Docking Stations - alarm clock, ipod dock system

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I searched a long time for a combo clock radio and docking station for my iPhone. Although there are several on the market, I wanted something that took up as little space as possible on my night stand, had a display with large numbers, would charge my iPhone, play music from my iPhone as the alarm instead of the radio, and was easy to use.



I FOUND IT!! This Sony clock radio is great, and has TONS of features. I like the large illuminated display, which has different settings depending on how bright you want the light at night. Setting the alarm is very easy (you can go forward and backward through hour and minutes, without having to run completely through the cycle like most clocks), and there are TWO alarm settings. You can set an alarm for weekdays to get you up for work, and then a separate alarm for the weekend. Pretty cool.



The snooze button is nice and big on top of the unit, and let's you take the standard 10 minute snooze, or you can keep pressing the button and lengthen the snooze time up to 60 minutes in 20 minute increments. A nice feature.



There's a sleep feature timer so you can listen to radio or iPhone/iPod music while you fall asleep. For the alarm, you can have a buzz, AM or FM radio, or a tune from your iPhone, and it works great.



Buttons on the front and side are nice and large so you don't have to grope in the dark, and there are a variety of customizable settings.



The best part is the hidden slide-out docking tray. Pop it out when you want to charge your iPhone/iPod or listen to music through the clock's speaker, and push it back in when you don't need it, making the unit's footprint as small as possible. The docking tray comes with adapters to fit iPhone or iPod. I use mine without either adapter because I have a protective case on my iPhone, but it still fits in nicely.



In reading back my review, I sound like a Sony employee, but I'm not. Have no connection to the product, other than I'm a satisfied customer, and would recommend this unit highly to anyone looking for a docking station/clock radio for their iPhone or iPod. There are too many other features to go into here. Have fun discovering all the great things Sony thought of to include on this unit.



Thanks for a great unit, Sony! Sony ICF-C7IP Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone with Hidden Sliding Dock Tray

First off, I want to say that I like almost everything about this alarm clock and that I went to a Best Buy first and tested it (music and all) right next to its bigger Sony sibling (the one with the CD player, called Sony ICFCD3iP CD Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone) as well as the iHomes and Logitech and other competitors. Essentially this one came out the winner in every way IF what you're looking for is an ALARM CLOCK. This is not a speaker system by any stretch (it's not even stereophonic, one speaker), it's not designed to party to or have it produce massive bass sounds. I know this is obvious to most of you but there's always some imbecile who doesn't seem to realize that a little alarm clock barely bigger than your iPhone can't possibly be a stereo system.



As an alarm clock, I loved this little system precisely because it does so much and takes up so little space. The LED lights are not too bright when you go to the lowest setting, the sound is definitely loud enough for you to hear even if you're in the next room at high volume, the iPhone dock is easy to use and can be used with a case on your iPhone. It also looks good and it's nice that the dock cradle slides in, overall it looks A+.



Since I also compared this one in person to the Sony ICFCD3iP CD Clock Radio and tested them both simultaneously, I can offer you these observations if it's helpful to you. I ruled out the iHomes, by the way, because all systems that make you stick your iPhone on top like that are horrible looking, maybe that was cool in 2007 if you thought having an iPhone is cool and you want it brandished like it's a trophy, but that now looks tacky, dated and cluttered. This comparison is between this Sony product vs the one with the CD player:



--Size: I liked the CD player one more because I actually thought this one looks a bit too small. This is purely personal preference, if smaller is better for you then go for this one.



--Layout: I call this a draw. One thing that's better on the CD player one is that since it's bigger, there was room to put the tuner and the preset switches on the sides of the device rather than on the back which is not as convenient. You probably won't use these two switches much though so this probably doesn't matter much. One thing I liked better on this one is that hitting the snooze as you're groggy is pretty safe, but on the CD one, since the opening for the CD player is right in front of the snooze button, you can very well accidentally open the CD tray violently if you hit the snooze and aren't careful.



--Speaker, sound: Basically a draw for me. The Sony descriptions on Amazon, and indeed even on the boxes of the two products, tell you nothing about power. I had to look under the devices themselves (which got me bad looks from the salespeople) to find out that this alarm clock's speaker is rated at 10 watts. The CD player's speaker rated at 16 watts. Normally I'd say this means the CD player clock is better, but oddly at similar volumes in the store, I actually found this alarm clock's speaker to be better defined than the bigger one from the other Sony, and almost as loud. The bass was slightly better on the other one though. But since this is an ALARM CLOCK and not a speaker system by any stretch, I frankly didn't care either way, they're both plenty loud to wake up to music or the radio to and close enough in quality despite the different wattage.



