The sleek Acer Aspire X1301 is 1/3 the size of a normal PC, but is a powerful performer with ample room for upgrades and a wealth of ports at your fingertips.
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at
2:40 pm
Compare Prices on Targus RG0318 15.4 Gravity Backpack
Targus RG0318 15.4″ Gravity Backpack
- Color: Gravity Backpack – Pewter
- Brand: Targus
- Model: RG0318
- Format: CD
- Dimensions: 5.40″ h x 14.30″ w x 17.00″ l, 3.80 pounds
Features
- Notebook Compartment Compatible with Notebooks with Up to 15.4¿ Screens
- Soft Rack Helps Distribute Weight of Books or Binders for a Healthier Back
- Extra Large Zippered Storage Compartment with Two Internal Pockets Including Zippered Mesh Pockets – Perfect for Personal
- Contoured Ergonomic Shoulder Straps with 3D Air-Mesh Padding
- Mobile Phone and CD Player Compartments with Line-Out Porthole for Headphones
Great so far
(2005) Two months with this bag an it’s still getting me to school. I haven’t had any reliability issues.
The good:
1) It’ll hold everything. I carry so many books to school I used to carry a backpack and a laptop case. Now I just have this bag.
2) Big straps to hold the load.
3) Lots of compartments to help devide up and secure the stuff.
4) Padded back
The Bad:
1) Laptop sits between your back and your load. It’s padded, but this doesn’t stop the weight of the load from resting on your computer. It should be a hard case.
2) Big straps that are too wide to leave much room for flexibility in the arms.
3) Useless little mesh pockets.
4) Dividers aren’t removable.
Thanks for reading
EDIT (Nov 2006): I’ve been forced to quit using this bag. After 1.5 years of heavy use with heavy loads, the main zipper gave out and tore away from the bag. Targus says they have a lifetime warranty, but good luck collecting. I still loved it and plan to get it fixed.
EDIT (June 10, 2007): Targuus seems to have lightened up on their warranty policy. Without a receipt, and without having registered, I was able to warranty this bag. Targus sent me a new one.
Very nice Notebook Backpack
I had been carrying my notebook computer in a standard notebook case (not a backpack) and began deciding to leave my notebook at home instead of deal with the discomfort of carrying it through an airport or large building. Someone recommended that I try a Targus backpack, and I have not regretted switching a bit.
The RG0322 Matrix is a great Backpack. The shoulder straps are well padded and distribute the weight very well. There is plenty of room inside to hold everything I need to carry with me, while not causing my arms to ache after a short walk with it.
I know people with other brands of notebook bags that have had problems with zippers coming apart. The zippers on this bag seem to be very durable, and after using it for about 6 months I have no complaints with the quality of construction.
When traveling on quick overnight trips the bag is roomy enough to carry my notebook and all it’s accessories, any paperwork I need for business meetings, clothes and toiletries. It wouldn’t replace a suitcase for a long trip, but for the quick overnighter, this is not a bad bag.
I thought I would feel uncomfortable replacing my ‘briefcase style’ notebook bag with a backpack. I was concerned that it might not look as business-like as it could. After I bought the Targus backpack I started noticing how many other business travelers also carried notebook backpacks, and realized my concerns were wrong.
The Targus Matrix backpack is a great product at a reasonable price. If I had to go back and do it again, I would buy the same thing.
Excellent Bag with LOTS of Space
I bought this backpack to allow myself to travel around my college campus and keep all my books and supplies with me. This bag is more than up to the challenge.
It will carry 3 2″ 3-ring binders, 3 textbooks, 1 lab manual, 1 personal book, an endless barrage of cables, cords, and accessories for my computer, pens, pencils, and just about everything you could possibly need. The front flap is elasticized, which makes it very convenient for carrying thin, light-weight items like the daily paper, or a spiral notebook. Targus recommends this space for a jacket, but I feel that this space is a bit small, especially in colder climates.
One word of caution, however. The bag will hold a large load, but be careful not to carry too much, as this bag can probably hold more than most people can carry.
