Remachines

Helping Hands

2010-12-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

This blog entry is for all of our customers who purchased computers from us this year and traded in their used equipment. We've been able to donate a total of 17 computers this year, all of them going directly to families who don't have one.

We hope to up this total next year, so if you know any companies or individuals who have windows XP or higher computers and don't know what to do with them, be sure to put them into contact with us, even if the computers don't "work". We can at least harvest parts from them and keep them in homes as long as possible!

Together we can and have made a difference!

Thanks again for your support this year,

Nate Sperloen, CEO and Audric Schieve COO, Remachines LLC

Why Everyone Sticks With What They've Got.

2010-11-02T05:54:00.001-07:00

We sell and fix a LOT of Windows XP machines. We still get a TON of requests for these machines, even for new computer builds. You might wonder WHY would ANYONE want to use an Operating System from 2001 in 2010. Well, the answer is...it just works.

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You're right in thinking that it may not work the best for special gestures, smoothness or other "enhancements". Windows 7 and Mac OSX have come a long way since XP, and they offer new features that really are great. But to be honest, most of our client base couldn't care less. You know why?

The software packages they paid for from 2001-Present are just that. Paid for. Written off business expenses, used every day, not even thought about anymore. Money for new technology can be used elsewhere, especially now when times are tough. Office 2003 works just fine. Adobe Acrobat 6 works fine. That special trading platform for stocks and FOREX work fine on Windows XP and DOES NOT work on 64 bit Windows 7 and doesn't work on Mac OSX. On a real weird note, I've had customers who even need Windows 98 for a court stenography program (who wants to cough up $3,000 for the Windows XP version?) and someone who needed Mac OS9 in order to run a loom for making wool rugs.

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Let's get it straight that we too love new gadgets. They're great, and the world needs to evolve. But at Remachines, we primarily deal with the dying edge not the cutting edge, and that's what makes us happy.

Helping our customers keep that green in their pocket as long as possible while being green by increasing the life expectancy of their electronics.

-Nate

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Made the Jump to Android - and Why It's Been Mostly Good

2010-10-15T05:12:00.000-07:00

I've been rolling with my Samsung Intercept for about a month and a half, so I figured I'd write a review of what I thought of it, as well as the apps that I use.

There have been some reviews that Android is difficult to pick up, hard to work with, etc. I didn't find it difficult at all. As a lifetime Windows user, I think that all the tinkering and tweaking and fixing I've done over the years to make things exactly right helped me here. Sure, there are some sub-menus that might hold some secrets, and some settings that could be better explained, but really, if you've used a computer in the past 10 years, you shouldn't have any issues with Android.

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Installing apps is easy, you just go to the Market icon and find what you want. The app automatically downloads and installs itself. Of course, this works 90% of the time. I still have issues with app downloads hanging and never going anywhere. I sometimes have to cancel and restart them in order for them to complete.

Regarding my phone specifically, the Samsung Intercept from Sprint, it is fairly well laid out, it thicker than most sexy phones now, but that is partially because of the slider keyboard that is included. Let me tell you - having a slider keyboard is definitely a welcome option for folks who have larger hands and fingers. If you try to type on the phone's touchscreen, it's almost laughable. I have completed the word REMACHINES without messing up once though, so that's an accomplishment. Call me old school, but tactile keyboards are still where it's at for hammering out emails on the go.

Sometimes the phone's touch buttons (Home, Menu, Back, etc.) don't respond right away. I intentionally went with the slowest Android phone from Sprint because I wanted the best battery life, but really, this can be frustrating at times. I press home and I expect it to respond within two seconds...not 10 on occasion. But back to battery life, I can go two days with fairly heavy duty use without a charge. Not like I do, because I wouldn't want to be completely dead at the end of my second day, but it's nice to know that my phone is going to die just after lunch on day 1. I'm a battery holdout - I've been on enough international vacations to know that batteries are the key to life. Without them, you have no way to record your personal history. Life never happened. Same with the phone - if I miss a call, I miss a business opportunity. Batteries above all else.

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Finally, there's the apps I personally use. But rising like a superstar above all the other apps, making the iPhone users (sorry Audric) jealous and their phones substandard (in this matter).

The free included Google Navigation that meshes with Google Maps is easily the best app I have ever used, and it made my Garmin obsolete. It is supposedly in Beta right now, but really, it's found everything with turn by turn and with spoken street names. It rules, and makes having an Android a loaded weapon, saving you $5o - $100 on buying a GPS by itself. Honestly, I looked at my GPS and gave it away as an Xmas present in October.

Some other apps I use are K9 Email which works better than the included email program, Yahoo! Fantasy Football, Facebook (duh), Craigslist Notifier, Google Voice, Calendar, Google Finance, Dolphin Browser HD (has tabs like Firefox, until Firefox or Opera release something better), Dropbox (upload your pictures and video from your phone here and pull them down from your computer later) and The Weather Channel. These are the daily apps I use.

The special apps I use for program management are Advanced Task Killer (to kill running apps eating RAM and Battery during the day), and the best battery extending program Startup Cleaner Pro - which allows you to disable all the programs that start up on your phone when you turn it on. I mean, do I really need Craigslist Notifier running in the background? Sprint Nascar? Heck no. Goodbye, I will run you if I ever use you. This allowed me to disable about 10 apps that were sucking my cpu, ram and battery from behind the scenes, and in particular Amazon Mp3, the dreaded program that would always come back from the dead and start running again even if killed by Advanced Task Killer. Now it doesn't run in the startup, now it's disabled forever. Why don't I uninstall it? Because I can't. Some behind the scenes backroom deal with Google and Amazon put it on my phone forever (unless I root the phone). But now, it's a distant memory.

Overall I have to give my Android experience a very positive rating. I'm already thinking how good these phones are going to be in the next couple of years with Android 3.0 coming out, along with the advancements of cpu usage, speed and battery life. It's a very good tool with some quirks, but I'm glad I made the jump to a more open platform that has a ton of apps. Did I mention all the ones I use above were free? Nice.

-Nate

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What are you really paying for? As Always, Cool.

2010-09-30T05:29:00.000-07:00

Here at Remachines, we occasionally deal with the cutting edge of electronics, building custom gaming computers or repairing new items that have gone bust right away.

