Al Gritzmacher's Blogosphere

This post probably won’t be interesting unless you’re a Ham Radio operator, or really bored.

This is a story about two headsets – headphones with a boom microphone. Ham Radio operators use these for contesting and DXing or any time you’re using the radio while active and you don’t want to be stuck in front of a “normal” microphone. Because the microphone is mounted on the boom, it’s always near your mouth no matter how you move.

I first bought the Heil Proset many years ago for contest use. It has a special microphone that is tailored to voice frequencies and is supposed to increase intelligibility over SSB radio transmissions. It’s something that Bob Heil developed and has been one of his most successful products.

I used these all the time, preferring them to a desk microphone, but over the years, they got so they were showing their age. Continue Reading…

I mentioned Ninite a few posts ago as a useful site for setting up a newly installed operating system.

Google has a similar offering in it’s Google Pack. I was aware of it, but had never really looked at it. For some reason, I did today.

It’s similar in a lot of ways to Ninite, and offers a number of Google applications. But, since many of my favorite free applications do come from Google, it’s not a bad starting point. Continue Reading…

You said hello to me in the supermarket. It wasn’t just hello, it was more like you were just that close to running up and hugging me.

I hope I didn’t offend you. I circled back around hoping to find you again and apologize for not being able to place you, but it was too late, I didn’t see you again.

Was it a case of mistaken identity? Were you someone I should have known? Now, it’s 4am and I’m posting this on the internet instead of sleeping. I guess I’ll never know who you were…

Well, it wouldn’t be the holidays without a review of some over-hyped, excessively expensive stereo gear. I came across these speakers via a Twitter post from Patrick Norton, of Tekzilla-fame.

Joey Roth Ceramic Speakers

They sure are beautiful. I have to admit, they’re a work of art, but are they any good as speakers? Nothing I saw gave me any assurance – other than the spectacular looks – that they were out of the ordinary sound-wise.

So I dug into it. I wasn’t going to spend $495 to buy a set and see, so I looked for a review on the net. I found one at Boing-Boing. They didn’t exactly pan them, but they weren’t too enthusiastic either. They pretty much said what I suspected.

To be blunt, if you’re concerned about the existence of equally good-sounding gear at lower prices, you’re probably not the intended audience. The Ceramic Speakers are about marrying distinctive minimalist design with good quality and an open-minded approach to where in the home you stick them.

These are the perfect companion for your iPod. More style over substance at a premium price. The ignorance tax is in effect…

I finally bit the bullet and installed Windows 7 on my laptop. I have had a little experience with Win 7 in the beta version, having it installed on two computers. One, my HTPC box developed hardware problems that are still unresolved, and the other is an old Pentium III motherboard that is marginally able to run it.

But despite that, I feel good enough about Win 7 to want to risk an upgrade of my main daily use computer, my Toshiba Satellite A250. It had – and came with – Vista Home Premium, which has always run well on it. I’ve always felt that much of Vista’s bad rap came from installs over an existing operating system. It’s expecting a lot for Vista to run well when it inherits all the clutter and crud from an old XP – or worse – install. A clean install, especially when done by an OEM, gives it a fighting chance to shine.

Microsoft avoids a lot of that with Windows 7. They tell you right up front that many combinations need a clean install. Putting it on my laptop was one of the ones that could have been upgraded in place, keeping my programs installed, but I chose a clean install anyway. It’s safer to start with a clean slate. Continue Reading…

Christmas Commercials Edition

A good trusted spokesperson helps. I can’t decide who I want to buy a car from – Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs) selling Fords, or Howie Long (football celebrity) for Chevy. Somehow, though funny-guy Luke Wilson just doesn’t inspire me to switch to AT&T…

I’ve learned that the family that plays video games together, stays together, or so Wal-Mart seems to think. Several of their commercials feature families playing various brands of video games. Seems counter-intuitive to me… since when are video games a wholesome family activity? I guess it’s better than hanging out in the local bar, or tagging City Hall as a family. Continue Reading…