The Gadgets Page

As I made my breakfast sandwich with this little gadget, I felt a sudden gratitude for it. I have been “squishing” sandwiches with this toastmaster Snackster for over four years now and it works just as well today as it did the day we bought it. I love its simplistic design. To turn it on, you plug it in. To turn it off, you unplug it. The red light tells you that your sandwich is still cooking and the green light tells you it’s ready. There is a latch to hold the lid down once you’ve squished your sandwich. That’s all.

I can’t imagine making a grilled cheese sandwich any other way now. I remember making them in a frying pan and lots of butter on the outside slices of bread (to prevent sticking). Now, my cheese indulgences are actually less calories because I don’t need butter, margarine or Pam.

Grilled cheese isn’t the only thing that’s good in the Snackster. You have never known joy until you’ve squished a Nutella sandwich. It’s like a melted chocolate bar between two slices of bread.

Considering how many sandwich squishers I see at the thrift stores, I can only guess that Toastmaster must make a really good one. I’ve never seen a Snackster given away. The owners must use them until they don’t work anymore, which is longer than four years, based on the longevity of my model.

This picture of a beautiful couple was taken over fifty years ago. A few shots were taken with an Argoflex camera, the rest were waiting for exposure, but they never got their chance. The camera was abandoned, then found at a flea market or an estate sale, then ended up in the hands of Gene McSweeney.

• Film Found In Old Cameras

Gene rescues old film from old cameras and carefully develops them, displaying the photos for us to see. He philosophizes about the discarded cameras, photos and film, wondering where the subjects are now.

“There’s a marked sadness to photographs like these. Photos that are lost. Photos of long-dead people that stopped for a moment and smiled for the camera.”

I also see ghosts in these neglected photographs. Was the film undeveloped because film and developing was deemed more valuable than the image of those photographed? What would the families of these subjects feel if they saw those lost photographs now? Would they even recognize the faces?

Gene and I exchanged a few emails and he stated beautifully why these old cameras can still compete with the technological beasts of today:

“I’ve got more cameras than you can imagine. Some of them are very expensive and complex. I use the complex ones every now and then but I prefer the “junk” cameras as they free me from all the technical stuff. Junk cameras boil everything down to light and form. The basics of photography.”

I am so grateful that I live in the digital age. I can click a photo whenever I want without guilt or even contemplation of the expense of film and developing. These photographs remind me how it used to be before we carried cameras and telephones in our pockets.

Via: Boing Boing: Photos from undeveloped film in antique cameras

After you’ve uploaded all of the images in your digital camera’s memory, what do you do?

• Use the camera to delete the files (Erase All)
• Use the camera’s “Format” option to erase the photos
• Use the computer to delete the files

Derrick Story recommended that you Erase, Don’t Format, apparently because using “Erase All” gives you a better chance of recovering deleted files, but later updated his post after comments confirmed that a formatted card is also recoverable.

What do I recommend? First, forget about recovering files. Don’t erase files or format the card unless you’re quite sure you have a good copy of all of the photos on the computer, and don’t ever assume you can recover a deleted photo.

Taking file recovery out of the equation, either Erase or Format will work, but some cameras will reset the filename sequence to 0001 when you reformat, so you may want to avoid that. The only other reason I can think of to avoid formatting is if you’ve been using the card in other devices (mobile phone, Palm, etc.)—formatting will delete all files, not just pictures, which may be more drastic than you wanted.

Personally, I just delete the files with my computer. It’s fast and works just fine, as long as you’re careful:

• Depending your settings, the files might go to a “recycle bin” or “trash” folder on the card instead of being truly deleted. This only wastes space, so be sure to delete them properly.
• Don’t format a memory card using your computer. Formatting on the camera ensures compatibility with the camera—both Windows and MacOS can format cards using file systems that won’t be recognized by some cameras.

If you’d rather avoid the potential hassle of deleting files on the computer, just use “Erase All” on the camera. Like Derrick, I also recommend formatting the card every month or two, or when you put it into a new camera, to avoid creeping file system errors.

[via TUAW]

Treo Today mentioned my review for the headphone adapter for my Treo 650.

• Treo Today » Blog Archive » Headphone Adapter for the Treo 650

There was a comment from a reader at the end of the review:

“WARNING – These straight earbud adaptors are very dangerous for the Treo. The slightest torque or pressure on the adaptor will damage the earbud receptor in the Treo. I know this for a fact as I destroyed mine (broke the adaptor off in the Treo, shattered the receptor, and had to get a new Treo). If you want to listen to MP3’s get an earbud set made to fit the Treo, and make sure it’s a short “L” shaped connector. Word to the wise.”

I haven’t had that trouble, but I can easily envision it happening with my clumsy nature. I guess I’m going to go find a “L” shaped connector like the one Amazon sells.

I love to have a docking cradle for my PDA. I don’t know if it’s because I’m an old-school Palm Pilot fan or if I am just lazy, but I prefer to have a spot to place my phone easily. Fussing with cords is a pain in the butt for me. Half the time, the cord would fall behind the desk when I removed it from my phone and when I finally got a cord manager to prevent losing the cord, it made it difficult to have the phone facing the right direction.

