The accuracy of pretty much everything is ridiculous
350507
Honestly, I really regret buying this. The accuracy of pretty much everything is ridiculous. The temperature NEVER reads correctly. The altimeter changes from -60 below sea level to 300 ft above (actual is 7). On my 10 mile runs (measured by the park service as well as other running clubs that run the same trail), this watch has read as much as 13 miles. I don't expect perfection with these readings at all.... but an additional 3 miles on a run is pathetic. I have heard that the Fenix 3 didn't improve much so I will be looking at suunto as a replacement for this.
4488196
Wildly inaccurate. Reading changed depending on the angle of insertion into my water by as much as 1.8. When it stabilized it was drastically different then the tried and true drops. Soaked it in water overnight per the instructions hopeing this would be a simple remedy, however it seemed to be even more sensitive to the angle of insertion the next morning. I would have killed my plant if I relied soley on this meter. Just missed my return window so in the trash it went, along with the name Risantec. Those of you that are using this as your only means of measurment, I would suggest checking it against the drops or another proven meter.
2544741
Some good information, and lots of enthusiasm for the USA,  but some really serious inaccuracies in most areas.  For example, the author says that "A degree from one of the eight 'Ivy League' (private) universities ... comes at a cost - about $37,000 for a four-year degree." (page 89).  Thirty seven thousand dollars would not buy a single year at any of the Ivys.  There are a number of other inaccuracies.  I would be very careful about using this book as a guide to behavior and customs in the USA.
483726
I did a lot of research before buying this thermometer, and this seemed like a solid buy. It was even recommended by Meathead Goldwin in his book "Meathead: The Science of Great BBQ and Grilling" and on his webpage. Meathead's techniques are indisputably the best in the business, so I figured the thermometer suggested in the book had to be good right?

The thing is just so inaccurate. The features are nice. It has a lot of bells and whistles. But what I need it to do is accurately measure the temperature of the meat I'm cooking. And to be fair, even though the first several cuts of meat I tried this thing on were totally botched, I continued to use it and gave it a fair trial.

I cooked some thick ribeyes to medium rare according to the thermometer: Well Done. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and figured maybe because ribeyes are so marbled and the meat is different throughout the cut, yadda yadda....

I cooked spatchcocked game hens to the optimal temp: One done, one underdone. Both read the same temp on the thermometers. Probes inserted into the thickest part of meat, away from the bone.

Tried the BBQ setting to do a pork shoulder. FAIL.

After several instances like this (I grill A LOT), tonight was the last straw. I have a fat, juicy bone-in chicken breast on the grill right now,  cooking over indirect heat with some hickory. The temp just kept reading "LLL". Changed batteries, did all the troubleshooting, same thing. Maybe one probe went bad? Change probes out, it reads 265 degrees at room temp. This thing is busted.

What sucks is that I did careful research and saw where the cheaper thermometers did similar things, and that;s the reason I chose this one. It has done nothing but fail me, and embarrass me every time I cook with it. I would go for an exchange, but I just don't want to be let down again. Does anyone have suggestions for a perfect wireless thermometer like this that won;t leave me high and dry? At this point, I will pay anything, because apparently you get what you pay for.
2141653
Not accurate at all; I have two other humidity monitors that are always within 1% of each other and this one is always 10-15% higher.
595409
The writer has such talent for making everything truly convincing, that I was very disappointed to realise, as I read, that this was really fiction. Too many inconsistencies and oddities. Kokopelli in Manitoba? boy, he's a long way from home! I've travelled in the South-West and known Navajo people, and Lakotas in South Dakota, and I've lived in Canada, though not Manitoba, and the points made by those who describe that western province are very convincing. No way do Andrews' descriptions ring true.

The clincher was where at the end Andrews is strictly enjoined not to tell anyone of her experiences: she asks "what should I do" and is told "Write a book!" I think Andrews is almost slapping the more gullible readers upside the head!

And it's sad, because on its own terms, it does in some ways convey a quite meaningful view of the world, and encourages us to be open to the deeper meanings and the spiritual connections and resonances of the natural world.  So I wish it were a real account, but as it isn't, I have to feel that such transformations of reality must do more harm than good. What happened to a medieval Christian when it was proved that the famous saint's relic everyone had revered was the bone of a dog's hind leg? Didn't it hurt the faith that had sustained him, and damage the good that was in that faith? Other reviewers have mentioned more accurate, reality-based reports of the shaman's world: I'll have to follow some of those up.
4787380
Very inconsistent. There were times when it was spot on but at least half of the time it was 50+ yds off. My friend had the exact same one and we could be standing right next to each other and get two totally different readings.
2891271
The out-of-the-box accuracy of this unit was very poor. When placed side by side on an indoor table, with a calibrated temperature probe in between, the units consistently showed a 2 degree F difference, with one or the other sometimes matching the high-accuracy device. The humidity measurements were even more off, by 12-20 percentage points at all times. I did not expect laboratory-grade calibration, but from a company with "accuracy" in the name and the many rave reviews of performance, I did expect at least an initial matching calibration - dead on with the easy temperature measurement, perhaps 5 percent variance with the trickier humidity.

