Category: Best and Worst

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Jerks at The Bike Rack DC

I won’t go into detail, but be warned to not do business at “The Bike Rack” in DC on Q St. NW.  I have been in the middle of a billing dispute with them and they called to have me return my bike.  They sounded nice on the phone and after holding the bike in my apartment for 5 months not using it, decided that even though the last time I was over, they were unaccommodating, that I would be nice and deliver the bike to them.

I get over, and one of the owners says…. “What is wrong with the bike?”  I said “Nothing, I explained the situation to the credit card company.”  He said “You lied.  You told them it was defective.”

Let’s just say they are jerks and they DO NOT HONOR THEIR STATED RETURN POLICY!

YES I had a BAD experience, but I am not the only one…check out Reviews at Yahoo Maps

Best Bike Shop?

CITY BIKES by far is the best bike shop in town!  If they carried Giant, I would have purchased the bike from them.  

Why they are the best….

  • They give WABA members discounts on both bikes and accessories. (Bike Rack does Not)
  • They give you 30 days to be sure that the bike you purchased works for you. (No other bike shop does this.  Kind of like how few car dealerships allow you more than a test drive.)
  • They have friendly and knowledgeable staff.
Check out City Bikes online.
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Menu Meters

Having used a pc for a very long time and being used to my pc freezing, I missed the hard drive activity light.  Thankfully there is a freeware utility called Menu Meters which works for both Tiger and Leopard which does just that.  So if you want to be sure your Mac is working, this utility is for you.  It places indicators that you select in your top menu.

You can select any combination or all of the following:

  • CPU (Graph or Percenage of each or combined cores)
  • Hard Drive Activity
  • Memory Usage vs. Available
  • Network Activity
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HP Touchsmart PC

So it would not be fair if I were the only one to go shopping…Patrick came along and picked up an HP Touchsmart at Best Buy.  Oddly enough, not all stores carry all products.  The first store we went to near the Circuit City in Bailey’s Crossroads, VA did not have the 506 model which comes with the following additional items…

  • 4 GB Ram (504 has 2 GB)
  • NTSC and ATSC Digital Tuner (504 does not have one)
  • NVideo w/ 2 GB video ram! (504 has Intel 256 MB)
  • 500 GB 7200 SATA Drive (504 has a 320 GB 7200)

Both come with a 22″ touch screen and is less than 2″ thin!  As a Mac convert, I am hoping that the next generation of iMacs will come with a touch screen option.  Definitely a new concept in home computers.  Aside from the HP, I am not sure there are any other touch screen all-in-one computers out there, but this is definitely a glimpse of the future!

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Labor Day Shopping!

Did I mention I have two jobs? There is a reason…not just because I live in a place that does not have mice or cockroaches, the last apartment did, I like to shop.  I also like to research products and get the best one at the best price.  Which these days tends to lead to me to Amazon.com or another online retailer.

Best Price = Internet

Granted, I would gladly spend more to get a product from a local, independent store, but when your main options are chains, there is no loyalty there.

Ever since I entered the world of HD November 2007 with the purchase of a Samsung 1080i 32″ LCD TV, a Panasonic 1080i HD Home Theatre Projector, and a HD DVD player, now obsolete (tear), I have been looking to get an HDMI switching audio receiver.  

About 4 years ago I upgraded my Philips with a Harman/Kardon AVR 135 (6.1, 40 watts per channel, S-Video).  This was a big improvement!  Slowly I upgraded my speakers from the set that came with my Philips to Polk Audio.  I realized that bigger is better with speakers as they sound much fuller when there is a cabinet to resonate in.  

Hint: Don’t waste money on an expensive name or those tiny speakers that promise to be better.

Prices have continued to drop and there was both a sale and interest free financing for 36 months at Circuity City.  It was time!

I ended up getting a Onkyo TX-SR606 (7.1, 90 watts per channel, 4 HDMI Inputs) for just $399.  What a great receiver and deal!  Here are just a few of the cool features:

  • Full 7.1 channel surround with support for HD and Blu-Ray HD Audio.
  • 90 Watts per channel.
  • Satellite Radio and iPod ready.
  • 4 HDMI Inputs with switching and up-conversion to 1080i. (S-Video to HDMI is not impressive, thankfully all of my components have HDMI outputs)
  • Automatic speaker setup and equalization! 

Automatic Speaker Calibration

This was really cool…plug in the provided microphone and position as instructed in the 3 listening locations and after a series of test tones, the technology calculates the distance away and compensates for distortion to give the best surround sound experience.  I don’t know how to calibrate them myself, so even if it does not work, the idea is great.  After is was done, it sounded great!

Happy?

You bet!  Not only does it have 4 HDMI inputs where the competition has only 2 or 3 for the same price, I can finally use all 7 speakers and send HDMI signals from the components to the projector in best picture available!  (PS – I don’t even have to change inputs on my projector between S-Video and HDMI.)

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