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Magic Dog Door Spawns New Idea!

Plexidoor just anounced a new sliding dog door. It works with an RFID chip (like a ton of dogs have now), when the dog gets close the door slides open. Doesn’t work for other dogs…. Hmm brilliant?

Personally I don’t like the idea of a dog going in/out on their own. I personally don’t like tons of mud everything, so unless the system could be disabled in the rain…

Now a better idea? Put one of those RFID chips on your key chain, you walk to your front door, it automatically unlocks, shut the door and walk away, it automatically locks. Now there is a good idea! Your door is always locked, except for you, in which case its always unlocked!

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Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything No Comments » July 2008

File This Under Bad Idea: WASP Knife

Getting stabbed sounds bad… but what if the knife explodes you? What the crap????

WASP Knife does just that. From their website:

As divers, we all know what the effects of compressed gas are underwater. Our training teaches us that our lungs would burst from over-inflation if we held our breath and rose to the surface. This principle is key to the effectiveness of the WASP Injection System.

This weapon injects a freezing cold ball of compressed gas, approximately the size of a basketball, at 800psi nearly instantly. The effects of this injection will drop many of the world’s largest land predators. The effects of the compressed gas not only cause over-inflation during ascent when used underwater, but also freezes all tissues and organs surrounding the point of injection on land or at sea. When used underwater, the injected gas carries the predator to the surface BEFORE blood is released into the water. Thus giving the diver added protection by diverting other potential predators to the surface.

Bayonets were made illegal for their brutal actions, but they didn’t explode you… but I guess… they could now!

This just seems like a bad idea, watch what it does to a watermelon!

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Posted by Tyler Posted in: Technology 1 Comment » July 2008

Wiiste of Money: Part 2

At E3 (some gaming thing I think), Ninento announced a new motion-plus sensor add-on for the wii-mote. It makes the movements 1-1. Supposed to make control wayyyy better.

It comes with Wii Sports 2 (Resort) which won’t work without it. Yay, more addons for the Wii. Sure… fine… great… The games are getting better. I like that, since my biggest complaint is the games don’t compare to the xBox/PS3 or I just don’t like them. Wii Sports as I said earlier is awesome, so another Wii sports is great.

Drops The Ball

So another good game is coming out… but wait… ONLY ONE GAME IS COMING OUT. Nintendo failed to notify third party developers that motion plus was coming out. The developers found out about motionplus the same time the rest of us did. Know what that means? Another sample game (Wii Sports Resort) will be the only game to use motionplus for some time.

The problem with a lack of quality titles for the wii is only going to increase. Nuts to you Nofriendo!

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Posted by Tyler Posted in: Technology No Comments » July 2008

I Wasted My Money On A Nintendo Wii

I bought Alanna a wii as an early birthday present, as I thought it would be really fun for us to play together and with friends. Would I go through with the purchase again?

Hell no.

In fact, I am really tempted to sell it. I am not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but I like these new party style games. Wii Sports is a perfect example, but the games I really love are the Rock Band/Guitar Hero style of games.

First let me start with Wii Sports, it is fun to play with friends, but I tire of it quickly. The mini games, are for the most part fun, but very limited.

The tennis is the best gameplay of the sports. The only problem is that the longest you can play is best 3 of 5 games. You can’t even play a full set. Its a very cool demo at most.

Baseball sucks. No defense, no intangibles, its hitting and pitching and nothing else.

Bowling is probably the best game. You get to play a full game, which is very nice, it actually feels like bowling!

Golf is my favorite. The game action is very cool having to hit with the right force and read the wind. The problem is that once again it lives in demo territory. There are only 4 clubs, 9 holes, and not much else.

Boxing. I’m not a fan, gameplay is iffy, as its tough to tell exactly what you are doing. I don’t ever play it.

Now wii sports is the best example of wii gameplay, but after 1 week I am getting bored with it. I am looking at some of the other sports games, but they don’t seem to be the same. For instance TopSpin 3 (tennis) makes you control the player with the numchuk, it makes it more of a gamer type game. Tiger Woods golf may be a saving grace, I am going to rent that this week.

Now the saving grace… The music games. No wait. They are a giant ripoff.

Rock Band is a perfect example. The PS2 version is $100, the XBOX/PS3/Wii versions are $170. The wii features match the PS2 version. Gah. The main kicker for me (and the reason I am returning Rock Band) is that there is no song downloads! Instead they try to sell you song discs. That is $30 for a bunch of songs, but I really only want 4 of the songs, and is $7.50 + tax per song. No way. Rock Band goes back.

Now what happens with the wii, I think Alanna wants to keep it, and it is her present, so I am fine keeping it, but unfortunately I am goign to have to spend another $500 to get a 360 and Rock Band, although I may wait to get Rock Band 2, and just buy the Rock Band 1 game. There should be good interoperability.

So in short, the wii is a big money waste. If you are a happy spending $500 for wii sports, then its fine, but there isn’t much else.

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Posted by Tyler Posted in: Technology 1 Comment » July 2008

Screwing Over By The Telcos Continues: Txt Msg Version

Jim Prentice has asked the Telcos to explain their new text message money theft scheme.

Well here is the low down, you need to pay for incoming text messages, even spam. Can you turn off text messages? No. So there is a potential cost that could be quite large. As you look at the situation more closely you realize that this is a charge that the consumer has no control over. You can’t stop them, you haven’t requested them, there is no pay per use on this.

Further complicating things, is that it is possible to send text messages pretty well free of charge. Example, Bell allows SMS messages to be sent through email addresses:

XXXXXXXXXX@txt.bell.ca

So in theory, you could send 1000 emails to that message inbox, and it would cost the customer $150 -$0.15 per message. Nice system eh? The customer can’t block it, and the only way to protect themselves is to buy a text messaging plan. This is a scam of astronomical proportions and I am very glad that the industry minister has focused on this!