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Restaurant review Claim Jumper, 9/30/07

Sunday evening I asked my son and daughter if they wanted to go out to eat. My daughter was not hungry but my son wanted to go to the Brea Claim Jumper. He loves the nachos, a dish of French fries with a couple of cheeses melted into them with bacon bits I believe. I had fallen in love with their baby back ribs. I called the restaurant before leaving the house and was told they had a 20-minute wait. When we arrived we were seated right away. A large number of people were leaving when we arrived. We got a booth and my son and I broke out our lap top computers to do some web site learning. I did order the baby back ribs with a sweet potato. When the dish arrived I got asparagus and had the dish returned. In a few minutes I got what I ordered but the ribs were dry, tough and way off flavor. My son was happy with his usual dish. The waitress came over to find out if I liked the meal and I confessed that I was disappointed. She said she would call the manager over but I declined her offer. She did not listen to me and the manager did come over in a while to talk about the ribs. He immediately spotted that the ribs I had looked dry. I showed him how tough they were by trying to cut into them with a knife and I had a struggle. He offered to give me another rack and he would personally pick it out himself. He came back to tell me how they cook the rib. They slow cook them with seasoning only applied in an oven at 225 degrees for 6 hours. During this slow cooking process the fat drips off the ribs. They then put the ribs into cold storage until they are needed. The ribs are pulled out and cooked again but now with barbecue sauce and brought up to serving temperature. I am not sure I got this process accurate but I was very interested in the temperature they used and how long they cooked the ribs. The manager told me that some places raise the temperature up above 300 degrees and do not cook the ribs as long but they found that the lower temperature and longer cooking time worked out very well. I have the Big Green Egg at home and I think I will slow cook some ribs for 6 hours to see if I can duplicate Claim Jumper’s results of the meat practically falling off the bone. The Big Green Egg can easily be lowered to this temperature.

There are about 8 managers at this Claim Jumper.

Product review
Date 9/30/07

Manufacturer: Western Digital
Model: WD Passport 160 GB/Go

Computer used for test: 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 Macintosh laptop running 10.4.10 system.

Review summary: Not recommended for computers that cannot support 500 ma or more of power on the USB bus.

As soon as I purchased this hard drive from COSTCO, I plugged this hard drive unit into my iMac laptop USB 2 connector and the hard drive would not mount. It made a clicking noise over and over every 4 seconds. I tried to plug the unit before booting the computer I applied power and after I applied power, still it would not mount. I ran the Macintosh Disk Utility program and the unit would not show up. I gave the hard drive to my son who also has a Macintosh laptop. His Mac is newer with dual core technology and can run Windows. The drive mounted right away.

I hooked the WD drive up to a Belkin USB hub (FSU234) and the hard drive showed up on my computer. The purpose of buying this hard drive is that it gains its power from the laptop so the user can go anywhere with this drive and be able to use it. I tried a no name powered 4 port USB 2.0 hub but the drive would not show. Oddly though the drive stopped clicking when connected through the cheap 4 port hub.

I hooked the drive up to the Belkin USB hub (FSU234) and erased the disk to the Mac format and then rebooted. The drive would not mount directly connected to the computer. This tells me that it possibly is a power problem and not a hard drive format problem.

It is my guess that the amount of power required to power this external hard drive might be too much for my laptop. Going into the specifications for the laptop under “About This Mac” I found that he USB power typically available is 500 mA. The specifications for the drive are 650 mA maximum draw. When a drive starts up, it naturally will draw more current. I was later to find out that the specifications showed 1000 mA draw during start up. I looked over the package that the drive came in and nowhere did it list the current draw of the Western Digital drive. It did state “A special cable is available for the few computers that limit output power”. What does that mean?

Sure enough, plowing into the Western Digital web site I found the following:

Problem:
The WD Passport drive either does not spin up or tries to spin but clicks when it is connected to a USB port.

Cause:
There may not be enough power currently supplied to the machine’s USB port. Some computer systems only supply 500mA of power through USB ports. The WD Passport hard drive requires a little over 1000mA of power at spin up.

One solution the web site put forth is as follows:
Title: USB 2.0 Power Booster Cable – WDCA029RNN (Silver or Black Passport™ drive)
URL: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/accessories.asp?ProdID=170
The cable gains the power boost by using power from two USB ports on the system. Well, my Mac offers 500 mA per port so two ports should offer 1000mA. The cost is $9.99 which is pretty much the savings I achieved by going to COSTCO instead of any other store. Shipping will drive my cost even higher.

