Kevin Bresnahan

Power, power, power... that's all this unit has going for it. I would bet my bottom dollar that the little speakers sound like doo-doo regardless of the wattage but as I say with any stereo speaker purchase, you must go and listen to this before buying. My guess is that you will walk away. BTW, 150 Watts for a powered sub may sound like a lot but take it from me, it ain't. FWIW, RCA's quality has been atrocious for years. This unit may be better... who knows... but still, I wouldn't bet on it. As bad as people seem to be knocking on Panasonic, they still seem to be one of the best in the "bang for the buck" department. If CC is your preference, this Panny seems like a pretty good one. Note that the sub has 220Watts... much more likely to be what you need. As an added bonus, it has a built-in DVD player. Panny's DVD players have a pretty good rep. It's also progressive scan. Best Buy has pretty much the same unit, minus the DVD at this URL. Later, Kevin

BTW, the best way I know of to get rid of most of these worms is to run system restore and restore your system to a point before the attack occured. If it works right, you should be just as you were before the attack. System restore has saved my ass on many occasions. System restore may work for you, Jim. Later, Kevin

Well, I'm not saying if one company's virus scanning software is better than another's, but I have found that only McAfee's virus program finds the latest download trojan viruses. Norton does not. I believe you can go to McAfee's web site and run a virus scan over the 'net. However, you have to buy the package to get it to clean you up. It is useful just to find out what virus it says you have. Later, Kevin

You're hosed... it sounds like you got a download trojan virus. I have been hearing about a lot of people getting these lately. Run a virus scan and see what it finds. Kevin

If it's Denon you want, and I think you'd be very pleased with that choice, just wait another month or so. Denon is days away from releasing their new product lines. There will be a model 2910 with a list price of $699. It will be better than the current models. It'll even a DVI-D output for video. If you do not feel like waiting, I will say it again: I have a Pioneer Elite DV-45A combi-player (plays CDs, CD-Rs, DVDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, mp3) and it has been great. The standard CD playback is as good as I have ever had. SACD playback is on par with any SACD player I've heard. Bass management is well done, which can be a problem for the earlier Denons. It can be had for around $400. Don't be fooled by it's small stature... it is a heavyweight audio machine. Pioneer has a reputation for the best transports too, a nice plus. Later, Kevin

I called the phone number listed here and all I get is an answering machine. Yesterday, I also sent an E-mail for info and I've yet to get a reply. Is this legit? Can I call and order it directly? If not, can someone get me a copy? I most definitely want this. Later, Kevin

I bought only American cars for decades. I loved my old Chevy Impalas back in the 80's. I drove a 1968 4 door Impala for at least 4 years and a 1965 4 door for nearly 5 years... all through college, in fact. I had 1985 Chrysler LeBaron convertible that was a blast! I cruised all over the place in that car. Never had any troubles. It was a great car. Then I decided to buy a Dodge Shadow in 1987. Ooo boy, what a dog. I bet I dumped over $2K into that car in about 2 years. This for a car that cost me $12K new! At the same time I bought the Shadow, I bought a 1987 Dodge mini-van for the wife. What a piece of crap! It had no pick-up. The tranny slipped all the time. I couldn't drive it on the highway with the A/C on... it couldn't get up hills! I had to turn it off to go up hills. My turn away from American-only cars began. I blame Chrysler. They treated me like crap and refused to accept blame for their pieces of junk. The tranny finally died in the 1987 Dodge Caravan mini-van but my wife really liked the mini-van for transporting the kids, so I bought a 1992 Plymouth Voyager. It was an even bigger dog than the first one. I had to have that tranny replaced twice! This was the beginning of the end for me with American cars. We bought a Toyota Sienna mini-van in 1999. It has been an absolute dream from the start. I highly recommend this car. We have nearly 70,000 miles on it and I have done nothing but standard maintenance. Last year, I was driving a 1995 Buick Park Avenue. I loved this car. It was costing me a boatload of money to maintain (like the $1400 intake manifold replacement I had to have done because the car over-heated and melted the old one) but it was so smooth on the highway. When I got rear-ended last June, I had a decision: go get another Park Avenue or pick something else. Well, by this time, I was facing a 28 mile (each way) commute. Gas was getting expensive. My Chevy pick-up, which I had to use when the Park Ave got totalled, got about 15 mpg. I looked into the Prius. I rented a 2002 model for a weekend. Didn't like it. I tried a 2003 Honda Civic hybrid. Didn't like it. Too small and really underpowered on the highway. I looked at GM's high-mileage cars but they were all too small. Someone recommended a VW TDI but the word was their build-quality was horrible. Then I found out that the 2004 Prius would be bigger and faster. I looked into it and made the switch. I ordered one without driving it. It was scary. But it really worked out. I have never been happier with a vehicle purchase. This morning, it went over 16,000 miles. Nothing but oil changes and tire rotations. I wish this was a Chevy or a Buick but I had no options with them. Quite honestly, GM seems to be more concerned with making gas-guzzlers than fuel efficient vehicles. Their loss. Later, Kevin

