The Gadgets Page

I love this comic from Wasted Talent:

She has started a new job in an industrial setting and it has an un-reality to it that makes it feel like she is playing a video game. Five years ago, I remember writing about a very similar thing. Mike and I were roller skating in the park and it all felt like a video game to me.

• Pick Me! » Reality

It was a very clear day and I felt like I was in a video game. If we could complete the half-circuit of the park, we would open up a whole bunch of other tracks. I remember feeling fascinated that the programmers included the cars passing on our left belting out the car-appropriate music. At one point, we stopped to adjust our skates and I was stunned by the details of the grass and the ants. Even the problems with blisters from my ill-fitting skates seemed like they were part of the game. “I have to earn the Kudos to get some better skates,” I thought to myself.

The idea of viewing life as a game isn’t new. Even Edgar Allan Poe had slips of reality at times when the real world felt like a dream. For me, viewing life and all of its challenges as a video game is incredibly freeing. I am able to accept failure much easier and move on. If all I have to do is press the start button to try again, failure is a lot less devastating.

Ward Jenkins scanned in this lovely and informative booklet about Kodak Ektachrome film from 1955.

• The Ward-O-Matic: Kodak Ektachrome booklet from 1955

After looking through the pages, I remembered how irritatingly difficult photography was for me before my first digital camera. The photos I took wouldn’t be seen for days or months after I shot them. That left me with such a delay of feedback that I never got any better at photography. It wasn’t until my first digital camera that I started to get better: no more cut off heads or meaty fingers over the lens.

Film was the biggest drawback to photography for me. I constantly had to decide whether each thing was film-worthy or not. Now that I’m on digital, I am a Photography Cowboy. I shoot ’em all and let God sort ’em out. Okay, God doesn’t sort my oceans of files, but iPhoto is the next best thing.

I’m so grateful for the digital photography era. Reading through that Kodak booklet made that crystal clear for me again.

• RT @iphonestream: iPhone 3.0 app highlight: TomTom GPS http://ow.ly/d6Zj #
• I’m excited about iPhone 3.0, but I’m not willing to pay $600 for it. Killer feature for me is the built in Nike+. I want it! #

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I was finishing up my vegetable stew when the bowl flipped a bit and spilled a bunch of stew and broth all over my computer keyboard. Whenever I make an “Oops!” noise, the dog comes running, in hopes that I have spilled something for him to eat off the floor. I took one look at Sid’s begging eyes and another look and my stewed computer keyboard. As if by habit, I disconnected the keyboard from the computer and placed it on the floor for Sid to “clean up.”

By the time I realized that I had done something REALLY weird, Sid was almost finished cleaning off the keyboard. I grabbed the camera and snapped this photo of him cleaning and Elvis wishing Sid would let him have some too.

Sid’s big, pink tongue cleaned off the keyboard surprising well, but that didn’t stop me from cleaning it again with a good coat of Windex. I haven’t had any troubles with it acting funny, sticking keys or doggy breath.

Who said diamonds were a girl’s best friend?

Marilyn? Hon, you gotta learn a bit a somethin’ from us Geek Girls!

Update 06-14-12: It’s THREE years later and that keyboard still works beautifully. No sticky keys and no stray character glitches. We lost Sid about a year ago to a brain tumor, so rereading this entry was particularly sad for me, but it made me laugh a little as well. God, I miss that big dog!

Someone scanned in this postcard from 1965:

It reads:

Manufacturer of the world’s finest personal telephone answering systems, designed to fit any of your personal or business needs.

Manufactured by Robosonics Incorporated.

The postcard was mailed to Tel-Tek Electronics at 2801 NW EXPY in Oklahoma City. The copyright date on the postcard is 1965. If you notice the touch tone phone doesn’t have pound (#) or asterisk (*) buttons, so it must have been one of the first touch tone phones.

When we were first married, Michael and I owned a Panasonic answering machine that used full sized cassette tapes for the outgoing and incoming messages. We could listen to our messages by calling our home number and punching in the secret code followed by the “splat” button (*).

It took us YEARS of not having a telephone land line to get out of the habit of checking messages. We would be at a hotel room in Vegas and I can remember Mike saying, “I just can’t get used to not having to check messages.” Sometimes our parents don’t even realize that we are out of town because they call us on our cell phones, we talk, answer questions and make plans for our next familial visit without mentioning that we don’t happen to be in Salt Lake City right now.