Monday, June 28th, 2010 at
11:18 am
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Buy DYMO LABELWRITER 450 Label Printer,1752264, USB, PC/MAC, Printer and Software, 51 Labels Per Minute, black/silver. At Amazon!
Compare & Purchase DYMO LABELWRITER 450 Label Printer,1752264, USB, PC/MAC, Printer and Software, 51 Labels Per Minute, black/silver. at Amazon by clicking here!
List Price: $149.00
Amazon Price: $89.99
Click Here To Purchase At Amazon!
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DYMO LABELWRITER 450 Label Printer,1752264, USB, PC/MAC, Printer and Software, 51 Labels Per Minute, black/silver. Description:
Label faster. Mail smarter. Look sharp. Take the hassles out of label printing with the DYMO® LabelWriter® 450 label printer. Label, mail, and file smarter with proprietary DYMO® Productivity Software, featuring the new DYMO Label version 8, DYMO FileTM and Address FixerTM. DYMO Label version 8 software enables you to create and print address, shipping, file, folder and barcode labels, plus name badges and more – all without the extra work and hassles of printing sheet labels on a standard desktop printer.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #508 in Office Product
- Color: Black/silver
- Brand: DYMO
- Model: 1752264
- Format: CD
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.50″ h x 5.56″ w x 10.62″ l, 3.25 pounds
Features
- Label, mail, and file smarter with proprietary DYMO® Productivity Software
- DYMO Label version 8 software enables you to create and print address, shipping, file, folder and barcode labels, plus name badges and more
- Print up to 51 labels a minute
- Uses thermal printing technology – no expensive ink or toner needed, ever
- Create labels directly from text in Microsoft; Word, Excel;, Outlook®, QuickBooks; and other programs, without retyping
Customer Reviews:
Overall good
Dymo has long provided highly functional label makers. The 450 continues in that tradition.
The pros far outweigh the cons. They include inkless printing, automatic connection to Outlook contacts, automatic zip code printing (only if you have the complete 9 digit zip code), a seemingly endless list of available label sizes and functions (including CD labels). Software installation and set up for the label writer was easy and efficient.
The con is one that has plagued Dymo for several generations of it’s label writers – it is unreasonably difficult to install new labels. (You eventually learn the secret of carefully aligning the labels at an angle so a “corner” is fed in first.) For a product that otherwise performs so flawlessly, this annoyance should be addressed.
Dymo Labelwriter 450
I have replaced a 3 year old Dymo LabelWriterr 315 that no longer could operate with Apple OS 10.6.
I am very pleased with this printer. I think that Dymo at last have a good software that enables on to read the address list without having the printer connected. For my periodical use it is very fast. I recommend this simple printer
Faulty software design
The Labelwriter 450 printer works great!! The Version 8 software has some design “improvements” which border on being bugs.
1 – If you open a file with an existing file name ending in a number and you perform a SAVE AS function the software truncates any numbers on the right hand side of the filename. So, if you are labeling parts and there happen to be numbers in your part numbering schema, BE CAREFUL that you don’t lose the numbers.
2 – The software no longer previews the label of a file selected in the file open menu.
3 – The software is bloated and takes a long time to load up.
Monday, June 28th, 2010 at
10:18 am
Microids: Sinking Island Description:
Who killed Walter Jones? Play the role of private inspector Jack Norm, who is asked to find the truth behind the death of Walter Jones. The only suspects are 10 people who were on the island at the time. Due to a raging tropical storm, there is only 3 days to clear up this affair before all of the clues, the island & the guilty party disappear into the ocean forever. Include: – Discover rich environments from the idyllic beaches to Walter Jones¿ last opulent masterpiece. – Captivating characters with unique psychological profiles that evolve. – 2 game modes bring hours of intrigue: You investigate the island at your own leisure or race against time to solve the death of Walter Jones!
