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Speaking of which... (Yes, it is a shameless plug for Thinkgeek.)

The aliens are sending me signals with the patterns in my USB Christmas Tree.

Combining the AO-Si micromirror assemblies with multi-color lasers Red, Green and Blue lasers (RGB for you guys paying attention) would make for a nice compact projector. Obviously from reading the article, it's all conceptual. Don't plan on having one for at least 1-3 years.

If you want to try something really cool for Christmas, try out the Levitron - a levitating magnetic top. Once you get the hang of how using it, it's absolutely the coolest thing. It's very non-obvious from a physics perspective, in fact there have been several papers written on how it works (here's one).

Props to Siemens for being the first to jump on this bandwagon, but why still use the 'plain old phone'?

Nowadays, World+Dog has a PC with built in WiFi and Bluetooth support. Or else you buy an USB adapter at the local supermarket. Instead of using a telephone to access skype, use a Bluetooth headset like this one: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/speakers/headse ts/65ff/

It shouldn't be too hard to program a speech-to-text interface to allow you to "call" one of your contacts by speaking the name. And if you don't want to be caught speechdialing, there must be other alternatives. You could run a small program on your cellphone to control skype while walking around the house.

The solution Siemens offered here is a nice way to cut costs on long distances calls, but not really groundbreaking. I'd like to see a company build an 'out-of-the-box' remote solution for Skype.

Some sort of electronic/optical flash system that ... overblows CCD's, or otherwise interferes with their operation.

So what are you waiting for? I'm pretty sure that this fits the bill, and it's been out for years.

In my experiance the remark:"I comfortable with my windows" is always closely follow by questions like:"Oh and by the way could you reinstall my windows or at least get rid of all these pop-ups, virusses and spam, And I keep getting this blue screen with letters on it from time to time. What should I do?"

To get me through the holidays I've got my special shirt. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b /zoom/

My response to:"I like my windows" is "Well then fix it yourself!"

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/
must learn to paste urls instead of typing them...
must learn to paste urls instead of typing them...

I thought the preferred WMD for linux users was caffine...
Oh wait penguins not linux users... doh..

Go and find some USB products that are similarly 'innovative' and contact their manufacturer.

See here for some examples. Companies already producing an USB aquarium or coffee warmer may be a good start.

Give out Buzz Bites Chocolates, Black Black Gum/Candy, and Pixie Stixs with ground up Penguin Mints inside, then sit back and laugh at all the parents who will have to deal with the results.

Give out Buzz Bites Chocolates, Black Black Gum/Candy, and Pixie Stixs with ground up Penguin Mints inside, then sit back and laugh at all the parents who will have to deal with the results.

Give out Buzz Bites Chocolates, Black Black Gum/Candy, and Pixie Stixs with ground up Penguin Mints inside, then sit back and laugh at all the parents who will have to deal with the results.

The downed server reminds me of the ThinkGeek crash, see http://www.thinkgeek.com/slashdotted/index.shtml

They even have a nice picture of how a ./'ed server looks like ;-)

You may only have paid $20 for your phone, but that's not what it's worth. If you lose it they'll charge you full whack for the replacement (more like $200-$400)

Not necessarily. I broke my phone and T-mobile sent me a new free phone (actually better than what it replaced, which I paid money for) for extending my contract another two months.

Rolexes cost tens of thousands of dollars (and are, IMHO, butt-ugly!). The majority of decent (non digital) watches cost over $100, $200 is actually quite low end (as it happens, mine cost I think $199). Again, I expect it to last for years.

I think there are some Rolexes in the $2000-$3000 range, but if I'm spending a bunch of money on a watch, I want it to do something useful.

But then, you aren't typically taking your watch off and leaving it places; unlike my sunglasses, which I'm in the habit of losing.

Look at the record. The "Clear Skies Act" which made the skies dirtier. The plan to get a man on Mars, followed by a NASA budget cut. The "No Child Left Behind Act" which, being unfunded, left children behind.

Kerry may not be the best choice, but with this kind of Orwellian naming, I can just imagine what Bush will do with technology...

The Privacy act will ban any encryption but DSA, the "standard".

The Freedom to Share act will require a revised version of the Windows EULA to be the sole software license, ever, effectively banning the GPL. In addition, it will ban any kind of "peer-to-peer" network. A judge will rule that this effectively bans email and instant messaging.

The Patriotic Software act will require all machines on the Internet to have a VNC server open to the government, and will give any government official the right to look at any files or source code they wish, and format the disk if they suspect terrorism.

The Digital Peace act will ban all video games except America's Army. A judge will rule that PBS, Mother Jones, fair.org, and especially slashdot are all video games.

The Middle Class Prosperity act will increase the tax on software by 300%. The funds will go to the Antitrust Enforcement Fund, which will be under the sole control of Microsoft.

I don't like all of Kerry's positions, but given the choice, I'd sooner elect a very small shell script than George W. Bush.

If you're using a piece of electronics for "sex appeal" you have something seriously wrong with you. With your logic, carrying around one of these curvaceous things around should get you laid instantly.

I also have this T-Shirt, which I think is cool.

2 + 2 = 11

all in radix-3, of course.

Since you mentioned ThinkGeek, the concept is more in lines with this one.

Here you are - 4-d Optical Mouse

I have one. Bought it from ThinkGeek, ostensibly so that I'd always have a remote when I am travelling. Of course, now that most hotels use the OnCommand remotes to make the ordering of games and porn easier, it's useless for that. Now, I use it to frustrate my friends.

They also have a universal remote watch at ThinkGeek that does the same thing; or use it change the channel.

ThinkGeek's remote watch

I don't work for them, but I figured I'd add that info since no one mentionned it specifically yet.

I suppose the downside of it is that you have to carry the sheet of manufacturers codes with you...

