Here you will find reviews of products, companies, and services, both good and bad. Maybe these will help you out, maybe not. Feel free to submit your own too.
THE REVIEWS
2005-2006 Pontiac GTO
Great all around sports car - imported from Australia. The 2004 was equipped with the 350 HP 5.7 liter and had some other teething troubles. The 2005 and 2006 with the 400 HP 6.0 liter were more mechanically mature. The looks can take a little getting used to, and have been described by some as a "telephone company car." Of course, having a lower profile can have its own advantages. This V-8 is one of the best ever made in my opinion. The one weak spot, in keeping with the the muscle-car genre, is the handling - in stock configuration it is not as crisp or clean as, for example, a WRX or other smaller, lighter cars. However, this short coming only becomes apparent if the vehicle is pushed to the limit, and can even be remedied with readily available aftermarket equipment if desired. If you're looking for a muscle car or hot rod and can find one that has been treated well, this is the car for you. Apparently, the police tend to like this car as well. Over all three production years only 33,000 or so were imported into the United States making the GTO, for what its worth, one of the rarest cars in America.
Bissell Spotbot - DIY Repair
This is a great little spot cleaning machine if you have kids, or pets, or are just a slob. Evidently, however, they also tend to have a pump inside them fail. If you're even moderately mechanically inclined you can change this pump out yourself and save ~$100. Here's a link to instructions on doing the repair, and a link to order the replacement pump.
Civilization V - Computer Game
I have been a fan of Sid Meier's Civilization series since it's inception. Classic, fun, very addictive turn based game wherein you take a people from a barbarian tribe founding their first village to world conquest or their first interstellar flight. The various renditions over the years have tried different philosophies on play and advancement but have generally all be quite fun. The latest edition, however, is somewhat bland. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but the mechanics seem very generic and in some cases counter-intuitive; there seems to be much less excitement and vitality to this version of the game. Moreover, the graphics are less than overwhelming, whereas with previous editions there were at least some obvious improvements over the immediately preceeding version. Still, even with these flaws, I might feel I had not wasted my money, if not for the astonishing choice of the publishers to tether the game to Steam. Steam is an online service ostensibly set up to help game players find opponents, download updates, and such but appears, to me, to actually be primarily a tool of the publishers to control the software after purchase. In order to set up Civilization to play on a computer you have to log onto Steam and set up an account (supposedly, if the computer does not have internet access and therefore cannot access Steam, one cannot set the game up on that computer; lots of luck returning the opened disk for a refund). But it gets worse. While you can play the game after the initial set up without being logged on to Steam (or so they say), you can never sell or even give the disk away. Each disk is locked to a particular Steam account and the publisher will not allow it to be used by someone else. Now, I've never sold many of my games, but I have given a few of them away, and I feel that if I have paid $40 or $50 for something, I should be able to pass it on if I choose to do so. While, like all analogies, this one is flawed, the situation appears similar to an automobile manufacturer who would not allow you to be able to sell the vehicle. Ever. Of course, Steam is a powerful marketing inteligence tool and data gathering apparatus as well, but that's another topic.
Now, I completely understand the desire to fight software piracy, etc..., and I would have no problem with the publisher doing so in this manner if, and here's the big if, they warned you up front that you could never sell or pass the disk on. Instead, this is something they never mention and apparently are not overjoyed to discuss at least on the discussion forums where questions about this have been asked. I find this lack of notice somewhat underhanded; if I had been aware of this I would never have purchased the game. Of course, having come from an era when what you purchased was yours to do with as you please, maybe I am more sensitive to this than others. Perhaps newer computer users more used to severly limited licenses on products won't find this so intrusive. I wish them all the best, but, I for one will never purchase another game that is tied to Steam.
Great all around sports car - imported from Australia. The 2004 was equipped with the 350 HP 5.7 liter and had some other teething troubles. The 2005 and 2006 with the 400 HP 6.0 liter were more mechanically mature. The looks can take a little getting used to, and have been described by some as a "telephone company car." Of course, having a lower profile can have its own advantages. This V-8 is one of the best ever made in my opinion. The one weak spot, in keeping with the the muscle-car genre, is the handling - in stock configuration it is not as crisp or clean as, for example, a WRX or other smaller, lighter cars. However, this short coming only becomes apparent if the vehicle is pushed to the limit, and can even be remedied with readily available aftermarket equipment if desired. If you're looking for a muscle car or hot rod and can find one that has been treated well, this is the car for you. Apparently, the police tend to like this car as well. Over all three production years only 33,000 or so were imported into the United States making the GTO, for what its worth, one of the rarest cars in America.
Bissell Spotbot - DIY Repair
This is a great little spot cleaning machine if you have kids, or pets, or are just a slob. Evidently, however, they also tend to have a pump inside them fail. If you're even moderately mechanically inclined you can change this pump out yourself and save ~$100. Here's a link to instructions on doing the repair, and a link to order the replacement pump.
Civilization V - Computer Game
I have been a fan of Sid Meier's Civilization series since it's inception. Classic, fun, very addictive turn based game wherein you take a people from a barbarian tribe founding their first village to world conquest or their first interstellar flight. The various renditions over the years have tried different philosophies on play and advancement but have generally all be quite fun. The latest edition, however, is somewhat bland. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but the mechanics seem very generic and in some cases counter-intuitive; there seems to be much less excitement and vitality to this version of the game. Moreover, the graphics are less than overwhelming, whereas with previous editions there were at least some obvious improvements over the immediately preceeding version. Still, even with these flaws, I might feel I had not wasted my money, if not for the astonishing choice of the publishers to tether the game to Steam. Steam is an online service ostensibly set up to help game players find opponents, download updates, and such but appears, to me, to actually be primarily a tool of the publishers to control the software after purchase. In order to set up Civilization to play on a computer you have to log onto Steam and set up an account (supposedly, if the computer does not have internet access and therefore cannot access Steam, one cannot set the game up on that computer; lots of luck returning the opened disk for a refund). But it gets worse. While you can play the game after the initial set up without being logged on to Steam (or so they say), you can never sell or even give the disk away. Each disk is locked to a particular Steam account and the publisher will not allow it to be used by someone else. Now, I've never sold many of my games, but I have given a few of them away, and I feel that if I have paid $40 or $50 for something, I should be able to pass it on if I choose to do so. While, like all analogies, this one is flawed, the situation appears similar to an automobile manufacturer who would not allow you to be able to sell the vehicle. Ever. Of course, Steam is a powerful marketing inteligence tool and data gathering apparatus as well, but that's another topic.
Now, I completely understand the desire to fight software piracy, etc..., and I would have no problem with the publisher doing so in this manner if, and here's the big if, they warned you up front that you could never sell or pass the disk on. Instead, this is something they never mention and apparently are not overjoyed to discuss at least on the discussion forums where questions about this have been asked. I find this lack of notice somewhat underhanded; if I had been aware of this I would never have purchased the game. Of course, having come from an era when what you purchased was yours to do with as you please, maybe I am more sensitive to this than others. Perhaps newer computer users more used to severly limited licenses on products won't find this so intrusive. I wish them all the best, but, I for one will never purchase another game that is tied to Steam.
