This Collapsible Rain Barrel gives water conservation a new perspective. Made of laminated, flexible polyester, this tear-resistant container can be stored anywhere when not in use. With its zippered wide mouth and mesh screen, makes debris-free rainwater collecting simple. At only seven pounds when empty, move this handy rain catcher anywhere with ease. Connect a hose to the pre-installed nozzle, then reuse your catch during the hottest growing season. Priced at $70 from Greenhome. This 34 gallon collapsible rain barrel…
Read MoreMonthly Archives: November 2009
How to Maximise the Life of your Gadget Batteries – just love them, baby
Batteries are the lifeblood of our obsession with portable technology. That awesome new gadget of yours is only as good as its power meter reading, so here’s a short list of resources to help you maximise your battery life and power settings. The Powerstream Battery Resource for Engineers contains more information than you possibly want to know on all sorts of batteries and their maintenance. The ultimate battery fact sheet in one location. For more down to earth advice check out the BattFaq which features a…
Read MoreHow To Use An Apostrophe – What not to wear
The very cute How to Use An Apostrophe mini-site gives a quick-and-dirty “how to” for using the apostrophe. Something a large part of the English-speaking bit of the internet can use a hand with. As for ending sentences with prepositions? Well you say potato, I say tomato. Is it plural and possessive? For Example: The soldiers’ rifles were no match for Bob’s amazing lightning pants. Then put the apostrophe after the “s”. Unless it’s a word that’s already plural, such…
Read MoreFerret posts this week
Here’s a quick round-up of Red Ferret posts from the past week for those who missed them. Enjoy. NetBook Bag Round Up – Carry that netbook in style – You bought a netbook because it’s… TrueCrypt – Turns any disk into a vault – TrueCrypt is an open-source disk… Plantronics Voyager Pro – One headset for two phones – The Voyager Pro UC from… LED Laser Fingers – Jazzes up your jazz hands – Look, these LED Laser Fingers have……
Read MoreBestfon 3-in-1 Dual Retractable Cable – Cable wrangler keeps things tidy
I’ve been known to carry a cable or six whilst working out of my bag. This Bestfon 3-in-1 Dual Retractable Cable would tidy things up a bit though. It has a 2m retractable RJ45 Ethernet cable with two plugs on one side and a 1.5m male USB A to male mini USB B type on the other. Bestfon make a whole range of different types of these as well, including FireWire and RCA plugs. RJ45 Ethernet RTC Cable / Cable…
Read MoreNightVision Digital Video Camera – video stuff in pitch darkness and profit!
This NightVision Digital Video Camera gives you unlimited power to video activities in pitch darkness. Those times when only ferral creatures wander the streets, when desperate men seek solace in hunched clusters around the slowly flickering embers of night time street fires. With its support for SD cards (up to 75 minutes of footage) and built in LCD preview screen, you’ll be scratching around those possums and owls faster than you can say Holy Dumpster Diving, Batman. Also works in…
Read MoreSound Egg – 60’s kitsch gets a whole new tech upgrade
The Sound Egg is an updated and technified version of the 60’s seating icon which looked great in photos and sucked as a chair. The theory is that slapping a bunch of speakers and a ‘meaty’ sub-woofer in the thing will make it suddenly hip again, especially if you paint it pink (dude) and line it with a bunch of acoustic foam. From where we’re sitting it looks like it would probably sound great, but that pink plastic seat thing in the…
Read MoreJPEG Lossless Rotator – freeware lets you rotate your photos without losing image quality
JPEG Lossless Rotator is a free program which lets you rotate your images without losing image quality. What, you mean you didn’t know that every time you rotate – or indeed edit – a JPG file it loses quality? Tsk! Anyhoo, this software accomplishes its magic by doing some kind of ‘block’ transformation, whatever that means. It’s available in 24 different languages, comes with hotkey support (e.g. r for rotate right etc) and Windows Explorer integration for all your right…
Read MoreFiles24 – the consumer friendly BitTorrent search catalog
Files24 is a new twist on an old tale. A BitTorrent search engine which aims to make the whole file search much more consumer friendly and less geek. How? By placing lots of colourful icons all over the place, adding artwork cover graphics alongside file names and otherwise giving the whole P2P room a bit of a spring clean. It’s interesting because this is probably the future of legitimate home entertainment in one way or another, even if this version…
Read MoreZombie Shooting Gallery – Behind you!
ThinkGeek’s Zombie Shooting Gallery brings Left 4 Dead into meatspace cubeville. Use your laser gun to fend off the horde and increase your score, just don’t miss or the honeymooners get it. Need 9 AA batteries (yes nine!). US$34.99 Take aim with the included laser assault rifle and blast the zombies as they pop up from the windows of the dark mansion. Too slow and they dine on the human hostages inside. Tags: gadget, thinkgeek, zombie+shooting+gallery, cube+toys
Read MoreRidgeblade – Wind powered generator for the roof
The Ridgeblade is a wind powered generator designed for installation on the roof of houses. The unique design of the rotor and its housing means it can harness the natural buffeting of the wind as it moves over the ridge of the house. This overcomes the main issues people seem to have with wind generators, namely the noise and the look of them. Designed by a bunch of aeronautical and turbine engineers in North Yorkshire, the Ridgeblade has just won…
Read MoreAudio-Technica AT355ST – Turns your headphones into a headset
The Audio-Technica AT355ST is an inline 3.5 mm microphone that plugs in between your earphones and your PC or media player. It has a tie clip so you can keep the mic near your mouth, 60cm of cord, earphone volume control, and comes in black and white. The mic is powered by a coin/watch battery that will last for 3 weeks if you don’t switch it off. Available from AudioCubes for US$59.99. Audio-Technica presents AT355ST/0.6 from Japan with a built-in…
Read MoreVirgin Atlantic Flying Without Fear – What, me worry?
It seems that the Virgin Atlantic mob have decided that if they want to increase the passenger numbers then they better start recruiting from the Afraid of Flying minority/majority. What better way to do this than with the Virgin Atlantic Flying Without Fear iPhone application? The application provides flying FAQs, video based inflight explanations, relaxation exercises and tips to prepare yourself for future flights. All this help for just US$4.99 from the iTunes store. [Via the Sydney Morning Herald] Many…
Read MoreTenori-O – the affordable weird Japanese electronic instrument arrives
The weird Yamaha Tenori-on is about to get a brother, the Tenori-O (for Orange). The pitch? It’s plastic, LEDs on only one side, and comes with other compromises in order to get the price down. So instead of $1000 or so, we’ll be talking, what…half price? We don’t know yet because the canny marketing team at Yamaha are not releasing prices till next month. Check the video if you don’t know what this puppy does. The TNR-O (TENORI-ON Orange LED)…
Read MoreBottle Bank as arcade machine – brilliant concept improves recycling
This video of a Bottle Bank Arcade Machine is brilliant. Turn a bottle bank into an arcade machine with flashing lights and score tables and what happens? People recycle more bottles. Awesome, now why couldn’t we do this with all recycling banks? And it takes a VW viral site to give us the idea? Wow. The latest stroke of genius from FunTheory.com…Turn a recycling bottle bank into an arcade game and guess what happens…. more people get more engaged…
Read More
