January 2, 2008
Houdini secrets exposed!
A while ago we purchased a fancy wine bottle corkscrew that they sell at Brookstone. The one where one hand holds a clamp around the top of the bottle and the other hand lowers a lever and raises it all in one smooth motion, and voila, the cork is removed with little effort. Well, the one from Brookstone broke, and since we don't have a Brookstone handy in the not-so-budding metropolis of Harrisonburg, VA, I decided to just replace it rather than go though the headache of trying to return it.
On the Monday before Christmas, it occurred to me that I should probably get some stocking stuffers for Courtney. So I took the kids to Target and and amidst the kitchen gadgets I saw what seemed to be a reasonable approximation of the Brookstone corkscrew so I bought it. I also bought her a really cool digital meat thermometer that is awesome, but I digress.
Anyway, on Christmas day, I went to use it -- isn't that great when you get to use someone else's present -- and proceeded to remove the Houdini from it's container. As soon as I picked it up, I was struck with how light it was. The one from Brookstone had obvious heft; this one felt like it was made of cheap plastic. I then picked up the box, and it was still rather heavy. Curious, I ripped off the cardboard backing on the box and found a rock screwed into the back of the plastic. What's up with that!?
It appears to me that this rock serves no purpose other than to exaggerate the weight of the corkscrew and thus inflate your perception of it's quality. It seems to me that this constitutes consumer fraud, and I'm tempted to do something about it, what do you think? Granted, the hefty Brookstone corkscrew without the sleight of hand did break, so in that case weight did not turn out to be an accurate gauge of quality. Regardless, I thought this was pretty curious.
Posted by mark at 4:41 PM | Comments (4)
November 10, 2005
Squeezebox network music player
I recently ripped my entire music collection to mp3 (200-300 CD's). I then purchased Slim Devices' Squeezebox network music player. It's awesome.
The Squeezebox plays any audio file on my computer through my home stereo via a wireless connection. Slim Devices has a slick web based application (SlimServer) that you use to search your library, setup playlists, administer the device, play music, adjust volume, shuffle, etc. We hosted a Halloween party at our house this past month, and about 10 minutes before people started arriving, I went to my computer, selected about 50 albums, clicked shuffle, and then play. It worked great.
The device also comes with a remote control that allows you to search for and play albums from the device itself, which sits near your stereo and connects via the standard RCA audio cables. You can also stream internet radio stations and podcasts through to the device, but I've been so busy rediscovering my old CDs that I haven't branched out too much. I'm a Grateful Dead fan, and thanks to Jonathan's Dead on Friday blog, I'm able to download his fantastic recommendations and listen in style. This truly was one of the best $300 dollars I've ever spent. The wired version is only $250.
There is one small caveat. Due to licensing restrictions, you can't stream DRM protected files natively. However, if your DRM files are of the ACC variety, and purchased via Apple iTunes, then you might be able to use JHymn to remove the restriction. I don't have *any* pirated music, and I don't endorse that type of theft at all, but I have no problem decrypting music that I purchased for personal use. I only own 5 albums that I purchased online, but I think they're WMV files, so JHymn isn't an option for me. However, I was able to use audio editing software to record the music as I played them through Windows Media Player (yes Topher, I use Windows). I then had to manually slice up each song into a separate file, and export each to an unprotected mp3 file. It was pretty tedious.
Posted by mark at 11:58 AM | Comments (2)