Completely Original Design.

this computer is amazing. it is the most original computing structure i have ever seen. it is 100% purely unprecedented design innovation. its imaginative fresh-take on what forms define the personal computer is truly inventive.

not only that it has a low low price point of around $1000 (supposedly).

(yeah yeah yeah. i know. i know!)

z.

Teeny Tiny BT Ear Thing.

mostly i think Bluetooth headsets make you look like a paranoid schizophrenic when used in public. most people i see using them look completely 100% shitnuts until i see the nub poking out one ear. and i am generally a pretty observant person.

the other thing... is that on a scale of Implied Self-Importance Generation ... where a 1 is like talking loudly in a restaurant to your friends about the 'big deal you have going' or how you're 'trading in your Porsche for something a little faster because you are the most extreme driver in the world' ... and 10 is like inventing the Earth and writing a book and going on talk shows about it. then using a Bluetooth headset to call and ask about which type of toilet paper to buy... that's like a 9. not impressive. and you look nuts.

but anyhow. if someone forced me at gunpoint to use one. and like everyone else in the entire world was using one and those who were not using them were being herded up and shipped off to forced labor camps then i would probably buy this one.



it's super tiny. and looks decently cool. though i can't imagine having to charge this thing up every day in addition to my phone. and it would probably fall out of my ear and i'd loose it. or my non-headset having ear would start over-compensating for the lower ambient sound levels on the headset ear. and eventually i'd have like dog hearing in my right ear and be deaf in my left. unless you are supposed to like not leave it in all the time. in which case... what is the point again?

a kinetically charged and surgically implanted device jacked into my eardrum i would be fine with though. maybe a digital optical connector behind my ear too. that i am down with.

z.

Palm LifeDrive.

when i first heard the rumors of the Palm LifeDrive it sounded pretty cool. like something i might even want. seeing as i do indeed want a PDA-esque device.



but the more i got to thinking about it... the more i realized that as cool as the LifeDrive was... it still didn't have the functionality to replace anything. it would just be another gadget to carry around. it can't replace my phone... cause it can't make calls. it can't replace my camera... because it doesn't have even a shitty snap-shot quality camera built-in. it could replace my iPod i suppose. but i don't honestly carry it around that much anyway... it's mostly a car and office use iPod.

it could at most replace needing my laptop with me some times.

so that combined with reading the excellent Brighthand review... i think i finally decided against it for good. i think.

i swear... someone needs to put me in charge of inventing a convergence PDA/Phone/Camera thingio. i mean seriously. (and if not me ... then any of the gajillions of people who probably agree with me.)

z.

Yamaha Electric Scooter.

i keep thinking of scootering it up (namely a Honda Ruckus.) but there is that whole thing about living less than half a mile from my office. so basically pointless. i mean... it's not like i can take a scooter camping or on a road trip to Canada or anything.

but if i was going to get a scooter thing. and didn't want to be seen at a gas station filling it up. (leaving myself open for snide scooter-bashing jeers and the like from truck-jockeys.) ... i'd probably consider this little Yamaha deal. it's electric and presumably silent (good for stalking late at night being sneaky) and folds up to fit in your friends trunk to get a ride home after getting sauced at some party in the woods.



the FC-06 shown in the link... uh... yeah. no thanks.

z.

Recycled Banner Bags.

cool idea. though doubtfully 100% original as i have seen people do this themselves before. a friend even made a cool skirt from an old banner before.



but cool that you can buy them online and save yourself the work of stealing finding a suitable banner in order to bagify it.

it'll look nice with my california condor skin jacket and baby seal moccasins.

z.

Ridiculous Electric Car.

to think people thought the Scion xB or Honda Element looked ridiculous. oh no... this is the new champion of silly looking cars. and it's 100% electric! the Commuter Car Tango.



designed as a ultra micro car for in-city commuting it makes total sense to look like that. it's about 9 inches wide and maybe 24 inches long. (or something like that... it is very tiny.) it's small enough you can do the Smart-esque parking deal where you park perpedicular to the curb vs. parallel. cool cool. it even has a range of 150 miles per full charge. (though elsewhere it says 60-80 miles. so who knows.)

but seriously... who would want to be seen in some stupid little Dust-Buster-looking electric car that's probably just crappy golf cart mechanicals with a new shell and goes slower than a bicycle?

oh wait... that's right... it'll peel off a 12 second quarter mile and do the 0-60 in around 4 seconds. those are basically super car specs. bad ass.

