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Review: ChairMD.com Herman Miller Warranty Repair

Posted by Carlton Bale on December 15th, 2008

After a couple of years of searching for a great deal on HermanMiller Aeron chairs, my wife finally found one, and we've been enjoying them for the past 8 months.  Unfortunately, her chair developed a crack in the back (most likely due to mis-assembly by the store.) I feared an expensive repair, but started searching [...]

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Něco z historie: A Little Bit of History:
Plasma vs. LCD Revisited: Screen Glare is Still the Deciding Factor

Posted by Carlton Bale on August 27th, 2007

I just ran across an article on DigtalHome.ca [via Engadget HD] singing the praises of Plasma over LCD. Although I agree with most of the points, there are a couple with which I completely disagree. In fact, both of the posts seem to be overly-biased toward plasma, to the point that it is almost misinformation. [...]

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Posted in Home Theater | 17 Comments » | AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Baja the Cat - a.k.a. Mr. Kitty

Posted by Carlton Bale on December 14th, 2008

Baja, a.k.a. Mr. Kitty, was gentle, kind, and had the unique ability of befriending anyone he met.  When visitor would come to our front door, he was there to meet them. When guest would sit down, he would make his way over to say hello.  When a guest would spend the night at our house [...]

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Posted in Life Reflections | 4 Comments » | AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Joining the Netbook Frenzy - MSI Wind

Posted by Carlton Bale on November 22nd, 2008

Like Dave Zatz and Matt Miller, I made the leap into the netbook pool with a new MSI Wind. Technically, I guess I really made my wife take the leap. She has been in disparate need of her own personal laptop as I am just too overprotective of and particular about my ThinkPad T61. What [...]

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Live.com 25% Off Ebay Buy It Now Items

Posted by Carlton Bale on November 20th, 2008

I think Microsoft should be given credit for single-handedly stimulating the economy. Consumer spending is down, most of the Black Friday deals are lame, but I'm purchasing things that have been on my Wish List for years.  Why?  Because I can get 25% cash back if I purchase an Ebay Buy It Now item and [...]

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The State of 24p Playback on a Home Theater Computer

Posted by Carlton Bale on November 7th, 2008

To get the best video quality playback possible for movies in a home theater, it's necessary for the refresh rate of the source component to match the refresh rate of the display. One of the most common problems stems from the fact that most movies are 24 frames per second while most televisions are 60 [...]

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The State of Blu-ray Lossless HD Audio in Home Theater Computers

Posted by Carlton Bale on November 5th, 2008

If you're a home theater enthusiast, you want the highest-quality audio and video possible, and that means Blu-ray with lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio) and the best video compression codec (VC-1 or MPEG-4 H.264 AVC HP.)
Most people would choose a Sony PlayStation 3 or stand-alone Blu-ray player to deliver this content to [...]

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Posted in Gear and Gadgets, Home Theater | 2 Comments » | AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Some Facts about HD Video Compression Codecs used in Blu-ray

Posted by Carlton Bale on November 3rd, 2008

I just finished reading an interesting article by Amir Majidimehr (former Microsoft VP, video compression) in Oct 2008 issue of Widescreen Review.  I was surprised that there are 4 different, incompatible versions of MPEG-4! Here are some facts from the article; I recommending picking up a copy of the magazine for all of the details [...]

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Jaybird JB200 Bluetooth Headphone Review

Posted by Carlton Bale on September 22nd, 2008

I've been searching for some wireless headphone to use while watching video on my iPhone when on the treadmill. My objective is to not have a cord connected between me and my iPhone - I don't want to accidentally knock off my iPhone and damage it. After comparing options, I was excited to try the [...]

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CoolerMaster.com and their Spam Newsletter

Posted by Carlton Bale on September 5th, 2008

About a year ago, I somehow happened upon a request from computer case manufacturer CoolerMaster to browse their new website and provide feedback on areas where improvements were needed.  In short, the site was terrible, with coding errors, navigation issues, and worthless search capabilities. I provided feedback thinking that they would actually value it and [...]

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Review of Zonet ZVC7630W IP Network Camera

Posted by Carlton Bale on August 28th, 2008

About 6 months ago, I started my search for a wireless network camera that would allow us to watch our little girl while she slept (or didn't sleep) in her crib.  My list of requirements were pretty simple: I wanted it to work in complete darkness and I wanted it to work with the Firefox [...]

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Posted in Gear and Gadgets | 8 Comments » | AddThis Social Bookmark Button