There are a few key things that keep PC gamers tethered to their desks, one of them being the awesomeness of having the “click clack” of a quality mechanical keyboard punctuate their gameplay. Impressive as they may be, laptops haven’t been able to replicate that experience…yet. MSI to the rescue!
Been waiting for a Windows-powered smartwatch? Well, you’ll have to keep waiting; Microsoft’s debut wearable is a Nike FuelBand-like fitness tracker called the Band. That’s not all we have on deck, though. Click through for our Nintendo 3DS review,…
When it comes to gaming peripherals such as the mouse, there are dime a dozen models to choose from, and the budding beginner could end up with a plethora of candidates that he or she might be paralyzed and overwhelmed with the selection. While some folks do swear by a wired mouse for superior and guaranteed reaction with each click and flick, I am quite sure that technology has moved along over the years to ensure that a wireless gaming mouse too, is capable of offering competition-grade performance. Satechi’s latest offering, the Edge Wireless Gaming Mouse, is being paraded to be a quick and efficient mouse ideal for high-speed gaming, and rest assured, it is more than qualified to handle casual browsing to boot.
The Satechi Edge wireless gaming mouse will come with seven high-function buttons, where it intends to provide gamers with an advantage over the competition while hopefully is capable of bringing one’s gaming experience to the next level. Of course, if you have hit a plateau in your gaming performance, some times changing the hardware that you use could see you elevate yourself to a whole new world.
The Satechi Edge will boast of a “Gaming Mode,” where that would then provide users with the luxury of pressing the “Turbo Button” in order to double-click with a single keystroke, hence doing away with the need for an actual double-click action. In the long run, this is going to shave seconds off your performance, and it might actually be the razor-thin difference between a victory and a defeat.
Apart from that, the Satechi Edge will also come with a “Video Control Mode” that is handy whenever one is not gaming. In this mode, the functions will switch into play/pause, fast forward/backtrack and clear screen buttons with a single click, while the scroll wheel is used to make manual adjustments to the volume.
In addition, one is able to enhance the mouse’s precision and speed with just one single touch, thanks to on-the-fly DPI adjustment. Gamers will be able to tweak the DPI between 800, 1600, 2400 or 4000 DPI, and it comes with a 250Hz or 500Hz of return rate on the speed of transmission between the computer and the mouse. Powered by a couple of AA batteries, the Satechi Edge wireless gaming mouse will retail for $19.99 each.
Press Release
[ Satechi Edge wireless gaming mouse looks pretty mean copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
When you have a particular product with a name like Belt Scooter, one can only sit back and scratch one’s head, wondering just what the heck it is. Well, as this particular name suggests, it might be a good idea to take things literally – at least in this case. What you are getting would be a belt – and a scooter too, at the same time, as it remains worn around your waist. is, as the name suggests, a scooter worn around the waist like a belt. The Belt Scooter happens to be the brainchild of designer Ádám Török, where this particular concept might eventually pave the way for a simple mode of transport that one is capable of wearing around one’s waist. In other words, it would allow you to be more mobile, and works great if your designated driver is too tipsy to drive you home, and you do not have a car to return home after a night of wild partying.
Of course, one thing must be established first – the Belt Scooter will not do a pretty good job at ensuring that your pants will not fall down, and the small wheels on the Belt Scooter would mean that it is not the fastest mode of transport available, although it will be “free” compared to flagging a cab. Made out of curved wood that is strong enough to support a person’s weight, the choice of material also ensures that it is lightweight in nature, so that you do not get bogged down by it wherever you go.
Belt Scooter Helps You Get Around In A Novel Method
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Like water and oil, old cars as well as all-electric drivetrains do not mix. Of course, this is but a general rule, and as we all know too well, rules are meant to be broken, as the saying goes, although this particular rule would only work best within certain enclosed systems. Having said that, here is a pretty cool idea that has been fleshed out, where it is known as the ZelectricBug.
