Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Million Dollar Monday

Did you know that the average person spends 11,862 hours in the bathroom, or one year four months and five days, in a lifetime? That’s according to Roto-Rooter who has launched their “Pimped Out John Sweepstakes.” They’re starting this contest because the “crapper” as they say, has not really been revolutionized since a flushable toilet was invented back in 1898.

For some, the bathroom is the only quiet place in the house, the only place you can get away from it all.  Why not make it a more enjoyable place to be? You can always read, you may even take your laptop along for the ride, but Roto-Rooter has a better idea. They’ve  put together an ultimate bathroom with just about anything you’d ever want, and you have a chance to win it all!  It includes the following improvements:

• Philips 20 inch LCD TV and Star Wars DVD
• Xbox 360 gaming system
• Philips DVD player
• Gateway EMachine laptop computer with fully articulated robot arm
• iPod with stereo docking station equipped with toilet paper dispenser
• Roto-Rooter “emergency” button
• TiVo recorder
• Avanti refrigerator with beer tap, stocked with drinks and snacks
• Magazine rack and subscriptions to Sports Illustrated, ESPN and GQ
• Bike pedal exerciser
• Cup warmer/cooler

The contest runs until April 2, 2007, and the winner will be crowned on National Plumber’s Day (yes, there’s such a thing) , April 25, 2007. The motive behind the Pimped-Out John? Well, Roto-Rooter’s vice president of marketing says, “We hope that with the ‘Pimped out John,’ young people especially, will have a good laugh and think of Roto-Rooter when they need high quality plumbing and drain service.” 

Winning this pimped out bathroom may require some work.  I don’t know about you, but my bathroom certainly isn’t wired for all of this! So, with that said, click here to enter in on the fun… go on.. you know you want to

Source: Luxury Launches

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This article was written on July 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

Technology is something that has greatly evolved over time, but in order to find the good stuff we had to go through the bad stuff first. Computer World put together a great article today that details what they believe are the 10 biggest technology flops of the past 40 years. So I thought I would take a look at their list and make my own comments…

1. Apple Newton – This device was created in 1993 as a $700 PDA. The handwriting recognition was awful, and often the aspect of the Newton that people made fun of. One of these bad boys will still run you a few hundred dollars (used) on eBay.
   
2. DIVX – This is different from "DivX" which many of you know to be the popular video codec. DIVX is an abbreviation for Digital Video Express, which was an attempt by Circuit City to start a new video rental system. Customers would "rent" DIVX discs which they could keep and watch for two days, or pay a continuation fee to keep it longer. After the time was up the customer would just throw the discs away, and as you can imagine this didn’t last long because customers needed "DIVX enhanced DVD players" to watch the movies. Here’s a Circuit City commercial promoting the service:
   
   
3. Dot-bombs – The dot-com bubble could only last so long. One website after another launched in the late 90’s, and as the new millennium hit many of these sites came crashing down. It almost makes me wonder if we’re entering another one of these "bubbles" with all of the Web 2.0 services popping up.
4. IBM PCjr – This was a personal computer sold between 1984 and 1985, but it had several downfalls. It costed almost $1300 without a monitor, had no hard drive (it used cartridges), and the keyboard was different from what people were used to.
   
5. Internet Currency – This was started by sites like Flooz and Beenz with hopes of creating a type of money that could be used only on the Internet (much like frequent flier miles or gift cards). Um, yeah, we can just use credit cards to buy things online.
   
6. Iridium – Motorola provided the technology and financial backing to launch 66 satellites into space to be used for voice and data communications. To make a call you would have to fork out between $3 and $14 per minute on one of the brick-sized phones. Try putting one of these in your pocket:
   
7. Microsoft Bob – This is often considered to be one of the worst products ever created, and all it was intended to do was add a familiar interface on top of Windows 3.11. The problem was that cartoonish rooms were created for users to group applications and tasks, and it essentially made you feel like you were a two-year old trying to learn how to use the computer. Microsoft Bob is still floating around the file sharing networks, and is even said to run on Windows XP, but this gallery should be enough to keep you satisfied.
   
