Chumby has landed in the US.

So, I guess I've just never had anything shipped to me directly from China, but this is kind of interesting. Here is the latest tracking data and a map of where we've gone so far.

(If you're catching up here is the first post and the second post)

View Larger Map

You may remember me blogging about wanting a Chumby day before yesterday.  Well, I couldn't resist and I ordered one, a latte one.  Then last night I get a shipping notification, my Chumby has shipped.  So of course I click through to the tracking page on UPS.  I guess I've just never seen an item direct shipped from Shenzhen, China, but there it was 7:18 PM today (wait, that's the future) it departed.  Come to think of it this makes two firsts, I've never had something from the future.   Here is the UPS tracking page:

Okay, I'm trying to to gush here cause my wife only emailed me this about 30 minutes ago and I'm in love.  I'm sure she saw the appeal from a lot of angles, not the least of which is I use my cell phone as an alarm clock and it has an annoying alarm sound. What I'm gaga for is the Chumby and I've really on begun to investigate.

I'm not going to last the week without ordering one.  Here is what Small Space Living (where my wife found it) has to say about it:

Chumby is tricky device to classify. There are not many other devices that have the multifunction of Chumby.
Chumby is a small Wi-Fi compatible device with a 3.5 inch touch screen and a soft leather case. The Chumby is intended to replace your clock radio. But to call it a clock or radio would be so short sighted. It can be loaded with a number of widgets — the list grows daily.
There is no end to the multifunction goodness of Chumby. The Chumby can be a clock or an internet radio. It can track EBay auctions or display photos form your Flicker account.
The device sells for $179, which is the hardware break-even point for the manufacturers. It’s an unusual thing for a manufacturer to sell a product for no profit, but the intention is to make money by selling advertising on the Chumby units.
Chumby could fit well into your small space life — it’s little and has a multitude of uses.

I've created a virtual Chumby here to get a animated look see. But you really should click through and see what their site shows about this little sucker.

Just FYI, I have no association or relationship what so-ever with the Chumby, I'm just loving the concept

Remember when I blogged about the LED Light bulb and the Airzooka? Well, for Valentines day this year my wife got me an Airzooka - Yes, I married the right woman. Well, we've(read I've) been using it to torment our intern and my co-workers. It's really pretty fun to shoot at someone and score a direct hit. (Thanks for being a sport Hunter).

Hunter, as the good intern he is, has found someone who has taken this idea to the next level

Good job Hunter!

From the New York Times

Technology

Toshiba Concedes Defeat in the DVD Battle

By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: February 20, 2008

The Japanese electronics giant threw in the towel on its HD DVD technology, announcing that it would no longer develop, produce or market disc players for the format.

In case you were wondering as I was, what is the difference this little FAQ helped me out. Here are the specs:

I squeezed two posts out of this ritual last month, but I'm going to make it just one this time. I read Wired magazine, have for several years. I consider it my candy reading. The ritual I mentioned is around recycling my copy of Wired. I used to store magazines that I subscribed to in boxes, cause, you know you may read them again - as if. Ever since moving to NYC I have become merciless about things that take up space. So, instead of keeping them, I slice out the pages with things I'm interested in so I can go back later and remind myself. I'm endeavoring to not keep sliced out pieces any more by blogging about the items I'm interested in.

Anthology Records

This is REALLY great. Here is the link to the Wired article: Vinyl Frontier. It's a tidbit about a record label that re-releases vintage stuff. Here let's let Wired tell it.

Sure, iTunes has millions of tracks, but don't go looking there for obscure or out-of-print treasures like, say, the seminal stoner-rock stylings of Sir Lord Baltimore. Fortunately for music geeks, help is on the way. Keith Abrahamsson, an A&R rep for New York-based indie label Kemado Records, recently launched the first all-digital reissues label. At prices similar to those of Apple's square mass-market store, Anthology Recordings offers high-fidelity (320 Kbps), DRM-free rips of supercool, ultrarare titles — from late-'60s Swedish psych-rock to British postpunk and early-'80s dub.

