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Linux runs on just about anything, these days, and if it doesn't, NetBSD does.

Get an ipod that can run IPodLinux, plug in one of these, and a pair of these, and you'll be ready to dodge bullets. ;-)

With the above, they can sell as many of their crippled, gimped notebooks as they want; you can use that stuff and the hacked ipod to create your own system. If you don't mind the weight, there's still this old trick, too.

Microsoft can do whatever they want. All we need to do is route around them.

Stop being afraid of them; they have no power. We can do whatever we like, and there is nothing they can do about it...for the simple reason that there are so many more of us. Microsoft are only one company.

1993 would've been, what, 500MB 3.5" hard disks? So, 21.74MB per in^3 (1.33MB per cc). 16 years later, we have 16GB of storage in a USB key like this, in 0.081 in^3, for a density of 202,271 MB per in^3 (12,343MB/cc). This new method is about 94 times denser than current flash technology. In 16 years of time, we've had a density improvement around 10000x. You do the math (since I feel like I've done enough for the moment)

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/b278/

Worse... It is a joke novelty item.

You know... Like stuff at ThinkGeek.

Let me try and describe this device as if it were a topic of an article at Telegraph.co.uk.

Gun Camera to make people stop killing
To end all gun violence once and for all, guns will be replaced with gun cameras.

Your boss asks you to do the impossible, your mom tortures you to get you to clean up your room, your friends stand you up, your girlfriend cheats on you... instead of taking out your aggression on the first innocent victim you find, we suggest you get one of these 100% harmless guns.
It'll take a picture each time you press the trigger.

Aimat is a very basic, utterly unsophisticated photo camera. It was designed by Franziska Dierschke, a German student at the Bauhaus Academy in Weimar.
Two years ago, she presented it at Desifnmai, a design conference held in Berlin, but it's only now started catching on over the Internet.

It's a pinhole camera, the kind anyone can make at home because they don't require any sort of extensive understanding of photography.
These cameras produce an image using light that passes through a tiny hole.
Any sort of container can be used to make a pinhole camera; all you have to do is drill a hole in it.
And what better way to "shoot" your photos than straight out of a gun?

This camera has no focus, viewfinder, or lenses and makes very interesting photos, with a darkened frame around them like you get with the Lomo.
A camera/toy that will help you reduce tension and also have fun running after your girlfriend, your mother, your boss, and your friends.

Why am I mentioning this?
Because they (Telegraph.co.uk) found the Study Ball at that same site.

IT IS A JOKE ITEM!

Not actually intended as a study device.
You know... like the Periodic Table Shower Curtain.

I place a value on my time - and that value is typically way too high for my friends / family to pay.

That's why I always wear this to family functions and frequently when hanging out with friends.

I've found it's much easier in the long run to be non-committal. When someone says "yeah, that stupid computer is slow and broken - you know anything about how to fix it?" my usual response is either:
1) "Yup - call the manufacturer and ask them for help. They can troubleshoot it for you." or
2) "Yup - Get a Mac."

Either way, it leaves me out of it.

The only family computer I work on for free is my mom's, cause she gives me cookies.

That's worth it every time. :)

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/sciencemath/8964/zoom/

Rock on, Venetia, rock on.

store them in their original packing material (anti-static bag/plastic box with a silica pad in it) and pop 'em in whenever you need to. No need for all kinds of different USB caddies, power supplies and whathaveyou anymore.

And use one of these to plug them in when needed.

Any solution that has the drives unpowered is preferable - no point in spinning a drive 24/7 when it's used for backup 5 minutes a week.

At work, we would routinely have to deal with 5-10 hard drives a day and probably would order 40-60 a month. We stored them in anti-static bags in a bankers box. While that's not the exact brand we used (we bought them in 100 packs), its similar. During the few years we used those bags, we did not lose a single drive to storage loss. There were drives that were DOA or died during processing, or were dropped, but we never pulled a drive that was working the previous time only to discover that it was dead when we pulled it.

As for hookup, you have a couple of options. If you are going to do casual use, you can get an esata dock. It doesn't have a fan, but for all but the most intense use, it should be sufficient for transfering files and weekly backups. If you're looking for more, go with sata sleds (again not the brand I used, but similar), you can screw your hard drives into those and if your sata controller supports it, hot swap the drives. You can also buy extra sleds so that you can swap out your drives without having to handle the internal drive.

Here's a product that can be adapted to a grid network that can power cars.

Would not something like this or this be far more practical? Now if this camera actually looked like a gun that would be something.

Would not something like this or this be far more practical? Now if this camera actually looked like a gun that would be something.

nope.
Wow, I just posted a link to a T-shirt ad as a citation.

The iPhone's potential for just about everything is pretty well proven at this point. We may have found the form factor + interface device for the 21st century. Now if only the damned thing had a projector in it so geezers like me wouldn't have to squint at our - er - videos... and bluetooth so we could use this neat keyboard, we'd be all set.

Gloves: http://www.tavoproducts.com/

Stylus: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/a31f/

Yeah, getting custom gloves and styli are not ideal, but that's the tradeoff for the glass screen. A pressure-based touchscreen like the DS is far more susceptible to scratching.

mechanical devices, based on physical principles

Here is the invention.

Betamax would be higher quality, then you can transfer it to HD-DVD.

