The Gadgets Page

Since I’ve been walking the dogs with NakedJen recently, we have had to go quite early in the morning before she heads off to her glamorous work for Sundance. That means that we are trying to play fetch with the dogs in the dark and it’s hard for them to find the normal tennis balls in the unlit areas of the park. On those dark mornings, Jen brings her Meteorlight Light-Up Dog Ball. It works with the Chuck It, so she can throw it for yards and yards, but the dogs can still see it because it lights up.

Here is the best video I could find of a dog playing with one of these balls:

It’s so fun watching Buddha and Stella chase after the light up ball and watch them run back with it flashing in their mouths. If you have to exercise your dogs in the dark mornings and evenings of winter, this light up ball is a must-have.

May you have a lovely Christmas and may you receive all the gadgets of your heart’s desire!

Take the time to enjoy your family and the other important people in your life. What’s the point of having cool gadgets if you can’t show them off to anyone?

😉

Continuing with dog gadgets that NakedJen has introduced me to, there is the Chuck It Ball Launcher. If you have a big dog that needs a lot of exercise, this is an easy way to play fetch without getting slimy hands.

Here is a video showing how it works:

Not only can you pick up the ball with Chuck It, you can throw it further than most normal humans could. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you learn how to throw the ball with Chuck It, you’ll be able to exercise your dog with little effort on your part. Here’s a video of a black lab running the length of a football field over and over:

Buddha and Stella have enjoyed many mornings of chasing after tennis balls and lacrosse balls with the Chuck It, all without us having to endure slimy balls. If there is a dog in your life that loves to play fetch, try using the Chuck It.

Since I started joining NakedJen and her dogs, Stella and Buddha, for their daily walk, I’ve been happier. The icy winter sidewalks however are a constant threat. Stella and Buddha are huge black labs and when Buddha sees a cat, he could pull my arm right out of its socket trying to get it. Earlier this month, Jen started using the Halti Head Collars on both of the dogs and suddenly, it is SO much easier to take them on a walk.

The Halti doesn’t choke them, like a choke collar would. It pulls their heads toward you if they try to run off. It’s pain-free for BOTH of us. More importantly, since they can’t pull, walking on the icy roads is merely a matter of keeping myself upright instead of trying to battle an energetic dog AND keep myself upright.

If you have stopped walking your dog because training didn’t work or maybe because it’s just too icy outside, try a Halti and see if it transforms your dog the way it did for Stella and Buddha!

I realize that this is an obscure problem that hardly anyone will need an answer for, but if you do, this will be a godsend.

For years, I used Bloglines for my RSS reader, but it has been sluggish lately. Everyone was raving about how easy Google Reader was, so I decided to try it. It wasn’t perfect, but it was easy to use and updated the blogs quickly, so I have been using it regularly with Bloglines a distant memory kind of like Netscape became after AOL bought them.

My only problem is that Firefox still thought that Bloglines was my favorite browser, so whenever I would push the handy RSS button on the location bar…

…it would automatically take me to Bloglines.

EVERY recommendation that I could find online just said that I should choose Google when the subscribe box came up, but it never came up. It just took me to Bloglines, which took its sluggish time loading before I could scream in frustration.

I FINALLY got an answer from Mozilla’s Help Forum:

• How do I change the default RSS Reader in FireFox 3? • mozillaZine Forums

The most excellent and patient eisneun helped me reset it, but be warned, it’s not for the faint of heart. Read more here: (Continue Reading…)

The reason most adults play video games is to RELAX. We have a few minutes before we go to bed or maybe want to unwind during a stressful flight. The Zenses games from The Game Factory understands that perfectly. The games come in two flavors: Ocean and Rainforest. They both have beautiful soundtracks with relaxing sound effects that make playing the games fun and meditative.

In fact, you can download the soundtracks right now. Go to their website and click on the Music Downloads section:

• The American Game Factory – Zenses

I bought the Ocean Edition while I was traveling so I could have something to do on the four hour flight that would distract me from the cramped quarters. Instead of turning off the audio (which is what I do on many video games), I put in my headphones and listened to the calming water while I moved around seashells. All the games are fun, casual gaming type of games that are easy to learn and addictive to play.

Here is the trailer for Zenses: Ocean Edition:

Here is the trailer for Zenses: Rainforest Edition:

I am getting the Rainforest Edition for my next trip and the flight should be an easy escape.

I know it’s winter and my grass is currently hiding under a layer of snow, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying about what to do with it when spring comes. I HATE to mow the lawn. I HATE to maintain a lawnmower. I’ve never found a competent landscaper. Right now, the idea of ForeverLawn sounds wonderful.

• ForeverLawn, Inc. – Grass without limits.

I first saw ForeverLawn in Las Vegas, Nevada at an outdoor shopping mall. Ironically, they feature that mall in their advertising:

When I first saw it, I thought that maybe this kind of lawn wouldn’t work in Utah because of our snow, but there is a dealer in Utah AND they even have synthetic lawns that are specifically meant to withstand dogs. It sounds like a dream come true to me.

