Author name: Mike

Review: 3 TSA-Approved Laptop Bags Compared – Belkin Flythru, Skooba Checkthrough Brief & Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer

If you’re a geek like us, you never travel without your laptop. While netbooks have become more popular for lightweight personal travel, most of us still have to lug full size notebooks for work. Given the travel situation in the post-9/11 world, we were extremely happy when we heard that TSA (the airport security folks) put out specifications for laptop bags to allow laptops to go through security without having to be removed from the bag. Sure, you could always travel with your laptop, but those of us who travel regularly know what a hassle the X-ray checkpoints can be.

Typically, with an ordinary laptop bag, security makes you remove a laptop and put it in a bin by itself, with nothing covering it. This means, on top of removing your shoes, emptying your pockets, taking off your watch, belt, cell phone, keys, yank out your zip lock bag with your gels and liquids, you also have to dig out your laptop.

Given that most laptop thefts take place in airports, and the majority of those take place in the exit of the X-ray line, being able to keep your laptop secure and hidden in your bag is a big deal and a time saver. If you travel through a major US airport such as Atlanta or Chicago, you know that even saving 20 seconds per person can add up to huge time savings and shortened lines when considering the thousands of people moving through the checkpoints in those airports.

It has been several years since TSA announced their guidelines for approved bags, and we felt it was time to see what the various bag manufacturers had come up with. We contacted a total of 7 manufacturers asking for their offerings, and three sent us review units: Belkin “Flythru”, Skooba “Checkthrough Brief”, and Tom Bihn “Checkpoint Flyer”. Let’s see if any of these TSA compliant laptop bags fit the bill.

Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

The Geeks have been playing the new “G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra” video game, and here are our impressions.

First off, we should state that we were big fans of the 1980’s incarnation of the toys and cartoons, and, while the movie this game is based on has gotten mixed reviews from both the the professional reviewers and fans, we found it generally entertaining. When we were offered the chance to review the game that tied in with the movie, we said sure! Anything to continue the story and help us re-live some of our boyhood fantasies.

2007 Round-The-World Flight Simulator Race Update

The race is starting to get interesting as the teams reached the Pacific Ocean last night. There were a number of different “corridors” that were available. Inside a corridor, subsonic jets are allowed, and the leg distance/time restrictions are waved, but you must hit all the airports listed in the corridor assignments.

Team AVSim and SimOuthouse both appear to be choosing the southern routes that will shoot them out near the Andes Mountains in South America probably to pick up 2 high-altitude airports and their South American requirements. FlightSim.com has chosen for the crossing route, taking them from Tasmania up to Johnson’s Atol up to Alaska. Presumably, FlightSim.com’s route will allows them to pick up their >65N requirements since they’ve already done their high altitude landings in the Himalayas.

Read the rest of the story on Non-PC Geeks

2007 Round-The-World Flight Simulator Race

Flight Simulator RacingMad Mike has taken a break from the NonPCGeeks site for this week while he’s flying around the world in the 2007 Round-The-World Flight Simulator Race. The race pits teams from AVSim, FlightSim and Sim-Outhouse against each other in a race around the world with special rules, conditions and bonuses.

Check out the post on NonPCGeeks talking about the race and check back for updates throughout the rest of the week. I found myself listening to the chatter and watching on Google Earth for two hours tonight.

Review: Flight Simulator X

Review: Flight Simulator X


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The Geeks wrap up our week of Flight Simulator gadgets by examining the all new Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition. As the newest installment of the longest running PC gaming franchise (yes, 25 years now!) Flight Simulator X has a lot to prove to a die hard community of flight enthusiasts, while at the same time, attempt to breathe new life into the franchise. Is Microsoft’s new version worth the upgrade? Read on!

Review: Belkin Nostromo N50 and N52 Speedpads

Review: Belkin Nostromo N50 and N52 Speedpads

Nostromo Gamepad If you’re a gamer, and even if you’re not, you probably sometimes groan when having to learn a plethora of new keyboard commands. First person shooter games are notorious for having a complex key map to allow players control in their virtual world. Simulation games and real time strategy games can be even worse (since their key maps tend to be even more specialized and non-standard.) Likewise, how many times while working on a spreadsheet or doing photo editing or some other drawn out task did you wish you could just hit 1 key to start a macro of multiple keyboard shortcuts to be fired in order? If you fall into any of these categories, then a product like one of the Belkin Nostromo Speedpads is for you!

Review: eMagin z800 3DVisor

eVisor 800 Our second installment of “Flight Sim Gadgets” is the eMagin z800 3DVisor. This consumer 3D Virtual Reality helmet was recently tested by the geeks and was put through its paces both for Flight Simulator and other uses.

Virtual Reality doesn’t have quite the posh image that it did several years ago as users found that the technology wasn’t quite up to the hype. Part of the problem was the hardware that was available at the time for VR headsets was crude, heavy and had limited resolution. The geeks remember playing one VR game at Dave and Busters and being shackled with a helmet that felt like it weighed 40 lbs and it gave us a headache after 5 minutes of use. We’re glad to say that eMagina’s solution is MUCH MUCH better than those older units!

Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization IV

Review: Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Producer: Firaxis
Distributor: 2K Games

A perennial favorite, Sid Meier’s Civilization series has set the standard in the past for turn based strategy games. Now the 4th generation in this series is released, with a new fully 3-D graphics system and some changes to the tried and true formula that has made Civilization the masterpiece series that has spawned imitations and hybrid versions (namely Sid’s Alpha Centauri, and Colonization.) How does this new version fare?

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