Noah Coad

I was just browsing my favorite computer supplier, newegg.com, when I came across this awesome deal.  It is a 1 TB "Hammer Storage" USB 2.0 external drive.  Sure it's not a major brand and the $100 is after a $20 mail-in rebate, but hey, what an amazing deal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822111019

Last night I was browsing for a 1TB drive for my HP EX470 Windows Home Server (WHS) (love the server!), and this is just perfect… just plug it into the redundant storage system and get an extra 1TB in the storage pool.  Long warranty, high speed, etc aren't a requirement in my case where I'm mostly backing up pictures, music, etc on an already redundant pool.  In fact, that's one of the beauties of using WHS, if a drive goes bad, no big deal, just hot-swap it.

BTW, I was at Fry's Electronics yesterday and was impressed with the $160 1TB external they had on sale there, then was impressed with the $120 internal 1TB drives on newegg.com, but this takes the cake.  External drives are usually more than internal. 

Of last note, I've had perfect success with newegg.com rebates.  The enclosure doesn't have a fan, but that's one of the reasons it is so quite and my best external drives at home don't have fans either.

References

• Amazon.com HP EX470 Windows Home Server (I've got one and its great!)
• 1TB internal drives at newegg.com, starting at $114 w/ free shipping
• Hard Drive Pricing Sweet Spot, just keeps going down!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832128  (tis the season…)

(thanks to noah's mark)

Today I saw some C# language syntax that made me think, "hey, wait a minute, I didn't know you could do that!", so perhaps it'll be new to someone else too.  Honestly, I don't know how I missed this memo.

Let's start off with the code, then we'll talk about it.  I'll including some additional lambda stuff here for the fun of it.  Sample code project: DelegateTypeInference.zip

Look at line #11, okay, that's been in there since C# day 1, the ability to pass a method (TinyCall) as a parameter (to function A) with a strongly typed method signature (ThreadStart).  Then in C# 2.0 one could use line #12 with the keyword delegate to create an anonymous function (no method name here, just some code). 

What I didn't know until today is that line #13 would work, that you can just pass the method name as the parameter and the delegate type would be inferred.  Nice and easy.  Line #14/#15 was also new to me, well at least the part about using () for an empty parameter list.

Thrown in are some more C# 3.0 lambda expressions just for the heck of it.  Line #14 is an anonymous function with no return type (void), no parameters, and only one call within the function body (like line #12).  Line #15 has more than one call with the same structure.  Lines #17 & #18 are included for reference of other common lambda uses using different method signatures.

References

• MSDN Library: C# Reference
• MSDN Library: Lambda Expressions

RSS feeds are popping up right and left these days for everything from news, to friends’ pictures, to Internet searches.  Recently I discovered that eBay has RSS feeds for auction searches.  It is really handy to keep an eye out for those unique finds that can easily slip by, or as a way to group searches into one place, or as a handy way to only see new new items posted for a given search.

Here’s the RSS URL for a search:

http://rss.api.ebay.com/ws/rssapi?FeedName=SearchResults&siteId=0&language=en-US&output=RSS20&satitle=<search term here>

For example:

http://rss.api.ebay.com/ws/rssapi?FeedName=SearchResults&siteId=0&language=en-US&output=RSS20&satitle=digital+oscilloscope

I’ve been refining my searches on the eBay web site, then using my favorite RSS reader to keep an eye out for stellar deals (example of a highly refined search).  There is a little RSS icon at the bottom of a search results page you can use to grab the RSS URL.  If you don’t see the icon, it may be that your search is being run by the beta program (more info).

Feed Reader of Choice
P.S.  For my RSS reader, I love the super easy workflow of Google Reader and am collating my feeds there.  The single big list concept is awesome, it has great keyboard access (just hit 'n' to see the next item), is easy to use on my mobile phone, pulls feeds automatically for me without my PC turned on, has some really nice browser integration features, searching the feeds is fast, and it uses URL based APIs which makes integrating super easy (eg: add the feed above).

KeyBank is giving away a free iPod Nano when you open an account!  About six months back Dawn and I got our spiffy iPod Nano this way and have been enjoying them ever since.  It tends to be a very limited offer that could end at any moment, so jump on it quick. 

