User Blogs

In the world of computers there are innumerable small devices which cost practically nothing to make and which typically cost a ton of cash when you buy them retail, especially adapters and cables. The internet has driven down the price of such devices by making them more readily available, and you can get widgets to adapt all kinds of signals into all kinds of other signals. Still, there are low prices, and there are really low prices, and there are really low prices with no shipping charges, which brought me to DealExtreme. The story, unfortunately, is not entirely a happy one.

The following is an alternate version (a bit more wordy) of a review I wrote for travelpost about a visit to Comfort Inn at 5370 Clayton road in Concord, CA.

My lady stayed in this place and said she hated it, but we tried to get a place up the road and all the rooms were booked. It must have been because everyone else knew about this place, because it's Feb. 20th and nothing special is going on here. This is by far the LOUDEST hotel I've stayed in, which includes venues in Santa Cruz and Las Vegas. Outside noise is absolutely intolerable, and because of the neighborhood this place is in you can expect to hear loud engines, tires screeching, and horns honking all night (I did.)

This is not, repeat not an ad for any particular auto parts website. This is a condemnation of Kragen, Napa, and other such auto parts stores. Especially Napa because I extra-special hate them, but really, they all have to pay.

Steven Lisberger has said he wants to make another Tron ("Tron 2" ... sigh) and is considering ideas (on the Tron DVD extras.) Here's my idea.

These days it seems like there's an infinite number of laptop brands to choose from - perhaps staffed by an infinitude of monkeys. Actually, based on my experiences with laptops and the lack of quality of their hardware, this seems like a fairly generous estimate - I would actually place the average engineer somewhere down around slime molds. Having now owned and worked on laptops from most major vendors (and a number of minor ones) I have a few observations to offer - especially in light of today's labor.