Hot Beer! Come get your Hot Beer!

At the local "Honey's" IGA store in Newton NC.

Blackberry Storm2

I have a Blackberry Storm 2. It sucks and I don't like it.

Here is why:

• Slow, slow, slow.
• Buggy synchronization with Outlook - syncing multiple calendars is a nightmare.
• Irritating built-in browser that you can't change from default browser
• Having to physically push on the screen to get it to click is annoying and a waste of time.
• Frequently the GPS will stop working requiring a battery pull - the only way to reboot.
• Reboot can take as long as ten minutes but never less than five.
• Slow browser
• Slow
• Slow
• Slow

I am a business user and I really, really, really wish I would have gone with a Motorola Droid instead.

Rednecks never cease to amaze me

 
As seen at the local Wal-Mart parking lot. Why in the hell would you need an exhaust like this on a 1/2 ton truck?

G. Schneider & Sohn Aventinus - Kick Ass

My new favorite beer is Aventinus from the German Brewery G. Schneider & Soh, which is a Wheat Doppelbock Ale. Not too hoppy, not too sweet with the right amount of wheat esters and a body that rolls off the tongue into the palette with effervescent dark eroticism. I think I'll have another, but it ain't cheap and it ain't that available- especially in the heart of redneckdom where I live.

Church is still boring

I guess I haven't grown up. When I was a child I was taken to church frequently and it was always boring. Forty years later I still feel the same way. I am at a worship service now and I will never get this 1.5 hours back and we are subjecting our kids to the same brainwashing.

InSinkErator Hot Water Dispenser Model SST Craps Out

So I bought an InSinkErator model SST instant how water dispenser from Lowe's on January 3, 2009 and installed it myself. If I remember correctly it was pretty easy to install. It has worked wonderfully until this week. It started leaking from inside the sealed plastic- the tank probably has a hole in it.

I called the toll-free number to find out that it has a three year warranty! Yay! Well they gave me a choice of either installing a new one myself and they would send me a $25 Visa Card as incentive to do it myself or they would have someone come out and install it for me. Either way the warranty does not start over on the new unit- it carries over from the old unit. So if my new unit dies after another year and a half, I am screwed and I'll have to buy another one.

This is really kinds of shitty I think. The company isn't willing to stand behind it's products so that means to me they are crap.

Another thing that tells me that they suck is the fact that the serial number is printed twice on the label with a perforation to tear off the serial number to put on the new unit they are sending me. Check out the picture. This tells me that they have this problem so much they needed to design a tag to carry to old serial number over from the old one to the new one. If they would design one that lasts they would not have to worry about this!

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody Wang Chung tonight. Possibly the most stupid lyrics ever in the history of Earth.

Foscam Wireless IP Camera FI8904W Outdoor WPA Images and Review

I recently purchased three Foscam FI8904W from one of the authorized resellers http://www.foscam.us/. The transaction was easy and shipping was relatively quick. These cameras offer a lot of features for very little money.

Aside from one of the cameras arriving DOA and the outdoor picture quality, I have been mostly happy with these cameras.

The pluses:

• Setup is very easy if you are familiar with networking. First you install the provided small executable on your host PC to detect the camera's IP, plug in a CAT5 to the camera's port and use the built-in web server to set up all the needed features of the camera. The wireless is WEP, WPA and WPA2 compatible.
• The wireless seems to work very well through two brick walls and I have not experienced any drop outs in the two weeks that I have had the cameras installed.
• Judging from having to obtain a RMA to return the DOA camera, customer service seems to be pretty responsive at least to emails. I received the RMA within a day and returned the camera. I am waiting on the replacment and will report back later on how quickly it was sent to me.
• Easy to install. Screws are included to attach the bracket to the mounting surface. You just need to attach a power source.

The minuses:

• The phone number listed on the web site went to a girl's voicemail by the name of Ashley with no returned calls. I can only assume that the number listed on http://www.foscam.us/ is incorrect. Thus customer service is only via email.
• The bright-light daytime performance of this camera is absolutely horrid. See below.
• The lens needs to be more wide angle to make a good surveillance camera.
• The mounting hardware is not very good. If you mount on a horizontal surface like the underside of a eave or top of a post you won't have an issue but any vertical mounting surface limits the positions you can point the camera. The bracket needs to be longer to accommodate mounting on vertical surfaces.
• I don't know if it is just a software problem but despite having my Blue Iris software set to 30fps I am lucky to get 5 fps even with the camera attached via CAT5 cable.

Here are some videos of the day and night time performance: