Thursday 16th of June 2005
Brimming days
Last sunday I spent what´s possibly the best 14 euros I´ve ever spent in my life. -Heather and I were walking around Puerta del Sol, place where you can find the center of the Iberian peninsula, and it seems, also the best street musicians I´ve ever heard yet. A trio they where, and they played a violin, a viola and a cello. We stopped and listened for a bit, I recorded one song, and then we each gave them 50 cents. This is first time I actually give money to any of these street musicians types or beggars, et cetera for that matter. They actually deserved it.
Anyway, we then went into Fnac, as I wanted to buy a USB compatible gamepad to use with the laptop. Sadly, all my sidewinder are the midi port kind. We first went around was the computer section, looked at the laptops, at the macs, then at the keyboards and mouses, even cables. The last thing we went for was the gaming section, and thus, gamepads. And there it was; sitting on the shelf, a splinter of light, a shard of truth, lone as it was; forsaken by everyone, outlined against the faint neon lightning of the store, indeed, I was beholding greatness itself. For a mere 14 euros, a PS2 gamepad to USB adaptor.
I had been fooled before. When I was in Japan, I had witnessed such a device, and after inspecting it, I found out it only worked for one gamepad and it would have set me back 48000 yen. But no, this time it was not so. It did indeed say 14 euros on the back, and despite the fact that it didn´t actually say anything about two gamepads, you could definetly see through the clear plastic, the exquisite beauty of it all. It did indeed have two plugs, one on each side of it´s magnificent cheap ass clear blue plastic shell.
Despite me being skeptical, I bought it. On my return to my humble abode, I proceeded to unpack greatness, and was presented with a generic CDR labeled “A” with a marker. I was scared there for a moment, but I plugged in greatness itself into my laptop anyway. No drivers where asked for. I went into the control panel and I see the two ps2 gamepads being recognized correctly. I then ran Kawaks and procceded to play some Garou - Mark of the Wolves, the response was great. It felt great. The friggin analogs sticks work too. I never figured out what the damn “A” CDR actually had. I then remembered I had only spent 14 euros in greatness, and laughed at the world while I basked myself in bliss. Today is thursday, and I´m still laughing.
Sunday 27th of February 2005
Protect your banana
It never really ocurred to me to carry around a banana on my backpack when I’m going around and about, but I guess it has to some people.
Are you fed up with bringing bananas to work or school only to find them bruised and squashed? Our unique, patented device allows for the safe transport and storage of individual bananas letting you enjoy perfect bananas anytime, anywhere.
The above quote is from Banana Guard, the amazingly, patentened.. banana guard. I kind of like the Banana Bunker better thought. I think I may get one to display just for the controversial factor if it. :p
Saturday 15th of January 2005
I feel a great disturbance in the force..
As if millions of teenage girls cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. At least now millions of users might actually have something to write about when the servers are back up. “Today I went outside. My pupils have never been tinier”.
Ok, heh :p sorry for the generalization, couldn’t stop myself. Let’s go back to regular stuff. First, here’s some pictures of fish that have been driven up to the shore by the tsunamis, seems mostly they are those that live in the bottom of the ocean, where sun light does not reach them. I see what looks like some Angler fish in there.. mwahaha! -”Rape” is the Angler fish’s name in Spanish.
Shiny things. The Japanese have a great way of finding excellent and thoughtful names for their toys. Take an exclamation, add the word “Super”, and append the product function; you then get the Oh! Super Toaster! -a 1.1 million ¥ toaster (~$10000) that not only can slice whole loaves of bread but also can toasts them with an infrared beam. Intelli-toast, step aside.
On to more important things, a salute goes to the Huygens Probe, which touched down yesterday on the surface of Titan and the people at ESA have been busy churning out pictures. Here’s some of the first, and even more that were released today. I’m happy.
I’ve got nothing else, so I’ll just leave you with the furminator while I go do something productive.
Sunday 9th of January 2005
Surge protectors..
