Product Review: Fitbit Alta

 

This is an older model Fitbit and did not have all the bells and whistles of the higher-end models (especially the newer models), but it does the step and sleep tracking. You can also track food through the Fitbit app, or pair it with an app like My Fitness Pal to log your meals (which is what I do). It can also detect when you are doing a workout on an elliptical or something comparable. It has notifications you can set for inactivity alerts or when you reach your daily step goal. 

The display is turned off normally to save battery power, but you can turn it on by either tapping the fact of it twice or just turning your wrist. My only complaints are that the display turns off after a couple seconds, and the fasteners on the strap are a pain to close. It would be nice if they gave it a little longer on time for the display and a normal watch-like band. And, it does not use a regular USB-C charger. It has a charger with a clamp-like end that clips on to the back of the device. Of course, if you lose the charger you have to get a new one and you will have a non-functional device until you do. Overall, however, I am very satisfied with it.

Product Review: Epson Perfection V19 Color Photo & Document Scanner

 

I mostly used this to scan documents to upload when I needed to turn in my homework when I was in school. When I initially set it up, it was a fairly easy install, even on an outdated desktop computer (that is running Windows 10). I would not call that experience true plug-and-play, which would very likely be on a newer machine, but I was able to get it set up. You can either scan by first opening the Epson scan application on your computer or pushing one of the buttons on the front. I use the PDF button which automatically opens the app and scans to a pdf file. It scans documents very fast (around 30 sec give or take) and they come out very well. I have not tried scanning pictures or anything like that at this point, so I am not sure what the quality of those is.

It is much lighter and more compact than old-school flatbed scanners. It also has a built-in stand that you can flip down which allows you to have it sit on its side so it is taking up less desk/table space. It does not have a power cord, just powers itself through a USB connection to your computer. In all, it does what I need it to do so far, and I have not had any issues with it after getting it set up.

Product Review: Amazon Echo (1st Generation)

 

I have one of these (which I ordered from another site that was offering them at a lower cost at the time) and one echo dot. I keep this one in my bedroom and mainly use it to play music since it has a better speaker than the Dot. It is not high-end Bose quality, but much better in quality than old-school low-end computer speakers, and some Bluetooth speakers.

This is (in my opinion) very handy, and has more and more functionality being added all the time. The Echo can do anything from playing music from Pandora, iHeart, Amazon music, etc, to updating a grocery list, turning lights on and off, ordering a pizza, accessing Wikipedia, getting weather and traffic updates, etc.

I see them as being as useful as you want them to be. Some of the skills that can be enabled are pretty useless or just for fun, but others like the alert my buddy app (which can alert a list of people if you need help, which can be great for seniors) can be very useful. I have found that it responds to and understands commands most of the time very well. It mainly only has problems when there is background noise like from a TV. Although it occasionally understands a question but does not know the answer. You can give it feedback through the app which you have to download to a phone or tablet to get it set up, by telling it whether the unit did what you wanted next to what it heard.

The setup is very easy, just plug it in, connect it to wifi via the app, and then read off a list of 25 commands so it can configure to your voice. It is definitely not something that everyone will find useful or see as a must-have, but if you have seen the commercials or looked into it and are intrigued by at least some of the things it can do then I definitely think it (especially at the reduced holiday price) is worth the expense. Even if you are looking for a reasonably priced Bluetooth speaker this will give you that functionality and a lot more.

Product Review: Kasa Smart (HS100 KIT) Plug 2-Pack

 

I bought a pair of these along with the Echo (not through Amazon). I found them to be fairly easy to set up. You do have to download an app to your phone or tablet and verify your email address when you register through the app. After that, it is a matter of plugging them in and walking through the steps on the app. Depending on your wireless connection, it may take a couple tries, but if you are in any way tech-savvy, it should take no more than about 10-15 min.

Once it is set up you can turn them on and off just by pressing an icon on the app or telling the Echo to do it if you have one. You can even schedule the lights to turn on and off at specific times, or set a timer to turn them off (helpful if you have a bedroom lamp plugged into it and you want to use it almost as a sleep timer). I am very happy with the purchase and will probably get more. My only gripe about it is it takes up a lot of room pm the outlet and makes it hard to plug anything else into the second plug of an outlet that the unit is not plugged into. That aside, they work great and I would highly recommend them.

Product Review: Polar A300 Heart Rate Monitor and Fitness Tracker

 

I received this as a gift last Christmas back in 2015. I have been mostly satisfied with it, aside from a couple of issues I will highlight below.

Pros:

I find that the battery life lasts a long time, I can go about a week and a half (or more) of workouts every day when it is connected to the heart rate monitor strap, plus the general use before the battery gets low enough to recharge it.

The menus and setup are very easy and user-friendly. If you have ever had a prior version of a polar heart rate monitor, then you should have no problems getting this configured.

