Pretty good for it's age...
928107
Had the album 40 years ago. It doesn't wear as well, but it's still good stuff. Worth a listen.
3469748
I read some of this book in high school, but read it in its entirety recently to see how I felt about it as a 32-year-old adult. I enjoyed it somewhat.
It is a good plot concept in general, with lots of opportunity for analysis and psychological scrutiny. However, oftentimes I had a difficult time believing that the characters were children, because they seemed to behave a little too adult for their age. The writing was a bit verbose for my tastes, although not excessively so. Because of this, it didn't suck me into it's world entirely, and it wasn't something that I was very enthusiastic about finishing, except to find out how it ends.
Overall, this is worth reading if you have any curiosity about it, but it may take some determination to get through it.
3368749
I bought this to pull some data activities from for my math classes, and there are some real beauties here. I docked it a star because of its age - the technology referenced is a little dated, but the problems and activities are very good.
916491
The SP-500UZ is a little dated by 2012 standards where consumers are led to believe that without 14-16 megapixels, image stabilization and 32x zoom lenses it is not possible to capture great images.  A friend once stated that it often isn't the bow that matters, but the skill of the archer.  To some extent I agree.

I have used Olympus digitals for some time and still have an old C2040 that performs great.  I got this one to get a little more reach for nature photos.  The lens is pretty good, though it isn't the F1.8 that is found on the 2040.  The 10X zoom is very nice and does what I wanted.  It is nice to have a "little" more modern media card.  SmartMedia cards are expensive and have limited capacity.  The SP-500UZ uses xD cards, but skip the modern m+ cards with capacities greater than 1gb.  The current card is a 1Gb xD-H type card and it works fine with a reasonably fast write time.  I really like all of the added electronic features and controls, though it is a great idea to spend some quality time figuring out what everything does.  6MP is decent resolution for most web applications or for presentations.

I was able to get this as a factory Refurbished unit for a very reasonable price.  After using it for a month, I would hunt another one down!
3353286
I purchased this computer in 2007 and it has done a pretty good job. The battery has endurance: it still holds a two and a half hour charge. It gets the job done with some bonus features without breaking the bank. If you just need to do basic tasks, this is the computer for you. If you want power, look elsewhere.

UPDATE: On the three year anniversary of purchase, the hardware has almost given out. It now makes noises at start-up for no reason and the CD drive seldom works any more (and when it does, it can rip maybe one CD before it ceases to work again.
4910958
This is admittedly one of the poorest reviews I've ever done, yet in a way one of the coolest.  The product came along just as our 10 year old grandson was beginning to create a video of his own, and wanting to edit it.  What a great opportunity, I thought, to see just how easy it is to learn and use.  To be honest, it's a bit confusing because there was no instruction manual or even a help button that was apparently available, yet it says it has over 500 features.  I'm big on documentation, and this was lacking.

We decided to turn it over to Mr. Brilliant (the 10 year old), and he dove in an intuitively figured it out and seems to have mastered it, or at least used it quite productively.  So, asking him how it was, he just said he likes it.  From him, that's a big endorsement.  And literally, we could not pull anything else out of him about it - he was too busy using it.  Even later, he was "too busy" to discuss it, and just reiterated that he liked the program and it worked fine for him.

So, if a 10 year old (admittedly bright beyond his years) can figure it out easier than an adult with plenty of experience using a computer, perhaps that's a great endorsement.  I only hesitate to give it a 5-star rating because I simply haven't had a need (or the time) to personally sit down with it and try to plow through all its not-so-wonderfully documented "500 features" to do a really thorough assessment of it.  Unfortunately, there's a time factor involved with producing Vine reviews in order to stay active in the program, so I wanted to at least get something useful up on the product.  And quite honestly, the more I thought about it, the more it did seem significant that if a 10 year old boy could sit down with it and get it up and productively running to edit his own videos, it can't be a shabby product.  It just might have been nice if Cyberlink took care of us "old folks" that never had computers when we were kids (I started with punch cards and Fortran IV, back before floppy discs and monitors had even been thought of).  My first "monitor" was a TV hooked up to my high-tech Commodore VIC-20 computer, with its BASIC language, and a cassette tape recorder for storage.  Windows?  I was about 40 when I finally got to use that.  So maybe if a 10 year old kid can figure it out, a younger adult also has a chance!  LOL!
603845
I had this book in 1978 when I bought my first kayak. Much of it today is terribly outdated as far as the equipment is concerned.  The basics are still relevant such as paddling techniques etc.  I bought it strictly as a nostalgic thing.  I love it but I'm sure there are newer, more relevant books out there.
4157757
Fairly good if you like oldies. Some good battle scenes. A little dated (like me) so if you like this genre, its better than many!
4302233
I love Mega Man, and I loved this show when it first aired in 1994.  And I was stoked when I first got my hands on this 3-disc DVD set.  However, that elation didn't last all that long.

