If like most geeks you have a lot of gadgets, charging them is an issue. Being price conscious I often worry about the electrical bill and in my case I get the bill at the end of the year. I used to never turn off my computer but now I turn it off every night or if I’m away more then a couple of hours.

That’s where solar power comes in. In the Netherlands there are homes already fitted with solar panels which generate power when spring starts all the way to end of the summer. But for us with a smaller budget there is a product concept: The Solar Plant.

Designed by Ku Bon-Seop, this small solar power generator is designed like a plant pot that sits nicely on your desk to provide your laptop or any gadgets with power.

When it’s a sunny day you can put the solar plant in the sun so it can generate power. As I understand from the product page it stores the power so you can plug-in your gadgets when they need to be charged.

I never thought about a useful thing like this and it makes me wonder why there isn’t anything useful and nicely designed like this already on the marked. I know there are several solar power generators available, most recently the Neuber Energy Sun bag fitted with solar panels. But the solar plant is small and aesthetics pleasing.

Being very money conscious a solar charger like this would be a great investment. Especially if you are someone with lots of gadgets like multiple phones, hand held gaming devices and mp3 players.

And off course most importantly it’s green energy, you would be reducing your environmental footprint. I hope this product gets picked up soon and more of the like start being available. Because with the state of oil prices solar power devices can sell like hot bread.

If you know any cool solar gadgets do share them here!

Product page

Recently I noticed more and more people using Gowalla or Foursquare to “check-in” at locations they currently are at. Especially Foursquare is being used a lot here in the Netherlands. A couple of nights ago while playing with the iPhone I decided to download both and give them a try out. First Gowalla and then Foursquare.

Well the first check-in with Gowalla while having lunch at a cafe crashed the app. And truthfully I rather enjoy lunch that restarting the app and trying to check in again. So basically it was an immediately deal breaker for that app. On Monday I decided to try Foursquare, while waiting for the train I checked in at the train station. Then I checked in at the hospital where I was for my appointment. Back at the train station I wanted to check in at Starbucks and then I got tired of it.

I’m holding bags while unzipping my winter jacket to fish out my iPhone form the inner pocket. Opening app, waiting for spots to load and then check-in, etc. etc. And T-Mobile’s 3G is not what we call the fastest network around here. So the whole process takes 2 to 4 minutes and I still have to actually buy my coffee and make it on time to the platform to catch the train.

The next day while at another train station waiting for the tram I had some time so I decided to check-in with Foursquare and while waiting for T-mobile’s 3G to get going I looked around at a couple of weird men standing around and got a bit paranoid. While I haven’t filled out my profile nor added a profile picture I thought that the chance of some weirdo also being on Foursquare is quite possible.

Imagine I use Foursquare everywhere I go and publish my check-ins on Twitter, that does not sound like a good idea. For all pro technology that I am I have found my limit in applications like Gowalla and Foursquare, first because of the time consuming they are and secondly and most importantly, safety.

I am a 28 years old woman and I definitely don’t want strangers to be able to track where I am at all times of day. Especially considering we as humans have routine and habits. So some crazy would be able to soon enough know my schedule and places I frequent a lot. So it would be like facilitating a potential stalker.

While off course having such an online presence like I have now is barely “undercover”, posting my whereabouts online with GPS is plain giving it all away. Nobody needs to know at which supermarket I go regularly or at which stores I shop my clothes and stuff like that. I guess if I hit the Apple store I might post that because who doesn’t like saying “Hey I’m at the Apple store!”.

But for now I’ll keep the sharing to Facebook, Twitter and my peronal weblog.

I’m sure most of you already saw the Google facts and figure infographic by Royal Pingdom. It sums up all key numbers and facts about Google such as revenue, profit, people working there, products, etc.

Google started small and grew fast, always keeping to their mantra “Don’t Be Evil” which helped a great deal with their image. When they started with Gmail beta and invites I was in it early and never looked back to Hotmail. I loved and still love Gmail. Then came Google Calendar and Documents with the later one taking me quite some time to get into it.

But in my opinion Google’s “greed” or “need” to be on top on all fields is starting to cost them on the quality of their products and their reputation. When they took the same Gmail invites strategy with Wave they got everyone’s expectation high but till today Wave never really took off and people still ask themselves what is Wave exactly?