You will be waiting forever if you want a GM hybrid. They don't appear to be interested at the moment. Their goal for years has been an alternative fuel car, not a hybrid. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the success Toyota has had with hybrids causes GM to look at this again but they're very far behind Toyota and Honda. Ford has been trying to launch their Escape hybrid for years now. Rumors abound about their approach but it seems that they licensed the Toyota drive train design. However, with Toyota's hybrid solution, it's almost all about the software, not the hardware. Getting the 2 engines to seemlessly interact is no small feat. I have read that all of Ford's delays have been due software glitches. It is one of the more amazing aspects of my Prius with the way it switches each engine on and off at the perfect time. BTW, it is very easy to have an over-revving gas engine just fry an electronic engine that's attached to the same axle. That might be part of Ford's troubles. Later, Kevin

The best explanation I can find for the "B mode" said: "B mode uses the generator to spin the engine for compression braking." I believe what it does it shuts off the ignition to the gas engine and uses the ingine friction to slow the car down. I believe the car will automatically go into this mode if you over-charge the battery. I've had it happen at the bottom of a long descent. Once the battery hits "full", the gas engine sounds like it over-revs, but what it's really doing is disengaging the charge circuit and spinning the engine to brake the car. It also saves the brakes from wear... and remember, these brakes also charge the battery, so it's hard to stop without generating charge. Later, Kevin

Hopefully, the web site that keeps showing up when you type s isn't a porn site! The way you clear web site "memory" is the "Auto complete" settings. Click the Tools Menu and select Internet Options. Go to the "Content" tab and click on the "Auto Complete" button. Press the "Clear Forms" button and they'll all go away. Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to remove just 1 remembered web site. This clears them all. Later, Kevin

