The Fly Jumper: Oh, to be 20 Again...

Fun With Pigeons

The Scarecrow... pest repellent.. $69 online.

Humane, Hilarious Bird Sprinkler Saves Hot Tubs

Anyone with a hot-tub, that occasionally gets nailed by the bounty of nature, will appreciate this funny solution to bird crap. It's called the Scarecrow... available online.
($69) Video at Vidmeister

iPhone Cartoon

Music Trivia Posers Rejoice: Hail The MUSIC MARKER

You hear a song on the radio... it rocks... but the damn DJ doesn't tell you who it is.. Next time you hear it, press the button on this pocket device, it records a snippet of the music. Plug it into your PC when you get home, somehow it magically dials up Uncle Cliff, and he figures out the tune title/artist... Cheap at only $20!

Golf Cruiser Makes Me Want To Resume Golfing

The new 2007 Golf Cruiser is not your papa's golf cart, but more like Tiger Wood's kick-ass three-wheeler. It's electric, running on a 1000W engine with an upgraded 36 volts battery that gives you 8 to 10 hours of operation. And although the top speed is 9.3mph, it can carry 397 pounds of gear. I still prefer the strap-on beer cruiser, because anything with "beer" and "strap-on" in its name instantly gets my attention.
(VIA GIZMODO)

The Gallatin Backpack!

Coleman Exponent 2L Gallatin Hydration System

I shoulda been on American Inventor... (actually... some OTHER
Gallatin came up with this ingenious
way to keep drinking water while on casual hikes, without stopping to open bottles and stuff... You have a constant flow of H2O avail. via a straw... from Coleman ($27.95 at Amazon)

Moisture management polyester mesh on back panel and shoulder strap > Omni-directional bite valve

Picture of the Month: The Car Grill

A guy actually sliced his old car into 3rds, and kept the front, and turned it into a barbecue grill....

MIT Scientists invent Wi tricity (Wireless AC!!!)

They sent power 7 feet across a room, allowing it to turn on a light bulb... This invention might just rival Edisons!!! No more batteries needed indoors. No more AC cables... Portable devices charge themselves... Buck Rogers stuff............

Read about it here.

Random um...Ramblings

These bricks appear to connect to the top AND bottom of a stack of bricks, without going up or down... (cue spooky music) Yoiks, Skoob!!! Let's get outa here!!


I got a heads-up from a relative saying
THERE IS A SCAM going around, where a man or men, will ask what perfume / cologne you wear and offer you a "similar scent" for much less, and produce a card for you to comparison sniff...
If you do, you'll get woozy and weak, as it IS ETHER. Don't fall for it.
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ANN COULTER, On Jerry Falwell:
".......Actually, there was one small item I think Falwell got wrong regarding his statement after 9/11 that "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians — who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle — the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

First of all, I disagreed with that statement because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy."
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If anyone reading this has ANY of these chairs / sofas, please don't invite me over... We just won't get along....

The Popular Science Awards are out this week for new gadgets / inventions...
Click here, to see VELCRO 2.0, and INFLATABLE SATELLITE DISHES.

Steven will be planting trees at the park tomorrow, on ARBOR DAY, to earn community service hours (No, he didn't get a DUI) his school requires 16 hours per school year...

Mercedes builds the WORLD's UGLIEST CAR, based on a tropical fish. Great drag coeeficient of 0.06 which, I read, is close to perfect, alongside a water droplet.

1/2 Price Solar Energy by 2009.. Thank You

A new mechanism for focusing light on small areas of photovoltaic material could make solar power in residential and commercial applications cheaper than electricity from the grid in most markets in the next few years. Initial systems, which can be made at half the cost of conventional solar panels, are set to start shipping later this year, says Brad Hines, CTO and founder of Soliant Energy, a startup based in Pasadena, CA, that has developed the new modules.

Concentrating sunlight with mirrors or lenses on a small area cuts the costs of solar power in part by reducing the amount of expensive photovoltaic material needed. But while concentrated solar photovoltaic systems are attractive for large-scale, ground-based solar farms for utilities, conventional designs are difficult to mount on rooftops, where most residential and commercial customers have space for solar panels. The systems are typically large and heavy, and they're mounted on posts so that they can move to track the sun, which makes them more vulnerable to gusts of wind than ordinary flat solar panels are.

