Wonderfully Wacky must be the weirdest gift site on the planet. Where else would you find a motorised bar stool ($1695.00) sitting alongside a pair of Musical Love Socks ($6.95 out of stock!). And they seem to ship around the world, as long as you’re prepared to undergo a convoluted credit card verification system.
Speaking of digital photography, here’s a wacky site detailing how some guy created a digital camera out of his flat bed scanner. Hmmm, rather like making a car out of soap really, isn’t it? [Via Everythingisn’t]
Not that the company needs any more publicity, but Microsoft has thrown up a new Web site which offers a lot of cool advice and tips on using a digital camera with Windows XP. Of course there’s the obligatory rubbish advertising MSN and a whole set of other MS services, but the site could be useful for many people who haven’t realised just how digicam friendly XP really is. For instance, I really like the inbuilt print function which lets…
Dirk Broer and his Philips Research Lab team have come up with a paint on LCD screen. The process apparently involves mixing up liquid crystals with molecules which form a rigid polymer when exposed to ultraviolet light. The stuff is still at prototype stage – and actually resembles more a coating process rather than painting a la paintbrush – but research is continuing into methods of using the technology to ‘paint’ LCDs onto fabric as well as glass and plastic….
Panasonic has released a new range of noise-cancelling headphones for the discerning traveller. What makes them so interesting is the price – instead of paying upwards of $50.00, these start at a wallet – and ear? – comfortable $39.95 for the RP-HC50 ear bud types. If this price erosion continues I may just invest in a set next time I’m on my way through a US airport.
Fed up with paying lots for the Microsoft Office software package? Then why not check out Easy Office, which seems to be a fully functional alternative. The product comes in two flavours (free and Premium) and includes – wait for it – word processor, calendar, contact manager, spreadsheet, presentation, file zipper, web page creator, book-keeper, bar coder and inbuilt voice recognition (I’ve probably ommitted a few features but what the hey). The free version misses out a couple of features…
Way cool site which gives a comprehensive overview of that most pervasive of 21st century symbols – the humble @ sign. Did you know, for instance, that the Czechs call it a zavinac or ‘rollmop’ because the shape resembles a rolled up herring in a jar? No neither did I.
Forget about credit cards, cheques or cash, the future of shopping lies in your finger. US company Indivos has started testing a new shopping system in Seattle where – once you have spent a minute or so enrolling – you can pay for your purchases in a shop by placing your finger on a scanner – no swiping of cards, fumbling with cash or scrambling for a pen at the bottom of the handbag. The clever part is that the…
This short article in Pravda online claims that scientists in the CRS have discovered a stone slab over 120 million years old which contains a relief map of the Urals region and inscriptions in an unknown language. The maps also contain some civil engineering features, including dams and a series of irrigation channels of some sort. The 1 ton slab – which was originally located by Professor Alexandr Chuvyrov of Bashkir State University – has apparently been radio carbon dated…
The Tissot Touch is being billed as the world’s first touch screen watch. Gimmicky it may be, but Tissot do make extremely good timepieces and this one looks to be no exception. It features compass, altimeter, thermometer, barometer and…er…watch – and all accessible by touching the relevant point on the watch face.
The Ferret is off scavenging for news and titbits for a few days. Check back on the 8th May when coverage will resume.
You would have thought that what with MultiMap and Mapquest and a million other map type sites, that the market was saturated, but it seems not. Into the arena boldly strides Maporama, offering maps, travel routes and the usual stuff. The shocking news is that it’s actually a neat site. It’s well laid out, the main country maps are incredibly well done and detailed and the service provides less detailed maps for a huge number of countries. To top it…
Strictly one for the 20/20 vision brigade. The Tiny Windows Games site contains a selection of …..er….tiny Windows games. Very tiny. In some cases (e.g. the tennis) you can hardly see the court, but I suppose that’s supposed to be part of the fun. Maybe I’m getting too old! :-)
Fed up with cryptic acronyms? Wish you could dazzle your friends and foes alike with your own dextrous use of these power tools? Then hurry along to the World Wide Web Acronym and Abbreviation Server. More acronyms and abbreviations than you can shake a stick at for your delectation. Enjoy. HTH.
The humble VCR may not be dead yet. Fighting back against the growing onslaught from PVRs like Tivo and Replay and recordable DVD, comes the NV-HVH1 video deck from Japanese giant Matsushita. This nifty little product is a standard hi-fi VHS video cassette recorder with a built in 40 GB hard disk. The hard disk will hold up to 40 hours of recorded material, and the $700.00 unit will also be able to dub between tape and disk at will….