I was doing a little browsing and came across Panama! Latin, Calypso, Panama! that sounds pretty great. And, I have no idea what this is...Thai Beat A Go-Go Volume 2.

Thinking of making my PC my TV

The OnAir GT Mobile HDTV Receiver & DVR for PC (HDTV-GT) seems to do the trick. This is my first stab at just going full on Media PC for all my entertainment needs. Right now we don't have cable and so all our TV is broadcast. It's not as bad as you think. Although we do miss our favorite channels: TLC, Discovery Channel and History Channel. I realize this isn't going to solve that problem, but I'm hoping by getting some DVR action I can do a bit of time shifting on stuff that I want to watch.

Goldfrapp, anyone? anyone?

Does anyone know anything about these guys? Opinions? I am intrigued by the 7 of 10 review that Wired gave their album Seventh Tree. Not running out to purchase (or I guess pre-purchase), but the Amazon.com MP3 downloads is definitely an option. I used it to download Basement Bhangra for $8.99 (DRM Free MP3). It's a good album (also found in Wired) I'll be using the AmazonMP3 optiont again. I still object to iTunes.

Same drill. A lot of folks I know are having Babies either now or in near future. This (Coast Innovations Itzbeen Baby Care Timer) was also in Wired (still cleaning out desk). It seems pretty cool and useful. I have no children here or on the way so "seems" is the best I can do. I decided however to send one to my sister who had a baby (my niece) in mid October. I'll get the inside scoop.

Dad-turned-inventor Greg Sheldon engineered the Itzbeen multitool to track all those baby-care details that can escape your sleep-deprived mush-brain. Last feeding, nap, diaper change — it's all there on the backlit display. It has a light to ease late-night navigation and a right/left breast indicator to remind Mom which side last served up the goods.

Those of you that I know who are having babies soon or just had one, please don't buy yourself one, you'll rob me of my best gift idea. I promise to have it at your place on Day 1 home from the hospital.

Shawn, resist the baby Gadget. Jonk, that goes for you too

I'm sure someone is thinking I'm just doing product plugs to drive traffic to my amazon affiliate setup. My response is, "yeah, bite me".

Man do I want one of these! How cool would it be to just adjust the mood lighting on a whim?

• IR remote can turn bulb on/off and adjust colors, transitions, brightness levels
• 4 transition effects - flash, strobe, fade, smooth
• Access to 16 specific colors (including White, Green, Blue, Red, Orange, Turquoise, Purple)
• Fits into a standard lightbulb socket
• Input voltage: AC110/AC220V, 50-60Hz
• Bulb Dimensions: 4" length x 2" dia.

Um, yeah! I just love ThinkGeek

Airzooka is the 'fun gun' that blows a harmless ball of air towards any object, person (or animal!). The airball will travel up to thirty feet and beyond...

I'm actually dangerously close to buying one of these. I played with one at the Pacific Science Center, Seattle WA a while ago and was really impressed. If I recall correctly I would have bought one but that was back when I thought I had to still act like an adult in front of my future wife. Mercifully, I was wrong. It's going to come down to this, I'm going to find something on ThinkGeek I can't live without (say a LED Light) and the Airzooka is going to make the order as well. It's not quite an order-just-that item.

This was a complete and total I'm Feeling Lucky Google moment. I was actually looking to have the phrase "we have a problem" translated into German because there is a problem in a UI I'm working on caused by the German version of a label.