(psst Slashdot editors with infinite mod points, this is free advertising!)

Come on, you're just being too materialistic.
Who, besides people who want you to buy their crap on the net, will care if your computer crash ?
Not even yourself, otherwise, this means you don't have a life.

I bet that this will fix that problem.

Well, you can go from your $10 boombox to your PC using the Plusdeck.

or for $135 less ($10 boombox, $5 cable), just get a Cable

How much metal is there in duct tape?? Would there be enough in the Duct Tape Wallet to fool an RFID scanner??

the directory structure seems very foreign because it's different from Windows

This totally awesome Binary Watch on my wrist seems very foreign because it's different from a bullet going through my head.

Anand criticizes the price of the system he bought several times. He spent about $2700 on a top of the line, dual processor G5 because:

I knew that if I was going to give the platform a good chance, I needed to get the fastest system that Apple had to offer.

Unfortunately, it probably never occurred to him that if he'd bought a nice $1300 iMac G5, with much lower specs, his user experience would have been just about thew same. Those cycles only come in handy when you're doing compute-intensive stuff. I run a 1GHz G4, even slower still, and get the same kind of Safari/Mail/Word performance he does. I really wish I had a G5 every time I've got 20 audio plugin instances running in my Pro Tools session, along with the obligatory 32 tracks and a DV movie.

Or Octane energy gel (http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/accessories/5f0 b/
These people are sick...

You can get a roll-up keyboard from here

Next time, try a bottle of this in your batch of homebrew. The Almond flavor is the least obtrusive, but for a really dark beer the mocha can work, too.

Right next to Shower Shock.

The whole point of having a wallet is storing your cash, credit cards, ID, and whatever else you need to carry around. I got a Ducti because of the lifetime of the company guarantee (Check their page, for 5.50 s&h they send you a new wallet for as long as the company exists) and because I think it's a nice looking wallet.

I don't wear jeans at all or hoodies that often, but the one hoodie I do own says "Geek".

I've got a mayonnaise jar and some of these and we should be cool.

My Wallet

Actually I owned one for about a year, and finally threw it out due to wear and tear a couple of months ago.

It peformed decent as far as wallets go; though I don't think I'll buy another one.

Still the coolness factor was very high, and I got a lot of positive comments about it.

A $20.00 tri-fold I picked up to replace it, has actually creased all my cards, some I am going to have to replace, so my next wallet will be a bi-fold.

Based on the specs published on ThinkGeek, a green laser pointer your diffraction-limited beam diameter at 1000 feet would be about 20 cm, which I admit is less than "several feet," but which would still require about one watt of laser power to achieve the damage threshold for the human eye (3 mW/cm^2)---much more than the "<5 mW" produced by the pointer.

Here's an appropriate mascot!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/actio n/21033ff/

I'm sure he'll listen...
"Duuuude, check this shi.... AWWWWWWWW"

With those green lasers II from ThinkGeek for only 100 buckazoids, OSTG may soon be found on the list of terrorist organisations. Maybe USAF should bomb every disco in the world for prevention of such "attacks".

Thinkgeek wanted for questioning.

Class IIIa (>5mW) 532nm green laser pointer (ThinkGeek)

Class IIIb (>15mW) 532nm green laser pointer (MegaLaser)

Class IIIb 200mW handheld green laser (Information Unlimited)

It's even possible to get small, portable Class IV (potential instant severe eye damage, even from diffuse or reflected beams; this is the class of laser which also includes burning and cutting beams) lasers:

Various Class IV portable lasers, including a small battery powered 2W diode laser (Information Unlimited)

The front windows of a commercial aircraft and objects in the cockpit could easily reflect and refract a beam from the ground in ways that would be at a minimum very distracting and unsafe, and potentially damaging to eyesight.

Information about laser classes.

"right when the most important US election in the history of mankind is gearing up."

I should print out your comment and give it to my American Studies teacher.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despa ir/32c9/zoom/ is perfect for you.

What? Like it's OK when they did it for ThinGeek, but now that they also feature a European geekstore it's solely an advertisement and suddenly not that interesting anymore.

I'm very pleased to find out about that store this way. This is news for nerds, and stuff that matters. Maybe not that interesting for american nerds, for sure, but it is for me and probably a whole bunch of other slashdot users.

And I think those guys are probably even proud to be slashdotted. Just as the guys at thinkgeek were.

This is an *XBOX*, folks. It shouldn't be surprising if it can't handle a /.ing. Jokes like this don't make sense on less-than-powerful hardware.

LOL, OMG... your watch can't host websites worth a darn!

...I wear it around my wrist?

Imagine a fucking wireless beowulf cluster of CTSS running on this!!! and powered with some antigravitational pads... they would go for sure towards RMS for trying to hack their collective mind years ago!!!

...
...
...

I, for one, welcome our new MindCrawler Overlords

I've got an iriver H-120, and I tried using it as mass storage for a while, but it was just too much trouble to carry the cable around, it takes far too long to turn on, and I'd rather use the battery for listening to music. So, I got myself one of these -ReK

I heard a story on NPR a couple of months ago, about how USB flash drives have become so commonplace in Japan that it's really hard to keep selling them. So (at least in Japan) they no longer market the USB drives based on the storage capacity or access speeds - it's about the packaging. A 256MB USB flash drive in the shape of Hello Kitty sells better than any regular 256MB USB flash drive in a boring "thumb drive" shape.

Personally, my favorite is the USB Devil Duckie Drive on ThinkGeek. I'm thinking about getting one as a Christmas present for my mom, who already has a USB flash drive ... but not in the shape of a little red duckie with light-up eyes! :-)

Around my wrist:p

Others who need pocket tools on their job may prefer a swiss army drive.