Kid 10/22 Guide Rod and Spring Kit

Not many 10/22 owners will replace their guide rod and recoil spring... but some will. Maybe their guide rod was bent. Maybe their spring is old and tired. Maybe they're trying to smooth up the action, or tune for heavier or lighter loads.

If you are in the market for a new guide rod and spring, point yourself right to the Kidd guide rod and spring kit. You get a guide rod that is much smoother and higher-quality than the original, and three different weights of recoil springs. And at the time of this writing, the entire kit is under $13. They're smooth, they're strong, and they rock.

Rock River Arms 2-Stage National Match Trigger

Rock River Arms has a reputation of making good stuff. And their two-stage trigger is no exception. The standard triggers that come with most AR15s leave a LOT to be desired, and this is a quick and easy way to fix that.

Installation is, like most things on an AR15, very easy, and Rock River has very good support. The first stage is nice and light. The second stage is very crisp. Just what you'd expect!

Out of five of these, one arrived feeling pretty gritty. I made a call to Rock River, and they immediately replaced it - and they even paid for shipping both ways. You can't beat that!

The pins that come with these are very slightly oversized. Many lowers, like those from Essential Arms, have very slightly oversized trigger/hammer pin holes, and they fit just fine. Some, like the Spike's Tactical receivers, have holes drilled exactly to specification. In those cases, some people like to swage the receiver to fit the pins. I'm not a fan of that, I just use standard-sized pins with the NM trigger. Function has not been impaired in any of the sets I've used.

I've also noticed a little variation between the five sets I've used. I believe that they have a nominal pull of 3-4 pounds, and that seems about right. Most of the sets have been closer to 4, with one seeming to be right at 3 pounds.

The weight of pull should tell you that these aren't benchrest triggers, these are triggers for rifles that get carried around. The two-stage design is terrific for accurately placing single shots, but many people prefer single-stage triggers for rapid fire. It's all about what you prefer. But if you're looking for a nice two-stage trigger and don't want to break the bank, then this is a pretty safe bet.

Spike's Tactical ST15 AR15 Lower Receiver Review

Spike's Tactical is a great company. They do an excellent job of making very high quality products at very reasonable prices. I've had the pleasure of using three of their lower receivers. All three of them were of impeccable quality and finish. Spike's has a long history of doing things right.

So, what sets them apart? Besides the value, a lot of people like their spider logo. They also have lowers available with the Jolly Roger, if that's your style. And they also have billet upper/lowers as well. You can get semi/safe markings, or semi/safe/auto. And if you want, they'll color the markings as well.

These lowers have fairly tight mag wells. If you're using Pmags, it might take a dozen or so insertions before they start to drop free.

Overall, these are good, high-quality lowers, and you simply can't go wrong.

Makita LCT203W combo, DF030D Lithium Drill

I have wanted a new cordless drill for a couple of years now. I didn't have a shortage of them... I had six different Ryobis (three different models), and two Makitas. They all worked, but I had one pet peave: The NiMH batteries self-discharge too quickly. It seemed like I had to put a fresh battery in every day, the batteries would go flat over night. This is an area where lithium batteries shine, they can sit for months.

Since this was for computer work, not construction, I wanted one that was light. And one that was fast. The Makita DF030D seemed to be the least expensive that fit the bill. And hey, for not much more, you can get the LCT203W kit - which has an impact driver. It's a work expense, so I went for the combo.

I haven't used the impact driver much, so I'm going to focus on the drill. It's everything that I wanted - light, fast, and reliable. The 0-1300 RPM range is nice and fast, driving the little computer screws in a fraction of a second. With the clutch set on "1", the torque is more than acceptable for this use, but not too much - I have not stripped ANYTHING on that setting.

On the 0-350RPM range, it has plenty of torque for driving "real" screws. But with the small batteries in this, you're not going to drive many of them. Also, it does not come with a traditional chuck, but rather a quick-release "hex chuck". If you're going to do a lot of drilling and already have various bit assortments, that could be a hinderance. But if you're just going to use it with a philips bit (I use a 6" philips bit!), it's just fine.

The light on it isn't terribly useful most of the time... but when it is useful... it's really useful. Before I bought the drill, I didn't really consider that desirable, but there have been a few times when I have been truly thankful for it.

Overall, this is a good, solid, high-quality drill, exactly what you would expect from Makita. And given the battery size, it's a very high-performance drill. More than one of my coworkers has described it as "sexy". If you're looking for something handy and light to carry around, consider this. As long as the "hex chuck" works for you, and you understand the limitations of small batteries, this really is a pleasure to use.

