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Well, not much going on here in a LONG LONG time. I just never find any time to update Soliton anymore. It's in a very sad state of condition too. Most pictures don't work anymore because I accidentally deleted them off my server (and had no backup) ...

All of the other information is very very out of date. I no longer have a 1985 Honda Nighthawk 700S -- having sold it to a friend's business partner. I replaced the bike with Honda CB1000 a few years ago and I love her to death.

I haven't owned any Apex DVD players in a long time either -- and have probably forgotten most of the technical information about them. I now have a Sony HD-Upconverting DVD player (from Costo) along with a Lite-On DVD writer. I get an amazing picture quality using HDMI with the Sony DVD player on my Sony KD-34XBR960 HDTV.

I still have my Mazda Protege MP3 -- a great car. I've put in a cold air intake (Injen) and put in a new JVC headunit with an Eclipse Amp. Otherwise, the car's in great shape. (Though I don't drive her much -- as I use my bike most of the time.)

Anyway, since I don't currently have a blog, if you want to keep up to date on the things I'm doing the best thing to do would be to check my Flickr and Youtube page. I put the links below. I keep Flickr quite updated with photos and am actually currently doing a "365days" project on there. Check it out. :-)

- My Flickr.com Photo Page
- Specifically my picture sets on Flickr
- My YouTube video page

www.flickr.com More of craig1black's photos

Subject: Beware of Rio (http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/)

I'm so fed up. After sending my Rio Karma in for warrenty repair at the BEGINNING of Feb and I still DON'T have it back yet, I opened my mailbox today to find my $20 rebate submission returned to me, unopened!!!

Stamped on the evelope was "OFFER EXPIRED" and "Return to sender" !!!

I opened the evelope and looked at the rebate rules. It clearly says: "All claims must be postmarked no later than March 22, 2004."

The postmark on my envelope says March 4!!!

Link : Scan of evelope

Link : Scan of rebate

I'm speechless.... I was happy with my Rio Karma until it started having charging problems. After dealing with customer service countless times -- having them tell me that "reflashing the firmware would fix the problem" they eventually and reluctantly gave me an RMA number. Now, its March 22nd and I still don't have it back!

I got an email from them on the 13th of March saying they had received my Karma (more than a month after I UPS'ed it to them) and a new one should ship out in two business days. FAT CHANCE! The email has a link to check the "status" of the RMA.

When I check the status, I get this nice message:

Phone Order/Replacement Order Shipment Tracking

Found 0 Items matching that number.

We're sorry, the number you entered was not found or has not shipped yet.

How nice! I guess I'll never get my Karma back -- and I won't get my $20 rebate either. Maybe it's time I contant my lawyer? I've spent many hours calling Rio Customer service -- ON MY DIME -- and while I'm at work.

I'm glad I've kept meticulous records of my calls to them and copies of all paperwork. Please, you do the same, it gives you some ammo in dealing with them.

I still think the Karma is a good product, but I am a very unhappy customer and would never buy or recommend any Rio products again....I have had nothing but hassles dealing with them.