Wooters Consumer Blog - Ipod, Credit cards, Car Stereos, Cigars

Sprint and HTC just recently launched the new “touch Diamond” phone. I have had the phone for about a month now and the touch flow OS is really nice. It is very different from any other phone I have had in the past, the likes of the HTC wing, and HTC MDA, SDA are in the same ballpark but not the same concept. The phone is out to compete with the Iphone which gets so much attention that every time I hear about it I want to puke. Not to mention the Ipod is keeping just about every plastic and speaker manufacturer on the planet in business with companies making a docking station for it. Woot has a docking station on clearance every other day!

The phone itself is small, smaller than what I am used to but It has a nice weight and feel to it in the hand. It sports a 3.2 Megapixel camera complete with video capture as well….which is really nice. The camera does have a major flaw though, the person or landscape has to be completely still or the picture turns out really blurry… ugh!

The touch flow OS allows one finger navigation thoughout all of the programs… contacts, emails, pictures, etc.. It is very responsive as well, you don’t have to press your finger too hard against the phone to get a response. The phone currently uses the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 which has some great features in itself. Using active sync is easy and flawless on this OS, I had the phone for no longer than 15 minutes and already had my email, contacts, and calendar synced up from my Outlook.

All in all I would recommend this phone to anyone that has a slightly computer literate mind and has enough money to buy one right now… they are not cheap. As this was written they are going for $400-$500 on ebay, or I’m sure Sprint would not mind trapping you in a 2 year contract to knock a few hundred bucks off the price.

Upon stumbling around the net the other day I ended up gazing at a very interesting site…. Goozex.  What?  Gooz - ex?  What the hell is that?  It sounds like a laxitive for a fairly large bird…  But no my friends it is actually a video game trading community.  Interesting?  Yes, very interesting indeed including thousands of games for all different formats including PC, Mac, and Consoles there is something for everybody.  With a pretty nicely layed out, er, layout the site is very well put together and thought up.

I could not get away from the site for hours after uploading all my games that I don’t play anymore, and adding games I would like.  All of the games I put up on “My Requests” were in the database as well as the games I put in the “My Offers”.

The way Goozex works is off of a points system.  Each game is assigned a certain number of points based on popularity, sales, and how new they are.  So there is no way you are going to trade in Madden 03 for Madden 09… which is a 100 - 1000 point swing respectively for the PS2 to PS3.  The console to PC difference may have a different value as well as PC titles are usually cheaper than console.  Each trade that you initiate costs only $1.00 and to sell them it only costs shipping.

All of the rules are posted on the site so read em!  I gotta get back to trading games so that’s all for now.

So go over to the site and sign up today - Goozex.com

Humidors have long been a tool that the cigar conessouier not only uses to store cigars but is a proud display piece for his/her collection.  The modern day humidor comes in all shapes and sizes.  Some are made from spanish cedar others are plastic.  These humidors can hold anywhere from 5 up to 3000 cigars.  So with so many different kinds, shapes, and sizes how do you know what to look for when trying to find your next show piece?

Above:  This humidor can hold up to 3000 cigars.  Click the Pic to buy this product.

The first thing you need to look for is making sure the humidor has a good seal.  It can be the most beautiful thing in the world but if it doesn’t shut right and keep a tight seal it’s worthless.

Above:  Humidors like these generally have very tight seals.  Click the pic to go to the Humi Shop.

Second you need to determine how many cigars you are going to store.  Or how many you may need to store in the future.  This is very important espcially if you join cigar forums where BOTL’s(Brothers of the Leaf) are very generous and bombings(random cigar packages sent out) go flying through the mail.  Not to mention going to the devil site(a cigar auction site - www.cigarbid.com).

Third you can focus on design and what you would like to display proudly when the buddies come over to smoke and have a drink.  There are many different styles and looks to humidors.  Which is why it takes some time to find the right one.

Above:  Some humidors come in amazing shapes, sizes, and finishes.  Click the Pic to buy this product.

When it’s all said and done you should have a very nice display piece that will be able to care for your cigar for years to come.  Enjoy your search as it is one of the many joys of cigar smoking.  For more humidors and cigar accessories please visit our affiliates: http://www.humishop.com.

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I know, it’s a stretch of a statement but come on this game is great!  From the first time I sat down and started playing this thing I could not stop.  I have never been a very big fan of the turn based games but this game is different.  From the battle scenes to the faction upkeep there is always something that needs to be done.  When this game first came out it was an instant hit.  Copies were flying off the shelves as gamers were hooked on the game play and battle scenes.

Then Kingdoms busted onto the scene and it was donned the best game of 2005 almost instantly.  With all new factions to control, including the Mayans, Incas, and other native American tribes the options were endless.  All new powers were to be learned from these new factions, and ways of battle.

Above:  Battle Scene of archers firing away.

As you can see in the picture above the graphics are flawless as well (As long as you have a good video card, I would recommend at least a Geforce 7 series or higher).  There are different zoom levels that can be achieved during battle scenes and while you are over the faction map.

Above:  The Faction Map

Some of the different factions include: Germany, Spain, Moors, England, France, The Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Milan, Poland, and many others.  It’s fun to see what each faction has for strengths and weakness.

Above: Battle Scene - Overtaking a Castle

One of the most fun things to do is to besiege a castle.  You build besieging equipment such as ladders, battering rams, and large structures for climbing enemy walls.  Taking over the castles is reason enough to play the game in the first place.  You can either starve out the enemy or attack them at the walls.

Overall this game gets a solid 8/10 rating form us here at Wooters! enjoy!

