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While waiting to pay at a gas station I ran in to this cool gadget for us Nintendo freaks.
A candy dispensers that looks like a Wii mote and it even has the official Nintendo Seal on it.
The Klik-On kit comes with 4 roles of candy that you can put in the top of the dispenser by moving the top of. Then you are ready to have some fun. If you press the B button (on the back) then a piece of candy comes flying out and sometimes it has a descent amount of force to hurt someone if you shoot them in the eye.
The nice thing is that they really looked at detail and so the Wii Klik-on looks like a real remote but a little bit smaller. It even has the battery compartment and that is just big enough to store 2 roles of candy in it so that you are prepared for the trip.
Written by George on June 21st, 2008 with no comments.
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I was in need of a toaster oven and I found a great deal on this Black & Decker TR0651 or at least that is what I thought when i got it.
This Toast-R-Oven from Black & Decker looks really nice with it’s roundish shape and the big glass door. But let me tell you this looks are not everything and with this toaster oven i would say the looks are the only thing going for it.
Let me start to talk a little bit about the buttons. So there are 3 big buttons the top one lets you choose what temperature you want or if you want to toast or broil. and with this button you will find already a big flaw because if for instance put it on 250 degree’s but you want to make toast and then you go to the lowest button the one with you can select how long you toast needs to toast then nothing will happen but the timer will start ticking and will ring when the toast normally should be done but because the top button was not on toasting nothing happened and you bread is still cold and bread 
The middle button you use to time the cooking time and this will end with a nice bell to remind you food is / should be done.
OK so now you know about the nice buttons so now lets make some toast. Making toast in this toaster oven is not easy and I played a lots and lots of days with it and still i can’t get a decent slice of toast out of it.
You are able to put 4 slices of bread on the rack in the oven and then the fun will start because now the two slices in the front will be only half brown and he once in the back will be way to brown (almost black) so your best bet is to only put 2 slices and try to place them in the middle.
The other night I tried to make oven fries in the Black & Decker oven and also here the Toast-R-Oven did a bad job. the fries on the front of the glass door where still soft and not cooked well while the once in the back where black and not eatable any more.
I guess this oven is going back to where i got it from and lets hope they refund me my money because this machine is not fun to have to deal with every day. Maybe it is the roundish shape that makes it work so bad or maybe Black & Decker should stay with producing hand tools instead of cooking products.
Written by George on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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If you like me don’t own a Dish washing machine then you do the dirty dishes by hand and i am lazy so i don’t dry them myself but let mother nature do that. So what are the 3 mayor problems with a dish rack?
Ok let me tell you:
- The are always in the way
- The make the counter space to wet
- The can be to small sometimes.
So now we know what the perfect dish rack should offer and I think i found one that does to.
At my visit to IKEA one day I found a nice looking plastic dish rack that offers enough space for myself and has the option to grow when i have lots of dirty dishes (look at the pictures) you can just slide it out even when it is fully loaded and that makes it extremely handy. And because normally it is so small it doesn’t take up to much of my counter space either. And then there is the point of wet counters from the dripping water also this problem is solved by this cool looking rack it has a small spout on the front that sticks out a bit and if you just let it hang over in to the sink then you counter stays dry perfectly.
The Hajdeby Rack is simple but offers everything i need it has a tree pocket basket on the end for my utensils and it is also removable so that it is easy to clean.
The IKEA Hajdeby dish rack but it is made by CreativeWare and if I where you I would put one on you shopping list
Written by George on May 18th, 2008 with 3 comments.
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Do you remember the review of the Not another IKEA floor lamp?
I really liked the Not a lot but it is not very sturdy and that makes it a little bit difficult to use. But now last time i was visiting IKEA and still looking for another floor lamp I saw the FINAL it was less the 17 dollars and it has a great feature so I decided to get one.
So let me elaborate a bit more about the Final. The Final has like the Not a normal standing part that lights the ceiling and a special reading light that is flexible so that you can point it in the direction you want. The great feature on the Final is that the reading light is separate it is basically a completely separate unit but you can slight the base on top of the standing ceiling light to make them in to one set. The other great thing is that the base is way more sturdy the then one on the Not and that makes it less of a hassle if you want to move it or accidentally touch it.
The Final has a fairly deep lampshade and that is nice so that you can use energy saving light bulbs with them being to obvious sticking out. The appearance of the Final is great it looks real decent even thought the top part of the shade is just a piece of plastic you slide in.