Some of the setup, like the alarm (which causes the unit to vibrate on your wrist as opposed to beeping) can be set up through the watch or the polar flow app on your phone or tablet.

When the device connects to the polar flow app (see below) it is very useful to see your progress.

The watch band can be replaced easily. I have tossed many heart rate monitors simply because the band broke and it was easier to get a new one than have the band fixed. Now the unit itself pops out of the band, and you can get a replacement band should you need one and not have to replace the entire thing.

+++Update+++ The watch band that came with it originally finally broke in January 2018, after pretty much daily workouts from the time I purchased it.

It has an inactivity warning which causes the unit to vibrate if you have been sitting for too long (usually around an hour of being inactive), telling you to get up and move around.

It can pair with the polar balance scale to easily track your weight.

Cons:

It does not have a removable battery in the watch itself, so once it loses its ability to retain a charge then you presumably have to send it to Polar or take it to some authorized Polar retailer to have it replaced. It is not as easy as unscrewing the back and replacing a 2025 or 2032 battery.

The watch and the app (at least on my phone) do not always connect. When I Samsung Galaxy Core Prime, I constantly had to unpair the watch and phone and re-pair them to get the Bluetooth connection to work so the data syncs with my phone. I have not, aside from one time after downloading a firmware update, had an issue with syncing data to my desktop computer (when the watch unit accurately captures the data) via the USB cable the unit plugs into in order to charge. I ended up doing a factory reset (which did lose all my data up to that point) and then it worked okay again. I have updated the firmware since then and have not had the issue with it not syncing via the cable, but the issue pairing it with my phone continues to this day and is the reason I took a star off. I should note that I have never had a problem pairing it with the polar balance scale. It takes a few seconds to make the connection via Bluetooth but has never failed to pair with it.

+++Update+++ I have since bought an iPhone, and have much fewer issues with the syncing than I had with the Android phone. There are times when the watch does not connect to the app, but I just have to restart the process to get them to connect. I have not had to unpair and re-pair the watch and phone ever.

The sleep tracker is spotty. Most days it will work, but there are other days where even when it captures the other data just fine, it will have no data for the sleep monitor.

This is a fairly good, reasonably priced heart rate monitor. It does not have all the bells and whistles that some of runners or triathletes will want, like GPS, but you are not paying for that. If it were more consistent with the pairing with the phone app and never had issues syncing data I would not hesitate to give it 5 stars, but there are enough glitches like that I could not give it 5 stars. Overall, however, even despite the cons it does have I am satisfied with it.

Book Review: Star Wars: Lords of the Sith

 

This is one of the first, in time and chronology canon novels (aside from the existing novelizations of the six movies) to be released under the Disney helm post-purchase of the rights to Star Wars. It is set 8 years after the events of Revenge of The Sith, with Vader installed as the Emperor's right hand/weapon. The Emperor himself is still hiding the fact that he is a Sith Lord from the masses, playing a public role of a weak old man who is just a politician. The Jedi are essentially gone (with Obi-Wan and Yoda in hiding) and it seems the galaxy is beginning to forget about them. Vader is known by reputation as having powers most do not understand, and it is a world where very few know of his true identity as Anakin Skywalker.

The book also focuses on the beginnings of what would become the Rebellion, set around the planet Ryleth and Twi'lek freedom fighters led by Cham Syndulla who was a character in the Clone Wars television series. The organization who have a local imperial in their pocket learns that Vader and the Emperor are going to be coming to the planet with the Senator for the planet. They see an opportunity to take out the head of the empire and the local Moff and hatch a plot to bring down their Star Destroyer. I will not spoil the rest of the plot although everyone knows that Vader and the Emperor survive, but the story of how is really well done and suspenseful.

To me, the best part of the story is the focus on Vader and the Emperor's relationship, and what we get of Vader's state of mind. He has lost everything he loves, and is fueled by rage, and does not care for anyone besides his master, whom he is already considering overthrowing. We learn that he is still haunted by the memories of his past life as Anakin, and uses those to enable his anger and make himself more powerful. We also get a reminder of just how powerful Palpatine is when he wants to be and a sequence where he and Vader take out an entire colony of predatory insect-like creatures native to the planet. It does a lot to set up the characters we eventually see in the original trilogy.

While I do not think the book is perfect, I think it is well done for what it was. I would have liked it to be a novel that gave more post-prequel trilogy check-in on all the major characters. Even just cameos for Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa raising Leia would have been a nice touch. Those novels may, of course, come down the line, but given what the focus of this book was, it was done well. I would definitely recommend it to get more of the canon storyline.

Book Review: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization

 

This is, probably the best novelization of any of the Star Wars films. While Episode III is probably considered the strongest of the prequels, given how much they were despised, it is saying something to say the book turned out great. It is far superior to the movie, mainly because the author was able to flesh out the story by adding scenes and changing some of the weaker dialogue from the screenplay. Although some of the movie's limitations are still present, it does clean up a lot of the problems.

