Clear Blue Dei

This is my Tech Edition of gift ideas for the holidays.  These are all things that I really find neat and useful. And fun!

And let me say, if you haven’t realized it already, that I am very budget-conscious. I don’t recommend or want the highest end things, I recommend the things that are the best bang for a regular person on a budget.

UPDATE 12/10/2009: If you read this before, you didn’t see this item. But I had to go back and add it because it is just too good not to include and I had just forgotten to add it in the first place.  And what is that item?  It is the Gboard: a Keyboard just for Gmail.  You may be thinking that sounds like a gimmick, I thought so too.  But after reading Mashable’s review of the Gboard and given the super-reasonable price of $19.99, I think this is a great stocking stuffing and useful gadget for people who use gmail regularly. It does all the functions that can be done with keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, but doesn’t require you to memorize all the shortcuts and is easier to use. Mashable says: “Overall we’re impressed with the Gboard. It does what it says it will do, the keys are laid out in a way that makes sense, and, for heavy Gmail users, shortcuts can save a tremendous amount time throughout the day.” For $19.99, if I was a Gmail user or knew someone who was, I’d consider this as a gift.

The Droid by Motorola. I have a Verizon cell phone old-style that I got in 2004 and it has been just fine for me.  It does everything I want, takes decent pictures and videos, good signal for calling, good battery life, voice calling, etc (no bluetooth but that isn’t a big deal to me).  I have never had a desire to upgrade because I never saw a phone that I wanted or that seemed all that exciting.

The iPhone never did it for me at all. Too expensive, too proprietary and on AT&T so fugetaboutit. I never really got the iPhone buzz.  But then the Droid came out. I’d heard rumblings about the Android operating system that sounded intriguing, but didn’t see the definitive phone that ran it.  Until the Droid.

My husband just got one for work and he brought it home for me to check out. I haven’t even looked it over to speak of and I’m am starting to want it. I was looking at it and thinking, “OK, it’s nice. Keyboard is still too small for my fat fingers. Not seeing anything special”.  Then I stumbled on the Google voice command lookup. I said “papillon” and it brought back a search list. I said “getting wine stains out of carpet” and it brought back instructions. I said “directions to Newcastle Indiana” and it gave me map and step-by-step instructions using GPS.  That started getting my attention! I’m really starting to get the itch now. And I can get it for $99 with Verizon 2-year renewal. The only sticking point is that I am hesitant to pay more a month for web/data access. I don’t go out that often to where I would not have my computer or my netbook and paying a fair amt more for the web when I can usually get it for free is hard. And I have a GPS that is free access. I don’t really need it and I have most everything it offers, but I do kind of want one.

Next are a few tech tools for easily converting your old negatives, slides and photographs to digital pictures. I know everyone has a stack of photographs laying around that they have taken over the years and would like to scan them in digitally but using a regular scanner, it is quite time-consuming. I wanted something that I could just feed photos into while watching TV or the like. Something easy and not too labor intensive. I did some research and decided on the Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card for a quick, easy and reasonably priced photo copier. I love this and it is definitely on my wish list. It is $85.68 on Amazon.

And an item that I have recently purchased is the Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC. I love it and recommend it for a reasonably priced negative and slide converter. I am not going to go into great detail here because I wrote a post on how to use it and showing the results. But I will say that I think it was a very worthwhile purchase and was only $49.99.

Another item that I found and want is a pocket projector. If you travel at all, for business or for pleasure, this is sure to please. You can connect the pocket projector to your laptop or netbook and watch TV shows and movies projected on your hotel wall with a picture up to 60″ that is both clear and vibrant. (a good place to watch online is hulu.com or any of the TV station websites). Or give a presentation or slideshow for business without having to lug a huge projector around. Or play your video games in big picture.  Or hook it up to your phone (can’t quite see why, but I’m sure there is a good reason). Or collaborate with someone and not have to crowd around the little computer screen. And with the cost of adding luggage to your airfare these days, the less you have to carry, the better.

The Optoma EP-PK-101 PICO Pocket Projector- 4 oz.. is somewhat expensive, at $219 but it’s just a clever little thing. It connects to a wide range of things.
Connects to:
a) iPod, iPhone, and iTouch with included bundled connection kit
b) Camcorders, DV-Cams, and Digital Cameras enabled with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
c) DVD Players and other video players enable with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
Note: This product does not connect to notebook computers, PCs, PDAs, cell phones, or other devices unless the device has composite output. Please make sure to consult your device’s owner manual.
and it only weighs 4 oz. It projects an image size up to 60 inches. You can recharge the battery via USB or included AC charger. It was listed in the Time’s best travel gadgets of 2009.

While that sounds decent, I personally would bite the bullet and spend $299 and get the Cinemin Swivel Multimedia Pico Projector which is another pocket projector that looks very good and has all the connectors and everything to connect to a wide variety of devices (without requiring a video composite connection). With this, a netbook and this pocket projector and you are good to go! And it is made by Wow Wee, who have been making the most incredible and innovative toys and gadgets for quite a while.

As a matter of fact, if you have a minute you might just pop over to their site and see if anything else catches your eye.  Their robotic toys (and all their toys) are really something. And not nearly as expensive as you’d think. Check out the Rovio, a mobile webcam robot that you can control from anywhere in the world. And you can hear what is going on whenever it is and also say things over it’s speaker. Can’t you see a little Rovio wheeling up and swiveling it’s head towards someone and saying something to them while you watch and talk and control it’s movement? Or that makes it’s security rounds that you have programmed it to do? If I didn’t have pets, I might be interested more but with pets, it would last about 2 seconds around here. But watch it in action: The WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam is available on Amazon for a budget-busting $209. Too much for essentially an adult toy, unless you have that kind of money and don’t know what to get the person who has everything.