The humble Volkswagen, as we all know, is also called the Beetle. It has an iconic design which has been somewhat retained in the late 20th and early 21st century models, although the automotive world will continue to pay homage to the original design. Basically, ZelectricBug intends to turn a classic Volkswagen Beetle from the ’58-’66 era and convert them over to an all-electric drivetrain. In other words, this effort will see the vintage looks remain, while the drivetrain itself would be future forward.
It is said that the range of the classic Beetle would hit somewhere in the region of 80 to 110 miles, while being able to enjoy a top speed of more than 90mph, alongside the benefit of ceramic heaters. Not only that, ZelectricBug claims that they are capable of doing the modification while maintaining its exteriors and interiors to look original.
ZelectricBug Brings The Old And New Together
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
For someone who is musically deaf like me, learning to play a simple music instrument can prove to be extremely challenging, or perhaps even downright impossible. However, thanks to the advent of technology, there has been tools to assist in teaching folks like me on playing various instruments. I have always had a mind to learn the guitar, although I have failed miserably whenever picking up tips from YouTube tutorials. Perhaps picking up the new Easy Guitar system might have saved me a whole lot of headache and heartache.
The new Easy Guitar system works in a rather cool manner, actually, as it comprises of a specially built USB connectable acoustic guitar that comes complete with LED lights that have been embedded in the frets. The best part of it all in the learning process? One will plug the guitar into a computer before learning how to play a song via the on-screen video.
This system will kick off by letting the LEDs light up accordingly, so that you will be able to keep up with the song in real time, before muscle memory and familiarity with the various chords sink in deeper. Sounds like a whole lot of fun, don’t you think so?
Easy Guitar System Uses LED Lights To Teach
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
The world of advertising does have its fair share of interesting snippets as well as ideas that help get the job done, which ultimately, would be to have the viewer make a purchase of a particular service or product. Well, an amusement park over in Stockholm has come up with a rather a terrifying technique, inducing one of the most basic instincts in humans, that is fear, to frighten passers-by on the street so that attention can be turned to their latest attraction.
While scanning a QR code would more or less bring up details of a particular product on a website, to see something from the netherworld is not an everyday occurrence. Gröna Lund, the amusement park in question, has put up a code on a plain white poster that says “Do You Dare Look At Our New Attraction?” Once you have scanned the QR code, chances are it will spook you greatly – and that is when one realizes the genius of the entire poster promotion.
Basically, it intends to lead folks to their latest attraction, which is called the “House of Nightmares”. Now this is definitely one of the better uses of a QR code in general. What are some of the other QR code campaigns that you think has been successful in the past?
‘Haunted’ Ad Aims To Scare Passers-by
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90 percent of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.
If you follow my work, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control). The tricky thing about stress (and the anxiety that comes with it) is that it’s an absolutely necessary emotion. Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some level of this emotional state. In fact, performance peaks under the heightened activation that comes with moderate levels of stress. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, it’s harmless.
Image courtesy of TalentSmart.com
Research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals an upside to experiencing moderate levels of stress. But it also reinforces how important it is to keep stress under control. The study, led by post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, found that the onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory. However, this effect is only seen when stress is intermittent. As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.
“I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,” Kirby says. For animals, intermittent stress is the bulk of what they experience, in the form of physical threats in their immediate environment. Long ago, this was also the case for humans. As the human brain evolved and increased in complexity, we’ve developed the ability to worry and perseverate on events, which creates frequent experiences of prolonged stress.
Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance. Fortunately, though, unless a lion is chasing you, the bulk of your stress is subjective and under your control. Top performers have well-honed coping strategies that they employ under stressful circumstances. This lowers their stress levels regardless of what’s happening in their environment, ensuring that the stress they experience is intermittent and not prolonged.
While I’ve run across numerous effective strategies that successful people employ when faced with stress, what follows are 10 of the best. Some of these strategies may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in recognizing when you need to use them and having the wherewithal to actually do so in spite of your stress.