(that’s a iPod Touch pictured next to the Nano, you get the Touch if you sign up for a fancy account)

It is completely free to sign up (at least for the iPod Nano 4GB 3rd gen).  When I did it there were a few key steps, here’s what I remember:

1. Sign up online for a free checking account
2. Fax a copy of your driver’s license
3. Enable online banking
4. Request a debit/check card for the account
5. Transfer $50 into your new account

Of course, be sure to check on KeyBank’s web site for the details and specific steps they require for the free iPod.  It looks like they’ve actually updated the rules for this promotional period to get you a little more involved by needing to “make one debit card transaction plus a combination of two direct deposits or automated payments each of $100 or more”.  Though that should be easy, when I signed up, I just used an “Automated Bill Pay” from my current bank, but that was the last promotional period, so I’d recommend checking with them on what constitutes an “automated payment”.

Sign up During Business Hours
My #1 tip of advice, start the process and do all the steps during normal business hours, best by 1pm if you’re on the west coast.  You can do all the steps in one fail swoop (~20min) if it’s during business hours, because even though it’s all online, the banking system can create the account and each step of the way in real time only during business hours.  I did mine that way, then I did Dawn’s without thinking about it at ~4pm my time (PST) and since it wasn’t during ‘normal business hours’, I had to wait a day or two for the account to be created.

Some other notes…

• Last time they ran this special for just a few weeks and I found out at the tail end, I have no idea how long this one’s been going on or when it will end, so sign up quick.
• They require the $50 deposit to meet the iPod requirements.  After getting the iPod, you can simply transfer the $50 back out if you like.  (this time it looks like they also require two automated deposits of $100, which you can also transfer back out)
• Dawn and I haven’t paid a dime since signing up.  It’s great.
• It took about six weeks to receive the iPod, but from talking with KeyBank, it sounds like the earlier you sign up, the faster you get the iPod.   They had a big backlog at the end of the last promotion period and Dawn and I signed up in the last few days.
• Yes, I am an Apple iPod fan.  I jumped on the iPod bandwagon long before the Microsoft Zune was released and I have yet to be given a Zune for free (like my iPods).
• We received the 4GB Nano, but I sold mine on eBay and got an 8GB with the money +$50 at Target.
• KeyBank is a big reputable bank, no it’s not a scam, there are many KeyBank locations around where we are in the Seattle area.
• I believe you can sign up anywhere in the US, even if there isn’t a KeyBank anywhere around you (it’s all online anyway).  KeyBank actually has a nice, easy to use online system.
• It doesn’t matter how many bank accounts you have elsewhere (or none at all).
• We did notice on our credit report that there was a new account opened, but that’s it, no big deal.
• It appears silver is the only color they send out, but hey, it’s free!!

Cheers and enjoy the free iPod!  ( if you sign up from reading this post, please leave a comment to let me know it was worth the time writing about it :) )

What true geek doesn’t just love the site ThinkGeek.com?  Where one can fulfill their gizmo, t-shirt, poster, plant, science, toy craze of nerddom.  I’ve had a number of items from the site on my wishlist through a few birthdays and Christmas holidays now with no love, so I just broke down and made this batch purchase.  I’m so excited to get my toys in I printed out my receipt to look at till they arrive.  :) 

	Desktop Carnivorous Plant Set As a kid I was fascinated with carnivorous plants and would spend my hard earned money buying whatever new carnivorous plant the local nursery would get in.  This kits’ got a mix of ‘em all, Yellow Trumpet, Hooded Pitcher Plant, Purple Pitcher Plant, Pale Trumpet, Temperate Sundew Plants, Cobra Lillies  (p.s. don’t forget to watch the brilliant musical The Little Shop of Horrors)
	Doctor Who Tardis 4 Port USB Hub Long time fan of Dr Who, I just couldn’t resist this!  There’s also Dr Who’s Sonic Screwdriver, RC Dalek, and other Dr Who stuff.  I had to start somewhere, and this’ll not only look cool on the desk, it’ll be a drop-dead giveaway for the enlightened.
	Electromagnetic Radiation Spectrum Poster When I was a kid my Dad & I had a ‘standard set’ of scientific posters in our electronics lab, including the atomic periodic table, illustration of space probes, solar radiation spectrum, and a similar radio frequency chart to this one.  I spent hours studying the charts and the radio spectrum was always one of my favorites to discuss.  I’ve been wanting one of these for years, they’re hard to find, and seeing ThinkGeek started carrying this is the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’, the one item that caused me to place this whole order in the first.
	You are dumb v2.0 Stylish.  These actually look reasonably cool.  I’m frequently looking for the next geek shirt and have purchased some flops (SQL query, etc) and an occasional win (Resistance is Futile (if <1 ohm)), but now my requirement is that the shirt is first off stylish, then geeky.  I’m not a fan of the message on this one per-say, but it looks wearable.
	Tron Movie Poster This was an item I’ve dearly wanted for over two years, but waited too late and ThinkGeek stopped carrying it, so I found another vendor. Tron 2.0 was one of my favorite PC games too, and there’s rumor of a Tron movie sequel in the works.  I loved the movie and the poster is still stylish to this day.  It’ll make fine wall art for my office.

