I just washed my clothes and am waiting for the dryer to finish up. While doing so I came across an invention that makes single people like me feed dating sites like match.com and eharmony.com. A single bachelor like myself couldn’t even do his daily chores without a lovely young lady, no seriously.

Your Turn is a finger print recognition clothes washing machine. It does not let the same person wash two times in a row. Such a machine was marketed for ‘Father’s Day’ when I feel that this would be more of a ‘Mother’s Day’ present. I’m neither a father nor a mother so make sure not to get me one of these things or I’ll take my business to the local laundromat.

Every now and again a gadget comes along that makes me scratch my head. The Dog LED Tail Light is such a gadget.

This device attaches to the tip of a dog’s (A POOR ABUSED DOG’S) tail and can be programmed to read out a message when the dog wags his tail because he’s pleased to see his owner. Yes, because any animal would be downright thrilled to have a blinky tail.

My only question is does this product come with drugs? I’m not sure how else the dog would climb out of the abyss of humiliation and despair he would find himself in once he understands what his owner has strapped to him THIS time.

Who decided this was a good idea? Was someone sitting around in an office just going, you know what, it’s really not embarrassing enough for the dog (and everyone else) to dress him up in people clothes. We need something more!

My favorite part of the article on the topic is the line that says “clearly some technophile dog owner noticed the gaping void that remains in the growing dog electronics market…” News Flash: SOMETIMES THERE ARE GAPING VOIDS FOR A REASON.

You don’t see people investigating the ‘how about if we make gum taste like dirt, nobody has done that before’ market. Technically, that’s a gaping void right there. Oh there are plenty of others. There’s the ‘how about leg warmers for snakes nobody’s done that before either’ market. Clearly that one’s ridiculous though, because as we all know, leg warmers went out of style after the 80s. My point is, some markets are better left untapped.

The only way it would ever be ok with me to place this device on a dog, would be if the dog got to program the message on it. I bet he wouldn’t pick “I missed you”. I picture more “You’ve got to sleep sometime” and then he’d wag his tail like crazy.

You’re on speaker phone! Years ago I was one of those annoying Nextel ‘beep beep’ users. Nextel had a great idea, speaker phone use with mobile phones. The craze didn’t really catch on, and I have since left Nextel for the T-Mobile. The ‘Get More’ campaign with super-hot Catherine Zeta persuading me to use my mobile more, dragged me away from speakerphone friendly Nextel.

It looks as though lately, more phone makers are answering my call of desperation. Here’s a few phones that now come with speakerphone. The biggest issue with speakerphone able phones is people knowing when to turn speakerphone off!

Snowboarding, the ancient art of gliding over the snow on a large piece of wood, has met the 21st century. Now you can equip your snowboarding jacket with bluetooth mp3 players, headphones, even cell phones.

Rebecca Anema has taken it one step further.

She has equipped several jackets with social GPS devices, so you can keep track of your friends the whole time you are on the mountain. Let’s face it, you always want to go to snowboarding with your friends, but it’s inevitable that you all end up separated. I know I get left behind because I straight suck at snowboarding. But this way my friends can ditch me guilt free, cause they will know where I am the whole time.

I have a story up today at Wired on what I can only call Blogger drama. Basically one guy, Nick Lewis, is accusing CNN of conducting a viral marketing attack on all spam posts about CNN, to make sure criticism of the network doesn’t get ranked high on Google searches. Quite a claim indeed.

It’s tough to report on blogger drama, because you can’t give too much credence to claims made my individuals with no real evidence, especially when the claim is against one of the oldest and trusted news networks in the nation.

But what I think this story goes to show is that everyone really does have a voice. You can blog your accusations and if there is enough speculation to raise an eyebrow, you’ll get instant notification.

In lieu of Apple’s highly anticipated operating system OS X 10.4 Tiger, which launches today at 6pm, I share a small gem of nostalgia for Apple fans everywhere. Different District hosts every Apple add or T.V. spot I’ve ever heard of and then some. Each clip has a counter on it, and after a quick glance over I noticed that Gwen Stefani’s Pepsi/iTunes add had the most hits… oh that Gwen *melt*

“Our conclusion has been that if you want people to understand the news better, then get that stuff off the screen” . –University of Kansas professor Tom Grimes.

A recent study proved that T.V. gives us too much information at once. We lose about 10% of the facts presented due to banners, scrolling stock tickers, and other distractions. This may be true, but there are many factors that I don’t see in the playing field on this one. I need things such as marquee headlines and cartoon ads to fuel my interest. Watching T.V. is not a means to gather important information, it is entertainment. Forgetting 10% of the facts from a T.V. show is a small price to pay for actually being entertained for the length of the show IMHO (in my humble opinion).

PC-TOO, an organization that must be completely out of their minds, is promoting a one-week halt on computer use. August 1st through August 7th is deemed PC-Turnoff Week. The motive for such a crazy idea is geared towards the kids. PC-TOO’s goal: “make parents aware of the risks associated with excessive computer use by their children “. –Ha, they don’t want their kids turning into geeks! It’s already too late.
Would I still be abiding by the PC-TOO insanity week if I only used my Mac and left my PC off?

The pen beat the sword in days of old, when pens were feathers and people talked like a Shakespeare play. This pen would kick those ancient artifacts in the tush, and be able to download it to your computer afterwards. Logitech’s io2 Digital Writing System pen remembers what you wrote, and even types out your written notes and diagrams. The pen is trainable, has 856kb of storage (40 pages), and a USB connection. Now there’s no excuse for me to lose all those phone numbers gorgeous women give me.

Tom Martin, clever lad that he is, has invented a glass that prevents spiking. Apparently, he got the idea after a friend was sexually assaulted as a result of drinking a spiked beverage.

From what I can tell, the glass is stylish, and cleverly designed. The center of the glass is hollow, and the beverage is contained between the double outer walls of the glass. The walls are so close together, that a special nozzle must be used to pour liquid into them, making it almost impossible to drop a drug into the drink. I hardly ever say this but, I am so impressed. And I bet, because Tom goes to design school in London, that he is probably English. Which would mean he has a sexy accent. Which means he’s completely awesome and gets to be my hero for at least the next two weeks or until I get distracted by something shiny.