Thursday 7 October 2010

Meditation - aeoliah, new age


This CD is absolutely a must for any one who is under a lot of stress. Within 4-5 minutes of listening to this CD I felt like a different person. My stomach relaxed, my shoulders relaxed and it eased my headache. I was at work when I first started listening to this - but had to turn it off after about 10 minutes. I became too relaxed and could not focus on the tasks at hand. I listen to this during meditation and especially at night and fall asleep in no time, totaly relaxed and stress free. Realms of Grace: Music for Healthy Living

This is an album to own if you hunger for music that has in it silence, solitude, calmness, and that mysterious nourishment that only a certain kind of music imbues the listener with that imparts ... healing. Realms of Grace is a perfect title for this music. So happy I discovered it on Amazon; the moment I did - had to have it. Highly recommended.

Aeoliah is a truly inspired person. The music is wonderful and gently takes you to a relaxing place of peace. Great for listening to during meditation, before sleep, first thing in the morning, while studying or in deep contemplation.



I hope Aeoliah continues to make recordings - we need you Aeoliah!!!

We enjoy this music. The only thing that was a problem, was how long it took for us to receive this item. The item was charged to our credit card on May 8th, but we did not receive it until the 26th of May. We have ordered other books and dvds and they took less time to receive. - Ambient - Aeoliah - New Age'


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Floor Stand - drill presses, floor stand


I purchased this about a month ago and have been fairly satisfied with it. It was made in china, so the usual level of fit and finish should be expected. I had to debur the table and the upper pulley wheel is not drilled perfectly on center. (I brought it in for repair because there was a wobble in the shaft, but they couldn't find a problem and when I set it back up at home, I didn't notice a problem either.. must have just needed a breaking in.)



Other than that, it is a solid piece of machinery. It (now) drills smoothly and the almost 5 inches of travel is really nice. The lasers are setup in plastic mounts, so they aren't the easiest to get lined up, but they work. They produce a fairly thin line so it is simple to line things up for drilling. The wider flanges on the base make it very stable. The replaceable drill plates are nice also - this was definitely built with woodworkers in mind.



I was a little annoyed that it didn't work perfectly out of the box, but overall I am happy with my purchase. DELTA 17-959L 17-Inch Laser Crosshair Drill Press

I purchased this drill press on a Wednesday morning from Amazon with Free Super Saver Shipping and by Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. it was in my shop ready to be set up. I had been looking for a floor mounted drill press for some time to replace my Craftman benchtop press. I was very interested in the Powermatic PM 2800 but the cost, poor or mediocre reviews, with it's limited ability to drill into steel/metal combined with what appeared to be a difficulty to mount standard drill press vices on its table drove me to look elsewhere. The Grizzly and Steel City 17" presses looked nice but they had standard metal working tables that did not tilt forward and the Jet had poor/o.k. reviews. The Delta 17" had decent power, a large wood and steel working table that tilted forward and a laser which made it a logical choice. It's price through Amazon along with free shipping made it a good and economical choice for my shop. I don't mind the time for belt changes versus the varible speed Powermatic, so I placed the order.



The unit was delivered with no problems. A drill press is a pretty basic set up and the manual covered everything in plenty of detail. However, the manual for the Grizzly and Steel City presses are superior and provide better set-up options (i.e. install press head on pole and then lift up, not anchor the press to the floor and lift the head on top of the pole). Also other manufactures provided an explanation for the drift key to change the drill chuck, which Delta left out completely. Grizzly did a nice job on providing basic instructions on how to properly and safely use the press, which would be nice for a novice, a fact which Delta left out completely. A nice thing Delta did provide was a chart with drill bits and speeds for you to post in your shop as a rapid check for the belt set-up.



As for the press, it is well constructed and went together very well. The external light came with a metal clip to anchor the electrical chord versus the plastic units shown in the manual. The instructions gave no indication of where to put the metal clip, but a close inspection of the press head identified a threaded hole near the motor where the clip mounted perfectly. The laser took a few minutes to set up but does work very well at various table locations. I was able to square the table to the chuck in both directions with no prbolems and the chuck had 0.005" of runout. The T-slots work excellent with clamps and make the unit very easy to use. The table is great for using C-clamps as there are no edge rigids on the underside.



The belts change very quickly and the press does what it is supposed to. The quill lock is easy to use and the depth gauge changes rapidly. The only reason I gave this press 4 stars was the vibration in the unit. Although it is not terrible, I expected a little better. After some use and tweaking of the pullies, it did get better results but I will be repalcing the stock belts to see if this settles it down a bit in the future.



December 2009 Update: Well I have had this drill press for a year now and I am looking to replace it. The laser is poorly constructed out of a plastic collar which broke after less than 6 months of use. The quill lock is poorly constructed and stripped out within a few months of use. I have noticed the run-out has gotton worse and the vibrations have increased. I should have spent a little more money upfront with another brand and I am sure I would be much happier today.

I bought this drill press from Amazon. Some time ago I bought into Amazon Prime for free, two-day shipping, and Amazon;s web page for this item says that it is eligible under that plan. However, it is so heavy that it had to be shipped by motor freight (ABF, in my case). It was still free shipping, but it took a week to get here. It arrived a couple of days ago and I just completed assembling it.



My initial view is that it is a very good machine that will do everything that I might ever expect of it. I especially like the laser cross-hair feature, which is very accurate. There are a few annoyances, however. I understand why Delta has its stuff manufactured in Taiwan or China, but in my view, low-cost product need not mean poor documentation, design or quality. Take the documentation, for example. On the "carton contents" page of the instruction manual there is picture of a "drift key" that is one of the dozens of parts that are packaged separately, i.e. not assembled. No where else in the entire manual is there any further reference to this piece of hardware. What the devil am I supposed to do with that?



Also, there were some changes in design that didn't make it into the manual. For example, the manual references two "cord clamps" that are supposed to stick, via self adhesive, to the side of the drill press head and serve as a mechanism to keep the cord for the light out of the way. These have apparently been replaced by a screw-on clamp. This is a much better idea - I suspect the stick-on variety lasted about two days, maximum - but there is no threaded hole anywhere for the screw that is supposed to mount and hold the clamp, and no reference of any kind in the manual! So what do I do with that item?



In addition to document errors or omissions, there are a few design flaws. They're minor, mind you, but annoying nonetheless. Take the lasers: they represent great idea and a VERY useful feature, but the initial setup and adjustment if far from simple or intuitive. I bet that a first-year industrial design student at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) could have easily figured out a way to build in two simple, externally-accessible adjustment screws into each laser unit, one of which would adjust the laser alignment to vertical while the second would adjust the laser line left or right. But instead, Delta's idea of how to accomplish the task is to disassemble each laser housing and futz around inside them. It works, but its a time-consuming pain in the butt. As Doctor Phil says, "what were they thinking?"



