Greg In The Desert

When I moved into this house several years ago, I had to buy new kitchen appliances. I allowed the salesman at Ballios to talk me into Frigidaire appliances. A mistake I now regret as one of the more problematic appliances has been the refrigerator. Among it’s many problems, a few months ago the ice maker would not stop making ice once the bin was full and a few weeks ago it failed to make ice at all.

The ice maker is a pretty common and simple in design. It consists of metal ice tray, a rotating arm to push ice out, an arm to sense when the ice bin is full and the various gears and motors to run these items.

I went online and read various resources on how to troubleshoot the ice maker. I needed to remove the front panel of the ice maker and I should be able to turn the main gear with a screwdriver. I wasn’t able to do that in fact it was nearly impossible to turn the gear at all using a wrench and pliers. It became clear that the main motor that runs the whole assembly had become seized or failed in some way and it would be easier to replace the whole ice maker than mess with the motor.

Based on various readings on the world wide web, I purchased a Frigidaire 5303918277 icemaker from Amazon for about $50.00, which was the cheapest I could find it. I don’t think it’s an OEM product and it doesn’t look exactly the same, but functionally it’s the same.

I was very concerned that replacing this thing was going to be a big ordeal. As it turned out, it was almost a plug and play install. The old ice maker had two bolds holding it in and a wiring harness. The water supply isn’t attached to the ice maker, its sort of a funnel that pours water into the ice maker (makes sense otherwise the water supply would probably freeze). The most difficult part was removing the screws. Since I couldn’t see them I had to use two hands, one to feel around for the screw and guide the socket and the other to operate the socket. I bolted the new ice maker in, leveled it and attached the wiring harness. I was making ice again within 30 minutes.

I’ve been carrying around an Victorinox Swiss Army CyberTool 34 for about 10 years. The blades, including the sissors, are in bad need of a sharpening but I’ve never managed to break any of them.

What makes the Cybertool different from the other Swiss Army Knives is the addition of screwdrivers including bit wrenches, hex sockets, torx, hex and pozidrive bits. I’ve probably used these bits more than my all the tools in my tool box primarily because it’s the tool I have with me. Even more surprising is that I’ve never managed to loose any of the bits.

Victorinox Swiss Army CyberTool 34 Translucent Pocket Knife at Amazon for $62 or $56 (For some reason the sapphire is about $8 more than the ruby model, which is the color of the semi transparent outer covering).

Amazon has all of their Swiss Army Knifes on sale and if I was looking to purchase one, it would be the Victorinox Swiss Army SwissChamp XAVT, which includes just about every single option you can get on a Swiss Army Knife including a digital clock, altimeter, barometer, thermometer and pen. How often do I need a pen and never have one on me?

The Victorinox Swiss Army SwissChamp XAVT is available on Amazon for $225.16.

I’m not sure what to say about this product. These small items are supposed to resemble boobies and you stick them on the whatever you want. Presumably during a bachelor party. And they glow. The creepy looking guy on the packaging is not the type of guy I wold have at my bachelor party.

Pipedreams Gid 3D Boobie Stick Ups, 8 Pieces are on Amazon for $5.20 and you get two packages!

The most often purchased item with the glow in the dark 3D boobies, the Pipedreams Glow In The Dark 3D Penis Stick Ups. If you going to stick mini fake glowing boobies all over everything, you might as well stick mini glowing penises to go with them.

No customer reviews on either product unfortunately.

The Star Wars Science Force Trainer consists of two parts, a headset with EEG sensor that can read your brain waves and a Training Tower which consists of remote controlled ball in a tower. It’s hard to belive there is a toy EEG sensor in a Star Wars toy, where was this stuff when I was a kid?

You use the headset to control the ball in the Training Tower through 15 levels. Based on the 5 reviews at Amazon, the device could have some problems like possibly it doesn’t work at all for some people. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that this first generation toy needs some of the issues worked on. Imagine where this will be in 10 to 20 years. Everyone will be walking around with their EEG headsets to control just about anything.

Regardless for $75, I am very tempted to buy one just to try it out myself.

Amazon: Star Wars Star Wars Science – Force Trainer. About $75.

Costco has La Crosse Technologies weather center that appears to be the same as the La Crosse Weather Pro Center WS-2810. I couldn’t find any markings on the package at the Costco in Albuquerque other than Costco Specific.

The WS-2810 is has PC compatibility using a wireless USB dongle. I’m interested to know if it’s Mac compatible. La Crosse only supplies PC software but I’m using WeatherTracker by After Ten Software with a similar wired model I picked up last year. This wireless model looks to be improved over the wired model I have now.