I am wondering why Western Digital failed to offer the Y cable in the package to ensure the user would find their product completely usable. On the front of the package it states, “No separate power supply needed”. Slightly misleading statement when one has to get a second USB power source from the laptop or from a USB hub device.

I called the local Apple Super Store and they do not offer the USB Y cable. I think this rather odd because it is their computer that is limiting the power output. To their credit, Apple did follow the specifications for USB power out being 500 ma.

Because there is NO way to apply external power to this Western Digital drive except by using a really good USB hub or buying the USB Y cable, this drive actually has a distinct disadvantage over a drive one can also plug into the wall when used with computers that fail to offer sufficient power. Ideally one should buy a drive that would self-power off of a computer and if that were to fail, some provision for external power should be provided. Also, because some customers must purchase another device to make the unit work, this detracts from obtaining a good score review.

I am sorry that I purchased this unit. I cannot recommend it for computers that cannot supply the required 1000 mA from a single USB port connection.

Here is a copy of an e-mail I sent to a couple of ham radio friends concerning buying a car mobile ham radio rig:

Thank you, Jxxn, for telling me of your choice for dual band car radio, the Kenwood TM D700A. Your recommendation sent me on a rather long quest. I decided to wait as I heard that Kenwood was coming out with a newer version of your radio, which is now the Kenwood D710A. This new rig is EXPENSIVE but, as I get older, I figure that I have only one shot more at pampering myself. The HRO sales person told me that the model radio you have is being discounted. I asked him how long he expected Kenwood would support a rig that was being discontinued. He thought about two years. Here is how I decided to buy the radio, if you are interested read the rest of this story. My price comparison for this purchase is the local Ham Radio Outlet store in Anaheim, California.

HRO list cost and the published base cost was $599.95.
The HRO sales person would knock off $10; I was not impressed with his sacrifice. My new cost would be $589.95 if I walked in and bought at that store. If you add tax ($45.72) the total cost would be $635.67. OUCH!!!!!

I went on the Internet and found a vendor called Gigparts.com (http://www.gigaparts.com). I found they offered a 10% discount if the order was placed by 10/5/07, no shipping and NO TAX. But you need to use Pay Pal or Goggle. I did not know about either so I decided to try out Goggle.

Here is the cost:

$539.96 complete, total cost. I was not charged for shipping because I chose the no cost shipping option (3 to 7 days). I was not charged tax. I paid by Visa, which gives me some leverage over the vendor in case there is a dispute. I think my Visa card also offers extended warrantee coverage, not sure.

Before choosing Gigparts.com I did an Internet search and used the words “Gigparts.com reputation” and saw that they seem to have a good record, so I placed the order.

Now, if my calculation is correct, I saved $95.71 by using the Internet and shopping around and not going with the local HRO walk in store. The accessories for the radio were pretty close to what HRO is charging so I might go to that local store for less expensive accessory items.

When looking at the new discounted cost of the TM D700, now selling for $469.95 plus $36.42 tax would bring the cost up to $506.37. I am paying only $33.59 more for the D710A a much newer radio with more features, more power, than the D700A, and this is after the D700 was discounted as it will be flushed out of Kenwood product line. Not a bad deal.

Update, 10/2/07

Here is the tracking information from UPS: I placed the order with Gigparts September 29, Saturday, in the morning. I got a shipping notification by e-mail Monday, October 1. That did qualify as the next business day. That notification said the item should be received at my house by October 5th. The item was billed October 1. On the same day, October 1st, it was sent out. Now a lot of vendors take three days to get product out the door. It appears that Gigparts did their part extremely fast. The item showed as coming from Huntsville, Alabama to Vernon California. The UPS web site and the package tracking web site indicates that the item should arrive no later than 5 PM Friday. By the end of Saturday it has still not arrived. Well actually that is not true. It arrived in Vernon close to noon on Friday and sat in their facility until just before midnight! UPS states that to receive a delivery on a Saturday, one must pay more. Too bad that if they fail to deliver on the promised day, a Friday, they should activate a driver to make the delivery on a Saturday. But I guess that would be putting the customer’s needs first. Funny how corporate promises, public relations, and advertisements come to nothing when dealing with a company that cannot deliver successfully on their hype. I think I will give Gigaparts a call and ask that they consider another delivery company.

I have a friend who works for FedEx. He is a sales man who tries to get large businesses to sign up with FedEx as their shipping comany. I hear his exploits of going to the shipping depots and working along side the warehouse people to get his shipments out on time for special events. His exploits contrast in my mind like white to black and my UPS experience. This is not to say that FedEx is any better than UPS as their are a lot of complaints on the Internet about both companies. I just wish that all shippers try a bit harder at getting it right.

