The BeBook Neo
I'm not sure what happened to the BeBook 2; it was taken to trade shows, and I've seen photos of it, but it appears Endless Ideas (the company that make the BeBooks) have decided not to go down that route. Instead, it appears there's a new device being released - BeBook have announced the BeBook Neo!
Continue readingregfly.com – an example of their support
Below is an example of regfly.com's shockingly awful support. I thought I'd document it here to warn people against using them. Can anyone recommend a decent low price SSL cert supplier?
Amazingly after all this, rather than fix the problem they just simply suspended my account. If they left a reply on the ticket explaining why - I couldn't see it, because I couldn't log in. I strongly advise people stay clear of this SSL cert provider, I guess it's very apparent why they are cheap.
Continue readingBeBook review
This review is from a technical perspective. I got my BeBook mostly for reading things like RFCs, rather then for reading novels. Most reviews seemed to cover what the device looks like, and where the buttons are, which wasn't very helpful when I looked into buying one, I wanted to know how it preformed.
Continue readingReview of the N95 and the Forerunner 305
I've had a Forerunner 305 for a while now. On the rare occasion I go running, I find it really useful. At first, I thought t would be a great geeky toy that I'd get bored of - I honestly expected it would find its way into a draw and never be used again after the first couple of uses.
However, it's actually a great running accessory, and I advise this kinda hardware to all by the most casual of joggers. It's far too easy to run too fast when you're out running - you can set the forerunner up to beep at you when you go too fast or too slow - obviously you configure these speeds yourself. Recently I ran a half marathon, I did virtually no training for it, and without the forerunner on my wrist making sure I didn't run too fast or too slow, I'm not sure I'd have finished!
Continue reading‘OzKleen Carpet Power’ cleaning spray
Wow, shockingly good at cleaning - if you're looking for a powerful carpet cleaner, I think this is the product for you. Check out the before and after of my 8 y/old mousemat I decided to clean, but only half of it
Do not buy from Filmnight
Don't join their rental stores atleast...
I recently joined the Epsom store and now I wish I hadn't. They had a great deal on that for £11.99 a month ( £30 one off first payment that covers your first 3 months too) you can rent 2 movies at once and rent as many as you like a month. Unfortunatly you are still bound by the rental period, so if you return them late (1 day for new films, 2 days for everything else) then you are fined. This however is not what's annoyed me. 10 days after signing up the shops closed completly. No advanced notice, no sign in the window, just an empty shop. On calling Filmnight they claimed they had nothing to do with it, they were simply a franchise. Well, personally, I don't want to by dealing with a company that has such loose management over it's stores that they don't know atleast 10 days in advance that it's having financial issues.
So, my advice to you, DO NOT USE FILMNIGHT. I'd also extend this to any companies that they work with, Apollo (which was the company owning my local that closed) and VidBiz.
I've recently joined screenselect instead, and I'm more then happy with the service.
Update: (2006-08-07)
Turns out Filmnight care enough about reputation to come along and take down the big 'FILMNIGHT.COM' sign from the front of the shop. They don't care enough about it to refund me the small amount of money that they took off me. Odd.
Brita / Breville Aqua Fountain Review
I've recently purchased a Breville Aqua Fountain and I'm not overly impressed with it, so I thought I would put a review here in the hope to put others off buying it.
I had a desktop water cooler before this, but it recently broke. It was a good cooler, but was reasonably tacky just slightly cheaper then my new Breville Aqua Fountain. The new cooler set me back £55 from Robert Dias.
First impressions were good. It's got blue LEDs which make the water chamber glow, and has a downward pointing LED highlighting the dispensing area. The unit needs cleaning before use, but that should be obvious to most. It takes the new larger Brita filters - apparently these are much better - however I can't help but think that it's an attempt at vendor lock in. The external chamber can hold up to 3 litres (I've not confirmed it, but it seems about right) and apparently the internal chamber holds 1 liter - it's this 1 liter that is cooled.
The unit is quieter then my old cooler, and it has a nice switch on the front to turn it off. Having said all this, I have a few issues with this cooler.
Firstly, you can't turn the blue LEDs off. They really do give the cooler a nice look, but I don't actaully want them on. They are bright, and I keep this on my lounge, so whilst watching a movie I have to turn it off. To demonstrate how bright the lighting is, click the image on the right. This was taken about midnight from outside my house, nothing is on except the water cooler in that room!
Secondly, the fan seems to be on a lot! My old cooler was very loud when it was activly cooling, but it didn't do it very often. This cooler seems to spend a lot of time attempting to cool.
Lastly, the water doesn't appear to be that cold! Various quotes on the internet suggest this unit should cool to between 5 and 10 degrees. I'm reasonably confident it's not cooling that much, but I intend to get a themometer to test it soon, and will update this page when I do.
As a final note - how hard would it be to have a variable themostat on the thing, so I can choose how cool I want it? I don't think Breville did any tests on Joe Public with this product - it had potential to be fantastic, but alas... it bearly hits the 'good' rating
Update: Using a Precision Gold N28BJ Ifnfrared Thermometer I measured the temperature of the water. I took a glass (of about medium size, I imagine about 250-300ml) and filled it with water. I then took the temperature of the surface of the water. I ensured that the blue light on the front of the cooler was on, which signifies that water is at temperature. The reading was 10 degrees, so within specification, but only just.
Update 2007-10-30: I contacted Brita about this, asking if they wanted to give me an official response to post - however they have not yet replied.
Update 2007-11-07 Brita have replied!
We are of course looking into the concerns expressed on your blog. As the Brita Breville Aqua Fountain is a joint venture between ourselves and our partners Breville, we are keen to consult with Breville fully before responding to yourself. We look forward to coming back to you within the next week.
Update 2007-12-04 One month later, and no reply.
Update 2007-12-15 Another reply!
Many thanks for your kind offer to respond to your and other opinions concerning the Breville Brita Aqua Fountain water chiller. As with all products, consumer feedback is vital to their continual evolution, improvement and ultimately customer satisfaction and as such we welcome your honest opinion.
Firstly, the vast majority of Aqua Fountain purchasers over the past 2 years have been very happy with the performance of our product. Most are happy with the cooling performance, the convenience and cost over bottled water that it offers. I understand that it is only natural that those who have had an unusual or unfortunate experience are more likely to post opinions than those who are content. For those that are disappointed with the performance of their Aqua Fountain, it is guaranteed for a period of 1 year from purchase date against mechanical and electrical defects.
I also read with interest that your Breville Brita Aqua Fountain has been quieter than your previous water chiller. Also, whilst I appreciate that the water temperature achieved (you mentioned that you measured it at 10 degrees, its correct specification) might not be cold enough for your own tastes, we feel sure that this is ideal for others. Delivering temperatures colder than 10 degrees would use much more energy and time to achieve and so it was felt that 10 degrees would offer water cold enough for most tastes yet with a chilling time/energy use that was acceptable also. We pride ourselves in offering good customer service and genuinely welcome customer feedback as it forms part of our product development programme.
Our customer services team are more than happy to advise on and resolve any issues that are expressed on your website. If you have any other queries, please feel free to come back to our customer care team.
In my opinion, it's a good reply. My dealings with customer services on this issue were good, and other then the delay in reply from Breville, replies were pretty quick. =