Among other things worth checking out…

• Hours of endless fun with your own Electronic Bubble Wrap Keychain
• The famous Optimus Mini Three Keyboard (used by notable geeks like Scott Hanselman)
• Hot swap drop dock External USB SATA Drive Dock
• Gotta have your own Kill-a-Watt to save money for more geek toys (as seen on LifeHacker.com & CodingHorror.com)

Their website is a fun customer experience as well, with customer shots, fun videos (see the Flux Capacitor), easy navigation, and RSS feeds.  One thing I’ve learned is if you see something you really like, get it quick, I’ve missed out on several items that I had hoped to get due to them being discontinued.  So if you’re a geek, or know one, get your nerd on and head on over to ThinkGeek.com.

p.s. Some other great sites/catalogs are Edmund Scientific’s, Gadget Universe, NewEgg.com’s Gadgets, and for the electronic hobbyist, Phidgets and Parallax microcontrollers.

Question for You:  What’s a favorite geek toy of yours?  Gotten anything recently?

Much of the time on the PC is spent rapidly moving from one task to another so quickly that it can be a challenge to keep context of all the projects, web sites, files, thoughts, etc one’s been working with throughout the day.  It’s the bane of all PC users to some extent.  We’re frequently waiting on stuff to load and it’ just so easy to switch between email, browsing the web, programming, etc.  The cost of multi-tasking is painfully high, partially due to the loss of context when switching tasks.

For about a year now I’ve been using a Microsoft OneNote (part of Office, like a personal wiki notepad) page I call “Stream of Consciousness” to jot down tidbits, like keeping a journal.  Using AutoHotKey, I’ve got a global system hotkey assigned to the specific OneNote page so it’s quick to popup anytime.  Some the tidbits I’ll log during the day…

• quotes
• thoughts
• todo tasks
• project notes
• websites of interest
• file & directory paths
• new vocabulary words
• links to other OneNote pages
• points to discuss with colleagues

To create a global system hotkey to the page, install AutoHotKey, right-click in OneNote (it can be on a notebook, page, or paragraph), copy a Hyperlink, and add a line to your hot key file that loads on startup, like this:

; Open OneNote 'Stream of Consciousness', Win-Shift-S
#+s::  Run "onenote:///\\NOAHC-CTX\DriveC\Noah\Data\OneNote\General\Miscellaneous.one#Stream%20of%20Consciousness§ion-id={7AAFFB9C-251D-49AC-B0B6-F101916491F8}&page-id={D6A6C28E-A31E-4E6F-9D04-0A246C4C144E}&end"

OneNote also has great searching capabilities, to do list item tracking, fantastic URL linking, and other useful features for journalling.  I find most often I’m using the notes I record for today +/- 2 days, for example, what didn’t finish yesterday, what needs to happen today, what I’ll do tomorrow.  But it is also interesting to go back and look at what I was working on and thinking over time.

You don’t need OneNote, there are other options too, like using a Microsoft Word document, text file, or even a Google Doc.  The advantage of a Google Doc is that it’s always available online.

Hop on here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcphcmhk_20c9p742g7&invite=hnhgsc6

Ever notice the text or font in applications that use an embedded Internet Explorer just isn’t the right size?  Either too small or large?  I’ve encountered this in a number of apps including Microsoft HTML Help Control (for .chm files), Windows Live Writer, and others.

