Quantum of Solace

The latest Bond film was a blast, literally. There were plenty of action as one have come accustomed to, including car chases, boat chases, plane chases, foot chases, and just about anything else you can think of. The movie felt a little bit convoluted for me, but that might be because I don't remember much from the last film, and this one makes a lot of references to that. But then you don't really go to see a Bond film for its story lines. However, there seems to be something lacking from this film, maybe there weren't enough expensive cars, or high tech gadgets, or indeed hot women! Olga Kurylenko is stunning though, and actually makes the Bond look a little soft. The franchise though, for better or worse, is definitely heading towards Jason Bourne territory. Daniel Craig is more rough cut than the suave Pierce Brosnan, maybe that'll give us normal blokes a chance! 4 out of 5 for me.

Petrol Update

Unleaded: 110.9c / L
Exchange Rate: 0.6494 USD
Crude: 54.39 USD (83.75 AUD) / Barrel

Kensington Universal FM Transmitter

I got a nice surprise at my desk at work today. I had ordered this device last Friday, and had no idea when it would turn up. Having no auxiliary input jack in my car and many MP3 players makes it very inconvenient to play my music collection. Usually this required the burning of CDs, which more often than not would fail or simply go out of date in a few weeks. Surely then, an FM transmitter is in order, and surely they shouldn't cost all that much! I bought this Kensington unit for less than $30 delivered (from CatchOfTheDay), which I thought was a pretty good deal.


So I eagerly plugged it in my car on my way home. It is quite a compact unit, the buttons could be a little bigger, but they also suffice. The frequencies goes from 88.1 to 107.9 and increments by 0.2Mhz. There are 3 presets to configure. The display is nice and clear and non-distracting, with black LED on Orange back light. There are indicators to show which preset is selected. Power is drawn from the cigarette lighter plug, and is self on.

How's the sound quality? For the frequencies I chose, the sound quality was pretty good, comparable to commercial radio stations. The cord from the unit to the player acts as the antenna, so unwrapping the cord to its length made the transmission a little better. Drop outs and interference gets more frequent as you approach a more congested area, such as the CBD. Some times the unit just gives up completely and turns off by itself. To turn it back on, simply unplug and plug again. The unit claims to turn off by itself if there is no music playing for more than 1 minute, although I haven't tested this out yet.

Overall, quite happy with the package, and highly recommended. It's application will be best served on those long road trips, and I won't have to carry all those CDs anymore!