November 21, 2007
Robot envy?
For under $150 bucks, I can get a gutter-cleaning robot. The iRobot Looj is a skinny little tracked rascal that drops into the house gutters, saving me from the task of moving around a ladder and standing on top of it for an extended period of time.
Basically, you drop the robot into where you want to clean, then remote control it back and forth along the length of your gutter. There's a hard plastic spinning "auger" to throw out big junk and smaller brushes to get rid of dirt and other stuff.
About the only drawback I can see is the NiCad battery. Takes 15 hours to charge for about 30 to 45 minutes of run time. Of course, that's 30 to 45 minutes not spent moving and standing on top of ladders, so I think I might be seeing if this turns up at Home Depot or under the tree...
Posted by dmohney at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2007
Film is dead - Long Live Film
(Photography) film is dead. But the general industrial processes once used to make it can now be turned to make "Power Plastic" - cheap solar cells, so saith http://www.konarka.com/...
Kinda cool, huh? I wonder if Kodak and Fuji have looked into this...
Posted by dmohney at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2007
Where's Jeff? Is he sleeping outside.. Where's Jeff?
"...is he going for a ride?.." Oops, I don't think Jeff (Pulver) knows much about Jeff Wiggles, his children being above the age dateline.
Anyway, I have taken up Jeff (Pulver's) offer to be on dopplr, a website that allows you to enter your trips on line and then compare your travel plans to other dopplr users. If you are traveling a lot, you can see where you can meet up with others in your community.
It's a good start.
I'd prefer a version down to the conference hall level where I can take my cell phone and "ping" to see who else is around that I might want to talk to, but that's probably a decade away, given the crudity of location-based services right now.
"Where's Jeff? Is he partying outside? Where's Jeff? Is he on-stage live? Where's Jeff? Is he singing with the Herding Cats? Where's Jeff? ..."
Posted by dmohney at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2007
Got a new monitor - Samsung 22 inch widescreen
It's the Samsung SyncMaster 226bw, a 22 inch widescreen LCD, 2 ms response time, 3000:1 or so contrast, blah-blah-blah-blah. Bought it for $349 list on Friday, shows up at $319 list at Best Buy on Sunday.
*sigh*
Anyway, it hasn't been too long since I had a 19" Samsung LCD plugged in, so I felt a little guilty about buying a new monitor so soon, but after about 15 minutes, I'm hooked baby! I'm doing side-by-side web pages/editing/prep and everything just seems so much faster; a lot less clicking through open windows, a lot more point-and-click.
Things just seem... faster. It's a user usability issue with all the new real estate to spread things out and it feels a lot more efficient.
Man, I'm probably going to pull my hair out when I next go out on the road with my paltry 15.4" laptop.
Posted by dmohney at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)