If you know anyone who does not own a pocket camcorder, they may be interested in one of the various ones on the market.  The main ones are the Pure Digital Flip Mino and Ultra, the Creative Labs Vado and the Kodak Zi6 or Zi8. Consumer Search has two full reviews of these: digital camcorders and HD camcorders and you can judge for yourself which one works best for you. You can also see their reviews of each specific one and they are very good. They also include some regular camcorders (not the Flip style) but I would not get one of them, I would go with the pocket camcorder unless there is a compelling reason not to. They are super-easy to use and they plug right into your USB port to upload. All the other camcorders I have owned were difficult to use and especially difficult to upload to your PC. And I was always hunting for the proper cables and it was too much work for me. The pocket camcorders have very limited features (they basically just record and play) and no editing capabilities but you can do all the editing, cropping, splicing, etc. that you would want when you get the video on the PC and it is really how you would want to do your editing anyway. The pocket camcorders are all very similar and in my opinion, just figure out which feature is most important to you (price, HD, etc) and pick the one that matches it best. I got the Kodak Zi6 because it was a good price and most importantly to me, the viewing screen is larger than the others.  I don’t see as well as I’d like (getting old, y’know) and that was the deciding factor for me.

If you or someone you are buying for already has a pocket camcorder, then they may like some of the accessories for them, like the waterproof case so you can use them underwater. Flip Video AWC2T Underwater Case for UltraHD and Ultra 2nd Generation camcorders (Clear), Flip Video Underwater Case for 1st Generation Flip Ultra Camcorders, Creative Labs VA0580 Vado and Vado HD Waterproof Pouch (Blue), Aquapac 404 Mini Underwater Camera Case, these are a few on Amazon. Another way to find them is to just do a google-type search on “underwater camcorder case Kodak Zi6” but replace the Kodak Zi6 with the specific camera case you are looking for.

Another thing that I already have, but could not live without, is a GPS with voice instructions. My whole family has them and swears by them. My sister moved temporarily to Orlando and it was a godsend.  I have an old Garmin C530 that is the pre-nuvi version (similar to the lowest end nuvi but smaller screen). It works just fine for me. The nuvi versions have a bigger screen, but with the voice instructions, you don’t really need to look at the screen. The most important part is that they have voice instructions and especially that they have text-to-speech.  That means they say things like “In 300 feet, turn left on Winchester Road”. They tell you the road name, not just to turn left in 300 feet (and you don’t know for sure which street).

An interesting question for some of these gadgets is: How long will it be before they are outmoded because the functionality is included in a all-in-one smart phone. The Droid and other new phones have built-in voice GPS and I believe they may be all you would need (I have to test on my husband’s Droid) and they can also take pictures and record like the pocket camcorders. The quality may not be quite as good, but if all you are doing is uploading them to the internet, which is what a lot of people do, you will barely notice the difference. Especially for the $100 – $300 you would save by not buy a dedicated camcorder. They have pretty much definitively replaced the Palm and other handheld devices.

If they had a more functional keyboard, they could replace all kinds of things. There is a rumor about a Tablet PC by Apple in 2010. If it is as expected, it will replace a number of gadgets (how many are unknown at this point). One thing it is supposed to be able to do is act as an e-book reader. If you know me, you will know that I am a very big reader. You might wonder why I didn’t have an e-book reader on my gadgets list. It is mainly because I don’t want to pay the prices they charge to download books and there are very few good free e-books out there and our library does not lend e-books yet. If the prices came down (significantly, or had a cheap subscription plan) or especially, if our library gets e-books, I will reevaluate my decision. At least the e-book readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook and the new Kindle 2 are non-proprietary. It appears they are settling on a standard and that is important. That is a huge downside of the Apple Tablet. Everything they do is extremely proprietary and they don’t open source. That is pretty much why I don’t have much to do with iPhones, etc.

One last tech-ish item is the Nintendo Wii. We do not own a Wii or for that matter, any of the latest game systems. We have a Playstation 2 and enjoy it when we have people over (infrequently). We have Dance, Dance, Revolution dance pads and Guitar Hero with guitars. We haven’t had any reason to upgrade though. But the Wii has a lot of things that I have not seen with the other game systems. The other game systems are pretty much limited to gamers and kids. The Wii has afficienados of all ages and interests. My uncle belongs to a Wii bowling league at his independent living apartment complex. A friend’s mom (and their whole family pretty much) use it to exercise. It looks like a lot of fun and very interactive. I like that kind of thing, but most all of the serious games for gaming systems are just too complicated and difficult for me. And now you can get one easily for $199 and with some looking, some places will throw in a $50 gift card.

And of course, if someone already has one, there is a plethora of accessories for the Wii. That is the drawback of a wii, the system is reasonable but the games and accoutrements easily cost the price of one apiece. Rather than list them all, wii and accessories will show you a list from amazon.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory for Nintendo Wii ($20, or $50 with a game, available at bestbuy.com and elsewhere) is an attachment for the original “Wiimote” controller. The MotionPlus makes the motion-sensing controls more sensitive and precise, so a flick of a wrist can turn your virtual tennis racket and spin your bowling ball. If your gift recipient doesn’t already own “Wii Sports Resort,” it’s worth throwing that in, too — it adds frisbee-throwing with a dog, water-scooter racing, sword fighting and other new games and comes with one MotionPlus attachment.  Here is a writeup that includes this and more tech gift ideas for $100 or less.

Anyone who has a wii would probably really appreciate a game or accessory for it since there are so many things it can do. And they come in all price ranges.

Well, that is it for my budget friendly tech toys and gadgets for 2009. I’m sure the people on your list would love at least one of these items and you probably may too.

Happy Holidays!

~Susan Mellott

Presents for people who are enamored of all things cute and collectible. And some generally amusing stuff to keep it interesting.

Oh hai! If you have been hanging around the internet much, you will have heard of lolcats and have probably visited I can haz cheezburger at least a time or two for your lolcat fix. And if you are even more of a lol head, you probably talk in lolspeak (teh furst language born of teh intertubes.) and know why IS that walrus looking for a blue bucket?” Kthx. And if that is so, you may want to visit the lolmart.  My favorite is the lolrus. He is as cute as a button and if you want to show your love, check out the lolrus tshirt (picture on left).

