Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

I purchased my first car power inverter a good five or six years ago so that I could run my laptop while driving my car over long distances. This, coupled with an auxiliary input on my CD player meant that I had my entire music library, or a movie at my fingertips. (I’d just listen to the movie, I wouldn’t actually attempt to watch it, mind you.) Granted, nowadays iPods are much cheaper, and we have portable DVD players for movie watching, however, power inverters still come in handy. Finally, someone has realized that a clunky box does not sit well in a car, so they’ve created one that fits perfectly in your cup holder.

The logo on that inverter looks really familiar, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it (cough, Starbucks, cough). Other than it’s unique shape, there really isn’t much to tell about this little gadget. It’s good for 200 Watts and gives you two AC plugs and a single USB port. So long as you aren’t trying to run anything too power-hungry it’ll be worth the $30 for the convenience factor.

[ Think Geek ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re not familiar with some of the theories related to quantum mechanics, this alternate universe kit by Jonathan Keats’ might not make much sense to you. But take my word for it, there is some logic here. Way back in 1957, a physicist by the name of Hugh Everett came up with what is known as the ‘many-worlds interpretation’ of quantum mechanics, where the universe continually spawns off alternate universes whenever a “subatomic system consisting of a superposition of two likely states reduces to just one.” In a very crude way of thinking about it, if in your universe you decided to order pizza, another universe is created where you ordered Chinese instead. So based on Hugh’s theory, Jonathan Keats created these alternate universe kits, and here’s how they work according to him:

Everett’s theory addressed the question of how a subatomic particle can exist in a quantum superposition - for example being in two places at once - until someone observes it, at which point the observer finds it to be in only one place at a time. The explanation Everett gave is that the particle remains in both places when it’s observed, but the observer’s entire universe splits as the measurement is made, so that from that moment forward there are two separate observers living in separate universes, both identical except for the observed location of that single subatomic particle.

The kit uses a quarter-inch sphere of uranium-doped glass to provide a steady supply of subatomic particles, placed in close proximity to a sliver of scintillating crystal which measures the radioactive decay, effectively observing a quantum process - and splitting the universe.

The DIY kits are available for just $20, but you can only get them from the Modernism Gallery in San Francisco. And if Hugh Everett’s many-worlds interpretation theory has piqued your curiosity, I recommend checking out an episode of NOVA that ran a couple of months ago called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives where musician Mark Everett (Hugh’s son) goes on a quest to learn more about his father and his multiple universe theory.

[ Technovelgy.com - Universe Kits Now Available From Jonathon Keats ] VIA [ New Scientist Short Sharp Science Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sure it’s cool to see someone literally mow-down a target with one of those helicopter mini-guns in the movies, but it just doesn’t have the same charm as watching someone clear a saloon with a classic wild west revolver. And I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that your office wouldn’t be too keen with you recreating a scene from Unforgiven with a real piece, so if you’ve got an itchy trigger finger and a few minutes to kill at work, you might want to opt for this Wild West Gun Slinger shooting gallery instead.

The gun uses an infrared beam which has considerably less kick than real ammunition, but it compensates with electronic gun and target ricochet sounds which I’m sure sound exactly like the real thing. And it comes with a faux wood log where you can set up the included cans and bottles that actually scatter and shatter when hit.

The whole setup is available from Maplin Electronics for about $36.

[ Wild West Gun Slinger ]

By Evan Ackerman

PC Magazine (which is now entirely digital, by the way) has put together a Top 10 list of Black Friday websites to check out if you want to know what’s going to be on sale at specific stores come Friday morning, or more usefully, where to go to get the lowest price on exactly what you want. Looking for a nice car GPS system for under $100 like I am? TGIBlackFriday lists 27 (!) of them, many of which are available online as well as in store. If you’d just like to find the best of the best, BlackFriday.fm has a rundown of the top 5 best deals in a variety of categories… A Logitech cordless optical mouse for $5? I’ll take it.

Check out the full list over at PC Magazine, and plan out your Black Friday down to the last dirt cheap gadget.

[ PC Magazine ]

By David Ponce

So we’ve started tackling a few more questions. Heck, what’s a paltry 4 questions a week? Who are we helping like that. So this time, we’ve doubled our volume.

