Join The System is Down. (I shut it down.)
So you’re at work, then your phone rings with an ominous warning. “Your home is flooding.”
Well maybe it doesn’t say just that, but it does indicate that water is spilling into your house in a more than unappreciated way. With the new Liquidbreaker, which by the way made Popular Science’s best of what’s new list for this year. You can remotely shut off your water, and save all your stuff from a very soggy ending.
Continue reading » The System is Down. (I shut it down.)
Turn on iPod Diagnostic Mode
Do you suspect that your iPod has a hardware problem? The iPod’s built-in diagnostic mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a “bad” iPod.
How to Turn on iPod Diagnostic Mode
The following procedure will activate the iPod Diagnostic Mode with the following iPods (Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini).
- Turn off the “hold switch”
- Press and hold “Menu” and “Select” buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
- The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold both the “Back” and “Select” buttons at the same time.
- You will hear an audible chirp sound and the logo should appear backwards. Let go of the “Back” and “Select” buttons. You are now in Diagnostic Mode.
Once your iPod is in Diagnostic Mode, you will be able to run a series of tests. For more info on the types of tests and what they exactly do, check out this MethodShop.com iPod Diagnostic Mode Tutorial.
Apple Credits Already Purchased Songs
Has this happened to you before? You like an artist and buy a few tracks from their album on iTunes. Then you realize that you really like the artist and want to buy the rest of the album. But if you buy each remaining song on the album separately, it costs more than if you just buy the entire album all at once. And many times, several tracks on the disc as well as the PDF booklet are only available if you purchase the entire album at once (iTunes calls them Album Only offerings).
I’ve run into this dilemma a few times before. Sometimes I’ll want to buy the entire album but won’t just because I don’t want to waste the money.
Apparently I’m not alone when it comes to this problem. If recent reports are true, Apple is supposedly going to credit iTunes users who purchase individual tracks before buying the entire album. For example, let’s say you bought two tracks from the new live Foo Fighters album for $0.99 each and the album is priced at $9.99. If you decided to buy the album later, Apple would charge you something like $8.01 instead and credit you for the tracks you already own.
Why would Apple do this? Why not? Something as simple as this might be the deciding factor between you just buying 1 or 2 songs or the entire album on iTunes. And if you decide to buy the entire album, then everybody wins. You save some money and get the music you want. The record companies sell more albums (something they are struggling to do because everyone just buys singles now). And Apple makes a bigger commission.
It’s a great idea. I’m surprised Apple hasn’t done this in the iTunes Music Store since day one.
Portable Water Checker
People get all worried about the water they drink when they hear reports on the news about lead contamination, bacteria, etc. If you’re not one of those people, but know people that are (and get annoyed when they start talking about water), you can get them their own Water Checker so that they’ll finally shut up. Forcing them to drink bottled water is another idea, but that’s not nearly as cool.
Continue reading » Portable Water Checker
For that extra optical,, inch,, or if you’re metric, 2.54cm. The Bodygroom by Philips
Ok so the folks at Philips recently realized three things.
- Apparently they have a sense of humor.
- They’ve found a new star for the web
- We need to shave stuff very badly and they’ve got the tool to do it (yes, that’s a bad play on words).
The new Philips Bodygroom (yes, it says that’s what it is in big letters on the side) is designed to clean up the nether regions of your man zones. That’s about as politically correctly as I’m going to put it.
Yes, that’s what it does, and bless the folks at Philips, they’re REALLY PROUD about it!
Continue reading » For that extra optical,, inch,, or if you’re metric, 2.54cm. The Bodygroom by Philips
My knee says I just jumped!
Knee replacements are more common now due to exercise and old age. How do doctors know if the replacement knees they place in people are really helping them, or even if they’ll last? Here’s how, sensors, self powered wireless sensors!
Sure it sounds like science fiction; some septuagenarian walks by and throws off your local FM radio to the tunes of “This is an old man walking”. Well ok, that’s not quite how it happens, but sort of.
A Vermont company called Microstrain has developed a sensor suite that is placed inside replacement knee prosthetics.
Continue reading » My knee says I just jumped!
Monitor Your Web Addiction in Firefox
Are you addicted to the Internet? How much time do you spend on your favorite websites everyday? If you are curious, a free Firefox extension called PageAddict can give you a summary of your daily online activity.
If you are already using the Firefox web browser, just install the PageAddict extension and surf the Internet like you normally would. When you want to see the results, just return to PageAddict.com. There you’ll get the time spent at each site, percentages of overall time and the option to apply tags. You can even categorize different sites and restrict how much time you spend in each category per day (if you deem necessary).
PageAddict results are often surprising. Will you use the data to help make positive changes in your lifestyle? You can download PageAddict here.
The OV-Watch Fertility Predictor
Watches that just tell the time are so boring, so what extra functionality can you add to your wrist watch to make it that much more useful. You guessed it, a fertility meter.
The OV-Watch is a medical device worn on the wrist just like a watch and it tracks fertility with much higher accuracy than traditional methods. Many couples don’t realize that a woman’s window of fertility actually opens 4 days before ovulation. With OV-Watch women can actually track the full 6-day fertility window as opposed to a mere 2 day prediction with traditional methods.
It looks like a digital wristwatch and it has a sensor that tracks the differences in salt levels to accurately predict when you should do “it”.
This fertility gadget could come in real handy for couples planning on trying for a baby (remember practice makes perfect), or for those who run a mile when babies are mentioned (though a pronto condom would be a bit safer in that case).
