Digital Dad

Flat Panel TVs and Child Safety

Had this come into the Digital Dad inbox and thought I should pass it along:

“It goes with out saying that expectant parents should lock medicine cabinets, pad corners, secure outlets and install gates in order to protect their baby, but a danger that often goes overlooked is the potential for falling/unstable furniture and electronics.

As electronics become increasingly thin, they pose an even greater risk to children who can easily grab them off shelves and media centers. In fact, a recent study found that these types of injuries have increased over 40% in the past 10 years.

Peerless Industries, the maker of the world’s thinnest TV wall mounts, is encouraging parents to place TVs out of the reach of children by mounting them to a wall. Unlike other baby proofing techniques, mounting electronics protects children while simultaneously enhancing the look of a room.”

Hulk Smash Printer

Oy. That Dell 948 was just trouble. I spent quite a bit of time with it to see why I was getting these random white lines across the printouts. i did find a few bits of paper in there but nothing that would obstruct/jam the machinery. I loosened every screw on that thing and still found nothing.

Now it’s in my garage – a very large scanner, basically.

Lessons learned:

I bought a new color AND black and white cartridges before testing. I should have just bought one (the cheaper one, b&w) then tested. Now I am out an extra $20 or so.
Buy a printer from someone who makes printers.
Check warranties. Mine expired in July – not sure that would have helped much here but once your Dell warranty expires you cease to exist.

I did a bit of research for an inexpensive replacement. I figured that anything I get will last two years max, so I kept the search near the magic $99 range. I also needed a scanner for copying dox and scanning photos. The WiFi stuff was optional, but it seems to almost always be included.

I ended up with an Epson NX515 from Amazon. It received a darn good review from CNET and the price was right - $120 with free shipping.

So far, so good – very good. It is fast. Very fast. Printouts look great. Here’s the best part – when you put something on the scanner and hit the scan button – it actually scans, and when you hit the copy button, it actually copies. No weird dialog boxes, driver problems, or hesitations or hang ups. Wow.

Yes, the WiFi does work. I set up my wife’s XP notebook to print remotely. Shockingly simple.

Anyone interested in some very new Dell 948 cartridges?

Evolution of the PC

This was sent in by my brother – how true!

Dynex to the rescue

I was busy moving furniture this weekend. Big, heavy furniture, like an eight foot shelving unit made of walnut, from the lower level of my house to the upper level. That means taking it out the lower level door, hand trucking it over the gravel and up the curvy steep driveway, then rolling into the front door, through the kitchen out to the back deck, down the deck, then into the master bedroom through sliding glass doors.

Eesh. That was heavy. We wanted to put the TV in the hutch part of the shelving unit but since it’s an old Sony XBR tube, it was just too deep.

My take was that we needed a new TV, pronto!

The unit was 31” wide with a 28.5” opening. That means i could easily get a 26” LCD TV in there, and potentially squeeze a 32” in there.

i went with my 10 year old son to Costco, with a tape measure, to see what we could find. It turns out that Costco was closed on New Year’s Day, so we headed over to Best Buy. We looked at the 32” TVs and only the Dynex had a bezel width of 30.75” – just under the limit. Everyone else – the Samsung, the LG, the Sony, topped out at more than 31” across.

The Dynex looked good, although it was 720p. It had three HDMI inputs, a couple of component inputs, etc. i figured the difference between 720p and 1080p would be tough to see on a 32”screen from across the bedroom. Plus, the Dynes was on sale for only $329 – a great price.

Too bad the Dynex 32” was out of stock – the old bait and switch. We left the store and I dialed up the Best Buy in Seattle and sure enough they had one Dynex left.

We got there and as we worked our way back to the TVs i saw a table with some open box items. Sure enough, there was a 32” Dynex there, open box – a few of them in fact. They were all labeled $299 – a $30 savings, but one was labeled (mis-labeled?) $269! i asked the clerk about them and re-confirmed the $269 price. Such a deal!

We got home and i hooked it up to my cable box. The picture came up but after a few minutes the screen blanked out. Aargh. i went through a few memory configurations but this was a dud.

This morning i woke up early, packed up the Dynex and headed back to Seattle. i figured I would swap this open box for another - at least i had my $269 price. i went in the store and made my way through the still short customer service line. Wes P. behind the counter noted that i had the “old” Dynex, not the 2010 model (already?). He checked with the stick to see if they had another old Dynex to swap with. Well, they didn’t, so he gave me a swap with a brand new Dynex, packed new in the box. I ended up with a brand new 32” LCD TV for $269. Score! Thanks, Wes P. My faith in Best Buy has been restored!

