Anesti » Reviews

Now Introducing the Newest Member of my Tech Toy Family

Sawyer — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:13:53 +0000

Oh, the wonders of Craigslist. Without it, I wouldn’t be using my wonderfully awesome Nikon D50. I arranged a meetup with someone selling a D50 with an Nikon 18-55mm lens on Craigslist. The camera was in great shape for being used. I got all the original accessories and even a really nice Lowepro case with a rain shell. The camera had a bit of dust on the sensor, which was easily removed using a blower. After a bit of a tune-up and clean up, my D50 has proved to be a great photography camera. My younger sister has the same model (only she bought it new), and I’ve been borrowing a few of her lenses to use on my D50. I’m definitely still learning the tricks of the trade and how exactly to use this superb piece of work, but you can follow my photos on Flickr.

Google Apps for Your Domain

Sawyer — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:34:20 +0000

I’ve read about Google Apps a number of times on tech blogs and other various tech-related websites and never really realized how powerful and great they are. For those of you who don’t know what web applications power Google Apps – GMail, GTalk and GCalendar and GDocuments are all part of the suite. If you own a domain, you can get these applications added to your domain free of cost. I just added them to my domain. GoDaddy, the company I bought my domain from, doesn’t allow IMAP access for e-mail. I don’t really like the POP solutions they provided or the webmail version of their e-mail, so I searched for a way to use IMAP with my domain’s e-mail. Google Apps for your domain can do just that. I’m currently using it for e-mail, calendar, and documents. My newest contact information is sawyer at anesti dot org. By using Google apps, I get 6 GB of space for my e-mail, vastly superior than GoDaddy’s 100 MB. Haven’t tried Google Apps for your domain? You should, I love it. The setup is easy and Google does most of the work for you, apart from some simple CNAME changes to your domain setup (usually changed with GoDaddy or your DNS provider if you’re using GoDaddy). All of the setup took me less than an hour and I’ve now got my domain’s e-mail in my favorite IMAP-enabled e-mail client of choice, Apple Mail 3.0.

I Am Legend

Sawyer — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:52:34 +0000

I saw “I Am Legend” tonight, and was thoroughly impressed with Will Smith’s acting in the movie. The movie’s storyline is based on the 1954 book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Based on the information on the Wikipedia pages about the movie and book, the movie deviates from the book. I’m hoping to pick up a copy of the book sometime, once I can find it. I enjoyed the movie a lot and will likely purchase the movie. My rating: 4 ¹/₂ of 5 Stars. A post with more information and commentary soon to follow.

Essential Applications for any Computer (Mac, Windows, Linux)

Sawyer — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:45:20 +0000

Everyone has their favorite configuration and set of applications once they install a fresh install of their favorite OS. I’m going to catalog the ones I prefer to use for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Some are free, some are not. Many of the non-free applications have free counterparts or similar applications.

Check out the list after the break.

Mac OS X

Mozilla Firefox – An essential component of each of my systems. Fully extendable, quite secure, and updated regularly.
- Addons – Gmail Notifier, Adblock Plus, Adblock Filterset G Updater
AdiumX – A multi-protocol IM client. Basically the Mac counterpart to Pidgin (formerly GAIM)
Skype – A popular VOIP client. Lets you make free calls with your computer.
Remote Desktop Client / VNC – Allows you to view and control the screen of any other computer with Remote Desktop Service or a VNC server running.
Senuti – A nice piece of software which allows the backup of your iPod to your computer.
SynergyKM / Synergy – Lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. SynergyKM adds a GUI.
Microsoft Word / NeoOffice – Basic Office applications (word processor, spreadsheet editor, presentation editor, etc)
Smultron – A mediocre text editor for OS X. It its defense, it is free.
Adobe Photoshop – The best image editor and graphic design tool on the market. Some claim it’s better on a Mac, but I’ve noticed very little difference.

Windows

Symantec Anti-Virus – Unfortunately, with a more popular OS like Windows, you need good virus protection. My AV of choice is Symantec Anti-Virus. I don’t buy the whole suite, just the AV. Other free AV programs are just as good. AVG is a popular one.
Ad-Aware – A good spyware scanner, though it doesn’t always get everything. Use in conjunction with Spysweeper for better coverage.
Mozilla Firefox – Again, one of the most secure browsers for Windows. The new beta is incredibly stable and secure, too. I use the same addons as above, but one more: IETab.
Notepad++ – Tabbed text editor with great syntax highlighting and line numbering. Extendable.
Windows Live Messenger / Pidgin / Trillian – Several good IM clients.
Synergy – Synergy with a GUI for Windows.
Adobe Photoshop – The best image editor and graphic design tool on the market. A good free alternative is Paint.NET.

Linux

Mozilla Firefox – Usually the default browser on Linux systems, but beats out competitors like Konqueror due to its extendability.
GKrellm – A system monitor which displays network usage, disk usage, memory usage, e-mails, and more. Extensible.
K3b – The best CD and DVD burner for Linux. Comparable to Nero or Toast on Windows or OS X.
Amarok – Music manager and player for KDE. Has iPod support and support for album artwork, lyrics and other plugins.
Synergy – Command-line only version of Synergy.

What about you? Do you have any applications that you just HAVE to install upon having a fresh install of our favorite OS? Leave them in the comments.

