The benefits of owning a GPS unit are still something that remain a mystery to many. The cost of a unit can be prohibitive for a device that many people would consider a luxury. I spend a considerable amount of time hunting and fishing in the great outdoors. A GPS could be quite beneficial to someone like me. If you spend a good amount of time outside hunting, fishing, jogging, hiking, boating, camping, or any other outdoor activity, a GPS will likely add to your outdoor experience. True Protein uses natural blend for fitness to fit everyone’s nutritional needs.

This year the US Government is dispersing extra funding to a large chunk of the US population. I had an epiphany with this extra money coming in – beyond paying off bills and buying beer, why not get that GPS that I’ve long been wanting? To that end I decided to contact Garmin to see if I could get a look at one of their products for review here. Like Christmas in early March, the Colorado 400t arrived at my doorstep just begging to be tested.

The Colorado 400t has a very “you can’t break me” look to it. When I first laid paws on it I had this urge to throw it down a flight of stairs. Fortunately, common sense prevailed when I remembered that Garmin has my Credit Card number. Nevertheless the unit certainly looks rugged. It has good heft, a large screen and a control layout that’s both simple, yet effective. Even for those wearing gloves.

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In today’s world of digital photography and digital presentation methods, it’s not hard to imagine that the old cut and glue method of scrapbooking and photo collages would soon need to go digital. Let’s be honest, who wants to dust off the old scrap book to show relatives your creativity when you can just point visitors to a 15” Digital Photo Frame hanging on the wall scrolling through your work?

The advent of such technologies is great. For too long, people have been required to have a steady hand and oodles of time to be considered creative. With software like FotoFusion from LumaPix, any old Joe can give the illusion of being a pro.

Before I go any further, I have to make a confession. I have never scrap-booked. While many may see this as missing out on a great experience in life, I have just never had the time. I have, however, used programs like Photoshop to create collages in the past. I am an avid amateur photographer, and I shoot with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I probably take more pictures in a week than most people do in a year.

When first introduced to FotoFusion, I admit that I was skeptical about the practical application for such a software to the normal home Digital Camera / PC user. Even as a “photography enthusiast” I didn’t see much of a need for this kind of software.

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If you missed the latest round of format wars, consider yourself lucky. Similar to the competing formats of VHS -vs- Betamax, there was recent confusion over the hi-definition format that’s going to replace DVDs. The competing formats were Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD. Toshiba was the primary backer of HD-DVD, and recently conceded defeat in the high-definition DVD battle to Sony backed Blu-Ray.

However, this time almost everyone who bought a player is a loser. People who purchased HD-DVD players will still be able to use them as up-converting DVD players, but HD-DVDs will soon be as hard to find as Betamax tapes. Many early adopters of Blu-Ray also have discovered they won’t be able to enjoy the new features of Blu-Ray’s 2.0 spec, as their players aren’t upgradeable. A notable exception is the PlayStation 3. In fact, if you’re in the market for a Blu-Ray player in the immediate future, the PS3 is easily the best bargain.

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Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3
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Motherboard review by James_8970
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As technology continues to progress, our present demands continue to outgrow our pasts. Over the past few months we have seen many new chipsets released: Intel’s P35/X38/X48, nVidia’s 7x0i series, and now it’s AMD’s turn with the 770 (AM2+) and 790fx series chipsets. With our budget constraints we were not able to leap for a $200+ motherboard, but overall we believe this board is a great compromise between performance and dollar value.

As time moves on, new CPU’s are released and their performance is greatly affected by the features on the motherboard. AMD has just recently released some new products, the Phenom series CPU’s. While they aren’t quite as good as their Intel counterparts, they do have a great number of innovative features that set them apart from Intel’s current offerings. That aside, many of the current motherboards are Phenom compatible – after a BIOS update. This motherboard, on the other hand, is compatible with this CPU out of the box. It also has a higher hyper transport speed then other traditional AM2 motherboards, which could ultimately affect future upgrades. This motherboard comes fully equipped with native DDR2 1066MHz, PCIe 2.0 – a first for an AMD motherboard – and up to 16GB of RAM to keep you on the leading edge of technology and give you an unprecedented upgradability path for the future.