But in reality, we deal with the grave. The electronics that have either been deemed "uncool" or "obsolete" by society.

It's our responsibility to keep these electronics in the giant wheel of society until they truly completely break. And it's our responsibility to report that all that new stuff you're usually paying money for is usually a ripoff.

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The perfect example of this is the NEW Apple iPod Nano (pictured). It's barely bigger than a postage stamp, it has a fancy little touch screen so you can show off how cool your album art is or rotate this or that. It will likely be crushed or destroyed or put through the washer within six months.

And you just paid $150 for it. You know how much it cost to manufacture? An estimated $43.73. That is some killer profit margin. Yes, there are things such as advertising, jobs, and Steve Jobs to pay (his $1 salary) to also consider in the price, but in reality, why would anyone pay $150 for something less effective (remember, you have to look at the screen while using this, it is touchscreen and does not have physical buttons) than its predecessor?

iSuppli Link Here

Because as Americans, you can. You can buy the $150 device that you might get two years out of that is essentially another way to pry $.99 out of you for the new hot single that comes out every two weeks. But that's another blog entry, which is basically the idea that all of these new devices are essentially a "gateway drug" for your wallet opening up and robbing you through pennies instead of just grabbing the whole thing.

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The way I think of things is like this: $150 is about 10% the cost of an acceptable used car for a teenager, who probably lives in some suburban area that will need to commute to the larger city for some reason (possibly a technical college, work, etc.). If 10% of that budget is cut out towards the car an used on the newest technology that really isn't helping you succeed at all in this case, not only are you stuck with that technology (and the cool factor will fade FAST) but less money towards that car, meaning you will get less of a car and probably more problems because of it.

Life is all about trade offs, so do yourself a favor and grab an uncool alternative to expensive, relatively useless music players. You can probably find yourself something from Sandisk or Creative for a fraction of the price that will do 75% or more of the same things. And they probably won't lock you into a specific media store, slowly draining the power of your wallet.

-Nate

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Skydrive v. Gmail Storage v. Dropbox

2010-09-16T05:33:00.001-07:00

The world is now in the clouds. Sure, we can still store stuff locally, but the convenience of being able to store important data on some remote server somewhere on the planet without needing to set (most) of it up yourself is really quite nice.

There are three companies we've worked with in this mini review. We know there are more, but these are the three "easiest" free ones we know of and use ourselves.

Microsoft Skydrive, Google Gmail Storage, and Dropbox. Two big names, one small but fairly well known one (similar to Mozy).

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First on the block is Microsoft Skydrive. With Microsoft Skydrive you get 25GB of free online storage. That's a ton of storage for free! You also get access to Microsoft Office Live, which allows you to edit Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote documents for FREE in your web browser. Yes, it actually works quite well.

The online navigation and upload process definitely has windows users in mind, as the directory structure starts you out in "My Documents", so the familiarity is there. We personally don't think this is necessary, but if you're used to using Windows, then this could help you out.

Uploading files is a little odd in that you can do the normal "browse" for file on your computer to upload, but you can also use a more sophisticated upload method if you have the Silverlight plugin. Right, like we said, it's primarily for Windows users if you want that, but you don't need it because...

You can map a network drive directly on your computer to your Skydrive account without any third party tools if you have Windows Vista or 7. This is easily the best part of Skydrive, as I now have a drive letter (S:) assigned to Skydrive. I just go to Computer and double click on it...it prompts me for my password and viola, all my documents are there so I can drag and drop them from Skydrive to my desktop and back. Now THAT is slick.

Rating: 4/5 Blue Screens (lost a point because no easy installer)

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Second up is Gmail storage. Gmail storage is a combined store of all your Picasa, Gmail and Google Docs. You get 8GB of storage capacity (from what we've read) for free and to upload documents is a little more hazy. Since we're trying to use Gmail as a storage point, we had to download a third party tool here: http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm in order to get a "mapped drive" (it really isn't a mapped drive since you don't get a drive letter making more complicated uploads or backups impossible).

Setup was super easy with the third party tool, and we then went to Computer and there was Gmail Drive for our plundering. We double clicked, entered our username and password, and immediately dragged a simple file to the Gmail Drive.

Once uploaded we wondered where it would be stored. What's different from Skydrive is that the file actually creates an email in your Gmail inbox. This has its plusses and minuses, but for verification purposes we went into Gmail and deleted the "email". We then went back into Gmail Drive and the document was gone.

Pretty cool but kind of scary, especially if you accidentally delete your file along with your Spam.

Rating: 3/5 Androids (not for non-Gmail folks)

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Finally we have Dropbox, a company that offers up 2GB of storage for free, but really wants you to pay the $10 a month for 50GB or $20 a month for 100GB. Both are good deals, but you can get a USB external 120GB Hard Drive for $50 or so, so you do the math.

Installing the Dropbox app was simple, and it creates a nice folder called "My Dropbox" where you tell it to be located on your machine. By default it goes into My Documents, which is kind of buried in our opinion, so we changed the default location to Desktop, where we end up downloading and working with our documents anyway (hey, we're using Windows 7 here, we're used to a cluttered desktop!).

Dragging and dropping a file into dropbox is as simple as that, and the web interface is very similar to Microsoft's Skydrive (makes you wonder if Microsoft copied it).

However, the upload process is not instantaneous, and you need to run the Dropbox app in order for it to upload, which is kind of counter intuitive. Once run, the files sync and you can see them on the web. This seems to be taken care of automatically once it is run for the first time, but we believe it should be automatic for the end user.

Another nice thing is that you can make a mapped drive out of Dropbox, so you can access it from Computer, which gives this free product a boost.

Overall, this was the easiest product to setup and use from your PC. They obviously WANT you to use it in this manner, where Microsoft Skydrive and Gmail mapped drives are more like hacks instead of a normal installation.

Rating: 4/5 Dropped Boxes (lost a point because of least GB)

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-Nate

Google Instant Search. You Can Turn It Off If You Want.

2010-09-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

The mystery is gone forever I guess. Remember way back, two days ago when you would have to type in your Google Search and press Enter or the Search button?

Not Anymore.

If you haven't noticed, Google Instant Search is here, for better or worse.

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It's nice in some ways not to need to press the button, but is it necessary? And how well is it going to work on really old computers or Internet connections?

