Ghlargh

Pros:

These are perfect for cleaning most surfaces, also works well on lenses and glasses.

Cons:

When cleaning optical surfaces you need to have another lint free cloth available for wiping the surface dry or the droplets from the cloth can leave spots.

Other Thoughts:

These are made from a fair quality very soft lint free cloth as opposed to the cheaper optical wipes that are made from a sort of paper that is much thinner and doesn't clean as well.

Bottomline:

These are great to have on hand for emergency cleaning in the field, but get a pack of microfiber cloth for drying the surfaces afterwards.

Pros:

Great for lubricating moving parts, i have used this for both hard plastic mechanical parts such as servos, and for metal parts.
I have restored very hard to open folding knives to better than new condition with just a small drop of this in each joint.

Cons:

The oil is slightly thick, so it can be hard to get it to initially reach deep cracks.
Also silicone oil creeps great distances, for example if you were to oil hinges on a laptop with this oil, it could easily creep up inside the screen and turn it slightly blurry.

Bottomline:

Great lubricant but don't use on or near optical or visual equipment.

Pros:

The cigarette works very well, the battery has safety functions for low voltage and also a time-out in case the switch malfunctions and is left on for too long.
The atomizer works really well and one cartridge lasts a long time.

Cons:

The wall outlet and car chargers that came with it are of poor quality, i recommend throwing those away and just using a computer USB connection.
The refills came as tobacco flavor and high nicotine, i would have preferred no flavor or mint, and low or no nicotine since this was supposed to be a theater prop.

Other Thoughts:

If you just want the smoke effect and no nicotine, the cartridges can easily be refilled with normal smoke machine fluid using a syringe (also found on DX).
I used a syringe and 5ml of smoke fluid to rinse out the high nicotine tobacco flavor juice and replace it with plain smoke fluid.

Bottomline:

This works great, but i suggest buying a few extra cartridges with different flavor unless you want the stink of cigarette.

Pros:

Perfect for any application where you have fairly low power per area such as LED, moderate power transistors and such.

Cons:

Not very good for extreme applications like high power transistors or modern CPU.

Other Thoughts:

I have used several tubes of this stuff to fasten over 200 power-LEDs to aluminium heat sinks, it works perfectly. It takes a while to set but once it's set it is fairly solid.
I usually put on a little too much and then press the LED star (or what ever other thing i want to glue) down hard to make sure the join is as thin as possible for best heat transfer.

Bottomline:

Best heat transfer glue within a low budget.
Not for extreme power applications.

Pros:

-Glues plastic soles that other glues, even glues made for shoe repair, have problems with.

Cons:

-The glue is slightly too hard after it sets, it would have been better if it was more rubbery since it is meant to glue rubbers and plastics.

Other Thoughts:

I bought this as a last desperate chance to save a pair of shoes where the bottom sole had come lose, and it actually worked.
I didn't even get it to stick with contact cement which normally sticks to almost anything, but this worked.

Bottomline:

This glue is great for the types of plastics and synthetic rubbers used in shoes and some other applications, but for most other applications normal contact cement is better.

Pros:

-Good quality steel
-very fine machining
-near perfect alignment of tips (any problems small enough to be fixed with small pliers)

Cons:

-Comes too sharp, really really really sharp, has to be dulled slightly or it will just scratch work surfaces and get stuck everywhere.
-Not completely non-magnetic, can be magnetized and will then pick up small items that have high content of iron, nickel or chrome.

Other Thoughts:

These are close enough to $30 or more brand tweezers that it makes no difference, except for having to dull down the tips a little.

Bottomline:

If you work with SMD these are as good or better than most expensive brand tweezers out there.

Pros:

Really sturdy rubber.
Tighter back ring than western brands (this can be seen as a plus, since the ring can act like a penis ring, making the erection last longer)
No lubrication.

Cons:

Unknown storage conditions.
Over all slightly smaller than western condoms.

Other Thoughts:

DX brand
flattened width: 52mm
width of rubber ring: 50mm
length: 186mm
RFSU Swedish brand:
flattened width: 53mm
width of rubber ring: 52mm
length: 199mm
These are measurements made by me with no pre-defined system of measurments, they should not be seen as much more than a comparison between the basic size of Swedish RFSU condoms (wich are of a very uniform size for the "standard size" ones) and the condoms made by this chinese company, wich i suppose are of similarly uniform size.

Bottomline:

I would probably trust these condoms as much as any "made in asia" comdoms regardless of brand (RFSU are made in Sweden, to a set of specifications much higher than the EU norm)...
but even if you do not, lots of people use condoms with steady partners where the purpouse is more of a "sperm collector" than anything else. Or you can just use them as party balloons...

Pros:

Great material quality, everything fits toghether perfectly and i can't see any flaws in construction.
Works almost every time, has a hot and steady jet flame.
Good large metal heat-sink to get rid of the burners excess energy.