I brought it home and my son and i hooked it up. I needed to activate the cable box (more on that later) but soon I had a pristine HDTV picture in the hutch – just barely fit.

Ice skating at home

Saw this and thought it would be good to pass on. Make your own ice skating rink in the backyard.

I used to skate in my home town of Hillsdale NJ at the Fritz Dietl Ice Skating rink. Kids love to skate!

http://bijansabet.com/post/309614512/lauren-and-i-put-together-this-skating-rink-for

To DS or Not To DS?

We’re moving toward the end of Hannukah 2009 and so far so good. We had a great visit by the grand-parents to kick it off, maybe too many latkes, a few good Hannukah parties.

In an effort to play down the gifts a bit, we also have a “donation” night and a day where we volunteer somewhere.

Now that my two girls are five and eight, the refrain on getting a Nintendo DS is getting chronic. Seems like all of their friends have one, or more than one. Initially I figured it was just a way to veg-out and waste some time with electronic entertainment. My ten year old son reminded me that it didn’t sound much different than me sitting in front of the TV with the Xbox. Smart kid.

Would a DS take away from their drawing time, or their pretend play time, or their piano time?

Or would it be an opportunity to learn to budget their “screen” time, get their homework done before they played with it, and share?

We’re going with the latter – a DS that they can share, a few games, and a some guidelines. We’ll see how it goes.

Other big gifts this year? A puzzle of the map of the world, “Peanuts” Monopoly, Band Hero, Barbie Fun House, jewelry, tons of books, and flannel pajamas (for me).

Happy Hannukah!

Dell 948 on the attack

Well, a passive attack. Very frustrating. My Product (RED) Dell 948 seems to be “skipping” some lines – it’s as if the roller is advancing the paper a bit too far a few times on the page. I tried alignment, cleaning the cartridges, even buying $ome new cartridges$, same deal.

Looked inside and found a few paper scraps but nothing hindering the paper path. Stumped!

Should I be concerned it now sells new for only $35 at ConsumerDepot? Is this thing built out of cardboard?

Windows 7 on the Dell XPS One

I had a reader email in and ask about my experiences putting Windows 7 on my Dell XPS One.

Our XPS One serves as our kitchen PC, so it gets plenty of exercise for email, Webkinz, web research, and photo sharing. I also have loaded the Zune 4.0 software on there and use it to drive my kitchen sound system.

The XPS One has a coax tuner built-in, as well as a custom set of bezel buttons, so I must admit i approached the upgrade with caution.

To clarify, i am still running the RC. In spite of working at Microsoft I have not gotten off my behind to get the real copy yet. Dell doesn’t officially support the XPS One according to their website, but *spoiler alert* it works fine for me.

First, I decided to install clean. That means hooking up an external drive and doing a Windows Easy Transfer. It’s not hard. Stop complaining.

The XPS is not dual-core, so you’re going with the 32 bit version. The install is pretty quick and there are scant driver changes. Here are the ones you want to re-download (the 32 bit Vista versions) from the Dell driver support website:

AVerMedia TV Tuner – you’ll need this for enabling your TV Tuner in Windows 7. The new version of Media Center is worth it
ATI Video driver
Update your BIOS
Dell Touchpad/Pointing stick

That should do it. As always, your mileage may vary, see dealer for details. At some point soon I’ll install the retail version. Let me know if your XPS One/Windows 7 upgrade is working for you.

Florence Henderson Tech Support

You read that right. Florence Henderson of Brady Bunch fame has a tech support service. From the site:

America's favorite TV mom wants technology to be simple! Multitalented entertainer Florence Henderson recently guided older adults through the transition from analog to digital television. Now she's here to comfort, support, and inspire you as you make the most of computer technology!.

Only $.99 for the first month but $25 a month thereafter, or $250 for the year.

Sounds like an intriguing alternative to long distance tech support, stuff like:

Use e-mail, instant messaging, videoconferencing with Skype, or Facebook
Set up a device such as a printer, scanner, digital camera, or MP3 player to work with your computer
Tune up your system so it performs at its best
Set up a home network
Purchase airline tickets, gifts, books, or prescriptions safely over the Internet
Check financial news and stock performance online
More!

Makes sense to me.

Is That Your Friend In The Chipper?