Here's a REALLY minor design flaw, but for me the most annoying: there's no place to store the chuck key. How difficult or expensive would it have been to modify the table support with a bump-out in the casting through which a vertical hole could have been drilled to hold the key? I have a Craftsman bench-top drill press that was my father's, purchased, I'd guess, in the '40s. It has just such a provision for storing the chuck key which, for that very reason, has never been lost or misplaced. This proves that the idea is not new. Furthermore, I suspect that had there ever been a patent on the idea, it has long since expired. I fully expect to be spending hours - over the next few years, of course - trying to figure out where I put that key.



All of the above negatives, however, do not deter from the fact that this drill press will do most any job the average home shop might ever require of it, for a very reasonable price.



Oh, by the way, the assembly instructions say to install the drill press head after assembling the column to the base. Specifically, it says simply: "Place the drill press head on the column as far as it will go." Well, if you wanted to lift it up onto the free-standing base and column assembly, it'd require at least three burly guys and two rugged step ladders or a block and tackle arrangement; that head unit is VERY heavy (motor pre-installed at the factory). Instead, I laid the assembled base and column down on the floor and slid the head onto the column there by my lonesome. Then just my 5'0" wife and I were able to lift the fully assembled tool back up to vertical. MUCH easier!! - Delta - Drill Presses - Floor Stand'


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Running - heart rate monitor, hrm


I bought this HR monitor watch not only so that I could get an idea of where I was during running, but also so that I could improve my conditioning during my runs. The chest strap is comfortable & stays in place (ladies should wear under your bra). The watch has a lot of features, some of which I haven't tried yet. I love the indiglo feature, perfect for those pre-dawn runs! It's definitely helped me improve my pace! Timex Ironman Road Trainer Heart Rate Monitor Watch, Plum/Silver, Mid Size

My wife initially bought this wanting something a little more streamlined and user-friendly than her Garmin, plus, yea it's purple. From the first day she has been very pleased with it's function and usability.

She was lucky enough to have had a Body Bugg(from The Biggest Loser TV show) system shortly after to compare it to. With all the items you needed to buy the Body Bugg was a couple hundred dollars easy and the membership was still in trial, so more money once that started up.

The Body Bugg is probably accurate for an individual who might feel as though walking down stairs is physically taxing. If you are physically fit or even newly pursuing a workout program you will see caloric stats from 1000 one day to 300 the next in the same exact workout. Essentially it's a gimmick but since the Timex was never taken out of the mix, we were able to see how accurate and consistent this device was for HRM and certain calorie measures.

The Bottom Line: If you want an easy accurate HRM this is a great device to get; lightweight; stylish; user-friendly, just don't abuse it or the watch band probably won't hold up. While the calorie burn stats seem to be pretty accurate when compared to medical and fitness formulas, it is taken on a 'Lap' basis, which means you can't leave it running 24/7 and more closely monitor your patterns like calories burned in sleep. Still a great product for the price point. She likes it, I'm happy, I would recommend it.

I am a triathlete and 3 months after purchasing this product, when swimming, water formed under the glass and stopped functioning. The watch claims to be water resistant to 100m, I did not go lower than 10 meters!

This was a gift to my sister who does Ironmans. She tells me it took some time to figure everything out and get it working. But that done, she is pleased to see it does have all the different features she wanted. Here's a comment from her: "at the end of the run, it tells me how long I have spent in the training zone I had programmed, what my max/min HR was, how many calories I burnt." One negative perhaps is that it's "not quite as easy to read on the run" as it has a smaller face to a previous HRM she had. All-in-all however, she is happy with this Timex..

I really like this heart rate monitor although I do have to agree with a few of the other comments concerning calories burned, this morning on the treadmill the watch gave me a calorie read out of 349 calories and while the treadmill had 279 calories used. The treadmill reading seemed to be more in line with the workout I had done. The heart rate readings appear to be very accurate and I like being able to see the review that is given at the end of a workout for total time, time in heart rate zone and average heart rate.



I would definitely recommend this heart rate monitor to others. It has also been fun to wear it at work (I wait tables) and see that when we get busy I am often getting a real workout even while I am working.

Ordered this watch/heart-rate monitor as motivation. My Nursing class was having a competition for 10 weeks on 'who could burn the most calories.' I wanted to find out how many calories I was burning per workout and which workouts burned the most. I'm extremely happy with this purchase! I tested the HR monitor against the ones at the gym and this was spot-on accurate. I was worried that the chest strap would be uncomfortable and it isn't. I even wore my heart rate monitor to work (waitress) and found out that I burn almost 2,000 calories on my shifts!!

I bought this for my girlfriend and she loved it. The watch looks good so she even uses it when she is not working out. I have the same model but full size and it has completely change the way I train, you get more control over your workout and use your time more efficiently. I definitely recommend it for anyone looking to improve their performance.

So far so good. This watch has done for me exactly what I wanted. It's comfortable and fairly easy to set-up, plus the watch is nice looking. The pricing on it was extremely competitive. This is my second iron-man watch. I'm still wearing my first, however it does not come with the heartrate monitor. My first watch has a crack in the screen, so I can no longer wear it in water, but other than that it still functions great. I'm hoping this watch lasts just as long or longer. It doesn't have some of the perks that other heartrate monitor watches have (like counting steps, etc.), but for the price, you can't beat it!

I researched a lot of HRM before deciding on this particular model. I am very happy with my purchase and highly recommend this watch to others.



I am an individual who excercises 4-5 days/week for health and weight management. I was interested in seeing how my different workouts (running, spinning, weight/cardio classes, etc...) compared as far as my exertion/heart rate and the number of calories burned.



This HRM is easy to set up (although the instruction manual could be a little clearer and in a better order) and easy to use once you have it set with your maximum heart rate and other options. I am a petite female (5ft. 2in. approximately 110 lbs) and I have to wear the watch on the tightest setting. The chest strap fits great. I don't even realize I have the chest strap on and it fits easily under a sports bra for a comfortable fit. The face of the watch is a good size (I wouldn't want it any bigger for my size wrist)---the screen is easy to read and it is easy to toggle between settings. I know other reviewers mentioned it being easy to hit a button by mistake but I haven't had that problem. The calories burned and the heart rate monitor seem accurate and I haven't had any problems with interference from gym equipment or other HRMs. One of the selling points for me to purchase Timex was that I could change the batteries myself or take it to a local battery retailer and have them do it. I know other manufacturers (Polar for example) have you send your watch in for battery replacement.