My conclusion is that if you are looking for a standing lamp with a reading light option then look at the Final it is cheaper the the Not and much sturdier and more versatile to.
Written by George on May 12th, 2008 with no comments.
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These days you see some great deals for a 6 cups water filtration system from Brita.
Brita did a nice job creating this 6 cups space saver model. It has a great little lid that you can open without removing the top and it has a little filter change indicator to help you keep track when you filter need to be changed.
And of course in the days that everybody likes to drink water and don’t want all the bad stuff that you find in you tap water a water filtration system so a system like Brita is a solution and by getting a filtration system you will save on bottled water and of course you save the environment because now you don’t need all those bottles.
The water that comes out of the Brita water filter tasted great and that is for me an important thing. I wonder about what kind of plastic is used in the water pitcher and if that is bad for me so i would love to get one made of glass.
But lets talk a bit more about the water pitcher the handle of this system is great it holds easy even if the filter is completely full. There is one BIG disadvantage to this Brita filter and I think that this is a real bad mistake.
OK what did they do 
they didn’t close up the top of the handle and left the top of the pitcher not end up to the top maybe just to save on some plastic but what happens now when you don’t pay attention to much is when you fill up the reservoir all the way to the top is that the water ends up in the handle and then it starts to drip out and it end up on your sink or where ever you have your Brita standing.
This is a real bad but something i need to live with but i hope that Brita fixes this in there next models.
Written by George on April 24th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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The Not from Ikea is probably one of the cheapest floor lamps out there and you when you get one you know that you didn’t pay for a great product that was price cheaply.
The Not Floor lamp is a two in one unit with a nice standing lamp with a side reading light. The Not is easy to assemble and you will get it working in minutes. There is a big downside to this lamp and that is that it is not the most sturdy lamp you can get it seem to be able to stand on it’s own but that is about it.
Another downside to me is that the wires run on the outside and that of course doesn’t look as nice as if it was build in to the frame.
A well the Not is not the worst you can get but it is definitely not the best either. But for like 20 dollars you can’t expect to much. Would i buy an Not again? probably because it is handy and the price is right but if i had lots of cash to spend i would save a bit longer for something stronger.
Written by George on April 9th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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I needed some storage and was looking for a nice solution for a price that was ok to.
At Ikea we found this storage cabinet called Helmer, it cost 49 dollars here in Canada and for what it offers an good price.
Like most products at Ikea also this one needs to be put together by the buyer. Everything is packed in a nice and small box and of course this is much better for the environment then shipping it as a complete piece of furniture.
Let me tell you a bit about what I thought about building Helmer. I can say that I have a fair bit of experience building Ikea furniture so I though that it should be easy. The instructions say that i just need a screw driver but that was not enough.
Most of the main structure is easy to click together but then there are the bottom part where you can assemble the wheels on. The instructions stated that you should press it in till it clicks but that didn’t happen. Maybe I am to light but i don’t think a couple of extra meals would have helped. I ended up getting a piece of wood (to prevent me from damaging the metal) and a hammer and that made it easy.
Putting together the drawers looks a bit scary because you need to bend the metal yourself and here you need to pay attention because there is only one right way of doing it. after the bending it is easy.
I am using my Helmer now for a couple of weeks and it perfectly fits my needs. It is strong and sturdy and a perfect addition to our home.
Written by George on February 21st, 2008 with 2 comments.
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After our review of the Koss kSiP2806-1 I found a great deal on this Koss KSiP1081CD-1 so I decided to return the other one and get this one.
The nice thing about the KSiP1081CD-1 is that it comes with a build in CD player so now I removed the old fashion CD player from my entertainment centre and moved the Koss in the place of that.
This Music centre from Koss is portable and even comes with a carrying strap and can run on Batteries or through a normal ac cord. And that makes it possible to take your music with you on a trip.
The Koss KSiP1081CD-1 has an Aux in and comes with a small wire so that you can connect any kind of mp3 player or other music source. Of course it also has a dock for you iPod and even offers an USB in for a iPod Shuffle. I have a 3g Nano and they Koss doesn’t have an special bracket for that one but it just fits and works great.
TV out is also build in but I didn’t get that working so i guess that i need to put some more time in that one to see if i can watch my iPod movies on the TV.
The sounds quality is pretty good and definitely better then the KSiP2806-1 and the remote is an handy tool to play with the volume. The CD player is placed in the top but this means that you CD slides in from the top and slides to the bottom and this means that if you put it in to a piece of furniture that you need enough space on the top so that you can slide de cd in.