Or for lolcat with a twist, visit the lolcat bible store with tshirts printed with the lolspeak versions of bible verses like John 3:16 (16 So liek teh Ceiling Kitteh lieks teh ppl lots and he sez ‘Oh hai I givez u me only kitteh and ifs u beleeves him u wont evr diez no moar, kthxbai!’) and Matthew 3:13-15 (13 Den Happy Cat caem from Garary, to has water baf from John14 But John was all “Ur doin it rong, j00 needz to water baf me” 15 And Happy Cat sayed “STFU and gib to me water baf n00b” and John did.) and a cute sticker with ceiling cat (the goodly/godly cat as opposed to basement cat) that says “Mah God, lemme show yu him”. On the back of the tshirts is a link to the lolcat bible translation site which has most of the bible translated into lolspeak.

Or maybe you’d like a little engrish on your gift.  Engrish is what non-english speakers put on their signs, etc. that is supposed to be a translation into english and usually ends up almost indecipherable and pretty funny. The main site, Engrish.com! Be Juicy! is well worth a stop and is almost guaranteed to help you waste an hour or two (or a whole lot more). And while this doesn’t have a store associated with it, if you like engrish, you will also enjoy Hanzi Smatter – dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture.

And one last stop for the cute-addict is the hello kitty and friends shop at Sanrio. They have it all. If you can’t get your cute fix here, you can’t get it anywhere. And for the Hello Kitty fans who want to branch out, there are many other characters you can collect as well, such as Charmmy Kitty. “Charmmy Kitty is a white persian cat that Papa gave to Hello Kitty as a gift. She is well-mannered, quiet, and listens to whatever Hello Kitty says. She loves objects that are bright and sparkly! Charmmy Kitty wears a lace-lined ribbon on her left ear, and a necklace which holds the key to Hello Kitty’s jewelry box.”

or Badtz-Maru: “As his April 1st birthday would suggest, Badtz-Maru is one mischievous little penguin. He lives with his mother and his pinball playing father in Gorgeoustown. He attends the first grade at Gorgeous Academy. Batz-Maru attracts a lot of attention as he walks his pet alligator, Pochi. Badtz-Maru has dreams of greatness when he grows up but for now he rolls his eyes at his humorous life in Gorgeoustown.”

Sanrio may not have the definitive collection of all these characters, but with a little searching you should have no trouble finding more. And another place to look for Hello Kitty and other Japanese related items (manga and anime characters too, and other things) is J-List, a wonderful toybox of things from Japan. And they have an adults-only section as well, which has some fascinating things to look at. JBox is the All Ages, Family Friendly site. This site goes on and on with everything imaginable.  Almost too much to take in all at once if you don’t have something specific you are looking for.  A search on my very favorite character, Totoro, turned up 4 pages of items.

And not to leave anyone out, if you hate Hello Kitty and have made it this far in this post, here is a site you won’t want to miss. It is Hello Kitty Hell – One Man’s Life With Cute Overload. This man married a Hello Kitty Fanatic and keeps his sanity by posting about it.

And one last stop not to miss is Kid Robot. If you have any idea what the things on this list are, not only will you want to go to Kid Robot, but chances are, you already have.

From their About Us page: “The products sold at Kidrobot are the centerpieces of a global movement that exemplifies the cutting edge of both pop art and mass culture. Many Kidrobot toys, such as Dunny, MUNNY, and Frank Kozik’s Labbits and Mongers, attract huge followings. Artists that work with Kidrobot have gained celebrity status-these include USA artists Frank Kozik, Tim Biskup, Huck Gee, Joe Ledbetter, Tristan Eaton, Paul Budnitz, and Tara McPherson; the German design collective eBoy; Japan’s Devilrobots & Mad Barbarians; French street artists Tilt & Mist; the UK’s TADO and ilovedust; Australia’s Nathan Jurevicius; Argentina’s DOMA; and many, many others.

A blend of sculpture and popular art, many of Kidrobot’s exclusive toys are extremely rare and collectible. Artists often create a series of only a few hundred to a few thousand pieces, so once a toy is sold out, it’s sold out forever. Kidrobot toys retail anywhere from $5 to $25,000, and many appreciate in value over time.”

I first heard of Dunnies while watching HGTV when they went into someone’s very expensive, very artistic house and they had a collection of high-end, gallery quality Dunnies. Since then, I found out about Kid Robot and the other collectible items.  Here are a few of the 3 1/2″ Dunnies for sale on their site for a reasonable $7.95.

And last but not least is Bibo.  Archie McPhee carried the original Bibo (as far as I know) and both my husband and I got the squeeze toy (see left).  And I had a Bibo t-shirt with the story of Bibo on the back.  I think the shirt is probably gone by now and I’ll bet it is a collectible.  It should be. I’m not sure why the one sold on Archie McPhee is blue now, but ours were red like the photo.

Who is Bibo?

“Bibo is a God Monster with intelligence. He has two big eyes, and he knows very well what people want to do. He cannot speak, but only “Bi-Bo.” When there is any danger happened, he will speak. The top of his head will light up and his hip will makes many colorful smoke to help him survive because this smoke is very stinking and it can hinder the sight of his enemies.

We love Bibo very much because he always survive by using some funny ways.”

To get the full Bibo story, and other interesting and humorous thoughts, visit the Archie McPhee Blog.

For other cool ideas for gifts, take a look at my list of posts filed under shopping.

Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

Here comes another Christmas and we all wonder what to get the hard-to-please among our family and friends.  Well, good old Archie McPhee still isn’t letting us down! Despite the fact that they no longer carry the Illustrated Librarian  line of temporary tattoos (perfect for the librarian on your list), they do have a nice “Read or Die” shopping bag  which is new.  For other librarian(and zombie)  related items  you can check out my post Librarians and Zombies: Novel Presents You will Love (and some librarian trivia)

And while I am mentioning past posts with shopping ideas, here is my post on the Keyringer, a useful item for finding your keys and other lost things. I got one and used it to attach to my dad’s remote at the nursing home so I could find it when it got lost (as it frequently did). It worked well and was a good idea, however, the batteries seem to have died pretty quickly and I have to reorder some more. Update: got batteries and opened the non-working one and it only had 1 battery in it. Not sure where the other one went, possibly taken out for something else at the nursing home? In any case, I think the batteries would still be working in both of them if the one had both batteries!  The beep is louder now though since I put new ones in. So I still like and recommend them.

