I went to their game tonight against the Washington Capitals, which are currently #2 in the league.  I went hoping for a win of course, but expecting a loss.  They could have lost a lot worse than they did.  Both teams were playing horrible.  I’ve missed more hockey than I’ve watched, but tonight was a lesson in how not to play.

The Canes started out with a 1 point lead about 5 minutes into the game.  It didn’t take long for Washington to answer back.  Washing then got 2 more points in the 2nd period, giving them a 3-2 lead.  It took a 6-on-4 in the last two minutes of the game with the Canes goalie pulled and the Caps down by 1 player due to a penalty, to get one more point.  It wasn’t enough.

It almost makes a Canes fan want to jump ship and be a Bruins fan, but you’ve got to pull for the home team (most of the time).  We shall see what happens when Cam Ward gets back on the ice after being out due to injury.  Today was the official end of a weaker than usual hurricane season.  Maybe this will hold true for our home hockey team as well.

It was to be a short ride up the road to get myself a burger and Rebecca a sundae, then go a little further and fill up the tank before the weekend.

After picking up some food, I decided to take the long way back home.  It ended up being a LOT longer than planned.  We just picked a direction and a few random turns and decided to go for a ride.  After our first turn off the main highway, I decided to turn on my GPSed tracking software.  It’s a neat little toy for basically geoaching.  It shows everywhere you’ve been my overlaying your track on top of Googe Maps, or with a simple file conversion, Google Earth.  Eventually… 40 minutes and 31 minutes later, we finally made it to the gas station to fill up before going home.

It was not even close to being planned, but sometimes it’s just a good idea to get our of the house for a bit.  To see most of our route, and as a demo for part of GPSed, click HERE.

Logitech G330 Headset

Finding a headset that suits my needs is a royal pain in the arse. To start with, I use dual sound. Most of the time, I use a headset for chatting only via Yahoo/Xfire/Ventrilo/etc. I keep my Logitech 5.1 speakers setup for all of my main sound. With that in mind, the headset I use cannot completely seal to the ears or surround them. That would cause me to have to turn the main speakers further up, which not only would annoy the wife, but could annoy the neighbors. Second, the headset, if USB, must use an external adapter such as the one that comes with this headset. I’ve tried pure USB headsets before that have digital volume control, but since my main speakers are always set to be the default ones in Windows Vista, the volume control on the headset controls the main speakers instead of the headset. That just doesn’t fly well. With a USB adapter, and a headset with it’s own manual volume, the problem is solved, or I could just not use the USB adapter and use my onboard sound instead since my main sound is my Asus Xonar DX.

Another problem I have is with most of these newer “behind the head” headsets that mfgr’s are pushing. They work well for those with a average sized head, but as some of my friends and wife will probably tell you, I’m a bit big headed. (Don’t all of you agree at once). The new G330 is the first adjustable behind the head headset I’ve ever seen. It uses a specially designed spring steel bar that promises to hold its position but also hold it’s springiness. We shall see.

Comfort: The headset seems very comfortable. It is extremely lightweight, and in my case at least, does not take much tension to hold itself in place. Since the frame of the headset is sort of squared off a bit because of the adjustable rear bar, there are a couple places where the frame hits the sides of the back of the head, but this is not uncomfortable in any way. This may be do to an integrated silicone rubber liner. If you look at the pics in my first post, all of that dark pink surface area is the soft silicone rubber.  The only place where it sometimes gets slightly uncomfortable is the tops of the ears. If you have the headset sitting a little low on the ears, or they’ve slid down a bit and you haven’t noticed, the frame of the headset can sit on the tops of the ears, which may eventually cause a comfort issue after long periods of use.

The foam earpads are definitely a plus. I use my headset for sound editing occasionally, but I primarily use it for Ventrilo. I do not play my game sounds though the headset. I can easily hear the sounds around me on my desk from my main 5.1, to the text message ringtone that is just Yanni playing a few notes that seems to keep going off over the past hour. The foam also allows your skin to “breathe” better, enhancing long term comfort.

Microphone: The microphone stays where you put it very well. It’s shoulder joint enabled vertical adjustment to approx 270 degrees, while the boom itself is somewhat flexible, like many of the booms that I’ve seen so far.  One of the first things I’ve noticed is that there is no option for microphone boost. You pretty much just turn the mic volume all the way up. Mic pickup in Vista seems low, but Vista audio control is a bit deceiving in this regard. The test will have to be a real world one. I’ve done some self testing in Ventrilo, comparing my voice return to the sound of the PTT, and it seems alright, but your mileage may very. After some extended Ventrilo usage, I’ve found that sometimes the mic being turned all the way up just isn’t enough.  It may very well be the other user on the line, but I normally turn the outboud osund amp up by one notch and every thing is fine.  Note that this is with the USB adapter.  I have not thoroughly tested the headset though my onboard sound which I normally keep disabled.

Speakers: Very clear, but it seems to depend on your sound source. The headset is a bit bass heavy. This is not an issue for chat usage, but may be annoying to some users that plan on listening to a lot of music through this headset or using them as your primary audio. This seems to be a common fault of all headsets with larger drivers however. This headset uses 30mm drivers, or 1.18in. Other than the bass issue, I thought these were very clear.

Conclusions:

• If using this headset as a second audio device for in-game chat and the like, I recommend using it with its USB adapter. This recommendation may change once I do more testing in Ventrilo (at the most I’m expecting to use a touch of the Ventrilo outbound amplification). You can also use the USB adapter for sound editing, and most music listening, but I would not recommend it for anything with a lot of bass.
• If using this headset as your primary audio, I suggest setting aside the USB adapter and plugging this headset directly into your onboard or add-on board based sound. Anything with support for EQ so you can tone the bass down a bit. I’ll be taking the headset back and forth for a few days to see which I ultimately prefer.

Whichever method you use to connect this headset, I think you’ll find it very comfortable, and extremely adjustable. It seems to be a good quality so far, which of course I wouldn’t expect anything else from the labs of Logitech.

Info from Logitech:

Features:

• Adjustable, behind the ear fit
• Noise-canceling microphone
• Flexible, rotating boom
• USB adapter
• Inline audio controls
• Durable headband construction
• Low profile speaker drivers

Connection:

• Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7: USB or dual 2.5mm jacks
• Mac OS X: USB Only

Headphones:

• Driver: 30 mm diameter; neodymium magnet
• Frequency response: 40 Hz–18 kHz (-10 dB)
• Impedance: 32 ohm nominal
• Sensitivity: 94 dB SPL Ref: 1 mW (-18.2 dBV = 1m W), 1 kHz

Microphone:

• Pickup pattern: Unidirectional (cardioid)
• Frequency response: 100 Hz–10 kHz
• Sensitivity: -44 dBV/Pa re: 0 dB = 1 Pa, 1 kHz
• Test conditions: 3.0 V, 2.2 K ohm

I’m sure this comic strip probably pissed someone off, but who cares.  The artist is right.