Ultimately the story is how Palpatine/Sidious has been manipulating events from the beginning, using the Clone Wars to turn the republic into an empire, with him at the helm. There is a great scene between Palpatine and Dooku, just before the rescue, that really crystallizes that whole theme. The first third of the book, in fact, tells the events of the rescue, while also reintroducing the Anakin and Obi-Wan characters and how they became heroes during the Clone Wars. Of course, everything sets up for Sidious turning Anakin, which is done in a much slower manner in the novel than it was in the movie, which made it much more believable and made Anakin seem much less like an easily duped rube, which is what he ended up looking like in the movie where he was basically turned in two or three scenes. By telling the story of the Palpatine-Anakin friendship that evolved during the Clone Wars, it made things much more believable. Another aspect I really liked was the author almost splitting Palpatine and Sidious into two separate entities, with Sidious being an all-powerful shadow that could defeat any Jedi.

The book, while longer (about 420 pages) reads relatively fast. It is pretty easy to finish in a couple days if you are a fast reader and how many breaks you take. Even if you were not a huge fan of the movie, it is still worth reading if you are a fan of the novels, as it is one of the better ones both in the canon and expanded universe sets.

Book Review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization

 

The novelization of Episode I, while it does suffer from some of the same issues that the movie did (Jar Jar, 9-year-old Anakin's dialogue, etc) it was able to flesh out more things and set up the characters a bit more, and not drag out some of the political story that the movie seemed to focus on. This novel set out a little bit of the Sith backstory, bringing Darth Bane into the canon as instituting the rule of two. However, the brief summary of Bane does diverge quite a bit from the story told in the non-cannon trilogy of novels. Here Bane was said to be more on the sidelines of the Sith destruction as opposed to orchestrating it, and taking a male apprentice when he was old. Not that it was a big part of the book or the overall story, but it was nice to include. The larger inclusion that worked very well in the book for the overall story was introducing Anakin long before Qui Gon and Padme ran into him in the shop. He is introduced during a podrace that occurs before the one we see in the movie, and more of his skill and caring for others is fleshed out. In fact, there is an interaction with a Tuskin Raider which contrasts well with his actions in Episode II. It also helps that the readers get to know Anakin's feelings for Padme and to an extent her feeling for him through dialogue not in the movie as well as the thoughts of the characters.

I do think the political subterfuge story works much better in the book than it did in the movie. The author was able to cover it enough without going into a ton of detail and focused more on the various character relationships. The book gives more detail on the Qui Gon-Obi Wan relationship than the movie did, and even though Jar Jar was still annoying in the novel, he did seem to be at least a bit less useless than he was in the movie (although not much). Darth Maul was still very underutilized in the book as he was in the movie, with his only real significant appearance being the battle at the end (which was altered a bit from the version that was shown in the movie).

Ultimately your feelings toward the book will largely depend on what you thought of the movie. If you loved the movie, you will likely love the book. If you hated the movie, while you may not hate the book as much, it is not so different that you are likely to love the book. And if you are somewhere in between, then you will find good and bad in the story. It is a fairly quick read and can easily be finished in a day or two if you are a fairly fast reader.

Book Review: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Novelization

 

As was the case with the Episode I novelization, this ends up being much better than the movie. While there are still elements of Lucas' screenplay in the novel, and we all have opinions as to the quality of that, the book is able to flesh out and expand upon things that the movie either just glossed over or skipped altogether. The first few chapters fill in the decade-long gap (somewhat) between Episodes I and II. Then it starts getting into the events that start off the movie. There is much more about how the relationship between Padme and Anakin develops and her conflicted feelings for him. We also get much more of the Shimi Skywalker/Laars family storyline that only gets a few minutes of screen time in the movie. And Anakin's destruction of the Tusken Raider camp is detailed a lot more.

Certainly, some of the issues with the movie are still present in the book. Anakin still comes off at times as just a whiny, bratty teenager. The author even gives him a line in the book that he is not whining when he clearly was. Given that much of what people disliked about the movie is that Lucas wrote Anakin as a whiny brat, it was a pretty funny line. There is also a lot more detail about the separatist movement, and how the Sith are manipulating everything behind the scenes, as well as more detail about Jango and Boba Fett. The only thing it does not really do is flesh out how Sidious ended up taking on Dooku as an apprentice.

Ultimately it does what a good novelization should. It tells the story from the movie but is also made it's own by adding detail that the movie could not because of time restraints. If you hated the movie outright, then chances are you are not going to like the book. If you liked or even were lukewarm to the movie, chances are you will like the book as well, maybe even a bit more than the movie. It is certainly not perfect, given that the source material it was created from was not (in my opinion anyway), but it is enjoyable nonetheless. And, It is a fairly easy read, especially if you are a fast reader.

Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter

 

This is another novel fleshing out the story just prior to the events of The Phantom Menace. One of the Nemoidians is willing to sell (to the highest bidder) information that the Sith still exists. Palpatine/Sidious tasks Darth Maul with tracking him down and killing him, and anyone else he may have told, so the Jedi do not discover the existence of the Sith before their plans can be set into motion. It then becomes a cat-and-mouse chase novel between Maul, a Jedi Padawan on assignment to become a full Jedi knight, and an information broker who is no fan of the Jedi, but knows enough to know the Sith coming back would not be a good thing, so helps in trying to get the information to the Jedi. Most people who are reading the book already know the story that plays out in the movies, so while you can guess how this story is going to turn out, it gets there in a very satisfying way.

Most of the main characters from the prequels are not in the book, although Mace Windu, Qui Gon, and Obi-Wan Kenobi do make an appearance. Palpatine is in the book as well, but more in the background. It is very much like many of the ancillary novels in terms of pacing, but not as bogged down with the political maneuvering that Cloak of Deception was. It is, of course, relegated to the legends (non-canon) novels post-Disney buy out to the rights to Star Wars, but given when it was set that is not likely going to be much of an issue.

Study Aid Review: Mastering Statistics Volume 3

 

This is where Jason's statistics series really gets into the meat of a statistics course. The first two volumes and his old course were really going through the basics of the material. This one covers The Central Limit Theorem and Confidence Intervals, and how to use the various concepts to estimate population means both for large and small samples. As was the case with the previous sets he does not derive any of the formulas or use calculus to solve the problems. He explains how to use the various tables in the book, gives a lot of example problems, and explains how to interpret the problems so you know what is being asked. When it comes down to it, the math in statistics is relatively trivial (just some basic algebra at most) but realizing what the problem is asking and the approach to solving the problem is where the difficulty lies. Jason does a good job of cutting through that.

Like is the case for most of his newer sets, he spends one chapter (sometimes two) introducing a concept and giving some background, then subsequent chapters showing example problems on the concept. This keeps the chapters relatively short (anywhere from 5 to 35 minutes), and has a really good flow to the DVD. Also like the other DVD sets, he is not touching on everything from class (especially in multi-set series like this) so you cannot assume just because you have this you can skip class. But if you use it as intended, as a supplement, this will make your life much easier when you are doing homework or taking quizzes or exams.

There are three other sets to this series that Amazon does not have. Volume 4 finishes confidence intervals and introduces hypothesis testing. Volumes 5 and 6 are devoted entirely to hypothesis testing and variations of it. I am not sure at this point if that will be the end of the series, but given that hypothesis testing is a very large part of any statistics class you will probably want to check those out too.

Study Aid Review: Mastering Statistics Volume 2

 

This is set 2 in, as of this writing, a 6-volume set of mastering statistics volumes Jason has put out, with possibly more to come down the line. It is still covering basic material, and expanding on the core concepts that were introduced in the first volume, and there is still some overlap with the older set Jason put out years ago,  The Probability and Statistics Tutor - 10 Hour Course - 3 DVD Set - Learn By Examples! .

He starts out discussing discrete and continuous probability distribution, then basically spends the rest of the sections on Normal Probability Distribution (bell curves), finding the area under the bell curves using z-values and the tables in the back of most books. It should be noted that while he does mention that finding the area can be done with calculus and doing integration, he left that out and just focused on using the tables in the book, how to interpret the information in the problems, and look them up in the table. If you are taking a statistics class in the math curriculum that may be okay, but if you are taking something like an engineering data analysis class you will probably have to do the integration. But the integrals will end up being relatively basic and easily done with a graphing calculator so it should not cause most people in that situation a lot of problems.

If you have ever seen Jason's material, either because you own another set, or because you have seen sample videos on his site or on Youtube, it follows much the same format as his more recent DVDs. He introduces a concept in one or two lecture sections, then he does problems. Sometimes he does a couple problems in one chapter of the DVD, and sometimes just one. So overall the chapters are shorter, but he still packs a lot of information into the entire disc set. This is still the material that you will see early on in any statistics course, and would probably not cover all the material that you would get in a first exam. It probably translates to the material in the first 2 to 3 weeks of a course. Luckily the later volumes cover material like confidence intervals and hypothesis testing which make up the bulk of what any of the courses will cover.

I personally find that Jason's teaching style meshes with my learning style a lot. He explains things in a way that I find very easy to follow and I have used his DVD sets from algebra through advanced calculus and engineering. While none of his sets cover everything you will need to learn in the classes, and not even all the material you will likely be tested on, he goes through the big, main concepts that you have to know in order to be able to handle any other material. So while this is not a substitute for going to class or reading the book and doing homework, it will help you understand the material much more, so what is in the book is not so hard to follow, and if you have a teacher that is not so great, can make up for what you may not understand from him or her. They have been a great tool for me, and I cannot recommend them more if you are a visual and/or auditory learner.

