A while back Consumer Reports decided to post some pictures of the funny products that they have come across over the past 60+ years they have been rating consumer products.  This one to the left takes the cake!

Sonic Blaster, 1966

The Mattel Agent Zero M Sonic Blaster 5530 fires compressed air with a deafening blast. Our measurements top out at 157 dB—above a level that can do permanent damage to the hearing of an adult. We rate the toy Not Acceptable.

You have to love the 157dB rating, remember hearing loss begins at 90dB’s!  Also good thing its right next to his ears!  We looked around eBay and we were able to find this model for sale but it was no operable without a trigger and a broken bladder which is what makes the toy go BOOM!  I would pay top dollar to find a working one of these to scare the crap out of some geese just hanging out at a lake.

Check out the Gallery from Consumer Reports.

New version of Windows Live Writer has hit the internet.  Looks like the changes bring in a few GUI changes softens up some corners and adds the functionality to trim and crop pictures as well as the tabs at the bottom for navigation.  Since I love Windows Live Writer and could not blog without it this gets a thumbs up as far as progressive development goes.

Who knew Microsoft would actually make a product that I like so much!

Download it here

Yes those are a pair of keys on top of that fully functional computer.  This machine is available in a pared-down 256MB configuration (sans Wi-Fi, hard drive) for $220; a 512MB Wi-Fi version (with no hard drive) for $245; or go all out with the 512MB / Wi-Fi / 60GB hard disk version pre-installed with either Ubuntu or Windows XP Home SP3, for $295 or $335, respectively.

No links to distributors of this bad boy but I am really starting to think that I need to have one of these and keep it connected to my TV so I don’t have to worry about plugging in a computer to the TV.

CompuLab Fit-PC Slim is the name of the model and manufacturer I will have to keep and eye out for this one to hit the streets

LinuxDevices.com

With the amazing pre-fall weather we had today I decided to go on a bike ride. After going down to Cherry Creek for a burger at the Cherry Cricket I then road up and around Washington Park to check out the park people. Then I decided that I couldn’t remember the last time I was down by Confluence Park. So I got back on the Cherry Creek Trail and headed west to the Platte River. After passing a few homeless people on the trail it was obvious that they have spent a ton of money around that park in the past few days.

It looks amazing but all I could think about is that Family Guy show where Stuie says how much he loves this area but they needed to leave after the sunset because it is a scary place at night! I imagine the same is true with this one. A short 28 miles later my ride was over.

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Here is a quick shortcut code snippet that you need to make a remote desktop shortcut.  This way you can create shortcuts for all the different remote desktop’s you have and then have Launchy pick them up and you can login very quickly and easily.  Also note you username and password are stored via running the normal remote desktop from your accessories then you are setup to use the shortcut without any issues.

%windir%\system32\mstsc.exe /v:server name /w:1280 /h:1024

I ran across this site today from one of my other blogs.  This is a really cool interactive flash run site that lets you track each and every storm as they come up in the Atlantic Ocean.  It gives you gobs of information regarding wind speed and barometric pressure readings.  It also allows you to overlay a number of different layers for different information such as path models of the storm.

It is times like this that I am glad I live in a land locked state 1 mile above the oceans!

StormPulse – Track Hurricanes in real time

Yes please! Below are some pictures of the new Audi R8 GT3 they just finished making. Doesn’t look like there are too many specs out of the car yet other than the conversion to rear wheel drive because that is a requirement of GT3 cars. Love the spoiler and body kit on this car it looks amazing

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Looks like its time has finally come.  I have been waiting for an application like this for a while.  This application which is a plugin for your PS3 which adds Hulu to your PS3 and there is talk that there might be a place for Netflix watch it now in the future.  If I can get my PS3 streaming media that would be awesome and save me plugging in my laptop to our LCD screen and watching it that way.  The program is free to download and use for 30 days then it comes at a price.  A price that I would be willing to pay if it works the way it is supposed to ($30).  Initial reviews are rolling in around the web and it looks like the only complaint is that the video quality isn’t the best and that you hope to have a high speed connection to stream the shows.  My first question is who owns a PS3 without high speed Internet?

With all these new applications, and downloadable games, and videos that I am downloading looks like I might be buying that 120 GB hard drive to replace the 40 GB hard drive it came with pretty soon.  Luckily Sony is smart and designed the PS3 for easy upgrades in hardware!  Love it!

These pictures are just amazing.  HDR is the technique used here, it stands for High Dynamic Range photography.  I allows for higher definition and more texture to the pictures.  Wikipedia has a little more explanation on the technique but it basically creates these very vivid and amazing pictures.

Follow this link to see a few galleries of this technique in practice!  I love it!

Below are a few more links

Executor is a new player to the game of Windows quick launch applications.  With Executor you get a light footprint application that searches not only your start menu for applications but your documents and searches via keywords.  It is full of custom settings and also doubles as a hot-key application manager allowing you to setup any application to start with a certain hot-key combo.

Being partial to Launchy I found this program to be a little bloated and a little over configurable.  Not bloated in the sense it is too large just bloated in the sense of options they attempted to put into place.  The program is still in beta so I will keep an eye on it as it moves into GA and maybe they will clear up some of the bugs that I was seeing.  Also I really like the hotkey combo with Launchy of Alt-Spacebar to launch it where as with Executor I cannot choose that key combo.  The keywords are a nice touch but it is something else to setup independently and takes too much time.  Perhaps I am getting old and set in my ways but I think so far I will stick with Launchy’s quick easy interface and reliability.   Plus I am a big fan of my new skin for Launchy!

If you still want to check out Executor you can get it here.