Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category
Hamster Powered Roomba
There are lots of Roomba hacks but this is the first time I’ve seen a hamster powered Roomba.
Go Paperless
Posted by: Chip in Gadgets, Software, Technology on February 22nd, 2009
NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner
I’ve been working on creating a paperless office and my NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System for Mac
The scanner is small and powered by USB so it doesn’t need a power cable. You put paper in it and press the scan button. It scans, does OCR and saves the file as a PDF. In the software, it decides if the paper is a receipt, a document or a business card. Then, it gathers the information off of the paper and adds it to a database.
It doesn’t do a perfect job putting the right information in the right fields but it’s close enough to get you pretty far along. You can go through the inbox of the program, quickly make any corrections to scans and file them away.
Once the documents are in the computer, the information is searchable. The scanner software saves the documents as standard, universally readable PDFs.
The original paper can go into the shredder.
Mac won’t start, check your Drobo
Posted by: Chip in Gadgets, Technology on September 16th, 2008
This morning, my Mac would not start. It sat for a long period of time on the light blue screen but wouldn’t move on. There was no hard drive activity during most of this time either. After unplugging USB and FireWire devices one at a time, I tracked it down to my Drobo. I unplugged the power from the Drobo for a few seconds to restart it. After it restarted, and I plugged it back into the Mac, everything works fine.
Switching to Apple TV and away from NBC
Posted by: Chip in Featured, Gadgets, Technology, Video on April 9th, 2008
We don’t watch much television. When we added up how much the shows we watch regularly would cost on iTunes, it averaged less than 14 dollars a month. It just doesn’t make sense for us to pay 60 to 70 dollars a month for satellite or cable.
With a new version available we bought an Apple TV. With it, we buy individual TV shows, rent or buy movies, watch video podcasts and YouTube videos and listen to our entire music collection from the couch.
NBC is the only problem. NBC pulled their shows off of iTunes which means we can’t watch The Office and Battlestar Galactica on the Apple TV. To watch those shows we have to fire up the Vista Media Center and either watch low-quality versions of them on Hulu.com or buy them from Amazon Unboxed. Either way the simplicity and ease-of-use is lost.
I will not be watching any new NBC shows and when The Office and Battlestar Galactica lose their appeal, NBC will be dead to me. The amount of content available online makes NBC unnecessary. If a network wants to compete when viewers have lots of options, they should make sure their content is everywhere their viewers are.
Does this make me a geek?
Posted by: Chip in Gadgets, Technology on February 8th, 2008
There is hardly a light in our house that is not a compact fluorescent. We buy energy-efficient appliances. I keep our thermostat set low in the winter and high in the summer. I like to save energy and I like to know how much energy things use. When I asked for a Kill-a-Watt
- This iMac with two external hard drives and speakers is currently using 103 watts
- Our Comcast cable box/DVR uses 43 watts when it’s on and 42 watts when it’s turned off
- Toaster: 900 watts
- Maytag Nuptune Washer and Dryer each use 2 watts when off. Washing and drying a load uses about .27 KWH. (The water heat and dryer heat come from gas)
Broadcast video to the world from your cell phone
Posted by: Chip in Gadgets, Software, Technology on February 8th, 2008
Now you can broadcast video directly from your cell phone live over the internet. The site that allows you to do this is Qik. Practically anything can now be broadcast live to the world. Expect controversy and litigation. Expect public relation problems for some people, companies, organizations and governments. A new can of worms is opening and it will be interesting to watch.
Lighted Water Faucet
How often have you put your hands in a sink only to find that the water was too hot or too cold? If only you could SEE the temperature of the water before you committed to putting you hands under it. Well now you can. Here’s a cool product that screws onto your faucet and lights the water either blue if it’s cold or red if it’s hot (above 89 degrees). There is a “blue-only” version for a couple of dollars less.