The Duc Pond

I got an LG 47LH50 to replace my old 30″ CRT (sold to a neighbor for $40 after failing to find a friend who wanted it for free). It has most of the features that modern LCDs have these days, like a 120Hz mode (which I don’t like, since it makes things too videoy).
The [...]

It’s pretty well-known by now that you’re supposed to maintain symmetric pairs of RAM in your computer to take advantage of the double data rate. These benchmarks performed by OWC seem to indicate otherwise, however (at least for MacBooks). The advantages of having more RAM (and thus avoiding having to use the hard drive for [...]

I want to shoot a mini-documentary of sorts when I visit Vietnam next month. I’ll have my parents talk about their experiences and whatnot and it can be something future Nguyen family generations can watch.
I’ll be shooting with a Canon HF100 that I’m getting for Christmas. Editing HD video takes a lot of hard [...]

Last year I got Amber a MacBook for Christmas. I had grown fond of Mac OS X and Apple hardware, and Amber needed a new laptop. In addition to finally giving her a reliable computer to use, I had an opportunity to make sure that I could personally make the switch to Mac full time. [...]

I’m holding a fundraiser at my house in a couple weeks and I must say I’m pretty irritated that out of 12 RSVPs only one of the attendees has donated online. The others have made a pledge and will be bringing their donation to the party. This is, by the way, a gaming party (my [...]

Below you’ll find a photo album showing what I did to convert my 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid from the factory XM satellite radio to Sirius satellite radio. Start at the first picture and keep moving to the next photo to read each part. The captions explain the parts used and what was done.
Honda Civic XM [...]

I’ll elaborate later, but Wii is the greatest video game platform ever created. And I do want to emphasize “platform” because it’s more than just a CPU on which games are run. There’s an amazing software infrastructure in that little box, and it genuinely changes gaming.

Gamestop (who also owns EB Games) will begin taking pre-orders for Nintendo’s Wii console this Friday, October 13. Unlike Sony, Nintendo will have over 1 million consoles available at launch, and millions more by the end of the year. No eBay selling here.
You’re probably asking, “If there’s going to be so much supply, why pre-order [...]

So I’m finally replacing the 4 GB iPod mini I bought in June 2004. My new music player will be the 80 GB iPod that Apple announced yesterday. Many people are calling them Gen 5.5, as there are only minor upgrades like gapless playback, a search feature, and longer battery life. Minor, but still great [...]

Despite Jeremy’s poor experience with Comcast, I got Comcast Digital Classic this week. Classic, the lowest-tiered digital option, is only 70 cents more than basic cable. You only get a few worthless extra channels, but what I really wanted was On Demand. I’m not even sure I’d use it that much, but it’s less than [...]