Creative HQ-1900 headphones

Recently, Newegg has had a shortage of my favorite headphones, but had these on sale pretty inexpensively, so I bought a few for the office. I'm going to compare these to the Sennheiser HD202 headphones that I love so much.

The Creative headphones are (to me) less comfortable. They cost more than the Sennheisers, and don't sound as good. I'd steer clear of these.

Foxconn NetBox NT330i

How about a computer that's about the size of a paperback book? There have been machines like that for a while, but they have mostly been niche-market stuff. Often underpowered, and overpriced.

How does this sound... a dual-core CPU, integrated video with hardware assist for video playback, a user-replaceable hard drive, and a user-accessible SODIMM memory slot? And still about the size of a paperback - smaller than a good number of wireless routers?

Then... add in gigabit Ethernet. Throw in WiFi. An SD card slot, and six USB slots. Sound good?

Well... take that, and add in DVI, and.... HDMI. And do it for about $200. (Newegg link) If you own any sort of HDTV... you should be drooling. And I mean drooling. This machine from Foxconn really hits it out of the park.

With Joel Goodman's walkthrough, installing and configuring XBMC Live is within the grasp of just about anyone, and gives you a media center that is quite easy to use. As an example, it took about two minutes for my four-year-old to learn how to use it!

You don't even have to buy a laptop hard drive for it if you don't want to... boot it off of a flash drive, or an SD card, and have it play videos from your file server, a USB flash drive, a USB hard drive, a USB DVD drive... there are lots of options. And thanks to XBMC's abstraction layer, you can have media coming from different sources, all transparently to the user.

Normally I'm a little dubious of the low-cost manufacturers like Foxconn, but this was so tempting that I couldn't resist. Upon receiving it, one of my first actions was to open it up and look for aluminum electrolytic capacitors - the place where manufacturers like to cut corners, spelling the early demise of their products. To my pleasure, I found none - only organic polymer and ceramic capacitors. Very cool!

It does have one fan, which (because of size constraints) is of the "squirrel cage" variety. For any given air volume, small fans will be louder than large fans, you can't get around it. This fan does make a little noise when the unit is hot and the fan is spun up, but unless your ear is right next to the computer, the room would have to be awfully quiet for it to be of any concern.

This thing is just so nice... it's been a long, long time since a computer has made me feel giddy like this.

Update 1: Less than one month from purchase, the HDMI port died on this. I hate to say it... but I should have trusted my gut about Foxconn. I've contacted them for an RMA, and will update again after the process is over.

Update 2: It turns out that the problem wasn't in the machine... it was in the TV!

Sennheiser HD202 headphones

Wow, these are good. And I mean good.

Sure, a $100 or $200 pair of headphones might be better. And sure, a $10 pair of headphones might be cheaper.

But for the $25 these cost at Newegg, these are simply phenominal. I've purchased these for myself, and for a bunch of people in my office. Every one of them has loved them, and a good number of them have gone on to buy a pair (or two!) for themselves at home.

The cords on these are 10 feet long. That's a good thing if you need the length, and a (very) small annoyance if you don't. Sennheiser includes a little cord-wrap to keep it tidy if you don't need the length.

Overall, these are definitely recommended.

Sanus Systems MF202 TV Wall Mount

Let's face it, wall mounts aren't exactly the sexiest part of your home theater system. In fact, the only time you ever see them is when you install them, then they're sort of "Out of sight, out of mind." But they are still something you should consider!

Having young children, setting a large, light LCD television on a TV stand and hoping it won't be knocked over isn't a possibility. Mine had to go on the wall.

Furthermore, I wanted to be able to occasionally swing the TV toward one side of the room or the other. Looking at the inexpensive mounts, I decided on this one because of positive reviews, and the freedom of motion.

This mount will swing up, down, to both sides, and rotate as well. I don't need rotation, but it's part of the deal. It comes with plates for VESA 100x100 mounts and 200x200 mounts. The plates can mount flat against the TV, or it also comes with two or three different-length sets of spacer rods. The spacers can be used for two situations - if the back of your TV is curved, or if you just want a little more space between the TV and wall. A bit more space helps with cabling ease, and also lets you swing the television a bit more. I chose the longest spacers for that reason.

