Rocket candy: DO NOT EAT
Tech Friday, March 26th, 2010So this is candy made of sugar, spice, and stump remover. Click through to see a Furby eating it. Also, Jeri Ellsworth is the coolest geek girl in the whole wide world.
Dog high chair
Tech Friday, March 26th, 2010
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Grabble grabble grabble! GORF GRABBLE! Satisfying a mutual desire for companionship, this high chair permits your dog or cat to accompany you at the dinner table. The high chair clips securely to tables up to 2″ thick and its height adjusts without tools to elevate your pet to near eye level. Grabble grabble! Product Page! Strange woman who lives alone! Ford to City: Drop Dead! Grabble! via RedFerret
Wanted: Comment shills for a “large project”
Tech Thursday, March 25th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Are you in the Harrisburg area? Are you able to type in English? Well some weird company wants you to shill for them, offering $50 for your trouble. Here’s the post: We are an internet marketing company that increases market awareness for our clients and there is a large project with a March 29th deadline, requiring 50 comments for each brand. All you need is an internet connection and excel. No posting is required, only the blog post URL and comment is needed. The estimated time for 50 comments is 3-4 hours. 50 comments – $50 We will offer future work to quality comment writers. This is an ideal opportunity for students, stay-at-home moms, or anyone with writing skills looking to make extra money. Seriously: is this actually still happening? First, no social site worth its salt will be effected by “50 comments,” a fairly small number in the first place. I’m amazed that anyone would try this in this day and age but $50 is nothing to sneeze at, especially given the economy. Instead of flaming us in comments, get over there and put your skills to good use, readers!
GameCrush lets you pay to teleconference with cute girls while they game (seriously (truly))
Tech Wednesday, March 24th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
There’s no shortage of creepy nerd-related stuff out there. I mean, while Japan’s notorious rape simulators are pretty much the pinnacle of gaming-related perversion, there’s still a lot of weird stuff out there. Remember this sleazy contest ? Now, some enterprising person looked at the internet a little while ago and said to himself (surely him self), “Well now. We have gaming girls like the Frag Dolls, and we have desperate gamers with disposable incomes. And we have cam girls. How can I make these pieces fit together?” Simple. Make a site where desperate gamers pay to watch/play with gamer cam girls! It fits the timeless formula: 1. Put cute girls on internet-connected cameras 2. Profit I’m not convinced this will be anything less than a complete boondoggle, of course. I mean, how can… where will they… how do they expect… oh, forget it. As Oscar-winner Christopher Waltz says in Inglourious Basterds , “What tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity.” Or maybe it’s just a way for some girls to put away a few bucks. GameCrush should be launching any second now, so go try it out. Only for the 360, at the moment – pity! [via Crave ]
SPLORT FART: DIY Atari noises
Tech Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Dear pre-teens: Want to piss off your parents? Buy and build this thing . It’s a mini Atari-esque noise generator that fits inside an Altoids tin (not included.) While it makes noises like the Atari 2600 used to, it does not make “sounds” per se, in that said sounds could be pleasing to the ear. These are definitely not. It’s only $25 and it’s totally DIY. It also sounds like you’re squeezing a gerbil through a clothes press.
Insert smiley emoticons hands-free with Auto Smiley
Tech Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
What would you do with the openFrameworks and an hour to kill? Would you create an application to detect when you’re smiling and automatically insert “:)” into whatever program is currently running? Theo Watson did, and called it Auto Smiley ! 
He released it as open source! We can’t possibly have enough smiley icons embedded into our emails and IMs can we? I mean, we all spend all day every day smiling maniacally, right? Auto Smiley – Computer vision smiley generator from Theo Watson on Vimeo . I predict it’ll take exactly seven minutes before someone makes Auto Frowney to automatically detect and insert sad clown faces. 
Via Make .
myDitto NAS designed to be simple, easy to use
Tech Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Technology can be difficult to use, particularly things like home servers. Dane-Elec plans to make setting up your own home NAS easy, using their myDitto home network server. Installation is intended to be quick and painless, utilizing USB keys to set up the drive rather then the standard CD. Honestly, I don’t see NAS devices as being that difficult to set up, but my experiences may be different from most users. The myDitto is a pretty standard NAS, with two drive bays, one of which is populated with a 1TB drive when the unit is purchased. The intention behind the myDitto is that you don’t have to install software to use it, just plug in one of the two included USB keys, and the software will start up and allow you to back up and restore files as needed. Admittedly, that could be considered easier then setting up a backup process on your home computer, but most the time you can just install the software, set up the schedule, and then forget about it. Full featured devices like the IoMega ix4-200d are just as easy to set up, it’s just a matter of perception. Dane-Elec’s myDitto isn’t available yet, but it’s expected to retail for $279 in a 1TB configuration. [via Gadgetwise ]
iPadDownloads.com on ebay for $1,000,000
Tech Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Just think how much iPadDownload.com would go for if the iPad was an open device that allowed 3rd party downloads? $1 million would be the opening bid. But because you really can’t actually download anything directly to the iPad outside of the App Store and iTune’s gated community, iPadDownload.com will probably end up being some malicious wares site that will rake in more cash in a week than most of us will ever see over our lifetimes. Maybe someone kind English gentleman will pick up the domain from this ebay auction and actually develop a great iPad community site. A place perhaps where iPad owners can hang out and discuss how they wish they could download non-Apple approved programs to their oversized iPod touches. We wish him luck.
Instant Pocket – yes, an instant pocket
Tech Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Men: how many times have you gone out with some friends, only to have a female friend ask you to carry her card and ID? “Why don’t you have clothes with pockets?” you ask, but receive only a look of derision. You take her cargo. No longer! Simply carry a few of these instant pockets around, and next time she asks, clap one on her hip, laugh maniacally, and then run. Run for your life. Cardigan sold separately. [via 7gadgets and The Awesomer ]
Heatswell cups – coming to a coffee shop near you?
Tech Monday, March 22nd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
So this is pretty cool; inventor Scott Amron has come up with a really interesting product for the hot beverage industry. We’ve told you about another product Scott came up with, the split ring key , which didn’t seem quite so useful. The current technology involves using a thick piece of paper that has to be applied every time a cup of coffee is poured. The Heatswell cup incorporates a heat sensitive, biodegradable paper that is attached the cup during manufacture, which insulates and reacts to temperature. The Heatswell paper reacts dramatically, and can incorporate 3D effects and logos as well. More information is available on the Heatswell website . Run a coffee shop? Ask for a few and see how they work.