--iPhone dock: here I expected them both to be the same, but I was surprised that the iPhone dock trays are not designed the same, and that this Sony's design of the tray was actually better than the CD player's. The CD player's tray hangs in the air, in that when it opens up there is space under. So when you put your iPhone in you kind of have to grab the tray or else the whole thing tilts, it's not a good setup. The tray that comes out of this clock, on the other hand, has the end of it flush with the clock's bottom and whatever table it's on. So it's much more secure and you can just dock your iPod on it with one hand and not worry about a thing. So the clear loser is the CD alarm, as this one is better designed. Both can fit an iPhone with the case on by the way, just don't use the tray inserts that come with this.



--LED illumination: here too this Sony beats out the CD Sony. Both clocks have three light settings. I put them side by side and tested them both. The upshot is that the bigger one has much brighter LED lights. When I compared both at the lowest setting, the bigger clock was still pretty bright and would be annoying in the dark (unless you're scared of monsters at night and want a night light). At its lowest setting, this Sony here was still just a bit brighter than I would have liked, but not nearly as annoying as the CD player's light. This is a big reason why you see good reviews of this Sony here while the CD player's reviews are generally bad with lots of complaints about the light level.



I did buy this alarm clock and all in all, I really wanted to love it, but over the past two weeks it has infuriated me with one BIG design flaw that is making me return it because it is fatal. It simply can't reliably stay tuned to a radio station so as to wake you up to it.



Now if you don't care at all about waking up to radio, consider this a 5-star review and move on. But I like to wake up to NPR, a strong FM station in my area. I've had an 9-year-old CD player alarm clock beside me before this Sony, and not once did it fail to wake me up to a strong NPR signal when the alarm was set. This brand new Sony, on the other hand, comes in and out! You can test it before going to sleep and the sound is 100% clear, and yet when it comes on in the morning it sounds like it is barely tuned to the station unless you play with the ugly and unsightly antenna cable that sticks out of the back of it. Even if you didn't touch that unsightly cable all night.



Even WORSE, when it comes on like that in the morning, if it is not receiving the FM station well, you don't even get static noise (which at least would still wake you up), you get nothing but a very faint buzzing that doesn't wake anyone up! I've already been late to work three times on account of this clock's failure to maintain a lock on a station. I've even tried testing the position of the ugly antenna before going to bed and having the volume very high, yet still for no apparent reason at all it sometimes fails to lock on in the morning and you sleep peacefully to 8:30 am to a very low audio buzzing sound that seems to lull you into an even deeper sleep.



The culprit is that Sony really cheaped out on the FM receiver.



How they can make such a colossal design flaw on a product that costs more than competitors like iHome that are larger and with better speakers is inexplicable. I really wanted to love this, but it's an ALARM CLOCK and if it simply loses connection to a station in the morning despite the ugly antenna cable and can't wake you up, what good is it? Shame on Sony for having such a design flaw by cheaping out on internal components. Whoever was in charge of approving that is incompetent and should be fired because he doesn't understand retail products, this is not a $20 alarm clock on which you can use cheap transistors to save 50 cents. This is an alarm clock aimed at a slightly higher market and there is an expectation that at the very least it can be reliably counted on to wake us up in the morning.



REVISED REVIEW FROM HERE ON OUT



I am revising my review, going from two to four stars, because as time as gone by the radio reception seems to have improved (but only after careful placement of the antenna cord and making sure it's never moved), and I decided that all the positives and the lack of a good competitor warrants better than two stars. It's still the most compact, efficient and best looking alarm clock out there... I just wish they used better components for the radio receiver. - Clock Radio - Docking Stations - Ipod Dock System - Alarm Clock'

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Dust Collector - dust collector accessories

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It's not often that a product works and does what it is advertised to do right out of the box. This is one of those products. I have tested it with dust from the vacuum, sawdust from my old separator and even ashes from my charcoal bbq. Little to no dust from any of these made it into either my central vac or my shop vac. I can't begin to tell you enough how well this little marvel works. The Dust Deputy

I don't usually write to dispute other reviews, but I will make an exception here.



I have used the Dust Deputy (bought the $99 kit), for about a month now, mostly for dust collection on my Jet 16-32 drum sander, and the thing is freakin' amazing.



I have a 6HP Sears shop vac. Nothing fancy for sure. I use it for shop cleanup and to collect dust from the sander, which puts out a very fine dust. Without the Dust Deputy the filter would clog up in less than 30 minutes of use. With the Dust Deputy in use, I have yet to have to clean the filter! Unbelievable time saver, not to mention the hassle of having to "suit up" every time I clean out the filter.



So, not sure what other users were doing with their dust deputy that they say did not work, but mine works perfectly, even when sanding at #220 grit.



