As a kid, I loved playing with little army men or toys that mimicked weapons of mass destruction.  Since I’m all grown up and matured, abeit barely, to an acceptable level of manhood these little toys are way past my league in terms of realism and sheer destructive power.

Peace Through Overwhelming Firepower!

Now I can take my love of military toys to the next level with the R/C Airsoft Battle Tank from Think Geek.  Imagine the havoc you can cause with the wife as she unexpectedly gets hit by an air-pellet, propelled by a powerful motor turret.

This toy is not recommended for kids, since the high velocity cannon can do some pretty good damage.  Why should little Johnny have all the fun anyway?  This is grown up fun for action junkies!  Available at Think Geek for $39.99 - $89.99.

A couple weeks ago, I purchased a brand new Sony VAIO Laptop from Best Buy.  I couldn’t pass over such a great deal, since the laptop was a door crasher with a heavy markdown in price. 

So far, my Sony OOBE (out-of-the-box) experience has been a total pain in the @ss.  Upon my first boot-up, I was inundated with a massive amount of bloatware that not only came pre-installed but slowed my laptop to a crawl.  From AOL to Symantec products, my entire computer was infected with all kinds of unnecessary programs.  At last count, there were over thirty programs I didn’t need or want to buy.  What a total waste of computer resources (snort, snort, snort).

I know profit margins with computer hardware can be razor thin.  All this Bloatware is probably where a sizeable portion of the profit is made.  Unfortunately, it’s also a great way to piss off customers, like me, and preventing others from purchasing a Sony laptop in the future.

In short, unless you have an entire day to uninstall these programs, I would highly advise a complete reformat with every new Sony VAIO Laptop.  You’re better off installing a fresh copy of Windows Vista rather than suffering the constant pain provided by all the Sony Bloatware.  Like the old saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”.  And with every Sony laptop, this saying is all too true.

I recently invested a hefty sum into my new theatre system.  Yes, watching my favorite football team on high definition has taken my love of the sport to the next level.  But when it comes to watching movies on Blu-ray or HD DVD, I’d rather sit on the sidelines until a victor is finally declared between these two opposing formats.

This so-called format war isn’t new to me.  As a child of the 80’s, I fondly remembered the video wars between Betamax and VHS.  Most techno-geeks from that era would argue that Betamax was the superior format.  But in the end, VHS was declared the winner due to widespread market acceptance and, most importantly, VHS players were a lot more affordable.

Once again, this is how I feel the current battle will play out.  Consumers will always purchase an equivalent product for a much cheaper price.  At the moment, HD-DVD players can be found under $200, while equivalent Blu-ray players remain somewhat more expensive.

Overall, both technologies will probably serve as a mere rest stop until instant downloads become a possibility.  The only limitation stopping us is bandwidth as current internet speeds are way too slow to download such high quality content.  In the meantime, I’ll stick to buying Pay Per View movies from my local provider.

Laptops are getting cheaper all the time.  From desktop replacements to ultra-thin notebooks, manufacturers continue to segment the market by offering varying types of laptops for specific users.

I tend to favor desktop replacement laptops due to their sheer processing power and graphical capabilities.  Of course, every machine I tend to purchase needs to play the latest games with a high level of performance (at least for a year).

The only qualm I’ve had with laptops is their limitations with my desktop peripherals.  It can be such a pain in the ass to plug-in all my accessories (keyboard, monitor, mouse, printer, etc) while attempting to work at home.  Plus, I also don’t like the fact that most laptops support one external monitor.  I am a big proponent of using dual external monitors since my work requires a lot of multitasking and web development.

My old laptop made use of the VTBook from VillageTronic for dual display notebook expansion.  Unfortunately, newer laptops utilize the much faster Express Card connection, rendering my VTbook and its PCMCIA connection obsolete.

To help solve this little problem, I purchased Belkin’s High-Speed Docking Station to connect all my peripherals through an Express Card connection.  And best of all, I can once again use my dual monitors to get some work done!  The on-board graphics can support an external monitor up to 1600 x 1200 in 32 bit color.  In addition, Windows Vista is now supported with the latest drivers.

Say goodbye to all those messy wires around your laptop.  With a single connection users can easily transform their laptop to a multimedia machine.  The Belkin High-Speed Docking station also has 5 USB 2.0 ports, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connection, digital Audio (S/PDIF), VGA connector, 3.5mm Audio-In, 3.5mm Audio-Out and a DVI connection.  Now you can finally take advantage of 5.1 surround to watch movies or play games!

If you’re a dedicated laptop user who requires expanded functionality, I highly recommend the Belkin High-Speed Docking Station.  With an Express Card connection you can now take advantage of all your devices without the wired mess or lengthy setup times.  A great buy that’s well worth the price!