I was looking forward to picking up a wood chipper this fall. We have a ton of branches around the property, and we use a ton of mulch, so i figured why not just cut out the middle man and just get one of those machines that turns branches into mulch?

I did a bit of web searching and i narrowed things down to a Troy Bilt model sold at Lowe’s. I am a big fan of Lowe’s so I figured since they are local, and this thing is super heavy (although it has wheels) i would be OK.

They helped me load it into the Green Machine and i carefully unloaded it and removed the box from the pallet. The neighborhood kids had started to gather to see the red metal monster.

I put in the oil, added the gas and carefully rolled it onto a level grassy area. I put on my goggles, had everyone stand FAR away, and pull the cord. It started right up. It has a large chute at the top for brush and a tube for larger branches power down. Unfortunately, as i was putting in the second branch, the engine slowed down and then just stopped.

I did some careful inspection and determined there was no clog. However, I could not pull the starter cord. The flywheel was locked. The Troy Bit help line was no help since it was closed on the weekends (good idea!). Eventually I called Lowe’s and they came out, picked up the non-working chipper and left me with a new replacement.

A few days went by and it was the weekend again. Same routine, rolled it onto the grass, started it up. It ate a few branches and yet again, the engine slowed down and stopped. This time I could pull the cord and the flywheel turned, but the engine would not spark. My neighbor came by to help but he was stumped as well.

Aargh!

Another phone call to Lowe’s and they picked it up and gave me a full refund. Final Score: Lowe’s = 1, Troy Bilt = 0. Now I am in search of another model.

Happy New Year

This seemed to be an odd post for today – how about an alarm clock that wakes you up with freshly cooked bacon?

Eeesh.

http://www.mathlete.com/portfolio/wakeNbacon.php

Where are the NY Giants?

I am suffering through another NY Giants season with Comcast. Apparently they have no way, no package, no service that enables me to watch NY Giants games here in Bellevue, WA.

DirecTV has Sunday Ticket, but Comcast has nothing. Zip. Nada.

Surprisingly, there still isn’t a package I am aware of on the web that let’s me see the games either. NBCSports has a bit here and there (good use of Silverlight), but I can’t seem to find anyone to take my money so I can watch these games on the web, live.

Weird!

Fisher Paykel R.I.P.

It’s been a love/hate relationship with our Fisher Paykel washing machine. No wait, it’s been just a hate relationship.

We bought it in 2002, the first new washer/dryer we ever bought since our first house came with one. I blogged about how it died on us in 2007, just outside of the five year extended warranty. It took two weeks to fix the panel (two weeks, three kids and no laundry machine?). Last year it kind of died, sort of had a stroke, such that it would start beeping about three-quarters through the cycle and required you to power it off and on again to actually finish the job.

We lived with that for about a year until we came back from a camping trip this past weekend (to Birch Bay, highly recommended) and the washer just refused to turn on. Tested the outlet, it was good, the washer was bad. I figured I was looking at a $300+ repair.

We had committed to getting our new laundry room done by the end of the year so this seemed to be a good time to do my patriotic duty and help the economy by buying a new washer/dryer. More on that later – it’s being delivered tomorrow.

So the Fisher Paykel is dead after seven years, the folks from Lowe’s will cart it away tomorrow. I might get a few kicks in before it heads out the door.

More Beertender Fun

Word out of The Netherlands that Heineken International has made Newcastle Brown Ale available in their Draught Keg format. That adds a new twist to the current crop of Heiney/Heiney-light options to the Beertender.

Bummer is that it is in “pilot mode” in Chicago, Minneapolis and SoCal. What’s wrong with Bellevue, WA?

Now that Newcastle is out, Zagorka cannot be far behind!

WSJ has an interesting coverage of this news, Beertender, and the general trend of “innovation” for beer packaging here.

New Sonos Controller

I received an email notification of the new Sonos controller. Sonos creates a proprietary wireless network in your house to create a music streaming environment that can be the same in multiple rooms or different per room, depending on the modules you buy.

Question for the readers – does Sonos support Zune subscription content?

The email showed off the new controller, which at $349 is not cheap. In fact, it’s expensive. Sonos made a mark by emulating Apple’s wheel interface way back when and by using real album artwork in the remote UI (the latter is my favorite).

However, this one is off the mark. As I mentioned, it’s too expensive. Second, it looks . . . ummm . . . anyone ever own a Casio Cassiopeia? Like the bigger screen but it’s too Soviet-era for me. I’d like to see the remote get smaller, cheaper, and use touch innovation.