Proud Geek

My partner and I love candles. Almost every room in our house has at least one candle, and we used to love lighting them up. We used to dim the lights and watch the flames flickering, and we especially enjoyed the different scents.

Yes, I said “we used to.” What happened? We had children. We now have young kids running around the house. And of course, with young kids running around, open flames were now dangerous. (Well, yeah, fire’s always dangerous, but you know what I mean.) We had to sharply curtail the use of candles. Either that, or we had one candle burning up high, like on top of the refrigerator or a similar safe high place. But another hazard of having kids is that I become easily forgetful — and I’m terrified that I’d forget and leave the house with a candle burning!

A couple weeks ago, my partner found the nearly-perfect solution. Flameless candles, made by Glade under the Wisp brand name. These candles flicker just like a real candle, and smell just as nice. They’re so safe that my nearly-4-year-old daughter takes one down, turns it on with a quick press on the top, and carries it around while admiring how it flickers — and then she puts it exactly in the middle of the dining table like a centerpiece. (She certainly knows how to decorate, and at such a tender young age!)

How does it work? Using two AA batteries, it releases a puff of scent every once in a while all day and all night. The scent is adjustable, although I’m not sure exactly what is being adjusted — the time interval in between puffs or the intensity of the scent being released. And when you press the top of the candle, it flickers for a set length of time, I think two or three hours unless you turn it off again with another press.

Perfect for leaving around the house, and perfect if you’re a forgetful parent like me!

There are several other types of flameless candles out there as well, including one that’s inside a real wax candle and flameless votive candles that turn on with a tap on the surface.

Hmm, I think I’m gonna buy several score of these candles and put them in the master bedroom. What, honey, you have a headache? Damn.

I admit it. I leave the lights on in the car several times a year. When I do that and then when I try to turn on the car, it gives (what I imagine is) a pitiful whimper and does not turn over. And I smack my head and say, “Not again, you (Proud) Geek!”

I’ve been making good use of my AAA membership ever since I joined at the tender young age of twenty years. So good, in fact, that I think AAA had been losing money on me!

I’ve heard of jump start kits that you could leave in the car, but I imagined them to be big, expensive, bulky generator-like batteries that’d take up half (or much more if you’ve got a Miata like my dad once had) of your trunk space.

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when my partner and I stumbled over a tiny re-chargeable jump start kit that sells for just $20!

Rally Manufacturing, Inc. sells Boost It, a line of portable jump start kits with various options. Kit # 7267, similar to what I have, comes with its own booster cables, can be re-charged by leaving it plugged into an electrical outlet for 24 hours or left plugged into your (running!) car’s cigarette outlet, can be left under the seat or in the trunk of your car for several months without needing to be re-charged, and can be used to jump-start your car, truck, or van when needed. With a press of a button, you can see how much “juice” it has left or if it needs re-charging.

In addition, it comes with two car adapter outlets - you can use it anywhere and not just in / for the car. You could go on a picnic and plug in up to two portable dvd players, recharge your smartphone, use your electric razor, plug in a fan if it’s too hot outside, plug in a boom box, etc etc. The possibilities are almost unlimited, as long as you have a car adaptor (like a cigarette lighter plug) for all these appliances.

If you pay a few more dollars, you can get Kit # 7258 or better which comes with a two- (or maybe it’s three-?) pronged 110 volt outlet (or outlets) that you can use for just about any appliance, including leaf-blowers. Hmm.

Now we have a ‘Boost It’ kit in our van, charged and ready for the next time we need it. I can hardly wait to (accidentially) leave the lights on once again so I can try out the Boost It kit!

So, am I gonna cancel my AAA membership? Fat chance. My partner’s the one who seems to always get a flat tire — he also makes good use of our AAA membership (which, thank goodness, recognizes same-sex partners). Why don’t we change the tire ourselves then? Ach, with two kids, who has the time or energy?

Tired of having to clean your gutters the hard way — moving the ladder a few feet at a time, reaching in (and hoping you don’t overbalance the ladder) and dumping gunk from your gutters? Or maybe you’re like me (gulp!) and procrascinate, and end up having gutters that overflow and leak water into your house during torrential rainstorms?

iRobot now has a robot just for your gutters — the Looj!

(I have no idea where the Looj name came from. Don’t ask me.)

The Looj works much like a badger with a soft propeller at its snout. You put it into a gutter, and you use a remote control to control it as it squrms along the gutter and uses its “propeller” (officially called a 3-stage augur) to dislodge and disintegrate leaves and dirt in your gutter. Then after you use it, you only need to hose it down to clean it, and it even clips onto your belt so that you can more easily climb up / down ladders.