Thankfully, for folks that still have Dial Up or poor Satellite Internet connections, you can turn off Instant Search by clicking the little "Instant Search Is On" link next to the search button. This should definitely help your computer from completely freaking out.

Also, there were a couple of occasions yesterday when we ran some searches...and the White Screen of Death appeared in our Chrome browser. Let's hope that it's a temporary problem and not something that will continually plague our awful AT&T DSL connection, which regularly times out if you have three users concurrently doing something.

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Pretty soon I should be able to write this blog by just thinking about it...

...But what happens when I'm writing about computers and it thinks I'm writing about communism? I guess like everything else at Google, it'll be in "Beta" form for years.

Here's to progress.

-Nate

Keep your Computer Safe...r

2010-09-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

We all know it's impossible to keep your computer 100% safe, even if it's offline.

What we can do, however, is try to keep your computer safe from what we see as the most nefarious hackers, crackers, breakers and destroyers of all.

Kids.

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Yes, kids are smart with that ol' technology, but what they're really good at is clicking and installing anything that gets in their way of playing a game or finding that new Justin Bieber hit.

They will click "FREE iPAD" ads and believe they are true. They will accidentally come to some...not safe for work websites and wonder how Antivirus 2010 was installed on their computer when they "didn't do anything" (to be fair, plenty of adults get this one too). They will install Limewire, Frostwire or other torrent programs to get their songs and videos to illegally fill up their iPods...and hopefully a letter from the MPAA and/or RIAA through your ISP doesn't come in the mail (we've known a few customers who have received cease and desist letters).

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So what can you do? Well, aside from making the guests of your computer(s) read the newspaper and play music on CDs, make them use the Guest Account or password protected account instead. It's really easy to setup, and if you put a password on their account, they will need to know that password in order to wreak their daily havoc. If they don't, you're a lot more protected without needing to go out and get Net Nanny or block certain websites in your home Wireless Router (if you still need this, give us a call).

As always, be sure you're running antivirus and antispyware. We recommend Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware. Both are free and do a great job of cleaning up bad stuff! If you're using a Mac, try out ClamAV.

Windows

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

http://malwarebytes.org/

Mac

http://www.clamxav.com/

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-Nate

Does everything need to be touchscreen?

2010-08-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

Just like everyone else, I think that touchscreens are cool. It's nice to be able to move an icon around the screen, draw a line, do this do that.

But really - do we need touchscreens everywhere?

Take a look at that prototype iMac touch. Wow! How neat! You can...touch things!

Yes, very neat indeed. HP also has their breed of touchscreen devices and computers, and I'm sure this whole fad will be with us until non screen touching gestures are utilized over actually touching the screen...which is the problem.

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If you have a touchscreen device (Audric has an iPhone and Nate has the Samsung Intercept) you know how nasty that screen can get after a day of use. You seriously need to keep a microfiber towel handy to clean it off, otherwise in some sunlight, you're halfway trying to read text and smudge at the same time. It can look like Swamp Thing got ahold of your device.

I'm quite thankful that my Samsung Intercept has a real physical keyboard. With man hands it still is a bit small for my taste, but it does work and I don't have to type on the joke of a 3" screen (which I actually did once and somehow spelled "Remachines.com" correctly).

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I'm a holdout for things such as mice and screens until gestures (no, we're not talking a wand like the Nintendo Wii which is untolerable to control) become more mainstream. We're hoping that devices like the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox starts taking things to the next level. If it can, then all those front facing cameras will actually have a use other than trying to get some Facetime.

Then again, gestures might be a joke when your thoughts are downloaded immediately to the camera, like the most memorable part of Minority Report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyMdrOGhBhI

Still typing on my Logitech UltraX keyboard (I've had for five years).

-Nate

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Ridiculous Ink Costs - Time for Laser Printers!

2010-08-24T05:19:00.001-07:00

I happened to be surfing Gizmodo this morning, and they had this funny link to how much ink cartridges cost in comparison to things like Bottled Water, Blood and Oil.

I really was set back on how much more the ink costs were in comparison to everything else.

I expected ink costs to be more, but not nearly double the cost of Human Blood!

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Now this article was created in 2006, and things have changed, but I don't expect them to have changed all that much. So what does this mean? We think it means that unless you really, really have a need for a color printer (like you need to make nice presentations, you print your own photos professionally, you basically are a business in need of one) you should have moved over to a nice laser printer a few years ago.

The cost of ownership is MUCH less, and you can sometimes even refill your own toner cartridges for 20% the cost of buying a new one (which if you did buy a new one, it still is about the same price as a single black ink cartridge).

We're currently selling some brand new Canon all in one (Print, Scan, Fax) Laser printers for $125. That's absurdly cheap. But what makes the deal even better is that you can get third party toner cartridges for around $30-$35. That's around another 2,000-4,000 pages of printing for what you normally would get 150-250 pages out of that inkjet for.

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We also sell new and used Laser and Inkjet printers for much less than that!

As always, your mileage may vary, but you can always keep your pocketbook from bleeding to death by moving to Laser and leaving services like Snapfish or Walgreen's to print your pictures.

-Nate

Samsung Intercept Android Smartphone Mini Review

2010-08-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

I held out as long as I could from getting a real smartphone (sorry Windows Mobile 6.1, you don't count). The real reasons behind getting the Samsung Intercept from Sprint are:

1) The battery in my Samsung Ace was finally going out after two years of everyday use (and a couple of drops).

2) My wife's Samsung Upstage was totally flaking out, and without a removeable battery, you would have to do weird things like call it in order for it to respond.

3) I was able to get Sprint to get me both Samsung Intercept Android phones for $150 AR.

4) I was able to get Sprint to give me Nights and Weekends starting at 6PM instead of 7PM.

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My initial thoughts of the Samsung Intercept are positive. I'm a guy who runs a couple of apps and primarily uses it for Email. The slider keyboard really comes into its own element here, allowing me to blaze through emails instead of "pecking one out" on the touchscreen.