The only other complaint I have seen around the Interwebs is that the plastic cyclone is fragile and does not stand up to dropping/falling. (duh) So do anchor the Dust Deputy to your shop vac, or buy the very expensive metal cyclone. It's quite easy to do, especially if you get the whole kit. I had mine on in less than 30 minutes. If you don't get the kit, definitely use the two bucket system so you can easily remove the inner bucket to dump the dust. And don't let too much dust accumulate or eventually it will bypass the cyclone.

This thing is incredible. I inherited a house with a block shed behind it. The block shed had been over run by rats for years so you can imagine what I had to deal with. YUCK. I didn't want to mess up my shop vac so I tried this. Man was I impressed. The only thing that went into my shop vac was a very light layer of dust and some real small pieces of plastic. That was it. I cleaned up two buckets of debris just cleaning the attic area. And to empty is so much easier that a shop vac. It is smaller and easier to handle. The kit was easy to assemble too.

This thing works like a charm and has made a huge difference both in the life and function of my shop vac filters and in the cleanliness of my shop. The only negative is the cost. It is a simple thing and if I were more capable or less lazy, I would have built my own. Plans and calculation guides for cyclones are all over the internet. However my sloth is not the tool's fault. Highly recommended.

I bought the Dust Deputy to go together with a Paint Shaver Pro I also bought. The both of them are being used to remove many layers of paint from a 97 year-old house.



The Dust Duty is connected to the Paint Shaver (and a random orbital sander) and in turn a ShopVac creates the vacuum in the Dust Deputy.



I can't say enough good about the Dust Deputy. It collects gallons and gallons of paint and wood dust and the filter in the ShopVac can run for days without being cleaned of the very fine dust which is the only thing that gets through the Dust Deputy.



My only difficulty with the Dust Deputy is adapting it to the 1-1/4 inch hoses from the ShopVac, Paint Shaver and orbital sander. I bought a set of adaptors from Oneida to adapt the Dust Deputy to that size, but the adaptors really aren't satisfactory for the purpose, and I had to use duck tape to attach the Dust Deputy inlet port to the tools. I really wish Oneida would come up with some more adaptable adaptors!



Otherwise, I am very happy.

I have been looking at one of these for years. I finally bought one a few months ago after they included some foam blocks and bolts to physically attach it to my shop vac. I wanted the unit to be mobile and not have to drag it or a separate cart around. I got it home, hooked it up to my Craftsman 6.5hp shop vac and voila, it worked like advertised. I used it with my Bosch portable table saw. Like others, I was happy to see that most of the debris was staying in the bucket. I did notice a lot of dust coming out the saw blade and other spots, however, I figured that I just needed to use a zero clearance insert.



The problem:

I was using my shop vac to do some clean up on a job sight and something just didn't seem right. My vacuum is powerful enough to pick up nails and it just wasn't doing the trick. I disconnected the Dust Deputy and used just the vac. The power was at least doubled. This was very upsetting since the impression I had gotten from Dyson and other vacs is that cyclones would maintain or increase suction.



The solution:

I was lucky enough to talk to an Oneida Rep recently at a woodworking show. I told him of my problem and how disappointed I was. He told me that the Dust Deputy obviously didn't have enough air flow for my shop vac because the vac was just to powerful. He told me how to resolve the problem. I would need two units hooked up to my vac. One hose from the vac that would "Y" to the two Dust Deputies and then two hoses from the dust deputies that would "Y" back together to a single hose. Problem solved, however, I wasn't planning on buying 2 of these.



Oneida just recently sent me an email with a Multi Cyclone DIY unit that they are promoting. I think this would also work for my shop vac.



Overall, this is a great idea, but the plastic they use is very delicate and it didn't work for my POWERFUL shop vac as is. This experience will not stop me from buying one of there large dust collectors for my shop. They are, after all, the best you can buy.

It works exactly like advertised. I sucked up a ton of sawdust just after I hooked it up, and there was nothing in the shop vac. Easy to empty, I like that the best.



Things I don't like:

* The hose that comes with it is very stiff and kinks fairly easily. Just makes it a little hard to work with.

* I mounted (bolted) it to the side of my large shop vac. Stays in place just fine, but you won't be able to drag your shop vac around by the hose. You'll need to use one of the other, more complicated and expensive, solutions.

* For what it is, I just think it's too expensive.



I hate dumping my shop vac and cleaning out my HEPA filter, that's the main reason I bought it.



Shop Vac just needs to build a vac with something like this built in - that's not too expensive. - Dust Collector Accessories'

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Electrical Equipment - wire organizer, wiremold

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I am a wire nazi and like all my A/V cables run neat. However, after my new LCD was mounted I had a power cable and HDMI cable ruining the look. I did not want to rip through drywall, route around fireplace vents, drill through 6 studs, and refinish drywall to make it look nice. Maybe one day I will, but not yet. I posted images of the before and after condition.



