A number of things point to e-cigarettes being relatively safe (however there needs to be more research done) and I have used them for months, guess what? My lungs have cleared up, I can finally breathe again. I feel good, generally.

I’ve heard about snus being a pretty healthy alternative to cigarettes as well, and some people combining it with e-cigarettes to finally “lay down” cigarettes completely. One day I had no batteries for my e-cigarette and I was out and about, so instead of buying a pack of cigarettes (which would’ve broke my 3 month long cigarette free streak) I opted to pick up some camel snus. I felt something familiar, a “good feeling” not like when I vape on my ecig to kill withdrawal, that’s a completely different feeling. Then I remembered that there are MAOI’s in tobacco, and that’s what I was probably feeling more than anything. Remember, I didn’t use these MAOI’s for 3 months, however I think they were the problem. I was still holding on to my old cigarettes because I really felt something was missing from my e-cigarette, and it was bothering me.

Later on I decided to try swedish snus, and man is that ever stronger than camel. I had an “MAOI” rush. (I had been puffing on my e-cigarette like normal until the package came, and had just put it down prior to popping in some swedish snus.)

All of a sudden, I feel much better, and feel like I used to when I smoked. This resulted in me throwing away all my cigarettes (finally). I had been holding them because I wanted that MAOI feeling back. I missed it. I was going to ignore it as much as possible and try to get over it, however this makes me feel safer. Now I can say for certain that I don’t have any need to smoke.

Note: You have to realize that smoking is the WORST POSSIBLE WAY to get nicotine, period. I know a lot of people are brainwashed into thinking that smokeless tobacco is WORSE for you than cigarettes. That’s completely FALSE. Unfortunately, cigarettes have the highest rate of all cancers. Oral, lung, pancreatic, etc. Yes there are risks to snus, however those risks are very small in comparison with smoking. (90% – 98% safer)

Conclusion

In my opinion, combining e-cigarettes and snus is going to be the absolute best combination for anyone to quit smoking. Some people don’t care about the MAOI’s much, others do. However, I think e-cigarettes and snus are great choices for anyone willing to stop smoking.

Still, I would like to quit nicotine/tobacco completely, but I’m a pretty big addict. The least I can do is try to be healthier with my habit, and it’s so nice that the “powers that be” shield all harm reduction is secrecy.

While doing all this, EyeFinity was not the priority. The priority was more screen space to work with. However, since I had the whole setup basically, why not mess with EyeFinity?

I had to set all of them at 1680X1050 since that’s the lowest resolution out of the bunch. That gives me 5040X1050 – which looks horrible out of games. I was pretty much expecting everything to be horrible since like I said, all 3 are different monitors, and the LG screen has these horridly big bezels. So, by far not the best setup for something like EyeFinity.

After getting in game however, everything looks good. I’m shocked. The bezels don’t bother me -  I’m shocked. I was able to get the other 2 to line up with my 24″  – I’m shocked. My games are more immersive and I’m enjoying myself a lot – yet again pure shock.

So what does all this tell me? You don’t have to have the perfect setup to get EyeFinity enjoyable or working right. I’ve looked and I’ve looked – but I have yet to find anyone running EyeFinity with different monitors and resolutions like me. I am thinking about switching the 22″ and 24″ screen out for 2 more 23″ IPS Dell panels, but that is far into the future. At that point, I’ll have something to compare against and see if it’s really that much better than my current setup.

Lots and lots of people think EyeFinity is just a gimmick – well I really have to disagree there. After going EyeFinity – I don’t want to go back. I don’t think you can say anything until you’ve experienced it first hand for more than a few days. As you can see, I was very skeptical of the technology and thought it would completely suck. I was wrong.