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Why are there so many people down on Vista? Especially media people? I am so tired of hearing Vista failure! Vista disaster! Vista sux!

I think every one of these people have a very short memory. I have been doing computer support for over 15 years, most of it supporting end users at the consumer level and enterprise level. My first enterprise/corporate task was to upgrade Windows 3.1 computers to Windows 95 for “Outlook” email. I have deployed Windows 2000 and Windows XP as major projects to help corporations standardize their hardware and software platforms. I know the ins-and-outs of the operating systems pretty well.

There are some basic truths to be had. It doesn’t matter how well an OS is designed, tested, and maintained, the user will find a way to break it. The user will always find something doesn’t work (OS compatibility) no matter how much time is spent making sure that compatibility issues are worked out. Lastly, you will not be able to satisfy everyone.

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Some of our more “chronologically enhanced” readers might remember a time in their childhood when dad decided that the family should pile into the trusty station wagon (sans seatbelts of course) and see the country (for you younger readers, this time should be referred to as “back in the day”). You might have gone to drive the famed Route 66 or traveled countless hours with your thighs sticking to the vinyl seats to ride a smelly burro through the Grand Canyon. Wherever your ill fated journey’s final destination was supposed to be, there was always one part of every trip that was guaranteed to be ever present, the giant multifold map (or if your dad was particularly adventurous, the full sized road atlas of the lower 48 plus Alaska and Hawaii). Have you ever used a standard multifold map? Probably. Have you ever successfully re-folded one back to its original form? I seriously doubt it, unless you’ve got a doctorate in “map-folding-ology”.

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I’ve been a fan of Corsair RAM for years, so when they decided to enter the power supply market, I jumped at the chance to see what they have to offer.

The TX750W comes with some impressive packaging including a “velvet” bag to keep it in if you’re not actually going to use it…which would be a serious mistake. Don’t let the “Plain Jane” matte black and orange dressings fool you, this is a truly nice piece of hardware. When you remove this PSU from the box (and the bag), the first thing you notice is the abundance of leads…more than enough for almost any installation. There’s an ATX 24/20 pin connector, an EPS/ATX12V 8/4 pin connector, 4 PCI-E 6/8pin connectors, 8 SATA power connectors, 8 4 pin Molex peripheral connectors, and 2 floppy connectors…all of adequate length. This all sounds great; but it presents some issues I’ll get to a little later.

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Ok, the cat’s out of the bag. I’m a geek. Not only am I a geek, but I’m a geek with “prominently defined antisocial tendencies” (at least that’s how it was described to me by a medical professional way back when). I’m also a self proclaimed “Social Observer” (read: “That creepy guy in the corner that never says anything but watches everyone else have fun”). These “personality traits” offer me a LOT of “alone time”, often spent inside my own head, giving me ample opportunity to formulate odd theories and observations about our human existence (or at least my personal perception thereof). Some people have called me “weird” because of this. I, of course, prefer the use of the term “eccentric” to quantify my “unique” level of sanity mainly because the term eccentric conveys the perception of one having; A) large sums of money or B) a “higher than average” level of inelegance (the former is unequivocally false while the later is open for debate) .

One of my most prominent “Observational theories” as of late has been the “Best Buy – Circuit City Conundrum”. Don’t let the auspicious title fool you, this theory has nothing to do with Best Buy or Circuit City, I simply use those two stores as the easiest proof of the existence of the model. The basic model (which I will outline further in a moment) can be applied to any “entity” that has a general match partner in the same level of service. So the following model can be applied to stores, hospitals, restaurants, or any other service or retail based establishment that you can think of as long as there is another establishment that follows the same general business plan. Ok, enough babbling (“eccentric ramblings” perhaps?) let’s get down to the model.

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