Great video of the VW factory in Dresden

Product Review: MagicJack VOIP Phone Solution

Magic Jack connects via USB to your computer

I was on the lookout for a landline since, unfortunately, my T-Mobile mobile phone only gets reception in one corner of my apartment.  At&t wasn’t an opion.  Besides paying $30/month for the privelige and hugely inflated long distance charges, the bureacracy of getting a ‘real’ landline completely turned me off.  No long waits with customer service and technicians for me thanks.

So that left VOIP solutions like Vonage, SunRocket and Ooma.  I had tried, and had generally good experiences with Vonage before, although the $20-$30 monthly fee seemed a bit steep.

So I stumbled on some folks discussing a newcomer called MagicJack and I Googled for some info.  It seemed pretty janky, and the ‘As Seen on TV’ banners made me skeptical.  But, what the hell at $40 for the first year, and $20 for each additional it was worth a shot.  I popped into my local Best Buy for some instant gratification.

Read on for the full review.

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Is Bing biased? You decide…

Click to enlarge.

A search on Microsoft's Bing.com

Microsoft’s new search engine is live – Bing.com

Yes, Bing.com is live.  First impression is that it’s nothing special.  The preview feature on the right hand side is pretty cool.  Will it catch on?  Not sure yet, but for now I don’t see it offering anything that Google doesn’t have.

Saturday project: Renovating the B&O RL60

The wonderful Bang and Olufsen RL60 Speakers

I just bought some Bang and Olufsen Redline 60 speakers from someone in Oakland using Craiglist to replace the tinny, hollow sounding Sony computer speakers next to my PC monitor.  They came with a Beomaster 5000 amplifier and a non-working B&O remote control the size and weight of a longer Tom Clancy paperback.  It seemed like a pretty good deal for $150 and an hour and half of driving.  Not to mention that I had spent all week bargaining him down from his $275 asking price.

I tried them out at his loft in a bad part of Oakland and they sounded good.  Just a weird clunking sound when I moved the speaker, which the owner explained was a metal plate.  I wasnt’ sure what he meant, but they sounded good and it was a good price.  I got the system down the stairs and into the Saab amid some shifty characters lurking in this industrial part of Oakland.

A 50 minute drive home, and I’m still feeling pretty good about the purchase.  Naturally, the first thing I do when I get them inside is to take them apart to find the source of the clunk.  I discover a loose oval shaped metal place, and a lot of very old brown foam floating around in the speaker’s chassis.

A quick Google and I discover the Beoword.org forums.  It turns out the engineers at Bang and Olufsen employed an ABR (Auxillary Base Radiator) when they designed this first version of the speaker.  Over time (20+ years now) the foam holding the ABR together disintegrates and prevents the ABR from working.

The project: Find some replacement foam, stick it on to the metal pieces of the ABR and put the speaker back together.

The conclusion: A huge improvement.  I’ve replaced the ABR foam on 1 of the 2 speakers and the difference is very noticeable.   I think I have the process down to about 45 minutes for the next one, exlcuding the time it take the glue to dry.

Here’s a picture of the new ABR in place, read on for  the full process.

Replacement foam in place on the RL60, ready for reasembly.

Here’s the finished result, ready for reassembly.  Click below to see the entire process in detail and photos.

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