Vicissitudes

Nature sends us surprises all the time. To protect your loved ones, you need to be prepared. I found this all in one, essential “gadget” perfect for the trail, camper, boat, basement, anywhere you need piece of mind or a flashlight/radio at Buy.com.  Getting the Weather Channel EZ Crank Radio is one easy step to ensure that many of your emergency needs are met. To make absolutely sure that the Weather Channel EZ Crank Radio never lets you down, it uses any of three different methods for power; a conventional battery, solar power, and the EZ crank. It is a powerful 5-LED light. Comes with handy storage compartment. You can get AM/FM radio with solar battery.

Popularity: 84% [?]

A picture is worth 1000 words, I also hear that a few words can paint a picture.  Either way  you want to look at it I found this six inch Polaroid digital photo frame with radio alarm clock at Buy.com.  I do not have one but these are one of those item where if I had a dozen I would put each to good use.  A few gifts, one at work a few at home.

Features:

• Ebony Frame 6-inch color LCD screen
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9 / 4:3
• Resolution: 520 x 288 pixels
• Brightness: 250 cd/m2
• Contrast Ratio: 300:1
• Alarm Clock Built-in AM/FM Radio Listen to MP3 files Audio input lets you play music from devices through digital photo frame Slide Show Mode Multiple Transitional Styles for Slide Show Built-in speakers Mini USB port
• Supported Memory Cards: Secure Digital MultiMedia Card Memory Stick Memory Stick Duo
• Top Panel Controls: Power Setup Exit Snooze Previous Play/Pause Forward Volume Up Volume Down
• Dimensions: 5.25 x 9.75 x 2.75-inches (H x W x D, approximate) Regulatory Approvals: cULus RoHS

Popularity: 91% [?]

You know how you are always say “I wish I had a camera!” or “Remember when?  I wish I had some photos to remember those times”. With this little key chain digital camera you will always be ready!  I sound like a late night infomercial salesman.  I have no idea about the quality of this little digital camera and I still want one.  Buy.com has them for $7.99 with free shipping!  You cannot choose what color they send you (White, Silver, Pink or Blue – It is okay guys to wear a pink digital camera, isn’t it?) and it only holds 20 photos at 288X352 on the fine setting or 81 at the low quality setting .  It may not be much but it will capture a 20-81 memories at a time and be fashionably worn on your jacket or with your keys.  Oh yeah!  This can also be a webcam.  Cool!  There is a limit of five per customer.

Popularity: 97% [?]

I like to browse new or interesting products online.  There are things I think are useful, cool, interesting or junk, I plan to post those I like for one reason or another.  I am not endorsing the product, making any claims about the product, selling the product, responsible for the product, many time I do not even own the product.  I just put them out there.  So if you do buy one and it ends up being junk, don’t blame me you need to do your own homework before buying.

Popularity: 20% [?]

I saw this a while back on PBS’s Wired Science. For the life of me I could not remember the name but finally I decided to do some good searching, and I found it! This software “takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space”. It is like taking a photo on vacation, then getting every other photo (that’s been taken and uploaded) of that same location from every angle recreating a three-dimensional space.

Photosynth is based on the research of Noah Snavely, Steve Seitz and Richard Szeliski in a joint effort between the Universtiy of Washington and Microsoft. Currently it is only in a tech preview stages (basically alpha) but I really hope something comes of this, and I’m sure it will.

You can read about the research at: http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/
The Microsoft version of the above page: http://research.microsoft.com/IVM/PhotoTours/
Find more information and download at: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Can you imagine?  Take a vacation, snap off hundreds of photos, upload them, they mix with thousands or millions of other photos then reconstructed into an amazing “snapshot” frozen in time.  The places, people, the energy being shared around the world of our most beautiful places on Earth.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I promised a good friend of mine that I would let him know what the best web host is out there. I’ve been using 1and1.com for years with no complaints. Unfortunately, I cannot say I am thrilled with them. A few things fall short like the web mail. The control panel is easy enough to use but doesn’t seem all that powerful, okay I mean it really isn’t pretty. I know where to go to get things done and I guess that is what counts. However, this post is mostly for my friend who just wants a place to host his business site. Normally, I would recommend top notch place like iEvolve.biz but that’s a bit expensive and honestly not necessary. So I did my search and found these that for one reason or another I will recommend.

1and1.com – I’ve been with with for years and never really had any issues. I started with the Microsoft hosting then quickly switched to linux. I found it much easier and far more support to add my own stuff like this blog. MySQL is easy to setup, email accounts a snap and ftp is always relyable. I never had my site go down either (very importat for any host). One complaint is the lack of Server Side Include support on my package. Other hosts allow this with their base package.

EasyCGI looks like a great host. Full feature list, excellent track record, great uptime guarantee and a professional business approach. They only host with Microsoft Server 2003 and have all the latest (they keep up with the technology and keep their server fully updated. If it weren’t for the higher price (base package starts at about $8/month) I would make this tops.

I originally suggested HostMonster.com and still feel very good about this host. I am only second guessing because they do not seem to offer as much as the rest. They are a bit newer to the game but that doesn’t necessary mean they are any less of a host. I really liked their control panel, easy to use even for the greenest newbie.

iPower.com has always ranked high with the official host rating experts. Their starter plan ($3.95/month) is a great way to get started. However, if you want any real use out of your site you need to upgrade to the Pro Plan at $7.95/month. A good solid host.

POWweb is another favorite of many and I can see why. Lots of features, rock solid Unix hosting, liberal offerings and extras. Their OPS control panel is another nice, easy and has all the information you need at a glance.

I don’t have much to say about StarLogic that I haven’t said already about the others. They are one of the top 5 rated hosts and it is easy to see why. Lost of features, great pricing and everything you will want, even if you just like to play with new gadgets.

Popularity: 1% [?]