Study Aid Review: Mastering Statistics Volume 1

 

I own most of Jason's DVD sets (aside from the very basic math sets and his Java programming sets). Some I have purchased through Amazon, and some through his website directly. I am back in school to get an electrical engineering degree. Next fall I have to take data analysis, which is basically applied statistics, with a teacher who does not have a great reputation, so I purchased all the volumes in this set, plus his original probability and statistics tutor  The Probability and Statistics Tutor - 10 Hour Course - 3 DVD Set - Learn By Examples! , to get the basics down before I take the class.

This volume covers the basics/core concepts of statistics. There is a little bit of overlap with his older DVD set, because while that one focused on probability some of the principles from statistics are used in probability and vice versa. So things like histograms, mean and standard deviation and variance will all be refresher concepts if you have the old set. But he does get into a lot of new material, some are definitions like Sample and Population which he did not really get into before, the various types of plots and charts, and things like Quartiles and the various theorems that are applicable only to statistics. So it is definitely not a double dip if you have the older set.

Like all his other DVD sets, Jason covers everything in a step-by-step manner. The new layout for his DVDs has been to introduce the concept in one section and then do example problems in the subsequent section(s) on that topic to keep the individual sections of the DVD shorter. In his older sets it was not uncommon to have hour-plus long sections, which could get to be a bit much if you attempted to watch the entire thing at once. In this set the longest overall section was right under a half hour. He rarely, if ever skips any steps in the problems he works through (I don't think he ever skipped any in this set), and even when he does he warns you ahead of time.

Learning style is different for everyone, but I find the way he explains concepts be it in math, physics, chemistry or engineering are very easy to follow, and much better than some of the free material that you can find out there. It is basically a video lecture though, not unlike sitting in a class lecture, but generally more condensed and focused on problems more than it is on the overall theory. So if it is a fit for your learning style, and you are taking any kind of statistics class, I would highly recommend this.

Study Aid Review: The Probability and Statistics Tutor

 

Probability and statistics can be very easy or extremely frustrating depending on how you are taught. I can be the bane of any college algebra student if your class tacks a few weeks of it onto the end of class because it looks like nothing else that was studied the entire semester, and if you have a teacher that is not great at explaining it, it can seem like complete nonsense. It was certainly the hardest part of my college algebra class, and really the only material I never could grasp, so much so that I answered one of the bonus questions on my final "I don't care".

Jason however does a great job breaking the problems down and making sense out of them. Far better than any of the books do, and better than my teacher did. As is his style, he goes through a ton of examples, breaks down what each question is asking for, and how to interpret them so you can easily spot the difference between a permutation and combination, and when using a particular solution method is needed versus another one. Given that the math in many of the problems is extremely easy, at least at the level of the kind of problems encountered in this set (he has since released several more volumes under the title The Statistics Tutor) which tackle more complex problems than this set has, even in the more advanced problems knowing the kind of question it is and the process used to work through it is 95% of the complexity.

I have not taken a regular statistics class so I am not sure how much of that material this covers. I do know it will show you how to do most, if not all, of the problem types you would see in a college algebra class that tacks probability onto the very end of the semester. I will be taking an engineering data analysis class (which is basically just applied statistics) this fall, with a teacher that does not have a great reputation, so I am using this and Jason's other statistics sets to get the basics of the material down. I do however have enough experience with Jason's other DVD sets to know he never covers every topic that a class will expose you to, but goes through the big topics you are most likely to see on exams and quizzes. So while it is not a substitute for going to class, it will give you a good handle on the material and I highly recommend it.

I have used many of Jason's DVD sets. I have been going back to school for an electrical engineering degree. I have used, and reviewed almost all of Jason's courses, from basic algebra, to the advanced engineering material. You have to know whether a DVD will fit your learning style. He basically gives example heavy lectures. He rarely works through any kind of proof material, just focusing on problems, but at the end of the day, it is still him standing in front of a whiteboard doing problems. So if you are a visual and audio learner, it is great. He works through everything step by step and explains everything he is doing for every problem. He rarely ever skips steps and when he does it is only because it is the same thing he has shown in multiple problems up to that point and makes a point to at least tell you what steps he is skipping so you are not lost, unlike a lot of times when books skip them.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables, 4th Edition

 

This is a great resource, but you need to be clear on what you are getting. It is not going to teach you any material. That you are going to get from class or textbooks, or both. It is simply a book that will give you all the formulas in one place, in a much more compact form than any textbook will give you. You do not have to weave through pages of proofs, explanations, or examples to get to the end result. It covers things from the very simple to the very advanced. Realistically it is impossible to recall every formula that you come across in math and science classes. And, a lot of times people do not keep their textbooks, but you never know when you are going to have to look up a formula at some point down the road that you know exists, but cannot remember all the details of.