Overall, I love my watch so far and it has become an asset to my workouts. I would highly recommend this watch to others.



On a side note, the first HRM that was shipped to me was defective. Amazon was wonderful and easy to work with on an exchange/return! - Hrm - Running - Heart Monitor Watch - Heart Rate Monitor'


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digital picture frame - digital picture frame


After returning the HP 820A4 frame, it took me a while to buy me another digital picture frame. Not that there aren't many, but none of them are deemed reliable enough. Even the Sony's have quite many negative feed backs despite their high cost and positive reviews. So I didn't want to spend too much money anyway to end up with a clunker a year down the line.



Costco had this great deal on the Pandigital 10.4" frame with 1GB internal memory, I thought I will give it a try. The coupon would reduce the price by $40 and my cost would be $99. Not bad for a 10.4" frame with 1 GB memory. This frame also had a dark brown/black frame that suited our family room. The display resolution was 800x600, which is quite good. You need a 800x600 at least for those 8". However, as I watch the pictures I see they are bright and sharp. The frame has had wireless adaptability i.e., with an adapter it could go wireless. Costco also has this great deal - you can return almost anything within 90 days for a full refund; enough time to test out a $99 product.



The frame is pretty impressive. The colors are great though I wouldn't go gaga over it. There is a brightness control knob on the side. It can take either a USB flash drive or a mini-USB one. So I could use one for the wireless adapter and the other for a secondary source.



The random transitions are among the best I have seen even among PC screen savers. The frame can also play avi files and music mp3 files - nice, but not my requirement now. I just want to view our photos sitting and biting dust for a long time. Common, we haven't even seen our wedding photos for such a long time.



The menu system is fine; I am not so annoyed as some others are. The remote is tiny. The frame doesn't immediately respond to the click, making you click once more. But, don't do that as it will result in a default action on the screen to come up.



One biggie this frame doesn't have is auto-orientation. Many frames boast this, but I haven't see one that can perfectly accomplish the task. So, I have decided to live w/o this feature.



The remote doesn't have a ON/Off button which is a second minor nuisance. However, you can turn the frame on with a switch and run a schedule so that you don't have to worry about turning on and off reaching behind the frame always.



Overall I think it is a great bang for the buck given the size and features, notwithstanding the lack of Auto-orientation and a remote power on/off switch.



How long with this frame last; I only need to find out. I had an issue (Invalid Format) using a 16GB flash drive with the frame, but overcome it as outlined here - http://asharagam.blogspot.com/2009/05/invalid-format-error-pandigital-104.html Panimage PI1002DW 10.4-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Espresso)

I bought this 10.4 frame and pandigital's pantouch 8 inch frame from costco ($99 for 10.4 inch and $80 for the 8 inch pantouch frame) to see which one I preferred. Overall the frames look nice and they both provide a good picture. However, I found the pantouch capability on the 8 inch frame to be a huge advantage --- it made it so much easier to just touch the screen to pick photos to import, move from one menu option to another---versus on the 10.4 inch frame where I had to keep clicking on the remote or one of the buttons behind the frame to scroll through features, for me that really made things cumbersome. It was like having a computer with just a keyboard and no mouse or scroll wheel.



Maybe if I had never experienced the pantouch capability I would have not had missed it, but after using it, going to the a non-touch screen frame just seemed so annoying. I bought 2 more of the 8 inch pantouch frames for both sets of grandparents, for them the touch screen was a huge convenience. It is nice to have a bigger screen, but the 8 inch is still a good size. And as I said before, the pantouch feature was the biggest selling point.



While the best of both worlds would be to get a 10.4 inch frame WITH pantouch feature, the cost would be well over a $100 and I was not looking to spend that much.

It took me some digging to find this digital frame. Most frames only permit the slideshow mode to iterate over the picture collection in seconds: ie 5s,10s,15s,30s,60s duration. For something that is mimicking a picture frame that, to me, was too often for something on a desk or nightstand. This one has both 24 hours and 1 hour options. I was looking for 24 hours, but it turns out that 1 hour is really cool.



I loaded up 300 of our pictures (very easy with no pc software. A folder mounted as soon as the usb was connected to the pc). There is an option to get a wireless usb to dump to the folders remotely. I didn't try that but the menu appears to have all the appropriate configuration of the wireless settings.



Another feature is a screen auto-shutoff for nights and optionally for weekends (ostensibly for people who have it in an office and want it off for part/all the weekend). I really like this feature as well since it's pointless to waste electrons illuminating the living room in midnight unwatched displays.



There is a auto shutoff of the screen after a configurable 2,4,8 hours of use but that was not something I needed and meant in the afternoons the screen would go blank.



Note that it's not clear whether that when it goes to "sleep" that the next photo in the morning is the randomized/next or whether the screen is off and the pictures are still progressing in the slideshow without displaying. It's also not clear whether the randomized display goes though all options before reshowing.



There is a the downside, the menu can be a challenge. There are four different modes, pictures, sounds, video and calendar with picture display. I tried to do it by guessing and gave up and did a RTM (read the manual). To set the schedule you must go to the calendar mode and edit the scheudle. Then leave the calendar and go to the slideshow. When starting the slideshow a "schedule" icon appears temporarily in the lower left hand corner, if you press enter, the schedule is activated to auto-shutoff. The slideshow duration is on the main config menu (keep hitting exit on remote). It's not intuitive but the documentation online is clear.



There's many other features I could be using but am not (like sound and video). Note that I called before pickiing this frame, apparently the other pandigital frames do not (as far as I know) have the 1 and 24 hour options on the slideshow. They, however, have a touchscreen to move to the next frame which this does not (although nice if it was being presented to a group of folks, it didn't make sense to me since the remote moves to the next frame easily enough).



So in short, the ergonomics of the menu interface could be improved, but it's awesome and now a permanent fixture in our house.



It's really nice to finaly see all the pictures which have been hanging out on our harddrive without a 60s second "flicker" from the corner of the room. - Digital Picture Frame'


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Leather Backpack - bags, tote bag


My previous sling bag broke so i was looking for an inexpensive sling bag. I needed something casual that i could use daily for work and regular use.



I wanted something i could sling back so I didnt have to use my hand to hold it all the time. And then i saw this bag..Its so good. Its the perfect size and everything. I bought it in the dark brown as I hav always had black bags and wanted to change it up. the leather is firm and soft at the same time. Have to see how long it will last. I can see my cousin already eying..No way am I gifting it away. Lol...



The only drawback is that it smells. the new leather stink. I applied some linseed oil and let it air and it is better now.