Getting closer. The file is definitely mangled and needs to be repaired before you get the full message. Doesn't this part seem out of place in the song?

I can't afford the %20.

I think I saw a ThinkGeek T-Shirt like that. Perhaps the file can't afford the character?

Much more interesting is this new product from thinkgeek, known as squeez bacon.

Squeez-Bacon

It's the worlds most perfect food.

New tshirt for modding trolls: Go away, or I will replace you with a very small shell script.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

The way I do that is I got a Wifi-based picture frame. If this one comes back in stock, that might be what you want.

The one I got is based on Windows CE and has a bunch of problems, and freezes often enough that I put it on a timer to reboot it daily. It also has a bug that can't handle titles that have quotes in them.

It reads a RSS feed for my photos, and updates them automatically. I have an album on Ipernity that I add pictures to, and a short while later they show up on the picture frame. The upside is that works from across the world, which is why I set that up.

Just look here!

HEALTH POT

We have Red Lasers
We have Blue Lasers
...
What about Green Lasers?

We have Red Lasers
We have Blue Lasers
...
What about Green Lasers?

Instead of Radio Shack, you could help support slashdot with this:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/77e6/

the device would not likely be discovered visually, given it was placed well to begin with.

But if you're going to go to the trouble of carefully hiding an electronic device somewhere in an office, would you really choose this wall wart or something else?

#include <beer.h>

Have you tried this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/frustrations/388b/

I guess i am going to have to buy a new " NO I will not fix your computer " t-shirt from think-geek http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/itdepartment/388b/

People actually wear that stuff outside of their parent's basement? And do you say "new" because you gained weight and the old one doesn't fit?

I guess i am going to have to buy a new " NO I will not fix your computer " t-shirt from think-geek http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/itdepartment/388b/

Get a 'Striker' laser-target-enabled missile launcher ($40, I think). Then get a webcam or IP-enabled camera (I got one of these from Ebay for ~$70).

Use the camera to detect motion and generate a centroid of motion; use the (high-intensity of red) laser-spot to detect where the missile is pointed (again from the camera image), and move the missile to make the centroid and laser-spot coincident.

It's actually pretty trivial, but it looks pretty cool to have people walk into the office and have two missile-launchers automatically track them.

I also have the think-geek big-red-button box, which I modified to allow the button to control a USB port. Now I can fire the (auto-targetting :) missiles by hitting the big-red-button :)

It's actually only slightly harder to get the system to track two independent targets... The next step is to build in target-recognition by accessing the company's person-directory (we all have pictures)... Don't shoot the VP. Only directors and below are valid targets :)

Simon

There's another block out there that is also very similar, event he video is similar, though they aren't quite as advanced. Check them out at Thinkgeek

Bah. It's just Cubed v2.0

USB Missle Launcher. http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/8bc4/

2 + 2 does equal 5, for extremely large values of 2. It's true, I've seen it on a shirt: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/generic/60f5/

I read your email?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/frustrations/31fb/

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/7657/

I have one of these. Note that you can get them cheaper than what ThinkGeek sells them for, but they have a nice web page.

As an example, I metered some new 1U servers that I which indicates a range of 0.8 - 1.5A depending on system load. This is important, since we are at 14A of a 20A circuit in our data center. We are going to have to upgrade here soon.

Wow, where are you trying to buy them from? I can get the lower-capacity one for $20, and a higher-capacity one for $40 (sorry, I can't remember the specs) - and I'm in Canada. (For those who don't know, electronic gadgets are generally at least 10% more expensive up here in my experience).

Here you go, ThinkGeek has them for $25. Mind you, those only have one plug on them - you can plug a power strip into them, but you'd have to make sure you don't overload it.

      --- Mr. DOS

Passports aren't even the biggest concern here though, it's more the move to put RFID into all manner if inappropriate items like credit cards, phones (which are then tied to credit cards), clothing (yes really, and not just for inventory tracking), and probably lots of other things we haven't thought of yet. It's one thing for them to clone your passport, it's another entirely for them to clone your credit card.

But what if RFID technology was used to ensure that your credit card would stop working if it was outside of your wallet for too long, for example? Or too far away from your driver's license?

I think that, rather than creating a scary woo-woo they're going to get me scenario, ubiquitous RFID will actually dilute the effectiveness of privacy invasions, cloning, etc. I don't gather that these things broadcast a whole lot of data; if everything in your wallet has a tag, how does the cloner figure out what he's looking at and what to do with it? In a crowded place, how does he match people with tags?

Besides... if everything everyone carries has an RFID tag, it will only take a few cloning/counterfeiting debacles before every wallet has built-in masking. As long as its only used for a few specialized circumstances, ThinkGeek will remain the only supplier of such things (and I want one in a more ladylike format!)

Like the one at Thinkgeek?

Thinkgeek actually makes a passport holder that blocks RFID signals. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/910f/

Bam! Problem solved. Nothing more to see here folks, let's move it along.

Until their computers are broken. Then they suddenly become very friendly.

There's a reason some of us wear this shirt.

Ooops...
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8cdd/

Wow. Almost makes me want to puke...

Lumens ratings in the chart at the bottom

Perhaps you are thinking of this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/7eaa/

Unfortunately you are anonymous, but in case you read this:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/7eaa/

Is this the game? I just chose an online retailer, there are probably brick and mortar stores.

This is the company that makes the above one:

http://www.khet.com/