Joel Johnson

A Tale of Great Customer Service from DeLorme

Consumerist has this cockles-warming tale of a vacation saved by good customer service by GPS maker DeLorme:

I posted to the DeLorme company forums, explaining the situation, and asking if there was any way to spoof Topo 7 into thinking it had already synchronized, since I knew the firmware version for my PN-20. I got a PM back from one of the customer service reps, saying that no, this was probably not possible. So instead, they offered to overnight a replacement USB cable to where I was on the trip!

DeLorme's Awesome Customer Service Vastly Improves Road Trip [Consumerist]

Joel Johnson

Tefal QuickCup: Hot Water in 3 Seconds

The Tefal QuickCup heats up hot water in three seconds, perfect for popping out a quick cup of tea, instant coffee or soups, or cocoa. A built-in replaceable filter, uh, filters* while a special heating coil dispenses about 8 ounces of piping hot water. And because it only heats the water that you're about to consume, it saves energy. (I hope they have a smart stand-by mode so you can leave it plugged in all the time.)

I've been keeping an electric kettle at my desk, drinking down a box of loose leaf green Earl Grey. My little $10 kettle is perfectly decent (and heats up water in about a minute), but if you were a die-hard tea drinker I could see this being very nice. It's $130 AU, and is available only in Australia or the UK. (I doubt there's enough of a tea drinking contingent here in the States to warrant a version for us.)

Product Page [QuickCup.com.au via Gizmag]

* I kept trying to think of a way to say "makes cleaner" but most tap water is perfectly clean.

Previously • Electric Kettle Acid Test: Sunbeam Tea Drop, Kenwood Response Kettle [BBG]

Joel Johnson

St. Louis Post-Dispatch on AT&T's Filter Plans

Tim Barker's piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about AT&T's plans to filter the internet may not break a lot of new ground for you folks, savvy internet denizens that you are, but he's done a good job getting quotes and perspective from a variety of people, including musicians, to explain the issue to the average Joe.

Barker also does not fail to recognize the real nut of the AT&T plans—using copyright scaremongering as a end-run around Network Neutrality—and the legal issue that may hold them back from implementing filtering in the end:

There is one aspect of this, however, that has left Sloane and other legal observers scratching their heads.

Consider this: In the 1990s, telecommunications companies spent millions of dollars persuading Congress to pass the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which eliminated any responsibility they had for content carried over their networks. In other words, if two friends plotted murder through e-mail, nobody can sue Charter Communications for not reporting it to authorities.

Now, AT&T seems to be considering surrendering that immunity. The argument is that if the company makes any attempt to police its network, then it becomes responsible for all the content.

"All the lawyers have been pulling their hair out, wondering what's gotten into them," said Scott with Free Press.

AT&T's idea to monitor Net creates a web of suspicion [STLToday.com]

Previously • AT&T to Filter Internet Traffic; Comcast Investigated by FCC for Filtering Internet Traffic [BBG]
• Interview with AT&T's "Filter the Internet" Exec [BBG]
• Talking About AT&T's Internet Filtering on AT&T's The Hugh Thompson Show [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Modern Mechanix Round-Up

Today on Modern Mechanix: this giant megaphone that was used to call reveille at Fort Jackson, S.C. I'm not sure why they didn't invest in an amplifier but it sure looks neat. In 1941 a million people paid 10 cents just to sit on a concrete apron and watch all of the planes take off and land at La Guardia airport, dubbed "The Grand Central of the Airways" in this beautifully illustrated Popular Mechanics article.  We also have an automatic egg breaker that can break 3,600 eggs an hour, a mobile grocery store packed into a bus and a robot rat from 1935 that can (sort of) navigate a maze.  Lastly, for all the women out there who want to make a bold fashion statement, be sure to check out this 1941 monocle veil.

Joel Johnson

Apple TV HD Rental Quality Pretty Good, Says iLounge

iLounge takes a look at Apple TV HD downloads, Blu-ray, DVD, and HD cable on-demand movies. In short, the Blu-ray looks best (duh), but Apple TV's HD beats out HD cable by a slim but noticeable margin. I still have no desire for an Apple TV until it can play streamed Divx over my network. Then again my big LCD is hooked up to a PC, so it's not like I do much streaming into the projector these days anyway. (My projector and Time Warner DVR have become mostly "The American Idol Experience" since I got the Westinghouse LCD.)

(And no, you can't tell any difference in my resized image above.)

Apple TV 2.0 vs. Blu-Ray, DVD & HD Cable: The Comparison [iLounge.com]

Previously • My Wildly Inaccurate Look at Movie Distribution in 2007 [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Star Wars Toys That Were Not to Be

Jason "ToyOtter" Geyer was a toy designer who got a chance to pitch Lucasfilm right before Star Wars: Episode I came out. Most of their ideas didn't make it to market, but the concepts they've scanned in and put online are hilarious. I can't believe Lucasfilm hasn't done a Jabba the Hutt beanbag.