Wiremold Cordmate II was an ideal solution:

1) Inexpensive

2) Easy to install

3) Very pratical and funtional

4) Looks good

5) Individual pieces available (elbows, corners, etc.)



Install took maybe 1 hour total to plan, measure, cut, and paint (20 minutes of actual work; 40 for paint drying). I painted before install and found that applying paint with a small brush and then using a small, dry roller gave a very finished look. Also make sure your cables are plenty long enough (with some alpha factor) before installing. Do not plan on running a ton of cables through this version - power, HDMI, and maybe a coaxial would be it.



I was very skeptical about the cordmate's ability to hold in corner with thick cables. I had an inside and outside 90 degree elbow within 3 inches which is a lot of force to hold. But the double sided tape is very strong and holding very good.



Perhaps the only minor downside would be ability to add or change cables. It does open, but it takes some pressure. So make sure to feed all wires needed first before taping to wall.



Overall, this wire nazi is very impressed and would highly recommend. Wiremold C210 White Cordmate II Kit

Got this item to conceal the wires that would hang between my wall mounted 42 inch plasma TV and the entertainment stand below it which holds my cable box and DVD player. There were three wires to conceal in all - cable box wire (regular coaxial cable thickness); HDMI wire from DVD player to TV (slightly thinner than coaxial cable); and cable for TV plug to wall (very thick for some reason). The cableholder just barely held these three cables (but it did hold them. remember you dont have to get the head of the cable through the cordmate - it can open up so you can clip it over the hanging cables (very convenient). The cordmate is also very paintable to match your walls. paint before you stick it on wall and use a roller not a brush. I used a brush at first and it was harder to paint and was leaving brush lines (could have been brush I was using but...). Anyway, good product and inexpensive - I would buy again for such uses. easier to cut as well than I thought it would be.

First, the good: These cable covers are simple to mount and function well. They are easy to open with a screw driver or even a pen, and they are even easier to snap shut. They aren't the roomiest, so you should know that in advance. I was able to run an ethernet cable, a coax RF cable, and two speaker wires without much of an issue. However, it was pretty packed and doubt it would hold more. The adhesive is quite strong, so you won't need to worry much about how hard you tug on the covers while tucking away your wires. The adhesive also brings me to...



The bad: I'm willing to admit that I didn't fully read the instructions that came with the product, so my problems may have been addressed and warned against. However, upon removal, these things are a nightmare. Trying to pull them off would almost always tear the paint and upper layer of drywall right off. When it did manage to come off without a chunk of the wall, it left a sticky residue that was incredibly difficult to clean (I tried warm soapy water, and even Goo Gone). In the end, I used a utility knife to score the edges, and then just ripped off strips of drywall. Then I had to patch each channel, sand, and paint. If I had known I would be moving only 6 months after installation, I would have never used these cable covers.



In the end, I have to give their function more weight than their difficult removal. They work great, and they install super easily. If you are not planning on removing them in any short manner of time, I would recommend them. However, if you are a renter or know you will move in a year or less, you may want to find another product.

I needed to route the TV cable about 20 feet from the source around two walls and a small nook. I ordered 2 of these kits, and could not be happier with the results. I placed the track on the baseboard just above the quarter molding, and it blends right in. You just need to make sure there is enough clearance below the track so that the coupling and corner attachments can snap on. The track sticks very well and I don't think it will ever release without a struggle. When my TV is mounted, I'm going to run a short piece down the wall for the power and cable box cords, and paint it to match. The track is easy to cut with a hack saw.

The amazon page says this is 1.2 inches in length, 2 inches in width, and 48 inches long. WRONG. The channel which will hold 3 cables of average size (e.g. rg-6 or rg-59 video cable, standard a/c power cord, etc) will hold 3 cables snugly across - it's about 1.2 inches wide outside, but inside is what matters if you have ALOT of cables. Unless you use some micro cables you won't get more than 3 standard size cables inside this track. The 2" dimention I argue with - there is nothing about the track that measures 2" wide. It's 1.2 wide, with under 1" of space inside, and about 3/8" off the wall (call it tall?) - yes the lengths are 48" long.



Wiremold has been used to hide ugly cables for a long time - this was perfect for my job - I just wall mounted a 23" HDTV in my dad's kitchen for him to catch the early morning news with coffee etc. (the set was an LG 23" with more inputs than you could imagine for computer use and a tv antenna / cable input as well - we are using it with a rooftop TV antenna on the house that grabs about 88 ATSC channels, of which we delete around 30 that are advertising or specialized language/childrens programming leaving a healthy 58 free tv channels on the tv set)



The cables were ugly though. RG-6 coax for the antenna feed, power and VGA to a small laptop that logs weather data from the usb port on the weather station I bought as a gift for my parents all had to go to the back of the set - it was a cable nightmare.



