The Corner Penthouse

I bought the OCZ StealthXStream 600 Watt Power Supply (PSU) on July 19, 2007 for $94.99 from Micro Center in Westbury, New York four days after I bought all of the other parts I used to assemble my own computer. It came with a 36 months (3 years) manufacturer's warranty. So, of course, it chose to die on February 24, 2011, which is 43 months (3 years 7 months) later. It's like OCZ manufactured it to last just long enough for the warranty to expire :-)

Some reviewers on Amazon had their PSUs die in 10 months, 8 months, 2-3 months, or even 2 weeks! So it looks like I was actually lucky that mine lasted as long as it did. Still, I've owned computers since 1992/1993, and none of the PSUs in them have ever died. This OCZ unit was the first to die. So, that alone, doesn't rate it very high in my book, in spite of it lasting longer than others have reported.

The new PSU I just bought from NewEgg is a Sigma Focus SP700B 700W (800W Peak) ATX12V power supply, which set me back $69.94 ($59.99 + $9.65 shipping). NewEgg claims that it has a 3 years manufacturer's warranty, though I can find no proof of that on the packaging or on the Sigma website. Of course, I'm hoping that it lasts MANY years - a lot longer than three - so I shouldn't have to even worry about the warranty.

Included in the TNA Anthology: The Epic Set box set are the following three pay-per-views:

* Victory Road 2004 (November 7, 2004) [TNA's first three-hour PPV]
* Turning Point 2004 (December 5, 2004) [TNA's second three-hour PPV]
* Lockdown 2005 (April 24, 2005) [TNA's first all-steel cage PPV]

Read more »

Way back in 1991, Michael Jackson released the song "Black or White" as a single from his album, Dangerous. The song is a fusion of pop rock, dance and hip hop, which Epic Records described as "a rock 'n' roll dance song about racial harmony". The music video for "Black or White" was directed by John Landis, who previously directed Jackson's "Thriller" music video. There are three versions of the music video. Let's take a quick look at them...

Read more »

Here we are at the seventh, and final, season of the Melissa Joan Hart series, Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Our fair Sabrina has left college and has now joined the workforce as a journalist for Scorch magazine. The first episode of the season, "Total Sabrina Live", provides the conclusion to the Season 6 finale ("I Fall To Pieces"); but with no "previously on" segment to explain what's happened before, it doesn't make any sense to new viewers.

Read more »

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Collection (alt listing) consists of the three original live-action Turtles films from the early-to-mid 1990s, and the computer-animated TMNT film from 2007, along with a sheet of temporary tattoos - all packaged in a standard plastic keepcase, with two double-sided pages inside, one disc per side.

Read more »

The Rock: The Peoples' Champion VHS (not to be confused with The Rock: The People's Champ VHS) is a short, 30 minute sampler of promo and match highlights from The Rock's feud with The Corporation, featuring Triple H and The Undertaker. Nothing is shown in its entirety, and all cuss words are bleeped.

Read more »

The other day I saw the Commando / The Marine Double Feature and several other titles in the "20th Century Fox 75th Anniversary Double Feature" series at BJ's Wholesale Club, each priced at $6.99. I was tempted to buy a few of them, but since they don't give any DVD specs (video format, languages, subtitles, extras) at all on the back, I did not want to take a chance getting ripped off in a major way. This is the first time I've seen a DVD release from a major studio that didn't give the DVD specs on the back of the case. I guess Fox didn't want you to know what you were buying until AFTER you opened the case and played the discs.

Read more »

This is not really a review, but more of a specifications and bonus features list intended to give all of you the details on exactly what you will find in several of Warner Bros. "4 Film Favorites" DVD sets. All of the info below was originally written in July 2010.

Read more »

Since July 2007 I've owned an Acer AL1917WAbd 19" LCD Monitor. It works great and I've never had a problem with it. However, with the recent purchase of a Blu-ray drive, it no longer meets my needs as it's not in a 16:9 aspect ratio (it's 16:10) and it's not HDCP-compliant (a requirement for Blu-ray playback). So I went online and looked for an affordable monitor that met those two new requirements, and also has a DVI-D input and is physically no wider than 18 inches (the maximum amount of space I have available on my desk for a monitor). I found a monitor that met all four of my requirements, but I sure had a heap of trouble with it since practically day one. Here's a nice detailed timeline of the ordeal I went through.

Read more »

This review was originally written on April 6, 2009, the day after the live Wrestlemania 25 event took place.

Read more »