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...they come back from the grave and haunt on the front page, no matter how hard you hit them on the head with the "dupe" tag - I think Max Brooks should update his Zombie Survival Guide to include dealing with undead Slashdot stories...

An I the only one who thought of this when I read the title:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/wiihelm.shtml

That'd help.
Unless somebody really wants your data

This one is 10mW. Although, I'm not sure what the laws for other countries are.

I also don't buy the "human eye is more sensitive to green" argument, because while it's true, it's only to a certain extent. See one of my other posts near this thread if you want my explanation.

BTW, the ThinkGeek site lists their less-powerful green and red lasers as less than 5mW, not exactly 5mW, meaning that there may in fact be a real power difference between the average green and red pointers.

I know you are just joking, but it is possible to filter out all available wavelengths and still maintain visibility.

First of all, there are not "at least three colors". Very few laser diodes (cheap ones, especially) lase at wavelengths less than 600 nm. There are green lasers at 532 nm (so here's one color to block), and I suppose apparently there are blue laser pointers now. But since those things cost an arm and a leg, it doesn't need to be blocked. Most red lasers lase at something close to He-Ne wavelengths (633 nm) or above (around 650 nm or so).

So, to effectively block all commonly available laser wavelengths, you just need a coating to block 532 nm, and another to block the range of 620 - 680 nm, and guess what---except for these specific wavelengths, it's no worse than wearing two sunglasses---actually better; you'd know if you've seen laser safety goggles; those things are pretty transparent (I've worn three on top of one another and still see most everything, except for the three wavelengths of the lasers I was working with at the time).

And as far as lost visibility goes, well, at daytime it doesn't really matter (it might actually help, by reducing glare or something). At nighttime, we are pretty insensitive to red anyway (rods are not too sensitive to red), so really, it's more like just wearing the green laser laser safety goggle. I don't know about you, but I'd feel pretty comfortable flying around (if I knew how, of course) wearing the green laser safety goggle.

Of course ... costs are at issue here, probably, since those laser safety goggles themselves cost an arm and a leg. But the reality is not as bleak as you humorously made it out to be.

The highest power laser you can buy off the shelf in a consumer product is 5 mW

This is the actual quote from ThinkGeek.com for the green laser you linked "Warning: Green lasers are very powerful. Pointing at aircraft may land you in jail. Without a Monopoly card to get you back out. Use it wisely. " http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

Why buy that one when you can get the SkyTag!

I think you're mistaken about the 5mw limit. Lasers more powerful than IIIa are indeed available for sale. AFAICT, they just have more strongly worded warning labels on them.

May I direct you to g oo g l e. Or even checking thinkgeek which was discussed earlier in the thread.

Unless he picked it up at one of the specialty locations like wickedlasers it's highly unlikely this was a high power laser. Most likely it was something like this. I doubt anyone is going to go out and drop $700 for a high power green laser like the type you're talking about and then sit in their front yard and shine it into the sky.

Here's one reason this is a Slashdot issue: Slashdot's sister site ThinkGeek sells an overpowered "skypointing" laser, possibly the very model used in this incident. Kind of a dumb thing to be selling.

The thinkgeek.com advertisement says, "Stop worrying about things like mandatory jail time and social isolation and play the intriguing game of SkyTag TM today." It can be read here. http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/tracker.shtml How can this couple be held liable for using the product as instructed?

Yes, but you are trying to say it is expensive compared to what? A red laser pointer? I hate to burst your bubble, but green lasers are much more expensive and have a totally different set of uses, one of which (sky pointing) they could have legitimately been doing and the chopper was dumb enough to fly into the bright green beam. (Hint, on a clear night, if they were continuously shining it, that beam would be rather visible from the ground or the sky.)

Warning: Green lasers are very powerful. Pointing at aircraft may land you in jail. Without a Monopoly card to get you back out. Use it wisely.

Green lasers are typically much more powerful than those $5 keychain laser pointers you seem to be thinking of. This one http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/8a39/ could do that kind of damage easily. Still don't see why the fuck this is on /. though.

Higher watt green lasers like this ClassIIIB http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/ can definitely be considered a hazard in the hands of idiots.

These are generalisations but :

Presentation pointers are red, very low powered, you can't see the beam without some kind of mist, you can get them for under five pounds in the UK all over the place, normally smaller than a pen, but thicker.

Green lasers are more powerful, you can see the beam in clear conditions, they cost an awful lot more ( somewhere between 100 - 200), are much larger, closer to say, a couple of coke cans stood on end, and can cut through a polystyrene cup....

Or at least that was the case the last time I looked maybe a year ago, I just took the first google hit that caught my eye and unsurprisingly they've got smaller and cheaper now : http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

heh, the thinkgeek page even specifically points out "Warning: Green lasers are very powerful. Pointing at aircraft may land you in jail. Without a Monopoly card to get you back out. Use it wisely."

Are these common laser pointers you find for use on PPT presentations and exercising your cat/dog without moving from the sofa? Or are these more powerful items?

My guess is that it was something like this, but it could have been something more powerful like this. Both are consumer devices, but both are still potentially damaging with sustained exposure.

If it was a consumer device I have a hard time buying it "causing pain and discomfort in his eyes for a couple of hours" so maybe I'm wrong. That or the FBI is exaggerating just a bit.

Are these common laser pointers you find for use on PPT presentations and exercising your cat/dog without moving from the sofa? Or are these more powerful items?

My guess is that it was something like this, but it could have been something more powerful like this. Both are consumer devices, but both are still potentially damaging with sustained exposure.

If it was a consumer device I have a hard time buying it "causing pain and discomfort in his eyes for a couple of hours" so maybe I'm wrong. That or the FBI is exaggerating just a bit.