And also when u use it as a sling, u cant open the main zip from the side, u have to open it after separating the slings. So its foolproof and no one can easily take something when its slung in the back... Convertible Back Pack Purse, Mid Size Tear Drop Shoulder Bag, Backpack, Sling Bag. Genuine Leather

I received this backpack purse yesterday. It has tons of room for anything and everything. The leather is very nice and soft and looks well constructed. One reviewer mentioned that it smelled bad. When I read the review I thought okay, new leather smell is good. This purse doesn't smell like new leather ... it just smells bad. I'm hoping a little oiling and fresh air will fix it. That is my only complaint. In every other way it's perfect.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------



After several days the offensive smell is gone and now it should get 5 stars!

I'm very glad that I bought this purse to use during my family vacation in GA and SC last week.



It's beautiful and big enough to carry around in both sunny and rainy time. I received it 2 weeks prior to my trip, so I had enough time to leave it outside the closet to vent out the strong new leather smell. For the price, it's very great too.



Before searching from the internet, I went to a few stores to look for another backpack bag (I already have a good one in black - from Nine West - that I bought 3 years ago. Love it!) of brown color but could not find any one this good and this inexpensive.

Well made purse/backpack. Nice tan lining, making it easier to see items inside. There are four different zipper pockets on the outside, and one on the inside. .There is also a lower front buckled pocket that does have a slight problem. It cannot be opened until a new hole is punched, but this is do-able! Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. It also arrived quickly.

I bought this bag because I was looking for a bag that I could also use as a backpack to ease the weight of my bag from just one shoulder all the time, I was delighted with this bag it looks good,it has lots of outside pockets so I dont always need to go inside the bag, and it functions as a sling back or a back pack, I was most excited with the price, this is a really good quality bag at a great price .

Excellent product and excellent price, this is now my favorite bag, and certainly one of the most useful and versatile bags i have purchased in a long time. Room enough for everything without being too big or bulky. Love it!!

the description of this item is foolish, it is NOT genuine leather, as genuine leather would never feel like a carton when you touch it, I have a lot of genuine leather bags and i can compare. I think amazon should take a closer look to their merchants and make sure they really sell what they describe just like ebay does...

Leather is thicker than I expected. Its large enough to hold my Kindle which was a major factor for me. The bottom is flat so the purse will stand upright. Several small zipper compartments on the outside of the purse to hold gum, pens and whatever else. The compartment in the front is large enough for keys, smart phone and ciggs and has magnet closure. Unzipping the main strap into two straps allows you to use it as a backpack and free up your hands. I love this purse but don't expect it to be heavy duty like a true backpack, its not large enough for books and the straps don't look that sturdy but as a purse its great! After reading reviews on some of the other leather purses in this price range I was afraid it would smell horrible or the leather would be very mismatched. That was NOT the case, it naturally does have a leather smell but its not overpowering and the leather all matched. The seams appear to be well sewn also. If this changes I will write again. Its worth the price. - Sling Bag - Tote Bag - Bags - Totes'


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kitchen sink faucets - kitchen sink faucets, single-handle faucets


Hey folks,



We ordered this faucet thinking it would be a great fit for our modern loft. It arrived and after partial installation my wife gave me "the look" indicating it didn't have the functionality or "cool" factor necessary for our place. Here are a few bulleted items I had issues with:



1. The nozzle is made of plastic and not stainless-steel as described. Forgive me for sounding like an ignorant consumer but when the website said everything was made of stainless steel, I actually believed them.

2. The articulation of the spring is very, very, minimal and would not reach the bottom of our sink. Essentially, the spring adds no functionality only visual effects.

3. It's made in China. Again, maybe I'm sounding like an uneducated consumer but I seriously thought some of the high-end faucets were still made in Europe and the U.S.



We are returning it on Monday and plan on ordering a Grohe Minta faucet. Who knows, maybe we'll like it, it'll work, and it'll come out of the box as described...novel concept, I know.



Rosco the Dog Danze D455158SS Parma Single Handle Pre-Rinse Faucet, Stainless Steel

The other San Franciscan worried me as my partner is a designer and I thought for sure this faucet would be summarily rejected for our new laundry room sink. I wanted to order the whole thing from Amazon to save sales tax and save time (I really hate going to showrooms... bay area traffic and all). Here's the set I put together on Amazon: Danze D495958SS Parma Deck Mount Soap and Lotion Dispenser, Stainless Steel and Houzer CTG-3200 Contempo 32-by-18-Inch Single Bowl Undermount Stainless Steel Sink plus this faucet. I held my breath as he examined the various parts... I pointed out the plastic nozzle on the sink and offered to return the whole thing saying that some other cool SF design types had dispatched it from their glamour loft no doubt in south of market with haste and gee Amazon offers easy returns.... I stammered... "I love it!" was the response and days later the whole set was installed, undermount, drilled Caesar Stone, boom presto and it looks like a million bucks.



Now I don't like the fact this thing is made in China either, but I do like the price....and if you go to the orange big box home improvement place that rhymes with "cheapo" you will find on their website that the price is much higher than here. As far as the plastic nozzle, I thought this would be a deal breaker for both of us, but it's actually acceptable. Yes, I'd prefer it be metal, but frankly I'd rather spend this price and update it in 5-10 years than keep this thing around decades and have someone say "Oh, I remember when those pre-rinse faucets were in style." Seriously, you really have to look closely to see that it's plastic and even if the outer "bell" were metal, the inside (aerator, spray) would have to be plastic anyway. It's not cheapy and it matches the rest of the faucet perfectly. And speaking of the rest, the thing is built like a tank, very solid...the control for the water has a great "glide" to it and feels very solid in your hand. The nozzle looks like a mini-shower head with a row of small holes around a large hole (for spray mode or normal faucet mode).



I'm going to go try the spring action to see what I can reach...be right back....



OK the other reviewer is right, the faucet head doesn't reach down into the sink....the spring action just lets you move from side to side. If you're wanting to reach way down, a sprayer on a hose might be more appropriate. I don't see that as a disadvantage personally. I don't need to reach down to the bottom of the sink - I just need a good aim, and this spring / hose thing provides great maneuverability.



I cannot attest to how this will wear, and I must confess I am a little worried about the aforementioned plastic (will it scratch? will it flake?). I'll return to edit this review in a few months after some use and update you, dear reader, but again for this price I'm very happy.



Hope this helps you find your dream faucet, one way or another!



Update 12/31/10: This faucet is holding up nicely... there was one problem. The faucet head began leaking from the handle. I suspect the plumber may have gotten some pipe "dope" in there or some other debris. I tried to see if there was anything causing the problem and could not. I then emailed the company and within 7 days had a brand new nozzle from them, free, via UPS. Excellent customer service! I am very happy with both the company and with this faucet.