Costco’s price was around $80 and the La Crosse website lists the WS-2810 at $249.99. I did not see a simialr model on Amazon’s La Crosse Technology Professional Weather Center page (Update: There are 2810’s on Amazon
, they are not labeled as such are there are currently none available).

The description from La Crosse’s website.

WS-2810
Weather Pro Center:
Wind • Rain • Weather •
PC Software
$249.99

• Included PC Interface
• Wind Chill, Direction and Speed
• Solar Powered Wind Sensor
• Rain Data
• Forecast w/ Tendency
• IN/OUT Temp
• IN/OUT Humidity
• Weather Alarms w/ Storm Warning

Dimensions:
Receiver: 4.59" x 0.94" x 7.01"
Thermo-hygro:3.13" x 3.54" x 7.45"
Rain Sensor: 5.18" dia. x 7.19"
Wind Sensor:9.84" x 5.74" x 11.11"

My next option would be the Vantage Vue wireless weather station for about $300 at Amazon which is considerably more expensive.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is available from Amazon for preorder. It is due to be released in September.

The single user version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is 29.99 and the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User) is 49.99

There are also box sets available that include iLife and iWorks and Snow Lepoard. The Single user Mac Box Set is 169.99 and the Mac Box Set Family Pack (5-User) is 229.99.

Finally for the really special Mac OS X Server 10.6 is 499.99.

This Taylor Digital Measuring Cup and Scale is available for pre-order from Amazon. This is a handy device, I hope they come out in other colors.

Product Features

Combo measuring and weighing tool

Digitally weighs food or liquids

4.4 lb capacity/1 Liter

Measures in pounds,ounces,militers,grams and fluid ounces

Preprogrammed to convert weight to volume.

Product Description

The first digital measuring cup and scale combination. The unit measures in weight and volume as the recipe dictates.The 3890 digitally weighs dry ingredients as well as liquid ingredients. Preprogrammed to convert weight to volume for water,milk,oil,sugar,and flour. The weight capacity is 4.4 Pounds (2kg). The volume capacity is 1 liter. The unit weighs in increments of mililiters,cups,fluid ounces,grams,and pounds. The plastic measuring cup runs on one long life Lithium battery(included) The easy to read LCD readout is in the molded handle.A great gift for the Foodies in your life.

Did you know Amazon has a free selection of MP3s? It was back in 2005 that I first wrote about this but now they have improved their interface and you can view by genre.

Check out the free MP3’s at Amazon.com.

Greg In The Desert is now available on the Kindle Store as a paid subscription. It costs $1.99 to subscribe via the Kindle store.

As has been widely reported, Amazon sets the price of the subscriptions and gets 70%. If it were up to me I would make it free but I guess Amazon has bills to pay. You can still subscribe to my blog through the Kindle’s normal RSS feed reader.

I purchased a reconditioned cordless Dewalt combo tool set (hammer drill, Circular Saw, Reciprocating Saw, Flexible Floodlight) well over ten years ago. The tools have been one of the best tool investments I made and they have performed perfectly over the years.

Except for the batteries. They no longer hold a charge and it’s time to replace them. My options are:

• New OEM batteries, throw out (recycle) the old batteries. A two pack of official DEWALT DC9096-2 18-Volt XRP 2.4 Amp Hour NiCad Pod Style Batteries from Amazon are $119 (about $60 each) and they hold 2100MAH of power.
• Have them rebuilt by someone like voltman batteries. They offer a higher capacity rebuilt NICAD battery of 3300MAH for $79.99 each.
• In 2007 Dewalt came out with the DEWALT DC9180 18 Volt Nano Tech Battery Pack. This battery is a replacement Lithium Ion battery that work in older Dewalt tools like I have. At Amazon, one battery costs about $111 (and I will need to buy a new charger).

I do not buy things on price along. So what performance metrics can I look at?

Comparing the two NICAD options, the rebuilt NICAD batteries are a better deal since I would be getting considerable more amp-hours for a little more money. Plus, I already have the chargers so there are no additional expenses.

Comparing the NICAD vs the Lithium Ion, the Lithium Ion weighs less than the NICAD. I love my Dewalt tools but they are heavy and the NICAD batteries are about 2.5 lbs vs 1.5 for the Lithium Ion batteries. Eliminating a pound off the weight of the tool would be good my tennis elbow.

For other performance information on NICAD vs Lithium Ion, I found a helpful FAQ on the Digital Reality Crew forums which has some comments from an experienced user. A few things I’ve noted is that the Lithium Ion battery will not loose power while being unused where a NICAD will, the Lithium Ion has slightly less capacity than the NICAD and the NiCad battery will fade as it looses power but the Lithium Ion will just shut off.

Based on this information I am heavily weighted toward the Lithium Ion option (one with a battery charger). Is there anything else I should consider?