And have you (or a “friend”) ever felt uncomfortable going “commando” under your gloves or even worse, having your whole hands, just as the good lord made them, flapping around for all to see?  Then you will definitely want a pair of handerpants for Christmas.  And you can wear them under gloves for a little extra warmth and security. Now if only they made handdresses. Or handskirts, that would be pretty! Hear that Archie? A little lace handskirt would be very nice.

Moving on, my next pick for a great place to shop is ThinkGeek.  For a practical gift, this really caught my eye.  Who wouldn’t want a watch with a built-in USB drive? Well, maybe not everyone, but I know I would. Seriously, I really would. I think this is really neat and I especially like that it is an analog watch. Digital watches just tell you what time it is now, analog watches tell you where you are in relationship to the daily flow of time.  At least that is how I see it.

Or for a more esoteric (yet still fun and definitely geeky) idea, there are the interactive t-shirts. My favorites in these are definitely the Electronic Rock Guitar shirt and the Electronic Drum Kit shirt.  Get a couple of people wearing these and you have a band! I like the idea of the guitar shirt, but I have to admit, I think the drums are the bee’s knees!  I almost got one until my husband mentioned that I might not want to be messing with my “cymbals”  in public.  I guess that is a good point. I hadn’t really thought of it. Anyway, here is a video of the Electronic Drum shirt in action:

And if you know someone whose look would be complete if they only had a grill, here are some very reasonably priced grillz. And they are all one-size-fits-all.  I am partial to the golden style blue domination premium grill. Only $49.99 and unique enough that your friends probably don’t already have this. But hurry, they are almost sold out! Or if they have all the grills they need, maybe a pimp cup would be the thing. Again, extremely reasonable prices, for the budget conscious pimp. These are all from IcedOutGear.

And for those of us who live and breathe social media and who need a little splash of color for their chair or couch, visit Craftsquatch, for all the social media icons, in pillow form.  They have the twitter bird, the RSS icon, the facebook icon and more. Show your love of your favorite social networking sites and tools, through interior decorating.

And  if that all wasn’t enough, here is a whole bunch more geek (gamer) related items from Split Reason, Gear for Geeks and Gamers.  The +15 frost resistant beanie is one of my favorite items from this store. Who doesn’t need one of those?

And one last idea, one that my husband has on his wish list. How about a nice bow tie from Absolute ties?  Sean wants one in his school colors (which “coincidentally” is also the Hogswart school colors. He “says” he went to school in “New Zealand”…) For the true bow tie person, they would only want one that you tie yourself. Sean still takes a while to get it tied, but he is working on it. Practice makes perfect.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that the bow tie is going to be the next big thing in men’s office apparel. Well it is if Sean has any say about it.  At least it is becoming a trend among the male library types. Well, it might…

Happy holidays and take care,

~Susan Mellott

“Novel”, “Novel”ties, get it? That is my lame book humor. But these all would make excellent stocking stuffers for the people with an “oblique” sense of humor (to quote Elvis) on your list.

I wrote a post about online shopping sites you may not be familiar with and one of them was a favorite site/catalog of mine called Archie McPhee’s. They carry all sorts of unique, quirky, down-right-fun stuff that doesn’t cost much. In other words, fantastic stocking stuffers for your zany friends and family.

And after writing about it, I decided to go check out what they have since I haven’t visited there for a while. Well they had some new and really cool things! Since two things that go together really well (in a twisted sort of way) are librarians and zombies, to my surprise they had cool things for both!

The first thing I saw (and you have got to LOVE these) are The Illustrated Librarian Temporary Tattoos. They say neat things, like the heart with “Book Lust” and “Born to Read”. This is great for any librarians or book-readers on your holiday list. Be a Wild Thing (at least temporarily) and sport your oh-so-apropos tattoos.

OK, those are pretty cool, but that is not all they have! You can get your own Librarian Action Figure. Each 5″ tall, hard plastic Librarian Action Figure is modeled after Nancy Pearl, a real-life librarian in the Seattle area. Press the button on her back and her arm will move with amazing “shushing action!” Comes with a tiny plastic replica of her most recent book, Book Lust, and a stack of random literature. The card features a brief history of libraries on the back as well as a realistic check-out card in a classic library sleeve along with two bookmarks and a Nancy Pearl trading card! And if that isn’t enough Librarian for you, check out the DELUXE Librarian Action Figure. Each 5″ tall, hard vinyl figure is dressed in a stylish burgundy outfit and comes in a library diorama with a reference desk, computer, book cart, multiple book stacks and some loose books, including a tiny plastic replica of Nancy’s latest, Book Lust 2. Press the button on her back for the infamous “amazing shushing action!”. And here is a link to her “More Book Lust” book.

And while you are at it, visit Nancy Pearl’s very own website. Yes, she’s a real person and right now you can enter on her website to win a trip for two to Seattle and dinner with Nancy Pearl! Her mission according to her website is “To promote and celebrate the written word”.
Here is a little bit about her: Accomplishments: Director of Library Programming and the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. Nancy is best known for the, “If All Seattle Read The Same Book” project. This idea of one city reading the same book at the same time has been imitated in cities around the world. She is a book reviewer for the Seattle Times, Booklist, Library Journal, KUOW-FM Seattle, and KWGS-FM Tulsa.

And while I’m at it, here are some quotes about librarians:

What can I say? Librarians rule. - Regis Philbin

Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides. -James Quinn

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. -Jorge Luis Borges

In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us how to swim. -Linton Weeks

And did you know that Casanova was a librarian? “So famous a womanizer was the Italian-born libertine Giacomo Casanova that, a full two centuries after his death, his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction. But for years he spent in the employ of Count Waldstein of Bohemia as a librarian.” And yes, there is a Casanova Action Figure. I’m not sure what the ‘action’ part of his figure is…

OK, on to Zombies! First of all, do you have your Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks? If not, you must get this now. No person can feel truly prepared without it.

Next, here is a quick list of all the Zombie related items at Archie McPhees. And here are some highlights.