We purchased this faucet and loved the way it fit in our modern kitchen. We've gotten lots of compliments and it looks very impressive. However, after having it about a year, we realized that the sprayer is made of plastic with a cheap chrome coating. After two years of use, the sprayer, because it is constantly handled, is dull, scratched, and the chrome coating is bubbled and flaking off. Not what I expected. All the other parts seem to be made of metal, but the most handled part! I think it's unacceptable that a faucet that costs almost $300 is done after two years of service. And, we are just two people, not a family, and only cook at home about 2-3 times a week. I think most families would find this faucet falling apart after about 6-8 months!

I haven't installed this faucet yet, but I will comment on the finish and build quality. The finish looks great and the fixture is quite heavy and sturdy. One concern is that the spray head is plastic and another thing to keep in mind is that this fixture is going to be a little harder to clean because of the coil spring.

I got this faucet at a really good price and didn't have much expectations for it. It was priced around the same range as most mid line faucets you find at Home Depot and Lowes. I expected the finish product to be light weight and flimsy but when I got in, it was heavy duty stainless steel. It was even more beautiful once we had it installed on our new granite countertop. The lever to turn on the faucet is a great design because I can tunn on the water with ease even if my hands are dirty. The faucet itself is a work of art and finishes any new kitchen design. I have had this faucet in my kitchen for about a year now and it still works beautifully. I am very impressed with this faucet and highly recommend it. - Single-handle Faucets - Pull Down Faucets - Kitchen Sink Faucets'


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Sexploitation - collection, 80s movies


THE MIDNIGHT SHOW is a great, memory-laden return to the 1980's and the films, pop culture trends, and even music that defined the era. Anyone who grew up in the 80's or 90's and remembers catching a few of the late night movies on cable will have a great time revisiting some old classics and being introduced to some new gems. What's great about Ken Knight's survey of the films is that he tends to avoid the more well-known blockbusters and instead looks at the grittier, more daring films from the decade. The reviews themselves read like a movie recommendation email you'd receive from an old buddy from high school or college (you know, the type who never got good grades but was always fun to hang around): skimpy on the plot details, more emphatic on the nudity and action scenes.



Beyond the reviews, the book also contains interviews with several 80's icons, a few essays on the 80's zeitgeist and what made the decade's guy flicks great, and even two short stories that are both reminiscent in tone to the types of films surveyed. My only gripe with the overall package is the lack of proper editing, which you can get a taste of by reading the sample pages available. That sort of syntax continues throughout the book, though it never becomes overly distracting. The content of the material itself is more than enough to hold your attention and help you ignore the occasional lapse in grammar.



Overall, THE MIDNIGHT SHOW will be a welcome trip back to a better time and place for those of us who grew up watching late night guy flicks on cable in our formative years. For those readers and anyone else interested in getting a taste of a few of the best movies the 80's had to offer, I highly recommend this book. The Midnight Show: Late Night Cable-TV "guy-flicks" of the 80's

Being a fan of Eighties movies will help you enjoy this book, but Ken Knight gives you much more than just good reviews of the movies of the period. There is enough movie and well written additional story material that any adult should find it a good read. It has lots of insight into where we were as a culture and what we found entertaining. The beauty of this book is that it isn't just the PG stuff, but many of the wonderful adult movies as well. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked up this book but I was pleasantly surprised with the detailed movie reviews of the 80s. I enjoyed a closer look at several movies I wasn't familiar with before. Ken includes several autographed photographs of some of the adult lady stars and a closer look at some of their thoughts and life styles. This may appeal slightly more to men than women but it should be of interest to ladies as well if they have any interest in what guys enjoy. It's a good resource for referring back to as a refresher as well. I recommend it.

I loved this book. Ken Knight is an excellent author. This brought back great memories of all of the hot babes and fun movies we all enjoyed during the 80's. The interviews with sexy Patty Duffek, Tane McClure, and Sybil Danning with the various movie reviews sure brought back great memories! It reminded you just how much you loved watching the Andy Sidaris and other babe flicks and makes you want to watch them all over again! I hope Ken writes another book similar to this one soon. - Adult Humor - 80s Movies - Authorhouse - Collection'


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Power Tools - boombox, cordless tools


I must confess this was a bit of an impulse buy. I already owned theDC911 radio/charger, but had been driven crazy by the knob tuning, and really liked the idea of being able to keep my MP3 player with the unit.



When using the DC911, it's always been nice to just grab the radio, walk wherever you're going to work, and carry your music with you. There are plenty of times I know I don't need to recharge a battery, but just want to listen to my tunes while I work. The DC911 gave this to me, and would run seemingly forever before needing another charge. When I plugged it in, the battery charge was fast.



A worker friend had won the Milwaukee version of this product. The digital tuning was great. The presets were very convenient. The fact the Milwaukee product is not also a charger is brain dead. I looked forward to DeWalt catching up with the digital features, though. When the DC011 showed up, I gladly took the plunge.



What I have discovered after a month of use is that this radio is nothing short of frustrating from a feature standpoint. The digital tuning is convenient, but the presets have proven to be useless. Why? Because they are far too volatile. As another reviewer pointed out, the unit will exhaust a freshly charged DeWalt battery in 50 hours or less. What that means is that your radio will be dead if you leave it in your truck over Labor Day weekend, or even Monday morning if you were to unplug it early on Friday. To counter this, you find yourself consciously thinking about taking the NiCad battery out of the radio every time you put it away in your truck. Oh, but that it were that simple! After a week of doing just that, I found that the two AA batteries were now dead, safely taking my presets with them! I performed this test twice, not quite believing the first set of results. The silly thing is that the only thing the batteries are really trying to do while the unit is both turned off and unplugged is save the presets (why aren't they in a small chip of NVRAM?) and display the digital clock. Why that burns through a set of AA batteries in a week is beyond me.



What I find I have done is move from a nice unit (the DC911) that can be characterized as a portable radio that just happens to be a battery charger over to a frustrating unit (the DC011) that is a battery charger that just happens to be a radio. If you leave the unit plugged in at all - and I mean ALL - times, you have good functionality. If you unplug the unit for a short time, you have adequate functionality. If you unplug the unit for a weekend, you're going to be quite disappointed when you return to it on Monday.