I even opened the units up to see if there was any kind of field or assembly-line calibration I could adjust, but it looks as if these are calibrated at the time of assembly and not adjustable short of some elaborate bench work.

I had intended to use this pair in a giant terrarium, to monitor temp/humidity at opposite corners, but the lack of even matching performance and questionable overall accuracy makes the unit useless for such purpose. I guess if people simply put one unit on the wall and one outside on a tree, they'll never notice that there's considerable calibration difference between the units, and instead rave about how well it works. If approximate temp and humidity are all you want and an app for your smartphone is too inconvenient, I guess this unit will work for you.
1715346
In "The Demi-Monde: Winter", Rod Rees has managed to produce a fantastical fabricated world that is simultaneously both ridiculous and credible. The Demi-Monde is supposedly a high-realism heuristic computer simulation, developed to provide the US military with an extreme asymmetric warfare environment (AWE) in which soldiers can be trained and prepared for operations in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan without subjecting them to a life-threateningly hostile or inflammatory scenario for real. The simulation is peppered with computer-recreated "pre-lived" psychopathic "singularities" from earth's history ("Dupes" of people such as Aleister Crowley) mixed into a densely populated series of social milieux (18th Century London Rookeries; the Warsaw Ghetto; Rangoon), designed to provide a powder-keg mix of conflicting racial, sexual and religious ideologies and intolerances, engendering perpetual and widespread internecine strife -- a veritable virtual "Cyber-Hell on Earth", in fact.

The story's basic premise is not new: predictably, things are not entirely going to the military's game-plan with the Demi-Monde. Not surprisingly, (to the reader at least) a number of programming errors have been made which have resulted in some rather quite embarrassing and alarming consequences in the way the simulation is operating.  The first problem is that trainee soldiers "released" into the simulation are being quickly identified for what they are by the denizens of the Demi-Monde, captured and incapacitated within the simulation, from which they cannot now be extricated (and which cannot, of course, be turned off). Secondly -- and more mysteriously -- the rebellious and unruly teenage daughter of the US President has somehow or other been drawn into the simulation and has similarly been captured and is now also held captive. Someone will need to go into the simulation to effect a rescue. But who...?

While this scenario is not at all new -- and indeed, borders on the hackneyed -- I have to say that Rod Rees' approach to it is not at all hackneyed, defies all predictability and is often nothing short of masterful. The "rules" for the operation of the Demi-Monde, its competing ideologies and factions, are developed to a very high degree and, in spite of their often entirely ludicrous natures, are often portrayed with full internal consistency and with an extremely clever (and playful) eye for detail. The book balances seriousness with humour in a way that few authors can achieve effectively, and blends comedy and horror (as well as a playfulness with words, albeit with a penchant for bad language) in a way that is encountered only rarely -- I haven't found it done this well before outside of the writings of Sheri S. Tepper ("<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Visitor/dp/0575074167/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Visitor</a>" springs most immediately to mind) an author with whom Rod Rees seems, in fact, to share much in common (quite apart from the common approach to religious and sexual mores, Burlesque Bandstand is exactly the kind of name that Tepper would opt for in a character too!)

Rees not only handles the essentially ludicrous nature of the world he has created in an all-too believable manner, he also manipulates the story arc supremely well too, constantly unearthing new, darker, undertones which run beyond mere real-worldly incompetences. And just when it looks like things are going to work out to schedule and everything be wrapped up nicely at the end, he suddenly injects a nice little twist, conjures a whole series of cliff-hangers from his hat, and absolutely guarantees that every single reader will have but a single question on their lips as they reach the end of this book: "How soon will Spring be here?"

