Friday, April 02, 2010

Corona Clipper...a good company

I bought the "Corona Clipper HS 3950 10-Inch Hedge Shear with Steel Telescoping Handles and Non-Slip Grips" at Lowe's for about 40 bucks.  They were on the higher end of the offerings at the store, but you should never skimp on real tools.  The tool has a great look, and the blades were rippin' sharp. 

The tool is a joy to use, very satisfying, and it simply annihilates whatever you throw at it.  In fact, I turn to these rather than my electric Black and Decker long handled hedge trimmer (which I love), because they're easy, and tearing up the vegetation manually is pretty badassoldskool.

One day, though, I was cutting some very minor shoots around the base of a tree, and I gave a nice chop to a branch, probably not more than a 1/2 inch thick, and the handle simply snapped, ironically right next to the "Forged for Strength" sticker.  So it sat on my shed workbench all winter (I'm lazy), until I was finally motivated to look up the Corona website and complain.  I'd had the tool for maybe a year and half, no receipt, registration, nada.

I got an email response from the Corona sales office within a day, and they took my address.  In about a week, I got a replacement via FedEx, no questions asked.  Nice.  I'm happy, because I still love the utility of the tool, and chalk up the failure to a defect in the metal. 

So I give the product 4 stars, because it was a 5 star until it broke (which should have put it down to 2 stars), but you gotta love good customer service.

But if it breaks again......

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

PodCastSuperStar

Tara Branstad of CMU's Tech Transfer office (now called "CTTEC")
interviewed me for their regular podcast. I managed to be somewhat
coherent!
http://bit.ly/b1IDGQ

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

varus vs. valgus

The way to remember the distinction between varus vs. valgus in knee deformity evaluation:

VARUS (sounds like "v-AIR-us"), means bow-legged, or more "air" between your legs.

VALGUS is the opposite.

This is known as the LaBarca Rule. Coined first by Rich LaBarca way back in the day (circa 2000 or so).

Now you've forever know the difference between varus and valgus.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Randy's back!

Apparently the Facebook page helped the situation.  So I guess it's useful afterall....:P

Welcome back Randy...The improvement in the morning show is obvious now that you're back.


--
________________________________________________________________

  Costa Nikou
  Director of Software Development
  Blue Belt Technlogies, Inc.
  412 683 6442
  costa@bluebelttech.com

  This email is CONFIDENTIAL, and its contents are only
  intended for the original addressee(s).  
_________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Bring back Randy

finally!  A legitimate use for Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=294536306186

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Randy is gone, and so is the funny from WDVE

Sorry Krenn fans, but matter how much you love Bobby Subgum and Ralph the Cat, the simple truth is that Randy was the more talented of the two, and now that he's gone, it's a bit painful to listen to.

Viva la Randy

Blue Belt in the News!http://www.orthosupersite.com/view.asp?rID=60604

Straight Talk from AMD3 on the next wave of orthopedic robotics.

http://www.orthosupersite.com/view.asp?rID=60604

Friday, January 29, 2010

Manip Video Embed 2: Electric Boogaloo

Manipulation Lab Video

It's been a while, but I googled myself (yet again), and noticed that
Stable Pushing was the second link. So although the code and the demo
are gone, the legacy is preserved in the cool Maniuplation lab video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiGScq8WWFE

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fiGScq8WWFE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param
name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param
name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fiGScq8WWFE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I hope it embedded...otherwise, I guess you'll have to <gasp> click the
link.

Test da new blogger!

Oh yeah!