Sure, it’s a somewhat costly setup, but if you need the monitors for productivity anyway, you can’t go wrong. Let me tell you, 2 monitors is 100x better than 1 and 3 seems like the sweet spot for me.  Sure, spaces are cool, but if you need to see a bunch of things at once you can’t do that with spaces. (also remember that one panel must be DisplayPort or you need an active display port adapter for the 3rd monitor)

Conclusion

After having this setup for awhile – I can safely say that EyeFinity is awesome. Game play is just so much more immersive – and fun. It’s really really hard to form an opinion without experiencing it first hand which is going to be a drawback for this technology to spread. Also, yes I know that Matrox has had this technology for quite awhile – but you have to buy a $300 device on top of the $300 video card which makes it even less accessible to the mainstream audience. So ATI has done something magical – introducing videocards capable of driving 3 displays (FINALLY) and combining 3 monitors into 1 display – all wrapped into a highly powerful graphics card. I won’t be switching to nVidia unless they implement similar technology.

Picture taken before all monitors were lined up correctly..

]]> http://technologyinsanity.com/technology-reviews-guides/ati-eyefinity-review-different-monitors-sizes-and-resolutions/feed/ 0 http://technologyinsanity.com/general-tech/ssd-solid-state-drive-vs-hdd-hard-disc-drive/ http://technologyinsanity.com/general-tech/ssd-solid-state-drive-vs-hdd-hard-disc-drive/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 18:00:29 +0000 admin http://technologyinsanity.com/?p=1097 I picked up some cheap Kingston V Series 64GB SSD from NewEgg the other day because they seem to be all the rage lately. Not just that, but I am performing system wide upgrades, started with the chair, but my…

specs:

GA-890GPA-UD3H

4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333

Corsair HX520w PSU (If you don’t think this is enough.. I’ve done the calculations and even with the processor at 4GHz at max I’ll hit 480w or so, with everything fully loaded, 100%. Corsair PSU’s are slightly under rated, and will deliver 520W continuously without issue. I don’t intend to keep my CPU at 4GHz though so there really is no issue, or “pushing” the limits.)

1055T (stepping: CCBBE CB 1015BPMW)

ATi Radeon HD5850

Corsair H50

1x 320GB 72k drive

1x 500GB 72k drive

1X 1TB 72k drive

Overall, pretty cheap upgrade. Let’s start off by saying this was not exactly an “easy” venture. I thought it would be, but it in no way ended up that way. Starting from the beginning, I had to remove my old LGA775 motherboard with a Q6600.

That was pretty simple. Mounting the H50 was also pretty simple. The rest of the process was also simple, and what I’d expect.

So I power up the system, install windows, boot into windows, and all of a sudden… BAM my pc won’t start up. I keep pressing the button like an idiot and smell something burning. My worst fear was that the power supply was dead. I proceeded to disassemble my entire build, that I just put together. I took the power supply to a nearby computer to test if it worked. It worked without issue. So what’s the problem? I have to take out all my components to find out what is causing the problem. I take out the H50 radiator and fan and put it on top of my case.

I power on the system like this, and guess what? The H50 fan starts smoking and making sounds like it’s burning up! Immediately I power off the PC and take out the fan. I replace these fans with my antec fans I’ve had for quite some time. My antec 900 came with a bunch of them. No problems.

This whole process took awhile to sort out and set me back time wise substantially. Anyway, with this sorted out I went to begin overclocking my computer. I hit a wall at around 3.75 GHz, northbridge needed some more juice.

Then my ram timings/speed were getting messed up even with the highest divider. My motherboard is sensitive to the timings on ram for some reason, so I couldn’t boot with certain timings. Not cool. After struggling with the ram timings, speed, northbridge frequency etc, I was finally able to start booting at above 3.75GHz, and eventually was able to hit 4GHz. To make it stable, I had to run a lot of prime95 and ram tests. Prime stability came in at 1.5V. Worth all the hassle? Maybe not since I don’t think I’ll be running my CPU at 1.5V. I can get 3.8ish at around 1.38V. Extra 200Mhz for .12v doesn’t seem worth it. Of course, I just had to push it to 4GHz because it’s “magical” or something

3DMark06 run: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=13861077

Well, that’s that. I’m just adding some finishing tweaks to my setup and figuring out what the “best” overclock would be for performance,  energy consumption, and heat. Probably about 3.8GHz, 4GHz turbo, with C&Q enabled.

