Stop the Spread of Home Theater Sickness

“What? — Home Theater Sickness?”, you ask… “My home theater can make me sick?” It indeed can if you get it all hooked up and it does not look or sound the way you thought it would or should. If your new system just doesn’t look anywhere near as good as you expected — you may be a victim of Home Theater Sickness. If you have dumped a lot of dollars into what you think is the latest and greatest Home Theater equipment — and you still end up with a home theater system that leaves you with a great deal of buyer’s remorse and a definite sick feeling deep in the pit of your stomach — that’s indeed a classic case of “Home Theater Sickness“.

Properly researching your components is an essential part of the home theater selection process and is essential preventative medicine in the battle to prevent Home Theater Sickness. Unfortunately, thousands of anxious new home theater enthusiasts jump into the scene each day with little or no advance preparation other than seeing what’s on sale at Best Buy or their local department store. Such a hasty decision will adversely affect your desired home theater experience and help the spread of Home Theater Sickness. However there are some steps that you can take to assure that your results at home are much closer to what you desire. You are about to find out some things about home theater that electronics retailers definitely don’t want the “Home Theater Newbie” to know.

You should first read, read and then read some more on what video displays, digital surround audio systems and playback devices are currently available for the home theater enthusiasts. Fortunately there are many web sites dedicated to home theater audio and video systems where you can find preventative medicine for Home Theater Sickness. Do a Google search for AVS Forums and Audioholics for a wealth of knowledge from people who are experienced in the home theater scene. Another great and very informative web site is right here — Home Theater Systems Advice — one that I am of course partial to as I personally host this site and share my accumulated knowledge for free. Reading a LOT of information will lessen the chances that what you buy is not what you were expecting.

 

How to Get the Most from Your Favorite Video Games

Home Theater Video Gaming
It has been over a decade since modern Home Theater Systems first brought the cinema experience home — and lately Home Theater Video Gaming has become more popular. Many cutting-edge video gamers are finding that the same big-screen televisions, plasma screens and front video projectors along with multi-channel digital surround sound that re-creates the Movie Theater experience at home is also an awesome way to experience your favorite video games. With the constantly rising popularity, increasing simplicity of operation and increased affordability of the associated technologies, the realism of the Home Cinema experience is also bringing new levels of video gaming thrills to widespread popularity.

It also has been about a decade since hi-tech video gaming captured worldwide attention and increased popularity. The relatively small screen home video gaming entertainment industry of the 90’s has evolved into a much more serious market that now targets a more sophisticated audience. In fact, back in 2004 the video gaming industry surpassed Hollywood’s revenues making it attractive to more investors and with investment capital, developers increased the sophistication of gaming consoles.

Because of the perennial success of video gaming, the “Big 3” major companies — Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo — continue to upgrade the technical aspects of their gaming platforms as heated console battles are waged for market dominance. The situation is much the same in the game software arena – hundreds of titles are developed and released to different platforms each year with increasing audio/visual depth and complexity.

Video gaming historically had been aimed toward younger audiences where the appeal is great. This has been true especially because video gaming became largely popular during the Super Mario glory days, which was mostly played by kids. However, recent studies reveal that the average home theater video gaming fan is 29 years old – making a shift from young to bit more mature audience. Since such audiences want more sophisticated ways to experience games, hardware and software companies collaborate and are eager to develop advanced peripheral devices that further enhance the video gaming experience.

Comparison between Motorola Xoom and Archos 101

There are many tablets on the market today but which ones are actually worth looking at? Currently there are 2 that spark interest in the Android community, one being the Motorola Xoom and the other being the Archos 101 Internet Tablet. While Both of these tablets run the android OS there are a few differences.
1. Price Point
The Archos 101 wins in this category due to the fact that its starting price is only $299 for the 8gb model and $350 for the 16gb model making it one of if not the most inexpensive tablet on the market.  The Motorola Xoom starts at $600 for the wi-fi only version and $799 for the 3G model.
2. Storage Space
The Motorola Xoom wins here due to its large 32gb on board storage where the Archos only comes with 8gb or 16gb onboard (although there is an expansion slot for up to 32gb more space with a microSD card.
3. Overall Speed
While the Xoom has a much faster dual core 1ghz processor and a bit more memory it tends to be much slower than it should be since its running Honeycomb.  The Archos with the slower 1ghz processor keeps up since its running the more stable Froyo OS.  This category is a tie unless you go through Honeycomb and clean it up for speed.
4. Physical Attributes
The Xoom has a weight of 708 grams for the wifi only version and 730 grams for the 3G version with a height of 249mm, width of 167.8mm and a thickness of 12.9mm.  The Archos 101 has a weight of 480 grams which is almost half that of the Xoom and a height of 270mm width of 150mm and thickness of just 12mm.  This makes the Archos a much lighter & slightly thinner tablet.  Although this ultimately is a preference as the Xoom has more of a standard look and the Archos is Widescreen making this a tie since its only preference.
Ultimately the decision would be preference, the Archos 101 Internet Tablet for those of you interested in price and only need wi-fi connections although if you want 3G access you won’t get this with the Archos and will have to go with the Xoom.

