Magic Indeed.

Review of: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Bed & Bath

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

I’m quite a bit skeptical of anything that calls itself magical or has magic in its name (yeah, ha ha huh?)

Is what it does really magical? Is there an arcane force behind the product that pushes it past the level of mundane?

In the case of the Mr Clean Magic eraser the answer is - yes. This darn thing gets almost ANYTHING off of walls. I’m actually yet to find a substance that this has not been able to remove completely from walls, doors, counters, chairs, tables, and more. If you have a mark, this will get rid of it. Markers, crayons, pens, even sharpies once (bah on their permanence!)

If you have kids, you need this, and you know why. Go get a pack right now.

Program This - Honeywell RLV430 Thermostat

Review of: Honeywell RLV430 5-2 Day Programmable Baseboard Heat Thermostat, Tools & Hardware

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

Last fall we installed programmable thermostats on four out of the five baseboard heaters our house has. If you want programmable thermostats for baseboard heating, your options are pretty much limited - to this one specific model. There are no others - at least not at retail locations of Lowes or Home Depot.

No matter, these work like champs. We don’t overuse the custom timing methods, but rather mainly use the preset time intervals for bedroom use (except the basement which gets an even stricter schedule.) You can do manual override until the end of a cycle to raise the heat a touch if you find yourself suddenly a bit cold.

No longer do you have to worry about turning the thermostat back up before bed and back down in the morning. These bad boys have shave about $20 a bill off of our heating costs in the fall and winter months (half the year here…) They will have paid for themselves at the end of this winter season.

AOTW - AppZapper!

Review of: App Zapper, Software

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

It’s a shame that Apple doesn’t include a better uninstall method for programs in their OS. But, worry not, because someone has come up with the answer - AppZapper.

You merely drag any part of the application onto AppZapper’s launchpad, and it will bring up a list of the associated files it found for that application. You can check and uncheck the different files and automatically delete the whole thing all at once.

It even has Genie mode to find all the applications you might not even realize you had installed and gives you the option to rid yourself of them as well!

It is possible for a seasoned veteran to do this on their own, but this is a must buy for the newbie. Heck, I’m a seasoned veteran, and I even bought it. I’d rather use this and save my time. I love it so much, I bought a special friends and family pack they had offered and gifted a couple licenses out to good friends to use on me.

If you use a Mac, do yourself a favor and keep it clean. Get AppZapper to help you ( http://appzapper.com/ ).

Targus Helps You Cool Down.

Review of: Targus PA239U Targus Traveler CoolPad, PCs & Consumer Electronics

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

I only buy laptops for a reason. I like to have all of information with me at all times, and I like to be able to compute in more locations that just my grungy desk. I need changes of pace. I want to blog from the couch, surf for deals from the restroom, check email and recipes while cooking. OK, so maybe I need to break from technology for a while…

A while back there was a deal where I was able to get some laptop cooling pads on sale. I got them for a song. I’m glad, but after having used it I would pay full price knowing what I know now.

It’s the Targus Traveler Coolpad. It’s a hard black plastic base that raises the laptop at an angle to give it a more ergonomic feel, along with better airflow. It also has the effect of being able to swivel the laptop since it is essentially two connected pieces.

This lazy susan effect is great for when the wife and I are tapping out at a coffee shop and want to show each other something quickly. Just a spin of the machine and we’re looking at each others screens.

Make a Wave of Music with Tangerine

Review of: Tangerine, Software

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

I have recently gotten into a walking program that is slowly going to evolve into a jogging and eventually running program. My big issues are motivation and tracking.

The Nike+ Sport Kit gives me tracking, and music gives me my motivation. The unfortunate thing is that I’m bad at making playlists for working out. Nike and itunes have collaborated to create some custom playlists that create wave like shapes based upon the order and intensity of the music in the playlist. This is great for making stair stepped beat shapes for interval training, or a gentle wave for a good solid run.

I don’t want to pay too much, I have a LOT of music, and besides, they only offer a very few of these playlists. So, what’s a guy to do?

Download Tangerine, a new Mac Shareware application that is currently in beta. It goes through your entire iTunes library, figures out the BPM (beats per minute) of each track and stores this information in your tracks for future use. It will then custom create playlists for you based on this information so that you can have playlists that slowly build up to a high beat, stay there, and then slowly work their way back down.

It is absolutely incredible. You tell it how long a playlist, and a couple other parameters and it does the legwork.

This program is well worth the install, and if it fixes the issues t has is shaping up to be a worthy purchase. Get it from Potion Factory’s Website ( http://www.potionfactory.com/ ).

Service Pack What?