8. Net PC – CNet covered the original announcement on these computers back in 1997, and said "Net PCs typically will have no floppy disk drive or expansion slots. Promoted by Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq, among others, the systems are supposed to reduce ownership cost for companies that currently use networked PCs. They will purportedly allow IS staff to maintain and update desktops from the center of the corporate network, instead of visiting each PC."
9. Paperless Office – The dream that everything we read, send, and share is done only in a digital format does not appear to be true quite yet. A study by MIT Press in 2002 even said that email causes a 40% increase in paper use for most organizations. Sure we keep putting more and more things in a digital format (especially books), but we’re not ditching the paper copies quite yet.
10. Virtual Reality – Being able to throw yourself into a game, or visit a place that you’ve never been to all in the comfort of your own house is an appealing idea. For some reason it hasn’t really taken off, but maybe some day it will be as good as this demo:
    

So those are the top 10 technology achievements that Computer World says are the worst from the last 40-years. It took me awhile to find interesting videos or images for each one, but it was fun writing this and taking a look back at how far we have come.

Drop us a comment below saying what you think is the worst gadget or application ever developed. It can be one that is on this list, or it can be something that just popped into your head. I can’t wait to hear what everyone comes up with!

For another interesting list read about the top 10 most important laptops

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TrendCentral: Apple has yet to introduce the long speculated MacBook Tablet, but ask any angry engineering or graphic art student,and they’ll tell you the release of one would change their life. Well, a few revolting geeks of Switzerland’s Cosm!k’ Art Deco Team couldn’t wait any longer and decided to make their own. By fitting a flat screen and an Apple iBook G4 laptop into a coffee table, they’ve created a coffee table jukebox with synched visualizers. It can also play DVDs in the side, or you can pull out the wireless keyboard and mouse and use it as a (somewhat) normal computer. Okay, so it’s not quite the touch tablet, but who knew it was so much fun to watch movies on a coffee table?

Mac Tablet is here in a touchscreen coffee table mod [TrendCentral]

You’re busy—believe me, I understand. You want to make the most of your time off, and that means speeding up mundane activities. These gadgets can help.

Lighting a charcoal grill is a pain in the ass—pure and simple. A chimney works well, but this hot air starter works faster (60 seconds to be exact). The device doesn’t use lighter fluid, instead it heats up air to 1,290 degrees Fahrenheit. If 60 seconds isn’t fast enough for you, there are other, considerably more dangerous alternatives. [Hammacher via Link]
Nobody wants to wait for a bottle of wine or beer to chill properly, which is why gadgets exist to expedite the process. The Cooper Cooler claims to chill beverages 90 times faster than a refrigerator. That means a bottle of room temperature white wine will chill to 43 degrees in less than six minutes. A bottle of beer or soda will be ice cold inside a minute. [Wine Enthusiast]
If you don’t like waiting for programs to load enough to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a SSD, look no further than Fusion-io’s ioDrive Duo. It’s the fastest storage drive on the planet with insane 1.5GB per second sustained read speeds and 1.4GB per second sustained write speeds. [Fusion-io via Link]
Dead batteries aren’t something you want to mess around with when you really need a flashlight. The 5.11 Tactical series UC3.400 LED can shine at a super-bright 90 lumens for 90 minutes on a charge that only takes 90 seconds. [5.11 Tactical via Link]
Manually loading pictures and video to your desktop and/or various social networking sites is a waste of time. Eye-Fi’s line of wireless SD cards cut out the middleman by automatically delivering media to the computers and websites you specify over a Wi-Fi connection. [Eye-Fi]
The Taipei 101 skyscraper has 101 floors above ground and 5 floors below. Needless to say, you are going to need a pretty fast elevator in order to avoid standing in a cramped space for an extended period of time. It just so happens that the Taipei 101 has the world’s fastest elevator—capable of traveling between floors at 37.7 mph. Hit the following link to see just how fast that really is. [Link]
Even if you could satisfy a woman, chances are it would take considerably more time and physical effort than you are able to spend. Fortunately, Suart Meloy has himself a real-life orgasmitron. The implant is attached to the nerves in your spine responsible for sexual pleasure. Simply clicking on a remote control should result in near instant orgasms for both men and women. [io9 via Link]

Go-Girl.com: GoGirl is the way to stand up to crowded, disgusting, distant or non-existent bathrooms. It’s a female urination device (sometimes called a FUD) that allows you to urinate while standing up. It’s neat. It’s discreet. It’s hygienic.

While the concept may be new to you, European women have used female urination devices for years. GoGirl’s not the first device of its kind. But try it. And we think you’ll agree it’s easily the best.

Only GoGirl is made with flexible, medical grade silicone. Dispose of it after use. Or clean and reuse as you like.

Ok, so what’s a GoGirl? [Go-Girl.com]