It also comes with a LOT of bolts. Bolts of different diameters (for different mounts), and different lengths (for different depths, and for if you use any of the spacers.) This is certainly not short on hardware, Sanus really covered the bases.

Bolting the main support to the wall is straight-forward - one bolt in the top, and one in the bottom. Sanus gives you some nice lag bolts if you can go into the studs (which is a very good idea), and some plastic covers in case you want to settle for just the drywall.

After you bolt the main support to the wall, and the plate to the TV, then you slide the two together, put in one more screw, and you're set.

There are also two different places you can adjust the tension in the mount - one accessible before you install, and one accessible after. That way, you can adjust how easily the television can be swiveled. I set mine fairly stiff, I don't swivel it often - and want it to stay still.

I can't really think of any downsides to this mount. It's inexpensive (under $40 at Newegg), sturdy, comes with plenty of hardware, and does what it's supposed to. What's not to love?

Sony Bravia 32" S5100 LCD HDTV

This television has been wonderful. A real pleasure. And I like it when purchases go that way.

For starters, it has plenty of inputs. Two components and two composites for hooking up analog stuff. Three HDMI inputs. An RGB input for PCs, RF for cable or HD antenna, and S-Video. It has audio out on the back, as well, for passing your HDMI sound to a receiver.

Now, if I had my way, it would have a DVI input for PCs - but that's alright, a DVI->HDMI converter is cheap and easy.

Menus are nice. Plenty of options. One small nicety is being able to name all of the inputs - so that instead of "HDMI 1", "HDMI 2", "HDMI 3", and "Composite", you can have "DVD", "Blu-Ray", "TV", and "Playstation".

It also lets you assign names to analog channels. Yes, I still have basic analog cable. It's $7 per month, and gets me the few channels I watch.

The parental controls are nice and flexible. Separate settings for TV and movies. Parental lock on individual channels, can block unrated, and even block external inputs.

If your video source uses 24fps, like movies, this will support it without having to do conversion. It can also do a 60Hz refresh rate. Very nice and bright. Visually, it's all that you'd want.

The only feature that I would really want to see added would be an LED light source - but those are still new on the market, and significantly more expensive than this TV. This TV is certainly not inexpensive, but it sure is nice.

Update: A while back, the HDMI output from my media player stopped showing video on the TV. I figured it was the media player, everything else was working. A month later, the HDMI connection from my Blu-Ray player lost audio. A week later, the HDMI output from my Kodak ZX1 stopped working. At that point, my feeble brain realized that it was probably the TV. I noticed on Sony's web site that a firmware update addresses an issue of "occasionally" losing audio on HDMI connections. I gave it a try, and it fixed all of the issues. I think that Sony is horribly understating the bugginess of the original firmware!

Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-Ray Player

I purchased one of these a week ago. Keep in mind during this review that it's the only Blu-Ray player I've used.

Hookups are decent - HDMI, component, etc.. And optical for audio - I prefer optical to coax. It has an SD card slot, you can do JPG slideshows, play video files, etc.. It also has an ethernet port, through which you can easily update firmware, and access "Viera Cast". It all works.

But, there are a few things that I am having a hard time coming to grips with. First and foremost, it is slow. Slow. SLOOOOW. I don't know if other Blu-Rays are like this, but after you insert a disc, it can be a full minute to two minutes before you have anything other than "loading". Not only that, but if you hit the "functions" button to bring up a SYSTEM MENU while watching, it can take a very long time for that to come up as well. It's just slow all the way around. Occasionally, while navigating system stuff like the Viera Cast, it will just become unresponsive for a minute or two, then start accepting input again. When I say this is slow... I mean that it's unbearably slow.

Second... Viera Cast. Instead of being useful and letting you watch Netflix On-Demand, it only allows you to use Amazon's online rentals. That's a shame, and had I known, I wouldn't have bought the unit. Other than Amazon's rentals, it lets you watch YouTube videos, and see the weather. Not terribly exciting.

Third... the remote is a bit funny. It seems to have more real-estate devoted to TV controls than to player controls. And while it has buttons for "top menu" and "pop-up menu", there is no "menu" button. Why would that be important? Well, if you have a DVD disc inserted, and want to go to the menu... you need "menu". It can be accessed by using the "functions" button, but that is, as I've said, painfully slow.

Now... like I've said, I haven't tried other Blu-Ray players. Maybe they are all this painful. Maybe not. But if I find one that isn't as painfully slow as this - and supports NetFlix - this one will be for sale soon.