Gear Diary » Jerry Raia

The Plantronics MS200 Aviation Headset Review

Jerry Raia — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:55:27 +0000

I am on a search for an alternative to the vice-grip like David Clark headsets that the company gives us to use on our planes. The Dave Clarks have one thing going for them; they shut out noise from the outside very well. The price for this though, is they can get downright hot and painful after a couple of hours. The Plantronics MS200 is my first try at something lighter. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Digital Home Thoughts Contest!

Jerry Raia — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:10:10 +0000

Jason Dunn has relaunched Digital Home Thoughts with a new look and a contest.

He has about $6500USD worth of goodies to give away. You better hurry, the contest ends tomorrow!! Update from Jason:

I should have added that while all the individual contests will still say April 7th is the deadline (there are too many for me to change by hand), the real deadline is Friday morning, the 11th: http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/88477

Via: Digital Home Thoughts Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Velocity Mobile 111 & 103 Windows Mobile 6.1 Devices

Jerry Raia — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:27:11 +0000

If you are as excited as I am about the new WM 6.1 devices (is my sarcasm showing?), then here is a peek at two new ones. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Maybe I Should Become a Paparazzi

Jerry Raia — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:48:53 +0000

I went down to Malibu today, to one of my favorite burger places - Malibu Mutts. I brought my 1D with me because there is always something nice to photograph in Malibu. Mutts is in an open shopping area with stores and places to eat. After I ordered I was approached by a girl who wanted me to sign a petition, for what cause I've already forgotten. I said "no thanks," after which she asked if I was looking for famous people. I said no, and she said she thought I was because of my big camera. Then she asked if I had seen anyone famous lately. Now I'm not only hungry, but I'm getting annoyed! I said, "Not lately!" Finally my food was ready and I sat outside to eat. Then it got interesting. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

iPhone: the New Gateway Drug

Jerry Raia — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:29:12 +0000

I just got an iPhone. I know some of you can't believe your eyes, but it is true. Since my purchase, I have noticed a strange phenomena. The other day I was flying with a First Officer who also had purchased an iPhone, and he was telling me how it got him so interested in Macs that he went out and bought a MacBook Air; he had been a hard core PC user until then. Our very own Judie, after having an iPhone since December, just got a MacBook Pro. I myself was in the Apple store the other day looking at MacBook's for the first time in my life!

Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The Docupen RC800 Review

Jerry Raia — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:43:24 +0000

I have always wondered about these devices and wanted to give one a try. Personally I have no need for something like this, but I can see where such a portable scanner could come in very handy. This is the Planon DocuPen RC800 Portable Scanner. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Chinese iPhone

Jerry Raia — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:50:20 +0000

PhoneDaily�has some interesting shots of a Chinese iPhone. While I am personally skeptical� about the success of the real iPhone, the Chinese apparently like the design. Click on thumbnail for a larger image I'm not sure exactly what OS is being used here; I have not yet seen an actual iPhone. The site itself is all in Chinese but there are more pictures there to look at. Thanks to Xavier F. Catino for the heads up on this! Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

What Anti Virus Application do you Use?

Jerry Raia — Wed, 23 May 2007 16:58:19 +0000

Over at Smartphone Thoughts I posted about Symantec coming out with Norton like security software for Smartphones. While I think this is silly, it also made me remember how bloated and clumsy Norton had become. I have been using NOD32 on my PC's for about a year and like it a lot. It is lean and you don't even know it is there, until it finds something. So am am curious. What anti virus solution do you use and why do you like it? In addition, is anyone using anti virus software on a Pocket PC or a Smartphone? Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The Hunt for Red RAZR

Jerry Raia — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:02:55 +0000

I posted on this at Smartphone Thoughts�as well. It seems that once again Motorola has lost its way in the mobile phone market. I say this with some sadness because Motorola always made my favorite cell phones (when we called them that). I have lost count of how many Motorola cell phones I have owned from countless StarTacs to Elites to the i60.

�

Each new one was different and had new features that I always appreciated. Roll the tape forward to the present day and what do we have? Pink RAZRs, black RAZRs, red RAZRs, purple RAZRs and well, you get the idea. Now they are doing the same thing with the Q. Q9, Q8, huh? How about an actual new device? What a Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Where Are All the New PDAs and Smartphones?

Jerry Raia — Sun, 13 May 2007 00:42:48 +0000

Is it just me or does it seem like there haven't been a lot of new devices lately? For quite a while there were announcements of a new PDA or Smartphone every few weeks. Lately it has been eerily quiet, and the remakes of devices for different phone carriers don't count. Perhaps we are waiting for WM6, but even in the earlier days, with new operating systems in the wings, we saw new devices coming out pretty regularly. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

What is an MVP Anyway?

