The Gadgets Page

I switched over to a Mac a little over two years ago. I have used iCal for that long and it has always bugged me that the calendar didn’t show my holidays. Since computers are used all over the world, it’s a little egocentric for me to expect the built in calendar program to have U.S. holidays, but I had no idea how to get the holidays into my calendar without putting them in myself.

Fortunately, there IS a way. When you’re in iCal, you choose Calendar and then Subscribe. It will ask for a URL to subscribe to. Finding the appropriate calendar for your country is DIFFICULT, so I looked at our traffic and found the calendars for the top five countries that access The Gadgets Page:

• Apple – US Holiday Calendar
• Apple – United Kingdom Holiday Calendar
• Apple – Canadian Holiday Calendar
• Apple – Australian Holiday Calendar – New South Wales (NSW)
• Apple – German Holiday Calendar

Once you’ve subscribed to a calendar, all your holidays are there for you. If there is a holiday that is continually moved with no rhyme nor reason (like the Daylight Savings fiasco in the U.S.), then you might want to have your calendar check for updates. To do that, highlight the calendar, right click on it and choose Get Info. Once you’re there, choose Auto-Refresh and change the setting appropriately.

I thought that I could live without having the U.S. Holidays on my iCal until last year when I scheduled a geek event on Easter weekend. It wasn’t until it was too late that I realized that we wouldn’t have anyone attend because of the overlooked holiday. If the lack of holidays on iCal had caused you similar troubles, you can now add your country’s holiday to your calendar.

Home & Garden Television have a list of gardening gadgets that might make yardwork a little easier this year.

• Enabling Garden Tools and Other Cool Gadgets : Home Improvement : Home & Garden Television

Here are a few of their recommendations here:

• Pot Lifter: Make moving your potted plants easier with the pot lifter.

• Ergonomic hand tools: A set of tools that work with your body better than the old style of hand tools.

• Ratchet-driving pruning tools: Prune your bushes and trees with three times the strength.

• Garden knife: Cut, weed and dig with this tool.

• Grip tape: Replace the grip on your worn out tools. Wrap your gardening tool handles with this tape to prevent blisters on your hands.

• Gardener’s pouch: Carry all of your tools with you while you garden.

• Multi-purpose nozzle: Better water nozzle for your hose.

• Faux wasp nest: Fake out wasps and yellow jackets to build a nest somewhere else.

There are so many garden gadgets on the market today to help make keeping your property looking good with less strain on yourself. Get out and enjoy your yard today!

I absolutely LOVE this little video clip of what fashion designers thought we were going to be wearing in the year 2000.

The most gadgety outfit is the one for the male. Here is what he is wearing:

As for him, if he matters at all, there won’t be any shaving, colors, ties or pockets. He’ll be fitted with a telephone, radio and containers for coins, keys and candy for cuties.

They actually got this one right. Ties are a rarity, except in the business world. Every guy now has a cell phone in his pocket, along with an iPod. The belt pack for money, keys and candy hasn’t really caught on yet because fashion designers are still giving men pockets to put them in.

I love to see how different our vision of the future is to what it eventually becomes.

I LOVE toothbrush technology and I love to talk about the changes and advances that they have made with just a simple brush to clean teeth. It looks like Dave Kellett feels the same way.

• Sheldonâ„¢ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett

My favorite is this one with the tilted head:

The Tilted Head: Doing what apparently your wrist couldn’t do before? Bend 10°?

I guess Dave hasn’t seen the commercial. You CAN’T get to those back teeth unless you have a Reach toothbrush or a flip-top head!

• Gadgets Page » 1946 Squibb Angle Pre-dates the Reach Toothbrush By 40 Years

I have enjoyed watching the Toothbrush Wars over the years. I find them far more entertaining than anything you could find on reality television. It’s nice to know Dave Kellett is right there watching with me!

The ever-exuberant NakedJen gave me this awesome retro Vibramassager for my birthday this year!

I sometimes forget how OLD vibrator technology is. This item doesn’t have a date on it, but the font alone just screams early sixties.

For more information on the history of vibrators:

• A history of the vibrator. – By Teresa Riordan – Slate Magazine

• Slow driving through Yellowstone has got my mileage up to 46 mpg! Prius FTW! http://twitpic.com/5ehin #

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I found this ad from the Found in Mom’s Basement blog. It’s from 1969 and it really reminded me what it was like before the iPod.

It reads:

Why one out of four people into our music is onto our Stereo 8 Tapes.

Superb sound wherever you go.

Whether your head’s with the Airplane or Feliciano or the Original Broadway Cast of “Hair,” our Stereo 8 Cartridge Tapes get it right on – with sound that’s almost like you’re sitting in the studio at the original session.

Stereo 8 Tapes go where you go. A half-dozen cartidges fit in a glove compartment, trench coat, overnight case. They give you up to 80 minutes of uninterrupted music and instant push-pull operation.

Good reasons why one out of four people listening to our music today is listening to the Stereo 8 Tape.

Shouldn’t you be the one?

Just imagine! 80 minutes of uninterrupted music. Instead of 80 GB (or approximately 40,000 minutes), it was only 80 minutes.

Those 8-Track Decks had STYLE, though! Check out the eject on this one:

IKEA has great products for gadgets, but this Mackis stationery caddy is so versatile that it can be used to create a charging station.

The Mackis comes unpainted and since you are putting it together, you can choose to put it together like this instead.

You do need to saw one part into three and add two strategically placed holes. With a little white paint and corkboard, you have a perfect charging station for your gadgets all for less than twenty bucks!

More photos here: ikea hacker: A compact Mackis charging station

I found an ad for a top-loading portable dishwasher from Kitchen Aid on Flickr. You can see the full ad here:

• Kitchen Aid Dishwasher Ad on Flickr

I understand the appeal of top-loading because there is no way that water can leak and spill all over your kitchen floor. Anyone who has had a dishwasher with that problem understands the desire to contain that potential mess.

The CAPACITY, however is so low! Imagine only being able to wash ten plates and six glasses! No pots or pans, just service for six (or so).

I’m sure that front loading dishwashers came into existence so they could be installed under counters, not because of their limited dish capacity. They must have been around for only a short amount of time, because I’ve never seen a top-loading dishwasher in my life. Honestly, I’ve only ever seen two portable dishwashers, period.

What was once a “fashion” or a luxury, has now become a housing staple. My first apartment didn’t have a dishwasher, but I’m sure it does now. It surprises me how quickly gadgets advance within one lifetime.

Mom needed a heating pad, so she went downstairs to borrow Carol’s. When I saw what was in her hands, I attacked her so I could take photos of it.

Based on the illustrated sun on the box, it looks like it was bought in the 60’s or 70’s. Back then, it only cost $4.95 at Grand Central.

Heating pads haven’t changed over the years. This design is very similar to the one I have under my bed right now.

It’s surprising to me how some gadgets can last so long while others become obsolete and unusable after a short amount of time. Long after we die, our heating pads can still warm the backs of our children.

You can see all the photos here:

• Carol’s Retro Heating Pad – a set on Flickr