In their drive to overtake Twitter and Facebook they launched Google Buzz in what seemed a very short period from idea to production. On launch everyone’s most emailed contact was exposed, people on your contact list where added to auto-follow. In other words a huge privacy blunder that was only corrected after great protest from users. This blunder hit close to everyone really showing that they don’t keep up to their “Don’t be evil” mantra anymore.

Google wants to be a big player in all fields:

• Web browser
• OS
• Mobile phone
• Mobile OS
• Internet provider

Nothing wrong with wanting to expand but the more fields they start playing on the more it costs their other products quality wise it seems. The 2005 Google wouldn’t have made such a big privacy mistake with Buzz.

I wonder if Google will be able to keep up with launching new products one after another or will they collapse under their own success. One thing they have proven is that in business where money is all that matters you can hardly keep a mantra such as “Don’t be evil”.

What do you think? Should Google stick with what they do best, search engine and web apps? Split up the company into divisions or keep going the way they are?

Google infographic by Royal Pingdom

Today at the electronic store I saw people looking at cameras and it was obvious they had no idea which is which and would be looking purely at the size and color. Like a lot of regular consumers they probably end up buying something, set it on auto and take photos. When dSLR went mainstream lots of people bought one for their casual shooting and then realizing it was over their head. Till today I see lots of secondhand ads of people saying their are selling their dSLR because it is too much for what they need.

I realized that it’s the modern day syndrome, a lot of choice and a lot of different technology. Non-tech people will just buy the newest, the biggest or the smallest because they assume it’s the best. So I decided to share the steps I take when deciding which camera to buy.

Make a list for yourself of what you what in a camera, for example:

• small sized
• HD video capability
• a lot of zoom
• which brand

Start at dpreview and look for the latest cameras and their reviews, if you don’t want to spend too much money look at cameras that are already a minimal of six months on the market. Make a selection of 2 to 4 cameras that are to your liking.

Next go to Steve’s Digicams for an in depth review. I personally don’t read every word but I read the final conclusion, the pros and the cons. The sample photos are nicely done too compared to other review sites.

And then in my opinion the best site to decide on a camera, Flickr. You just search the model number and you’ll get hundreds of photos taken with that camera and groups/discussions dedicated to it. On Flickr there are all kind of users with photos taken in different situations such as nature, street or night. You can see their photos, what they can produce with said camera and read opinions. This way you can get more feel if someone knows what they are talking about, then some John Doe with no profile in a review forum.

As for myself I just spend two days reading up on compact digital cameras looking for ones that pack more power then regular point and shoots. And it’s like this with everything, even a simple external hard drive I won’t just go out and buy one on a hunch. While I will always stay price conscious I will read up on the products and the choices there are before I set foot in a store. Makes one miss the simpler days when there was only one iPod.

Today I decided to sin food wise. I had not gone to the supermarket and was not in the mood to cook so fastfood it was. I went to McDonalds after months without eating there and was surprised to find out that they now have self ordering.

Ordering food at McDonalds was always a pain, they hire mostly teenagers to work there and they are droned to ask what you want for everything. I always know what I want, so I will start by saying which menu I want, which size, with which drink, which sauce and if it is to go or not. And 97% of the times they don’t listen and start asking everything I just told them.

So today when I saw those self ordering computers I went right away to one of them to place my order. I chose my menu, size, drink and sauce, paid with my bank card and got a receipt. Then I went to the pick up counter with my order number. There where two employers handling the counter and I saw they had a bit difficulty keeping up even though there was only three people standing there including me. But even so I was in and out of there in seven minutes.

Photo taken with my iPhone

There where also employers around the self ordering computers to help out. The interface is pretty simple and not unfamiliar considering the railway uses self service computers to buy tickets. But then there are always people who don’t find it easy to use.

A combination of counter ordering and self ordering could ease the upheaval during peak times. McDonalds exists for years, has the same food for years and yet you find people waiting till it’s their turn to start deciding what they want. I once had guy in front of me ask to see the difference between a medium and large fries.

McDonalds is the biggest fastfood franchise in the Netherlands and it’s always busy. Implementing a self ordering system is the best improvement I have seen so far here. Now if the supermarket in my neighborhood could start using a self check out service, that would save me time.

