<![CDATA[Comments from Hello_Newman]]> <![CDATA[Comments from Hello_Newman]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Golden Shellback Hands-on: Phones Can Make Calls While Underwater]]> The last three out of five comments I've left never posted, is this a total waste of time? Anyone else realize that 10 minutes writing doesn't matter most of the time?

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on XM-Sirius Merger Nears Approval, Comes Down To One Commissioner's Vote]]> I had XM radio for a year or so with my boom box and car, when I cancelled it was a nightmare. The guy went into zombie mode and refused to cancel, then he said they would let it keep going until what turned out to be their next stockholder report so they could keep booking me as a customer. I told him to cancel my car account because I traded in my car and no longer needed it. I told him straight out that if he did not I would cancel my boom box account and be done with their company completely. He didn't believe me and went into a dance about how I could just pause it and keep it until my next car got it and all the rest of the fighting went on.
After about 20 minutes of this I told him I wanted to talk to a supervisor who would cancel my account. He said "Supervisors aren't available, they are busy". and I told him to cancel all my accounts, and reminded him that I has specifically warned him this would happen. Now I don't have XM and just have a regular boom box with an Ipod adapter.
I'll never go back to XM again after that nightmare. Did I mention all their popular channels have commercials? They keep spamming all kinds of dog food and other commercials so you pay the monthly fee to get spammed to death. Also the other channels sound like a dead zone since the same DJ does promotions for 100 channels at a time, and it's all programmed so listening to it is like a day in the twilight zone.
All they had to do was cancel my car account, which I explained I didn't own anymore, but they just couldn't do it, they had to be a bitch and now I won't ever go back. Don't even dare to complain, they will prevent you from getting them in trouble by saying their supervisors are all busy and not able to take calls. You're screwed.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Researchers Squeeze 60% More Light Out of OLEDs With Tiny Lenses]]> Any progress in making Olympic Womens Gymnastics in Hi-Def look better is a noble effort. Stop the hating of OLED TV's cheaper so we can marvel at pert buttocks in our own homes. If we stop viewing pert buttocks, the terrorist win.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on SlyDial: Avoid Annoying Conversations by Going Directly to Voicemail]]> This is a social problem, it can't be solved with going just to voicemail. Be able to tell someone when to stop calling you, it's a social skill you have to learn and be able to do.
Just come out and tell that friend to stop it, tell the ex girlfriend that you don't want to chat with her since she doesn't want to have sex with you anymore. Tell your friend from work at the job you no longer have that you were just social with them since you saw them everyday, but no longer do that since you're at another job.
Paying a service to hide from someone isn't any way to live. Just have it out with them and be done with it. Life is too short to carry on this way. Tell your brother he loaned out that porn you loaned him in the 80's which you can't find anymore and you're pissed and don't want to talk to him anymore because of that.
Just get it all over with instead of paying a monthly fee to hide from people.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Plastic Motor Powered Directly By Light, No Solar Middleman Necessary]]> This might be best used in space since there's so much energy and less threat from the sounds of what it's made of.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on The Neutered USB Humping Dog On Sale Now]]> This is the kind of product that gets made when some inventor doesn't have a person in their life who can give them a reality check. Always keep at least one person who can tell you the honest truth about something you're planning. A buddy from the army, a relative who's not in your will, an ex girlfriend you know you'll never have sex with again. Someone, anyone who can just lay you out when you're way off base like about to create USB humping dogs. You know this person didn't have anyone, and we all pay the price....

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Aptera Electric Trikemobile Finds a Friend (and $2.75m) in Google]]> I can't believe Google threw money at this, there's no market for this thing, people need a real car. Not one that you have to go grocery shopping by yourself to get enough food for a week. How can this even pass a crash test?

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Crazy Fast Intel Bloomfield Processor Getting Early September Release]]> Now that any game can be run in the 60-100fps range with off the shelf parts I'm not as "gonna pee my pants" over the next Intel offering as I used to be. Running World of Warcraft in 1920x1200 on a 24" widescreen at 60fps really takes the edge off as far as anticipation of a new chip goes...

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Wargames Celebrates 25th Anniversary, Wired Interviews Everyone and their Mother About It]]> Watch it, then watch any movie that was released that same year and compare, it was a good movie at the time. 25 years is a long time to pass for something about technology, but you had to be there when it was released to appreciate it. See what else came out that year then decide how it stacks up.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented]]> They could have just used a mannequin or had her wear something contrasting under it so it would show up just as much.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Sarotech's Abigs DVP-260X Media Player Holds 320GB, Does 5.1 Audio and HDMI, Plus FM Transmitter]]> The flap covers all the connector holes to keep dirt out, see the list of all of them on the outside? Open flap and plug in your stuff. This would also be great for parties where you have regular FM tuners on an installed stereo or a boom box around. Wonder what the range is on the transmitter?