The battery life is superb for a smartphone. 2.5 days on a single charge with medium usage, it's basically what I need. I don't want to be tethered to the charger every few hours. That's just unacceptable (check out our battery post here: http://remachines.blogspot.com/2010/08/batteries-we-need-better-affordable.html )

The battery is good because it's an 800Mhz CPU instead of the 1Ghz ones in the Evo and Epic phones. But this is where the phone has its issues. Sometimes, when running two to three apps at a time, the phone's buttons (menu, home, back and search) just stop responding for up to 15 seconds. This is an obvious design flaw, and will hopefully be rectified with the eventual upgrade to Android 2.2.

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But overall I don't have any complaints other than that. The sound quality, even on speakerphone completely crushes my Samsung Ace. It is loud, rarely cuts out, and the speaker is clear for me to hear the person on the other line.

I'm going to give the device an early 8/10. I'll give it a few months and come back with what I think of it then (after I've dropped it a couple times).

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-Nate

Isn't my old mouse good enough?

2010-08-18T05:39:00.001-07:00

When did the mouse I've had for the past...8 years become obsolete?

I still have my Logitech MX300 USB optical mouse that I bought a LONG time ago for $30 on my desk, and I've tried to switch to others.

I once got a birthday present in the form of the Logitech Laser mouse once, which had weights you could put in it and whatnot, but to be honest, it just had too many buttons. I found myself accidentally hitting things and messing up my chi.

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So I went back to the MX300, and never looked back...or would that be "forward"? It's the dull, black and silver "modern" look from about 2002. But how can it be beat? Certainly not by a laser mouse.

Take a look at that new Arc Touch mouse my Microsoft. Sure looks fancy. Maybe it will help some people with gaming or comfort. Probably costs $75, and is wireless (something to this day I am entirely against, except for the wireless keyboard and mouse combo that hooks up to my plasma).

But really, do we need better mice? Two buttons and a scroll seems to be working out just fine here. The Mx300 is 8 years old, and has cost me about $3.75 a year to use, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I can't see myself using a touchscreen for my desktop unless something (truly) magical comes around that doesn't leave smudges, and even if so, what's the point? So I can shift my photos around with my finger instead? OK, fine, progress wins.

Maybe I'm just old and am losing contact with the kids, which seems to be the case when I read those Beloit College Mindset Lists: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php . I bet next year it'll say "Kids have never known anything that didn't have a touchscreen".

Which brings back a memory of when I used to work at EDS. One day we got a stockpile of Microsoft Intellimouse scroll mice in, and I thought I would be a savior for folks in an area that I know didn't have scroll mice. I was greeted as Computer Jesus by most, but of course, there always has to be one who doesn't play nice. She was a wonderfully crotchety woman, and was fine with having her rectangular Compaq mouse...forever. I was shocked, and tried to explain the benefits of the scroll mouse...to no avail. I went back to my desk defeated.

Here's to arched wrists and smudged screens forever.

-Nate

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Madden 11 Mini Review (Thanks to EA and a Remachined Xbox 360)

2010-08-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

Where to begin?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a console gamer. Of course I've played PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, whatever, but my weapon of choice has always been the

PC. I've always felt more in control of the game, be it using a mouse to snipe people versus a...controller or setting customized resolutions, playing in windowed mode, and basically throwing down a grand or so to build a box that plays...one game pretty well.

Well, here's to new things for me. My friend at EA sports mentioned the other day that Madden 11 was coming out. Normally I wouldn't care. I know Madden is THE football game to play, but I've got other things to do.

That was until a used Xbox 360

walked through my door on trade towards a used laptop. Along with 4 games and a wireless controller, I'd be a fool not to take it.

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But then again, in the electronics business, even a fool knows that Xbox 360s are easily one of the worst non-recalled electronic products ever produced. The failure rate on these things is horrendous. They usually bake themselves to de

ath and give you that nice red light of death.

Somehow this one, which smelled like an ashtray, ran great. I played some Tekken 6 to burn it in (like it needed it) and it went off without a hitch.

So that's where I drop a line to my friend at EA that I just got a 360. This was after cracking jokes that I hadn't played Madden since 1996 (which really is kind of true). She went ahead and overnighted me a complimentary copy of Madden 11, to which I owe them a mini review. So here we go.

Upon firing it up, the HD resolution going over HDMI on my 42" Panasonic Plasma looked amazing. I've never played a game that looked so good on a TV before. The good ol "EA Sports" logo slams in your face, and you're ready for some football.

hen Drew Brees shows up and ruins the moment with his contrived speech. A little "This is New Orleans" BS and whatnot. It really was kind of a downer and made me like him a little less for selling out like this.

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Thankfully that's in the extended intro, and that sappy stuff isn't dripping all over the game, since AC/DC Thunderstruck kicked in as soon as I got to the main menu.

Speaking of, where the heck is John Madden? His face is in the game sometimes, but you don't ever hear him talk. It's like he's dead or something, or locked up in solitary. It's kind of weird.

The new version of the game has GameFlow, which allows Madden to automatically pick a play based on where you are on the field and what down it is. That's pretty nice if I were 6 or if I was playing with someone who only knew football as soccer. I personally want control over my plays, but it does speed the game up for noobs and the play

calling is pretty logical.

Another weird thing about the game is that they took out speed burst. It's an automatic thing now, but how do you KNOW you're bursting and not just fat like Lendale White? It feels weird, but it does come into play when you bust through a hole or break to the outside...I just wish I could manually do it. You can enable it, but it should be on by default.

Gameplay is very smooth, and the game really requires you to wait for your receivers to hit their routes in order to complete passes. I'm a Tecmo Super Bowl guy (yeah, I'm that old) and I'm used to launching 70 yard passes and expect Henry Ellard to jump up and grab it over Deion Sanders' head. None of that is happening in Madden 11. If you try to float passes, you'll have every single one of them broken up or picked off. You need to have patience and really run a lot of crossing patterns and slant routes.

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Defense is actually fun to play. I've never felt as though I had the talent to be a defensive lineman and actually get a sack, or a cornerback and stick with my man without knocking him over and getting a penalty, so I play the nice easy role of middle linebacker. I have the ability to cover anywhere on the field or get in and stop the run.

You should ask the Steelers after I sacked Leftwhich about 8 times last night if he was going to play a few more quarters. I think the Lions are going to be a pretty good team this year (I picked a team randomly to start a season) as I smoked Pittsburgh 30-7. I yelled as I got a pick 6 and did a dive into the end zone all laid out posing for my football card. It was a great feeling.