Way more powerful. And available at Think Geek. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/8a39/

i found these LED candles that you blow on/off. they flicker like real candles. i guess its not really a super geeky gift, as i'm giving one to my grandmother and using one for a 'white elephant gift', but as a geek i'm excited by this cheapo little gadget :) the larger ones take AAA, so i bought a few of those instead of the smaller ones that take those stupid button batteries: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/94ce/

Hydrodynamic building set
Chaos tower

ThinkGeek's Annoy-a-Tron.

It's should be right up there in whatever pantheon includes the Joy Buzzer, the Dribble Glass, and the Whoopee Cushion. As Mad Magazine once said: "Fool your friends! Be popular!"

(And just imagine the big laffs you could have bringing one of these to an airport and surreptitiously slipping it into your pal's carry-on luggage... that should get either your pal or you onto the No-Fly list quicker than you can say "Jack Gilmore!")

They said two. Your just reading in the wrong base.

Its not invisible with one of these...

Thinkgeek has had these for sale for awhile (originally pre-order - currently out-of-stock). They have a pretty decent video hosted on their site. IMO, nothing can ever beat my Teddy Ruxpin..... /tears up

"Just send me five or six of those octopus surge protector dealies and I'll be happy."

Bad sign. It doesn't say anything about having 3 MOVs. That means it probably has one, and you aren't completely protected.

Just send me five or six of those octopus surge protector dealies and I'll be happy.

-l

My titanium Spork from Thinkgeek http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/outdoors/8ace/ right now!

Cool finaly a chance to try out my skytag
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/tracker.shtml

I own and love this shirt...it's purely educational!

This rube-goldberg marble machine construction kit looks awesome!! Does anyone have a spare nephew I could borrow ?

So I guess I shouldn't be wearing this shirt while flying this holiday season?

My girlfriend keeps hinting that I might like ThinkGeek's light-up Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt for Christmas. Now, I live in Washington, D.C. and work in a federal government building. If I ever step out my front door with that shirt on I'm afraid the Secret Service will spring out of the bushes and drag me off to Guantanamo.

True, that.

I have one of those 'ingenious' 8-in-1 remote controls where you can use a rather large lcd to program the exact buttons you actually use (tv, hdr, stereo, squeezebox, roomba).

It's nice and all, it even has a backlight -- but I need it, because it's kinda hard to hit that button three rows up and to across without looking at it.

Maybe they should make a remote-control-size version of the DX1?
DX1 --> http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/77ba/

I've been looking for laptop desk myself and recently ran across THIS. Thinkgeek appears to carry the exact same product for about $20 less It's a bit expensive but it would seem to meet my needs perfectly. Has anyone out there purchased one of these before?

You can get the retro look for modern phones.. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/7830/

It is at the end of the day wasting a lot of my time

Sounds to me like you should replace yourself with a very small shell script.

Actually, it depends on your company. When you have a boss that keeps nagging everyone to play a game with those ThinkGeek Shock Tanks, you can probably imagine that it's not necessarily a career killer.

One thing's for sure, though. If you have an opening for a creative mind, look on the CV under Hobbies for RPGs.

Sorry dude, your logic does not compute. There are only 10 types of people... those that understand binary and those that don't.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/5aa9/

01 = Those that don't understand binary
10 = Those that do understand binary

Above values could be really be assigned to either 01 or 10, though.

Ideally, I'd say the truest way to do this (because I know I'll get called on it) would be:
00 = Those that don't understand binary
01 = Those that do understand binary

Because 0 generally refers to a false condition (in the second example)... when dealing in non-zero value assignments as in the first example, it's more or less an arbitrary programatical decision.

But I've got to say, I enjoy the t-shirt the way it is (and I happen to own it).

Made me think of this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/374d/

You can't take a record, stick it in your computer and rip it to mp3.

At least not without special hardware.

For the past four months I've been using my ION Turntable (http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mp3/90a0/) to turn my 200+ 70s/80s Vinyl collection into mp3s/CDs.

The only album that I believe I can hear a difference with is Led Zeppelin IV. But that may be just me and the 15% hearing loss in my left ear.

The bad thing with Vinyl is that its getting harder to find decent needles (for my once top of the line Sony Turntable). You also can't walk into Radio Shack anymore and get record cleaner. I'll still keep the records around for pure nostalgia/album art work. Everything new I purchase is all compact disk.

Enjoy,

Why go that far? You can listen to LPs digitally! Ion USB Turntable Be sure you have the best pickup money can by on that thing! ;-)

As always, thinkgeek has the answer.

Years ago a fellow I knew took to hanging out in graveyards with his camera and film sensitive to Infra Red (pick up the background IR, except where spirits, which apparently suck the energy out of their surroundings when they manifest themselves.) He claimed to have taken actual photos of ghosts hanging about graves, including some which were posessed. He offered to show me some of his work, but I wasn't in a mood for it as my Grandmum had recently passed away.

So here's this bloke:

I do believe in spooks! I do, I do, I do believe in spooks! Oh, sod, who was it then?

I'm not sure what you mean about the turntable. I have a USB turntable I bought from Thinkgeek. I can rip my records to any format I like (MP3, WAV, OGG, etc) that Audacity supports. Half of my Ipod library is my ripped vinyl, and I have a lot of CDs made from my record collection. And it works fine on Linux.

.... Is available at ThinkGeek.com. This watch:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/8e18/

Is the same one listed in the PC Mag article:

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=217864&s=1562&a=217876&po=13,00.asp?p=y

So it looks like you can get at least one of these items in the US.

Yes, I am aware that Thinkgeek sells devices which facilitate the ripping of analog music to digital.