Gadgets on jasoncrowther.com

The Little Things

Wed, 17 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the process of porting our cell phones from Metro to T-Mobile. After getting my own line moved, I noticed when you call support line they use caller id to give a personalized greeting… “Hey Jason, what can I do for you today?” in their customer service bot’s fairly realistic voice. Nice.

Roku Voice Remote Pro

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

So, Roku has a new pro version of their remote that uses a rechargeable battery, nice! I like that idea, since it seems that our current remote eats batteries like nobody’s business. Unfortunately, at $29, just the remote alone costs as much as the 4k Roku Express device (with remote) that I’d use it with. Meh.

Good bye trusty friend...

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My trusty KD Links dash cam stopped working at some point recently. Looks the like the battery swelled and blew the whole casing apart.

For a whacko brand name I’d never heard of before, it worked surprisingly well and lasted 7 years across 3 different states. Godspeed little gizmo.

Hacker exploits printer Web interface to install, run Doom

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Hacker exploits printer Web interface to install, run Doom | Ars Technica.

Too much time on your hands?

I could see this getting a lot of use in my house...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Revenge of the completely useless machine.

Logitech - Wireless Solar Keyboard

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Logitech - Wireless Solar Keyboard K750.

Solar power for the a wireless keyboard is brilliant.

My Apple keyboard at work is starting to get some miles on it. This may be a contender for replacement. Have to see one if they have one locally that I touch test on.

Tablet Showdown

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Will It Blend? style.

Yes, putting electronics in a blender is silly. But, it’s pretty impressive that all you get out the other side is dust.

Sleek Ipad Mini Mount in a VW CC

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Slick!

Five Best Drive Enclosures

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Five Best Drive Enclosures.

I vote for the Thermaltake BlacX Docking Station. I have the Rosewill branded version and its the simplest way to use bare drives with minimal fuss.

circuits.io

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

circuits.io.

Interesting. Its kinda like a github for hardware. Also has some kind of back end for actually producing circuit boards. Nice!

Like an iMac, but Ubuntu.

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Meet The $799 All-in-One Ubuntu PC from System76 | OMG! Ubuntu!

Pretty nice, but I don’t see them moving a lot of them at that price point.

Apple Sends Press Invites for iPad Mini Event

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When will the madness stop?

Apple Sends Press Invites for iPad Mini Event.

Wouldn’t mind upgrading my few year old iPod touch to something with a little bigger screen.

Memory Lane

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The Best PCs You Can Build for $600 and $1200.

Remember when people used to build their own computers?

I do and all the frustration and cut up knuckles that went along with them. But, it was oddly satisfying when everything worked; or at least until something burned up because you missed a fan connector somewhere.

Single Handed Typing with the Frogpad

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

With my left hand pretty useless at the moment, I decided to try out some one handed typing with my father-in-law’s Frogpad keyboard. After a little trouble getting the bluetooth part on the air with my Macbook, I was off and running.

Apple iPhone Finally Here!

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that Apple (now just Apple, as opposed to Apple Computer) finally let the cat out of the bag out their new cellphone. 30 months in the making, the iPhone is amazing. Part cellphone, part iPod, part Mac.

Handy New Firefox Plugin

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Meet PermaTabs, a little hack that allows you to have tabs that can’t be closed. After installing it, just right click on the tab and turn on the Permanent Tab option. It also persists across sessions, so next time you fire up Firefox, it brings back your permanent tabs automagically. Sweet, now I won’t keep accidentally closing my Google Calendar 100 times a day.

Hardcore Blender

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Heard about a guy who tests his hard core kitchen blenders by blending items that you normally wouldn’t on one of the Twit podcasts a while ago. Finally saw a link to the site go flying by on digg. willitblend.com is a riot. Golf balls, hockey pucks, light bulbs, cell phones, and ipod? You name it, they’ll blend it. The host, Tom Dickson, is cool in a PC guy type of way. ‘scuse me as I get back to watching these over and over, giggling the whole way through.

Awesome Flickr Based Screen Saver

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Slickr, by cellar door software gives you a photo screen saver that scrolls through your (or everybody’s) flickr photos. Cool pan/zoom/fade effects kinda like the similar screen saver on OSX. Bonus, if you have a dual monitor rig, it shows different slide shows on each screen. Check it out.

Wow, that's a little excessive...

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Was flipping through the latest PC Magazine, and spotted a full page ad for the new Black Diamond high end cell phone. Its got a pretty sexy form factor, Windows Mobile, Quad Band, Mini SD slot, 4 Megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, and two diamonds….

Bring that Beat Back

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Was pleasantly surprised at my recent birthday (yeah, I’m feeling old again) to receive a new MP3 player and some other useful electronic gadgets from my Amazon.com wishlist. Props to the wife and in-laws for the hook up.

Cool Web Technology: DabbleDB

Thu, 18 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Making my bi-weekly scan through CssMania, I spotted DabbleDB. At first, I thought they were just another webified ASP version of Microsoft Access (there are a bunch of them these days, along with some simpler open source projects that attempt to do the same.) They are kind of like Access, but with a lot smarter and easier for joe public to use.