I have been browsing Etsy lately when I came across “The Big Bang Theory” products. I’m a fan of the TV show and I find it disappointing how little variation of “The Big Bang Theory” items there are for sale. So I was a bit surprised to find some on Etsy.

The best ones are the get well card with the lyrics from the soft kitty song that Penny sings to Sheldon when he is sick. These will make great cards to give to family and friends who are also a fan of “The Big Bang Theory”. I have boxes full of get well cards and they sure are nice, especially because the person who send it thinks of you. But the cards texts are barely unique now a day, I have cards all with the same text but different design.

If it was me getting this card it would brighten my day!

The other cool “The Big Bang Theory” product on Etsy is the hat Sheldon wore in episode 313, The Bozeman reaction. When he decides to move to Bozeman for its low crime rate. It is that I’m glad that winter is coming to an end otherwise I would have ordered one right away.

If you search on Etsy you will come across more stuff, like t-shirts, magnets, etc. But none are of my taste, unless I come across a t-shirt I like I’m thinking about making my own and have it printed with an online service.

Soft Kitty Get Well Card –
Bozite hat

Author Rod Englers, an FBI National Academy graduate, wrote a book, “Blood Secrets”, set to be released on April 13. “Blood Secrets” describes tools and techniques used to unravel blood spatter’s code. Any CSI or Dexter fan should read this book.

How can the police tell what type of murder weapon was used when the body is missing and all that’s left is a trace of gore? How can they tell if a victim was moved, or which person in a room fired the fatal shot? Englert lays out what he’s learned on a variety of intriguing cases, from puzzling murders in tiny, remote towns to the highest-profile celebrity trials–including O. J. Simpson, Robert Blake, and many others.

Rod Englert has forty years experience in law enforcement. A large part of his career he worked in narcotics and homicide. His expertise is in blood spatter analysis and murder scene reconstruction.

A must read for forensic investigations fans and for people interested in the real life cases used as an example.

The description of the book piques my interest even though I’m not a forensic fanatic, it might make an interesting read when I have a free week-end. The book is published by MacMillan and considering they raised all their e-books price to match their hard copy I would say just buy the hard copy. It will make an interesting book in your bookcase when you have guests that browse through your bookcase.

Now lets hope nobody comes with a book on how to be a serial killer like Dexter Morgan.

Product details

Yesterday I wrote about vinyl toys and mentioned that there are some cool custom ones I wouldn’t mind having. Kidrobot sells blanco do it yourself munny and people create fantastic custom dolls from them. I compiled a list of five custom munnies I wouldn’t mind having.

1. Heath Ledger’s The Joker Munny

The best Joker so far, a true collectible.

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2. The Uncanny Orlow

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This one reminds me of Muji products. I went to a Muji store last year and really liked it.

3. Blue Monday Munny

It’s blue, do I need to say more?

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4. Les Morts

These three munnies have some something Indian Jones-esque, maybe they remind me of the stones.

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5. Yakuza Munny

This is my favorite one, the details that went into it are just amazing,

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There are lots of custom munnies out there, but the best ones in my opinion are the ones that use only basics like paint and paper(The Uncanny Orlow) to create a doll. Some dolls are way overdone, but that’s my taste.

I’m not into collecting art, toys or comic books as I tend to let my space get messy fast. So I refrain from buying stuff that are just for show. I used to have lots of Donald Ducks comic which all gathered dust after reading them once, so I got rid of them. Only things I “collect” now are book series that I really like and a couple of analogue cameras.

But now and then I see some vinyl toys online that I really want, especially The Organ Donors toys by FOOX. They are really cool, they are limited and they carry a message. I myself was transplanted last year, a kidney transplant. I was lucky that I got one within 2.5 years of being on the waiting list as here in the Netherlands the waiting time is pretty long.

A lot of people are not aware of transplants and what all goes with it. And these toys have a purpose to make people think and raise awareness to become an organ donor.

All ORGAN DONORS come individually boxed in a blind box concept – meaning, it is a surprise as to which ORGAN DONOR you will receive.

Some are more rare than others (Black Market Kidneys, Pickled Liver, etc) and all come wearing the vinyl hospital gown with the butt cheeks showing.

* 24 Colorways
* 9 Organs
* 5 Points of Articulation

They cost 15 dollar a piece which comes down to 360 dollars for the whole collection(but the whole package sells for 399 dollars). It would be great if each toy came with a short info sheet about basic facts about organ donations.

This concept of using something cool and geek like vinyl toys to raise awareness is really nice and different from the usual t-shirt and poster concept. Donors save lives, even I as a receiver of an kidney am a donor for other organs. And all the serious awareness stuff aside these are just plain cool and make nice gifts for people into medicine.

FOOX-U Organ Donors product page

I’m a TV series addict, I watch a minimum of six currently showing shows and countless of reruns. Not to mention I always have a “Friends” DVD in my DVD player. I never stand still about the fact if the story line is realistic or not. I watch TV series precisely because it’s not real life, it’s a break from real life.

Back when “Grey’s Anatomy” was at its height I didn’t like reading weblog posts and comments on it because all viewers complained that in real life Izzie would face hard consequences for cutting a patients LVAD wire. And I just wanted to yell at people if it bothers you that it’s not conform with reality don’t watch, go hang around in a hospital for reality instead.

Case in point, I shut my mind down when watching TV shows so obviously I’m a bit ashamed to say that I never considered how the outdoors scenes are filmed. I know green screens exists but I always assumed they where only used in movies on scenes that are impossible to film in reality. All behind the scenes I’ve seen are from old sitcoms like “Friends”, “The Cosby Show”, etc. So my knowledge is pretty much outdated.

The above video shows scenes from several popular shows and how the green screen is used for a lot of “outdoors” scenes. It really opened my eyes about how the series are filmed now a days. I was reminded how far gone the sitcoms days are, when only two to three sets was needed to film several episodes.

But luckily my mind is good in shutting down logical thinking and just go with the flow when watching TV/Movies. Although I will pay more attention from now on to what’s going on behind the scenes technically now a days, especially in TV series.

The main reason I could never get used to Safari was that it doesn’t has a location(url) bar dropdown with the most visited websites. I already have tons of bookmarks and that dropdown list is just easier. But now Firefox also did away with the location bar dropdown leaving me with no options but to install an extension. And honestly I already have enough extensions installed and each of them slows Firefox a bit.

The people at Fav4 came with a brilliant nicely designed idea, a website where you can choose four website to display on the page and set that page as your start page. It’s such a simple and brilliant idea I don’t know why I never thought about making one for myself.

You can currently chose from sixty-one websites to set on the page, websites like BBC News, Hulu, Evernote, Tumblr and Amazon just to name a few. The website is cookie based, so no logins or anything needed, just select the four websites you want displayed, make sure to set Fav4 as your startpage and done.

The webpage is very simple designed, it uses 70 by 70 icons of the websites with drop shadow and a slightly visible hover effect. It’s worth a try if your bookmarks toolbar is already full and you want a useful and aesthetic pleasing startpage.

Follow Fav4 on twitter and be updated when they add more websites

I’m a Harry Potter fan, I read all the books, most of them the day they where released. I saw all the movies on the big screen and later on DVD. But there is a whole fan base out there that are really hard core fans, so much they have a Harry Potter related tattoo. Now I don’t shy away from tattoos, I have one myself but I don’t think I am a fan of anything so much as to get a tattoo of the object of my fanaticism.

1. The Golden Snitch

By capturing the Golden Snitch the team wins the Quiditch match.

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2. Expecto Patronum

A charm spell

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3. Owl and books

Not specific Harry Potter but at true fan will recognize it as a Harry Potter tattoo.

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4. Hogwarts crest

The school crest with all four the animals representing each house.

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5. Dobby the house elf

The Malfoy’s house elf who was freed by Harry

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6. The Deathly Hallows

The symbol for “The wand, the stone and the cloak”.

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7. The Dark Mark

This mark is branded on the arms of Lord Voldemort followers, the Death Eaters. Very much like the tattoo shown above, inside the left arm.

Source

I was surprised when researching for this list how many people have The Dark Mark as a tattoo. Given the story is fictional but still, the whole Harry Potter story evolves around good versus evil. Ironically the other popular Harry Potter tattoo is The Deathly Hallows which helped Harry Potter kill Voldemort.