Cons:

This might be a one-time flaw with my lighter, but something inside the burner head is obstructing the gas, the flow is not as good as when i got the lighter, and at one point the gas didn't come out at all.

Other Thoughts:

this is by far the nicest looking cheap jet lighter at DX, and it is among the best built. So if you need something semi-stylish for lighting cigars, but don't want to pay a lot, this might do for you.

Bottomline:

Assuming that my problem was a one-time thing, this is perfect, buy it!

Pros:

Works perfectly with SDHC cards.
Pretty sturdy design.
Compact.
Comes with retail packaging.

Cons:

Not as sturdy as the sku.6108 reader, and doesn't come with the plastic protective cover.
Does not have a LED like the specifications say.
SD card sticks out too far.

Other Thoughts:

Since the SD card sticks out a few mm. this is not great to use as a thumb-drive, the card can be easily damaged if carried in a pocket.
It has a loop for fastening a carrying strap, but this would be pretty useless too for the same reason

Bottomline:

I can't reccomend this, buy sku.6108 instead.

Pros:

This is perfect if you need it.
Connectors are good quality.
Works perfectly with all compatible devices i have tried.

Cons:

It isn't really a USB to PS/2 converter, it's just an adapter for devices that are made to work on both PS/2 and USB, but only has comes with USB plug. (but i knew that)

Other Thoughts:

I have a couple of USB keyboards that were supposed to come with these adapters, but they were missing from the package. These saved the day since i needed to connect them to a really old computer.

Bottomline:

You know you need one! Buy it!

Pros:

Very nice jet flame.
LARGE gas tank.
Ability to lock flame on.

Cons:

the trigger has a very complicated linkage that is likely to break if you drop it or get the button stuck on something.
The burner has a small metal front piece, the rest of the lighter is made from plastic, this means that there is a very small area to disperce heat. The head heats up quickly and the gas hose inside falls off, this could cause the entire lighter to catch fire.

Other Thoughts:

I have had tons of problems with this one, i would not reccomend it at all.
The only real plus is the large tank, wich can't really be used since it breaks if it's used for a long time...

Bottomline:

I think all the other semi-large jet lighters at DX are better than this one, get one of those.

Pros:

Worked perfectly at first
Nice hotspot and a lot of spill, pretty much what one needs.
Fits well in the hand.

Cons:

After a few weeks, this light started showing signs of having 2 modes, high and low, too bad this ment that there was no "off" mode... the switch never really turned off completely.
I felt from the beginning that the switch in this one was of lower quality than the switches in my other flashlights.

Other Thoughts:

This could be just a bad switch or bad casing, the friend i gave it to has not tried to repair the problem yet, but it is rather frustrating to have a light do this.

Bottomline:

Maybe find something with a slightly better switch?

Pros:

A very solid and well worked design.
Nice redish jet flame made by heating small pieces of metal in the jet stream.

Cons:

The gas tank is extremely small, something like 1cc, it only lasts for 75 seconds. (the reason for the low usefulness rating)
instead of using the trigger, this lighter uses the hammer to light itself. Using the trigger would be more "realistic".

Other Thoughts:

This is quite beautifully designed, but it doesn't seem like the designers thought too much about the fact that a lighter is supposed to be used to light stuff, meaning that they should have designed it at a slightly larger scale so that the gas tank could last more than 75 seconds...

Bottomline:

If you want a cute but quite useless novelty lighter, this is really nice and well built.
If you need something to light your pipe or whatever you smoke, this holds way too little gas.

Pros:

Cute decorative watch for a glass cabinet, kitchen shelf or similar.

Cons:

It really isn't very well adapted for use as a keychain.
It doesn't keep time very well, i had it going at least one minute per week fast, that might be fine for a wrist watch that you can set at any time that you walk by a clock, but for something you would want to have standing in a fixed spot, it would be hard work to set it every 2 weeks or more.

Other Thoughts:

The clock face looked exactly like the 30cm wall clocks we have in school, but smaller. I mounted it as a wall clock as a joke.

Bottomline:

Simply don't buy this if you intend to use it for keeping time, it is a great decoration but not a good clock.

Pros:

It can withstand direct soldering (does not deforme if touched by a 350 C iron).
Perfect for holding hot components in place while soldering.

Cons:

Since it is not shipped in any kind of bag, it arrives somewhat dirty, but since this tape is not really ment to be used where the looks of the tape might matter, that's not a big deal.

Other Thoughts:

I tested this by attaching it to a copper plane on a board and proceeded to add solder to the plane, when done i removed the tape and there was a sharp straight line with no solder where the tape had been. Both the glue and the tape held up to 350 C direct contact.
I also tried holding some bare copper wire in place while soldering them, works perfectly.