When I was in upper-level engineering classes, the professors tended to keep the math relatively basic for many exam questions, but there were some homework questions and class examples that got pretty detailed, and a lot of times they would just say you can solve this using ________ equation/formula and just assume we remember it. Now yes in this day and age you can find almost anything on the internet, but for those of us who prefer books, and writing out homework by hand, this is a great resource. And if you happen to have a class that gives totally open book/note exams, it is something that could come in handy.

Spoof Review: Uranium Ore

 

This stuff actually sells on Amazon for fifty bucks. The reviews are quite funny, my contribution was:

When I was back in 1955 the Doc said he was sure you could but this stuff at the store in 1985. He was off by about 30 years, but now I do not have to even waste time going to the store!

Study Aid Review: The Circuit Analysis Tutor Volume 5

 

This is the 5th in Jason's circuit analysis tutor set and the last one that deals with DC current. This, along with the other 4 volumes covers approximately 75% of the material you will get in the first semester of circuit analysis if you are in the class for EE majors, or more if you are in the class for non-EE majors. This set uses more calculus than the others, mostly differentiating and integrating exponential functions. In fact in some of the problems he goes through you do not even get a circuit diagram, just a description of what is going on and then you have to use the equations to solve them.

This set deals with inductors and capacitors in circuits that also have resistors. The RL and RC circuits. Like with all of his DVDs Jason only presumes you have the math and circuit experience to be at that point. So basically that you have learned the material on the other 4 volumes and have taken calculus. He does not assume that you have any experience with RL and RC circuits, even though some who have taken physics may have gained some experience with them in the second semester of the class. The shows how to solve each problem step-by-step and does not cut corners.

I used this set (and the other 4 volumes) and worked through them over the summer before I took Circuits I and II. I can tell you that many of the problems he works through are word for word out of my textbook that I used, and while Jason does not touch on every single concept or problem type in every chapter, he does hit the main points, and the things concepts that we were tested on. I got a B in the first semester of circuits (because of a couple of brain farts on exams) and an A in the second semester. I used Jason's math, chemistry, physics, and circuits DVDs with much success. I finished my EE degree with a 3.8 GPA and got As in most of the core classes. You will still have to study and go to class in order to do well, but if you use these as a supplement as they are intended to be used they will absolutely help you.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 45

Day 45 was a flexibility and mobility day, with the namesake routine in 645, and in XB I did the lower back six-minute routine.

The flexibility workout in 645 was good. It follows the same format as it has the entire time, seven total moves that are performed back-to-back, then you get a 45-second break. You do three rounds and then finish with box breath breathing. 

Product Review: Body BRD2800 Rider Deluxe Flywheel Dual Trainer

 

This is definitely on the lower end quality-wise for an elliptical. You definitely know you are not paying $700 plus dollars for it. It worked fine until the pedal broke at a weld point and it was no longer usable.

I was able to put it together by myself in a couple hours. I did notice that the housing that covers the inner workings was cracked, likely in shipping, but nothing major and I was still able to put it together. It is made of relatively cheap plastic though. The hardest part to put together was actually the pedal assembly because there is a little pin that goes in a hole that keeps falling out until you get the washer over it. With two people it would not be as hard, but if you are putting it together by yourself it will be a pain. And you have to do one on each side. After that, the rest of it is pretty easy.

It does have a short stride length. I am 5'7" and it is just on the edge of being okay for me. So if you are tall, you are probably going to want to look at something else. It is kind of loud when using it as a bike, but when you are standing up on it, it is relatively quiet. The display unit sits really low. It is easy to see when you are sitting on the seat, but very hard to see when you are standing up. I have not had issues with loud noises coming from the bearings like other reviewers have, but I could see it happening if it gets knocked around during shipping.

All in all, this is really a get-what-you-pay-for unit. It is okay, but not great. Certainly nowhere near gym quality. I would say if you can afford a more expensive unit you will definitely get more out of it because this is really bare bones. I would also not let someone who does not have good balance or stability use it as an elliptical because if one of the pedals breaks while standing and using it, it is a fall risk. 

Study Aid Review: The Chemistry 1 Tutor: Volume 4 - Oxidation and Reduction Reactions

 

This is the fourth volume in Jason's Chemistry 1 series, which is designed to cover the first semester of General Chemistry. If you are taking Introduction to Chemistry (or non-AP high school chemistry) what you get in the 4 volumes will cover pretty much the entire class. If you are taking the General Chemistry class (or AP chemistry in high school) you will get about 70-75 percent of what you will get in the first semester. The main topics that Jason omitted are the ideal gas laws and thermochemistry. Those are topics that may be covered in later releases.

This particular set of DVDs covers redox (oxidation, reduction) reactions. As is Jason's style in all of his DVDs, he only presumes you have the knowledge of the material that proceeds what you are working on. In this case, you need to be very familiar with net ionic equations and Stoichiometry. Aside from that he presumes you are an absolute beginner with redox reactions and walks you through step-by-step, explaining everything he is doing along the way to drill the material into your head. You end up doing so many examples that you have no choice but to learn how to balance the reactions.