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2335 in Software
- Brand: Encore
- Model: 16680
- Released on: 2008-08-12
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: .10 pounds
Features
- The new game by Beno t Sokal – the master of point & click adventure returns to the universe that earned him a reputation as a major comic book author – Detective stories!
- Sumptuous d cors – from the idyllic beaches to the exaggerated proportions of this extravagant tower, discover a rich environment and great graphics
- A heart-racing scenario – hate, resentment, treason and intrigue on a tropical island.
- A Noir novel in a video game – the game is divided into ten simple questions that you have to answer one after the other to make headway in the investigation
- A full and accessible enquiry solving system – thanks to your personal assistant, you can confront the different suspects, compare their statements to evidence and move on in the enquiry by using your sense of deduction
Customer Reviews:
A Benoit Sokal Murder Mystery
Praise should be given to Benoit Sokal for developing yet another intriguing and beautifully rendered point-and-click adventure game (like Amerzone, Syberia, and Syberia II). The game is different than his previous ones in that Sinking Island revolves around a murder mystery, making the adventure all the more fun.
The plot centers on a billionaire who is found murdered on his private island, Sagorah in the Maladives (based on the Maldives, I’m assuming). Walter Jones has built a massive Art Deco Revival hotel for the wealthy “jet-set” elites. But it is unfinished and structurally unsound, and there happens to be a powerful hurricane building in the area! Jones has invited his three grandchildren and their spouses/love interests, the hotel’s architect, and Jones’ personal attorney to the hotel for the weekend. There are also two natives living in a hut on the island. When Jones is found washed up on a rocky beach with his head bashed in, the mystery ensues. You play the part of detective, Jack Norm who is flown out to the island to investigate and as you do you begin to uncover the dark secrets of Jones and the 10 suspects as you question them and pick up clues scattered all about the island.
MAY CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS:
Like most of Sokal’s other games, there is a lot of running back and forth through screens that never have anything in them to click on, they are just there to look pretty and add to the atmosphere (which is very well kept, I must say!), which of course adds a lot of wasted time to gameplay. Another disappointment that goes along with this is that there are very few things to click on which is good when you’re trying to find clues but not so good when you’re wandering around…I mean they could have utilized their space more. The plot is very much like a modernized Agatha Christie-type story that one finds in many TV mystery shows, the only real advancement is having it placed in a sumptuous Art Deco Revival Hotel on a secluded island in the Indian Ocean. The major problem I had with this game was the atrocious final cinematic. The opening was OK, but the ending was just ridiculous at times. Not only did some characters change appearance, but some changed their personality for no apparent reason (right before the ending they were calm, but when you enter the room at the end, they are all of a sudden crazy). Then, I expected that we’d see very cool shots of the beautiful interiors flooding in a “Titanic” fashion, but no, we just see a rather cartoonish-feeling shot of the tower just sliding under the water…I’m unsure how the ocean rose or the island sank enough to consume 22+ stories of building, though. Then, when Jack is explaining everything to the survivors, it sounds like he’s an elementary teacher taking questions from his students and explaining the details to their childish minds (not to mention that everyone seemed so unaffected by the calamity, there was nobody crying, or nervous, or anything!)…I don’t know that might be a little of an exaggeration, but it just irked me a lot, that ending cinematic! After putting together such a well-crafted game, they almost ruined it with a really dumb ending.
Also, I played the game on an older PC but with a GEforce 5500 FX graphics card and I still had some issues running the game with high graphics quality (probably due to my lower processing speed). So, it should likely work fine on 2.0+ GHZ processors with more than 600 MB of RAM and at least medium-level graphics capabilities (of course you can always lower the level of detail in game, but I feel it detracts from the atmosphere–being that it stops the rain, blowing palm trees, lightning strikes, etc. And it’s a DVD-ROM game, so it won’t work on regular CD Drives.
So, overall I’d probably give this game a 3.5/5 but I rounded up to 4/5 because I feel the game’s pros rather outweighed the cons.
Sinking Island sinks right into shallow water with it’s story:
I love adventure games because they make you think and usually have great stories that you can follow along with. In the case with Sinking Island it has a great atmosphere based on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean.
