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Evaluate products and politics for you.

U-571 Movie Review

U-571 Movie Review

06/13/2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Score: 4 out of 5.  This movie is very convincingly told which is a strong complement because the story could easily go dumb at any point but does not. The director and crew should be proud of this  product.  The acting is very good and very convincing even at times that one might expect it to fall apart.  My only reason not to give a more perfect score is at the very end of the movie it falls into a predictable style ending.


Movie Reviews
Safe House Movie Review

Safe House Movie Review

06/13/2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Score: 5 out of 5.  This movie is vastly intelligent and is gripping in plot outline.  The script was terrific as well as the acting and all the technical aspects that help provide the movie creation.  The director put together a stupendous product.


Movie Reviews
Ghost Protocol Movie Review

Ghost Protocol Movie Review

06/13/2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

I rate this movie 5 out of 5.  It simply is darn near perfect.  I love intelligent movies and this one is very good.  I will not list all its plus points but to reiterate that it delivers a terrific entertainment package.


Movie Reviews
Red Tails

Red Tails

06/13/2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Rate 2 out of 5.  I found this a very disappointing movie.  The script, casting, and acting was dreadful.  All other technical aspects of the movie seemed to be very good.  The action scenes were quite good but the  script was uninspiring, the acting unconvincing, and the director was  incapable of drawing me into the story.  I really found it annoying to see a command officer smoking a pipe in what seemed to be a contrived effort to impart authority.


Movie Reviews
Red Tails Movie
The Real News

The Real News

06/05/2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

I am always looking for the truth or as close to it as I can get.  I ran across this Internet  news web site that tries to achieve balanced and accurate reporting.  The name of this organization is The Real News.

The Real News Mission

The Real News Network is a television news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism.Our staff, in collaboration with courageous journalists around the globe, will investigate report and debate stories on the critical issues of our times.We are viewer supported and do not accept advertising, government or corporate funding.

Web site: http://therealnews.com/


Internet Sites
Internet Sites
Replacing LED Bulbs For Malibu Outdoor Light System

Replacing LED Bulbs For Malibu Outdoor Light System

05/29/2012 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Quite some time ago my wife happened to mention to me that our electric bill seemed to be rather high.  This was during summer and I suspected the air conditioner was on too much of the time.   Being a technology person, I decided to purchase a meter that would measure power usage for each household device in an effort to more scientifically determine what devices were running up the cost and determine if we could cut back.  I learned quite a lot but the most surprising cost item was our outdoor Malibu light system.  My next door neighbor had years ago told me that he was very happy that we had our outdoor lights on all night long.  He went on to say that more than one drunk driver ran into and up our garage driveway negotiating a street turn.  I then added the Malibu system after he told me that news.  We had quite an investment in that light system so it seemed practical to switch over to LED lights and get rid of the very inefficient tungsten filament bulbs.  But looking over the cost for each LED bulb seemed stupid due to cost.  About $25 per bulb was the possible cost and that was Internet prices.  There had to be a better, more cheap solution.  It was not until I was browsing in my local electronics store that I spotted high intensity LED bulbs.  I decided to buy some along with proper wire end pins and try them out.  I followed two different solutions.  The first was to improve upon already manufactured LED lights for automobiles by soldering gold plated pins to the ends of the LED wires.  This worked quite well except that the wires would move in and out of the bulb housing when they were bent straight.  I had failed to realize that the automobile bulbs used bent wires which kept them in place.  When I straightened them they could slide in and out of the plastic bulb case.  I then had to apply glue gun shots to the wires and case so they would no longer slide.  The results with this LED rewire was most satisfactory.  These bulbs did a fairly decent job of illumination.

Solder Pins In Left Bag and Auto LED's In Right Bag
Solder Pins In Left Bag and Auto LED’s In Right Bag

The second solution I used was to purchase high intensity LED’s and solder them together to make more powerful lights.  The wires from the LED’s were also too thin and I had to solder the same type gold plated pins to the ends of the LED leads so the Malibu sockets would properly take and connect to the new bulbs.  The results were that I had made accent lights and not lights that threw out any appreciable illumination.

Automobile LED's shown after pins were soldered and the leads hot glued in place.
Automobile LED’s shown after pins were soldered and the leads hot glued in place.

 

Parts for this project were purchased from Orvac Electronics
1648 Orangethorpe Ave.
Fullerton, Calif.  92831
Phone: 714.871.1020
Web site: http://www.orvac.com/

UPDATE:  Since I wrote this article, a few companies came out with excellent LED lights that can be used for Malibu systems.  I DO NOT RECOMMEND that you go to all the work I have described here.

 

 

 

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Technology
LED's, Malibu lighting system, Malibu replacement bulbs, outdoor lights

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