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Ymup Oxygen Generating Backpack For Thin-Air Adventures]]> I just don't see two hours as being a reason not to carry food or water. At hiking speeds isn't that not very far?

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Windows XP Users Actually Love Vista... If They Think It's Something Else]]> This all boils down to personal experience, early adopters are always pissed off because drivers aren't done and they expect it to be perfect the first time, not gonna happen. Most people who are happy with it have a new system and it was custom tweaked ahead of time by the manufacturer to not crash and work as designed.
What it is however, is a prettier version of XP that runs the same speed, and only DirectX10 as a reason to have it. You know they could have made DX10 and upgrade for XP, but then nobody would have any reason to buy it. This game is about making you buy the same product over and over even though you don't need it.
The original Windows 95B (with USB support) was 59MB of install files, you could browse the web, check emails, play games (even DOS games ran well), use Office and so on. All the same things you do now except the software has gotten so bloated and demanding to keep the thirst for hardware going.
I bet if most of you had a Pentium 90 with Win95 and 128MB of RAM you'd be able to do just about anything you're doing right now. People are bitter at MS because they keep bloating their products without any real new features being added and forcing it on use by making the computer makers buy into it.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Business Schools Getting Serious About GMAT Fraud With Palm Scans]]> I will share some info for those who took the test and passed it. When it comes to having an MBA, it doesn't matter. All you have to do in the business world is play racquetball with the right people, and let them win enough times to seem credible.
You have to schmooze and play the corporate game and you'll get ahead faster than working hard or any of that nonsense. Play the game right, make friends who can bring you up, and it's all set. Get the MBA and don't cheat, it's all downhill from there. You can't work hard enough to get ahead, it's all politics and making friends with the people who can move you ahead.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Moon Base Two Could House Four Astronauts for a Six Month Moon Stay]]> It's amazing Bush wants to push for Mars when there's enough Helium 3 on the moon to provide clean power to the Earth for 10,000 years at current energy consumption levels. Get the oil companies to invest and it's good for everyone.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Remote Controlled "Ultimate Wall-E" Available For Pre-Order at $250]]> This the biggest advancement in terrorizing your girlfriend's cat in decades. This is even more important than a remote control ball of yarn with gyroscope tracking linked to the remote. Tired of not sleeping with your girl without "kitty" sleeping in the room preventing romantic interludes? This is your weapon.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Lightning Review: Brando Multi-Function Hard Drive Dock]]> This is very good for a repair shop or data recovery place, or for cloning drives when building lots of the same machine. I assume you can hot swap the drive while the host system is running, just a nice time saver not having to reboot, detect the new drive, and so on just to check a drive or clone it. We used to do this the slow way and preinstall Windows so that it asked for the product key when you booted up.

Also when doing backups, the safest way is to backup everything to a hard drive, then put it in a safety deposit box so it's off site. If you get robbed or a direct lightning strike hits, you're screwed if it's connected and turned on with all your other stuff. For an office that does real off site backups this is very handy.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on iPhone Apps We Want To Like: A-Level Could Replace the Floating-Bubble Level, Soon]]> Yes, 180 degrees is the new level-based killer app I see. Can't wait for other big hits like:
Studfinder! Drywall Explorer
Knife Sharpener! with 22.5 degrees of perfect sharpyness.
Limbo Champ!

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Beijing's Apple Store Gets Crashed By Windows XP]]> I agree it's probably just the sign software only comes in a Windows version. I still would have replaced the screen saver logo with a screen capture of the Windows Blue Screen of Death for when it comes on. Now that would be funny. That image isn't hard to replace either.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on John Mayer Cheats On Apple With a Sony Vaio]]> I don't think they can even invent a pill that would cause me to care what computer he uses. He's out on a mountain with things that use electricity, but there isn't any.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Top Gear Crashes Nissan GT-R]]> It doesn't look that bad, the left tailpipe isn't even bent so they must have bucked a little. People freaking out like it's totaled. The guy behind him should have given some room if they weren't actually racing though.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Vauxhall Insignia Invades London In Elaborate Marketing Ruse]]> This is called overcompensating for a car that looks like a mix of everything else out there already. It's original, it's creative too, but does it make you want to buy one? At least they didn't have David Blane spend a month in one hoisted up by the crane there. At least...