They Appreciate What They Have
Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy and physical well-being. It’s likely that lower levels of cortisol played a major role in this.
They Avoid Asking “What If?”
“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep your stress under control. Calm people know that asking “what if?” will only take them to a place they don’t want — or need — to go.
They Stay Positive
Positive thoughts help make stress intermittent by focusing your brain’s attention onto something that is completely stress-free. You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. If you can’t think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to an exciting event that you can focus your attention on. The point here is that you must have something positive that you’re ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative.
They Disconnect
Given the importance of keeping stress intermittent, it’s easy to see how taking regular time off the grid can help keep your stress under control. When you make yourself available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of stressors. Forcing yourself offline and even — gulp! — turning off your phone gives your body a break from a constant source of stress. Studies have shown that something as simple as an email break can lower stress levels.
Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email that will change your train of thought and get you thinking (read: stressing) about work can drop onto your phone at any moment. If detaching yourself from work-related communication on weekday evenings is too big a challenge, then how about the weekend? Choose blocks of time where you cut the cord and go offline. You’ll be amazed at how refreshing these breaks are and how they reduce stress by putting a mental recharge into your weekly schedule. If you’re worried about the negative repercussions of taking this step, first try doing it at times when you’re unlikely to be contacted — maybe Sunday morning. As you grow more comfortable with it, and as your coworkers begin to accept the time you spend offline, gradually expand the amount of time you spend away from technology.
They Limit Their Caffeine Intake
Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight-or-flight” response, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyperaroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. The stress that caffeine creates is far from intermittent, as its long half-life ensures that it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body.
They Sleep
I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough — or the right kind — of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Stressful projects often make you feel as if you have no time to sleep, but taking the time to get a decent night’s sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.
They Squash Negative Self-Talk
A big step in managing stress involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that — thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.
You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.
They Reframe Their Perspective
Stress and worry are fueled by our own skewed perception of events. It’s easy to think that unrealistic deadlines, unforgiving bosses, and out-of-control traffic are the reasons we’re so stressed all the time. You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them. So before you spend too much time dwelling on something, take a minute to put the situation in perspective. If you aren’t sure when you need to do this, try looking for clues that your anxiety may not be proportional to the stressor. If you’re thinking in broad, sweeping statements such as “Everything is going wrong” or “Nothing will work out,” then you need to reframe the situation. A great way to correct this unproductive thought pattern is to list the specific things that actually are going wrong or not working out. Most likely you will come up with just some things–not everything — and the scope of these stressors will look much more limited than it initially appeared.
They Breathe
The easiest way to make stress intermittent lies in something that you have to do everyday anyway: breathing. The practice of being in the moment with your breathing will begin to train your brain to focus solely on the task at hand and get the stress monkey off your back. When you’re feeling stressed, take a couple of minutes to focus on your breathing. Close the door, put away all other distractions, and just sit in a chair and breathe. The goal is to spend the entire time focused only on your breathing, which will prevent your mind from wandering. Think about how it feels to breathe in and out. This sounds simple, but it’s hard to do for more than a minute or two. It’s all right if you get sidetracked by another thought; this is sure to happen at the beginning, and you just need to bring your focus back to your breathing. If staying focused on your breathing proves to be a real struggle, try counting each breath in and out until you get to 20, and then start again from 1. Don’t worry if you lose count; you can always just start over.
This task may seem too easy or even a little silly, but you’ll be surprised by how calm you feel afterward and how much easier it is to let go of distracting thoughts that otherwise seem to have lodged permanently inside your brain.
They Use Their Support System
It’s tempting, yet entirely ineffective, to attempt tackling everything by yourself. To be calm and productive, you need to recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it. This means tapping into your support system when a situation is challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed. Everyone has someone at work and/or outside work who is on their team, rooting for them, and ready to help them get the best from a difficult situation. Identify these individuals in your life and make an effort to seek their insight and assistance when you need it. Something as simple as talking about your worries will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress and supply you with a new perspective on the situation. Most of the time, other people can see a solution that you can’t because they are not as emotionally invested in the situation. Asking for help will mitigate your stress and strengthen your relationships with those you rely upon.