We start off by tackling the ever popular “Dude, where’s my drivers?” question. That’s a fairly simple one, but it’s immediately followed by the rather rad stories of a malfunctioning LCD screen and of someone clinging to the hopes of installing XP on their Vista laptop. We finish that batch with graphic card upgrades in a laptop advice.

The other batch starts off with Ubuntu compatibility woes and HDD passwords curiosity. We finish everything off by tackling what looks like a power management issue and a fried motherboard.

By Andrew Liszewski

I can’t think of a better way to waste a Monday morning than by clicking your way through an online gallery of classic computers. Particularly if it happens to be the collection of Max Burnet, which is considered to be the largest private computer museum in Australia. Burnet is now retired, but he worked as the director of Digital Equipment Corporation (before it was acquired by Compaq who later merged with HP) which explains how he was able to fill his 2 story suburban Sydney home with a vast collection of classic computers including everything from the first UNIX PDP-7 to a MITS Altair 8800.

Thankfully for us, he let CIO stop by and photograph his collection, and they’ve posted a slideshow with 52 zoomable images for your geeky gawking pleasure.

[ CIO - Slideshow - Tech of Yesteryear: Where Old Computers Find Their Final Resting Place ] VIA [ Slashdot ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll keep my thoughts about WALL-E the movie to myself, since I don’t want the comments for this post to be taken over by the Pixar fanboys, but if you’ve got kids, there’s a good chance they’ve got a WALL-E [insert product tie-in here] already on their Christmas list. So why not go the whole ‘educational toy’ route instead with this WALL-E themed learning laptop from VTech.

The laptop features a flip-down QWERTY keyboard and a basic LCD screen, as well as 5 different learning modes including letters, words, math, logic and games. WALL-E’s arms can be used to scroll through the on-screen options (or you can use the arrow buttons on the keyboard) and he’ll even blink his right eye every time you get an answer right. How’s that for motivation!

For $29.99 it seems reasonable, though according to Gearlog it doesn’t include a headphone jack or a mute setting on the volume controls, so be prepared to get sick of hearing those WALL-E sound effects real quick.

[ VTech WALL-E Learning Laptop ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Ok, so maybe it’s not the same kind of plastic wrap you use in the kitchen, but the SP-AW303 from JVC does appear to use some kind of highly flexible plastic faceplate that not only keeps your MP3 player safe from splashes, but also allows you to safely push all of its buttons, even if your hands are wet. The SP-AW303 itself is just as waterproof, and features a set of 28mm stereo speakers that will run for about 6 1/2 hours with the included batteries. There’s even a remote that can supposedly be used to control your MP3 player, but I imagine the functionality depends on which player you’re actually using.

The JVC SP-AW303 Splash Proof Portable Speaker is available from AudioCubes.com in your choice of white, blue or pink for $79.99.

[ JVC SP-AW303 Splash Proof Portable Speaker ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

Like many of you, I grew up on the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis. Much of my childhood was spent playing these three consoles, and there are times that I think about dusting them off to relive the good old days. The only problem is that of the three, only my SNES is still in working order. I’ve considered trying to find an old NES and Genesis that are still in good working order, but when you’re talking about consoles that are upwards of 20 years old, they’re still going to give out eventually. No, what I need is one of these FC3 Plus systems from Yobo.

This awesome piece of hardware combines the three greatest consoles from my childhood into one generic-looking plastic shell. Sure, it doesn’t look like much, but remember kids, it’s whats on the inside that counts. This thing could look like complete garbage and I wouldn’t care, because it’ll let me play games from my NES, SNES and Genesis collections. You get two fairly generic controllers (no, you can’t plug in the original ones) and a light gun for use with the NES. Much like the original Nintendo Zapper, this isn’t going to work with LCD and Plasma TVs, so don’t be too surprised.

The biggest issue I have with this console is its availability. I can’t seem to find anywhere to order one, and the Yobo site will only sell them to me if I’m a retailer. They’re already popping up on eBay, so that’s one option. I’ve seen a couple of Famicom clones down at my local Game X Change, so maybe I’ll check with them about getting one.

[ Yobo ] VIA [ GamerFront ]