If I had to choose whether to put in automatic sprinklers or just replace my lawn with astroturf, I’d choose the ForeverLawn in a heartbeat. It’s not as good for the environment as growing your own garden, but honestly, I’m never going to do that. This way, I save water and still have a gorgeous green grass.

Now, I just need to convince Mike that it’s a good idea…

I found this advertisement from General Motors in Seventeen Magazine back in 1984.

The ad reads:

The Future of Transportation is Here

Park A Dream On Your Bedroom Wall

This concept car was designed and built for the future by General Motors. You can’t see it on the highways yet (the actual concept car can be seen at EPCOT CENTER), but you can see it every single day in your own room. For this full color poster…

Why they advertised so regularly in a teen girls fashion magazine, I’ll never know. The irony of the whole thing is their catch phrase if it were only finished correctly:

Park a dream on your bedroom wall, because you’ll never be able to park it in your future.

I’m still waiting for this car, GM. Maybe THAT’S why you guys need a government bailout…

Did you know that Atari Computer Camps existed?! I had no idea and I was EXACTLY the kind of kid that would have LOVED Atari Summer Camp.

Last month, I was doing some research at the library for Starling Fitness by looking through old Seventeen magazines from the Eighties. I happened to find these two advertisements for Atari Computer Camps and even now I wonder how I didn’t hear anything about this. I READ those magazines back when I was a teenager. You’d think I would have noticed these ads a little more than the “It Feels Good To Be Thin” ad that I remembered even after twenty years.

I first learned how to program in BASIC on an Atari 800 at Kennedy Junior High. I would have LOVED to go to Atari Computer Camp. Look at that photo! I would have thought it a dream come true to go to a COED camp with BOYS.

This advertisement makes a big deal about that “feature” of the camps. It reads:

Why do girls like Atari Computer Camps?

Maybe girls like Atari Computer Camps because of our full program of sports and recreational activities. Maybe it’s our professional and dedicated staff. Most probably it’s because they have the unique opportunity to get computer skills that will serve them the rest of their lives.

And of course, it could just be that Atari girls happen to like Atari boys.

It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?

I found this article wrote in 1983 about the Atari Camps:

• Inside Atari: Computer Camp

The schedule looked like this:

9:00-10:25 a.m. Computer Instruction
10:30-11:10 Drama
11:15-12:00 Tennis
12:00- 1:55 Lunch – Rest Hour
2:00- 2:55 Computer Workshop
3:00- 3:35 Free Swim
4:00- 5:25 Softball

They even had famous visitors:

Once a week on banquet night a special guest speaker, usually a computer game designer/programmer, appears to talk about his work. The week before our visit, Chris Crawford, author of Atari’s Eastern Front, talked about his programming experience and his new games, soon to be released, called Gossip and Excalibur. The day we visited the camp, Vince Wu, designer of the famous Donkey Kong arcade game, was scheduled to speak.

I would have loved to go to a camp like this! I wonder how my life would be different if I had.

Ms. Jen over at Black Phoebe has a fantastic review comparing her bluetooth headset to her new Nokia H-43 Headset:

• Bluetooth vs. Wired: The Nokia Headset Wars – Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen

Here are her reasons for loving the Nokia wired headset far more than her bluetooth:

1. Wires. Good old fashioned copper covered in plastic & cloth makes for a better sonic / audio experience.
2. Stereo. Hey, novelty! I can hear sound, be it music or spoken voice, in both ears!
3. No need to remember charge the wired headset.
4. Friends and family can hear me speak during a phone call much clearer with the wired headset, even when I am walking along the beach in a stiff breeze. Hello, Seal Way, the killer of all phone calls, you don’t kill my calls now.
5. Oooh, baby baby… the best feature of the HS-43 wired stereo headset is the one that seems most bizarre when you first pull it out. It does not look or act like your usual wired headset, as the back/top is not a headband but a 1/4 inch wide black fabric that is about 6 inches long that have two lanyard style clamp/unclamp at each end. Thus, when the danged thing gets all tangled up into a wad of wired hell, you just pull the two clamps apart and YAY the tangles are gone. If you by accident attempt to pull it out of your purse too fast or out from under the dog and you think, “Oh Crap! I have just broke the headset!”, oh no you have not, the clamps release and you can pull it out nicely and reclamp it.

I feel EXACTLY the same way about my V-Moda Vibe Duo Headset for the iPhone. When I’m having trouble hearing, they are BETTER than just talking on the phone because I hear the other person in both ears and the earbuds block out some of the ambient noise. They can hide in a tiny case in my purse forever until I need them and I never have to worry about charging them.

In fact, I’ve never owned a bluetooth headset BECAUSE of the charging issue. When I was a real estate agent and I was on the phone enough to warrant a bluetooth headset, the battery would have conked out halfway through the day. After I stopped being on the phone enough to use a headset, I stopped REALLY needing one. When I’m driving, I prefer to not talk on the phone at all and letting the call go to voice mail. I use my V-Moda headset to listen to music far more often than talking on the phone. In fact, I use it for phone calls when I’m in a noisy environment and I can’t hear the other person on the line. Those earbuds are amazing for blocking out noise.

In the end, bluetooth headsets seem like a transitional technology to me. For now, I agree with Ms. Jen. I’d MUCH rather be wired.