A cradle stores my phone face up and angled perfectly for me to see while it’s charging or syncing. This particular cradle is a little nicer than the one I had for my Zodiac. There is an extra compartment to charge an additional battery and the sync button is a real one, not just a mechanical work around that indirectly presses the sync button on the original sync cable.

Another additional feature is that you have a choice whether it will be a charging station or a syncing station for you. If you want a cradle where you charge your phone, but prefer to sync at the computer with your original cable, you can do that. The same is true if you want to sync with the cradle and charge elsewhere. You don’t need to have both cords connected for it to work.

I don’t know why they don’t include cradles with the Palms anymore. Maybe there are some people who didn’t really like them. Now, there are several cradles from different peripheral providers to choose from, but this one works like a dream.

Palm’s Treo Docking Cradle is $39 for the version linked here, which includes the AC power adapter and USB data connector. A cheaper version, which includes only the cradle and works with your existing cables, is also available.

I just bought a fleece jacket for the winter. Unlike the pictured jacket, my version has a hood, but that’s not important. The important part of this year’s line of The North Face jackets is the little zippered pocket on the upper right side. That little pocket is perfect for slipping in my Treo. I can listen to music, wrap the extra headphone cord in it and zip it up. It doesn’t bounce when I run and it is secure. Best little gadget pocket ever.

It turns out that this little fleece jacket is just as warm as my leather coat. That’s an added bonus that I wasn’t expecting. It’s so light and easy to throw on, I didn’t think it would come close to being as warm as my leather coat. I actually bought it to be a liner for my coat when things get cold this year. Luckily, I’ll be able to weather whatever comes along this season.

A common technique in digital photography is focus-and-recompose: You center the subject in the frame, half-press the shutter to focus, then move the camera to create a better composition with an off-center subject. I use this technique with almost every photo I take. Here’s an article on why this technique can sometimes create out-of-focus pictures:

• Visual Vacations: Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

If you’ve had problems with poor focus or are just curious about how focus systems work, this is a good read.

Keep in mind that you may never run into this issue—with most digital cameras, especially consumer and prosumer models, the large depth of field compensates for the error most of the time. Watch out in these situations, though:

• When taking close-up portraits, especially with digital SLR cameras
• Macro photography with any camera
• When deliberately narrowing the depth of field by using a wide aperture

The solution? Most prosumer and SLR digicams let you choose a non-centered focus point. Use this rather than focus-and-recompose for the best shot.

[via Mezzoblue]

Hello,

Could you please tell me how to set the time on my fossil-starck, cause I do have the manual, but due to moving..it is somewhere, but where..?!

You’d make me very happy, many friend tried..but..as you know, it’s too hard..so I now have a watch which says it is 5 hours and 15 minutes earlier than it actually is.

Thanks! Evelien

Evelien,

The button on the bottom left controls the mode. When you push this button one of the four modes will flash (TIM 1, TMR, ALM 1, or CHRO). Push the mode button until TIM 1 flashes. Now, you are in Time 1 Mode. You should be able to see the time, seconds and date on the face of the watch.

Hold down the mode button until the hour starts flashing. You can now set your time. The top right hand button will move you from hours to minutes to date, etc. The bottom right hand button will change the digits. When you have set it correctly, you can press the mode button (bottom left hand button) and it will start acting like a normal watch again.

In normal time mode, you can switch to TIM 2 by pressing and holding the bottom right hand button and set the dual time in the same manner.

I hope this is helpful to you,
Laura Moncur

I got my headphone adapter at Radio Shack and it looks like the one pictured here. I have been using it to listen to music on my Treo 650, but yesterday, I learned a new feature that was built into my phone. If you are listening to music on the Real Player (it comes with the Treo) and a call comes in, the music pauses and the phone rings. If you answer the call, the music stays paused during your call and resumes when you hang up. If you decide to ignore the call, the music automatically resumes within a few rings.

Additionally, if you pick up the call, you can hear the phone through your headphones. You still need to bring the phone up to your mouth so that the microphone can pick up your voice, but being able to take the call without upsetting my headphones is really cool. Plus, the call came through on both of my ears instead of just one. This is an added bonus if you’re in a noisy environment and want to block out a little more of the noise around you.

This adapter is shaped a little better than the one I bought at Radio Shack, so it might be the way to go. Mine sometimes falls out because it’s so big and bulky. Either way, the headphone adapter has been a great way for me to listen to music wherever I want. The Treo kicks butt!

Following along the lines of paranoia, a former employee of EBGames lets loose his views:

• BUZZSCOPE – The Mad Gamer – EB Games EXPOSED!

I suspect the policies are the same at all the major game outlets, even though I’ve found most of the employees to be pretty willing to tell me when a game is less than enjoyable. He also complains about the trade-in value for games. The way I look at it, if I’m willing to sell it back, it must be just taking up space at home and if I don’t get two bucks for it at EBGames, I’ll give it to the Salvation Army.

It’s nice to know that Mad Catz is crap, though. I thought that maybe I played on that dance mat a little too hard.

Via: Gear Live – Former EB Games Worker Is Pissed