Review of: Apple PowerBook G4 - PPC G4 1.5 GHz - RAM : 512 MB - HD : 60 GB - CD-RW / DVD - 802.11b/g, Bluetooth - MacOS X 10.4 - 12.1″ TFT 1024 x 768 ( XGA ), PCs & Consumer Electronics

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

Did you know that a year and a half ago I switched sides? Yup, I gave up using my old home Compaq Windows PC and traded it in for a workhorse of a Mac.

Ever since, I have had no issues with viruses, malware, spyware, or OS updates. I bought OS X Tiger and got “Windows Vista” for free. Everything that Windows isn’t, the Mac is. Sleek, powerful, advanced, intuitive, beautiful, fun.

Apple has integrated their software, hardware, web services, and accessories to an amazing degree. itunes and my iPod cruise together in harmony. iPhoto and my Canon cameras do the same. I can see my wife’s music and photos over our wifi network.

This little baby does it all and does it all so well. I really have no complaints at all. It’s funny, I work at a company that creates Windows software, but I feel more at home with a Mac. What’s that tell you about the state of Microsoft’s OS???

And in January when Vista comes out? Well, I’ll already be running the next OS X - Leopard. I’ll see then what it will take MS 3 years to give back to its customers. What OS will you be running?

Garlicy Goodness.

Review of: Garlic Jims, Food & Dining

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 4 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

I miss the great pizza of Pagliacci’s having moved out of Seattle to the suburbs. A warm Chicken Primo on a cold fall night sure soothed the senses.

I’ve found my new gourmet pizza replacement in South King County - Garlic Jim’s. Their prices are a bit higher than say Dominos or Pizza Hut, but the service and quality are well worth it.

Every type of pizza I’ve had from there has been excellent. My two favorites are the margherita and chicken bacon ranch. Guess you can tell I’m a fan of the white pizza eh?? Nothing against the good old Chicago/New York style reds, but garlic and oils hit the spot for me.

If they do for you too, then you need to check out Garlic Jims - they’re spreading like wildfire down here, so if you’re near South King County or the Eastside you’re sure to either have one or be getting one. Heck, they even just opened one in Seattle!!

Nike+ Sprot Kit

Review of: Nike+ Sport Kit, Electronics

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 3 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

Don’t bother with the Nike+ shoes, there are plenty of shoe wallets available that let you put the sensor device in and go with your current shoes.

The Nike+ site is a touch slow and it is impossible (without much grumbling intervention of hand editing and copying files on your iPod in disc mode) to add workouts from when you forgot to bring your shoes/sensor/receiver. Let’s just leave it at you won’t be getting it done any time soon. There are a few PC based software solutions to work around this, but Mac users like me are on their own for now.

It is nice to set goals and see the progress towards them, but the whole system needs quite a bit of reworking to be more optimal.

All that siad, I still like it, and I will continue to use it, I just wish it were more capable.

Sears Outlet - Scratch & Dent

Review of: Sears Appliance Outlet, Appliances

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 4 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

For those in the Seattle area who were unaware, Sears has an appliance outlet in Tacoma. It has scratch and dent applicnaces at some steep discounts.

We got a fridge there for about $800 less than MSRP. We paid a bit more than our budget, but its because we were able to get so much more out of that money than we had even hoped for.

They have all sorts of appliances and accessories. Our fridge had a barely noticeable scratch on the front edge, and they were even nice enough to throw in touch up paint in the right color for FREE. Some of the fridges had nothing noticeable wrong expect maybe a missing shelf.

Delivery is self service, so if you don’t have the strength or transportation you’ll have to arrange it on your own separately. They do have several services they refer, and the one we used worked well. They even moved our old fridge to the garage for us.

It’s worth the drive south.

Multi Monitor Synergy!

Review of: Freeware Application - Synergy, Computers

By: Myk O. on Judy’s Book

Rating: 5 stars

Read review on Judy’s Book.

I use a program at work and at home that I absolutely love and thought I’d share it with you. It’s a bit slanted towards technical people, but is incredibly useful.

If you have two computers or more on your desk, each with its own monitor; you need to be using Synergy. It allows you to share a keyboard and mouse (but not monitor) w/o needing a switch box. It is free and cross platform (Linux, OS X, and PC versions exist.)

It’s home page is here: ( http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ ). Once you download, install, and set it up the magic starts. You can run your cursor off the edge of one monitor and it automatically appears on the edge of another monitor. I have mine set up side by side so I can go off the right side of my Mac laptop’s screen and have it appear on the left hand side of my PC’s LCD screen.

You can even cut and paste between systems!

So go grab another LCD screen, ditch the mutliple keyboards and enjoy some additional desk space and productivity.

Crap, check spelling is still busted in Mac Flock - sorry for typos…