Archive for the 'Reviews' Category
Work Stats
Everyone should read a great new book out called The 4-Hour Workweek. Here are a few work stats from the web site:
Compared to 1970, American managers are working an additional month per year
In 2005, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London administered IQ tests to three groups: the first did nothing but perform the IQ test, the second was distracted by e-mail and ringing phones, and the third was stoned on marijuana. Not surprisingly, the first group did better than the other two by an average of 10 points. The e-mailers, on the other hands, did worse than the stoners by an average of 6 points
26% of Americans take no vacations at all. Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation. The average American therefore spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation.
Best Superbowl Commercials
What a great game yesterday! And yet another year of entertaining commercials. The top 10 best superbowl commercials were:
- Coke old guy
- Bud dalmation for a day
- Doritos spicy cheesey crunchy
- Careerbuilder fight for promotion
- Tacobell lions
- Bud light hitchhikers
- Coke grand not-theft auto
- GM robot dream
- Bud light wedding
- Chevy carwash
Housing Boom Levels Off
Another article about "the end of irrational exuberance" in the housing market. This one is more rational with less gloom and doom and more reality check. Not only for the excited home owners, but also the 250,000 new realtors wanting to cash in on the boom.
During the boom’s peak from 2002 to 2004, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) saw memberships soar 26 percent. Today, over 1.2 million Americans call themselves Realtors.
While many thought a real estate license would be an easy way to make money - most are learning the opposite. Like any commission job, there is more to sales than showing up. And even with the right sales techniques, it can take a while to buildup your sales pipeline.
The NAR reported in 2005 that those who have been in the business for two years or less had an average income of only $12,850 a year. Long-time brokers - those with at least 26 years of experience - had an average of $92,600.
No River City
I discovered a new band last nite: No River City. I would have snapped some pics with my camera phone but the venue was really dark so I didn’t waste my time… but their lead singer looks a lot like the that guy from My Name Is Earl:
They’re a talented rising group from Atlanta. They’re style is rock with a tad of country and a dash of Americana. They’ll be a band to watch as they definately have the skills, charisma, attitude, and song writting ability to be the next Eddie From Ohio. My personal favorite was a song about falling in love with a billboard lady. They are currently working on their second album and, from the sampling we heard, it’s going to be great.I give them :
U2 & Idolaters
So I attended a U2 concert recently and I’d give it:
The Good: U2 always puts on a great show. And one of the great things about U2 is that they have so many “hits” that they have more than enough great songs to keep you rocking the entire concert. I’ve heard that not too long ago Lou Bega performed his hit “Mambo Number 5″ twice at his concert. (can you blame the 1-hit-wonder?)
The Bad: U2 has gotten a little preachy. Now don’t get me wrong, Bono is one of the few celebrities that can respectably push his views on others. He has been a champion for peace for years and his Country has a history that further supports such efforts. So Bono, use your concert soapbox to push your cause du jour, fine. But pick ONE ok? (no pun intended) Let’s see U2 wants to support the troops, end the war, fight AIDs in Africa, forgive debts to 3rd world countries, create a universal bill of rights, oh and END poverty. Did I leave out the part about convincing Jews, Christians and Muslims that we all brothers serving the same God. Yeah, like I said.. a tad bit preachy. (Never mind that while the One campaign plans to do most of this through US tax dollars… that money really does have to come from somewhere - even though people tend to forget that fact.)
Rip(off) It!
For those of you that yet believe that you can make money doing just about anything… and you know who you are, Mike. I submit the following: RipDigital.com will rip your CDs to MP3s for you. Yes for the stupid and the lazy, you are now free of the burden of a few mouse clicks to transform old skewl "digital" CDs into iPod fodder. Prices start at $139 for 100 CDs, but most people's CD collections will approach the $1/CD conversion fee. How it works:
- You place your order.
- Ship them all of your CDs.
- They pay some chimp $5/hour to use the same CD->MP3 software available online for free.
- They ship you back your CDs and a stack of CD-Rs with MP3s on them.
