http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/ Electronics, audio equipment, gadgets and other toys en-us Copyright 2003 Barry Bryson Thu, 03 Jul 2003 22:05:48 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss Radio UserLand v8.0.9b2 barry@brysons.org barry@brysons.org rssUpdates 23 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 60 http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/2003/07/03.html#a81 Just a quick note on a gadget that I bought the other day that is really cool. The bookstore had an Imation RipGO! mini-cd burner, reader and MP-3/WMA player on clearance so I picked it up. These were $400 when introduced an brand new at $48 it was a steal. The unit had problems burning discs (not with playing them) so I requested a warantee replacement with Imation. It was really easy to get the replacement and it came yesterday. I am now able to burn discs with it so that will be nice since my laptop only has a slot loading CD-RW so I can't write mini-CDs with it. Anyhow I can get just about 3 hours of MP-3s at 160K on a single 185MB disc and over 3 hours at 128K. Not a bad play time. The unit has about 3 hours of LiIo battery and seems to last me a couple of days of listening in the car and around campus/work. The sound quality is excellent and 100% skip free. The headphones that came with it are not bad either. I am looking forward to getting some of the new 220-225 MB mini-CD blanks and will probably get close to 4 hours of playtime on a single disc. It will cost me alot less than an iPod in the long run and I am able to play the discs in any compuer that has a tray loading CD slot. When I get an iPod next year I can then xfer all the MP-3s over to it directly from the mini-CDs and still have the CDs as backup. http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/2003/07/03.html#a81 Thu, 03 Jul 2003 22:00:57 GMT http://radiocomments2.userland.com/comments?u=118692&p=81 http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/2003/05/27.html#a76 Cool! If you check out my Hobbies category you will notice that people have been posting comments about problems they are having with their VCRs since I posted the article about VCR tires. Seems that my offer to have people let me know about problems that I may be able to help came up in a Google search for some people, and they took me seriously ;) I don't have a good way to respond other than another post or the comment I made, but it is cool to know that people actually read my boring posts ;) http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/2003/05/27.html#a76 Tue, 27 May 2003 17:28:09 GMT http://radiocomments2.userland.com/comments?u=118692&p=76&link=http%3A%2F%2Fbarry.brysons.org%2F2003%2F05%2F27.html%23a76 http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/2003/01/22.html#a17 It is fun when you learn somthing new and can save yourself money at the same time. Recently our almost 16 year old Sanyo VCR (was state of the art the year we got married and cost a bundle, I think we were elated that we could get it for around $400) got hungry and ate a rental tape that we had rented for our son to watch on New Years eve while my wife and I watched grown up DVDs in the family room. I tore it apart and fiddled with it for a few min and noticed that the VCR Idler assembly tire was dry rotted and had cracked in several places. As I was tugging and playing with it it basicly fell off the assembly into my hands. Anyhow to make a long story short after not being able to find the part online I went down to a great place in South Salt Lake CIty called Ray-Elco that stocks just about any electronic part you should ever want. The tire cost me $2.10 before tax and when I got home this evening it took me about 5 min. to fix our VCR. As I was surfing the net I found out that a broken, worn, streched or dirty VCR tire is the #1 reason for VCR repair and generally people throw it out at that point because it cost more to fix then to buy one. Well I just saved myself ~$150-$200 because I was going to buy a combo VCR/DVD player if I could not fix the old one. Our main TV only has two inputs and my sons prized PlayStation 2 is connected to one of them so we would need a combo unit to preserve both formats since I have been thinking of getting a real DVD player for our TV (we use the PS2 for this purpose now). So if your VCR is in need of repair let me know and I may be able to fix it. http://barry.brysons.org/categories/myHobbies/2003/01/22.html#a17 Thu, 23 Jan 2003 05:27:38 GMT http://radiocomments2.userland.com/comments?u=118692&p=17