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So cute!

Pleo from Ugobe. A small dinosaur-robot. Will I get one? Not now, maybe Christmas 2008??

Stuff I did not buy in 2005

Ok, the year isn´t yet over, but with less then 2 weeks of Christmas shopping season left, I can behave as if it were. So here´s a list of some electronic gadgets I did not buy in 2005:

An Ipod
I had a strong interest to get an Ipod this year. Every new model was better than the previous. First the shuffle: cute, small, easy to carry around. It certainly looked much better in Apple´s commercials and web pages that on the shelves of electronics mega stores. Then the nano, briefly followed by the next big thing, the video Ipod. The nano, great, small, but lacking video and photo (backup) functionality. The video Ipod - maybe too big, and maybe too expensive? The photo backup option would serve well on the next big holiday, but I don´t really know when that will be; probably sometime later in 2006. The question I have to really ask is - do I need an Ipod? I´ve never been a member of the carry-your-music-around generation and I sometimes still enjoy the silence walking around. So does joining the cool-people-with-white-earbuds justify getting one? I´m not sure. Let´s wait if there will be an even better Ipod, maybe a nano with video?

A scanner
A scanner would be great to get all those old photos from journeys far gone by into the computer and up on flickr. There might be also a few other useful applications for it, but the problem is: I have no place for it on the desk!

A DVD burner
Stupidly when I purchased my PC 2 years ago I did not order a DVD burner with it. I never considered copying any movies (and, yes, I don´t need that) and I though it´s overkill. Today, backing up almost any data on a 700 MB CD ROM seems strange - with harddrives in the 100 - 300 MB area. But: I don´t want to mess around with the computer and get a internal DVD burner. (I did though get a second hard disk into it.) For an external device the problem is the same as with the scanner: space, or rather the lack off it.

A HD VCR
For television recording I feel the only way to record your favorite programs is to use a hard disk based VCR. But, .. I already spend too much time in front of the computer. Why waste more time for the TV. Plus, there´s this rule: What you can´t watch right when it´s broadcasted, you´ll probably never watch again. (Ok, exception: when you like something, you may watch it over and over again. The DVD did prove this.)

A stereo system
A while back I thought a small stereo system with speakers would be cool. It might be practical to listen to music without turning on the computer. But on the other side, I´ve downloaded many tracks off the net and some, albeit a small part, is iTMS encoded and cannot be played on another device.

A GPS navigation device
This really is over-hyped. Can´t people read a map? This is for people who have to much money on their hands; even though those devices got much cheaper, I don´t see any use - except for travelling salesmen maybe.

Ok. That´s it. Next week I´ll follow-up with the countries I didn´t visit in 2005. :-)

Look good

Dress in style. In communist creative style - with a creative commies T-Shirt from here (US) or here (Germany). A Fasching bag would be perfect too. (via ix & mex)

iPod for Christmas

Interested in getting an Ipod for Christmas ? Hurry up. (I might get one too, but let´s see first if the iTMS Europe debuts next Tuesday).

"We've taken our best guess, and we're building a lot, but the demand may be even larger," said Jobs, perched on a stool in trademark jeans and black mock-turtleneck shirt. "So if you want to be sure to get an iPod this holiday season, I'd get one soon."

Cosmopolitan laptops

This Windows based laptops - from California-based Liebermann Inc. - are extremely powerful (and expensive too). The design of the webpages looks familiar too, looks like another well known computer company :-) (via MH)

Crumpler bags

Sometime ago I´ve seen a guy in the underground train (in Vienna) with a trendy bag with a this funny icon on it. I tried to find it on the web - instead of asking, of course - but it´s nearly impossible if you don´t know how it´s called.

It´s a Crumpler bag and according to the weird commercial on the site this stuff is tough, water-proof, tough but smooth at the same time. Lot´s of colours and varieties. And an extra strap for increased stability. And even though it seems quite international, it´s a german company! And there´s even a shop in Vienna on Judengasse 4 in the 1st district. Check out the catalogue (PDF, in German).

We love to spam you!

SPAMSHIRT offers T-Shirts with real spam messages on them, like INSTANTLY ATTRACT THE OPPOSITE SEX WITH PHEROMONES or IT'S ME, CARRIEPG318848 FROM YAHOO or MATHEW IS THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB or - even better - NOW YOU CAN BE MORE POPULAR WITH WOMEN. Priced at £25 or around 37 €, it´s a bit hefty and thus falls into the category "nice to have, but not worth the trouble".

Banana juice

This japanese tetrapack boxes for banana juice are really great! Available also for strawberry, kiwi and - tofu. (via elbewerk)

Surf while surfing

You´re certainly going completely mad if you gone use this surfboard for online surfing while surfing. "Giving people the freedom to get online when and where they want" - don´t they get the idea that in certain situation people don´t want to get online!? So stay tuned for the first surfing blogger! :-)

(via Hal Faber)

Buy, buy, buy

While you can´t buy certain books at Amazon (Germany), you can buy really weird items at Amazon.

Cool

The Kukuxumusu "safe-shopping shop" has some cool T-shirts. Right in time for summer! (via JY)

Cool!

This PC case is cool! And the cat too! The "Nanode" - created by Hoojum Design, constructed from high-grade precision cut aluminum. The press gallery has some even better pictures, but the cat is really, really good!

Cupertino Guys

French T-Shirt site laFraise.com has some great look geek T-Shirts, like the 2 Steve´s from Cupertino - mimicking a 70ies style TV series called Streets of Cupertino - and another T-shirt for BlogAddicts like me and you (!?) and MS disapprovers. There´s also great hacker stuff - e.g. PHP Wizard for the "PHP magician" (and the girls will love the sweet elephant !) - and Japanese culture stuff, including japanese phrases such as I am a pervert - make a good impression on Japanese tourists - and Now accepting applications for a Japanese girlfriend. Actually the japanese shirts are a bit on the pervert side altogether :-)

Sound system

Now blogging gets easier since I´ve got new speakers for my computer. Creative I-Trigue L3500, a 2.1 speaker system - because I didn´t want to waste to much space on my desk for these (and they look cool too). There are also some videos available for this series.

Cost: Then and Now

Cost of Hard Drive Space show the difference in hardware costs between now and then, some years ago. The list also shows the steep decline in the cost per megabyte, from US$ 10.000 in 1956 (5 MB priced at US$ 50.000) to US$ 2,68 per Gigabyte in 2002 (60 GB for US$ 150). Actually, prices of course further fell after this, so you should get twice the amount for that sum - 160 GB. Also there some interesting predictions given:

Prediction: The cost for 128 kilobytes of memory will fall below U$100 in the near future. Creative Computing magazine December 1981, page 6

At $100 for 128 kilobytes, the price of 256 megabytes comes to $200,000.

Listen to your watch

LAKS now launches watches with built-in MP3 players (after offering USB memory watches for quite a while). The watch can store up to 60 songs with data capacity at up to 256 MB and also featuring an integrated voice recorder. It should be available in March and starts at € 129.- for the 64 MB clock.

They claim that with a 1.5 m cable it´s long enough for tall people, but I wouldn´t try running around with a cable dangling from me wrist to my head. :-) Also it might look silly, though the watch itself, looks quite cool!

chrome

Quoting Personal Computer World:

If you thought Apple was the only company that could make stylish computers, you´re in for a bit of a surprise".

Cool laptop bags.

Cool laptop bags.

SONY Playstation

Not really up-to-date any more - well only a few weeks - but still interesting: BW Online | Ken Kutaragi, the "father" of the playstation at SONY. Because it´s cool !