- Wait! now I need a CD-R to Hard Drive service! Seriously. Too lazy to rip your own CDs? Time to valuable? Why not hire your little brother or the neighborhood kid - pay THEM $5/hr - and save yourself half the cost? Not to mention getting your MP3s in a a day or two instead of a week or two.
I give them:
Happy B-Day To Me
I got the ATI 9600XT video card today and I must say that it is sweet. It is a nice boost in 3D power over my last card. Basically it can run things at the same speed with 4x AA & 8x AF on as my last card could with everything off. :D But I must say that the more noticeable difference is not the speed, but the visuals. Since the 9600 is a DX 9.0 card it is capable of effects that my last card wasn’t. While some effects can be “faked” through horsepower, others are simply turned off if your card can’t do them. URT 2004 runs smoother and looks prettier (in a basic texture kind of way) but also has noticable changes: power graphs that were a single color are now a color spectrum and smoke now actually looks like smoke (more so than I have ever seen before in a game).
My only real complaint is with my particular card. I intially choose the 9600 XT because several reviews had stated it had built-in overclock SW that allowed for easily OC’ing. My OEM card however does not have such SW. Oh well, downloaded ATI Tool and was on my way… almost. Apparently while I can OC my card manually, something deeper down keeps resetting it to it’s default state. I am as of yet unsure if this is a simple bios problem or something temperature related but I will persevere…
Oh the reason i question temp, is the fact that this card has a much smaller fan and heatsink than my older card did which of course is part of why i left the nvidia camp and why this card is very quiet.
Scott: On Reviews
I wanted to touch on my review style now, so that later on people don’t accuse me of loving everything I review. I will rarely have mediocre reviews on this site, because I will rarely take the time to review mediocre products. If you want mediocre reviews, try Google. There are alreay many sites out there with entire budgets and staff devoted to reviewing anything they can get their hands on (often for free and early from manufacturers that want some press to push out with their latest). ScottSoapbox.com however has not (yet) sold out to the product review machine. I will usually only post reviews of products that I have encountered along life’s journey that are SO excellent (or terrible) as to necessitate my proclaiming them to all the masses… So you might say that I am more of a product evangelist than an a simple reviewer.
The one caveat to this would be: restaurants. I tend to review a wider range of restaurants than other products. Why? Because restaurants are different… trust me, they just are. Restaurant reviews falling more into the mediocre category will tend to take longer to make it to print as seen in the below review of Conners.
Conner’s - Casual Dining
I actually tried out Conner's last Sunday (25th), but it took me a while get around to translating my notes to an actual review. Conner's is the latest incantation of the group that brought you The Chop House and Chops Grill. Located in Pigeon Forge TN, Conner's has a nice, but laid back atmosphere. I would rate my service there as above average. So with 2 out of the 3 holes covered on to the food. Instead of bread to start you off, Conner's gives you some scrumptious biskets. This, in hindsight, seems appropriate since your salad that follows will have more bacon than a typical breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Their signature blackberry vinaigrette salad dressing also disappointed. It wasn't sure if it wanted to be a sweet vinaigrette or more of a vinager and oil variety - and so it ended up languishing somewhere in the middle. Their signature soup also failed to impress. The lobster/crab bisque had to strong of a tomatoe element leading it to be overly acidic. Had perhaps a small amount of cheese been substitued here a much more balanced taste could have been created. Their prime rib stood out as second ray of hope (after the biskets) and was, in fact, quite good. The prime rib was not as good, however, as what can be had at the Chop House. So, all in all, if someone was considering Conner's while doing some outlet shopping, I would have to recommend they go across the street to the Chop House, instead. I give them:
Downhere Is Up And Coming
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Downhere at a local venue. They are a group of Canadians with a great sound. The lead singer sounds so much like Kevin Max in some of their tracks that it’s uncanny. If I hadn’t see it live, I’d be tempted to put forth some sort of conspiracy theory…
You can actually hear their entire albumn So Much For Substitutes on the Downhere.com website. I personally really enjoyed their “In America” track, as well as others but that one is my favorite. :D
I give them: