Gear Bits | Gear Diary

Meet Winston Kemp, Lightning Strike Survivor and Lichtenberg Figure Owner

“What does your boyfriend do when you go out of town? Well, [mine] gets struck by lightning.” – Daphne Cheek We’ve all heard stories about people getting struck by lightning — usually as some sort of cautionary tale, but how many of us have ever seen the effects of lightning on a human? The Lichtenberg Figures it can leave? Winston Kemp, a 24-year-old electrician, has had first-hand experience, and now he also has a unique and possibly permanent bit of body art — a Lichtenberg Figure — to go along with it. As Winston tells it … I went outside…

Gear Bits

Final ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two’ Trailer is Full of Awesome!

It seems like my kids have grown up with Harry Potter, and therefore we all share a fondness for the books and films. When they were little I read the first few books aloud using character voices. By the time the last couple arrived they could read them just fine but still had me read them aloud … which meant the world to me (though my wife wished she made the ‘approved reader’ list). We have also seen all seven films in theaters, and most of them a few times at home as well – so we are very much…

Gear Bits

Random Cool Stuff: Raiders of the Lost Ark Turns 30!

Just sayin’ – there is no ‘Indiana Jones and the …’ prefix to MY Raiders of the Lost Ark! Anyway, this past weekend Raiders of the Lost Ark turned 30 years old. Released on June 12, 1981 the film was an enormous success and an instant classic. It cemented the legacies of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, as well as screenwriter Lawrence Kasden who had just done The Empire Strikes Back. Here is the backstory of the production according to TheRaider.net: The swashbuckling archaeologist idea first came to George Lucas. He created the Indiana Jones action hero inspired by the…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: I <3 iTunes in the Cloud

The other day I wrote about the conundrum I was having about the pricing versus feature comparison of iTunes compared to the Amazon MP3 store. I mentioned Pat Metheny’s ‘What’s It All About’ recording, which came out this morning. Here were my thoughts: But next week the new Pat Metheny recording comes out, and that has the exact same issue, but worse! iTunes has the pre-order set at $11.99 and Amazon has it at $10.49 (~12.5% difference). The iTunes has an added bonus track not found on the Amazon listing, but the Amazon one is much more likely to go…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Mac App Quick Look: unDock Brings Fast Drive unDocking for Mac

One of the things that bugs me about Mac OS X is the need to physically undock a drive before removing it. I understand the reasons, but it doesn’t make it less annoying and it does not mean I don’t forget to do so sometimes. (And each time I forget I receive the “you forgot to undock the drive you shmuck, and it can do damage!” warning.) unDock doesn’t make drive undocking automatic, but it does make it possible to remove all drives at once. As the app’s description explains, Time machine is wonderful, but it makes a mobile Mac…

Editorials, Gear Bits

“The iPod touch Effect”, or Why RIM Could Have Been a Contender… but Isn’t: Part 2

Last week I wrote a post entitled “The iPod touch Effect”, or Why RIM Could Have Been a Contender… but Isn’t. In it I argued that even it Apple does not currently own the market they are positioned well for the long-term thanks to a little device known as the iPod touch. The Touch, I said, is now used by a huge number of kids who do not yet have a cell phone. Their love of the Touch, not to mention their having invested in apps and ringing up game scores, makes it more likely that they will go for…

Gear Bits

Amazon Free App Reminder Does What It Says – Amazon Android App Store

Ever since it was launched, we have extolled the virtues of the Amazon Android App Store, as well as pointed out a few issues with it. Like it or not, Amazon’s Android App Store has been well-received by Android users, especially since they have a different paid application available for free every day. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get busy. So I don’t check the Amazon App Store every day. Which means I could miss out on such gems as Nuance’s FlexT9 keyboard for free. Well, an enterprising developer came up with a solution for those of…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Video: Classic Sesame Street

I consider my family fortunate – I grew up watching Sesame Street when it was brand new, and my kids got to experience it as well during a time when both classic and new material was presented side-by-side, and there were plenty of videos, computer games, and music CD’s to enjoy! Last week my wife was shuffling on her iPod and ‘What do I do when I’m alone’ came on, a hold-over favorite from when the kids were little (I still have Rainbow Connection on my iPod!). Then this weekend a post at Buzzfeed looked at a bunch of classic…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Video: Watch Family Guy ‘Its a Trap’ for FREE!

Over the last several years Family Guy has taken on the original Star Wars trilogy, with Blue Harvest and Something, Something Dark Side. Last December they released the final entry ‘It’s A Trap’ on DVD and Blu-Ray, and on May 22nd the show aired as the finale for the 9th season of Family Guy. The episode is once again a humorous retelling of Return of the Jedi using series characters in place of the original actors, but keeping the personalities of the Family Guy characters largely intact. General opinion seems to be that this is the weakest of the three…

Gear Bits

Amtrak says, “Browse While You Ride, but No App Store for You!”

I’m on the Acela train from New Jersey to Washington DC, where I will be attending a conference for the next few days. The train is super comfortable, fairly quiet and it even has WiFi. The WiFi connection has been solid and, while not exactly speedy, it is more than fast enough. It certainly is impressive when you take onto account that I’m flying down the NorthEast Corridor, and have better connectivity that Judie does right now AT HER HOME!! I did find one thing a bit surprising though; I was able to do everything I wanted, until I went…

Gear Bits

Teva Sandals Saves a Penguin!

