June 26th, 2006
Ah, human achievement. Will it ever cease to amaze us? First it's the wheel, then language, and now (and it's overdue), I give you the USB-powered air-conditioned shirt:
Other than USB the shirt is powered by four AA batteries or your car's cigars socket. This ingenious idea is the brain child of Kouzi Ichigaya an ex Sony technician. At present half sleeve shirts for men and women are available with this unique system in Japan.
There's not much information about this one, and I think it's probably a misnomer to call it 'air-conditioned'. I mean, does it actually cool the air, or just push it around?
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June 26th, 2006
How's that sci-fi dream of a heads-up display on your sunglasses coming along? Who cares, because the folks at Myvu want to sell you some shades that will "virtually enlarge" video from iPods and other portable video devices.
You can see around the large “floating image” provided by the myvu personal media viewer and be aware of what’s happening around you. See who’s approaching and pause the video. Depending on who it is, you may instead decide to crank the volume…enjoy those noise-reducing earbuds.
Video obstructing your vision and noise-reducing earbuds? Yeah, that doesn't sound unsafe at all. Still, if they work, they'd be pretty cool for air travel.
Thanks to Mark for the find.
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June 23rd, 2006
Chris Pirillo, an alpha geeky traveller if there ever was one, is down in San Francisco and staying at the Orchard Hotel:
Fifth, the doorman walked up to us after we checked in to offer brochures which could help us get around the city. Sixth, they have a full DVD library of new movies which they let guests borrow for free (two at a time, unlimited). Seventh, the room comes with over 50 popular cable television stations. Eighth, the TV has a DVD player hooked up to it.
Plus, there's apparently free wired broadband. Chris, obviously, was pleased.
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June 20th, 2006
Maryam recently received some amusing anecdotes and quotes from flight attendants. In terms of goofy emailed jokes, they're pretty good:
"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite."
Heh. Personally, I don't dig most of the 'we're funny flight attendants' shtick, but this is head and shoulders above the rest.
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June 16th, 2006
When he's not the editor-in-chief of Wired, Chris Anderson is busy writing a book about the Long Tail (actually, he's probably done by now). He recently divulged what's in his gadget bag. It's not inconsequential:
And that's just under the heading 'core tech'.
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June 12th, 2006
I found this article via Digg, where some folks are rightfully complaining that half of these items are (as yet) vapourware. Regardless, here are ten travel gadgets. My favouriteis the solar-powered pith helmet:
The hat has a whisper-quiet motor powered by four compact solar panels on top. In the evening, or on a cloudy day, the fan is powered by two AA batteries (not included). As lighting conditions change, you can easily switch between solar and battery operation with a flip of a switch.
I also dig the solar-powered briefcase. Or, more accurately, a briefcase-shpaed folding solar panel.
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June 8th, 2006
I recently decided to seek membership in Jeremy's blogging network cum empire. Why? I wanted to:
- Motivate myself to write more often on the site.
- Increase the site's relatively meagre visitor totals.
- See if there's more money to be made from the site through advertising.
So I'm pleased to announce that Geeky Traveller is now a member of the b5 Media network. What does that mean to readers? Nothing, really, except that there might be a few more of you.
For the same reasons, a couple of months back I accepted an invitation to add Geeky Traveller to BlogBurst's syndicated travel blogs. Now Geeky Traveller's content (along with a bunch of other travel blogs) gets syndicated to a little box on the travel pages of newspaper sites like the San Francisco Gate and the Austin-American Statesman. BlogBurst hasn't brought me many new visitors or much cash yet, but it's early days and I don't see a downside to syndicating the content this way.
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June 8th, 2006
I recently read about Farecast on John Batelle's blog. He describes the business case very effectively:
Farecast pays attention to the market price of all airline fares out of particular cities (it only does Boston and Seattle for now) at all times (it uses an industry data feed that, unfortunately, does not include Southwest). It then uses this data to help forecast when the right time might be for you to buy your ticket (and get the best price). In short, it's a rip off detector for flights. Farecast leverages the power of data to put you back in charge, or at least more in charge.
Sweet. It's a gas price tracker for flights. Consumers just got a little bit smarter.
I appreciate this service because I've never been able to decipher the black art of flight pricing. I look forward to some meta-advice about optimal purchasing times, based on the data they collect.
Of course, if they become really popular, they'll start Heisenberging flight prices. I know it's not really Heisenberg, but the observer effect, but the former sounds way better.
The service is only for Seattle and Boston at the moment, and I expect they'll handle all of the US before they address us Canucks, but it's a nifty project.
Pamela also mentioned a competing service, FareCompare, which will handle the True North Strong and Free.
I've got some Farecast invitations, if anybody else wants to try it out. Just leave a comment.
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June 7th, 2006
Driving north along California's historic and twisty Highway 1, we overnighted at the Big Sur Lodge in Pfieffer Big Sur State Park in, yes, Big Sur.
We rented a little cabin, which looked dodgy on the outside but was newly renovated and quite modern on the inside. Not surprisingly, there was no Internet access (or television or telephone).
There was electricity, but puzzlingly the outlets had these little brackets screwed over them. If I hadn't had my extension cord for my PowerBook, I probably wouldn't have gotten the big blocky Apple power cord into the outlet.
Does anybody have a theory as to why the Lodge would do this?
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