Now that's a monitor!

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Dell is now selling a 30" widescreen lcd, ala Apple. I’ve seen Apple’s in person, and its pretty impressive; guessing that Dell’s is just as nice.

Until the bucks start rolling in by the truckload, I’ll stick with my recently acquired Dell 20" widescreen. Sure, it ain’t no 30 incher, but at less than a quarter of the price, its damn good.

Turn CDs into an iPod?

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A while back, I was on Gizmodo and found a company that was offering to trade used CDs for an iPod. Too good to be true? Millennium Music has their exchange rates posted for CDs to a number of iPod models (or you can just cash out if you want.) Basically, you package up your discs, mail ’em off to these guys. They evaluate them on quality of title and the physical quality of the disc.

Cool Google Maps Hack

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

A while back, my pal Larry showed me a cool mapping site that lets you take out a virtual tape measure and measure distances arbitrarily. It really hit the spot for figuring out how far I’ve been running.

Coming Soon: Self Heating Containers?

Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Yep! Buy your pre-brewed coffee (or tea, soup, or even baby formula) in its own self heating container. A company called Ontech has blown through a cool $20 millon in development of the idea, now protected by 120 different patents. Be sure to check out their demo video.

Teeny Tiny Linux Box

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Slashdot reports about Picotux a new Linux compatible PC the size of a RJ-45 ethernet jack. Wow, that’s pretty darn small, and its only 99 Euros. Now if I just had a cool project to use it in!

TikiUSB?

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Whoa, this is pretty cool. A tiki shaped USB drive. How cool is that? They’re a little pricey, but they’re hand made. Probably no more expensive than a one made by a street vendor in Maui.

Building your own DVR, Part I

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

In my last blog, I brought you up to date on the hell that is dealing with Time Warner Cable for service. In the comments, my pal Sean was surprised that I didn’t just dump the Time Warner DVR and buy my own. I don’t think I’d buy a dedicate DVR myself (like one from Scientific Atlanta) but, I have considered building my own. I thought I’d share my research so far…

Next in World Domination for Google

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Maps. Props to Sean for passing on the info that Google’s Maps application is now in beta. I goofed around with it a little bit, and it seems to work pretty well. The most impressive stuff to me was very fast updates on zoom and the ability to pan directly using the mouse. Here’s a quick link to downtown Lahaina (snowy mornings like this make me wanna book that return trip real soon.)

Cool FireFox Hint of the Day

Mon, 10 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know that you can add search types to the FireFox search gadget? I never noticed the add engines item at the bottom of the search list. There are a ton of other handy searches available. I added amazon.com, cddb.org and m-w.org to my list. Very Handy!

Whoa, that's a biggin'!

Thu, 06 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I was in CompUsa the other day and spotted a new 30" Apple Cinema Display. Running at a staggering 2560x1600 resolution, it seems to provide acres of desktop real estate. Man, I would love to have one. But, at $3,000 I don’t see it ever happening. Hmm, $3,000 is more than all of the PC stuff I own at the moment cost new.

Pogo Sticks go High Tech!

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Saw the Flybar Model 1200 on amazon.com; the pogo stick, evolved. So what’s so special about this $299 toy? Thrusters! Activate all 12 of the independent rubber thrusters and you’re capable of rebounding with 1200 pounds of force! They claim its enough to get a 170 pound person 5 feet off the ground. That’s pretty hard core! I’d add one to my Amazon.com wishlist, but I’m afraid of all the broken bones that would ensue, hehe…

A Quiet PC for DVR

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Hush Technologies specializes in fanless PC designs for noise conscious applications like living room PVRs. Their latest effort looks pretty sweet. Unfortunately, at about $2500, I’ll be sticking to my plan of building my own open source based PVR on an old Dell box using MythTV.

Now that's Extreme PC Modding...

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Check this out, some one using a radiator from a Toyota Corolla in his liquid CPU cooler rig:

http://www.winbeta.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6594

Nice!

Sweet, new Ipods available!

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The latest Ipod innovations include ratcheting up the drive space (tops out at 60Gb) and adding a color screen for displaying photos. Check ’em out:

http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/

The photos idea is kinda neat, but is overkill for my needs. I’m getting along just fine with my blue Ipod mini.

Plug: Password Safe

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re like me, you’ve got about a zillion passwords to keep track of. Password Safe is a decent free password manager. Basically, its specialized database for keeping track of your password info in a secure manner (they are stored encrypted) I’ve been using it myself for a couple of years now, but didn’t realize how much better the latest version is (stuff like groups for organization, auto lock program after X minutes). Definitely worth a look.

hey, that doesn't suck!

Fri, 01 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000

my keyboard on my pc at home outlived its usefulness (a number of stuck keys, driving me nuts) so I decided it was time for a new one.

I found this one for a steal of a deal at amazon: