted the Bose Lifestyle audio
quality for under $400. 

Start building your home theater system!

Prices range from $200 to $400.

Product Site:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=us,en

CNet Reviews:
http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-speakers/logitech-z-5500-digital/4505-3179_7-31115626.html?tag=sub
 

Deal of the Day: Banana Republic

Get $20 off when you spend $100
Get $30 off when you spend $150
Get $50 off when you spend $200

Online, use code SAVEMORE when you checkout.

Printout the following and take in store for the discount:
http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bananani5tx9.jpg

Loserville No More?

The Dallas Stars are 2-0 in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. The first time in several years.

The Dallas Mavericks were struggling but they are making their 8th appearance to the NBA Playoffs - potentially as the 7th seed but that is in danger.

The Dallas Cowboys are building up!

but the Texas Rangers lose again, 7-4 against the Angels. Darn it!

http://www.wfaa.com/sports/

Your surfing habits and searches are being monitored

Believe it or not, YES! The google searches, the websites you've visited, you're shopping habits are all collected, analyzed and archived by online companies. Use anonymizers to mask your identity. Don't surf to the other sites while you're logged on your mobile banking session.

There are 100 ways to protect yourself and here's 22 of them:

EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy
http://www.eff.org/wp/effs-top-12-ways-protect-your-online-privacy

CDT's 10 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Online
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/basic/topten.html

Privacy as Contextual Integrity

Got this from Ali Saqib's Blog:

Couple of days ago Dr. Helen Nissenbaum of NYU gave an extremely interesting, engaging and stimulating lecture entitled "Privacy in Context" at UC Berkeley.

The audio recording of the lecture is available @
http://groups.sims.berkeley.edu/podcast/audio/Helen_Nissenbaum_UCiSchool_02Apr2008.mp3

Dr. Helen Nissenbaum's Bio
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/

Gear of the Day - Blackberry Pearl 8130

BB 8130 Pearl is the smallest and smartest BB available today. It has a 2MP Camera, GPS, Micro SDHC Slot, Tons of apps and games including Opera, Gmail, Google Maps and IM Clients for AOL, ICQ and Yahoo Messenger. Very sleek and cool device. Get emails, IMs, SMS, MMS anytime and anywhere.

Surfing on EVDO is quite fast. It's like surfing on a DSL line. Pretty fast!

See CNet Review here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/rim-blackberry-pearl-8130/4505-6452_7-32637356.html

Privacy Defended Book

Starting out to read this old book by the folks from Foundstone founders (now part of McAfee). I hope this helps me with the new job :) Long read again :(

My first Dr Martens - The Lenny 8 Eye Shoes!

I never had a Dr Martens before. Probably because they're too big for me. Most of their shoes are wide and stout. Good thing, I found one that is quite to my tasting - stylish, suede/leather feel, comfortable and very unique. My kind of shoes. Got this at about 70 bucks. Pretty good deal.

http://www.drmartens.com/

Deal of the Day!

Sears has Women's Outerwear on Clearance from as low as $7. Shipping is around $6. They also have Boots starting at $10 as well as Sweaters starting at $2 on Clearance.

http://slickdeals.net/?permadeal=12215#direct_deal_12215