With the wiremold full, it drops straight down below the set with 3 cables inside (and they are snug) goes into an elbow to follow the baseboard, then goes through a T connector where the power cord comes out and into an outlet next to the T connector - the wiremold continues to the corner of the room where the RG-6 antenna cable enters the channel and from that point it has 10" left for the VGA cable.



NOTES for successful installation.



I made some mistakes so I'll share them with you for your install - best to learn from others mistakes!



The fittings (T, left elbow, right elbow, inside corner, outside corner) are very generous, but they do not adhere to the wiremold channel, they go OVER the channel. Because of this if you stick the channel to the wall directly touching the baseboard, you will not be able to put he fittings over the wiremold afterwards because it needs to go between the stick of wiremold and the baseboard - so the trick is lay a thin piece of plastic above the baseboard (1/16") then tack the channel down with the foam sticky back - that way you'll have room for the fittings to go over it (same rule goes for corners)



When cutting it, I used a hitachi power miter saw instead of a hacksaw Hitachi C10FCE2 10-Inch Compound Miter Saw - don't make real fast cuts even with the fast saw - let the blade come up to full speed then gradually slip it through the channel as if you were cutting a hardwood. If you make fast cuts, the blade teeth (and this goes for sawzalls too) can snag the non-opening edge of the channel and split the thin plastic - now you have a channel with an opening on two sides, one is a crack, the other a j hook mold. I put some clear shipping tape over the crack like amazon uses to ship boxes to you and held the crack together, then make slow milling type cuts with the saw which came out very clean with square edges on both the use piece and waste piece.



Always place the J hook side where you'll be able to open it later if you think you will add a cable at a later date, i.e. don't put the J clasp edge down towards the baseboard or you'll have a hard time getting it open later. Same goes for a corner of a wall going vertical.



When the project was finished it looked 200% better - no cable mess any more, no cables visable at all, and the adhesive is strong enough it will pull the paint off the wall before it comes off by itself, so make sure you have a level handy for vertical runs to give you an edge because once you stick it on the wall its not comming off. Consider it permanent after 5 seconds (I was able to carefully reposition a small 10 inch piece that had not fully adhered yet by slowly pealing it off the paint as soon as I realized I had a problem)



Make sure your cables do not have the RFI filters (those big blobs usually close to the end of the cable) because those won't go into the channel if they are far back from the connector (my monitor came with a cable like this and I had to buy a replacement VGA cable that has the RFI filters up close to the connector instead)



Final install tip, although it seems best to put the T connector for a power plug right under the outlet, I found it was better to

offset the T about 2-4 inches from the power outlet. This way the cable comes out and has room to lay over before going into the outlet and does not put stress on the t cover, which has no adhesive to hold it on. If it is right under the outlet it will tend to force the T joint off of the wiremold strip.



This kit gives you everything you need to go 12 feet, make an inside corner, and outside corner, go up or down the wall, join two pieces together and one T connector to let cables exit near an outlet. Don't expect to put more than 3 normal size (1/4") cables inside it and you won't be disappointed, but it is not 1.2 x 2.0 x 48" as the amazon specifications say. It's more like 1.2 x 3/8 in x 4 feet long strips x 3 + all the parts. Amazon needs to correct the measurements and make it clear what the raceway outside and inside dimentions are. If I expected 1.2x2.0 " as their page says, and could not fit 6 cables into it I would be upset, but my install worked out. - Cable - Wiremold - Wire Concealer - Wire Organizer'

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Super Mario Bros

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I have been playing video games since the Atari 2600, and was a kid during the Nintendo Entertainment System era. Some of my fondest memories involve one iconic set of characters: Mario, Luigi, Toadstool, and Princess Peach. Over the years, games have changed (some changes for the good, and others...not so much), but I love that the Mario series have stayed true to their roots. Every Mario game that I can think of has stood the test of time, and has served as a model to countless other games. However, despite being one of the best game franchises around, one component was always missing: multiplayer. Sure, previous SMB games had a "2 player" option, but all you were able to do was pass around the same joystick, or take turns using 2 joysticks. The idea of 2 characters on screen at the same time seemed strangely impossible for these games... and why Nintendo wasn't able to make this happen sooner than 2009 boggles the mind. But, having spent 7 or 8 hours playing New Super Mario Bros yesterday, I don't care why or how they were able to finally do it...because this game is an absolute blast to play!



