Yesterday, I found out about the Beatmix Bumblebee while browsing Amazon.com. The bot was shown under the “New For You” section on the main page. Since I love robots and Transformers, I clicked on the picture to find out more. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The great folks over at CleverMedia have produced some very good games for iPhone owners to play. Gary Rosenzweig made the games and Eve Park (Geek Girl) made the pretty icons. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Recently, Judie did a post about the FunSlides Carpet Skates. Because of a technical glitch with our email server, I never got the team email about reviewing them. It was after Judie did her write up on the skates that I thought to myself, these may be just the thing to solve the problem my Robosapien robots have with walking on carpet. I mentioned this to Judie, and she thought it would be a great idea to let the bots volunteer. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As many of you know, Michael Hess of Skooba Design, is one of Gear Diary’s sponsors. We recently were given the chance to return the favor when we helped sponsor him and his team in the Hospice Regatta. As Michael told me in his initial email, “I am a crew member on a racing sailboat (“Blue Knight,”) and each year we participate in the Hospice Regatta—a series of races held to raise money for end-of-life and palliative care centers. Anyone who has had a friend or family member cared for by Hospice knows what an amazing service it provides in the most difficult circumstances imaginable. These serious, big-boat racing events, held in communities across the country, are one of the most significant—if not the leading—sources of funding for Hospice.” For those of you that aren’t familiar with Hospice, I’ll borrow some of the excellent information available on the American Cancer Society site: Hospice, in the earliest days, was a concept rooted in the centuries-old idea of offering a place of shelter and rest, or “hospitality” to weary and sick travelers on a long journey. Dame Cicely Saunders at St. Christopher’s Hospice in London first applied the term “hospice” to specialized care for dying patients in [...]

[Note: This is a joint review between Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! and Gear Diary, and it is being simultaneously posted on both sites. Clinton's comments appear in black; Judie's comments appear in italics.] I love card games.  From the first time my mother taught me how to play Spades to my addition on Free Cell on Windows 95, card games have always been at the top of my list of things to keep myself entertained (Nintendo Wii aside of course). I was more of an Uno kid while growing up, but once I discovered Solitaire, Pyramid, and Poker, I was hooked. Being able to play these games on a computer was the ultimate in convenience – no shuffling, I could play these games by myself, and learning intricate card layouts was not required…yay! The first card game I remember playing on a PDA was Pyramid, on my Casio Zoomer in 1993ish, I scratched that screen terribly! While there have been a slew of card games made available for the Windows Mobile platform, few have had a comprehensive list of different types of card games you can play or, even worse, did not perform as well as they should have or [...]

Last year I bought a Sony Ericsson M600i for several reasons. First off it was very small, fit easily in a pocket without bulging, and felt great in the hand. It also had both a thumboard and UMTS, both features I wanted. The hardware aspect of it was fantastic, and I loved it, but it was disastrous on the software side. It would crash repeatedly, the web browser would often require 4-5 attempts before it would open, and I would regularly pull it out of my pocket to find it sitting on a wonderfully helpful screen saying it had restarted itself for performance, waiting for me to click continue before it would boot (hence sending all calls to voicemail and no SMS/email notifications until I noticed). Needless to say it wasn’t good. I returned the phone, and the service person was not surprised to see it come back. She said they had received almost every one of them they had sold back. It was withdrawn for sale for a while before being re-released, presumably with a production-grade ROM installed. I was disappointed to return it, because as I said I loved the hardware and when the software worked, it wasn’t [...]

Today is a very special day, Mitchell Oke turns 18! Yeah…let that sink in, will you? I’m going to get a little bit sentimental for a moment, so just bear with me. I’ll also try not to embarrass him too badly. ;-) I don’t even know where to start when telling you all about how much I appreciate having Mitchell on board here at Gear Diary; we have so many wonderful writers, but Mitchell will always hold a very special place in my heart. We first started corresponding in 2000, or maybe 2001, which would mean he was about 11 or 12 at the time. Sure, I remember realizing that he was young when we first started talking, but not exactly how young; he’s only a few months older than my daughter Sarah! Mitchell’s maturity, knowledge of computers and gadgets, as well as his general can-do spirit have always impressed me. When I started Gear Diary, he was one of the first people I thought of when considering potential contributors; thankfully, he was eager to help. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Of all the movies that have come out of Hollywood, you can always count on Disney to put out quality entertainment for the whole family. National Treasure, which was released back in 2004, was the best Disney movie ever. I love this movie as it has everything that I like in it. There is action, adventure, an awesome heist, and there is an incredible story about hidden treasure. The film is also shot on location, so there are lots of scenes with historical importance as backgrounds. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I really don’t remember how I came across the art of Nate Hill, but his work really caught my attention. You see, his art supplies are very unique in that they are not the typical canvas, paint, clay or anything that you would think of being used for art. He uses animal parts that he finds in the garbage of New York City’s Manhattan Chinatown. Those with a queasy stomach or sensitivity to seeing weird works of taxidermy may not want to read on or click on the links provided; you have been warned. For those with a sense of adventure, click the link below to continue.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Rear speakers have been pretty much the bane of my existence for most of my married life. OK, let me back up for a minute. I love stereo equipment. To me, it ranks right up there with my mobile devices. I have been an aficionado of multi-channel sound since it was first introduced back in the early 1990’s. While 5.1 surround sound (and now 7.1) is a phenomenal way to add an extra dimension to your television and movie watching experience, it does come with one major drawback. The rear speakers, which must be on the opposite side of the room, must somehow attach to the stereo. Typically, this has meant running speaker wire across the room. When I was in college, and even law school, there was no problem with running speaker wire straight down the middle of the floor. Frankly, it was quickly lost in the mass of dirty underwear, clean underwear, old food, and empty beer bottles. When I got married, we rented an apartment and I somehow convinced my new wife that it would be a good idea to string the speaker wire across the ceiling. I don’t think I have a picture of this, but [...]