Since I couldn’t find the answer online, I used my MS resources to track down this issue.  It warrants a blog post to help anyone else investigating this.  What’s going on here is that there is a registry key that defines the default text size for IE6 and earlier.  IE7 kept the old key for embedded browsers but uses a new one for full instances of IE.  Some apps (like Product Studio, an internal MS app) change the regkey without setting it back.  The result is that embedded browsers across your PC now look wrong, and there isn’t an easy way to fix it since embedded browsers don’t usually present a text size option.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International\Scripts\3
Change IEFontSize to “02 00 00 00” for a Normal Font Size

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International\Scripts\3]
"IEFontSize"=hex:02,00,00,00

Download the Reg Fix

Example of the CORRECT SIZE:

Example of TOO SMALL:

I’m a big fan of keeping my hands on the keyboard as much as possible and having real quick easy ‘one-touch’ access to my favorite apps, web sites, and tasks.  It’s just amazing how much more productive one can be when using the keyboard instead of the mouse.  Think of any common app you use in which you have a keyboards shortcut memorized, Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-V to paste, IE? Alt-D for the address bar, Word? Ctrl-S to save, Vista? Win key for the Start Menu, etc now imagine the power of having most all of your common tasks that quickly available, yup, pure power.

Now here’s the ultimate hotkey tool, AutoHotKey.  It is a simple ‘scripting’ like app.  It doesn’t have a graphical user interface, but is configured through plain text .ahk files.  Not only can you create hotkeys, but also script other parts of Windows, but I’ll focus this post on the hotkeys.  It is open source, been around a long time, is small, takes little memory, has a great help doc, a strong community, and is easy to use.

AutoHotKey will also allow you to override Windows default hotkeys, like Win-X for the mobility center in Vista.  I have a single .ahk file that loads at startup so the hotkeys are always hooked up.  To do this, first install AutoHotKey, then:

1. With any text editor (aka Notepad), create a new .ahk file
2. Add some lines to it for each hotkey (like the ones below)
3. Add a shortcut to the “Startup” folder in your Start Menu

Some basic hot keys I use are:

To give an idea for other things you can assign hotkeys for, I’ve got hotkeys to open favorite text files, folders, remote desktop connections, specialty applications, enter login credentials, create a new email to my wife, and a few hotkeys that perform misc repetitive tasks depending on the application.  For other shortcuts, I use SlickRun, which is little commands to the same types of resources, just many more of them.

Download HotKeys.ahk (the file below) (also download AutoHotKey)

; ============================================================================
; == Basic keyboard shortcuts
; ============================================================================

; #=Win ^=Ctrl +=Shift !=Alt

; Open favorite webbrowser
#x::   Run about:home

; Open favorite text editor
#w::   Run %edit%

; Execute the contents of the clipboard
#o::   Run %clipboard%

; Open a command prompt
#c::   Run %ComSpec%

; Google Search for clipboard contents
#g::   Run http://www.google.com/search?q=%clipboard%
#`::   Run http://www.google.com/search?q=%clipboard%

; Use Google "I Feel Lucky" to navigate to the clipboard contents
#^`::  Run http://google.com/search?btnI=I`%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=%clipboard%
#^g::  Run http://google.com/search?btnI=I`%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=%clipboard%

; Open the clipboard contents with Internet Explorer
#+o::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" %clipboard%

; Set screen resolutions
#^1::  Run "%tools%\QRes.exe" /x:1024 /y:768  /c:32
#^2::  Run "%tools%\QRes.exe" /x:1280 /y:1024 /c:32
#^6::  Run "%tools%\QRes.exe" /x:1600 /y:1200 /c:32
#^8::  Run "%tools%\QRes.exe" /x:800  /x:600  /c:32
#^9::  Run "%tools%\QRes.exe" /x:1920 /y:1200 /c:32
#^0::  Run "%tools%\SetHighestResolution.exe"

; Open Microsoft Office Applications
#^z::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE"
#^x::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE"
#^w::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE"
#^o::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\ONENOTE.EXE"

; Open Windows Live Writer
#^b::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Live\Writer\WindowsLiveWriter.exe"

; Open Visual Studio
#^v::  Run "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

; Edit the master AutoHotKey file
#^+e:: Edit

; Open the AutoHotKey help file for reference
#^+t:: Run "%ProgramFiles%\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.chm"

; Open the AutoHotKey spy utility
#^+y:: Run "%ProgramFiles%\AutoHotkey\AU3_Spy.exe"