As soon as the game starts, you start to get an idea of just how great this game is going to be... especially if you have played Super Mario games before (and cmon...who hasn't?!?). Everything looks very familiar, but in a good way. The game really feels like they took some of the best ideas, bosses, levels, and music from each of the Mario games and retooled them for NSMB Wii (New Super Mario Bros Wii). In fact, it feels mostly like Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3 rolled into one, with a little bit of Super Mario Galaxy thrown in as well... and that, my friends, is an AWESOME combination! Like I mentioned earlier...I have played hundreds...maybe thousands of video games in my time. And this game ranks right up there with the best of them. It is, in my humble opinion, on par with Super Mario Bros 3, which has been rated by numerous gaming sites as the best game of all time. Playing the game for the first time, there were lots of "oohs and ahhs", plenty of mischievous giggles, lots of punching and name calling (see multiplayer), and even several times where one of us paused the game just to point out how great this game is. I hate to gush over this game, but it really is a work of art. It's easily one of the best games I have ever played, and certainly one of the best available on Wii. Here are some of my observations about it:



Old Skool SMB: Mario games are good, and they work. Period. This is one series of games that doesn't need to be retooled, revamped, updated, or changed dramatically in order for it to compete with the likes of Modern Warfare 2. In fact, there really is no competition for Mario games. Historically, they sell, are highly rated, and have a long shelf-life. This game is no different. It is classic Mario at his best. There are some updates that make the game fresh and interesting, but it is mostly classic Mario 2-D action, and that is a good thing.



Music: Mario games have always had great music. Who hasn't found themselves whistling or humming one of the iconic Mario tunes? This game has some really cool new music, as well as some remixes/revamps of classic Mario music. When I found myself in the first of the Koopa Kid castles and I heard the original music from Super Mario Bros 3(??), I was ecstatic.



Multiplayer: For the life of me, I couldn't tell you why Nintendo was never able to incorporate some genuine multiplayer in a Mario game previously. But, add it they did, and it is great. The multiplayer component of Super Mario Bros Wii is really well done. There are some competitive modes where you and your friends (or opponents) are running through a level and competing to get the most coins, and it is really fun. But where multiplayer really shines is when you are actually playing through the games with a couple of your friends. All of you are on screen at the same time. When you hit one of the "?" boxes, 3 or 4 mushrooms may come out... or maybe 2 mushrooms and 1 Penguin suit...and you have a choice: Will we all go scrambling for the penguin suit? Or will the most skilled player just take a mushroom suit and leave the penguin suit to the others? Or, will I scramble and get all of the mushrooms and the penguin suit, leaving my teammates out in the cold? I tried all of these scenarios, and it was pure joy to see the look on my friends faces either way! You see, the multiplayer can be either competitive or cooperative. There will be times where getting a big coin or a 1-up will require that you cooperate...maybe I will need to pick up one player and hold him over my head, and then another player will bounce off his head to get the 1-up. Or, maybe there will be a player that I want to give some grief... so I can pick him up and throw him down a pit or in the lava... or I can throw a green shell at him. There will also be times where you are all trying to accomplish something (like jumping across a lava pit), and because we are all scrambling and trying to save our own skin, one player will bounce off the other's head, giving themselves a boost up and over the lava, but sending their friend to their death. As you can imagine, the cooperative multiplayer would FREQUENTLY and unexpectedly become competitive, and there was no shortage of amazed/shocked looks back and forth (i.e "Dude... I cant believe you just did that!!"), punches in the shoulder, name calling, calling "dibs" on power ups only to be disappointed, and laughing ranging from a mischievous giggle to rolling on the floor in stitches. When we were playing, one guy even got really upset and went home! LOL. It was one heck of a fun afternoon! Once the sore loser left, we started cooperating more and competing less, and it was equally fun. Almost equally anyway...



Difficulty: I hate easy games, and I hate short games. I especially hate short and easy games. This game is neither. From what I have experienced so far, this is one of the most challenging Mario games I have ever played. It isn't necessarily HARD...anyone can pick up New Super Mario Bros Wii and begin playing. That is the case with every Mario game. But it is challenging. You will die...a lot. Especially when playing multiplayer, since frequently one of your teammates will do something that sends you to your end on accident. Plus, the difficulty really starts to ramp up in some of the later worlds/levels. Also, there are 3 hidden achievement coins in each level, as well as these special "star" coins that you can go out of your way to find...and getting to some of these can be a real challenge. I estimate that it will easily take 20+ hours to complete this game... and even once it is done, it will be a blast to start over and play again. And the truth is, Mario games are always long and fairly difficult... I never did beat Super Mario 2! I think this game is going to have a long shelf life at my house!



