Monthly Archives: September 2007

reprise September 30, 2007 posted by

Ferret posts this week

Here’s a quick round-up of Ferrety posts from the past week for anyone who missed them. Enjoy. BlogTV – is the world really ready for live video bloggers? – BlogTV. OK, so it’s logical,… WordPress Theme Generator – gotta blog? Want a fast new theme…? – WordPress Theme Generator. Create… The Gadget Manifesto – or 25 reasons why we’re getting tired of trashy Far East manufacturing… – Try this test. Take a 10 minute… Digital Camera Enhancer – free digital…

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Gadgets September 29, 2007 posted by

Meade mySKY Personal Guide – star watching the Star Trek way

Meade mySKY Personal Guide. If you’re going to spend a lotta time looking at the stars why not go the whole geek thang and use something that Captain Kirk would be proud of. Or Spock even. This puppy can identify more than 30,000 items in the night sky and contains a full on GPS receiver and over 500 audio descriptions to make sure you don’t miss a thing. The SD slot is the icing on Io. $399.00.  A revolutionary new way…

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Gadgets September 28, 2007 posted by

Slide Projection Lamp – photo projector and desk light combo for instant wallpaper

The Slide Projector Table Lamp is one weird combination whichever way you look at it. And most people will probably look at it sitting down. Of course it is French which could explain things (you listening Mr Citroen?) but even so? Anyhoo, the slide image – only one of course – can be pointed at wall or ceiling as required, which’ll be just dandy for those stay home nightclub raves you’ve been planning since the summer. $249.95.  The streamlined polycarbonate lampshade focuses light…

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Fun & Games September 28, 2007 posted by

Battery Eater – suck the life out of your old AA cells

Battery Eater. You’ve got old discarded AA batteries lying about in your place right? On their way to the trash, but still lingering for some reason? Right, well slap them into this novelty fridge magnet creature and it’ll suck the life out of them with its blinking LED light eyes. Hey, so it’s not a totally green disposal option, but at least you can feel better about squeezing every last drop of juice out of the things. £6.50 ($12.85).  That’s right,…

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Gadgets September 28, 2007 posted by

Backup Pal – one button backup for your cell phone data

Backup Pal is a one button mobile phone backup device which archives contact information from SIM and handset memory as needed. World’s first? Hmm…probably not. Anyhoo, it won’t backup SMS messages, ringtones or any of those other annoying customisations that you insist on polluting your handset with, which is a shame, eh? There are plans for a future model to do this stuff, as well as cope with multiple handsets. The thing comes with a selection of connectors to cope with…

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Gadgets September 28, 2007 posted by

TEMPer USB Thermometer – am I hot or not?

The TEMPer USB Thermometer is a data logging temperature grabber, which uses USB power and computer programming to replace mercury and a pencil in our llves. Is this a good thing? Possibly. The temp information can be exported into Excel or Word which is definitely some sort of advantage for geeky lab coat types. $19.99.  Powered by USB – Temperature Range: -20° C ~ 100° C (or -4° F ~ 212° F) – Data is to be log from every…

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Bookmark This! September 28, 2007 posted by

iPhotoMeasure – measure anything in a photo using your digital camera or phone cam

iPhotoMEASURE is a $99.99 software program that lets you measure anything in photos you take with your digital camera. You place a small 7.5” square (DigiTarget) in the shot when taking your photo which the program then uses to calculate the measurements you want. If it works as advertised, it could be one of the single most useful photo tools ever. The company is marketing it as a professional product for garden designers, builders and anyone who has to deliver quotes…

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Bookmark This! September 28, 2007 posted by

Instant Storm – make your own video screensavers for free

Instant Storm is a freeware program for making video screensavers from any Flash (.swf) file. The resulting file is something you can distribute as well as enjoy yourself, which is neat. Grab yourself some video footage with your camcorder or digicam, convert it to the Flash format with Internet Video Converter and Bob will be a very happy relative as you create a family screensaver treasure. Funkadelic!  InstantStorm is a Windows freeware tool for creating Flash based screensavers with many…

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Gadgets September 27, 2007 posted by

Darth Vader Projector Alarm Clock – a wake up call, this is…

Darth Vader Project Alarm Clock. Apparently this is the first Star Wars clock to project the time and Vader’s name onto the ceiling. The snooze button also doubles up as a night light, which is nice to know when you’ve got the Dark Lord standing so close to your head throughout the sleep filled hours. Carrying a light saber. $29.99. “I am not your alarm clock, Luke”. Tags: darth+vader+projection+clock, gadget, star+wars

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Gadgets September 27, 2007 posted by

FreeCharge Weza Portable Energy Source – the ultimate pedal power

Freeplay’s FreeCharge Weza Portable Energy Source relies on good old foot power to produce the voltages. You can generate between 25 and 40 watts by stepping on the treadle affair smartly and with a sense of purpose. Rather worryingly the blurb doesn’t state how much stepping you need to get an hour’s worth of juice, but let’s pretend it’s not much for the sake of the children and our elderly knees. £209.96.   The generic cigarette lighter socket allows you to charge…

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Gadgets September 27, 2007 posted by

Omega 42 Plasma TV Spa – take your high def in the tub, why doncha?

Omega 42 Plasma TV Spa. Yes folks, we’re talking a full-on 42 inch plasma screen television with pop up speakers embedded inside a 74 jet spa bath. With a dolphin remote control. You feeling the love yet? Apart from the fact that sitting in 420 gallons of water that close to a 42 incher has got to be a bit dodgy, there are so many other things about this that are wrong – including the vibrator pillow and ozone gas generator…

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but is it art? September 27, 2007 posted by

Graffiti Train – tag your own rail carriage for fun and posterity

The Graffiti Train is a model railway carriage that comes with a set of suitably def decals that you can stick where you like without fear of transport police hounding you down and beating you to within an inch of your miserable worthless life. So if you’ve ever had an urge to hang upside down on a rope from a railway bridge and spray TRAKZZ on the wall, now’s your chance to indulge. Safely and legally. Does that do it for…

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but is it art? September 27, 2007 posted by

Smart Furniture – when good sofas go bad…

This collection of Smart Furniture projects and products is rather cool. Some of the stuff is also a little scary, like the automated recording stool featured above and the toilet that knows more about you than your doctor. They have, however, missed out on the table that clears itself, which is a shame.  This stool is actually a small robot that follows people around while recording their conversations. It then moves around to other people in the room and plays back the…

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Bookmark This! September 27, 2007 posted by

Zonealarm Forcefield – cross browser security for your computer

The developers at Checkpoint have got together with those at Zonealarm and created a new free security program called Zonealarm Forcefield. The product shields your PC from unwanted malware attacks, gives you a private browser function which removes all traces of your web movements and provides a ‘virtualization engine’ to prevent anything entering onto your system without your knowledge or approval (a bit like Sandboxie). I downloaded and installed it to test, but pretty quickly removed it when I realised that it…

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