The guys and gals over at Gizmodo are running a special at the moment on When Machines Go Bad. Well, this is a story of how the wrong machines can do good in the right hands. Last Friday the 15th, 13 year old Nicholas Rossi from Maryborough (170 km North West of Melbourne, Australia) fell off his bike and banged his head. He was knocked out for 30 seconds but got up and seemed fined. His mum (a nurse) decided…
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This Jewel Rose USB Flash Drive marries function with delicate form, just so the marketing suits can say they’ve thought of the ladies. Hey c’mon, it’s pink, decorous and frail and can almost store the total contents of the Library of Congress. What more could you want? $23.00. Jewel Rose Pin USB Flash Drive is fashionable and elegant that you can wear it where you go. You can store your data and information in it and it is also a…
Read MoreAuction Desktop Tracker is a freeware program for managing and tracking eBay auctions. You get a constantly refreshing screen full of the target auctions, alerts and a countdown timer for those all important sniping sessions. Buying stuff was never so much fun, eh? Don’t have time to constantly open your browser and check auction status? Track and manage eBay auctions with Auction Desktop Tracker! * Track auctions on your desktop * Monitor auctions in real time, auctions can be refreshed…
Read MoreShips is an awesome looking free ship simulation game which works with Google Earth. If you’ve ever wanted to captain the Queen Mary liner or slink about in a scruffy freighter, this is your chance. Of course much of the time it can get lonely at sea, so make lots of sandwiches for transatlantic runs. Most fabulous. In this ship simulation program you get to be the helmsman of your own fleet of ships. “Ships” will take you past worlds…
Read MoreEarth Album is a very simple and very effective mashup of Flickr and Google Earth. Just move the cursor around and you’ll be stabbed in the eye with gorgeous imagery from your chosen country or region. You can then refine your search using keywords to focus on a particular area. There’s also a Cooliris version if photo walls are your thing. Have a quick look, you won’t be disappointed. [Photo of Svalbard from Flickr] Earth album is a simpler, slicker…
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The Mini DV 80s is a tiny (2″ high) clip-on action video camera. My japanese is super rusty but it seems to have a 2 megapixel camera with a 72� field-of-view that can shoot in 1 lux. It records video using Motion JPG at 640�480 at 25 fps and the battery is good for 2 hours of video and sound recording. It writes onto a microSD card (up to 8Gb) and burns through about 1Gb of card space every 40…
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Look people if you keep buying this stuff, they’ll just keep making it. This Dry Bones dog umbrella from Amazon is just what I’m talking about. It’s see-through, the rigid handle connects to the dog’s leash, it opens up to 75cm diameter and keeps your fluffy companion dry as you stroll through the rain. $US19.99. Any more questions? Clear umbrella/ Keeps pets dry, built in leash hook, easy grip/ 29″ diameter when open. Tags: gadget, pet+umbrella, dog+umbrella
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Sounding like a new social networking site, FaceBank2 is a new-and-improved FaceBank. Basically it’s an animatronic piggy bank that “sniffs” and “chews” any coins you dare insert. It holds about 30 quarter-sized coins, comes in pink or blue and needs 4 AAA batteries. Now if it’s a piggy bank, shouldn’t it have a snout? $US49.99 from AudioCubes. The sensitivity increased because now without the eyes from the original Facebank, Facebank2 smells your money and chews your coin until it drops….
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This Polder Hourglass Kitchen Timer takes the comfortable, familiar hourglass metaphor, rips the heart out of its sand filled carcass and replaces it all with a boring but functional digital timer and clock for all your kitchen cooking needs. We think it would be infinitely better if it used an accelerometer to fake the sand trickle when you turned it upside down, but hey, this is not a bad effort. $14.99. This Polder Digital Hourglass Kitchen Timer has a wonderful…
Read MoreThe LED Cord Mirror is an ingenious, yes that’s the word, ingenious little gadget designed to help you view round the back of awkwardly placed equipment. If you’ve ever tried to work out which audio cable is out or in at the rear a PC or HiFi system, or struggled for piggin’ hours to insert a stupid HDMI cable into the back of a massive flat screen television without moving it, then you’ll know just how much of a blessing this…
Read MoreThese Mighty Dwarf Vibro Speakers promise to deliver a full 360 degrees of omni-directional sound from any flat surface. They’re claiming a rather impressive ‘2nd generation’ level sound output equivalent to 20W RMS, and the video demonstration from this Swedish company is certainly impressive, but we’ll reserve judgement on the actual output figures. You’ll need to pony up around $77.00 to own one, OK? Model Name : Dwarf ( The Second Generation ) Rated Power : 20W/26W/3W optional RMS Dimension:…
Read MoreOne of the things I like most about Google’s Chrome web browser is the ability to search Google directly from the address bar, and now some enterprising folk have delivered the same functionality to Firefox. The CyberSearch add-on lets you type your search term directly in the Firefox address bar and drops down a live results list as you type. It’s a fabulous tool for saving time, although it will never replace the full Google search page for in-depth research needs. A must-have install. Adds…
Read MoreThis Google Street View Trike is designed so the company can grab images from off-road footpaths and other inaccessible terrain in Europe for the Google maps application. First deployment will be Italy and then the UK. It is just wonderful what those guys come up with, although we’re feeling just a tad sorry for the poor geek dude who has to pedal the rig around the hedgerows. We’re assuming there’s electric pedal assist buried in there somewhere? The so-called Google Trike, which…
Read MoreMarketed as eco-friendly, the FlameDisk Charcoal Alternative claims to reduces carbon monoxide output by 99% and deliver 91 percent lower VOC. Oh and it comes in recyclable packaging. So now you can grill large animal parts safe in the knowledge that you are almost, but not quite, saving your planet at the same time. Pass the mustard! Available in a 5-pack for $19.90. Grilling aficionados will really flip for the FlameDisk 5-pack Charcoal Alternative. Fuelled by solid ethanol, the FlameDisk provides a grilling experience that’s…
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In 1979, the NASA space station Skylab returned to Earth in a fiery trail of destruction after 5 years of swanning about in orbit sans crew. Well the folks in Esperance in Western Australia didn’t take too kindly to this wanton littering and so Esperance fined NASA $AU400 for their sloppy aeronautics. Just a bit of fun really. Not much else happened after that, NASA ignored the fine, tourists enquired about it, footnotes got added to Wikipedia and it was…
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