There is a hurricane (cyclone) as they call them in this part of the world brewing nearby which adds to the atmosphere of the game but then comes the story that sinks right into shallow water from the start. I found that the story was strait forward in that you collect clues and question suspects on the island but there was no suspense to be found.
In recent games I have played for example New Life and Darkness Within there is a layer of suspense where you want to find out the next chapter in the story and can’t stop playing but this is not the case with Sinking Island. Yes, there is a who done it feel to the story but by the time you reach that conclusion you are bored out of your mind with mindless questioning and clue combinations in your PDA that you really don’t care. Actually it’s not real hard to figure this out before hand if you pay close attention earlier in the game.
The graphics are good with nice details here and there like swaying palm trees in the wind, crabs on the beach, lightning in the sky, etc. but once you get inside the tower and move aimlessly from floor to floor the game bogs down. Don’t get me wrong Sinking Island is a good quality game but it takes more than a good reputation from a well known author who created the well known Siberia series to impress me.
If you like murder mysteries and don’t mind many hours of questioning people and clue searching then Sinking Island will be a good choice but if your like me and want more suspense and edge of your seat type of story look else where.
Had potential but failed overall
Pros
* nice stormy outdoor environment
* solid voice acting
* good story
* DVD not required after installation
* widescreen-monitor support
* stable
* box said it’s a “Psychological Thriller”. Well, Gilligan’s Island is more thrilling than this game, but that’s okay because I play adventure games to relax
Cons
* too much talking overall
* detective asks the same questions to every character yet you can’t skip one sentence at a time
* no complete log of conversations so you have to load a previous save if you miss something
* when you load a previous save, the sound is messed up, so you have to restart the game
* mouths don’t move
* too much unnecessary walking, especially since there are only a small number of different scenes in the game, so you walk past the same things over and over
* worse, the game will sometimes move you to a different location for no good reason except to artificially prolong the game, then you have to walk back to continue what you were doing. Annoying.
* when start game, can’t skip White Bird’s advertising, and then it takes a long time to load a previously saved game
* if you walk away from your PC, the game keeps playing (even in “Adventure Mode”), so you must remember to pause it first
* a few locations require pixel hunting because they have no visual clues. This is bad because then you end up feeling that you have to do this at all locations so you don’t miss anything
* no cutscenes except for beginning/end of game
* a few obscure puzzles, especially toward end of game, but mostly the game is straigtforward
Monday, June 28th, 2010 at
9:18 am
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Description:
Office Excel 2007 is a powerful tool for analyzing, sharing, and managing information to help you make more informed decisions. Office Excel 2007 delivers a new, results-oriented interface, PivotTable views that are easy to create and use, enhanced formula authoring, rich data visualization, and a much faster way to create professional-looking charts and tables. Share and manage spreadsheets that contain sensitive business information using Excel Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Main Features
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
Manufacturer Part Number: 065-04940
Manufacturer Website Address: www.microsoft.com
Software Sub Type: Spreadsheet
Software Name: Office Excel 2007 – Complete Product
Features & Benefits:
Analyze and Communicate Information:
Results-oriented user interface
Import, organize, and explore massive data sets within significantly expanded spreadsheets
Improved and powerful support for working with tables
See important trends and find exceptions in your data
Create a PivotTable faster to organize your information around many different criteria
Extend your business intelligence investments-Office Excel 2007 provides full support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Formula AutoComplete helps you write the proper formula syntax the first time, every time
Page Layout View helps you build reports quickly
