Review: Brother MFC-9840CDW Multi-Function Color Laser Printer / Scanner / Copier / Fax

Brother-MFC-9840CDW-Color-LaserOk, I’m about to go on and on about how much I love the Brother MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Multifunction Center with Wireless Interface and Duplex, but before this turns into a giant love fest, let’s start with the bad news. Software installation is a bit of a nightmare.

Software Installation

I installed the printer to work on three different Windows machines and one MacBook laptop. The MacBook installation went best, but not without issues. However, the Windows installations were all three a nightmare.
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Sample High Speed Video from the Casio EX-FC100

casio-ex-fc100So, I got a Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100 camera which is capable of up to 1,000 frames per second of video capture for a specific project that I’m working on which you guys will see pretty soon… But in the meantime I took a couple of sample videos just testing it out so far.

The bottom line on this camera is that if you shoot video for just about any reason, you should pick one of these up so that you can add high-speed captures to your bag of tricks. It’s cheap and easy and the results are worth it. The normal stills from the camera are also good (not great) and the features are adequate for a highly portable point and shoot camera.
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REVIEW: Thermaltake BlacX eSATA Hard Drive USB Docking Station

Thermaltake BlacX eSATA Hard Drive USB Docking StationI recently purchased the Thermaltake BlacX eSATA Hard Drive USB Docking Station from Amazon so that I could use an external hard drive for backups and /or disk recovery needs.

This particular device is capable of either USB connectivity or eSATA, meaning that it can be hooked to your PC at the same speed as an internal drive, making for radically increased performance!

Well, all I have to say is that the BlaX docking station works like a charm, and its good looking too! So if you are in need of a USB hard drive docking station, i highly recommend that you go pick one up. Amazon’s currently got them for $29.99 after rebate, so you’re not going to do any better than that. Enjoy!

REVIEW: EVGA USB VGA Adapter Adds Two or MORE Monitors to MacBook Pro

EVGA USB VGA AdapterI just received a few EVGA USB VGA Adapters from Amazon.com and installed them so that I could hook up two more external monitors to my MacBook Pro. Now that I’ve done that, I may just add a couple more for no reason other than the fact that… I can!

The EVGA USB VGA Adapter lets you add monitors to your PC or Mac at up to 1600×1200 Resolution (or 1680×1050 for widescreen monitors like mine). This is actually a big deal, because there are a few other USB video adapters out there, but they have lower resolution capabilities – like 1280×1024. It’s also a big deal because most of the other adapters out there only have Windows drivers! For some reason, the manufacturers just ignore the Mac population.

multi-monitor-macbook-pro
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Yoics Delivers Free Remote Desktop Sharing for Macs, Linux and PCs

Yoics!I just signed up for a new Beta service called Yoics today. (I wonder how that is pronounced by the way?) It’s a very interesting Remote Desktop sharing service, and it works with PCs and, most importantly, Macs. The underlying technology appears to be VNC, which I appreciate because it is a mature technology. But it seems they’ve managed to make it extremely simple to use.

Yoics allows you to share not only your remote machine’s desktop, but also the drives in your machine and even devices like Webcams!

Yoics Supported Devices
That’s right, you could set up Webcams all over your house, and use Yoics as a remote security monitoring system. But wait! There’s more! If you happen to have a Drobo file storage unit and the accompanying DroboShare network adapter, you can also directly connect to it via Yoics.
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Movie Review: Frost/Nixon

frost-nixon-movieThe other day at the AMC Best Movie Showcase, the final movie of the night was Frost/Nixon. I had actually thought about leaving the theatre and skipping this movie, but was glad that I made the decision to stick it out and watch.

Frost/Nixon is “A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.” This is the most famous of all of the Nixon interviews and ultimately the one that really sank him. Primarily due to the fact that Nixon answered one of Frost’s question:

When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.

I thought the movie was fantastic. It could have been extremely boring and dry, but they managed to essentially show how difficult it was for this particular interview to actually happen, and how close it was of a disaster to Frost and his team. Essentially, the entire filming was saved during the final interview with Nixon.
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Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog MillionaireOk, after sitting through Slumdog Millionaire during the AMC Best Movie Showcase I can honestly say that I think it was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. This movie has a fantastic plot, excellent acting, action, romance… in short, it’s an instant classic.

I’m not the only one who thinks this. According to IMDB, this movie has an 8.7 out of 10 with 66,922 votes. That currently ranks this move as #34 in the Top 250.

Now, considering that this is the only one of the 5 movies that is really uplifting and inspiring, I’m going to say that it’s most likely going to be my pick for Best Picture. Frankly, I think everyone should see this movie!
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Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Benjamin ButtonMovie day continues at the AMC Best Movie Showcase! We just finished watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Unlike The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Unlike Milk, this movie is going to take some processing before I can actually tell you what it was about. But one thing I can say is that it was a fantastic movie and appropriate for just about everyone (though I’d keep the young kids away for some adult themes).

The story centers around a man who was born with a strange affliction, possibly related to some sort of supernatural intervention, but never really explained. This affliction caused him to be born and essentially grow into an old man’s body, from which point he continues to get younger and younger.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a love story that weaves together the lives of several different characters in a way seemingly designed to show us there is a time and a place for everything, while simultaneously reminding us that it’s never too late to be the person you were born to be.
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Movie Review: Milk

milk_seanpennMilk has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture this year, and I just watched it at the AMC Best Picture Showcase this morning. Sean Penn gave an absolutely amazing performance as gay activist Harvey Milk, but he was surrounded by a number of other fantastic personalities as well and ultimately the combination was definitely worth the Best Picture nomination.

Now here’s the scoop. If you are a fundamentalist who is so opposed to any lifestyle other than your basic religion, don’t even bother trying to see this movie. You are going to see men kissing within the first 5 minutes and then you’ll have to get up and walk out. It’s just not even worth wasting your time.

However, if you consider yourself even partially open minded (you’re not gay, you don’t like it, but you’ll at least tolerate people) then this film is absolutely worth seeing.
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