5 posts tagged “gadgets”
Well, since I was packing for my trip, I thought I'd do one of those What's in your bag? post that I've seen from Lifehacker.
So here we go... (you'll probably want to see the pic at full size to get the corresponding numbers)
02) Assortment of over the counter meds and such.
03) Small first aid kit.
04) Eye drops
05) Hand sanitizer gel
06) Mini Mag-lite
07) Ipod case with built in speakers - not the best sounding, but great to listen to podcasts in the hotel at night.
08) Notebook - Dell Latitude D610 (nerd specs: 1.86 GHz Pentium M, 1 gig of RAM, 80 gig hard drive, dvd burner, XP Pro and Office XP). I bought it refurbished for a little over $400, back in April. I gave my old one to my Mom.
09) Ipod 5.5 - 80 gig
10) Power adapter for notebook
11) GPS - Garmin GPSMap 60CSX
12) Leatherman Wave - the multi-tool of nerds.
13) USB cable for GPS and can charge my cell phone with it too.
14) Ethernet cable - in times when wireless isn't an option
15) USB extention cable - just because
16) PCMCIA compact flash card reader - to transfer pics to notebook
17) Spare battery for notebook
18) Spare battery for notebook
19) Wireless mouse
20) Deck of cards
21) Calculator
22) Chapstic
23) Listerine breath strips
24) Tissues
25) Post-it notes
26) Victorinix Swiss Card - in case I don't have the Leatherman on me, I always have this in the bag.
27) Sharpie marker, pen, pencil
28) Toothpicks
29) MicroSD memory card reader - in case I want to transfer pics/music to and from my cell phone
30) USB thumb drive
31) USB cable for ipod
32) Batter charger for cell phone
33) Battery charger for ipod
I usually have a book, and a few blank DVD-Rs in there as well. It's not as heavy as you think.
Well about about a month ago I got a refurbished Dell Latitude 600 off of e-bay. I have to say, I think I champed myself. First, the nerd specs - Pentium M 1.4, 1 gig of RAM, 40 gig hard drive, with this hi-res LCD 1400x1050 screen. The ad on e-bay stated that it had just a 1024x768 screen and a 30 gig hard drive, so it was a bonus for me. All for around $400. I have the same model, just slightly faster at work, so I know the in's and out's of it well and it's pretty tough. I did not want to jump to Vista, and this had XP Pro (with /cd). Enough of the geek speak. While not as fast at today's models, it's fast enough for a second computer.
Just last week, I upgrades my GPS and got a Garmin 60CSCX. I know Garmin is coming out soon with newer models soon, but this has been out for over a year and the bugs have been worked out. Bonus...I can still use the map software on this one as well. And yes...it rocks.
Yes, there are better things I should be doing right now. Being the geek that I am, I choose to spend time surfing over at Wired's Gadget Lab. Here are my picks from last week's posts:
- I'm all about nanotech, so of course I got excited seeing this - Nanobatteries Could Last Decades.
- If the Goodyear Blimp wasn't enough for sporting events, check out this post - Video Airship Patent Awarded.
- Back in the day when I wasn't busy working on papers in college or being shot down by all the ladies, I enjoyed playing Myst. The author of this post hits the nail on the head that these Living Lightshade from Dreamingreen remind him of some scenes in the game. I think that's why I like them too.
- While I've grown up with cats most of my life, I've starting to dig dogs more and more so since my parents got Max. I'm no expert, but this looks like cool gadget to keep your dog safe in the car - Sue Roake's Seat Belt for Dogs.
- With all the buzz over Microsoft Vista, why not end the day watching an ad from the 80s on Windows/386 -
I don't know about you, but I like my toast. Most of the time, it's with peanut butter or just butter with cinnamon sugar. And probably like most of you, I have an traditional toaster. Well my friends, let me show you one with style - Hot Designer Toaster. Now, if I can only only find one at Target.
No, this isn't an ad you would find in the back of Popular Mechanics or Popular Science. This is a true store of a man in Africa, who spent an equivalent of $16 to build a windmill that can power his home and charge batteries. Cool - not only did this cost just $16, his windmill is more efficient than regular windmills. Very Cool - he did this himself by trial and error. Read the whole story here - Homemade Windmill in Malawi