First off, the game “WWZD: What Would a Zombie Do?” Notice the lifelike (deathlike?) zombie arm spinner! And it is only $4.95. When in doubt, spin the arm and see if you should “Eat Brains”, “Moan”, “Hate the Living” and more.

And next, the Glow in the Dark, Flesh Eating Zombies Play set. “Wreak havoc on your sister’s precious diorama with this Flesh Eating Zombie Play Set! Each set includes nine 1″ to 3.25″ tall, hard vinyl zombies, complete with blank stares, gaping mouths, open wounds and missing limbs! Turn off the lights and they glow! Fantastic undead fun for the whole family!” And for more fun, you can get the Horrified B-Movie Victims and create your own dioramas. Or have hours of fun playing Zombies vs. Victims, especially after a hard day at work.

And last but not least, coming soon to Archie McPhee – The Remote Control Zombie! “Run! Hide! Barricade yourself in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse! This 7-3/4″ tall, plastic Remote Control Zombie will trudge forward and groan when you activate him by pressing the button on the 2-3/4″ long brain-shaped remote. Horrifyingly entertaining! Articulated at the neck, shoulders and hips. Requires three AAA batteries (not included).” It doesn’t have a picture or a price yet, but it sure looks fun!

Librarians and Zombies Forever!

~Susan Mellott

It is coming on the holiday season and one gift that everyone would love is more memory for their computer. Nothing will revive an older computer better than adding memory and nothing will speed up a good computer better than more memory.

If you are like me, you have at least one computer that seems slow now, although when you bought it you thought you had gotten ample CPU size and memory. A lot of people blame their CPU when really they just need to add memory. I have a Dell Dimension 4400 desktop computer with (believe it or not) 256 meg of memory and my Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook has 512 meg. At the time I bought each of these, that was considered ample memory, but nowadays 1 gig is about the minimum you would want and if your computer can accept more, so much the better.

My desktop can only handle a maximum of 1 gig (two 512 memory modules) and my laptop can handle 2 gig (two 1 gig modules). I plan to upgrade both of them to their max and as a matter of fact, have already ordered it and we are waiting for it to come in. It is my Christmas present and I can’t think of a better present than that.

But when I asked for memory, I realized that I did not know what I needed to get. There is a lot of different kinds of memory and it is very confusing. The first thing I did since I have Dell computers is to go to the Dell website and look up each of my computers by their service tag. The service tag is on each Dell computer. If you haven’t done it yet and you own a Dell computer, sign in to the Dell website and go to My Systems and Peripherals. Then locate your service tag on your computer. If you can’t find it, there is a Find My Service Tag link right below the where you would enter it. Be aware though that it requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. It doesn’t work with Netscape or what I use, Firefox.

When you enter the service tag (and a description, like “Susie’s Laptop”), you will see a wealth of information about your computer. It will give you a complete summary of the configuration of your computer when you bought it. And on the left will be a list of a whole bunch of support and documentation for your computer.

If I click on Manuals, it takes me to the manuals for my specific computer with a “Tell Me How”, “Service Manual”, “Owner’s Manual” and “Setup Diagram”. All very useful, no? In the Owner’s Manual, it has a whole section with pictures on exactly how to add memory (in this case, to my laptop). And it listed the type of memory to get in the Appendix.

It pretty much spells it out for me. Once I had this information, I could go anywhere and look for two 1 Gig 333-MHz DDR SODIMM SDRAM (PC2700) memory modules. And as it states, my laptop comes standard with 256 meg (I have 512) and can go up to 2 gig (1 gig each slot).

But what if I didn’t have a Dell?

Well, thank goodness, there is a very easy way to tell what memory you need for your computer, thanks to Crucial, makers of very fine computer memory. Crucial provides a system memory scanning tool for your computer that tells you exactly what memory you have and what you need. You do have to either be using Internet Explorer (why does everywhere require that?) or to download their system scanning tool which takes a second and pops the scan results up in your regular (in my case, Firefox) browser just like you ran it from there. It identified my exact computer type, the type of memory I needed and how much I had and what I could use. Here are the results of my scan.

Pretty easy to figure out what I need now, that is for sure. Of course, I would not necessarily recommend buying through their website, it is generally cheaper to go somewhere else. I ended up buying mine from Newegg because they were selling the 1 Gig modules for $70 with a $16 rebate for each module. They don’t have the rebate now (and the price is now $80) but looking up PC2700 on Dealcatcher, I see that now Buy.com has the same 1 gig Crucial memory for $58 with no S&H.

Crucial memory is considered very good and reliable and it guarantees that it is compatible with your computer when you run the scan to determine what kind to get. That is especially important with Dell computers since they are known to be somewhat picky.

I ended up getting Kingston memory for my desktop. They were sold out of that particular Crucial memory and the Kingston memory got good reviews. That is one thing nice about Newegg, they list reviews for each of their products. And Kingston has a list on their website of what computers their memory is compatible with and what type of memory to get. It is good for a double-check, but doesn’t actually scan your system the way the crucial website does.

Kingston also provides some Memory Installation Guides. They are pretty generic though. Better to go to the website for your particular computer and see what online manuals or help they have. Or you can always look in the manual that came with your computer I hardly even think of that, I am so used to looking it up online.

So if you are thinking about what you might want for Christmas (or holiday of your choice) or what you might get someone else, think of the gift of memory! It isn’t as hard as you think and it really will make a big difference to how well your computer will run.

~Susan Mellott

There are many online shopping sites. Most people know about the big ones like Amazon, Overstock, Dell, Buy.com, Half.com and the online version of actual stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart and Sears. Most all of the stores you might visit in person have an online presence. And the store catalogs you get in the mail have online sites too, like Pyramid (unique new age type items), Archie McPhee (extremely hilarious and unusual novelty items) and Chadwicks (women’s clothing).

But there are other, less well known sites that offer good prices as well and are equally trustworthy.

A place I have shopped lately is NewEgg (electronics, which may also be an actual store, but we don’t have one here). We bought computer memory and printer ink at a nice discount. Another place is Deep Discount. They carry items like DVDs and video games. I’ve purchased DVDs for people for Christmas and video games for ourselves. I actually ordered Guitar Hero 3 from them a few weeks ago, but cancelled the order since we are trying to save money and didn’t really need it. But it was cheaper there than anywhere else I could find.

