Posts Tagged ‘#review’

The Drones Are Coming!

Posted: January 27, 2016 in Opinions and Observations
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HubsanH107dFPV

I have often been approached with questions about which product to buy and what is the best way to spend money.  I have been in sales for decades, so it is a natural connection.  I have a lot of experience in quickly consuming owners manuals and comparing products and pricing.  Almost any product; even if I have never heard of it.  So there are things to look into and I do a crash course on the subject and condense information and separate hype.  I want to share some product reviews with you.  Short – fun – and informative, but on stuff I actually own and use.  I am also open to requests or suggested topics.  We’ll see how and where it goes through the new year.

Recently, I received a cool gift for Christmas and it’s something I knew very little about.  In short, it is a mini quadcopter or tiny drone.  Specifically, the Hubsan H107D.   This thing is small and mighty.  Ready to go after charging and placing the battery in the quadcopter, I was flying it in no time.  As I have not had a remote control unit before I took it very slow and safe.  Indoors for the first few days and with the protective shield, I learned how to keep it fairly stable and maneuver from room to room without breaking anything.  It is fairly easy to ‘trim’ or stabilize for flight.  Once outside use the Expert Mode so you can fight the gusts of wind that can really grab this little guy.  The manual is not extremely detailed but you can find the info easily.

This thing is tiny as I mentioned but it also has a built in camera.  You get a real-time feed to the flight controller display.  If I ever get good at it, it is possible to literally fly the H107D by using the camera feed as a front pilot view (FPV).  An SD card enables you to record the flight.  Simple.  Easy.  I did have a difficult time playing back the card through my PC, but that might be another issue with Windows 10 as mentioned in an impromptu product review a while back!

The battery life is short and the charge time is king, so plan on buying additional batteries and a multi-charger is a good bet as well.  Once you start flying this thing and see how high it goes (and how fast), you will be doing a lot more flying.  Spare parts and other accessories are easy to find on-line and you can repair the unit yourself with the modular components.  Pretty slick and there is a fairly big following of people using and getting very intense with this machine.

Less than $200.00 with additional accessories I mentioned and you can have lots of fly time.  Take it easy but if you drop it or hit something hard you can replace almost anything easily with the exception of internal guts (main board, camera etc.)

See their site and this link for a quick flight video.  I may post some of mine soon!

http://www.hubsan.com/ShowVideo_72.html

Influence Me – One Song at a Time

Posted: August 7, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
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I finally completed my response to Who Do You Love? Thank you all for your suggestions. I really enjoyed getting to know each of you a little bit better through your favorite tunes.

It was really hard to narrow this list down to a reasonable size. I have been influenced by many musical artists in my early childhood.  Even if I split them into separate decades there would be quite a list.  I would like to mention a number of artists – ones that might not be in the well-known categories.

I will get started by saying that Peter Gabriel including his days with Genesis is probably the first on my list of influences.  You can pretty much pick any of his stuff up and enjoy even if it is not your normal style.

Eric Burden and The Animals – San Franciscan Nights

Jimi Hendrix and The Experience – Little Wing, especially if you do not like Hendrix

Crosby Still and Nash – Almost Cut My Hair, I feel I owe this to someone

Aphrodite’s Child – The Four Horseman – this one just rocks but not sure what it means.

Simon and Garfunkel – At the Zoo.  I often feel like I am living in that zoo.

Bjork- Human Behavior.  I am going to cheat and mention her earlier works later, but she continues to put out a ton of diverse and outward looking music.  I do not like everything she does, but many of her songs are on my must have with me on the deserted island play list.

Black Sabbath – Fairies Wear Boots – again, you just had to be there LOL

Curved Air – Second Album, a bit low quality by today’s standards but this is some great prog-rock and the vocalist is pretty good.  Try Back Street Love, Piece of Mind for the darker side of the group and Puppets and wrap it up with Young Mother for a sampling of pro-rock history.

King Crimson has been a big influence for many years.  I could get you to the early years, but try anything since Adrian Belew joined.  There are too many to list but Three of a Perfect Pair, Elephant Talk, Frame by Frame,  Walking on Air, One Time, and Dinosaur are hard for me not to list.

The Beatles – A Fool On the Hill, ’cause I have to.

En Vogue – Free Your Mind, this is a test to see if your mind is free

Gentle Giant – So Sincere, Working All Day, Three Friends, Funny Ways or one of my favorite tunes of all time – Nothing at All.

Missing Persons – Give, this song and video have been playing in the background in my head every day of my life…… non-stop…… and I enjoy it every time I hear it.

Chaka Khan – I Feel for You, or Tell Me Something Good her vocals have just the purest power and emotion. Give me the chills.

James Brown – I Feel Good, for so many reasons, this is a great tune

Beach Boys – Good Vibrations, sorry, I just had to do that

Jefferson Airplane – Today, one of my favorite depressing love ballads of all time

Paul Revere and the Raiders  – Kicks, we still hear this theme being played every day.

Procol Harem – try Whiskey Train and the live version of A Salty Dog

Steppenwolf – Rock Me and Carpet Ride are pretty popular and rockin

Tear for Fears – Love to Rule the World, c’mon, doesn’t everybody?

Tom Waits – The Piano has Been Drinking, Nighthawks at the Diner and I think one called Step Right Up are killer tunes for the cynical crowd and a good laugh.

Zombies – Time of the Season is a classic song I often wonder how it got any air play at all.

The Sugarcubes – A Leash Called Love and Chihuahua should get you started in the morning.  I also recommend Gold as a great first dive.  Yes, this is the band Bjork was involved in prior to going solo.  For one more if I dare, try the spooky tune called I’m Hungry.  I have spent many long drives with this song.

As many have said, you could go on and on and so could I.  This was more difficult than I though and I have no doubt that I will think of a ton more later!  I have not mentioned a number of other styles of music as you would be cross-eyed by the time you got to the end.  Thank you all again for giving me new ideas and artists to enjoy.  A number of them I have no doubt will end up influencing me as much as the ones from my library.