I think Madden 11 is going to be a hit, and for someone who usually doesn't play console games, I was able to pick it up pretty fast (thanks for having a practice mode!). One final complaint is the constan

t reminder that the sponsor of the game is Verizon Wireless. OK, yes, I got it the first time Gus Johnson. You're more excited about that than my 30 unanswered points.

The minor issues with the game are definitely subdued by how amazing the game is. I'm glad I waited 14 years to play Madden again. However I do miss the 16 bit drunk sounding Madden and the hits and audio sounds like you were tackling a dog and not a person.

I have to give the game an A so far, but we'll see how generous I am if the Lions go 2-14!

I guess it was a good idea to keep his face off the game (1988 Apple II version):

-Nate

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Batteries. We need better (affordable) ones...or better software!

2010-08-11T05:32:00.000-07:00

Nothing like waking up and forgetting to charge your phone, laptop or other essential daily electronic device.

Or nothing like having it die on you in the middle of the day away from your charger.

Why is it that battery technology, or should we say AFFORDABLE good battery technology so out of reach?

Well, it isn't always the battery's fault. Of course, it could be, as some Chinese replacement laptop batteries have been somewhat questionable, but then again, the "Panasonic Made In Japan" ones I bought for my Fujifilm camera that needed a piece of plastic cut off in order to fit (NP-40 size) seem to work great (and we know they aren't Japanese).

So who do we blame? We think it's a three way tie.

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

1) You have to blame the manufacturers for using less cells than they could normally cram into a battery pack (say 4 cells in a compartment that can fit 9), as well as the manufacturers using aging Lithium Ion cells that were outdated to begin with from the lowest bidding manufacturer. I guess this should be expected when paying less than $400 for a new laptop, but a little better (or more) cells or more cells couldn't hurt.

2) You have to blame bad software code. I first hand saw this happen when I upgraded my first generation Android tablet from Droid 1.7.2 to 1.7.4 firmware. The optimizations in the software really improved the life of the battery by 25% or one hour. It was incredible. But then why doesn't Windows 7 get 10% better battery life than Windows XP if it is newer code? Well that's because you probably have that eye candy called Aero enabled, causing the Graphics chip to render that partially translucent desktop all the time. That'll kill a battery pretty quick. So we need better code for better battery life. I think this is always going to be a problem.

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

3) It's our fault. Like I mention above with Aero enabled, there are things we can do to better battery life. Like disabling Bluetooth, wifi if we're hardwired, taking the battery out if hardwired and especially when gaming. This also holds true to using the laptop or device somewhere hot. Nothing will kill a battery (or computing device) faster than if it can't breathe. We see a lot of dead motherboards, power adapters, etc. Because someone wanted to use their laptop on their bed for a few hours a day with all the vents closed up. Let that thing breathe!

Here's the article that got me thinking about this: http://lifehacker.com/5609988/a-comprehensive-guide-to-improving-your-android-battery-life

Don't forget to completely discharge and then fully charge your battery every so often either (called - "conditioning").

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

-Nate

The Age of Always Connected...Always Busy...Always Distracted

2010-08-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I happened to come across this really good blog called "Tweetage Wasteland". The owner of the site has some really good quotes from people who are always connected, and always checking their phones or laptops or whatever wherever they are. There are some classics there, and it really just want to show how overconnected (I just made that up) we all are:

I Walked the Brooklyn Bridge Without Facebook
This was an era before the internet became an umbilical cord.

I really liked this one because it's true. Can't we just walk up and down the street anymore? When did it become a big deal? Why does that restaurant you ate at matter? Why do I need to know.

Because I need to know.

We All Have Photographic Memories Now
McEnroe has never watched the video of his dramatic 1980 Wimbledon final against Bjorn Borg … He doesn’t want to take the chance that his memory of the experience will be altered or even replaced by a new memory of the video version of the event.

This one really hit me. I've felt this way before, where if I go back and look at things I've previously written or have performed or produced, I'll forget how I felt or currently feel about them. That they'll change over time, or I'll find flaws in things I should have done differently. Some things should just be left alone locked up in that little black box we all have. It's this thing called History, and on some personal levels, it doesn't need to be relived on YouTube indefinitely.

I Can’t Read Anything Longer Than This Headline
After a decade of browsing, blogging, linking, clicking and Tweeting, I find it nearly impossible to focus on a book even when I try to recreate a reading environment that mirrors a more technologically simple time.

This one is true as well. I need brief articles or diagrams to keep me interested longer than things longer than a paragraph. Remember how an article in the newspaper picks up on another page? It's hard to not get distracted and remain interested enough to start reading it again later. Of course, that is if you still read things like the Onion on paper.

Check out the site - it's really interesting, and some days I really think that I'm connected enough. I try to keep my communication just far enough away that I'm not that guy sitting in a coffee shop messing with his iPhone as his friend is sitting right next to him as life passes him by.

But then again, the longer I push back that smartphone purchase, maybe I'm being left behind. I guess I'm OK with that right now.

Source: http://tweetagewasteland.com/welcome-to-the-wasteland/

-Nate

Apples to...Dells?

2010-08-09T05:29:00.000-07:00

Dell has recently released its "Apples to Apples" back to school campaign where it compares its products to Apple's.

Now before you laugh, it is a pretty fair comparison, but I thought I'd point out the pretty ridiculous stuff for you.

First off, Dell compares their Studio 15 laptop to a Macbook Pro 15. I can hear the laughs now. But in the configuration Dell uses, both machines have Core i7 chips, top of the line stuff. Dell doesn't disclose the CPU speed, so that's kind of weird. Secondly, they say the Studio 15 has 6 colors available compared to...silver...or should that be Aluminum? The Software section of the comparison(s) is always the funniest. Dell tries to pass off the Windows Live Essentials package as being as good as the iLife suite. Now I'm no hardcore Mac user, but that's just crazy. Live Essentials is decent with Movie Maker, Photo Gallery and whatnot, but compared to iLife? Don't think so.

Then it comes to price. As always with me, it is ALWAYS ABOUT PRICE in the end. If not, then you're just rich and buy diamond studded burritos from Taco Bell.

The price for the Dell? $949 (that IS a good deal for the specs) versus $2,199 for the Macbook. Ouch.