(also George Clooney has one. thus legitimizing it similar to the Prius being legitimized by Cameron Diaz.)

z.

Hydraulic Hybrid.

this sounds pretty interesting. as it is a hybrid drivetrain... meaning a hybrid but not the traditional electric-hybrids that are oh-so-in-vogue right now. a hydraulic hybrid drivetrain combined with a nice modern diesel engine sounds like a real nice vehicle to me. but then i'm one of those secret diesel lovers. but then apparently so is the EPA as they are doing a TON of research involving in-cylinder particulate reduction in diesels as well as improved exhaust filtration.

so in conclusion... i heart the EPA. i hate CARB.

z.

Retro Handset.

i'd like me a retro corded handset for my cell phone. seems incredibly gimmicky and ridiculous and kitschy as well as wholly inconvenient. by which i mean... sounds great! i already have a bright orange Ukrainian rotary as my primary (and only) landline phone but i really feel the need to extend it's kitsch when out and about. i just need to figure out if i even own a coat or pants with big enough pockets to hold this thing.

i like how it comes with multiple adapters should i change phones in the future. Bluetooth might be cool too... but keep the cord (but removable as well) and allow it to be clipped/attached to various surfaces. or something.

the Hulger was the original. but i think i like the cheaper better looking Phobile more.

z.

Atari Flashback.

for all those retro-game-lovin'-hipsters out there... Atari is releasing the Flashback 2.0 console. the last Atari Flashback was basically considered crap due to it running the 2600 games in an emulation mode on not a 2600-on-a-chip but basically a 7800-on-a-chip... or even slightly more accurately a NES-on-a-chip. running 2600 games on a NES doesn't sound too accurate. i imagine there would be timing issues and the like.

anyhow. since everyone (and by everyone i mean 'ultimate nerds') decided the original Flashback was balls... they have redone it... and redone it right just in time for the 30th Anniversary. not only is it running on a real-life 2600-on-a-chip... but they doubled the game count to 40! in addition to old-timey classics they have even included a few 'hidden' games requiring a paddle (not included... hit up your thrift store now) as well as a few brand-new homebrew 2600 games. they also made the controllers be real-life brand-new original 2600 controllers... and the ports on the box itself are fully compatible with old-school original controllers.



but the super coolest new included feature is... it's ready for a cartridge slot. (see post #3) ... meaning... the board has the contacts on it ready to go. they just haven't included an actual cartridge slot for support reasons. as in they didn't want to field calls from people wondering why their 20 year old E.T. cartridge isn't working. so if you have the skills (and the parts...) you can solder on a cartridge slot and play games off your old original cartridges. too cool.

and all this for under 3 Hamiltons (or "Hammys" as we call them on the street).

z.

Palm Emulation on PPC.

i don't actually have a Palm OS device or a Pocket PC device... but am considering one or the other at some point in the very near future. i personally like the Palm OS better than Windows Mobile... and the selection of applications as well (though that is quickly becoming almost a moot point).

with Windows Mobile 5.0 coming soon... and Pocket PC devices massively outclassing (specs-wise) Palm OS devices on almost a daily basis... and Cobalt nowhere to be seen... a program like this seems to be just one more nudge in the Pocket PC direction. a Palm OS emulator for Pocket PC!

it'll let you run *most* Palm OS apps right on a Pocket PC as if they were native Pocket PC applications.

Applications written for Palm OS® platform show up as native Windows Mobile™-based Pocket PC programs and operate in the same way. You can even cut and paste text and bitmaps between applications and native Windows Mobile™-based Pocket PC programs.

nice. there are some limitations listed on the page... but i am honestly not familiar enough with Palm OS applications to know how many programs would be affected. not bad for $29.

z.

