Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I had an interesting trip home from Cleveland this afternoon.

Do you know how when you’re traveling on a highway, you often see another car going your way and seem to follow them for miles and miles? I saw a SUV with New York plates in Ohio on Route 90 not long after leaving Cleveland. I assumed we were both heading towards NY. So I kind of hung back and followed him.

He was making pretty good time, passing semi-trailers and slower traffic. I won’t say we were speeding, but we might have pushed the “Speedometer error” excuse a little. Sometimes I was a little behind. Other times I was maybe a quarter-mile back with several cars in between. It was working out fine.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, another car from NY comes up from behind us. They sort of joined in our little caravan. But this car had those extra-bright extra-white headlights. You’ve seen them. They’re probably after-market bulbs someone put in the vehicle. Some of them ore okay, others are too bright and should be illegal. Continue Reading…

Yep, I’m calling it. Shenanigans! You all know I love to be the skeptic and question the answers. Here’s one that come along out of CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, last month that just refuses to die.

Here’s why I call shenanigans and call this snakeoil: 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…

[dewplayer:http://gritzmacher.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/The-Clash-Lost-In-The-Supermarket.mp3]

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…