Now that iPods are mainstream they don’t turn heads anymore when you walk around holding one. If you want to draw attention to yourself you can do that with striking headphones. In an era that even tech must be fashionable you need to have the right headphones.

You can go with geeky/kid by getting animal earbuds, these are earbuds with animals on the outside so it looks like there are animals sticking out of your ears. There are a total of seven styles of which one is not an animal but a diamond or in other words, bling bling. I’m not sure I would want to be caught walking around using these earbuds, I already look young for my age, these earbuds would make it more obvious.

If you also want more sound quality then you have to go with UrbanEars which are totally retro looking. The UrbanEars has a remote and microphone on it that is compatible with the iPhone and other phones. While with earbuds you can easily let a friend listen with you by sharing one of the earbuds, the UrbanEars have a “Zound plug”. This plug lets your friends plugin their own headphones into your earcap to listen along.

I like the UrbanEars more, they are simple, retro(they remind me of “That 70’s Show”) and actually functional. The animal earbuds costs 15 dollars while the UrbanEars costs 68 dollars. Whichever your preference the choices of headphone styles are endless.

Animal earbuds page
UrbanEars page

For everyone whose other half has a touchscreen smartphone and lives in a cold country this is a cool Valentine’s gift idea. His and hers cashmere gloves with removable tips for the point and thumb finger.

How many times have you found yourself outside in freezing cold, taking of your glove to do something on your smart phone with touchscreen? Especially iPhone users who have to swipe the screen to answer a call.

A perfect gift for your geeky other half in this cold winter month. They come in various colors from the kinda tacky red shown above to the more classic and neutral colors; Cobalt Blue, Slate Grey, Mocha Brown and Black. This current model is made of 70% cashmere and 30% wool which makes them pretty expensive at 70 dollars a pair. They have less expensive ones but they are sold out or going like hot bread.

I find these gloves way better then the ones with all finger tips removed, obviously. Most of the other less expensive models are already sold out , by the time I get one it will be spring already. But this one is definitely one for the must-have list.

Product website

For homeworkers who don’t like sharing their living environment with their working environment there is now a solution. The OfficePOD, a standalone office that can be placed in the garden. This is a real great way to have an inspiring working environment, especially if you have a beautiful garden. You could also create a garden around the OfficePOD.

This great office comes at the very steep price of 14,950 pounds in the UK, including installation and tax. The OfficePOD has an integrated desk and storage, heating, cooling and ventilation. Also LED lighting, windows blinds and insurance approved lock which is invaluable considering you’ll be keeping your computer, printers, etc. in the OfficePOD.

As a homeworker myself I can see myself buying one if I had a garden and cash for it. I live in an apartment where you cannot shut out your work. I should make good use of Gmail’s filters to tune out work email when not working. But it isn’t a perfect situation. A cheaper alternative to the OfficePOD would be a work laptop only where you keep all work related stuff including email. So getting away from work is a matter of turning of the laptop and putting it away. But if you have 14,950 pounds lying around and garden space an OfficePOD would be the way to go.

Having the working environment pictured above would make it more a joy to work then being closed-in in an office surrounded by office noise and what not.

This way of homeworking might as well become popular in the future now that working from home is becoming more common these days saving people time otherwise spend tackling traffic-jams and bad weather like we have been experiencing lately. With an OfficePOD it would be a matter of stepping outside a few steps to your office and get to work.

Products website

Meet PLEN, an android-robot created by Akazawa Japan. PLEN can walk, dance, skate and more. This cute little robot only 23 cm tall can be controlled through Bluetooth by your Android smartphone or PC. PLEN comes with 20 pre-programmed motions, it also comes with an Android app to program your own motions for it.

There are only 50 units fabricated of PLEN, each costing 2999 dollars. So this is a very expensive limited edition android-robot. The PLEN is sold as an assembly kit, you’ll only need a cross point screw driver and some time and patience to get it assembled and going.

This robot looks like a true collectors item for robots fans out there. The fact that you can program its own motion makes it even more attractive to have. If it wasn’t that expensive I might consider buying one, I always wanted a robot which I could program basic motions for. Much cooler way to learn the basics of robot programming instead of using Karel the Robot.

Check out more details about PLEN on its own website or go ahead and order one at Audio Cubes.