About two weeks ago or so I got some new remote controlled surge protectors; it comes with four plastic thingies that you plug on the wall and then your appliance on the other side of it. You can then control them from the remote control (juice on or off). I got them at Lidl, and even though they have “3 year warranty” it lists some website that seeems to be under construction.. hum. I also have another one i bought more than a year ago, but it’s a whole mains panel with three of the plugs being remote controlled.
Anyway, currently I use them to turn off my trusty but juice guzzling Klipsch speakers and their appropiate 750 VA transfomer (they are 110-120v) after i’m done, but even then, i forget to do so once in a while.
Enter the OneClick™ the intelligent mains panel, which, as they explain:
OneClick™ the intelligent mains panel automatically controls the power to all of your peripherals from your computer. Switch on your computer and OneClick instantly switches power to your monitor, scanner, printer, games console and speakers. Switch your computer off and OneClick turns them all off again. It’s that simple.
Here’s an animation that shows how it works too. I know there are ethernet enabled power surges, with web pased panels and x10 on them, et al; and while they have more advanced features, they don’t help with “remembering to turn the damn thing off”, so i guess for £28.80 it’s not that bad. Those other surges can cost 600 dollars and upwards too -they are great for off-site hard reboots though.
Sunday 2nd of January 2005
EcoSphere
You could say there’s no real use for this; and you would probably be right, but damn, I’d love to have one on my desk.
The Original EcoSphere® is the world’s first totally enclosed ecosystem - a complete, self-contained and self-sustaining miniature world encased in glass.
They have both sphere and pod shapes of them, and each have inside algae, shrimp and bacteria. Sunlight is the key. Algae use the light to create oxygen and food for the shrimp, these, after breathing and eating, leave organic waste and carbon dioxide behind; the organic waste get’s eaten by the bacteria for food, cleaning the sphere in the process and they also leave behind some carbon dioxide which in turn get’s used by the algae to produce more oxygen and food, ad infinitum.
You just have to take care of how much light you’re allowing to shine into your sphere in order to control the algae growth, which, if too much or too little, can tip the balance off and make the shrimp perish. The average life of a sphere is two to three years, with the larger units lasting longer.
This reminds me of how much i want an aquarium.
Friday 31st of December 2004
Is it a digital clock? no! -it’s a sundial!
Designed and built in Germany, the digital sundial looks interesting. I’ll let them have their pitch:
In a singular blend of artistry and utility, the digital sundial combines the ancient science of sundials and advances of modern technology with elegant simplicity. Like a digital clock, the digital sundial displays the current time using digits. In the true tradition of all sundials, the device is purely passive - it operates without electricity, and has no moving parts. Instead, the sunlight is cast through two cleverly designed masks in the shape of numbers that show the current time of day. The sundial is available in two versions, for use in either hemisphere. Placed on the inside of a south-facing window (north-facing in the southern hemisphere), the sundial can be read through the horizontal mirror. The display updates every 10 minutes, and gives a remarkably accurate record of the time during the daylight hours.
Here’s some pictures and here are some videos of it. At almost 100€ (including shipping to my door) i’m not sure if it’s worth it, but I thought it was novel.
Thursday 30th of December 2004
Most novel use of a led
Well, two leds. We’ve all had our mother insatiably yell at us after we left a lovely yellow treat for her and other family members on the rim of the toilet after a stressful night. “I couldn’t see! it was dark!” was the most common excuse, that sadly, never seemed to work.
Future generations won’t have that problem: the NavLav (here’s a review of it) is a motion-sensing night light that attaches to the underside of the lid of your toilet in order to protect your family and roommates from your aimless and blind self.
It turns on when you approach in the dark, and turns off after you leave, shining gentle yet sufficient light where you need it, when you need it. Better yet, the LavNav uses RED or GREEN light to cleverly show the position of the seat. It’s smart, energy efficient lighting that makes the bathroom safe and easy to use at night.
So, when you leave the seat up, it glows red and when it’s down it will glow green, all for the convinience of your fellow women. The thing is brilliant.
I must have one.