; Reload this AutoHotKey script
#^+r::
  SoundPlay *64
  Reload
  Sleep 1000
  MsgBox 4, , Script reloaded unsuccessful, open it for editing?
  IfMsgBox Yes, Edit
return

; Turn off the monitor (to save laptop battery power)
#2::   
  Run "%tools%\nircmd.exe" monitor off
  Sleep 1000
  Run "%tools%\nircmd.exe" monitor off
return

Some of these commands use the tools: NirCmd, QRes, SetHighestResolution

These also depend on some system environment variables being set:

• edit = path to favorite text editor, eg: c:\windows\notepad.exe (my favorite, Notepad2)
• comspec = path to your favorite command prompt, eg: c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
  (my favorite, 4NT)
• tools = directory to directory of command line tools, eg: c:\tools

Related Community Topics

• Going Commando - Put Down The Mouse, Jeff Atwood, CodingHorror.com
• Revisiting "Keyboard vs. The Mouse, pt 1", Jeff Atwood, CodingHorror.com
• 200+ Hotkeys to Boost Your Productivity, Smashing Magazine
• Many others use AutoHotKey as well, including the The How-to Geek, Scott Hanselman, and is a popular topic for CodingHorror.com (Jeff Atwood) and LifeHacker.com.

Related Posts

• WinKey - Windows Key Assignment Freeware, what I used before AutoHotKey
• SlickRun: Command Your PC, a little command prompt for quick access to resources
• Change Screen Resolution with One Keyboard Shortcut, old technique for screen res
• Vista: Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows Explorer, misc keyboard shortcuts built into Vista

Question for You: What are some of the things you use AutoHotKey for?

With all the video's being posted these days, it can be a lot of fun to go trolling through YouTube, Soapbox, Google Vids, etc, but it can be quite time consuming to find the creme of the crop.  The time I have to watch videos is usually not when I'm at my PC, but it's when I'm standing in line, waiting in traffic, on the airplane, sitting around waiting, etc.  I'm also passionate about simply efficiency and keeping the workflow of any given process as streamlined as possible...  so thank goodness there are people out there that do most the work finding a regular stream of entertaining videos and making them easily accessible.

bestofyoutube.com is a great site that does just this, and makes it super easy by allowing subscriptions through iTunes.  So if you've got a video iPod, best be subscribing to the iTunes feed, if you've got another POD or reader, there's the classic RSS video feed too.

Here are just a few recent vids I particularly enjoyed:

• If only everyone saw you the way your dog does
• Four hands guitar
• What hands can do
• Food Court Musical

Searching Vids: For searching videos, I've been using Google Video, they'll search videos on most popular sites, not just Google's own hosted videos, but I just started trying out Microsoft's Live Search for Videos, which will show a matrix of thumbnails that will actually play the video as you hover the mouse over them, cool.

Ask to You: Know of any other best-of video feeds?  I like sites like collegehumor.com and others, but wish they had RSS/iTunes subscriptions to get the top rated videos.  Do you know of any great vid feeds?  thnx

TechSmith, makers of my (up to now) favorite SnagIt and Camtasia have created the Jing Project, a new screen image & video capture tool.  It is slick, simple, easy, and fun.  I just installed it and am loving it.  Right now it's complete FREE, thanks TechSmith.  It hooks up to screencast.com to make sharing online easy and has a wonderfully smooth user workflow.

The How-To Geek blog has done a great review, so to get the details, check out their post Capture and Share Images and Videos the Easy Way.

(thanks to the How-To Geek blog for the pic here too)

btw, Jing has a nice blog too, and talk about showing off new features with the most perfect little video, check this out, wish all new release notices were this simple & effective, inspiring

Update (6/12/08), 20% Features, 80% Usefulness:  After having used Jing for a little while now, I’ve got a report on it’s usefulness…  So Jing has both static image & video screen capture, but it is a small subset of features compared to using SnagIt & Camtasia, it has like 20% of the features, but they’re the features that are used 80% of the time.  For example, for static screen captures, you can annotate the capture with arrows, boxes, highlighting, and text with Jing, which is what I’d do 80% of the time with SnagIt, but Jing doesn’t have some of the more unique annotations like clipart, torn edges, borders, etc that SnagIt does.  So I’ve found that I’m using Jing 80% of the time and the other 20% I pull up SnagIt or Camtasia.  I’d recommend using Jing first, and if you need more, then try SnagIt or Camtasia.