My best recourse at this time is to just remove the AA batteries, forget the presets, totally ignore the clock (which most couldn't care less about, anyway), tune it manually when in use, and take the battery out of the unit when I turn it off and put it in the truck. I am now playing the role of power management for a product that has less power management complexities than laptops that have been managing this problem effectively for over a decade. Sadly, I expected better engineering from DeWalt than this. DEWALT DC011 Combination Work Site Radio and 7.2-Volt to 18-Volt Pod-Style Battery Charger

I have found out that if you leave the unit unplugged for more than fifty hours, with the radio off it will discharge the Dewalt battery. In my case I use an 18 Volt battery. I e-mailed Dewalt with no answer and finally called the 1-800 number and did talk to a customer service rep. Dewalt claims that it states in the directions the battery will discharge if left in the radio/charger due to supporting the memory and that they have been receiving calls on the issue. I find it amusing that two "AA" batteries will support the memory for an extended period of time but an 18-volt battery discharges after 50 hours. You do the math. I thought the reason you purchased a battery operated radio was to use it when no power was available or during a power outage in my case.

This radio does have great sound and enough range to handle most job sites. I do like gadgets and this is a simple but effective design. They use two search functions to find stations, one by the tune knob and the other by scan function of a push button. It has three modes of operation, FM, AM, and Aux for CD player or other device.

They also added a removable hard case holder, which could be used for a CD player to one of the handles, and it comes in handy for my MP3 player that I connect to the Aux function of the radio. Both the 20 gig player and cord fit into the case.

Yes there are a couple of features I wish they would of added, for instance only 4 memory buttons for FM and 4 for AM band is really not enough. A weather Band would have also been nice for contactors on the job site. I bought mine for the workshop but it is in the house and has to stay plugged in. Someone dropped the ball.

Dewalt, what were you thinking? This thing is way to expensive for a portable radio, and it's way too expensive for a charger, but maybe for the convenience of both together...... However it is severely limited as a portable radio. The batteries run down over the weekend when the thing is turned OFF. It's no good on a job site - at least not for very long. I'll put it in the shop and use it for a VERY expensive plug-in radio, but I have no Dewalt products in the shop so the charger is useless. Dewalt, I expected better from you. Don't get very far from your extension cord with this thing. Not recommended!

Let's say it again but make a truer statement, this is a Dewalt... "construction phase"... radio/charger. Just remeber that while reading this.



If you want a home stereo at the job site get the bosch it's got all that stuff on there. I've herd them before they are good, yeh it's a home stereo at the job. Now listen, this thing is really only truly more than a radio if you have dewalt tools (the bat charger in back). When I go to work I run a power cord, it's just something you do in construction. So I plug my radio and tune it to the station I want. If my bat goes dead I ether pull the charged one out (if I left it in there) and put the drained one in and go about my way. Anyone that doesn't do drugs should know if you need to do a lot of work you pull out the corded tool or make do with what you have. I've never really had a problem with reception (though I'm also never really that far from a city normally). The quality of the sound is actually pretty good (for what it is), there's not much deep bass, but probly as it dose not have a low Hz range. The sound is clear enough to enjoy and at the job (even at loud volumes) with the various sounds that happen there that's all you need. I don't do the kind of work where I have time to sit and enjoy music... It dose have an AUX for all your gizmo's to plug into so it's not like you can't bring songs with the F word to work ;)



I like it simple for the fact of the built in charger, it's convenient as heck plus you can unplug it and bring the tunes where ever you want. I've never played it long enough to drain the bat so I don't have a beef with that. Though when I bring it with me I don't play it loud. I've never really had a need for presets nor anything beyond that. It has stood up to dust (vary heavy at times), light ran, crap falling on it in the van and the general wear and tear you get in a construction environment.



Bottom line if you want a nice and tough stereo get the boch, if you have dewalt tools and have a nice system back at your house that you listen too, get the dewalt. - Cordless Tools - Dewalt - Chargers - Boombox'


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Egg Cookers - egg cooker, egg poachers


In a competitor's (let's say Brand X) poacher with plastic (ugh) cups, the thermal conductivity of the cups is so low that eggs effectively cook only from the top down from being directly exposed to the steam. Result: after 9 minutes of poaching (at 7300 feet), the yolk (which floats on top) and the top half of the egg white are firm; meanwhile the egg white on the bottom still quivers like jelly and is semi-transparent (ugh). And the cooking pan is quite shallow (just under one and one half inches inner measure), with the result that boiling water easily spills over on top of the poaching eggs, creating a real mess inside and out.The stainless steel egg cups on this unit are perfectly formed and slightly flattened on the bottom with a thermal conductivity so good that eggs cook pretty equally from all sides. The pan is quite deep (just under two and three-eight inches inner measure) so that the poaching tray rides very high over the surface of the boiling water. The result is a perfectly poached egg, no messes, to whatever degree of firmness of the white one wants. Yet one can still have a soft or partially soft yolk, impossible to achieve with "Brand X" above. At an elevation of 7300 feet, poaching time using this pan for a firm white and medium (non-runny) yolk was 6 minutes; for a firm white and softer yolk, between 4 and 5 minutes. Lower elevations should adjust these times downward a minute or two.Because of its' stainless steel composition, depth and diameter, the pan can also be used for other cooking. Indeed, this reviewer dares to suggest that despite its higher price, this unit is almost a mandatory addition to any good cook's staple of cooking utensils. Because of bad past experiences with the kind of riveted handle attachment to the pan used here, which breaks off too easily, this reviewer docks this unit one-half star. Aside from that, the design and materials of this product are generous indeed; it's appearance is so attractive that this reviewer left it sitting on top of the range as general décor. The only other gripe is with the shipping expense which was one-fourth of the total cost. But in all fairness the heavy-duty packaging did protect the glass lid and unit as a whole. If you are looking for a great egg poacher, buy this model! Norpro Stainless Steel 10 Inch Egg Poacher Skillet Set

Through the years we had an electric teflon coated egg poacher that cooked the eggs well except we did not like the fact that we were scraping off the teflon surface each time we tried to clean the egg cups out. We did not want to be ingesting the teflon anymore. We found this Stainless Steel egg poacher and just love it and it is actually easier to clean. One just needs to set a timer for 5 minutes and is able to get perfectly poached eggs.

I'm completely satisfied with this egg poacher. It's easy to use and easy to clean, and the eggs come out great! The see-through glass lid is a super big plus, since I can watch the eggs as they poach. Maybe not the fanciest egg poacher in the universe, but a nice, well made product that works just as it should.

