Articles by Joel McLaughlin

iSafe Urban Crew Backpack Review – Wired with Protective Lights and a Loud Alarm

In the last few years we have seen reports of violence on college, high school and even grade school campuses. The Virginia Tech and Newtown shootings aren’t necessarily a confirmation of increasing crime on school campuses, but they certainly serve as reminders that we can’t always be with our kids to protect them. While the iSafe Urban Crew backpack will not protect your loved one in overtly violent incidents such as a shooting, it might be helpful in other threatening situations by creating a significant amount of commotion, calling others to you or your child’s aid.  How?  Simple, the iSafe Urban…


Ronco Coffee Time Brew System Review

  As you know, we at Gear Diary love our coffee.  My Keurig is still a great system, but I love to make coffee pretty much any way I can; that also includes on ice.  Quite some time ago, I was exposed to cold brew coffee by one of my local coffee shops.  I only had a small sample, but what I tried was amazing.  So I looked up devices like the Toddy T2N and other systems for making cold brew including tryin to make it in the brewers I already have.  The Toddy was what I was planning on…


The Origin of the Term ‘Ham Radio’

I hope you have been enjoying my posts on Amateur Radio.  Other than mobile tech and the typical tech stuff I am into, it is one of my most favorite things to do in the evening.  Nothing beats chatting with a group of fellow hams about amateur radio itself, the tech behind it, or other things that are related. As you may have noticed, I use the terms amateur radio and ham radio pretty interchangeably.  They are indeed one and the same; there’s no difference.  However, one might wonder how the term ham radio come about?  Well, according to the ARRL, the…


Tiny Tiny RSS: DIY Android Google Reader Replacement

I am still lamenting the decision Google made to kill off Google Reader.  While I am generally ok with Feedly, I am actually in the same boat I was with Google Reader when I use another service like Feedly.  If Feedly goes away, then I am stuck yet again.  So I began searching for other alternatives and had a friend suggest something called Tiny Tiny RSS. Tiny Tiny RSS has all of the features Google Reader has and more. Tiny Tiny RSS Web Interface The web interface looks a lot like Google Reader.  It lets me star things for later, and…


RepeaterBook for Android App Review

Way back when I was first licensed in 1993 to use a HAM Radio, the first thing I wanted to do was to get on the 2m band and hop on a local repeater.  How did I find them back then?  Well I went to the local radio store and bought the latest edition of the ARRL Repeater Book.  In fact, the ARRL still publishes this book, and it’s only $10.95.  Once I got the book, I had to dig through it to find my county and city; then I had to plug in all the repeaters into my radio….


Tom Bihn Introduces the Synapse 25

I love all of my Tom Bihn bags for multiple reasons.  From the Aeronaut to the Synapse, they are all high quality bags and each one of them still looks like brand new — even with repeated trips over the years I have owned them.  Plus every bag is made right here in the United States!  You can’t say that about most backpacks and bags these days! Tom Bihn now has a new and improved version of one of my favorites, the Synapse.  The new Synapse 25 isn’t just a bigger version of the Synapse (now called the Synapse 19);…


Google Keep Review – Neat Freaks Need Not Apply

Yesterday Google launched a new service called Google Keep.  After playing around with it a bit last night, I have a much better idea of what it can and can’t do, and what it really is.   Will it be good enough to replace Evernote?  Is it even close?  In a word, no. Google Keep Phone Interface The phone interface is reminiscent of the Google Now interface; each note appears as a card.  There’s a Multi-column view and a single column view.  Across the top is the bar you interact with to add notes.  tap the note to create a note, the…


Google Keep Launches – Google’s Evernote and OneNote Answer

I was just starting to listen to This Week in Google live after work, when right before the show they shouted Google just launched Google Keep!  I’ve already got it installed on my phones and my tablet.  What IS Google Keep?  It’s very similar to services  like Evernote or OneNote.  It’s designed to take notes, make checklists, and more.  It hangs off of your Google Drive, and it uses the new real-time API that Google also announced this week. Google Keep doesn’t appear to support tagging like Evernote does, and while you can import pictures into your Google Keep, it does not appear to look at…


Verizon Galaxy Nexus 4.2.2- A Rant in Two Parts

Verizon Galaxy Nexus users who don’t like to install custom ROMS on their devices are a lonely bunch, and are, too often, stuck with the version of Android that came with the original phone.  In fact, until recently  Verizon Galaxy Nexus users were still forced to use Android 4.1.1 or risk installing a custom (hacked) ROM.  A test release of an update for the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus recently leaked. I gave it a try and thought I might share my impressions. My Number 1 Favorite New Feature: Photo Sphere The 4.2 version I installed updated the camera…


Roku Releases the Roku 3

After what seemed like an eternity Roku has released a brand new streaming box today.  The Roku 3 finally does away with all connections for old standard definition TV’s in this iteration making the box HD only.  It has HDMI, Ethernet, USB and a power port and that’s it.  The new box has beefed up hardware and improved searching on the device itself.  Roku promises that the user interface on the Roku 3 is the most responsive they have designed as well.  One last bit of news for the new Roku 3 is that the wireless remote now includes a…


Early Thoughts on Ubuntu Touch

At lunch today I was able to load up a version of Ubuntu’s touch based OS on my Asus EeePad Transformer, because I had come across a post on the infamous XDA forums from a hacker who has actually gotten this to work.  Well … it works in that it boots! 🙂  So I decided to try it, just to get an idea of how good or bad it might be. I am actually a little surprised at how much of Ubuntu Touch works, but I’m even more surprised by how much of it doesn’t.  Keep in mind that it’s a developer…


