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Stuff I Want But Don't Need — Surround projector TV, Multitool, Power monitor

john 1 Comment

* Mitsubishi Ultra Thin Frame Premium Flat Panel TV with Integrated Sound Projector » Coolest Gadgets — cool. I have a discrete sound projector in one room and have been happy with. this is a great way to get surround sound with minimal fuss.
* At the other end of the price spectrum, the Li’l Guppie Multi-tool. I am not sure I actually get much value out of multi-tools but they look cool.
* Realtime power use monitor — this actually seems pretty useful.

Flash is the worst web technology ever

john

We are planning some remodelling and trying to exchange ideas with our designers. I know that the people who design websites for all the furniture industry mean well, and their sites look cool, but they are usability disasters. there is no way to send links back and forth to items we like because all the content is embedded deep in flash animations. KraftMaid Cabinetry, IKEA are great examples — we find a set of cabinets we like, and we have to tell our collaborators to go search for the item themselves. oh and of course there is no search function.

If searchable, linkable, plain old HTML is good enough for Amazon, the number one web retailer, how is it that it isn’t good enough for all the rest of these guys.

Cable Storage

john

Like many people I have a mess of extra cables — displays, ethernet, usb, sound/speaker of many flavors, firewire, etc etc etc. I used to just keep them in a tangled mess in a drawer.

But I had an unused shoe rack like this one — Chrome Over-the-Door Shoe Rack — it is pretty great for storing cables. Lots of ways to hook them over the shoe holders, easy to keep them organized by type, etc.

More stuff I don't need but want — June 1st

john

* Unclutterer: Under stairs storage: brilliant — simple but brilliant
* Scuttling spider robot — who wouldn’t want one of these? freaking awesome. the scourge of pets everywhere.
* Hydrodynamic building set — it was a sad day when they took real chemistry sets away from the kids but this looks pretty awesome.
* Capacitive touch everywhere — sure microsoft can give you a table that is a computer, but with this technology you can turn every surface in your house into an active surface.
* The perfect charging station?
* brad likes his reader. OK i actually have one of these. actually broke my first one, it is off getting refurbed now.

Products I Want But Do Not Need

john

* Cymat: Home — metallic foams. Because they just look cool. The resin coated version would be a cool desktop.
* Intensity vacuum. The folding-up-ness is nice.
* Kraft paper sofas. Because no one else will have one. Oh and their felt rocks look cool.
* Floating Jellyfish pool lights
* Highgear adventureplus — all the cool campers will snicker at you
* A finger skateboard game. just strange.
* Wallet optimized for cards. Why more of these don’t exist puzzles me.
* Non contact infrared thermometer. Seems like a totally useless gadget to me. Will go in the drawer with my stud finders.
* Rich on HD camcorders. OK I really need one of these. Really.
* Clamp multimeter. nothing unique here, I just like these.

Alternatives to water softeners

john 2 Comments

Hate the feel of softened water. Didn’t really understand the chemistry of water softening until I poked around a little tonight — how does a water softener work, wikipedia topic — apparently water softeners replace the Ca and Mg ions with Na which is less damaging to pipes, etc. But it still makes the water feel slippery. I’d like something that removes the Ca and Mg and leaves nothing behind. A lot of systems claim to do this, some below:

* Water Softener – Water Filter – Water Softners
* Advanced Water Filters
* GMX — this looks way too low capacity
* The Aquafer
* The ScaleBlaster. Also probably too low capacity but I love the name.

I wonder if any of these work. And are cost effective.