This processor is noticeably faster than the Q6600, so I’m happy with my upgrade.

UPDATE: I settled on 3.5GHz @ 1.28V. Should be close to stock watts, at 4GHz it’s a 93% increase.. 93% increase for 500MHz isn’t what I’d call a good deal considering the cost of electricity here. I leave my PC on 24/7 so I don’t want to burn up too much. Haven’t figured out turbo yet, doesn’t seem to work correctly. Only bumps voltage to 1.32v which isn’t enough to do much with. Of course, I have saved the 4Ghz profile in my motherboard in case I need it for something

Again, my Q6600 ate close to 200w at 3.2GHz so I never ran it there much. I try to keep my overclocks a little energy efficient.

I really have NO idea why I didn’t get an ergonomic chair earlier. I’ve been on the computer for extended periods of time since I was about 10 years old. Always using crappy wal-mart chairs, that were NOT designed for what I was doing. Even when I did have money, all of it went to processors, video cards, speakers, monitors, and nothing went to my chair. The chair remained a POS from wal-mart at all times.

Now that I’m 19, I’m starting to feel some back issues develop. Those 9 years on wal-mart chairs for countless hours are starting to take hold. However, I think with this chair those problems may go away completely. (Only very slight pain from leaning over all the time has developed)

Anyway, the best way to describe the feeling of sitting on the Knoll Life Chair is “good”. Mine has adjustable arms that go up and down and side to side, which I would recommend. I think these are “High Performance” arms. Adjusting the height of the arms along with forward/backward and side to side really comes in handy depending on how you’re sitting or want to sit in the chair.

The seat moves forward slightly depending on how you sit on it, and you can slide it forward or backward as much as needed. You can of course lean back in the chair as well, and adjust the tension.

Overall, I have to say I’m super happy with this chair, it’s the first time I’ve felt comfortable sitting at my desk in years (No joke.) Even though I did not pay retail for this chair and bought it at an eBay auction, I think it’s actually worth the retail price of $808.

I was actually very scared of ordering a chair online without trying it out in person, and the only reason I got the knoll life chair was because of the auction and I didn’t want to pay more than $400 for my chair. Unfortunately, there really aren’t any shops nearby that sell “performance” task chairs. I was going to get the steelcase leap, but so far I’m glad I didn’t. This chair seems perfect for me. I really like the breathable back, and steelcase doesn’t have that.

Conclusion

Finally, a chair I WANT to sit on.

Update

6/16/10 – After sitting on this chair for a few months, I can form a more full opinion. My opinion hasn’t really changed – it’s still the best chair I’ve ever sat in. My back has not hurt since getting this chair. It makes the couch seem uncomfortable due to less ergonomic support Has also shown no noticeable wear, usually by now a $100 chair would have plenty of wear.

Definitely worth every penny.

So far, I’ve had very little issues with it. The only negative that comes to mind right now is that it gets dirty. After 3 weeks (I have no metal polish or anything like that) It’s starting to not look so good. However, when I get the chance I am going to pick up some metal polish. Since it’s not permanent, it’s not a big deal. I have only used it at 6V with 510 atomizers, sometimes I use the i6. I burned out the i3 by mis-using it.

Really, the fact that the GGTS just “works” and has no issues within this period of time makes me pretty happy with my purchase. Any issues I have are related to the atomizer/juices/batteries and not the GGTS itself.

Button works at all times, if I want to switch atomizers it’s a very simple switch. It feels good, it looks good (when polished), and it works well. Maintenance is very low, no fiddling with the switch trying to make it work or breaking atomizer connections. The only thing you have to do to keep it working right is clean it every once in awhile, and take care of your atomizers in the regular way. (e-cigarettes always have various maintenance no matter what you buy.)

Value – 8/10 – decent value, I think it’ll last you awhile and it’s solidly built. Price could be lower though. The price point will discourage more price conscious consumers.

Build Quality – 10/10 – Very well constructed, not sure what needs to be improved.

Looks – 9/10 – Looks sort of depends on your configuration, but almost all of them look good.

