Tape measure records voices, glows feebly
One from the random convergence device generator: a 16-foot tape measure with a voice recorder and one of those ineffectual LED lights, so "you'll be able to see exactly what you're measuring." I can record only 20 seconds of audio, and costs $20.
Why stop there? What would it have cost to add, say, an FM radio? Or a rape alarm?
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Actually, oddly enough these features make sense to me, even if they may not be super-practically useful.
My guess is that the *idea* is that you are using this tape-measure, working alone. Instead of writing down how much you just measured to refer to it later, you record those measurements as audio on the device itself. Then later, when you go 'now how long was that piece of timber again?', you just hit playback on the tape measure.
Rob, did one of these have boundary issues with you as a child or perhaps run over a favored family pet?
Have you actually USED this product to warrant such vitriol?
I think the idea is to note the measurement on the recorder and replay it later when you're cutting as opposed to writing it down.
"Measure twice, record once, play twice, cut once."
As for the "ineffectual LED light" I'd have to say a little light goes a long way in the right situation.
It may or may not be a useful item, but I don't think the hatred is well placed here.
I can hate concepts!
Well, for one thing, it's plastic and therefore vulnerable. For another, it has electrical parts & therefore it's vulnerable. I have 3 tape measures here in my desk because that's the minimum number required for me to have one at hand while doing a project because 1 will be out of sight, covered up and another will in my pocket where I didn't look. All of my tape measures are scarred and dented from being dropped, buried under wrenches, stepped on and occasionally thrown just as far as I can. If it's not as durable as a brick I just can't use it and this little plastic electrical thing looks like it would come apart at its ultrasonic welds the first time a 2 X 4 fell on it.
Sorry, Rob. It's rubber, you're glue, &c.
or one of those anti-mosquito field generators!
I concur with Ross. I'm not even a contractor (my dad is) and I'd still have one of these crying for mercy in a day. Maybe it's designed for those home improvement types. You know, the home improvement types who would actually find it a bother to take a pencil and scratch their measurement down on the piece of wood they're measuring.
Still makes more sense than a combination hook-scale, calculator, UV light.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11975