Voodoo Knife Holder.

i was sort of pissed when i saw the Voodoo Knife Holder at first... not because there was anything wrong with it... on the contrary... it was pure awesome. just the original announcement said it wasn't actually for sale and instead some stupid 'art project' or some other waste of time that contributes nothing to the greater world of mass product consumption and capitalism.

but you can buy it now. and by 'you' i mean me. (except i haven't yet. if anyone wants to give me one for free i can send you my mailing address. thanks!)



i like it mostly because it is all friendly and happy and promotes good values.

z.

Joed.

hey look! it's a picture of my brother on the Harvard Crimson Online newspaper.

isn't that special? it's all about the little 48 hour film project he (and thousands or others across the country) participates in every year.



he would be the one on the right making some weirdass shape with his hands to demonstrate some stupid puppet he made. (or something. i can't say i really know for sure.)

As the director of the film pointed out, “The strangest part of my weekend was spending four hours gluing things to oysters.”

yay for gluing!

z.

DS Flash Cart.

i keep thinking about just buying a Gameboy Advance flash cart for my DS. mostly for the emulation. like to play some old Gameboy and Gameboy Advance titles... and of course NES games. SNES would be nice too.

looks like an honest to Jehovah DS specific flash cart is in the works though! this should be cool if it turns out to be for real. hopefully it will take advantage of the DS specific features like being able to use both screens. i wouldn't mind having some homebrew apps that could use both screens at once or the touch screen. or a video player app that plays video on the top screen and has a file browser and control buttons on the touch screen.



i hope it isn't going to stick out as far from the DS as the picture seems to suggest. maybe a combo cart idea would be good? like a cart in *both* slots... with the GBA slot having a cart with an SD card in it for storage... and the flash-cartiness being in the DS slot? not that i know anything about what i am talking about. just seems like a good idea.

z.

Even More hw6715 Info.

i still think the HP hw6715 is like the best thing ever for a convergence phone type device (for me anyhow). seeing as it really does have everything i could possibly want on it.

big problems now are the fact that i *still* can't buy one yet. by the time it's released it will end up being massively out of date... especially considering Windows Mobile 5.0 is already shipping! and it's running Windows Mobile 2003.

here is a bit of updated info :

first - the lesser version (minus the WiFi) of the hw6715 has popped up in the Netherlands. this isn't so grand... May has come and gone. and that is when the hw65xx was supposed to show up in the US. with the hw67xx showing up in June. or so the rumors were suggesting at one point.

second - supposedly Cingular will have the hw65xx series in the US in September. grrrr. that means the better WiFi-havin' hw67xx series will be even later! BUT as reported on the Engadget link... the hw67xx series will in fact be shipping with Windows Mobile 5.0! excellent! but the bad news? ... "but HP will rollout a successor called the hw6700 sometime around the end of the year..." end of the year?! it's frustration like this that makes me glad some companies (like Apple) don't ever pre-announce products.

third - somone got some pics of the hw6500 next to a Treo 650. nice... as i know how big... er... small a Treo 650 is... so now i finally have a reference point to understand the size of the hw6xxx series devices. i have to say... just about right. maybe a *little* wide... but then the Treo 650 is pretty dainty. and i definately dig the lack of antenna nub.



z.

Mini Tower.

not a huge fan of the various glowing/throbbing/pulsing/functionless Mac Mini bases that have been released so far. they either lack ports altogether... skimp on ports to the point of absurdity (adds 1 USB port!)... or cost too much.

i am however a big fan of this "Mini Tower" ... almost looks like it belongs on it! sure it isn't a hub or anything like (some of) the 'skirts' are... but it looks cool and is not overpriced at all in my opinion. a mere $39.



should i ever actually get a Mac Mini (instead of talking about maybe getting one all the time) ... i might actually purchase a "Mini Tower".

z.