About Buying laptop batteries Online

Internet their distributors involving laptop batteries will be quickly rising being a one-stop buy mobile computer users, equally industrial plus personalized, seeking huge functionality, greater good quality nevertheless cost-effective plus authentic power packs without having to work for this.
Websites like these make it less difficult for the mobile computer users of choice plus buy their own recommended power right from the particular luxuries health of their home/ place of work. They’ll also examine the particular selling prices by way of viewing many sites after which it make a great prepared plus sensible choice relating to their own buy. Then again, it is passionately suggested that you just may well avoid out of falling while in the trap involving cheap laptop batteries just to save some bucks. YOUR cent ended up saving currently may well turn into a crowd of bucks in case you end up buying a great poor good quality, bad functionality power which could betray whenever you genuinely needed them. In contrast, purchasing a huge functionality power, if you already had to spend some extra bucks, is usually a offer worth every penny.

How to Remove and Install a Circuit Breaker

1.    Before you can actually tear into the project, you’ll need to find out what brand, type, and size breaker you’ll be replacing. For instance, it may be a Square D®, Homeline, 20 amp breaker that you are replacing. Breakers come in many different shapes and sizes. You should never place a different brand breaker in place of the correct replacement. You may not be able to see a difference, but believe me, there are differences in tension, the way they connect in the holder, and how deeply they mount to the buss.
2.    Once you have the new breaker, remove the screws holding the panel face on. I suggest leaving the middle two screws until last. Loosen the two remaining screws while holding the cover from falling to the ground. Be very careful not to let the cover tip into the panel because the panel is live. If you are at all afraid to work on the panel at this point, either turn off the main breaker or call a professional.
3.    Now that the cover is off, locate the breaker to be replaced. Turn off the breaker and remove the wire from it and carefully bend it away from the inner panel. Now, carefully pull the breaker from the inner part of the panel and pull it towards the outer side of the panel. The breaker should then pull out towards you. Be careful not to touch the buss bar, if the main breaker is still energized.
4.    Take the new breaker and install it, reversing the sequence used to remove the old one. First attach the back of the breaker into the back holder clip and gently push the breaker into place. In some cases, this will require a little more force. Make sure it lines up with the buss bar as you install it.
5.    Reconnect the wire that you removed and tighten securely. Replace the panel cover and its screws before turning on the power. Now turn on the breaker or breakers that you turned off.
6.    Check to see if the circuit is on. Breaker removal and installation isn’t hard if you follow these easy-to-follow steps.

Danger of Overloading Electric Circuits With Portable Electric Heaters

As the extreme cold snap takes a grip on your area, many times people are tempted to plug in portable electric heaters to add a little extra heat to rooms. Portable electric heaters are a nice addition to heat these rooms as long as you don’t get carried away. The problems start when you connect too many heaters to the same circuit and cause a circuit overload. By overloading the circuit, the electrical wires and connection will heat up and trip the circuit breaker or blow the fuse it is connected to. Obviously there is a problem, but too often, people will just go and reset the breaker or change the fuse. If you reset a breaker too many times, it’s likely that you’ll weaken the breaker and have to change it.
These devices are just doing their job and you’re just setting them up for failure if you don’t find the problem. In fact, you’re likely headed for an electrical fire in your home if you keep resetting the breaker or changing the fuse, especially if you install larger fuses than were in the fuse box to begin with.
As you can see in the pictures, the electrical wire insulation breaks down and burns and that in turn causes the wooded walls to smolder and eventually catch on fire. This family was very fortunate that the home didn’t burn down due to the smoldering wire and wood. Luckily, the fire department came just in the nick of time to save the home, but not without a cost. The home now has to be remodeled and the electrical wiring has to be updated and changed, not that that’s not a good thing. Luckily this happened in the middle of the day while they were all awake and able to see the smoke. If they had been asleep when this had happened…who knows?
And while we are on the subject, have you changed your smoke detector batteries lately? Do you have smoke detectors in and around sleeping areas of your home. Are they hardwired so that if one goes off, they all sound an alarm? If not, this may be the time to get prepared for a fire in your home.
To avoid electrical fires in your home, be sure that all the electrical connections are tight. Make sure that cord are plugged all the way into an outlet and that that connection is secure. Too often, outlets become worn and they loose their tension strength. This causes the cords to fall out or hang half out from the outlet. This in turn is like adding a resistance to the circuit and causes it to heat up. And of course, you know the rest of the story. Electrical safety is a 24-hour, seven day a week job. Practice electrical safety everyday and it will become a routine, not a chore!