I will spare you any more gushing details about this game. Clearly, I enjoyed it immensely. If you own a Nintendo Wii, you should own this game. If there was ONE Wii game I would recommend you buy, it would be this one. If you are considering buying a Nintendo Wii because you like this game...I guarantee it will be worth it. This game is destined to be a classic, and it would be a shame to miss out! Here is my personal rating for the game:



Gameplay: 10/10

Presentation: 9/10

Sound/Music: 9/10

Multiplayer: 9/10

Difficulty: 10/10

Lasting Appeal: 9/10

Overall: 10/10 New Super Mario Bros. Wii'

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Book Sox -frog - stretchable book covers, book covers

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I bought this product because my first grader child needed this for his reading text book. It lasted a couple of months before it receivied its first little hole. When my son put his text book on a bench table at school that has some kind of honey or syrup substance that stuck to the cover. I was even more disappointed. I say it did a average job of protecting the book from external forces. Next year I am going to get a paperbook cover. Extreme Book Sox - Jumbo Planets - Stretchable Book Covers - Book Covers - Book Cover - School Supplies'

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Name Badges

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I was leery of purchasing another inexpensive name badge holder because I've received unusable product before. But these worked out great. Most importantly, they arrived FLAT, and 100% were usable. And they do come with the paper inserts. I couldn't tell that clearly from the description, so I ordered inserts separately. The extras came in handy, but these do include inserts in the package. I'll be buying these again for my next conference. Hanging Name Badge Kit

I got drafted to make the name tags for a small conference I was attending in LA. I stopped into Office Depot to buy them and nearly fell over when the price was about $65 for a box of 50! I went to Amazon.com, bought these for about $8, and got them in two days! LIfe is good! They were so cheap, I bought the elastic hanging style and the clip on style so the participants could choose which style they wanted! I was the name tag hero at the conference!!!

I was very disappointed with this product. A box of fifty badges came with 22 of the cords without steel tips on either one or both ends of the cord. The tips were broken and in the same cellophane package as the cords.

Amazon Verified Purchase

I read the reviews before I bought these and was a little hesitant because of the complaints about making the paper work in the printer. To solve that problem, I just made a table in Microsoft Word and printed it out to check the size. I had the size right within a couple of tries. I didn't think they were hard to use at all. I just printed it on regular card stock, instead of using the paper sheets that came with the product, and got 6 name tags per sheet. I would order these again, especially since you get a lot for your money.

Do not buy! If you don't care whether or not your names or graphics line up correctly with these tags then feel free to buy them. We are a print shop (25 years in business) which had a request from a customer to source these hanging name tags. The Avery product is very expensive, but at least you know what you're getting. Products of this sort are usually provided in 8.5" x 11" format for printing in either laser or inkjet. The fact that these came 4.25 x 11" was a bit surprising since there was no prior reference to it being other than standard. But we make our living solving problems others can't or don't want to. The problem with this product was that they appear to have been split away from the "other side" of their obvious perf'd mates. And they were not only broken from their other halves, but it looked like it had been done with a butter knife (very poorly, in other words.) As well, the perforations from sheet to sheet did not line up across bundles. This horrible alignment was off by almost 3/16". If you don't like rulers, that's a lot. This product is an embarrassment to paper producers, and retailers alike. I only needed 150 good tags, and bought 200, but even with a 33% surplus I'll be lucky if I can salvage the job. They're due tomorrow, so now I don't know what alternative I have. Sparco should be ashamed of selling this utterly useless product.

I had searched all over for some reasonable badges but all were expensive. I went to Amazon and found what I needed for way below half the price. This was so awesome to me. If, I ever need anything else, I will shop Amazon.

We needed something to identify Volunteers at a recent fundraiser.

The ideas that I heard were less than stellar, so I came to Amazon

to see how they could help. I always come to Amazon when I need something

good and they don't ever let me down. I found these at a great price, Prime

brought them to me in two days time, and they worked perfectly! lightweight

enough not to be annoying, well made enough to last the night, and be re-used.

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This was really a speedy delivery! Thanks! I want to make special name badges for a family reunion, and did my research on Amazon, after seeing the price of the kits in an office supply store. This set had some good and some poor reviews, but the price was right. The kit contains pre-perforated card stock for inserts, in strips of three 3 x 4" badges; elastic cords with metal tips on both ends; and the clear plastic holders. Most of the holders are sort of warped, but usable. So I am happy enough with my purchase. This kit is fine for one time use, but for name badges to be reused over a period of time, I recommend a sturdier holder..'

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Although this book provided an acceptably organized compilation of movie classics, I was bugged by the fact that reviews/thoughts included spoilers, or revelations of the movies' endings.



I purchased this book in order to discover movies I knew not of previously or had heard of and was interested in seeing. The occasional spoilers are given without warning and made me read with caution to those movies that I did not yet know the outcome of, which was quite tedious.



Overall, the reviews were convincing and thoughtful when not completely blatant, but do proceed with caution. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die could be a great film guide. It is loaded with both well-known and obscure films, many of which I have sought out and enjoyed after reading about them in the book. I've really started to enjoy noir films because of this book's recommendations.



The fatal flaw in 1001 Movies is that they frequently give away the endings! For example, they often tell you when an important character dies at the end of the movie -- what is the point of that? Look for a different guide that doesn't spoil the endings.

