April 2012

Dear 16-Year-Old Me

“One bad Sunburn before the age of 18 doubles your chances of developing melanoma.” “You are at a higher risk if you have more than 50 moles, a weakened immune system, or a family history of skin cancer.” “The outlook is very good if we can catch it early, but you have a less than 10% chance of surviving more than 5 years if we don’t.” “Melanoma can show up on your tongue, your palms, and on the soles of your feet.” “Your skin is like an elephant; it never forgets.” “If something seems out of place, get your doctor to have a look…

Editorials

When Did Bed Shopping Get So Complex?

Sarah and I just bought a new mattress. This would not normally be news, but it was quite the shocker to discover just how complex buying a mattress has become. The last time I had to shop for a bed, I called 1-800-Mattress and bought the cheapest one they could quickly deliver. It was quick and it was simple. No longer. Now there are mattresses in every possible firmness, material, and price — except cheap. Honestly, I wanted to avoid the whole thing as long as possible, but Friday night our old bed struck back. I rolled over, and then…

News

Alienware Discontinues the m11x ‘Gaming Netbook’

Just over two years ago, I wrote my first impressions of the initial Alienware m11x ‘gaming netbook’. I found the build quality and processor a bit lacking but the design and graphics performance were excellent. About six months later, Dell released the R2 version, this time with a low-power Core i7 processor, and I absolutely adored the updated laptop. Well, except that the Optimus graphics switching system was nearly useless at launch and took some time to get correct. I always preferred the manual switching of the original system (and the Sony Vaio S-series) as it gave better battery life and…

Music Diary, News

Music as Art … Sheet Music Art, That Is!

An artistic duo called ‘People Too’ from Novabrinsk in Russia are known for their amazing papercraft that seeks to bring small scenes to life, but apparently they can also bring sheet music to life as well! We all know that music is art, and therefore sheet music contains art … but it is amazing when the sheet music ITSELF becomes art! The site linked below has more than a dozen examples of great art done in between the stanzas – definitely check it out. Take a look at this one! Head to the site and check out all of them!…

Music Diary

RIP Dick Clark, Timeless Host and Breaker of Boundaries

Although my kids will sadly remember Dick Clark from his post-stroke days, struggling for coherence alongside Ryan Seacrest, he was much more than that in a career that cut across 8 decades. The Dick Clark I grew up with was a force of nature – he started well before my time as the man who brought rock’n’roll to the mainstream, spent 31 years as the host of the amazing American Bandstand, started an empire including American Music Awards, the Pyramid game shows, Bloopers, and so on. And of course he made New Year’s Eve a television event with Dick Clark’s…

Reviews

HTC One S, a First Look

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go into Manhattan on a Monday morning and get an early look at HTC’s new line of phones, the HTC One. There are three phones in the series: the HTC ONE X, the HTC ONE V, and the HTC ONE S. The latter will soon be released on T-Mobile, and for the last 48 hours I’ve been able to run one through its paces. (Check out more info on the HTC ONE, here.) It’s far too early to be able to give a full review of the device, but it certainly…

Editorials, News

What to Do When You Lose 800k Customers? Change Your Spokesmodel’s Wardrobe!

Or at least that seems to be the approach T-Mobile is taking! After reporting that they managed to bleed more than 800,000 customers in the US alone during the fourth quarter of last year, T-Mobile is calling 2012 a ‘building year’, meaning they will continue to lose money and bleed customers, and that hopefully someone will care when they get a REAL LTE network in 2013. And apparently part of the building strategy is playing ‘dress up’ with spokesmodel Carly Foulkes. Check out the new commercial from T-Mobile: Here is the text: Time To Set The Record Straight. What do you…

Editorials

Study Correlates Walmart Presence to Rise in Hate Groups

Whenever I see a study that talks about ‘correlation’ being bandied about in the press as ‘showing linkage’, I immediately don my ‘correlation does NOT mean causation’ hat! And in a new study noted at LiveScience, that is at least as true as usual. The study shows there is a significant correlation between number of Wal-Mart stores in a county and the number of hate groups. And as the number of stores have grown, so have the number of hate groups. Before I chime in, here is a bit of context about how things were done: The researchers used data…

Music Diary

Sex Pistols 35th Anniversary ‘God Save the Queen’ Lands on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee!

Back in 1977 the Sex Pistols stirred up considerable controversy … well, pretty much all the time! But their confrontational punk anthem ‘God Save the Queen’ from their ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ LP is perhaps the grandest singular statement in punk music. And perhaps not coincidentally it landed with a bang just as the Queen was celebrating her 25th anniversary. Now in 2012 all of England is gearing up for the Queen’s diamond (60th) jubilee celebration. So naturally the Sex Pistols publishers are re-releasing the classic single to coincide with the event! Back in 1977 the song simultaneously captivated and…

Gear Bits

The Amazing Story of the First Woman to Officially Run the Boston Marathon

It is hard to think that within my life there was a time when women were essentially forbidden to run a marathon – yet the image above is one of those magical moments caught on film. It shows 20-year old Kathrine Switzer as the first officially entered woman in the Boston Marathon (Roberta Gibb ran as a renegade the year before). And the image shows marathon organizer Jock Semple chasing Switzer and attacking her, reportedly shouting “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” The image also shows a number of men helping Switzer hold off…

