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In: Home Theater
With: 28 Comments

The single most important factor of a great sounding home theater is the acoustic properties of the room itself. Not the brand of speakers, not the receiver, not the bit rate of the movie soundtrack. Unfortunately, room acoustics is usually the area where most people give the least amount of attention. And I can’t blame them, because it’s a lot more fun to shop for electronics than it is to spend hours messing with acoustic room treatments. But if you want the best sound quality possible, room acoustic treatments are an absolute necessity. It’s almost impossible to get an absolutely perfect room configuration; you alwaysRead More →

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In: Web
With: 3 Comments

This is an update of my older list of Firefox 2.0 Extensions I’m a long-time user of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers. Google Chrome is awesome, but I’ve been unable to switch to it as my primary browser because the Add-Ons just don’t offer the customizations and features to which I’ve grown accustomed. Here’s my list of extensions that makes Firefox the ultimate browser. Essential Add-ons that I use every day: Tab Mix Plus: If I had to choose only one extension, this would be it. This extension alone keeps me from switching to Google Chrome. It makes the tabs behave any way you wantRead More →

Shimano Di2 Groupset

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In: Triathlon
With: 2,485 Comments

I learned quite a bit about Shimano Di2 when I installed one of the first available Time Trial/Triathlon groupsets on my Cervelo P2. I’ve subsequently answered a lot of questions on forums and article comments, and elsewhere. In doing so, I realized that people have a lot of questions about Di2 and the answers are difficult to find. This lead me to create this article, to consolidate everything I know and have been asked into one location so people can find answers. If you can’t find what you’re looking for below, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help. Index: There’s lotsRead More →

Solar Hill Challenge Roth

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In: Events & Travel, Triathlon
With: 3 Comments

Challenge Roth is one of the biggest and best Ironman-distance triathlons in the world, and yet it remains virtually unknown outside of Europe. Canada, with 1/10th the population, had more participants than the US. I understand why most triathletes dream of Kona; there’s a lot of  history and prestige there.  But Challenge Roth is every bit as desirable and in several ways superior. There are a lot of great races, but if you’re looking for the ultimate Ironman-distance race experience, Roth should be at the top of your list. The Good: There’s a lot to love about Roth; it’s known as The Best Old RaceRead More →

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In: Automotive
With: 30 Comments

On March 1, 2013, I canceled my order for what I thought would be my next car, a Tesla Model S. The reason is because I felt Tesla was being hugely misleading with their marketing promises and warranty practices. I placed a substantial down payment on what I thought would be my next vehicle, only to find out that it didn’t meet all of the expectations that Tesla had created. They lost me as a customer by putting their needs above their customer’s. Here are the concerns that led to my order cancellation: Annual fee to maintain warranty: Tesla tries to make it sound likeRead More →

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In: Reviews, Triathlon
With: 78 Comments

In September 2008, I reviewed the Jaybird JB200 Bluetooth headphones to great disappointment. Just over 4 years later, Jaybird released their latest model, the Jaybird Bluebuds X, with some pretty impressive claims on sound quality, fit, and battery life. The cord on my Klipsch S4i Rugged headphones are my only complaint with them, but it’s a big one. So I found a nearby Bestbuy that had the Bludbuds X in stock and picked-up a pair to see how the new model stacks up. Update 18-March-2013:  An hour and twenty minutes into my run, my headphones died – permanently. The battery was well over 50% charged.Read More →

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In: Tech
With: 39 Comments

I recently purchased a 3rd Generation Apple TV and a 22″ Samsung 1080P LED-backlit LCD TV to act as a digital photo frame for my house. I thought I’d found the perfect setup because Samsung TVs have 3 separate timers to turn the TV on and off, so it would only be on when we are home (morning and evenings during the week, during the day on the weekends.) I have over 10,000 photos in my Aperture library, and I was looking forward to seeing them instead them just sitting on my computer. After going through the Apple setup instructions on my Mac (in iTunes,Read More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 291 Comments

I have 3 Panasonic DMP-BDT 220 Blu-ray players and all of them stopped connecting to Netflix at the same time. Although Panasonic seems to be particularity bad, all set top boxes and TVs seem to have occasionally have Netflix connection issues.  Here’s my list of the most common methods of solving those issues. Option 1 – Hidden Menu within the Netflix App to Deactivate your Device: this should work for any device as Netflix requires every manufacturer to include it. Please note that this does not deactivate your Netflix account itself, just your device, requiring you to log on again. Open the Netflix app on the device OnceRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 194 Comments

4k resolution televisions are now widely available and potential buyers are wondering if the extra resolution is worth it. In some cases it is, but in most, it’s not.  The details below can help you decide. 4K (and 8K) Resolution Defined The older 1080p HDTV standard has a resolution of 1920×1080 (2.1 million) pixels. The UHD resolutions are multiples of this base 1080p resolution. 4k resolution is named for the approximately 4,000 (4k) pixels that make up the horizontal resolution across the image. More specifically, the resolution is 3840×2160, which gives 8.3 million total pixels – 4 times that of 1080p. (4k is sometimes calledRead More →

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In: Reviews
With: 44 Comments

Western Digital MyBook Elite external hard drives use hardware-based encryption chips to (optionally) encrypt drives using 256-bit encryption. This is OK for security, but horrible for data recovery.  It is impossible to access (decrypt) the drive if the enclosure circuit board fails, even if the drive itself is fine.  For this reason, I highly recommend not using the hardware-based encryption unless you have a solid off-site backup plan, such as Backblaze. What if the Enclosure Fails? If you’ve enabled the hardware-based encryption, the data on the drive is completely inaccessible without the encryption chip in the Western Digital enclosure. So a simple failure of theRead More →