I love my Garmin Nuvi!  It is simple, elegant, easy to use, helpful, and effective.  The roads in Seattle are laid out far differently from what I was used to in Texas, and this makes navigating them a breeze.  When we're on trips, it finds us food quick & easy along our route.  No more need to print out maps or get directions to places with this little fella on board (or write down my unique Driving Direction Syntax).  I don't use it all the time, just when going somewhere new, but that happens often enough.  It is slim, lightweight, has an internal rechargeable battery so it's portable and comes with a nice simple car mount and charger.  And maybe best of all, the user interface is surprisingly simple, elegant, and effective.

In my opinion, when it comes to GPS less is more.  The Garmin Nuvi 200 series doesn’t have near as many features as other brands (like TomTom, Magellan, etc) such as Bluetooth integration, automatic map updates, a real fast processor, etc.  But what it does have is it just works, is reliable, super easy to use, and looks nice with a streamlined workflow.  Think Apple iPod vs <insert complicated MP3 player here>, one is simple and stylish, the other, well, you get the point.

Nuvi Series Comparisons

I've personally tried and evaluated the 200, 200W, 260, 270, 350, and 710.

Update (8/9/08):  Amazon.com has a handy comparison chart of the nuvi series.

Here are my notes on the various Garmin nuvi models:

• 200/200W, a great basic model, $152 on amazon.com (when published), only 48 states, does not speak street names.  I'll probably get one of these to have a second on hand for our other car.
• Any W model, I'm not a fan of the wide-screen models (200W, 260W, 710, etc) since pocket (or small bag) portability is important to me (that's why they have a 5hr battery) and the normal screen works just fine for viewing directions.  The wide screen also takes more room if mounted on your front windshield and looks overly geeky (IMHO).
• 250, doesn't speak street names, but includes all 50 states and Canada.
• 260, just right, my pick!, $216 on amazon.com, I'd recommend the 260 model.  It includes all 50 states and Canada (unlike only the 48 covered by the 200) and speaks the street names (unlike the 200, 250 or 270).  Dawn likes the fact it speaks the street names since you can navigate while driving without needing to look at the unit (and possibly getting distracted), you can just listen to it. 
• 270, has the most maps including all 50 stats, Canada, and Europe, but does not speak street names.
• 350 (300 series), these were earlier models than the 200 series and while they may have a few more features in the way of Bluetooth integration, photo viewers, MP3 players, etc, it's just a lot of overkill and complexity that really isn't used much.  Their fun to play with at first, that's about it.  Their hardware and software are older too, the 200 series are slimmer, more rounded, and have noticeably more modern software.
• 710 (600/700/800 series), like the 350 series, these are feature packed models that just have too many bells & whistles.  They typically include traffic alerts and rerouting which according to reports is more frequently vastly inaccurate than helpful.

Garmin vs Other Brands

Here's my Pro/Con list of why to get a Garmin Nuvi 200 series GPS vs other Garmins or other brands (TomTom, Navigon, Asus, Magellan, etc)

Pros:

• Garmin has the best maps hands down in the US.  TomTom is a European company and their maps of the US are not as up-to-date as Garmin's.
• The POI (points of interest) database is invaluable!!  Sure it may lag behind in areas by as much as two years, but more often than not it has what I'm looking for and is super handy for finding food when on trips.
• Simple interface.  This is truly a beauty of the unit, it is just very easy to use.  Garmin focuses on the basics without too many features to clutter up the interface.
• The software UI is beautiful.  Rounded corners, smooth maps, a cute little car icon, it comes across as user friendly, not overly technical like many other GPS units.

Cons:

• Other brands like TomTom have many more unique features, including community driven map improvements, but overall I find these to take more time to use and in the end it's the simplicity of the Garmin that is one if its biggest draws.
• It does not track/save your route or support downloading pre-determined routes (like a hiking or biking route).  It focuses on vehicle navigation so you can set a single destination.  Consider one of the Garmin mapping handhelds or for training on a bike, the Edge series are cool.
• Oh yeah, and it doesn't have that much needed Alcohol Breath Sensor of the NDrive unit.

Get a Case

I'd also recommend getting this $25 case.  It does a good job protecting the unit.  I take my Nuvi down from it's windshield mount when I'm not using it to prevent vandalism.  Having the case right under my dashboard to slip the Nuvi into (I leave it unzipped) not only protects it and keeps it clean, but also prevents prowling eyes from noticing I have a GPS unit in my car.