The best part of the set in my opinion is how he explains the problems that require you to balance reactions taking place in a basic solution. His method is a workaround to the method that many books teach, which builds on the process of balancing reactions in an acidic solution by tacking on three additional steps at the end. Many books teach an alternate step in the middle of the process that then requires you to do a lot more work to get everything to balance. You will want to get an idea for what method your teacher wants you to use, but most of the time if you get the right answer, they will not care how you got to it, as long as you show your work.

I have used Jason's material as the foundation for my preparation to get me through all levels of calculus and the first year of physics. Even though you have to pay for the DVDs as opposed to finding the material for free online, I believe that the quality of the material and Jason's teaching style is that good. If you are a visual learner and do not need the interaction you would get with a regular tutor, and want something that will get you a jump on the material or clarify what you did not understand in the lecture, then these DVDs are the best investment you can make.

Book Review: Body For Life (Hardcover)

 

Body For Life (BFL) is a book on fitness and nutrition that was written by Bill Phillips and published in 1999. The book came out at a time when there was not really many all-in-one, workout, nutrition, and supplementation plan. It was before P90x, Insanity and the more reputable things that are out there now that do not emphasize a gadget or magic pill, but said that if you eat right and exercise (and showed you how to do both) you can transform your body. I used the program with a Bowflex and Nordic track ski machine and lost over 40 lbs.

The book is a good introduction to a fitness and nutrition plan. It is perfect for someone who wants to get in shape but needs a little motivation and does not really know what to do. Depending on your body, genetics, commitment, and goals, this can do anything from help you lose a few pounds to get you into a fitness model kind of shape. Just be aware, that depending on your body type and genetics, it may take more than just the 12-week plan laid out here to get you in great shape. I have known people who did (and still do) nothing but BFL and do look like fitness models. I have known others that have had to go beyond BFL to get in great shape. I personally have to eat a lot more strictly than the nutrition plan in the book to get in great shape.

Back in the 1990s, Phillps, a former competitive bodybuilder, was the editor of Muscle-Media Magzine and owned the supplement company, EAS. BFL sprang from a competition that he announced in the magazine, challenging people to get in shape for a chance to win his Lamborghini (which was documented in the film Body of Work). Once BFL was created, they did multiple challenges giving prizes to people who got in shape via the program.

I know people have complained that he shills for his former company's line of supplements in the book. He wrote it when he owned EAS, and when he discusses meal replacement shakes he does plug EAS's brand. He certainly does not insist you have to use it or any other supplement, and I did not feel it took away from the messages in the book at all. And, let's face it he wrote the book in part to make money and had a for-profit company. Anyone in his position would have done the same thing. Since EAS and Myoplex no longer exist, it is a moot point for anyone who was to read the book now.

While Body for Life is probably not as popular as it once was, in part because it has more competition and the fact that Bill is not affiliated with EAS or the BFL challenge anymore, it remains a great program (especially for beginners) and will provide you with plenty of motivation. The hardcover version of the book is about 200 pages and reads very easily. Most people can probably finish the book in a few hours. Throughout the book, there are testimonials, mostly by the people who appeared in the movie Body of Work, but the bulk of the book is spent laying out the fitness and nutrition programs. Each of those is a bit cookie-cutter and as I said above, may not work the same for everyone. The fitness plan can be implemented at home, but just be aware that the lower-body resistance workout is easier to do in a gym where most people will have access to more equipment that will allow them to do a wider variety of exercises and use more weight. If you are a beginner, or just someone who has gotten out of shape over time, this is a good program to start with or to get back on track with.

Study Aid Review: Extra Practice with Integrals Volume 2

 

This material covers what is for many people the hardest part of Calc II. Specifically, this set covers the area and volume integration problems and integration by parts. Jason does several problems on the disk, shell, and washer methods for calculating volume, and tons of integration by parts problems. There are a couple other topics that he covers, but those are the big ones. The two things I wish he would have shown in this set were the table method for integration by parts that make the problems much quicker and easier, and showing some of the washer, shell, and disk method problems revolving around an alternate axis. Even without those, he explains the concept far better than the book ever does.

There are a couple caveats I want to make. There are several integration techniques that you will get exposed to in class that are not on this or volume 1 of this set. They are however covered on his calculus 1 & 2 tutor and advanced calculus 2 tutor DVDs. This is really just fleshing out what was on those sets and adding concepts that he could not put into those DVDs. Also while he does a large selection of problems, he does not generally pick the hardest ones to do. He picks the kind that are most likely to show up on a quiz or exam, but not always the really hard ones you get for homework.

