Jim Washkau Jr.

So the other day I got my Kindle 2 from Amazon. I was a little skeptical of e-Readers but for the price I got it for it was worth a try. I figured if I didn’t like it I could sell it and make $50 regardless. Anyway my Kindle has rekindled (no pun intended!) my passion for reading. The e-Ink screen is not like an average LCD screen on a laptop or cell phone. The Kindle screen is identical to reading from an actual text book. No eye strain or blinding back lights. It is super light weight, thin, gets free wireless internet, and has a battery life of 10 days.  The additional features the Kindle 2 provides over reading traditional paper books make reading much more enjoyable and convenient; not to mention you can load downloaded documents onto the Kindle for free…hint hint.

Interested in buying one yourself? Use this link

I finally caved in and bought myself the new generation of Apple’s Macbook pro series. With the brand new integrated battery and aluminum unibody case it just seems to overshadow all other laptops on the market. I believe I got a decent deal on it too with the student discount as well as a free iPod touch and $30 printer (after mail-in rebate) which I plan to sell on eBay anyway. I made a HD unboxing video of the Macbook Pro you can watch below too.

Just got my new 22″ Acer X213w yesterday for $99. I’m glad I jumped on this deal as early as I did because they sold out within the first hour. The Acer looks very nice but the default brightness level is so bright it may actually give you a headache . I also had some trouble adjusting the colors to match my Samsung. Im satisfied overall though.

Well through my usual sources I got the new Xbox 360 game Prototype about a week early. I just started playing through it and it’s certainly a fun sandbox game. Of course, there is enough gore to traumatize a small child but that was to be expected.

Update 06/08/2009: Finally achieved my goal of beating Prototype before its officaly released. It’s a pretty cool story but the boss fights were so frustrating I felt like breaking something.

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Just a random project I decided to do yesterday out of boredom after getting back from Philly; Wardriving through Bridgewater NJ. I guess I should of had some way of mounting the camera to the dashboard as it would fall after most turns.

Since I’m in the blogging mood here is a review of my latest home theater addition, the Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote. Since I have a bunch of Amazon.com gift cards I grabbed the the Harmony 550 refurb for $50. It was a pretty good deal as they retail for almost double that. I got it about 3 days after I ordered it and it came in a huge amazon box for this small remote (tsk tsk Amazon, that’s not green at all! – still a great company though). Anyway I connected the remote to my computer via USB, typed in all the equipment I had and loaded on the files in about 10 minutes. Very easy to install and use. I really like the LCD screen as you can completely customize what buttons you want easy access to. Also the blue backlight its really nice for at night. The range on it is great, I can actually change the volume of my Z-5500 speakers without having to go into crazy positions just for the receiver to read the standard remote. The only downside I see about the remote is that it uses 4 AAA batteries and the LCD screen is always on. I have a feeling I should invest in some rechargeable batteries as I may be replacing them often.