Soliant has designed a solar concentrator that tracks the sun throughout the day but is lighter and not pole-mounted. The system fits in a rectangular frame and is mounted to the roof with the same hardware that's used for conventional flat solar panels. Yet the devices will likely cost half as much as a conventional solar panel, says Hines. A second-generation design, which concentrates light more and uses better photovoltaics, could cost a quarter as much. He says that a more advanced design should be ready by 2010.

The Soliant design combines both lenses and mirrors to create a more compact system. Each module is made of rows of aluminum troughs, each about the width and depth of a gutter. These troughs are mounted inside a rectangular frame and can tilt in unison from side to side to follow the sun. Each trough is enclosed on top with a clear acrylic lid. Inside each trough, a strip of silicon photovoltaic material runs along the bottom. As light enters, some of it reflects off the inside surface of the trough and reaches the strip of silicon. The rest of the incoming light is focused on the strip by a lens incorporated into the acrylic lid.

Research & Development

COOL: 3D Printers Almost Ready To Invade Our Homes.

COOLER: Plug in Hybrid Chevy Volt Scheduled for 2010.
Pictured below... looks a tad cooler than a Prius.











The last news heard from the General on the plug-in hybrid Volt was they were having some serious problems with the battery systems -- i.e., they hadn't invented them yet. So I guess many are a little dubious of the claim this week made by Automotive News they're eyeballing a 2010 date for a vehicle to hit the streets.

COOLEST:

A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

No Special Hardware - Use any USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod/MP3 player, etc

No Additional Software - Just download the portable app, extract it and go

No Kidding - It's that easy

Consider the Possibilities...

• Carry your web browser with all your favorite bookmarks (surf at the airport on a Zune)
  
• Carry your calendar with all your appointments
• Carry your email client with all your contacts and settings
• Carry your instant messenger and your buddy list
  
• Carry your whole office suite along with your documents and presentations
• Carry your antivirus program and other computer utilities
  
• Carry all your important passwords and account information securely
  

Consider the Convenience...

• Have your favorite websites handy to recommend to a friend or colleague
• Have your presentation AND the required software ready to go for that big meeting
• Have your password with you if you want to bank online while traveling
  
• Have utilities handy when visiting family or friends that are having PC problems

I recommend the VLC Portable Media Player. Ever gotten an email with a video that your PC can't figure out how to play? Open it with VLC.. It WILL play.

Goodbye DVD.. We Hardly Knew Ye..

I've been telling my customers that they only need their home-made DVD to last another 3 to 4 years before the prices of flash memory make DVD's obsolete... I forgot about Moore....

This little white rectangular sucker stores 2 Gigabytes (half of what a DVD holds) and is selling for $20.95... In 18 months... bingo... $9.95 for a drive that rivals DVD, that doesn't get scratched, although might get swallowed by the damn dog...

TiVo Rolls Out Video and Photo Sharing Service

Now I can FINALLY rules the airwaves,... bwa ha ha ha ha!!! I can create scads of useless, silly one video per week of something interesting to me and my non-existent growing loyal audience, and put it out there. You can receive the content on your TIVO. If you want all the stuff I create, you can get a SEASON PASS to my content.. Please don't ask for disc two of Girls Gone Wild, I'm not quite... done with it.

Click HERE for the FULL SCOOP on sharing photos and video with Tivo simplicity,

Touchscreen Tablet For Your Laptop or LCD

I've kinda been waiting for something like this for awhile... Turn any PC screen into a touch screen kiosk- kinda thing... for only $130... Now I can tell my clients to just fill out what they want on a PC screen at the front of the store whilst I keep playing Donkey Kong evaluate their master disc for scratches and playback issues..
"Just attaching it on LCD monitor frame and connecting it to USB port, you can enjoy tablet functionality on your laptop monitor." (Via scifitech.com)

Weird Combo: Soccer Ball & Batteries

From this packaging, one could assume that Duracell sponsors some variety of soccer somewhere in the world and that nothing special is going on. OR, one could instead assume that soccer balls have required batteries all this time and that's why I've always sucked at soccer.. (via Gizmodo)

Wish you could EASILY put video on the web?