Pretty much the same comparison goes for the 17" versions of the respective laptops.

Then we get to the desktops, the Dell Zino versus Mac Mini and the Dell Inspiron tower versus the iMac.

The first comparison makes sense, since Dell basically stole the Mac Mini idea from Apple and made their own cheaper clone. The specs on the Zino are quite good, 4GB RAM versus 2GB, 750GB Hard Drive versus 320GB...but the AMD Athlon II CPU in the Dell comes up a little short against the Core2 Intel in the Mac Mini.

Then we get to the software part again. I guess the Dell doesn't come with Windows Live Essentials (even though you can download it for free...what, did they get lazy?) but instead comes with...ready for the laugh track? McAfee Security Center (that IS funny) for 15 months. Supposedly the Mac Mini doesn't come with iLife either.

Dell again wins in the price category, but they should discount it more for having to waste time uninstalling McAfee.

Finally, the comparison of the Inspiron desktop and the iMac. Really, should there be a comparison? Yes, the iMac is a desktop, but it really is quite different. I personally like separate components in case something breaks, but then again, I work with run down worked to within an inch of their life electronics on a daily basis, so having a six foot mouse cable on my desk really doesn't bother my chi.

Again, McAfee is the separator here, along with the choice of 4 colors and (what I think is nice) a Blu-Ray combo for the Dell. Rolling in at $900 versus $1500 is pretty nice for the Dell too, but if I'm going to be dumping $900 into a desktop, it sure as heck isn't going to be a Dell, it's going to be a custom built, expandable gaming rig that I can grow into and that doesn't have some proprietary special power supply. But that's me.

In conclusion, you can see these types of comparisons are useful...as long as you know the little details that make them not so useful. But then again, when some people buy a car, they only care about the color.

Source: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/apple-comparison?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

-Nate

Remachines.com

Perfect - Microchips in Footballs! First Down!

2010-08-06T05:34:00.000-07:00

Finally - discussions went public regarding microchips in the NFL to determine things like First Downs and Touchdowns. This is a little off the cuff regarding technology, I know, but it is also an exciting time, since football season is ramping up here in the states.

It would be nice along with the current replay system to make the right call as much as possible. If that ball extends over the goal line, heck, make the pylons light up and have sirens like they do in hockey...

Speaking of, wouldn't that be next? That little puck flying around, would make icing calls, goals and probably some other things easier to determine too.

Next, Basketball. Instead of allowing instant replay on virtually any out of bounds play under 2 minutes of the halves, make the ball change colors to the team's colors that last touched it, then blink repeatedly and have the lines flash in that color when it was off on them. Also you could make the ball simulate "he's on fire!" if a guy gets hot.

Finally baseball. Sorry, can't change that sport. It's like the wild west where cheating, mistakes and blown calls rule. Good for that sport.

One last thing - when these balls or whatever come to the end of their life expectancy - do they then become eWaste?

Maybe we'll reuse them on our upcoming RETHINGS.COM site, or we'll sell them in our REMACHINES.COM store.

Source: http://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idCATRE6722GD20100803?sp=true (<--Why is this from the Canadian site if it's about the NFL?)

-Nate

"If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." BRILLIANT!

2010-08-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

So RIM's CEO (the maker of Blackberry) basically tells off Saudia Arabia and the UAE that if you can't handle the Internet, turn it off.

It's quite refreshing to hear some good political banter from our corporate overlords, particularly when it comes to being able to have access to the Internet, and uncensored access at that. I guess that if those countries can't successfully monitor access and what every single one of their citizens are doing, they should just pull the plug and go back to...censored television and radio.

That isn't going to happen.

Just like anything else, once the cat's out of the bag, it isn't going back in. What WILL happen is that individuals will find ways around the situation (just like they do in Turkey to get access to YouTube) and underground methods of enabling your device to do what YOU want it to do will prevail. (See - Jailbreaking your iPhone)

Now, the big deal here is that Blackberrys (Blackberries?) encrypt all of their data going to and from the phone. That's what has these countries in a tizzy. RIM hasn't given in to special security requests from any particular country before, and they shouldn't start now. Isn't it the person's data who owns the device?

But just in case you go visiting, be sure you leave your Blackberry at home until this whole mess is sorted out.

Source, WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704017904575409093226146722.html

-Nate

Ubuntu 10.04. Why are you the Vista of Ubuntu releases?

2010-08-04T06:03:00.001-07:00

Ubuntu Linux has been around for a while, and we've been using it in the shop since version 8. It's always been a good OS to throw on an older computer that doesn't have a Windows XP license or if a customer has a specific request, or if they buy one of our SAFEBOXX products.

However, Ubuntu Version 10 really is a hog. They basically transformed it into some sort of Windows/OSX hybrid, and the worst came out of it.

It's slow, it doesn't like some of the same hardware that the older versions liked, it flakes out more often...basically the Windows Vista of Ubuntu releases. Yes, I expect some Linux folks to be knocking on my door any second now for saying that.

Ubuntu still has some sweet tricks up its sleeve though, like the ability to download software from with in the OS, the "spaces" like multiple desktop option (why doesn't Windows have this yet?), and the excellent ability to load up on a customer's computer to gain access to system files to perform data dumps without needing to take the drive out (say, when Windows is hosed).

I really think they rushed this one to market, which for a free product, doesn't make much sense. I find myself reverting back to version 9 because of its speed and reliability. Too bad it's got that horrid brown theme - at least they fixed that on version 10.

By the way Canonical - put the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons back on the right hand side of the window. Being on the left is just illogical.

Try Ubuntu for yourself here (If you have a P4 2Ghz or higher):

http://www.ubuntu.com/

-Nate

So Microsoft's Dead huh? Not so fast...

2010-08-03T05:30:00.001-07:00

Let me preface this post by saying that yes, Apple is rocking in Mobile sales and iOS sales and all that good stuff...but in reality, Windows 7 and Windows in general...dominates. Apple makes very nice products, and they do look sexy. But in the computing world, Mac OSX has lost some market share of late.