Final Cut Pro 5.

yay! Final Cut Pro 5 is out.



i wish my copy would arrive already though. Final Cut Pro is truly the best editor around. sure i dug the Avid in 1996 or whenever it was. but these days $ for $ ... Final Cut Pro is the best deal out there. in addtion to the general Final Cut Pro updates... i am so very glad they updated Soundtrack Pro to actually have some useful features like multitrack editing and DSP vs. being a trimmed video-centric version of Garageband. seeing as i have been lacking a decent multi-track editor for some time now.

i am also really really looking forward to trying out Motion which is now included in the Studio Bundle. not that i do much video work at all anymore... i would still consider myself to be very proficient at After Effects. so "trying out" Motion would be a good incentive to at least fiddle with video again... even if not on a professional basis.

the little "Quick Tours" are a good way of seeing the new features. when this was announced at NAB i actually stayed up until like 4am watching them all... well... i didn't watch the ones about Shake... because the liklihood of me ever owning or having to use Shake is slim to none. i should have though... one of my pals was featured in one of them!

z.

Panasonic HD Camera.

i was really digging the Sony HDR-FX1 when i got to play with them a bit at the Apple booth at Macworld 2005. very nice camera indeed. but the thing is... i really would like to have 24p on it. as HD has the resolution to print to film real nice... it'd be great to once and for all forget about deinterlacing and all that nonsense just to convert to film. upper frame. lower frame. pull-down. bah! so the otherwise awesome HDR-FX1 was sort of a let down to me.

luckily Panasonic came out with the AG-HVX200 HD camcorder at this years NAB conference. in the same "prosumer" vein as the HDR-FX1 ... just with full-on progressive recording at 24 and 30 frame per second... at 1080! in addition it can do progressive at 60fps in 720. which will be awesome for super super smooth... yet super slow slow-motion. shame one has to drop to 720p to do it... but still.



the $5995 price tag is not bad at all. can't wait for these to drop to around $3500 or so... so i can convince other people to buy one and then borrow it from them.

z.

iPod DJ Mixer.

good idea. with some basic flaws in my opinion.

which i commented on at length on the actual Engadget post.

so no reason really to do it again here.

i'm comment #19 (where i make fun of vinyl junkies) then also comment #21 (where i remember to actually comment at length on the device itself).

z.

Bike Time USA.

summer time = bike time.

and i decided my 'vintage' 1991-era turquoise and purple Specialized Hard Rock just wasn't going to cut it. it still has a few years yet before it becomes retro-ironic and i don't feel like jumping the gun like i have in the past. that... and i am in town now with a house that is easy biking distance from work and that is 100% paved vs. living in the woods 9 miles from anything worth biking too.

time to get a new bike!

i think i have decided on a cruiser bike so very very very popular with the Dutch. luckily enough major manufacturers selling bikes stateside have also come to the conclusion that they are awesome and not everyone wants or needs independant suspension and disc brakes. enter the Trek Rail 1.



i think it looks totally awesome. and they sell them at the bike shop located *between* my office and my house. convenient. though of course everyone will want to steal it most likely. so i'll need a bike lock.

in theory i would need a helmet as well. for my long 0.4 mile drive every day. i really think bike helmets in general look like the stupidest things in the world. so to get rid of the nerd factor of the common helmet and simultaneously complete the look of nerd badass biker being from the future that is like the future in an alternate timeline something pretty ridiculous looking... i think i shall get a DOT-approved German-style biker helmet!



i was also thinking about getting some LED "Hokey Spokes" ...



but then realized a) i am not at burning man b) it would look nerdy c) it's freaking daylight at night in alaska so you wouldn't see anything anyway d) 10 years old or a girl... it would just waste money... money that could be spent on some true bling.



z.

LED Light Bulbs.

since i love me some LEDs ... i always wondered why no one sold LED light bulbs. like for your house. seemed to make common sense... they would last like 98 years. they would use a fraction of the electricity. they wouldn't need to be a vacuum of fragile glass. and they would certainly be bright enough.

well. apparently they do... you just have to search around. oh yeah. and pay like $26 each vs. $1 each.



i think i might wait until the price drops a wee bit. and until like Home Depot sells them. vs. the George Noory approved C. Crane Company.

z.