To say we were excited is an understatement. However, there were a few problems. One, since we were not yet an approved vendor to Lucasfilm, we had to use the Original Trilogy to concept with as we couldn’t be shown anything from Episode One. Lucasfilm would review our concepts and let us know if anything could apply to the new movie (this was a painful process that involved discarding far more ideas than the ones that were kept). Two, it was only a year away from the release of Episode One, and most manufacturing lead times were anywhere from 18-12 months to get the product made and to stores. But beggars can’t be choosers, and we hit the ground running.

Rejected! A long, long time ago… [ActionFigureInsider.com] (Thanks, Matt & Michael!)

Joel Johnson

Space Shuttle Bed Looks Vaguely Like Space Shuttle

This "Space Shuttle Bed" looks vaguely like our aging reusable launch vehicle, likely complete with suspicious creaking noises. It's $2,600 for the bed, but can also be upgraded with a full "Launch Tower" playset on the side for an additional $5k. Call me cynical, but do kids even really know what NASA is anymore? It's not like it's ever in the news unless something blows up.

Also, parents: When I was a youngster my mom got me a "bed tent" similar to these $50 ones on Amazon. I think mine was in the shape of a apatosaurus, but it served as a secret fortress, a space ship, and a wandering barbarian's cave just fine.

Product Page [MyMoonDrops.com via Oh Gizmo via Nerd Approved]

Joel Johnson

For Reel: Japanese Phone Game Rewards with Whole, Raw Fish

A fishing cellphone game in Japan rewards some winners with real, raw fish delivered fresh to their door.

When a fish takes the bait, the player is sent to a slot machine screen where, if luck prevails and 3 numbers line up appropriately, the virtual fish is hooked and reeled in. A message is then relayed to the wholesaler, who picks up the real-world equivalent from the local seafood market and delivers it, whole and raw, to the player’s doorstep.

If videogames start rewarding you with actual food I am doomed. Going to get grub is about the only thing that gets me out of the house already!

Ippon Zuri: Catch-and-eat fishing by phone [Pink Tentacle via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

EVDO Service: Verizon or Sprint?

Here's a simple question I present for your consideration and input: I need to get another EVDO subscription. Verizon or Sprint? I've used both, both have the Novetel USB stick I want, and they both seem to have roughly similar coverage areas.

Joel Johnson

Lounge Chairs for the Space Hulk

Even though I am planning on packing up most of my stuff and leaving New York next year, I still keep thinking I'd like a new easy chair for the living room. Something nice enough to keep with in storage even as I move around. (More on that in a few months!)

Two have caught my eye over the last couple of weeks. Sadly, neither have had prices listed, which means they will be far out of my reach. Come on IKEA knock-offs!

The DS-166, designed by Hugo de Ruiter, is said to make those who sit in it "feel most profoundly." I just like its space lounge good looks.

The Lobster Chair [right], designed by Lund & Paarmann, is less plush, but the segmented walnut veneer over the back is striking. Eames by way of Giger.

If anyone lives in Europe has a few thousand dollars with which to buy a random blogger some furniture, I'll be happy to provide a shipping address. (Please do not touch or even look at any of the chairs before shipping, as I have a debilitating fear of psychic dustballs being caught in between the folds of cushions. This is why all visitors to my apartment must stay in the fraternization chamber.)

Joel Johnson

Ombredanne Inhaler: Nothing Says 'I Love You' Like Ether

My friend Kat came back from Buenos Aires with this vintage "Ombredanne Inhaler," used around the turn of the century to administer ether or chloroform as surgical anesthesia. From Phisick.com:

Professor Louis Ombredanne (1871-1956), the inventor of the apparatus, was a French Surgeon who introduced his ether breathing apparatus in 1908 and it was subsequently widely used throughout Europe. They were made by various makers in the early 1900s.

You used to be able to buy chloroform off the shelf at my hometown pharmacy. My step-father once got the bright idea to toss a couple of chloroform-soaked cotton balls into my gerbil cage. "It'll knock them right out!" (This is the same man who thought it would be a good idea to microwave my R/C dinosaur a few years before. "It'll totally freak out!" And it did—if you count twitching then catching on fire freaking out.)

He daubed some chloroform from the brown glass bottle onto the cotton and tossed it down into the wood chips. The gerbils made no move for a moment, then began to gnaw off their own limbs.

Don't give your pets drugs, kids!

The best drug geek gift I've ever purchased [Dosenation.com]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• GPS Unit – Garmin Nuvi 750 4.3" Widescreen Display GPS for $295, shipped. [Slickdeals]

• Xbox Controller – Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kit w/Black Controller for $46, shipped. [Slickdeals]

• Lenovo Laptops – 20% off coupon on many Lenovo laptops that use the Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M chipset. [Dealnews]

• Camcorder – Today's Woot! is a refurbished Canon ZR830 MiniDV Camcorder with 35x Optical Zoom for $135, shipped.