Entries Tagged 'Product Reviews' ↓

Contrary to popular belief, commercial flying is extraordinarily safe considering more than 30,000 flights take off every day. But the aviation industry didn’t always have the same standards and regulations it does today. In fact, a handful of infamous airplane crashes triggered crucial safety improvements which have shaped aviation. Here we look at three of them.

The Creation of the FAA

In 1956, the TWA Super Constellation and the United DC-7 were both flying over the Grand Canyon, out of contact with ground controllers and flying under visual flight rules (see-and-avoid). Both were maneuvering when the left wing and propellers of the DC-7 tore into the Constellation’s tail, causing both planes to crash into the canyon, killing all 128 individuals onboard the aircrafts.

Not only was the accident the catalyst for the formation of the FAA to oversee air safety but it triggered a massive upgrade of the air traffic control system, equating $250 million.

Fire Determent in the Cargo Hold
In 1988, ValuJet 592 crashed into the Everglades after a chemical oxygen generator that had been illegally packaged started a fire. A bump of turbulence set the generator off, resulting in intense heat that started the fire, which was fueled by the oxygen. The 110 people onboard were killed after the pilots were unable to land the burning plane in time.
The crash of ValuJet 592 spurred new regulation requiring smoke detectors and automatic fire extinguishers in the cargo hold and further parameters regulation the transportation of hazardous cargo.

Faulty Wiring Detection
One of the most horrific plane crashes in recent memories is that of TWA Flight 800, a flight that had taken off from JFK en route to Paris. Just 12 minutes after takeoff, the flight exploded in mid-air, killing al 230 passengers onboard. After a four-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that a short circuit in wiring triggered a spark in the fuel gauge sensor, causing fumes to ignite.
Since then, the FAA has implemented changes designed to reduce sparks cause by faulty wiring. Furthermore, technology companies have created devices and an electrical circuit test which can detect and locate faulty wiring. Boeing developed a system that infuses nitrogen gas into fuel tanks to reduce the likelihood of explosions.

NextPage, an innovative leader in proactive risk management and document retention, was named the 2008 winner of the Best Products and Services Aware from Network Products Guide. The publication is a highly respected Silicon Valley Communications publication which gives out the highly-respected award every year. The award pays features tech products and services that exemplify the changing needs and interests of end-users worldwide. Read the full story via Market Watch.

What would your feedback report say if it allowed your peers, supervisors, reporting staff members, co-workers and customers to evaluate your work? Would it match your personal evaluation? No need to wonder, perhaps your current employer is already using the online 360 degree feedback surveys as a way to identify strengths, weaknesses and areas where professional development is needed for each of their employees. So, not only will your employer get an idea of how you view your own work ethic, but he’ll also get imput from everyone you interact with. It might just persuade you to be a little kinder to your coworker and a little more helpful to those customers who aren’t so eager to be polite.

Recently we added the Trackstick and the Trackstick Pro to our store.  These are really cool products, basically allowing you to track wherever you’ve been.  They log destinations using GPS, and then you go plug it into your computer, use it with Google Maps, and see a red line where you’ve been.  It even logs other info like how fast you were going.

The question is whether or not some applications for this product are ethical.  For instance, I’ve heard of people using this device to track their employees.  If it is a company car and the employees are supposed to be running strictly business related errands then I can see why an employer would need to monitor if the employee is staying on task and not wasting gas.  In fact, many companies and organizations use the Trackstick to figure out routes to increase response time (like paramedics) or to stretch out their gas budget.

I’ve had a friend however whose parents put a GPS tracker in her car without her knowing about it.  And I know this girl, she doesn’t have a history of getting in any real trouble.   She just has parents that are super paranoid about everything.  I’m of the opinion that this should only be done when you are pretty sure your teen is a reckless driver, gets drunk, or both.  What do you think?

With so many technological advancements and awe-inspiring gadgets, many people have forgotten the basic necessities–one of which is backup software. As stupid as it sounds, people just don’t seem to think about it anymore until they lose everything on their hard drives. So my word of advice is get what you NEED before you get the next best thing that just barely made its debut on the market.

We were taught countless times to share when we were children, so I bet many of you have been wanting to share your 3G signal with your friends.  Well, if you haven’t thought of it in the past, I bet you are now.  A handy mobile broadband router would do just the trick.

These devices simply accept whatever card or dongle your service provider (like Sprint or Verizon) gave you gave you, and translate that 3G signal into a standard wifi signal that anyone can share as long as their laptop or device works on 802.11 wireless networks.  You can have your own traveling internet hotspot and share your 3G signal with anyone you want.

One major problem with bigger businesses is that they don’t really care what their employees or customers really think–just as long as the employees get their work done and the customers keep buying from them. One newer way for companies to get some feedback from both their employees and customers is through enterprise feedback management software. Through this software, companies can be abreast of concerns before they turn into a huge fiasco. More companies should implement enterprise feedback management software in order to keep their business running smoother.

With the price of copper on the rise, network cables are getting progressively more expensive.  There are a lot of choices of types of network cable too.  Do you get Cat5? Cat5e (”e” for “enhanced”)? Cat6?  Plenum rated?  Shielded?

Well, I’m going to give you advice assuming you don’t live directly under too many power lines.  Cat5e is probably the most cost efficient way to go if you think there’s at least the possibility of upgrading to gigabit speeds.  Cat5 without the “e” won’t support above megabit speeds, and Cat6 will but is much more expensive. If you are using video baluns (Video Extenders), however, Cat6 is sometimes a good idea.  Unless you live in a place with a lot of electro magnetic interference, like near a transformer grid, you probably won’t need shielding.

Since wiring an entire house will get expensive, I’d also suggest getting bulk cat5e cable.  You’ll probably have to learn to crimp your own cables, but you’ll probably save hundreds of dollars.

There’s USB to anything you can think of these days.  TOSlink is one of those outputs that are rarely used, and if so, are used only when expensive equipment is concerned.  It is simply an audio output that is transfered using fiber optics.  When it comes to either audio or video, fiber optics is a smart choice simply because with copper wire you are prone to electro magnetic interference that is hard to diagnose.  To avoid unwanted noise, I’d recommend going with a usb to Toslink adapter.  This particular one will give you 5.1 surround sound.

A legitimate concern often faced by those aiming to deliver a VGA signal across a great distance is signal decay; ultimately the VGA signal just isn’t strong enough to make it very far on its own, due to limitations of the technology utilized in VGA cabling. The geniuses at Gefen are both aware of this dilemma and responding to it in their typically innovative fashion: by asking “Who says that a VGA signal has to ride in a VGA cable, anyway?”

The answer to this question is the EXT-VGA-141SR, and what an answer it is. A combination of unorthodox problem-solving and precise engineering, the VGA extender carries the VGA signal 150 ft through, of all things, Category 5 network cable. By transforming the signal so that it can be wired through Cat5, Gefen has completely bypassed the limitations of VGA cabling and utilize the faster and more efficient specifications of ethernet cable.

Now you can carry that signal as far as it wants to go, and farther.

Who says a VGA signal has to ride in a VGA cable, anyway?