 I very much believe in Jason's products and his teaching style. If you use this set correctly, meaning as supplements but not substitutes for class and homework, it will help reinforce the material, shore up lectures that you may not have understood, or serve as test preparation. I made it through the entire calculus sequence at my school with straight A's and while I did have to study hard, these definitely gave me a leg up. I had confidence in the fact that I knew the material and expected to get perfect scores on my exams not just pass them. While that did not happen all the time, it did happen more than once. I was a horrible math student when I was young, and now because of Jason's DVDs and hard work, I am a very good math student and even tutor it myself.

Workout Update: 645 and XB Stretch Hybrid - Day 44

For Day 44 I did the lower body stretch routine in XB, and then it was total body power in 645.

I did not get any closer to doing the splits during the XB workout that I have gotten before. But, I could hold the hamstring stretches without as much discomfort for a bit longer than the last time I did the routine.

The 645 workout is another one in which the reps are lower, but the weight goes up (somewhat). There were a couple of exercises in which I used lower weight not so much because I could not use a heavier weight but because I did not want to swing a larger dumbell over my head in my basement with low ceilings.  Even so, I was definitely getting winded during the workout, so I was definitely working.

Study Aid Review: Calculus 1: Extra Practice with Integrals Volume 1

 

Anyone who has taken calculus can tell you that doing integration is the hardest part of the first-year calc sequence. And, if you do not get the concept early it will carry over into all the other courses where you need to be able to do integrals. The farther along you get, the more you are going to be expected to do them quickly.

This set really enforces the basic integration techniques. It starts out by introducing the concepts and the use of rectangles to approximate the area under the curve. Jason does not spend time on things like Simpson's Rule, Euler's Method, and the Midpoint Rule, which you will use in class when you first start learning integrals. So, as I have stated in other reviews of Jason's products do NOT rely on this as a substitute for class and homework. It is a supplement for a reason.

The big concepts Jason touches on in this volume are integrating polynomials, exponential, logarithms, and trig functions. Then he spends a ton of time on integration by substitution. It is the most used integration technique (at least the one that can be done without a computer the easiest) and when you learn how to do it fast, it will save your bacon on a lot of exams. In my differential equations final I was stuck on a problem where I could not figure out how to proceed, then I saw the substitution that I needed to make and was able to finish it off quickly.

The better you get at this material the easier things will be in your advanced math, physics, and engineering classes. Jason gives you lots of examples after introducing the topic and goes step-by-step through how to solve them. That process really helps sharpen your algebra skills as well, because many times the calculus part of the problem is very easy, but the simplifying (which is all algebra) is what takes the longest and offers the most opportunities for mistakes.

If your learning style is conducive to watching recorded lectures, Jason's DVDs are the best non-required investment you can make. I have almost all of his material, and it has helped me as a non-traditional student who was horrible at math when I was younger get straight A's in math. I highly recommend his DVDs.

DVD/Movie Review: American Ninja 5

 

American Ninja 5 is a movie from 1992 starring David Bradley, Anne Dupont, Lee Reyes (from the renowned Reyes martial arts family), and James Lew. Pat Morita (from The Karate Kid) is billed as a lead, but he is really only in the movie for less than 10 minutes, a couple of minutes in the beginning, a few minutes in the middle, and a couple of minutes in the end.

The plot of the movie is a mess. It is kind of a combination of the plots from the other American Ninja movies mashed together with a bit of Karate Kid (the mentoring aspect, not because of anything Pat Morita does) mixed in. The basics are a rich bad guy in Venezuela played by Clement von Franckenstein is forcing a scientist played by Aharon Ipale, to build a bio-weapon and using an army of (really pathetic) ninjas led by James Lew's character, the Viper as enforcers. 

The movie is about as bad as you would suspect, especially if you have seen the other movies in the franchise. Ultimately, this movie is not really a part of the franchise since it has no ties to the other movies. David Bradley is brought back, but he plays a completely different character than he did in American Ninja 3 and 4. Tadashi Yamashita, who played the lead evil ninja in American Ninja 1 does appear as himself at the very beginning of the movie, but there is not even a reference to Michael Dudikoff or Steve James' characters from the other movies. So, this movie is basically a total reset of the franchise that was not in any way needed. The acting and writing are horrible, but the martial arts action is good, for the most part. The movie is very cheesy and campy. There are horrible sound effects throughout the movie, and the lead evil ninja never wears a ninja uniform. Instead, he alternates between a trenchcoat and a cape from scene to scene, and he has a pompadour and a ponytail.

The DVD just has the movie itself, which starts playing as soon as the disc loads. There are no extras or bonus material, and there are no captions. Ultimately, you know what you are getting with the movie. A D-level action movie. It was one of the last ninja movies that was made after the genre started to putter out in the late 1980s. It is longer than most of the other movies in the genre (clocking in at 1 hour and 40 minutes) and definitely seems to drag on. If you accept it for what it is, it is an okay action movie. If you expect anything more than that, you will be disappointed.