USB Flash Drive Comparo.

ArsTechnica has a cool review of a ton of little flash drives. with pictures and speed reviews and the like.

well... technically they have 2 of them.

the USB High Speed Flash Drive Round-Up ...

and the *Son* of the USB Flash Drive Round-Up.

between the 2 ... easily the most comprehesive USB Flash Drive comparo i have ever seen. of course i'll still probably just buy the cheapest 512MB that doesn't look like a Go-Bot... and ignore the reviews and graphs wholesale.

z.

Phillips MP3 Alarm Clock.

when i first say this announced i thought it seemed like a pretty decent alarm clock. as i was in the market for an alarm clock. upon reading this review however... (oh yeah... i forgot about this review as well.) it seems like it is totally not the best thing ever. in terms of alarm clocks. a shame really... it could have been pretty cool.

someone should make a cool alarm clock with a USB mass storage port. so you can just plug in like an iPod shuffle or a conventional USB flash drive into it. or even a regular iPod. i'd buy one if it didn't look too hokey.



of course... being in Alaska. and being summer. i have that whole "sun" thing which basically keeps me from sleeping much at all. so an alarm clock probably isn't something i really need right now anyway. until winter that is.

z.

Charger SRT-8.

i actually wasn't a huge fan of the stock Charger when it was first shown... not because of the infamous door count mind you... just seemed a bit tame for some reason.

the SRT-8 was a huge improvement in my opinion. rims that are actually proportionally 'right' on the car. functional hood scoop. classic-look spoiler. oh yeah... and a 6.1L Hemi V8 with 425hp.

still wasn't a huge fan of the red color on the first press photos... then Dodge put up some pics in black. yum! pure badass. with four doors.

Dodge Charger SRT-8 (in Black) Gallery.



only problems i have with it now are... 1) lack of manual transmission 2) ditching the displacement on demand technology that the 5.7L Hemi has. and neither of those are 'deal breakers'... the price however...

z.

Retro-Future Clock.

that LED clock on ThinkGeek that i posted infinity ago (yet is a mere 3 posts down) is pretty decently futuristic. and decently impossible to read (like a real clock should be).

but it you wanted something a bit more Gattacaish on the retro-futuristic tip... i suggest the Pin Clock.

it's like those blocks of pins you pressed on all manner of objects the first day you got it... that were all the rage circa 1988... then never touched again. yeah... so it's like that. except it tells time also. cool.



$89 ain't too bad either.

z.

Mac Mini Wireless Antenna.

i keep thinking about getting a Mac Mini as my primary at-home machine. just because it is cheap and i plan to eventually bring my MP3 RAID home so i could play some of the 87 days of music in my house.

the thing is... i plan to use my current Airport Express not as a wireless base station as now... but as a receiver for the AirTunes feature in iTunes in order to stream the music to my stereo. this means of course i will need another base station for my laptop to get it's internet on. and of course to actually broadcast the music to the Airport Express.

a Mac Mini with the stock Airport card and using the Internet Sharing feature would probably work just fine. but i think my already sorta sketchy outdoor reception might take a hit.

enter the addition of the Mac Mini 27dBm transceiver and antenna!



an increase from 30mW to 500mW!!! i think that would work fine. just fine indeed.

z.

Ooops.

so for no good reason i totally forgot to ever update this.

granted... i kept saving links of stuff i wanted to update it with... gradually filling up my desktop with an absolutely absurd number of bookmarks.

mostly i have just been busy. and lazy.

busy with this cool graphics archive for work... which i then copied the install... edited the theme a bit... and repurposed it for my own personal site (which is not yet "live".)

so that will be my first new post in this marathon posting session. the graphics archive software i used. it's great. decently easy to install and 100% free and open source. based on PHP and MySQL. i installed plenty of little mods and tweaks to get it to work as i wanted. but all in all it is very nice and you can't beat the price.

so ... if you need a similar program be sure to check out the Coppermine Photo Gallery software.

z.