Who doesnt like Seinfeld?  Raise your hands…   In a room full of 500 people you may have 20 raise their hands.  That is how important and completly hilarious this sit com has been since it’s inception in 1989.  During the 9 Seasons that it aired I cannot think of another T.V. program that has had more phrases, tag lines, or just plain idiocyncricies as Seinfeld.

Even today I catch myself saying the infamous; yadda, yadda, yadda, or just plain telling my buddy, “No Soup for You!” joking around.  There is no doubt the impact that Seinfeld has had on pop culture especially for Generation X (I guess that’s me).

Some of the more memorable episodes happen to be: The Soup Natzi, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, The Parking Garage… where all of them get stuck trying to find their car in the mall parking lot and just end up having nervous breakdowns instead.

If you ask me Larry David is a comedy genius, I mean who else could come up with a “show about nothing” and make it succeed?  “Curb your Enthusiasm” anyone?  That is a great show in itself.

I know everybody was wondering, “Well where can I buy all 9 seasons?”  Well it’s your lucky day, thankfully somebody was smart enough to box them up and offer them all for sale at the same time!  Check out the boxset here and our affiltiate Dvd Supplier.

Upon the arrival of Microsoft Windows Vista last year many people were either scared or just plain not ready for it.  If you ask me they released the software way too early for their own good.  Just when Windows XP was getting good and stable they want to throw a rather non stable power hungry monster on us.  This Operating System(OS) relies upon a heavy processor and at least 2 gigabytes of Ram to run applications smoothly.

Above: Vista Ultimate Retail Version

Upon the release of Service Pack 3 on XP they were just getting ready to release Service Pack 1 for Vista.  Why you ask?  Let me preface by saying that I have been running Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate since it’s inception so I have some background on it.  Let’s just start with some of the initial problems with Vista…

1.  4 GB sticks of Ram would crash my start up screen, yes you guessed it… as soon as I made it only 3 sticks it ran just fine.

2.  Don’t even try to run SLI with Vista, because it will not work!  Huh!? Are you kidding me?  For all of us gamers and heavy graphics users this is a must.  I have to be able to run my 8800GTX cards side by side to hit over 100 fps on most games and graphics apps.

3.  A lot of games were not compatible with Vista… They are now coming out with more and more patches for these games but when it first came out, good luck with playing a lot of em.

4.  Heavy, Heavy processor useage!  My processor was running so hot you could fry an egg right on top of it!

Above: A screen shot of Vista using Aero

These are some of the things I ran into but I’m sure there are and were many more.  The service pack did not fix all of these issues either.  All in all Microsoft pushed us too hard and too fast onto Vista.  I think I’ll stick with my other 3 machines running XP in the house until it is no longer supported or the machines die.  Whichever is first.

In The Humidor writes about the rights of cigar smokers and the CRA that was developed to keep these rights.

Cigar Rights of America

“No, you cannot smoke in here. They just passed the anti smoking ban.”

How often have you heard that latley? It is an all too often occurence these days for us cigar smokers to hear those exact words when walking into a pub or bar… some of us even our own cigar shops! How did this happen? How can this be stopped?

Well, I know we all have the same questions going through our heads but a number of cigar manuafatuers and retailers have decided to try and do something about it. It’s called the Cigar Rights of America and it’s about time. As I am sure most of you are aware of the SCHIP bill that congress is trying to pass to impose a 3,000% tax on tobacco, including cigars. This is unconstitutional and taxation without representation.

Please click on the link and read up about what they are trying to do for your rights as a cigar smoker. Join the fight and help us keep our rights as United States citizens. It is through these avenues that we must proceed to keep our government from taking all of our rights away. The land of the free… let’s keep it that way.

Here is the list of Companies supporting the CRA:

Avo Uvezian
Carlito Fuente
Carlos Fuente, Sr.
Charlie Torano
Christian Eiroa
Eric Newman
Ernesto Padilla
Ernesto Perez Carrillo
Jonathan Drew
Jorge Padron
Jose Oliva
Keith K. Park
Litto Gomez
Manuel Quesada
Nick Perdomo
Paolo Garzaroli
Pete Johnson
Peter Baenninger
Robert Levin
Rocky Patel
Tim Ozgener

For those of you who are web design/or web management people you may already know what open source is.  Open source is is a development methodology, which offers practical accessibility to a product’s source (goods and knowledge). Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations.

“Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.

The open source model of operation and decision making allows concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities, and differs from the more closed, centralized models of development. The principles and practices are commonly applied to the development of source code for software that is made available for public collaboration, and it is usually released as open-source software.”

Now with that I give you one of the best open source software packages around PHPBB.  This is an open source forum software package that is second to none.  Admin’s are able to create forums, catagories, layout and much more in this software.  A great source of information on this software is PhpBB Plus.  The site has been around for a couple of years and has gone over some major overhauling.  Give it a good look and if you like it download the free software for your site.

The Sopranos…. who doesn’t like ‘em? I for one, am a huge fan ever since I saw Tony wack his first gangster when the show first started. It was the same routine every week, get up, go to work, get ready for the Sopranos. Why not? It was the best thing on t.v. since sliced bread… (well that doesn’t make much sense) but you see what i mean.

These guys that are always out making money the rough way, cheating on their wives, and wacking other gangsters all before coming home for dinner to their family number 2. Who doesn’t love that? In all seriousness there is nothing strange about a boring family guy like me being infatuated with a family like the Sopranos. We know it’s something that we would never do but It seems like so much fun.

The Sopranos has come out with their full 6 seasons release on DVD in a nice boxset. The Boxset is great along with bonus features for each season. If you have yet to experience the Sopranos or are a seasoned vet, you need to pick up this boxset. You can get it at www.dvdsupplier.net.