This is stuff that really confuses me sometimes. Every morning, lunch and evening I walk past a certain coffee shop, and I could swear to you that the only computer ever made was a Mac. This goes along with the only Mp3 player ever made being an iPod and Phone ever made being an iPhone. I walk by and feel...poor or not cool (OK, you've got me there). I've got either my used HP 17" laptop or Dell Netbook strapped to my back with my 2 year old Samsung Ace and no mp3 player and look through the windows to people sipping their $4 coffees and wonder what it's like.

Then I wake up and realize that 91% of the world's computers are good enough when they run Windows. They can do just about all the things a Mac can do (and many things a Mac cannot) for a fraction of the price. That's why I created this company - to make computing affordable, not to produce the image that by using a REMACHINE you're suddenly cool. I feel as the world is still sane in that respect.

I've come to realize that many people get it, and don't want to blow $1,000 on new laptop, that a $400 new one will be fine. Or a $200 used laptop will suit their needs better than a $500 one. I think that this is why Windows is so successful and will continue to be.

Even though every day I seem to live in that twilight zone.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/08/windows-7-overtakes-windows-vista.ars

-Nate

Change Those Facebook Privacy Settings Yet?

2010-08-02T05:49:00.001-07:00

So the news that 100 million facebook (FB) users' information such as links to their FB sites, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc. had been extracted by a program that put them into a tidy 2.8GB file hit last week.

This file is now available on torrent websites, and if your privacy settings aren't on "friends only" or "private", you probably ended up on that list.

100 million FB users = 20% of all users. After all the kicking and screaming about privacy, it still seems to be a problem.

Another interesting fact about this data file is that it has been downloaded from some pretty prominent organizations. Now, there's no saying whether or not you'll end up on some SPAM list for the Church of Scientology, but there's a good chance that someone at one of these organizations will utilize this information in some fashion. Here's the list (so far):

A.C. Nielsen
Agilent Technologies
Apple
AT&T - Possible Macrovision
Baker & McKenzie
BBC
Bertelsmann Media
Boeing
Church of Scientology
Cisco Systems
Cox Enterprises
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Deutsche Telekom
Disney
Duracell
Ernst & Young
Fujitsu
Goldman Sachs
Halliburton
HBO & Company
Hilton Hospitality
Hitachi
HP
IBM
Intel
Intuit
Levi Strauss & Co.
Lockheed-Martin Corp
Lucasfilm
Lucent
Lucent Technologies
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co
Mcafee
MetLife
Mitsubishi
Motorola
Northrop Grumman
Novell
Nvidia
O'Melveny & Myers
Oracle Corp
Pepsi Cola
Procter and Gamble
Random House
Raytheon
Road Runner RRWE
Seagate
Sega
Siemens AG
SONY CORPORATION
Sprint
Sun Microsystems
Symantec
The Hague
Time Warner Telecom
Turner Broadcasting system
Ubisoft Entertainment
Unisys
United Nations
Univision
USPS
Viacom
Vodafone
Wells Fargo
Xerox PARC

So what can we do about it? Tighten up those security controls and watch the lawsuits fly. FB is the new way people stay in touch and "dropping out" really isn't an option once you join. I've seen it happen, and I've seen relationships die off and people join up again.

So please, change your security controls unless you're OK with Halliburton using your profile pic in some corporate training seminar or Wells Fargo sending you free Checking on your birthday.

-Nate

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/facebook-torrent-bittorrent-profile-pictures,10976.html

Starcraft II Single Player Mini Review

2010-08-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that I got Starcraft II for my birthday. I had been one of those folks that had been waiting around 12 years to play the game. I have loved all of the products that have come from Blizzard Entertainment, and have always been amazed with the level of detail and quality that their games bring.

Starcraft II is no different.

I'm about 60% through the single player mode as I write this, having finally gotten the chance to get Siege Tanks, skipping obtaining the Vulture as long as possible, and upgrading my units as I see fit.

Starcraft II brings all the classic storyline along with it, and then some. The "choose your own adventure" style of Starcraft II makes its storyline epic, and the single player mode fun as hell. You're Jim Raynor, hero of the first series, surrounded by your band of outlaws (terrorists) as you fight for freedom from your Terran overlords...while encountering the Zerg and Protoss, who really aren't happy about the crap you pull.

The missions in Starcraft II are a fresh take compared to the first Starcraft. Yes, you need to run around, hold off enemies, do some stupid things like the first one that will annoy the hell out of you, but the new missions, particularly the "zombie zerg" mission where you need to destroy infected Terran structures by day and then get back to your base and defend by night (as a load of zombie zerg terrans keep pounding your base) is one of the best missions I've played in a while.

I'm playing on normal difficulty...which seems to be a problem. It isn't a challenge, I haven't had a redo yet. I'm sure I'll screw a couple missions up towards the end, but this is almost ridiculous. Basically plowing through missions is fun the first couple of times, but if there is no real risk of failure, what's the point in playing the game, right?

Graphically the cut scenes and interaction menus are stunning. If you have a good graphics card, this is where the game really stands out. It makes you wish they'd make a movie out of it! Gameplay, however, is where I really think they took a step backward. It makes me feel like I'm playing World of Warcraft but in Starcraft mode. This doesn't do it for me at all. It worked fine when Warcraft III was released, but I expect a futuristic, technologically advanced game like this to look like that. Or at least more "human" or "realistic". I understand the cartooniness of the game allows for lesser computers to play it, but in some areas, I think the design of some buildings and ships is inferior to the original Starcraft. It's like originally playing with a Tonka truck and instead now playing with Duplo blocks.

All the little things, like the hiring of mercenaries, Zerg and Protoss upgrades to Terran units and twisting storylines definitely make this game a winner. But it COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. Of course, I'm a pretty avid fan, so that's how I feel.

I still give it a B so far, and will get many years of gameplay out of it.

Staples Lowers Ink Cartridge Recycling from $3 to $2

2010-07-31T07:43:00.001-07:00

Now, I usually am on top of things like this, but somehow I didn't get the memo until I logged into my Staples Rewards account and noticed my 20 cartridges that I returned weren't worth the normal $60 but now $40. So it's $2 instead of $3 now? Oh joy. A 33% decrease in value. Nice.

It would have been nice if Staples actually gave a reason for this instead of just doing it, but it is still good that they offer the program. It just makes it less likely I'll buy stuff like paper and DVD media for my company there and move back to an online store to take care of it.

So I thought I'd post this for the folks who use Staples for this and were in the dark, like me.