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on AK Geneve HMS Automatic Warp Watch Is Nigh Indestructible, Inspired by Star Trek]]> No price on the French PDF but they do have others listed, one was 3,000 Euros, so what, about $4500 US. That was for a totally different watch, but gives an idea of the range their stuff sells for. You won't be seeing a Timex logo on this thing any time soon. Maybe we'll see spam for a Chinese made replica in a couple years...check your spam boxes!

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Forty Years Of Intel: Interactive Timeline]]> Yeah I still got a dual MB with two Celeron 300a's I overclocked to 450, it was the best deal going for performance in the day. Gonna maybe put that system together again for use as a web server or something, it can keep up under NT, or maybe too much trouble just for old times sake.

Some of the major upgrades of the day was going from an XT to the 286 12mhz, which still is the biggest jump in performance ever seen if you remember it. Also going from 2400bd modems to 14.4k was awesome.

Probably the best "old timer" story was when the Doom "b" patch came out enabling modem play. A friend and I played deathmatch for weeks after on our 14.4k modems and got really good. His brother came over and he told him he was playing against the computer when it was really me on the other end of the connection. I ripped him to shreds so bad I heard later the tossed the Gravis gamepad down and almost went hysterical that a computer opponent could roast him so badly. "Turn the skill level down! Turn it down now!" he was quoted later.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Beware iPhone App Scams]]> If they are pirated, Apple just calls Paypal and they lose the account, it's against PayPal TOS to sell stolen merchandise of course. Strange they haven't done that yet, so easy to put them out of business. Even if they got a merchant account, they could buy it, find out who the processor is and zap them again. Even complaining to Google will get them banned.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Psystar HQ Up for Sale, Buy It Now for $4.6 Million]]> It's amazing they didn't build a factory in China to do this and get a patent there for whatever they were doing. It's so bad there that I heard of one inventor who patented an item here in the U.S. and someone in China copied the documents and much later filed for a patent there, then sued HIM from China for patent infringement so he couldn't sell the item in China anymore.

They must not have consulted with any kind of lawyer before going down this road, unreal how you could kid yourself into thinking that Apple wouldn't/couldn't do anything about it.

Of course Apple isn't innocent either. Remember back when they settled with Apple Records that they could keep using the name, but only if they kept out of the music business? I think we all know what happened there.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Build Your Own Electric Motorcycle for $3000]]> Yeah this is not a good idea. 10 miles isn't worth doing when you can get a very nice scooter with some cargo capacity, warranty, and did I mention not having to build it, for less than $3k.
Also the actual cost for this guy to have one is probably twice that. He didn't add the labor and shop time or tools needed into the budget price, so even with plans, look at $6,000 or more depending on what your time would be worth working at a job. Just putting the six optima batteries in a bike frame will add 300lbs to it.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented]]> I'm more interested to know what company is making them, and how they can charge $68,000 to cover a seat in blue leather. Even Donald Trump doesn't pay that much I bet.

Reminds me of the West Wing episode where Christian Slater's character justified the military spending $300 on a special ashtray that breaks into three pieces, because in combat they didn't want broken glass laying around. Of course you can buy an unbreakable plastic ashtray at the dollar store, but that apparently was never considered.

It's not that some general wants deluxe digs for himself when flying, it's the complete lack of reality in spending that much, and there was obviously not any kind of bidding process to get something just as nice for a much lower cost than this.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on WASP Knife Will Freeze and Blow Up Your Organs]]> Can't believe you can just mail order one of these, but for $400 you too can score an instant kill. I can't imagine lawmakers are going to overlook this one for very long. It's got legitimate uses, like if a shark attacked this would take the wind out of it's sails if you could find a spot to penetrate. It's just there's so few people who could justify owning one, like if you're going to hunt bear with a bow and don't have a handgun if they charge.
This really does fit the description of a deadly weapon. It's not like they can regulate it for law enforcement only, or people with big game hunting licenses. A person would literally be better off getting shot with a gun than being stabbed with this.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Birdcage Backpack Will Get Both You and Your Bird Beat Up]]> It's my pirate dream come true! Now I can finally have a real parrot with me at all times when wearing my pirate costume..

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on NSFW: Hands-on With iRoticNet.com's All You Can Eat iPhone Porn]]> You're not paying for the content, you're paying for the convenient delivery method. I'll wait for the first story of someone getting busted for viewing it at an airport or on a city bus, it's just a matter of time...