What it boils down to is that it's kids' stuff, and I'm not a kid anymore.  And I wince when I hear the heroes spouting off cliche one-liners so frequently that James Bond himself wouldn't be able to stomach it.

On the other hand, the cool factor remains--seeing the robot masters that I loved so much in my youth on the tube still remains a treat.  For that reason, I don't regret owning this set.  And I don't think any Mega Man fan would.  But nevertheless, before you buy, just remember that my disposition is sentimental, and has nothing to do with these Mega Man episodes being of high quality...because in all honesty, they really aren't.
4570290
For the price this is a great deal.  It does appear to a little dated, maybe from the early 90's by way of the large circles.  I still like it though. I didn't have the problem as most people did with understanding the directions...mine didn't come with any.
630344
If I'd had this as a kid, it would've been the coolest thing I owned. As an adult, it's still pretty cool.

The build quality seems poor. Mine arrived with the bezel installed 1/4" out of place, exposing the LCD unit. Luckily it's just stuck on with double-sided tape so I was able to easily position it correctly. The LCD also has a low viewing angle reminiscent of the Game Gear, it's a little uncomfortable to look at after a while. Battery is the same as the Game Boy Advance SP, so it should be relatively easy to find replacements (for now). The battery compartment is gigantic, so you could easily cut out part of the case, solder in your own battery pack, and still be able to easily access it. When I removed the cover, I noticed that the CPU, SDRAM, and NAND chips all look worn, so I wonder if they're recycled chips. They all seem to work fine so far, though.

The software is decent. This device has an Ingenic JZ725B processor, which is the same family of processors on the Dingoo, so I wonder what kind of alternate firmware can be installed. The emulator software ranges from great (GBA) to barely acceptable (SNES), with most having poor sound emulation. The SNES emulation is disappointing, which is made even more disappointing by the fact that most of the issues could probably be solved with different emulators or configuration files, unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about this on the factory firmware. Also frustrating, some emulators save the SRAM to the internal memory, which isn't ideal. Watch out for that, because the internal memory has some games on it in addition to the included microSD card, so you may way to move some things around to free up some space. Luckily, pressing START+SELECT lets you use savestates, which appear to all go next to the game files.