And while you may have heard of Cafepress for a wide variety of interesting t-shirts, mugs and related items, you may not know of Printfection. Printfection has the same sort of shirts, mugs, etc related items, but the prices are cheaper and the quality is better. If you are looking for a unique t-shirt or small gift, I definitely recommend Printfection. The ACPL used a t-shirt design for Library Genius 2.0 as part of their Learning 2.0 program and it is now online at Printfection. I think it is pretty cool

And speaking of cool t-shirts, I have one that I really like (actually a tank top) that I got from Cafepress. I do aikido and wear tank top under my gi. So I found this one that says “I’m tougher than I look” and has a cute little picture. Since I am somewhat small and non-threatening appearing, this seemed very apropos.

However, Cafepress is very annoying in that it is extremely hard to find anything. I had to go to my last order to find the store I got this from in order to find it. No other searches worked. Seems like a poor shopping website design. Unfortunately, Printfection seems to have gotten big enough that it is getting harder to search too, although if you get more specific in your search (such as “Van Gogh”), you can find items.

And then there are the “One Day, One Deal” or “One Deal at a time until its Gone” type sites. The Big Daddy of the One Day One Deal sites is Woot!. Woot offers one deal at midnight each night and sells it until it is sold out. It is such an institution that there is a whole culture around Woot! such as whenever a bluetooth technology item is sold, the podcast is about Bluetooth the Pirate. The podcasts, contests and product descriptions are well worth a look, regardless of whether or not you are interested in the item. The writers are incredibly innovative and funny. Here is the wikipedia entry about Woot!. And every so often, they have a woot-off which is one deal after another. They frequently have very, very good deals on items you very well might want. I’ve gotten all sorts of things from them such as a Dyson DC07 vacuum cleaner for $299 (the absolute best sweeper, I will never use another kind and I have 2), an Acer 22″ widescreen monitor for $199 and much, much more such as a blood pressure monitor for my mom, a couple of cool flashlights, a wireless router, a travel mug coffee maker, 2-pack wireless controllers for Playstation 2 and more. I check Woot every morning when I get up just to see what they have and if there is a woot-off on I am at my computer checking until it is over.

And for the One Deal at a Time until it is Gone type site, I like Steep and Cheap and Whiskey Militia. Both of these deal with sports/outdoors/recreational related items. Steep and Cheap seems more geared towards outdoor sports and recreation and Whiskey Militia is a little more towards the extreme sports, skateboarding younger generation. Since my husband is very active and likes all kinds of outdoor sports, these sites are great for getting good deals. Both of these are operated by BackCountry.com , an outdoor sports and recreation website. I guess they take certain items that they have overstocked or whatever and put them on their discount sites.

Here is a good site for tracking all of the DOD (deal a day) items and the like in real time. It is called the DOD Tracker.

Ebay is another good place for bargains. While you do have to be very careful on Ebay, you can greatly mitigate your risk by checking the rating and reviews of the seller. Here is a seller that I particularly like for cool, arty t-shirts called AlohaVintage. If you click on feedback profile for them you get this page. As of today, they have 5815 reviews and 99.8% positive feedback. In addition, they have had no negative feedback in the last 12 months and only 6 neutral ratings. The rest were a good ratings. You can also read the comments about them on their feedback page. So I can recommend them without any hesitation if you like interesting t-shirts and other items with an art theme. I’ve gotten very nice long sleeve and short sleeve t-shirts with overall prints by Dali, Van Gogh, Klimt and more.

Some other interesting and unusual Ebay sellers that I would recommend as having exceptional items and a good reputation are Chinese Antique Wholesalers who offer an amazing range of authentic chinese items, many of which are antiques. The chinese do not value their antiques and it is good that someone is taking care of them and that they are not just getting destroyed in the wake of “progress”. We got a large carved wooden bin with legs, an old tea caddy, a very intricately carved side of a chinese wedding bed that makes a great archway and more. I love what they have and if I had the money, I’d buy a lot more of their items.

Another ebay seller with unusual and quality items is Aristophanes Murals. When we remodeled our bathroom, I wanted a large japanese art tile mural on the tiled wall. I found Aristophanes and they had just what I wanted. Here is a list of all the japanese/asian themed murals that I had to choose from. The picture on the left is the one we settled on, although it was very, very hard to decide and again, if I had the money I would have these all over.

This picture is actually from our bathroom after we finished the remodel.

Another thing that you should consider doing whenever you make an online purchase is to do a search for the store name and “promo” or “code”. Frequently stores will have some promo code that you can enter to get a certain percentage off or some other savings. You should also check Dealcatcher whenever you are looking for something. Dealcatcher has all sorts of information about sales and coupons and specials listed by store or by item type. You can also do searches or create email alerts on particular keywords. When I was looking for a Garmin GPS, I put a deal alert for Garmin and it emailed me whenever a new deal was added that said Garmin. It also has a weekly newsletter of deals that I highly recommend. And you can also search for prices of items under their “Compare Prices” tab (that uses PriceGrabber). This includes product reviews and very helpful seller ratings and reviews. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the online seller as long as you verify that they have good, recent ratings and reviews.

And last but not least, BizRate is a site that lets you search for good prices on items and also provides a lot of information about an online store. Here is the link to the BizRate Store Ratings. From this page you can also put the online store site (such as amazon.com) in the search box. If I am unsure about an online store, I will search here for information as well as in Dealcatcher/Pricegrabber (if available).

So that’s a little more info for you this shopping season.

Happy Shopping!

~Susan Mellott

I’ve been thinking about how to locate various things, specifically, my luggage when I travel, especially when cruising. If you’ve ever taken a cruise, you know that they give you a tag color such as red and then you have to go to the ‘red’ section and hunt through hundreds of bags to find yours. I wanted something that I could attach to my bags that would make a loud noise so I could find them.

I also wanted something I could put on my car so that when I lost it in the parking lot, I could push a button and it would make a loud noise so I could find it. And of course, there are many other things I lose and could use help finding such as my keys, my purse/wallet, etc.