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Forty Years Of Intel: Interactive Timeline]]> First PC was a 4.77mhz 8086 with dual 360k floppies and CGA monitor. I bought a hard drive and the decision was between a 10MB and 32MB RLL drive. My friend said "you'll never see the bottom of a 10 megabyte drive". I got the 32meg and then a month later added another 65meg RLL drive. I remember a friend at the time spent $1100 on the 120meg drive, which was the largest available if I remember right. These were the days when you wanted to run the best BBS you had to have a lot of space.

Another favorite quote was a couple of years later when the 486SX 25mhz system was on display in a Radio Shack and the sales guy said "oh those, the 486sx is really for industrial use only, it's much more powerful than a home user would need".

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Foose Coupes Start Hitting The Road]]> It's really well crafted, but I wouldn't buy an open wheel roadster that's got 3 inches of ground clearance. I'm sure it will get trailered from show to show. I'd be afraid to drive it just because of the cleaning required if you hit a puddle. The wheels stick out so far, just doesn't seem like it would be any fun to drive in the streets.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Seriously Cool Stash Of Saddam-Era Cars Found In Baghdad Underground Garage]]> Oh that sprinkler system pipe runs over all of them, couldn't he have hit the release valve for a couple of minutes to "test" the system before taking photos of all those cars?

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Man Stuff - The Best of Uncrate]]> Wow thanks for posting the rental car rally where all the spots are taken unless you give them a big bribe to get a spot. Wow super cool, they price it at $3,000 on the order form.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Icare Motorcycle Actually Doesn't Give a $@&* About Anything]]> Oh it's not slow, the Goldwing engine makes 124ft lb. of torque and having been an 04 Goldwing owner, this will move easily with that engine. With a K&N air filter it really moves above 3,000rpm, probably a 10 percent power increase from what I could tell after installing one. I'm sure this weighs less than a full dress Goldwing, and those do low 12 second quarter miles (have seen stock Goldwings do 12.29's), so you can only guess what this thing can do.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on AMD CEO Hector Ruiz Flees]]> I won't ever buy AMD after the crap in the early days when their math chip and game performance sucked and they kept telling us it was better. The K days were just a bunch of lies and I don't even care if they caught up or not. We built a lot of systems and the Intels always outperformed the AMD ones, but the AMD reps kept shouting how they measured up or outperformed, when they didn't even come close. Sure they were cheaper, but I don't like being lied to for years on end, so they are out of the picture now.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Extending The Life of Your iPhone 3G With Battery Packs]]> It might be a lot simpler to buy a couple of extra power chargers, one for the office, and even one for the car with a power inverter for the lighter, or a dedicated car unit. Just being able to charge it while driving and at work would pretty much give you a license to use it whenever you felt like it. The battery pack is cool if you're really on the move, but for us guys carrying another thing in your pocket is a pretty large hassle factor. Unless you're married to a trophy wife and full time body builder, I don't think any of us have the confidence to carry a ManPurse just to have a full cell phone battery.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on Acer Ships Ginormous 8920G Gemstone Notebooks; 16:9, Dual HDDs, Blu-ray Included, Hernia Belt Not]]> It's for someone who wants a desktop they can take out when needed. If you live on an RV, boat, Manhattan apartment, this might be a good idea compared to having two computers which would cost as much to get this performance.
For me, I wouldn't do it as battery run time would be in the abyss with a screen that large. Nine pounds pretty much ruins the idea of traveling a lot, add the chargers, spare battery, and other nik naks and you're well beyond bowling ball territory.
I have a Sony Vaio with 13" screen, it's 3lbs with extended battery and you can watch DVD's on it with wireless. Being able to burn CD's makes moving stuff back and forth easy. I just can't see going for this brick unless you must only have one computer and travel isn't on the menu very often. Maybe for the person who takes it to the office and plugs it in there, then takes it home. Might be a good idea, especially since you could leave the battery at home and have a power cord at each place.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello_Newman commented on 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt, Part Three]]> I used to like Mustangs, but don't care for them anymore. My favorite was the mid-late 80's LX with the 5.0 liter HO package. You could get one of those babies without the extra 400lbs the GT packed but with the same drivetrain for under $11,000 out the door. I remember the NY state troopers prowling around in those and when they pulled someone over you knew they weren't likely to get away.
That was the last of the real muscle cars in the 80's, cheap, fast, and light.

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