Misc Gear | Gear Diary

Spyderco Native Pocket Knife Review

Every year my family takes a week long vacation to visit my mother at her cabin in Maine. We make it a habit of passing through Freeport, Maine on the way up to her house each year. Freeport is not only is the home of L.L. Bean but it’s also the home to one of my favorite knife shops, the Freeport Knife Co. I am a collector of pocket knives and I carry one almost all the time either in my pants pocket or my turnout gear. It’s a tool I end up using several times a day be it…

Reviews

Gorillatorch: Coming to a Dark Room Near You

I am a huge fan of the Joby Gorillapod, a fantastically flexible mini tripod. It is one of my favorite gadgets for my camera. Well, now the good folks at Joby have brought the latest in the Gorilla line, the Gorillatorch. This is an ultra-bright light, mounted atop the same three flexible legs as the Gorillapod. At the end of those legs are magnetic feet, which allow you to position the light wherever you need it most. This would be the perfect solution for workshops, autoshops, and even camping. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Reviews

Olympus E-P1 Digital Pen Review (Part 1)

This is the Olympus E-P1 , the digital camera that set a million tongues wagging when it was announced. The first Olympus camera to be based on the Micro Four-Thirds standard co-developed with Panasonic, the E-P1 is supposed to be able to capture close to professional DSLR (digital SLR) quality photographs, in a form-factor barely larger than a compact point and shoot camera. The E-P1 is also one of the smallest digital cameras with interchangeable lenses. I’m not a professional photographer, and my experience with digital cameras has thus far been limited to point and shoots, so bear in mind…

Reviews

CozyHoze Boss Management System Review

I have been diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea over two years ago. Obstructive Sleep Apnea is where your airway closes off while you sleep causing you to stop breathing. CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure is the best therapy for the moment. It uses a blower and a mask system to blow air into you as you breath in. This helps keep the airway clear so that you don’t stop breathing and you don’t wake up. As a Obstructive Sleep Apnea sufferer there are many frustrations. The first one is the mask and you just kind of have to get…

Editorials

Buying Prescription Eyeglasses Online – Why You Should Consider It

In 1999, I had Lasik surgery to correct my severe nearsightedness and astigmatism. At that time I was 32 years old, and I had been wearing prescription eyeglasses or contacts since I was 12. I have the ugly yearbook photos to prove it — just ask anyone who went to school with me in Eldorado. 😉 Because of my vision problems, it became a yearly ritual to go to an ophthalmologist or optometrist, have my eyes checked, get a prescription, and get a new pair of glasses; at best there may have been one or two years where I kept…

Reviews

The FroliCat BOLT Automatic Laser Light Review

There aren’t many things more amusing than watching a kitten chase a laser pointer’s dot. Kittties are playful and energetic to begin with, but giving them an impossible to catch “mouse” creates a game which never seems to tire them. My cat Avah is two years old, and while she no longer has quite the playful moves she used to impress me with, she still shows moments of friskiness when a moth gets in the house or a string is dangling. We’ve played the laser pointer game before with comedic results, so I figured that she would be the perfect…

Reviews

EasyBloom Plant Sensor Review – Help Your Plants Thrive!

I do not have a green thumb, but through much trial and error over the years I have compiled a list of plants I can keep alive. I have also learned that there are some, that when I see them seemingly thriving and beckoning to me at the store…no matter how good they look, I should just keep on walking. When dealing with indoor plants, I know that I do best with ones that can handle diffused light and weekly watering; since I love blooming flowers, I tend to buy orchids. Outdoor plants must be able to handle direct sun,…

Reviews

The SKYlasers 125 mW Green Laser Pointer Review

Not long after I received this rather benign looking kit containing a 125mW Green Laser Pointer and a pair of Laser Protective Goggles from SKYlasers, I started really paying attention to all of the reports regarding people with lasers – red and the stronger green, interfering with pilots flying passenger airplanes. In February 2009, there were already 148 reported incidents of laser attacks, and just last week a plane arriving at Sea-Tac was lasered no less than 20 times. What’s the big deal? Well to start, shining a high powered laser at a plane creates the possibility of messing with…

Editorials

To My Dad, Mel Cohen, on Father’s Day: Thanks for All the Toys

I love technology and gadgetry. Even though I’m in a field that isn’t normally associated with such things, I can’t get enough of it. For the longest time, I thought that my interest had to do with my maturity level, which, as my wife will tell you, can be rather low. 🙂

Reviews

Dakim Brain Fitness Unit Review

Imagine trying to explain a computer to someone who has never seen one. Try explaining this strange thing called a mouse, and how you use it to control your interactions with the screen. Try explaining how you type on a keyboard, and through the magic of wires and electronics the words appear onscreen. And if you want to move something from point a to point b, hold down the mouse and drag…but have some fancy moves if you need to drag beyond the room you have on your mousepad. I know it sounds crazy, but if you’ve never used a…

News & Features

Bullard TrakLight: Integrated Lighting System

Just in case you thought fast changing technology only exists in cell phones and Mp3 players I bring you this Gear Diary entry. This one hits especially close to home for me because, well you know, I’m a firefighter.

