The Insomniac Coder

310: 5 O'clock (Photo credit: pvera ) Background : I have owned multiple copies of the first three generations of the Amazon Kindle , and the first generation of the $79 Kindle with offers. I have also owned three copies of the first generation Kindle Fire for about a year. The good : Almost everything that was changed in the Kindle Fire was an improvement. The screen is much better, the battery life is much better, and the device is faster. The OS changed a tiny little bit, which is of no concern to users that haven't experienced the first generation. The speakers are a lot better. The wireless wakes up much faster. If you put the device down it will go to sleep on its own unless you are playing video or audio. Pick it up and it wakes up again. The charging port is now on the side, which sucks if you want to prop it up in landscape mode with the official case. You can flip it of course, but then you lose the benefit of using the case as a prop stand. The ads are not ...

Would you like to read my books but don't have Amazon Prime? From November 12 at 12 AM until November 16 at Midnight you will be able to grab all four of my books for FREE. Amazon only allows this kind of promotion for five days every 90 days, so this is your last chance this year to grab them.

Is The Nikon D600 Priced Too High For Its Features? | Fstoppers : Is The Nikon D600 Priced Too High For Its Features? If there was one thing that people are unanimously saying about  Nikon’s new D600  “budget” full frame camera, it’s that the price is entirely too high. No matter which blog you read, it seems everyone cannot believe the MSRP of $2,099.95. But are these claims valid? Does Nikon’s smallest full frame DSLR really lack the features that professionals desire? In the full post I’ll tell you why I just bought two of these cameras and why the price seems just right. Not really. The damn thing is $1,000 cheaper than the D800, what else do you want? You are getting a strong, light body with a full frame sensor, a proper optical viewfinder , strong auto focus and internal auto focus motor. Basically they are selling you a stronger D7000 body with a full frame sensor inside. The price is right, especially if you take into account this is basically an entry-level...

Sony NEX-C3 with Helios 44-2 2/58 M42 (Photo credit: pvera ) Or "Adventures in Gear Acquisition Syndrome." As of a week ago, I started using what would be my fourth camera of the calendar year, fifth if you take into account the previous 12 months: Sony DSC-HX9V - Bought somewhere in May 2011, a fantastic camera but lacking manual controls and it has a Sony G lens instead of a Carl Zeiss lens, which to me is the quality standard for Sony cameras. I still own this camera, but it is being "evaluated" and will probably find a happy new home really soon. If you want to shoot HD video , and you don't care about manual control over video, this is your camera.  Nikon 1 J1 - Bought around December 27, 2011. This one I call the "expensive mistake." Too little, too early for too much money. Nikon really dropped the ball with this one, since Sony, Fuji and Canon all issued  Compact System Cameras (CSC) with APS-C sensors. Sold it at a loss but...

Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet biltong turducken tri-tip tenderloin tail frankfurter. Shank ground round ball tip, prosciutto turkey spare ribs ham beef ribs bresaola ribeye cow. Bresaola brisket shoulder ground round venison hamburger meatloaf meatball shankle. Tenderloin rump jerky, flank pork loin turkey bacon sausage meatloaf. Chicken turducken frankfurter leberkas capicola hamburger, meatball short ribs sirloin pork pancetta brisket. Pork belly fatback salami kielbasa, pork flank ball tip sirloin. Flank ribeye tri-tip shankle venison fatback. Andouille tenderloin swine bresaola biltong ribeye sirloin. Frankfurter sirloin t-bone corned beef pork chicken strip steak meatloaf pig shank kielbasa bacon boudin andouille ham hock. Pork ball tip shoulder turducken pork chop. Pig leberkas drumstick kielbasa, frankfurter tenderloin shoulder cow turkey ribeye beef ribs sirloin. Strip steak meatloaf meatball short loin sirloin chuck. Bresaola boudin ribeye jerky t-bone ham hock. Ham sirloin...

All hear this: Operation "Gadget Lust" is in full effect. I am sacrificing my Nikon 1 J1 rig for the greater good (the greater good is defined as "Pedro wants another camera") The auction is for $650 Buy It Now, starts at $499.95 and includes free shipping and insurance, it is at  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290666430189#ht_1491wt_1139  These images of the auction lot are not retouched, they have not been modified beyond simple cropping. I will gladly provide more pictures if requested.

The players: An LG Optimus V, Virgin Mobile (Sprint 3G), less than one year old.  An LG Optimus Slider, Virgin Mobile (Sprint 3G), less than one MONTH old. The stage: A Faraday Cage dwelling, which sits right on an overlap between two cell towers. Between this overlap and the metal in the walls, it screws with both cell traffic and WiFi. The normal behavior: The two cell phones work perfectly anywhere except at home. At home they work OK as long as you don't stand in the dead spot between the two cell signals. As a norm you can have anywhere from three to five bars depending on where you are standing. I can have 5 bars in my master bedroom and in my home office, some other areas of the house may get as low as three but still usable. There's only a couple dead spots in the house. The problem: Suddenly the two phones would drain their batteries with no use and within 8 hours, and we had close to no signal strength anywhere in the house. The phones would also get ...