Usability – 10/10 – Works every time.

Overall – 9.25/10

It’s a superior device, and *almost* deserves the price it’s set at. I think it could be a little lower, but it’s not bad. I also realize that the price has to do with the exchange rate, so if the exchange rate was correct price would probably be where I’d expect it to be.

Keep in mind I use it everyday and I generally vape about 2-4ml of 24mg juice per day. So it’s been through a lot of use already. Not really sure why I vape so much.. I was only a pack a day smoker, but I never have any signs of taking in too much nicotine. (never dizzy etc) I have to go to 36MG juice to feel that, never happens on 24mg.

The first thing I was most concerned about was the switch. This thing fires every single time since I’ve had it. The button also feels pretty good, and the locking feature is a nice touch.

I did try out the i3 atties and I thought they were pretty good, but I still like 510’s more. 510 @ 6V + 24 – 36MG PureSmoker e-Liquid seems to give me the most “cigarette” like experience. (Not sure how much VG/PG PureSmoker uses, but it usually does pretty well for me, I have some TastyVapor 10% VG and it doesn’t produce nearly as much vapor.) Vapor production in the GGTS VS Prodigy V2: HUGE DIFFERENCE. GGTS provides more vapor quicker. Taste seems to be very close but a little less than the V2.

I only have cr123a batteries (left over from the Prodigy V2 and I also picked up another set) so I can’t really comment on how it functions at 7.2V, 7.4V, 3.7V, and with different batteries. I’ll get to testing 7.4V with an i7 in the future probably, but I won’t use it all the time. I prefer being able to use regular atomizers, and at 7.2 – 7.4V you need the high volt atomizers all the time.

So far, I haven’t noticed much wrong I can really complain about. The GGTS has just “worked”. Oh wait.. there is one thing the brass/aluminum seems to get dirty easily, to keep it shiny you’d have to polish it a lot. Not really going to call this a drawback though.

So long as the GGTS holds up I really don’t think I’ll be buying more mods. I could, but I don’t think I really want to. Unlike the V2 I can’t find anything wrong with it, and it’s easy to handle and adaptable. Only thing I’m going to do is play around with different battery combinations and atomizers/cartomizers, and of course try more e-liquid. Yea, the GGTS is that good. I’ve almost got a “sweet spot”. Only “mod” I see myself possibly buying would be the AFS, and maybe some more imeoatties.

Anyway, on with the review.. All in all, I was pretty pleased with this device. (I’m using a 510 atomizer.) However, I’ll go over the negatives first. The biggest problem on this device is the switch. Mine worked fine for about a week, then I had to press harder and harder to get it to work. Eventually, I took it apart. Lost the spring right away (still haven’t found it). I replaced the spring with a pen spring, of course that doesn’t fix the issue I was having. At this point I didn’t really know how to fix it so I got my multimeter out and tried to figure out how to get it working again.

After awhile I figured out that it was the o-ring, wasn’t fat enough or something, because the washer wasn’t making contact with the 2 points in the switch. I did a little more reading on e-cigarette-forum.com to see if this issue was really wide spread. Apparently, it is. There were a few suggestions on how to fix it, the way that worked for me was taking some pliers and moving the contact points from the flat side to the round side.

About a week later, the button was doing the same crap again. The metal they’re using as contact points must be soft or something because it looked like one side flattened out. Did the same thing again, moving the contact point to a different round side. Result: fixed again.

What I’ve gained from this experience is that on the Prodigy V2 you don’t want to push too hard on the button, ever. That’s what causes it to get screwed up from what I can tell.

I’ve had no other issues with this device except for the fact I can’t stand using 3 – 3.7V anymore If they would fix the switch, I think this would be a really good device.

Vapor production is great, as you’d expect running 5V to a Joye 510 atomizer, been using it non stop since I got it. Very satisfying feeling compared to 3 – 3.7v. I go through about 2 sets of batteries per day, so about 7 hours per set.

My RYO cigarette tubes/tobacco hasn’t been touched for three and a half weeks. I intend to keep it that way.