A great standalone solution awaits.... Hook this little devil up to your TIVO, or DVD player, and it'll record NICE picture quality video SUITABLE for the web, or your PDA, or Cellphone, or even an iPod or Sony PSP.. (Geeks, Schneebly says it encodes in REAL TIME in MPEG 4 at 320 x 240 30 fps.) (Non-geeks.. Grok say: picture good.. no trubel... easy time copy thing)

Putting video on Sony's PSP has never been an easy task. File names, proper folders, making sure you have the right format, and then dealing with various resolutions has never been an enjoyable process. While Sony has made some strides to streamline this process, the one thing they can't provide is video itself. Enter the Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder 2.

Small and designed to look much like the handheld gaming console, this is a wonderful gadget for those looking to easily transfer nearly any video to their portable. In addition to the PSP, the Recorder is ready to pump out video to everything from your iPod to your cell phone. If it accepts video in the MPEG4, AVI, ASF formats, it can be transferred.

Set up is amazingly simple, even for someone who has never handled any sort of device like this. Included (though rather short) composite cables hook into a device, say a DVD player. Another cable hooks to your TV from the Recorder. Play the DVD, hit record, and the Recorder goes to work copying the source into the proper format.

Options of course open this up for those looking to play around with various settings. Seven resolutions are available, from as low as 176x120 up to 640x480. At the latter resolution, this could double as a quick and easy DVR, assuming you have a decent sized memory stick. Photos and MP3's can also be played if they're on the stick.

It supports compact flash and SD memory without any extras needed. For the PSP, you'll need to buy an adapter so it fits into one of the two slots on the front of the device, or but the Neuros Recorder 2 PLUS... For iPod users, you'll need a USB adapter to transfer video from a memory stick. The recorder itself has no USB slots.

Using the PSP as example, you'll take your memory stick out of the console, push it into the slot using the adapter, and the Recorder knows exactly where the video needs to go. The folders are already selected and ready to save video. Cool..$99 at Amazon.com

Nintendo Wii.. Cooler by the minute.

Nintendo Wii Modified for Zelda.. The ultimate gift for a gamer. Just looking at the pictures in his eBay auction (now up to $700) brings us back to a simpler time. A time of video games, PB&J sandwiches from mom, and giggling at magazines with naked girls that our friend Tom brought over. Ahh, good old 2006. (Gizmodo)

TIVO for AM/FM

Finally, a TIVO for my AM/FM Radio. I got XM because of all the freakin' commercials on regular radio, only to STILL have commercials on the channels I actually listen to, like Comedy Central-150.
Except for the fact that it looks like a shark fin, which has little to no relevance to the actual product. The Radio Shark 2 is an upgrade to Griffin's almost three-year-old Radio Shark 1. The Shark 2 plugs into a Mac or PC via USB and can then time-shift and record live AM or FM radio. This one is a bit better than the original because you have more customizable schedule recording features. It also is now compatible with iTunes and can handle Internet radio. The Radio Shark 2 is available for $50. (Psst...HD Radio users, a Radio Shark HD is on the way.)

New Goodies

Here's a HEADS UP on a new phone service that apparently is the
BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. Grandcentral.com
It allows you to route all calls from all phones to one phone, via the web.
It lets you place a link on your website. People click it, and call you.
And much more, including saving wireless minutes Oh yeah, it's free.

Redesigned Boeing Aircraft to Replace 747s?

It may look like a stealth fighter jet, but Boeing is hoping its new X-48B aircraft will become the commercial airliner of the future. The blended-wing plane—a name given to planes that merge the fuselage and wings into one—eliminates the tail part of a plane (which is usually the part of the plane responsible for lag drag). In doing so, the X-48B uses up to 30% less gas than a typical airliner. Boeing hopes to have a military version of the plane ready by 2022, and a passenger model by 2030.
via (Gizmodo)