Communicate your analysis in professional-looking charts
Share Spreadsheets and Business Information with Others:
Use Office Excel 2007 and Excel Services to more securely share spreadsheets with others
Save as XPS or PDF for easier sharing
New Excel XML Format enables a more efficient exchange of information
Create business dashboards from spreadsheets and share them within a portal
Take advantage of
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1391 in Software
- Brand: Microsoft
- Model: 065-04940
- Released on: 2007-01-30
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.57″ h x 5.51″ w x 7.48″ l, .60 pounds
Features
- Most widely-used spreadsheet tool helps you analyze, share, and manage information more effectively
- Features a new, results-oriented user interface to make powerful productivity tools easily accessible; offers an increased spreadsheet row and column capacity of one million rows by 16,000 columns
- Gives you the option of displaying a spreadsheet dynamically as HTML for easier online access; Excel Services users can navigate, sort, filter, input parameters, and interact with PivotTable views — all within a Web browser
- Resizable formula bar and context-based Formula AutoComplete help streamline the formula authoring process
- Dramatic visual effects in just a few clicks, quick table formatting and a completely redesigned charting engine help you better communicate your analysis
Customer Reviews:
Dumbed down and harder to use
The new ribbon design is supposed to make it easier to learn and use. It may be for some new users but for experienced users, it isn’t. This version takes away some critical nuts & bolts customization features and many tasks now take longer to perform. This is not due to the learning curve, it is the inherent nature of the way the ribbon works. Once you are familiar with the program, nothing is faster than the old menu structure. If Microsoft added an option to allow users to choose between menus and ribbons, it would be the best of both worlds, satisfying the needs of both new and experienced users. The new version does not run macros as fast however. My recommedation for existing users: keep Office 2003 for as long as you can and consider going to Open Office when Microsoft no longer supports 2003 (unless they restore the functionality in a newer release of 2007).
Experienced Users be Prepared to Start from Scratch
Excel 2007 replaces the tried and true menu layout with new graphical ribbon that is totally alien to experienced users.
Save your money, do not buy Excel 2007 if you expect to find a product that remotely resembles any of the previous Excel versions.
Horrific new interface
Did MS purposely move everything around to make Excel harder to use? The placements of functions/menu items simply does not make sense to me. I have spend countless hours looking for simple things that are now buried in this completely unintuitive interface. I keep thinking, maybe if I just get used to the new interface, it will start to make sense. Nope. It just is not intuitive at all.
If there’s one thing Microsoft has perfected lately, it’s how to deliver a terrible product. It really is astonishing. It’s almost as if Microsoft has stopped reviewing their ideas with users and they’re just flailing about releasing junk.
Amazon.com
Analyze, share, and manage information more effectively with Microsoft Office Excel 2007, the latest version of the most widely-used spreadsheet tool. Featuring new spreadsheets that hold more data than ever before, this software gives you the freedom to import, organize, and explore massive data sets quickly and easily, and the advanced analysis tools help you make the right decisions for any situation. Whether you need to create a table or write a formula, Excel 2007′s new user interface keeps things simple and straightforward.
Quick table formatting and a completely redesigned charting engine that will help you better communicate your analysis in stunning charts. View larger. |
User-Friendly Operation
Excel 2007 helps reduce the time and frustration of learning new software with menus and commands that present the right tools when you need them. The improved Help system provides tooltips and links to relevant information in Microsoft Office system programs or on the Internet when connected. Get started easily by using online tutorials with step-by-step instructions or by using some of the new out-of-the-box templates. Keep your documents and sensitive information safe and secure by detecting and remove unwanted comments, hidden text, or personally identifiable information in your documents using the Document Inspector.