Totals

Affordability – 9/10 – Well within range for most people to be able to pick one up.

Build quality – 5/10 – Problems with the switch, as I noted above. Otherwise, I’d say it’s pretty solid, but really the switch is pretty important so 5 points off.

Looks – 8/10 – Looks decent, especially with a silver atomizer and t-tip.

Usability – 8/10 – So long as the switch is working, it’s fine. Switch still doesn’t always work though, so 2 points have been taken off. Batteries last 7 hours per set (for me) so very good amount of time

Overall – 7.5/10 - Would still recommend to people *if* they don’t mind messing with the switch here and there or modding it with a fatter o-ring.

Right now I’m waiting on a GGTS, supposed to be very good build quality. Is $212 too much for something like this? Well the way I looked at it is if it lasts a long time who cares? The thing can handle almost any bat/atty combination so there won’t be any reason to buy different mods, unless it’s something unique like the juicebox (well, the GGTS actually has an auto feed system… ) or a double barrel silver bullet. Will write a review of the GGTS after I have about a month with it, same style as this one.

Not getting rid of the Prodigy V2 though, will be my back up device. The back up for that is the Janty eGo.

What 2 devices did I order? Well from the old days, I remember really liking the Janty Dura-C which recently I found out that’s a 510 atomizer. There’s a cheap version out there called the Joye 510 now, and it works just like the Dura-C I had way back when. However, that’s not what I bought.

I bought a Protigy V2 and a Janty eGo. I’m thinking about doing seperate reviews for both these models, really all I can say is I really enjoy the V2 with a 510 atomizer. It’s been what I mainly use, much stronger vapor and taste compared to the eGo (which is still a great device, compared to the old DSE901 pen style I first got.) Oh yea and I also decided to get a T-Tip from SuperT Manufacturing. I hated always taking off the tip to drip, since that’s all I do. This thing works great, and seems much better than the plastic crap. I actually ended up with juice in my mouth more often with the plastic stuff than this T-Tip, it’s awesome.

My overall goal with e-cigarettes is at the very least completely switch, and at the most stay on them for a few months and slowly down my nicotine intake, and the *final* goal would be to completely quit nicotine. That may or may not happen, because I’ve tried quitting before, and I can’t make it more than a day, I end up feeling like total crap. I guess if I were to not do ANYTHING for a couple months then it might be possible, but as it stands, I wouldn’t be able to be productive in my life for at least a few months, maybe more after quitting cold turkey.

As far as whether or not E-Cigarettes are safe, in my opinion putting a couple chemicals in my mouth and lungs is far safer than putting thousands. Also, as far as I know there’s very little cancer causing chemicals in e-cigarettes. The ones that are there are from the nicotine which was extracted from tobacco, but in VERY small amounts, about the same amount of cancer causing chemicals you’d find in nicotine gum or the patches. Tons less than real cigarette. So from that, I’m not too worried about it. In fact it seems blatantly obvious to me that they’re most likely much much healthier for you than cigarettes. Which is the point for me switching of course, I just figured I’d give an explanation for those who have been brainwashed by the FDA, pharma, and tobacco companies. They all of course have reasons for hating electronic cigarettes, but it all comes down to money.

Anyway, that’s my plan, and oh yea cost  is going to go up very slightly for me.. I used the roll your own tobacco and it was very cheap. However, I know that’s about to change since they’re going to raise taxes higher on everything soon, so cost is actually going to be much lower in a little bit.

Lesson here is never start smoking, it’s a real pain

Dear customer!

We failed to deliver the postal package which was sent on the 18th of December in time
because the recipient’s address is wrong.
Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our department.

United Parcel Service of America.

Some say FedEx some say DHL, some say USPS, seriously guys just knock it off. Obviously they have a ton of mail servers with different IP’s and keep cloaking their mailing addresses. I’ll look into it further if I get the time.

Not a terrible attempt though, I’m sure they’re getting a lot of people installing their trojan. They have the exe packed pretty well to avoid anti-virus and have it cloaked to look like an excel file. No doubt my email was just harvested from this site so I’m going to switch up my email some more.