The Koss KSiP1081CD-1 - iSeries Digital Music Portable Audio System is easy to use and you really don’t need to manual then just the first time you use it. Sound quality is good but not supper.
For me the Koss KSiP1081CD-1 is the perfect solution. I can use my iPod and my Wife can use her Sandisk player and we are both able to play some of our old CD collection. The only downside that I found with this unit till now is that the power button works a bit slow and that means that you think you didn’t turn it off and then you press again and that makes it first turn off and then go on again. But besides that a perfect music player for a great price. I got mine for 49 dollars and that to me is a great deal.
Written by George on February 6th, 2008 with 3 comments.
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When I got my MacBook Pro I was looking in to getting a Apple Bluetooth mouse but I thought they where a bit to expensive. After a while i accidentally ran in to this Logitech Mouse for half the price of the Apple one.
The Logitech V470 is a small mouse for me that is ideal because i have small hands but i can imagine that it is to small for some of us. The mouse comes with two AA batteries that still are still good after two full weeks of work and comes with a little bag to keep the mouse protected.
The Nice thing about this Bluetooth mouse is that you don’t need and extra plug in your USB port to get it working. My Mac has Bluetooth build in so that makes it nice and compact.
Installation of the V470 was no problem for me specially because i already had the (included) Logitech software on my laptop because i use it to for a other wireless keyboard mouse combo i use at my at home desk. The nice thing of the Logitech software is that it automatically picks up when i change between mice and keyboard nothing i have to do it just works. The V470 has an on/off switch so that you don’t loose you power when you are not using it. The mouse will be detected in seconds after you computer booted and just works like a charm.
I read that you don’t even need to install the Logitech software to get it working on a Mac but i can’t confirm that because I already had the software installed.
The V470 offers the normal two buttons and the scroll function but besides that you can also click the scroll wheel to the left and right that standard makes you scroll left and right. With the logitech software you can even reprogram some of those functions. For instance i use the left click on the scroll wheel to go back a page in my web browser.
Final verdict:
I like the Logitech V470 and till now (2 weeks) i didn’t give me any problems. The laser is strong and even on an uneven surface it works great. For me this mouse travels with the Macbook Pro but not just to replace the touch pad it just gives me and easier way to work specially because of the second button and the extra functions in the scroll wheel.
Check out the V470 CORDLESS LASER MOUSE FOR NOTEBOOKS WITH BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY 
and let me know if i was wrong with this review.
Written by George on January 30th, 2008 with 2 comments.
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A couple of months ago I made from a Windows PC to a Apple Laptop and I have to say this is something i should have done a long time ago. But this review is not about how great my Macbook Pro is
I have some programs that unfortunatly don’t function on a mac. Till now i Used the bootcamp option that makes it possible to install windows on a seperate partition of my Mac. The downside of bootcamp is that you need to reboot to use the other operating system.
Crossover just runs on the mac site and lets you use windows applications and not like with Parralels or VMware you don’t even have to install windows.
The website from CrossOver states that not everything will work on it but there is a free trial version so you can test you applications on CrossOver for 30 days.
So I got myself the Trail version and the installation was easy just follow the instructions on your screen and you will be up and running in almost no time at all.
I am really old fashion in some bits and that means that i still love to use Homesite 1.2 the really old version and i have to say it worked fine on CrossOver. But there where some glitches homesite offers a file bar on the right where you can select the files you are using. This bar did strange things that often made Homesite crash. The funny thing was if i used the file manager from the Homesite menu everything worked fine. Also Crossover lets you use some of the mac shortcuts in the windows programs but things like copy and past the mac way often let homesite crash.
The next program i tried was CDBF a dbf editor that i use for my database that i use for one of my other websites. The program CDBF worked without a glitch’s and it was almost like working on a pc.
The last program i tested was a program i wrote myself in xbase++ and although i also installed xbase++ the application didn’t respond to any of the commands. It started and looked fine but i could not get it to respond to anything.
after these program’s i gave up on CrossOver mainly because these are the only windows programs i use daily and so it didn’t make to much sense to get CrossOver. But if they all 3 would have worked flawless i would definitely have got the product. I liked CrossOver a lot it made my windows programs work quick much faster then i expected.
If you are like me and still have a couple of strange windows programs hanging around then i would say go get the trail version of CrossOver for the Mac and see if it can help you getting more productive.
Written by George on January 25th, 2008 with no comments.
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