Bottomline:

Well... if you need a temporary fastening that can withstand high temperatures, this is for you.

Pros:

Great cheap straps for Wii controllers or any other stuff you need to attach to your wrists.

Cons:

the thin loop that attaches to the controller is a piece of fishing line sheathed in a cloth tube, the cloth tube is very weak and broke allmost every time i tried to insert a strap into a hole in metal, but the fishing line held at least.
Doesn't include a black strap (wich i would concider the most attractive color).

Other Thoughts:

Someone commented that the cloth seemed to not have the same thickness all over, i can say that the strap is made from a large cloth tube the same diameter all over, but as it bends at the end it flattens out a little.

Bottomline:

You need a couple of wrist straps? Get a pack of these, but watch out for sharp edges when attaching to your devices, they will cut up the small loop.

Pros:

This stuff is perfect for attaching low weight high temperature components to heatsinks or small heatsinks to solidly mounted components.

Cons:

Not as good thermal conduction as pure heat grease.
Not recomended for use on PC CPU since the heatsink is likely to pull the CPU out of it's socket unless the heatsink is properly strapped in.

Other Thoughts:

I used this to attach 3W star LEDs to heatsinks, they got marginally hotter than when i used screws and heat conducting grease (maybe 1-2 degrees per watt extra), but since i needed to mount 30 LEDs, drilling 60 holes in exact positions was not an appealing concept.

Bottomline:

Unless the heat conducting surface is very small or the joint is going to be subjected to great forces, this is perfect.

Pros:

Works great.
Looks allmost like one of those talking bottle openers.
Would not attract a lot of attension if left next to a fridge if the idiot sticker is peeled off.

Cons:

It has a HUGE sticker on it that says SHOCK, it can be peeled of thou.
It could be much more well made, for example the "speaker grill" could be an actual opening instead of just a small shape in the plastic.

Other Thoughts:

Uses an electronic chip and a coil to create a high voltage, but has better power than many other electronic shock items.

Bottomline:

Get one, or a couple (people maight break them in anger...)
Peel that damn idiot sticker off.

Pros:

Great for storing SMD components or other very small items.
Does lock together in 2 dimensions to form large storage modules for separating many different components.

Cons:

The new model has been modified to have a small clip on the right side to help the boxes lock togheter harder, this is completely unnessesary thou, since they lock togheter fine even if this clip is broken off.
To accommodate the clip, some of the space of the inside of the box has been taken away in a half cylinder. This means the box is not square inside.

Other Thoughts:

The boxes are quite large compared to what you would normally find at an electronics workshop, this might be good or bad, depending on what you are going to store in them.
The boxes are spring loaded to keep the lid open and has a clip to keep it closed, when clip is pulled the lid flips open.

Bottomline:

Fantastic at this price even if they are rather large for most standard SMD components.

Pros:

Works for hanging stuff around your neck.
Very strong for a cheap item.
Not uncomfortable.

Cons:

These things are made from a piece of zipper that is not sewn to cloth, it works fine, but the zipper doesn't stay closed by itself, if you pull on the end of the string when you have it around your neck it will open.

Other Thoughts:

The zipper pullies are kindof stupid, shaped like all kinds of dumb things.
Might be a little too childish looking for some, but great for kids.
Could allso be disassembled and used as normal zippers.

Bottomline:

Great to hang kids' bus passes or such around their necks.

Pros:

Great acrylic glue.
Good strength.
Easy to use.

Cons:

Has a very prominent smell of solvents.
Hardens VERY fast, half of the glue hardened on the mixing stick, the other half was going hard within a minute or two. I mixed up about half a CC.

Other Thoughts:

The glue hardens to a milky white color.
This will work fairly well in small quantities, but since the hardening process speeds up with larger volume it will harden before it can be mixed fully.

Bottomline:

Really cheap glue that works fairly well, but hardens too fast.

Pros:

Lets you use cheap AA cells in place of expensive C cells.
Can be easily altered to work properly.

Cons:

Instead of the more typical adapter that just expands the diameter, this model also has a small piece of plastic on each end of the battery making the battery longer.
This also means that if 2 or more of these adapters will be placed in a row, these plastic ends mean that there will be no contact between batteries since they are too far apart.

Other Thoughts:

These are allmost useless since they have plastic that cover some of the front and back of the AA cell so that it cannot get proper contact in the battery compartment.
However, they can be altered by cutting the ends off and will work properly.

Bottomline:

These are great, but you will need to cut them down quite a bit or they will not work at all.

Pros:

Nice gearbox and generator setup.
Does work somewhat.

Cons:

The battery is too easy to wear out, we managed to wear the battery dowm to a point where it would no longer hold a full charge and it took only a couple of hours of playing with the light.