New 2x5 Series Just Released

Garmin just released a new line of 2x5 series models.  The 205 model looks particularly promising.  The new software looks nice.  It may be worth trying one of these new units out.

Don't be stupid!

Never yield using your own brain over to the luring mindlessness of following your GPS unit.  Case in point, a bus driver in Seattle blindingly followed a GPS route under a bridge that was far too small for the bus and copped the roof off (Seattle PI article).  Or like my cousin who travels for his job and "lives by his Nuvi 200".  While out shopping when visiting his parents in Houston, he hit the 'Go Home' button and drove almost an hour before realizing he was headed back to his pad in Dallas instead of back to his parent's place in Houston.  <lol>

One lesson I've learned is wherever you go, use your best judgement with turns, streets, etc.  If another street looks better, take it.  It's fun to try other routes than just what the GPS says, and it'll always reroute and put you back on course if need be.

References

There are many other good reviews out there, including:

• Scott Hanselman's Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS
• Jeff Atwood (CodingHorror.com) just got a Garmin 200W, The Mainstreaming of GPS
• Gizmodo's many Posts on GPS units
• cnet.com's full review of the Nuvi 200 series w/ video
• GPS Magazine's article on Garmin vs. Magellan vs. TomTom: Which GPS Picks The Best Routes?
• Garmin Nuvis on Amazon.com: 200, 200W, 260, 260W, 205 (new)

Visual Studio 2008 has great Office 2007 integration with the ability to essentially open an Excel worksheet from within VS and add C# code as if it was a Windows Forms application.  Just today an acquaintance asked how to pull data off the web and bring it into Excel.  There are many different techniques, but here is one simple method in which you create a Web Service, then call the web service from within Excel using C# and put the data in a sheet (in under 5 minutes).

Sample Code: PullWebServiceDataIntoExcel.zip

Note: This is my first attempt at using screencast.com, which is quick easy way to post Camtasia videos online.  The direct link to the video is at http://www.screencast.com/t/dLt6QXTFA

I'm giving Twitter a try!  What is Twitter?  Simply put, it's short 140 character or less 'instant message like' updates.  My take on it is that I can use it to post interesting or funny little tidbits of info that I'd normally like to blog about, but don't have the time to write a whole post for and just want to share the info quick.  I've been hearing about twitter for awhile now, but thanks to Alan Stevens for 'the last straw'.

My Twitter address is: http://twitter.com/noahcoad

Here's a great quick little video explanation from http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter
(by way of geekbrief.tv, thanks Cali!)

I just installed twirl which is essentially an Twitter IM client.  It looks real nice and turns Twitter into pretty much a group IM.

(I entered my contact list into Twitter to find friends, but instead Twitter e-mailed them all, including an e-mail address that posts directly to my blog, this is the Twitter mail...)

To find out more about Twitter, visit the link below:
http://twitter.com/i/ec38eb4725ab8612b7ebc9587175febe307ea599 

Twitter Team: About Twitter
Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing—right now? With Twitter, you may answer this question over SMS, IM, or the Web and the responses are shared between contacts.

Do you 'twit'?  I'm curious how others are using twitter...

Every 8-12 month I take a look at the going prices of hard drives as I'm looking to expand my family's storage capacity.  To that end, I like to take a look at what drives are going for and make a little chart like this that shows the price one's paying per gigabyte of storage.  Last time I looked the best deals were around 300GB (8-12 months ago), but they just keep improving quickly over time.

Right now the sweet spot is at 500GB or 750GB drives.

The Small Print
I'm getting my data off of the lowest new drives from pricewatch.com.  Given there are differences in speed (mostly 7400 RPM), cache, SATA/EIDE, interface speed, brand, etc, but I've tried to keep factors similar for the sake of comparison.  These are also intended for storage, not high-performance, and files being stored on them are being copied for redundancy, so high reliability isn't a requirement.

Note: Prices above include shipping.  Competition is fierce on pricewatch.com, so by the time you read this, they have probably already changed.

It is fascinating to watch Kryder's Law in action (similar to Moore's Law), which states "magnetic disk areal storage density doubles annually", as it applies to the price point dropping per-GB.  So before buying just any drive, consider the 'bang for the buck'.