Review by Dan James
- Product:
- MEC Raven Sleeping Bag -7C (company site)
- What's Good:
- Light, Warm, Comfortable, Value, Draft Tube.
- What's Bad:
- Not Warm When Wet.
I've used my Raven sleeping bag for an entire season now. I've been in it from extremely humid summer weather to very cold fall nights that were below freezing. I have nothing but good things to say about this bag. As I'm six feet three inches tall I purchased the long version of this bag. It is the perfect length for me. My wife, who is considerably smaller than I, has the small version of the bag. We are very pleased with both bags.
- Product:
- iTrip Mini (company site)
- What’s Good:
- Good idea, no wires, decent reception.
- What’s Bad:
- Limited open frequencies in city.
When I bought an iPod Mini last fall, I bundled it with an iTrip Mini so I could listen to my iPod on road trips in the car. Originally, I was having difficulties tuning it in based on the simple instructions provided with the device, but it turned out that I had a faulty device, which was quickly replaced by Griffin Technologies in a good example of effective customer service. Nice job guys. I had the chance to give the new iTrip an extended trial this past week and was pleasantly surprised by its reasonably clean signal and lack of draw on the battery.
- Product:
- Shuttle PC SN95G5 (company site)
- What’s Good:
- Compact, Looks Good
- What’s Bad:
- Expandability, More expensive then regular desktop
When the hardware in my old 800MHz desktop decided to start failing it placed me in a situation where I was on the market to buy a new desktop PC. At the same time, Half Life 2 was just released so I couldn't settle for anything smaller then a system capable of playing this demanding game.
- Product:
- Wacom Intuos3 6x8 Tablet (company site)
- What’s Good:
- Lots of Settings, Quick Keys, Included Software
- What’s Bad:
- Expensive, Required Desk Space
This review is based on the Graphire2 4x5 vs Intuos3 6x8. Something I have also considered to be the consumer and professional style.
I have owned the Graphire tablet since 2002 and just recently a trip to PhotoshopWorld where they released the new Intuos3, I convinced
myself that the more expensive Intuos model was worth the price after having the time to experiment and physically see the difference. Shortly after
I returned home, I ordered the middle sized 6x8 tablet. One step up from the smallest 4x5 model.
Now that I have been using both for a little while, one question I have seen on many forums has been. Is the Graphire good enough or should I
have the Intuos? Side Note: I also had time to play with the amazing 18SX Cintiq.
Very expensive but works much better then I would have thought.
- Product:
- 3.5" Aluminium External Enclosure (company site)
- What’s Good:
- Portable, Saves you from buying an external hard drive.
- What’s Bad:
- Drives are not easily swapped, Additional power cables.
This external drive enclosure will create a portable backup/storage device from any regular 3.5" drive allowing you to connect to any computer with USB.
Once connected via USB/Firewire, the removable drive(s) will appear where you can freely copy files back and forth to. I'm currently using this without USB2 so file transferring is relatively slow but still workable. The drive case also requires it's own power supply so you'll have additional cables over your desk.
The case itself has 2 screws and then an additional 2-4 screws to hold the drive in place so quickly changing drives will be a hassle.
Review by Dan James
- Product:
- Brunton Crux Stove (company site)
- What's Good:
- Small and Light, Simmering Capability, Fast, Easy to Pack.
- What's Bad:
- Support arms warp from the heat, Can't use a windscreen.
I bought this little stove from MEC last year and it’s been with me in my pack ever since. I initially bought the stove for two reasons: it’s small and it’s butane. I won’t get into the raging battle of butane vs. other fuels, but for an average three season low altitude hiker like myself butane gives you less headaches.
Review by Nick Burka
- Product:
- Threadless T-Shirt Review (company site)
- What's Good:
- Excellent customer service, very cheap, good website.
- What's Bad:
- Nothing really.
After I wrote a review of my first American Apparel T-Shirt, several people responded mentioning Threadless.com and their t-shirts. I visited their site a couple weeks ago and they happened to be offering a pre-Christmas sale with t's for only $10 so I thought I'd give them a try.
- Product:
- National Association of Photoshop Professionals Membership (website)
- What’s Good:
- Lots of information available, Well managed, Overall Interesting.
- What’s Bad:
- Can easily be considered expensive.
This review is based on a 1 year Canadian membership to the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).
I joined NAPP in January of 2004 about the same time I started taking Photoshop more seriously and wanted to focus more on what it was capable of instead of just using it as a tool for the daily basics. Now a year later, my subscription is coming up for renewal which brings a good time for a review while considering it's value.
- Product:
- Cuz Dog Toy (Available from Amazon)
- What’s Good:
- Cool design, squeaks.
- What’s Bad:
- Not nearly as tough as it looks.
What birthday gift do you get the dog that has everything? Why, this great dog toy of course. I recently got my sister's dog the devilish dog toy from Cuz when she was celebrating his birthday. The designers have created a great design of the little devil squeaky toy (it's about the size of a medium Kong toy) and its angelic twin. They seem to be made out of the same rubber as a Kong toy and I naively assumed they'd share that toy's near invincibility. Unfortunately, the birthday boy (who is not a strong dog by any means) devoured the toy's entire left foot in a single evening and then started on removing the cute little horns. Great aesthetic design — too bad they didn't test it for chewability.