Apparently there is a blog about Wii problems called Wii Have a Problem... Complete with a running count of broken parts. The post I stumbled onto was about a guy who had apparently tossed a Wii controller out a 12 story window while playing bowling

On Sunday July 23rd 2007, a Wii Remote committed suicide by launching itself through the blinds and through the window of John Doe's apartment. No one was injured as the glass and controller landed on the roof of the restaurant 12 stories below. There are now alleged reports that this may be an involuntary manslaughter case due to INNOCENT PROTECTED's fingerprints being found on the controller. The controller wrist strap broke off of the primary suspect's wrist and Wii Bowling was believed to be playing at the time of the incident. Witnesses could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Axis & Allies Revised Edition
Revised Edition, released 2004 by Hasbro / Avalon Hill
Axis & Allies
Original Edition, released 1987 by Milton Bradley Gamemaster Series

I've been playing Axis & Allies, original edition, since approximately 1993. This year for Christmas I received a copy of Axis & Allies, revised edition. Until recently I had only read about the map and rule changes. My brother and I managed to squeeze in a game Christmas day (and well into the night). To cut to the chase, I'm a fan of the changes to the game itself and not a big fan how light the cardboard on some of the new pieces is. I'm not going to endeavor a full on detailed explanation of the game and detailed review. If you're looking looking for that Tom Vasel has a detailed write up that gives you lots of detail.

In my estimation my brother and I are pretty experienced and sophisticated players of A& A both having about 10 years of play behind us and most of the time against on another. In the original version it was more or less a fore gone conclusion that the longer the game went on the higher the chance that the Allies would win as long as Russia made life difficult for Germany and the US keeps a modest amount of pressure on Japan to keep them blowing IPC's on a navy. The new version balances that out in several ways. First, the re-jiggering of Eastern Europe, splitting the Caucus into two spaces (Caucus and Belorussia) and putting a factory in Caucus.

This makes it possible for the Germans to do some real strategic damage to the Russians and gives them a possible land passage to North Africa. This doesn't change the standard Russian strategy of infantry, infantry, infantry but it provides Germany with an effective flanking maneuver and spreads out the Russian infantry into more spaces making it a more even fight. Also, the increase in defensive capability of the tank makes the German Blitzkreig strategy work. The addition of the Sahara Desert to North Africa makes the German hold on Africa more reasonable and kills the cheap shot Germany used to have of running it's tank all over Africa.

In the Pacific the US Navy is significantly weaker and the Japanese is significantly stronger with a second carrier group. The smaller Islands have shed their IPC value making the US Island hopping strategy be just a strategy for getting within range of Aisia and Japan. I played the Axis against my brother's Allies. Japan was pretty devastating by building a factory on Kwangtung and churning out tanks that allowed it to push the US out of China, take India from the British and capture the Russian East all the way to Russia. He did make one small mistake with the US fleet that set his Pacific efforts back two turns making the Japanese in Asia strategy have an couple extra turns to build momentum.

All in All I'm pleased to have the new version. There are definitely more subtle changes including the addition of a couple new units that I've glossed over. The bottom line is, if you've played the game and moved on, it's time to revisit. If you've never played, you're in for a treat - it's gotten even better. If you're still playing RISK - get a life and trade up.

Merry Christmas everyone. Need to make sure my last post before Christmas isn't vitriol. I am at my sisters house in Spokane Washington after quite a traveling ordeal (I'll post about that later). We'll see about getting some photos of my white Christmas (only snow on the ground, does that still count?).

The NY Times (love those guys) have a great slide show about one Jeremy Honey who works as Santa Claus at the Palisades Mall in New Jersey. It's a great slide show and it seems Mr. Honey is a great guy who takes his work as Santa pretty seriously.

At any rate, Merry Christmas to both my readers - you know who you are. :)

In case you're looking for some Christmas tunes - here is what we're listening to courtesy of Pandora.com (love those guys even more.)

Anyway, just released in Europe of all places, comes iPhoneFingers, which are made of latex (there goes that imagination again…) and fit over your thumb and index finger, saving you from future cleaning of the iPhone’s screen.

Das Keyboard

Blank Keys to Type up to 100% Faster Like on a piano, since there are no keys to look at when typing, your brain will quickly adapt and memorize the key positions. Within a few short weeks users increase their typing accuracy and find themselves typing up to 100% faster.

I just can't justify something this indulgent. I'm already a touch typer who rarely looks at the keyboard. Would it really make me faster? I was counting on 8 hours of practice a day to do that.