Source: http://freedomtoprint.com/2010/07/01/news-staples-drops-cartridge-recycle-reward-price-from-3-to-2/

-Nate

ATi (AMD) finally beats out nVidia in Graphics Card Shipments

2010-07-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

For a long time, through the early to mid 2000s, nVidia was the card maker to beat. They always seemed to have the cutting edge speed and rendering capabilities that left ATi in the dust.

But since the inception of ATi's 4 Series of cards, all of that changed. Now, with the 5 series, ATi has finally taken that 51 to 49 percent lead (on dedicated card shipments).

I've used both through the years, and both have served me pretty well. I had always found nVidia's drivers to be better for the early to mid part of the 2000s, but once ATi catalyst started getting good, things changed. It started a shift for ATi to write good drivers and good software to go along with their quality cards.

Around 2005/6 I began noticing (especially on the low end) nVidia cards that would fail, particularly due to bad capacitors. Since the card specs are licensed to 3rd party companies (such as XFX, BFG, Asus, etc.), some companies like to cut corners (as any industry). I noticed that the ATi cards that I installed around the same time STILL WORK TODAY and I still used them to spruce up older hardware for users that either still use the same PC or want a recertified one with the ability to play some decent flash games.

So congrats ATi for beating out nVidia. Now if you could get those chipsets with better RAID functionality in place like nVidia has, you'll be top dog all around.

Of course, all of this could change...tomorrow, just like anything else.

-Nate

Source: News.com

When will everything that isn't real be free?

2010-07-29T05:32:00.001-07:00

I was reading an interesting article about what percentage of Android apps and iPhone apps have access to your personal information here:

http://blog.mylookout.com/2010/07/introducing-the-app-genome-project/

When I clicked on the image and saw the stat that 64% of Android apps are free versus 28% of iPhone apps. I then began to wonder if the quantity of apps had originally been free was near that percentage. At that point I began wondering...

When will everything that isn't real be free?

Now, this is a problem that has been confronting us since the advent of software and has slowly increased through the whole Napster "free music" era into the app era. Basically the only thing that has true value in life is time. And I know that these app developers that are "giving away" their apps usually also do so with ads that magically pop up every so often in the hope that you click on them to generate revenue, so they really aren't "free" as much as "annoying".

But when will that company or guy or whomever who has to give his product away finally go belly up? Sure, he can make a million or two, but like any other industry out there, those that are well funded and have an army of coders is likely to survive and expand. That's how things go. So he gives away his app and a thousand other people make the same iPhone app in a different color slightly differently with a little more sparkle and their free version pushes his to oblivion.

I guess what I'm trying to say is are we headed in the direction of a reality where we get what we want with no cost (YouTube, etc.) and have to live with the ads like TV? Is the only thing we pay for anymore the actual hardware (which costs have been obliterated as well)?

I'm trying to find the next big "thing" in America that will set us apart, above and beyond any other country with our innovation. iPhones and iPads are nice. But they aren't something that moves an entire country to another plane. Maybe giving everything away is the new norm, I just don't see it becoming anything of real use as we all become greater media consumers to the nth level.

Just make sure I don't have to pay.

-Nate

Sprint actually gains customers! Shocker!

2010-07-28T05:27:00.001-07:00

Having been a Sprint subscriber for nearly five years now, I was with the company through the hard times, the poor customer service, lack of decent phones, and all the jokes from people about "You're on Sprint?!?!?!?".

Things are changing, a new CEO has turned the company around, their unlimited data plans (soon to be the last of the big three to do so, and T-Mobile doesn't count because they STILL don't have 608 area code phone numbers) are the best in the industry, their coverage is good (not best, but good), and their customer service isn't 1/2 bad.

They also have released good phones and have fully embraced Android with the HTC Evo 4G and the upcoming Samsung Epic 4G, and they have a wide array of lesser Droids and a slew of Blackberrys.

In a world where most people just hear the word iPhone and AT&T or Droid and Verizon, Sprint has turned themselves around to start catching those folks who want to save some pocket change and still get a good service and a good phone.

Congrats Sprint for hanging in there and keeping the industry competitive.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sprint-Nextel-posts-first-apf-1149187495.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=

-Nate

But...Rambus doesn't even make anything!

2010-07-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you're old enough or geeky enough to remember this RAM company called RAMBUS from back in the early 2000s, but they had some memory that was cutting edge, super fast, etc. for early Pentium 4 processors. Then DDR memory came along and wiped them off the face of the earth (thankfully). But they're still around, basically don't make anything physical anymore, and seem to just come up with patent ideas so if you're a company such as nVidia who does physically make a product, you can stumble on a patent created by this "innovation" company and get your pants sued off.

That's exactly what's happening now, and seems to carry on America's long tradition (and seemingly more and more twisted) weird patent laws.

Link from Bloomberg.com

I guess Rambus still has us in its grasp too, as the old chips are hard to come by for a decent price, and every so often, someone needs a pair. Yes, you have to install them in a pair. Oh, and if you have open slots on your motherboard you need to install dummy sticks into them in order for it to work. See why this stuff cost so much?

-Nate

Google Canary Eaaaaarly Dev Browser Version

2010-07-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

Looks like Google is letting folks get ahold of a separate install (similar to Mozilla's Minefield) developer version of their next generation browser, Canary.

Check out Google's Canary Page for more info and to download.

Currently it's only available for Windows users, and it's just been downloaded and installed on our Windows 7 box. Looks almost identical to Chrome v5, will see how stable it is once it's run through its paces.

Interesting thing that on startup, it gives the user an option to select their search engine - Google, Yahoo! or Bing. Now that is weird.

If you're a bit ahead of the curve, give it a shot - you can always go back to your old browser as it is a separate install if things turn south.

Obsolete Technologies

2010-07-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

Just ordered this book for my Birthday, pretty excited to get it actually. Hardcover with tons of stuff about technologies that are dead and gone. I have a soft spot for old stuff, particularly cars, advertising and computers that I usually am dismantling and recycling. Check out the site - it's pretty cool! You even get to see some Apple II ad from the late 70s with a guy in a turtleneck. What's next, one from the 80s with a woman in tights (or would that be 2010)?

http://obsoletethebook.com/

1980s leggings

2000s leggings