Gadgets and Gear
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How A Leica Lens Is Made
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I love getting into the tech of cameras. Digital cameras nowadays are incredibly sophisticated, and perform in an amazing range of situations. To illustrate the complexity of the process of creating a camera lens, here’s a quick video from Leica. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to use one of these when I get my hands…
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Buy My Computer! Selling my 15″ MBP on eBay
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Since I’ve been doing a lot more traveling lately, I’ve decided to trade in my excellent 15″ Apple Macbook Pro for a smaller, lighter 13″ Apple Macbook Air. With the new MBA’s set to be announced by apple sometime this week or next, I thought now would be the perfect time to switch. Here’s the…
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Cross Section Views of Leica Lenses
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Here’s a cool cross sectional view of a high quality Leica lens, showing just how many glass and metal elements to into creating the finished product. Of note in this view, you can see how much actual structure is required around the glass elements, to make everything function correctly. Cross Section Views of Leica Lenses…
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Kickstarter: Olloclip iPhone Lens System
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Here’s one Kickstarter product worth supporting.. the Olloclip lens converter for iPhone. This nifty, compact lens snaps onto the corner of a naked iPhone 4 and provides a wide angle and fisheye lens. I love iPhone photography, so seeing new high quality photography accessories being developed for it is good news. Since I’ve gotten an…
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Using The FastMac U-Socket Wall Outlet with USB Power Ports
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After months of waiting, I finally got my FastMac U-Socket – It’s an electrical outlet with an additional two USB power ports on it. Now, installed on my wall behind my night stand, I can both power up my iphone while I sleep, as well as keep my lamp and cable modem plugged in. Installation…
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Martin Marks for Esquire: Can Men of Sport Also Be Men of Style?
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Recently my good friend Martin Marks‘ article “Can Men of Sport Also Be Men of Style?” was posted on Esquire Magazine’s blog. The article discusses sportswear through the ages, and the evolution of materials and construction of the clothing and equipment that athletes use. One interesting point that is pointed out is the trend in…
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Predator Learning Camera
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Interesting post this morning about Zdenek Kalal’s “Predator” learning camera algo. The system uses an adaptive visual recognition and learning algorithm to dynamically identity and track any object in view. As soon as it’s tasked with a new object, it immediately begins gathering visual information about the image – the longer it sees and image,…
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iPad 2 or wait?
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IntoMobile recently published a quick comparison chart of the iPad 2 versus the current competition. Although the new iPad 2 does have some significant upgrades – cameras, gyro, A5 processor, I don’t think that it’s compelling enough to prompt existing iPad owners to immediately upgrade. However, this new iPad is good enough to possibly get…
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Doug Ritter Clarifies The SPOT Satellite Messenger Check-In Procedure
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Recently I wrote a brief rant regarding the checkin behavior of the SPOT Satellite Messenger. I’m a bit confused and dissapointed that the device would give a green “checkin confrirmation indicator” when in fact it has not confirmed the checkin was successfull. To get a little perspective on the story, I wrote to survival expert…
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SPOT Satellite Messenger Giving False Checkin Confirmations
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This past week my sister has been traveling through India. For her trip, I hooked her up with my SPOT Satellite Messenger. The SPOT Satellite Messenger allows her to “check in” via satellite and GPS, and automatically send a pre-defined list of email addresses a message telling us she’s ok, with her GPS location. Since…
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SkunkJuice Shows Up With Two Magnetic TV Spots
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Skunkjuice has a novel concept, but even better tv spots (Spot One, Spot Two) for their new magnetic headphone connector cord. The cable uses a magnetic coupling to connect the cable to the jack, so that if any stress is put on the cable – snagging on a corner, pulled by your jacket, etc, the…
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Gloves with Embedded Electrodes
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Today was the first day using my new Burton winter gloves. These gloves are similar to my old ones, except that the glove liners in these have embedded metal electrodes in the index finger and thumb. The electrodes allow you to use touchscreen electronics, such as an iPhone, with the gloves still on. Very convenient,…
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Optimus Maximus Lives!
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Great new Engadget video of Art Lebedev’s Optimus Maximus OLED Keyboard… It looks great, even though it’s still using beta software and firmware. I was going to say that I’d like to see this kind of keyboard on laptops (my Macbook Pro, for example).. but now I think that the self-lit OLED displays on each key would be a huge drain on…
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Ambient Sounds
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Listening to: The Buddha Machine Check this out! Last night I was in Flight001, a travel store near my house which I love. I found this neato little sound machine, called the Buddha Machine, made by FM3. It has a speaker and a dial and a button. You turn it on and turn up the…
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Holiday 2006 Wishlist
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Listening to: Blockhead – Downtown Science Ok, thanks to wishlistr (an obvious flickr/web 2.0 rip…), my (in progress) wishlist is online.Check it out… https://www.wishlistr.com/jamfan2
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Jingle
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Listening to: Medeski Martin & Wood – Combustication ***UPDATED!!*** Ok, so here are some cool gadgets etc that I’ve been eyeing lately.. you could call it my holiday gift guide… – Insulated Thermos. Yeah, one with a sealing lid and a lit that tunrs into a cup.. i like the kind of slender ones they…