As soon as I saw this book on the shelf I knew it was for my ever-expanding collection of cinema sources & the selection contained herein did not disappoint. Except maybe for the alarming number of errors I found. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN did not win best picture in 1976; as the next page testifies, ROCKY did. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW was not narrated by Dr. Everett Scott; it was narrated by The Narrator(Charles Gray). DANGEROUS LIAISONS did not win Best Picture in 1988; a few pages later it states,correctly,that RAINMAN did. In the piece on Charles Chaplin's brilliant MONSIEUR VERDOUX, the end result of his work & the sentiments expressed in his film made him the target of the political right which led to his permanent departure from the United States in 1952. He returned in 1971 & was presented with a lifetime achievement award at The Academy Awards.

The issue with this book isn't that there are factual errors or that its list of movies isn't what you would pick. The big problem with this book is that the writers frequently spoil the movie for the reader. The most blatant example I've found is the review of "Don't Look Now", where the third paragraph recounts what is probably the entire last five minutes of the film. The writer then has the audacity to add, "It is no exaggeration to say that few scenes in the history of cinema have proven as effective at sending chills up the spines of viewers as this one." Also, I recently watched "Oldboy" and followed it up by reading the review in this book. The second sentence of the first paragraph, if fresh in a person's mind, would definitely have given away an important plot development. I'm glad I didn't read it before watching the movie.



Please, do yourself a favor and don't buy this book. Or if you feel you still want to, watch the movie before reading the review.

With the amount of junk that Hollywood feeds us these days, you need a source to help you find the good stuff. This book helps in the search for quality. It simply and briefly lets you know why these films are worth seeing. I have found many films from years past that I would've never seen if I hadn't read about them here first. Just about every great film from the silent era to the present is in here. Hopefully, more people will start paying attention to the good films of the past. Once you start watching these films you'll notice just how bad most of the the current blockbuster studio releases are. If we keep paying to see bad movies, the studios will keep making them.

For the casual film fan this book provides an excellent overview of the cinema for the past century. In order to fit in the large number of mini reviews and commentaries for the selected entries the editors had to omit a good number of films that many would have deemed worthy of inclusion. The most egregious omissions were of silent films, of which only a relatively small number were included from the many years before the beginning of sound films. Film buffs may argue with some of the selections, but the inclusion of "small" and cult films alongside the well-known Academy Award winners is to be applauded. The editors, though, were often sloppy with the sidebar award section, giving a film credit for an Oscar win when only a nomination was received. There are several instances when at least two films from the same year were cited as winning the same Oscar. For those like myself who can recite year-by-year the Oscar award winners and nominees, the sidebar errors detracted from the scholarship of the work.

I think this is a great book and I really enjoy reading through it's pages, but that is not the main point of my review. I want to clear up what I see as a misconception of the book that I see in a lot of reviews. This is not the "1001 Greatest Movies Ever Made" or "1001 Most Important Movies Ever Made"; it's 1001 movies you should (must) see to get a very well rounded sense of movies and their history. Some movies in the book are included just because they are great, others because of their historical niche in movie makeing, some because they illustrate a certain style, and some for pure entertainment they give. Movies with different types of animation are included and well as a broad spectrum of foreign movies. Think of this book as a watch list for a very in depth cinema appreciation class. Some of these films may not be great, some may not even be entertaining, but all are important, or illustrate an important part of cinema history.

I've had this book for about a year now, and it has truly become my own personal bible. As other reviewers have pointed out, the book spans the past century's film history and includes movies from well-known Oscar-winners to more obscure, independent gems. One thing I love about this book is that it does a fine job at keeping the list neutral -- there aren't more American-made films than foreign ones; there aren't more recent films than older ones or vice versa; there aren't more popular films than relatively unknown ones; there aren't more comedies than horror films, dramas than sci-fis, etc.



The included short essays/reviews on each film are concise and informative for the most part, though I must say it bugs me that some of them give the ending or crucial plot details away. The photos are all gorgeous and make this book a nice one to keep on display on your coffee table.



At the beginning, the book states that one of its goals is to make passionate film lovers out of casual filmgoers, and for me, it accomplished that goal with flying colors. Over the past year, I have become an ardent movie buff and lover mostly from watching at least seventy-five of the excellent films included in the book -- I've yet to encounter one I haven't at least liked. As I said, this book has become my bible and it's never far from my reach -- practically every weekend I find a new movie to rent/buy and immensely enjoy. It'll definitely make a believer out of ya!



The editor also notes that although 1001 movies might seem like an exhaustive list, it quickly becomes apparent that it's really not big enough. There are so many great movies out there (way more than 1001, trust me), but this book serves as an excellent introduction (and then some) to the world of film. Highly recommended to those interested in seeing great movies. - Ebook - Kindle Devices - E-reader - Art'

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