I won't comment on anything else other than how to avoid having the eggs stick in the cups, which many people complain about with poachers in general. The first few times I used the poacher, I sprayed oil into the cups then put in the eggs and started the cooking. But once they were cooked, the eggs stuck like crazy in the cups. I had to scoop them out with a spoon, which wasn't so bad, but the egg remnants were impossible to get out of the cups. Here's the trick - don't just spray oil into the cups. Fill the cup with oil (I use olive oil), slosh it around, then pour the oil out. The easy way is to pour it from one cup to the next and so on until you've oiled all the cups. Then pour the remaining oil back into the oil container. Put the eggs in and cook them and they'll drop right out of the cup with no stickage at all. That's it. Do this and you'll be happy with poaching. Use an oil sprayer and you'll make a mess every time. Hear me now and believe me later.

On the strength of the above review, hesitating only because there were no others, I bought the product. I can now corroborate the conlusions there stated. I gave five stars because I doubt that the handle would cause a problem in ordinary use. Mine was not riveted but seems to be spot welded (securely).

If you are looking for a good egg poacher look no further, this is it. Why buy yet another electric appliance to take up valuable cabinet space? This poaches eggs beautifully and can also double as a skillet all on the cooker you already have. It only takes 5 mintues to poach an egg with a soft yoke, 7 for a firmer yoke. I use this several times a week for breakfast. If I were to complain about anything it would be the little handles of the cups, they do get hot, otherwise one can't go wrong with this poacher set.

I bought this egg poacher for my husband for his birthday. He loves to make poached eggs on the weekends. This is a very beautiful pan, and it works really well. I looked all over for an egg poacher that was stainless steel, and I was so happy when I go found this one. The glass lid is great too. I was alittle worried about the handle getting hot, but it does not, and it has not been a problem at all. However, you do have to use a hot pad when you pick up the little wooden knobs on the cups. We just put olive oil or butter in the egg cups, and the eggs come out pretty easily. This pan is pretty big. It would be nice to have a 3 cup one available.

This is a great egg poacher at a great price, attractive design, cooks well, the major flaw is the small black plastic knobs on each poacher cup. While they are easy to pick up, they are too dang hot to hold for more than a second, making it quite inconvenient to try to spoon the egg out of the cups; you have to awkwardly use a pair of tongs, a pot mitt, or your napkin. The design of a slit in the handle of the cup allowing it to be held by a fork or knife (which many models employ) is a far better alternative... what would have been really innovative would have been to have these knobs detachable by an easy clip with a simple, quick, squeeze motion, so they are not heated in the bath during the cooking process (hey, if any company utilizes this idea, I want a % of royalties for this idea)... it seems the permanent platic knobs were designed by someone who never tested or used the product or they would have discovered this flaw. I give it 3.5 stars since a well cooked poached egg does little good if you cannot get it onto your plate without dropping it or burning your fingers (looking even sillier if you are serving guests breakfast--in which everyone present clearly sees the fatal flaw in the design and wonders why the heck the "professionals" who designed it could not understand the obvious). - Egg Cookers - Egg Poachers - Egg Cooker - Poacher'


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Klein Tools - blu-ray, klein


I bought this set for a young man who is starting training as an electrician.

There are many cheaper tools. Several people asked me why I paid so much.

The answer is simple: safety.

Plus, real quality. The steel is USA made, hardened and carbon tipped. The handles are rubber with strong insulation and there is a "electrity indicator" at the tip of the handle so you can see if you have a live line. The set has almoost everything to get you started and it is of excellent quality.

I lost my favorite cousin to an electric shock. He was only 21. I want to make sure this kid is protected and with these tools, I can feel good about it. They are top notch. Klein 80028 28-Piece Electrician Tool Set

klien = quality. you could spend $100 and get a cheap set like greenlee or kobalt but i don't buy cheap tools. there is a reason why there so cheap. i'm not a electrician so insulation wasn't a factor.i use every thing but the wire strippers. there durable tools you'll have them forever. an if you bought them individually you'd spend $500 easy just the two bags alone are $60. it comes with a orange klien tee shirt too.

this is a great set of tools. i did not buy this set but i do own at least two of everything in it and plus some. the only thing that bothers me on klein is that on the life time warranty is that they do not return hot burns. also these are not insulated i own that set to and it cost me over a thousand dollars dont believe the first two reviews because on the tools its clearly printed "will not protect against eletric shock" but all said the best tools out there for a price you will not find anywhere else - Electricians Tool - Klein - Klein Tools - Blu-ray'


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Best Os Ever - multitask, palm


I'd been buying Russell Athletic brand T-shirts for some years. They were sturdy and well made, with generous sleeves. But these particular shirts were a huge disappointment. For some bizarre reason these size M shirts were marked as size "XL" which was a joke, like the little miniature sleeves. I ended up putting them all in the poor box. At this point I'm not sure about buying Russell Athletic brand shirts in future. Russell Athletic Men's Pocket Tee, Cardinal, XX-Large

Russel A,

Please pre-wash your fabrics before assembling them !! Your t shirts use to be flawless. I would appreciate a product that would keep its size after the first cycle of washing, not shrinking by one size... i had your shirts for five years lasting and now they shrink! what happened to quality control? Disappointment---people buy 1-2 sizes larger for comfort. still a nice shirt...

These are great medium-weight cotton tees. The graphite and navy, I believe are poly/cotton blends. I dunno.



These are thicker than standard off the shelf t-shirts that you would find at any local retailer. Those are just getting thinner and thinner.



These aren't the Performance Cotton Pocket T-Shirts they stopped manufacturing. Those are what I really want, but these are sufficient.

Bought 4 of these pocket t's and received them with no pockets. Order clearly states that I did purchase them with pockets. These Russell t-shirts are not the quality I expected and don't compare to other Russell t-shirts I have bought over the years. Very dissatisfied with this transaction. Will not return to this seller again. - Multitask - Tablet - Hp - Palm'


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Asus - sandy bridge, lga1155


The board is great. The price is good and there are many features. The best part is that you can overclock and use integrated graphics. Some newer Z68 boards don't allow you to use integrated because they have no video ports and I think the whole point of Z68 is to be able to use the combined features of a P67 and H67.



The board has no fans on it. This makes my build silent because everything else that I have is quiet. The heat sinks keep the board cool with good temperatures without the need of extra fans.



This board, however, had some small annoying problems. One of the main problems is if you turn on the TPU switch so that the board automatically adjusts your setting for the best stable overclocking, I noticed that the system would shutdown 2 or 3 times before it boots into an operating system. This would happen every time I would turn on the computer. In other words, once you hit the power button, the system would start up and then shut off before it reaches BIOS and then shut off again and then restart and finally boot into windows. I wrote to Asus about this problem and they said it had to do with voltage settings in the BIOS. I turned the feature off and everything was fine once it went through the process of shutting down. I guess the shutting down has to do with the board adjusting itself for overclocking.