You might affectionately know iRobot as the company that makes the Scooba — which cleans and vaccuums your floors and which even cooks for you if you ask nicely. (Ok, I made up the last part, but it does clean and vaccuum your floors while you’re out or sleeping.)

A video (which I can’t embed here) shows the Looj in operation. Isn’t this too cool?

The Looj comes in three models (which differ only in the range of accessories, apparently), with prices ranging from $99 to $169.99.

(Thanks, La-La, for telling me about this!)

Ultra-thin television is coming! Ultra-thin television is coming in December!

Remember last May when I blogged Sony’s announcement that it has developed a razor-thin bendable television? Well, Sony will start selling ultra-thin televisions mounted on a pedestal — much like a modern desk lamp — this December for roughly $1,740. These televisions will initially be rather small, at nearly 10 inches width by 5.6 inches height.

But ach, the coolness factor just grabs at me. Can you just imagine having one of those televisions on your desk in your cubicle, and becoming the envy of all the other Dilbert-like folks in your wretched existence? Yes, I thought so — I can imagine that too for myself. :-)

I just hope these televisions come with the closed-captions chip built in.

I’m not sure the following photo (from I4U News) is accurate, but it’s close enough to give you an idea of what’s coming.

Would you want to buy this car, worth nearly $1.4 million? ONE POINT FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. $1,400,000. Enough money to buy 80 (or so) Toyota Matrix cars. Hmm, now that I say it that way, it doesn’t sound so bad …

More photos at Autoblog as well.

Could we be getting skycars, hovercars, flying cars anytime soon? I don’t think so.

Just got wind of a “skycar” in development. Here’s a video.

At first, I thought, “Hooray, now we can finally get some hovercars and live up my dream of getting past all those traffic jams in my area!” (Never mind that all these new hovercars would create their own traffic jams.)

But after watching this video, and finding out that the developer has been working on this for decades, I’m left with a sick feeling: this ain’t gonna happen anytime soon.

The skycar looks too awkward, a crane is needed to ensure the safety of the rider(s), and it seems to veer to the left or right just a bit too much.

But if you really, really want to have one sooner, it looks like you can buy one for between $90,000 and $450,000. A drawback: the FAA has apparently not certified these Skycars for use in public areas.

Dang. I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer. And dream.

(Thanks, Andrew Sullivan, one of my favorite bloggers. Hey, Andrew, congratulations on your wedding! I’m waiting for the day I can do this in Maryland with my partner, with our daughters as flower girls and ring-bearers.)

First it was razor-thin bendable televisions.

And now we may soon get bendable batteries!

Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a battery that looks like paper, and “can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed.” 

The technicalities of this breakthrough is beyond my comprehension, but according to the Breitbart article, it involves “paper infused with an electrolyte and carbon nanotubes that are embedded in the paper.  The carbon nanotubes form the electrodes, the paper is the separator and the electrolyte allows the current to flow.”  If there’re anybody who understands this, would you mind explaining this?

I’ve got a fantasy … Of folding (ok, ok, rolling up) a 60-inch television screen with batteries included, and putting it into my back pocket.  And then I go camping, and once I set up my tent, I could pull out the 60-inch television screen and string it up between trees.  And lie back and watch television and cook smores, with the sunset glinting off a nearby lake.  Now, won’t that be paradise?

Well, actually, being the Proud Geek I am, I’d druther a campground with wi-fi and high-speed Internet over being able to take my large-screen television with me!

Scientists have developed a super-bright flashlight that actually makes you throw up. Yes, it makes you barf, vomit, spit up, hurl, puke, ralph, toss your beans, (fill in your favorite vomit expression here).

It’s called a LED Incapacitator, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced the awarding of a contract to develop these flashlight weapons. It works by simultaneously blinding someone and disorienting him/her enough to make him/her sick. It uses continuously changing light and color pulses to effectively and safely disorient a person (and make him/her sick).
With these LED Incapacitator flashlights, law enforcement officers (and I hope only those folks!) would be able to take down offenders — especially drug runners and illegal aliens — without hurting them and sparing the lives (although probably not the stomach contents) of nearby bystanders or airline passengers.

DHS hopes to have these flashlight weapons in the hands of policemen, border agents, and National Guardsmen by 2010. The thought of anybody carrying barf-beamers makes me feel, well, a bit sick.