Reviews

USB Fever Borescope Review

Have you ever dropped something in your PC case, and then could not find it amongst the chips, resistors, capacitors and other various nooks and crannies? Next time, you can use this nifty USB Fever Borescope to find it.

Reviews

LaCie iamaKey Ultra-Mobile Storage Solution Key Chain Review

Here’s a doo-dad that James Bond might appreciate and use: the LaCie iamaKey. Available in 4 or 8GB sizes, this tiny flash memory drive is neatly camouflaged as a key. To further the illusion, the iamaKey comes complete with a weighty slipring and fob.

Reviews

Bug Catcher Vacuum Review – a Nifty Device

Spring is here, and along with the rains and milder days have come droves of moths, gnats, flies, mosquitoes, june bugs, mayflies, scorpions, spiders and every other weird bug that will scramble in when someone accidentally leaves the screen door open for longer than a second. I live in the country so I might have a few more bugs on my list than you would, but I know that you “city dwellers” have to deal with some of the same. I was recently on the Home Improvements website looking for some heat register deflectors and recycling bins, and I saw…

Reviews

Wi-Ex zBoost YX510 PCS-CEL Wireless Extender Review

I live as close to the middle of nowhere as possible, and that’s how I like it. For nearly as far as the eye can see my view consists of trees, hills…and more trees and hills. I can just make out the sound of the highway if I listen carefully, but there are days when I don’t even notice it anymore. Instead I enjoy the sounds of birds chirping, wind chimes, a visiting hummingbird’s wing thrum, and always a wind in the trees which sounds suspiciously like being at the ocean when I close my eyes. Our home in an…

Reviews

CatGenie Self-Flushing Self-Washing Cat Box Review

Cats make great pets because they don’t require a lot of attention like dogs do. Just give them a bowl of food and a pan of litter, and they can pretty much take care of themselves. The only downside to having an indoor kitty is that we humans have to clean their ‘toilet’ for them. Not fun…

Reviews

Philips Norelco arcitec 1090 Electric Shaver Review

Wet or dry? That’s the question men have faced since the invention of the electric shaver. For years, I used Braun electric shavers, but they weren’t waterproof and I got tired of buying refills for the cleaning base, so I switched to the vibrating Gillettes a year ago. They’re good, reliable shavers – but they’re also a little… boring. I thought about getting a new, waterproof Braun, or a Panasonic, but I saw the Philips Norelco RQ1090 in the Virgin Atlantic inflight catalogue, and made yet another impulse purchase.

Reviews

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Review

I ordered a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen a few weeks ago after seeing an ad for it. Having now used it for a few weeks, I can honestly say that, other than my various Apple products, this may well be my favorite technology purchase ever. It certainly has all of the qualities necessary to stand out as a tech “home run.” It certainly has the “cool gadget dimension handled. Likewise, it has the “technology that makes your life easier and you more efficient” market covered. And to think, I sat looking at the sealed box for two days after it arrived…

Gear Bits

Give her the Sun with the Sun Jar

If choosing a gift can be a problem, for sure choosing one for your mother can be a demanding task: you would like something useful, but it should be also feminine, maybe original and possibly not too expensive. Stop thinking, why not giving her something simply… natural? Why not giving her the sun?

Reviews

No More Excuses! Back Up Your Data the Easy Way with the Clickfree Transformer

Sure, we say we’re going to diligently backup our data. Heck, sometimes we even actually do it. It starts out with the very best of intentions. You backup all those files daily. Then weekly. Then, monthly. Soon enough, though, you’ve fallen off the cart. You’re going to softball games, soccer games, working on…One. Last. Deadline. Then two, maybe three months go by since your last backup. We are all guilty of neglecting our poor data. Usually around that time is when — gasp! — everything is lost. We become victims a file corruption. A dead hard drive spun into oblivion. …

Reviews

La Crosse Technology Professional Weather Center Review

Everybody knows a person who is obsessed with the weather; who knows, maybe you are one. That is how my family is. As far as they are concerned, the television could stay on weather news non stop. They call each other to find out how the weather is “there”, even if the other person is only a couple of miles away. Except for me that is. I can’t stand waiting around watching reports of areas that have no affect on where I am. Internet weather reports are better, and at least I can get the information instantly. The problem is…