Miscellaneous

The Geeks have been contacted by the FBI to shut down our site within 30 days due to a law passed by an incompetant congress back in 1994. The law (SB 040194) makes it illegal to use the internet or other public network while drunk. Back in 1994 before the Internet was well known, Congress apparently misunderstood what the ‘Information Highway’ was and thought that being drunk on a highway was bad no matter what highway it is.

While the law makes no sense for us techno-savvy people, it was passed by congress and never repealed! Unfortunately with the law on the books, the FBI now uses the law to tap the network links of people who “use or abuse alcohol” while accessing the internet and uses the obscure law to prosecute.

Please help support us and leave a comment and thanks for stopping by the site as it’s been a great run for the drunken geeks. Check back for updates to our plight.

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Important Notice: Gizmos for Geeks shutting down…Read More »

By Glenn Derene
Forbes.com

Today’s technology is like yesterday’s rock ‘n’ roll: Most parents, even if they think they’re pretty cool, just don’t get it.

Modern kids are technology sophisticates. They often are able to perceive–and utilize–a new device much quicker than adults. Text-messaging, for example, is the most popular thing to hit the youth market since anti-acne cream.

The average, middle-class American kid–from six to 18–usually has a computer, videogame player, TV, DVD player and, more and more often, a cell phone. The technological habits children now develop will likely influence their future lives. The more comfortable they become reading online, for example, the more likely it will be that, as they mature, they will read less actual print material. They will spend more time downloading music and movies from the Internet than they will actually going to record stores and the cinema.

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The Coolest Tech Gadgets for KidsRead More »

If you’re familiar or have a ReplayTV or even the DVR that comes with some DISH Network receivers, then you already know and love the 30-second skip forward feature, which allows you to skip forward through commercials, or as I like to use it: for skipping from play to play in NFL games when I’m busy, but still need my football fix. Well TiVo owners need not be left out in the cold. Here comes a neat little hack that lets you do the same thing!

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TIVO 30-second Skip HackRead More »

eCoustics is featuring some interesting articles this month, the first of which is on loudspeaker sound. This article examines what things to think about when test-driving loudspeakers, as well as making some recommendations on some reference music you may wish to play on them.

Also featured are a handful of articles on cabling: A Guide to Component Video Cables, DVI vs. HDMI vs. Component Video — Which is Better?, Video Cables from the Inside Out and Digital Cables vs. Analog Cables — What’s the Difference?

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How to Judge Loudspeaker Sound and AccuracyRead More »

Mumbai, March 16: There is a robust upswing in the consumer durables market for high-end lifestyle products such as DVD players, camcorders, digital cameras and mobile camera phones.

The surge has occurred as prices have been lowered. When price rationalisation slows down value growth for the market, volumes move up to compensate. The coming year will also enable manufacturers to study the complete effect of free trade agreements (FTA) with select Southeast Asian countries.

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High-end gadget sales on a new highRead More »

By Rich Lewis, March 17, 2005

A few weeks ago we were kicking around the question: What are the best gadgets ever invented?

Since then, I’ve realized that a more important question might be: What are the best gadgets that haven’t been invented yet?

Recent events in my household, and a magazine cartoon, leave no doubt that number one on my list would be The Findatron.

You would take this little box, and speaking into its microphone, say something like: “Find my brown shoe.”

You’d hear a little whirring and beeping, and then a pleasant robot-voice would announce: “It’s… under… the… couch.”

Would that be great or what? Sort of like a Magic 8 Ball, but with a bigger vocabulary and with such exquisite capabilities that it would never be forced to say, “Ask again later.”

I know I need one.

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We need a gadget to find our gadgetsRead More »

The booths that have been home to tech firms for the last week are being dismantled and the gadgets carefully packed away as Cebit 2005, one of the world’s largest technology show, draws to a close.

Organisers have hailed the show as a great success although critics suggest there have been fewer product launches and innovations than in previous years.

Telephony has dominated the fair, from a plethora of newly launched mobiles offering higher resolution cameras and integrated MP3 players to home phones that allow users to make cheap internet calls.

The digital home, created especially for the show, proved a hit with visitors.

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Cebit closes door on gadget festRead More »

14mar05

Q MAY have to join the job queue. John Cleese says his spy gadget guru has been written out of the script for the next and 21st 007 film, Casino Royale.

“I’m told that if there is a Q, I will be Q. But I don’t believe there’s a Q in the current version of the script,” Cleese said.

It is believed the producers are cutting back on the gimmicks the spy uses.

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Bond gadget guru dumpedRead More »

In Japan and South Korea, the future is already here.

We’ve got some pretty slick phones on the American market today. From Motorola’s Razr to Nokia’s art-deco-inspired 7280, each is a pocketful of gadgets-camera, MP3 player, video game console and PDA-magically converged into one sleek package. But compared to their Asian counterparts, our handsets look a bit like grandpa’s Automatic Electric. Take Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo’s new 901i series. These wireless hot rods are capable of four-way videoconferencing and high-speed mobile Internet surfing (up to 384 kilobytes per second). The 901is can send e-mail with attachments as large as 500 kilobytes. They can act as TV remote controls and have 3-D screens with up to 262,144 colors. Each model has at least a two-megapixel camera and miniature “3-D sound” speakers. One even has a biometric fingerprint sensor to ensure that no one can use the phone but its owner, and three of the five models come with a nifty function called FeliCa, which enables the 901i to serve as a digital wallet. You download cash into the phone’s guts, then simply swipe it over a FeliCa reader at the local mini-mart. Almost anything else you might place in your wallet-a gym membership ID, video-store card or tickets to a concert-can be digitized on a FeliCa-enabled handset. Some apartment buildings in Tokyo are even making their locks compatible. Now that’s convergence.

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Cell Phones You Can’t Have…YetRead More »

by Jim Motavalli

Did you know it was possible to disable some of the annoying features of your all-too-modern car? In a recent New York Times piece, I wrote about car owners who had, among other things, reprogrammed their Volkswagen remotes so they could lock the sunroof, canceled the irritating ice warning that comes on at 37 degrees in BMW 3-Series cars, dialed in new lock codes for Ford Tauruses, disconnected the hill holder on Subaru Foresters, and eliminated the feature that locks the doors on the Chrysler PT Cruiser.

The problem is that cars are really getting complicated. Take the high-line BMW 5-7 Series, which now come with a fancy computerized gizmo called iDrive. The “Car Talk” brothers admit they were completely flummoxed by the thing, which controls most of the important features of the vehicle. “Unfortunately, iDrive is a complete disaster,” they wrote on their website. “It’s a lot of technology — and yet you gain nothing. We were continually frustrated by the iDrive. It took us 15 minutes just to change the radio station.”

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Outsmart Your High-Tech CarRead More »