games

First Impression: Amazon Fire TV Stick

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My wife and I decided to pre-order an Amazon Fire TV Stick for her parents, which we gave to them for Christmas. While visiting with them I had the opportunity to setup the device and use it for an extended period. Overall, I’m impressed. The cost is relatively low, performance and stability seemed good (at least during the time I was using it) and the interface was easy to use.

We were both impressed enough that we decided to order one for ourselves, though they’re currently on back-order so it may not be until the end of January before ours ships to us. I was able to pre-order the Stick for my in-laws for $19, but it regularly retails for only $39.

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Should you purchase an Xbox 360 without a hard drive?

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Before I go into the details I’ll state that I think it’s best to purchase an Xbox 360 with a hard drive if you’re a hardcore gamer. You certainly can use one without a hard drive but you’ll be restricted on what you can do with the system. You can purchase a drive at any time but you’ll probably end up spending about the same amount that you originally saved up front anyway.

Microsoft has offered an Xbox 360 model without a hard drive for a long time. They may have been available since the system was released but since it’s been several years now I don’t remember for certain (I think they originally only came with hard drives until Microsoft added the ability to store content on external, USB storage devices). Around the holidays these systems are usually heavily promoted. Typically, they come with some form of storage, most likely just a flash drive around 4GB in size.

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Cataloging with Delicious Library and Home Inventory (OS X)

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The Short Version: I cataloged our movies with Delicious Library 2 but needed to replicate the data in Home Inventory. Delicious Library provides an export to CSV function and Home Inventory can import CSV files. Now I have the data for our library in both programs and using an iOS program for Home Inventory I can also maintain and view a backup copy of the database on my iPhone.

I’ve had a copy of Delicious Library (version 1) for several years. It’s a well-designed commercial Mac program for cataloging  movies, CDs, games, and books. The latest version (Delicious Library 2) includes more features and categories. Both versions support barcode scanning, which I’ve always done with the built-in iSight camera. It can look-up product information using Amazon and automatically download product images, title, retail value, and other pieces of information.

A week or two ago we decided to catalog all of our movies after a visit to Wal-Mart. While there we browsed the cheap movie section but we were reluctant to purchase for fear that we already owned them. When we returned home my wife downloaded an app to her iPod for cataloging movies. I decided to open up Delicious Library and paid $15 to upgrade to the latest version.

We both spent at least a couple of hours scanning or manually entering information for our movies.

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