Zachary Burns | Zack Burns | Raves/Praise/Compliments!

Raves/Praise/Compliments!

The longer you live, the more respect you start to have for having products or appreciating things that are well thought out. Instead of complaining about them here, I'm going to praise them below if I feel like it.

The "Super Handy" China Log Splitter

It's rare. Very rare! That a product coming from China isn't garbage and works for a while without breaking. Well, in 2022, I stumbled on such a product. The "Super Handy" Log Splitter I found on Amazon. This was a pretty sketchy purchase for me. I wasn't going to spend $2000.00 for a log splitter, so I bought this one for approximately $500.00 and got the warranty (which I normally never do) just in-case it turned out to be junk.

Well this log splitter has split 1-2 foot long logs x 18-20" thick. You know...the big stuff! The machine had a small hydraulic leak from a non-tightened bolt, but once what was tight, it was off to the races. It doesn't even blink splitting this stuff. The engine starts right up and just goes and goes. Great product!

The "Camera Phone"

On June 11th, 1997, Philippe Kahn created the first working camera phone. I don't even think he knew what he created. By the time it became commercialized in Japan and South Korea (by Kyocera/Samsung/Nokia) and began selling to the public, 1999-2000 and the Dot-Com boom was happening. This was probably one of the fastest times in history that technology was really moving fast. Very fast!

In late 2000 I was in a Toledo area Best Buy on Airport Highway and Reynolds Road buying a DirectTV/Tivo unit (another awesome product) and was strolling through the PDA and cell phone section. Now remember, at this time the cellular networks sucked and were very expensive. I remember talking with a sales guy and asking literally, "Who the hell would buy a cell phone with a camera on it?" I knew the technology and it would take forever to send just 1 simple crappy quality photo to somebody. His reply was, "Maybe a realtor sending a house photo to somebody." or something like that. I wasn't in that space, so it just didn't trigger with me the revolution that was happening. I totally missed the future and where it was going. (We usually hit up Best Buy on Friday night after having a couple beers and eating at Don Pablos Mexican down the street.) I hind-sight, I probably should have stopped drinking then. I might be a billionare if I paid attention. :-) Hah! Now-a-days, you texting, photos, etc on a phone are just common-place. Can you think of a world without your camera phone?