New Yorker Rick Dobbertin built the amphibious Surface Orbiter out of a milk truck in order to cross the world via land and sea. It took him 4 years, $175,000 and 14,000 man hours to complete. The project now looks to have lapsed through lack of cash, although he is apparently busy at work on the Dobbertin ‘DHC’ Hydrocar due out this year – 125 mph on land, 60mph+ on water. Riiight.
Read MoreMonthly Archives: March 2006
Motion Sensing Recordable Doorbell.
The Motion Sensing Recordable Doorbell. Neato idea. This puppy’s got two chimes. A real ‘ding dong’ version and a DIY type where you can record any message which will automatically play when someone approaches the door and activates the motion sensor. The possibilities are shudderingly endless aren’t they? Arf! $15.00. Doorbell have “CHIME” and “PLAY” mode to choose. # When the switch turns to “CHIME”, the doorbell will give out “Ding Dong” sound if it activated by human motion. # When the switch turns…
Read MoreWeb 2.0 logos.
Web2Logo.com. I’ve got to admit I quite like this silly little idea. Basically just slap a whole heap of ‘web 2.0’ clickable company logos on a page – size indicating influence – and let rip. Nothing mind-blowingly useful, but as good as way as any to browse through some familiar and not so familiar brand names that are making news nowadays. Take a gander, you may enjoy it too.
Read MoreEmail Tracer.
Email Route Map. A lovely little Google Maps mashup which lets you trace where your email messages have come from geographically. Just enter in the header information from the message you want to trace and off it goes. For some strange reason, some of my stuff is going through an obscure European town before arriving here. Fascinating. Paste an email with full headers (we need the ‘Received’ lines — we don’t need your email addresses, digg). The app will…
Read MoreS-1 Stage Controller.
The Vestax S-1 Premium.. I have absolutely no chuffin’ idea what a Digital Stage Controller is and don’t care. This looks like fun to ‘play’ or tweak or whatever else you do with it, and I wanna learn. OK, so basically it’s a custom made CD mixer/sampler which is designed for ‘performance’ rather than passive DJing. Probably. Anyhoo, it’s gonna cost yer around $3000.00 in yen-like to find out. [Update: Thanks to Christen from Gadgetreview.com for forwarding an English page translation!…
Read MoreSpyder Series Laser.
The Spyder Series Laser is not a device to be trifled with, featuring as it does 200mW output minimum, water proofing, shock resistance and up to 120 miles range. About to write it off as a fool’s tool until I read on the site about doctors using this type of high power laser for medical treatment. Fascinating. From $999.00 including fancy box. There are several external stimuli that speed up the production of ATP (see sidebar), which is used in cellular/tissue respiration. In…
Read MoreSky Scout.
The Celstron Sky Scout is a pretty cool star gazing tool. Just point it at a star in the night sky (assuming you don’t live under 10/10ths cloud cover in Manchester), click the button and it’ll tell you what you’re looking at. Sounds like fun. $399.95 when it’s released in May. Once you have targeted an object the real fun begins. The SkyScout includes entertaining and educational audio and text information, including facts, trivia, history and mythology about our…
Read MoreBada Bing, Bada, Beam.
The Bada Beam Cat Toy. Take one low powered laser, attach it to a random movement processor and bada boom, one cat toy. My guess is that rather than kitty being ‘entertained for hours’, it will swipe ineffectually at the light spot for a second or two, before sauntering back to its boring caviar and quail dinner. But what do I know, I’m only a Ferret. $19.95. [Via Seihin] This clever, interactive cat toy will captivate your kitty for hours. Just open the lid…
Read MoreThe Stitch Lock Staple-less stapler.
The Sun-Star Stitch Lock Staple-Less Stapler. Pretty cool alternative for when the oil runs out and we can’t afford to use our gas powered staplers any more. And it’s a deluxe version, yo! $36.00. A great item that’s very popular in offices here in Japan, it is a paper stitch lock that actually “stitches” up to 7 sheets of paper together by using the paper itself to hold everything together. Very cool! Simply slip in, push down the handle to…
Read MoreFree games.
Metafilter had a nice thread the other day offering a round up of some sites which provided downloadable computer games free of charge. Never one to miss out on a freebie, the Ferret thought you lot might also be interested in said information. So here, cheapskates, enjoy – Game Hippo – huge selection and nice design. Caiman – comprehensive but slow loading. Acid-Play – cute. Noodan – ok, but some banners NSFW. Planet Freeplay – nice selection. I would add Pop Cap – lovely selection of free Flash games…and……
Read MoreFree Hot-Spot help line.
The good folk at Free-Hotspot.com have set up a free Wi-Fi location line in Europe. You call the toll free number – 00800–28–25–23–26 – and they will tell you where your nearest free (yes free, as in nada) Wi-Fi wireless hot-spot is located. In multiple languages. Now that’s what I call service. Good for them. free-hotspot.com announced that it has launched a phone based service to help people find the FREE HotSpots located in their vicinity. Callers throughout Europe can…
Read MorePocket Digital TV.
The Blue Media Pocket Digital DVB-T Television. This is again one of those ideas that sounds excellent until you actually try to make it work in the real world, where digital terrestrial television has proved to be a pig to access unless you install a top notch aerial. So how will this puppy fare? Who knows? Are you willing to spend €249.00 to find out? Apart from the television transmission the signals contain also the transmitter and program name, date/time of…
Read MoreComputer Bug Zapper.
The Computer Bug Zapper. Hey, so it’s not exactly useful, but it might drag a smirk out of your boss as he leans on your cubicle to sneeringly deliver yet another stinging condemnation of your technological failings in a loud, high pitched voice. $9.99. Just hang this battery powered dynamo over or near your computer, monitor, or desk, and turn it on. You can tell it’s working by the flashing lights and the buzzing sounds of computer bugs meeting their doom. Zzapp…zzapp. Computer…
Read MoreThe Bratmobile.
Convertible Ride-on Petrol Powered Car. Yep, I can see this. A plug ugly lump of air polluting resin and fibers for $16,000 to teach your kid how to grow up trashing his environment. Hummer drivers only need apply. Pfaff! This beautiful convertible roadster is designed with unsurpassed workmanship and performs like a real car by running on unleaded gas and featuring a fiberglass body, rack-and-pinion steering, four-wheel disk brakes, full suspension, and metal-rimmed rubber tires. It has a three-speed transmission and fully functional…
Read MoreThe RFID Blocking Wallet.
The DIFRWear company – motto ‘Faraday Caged Apparel’ – apparently see a large and profitable market in supplying us all with anti-RFID products. Take for instance this RFID Blocking Wallet. It’s yours for an achingly paranoid $15.00. Ho-hum, welcome to the 21st century, peeps. [Via Metafilter] DIFRWEAR’s stylish RFID blocking wallets are made of the finest quality leather and are built to last. The wallets contain a layer of RF shielding that prevents RFID readers from reading any passive tags…
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