:05 Stadium is a cheap toy forthcoming from Bandai. It does one thing: test how accurately you can measure 5 seconds. Click it once, wait five seconds, and click it again. Given three tries, the best I got was 4.89 seconds.
“It’s incredibly addictive,” said Bandai’s Stephanie Holbrook. And you know what? It is. Bandai is, of course, very good at wasting your time.
Yep, you don’t get to see the timer.
I know those Zen gardens in-a-box. I got one. They’re cute, but the little box tray you put the sand in is Teh Crap. Love the tiny rake, tho.
I was taking CNC classes at the time, so I whipped up my own container out of aluminum for the same kit. Has round edges, an æsthetic footprint, a little bowl for a tiny water feature (I recommend the teeniest bit o’ food coloring), and a post-hole in the corner for the rake.
Marketable?
Well I’m wondering if it actually shows up the count up/down… If it doesn’t it would be far more addictive than a stop watch. Not knowing is what makes it fun?
@ 2, 3, 6(?): What @ 4 said.
If you buy this instead of a stopwatch, you’re really showing, IMHO, that you really don’t have an appreciation for nifty gadgets, for superb engineering, and good ideas.
A few weeks ago, I was in the local big-box book store.
At the queue near the cash registers, they had a display stand offering little clear plastic boxes with all sorts of small portable ‘life kits’ inside.
Portable Zen Gardens, worry balls, tiny (read: ‘Useless’) writing pads, you know the kind…
When I got to the cash register, I asked the lady at the register (after the requisite “Did you find everything you’re looking for?”) if they had a kit called something like “How to Save the Planet” – with a poster inside with printed on it, in large letters, “STOP BUYING CRAP LIKE THIS!!!”
@1 Your comment seems antithetical to a gadget blog.
@7 I have no need for a regular stopwatch and if I were to buy one it’d be a nice analog one that ticks.
@1 I love crap like this and can’t wait to buy one.
@7 I already own a stop watch and it won’t cheer for me when I get it right.
Couldn’t you just use a regular stopwatch? A real one would have actual practical application too.
You could even challenge yourself to other times than 5 seconds!
#5 Saw a Cops episode, officers asked a guy suspected to be on speed/methamphetamine/whatever, asked him to guess how long a minute was. Time flies on drugs
Reminds me of some artist who had a booth with a video camera, asked participants to guess how long 2 minutes was and then press a button.
ADHD testing uses a similar device.
I used to waste time in high school doing something similar with the stopwatch function of my watch. I’d take the watch off and turn it over so the display was hidden, and try to hit the target number of seconds without looking at it.
@2 It’s about time someone articulated an antithesis to the gadget blog’s thesis… I, for one, welcome our new synthesis*.
*groan
@1,7 I was just making a really lame dialectic joke, pay no attention to me.