But there isn’t really any devices specifically for locating luggage so I thought that a key finder/locator would work to put in the outside pocket or on the handle.

That sounded like a great idea, but all of the key finder devices I could find had really poor reviews and/or were very expensive and many of them worked like “The Clapper” where you made a noise and they supposedly responded. But I guess in most cases, they either don’t respond at all, or they go off with every little noise.

I found Mommy I’m Here cl-103br Child Locator, Brown for $27.99 that I thought I could use. It says “Simply attach the Teddy Bear Receiver to your child’s shoe or belt. If you lose sight of your child press the Keychain Transmitter and the Teddy Bear chirps, alerting you of your child’s whereabouts, while drawing attention to the dangerous situation your child may be in. Both units are water and shock resistant, with long-life batteries already installed. Available in Pink or Brown.”

But I was not sure about it so I kept looking. And I found several recommendations for a device called KeyRinger. KeyRinger is $29.99 for two units. They do not require a base unit so either device will ring the other (and any other KeyRinger devices). Here is a scenario they present in which you might use the KeyRingers:

“In a typical application, you might put one KeyRinger on your key chain and attach the second KeyRinger to the TV remote using the included double-sided tape. If your keys are missing, you would use the KeyRinger attached to the TV remote to find the keys; and if the TV remote is missing, you would use the KeyRinger attached to the keys to find the remote. Or you could keep one KeyRinger handy at all times on your refrigerator using the included stick-on magnet.”

It has a flashing light and loud sound (~106 db) to help you find your missing item. The two 2032 lithium batteries last approx. 12 months and can be replaced at most hardware or electronics stores (or online through their website). It weighs 3/4 ounce. It can locate the other device up to 300 feet and is supposedly durable enough to withstand being run over by a standard-size car. Here is the KeyRinger FAQ page.

In response to the question, “Will the KeyRinger ever false alarm?”, it says:

“Yes, but extremely infrequently compared to devices that respond to whistling or clapping. The clap or whistle type devices have to accept a wide range of sounds to accommodate variations in different people’s claps or whistles. But because they have to respond to such a broad range of sounds, they respond (false alarm) to various random sounds as well. The KeyRinger, on the other hand, is listening for the precise microprocessor-controlled tone sequence generated by the another KeyRinger. Because the KeyRinger can reject all other sounds, it is far less susceptible to false alarms. When the KeyRinger does false alarm, however, it is usually as the result of a hissing type sound such as that produced by a loud exhaust or air conditioning fan, or the water running in a sink.”

The KeyRinger is $29.99 for 2 units plus $4.95 S&H. You can order it here. Interestingly enough, I also discovered another use for this. In this thread from RC Hangout (for Remote Controlled Airplanes), they were discussing how to find a downed plane and one person attached the KeyRinger to their plane. It is amazing how many things you may need to locate.

Another key/item finder is by Loc8tor. The Loc8tor system is supposed to be very good too, but it is considerably more than the KeyRinger. The Loc8tor Plus is $169.99 plus S&H. It is pretty impressive sounding though. Here is what it says:

The Loc8tor Plus is the ultimate tool that will help you keep tabs on your children, pets and possessions and is ideal for use at home, out and about or for business.

The Loc8tor Plus has two main functions; Locate and Alert mode.

Locate mode – Is for Finding. To find an item, simply select from a drop down list on your handheld which tag you want to locate. Directional audio and visual cues from the handheld will guide you to the exact location of the missing tag. It will literally take you minutes (even seconds) to find things that would normally have you hunting around for hours and maybe never found at all.

With amazing accuracy you will be guided to within an inch/2.5cm whether you are indoors or out, in complete darkness or in a noisy room.

To find your item turn around in a full circle then walk in the direction the handheld indicates has the strongest signal – It’s as easy as that!!!

Alert mode – Helps stop things getting lost. Enables an invisible boundary to be set around the Loc8tor (you) and warns the moment any tagged item goes out of your preset safety zone (Alert Alarm) with a vibration alert, audio alarm and handheld display showing which item/s wandered off or has been stolen.

Select from three present safety zones – near, medium or far each of which can be further fine tuned to help define the distance required.

The Panic Tag (when used in Alert mode) contains a Panic button enabling a child or dependant to call for help. When pressed it activates an Alert Alarm on the handheld advising which child activated the Alarm. This is ideal as a personal alarm for a child or dependent and can be used on a beach, in a park or shopping centre to name but a few.

The regular Loc8tor pack is $99.99 plus S&H. It only has the locate mode, not the alert mode (as described above).

I’m sure these are very good too, but for the price, I’m going for the KeyRinger.

Happy Shopping!

~Susan Mellott

Are you ready for Black Friday? Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the day for the biggest sales, especially the Early Bird specials. People line up at 3 or 4 in the morning, or sometimes overnight, to get the best, limited deals. Last year we got a Hitachi 51″ rear projection TV with true high-def. We could have gotten a very nice b RCA 52″ rear projection TV with true hi-def and DVI inputs for $474.00 from Wal-martut were not quick enough (and I was first in the door, but went in the wrong door and I think there were only 12 or less available). I just looked at the price on this now at Wal-Mart and it is $698 and it is one year later. This is that TV. We did get a very nice Hitachi 51″ though from Best Buy for $698 which was still good. I was able to order this online so I didn’t even have to go to the store. And shipping was free.

So anyway, Black Friday is the day to get all sorts of great deals. And many of the deals can be ordered online so you don’t even have to leave your house! You just have to figure out exactly when they go on sale online so you can quickly order them before they sell out.

And to help you with that, there are several websites that make a point of getting copies of the ads way before they are released (by hook or by crook) and posting the information so you can plan your shopping experience. They even separate them into the the deals you can get online, which is by far the easiest way to shop.

My two favorite sites are Black Friday @ GottaDeal and BF Ads. Each has things they do best and you can sign up for email updates from both of them. BF Ads lets you sort by several categories by store and by Early Bird Specials only. They also list “Better than Black Friday” deals that have come along, such as the Acer Aspire Laptop with 1 gig memory and 14.1″ screen for $279.99 after rebate at Circuit City. Currently it is selling for $599.99. You can also create and save a shopping list of items for your reference. They also have a message board to discuss online and offline Black Friday deals and more.