If you have "the first one", which I am assuming is a 2000-2003 model, then that model never claimed 60 mpg. It's EPA estimates were 45 highway/52 city so 42 mpg is close to what it's rated. I would say that you can and should be doing better. Your model car was designed to use extremely hard low-rolling resistance tires. They require higher pressure than you would normally use to get the best mileage. Supposedly, you need 42 front/40 rear to get the best mileage. Of course, with these settings, the ride is harder on your posterior and the tires wear out a lot faster. The difference in your mpg by between travelling at 65 mph versus 75 mph on the highway can be as much as 5 mpg with this car. Driving habits need to be modified to get the mileage anywhere near the EPA sticker. Which brings me to the second part of the mpg ratings. The US government refuses to modify how they test cars for mpg. The current method is outdated. It never expected a car like the Prius. The current method involves having the car fully warmed up before starting the test. The Prius, once fully warmed up, can go a long way on the electric battery before the gas engine kicks in. The city mpg rating reflects this. In real life, it much more difficult to get great mileage right off the line: the car's computer forces the gas engine to run for about 5 minutes every time you start the car to force clean emissions (and after all, it is rated Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle). BTW, all testing is done on a roller machine which simulates a perfectly flat terrain. Not real life. I have had a 2004 Prius since October 27, 2003. I now have nearly 16,000 miles on it. I have been very active in the Prius discussion groups over at Yahoo and from these groups, I have learned more about my car than I ever thought I could. Using the driving techniques I learned there, the most important being the need to "coast" as often as possible, I have lately been averaging 52.5 mpg for my (mostly highway) commute to work. I travel 28 miles each way. Of these, about 20 are highway and when I'm on the highway, I go about 75 mph so I don't baby it. My car is "rated" 55 highway/60 city. About 2 weeks ago, there was a "commute from hell", where I probably never went faster than 35 mph the whole way home. I got 62.7 mpg for that commute, a personal best for me. I will say one other thing about mpg that most early buyers up here in the Northeast did not know: cold temperatures kill mpg for all cars by about 10-15%. Take 10% off a Ford F-150: it goes from 18 mpg to 16. Most drivers wouldn't even notice. Now do the same for my Prius: 52.5 mpg goes to 47.25 mpg. If it happens that your car is a "15% car", it's 44.625, which is more in line with what I got this past winter. However, this mileage, was before my car was fully broken in and before I started using the higher-mileage driving techniques. I expect that by this winter, I will be getting much higher mileage, even with the crappy "winter gas" they send us when it gets cold. Finally, I would and always do recommend this car to anyone who will listen. It has been a great car for me. Driving for the highest mpg has become a bit of a game. I watch the display and get the engines running the best way and I have perfected getting it to coast. On back roads, it's key to keep the car under 41 mph, which is the point the gas engine must kick in. This alone has saved me from a couple of back roads speed traps. Be forewarned: Prius waiting lists are nearing 2 years at some small dealerships! Unless Toyota can ramp up production, don't expect to be able to buy one quickly. Later, Kevin

I'm spinning James' "Magical Trio" CDs right now as I paint the dining room. Man oh man, could he swing or what! The date with Ray Brown & Elvin Jones, "Magical Trio 2" is my favorite... good God, they're all gone now. Sad news. Later, Kevin

I wouldn't count on this for a few reasons... First off, Freddie Roach historically did not and still does not sell well at all. "Good Move", considered by many to be one of Roach's best, was reissued and Blue Note couldn't give it away. Although I have to wonder how many people were like me and got this from Japan. Secondly, I asked Michael Cuscuna specifically about "Brown Sugar", which seems to me to be one that many are looking for. He said they had no plans for it given the lackluster sales for "Good Move". There's also the fact that it isn't one Roach's best dates and to my ears, Joe Henderson seems bored with the tunes. It doesn't suck, but I wouldn't list it anywhere near my "top 100" list. When I asked Michael why not do a select, he laughed. He said it would not sell. Lastly, I am pretty sure that "Brown Sugar" is on Water Music's "short list" for reissues. I cannot confirm this, but I know there has been some discussion. I have been waiting for someone to verify and until then, it's conjecture. Still, if Blue Note is willing to license this title out, they have no intention of issuing it themselves. Later, Kevin

The funniest thing is that the pirates over in the far east will copy this disc, right down to this warning label! They could care less what it says, they'll just dup it anyway. Why would a record label think this kind of stuff would stop crooks? Crooks break the law. A label isn't gonna stop 'em. Later, Kevin

Mosaic Records says that their box sets are limited editions never to be available again, not Blue Note! The Connoisseur Series is limited. They never made any statement that these limited editions would never be reissued that I'm aware of. That would be incredibly stupid on their part. BTW, as has been pointed out by "those in the know", all Japanese Blue Note CDs are limited to a certain extent. They press all they want to sell and then they're done. They have re-pressed many titles due to demand. In fact, their RVG series is marketed as "limited" and yet they've re-pressed several of them. If anyone can be accused of having an unlimited "limited edition", it's these guys. Well, there's also those laughable "limited edition" CDs that OJC puts out. Later, Kevin

So wonky that I dumped it... AM radio comes to mind.

