If you've ever spent 24 hours on a long haul flight you may know what a blessing noise cancelling headphones are. While the headset Apple ship with the iPhone is OK (the all-in-one answer/ hang up, pause/ play, and next song button is great), they do sound tinny after experiencing the depth and background quiet of the QuietComfort 3 from Bose. Unfortunately the pre-iPhone set I bought in New Zealand weren't accommodated by the iPhone's recessed jack—nor was my wife's Sennheiser PXC 250.
Continue reading 'Bose know customer service'
Tag archive for 'Rave'
The hard drive in my wife's MacBook recently failed. She was using Safari with the laptop stationary on her desk when, out of the blue, the system locked up. On restarting (via the power button) all we got was a folder with a blinking question mark. We booted from the Leopard DVD and Disk Utility could not see an internal drive which, not unexpectedly, was making a tell-tale clicking noise. Our previous backup regime involved making a monthly archive using SuperDuper!, but luckily Simone was running Leopard and thus had a current back-up not more than an hour old on an attached USB drive. Would Time Machine successfully restore all her stuff to a replacement (larger) internal drive?
Continue reading 'Time machine saves the day'
Our "new" car is a used Japanese import, so we wanted to be sure of the vehicle's history before going to the expense of a pre-purchase inspection. After purchase we noted that the fitted BMW Business radio could not tune into local radio stations and nor was there an instruction manual for it in the glove compartment. The Internet came through, addressing all three concerns.
Continue reading 'Singing the Internet's praises'
I've noticed that most of the entries in my Archives tagged with "usa" have sad smilies next to them, indicating the post is a rant. Does this mean I harbour anti-American sentiment? There's a difference between Americans (individual people) and America (the country and its policies), however, the same can be said of any country. Although I do object (like much of the world) to the sometimes irresponsible behaviour of America and her leadership, the nation has given the world much. And it has much to offer (not all of which is given). To add some balance to my site content I set myself the task of listing something good about the US for every sad smilie. It's been too long since my previous rave.
Continue reading 'Raving about the USA'
After a recent run of rants, it's about time I found something to rave about. Enter "a low cost way to make calls from Skype to friends who still use those traditional landlines or mobile phones. That means calling anyone, anywhere in the world at local rates" (q.v. SkypeOut). Add to this a USB phone that does VoIP (voice over IP) and integrates with Skype (q.v. VoIPVoice Cyberphone K). We have family and friends in Germany and New Zealand and international calls contribute to most of our £80-90 per quarter phone bill. If you're serious about reducing BT's profit margin, you might want to check out this pairing.
Continue reading 'SkypeOut + Cyberphone K VoIP phone'
The disposable e-mail address: it's often the simple ideas that work best...
Continue reading 'AddressGuard: anti-spam tool from Yahoo!'
