Reviews by tpca

tpca says "The best thing since Friends" about How I Met Your Mother

tpca — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:05:31 GMT

I've watched this show since it started and love it. The first season, where Ted chases Robin, was by far the best, but Season 2 and 3 have been great as well. I think the rest of the characters have definitely got more interesting as the show has gotten older, especially Barney and Marshall with the slap sub-plot, which has helped make less-Ted centric.

Still the whole point of the show is Ted finding his wife and since he broke up with Robin it's kind of slowed down. I feel like you need this whatever period in his life so it's not too idealistic and I am sure it's all connected, but it seems like the Ted going out with the random girl to get over Robin is getting played out. I suspect they get back together at the end of the season to make it harder to believe Robin isn't the wife (she isn't), but they need some kind of real lasting drama in Ted's life to make the romantic aspect more interesting. If they could capture the magic of Ted and Robin and combine that with the great inside......

tpca says "Well balanced mix of serial drama and medical drama content" about Grey's Anatomy

tpca — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:56:23 GMT

Even though this is more aimed towards women, I enjoy it a lot. Season one was a bit slow, but it got really good in season 2 and the beginning of season 3. Season 4 has been good so far, but lately it seems to have stalled. Other than bringing in the new interns (and really only Lexie as a main character), the format seems to be a lot more of the same thing: George and Izzy going back and forth and Dr. Sheppard and Meridith going back and forth, and some of the more character-driven plotlines, like George's father passing away and Meridith and Addison are a bit lacking now. Dr. Bailey also seems to have shifted completely from the Navi stereotype she had at the beginning, which was great at first, as she was humanized, but now it seems like she never was that person, which I suppose happens on TV a lot.

I'll still continue the watch the show, but it seems like they need something that ties all of the characters back together again because as residents they seem to have more small......

tpca says "I can't live without it" about Apple iPod Classic 80G

tpca — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:33:13 GMT

I had an iPod photo for about 2 years before it finally broke down for good (I had two replacements), so I had to get a new one. Right away, I found this iPod to be much better and could see the difference in product maturity, though it does seem like it took a while to get there:

1) I have not had one crash over the last 3 months, which I couldn't say about the Photo. With the Photo I must have had to do a hard reset every week and a format every few months;
2) It's really thin and light for an 80 GB player, and it looks really sleek. Part of the reason I buy an iPod is that no other MP3 player, in my opinion, looks as nice;
3) The wheel, while it has changed, is still great. I find it's a bit hard to switch between one song and another if they are on top, but still a great way to navigate. I just wish they had the A-Z index thing for all of your playlists, instead of just the artist names and album names; and
4) Battery life seems to have improved markedly since the Photo. ......

tpca says "Better than previous models, but still gets quite hot" about Dell Latitude D620 Laptop

tpca — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:19:05 GMT

I have used this laptop for about six months as a work PC. I used to have a Dell in another job, and the quality seems to have improved dramatically. Six months in, my old Latitiude would start to get burning hot, which eventually needed a replacement--twice. So far, while this one has started to get hot, it still has worked relatively well.

The Wifi switch on the side is also a plus, as you don't have to go through Windows to turn it off, which is really convenient. The keyboard is also better than my older Latitude's was, as the keys aren't popping off (I am type quite hard). Finally, peformance-wise it's been able to handle most things I throw at it, though like most business laptops don't expect to play any games on it.

As for the cons, I would say the big one is that it still gets hot on the left side. My last PC was a Thinkpad and, while it was aweful looking, it never got hot and seemed to have superior build quality as compared to the Dell. Given that laptops are not all created......