I did ask him about this and he gave me two more titles that might happen but they were not far enough along for him to let me say on line. Apparently, Water has all the say in what they release so it would be good to get a connection there if you want a say in what they license. Later, Kevin

If I drink a coffee after about 3 PM, I can't fall asleep.

I would suggest E-mailing Mosaic Records directly. I do know that the RVG series, in and of itself, was not the brainchild of Michael Cuscuna but in fact, born and nurtured in Japan. I think the guys in the NY office probably saw the response to this Japanese-only series and said, "Hey, we should do that too." One thing I'm sure of is that Michael's job on the RVG series is to listen to the remastered CD and approve it or send it back to RVG for another run (as well as check out the final artwork). I would think he has much less say in the overall sound of RVGs than he does with Ron McMaster-ed Mosaic CDs. RVG is getting paid well to give these CDs his personal "sound", so it probably doesn't make sense to have someone else mucking with it. Later, Kevin

The master tapes are stored in California, not NY. Any "master tape" listening Michael Cuscuna does is on CD-R or DAT from the remastering engineer's bench. Kevin

Booker Ervin with Dexter Gordon's "Settin' The Pace" two-fer omitted one track, "Groovin' at the Jamboree", which was subsequently put out on a single CD of "The Trance"... with 2 other tracks that were already on "Settin' The Pace"! I have yet to buy "The Trance". It's my little protest to Fantasy. They could have easily put this unissued track, which is only around 7 minutes long, on several other subsequent CD reissues they chose not to. I would be less upset if they hadn't E-mailed me back when "Settin' The Pace" came out to say that the missing track wouold be included in "a future Booker reissue". Little did I know that it would be "The Trance"! Later, Kevin

I must've told the guys at Blue Note 20 times that they do not need to remaster "Basra". All they have to do is get Rudy's digital master from Japan. For everyone's sake, I hope they listened. I know Michael Cuscuna went ahead and got a copy of the JRVG just to hear it after I insisted. Maybe that did it? Kevin

If you ever get up near Hartford, CT, Integrity 'N Music has most Venus CDs for around $25, which I think is a pretty good price. I wish these CDs (and especially SACDs) weren't so damned expensive. I'd own a hell of a lot more of them. BTW, anyone who digs Venus in general and hard bop specifically must get their hands on One For All's "No Problem". It is simply fantastic. One of the best this year. Too bad many of it's biggest fans will never hear it. Later, Kevin

I was told these are locked in and since they have catalog numbers, I assume this is true. However, usual disclaimers apply: titles may change between now and release date. Stuff happens. Looking at the catalog numbers, I'd guess that the dates may shift around. Kevin February 2005 Ike Quebec - Heavy Soul 07243 864472 2 7 Tina Brooks - True Blue 07243 864473 2 6 Art Blakey - A Night In Tunisia 07243 864474 2 5 Johnny Coles - Little Johnny C 07243 864475 2 4 Hank Mobley - Hi Voltage 07243 864476 2 3 Pete La Roca - Basra 07243 864477 2 2 March 2005 Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer 07243 864467 2 5 Herbie Hancock - Speak Like A Child 07243 864468 2 4 Sonny Clark - Dial S For Sonny 07243 864469 2 3 Art Blakey - Like Someone In Love 07243 864470 2 9 Grant Green - Feelin' The Spirit 07243 864471 2 8 Horace Silver - And The Jazz Messengers 07243 864478 2 1

Not that the bits have anything to do with it, but weren't all of the first TOCJ 84XXX CDs remastered using 20 bit technology? I thought they moved to 24 bit right in the middle of this series. Maybe around 1995? And I mean it about the bits... some of the best-sounding CDs I own are 16 bit remasters. Bits has nothing to do with a good remastering job. Later, Kevin