I fully recognize that this story is basically a giant ad for Teva. However, it’s too adorable not to share. In a nutshell, Lucky the Penguin had a foot deformity that would have led to sores and infections, so Teva made a special penguin-shoe just for him. But really, the video is what this story is all about…you can’t watch the baby penguin waddle/limp wearing his stylish Tevas without letting out an involuntary “awwwwwww”. Check out the video for the full story, and then let us know in the comments if you want a pet penguin now as bad as…

Gear Bits

Your Car Is Naked without a Carstache

Sure, your car visits the car wash often, and you’ve carefully kept the paint looking fresh, maybe spruced it up with wax or an air freshener. But your car is not truly complete without a key accessory: the CARSTACHE! Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. From the company: QUESTION: Will having a Carstache® change your life? ANSWER: YES, it will make it better. We made the Carstache® purely because we think it’s funny and it makes people smile. No other reason. When people see a Carstache® on the streets they laugh, wave, thumbs-up, fist pump, gun flex, wink…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Stuff: Build a Urinal from Old SNES Cartridges!

Being a ‘Green’ family means looking to repurpose things rather than dispose of them … but I have to admit that I never thought about THIS! A urinal made from old Super Nintendo cartridges! According to Pricecharting.com: Building a video game urinal takes about eight hours of labor and costs roughly $200-250 (not counting the video games). If you too want a custom, hand-made video game urinal follow these steps below: The site goes on to detail the materials needed and provides the step-by-step instructions including images such as this: Interesting idea for the video game loving man looking to…

Gear Bits

The HTC Flyer Arrives …

Not much to say about it, as the picture says it all! The Best Buy WiFi version of the HTC Flyer has just arrived, and I can’t wait to start playing with it! Just thought I would share my excitement! =)

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Liger Alert: Napoleon Dynamite … the Cartoon!

We missed out on Napoleon Dynamite when it first came out, but when our kids were a bit older we watched it together, and it remains one of their favorites. All of us pull quotes from the film on occasion. Apparently after enough years that it has properly faded into obscurity, cult classic Napoleon Dynamite is returning in cartoon form. Here is a bit of info from the press release (you can read the entire release below). NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (Heder) is a 16-year-old boy convinced – for no apparent reason – that he is destined for greatness and blessed with…

Gear Bits

Speed Painting Jack Sparrow

We all know Photoshop is a great product. While I may be partial to the open source program called the Gimp, Photoshop is still the king of editing programs. When you really know your stuff, you can do some pretty amazing things with Photoshop. A co-worker and teacher of mine, Gene Strickland, has done something pretty amazing, and he’s posted it on YouTube for all to see. The above video is Gene painting Captain Jack Sparrow. The results are fantastic! The video has been greatly speeded up so you can see him paint the picture in what seems like mere minutes….

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Pop Goes the Music Diary: Beware the Rapture!

Image courtesy of xkcd There is a lot being made of the claims of some Christian groups that the so-called ‘Rapture’ will occur on May 21st of this year. At 6pm. By time zone. Apparently this orderly ascent of ‘the chosen’ is well detailed in coded messages in the Bible (despite direct statements in the same book in direct conflict with such knowledge), as revealed in an NPR interview: On May 21, “starting in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone, there will be a great earthquake, such as has never been…

Gear Bits

Netflix? More Like NetHOG!

Have you ever wondered where all of that internet bandwidth is going? Apparently the answer is Netflix, according to a recent study by sandvine reported at TechCrunch. Here are some details: Netflix video streaming is now the single largest source of peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S., according to a new report by Sandvine. The streaming video service now accounts for 29.7 percent of peak downstream traffic, up from 21 percent last fall. That puts Netflix above HTTP websites (18 percent), BitTorrent (11 percent), and YouTube (10 percent) as a source of downstream traffic during peak times in North…

Gear Bits

Is Intermittent WiFi on iOS 4.3.3 an Issue?

Two things happened on the same day a couple of weeks ago: 1) I bought an iPad 2 and, 2) Apple released a firmware upgrade for iOS. Unfortunately, the latter all but enfeebled the former. Like a good little Apple fangirl, I upgraded to iOS 4.3.3 on both my new iPad 2 and on my original iPad. Within a few hours I noticed a problem: the WiFi kept dropping its signal on both devices. Here’s how it seemed to go: I’m using the WiFi and it suddenly hesitates, ultimately grinding to a halt and up comes that dreaded “no connection”…

Gear Bits, News & Features

iPad Insight Highlights Some of the Best Coffee Table Book Apps for iPad

We all know the iPad, and its smaller cousin the iPhone, have been able to replace a huge number of different items. Yes, with the right apps the iPad can replace our eReader, our remote control, our video camera and much more. Here’s one other area where the iPad can come in and take over: Coffee Table books. Patrick over on iPad Insight has a list of five coffee table books that are now available on the iPad. Here what he has to say- The iPad is an amazingly versatile device. It can entertain a small child as easily…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Random Cool Video: Boeing 747-8F Performs Ultimate Rejected Take-off

If you have ever been in an airplane that has had to stop before takeoff, or encountered landing conditions that necessitated a quick stop, you know the force required to stop the massive planes! For their latest new mega-plane, the 747-8F, Boeing has to deal with a nearly 1,000,000 pound load – so stopping becomes more of an issue than ever! I know it is a PR move, but this week they released a video showing the test they performed showing how the plane would stop if it needed to abort a take-off at full thrust and had nothing but…