Other Thoughts:

This is a fairly well made gearbox and it uses a small but powerful motor as a generator, this means that you can hook wires up to the motors and drive the crank.
Useful if you need a small but fairly powerful rotation at a good price.

Bottomline:

If you need a light, you will probably get a lot more light-time out of a 10pack of CR2016 single LED lights for $5.
This light is great if you need a motor and gearbox.

Pros:

Good price.
Small radio receiver.
Uses easy to obtain LR44 button cell batteries.

Cons:

Needs a very good signal to work.
Auto scan feature is somewhat dodgy.
Volume control only on headphone cable.
Uses 2.5mm headphone connector so regular headphones will not work.

Other Thoughts:

This could be a lot smaller if the pen was not included, and how many would actually use their radio as a pen?
Considering the small amount of components it would be possible to make it a lot smaller by making the PCB more square.

Bottomline:

Great to give away to gadget freaks, but not very useful for every day radio listening.

Pros:

Cheap.
Has the ability to be set to any frequency a standard receiver can pick up.
Long range for one of these transmitters.

Cons:

Stops working around 2.5V which means it is almost useless on AAA batteries (these should be considered good until they are at 1.0V or 0.8V, wich means this device should work down to 1.6V or at least 2.0V).
Car adapter uses a 78L05 5V regulator without any filter capacitor which means any interference from the car engine and generator will be transmitted to the device.
Low volume whine even when used on batteries, can usually only be heard when music stops.
Sound quality goes down if music contains too much base.

Other Thoughts:

I am using it in a radio unfriendly environment to transmit through 2 walls and a set of steel bookcases and it works fine.

Bottomline:

Get one, it's worth the money, but don't expect to get 10/10 sound from it.

Pros:

Takes up a small area when stored.
Uses standard USB keyboard drivers.
Waterproof.

Cons:

The keys are sometimes not very responsive when typing fast.
Needs a smooth surface to work.
Does not come with the PS/2 adapter that is listed on the packaging.

Other Thoughts:

I bought this to use for my server, it is placed so that a keyboard cannot be permanently attached.

Bottomline:

Great temporary/server/emergency keyboard.
Not a very good standard keyboard due to keys being unresponsive while typing/clicking fast.

Pros:

Cheap and easy to use static release wrist strap.

Cons:

The wriststrap itself is not conductive, the device relies on a metal plate on the back of the blue plastic clip to be in contact with your skin. Allso the connector that connects the wire to the plastic clip has a slightly bad connection.

Other Thoughts:

When putting togheter a computer or otherways screwing around with sensitive electronics, these things are good to have around.

Bottomline:

Great for small jobs, but as usual for DX items, if you are going to use the strap a lot, you might want to concider getting a more expensive brand strap.

Pros:

Great price for diamond coated cutting/grinding discs. (yes, i have verified them to be diamond coated)

Cons:

Coating is uneven and doesn't cover the outer edge of the disc as much as one would expect from a cutting disc.

Other Thoughts:

When cutting hard metals or running at high speeds, you WILL need to cool the cutting disc with water or it WILL wear out in a very short time.
I have used discs like this to cut tungsten carbide and industrial ceramics with no problems at all, but the water cooling is completely nessesary to get any lifetime at all from diamond tools.

Bottomline:

If you need to make a few cuts in hard materials these are great, but for cutting softer materials you should go for other types of cutting discs, or if you need to do a lot of cutting in hard materials better and more expensive diamond discs would be prefered.

Pros:

Great flashing beacon for finding objects or places in the dark.
Fairly long battery time.
Very very very cheap.

Cons:

Build quality and design makes the slide switch somewhat unreliable.
Not an ideal flash interval for anything, 1 Hz is too slow for most applications, 1/2 Hz would be better, or better yet would be an assymetrical pattern with 1/4 seconds on and 3/4 seconds off or something of that kind. That would allso double the battery time.

Other Thoughts:

It would probably cost more than $4 including postage to get a 10pack of just flashing white LEDs, without the batteries and keyring assembly.

Bottomline:

Get some of these if you need to leave and then find items in the dark, or mark a dark path temporarily for a party or some such.
Do not buy this thinking it will be a cool personal strobe light for discos.

Pros:

Uses a mechanical shock driver, so the shock is much more effective than in the other jar on DX. This driver allso uses an AAA battery so it can supply shocks for a longer time.

Cons:

There is no spring loaded action, once the lid is turned so that the shock generator turns on, it will stay on until turned back again.
The bottom of the lid, wich is the cover for the shock mechanism, isn't stuck on very well, mine came off in the mail causing the shock mechanism to be damaged. I did manage to fix it thou.

Other Thoughts:

While it is possible to replace the battery, it involves a lot of work since wires are soldered straight to the battery terminals.
When opening the jar, make sure you do not loose the contact tab or you will not get the jar working again.

Bottomline:

Great joke at a great price if it arrives in one piece.