Ham Radio to be Featured in Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing on ABC

I’ve watched Last Man Standing all season this year and am really enjoying the series in its second year.  One of the reasons I was attracted to it was that the character Tim Allen plays, Mike Baxter, is an Amateur Radio Operator.  He has been given the tongue in cheek call sign KA0XTT.  The “XTT” stands for Ex Tim Taylor.  Icom America has provided radios for his shack at his workplace, a fictional store called Outdoor Man which is styled very much like outdoor stores like Cabela’s.   So far, the radios have only been props at Outdoor Man but that is about to change.  In…


Melitta Pour Over 1 Cup Brew Cone Review

I love my Keurig.  It’s my morning companion almost every day.  A cup or two of coffee and I head out the door to work.  Once I get to work, I also get another cup or two of coffee while I read through my e-mail.  Well, recently I had to move offices from one building to another. In my new work place, the cost of the coffee club was more than the old place and it didn’t include sweetener and creamer.  So, I decided I needed to go on my own with the coffee and spotted one of these Melitta Pour Over…


Sonar Linux Aims to Make Linux Accessible to All

Over the years that I have worked in an IT support role, I have often had the experience of talking to people who didn’t have perfect eyesight or who might have other disabilities.   What might be easy for you or me to do on a computer might be extremely difficult for someone who doesn’t have perfect vision, hearing, motor control, or other disabilities.  I have had friends who were completely thrown for a loop when their  interface changed — not just because it looked different, but because their screen reader would no longer work or because the interface looked fuzzy…


Geeksphone to Ship FirefoxOS on Developer Hardware Next Month

  The biggest criticism I have of Android and iOS challenger UbuntuOS is that they made an announcement with no hardware that was even close to shipping.  Well, the Mozilla project has gone a step further and announced that they will have not one, but two developer phones to ship next month with the new FirefoxOS. The Mozilla Project announced the Keon and the Peak, both to ship next month, and they will be made by an up and coming company called Geeksphone.  Both phones are very similar in design with the Keon being the lower end of the two phones with a 3.5 inch…


Quirky Ham Radio Gadgets from Yesteryear: The Wouff Hong and the Rettysnitch

Well, the Wouff-Hong is not so much a gadget, but it has been a part of Ham Radio lore since 1930’s.  What is a Wouff Hong?  According to 1930 edition of The Radio Amateur’s Handbook: The Wouff-Hong is amateur radio’s most sacred symbol and stands for the enforcement of law and order in amateur operation. The story goes that T.O.M. ( The Old Man) wrote stories in the American Radio Relay League’s magazine, QST,  titled Rotten Radio.  It excoriated bad operating practices using caustic humor and satire.  It was in one of these stories that the Wouff-Hong was born.  It wasn’t…


The Good and Bad of HDMI Switching

This holiday season was the season my family finally made the jump to HD TV.  I absolutely love HD TV, and I am really looking forward to watching NASCAR and actually being able to read the tickers!  As result of getting the TV, I ended up receiving or giving products that needed an HDMI connection to the TV.  We got an Xbox 360 for Luke and I, plus I was given a Roku 2 XS and a Blu-ray player for Christmas.  One of the things on my Amazon list was a Kinivo HDMI switch as I knew right away I…


The Tricorder Could Be Just Around the Corner

I love Star Trek.  One of the things I like the best about Star Trek is the gadgets, and the gadget I have always thought was the coolest was the Tricorder.  There were, of course, two different Tricorders.  One was used to look at items in the environment to get away teams the info they needed to find people, to discover other objects and more.  The other is the Medical Tricorder that Dr. McCoy, Dr. Crusher and Dr. Bashir used to determine the extent of a red shirt’s injuries and other medical uses.  Now the Xprize foundation, with the help…


Banana Slicer Is Good for Slicing Bananas and a Laugh

Normally I wouldn’t even look at the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer on Amazon as I have seen these gadgets hanging on grocery shelves for about 20 years at LEAST.  However, thanks to several friends who shared this on Facebook, I had a good laugh the other day.  Why?  The comments!  It keeps getting funnier as time goes on.  Check out some of these comments about this gadget that slices a banana all at once. click to enlarge This one is another favorite. click to enlarge Funny right?  Have you seen any other things on Amazon with funny reviews?  Share below!


APC Releases Rock and Paper Computers

  The Raspberry Pi has been openly embraced by the hacker community for all sorts of projects.  From roll your own set-top boxes to Amateur Radio uses, it’s become a fast favorite of the hacker community.  Not to be outdone, APC has released two new computers that are sure to peak interest of the hacker community and anyone who wants a nice, simple computer without worry of viruses or other malware. The Rock computer is a board only device that runs a customized version of Android 4.0 that is designed to work with a keyboard and mouse.  The Rock has a Via…


Linksys Introduces New 802.11ac Routers at CES 2013

I’ve always been a big fan of Linksys over the years for making reliable routers for the home.  Even though the next iteration of WiFi, 802.11ac, is still being finalized, this isn’t stopping Linksys from introducing three new routers based on a draft of the new standard.  This is similar to how the previous generation, 802.11N was introduced so it’s no surprise to me that they’d want to get the jump on the new standard. The top of the line Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1750 HD Video Pro, EA6700 has the power user in mind.  It promises speeds up to 1300…