Not So Creative

Sawyer — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:24:17 +0000

I recieved a 5GB Creative Zen Micro for Christmas last year as a gift from my parents. The player has many great features, and is a good-looking player overall. About 3 months after I recieved this first 5GB Zen, the headphone jack went out. I only could hear audio out of the left earphone. So, I contacted Creative’s customer support and finally got an RMA for my Zen. I mailed the Zen to Creative, despite a possible warning that I might have to pay $65 to get it fixed. It turns out that the design of the player was flawed, and despite having professional engineers, they only soldered the headphone jack to the circuitboard, which when it came loose, crippled sound in the right headphone. Yet Creative still refused to admit it was a design flaw, as seen throughout the Creative support forums. I mailed the player in, thinking about how much of a pain this had been so far. I recieved the new player a few weeks later, and they had been so wonderful as to upgrade my player to the 6GB model. Were my problems with this player over? Nope. After enjoying the player for another three months, I had another wiring problem with my Zen. No, not the headphone jack this time. The power switch had ceased to respond. I upgraded firmware, downgraded firmware, formatted the player, and tried about every trick I could think of (without voiding my worthless warranty) to get the player to respond. I ended up having to turn the player on by plugging the USB cable into it, and then unplugging it, as it would stay on. So, small problem solved. But how was I going to turn it off? The player either has an idle shutdown period of 5 minutes, or I could remove the external battery. I was again, upset. Returning to Creative’s support forums again, I found numerous people with the same problem. Another design flaw? Creative doesn’t think so.

Resorting again to their customer support (which takes several days to get a response), I recieved a response, giving me the RMA information for yes- my second player. But this time I wasn’t going to get the player fixed for free, they said. a $25 fee would be my price to fix what seemed to be a terrible example of engineering. Writing a short paragraph before providing my mailing address, serial numbers, etc., I mentioned that I had not dropped the player or abused it. I had merely used the player the way it was intended to be used. I asked why I am the one responsible paying for a design flaw in a product. No response in regards to that paragraph, but just the information to where I should mail my second flawed Zen Micro. Angered, I searched the website for a customer support phone number to call to discuss my objection to paying for both shipping and handling, and a $25 fee. Let’s see if you can find a phone number on their site.

No? You can’t find one? That’s because Creative only offers telephone support for the first 60 days after you buy a product. After that, you have to pay for it. How cute. But wait – the website says that there is a support number that can be found in the manual. So, I dig my manual out. No support telephone number anywhere. Again, cute. It seems that Creative doesn’t even read their own manuals. So no luck there.

In conclusion, I would advise anyone who is looking at buying a MP3 player for themself, or for a child or sibling, don’t go for Creative. Their products don’t last, and their support is mediocre at best. I personally, though I told myself I wouldn’t, am I looking at buying an iPod. So long, Creative. Hope you open your eyes to your terrible customer support and poorly designed products. I won’t be buying from you again.

Rent: A Review

Sawyer — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:04:09 +0000

I recently went to go see the musical-turned-movie Rent written directed by Chris Columbus. I found the movie quite good, and the music was the best part of the movie. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack almost non-stop since seeing the movie. I would give this movie 5 stars, because of the great acting, great cinematography and musical aspects. Below is the summary from imdb:

Based on Puccini’s La Boheme, tells the story of one year in the life of friends living the Bohemian life in modern day East Village New York. Among the group are our narrator nerdy love struck filmmaker Mark; the object of his affection his former lover, Maureen; Maureen’s Harvard educated public interest lawyer lesbian lover Joanne; Mark’s roommate HIV+ former junkie, Roger; Roger’s lover the HIV+ drug addicted S&M dancer, Mimi; their former roommate HIV+ computer genius Tom Collins; Collins’ HIV+ drag queen street musician lover Angel; and Benjamin Coffin III a former member of the group who married money and has since become their landlord and the opposite of everything they stand for. Shows how much changes or doesn’t change in the 525,600 minutes that make up a year.

This film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in modern day East Village New York. The story centers around Mark (Anthony Rapp) and Roger (Adam Pascal), two roommates. While a former tragedy has made Roger numb to life, Mark tries to capture it through his attempts to make a film. In the year that follows, the group deals with love, loss, AIDS, and modern day life in one truly powerful story. Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Tracie Thoms, and Taye Diggs also star.

The soundtrack includes a couple songs and some parts of other songs that didn’t make it into the big screen version of the film. If you’re still wondering if the movie is any good, I’m planning on buying the DVD the day it comes out, which will hopefully contain all the scenes that didn’t make the final production.

You can visit the Rent homepage here, and the Soundtrack homepage here.

Scott Stapp – The Great Divide

Sawyer — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 03:11:14 +0000

As you all know, I’m normally not someone to plug an individual or a website on my blog, but I’ve decided this is a worthy cause. I recently bought the first CD from the former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp. The general sound on the CD sounds much like the original Creed sound. Thus far, my favorite song on the CD is the title track, “The Great Divide.” The guitar in this song is very reminiscent of Mark Tremonti’s guitar style. (Mark Tremonti now plays for the band Alter Bridge since the Creed breakup). Scott Stapp says he’s matured a lot since the breakup, and his lyrics go to show. The song “The Great Divide” has some very insightful lyrics:

You set me free!
To live my life
You became my reason to survive the great divide
You set me Free!

While many people criticized Creed for taking a non-Christian stance toward their religious beliefs, it is now known that Scott Stapp is in fact a Christian. He’s written a song for the CD entitled “Songs Inspired by the Passion of the Christ.” It’s another great CD, I would advise everyone to check it out.

Alter Bridge

Sawyer — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 03:53:39 +0000

I bought a new CD this week. The artist is Alter Bridge, with their new album being titled One Day Remains. Check out their website here.You can watch their new music video as well as look at the information about the band. The band is on a fairly well-known label, Wind-Up. I would highly suggest anyone to check at least the song “Open Your Eyes.” It’s a good, meaningful song. You will be pleasantly suprised.