It’s amazing to me how much technology can change our lives. I went from having no answering machine in my childhood home to being a slave to one as a young adult to carrying my phone around with me wherever I go and with each change, I had to adapt to it.

In 1965, the answering machine was a new gadget that was rarely used and took up more space than the Los Angeles phone book on a table. Now, every single one of us have voice mail on our cell phones in our pockets. Hurray for progress!

I can hardly tell you how excited this trailer made me:

As soon as I saw the headline, I laughed out loud and clicked on the link. Our family has LONG enjoyed the Rock Band games. Adding the Lego version makes me hope that they will choose more pop music for the playlists.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the hard rock aspect of Rock Band. You haven’t lived until you’ve watched your mother sing “Shout at the Devil,” but my parents haven’t really been able to enjoy the game like we have. If the playlist was more karaoke oriented, then the game would be much more inclusive. Throw in a bunch of Carpenters songs and we’d be able to have a rip-roaring time with the whole family.

Oh, and I want to be able to buy a bunch of Christmas songs on Xbox Live to go with it. Is that possible? I would LOVE to be able to play Rock Band at Christmas time with the whole family. Please make that happen for me, okay?

• Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009 http://bit.ly/13u3Sm #
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• RT @bradmccall I think a device like this has potential to replace the laptop as we know it (for most users) http://snurl.com/jfloe #

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In an indescribably stupid move, Microsoft is taking pot shots at the iPod by claiming that to fill it would cost $30,000.

Firstly, they have hired Wes Moss, a supposed financial planner, to lecture me on the financial infeasibility of my iPod. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust any financial planners anymore. Aren’t they the fools who told me that keeping my money in my credit union savings account was stupid and investing it in the stock market was smart? Lucky thing I never listened to them.

Secondly, this financial planner is telling me that to fill my iPod with music, it would cost me $30,000. Of course, at a buck a song, it WOULD cost me that much to fill my iPod. But music isn’t the only thing I put on my iPod. I can also use it for movies, which fill up the capacity pretty easily. Using Garage Band and iMovie, I can fill my iPod with music and movies that I have created as well, so the iPod isn’t merely a repository for my music collection, it’s a bragging right to show off my work.

I find it ironic that Microsoft is suggesting a service that has been proven not to work on several occasions. Both Napster and Yahoo! Music have had similar services for similar prices and they are GONE now. Those months when I paid for the Yahoo! Music were pretty cool. I had whatever music I wanted to listen to, but now all that money I paid is gone and I don’t have anything substantial to show for it.

I don’t think Zune Pass is worth 15 bucks a month. I’d MUCH rather pay the $30,000 to fill my iPod because then I get to KEEP the music.

Via: Microsoft takes aim at the iPod

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As if Vibrating Mascara wasn’t enough, now Dior has “blessed” us with their “Magic Wand” for their Lip Addict lip gloss. The Magic Wand is a spinning wand that helps you apply your lip gloss.

The Lip Addict lip glosses used to have a brush to apply the gloss, but the Magic Wand is a doe foot sponge. I personally prefer the doe foot sponge for lip gloss, but there seems to be a bit of a controversy in the makeup world split along the lines of brushes versus sponge applicators. Dior is taking a risk of losing their faithful brush customers by switching to the doe foot sponge.

The Lip Addict glosses have always cost between $27 and $30 depending on where you shop and Dior hasn’t changed the price since they have added the amazing spinning Magic Wand. This merely seems like a marketing ploy to get people interested in buying their lip gloss and be willing to fork out thirty bucks for it.

When I tried the original Lip Addict at the Sephora store, I wasn’t impressed enough to spend thirty dollars on it. It reminded me of Wet and Wild lip gloss, except they had a brush instead of a sponge applicator. I can buy Wet and Wild lip gloss at any drug store for two bucks, so it felt like I would be paying an extra 27 dollars for the Dior name and a floppy plastic bristled brush. Both brands use numbers to name their colors instead of names. Both brands have a lip gloss that feels about the same. Why is Dior’s so much more expensive?

Now that they’ve added batteries and gadgetry, does the Dior price tag fit? For me? No.

I DON’T want makeup applicators that vibrate or spin. It’s hard enough for me to put on lip gloss without having to navigate the difficulties of moving parts as well. I wasn’t willing to spend thirty bucks for two dollars worth of lip gloss before and I’m even LESS inclined to do so with a spinning Magic Wand thwarting my early morning routine.