Okay, just as promised last week, here are the last five reason why public school teachers need to have and deserve to have their right to lifetime tenure protected.
Reason No. 6 – Okay, so we did go to college and we did take a multitude of courses and studies to prepare us to best reach the youth of today. Only, we’re not the child’s first and primary teacher. The parent is. So what if… Whew, this is going to sound like I really do know what I’m talking about… What if the parent chooses not to raise their child as well as they should? They don’t read to them when they are young, spend little time with them, let the kid do whatever he or she wants because they don’t wish to upset them, or has little to no regard for the importance of an education? Then what? If these particular children perform poorly in school or are not even made to go to school daily, is the teacher to blame? We need to be protected. We deserve tenure.
Reason No. 7 – Teaching is not like other jobs. People go to work, do their thing, and receive an expected paycheck at the end of the week. That’s morality. The exchange of money for services rendered is an agreed upon contract. I wonder just how many workers are prevented from performing their tasks during the normal working day? Teachers constantly have to deal with young people disrupting class, demanding attention which a busy teacher doesn’t often have, and adding dramatics that usually reflects a difficult home life. We love kids. But it’s hard to find time for us to meet all their needs. That was supposed to be done by their first teacher in life, their mom and dad. We are not to blame. We need to be protected. We deserve tenure.
Reason No. 8 – You may not believe this one but here goes. Not all administrators support their teaching staff. Just like in the real world, sometimes the boss doesn’t like a few of his or her workers. And without that support in a climate which already is pointing at teachers as the main problem with education, things can get a mite sticky in a hurry. Teachers require discipline to control a classroom of students. When he or she has exhausted their disciplinary resources, he or she must look for assistance elsewhere. That elsewhere is usually to someone with more clout, more power to enforce the school rules. That is normally the principal or the superintendent. But what if the leadership is holding some kind of grudge against the teacher in need? Where does that help come from now? How easy would it be to make a particular teacher look bad in a classroom where there is no disciplinary support? Is that always the teacher’s fault? We need to be protected. We deserve tenure.
Reason No. 9 – So what does the reader think about these low scores on the kids’ state exams? Is that really the teachers’ fault? We receive no guidelines to monitor what to teach, absolutely given no access to past state exams to glean test tendencies, and we are not permitted to talk about these big, bad, secret tests to anyone. Does that sound like a set-up? I have a theory. I think that the reason why the students across the United States are scoring so low on these state exams is because… There is something wrong with the tests! Oh my goodness the cat is out of the bag! The truth has now been revealed but who is really willing to hear? So if that’s the case, (and it is), then how can anyone blame the teachers? We need to be protected from this kind of nonsense. Could it be that these low test scores are being used to show that today’s teachers are deficient and need to be replaced? Teachers are actually evaluated on these low scores. Is that right? We need to be protected. We deserve tenure.
Reason No. 10 – Tenure is the foundation of the American Public School System. It says to students, parents, administrators, and the Board of Education that we are here for the long haul. We chose this profession because we love kids and our goal is to guide them towards success. We’re not going anywhere so the students better decide to get with the plan because there is no line of replacements waiting to take over should their test scores be low. We have been granted due process under the law. We cannot just be let go because of a personality conflict or because some kids refuse to learn. We are teachers and we are going to be their teacher all year, and if they won’t work and stay back to repeat the grade, well then, we will still be their teachers next year too! We are protected. And we deserve to be.
My mom used to say, “The smartest person in the room is the one who isn’t talking, but who is listening and observing everyone else.” Those words pretty much encapsulate the dynamic that the public witnessed between Catholic cardinals, bishops and Pope Francis during the Synod of Bishops.