A real interesting web site about UPS can be found here: http://www.unitedpackagesmashers.com/

My sister wrote me to ask for advice using a video camera to cover a Macontosh user group. Here is my response:

I can tell you a couple of professional tips on using a video camera.

Tip #1: Use a tripod. There is nothing worse than jiggling images.
Tip #2: Make gentle movements, no quick jerks with the camera framing.
Tip #3: If you have to hand hold a video camera, set the camera to wide angle and leave it there. Do NOT zoom in unless you have to. Stay wide angle and frame your shot by moving toward or further away from what you are shooting. The trick is to stay wide angle. The resulting video will look quite good. If you see news video camera persons they do this all the time, which explains why they get so darn close to the people they are shooting.
Tip #4: Shoot the front of people’s faces. You do not have to be directly in front but we should see both eyes if possible. Ear shots are inferior. Showing the back of the head is inexcusable.

9-25-07 Evening
The Old Spaghetti Factory
110 East Santa Fe
Fullerton, Calif. 92832
Phone: 714-526-6801

Review: Good.

This restaurant is located next to the Amtrak station for Fullerton. The building where the restaurant is located was once the Orange County depot for the Union Pacific Railroad. The building was built in 1923. It is quite large; cavernous is only a slight exaggeration.

I was dinning alone as I had just dropped off my son at the Fullerton Junior College and he would not be done with his class for a few hours. I was yearning for lasagna. Our family had attended the Spaghetti Factory in Riverside quite often, so I knew exactly what to expect as this is quite a large well thought out restaurant chain. I arrived at 7PM and was seated immediately. I had asked for a quiet place to read while I had dinner. I was shown to one of my favorite locations in the restaurant, a row of booths. Each booth one cannot see over but only across and down the isle as these booths have backs and sidewalls that goes up quite high.

The table did not tilt. The table edge had a gentle roundness, which was nice. The place is done in dark wood, high ceilings, muted lighting. The lights all seemed to be quite warm, orange look, a low Kelvin temperature and low intensity.

The menu was very reasonable in cost and the offerings were not that diverse, pasta and chicken variations. The most expensive item on the menu was from the “Factory Platters’ called “The Premier”. This was a lasagna and Chicken Marsala for $11.45. I think the typical cost was around $9.

I ordered the lasagna and chose soup instead of salad. Soup or salad comes with the meal as well as a small loaf of bread. The bread arrived after the soup, not to my liking. The loaf of bread was as long as the tip of my thumb and pinky extended as far apart as I could extend them away from one another. I have large hands. There was plenty of bread for two people. It was sour dough, quite nice flavor.

The soup, minestrone, was full of vegetables, cup size, not too hot, a bit under temperature. The taste was just ever so slightly salty, and had good flavor.

The lasagna was quite nice, topped with a rich tomato sauce upon which I took the table Parmesan shaker and lambasted the dish like a snow storm until I could not see the previous red sauce upon my lasagna but a white thin covering. I like Parmesan on my lasagna because there is another wonderful flavor to enjoy. The lasagna was tasty, not compacted but broke apart nicely. I love Ricotta cheese in my lasagna but I could not taste any. Funny thing, I normally would immediately notice if Ricotta was missing from lasagna but this dish did not make me think of this missing element. I guess I was so pleased, that I did not notice any deficiency.

The whole restaurant seemed to offer good handicapped access. The restrooms seemed to be handicapped friendly, quite spacious. One stall was large and had the handrails. There was even a baby-changing device in the men’s restroom, a pull out table hanging from the wall.

My first complaint was that a refill for my iced tea was not offered until I asked for the bill. My second complaint was I was offered desert but I forgot that it was included in the meal. It would have been nice for my server to remind me of that fact. It was my mistake as this fact is printed in the menu, but still a minor detraction from the total score.

The ticket showed I owed $11.80 for the meal. That should be $10.95 for the meal, which includes the soup, bread, main dish and drink. The tax came to $.85 for a total of $11.80. I put a tip on the table, which raised the cost a bit. Take note that most restaurants charge a lot more for drinks on top of the main dish. I found it remarkable that the beverage (coffee, tea, iced tea, or milk) is included in the price when you order a complete meal.

This place is comfortable and interesting to approach, enter into and through and sit to dine. It was enjoyable for me because I could be alone, read a book and enjoy a good tasting meal. I was not rushed. It meal was very reasonable in price.