Black Friday @ GottaDeal lets you look at every item listed by category, such as Televisions without having to go to each store and look. You can also make a shopping list with them and they list the most wanted items based on everyone’s shopping lists. They also list the items that are available online now at Black Friday prices. The parent site GottaDeal.com has deals all the time and is a year round good site for deals. And they have very good forums that discuss the online and offline Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Have you heard of Cyber Monday? This is less well known than Black Friday. It is the Monday after Thanksgiving and is the day that has online specials. Here is the wikipedia entry for Cyber Monday. And here is the official website for Cyber Monday. The term “Cyber Monday” was invented by Shop.org and was never in common use before the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the Executive Director of the organization, the term was coined based on research revealing that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004.

And here is a link to the Amazon Black Friday deals. And here is a link to the Amazon Black Friday sweepstakes to win a $10,000 Amazon.com shopping spree.

And here is an UPDATE: Dell has the Dell Vostro 1000 Dual Core Laptop w/ 1GB Memory and 15.4″ Widescreen Display for $399 shipped right now. For those who prefer Windows XP over Windows Vista, you can also get the Vostro 1000 w/ Windows XP for the same price by clicking here. A better than Black Friday deal.

So stuff yourself with turkey, then shop ’til you drop. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Happy Thanksgiving,

~Susan Mellott

Before I get back to my regularly scheduled posts, more typically on Web 2.0 tools, I have one more generally useful tip/trick for you.

Yesterday, we had a refrigerator delivered by Sears and once again, I saw that they were using a really interesting system to move the fridge. They each had harnesses on and they took a strap and put it under the fridge and hooked it to their harness and moved the refrigerator very easily, even through a tight doorway where the fridge was almost as tall as the doorway.

I had seen delivery men use this before for us, the last time was when our stove was delivered and before that, our very large screen, rear projection TV. And each time, they seemed to lift and maneuver the large, bulky, heavy item with ease.

So I asked the Sears delivery guys about it and they said you can buy them for yourself from Shoulder Dolly for about $60 and that they highly recommend them. They said that it takes all the strain off their backs and that they can lift and maneuver heavy, bulky things easily up and downstairs, around corners, through tight spots, etc. They said it makes it very easy to move large items.

So I went to their website and it was very informative. Here is an overview of the Shoulder Dolly system:

“The Shoulder Dolly® is a revolutionary system of moving heavy and bulky objects that works using leverage. Rather than bending over to pick up an object from the bottom for a good hand hold, the Shoulder Dolly uses webbed harnesses that go over the large shoulder muscles. The system allows the lifters to maintain an upright posture using the large shoulder and leg muscles to lift the weight, significantly decreasing strain and risk of injury to the lower back, hands, biceps and forearms. There are two models of the Shoulder Dolly, The Heavy Duty and the Light Duty.”

It looked to me like the Sears guys were using the light duty shoulder dolly. Here is a video from their site on how to use the light duty shoulder dolly:

There are several places to get the Shoulder Dolly, including from Amazon: Shoulder Dolly #LD1000. And I see that it is marked down on Amazon to $39.99 (free S&H).

And here is a link to the Above All Company Forearm Forklift Lifting Straps, 2-Pack #L74995CN which is another moving enhancement product, although I really do not know anything about it except it seems reasonable and has gotten good reviews.

We have been very impressed each time we saw delivery men deliver our products using the Shoulder Dolly and we definitely plan to buy one.

This is not a paid endorsement. I do not know, nor have any affiliation with Shoulder Dolly, TDT Moving Systems or Tom Dent. I just think it is a good and useful product.

~Susan Mellott

In my post of August 8, I wrote about the very cool Library Genius 2.0 t-shirts that Kay Gregg and Sean Robinson of the Allen County Public Library created for the Learning 2.0 program for the library staff that the ACPL is going to kick off on Sept 19 when Stephen Abrams, VP of Innovation at SirsiDynix comes to speak on Library 2.0 at the ACPL. By the way, this talk will be open to the public. Here is a picture of Kay modeling the t-shirt.

Well, everyone really liked the t-shirts and the icons and had been asking them where they could get one for themselves or for their own library’s learning programs. So Sean and Kay set up a store under Printfection/library2_0 where you can buy these shirts and some other styles like long-sleeve t-shirts and baseball shirts and others and also tote bags and aprons and mouse pads. They come in a ton of colors and there is a good discount for bulk purchases. They are cheapest in white, a little more in light colors and a little more than that in dark colors. You can see all the wholesale pricing options by picking style and color and then clicking on the pricing tab.

Helene Blowers, Public Services Technology Director for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) and creator of the Learning 2.0 concept, wrote about these shirts on her blog, librarybytes.com. ACPL sent her a shirt in appreciation of her work on Learning 2.0. Here is a picture she took of the shirt and buttons.

Sean and Kay are working on creating buttons for this also and they will put them in their store on cafepress (along with some other things like messenger bags and coffee mugs) since Printfection does not have buttons as an option. They already have the bags and coffee mugs there, but need to upload the individual icons to create the buttons. If you are interested in the buttons, check back on the cafepress store because they are working on getting them created right now.

Cafepress has a lot of options of different types of items, but Printfection is less expensive and offers wholesale prices also. I’d go to Printfection unless there was a particular thing you wanted, like the messenger bag (which I really want!). Or the buttons, since that is the only place to get them. It does appear they have a way to offer the buttons in batches, like of 10, or 100.

Also, other libraries, such as the Harris County Public Library are using the icons that Kay created for their own Learning 2.0 programs which is what Sean had hoped people would do. He wanted to be able to contribute to the Learning 2.0 program. You can read about this and their other ideas, initiatives and Learning 2.0 projects in the ACPL Innovation Through Technology blog. Many people in many libraries have worked on Learning 2.0 and Library 2.0 and have shared with each other to create great things.

Cooperation, collaboration and sharing. That’s what its all about!

~Susan Mellott