Editorials, Music Diary, News

Musical Necrophilia Hits the Rap Era

It was only a matter of time before rap music started resorting to ‘Natalie Cole Syndrome’. Older performers such as the caricature ‘Snoop Doggy Dog’, the has-been Dr. Dre, and the self-parody Eminem who are seeking to show that they are hip and relevant — rather than out of touch middle-aged millionaires without a clue — have taken the EXACT SAME tactics as Cole when she sang ‘Unforgettable’ with her (late) father. I’m sure rap fans will deny it … but that is all just posturing. Sure, in typical rap fashion they inject language that shows their limited intellect and…

Editorials

Whirlpool Sticks Me with the Dirty Laundry, but Lowe’s Picks up the Tab

Image courtesy of automaticwasher.org Is it really that hard to get good customer service anymore? Is the fine art of quality customer service a thing of the past? Looking through some past rants we’ve had here on Gear Diary, it’s evident that some companies just don’t care about anything dealing with “after the sale.” Even dealing with major brand names on larger ticket items clearly doesn’t mean you’ll have quality support after the sale is complete. Having worked retail for about 7 years, I understand how important good customer service is, even if it means going out on a limb…

News

Pre-Order the Sena Florence Portfolio for iPad and Save

I love Sena’s cases, and one of my favorites is their Florence for the iPad. It took some refinement to get it just right, but they did get it “just right”, and it has been one of my all time favorite iPad cases. Sadly, I can no longer use it as that is the case my wife Elana chose for HER iPad; the good news is that there is a new version of the Florence on the way. And, of course, it would not be a problem regardless, since I am more than happy to feed Elana’s gadget needs in…

News, Travel

AViiQ’s Ready Clips Let You Charge and Sync Without the Mess

There is no way around it, if you use a mobile device you need to have a charge/sync cable handy. The only problem is, most cables are far linger than you usually need and, if you have more than one in a bag, they quickly become a jumble of spaghetti. That’s where AViiQ’s new Ready Clips come in. Ready Clips are small, bendable, clipable cables that go anywhere, stay mess-free and do the job. At just 19.99 to $29.99 (2 miniUSB Ready Clips are $19.99 while the 2 Apple connectors are the full $29.99) they are the perfect stocking stuffer……

Editorials, News

New iPad Giving You ‘Could Not Activate Cellular Network’ Error? You’re Not Alone!

I’ve had the new iPad since launch day, and until last Monday it was the poster child for perfection – no cosmetic defects, no performance issues or problems with setup or flaky behavior. Just a great screen, excellent battery life, tremendous performance, and solid 3G connectivity (most of my home and work life puts me outside of 4G/LTE connectivity). Well … until yesterday. Since I use WiFi at home I never end up using cellular data at home unless I am out and about shuffling the kids from activity to activity. But I only use the cellular network at work,…

Editorials, News

Komen Races Feeling Consequences of Planned Parenthood Gaffe

This weekend I signed my family up for the local ‘Race for the Cure’, I’ll be running the 5k and my wife and boys will be walking it. I covered the firestorm related to the Komen Foundation suddenly pulling funding for Planned Parenthood efforts in Cancer screening and health care for needy women a few months ago, so I was obviously aware of THAT dimension … but we decided to participate despite of the political mischief of the Komen leadership. Nevertheless, it definitely played into our willingness to fund-raise for the event (and my reluctance to spread links for the…

News

ODOC for iPhone and iPod touch, Another Awesome Kickstarter Project I Backed!

Now that we are a two iPhone and two iPad household it makes more sense than ever to have a number of spots for charging our iOS devices. For example, I can see having a dock in the kitchen, another in the master bath and yet another in the bedroom. That way, whenever we are in one room or another we can simply drop our phones into the dock and top off the charge. I recently reviewed Element Cases’ Vapor Dock and came away impressed. Similarly, I am looking forward to getting the Elevation Dock I backed on Kickstarter a…

Reviews

Puss in Boots-HD Interactive Story for iPad Review: More Than Just a Story!

Children’s books have sure come a long way since I was a tyke, and popular fairy tales are no exception. (Non-electric dead tree version ca. 1951) Not too long ago I gave Puss in BootsHD by Intech-Global a spin, reading it to my 4 year old son on my iPad 2. It was my son’s first foray into the realm of electronic book media. Summary from Intech-Global: Fairy tales are the best instrument for spiritual and moral development of a child. Fairy wisdom is simple, but at the same time rich and diverse. It gets into the child’s life and…

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News

Journey Sing-Along Created in Movie Clips

Take a classic song from more than 30 years ago that gets more airplay today than most pop music, and mix it up with snips from decades of classic movies, and what do you get? Something absolutely brilliant! Check it out! Source: Buzzfeed

News

Buying an iPhone, Despite Verizon’s Best Efforts!

Dan’s wife Elana was not the only Gear Diary spouse to give in to the iPhone pressure this weekend-Sarah replaced her HTC Incredible with a 16GB 4S! However, the Verizon salesman betrayed his Android fanboy colors during our sales experience. You see, the salesman approached us and asked Sarah what she was looking to purchase. She said she was looking to replace her phone with an iPhone, and when he found out she was moving from Android to iOS, he proceeded to give her the hard sell. First, he informed her in a very condescending tone that “Android is different…

Gear Bits

Stay Cool as Temps Rise!

Monday is a big day for many runners. It’s the 116th annual Boston Marathon (the oldest marathon in the world!), which is always an exciting event. I love following Boston, even though I don’t have a shot at qualifying to run it unless they let me race with a rocket strapped to my legs. This year is going to be very unusual though, and it serves as a good reminder to always adjust as temperatures rise quickly in this warm spring. See, Boston starts at 11am, and this Monday it looks like it is going to be a bit warm….

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