Overall, I think this is a great purchase for kids. I would probably buy it again for myself as a throwaway device which I can just keep in my car or in my backpack and not care if it breaks or gets stolen, but I wouldn't spend a dollar more. If you're serious about handheld emulation, I would highly recommend saving up a little to a lot more to spend on any homebrew system (GPH, Dingoo, Pandora/Pyra, etc) or a jailbroken PSP/Vita over this device.
3433569
Certainly has a lot of good stuff to it, but the 1995 print date makes it feel a little behind the times (when he's using examples - obviously math itself has not changed). Could have been a bit clearer on certain subjects considering that a person buying the "Dummies" books probably wants it put as simply as possible. He kinda assumes you know certain things, which a book of this nature shouldn't do. Still pretty easy to pick up on though, even if you have to read a chapter twice to do so. Only other real complaint is that a lot of the subject matter is not, in fact, everyday common math. Recommended if you can get it for under $10.
4950317
I loved this movie when I was a teenager.  It's not bad, but a little on the hokey side.  Good action, though, and a good love story.  Music is great!!  Overall an enjoyable movie, but some of the writing and acting bring it down to 3 stars.
3001223
I have had this laptop since November of 2014, working well with the games I played at the time, on Medium/High graphics. It was great back then, but it can't keep up as much anymore, games are just too demanding on the poor GTX 860M, the 8GB of DDR3 RAM isn't enough anymore, the lack of an SSD makes booting up applications slow at times and time has taken a toll on my fan, it was quiet as a whisper in its first year, but now it's a roaring jet engine and can't keep the laptop cool. Touching the bottom of the laptop while running an game would be a mistake since it could be compared to placing your hand on a BBQ grill on full blast. The keyboard has help up very well, with my 4 most used keys (W,A,D & SPACE) having lost a bit of their original feel. My charger stopped working after about 2 years and I was forced to buy a new one and the thing is a major dust and fingerprint magnet
If you're looking for a multimedia and light gaming computer this might be for you, but considering the price you could honestly go for something better. This laptop was good 3 years ago when I first got it, now you're better off buying something recent.
4326339
I struggled with whether to give this item 4 or 5 stars. In the end, I chose 5 because, in my opinion, it is perfect for what it is: A great entry-level, easily portable or stored, USB turntable option.

It remarkably reminds me of the vintage player I had as a kid in the late-70s/early-80s. And, it sounds about the same (meaning, passable but obviously not great). As a solution that allows me some nostalgia, to play records for my kids ("Hey Mom, what are those things?"), to bring my vinyl collection back to life, and then store somewhere in a closet until next time, it is great.

As for the USB aspect, it took only a minute to configure my laptop (using Windows8.1) to see the turntable. It took a few more minutes and a reboot to install the software and make an actual test file. But, the main steps were detailed in the included documentation and additional details were available on-line. That said, one tip, the version of Audacity provided on CD is now obsolete, so be sure to go to the Audacity website to get the latest version.
2797157
I think we bought this 1.5+ years ago, and my daughter uses this all the time... and I mean all the time! It's still working fine, unlike the other one we got before that broke down after maybe a year. The screen is big and clear, sound ok (althought it always defaults to very loud... maybe bacuse I don't batteries anymore - see below). Small enough that we carry it all the time when tarveling (god send with kids).

The only down side is that battery doesn't hold changes anymore (like 5 min max now) after no that long... so it's always plugged in now. Having a hard time finding a replacement battery....
1560982
Malice was supposed to be released back in 2001, as a platformer in the style of Ratchet and Clank. When it finally came out in 2004, it had become dated, but still fun.

Much like other games of its style, you go around collecting objects. You collect heart-pieces to gain more health, and mana crystals to build up your magic power. You roam through various worlds, smashing minions with your club and hammer, saving the universe from destruction.

It's hard to fairly review this game as a late-2004 release. If you look back at the state of games in 2001, this game is fairly similar. The grass has little details but does not move as you run through it. The backgrounds are fairly simple with static, painted on textures. THe sounds are straight forward - "hup! hup!" as you jump from spot to spot, and relatively straightforward voice acting.

The heroine, a young girl in t-shirt and jeans, is refreshing in a world that usually involves male characters. She has a spunky attitude and is a goddess that has come back from the dead to set things right. So I really wanted this game to succeed, and to be able to give it a great review.

The issue is that they did NOT release this back in 2001 when it should have come out. Instead it appears they simply sat on it for 3 years, and then rushed it out to make some money off of it. They didn't get the graphics, sound or gameplay up to current standards. So when you play this, you compare it against other modern games and it just falls short.

Again, take the graphics. You get a sense that you're in an old Link adventure, and yes the different worlds have their own looks and feels, but they are very clunky. The backround music is nice enough, but we've come to expect something more from our gaming. The gameplay itself is a simple platformer that is quite linear.

On the good side, this game can often be found for only half the price of other similar games, and is very easy to learn. So this is a great game for kids to learn on. It's simple, straightforward, without a lot of blood and adult topics. And again, the fact that it's a teen girl heroine going around and saving the day is a nice thing.

Recommended for kids as an inexpensive game that might keep them occupied for a while.