A great book and a fun book; highly recommended.
584078
I wanted so badly for this thing to be reasonably accurate, as I really like the backlight for reading the device at night. But alas, the humidity accuracy is just awful (I have an older, very accurate device to compare it to). Temperature isn't so bad; it runs 2 degrees low which I could live with. But humidity runs consistently high by 12 to 13 percentage points - not even close to accurate. Stated accuracy in the instructions is "+/- 8%," so even expected accuracy isn't that great. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a device that's made in China, I dunno.  At any rate, it's going back from whence it came.
765311
It was a good story, but Cannell's horrifically-inaccurate research regarding some basic military facts cost it a star.  One character is said to have become an ace in Vietnam by shooting down six MiGs in an Intruder--a ground-attack bomber without defensive weapons.  A flashback to DESERT STORM mentions a request for an Alert-5 (able to launch with 5 minutes' notice) Fly-By-Wire (a completely computerized flight control system) strike involving six F-16s (Air Force planes) from the USS CONSTITUTION (a Tall Ship that last saw action in the War of 1812); ....  But the descriptions of hobo life were very edifying.
2509492
There are way too many coincidences in this book. Even for this genre, it's too much. The way things all come together in the end is ridiculous. The book also should have been half its length. Morton went into way too much detail about leaves and grass and other things that were not relevant and that also were not literarily interesting.
4103284
While I trust the author has thought much of his novel through, especially alien biology, attack vectors, etc, the details of the heroine's flight are astoundingly bogus. Perhaps it's that I have extensive experience with hiking, camping, bicycle tripping and shooting. The details just don't add up and for me, it's hard to suspend disbelief so massively.
1797687
The author makes so many glaring errors early in the book, I didn't trust anything in it that I didn't already know is historically accurate.

For example:
In the first paragraph, the killer swims ashore to Newburyport, Mass. on January 1, 1945, wearing a wetsuit; the wetsuit was invented in 1949. In the fourth paragraph, she looks up at the quarter moon; the moon appeared nearly full at 2:00 am in Massachusetts on January 1, 1945.

A tire iron, used as a weapon in the fight she gets into on the beach with two civilian defense volunteers, inexplicably becomes a crowbar when discussed throughout the rest of the book.

And when the assassin gets to DC, a walk takes her close to the White House and its "classic dome."

Even the dust jacket blurb gets in the spirit of the errors, telling us that this novel that begins around 2 am on January 1, 1945 starts on "New Year's Eve, 1945."

I read historical fiction partly for the story and partly for the history. I was sorry that the author completely lost my trust on the history.

The story is highly implausible but, once you grant its premise, mostly consistent. I don't buy that the assassin is acting in character when the author brings her into conversation with the professor hunting her, but otherwise it is generally character driven.

I also give the story points for the fascinating species of suspense it offers. We know from the beginning that FDR will die in April 1945, but it's still suspenseful to find out whether it will be at the hands of the assassin (whose weapons include a variety of subtly acting poisons) or whether death by natural causes cheats the assassin.
1782737
I'm no electrical engineer but I can't even count the number of technical errors in this book.  It is a compelling storyline but totally impossible.
Example:
  Sachs theorizes that a construction site is a target because the ironwork might be electrified.  The problem is that, the ironwork is, essentially, grounded.  If a high voltage line were bussed to the ironwork, the only thing that would happen would be to trip breakers somewhere or, depending on what was used to make the connection, the wire itself might simply burn away.

Shortly after evacuating the scene, Sachs is told by a utility company employee that this isn't a likely target because the workers are all wearing work boots and gloves which would insulate them.  An inch or two of rubber won't do anything to stop 100KV.  It is like the idea that the rubber tires on your car protect you from lightning.  Electricity (lightning) that travels through miles of air isn't stopped by an inch of rubber.  You are safe in the car because it is a Faraday Cage.  Skin effect protects you, not the tires.

Another example was the statement that, the longer length transmission lines (over 500 miles) were DC because it was more efficient.  That is exactly opposite of the truth.  AC is used for long distances because, by raising the voltage, there is less loss.  It can then be stepped down at the destination.

Finally in the first "incident" with the bus, the voltage wouldn't go up when the demand (load) increased.  The CURRENT would go up.

I usually look forward to Deaver's work but this just had too many holes to be believable.  It had a lot of promise but didn't deliver on it.  A little fact checking by someone with some electrical knowledge would have made all the difference.
4664953
Well, at least the clock works.  But the other functions don't because the step counter function is wildly inaccurate and all the other functions depend on it.  I counted 100 steps walking around the house, on a sidewalk, or on a trail.  The results were the same everywhere:  the count was 30-40 low.  Maybe I got a bum unit, but Im not willing to spend more time and money to find out.

8/3/16

After I gave this a 1 STAR  rating on 7/22/16, the seller emailed me stating that the pedometers was accurate (which it obviously was not), and offered to send me another one for re-evaluation if I would consider changing my rating.

The new one passed my 100 step tests with little error.  So I will change my rating from 1 star to 2.  I can not go any higher because of the poor quality control, limited set of functions, and unsophisticated styling.  I paid $2.50 more for a HRM 771 Multifunction Pedometer, which is far superior in all respects.
1204425
Horribly inaccurate from one to the next.  Decent for seeing GENERAL temps, nothing more.