Francis has proven himself to be quite savvy when it comes to projecting his public image and using it to push the Catholic Church in the direction he feels will have the greatest mass appeal. If the conservative leadership of the Church wants to gain any traction before the next big meeting in 2015, they need to look closely at the Pope’s PR playbook and borrow a page.
1. The Pope speaks media not theology. Pope Francis stays away from Church speak. No matter what business you are in, no one wants to listen to company jargon or get into the weeds about their rules and policies. Remember, while cardinals and bishop were talking about “conversion” and debating “Church doctrine” and the implications of the word “welcome,” Pope Francis was using language about the care and need of the individual, reinforcing the image of the shepherd tending his flock in a very real way.
Additionally, Francis is a master of the soundbite. The Pope is not only able to delight the secular media, he has found a fan base in the masses with phrases like: Who Am I to Judge? Don’t be airport Bishops. A Church obsessed with “small-minded rules.” Brief, pithy responses like the aforementioned, both amplify and breathe life into messaging and will be remembered long after they are spoken.
2. Relatable. Most people have flipped through a copy of Us Weekly and seen the section entitled “Celebrities, they’re just like us,” showcasing some of Hollywood’s biggest names doing the most mundane chores. The photos are supposed to make the reader feel as if she and the celebrity really aren’t all that different. This is the relatability factor and Pope Francis has it in spades… He kicked off his papacy by paying his own hotel bill, choosing modest accommodations over those of the Papal Palace; and joining the trend of taking selfies with his well-wishers and fans. He skipped the traditional red Prada slippers for something more practical and modest. The Pope clearly understands that when people are struggling, a leader must mirror their struggle to show that he is like them and that he truly understands. His actions echo his words and he has gained the trust and respect of people beyond the faithful because of it.
3. Don’t be combative. When you are going into battle, you don’t show your opponent the chinks in your armor. Word choice, tone, humor all make a difference when you are talking to the press and making public statements. Being reactionary or accusatory never moves the ball down the court in a meeting or with the media; instead, that becomes the story. Remember, what was supposed to have been a closed door, no media allowed meeting, turned into a three ring circus where cardinals and bishops alike flocked to the press to get in front of a message — that hadn’t even been crafted and finalized — like spin doctors from Capitol Hill. This was a missed opportunity for conservatives. Instead of giving specifics about the discussions or countering what this cardinal or that bishop said, the conservative side would have been better served by ignoring various remarks and could have put up a uniformed front with a simple,”These are just discussions and we look forward to working to ensure that all of God’s flock is tended to.” By addressing remarks of another, there is a risk of giving credibility and momentum to them. At the end of the synod, Pope Francis never singled out a cardinal or bishop for his remarks to the media, but instead reaffirmed his commitment to finding solutions to the “challenges that families must confront.”
4. If you don’t say it, the media cannot quote you. The only one who wasn’t talking during the synod was the Pope. Sure there were reports of him scribbling notes on a pad of paper, but what those notes said are between him and his pen. When Francis did speak at the close of the synod, it was a message of unity about a “journey together” and “solidarity.” It was well thought-out. Because Francis waited for the right moment to make his thoughts known, he was able to control the message he wanted reporters to write about, and he was able to stay above the fray of the verbal jousting of his bishops and cardinals.
5. Don’t be afraid to make a mess. At World Youth Day 2013 in Rio, Pope Francis told attendees he wanted to make a mess. This is a very trendy attitude and might bring to mind Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comment, “Break things.” The Pope is not afraid to shake things up and the media loves this aspect about him. The Catholic Church is based on tradition, but the Pope isn’t afraid to break from it. If you recall, when Francis was named and introduced to the world as Pope, he refused to stand on the customary platform above the other archbishops, and instead of the traditional, elegant, and ornate vestments, he opted for the simple white robes he is so often pictured in. Right out of the gate, Francis has shunned what is expected. His actions are a calculated authenticity that have people talking, and at the end of the day, that is the point of positive media attention.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