Use the Data Connection Library to import external information, and then explore this data with Office Excel 2007 View larger. |
Office Excel 2007 helps you analyze information by improving PivotTable view creation and conditional formatting and providing full support for SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services. View larger. |
With the new user interface, you can immediately view the most important cell-editing, formatting, and navigation tools. View larger. |
Powerful Productivity Tools
Excel 2007′s new, results-oriented user interface to make powerful productivity tools easily accessible. It also offers more room for you to work in and delivers faster performance. Based on the job you need to accomplish, whether it is creating a table or writing a formula, Excel 2007 presents the appropriate commands to you within the new user interface. Versatile Options For Optimum Results
Excel 2007 gives you the option of displaying a spreadsheet dynamically as HTML for easier online access, and Excel Services users can navigate, sort, filter, input parameters, and interact with PivotTable views–all within a Web browser. You can also publish business-critical spreadsheets to Office SharePoint Server 2007 and set controls over which users can view and modify spreadsheets on the server. If you want to build a custom report from an online analytical processing (OLAP) database, the Data Connection Library makes it a snap to connect to external sources of data. Increased Spreadsheet Row and Column Capacity
Excel 2007 offers an increased spreadsheet row and column capacity of one million rows by 16,000 columns that enables you to import and work with massive amounts of data and achieve faster calculation performance with support for dual or multicore processors. Quickly format cells and tables exactly as you want them by using Cell Styles and Table Styles galleries. Tables also include AutoFilters while column headers stay in view when you scroll through the data, so you can keep better manage data. For added convenience, AutoFilters populate and expand any table automatically. Formula Authoring Options
To help streamline the formula authoring process, Excel 2007 offers a resizable formula bar and context-based Formula AutoComplete. You can also refer to named ranges and tables within formulas and functions.
Office Excel 2007 and Excel Services provide the means to share and interact with spreadsheets in a Web browser. View larger. |
Professional-Looking Charts
Excel 2007 helps you create professional-looking charts with dramatic visual effects in just a few clicks, quick table formatting and a completely redesigned charting engine that will help you better communicate your analysis. By using predefined Chart Layouts and Chart Styles, or manually formatting each component, (such as axes, titles, and other chart labels), you’ll save time and increase productivity. And to make sure your charts really stand out, take advantage of stunning effects such as 3-D, soft shadowing, and anti-aliasing to help identify key data trends and create more compelling graphical summaries. Page Layout View lets you see exactly how your spreadsheet will print and direct visual feedback where the page will truncate gives you the help you need to properly adjust page margins. For seamless interaction between different software applications, the Excel charting engine is consistent in the 2007 versions of Word and PowerPoint. Improved Spreadsheet Analysis
New data analysis and visualization tools help you analyze information, spot trends, and access your company information more easily. Use conditional formatting with rich data visualization schemes to discover and illustrate important trends, and highlight exceptions in your data with colored gradients (heat maps), data bars, and icons. When it comes to sorting and filtering, two of the most important types of basic analysis that you can do with data, Excel 2007 offers new tools, such as multiselect in AutoFilters, sort or filter by color, and quick filters for specific data types. You can also create a PivotTable or PivotChart view more easily by using data fields to reorient data quickly to summarize and find the answers you need–simply drag the fields to where you want them to display. Additionally, full support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services enables you to query your most current business data. New Excel XML Format
Reduce the file sizes of spreadsheets and improve their interoperability with other data sources by using the new Excel XML Format. This option enables a more efficient exchange of information and helps keep your business running smoothly. Share Spreadsheets and Business Information
Excel 2007 makes sharing spreadsheets and business information easier than ever before, thanks to integration with Excel Services and the new Excel XML Format. Excel Services renders an Excel spreadsheet as HTML so others can access the information within a Web browser. Other options include creating business dashboards from spreadsheets to share within a portal, and tracking the key performance indicators of your business using browser-based dashboards that can be created from Excel spreadsheets, Excel Web Access, and Office SharePoint Server 2007. You can also enjoy the flexibility of saving files as XPS or PDF (with the installation of an add-in) for easier sharing. Effectively Manage Sensitive Information
Excel 2007 and Excel Services enable you to manage and control spreadsheets on a server to help protect important business information and ensure that people are working with the most current data. Centrally manage sensitive information by publishing spreadsheets to SharePoint Server 2007. This both helps ensure that the members of your organization are working with the most current business information and prevents the spread of multiple versions of the same file. For added peace of mind, you can protect confidential business information while helping to ensure people can view the data they need with report management features. Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, your organization’s IT staff can set up and manage Data Connection Libraries that enable people to more safely connect to external data sources without assistance. For added flexibility, you can also use the Excel Services Web services application programming interface (API) to integrate server calculation of Excel files into other applications.
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