Another problem is that you can't boot into windows if you don't have a cpu cooler fan connected to the board. This is a big problem if you are using a cooler that doesn't use a cpu fan such as a water cooler. In my case, I am using a Noctua cooler and if the fans are connected to the cpu fan connectors, they will run at full speed and I can't control the speed of them. If I connect them to the standard 3 pin fan connectors then the system would get an error. I even disabled the BIOS cpu fan warnings and set them to ignore but that didn't help. I wrote to Asus and their information was useless. Basically I said I'd like to be able to have no fans connected because they run at full speed and I want to be able to boot without a cpu fan. Their response was repeating what I already said. The person said that I can connect the cpu fan and it will run at full speed. Eventually I found a solution by myself in order to boot into windows but I still have an error screen showing up for a few seconds.



Aside from these problems, it's a great board. I'm sure that most of the problems could be fixed in the future with a BIOS update. ASUS LGA 1155 SATA 6Gbps USB 3.0 Supported Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2400 Motherboards P8Z68-V PRO

A little bit expensive but the V-PRO is decent.



The board feels solid and looks great.



Works great so far.. almost a week with this thing.



Don't forget to INSTALL THE INTEL LAN DRIVERS from the provided CD or else you won't be able to access the net. Specially if this is the only PC you'll be having in your house for the first time.



Will update thoughts about this mobo later on.



I was able to use the built in GPU from the i5 2500k with this board.



Great OC feature as well: I just set the Turbo Multiplier to x43 and automatic 4.3 Ghz oc! The board adjusted the voltages automatically. Great for noobs like me who want a simple OC.

I have not used all the features yet but the board is great. I have an i7 2600k Sandy Bridge with a Corsair H50 cooler. It oc to 4.5 mhz without a hiccup and runs at 30c, 38c while gaming. I have an ssd with Win 7 and everything loads lightning fast. The software that comes with it is nice. I'll be tweaking things in the future. Definitely one of the nicer and more stable boards I have owned. I love it.

Build: Intel I7-2600K, 8GB G-Skill Sniper RAM, crappy old video card, Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler



I have been a huge fan of ASUS motherboards, and this is the third one for me. It is probably the most disappointing of them all, and its very possible I will not continue with Asus line going forward. Here are my observations after the build and about a week of use:



Pros:

* Solid motherboard with nice heat sinks and is able to hold my behemoth CPU fan without any issues.

* Pretty solid on overclock, and an incredible amount of control given to the user via the Bios for tweaking anything we like.

* BIOS upgradable from Windows, no need to put on USB stick, etc.

* Ability to upload custom boot up image ... but I disabled it anyway to speed up booting.

* Built-in Bluetooth connection. Of course it barely works (which has been my observation with all BT) and I have not had too much luck getting anything useful accomplished syncing it with my android cellphone.

* Good number of USB3 ports.

* Power / Reset buttons on motherboard. This comes in handy if the case is not fully wired or has issues.

* Optical-Out for built-in soundcard.



Cons:

* The old ASUS was indestructible. No matter how bad the overclock was, powering off then on always allowed MB to detect my screw-up and reset. Not this one. After a bad overclock, it kept freezing on reboot without any possibility of detecting overclock problem. Luckily a tiny 'MemOK' button above the memory bays allowed a hard reset. This of course makes overclocking awkward. I am hopeful that this is due to certain type of failed overclock, and other types of overclock failure will be detected properly.

* The SATA plugs are at the edge, with the holes facing the side of motherboard as well. Unless you have a huge case, it will be extremely hard to plug new cables into SATA ports. I had to unplug most of other cables on the MB before succeeding (because hard drive cage is right next to that edge). I suppose this improves thermal cooling, but its extremely cumbersome. I would recommend plugging in SATA cables before all others unless you have a huge case with lots of room.

* The CPU Fan header at this point only allows PWM fan to be connected (old motherboard worked both ways). Many competitors do allow that fan header to operate in both PWM and Voltage regulation mode, but ASUS decided not to bother. Unfortunately many CPU fans (including Noctua) still do not support PWM, so I cannot have the fan regulate speed via Bios. I sincerely hope that Asus improves this in the Bios (assuming it is even possible), meanwhile I had to buy a $15 adapter just to get that feature. I understand that we have to move on with new technology at some point, but with a huge amount of non-PWM fans on the market, this is silly.

* Somewhat slow to post on boot. After lots of tweaking I got it to 15 seconds before Windows logo comes up, but it was taking twice as much time before, and I had to disable lots of things for it to happen.

* Bloated, ugly software - thankfully easy to uninstall.



Other observations:

* The onboard video (driven by Sandy Bridge GPU) allows up to 512mb ram assigned to video, UNLESS you're running in dual-monitor mode, at which point amount of RAM is hardset to 64mb in the bios. I don't really know if this is a motherboard restriction of Intel's.

* For some odd reason there is no message during post on when pressing DEL will allow bios setup to start ... you pretty much have to guess. I don't think I have ever seen a motherboard that didn't indicate the time when bios access is available.

* 24 hours of Prime95 in blend mode - motherboard auto-overclocked to 4.5ghz while the test was running, and not a single issue. I don't know though if this is a testament to the CPU or MB, or both.



In summary, its a decent motherboard, with great overclocking features, however considering its price the drawbacks are inexcusable and make me regret the purchase.



I have not done any overclock yet - as my one attempt soured me to the experience (see above). I will start on it soon though once my PWM adapter arrives. - Sandy Bridge - Lga1155'


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Crack Stranglers - carpenter jeans, work pants


After buying Lee Dungarees for several years and wearing the knees out quickly, I decided to pay more and try these. They are twice as thick and fit really well. Almost twice as much, but look like they would last twice as long. Carhartt Men's Signature Denim Work Dungaree, Darkstone, 33x34

I bought a pair of these heavy work dungarees a couple years ago and wore them nearly everyday to a job that absolutely beat them down. They took it an asked for more. I have purchased other Carhartt "work" jeans and they have not measured up nearly as well. These are most definately work jeans, almost twice the weight of most everything else on the market. Glad I finally found another pair.

I prefer the cut & wear of the B237 work jeans. They don't cut corners when they make these jeans. The material doesn't wear out, the pockets are deep, they have a real hammer loop (usable not decorative) and a pliars pocket that holds my cell phone. Worth the money.

These jeans are the usual Carhart high quality work pants. Very comfortable and so far wears like iron for me. The dungaree cut runs a little looser than normal so I had to order a size smaller and probably could've gone two sizes smaller. - Carpenter Jeans - Jeans - Pants - Work Pants'


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