Jerry Raia — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:32:52 +0000

I have often asked myself this question. A small attempt to define them has been made here.�Even this effort has, I think, has fallen short. As I touched upon it in my Smartphone Thoughts post, I am convinced the MVP is an evil secret society trying to direct the lives of all of us geeky people. Much like Mobius, the other secret society, they use indirect methods to control and fool us. They may not have the black helicopters, but I wouldn't take the aluminum foil off my head just yet. The robes and hoods are only the beginning. Meeting in caves and other hidden places, they plot out our destiny and fondle devices that the rest of us unwashed have to wait a few more months to see. Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

A New Case

Jerry Raia — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:32:30 +0000

I went to my computer dealer the other day to pick up a $10 CF Card to PCMCIA adaptor and left $300 later. This happens quite often; sometimes I just can�t help myself. I had been thinking about a new case for my PC for quite some time. When I upgraded my motherboard and processor a while back the wires for the front panel USB/Firewire connectors could not reach their mates on the motherboard. In addition the old case was stuffed to capacity with�two CD drives and three hard drives that I could barely get to without removing the four memory sticks. So I happened upon the Thermaltake Armor Jr. case. The case came with 2 large cooling fans, one in front and one in back. My old case had 3 of the smaller fans which were quite noisy. A larger fan can turn slower to move the same amount of air and is thus quieter; this alone cut down the noise by about half. � Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Confusion in the Fourth Dimension

Jerry Raia — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 22:54:34 +0000

My new Treo 700wx needed the patch for the new Daylight Saving Time disaster. After going through 3 different patches (all of which claimed to be the official Microsoft patch), I finally stumbled on one that worked. Thread after thread on the blogs and boards spoke of the horrors of devices moving one or two hours ahead and appointments being missed after patching. Now that the original DST date is approaching, or is already here, it will be interesting to see if anyone who has applied the patch experiences more trouble. If Microsoft isn�t embarrassed by this whole fiasco, nothing will embarrass them. Something which should have been a simple fix, that should have been widely published, was neither. So share your stories; in particular post if a new Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

What is Your Experience Index?

Jerry Raia — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:35:11 +0000

I guess you could read a lot into that question but as I talk about here on my little blog, after my desktop pc hardware upgrade my Windows Vista Experience Index went from 4.8 to 5.5. This of course is a totally arbitrary and arguably�meaningless number. However I thought it might be fun to see what those of you running Vista have. My Fujitsu T4215 gives me a 3.0 rating Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Canon Announces the 1D Mark III

Jerry Raia — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:09:41 +0000

I was afraid of this. I knew it was coming and now the first of what is certain to be a few new Canon DSLR's is here. Can I resist?

Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

WMDC is Pathetic

Jerry Raia — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:20:27 +0000

Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) is truly pathetic. After beating on it for weeks I have come to the conclusion they have done nothing but dress up the already miserable ActiveSync. Let me just rant about the useless and frustrating error messages. Those of you who have seen 0x8000E0DF know exactly what I'm talking about. Now I just made up that code but what is the difference? The "legit" codes tell you about as much of what is wrong as a made up one. When you Google that code in desperation to find an answer what you get is "recheck your connection" or some other silly diagnosis. Totally useless. Well fear not, WMDC has taken this to a new level:

Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Still Waiting for the Release of Vista

Jerry Raia — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:53:19 +0000

Oh it was released you say? No, what we have now is still the beta right? OK a bit of sarcasm here but after 5 years in the making I'm just a tad disappointed. After the initial wow of watching the windows swell open and throb closed, I'm left deactivating annoying security features that seem to get more in my way than the hacker's way. Now to be fair it takes time for a new operating system to settle in. I know this. I didn't expect all my software to run and most of it does. I did expect Microsoft's software to work though. That is why I was surprised when after installing the Fingerprint Reader (by Microsoft and "Vista ready") software I started getting Internet Explorer errors. Whenever I shut down IE, I get an error that says IE has shut down (duh, that's why I clicked the X) and is looking for a solution. Sometimes the solution can't be found, other times IE just restarts. I have made a game of guessing which it will do. Uninstalling the Fingerprint Reader software solves the problem. It's not just me, I've read forums where others are having the same problem and it isn't just caused by the Fingerprint software. Did they not test their own software on Vista? What about the Windows Mobile Device Center? So far it is just ActiveSync in a new suit. I have had trouble getting it to work at times and yes, it is out of beta too. People are opening up ports and other things to try and solve problems. This is fine for us geeks here but what about the person who just wants stuff to work and thinks a port is where a ship comes in? Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The Fujitsu T4215 Tablet PC Overview

Jerry Raia — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:06:43 +0000

My purpose here is not so much a review, but some thoughts and observations on what I really like about my new 4215 and what I don't like. These are the things that as a new Tablet PC owner jumped out at me right away. I would like to begin by explaining how I came to purchase the Fujitsu 4215 in the first place. After years of owning (I still do, of course) Pocket PC devices I came to very much enjoy writing on my screen. It was and is however, a tiny screen. Much as I love handheld devices as my long presence on Smartphone Thoughts will attest to, I wanted a larger canvas sometimes. Because I travel so much I have owned many laptops over the years, usually cycling through them every year or so. I always had a pretty current device. I shied away from the Tablet PCs for a while, because in the beginning I wasn't hearing what I wanted to hear about them. They usually lacked in graphic capabilities as well, it seemed. Then a couple months ago, for no particular reason, I happened upon the Fujitsu P1510 Tablet. I'm not sure if it falls into the category of UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer). I have seen it referred to as one, but it is certainly a sub notebook. Regardless, I walked into the store, saw it, and knew I had to have it. Being an impulsive buyer has its drawbacks, and as I soon discovered, the 1510 was lacking in a few areas that turned out to be important to me. As I talk about the 4215 and what I like about it, I will mention them.

Continue reading on Gear Diary ...