Gone Wireless! With the Logitech M510 and K270

Finally converted to the wireless input setup! Before, I was afraid of terrible input lag and bad range based on newegg/amazon reviews. I guess some people just didn't take care of their products or didn't have any luck. Anyways, lets go on with the brief review of these products.

M510
 Before this mouse, I impulse bought the Marathon Mouse. I think the model was M705. So here's the list of features of the Marathon Mouse and things I'd like to point out:

+3 Hour battery life
+Ergonomic feel (when I tried it at best buy)
+ Frictionless scroll wheel

- Cramped my hand after some use. It's not like my IM Explorer where I can just lay my hand on the mouse. I had to sort of claw grip it since my hands are big.
 - Sensor was off-centered to the upper right of the mouse (facing down). This was the main reason I exchanged this product with the M510. Normal browsing was a hassle, even for just click programs on the taskbar and desktop. The mouse pointer goes along an unusual arc when the mouse is pivoted and translated. So in order to get accurate motion, you have to keep the mouse straight.

After getting the 510, here is what I noticed:

+Good battery life. I really don't mind changing the batteries at least every year.
+Better ergonomic feel. It's better for me to claw grip a mouse that is mostly symmetrical.
+Sensor is still off-centered, but only to the right (when mouse is facing down). There is still a slight arc when I pivot the mouse. It still throws off accuracy, but it is way more tolerable. For serious gameplay, I would just use a mouse with a centered sensor. But I use this mouse for messing around in games like LoL. I haven't tried it for FPS, but I imagine it wouldn't be the best experience.
+Range is awesome. Could be used from across the other end of my room and into the bathroom. Of course, there has to be nothing in the way. In my case, my desktop is in the way since I put the receiver in the back, but a wall will totally hinder the connection.

- Off- centered sensor

K270

This keyboard has the basic layout, with basic keys (non-flat). The keys are a bit cramped together so that when I rest my fingers on ASDF, my pinky hangs on the left edge of the 'A' key as if it is about to fall off. This doesn't really hinder my typing though. Once I start stroking (lol), I'm still capable of hitting all the keys accurately.

A surprise was how responsive the keyboard is. I decided to give a Stepmania test and I was pinning down Flawless points as if I was on my wired keyboard. This was a major plus for me. Also, the range is just as far as the mouse.

The construction does feel a bit cheap though. When I hold it, it feels like it would break easily. For example, it would snap all the way through the internals if I step on it lightly. The good thing about this, is that the keyboard is super light and small. So it would be easier to carry around for LAN parties.

Conclusion

I'm completely happy with these purchases. Once I find a cheap wireless logitech mouse with a unifying receiver that has the mouse sensor in the middle, I will purchase it immediately. But for now, I'm pretty satisfied going wireless and I wish I would've done it sooner.

[C#] Visual Studio Database woes...

Site is on one domain and I need to remotely connect to an SQL Database.
- In the Server Explorer, connecting to the SQL Database uses Windows Authentication.
- With Windows Authentication on, produces untrusted zone error.
- With it off, produces failed login error.

The fix?
- Connection string format:
"Data Source=<source>;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=<initial_catalog>;Trusted_Connection=Yes"

- In Web.Config, add
<configuration>
   <system.web>
       <identity impersonate="true"/>

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Sql Db Type is numeric, but how to express it in C#?
- Use Decimal

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How to express VarChar(MAX) in C#?
- SqlDbType.VarChar, -1

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Sony Ericsson C901 vs W810 photo comparison

 I'm going to start posting random photos from the C901 in my new Flickr here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79814727@N06/sets/72157629965876287/

Yea, I know that this is an unfair battle, but there may be people out there still living in the k750/w810 world. Below are samples ( First pic of set is w810).

When taking the pic of the jacket, I set the EV to about -1.7 on the C901. On the W810, I changed the EV, but it didn't have much effect. Also, the colors on the C901 were close to what I see with my eye. It's a little on the cool side. The real color is a bit more yellowish. You can take the C901 pic of the jacket and in Photoshop, enter the color balance mode and adjust the yellow to 80% to the left while the preserve luminosity option is unchecked.

In the pics with the guitar, it seems that the w810 showed better color. Notice how the wall in the background is a bit blue-ish on the C901 pic. I guess that is the "cool" trait that it has.

Samsung Attain 4G

[Samsung Attain 4G]
I put pics from this phone for fun. It did pretty well and is more tolerable than the W810. The C901 still has better color reproduction, and the guitar is a bit saturated in the Samsung phone. As far as sharpness, it is hard to tell at this point. As you can see on the little "grid circles" on the bed sheet, the C901 shows it more clearer. This probably means there were different focal points, which probably means that the C901 might have a focusing problem, since I know I didn't aim at the bed.

So the pics speak for themselves. What about the rest of the features? In the eyes of a daily user, both phones pretty much function the same, especially in navigation. I do notice a difference in sound quality, which the C901 wins.

The camera fps and quality is way more tolerable. The quality is probably not that friendly for the hardcore youtubers that require 720p and up.

Physical feel? Maybe the user before changed the C901 keypad or something cause the tactile pressure seems uneven. It seems to have a more "clicky" feel near the center of the pad, which loses that trait near the edges. Also, since the C901 is thin, adding a plastic case actually makes it feel a bit nicer for people with big hands. Adding one on a W810 just made it uncomfortably beefy.

Battery life? I can go 3 days without charging with my W810 with minimum activity. It beats going only half a day with Android. I haven't tested the battery life on the C901 yet, but I'll update this blog with it later.

Price? I can score the w810 for under 30 bucks which includes shipping. That's pretty good for cellphone, flashlight, decent camera, music player (which sucks a lot of battery juice btw, don't know if the C901 will), durability, and battery life. I scored the C901 for about a 100, which was an impulse buy when I saw that Buy It Now price. So was it worth it? Well, I'll just have to find out and update this blog....

...anyways, that's all for now!