There are things which no matter how cheap they are, you just don't tell you wife that you bought it, since you'll most likely get the "What the bloody hell were you thinking?!?!?!" speech. This would be one of those things

Yup.. it's a plunger, and yup.. I bought 3 of them

It's hard to think imagine their function is until you see them in use

Yup, these are very small plungers. Basically what you do with them is press them onto any smooth backed device (or something stuck with a suction cup helper I bought in Daisho) and then you can use it as a stand for said device.

Of course, a lot of factors come into play, the device must have a smooth back to allow for maximum suction (that phrase sounds a bit wrong out of context), it works only on a stable surface, and if the device is too heavy it'd probably just collapse onto the poor plunger.

Well.. it works for phones pretty well.

If I made you curious enough to want to buy one of these, you can get it at weird gadget dealer DealExtreme, bonus points if you looked at the packaging picture and went "Oh, that's suprisingly appropriate!"

I’ve been hooking up my phone and my various portable players to my car audio system through the use of a preamp and a couple of cables, something which I’m sure a few people also do, anyway I end up with the setup below.

One of the problems that I was facing was that if I charged my device at the same time through the cigarette socket, there would be this ANNOYING hum that seem to be in sync with my engine. That has caused me a lot of headache since it meant that I can’t charge my device as well as listen to it at the same time, which is disastrous when it’s the phone we’re talking about. Even when I can stomach the humming noise, Wife Acceptance Factor is obviously very very VERY low with an annoying hum in the background.

Then I saw this thing hanging on a rack recently.

This is the Kensington Noise-Reducing AUX Audio Cable it caught my eye because on the box it specifically said it’ll reduce the car engine humming noise. I figured I’ve got nothing more to lose anyway so I bought it and here are the results.

And it worked as advertised! No more annoying humming while charging means I can enjoy more music on the go then. Highly recommended if you’re facing the same problem with your audio setup.

On further research of the car humming problem (which I was spurred to do after so many years by this purchase) it would seem that this is most likely something called a ground loop isolator, and as such you could probably buy a cheaper unit in some audio equipment shop if you know what you’re looking for.

ps. I don’t have audiophile ears or equipment so I wouldn’t know how much signal degradation is happening through the use of this cable.

For a more civilized age. The most popular weapon of all, the lightsaber! The dream weapon! Theoretically impossible to achieve… but… Well some of us has been living the dream through plastic lightsabers for a while now, so let's check out the evolution of this dream weapon based on my stash.

My First Lightsaber is the Obi Wan Kenobi Lightsaber, I *think* I got this around the time Episode 1 came out and everyone was going gaga over Star Wars toys again.

This is your standard torchlight with collapsible light deflector, it uses 2 C cell batteries to drive it's light and sound show. And it uses a standard (for that time) filament light bulb that's why the torchlight analogy fits.

The next extendible plastic baton I got was the Yoda Training lightsaber.

Pretty much the same as the one above, except that it's shorter (It IS Yoda's lightsaber) and it has this mode where as you swing it around, Yoda will speak through the weapon instructing you in the ways of the force!!

I was pretty much done buying plastic batons after the last two, it'd have to take something special for me to get another plastic lightsaber. And here's the something special.

This is the Force Action Darth Vader Lightsaber. What's so special about this one? Notice that for the two lightsabers above, they don't fully collapse into the hilt. Not only does this one fully collapse into the hilt, hit a switch on the hilt and a spring loaded mechanism SHOOTS the blade into its fully extended position. The spring mechanism is STRONG, about as strong as a light jab at close range.

I actually carried this as a make shift weapon when investigating potential intruders at night, cause it can make a handy club with it's slight heft, it's easy to carry around when collapsed but I can extended it to gain a length advantage at a whim (don't underestimate how much hurt these thing can cause if you WANT to hurt someone with it) and I can at least get ONE surprise shot if it comes down to a fight.

Those factors are probably what caused Hasbro to discontinue this method of making lightsabers, cause it's TOO DANGEROUS as a children's toy. WZ is strictly forbidden to handle this lightsaber and it is kept way out of his reach.

And speaking of WZ, we come up to the most recent lightsaber I bought. And WZ was the main reason I bought it.

Looks the same as the others right? But this most recent model is truly an evolution of toy lightsabers. First of all because it uses slim AAA batteries instead of gargantuam C sizes, the hilt is small and can actually be held with one hand. Instead of a normal light bulb, it uses an LED for it's light. Alas to make it more kid friendly, it's also shorter than the previous lightsabers.

For a toy of an iconic weapon, it's very interesting to have been able to see and experience the various evolutions the humble extendible lightsaber has gone through.

And I'm excited to see what future improvements we'll see next!

But wait you say! "You're losing a lot of geek cred Marauderz! You bought all these plastic toys, but a real geek would never have been satisfied by these mere batons!"

Ok… this is where you stop reading if you're a true Star Wars collector.

What you are about to see might drive you blind… insane… or both.

Ready?

A long long time ago, in a place where I yet had to worry about spousal complaints and in a sudden lost of control because of the color purple. I got this.

I'm not a collector, I don't go around looking for limited edition figures, or hunt for expensive series of figures. But in my life thus far, Star Wars made me go nuts and pay a lot for something that just sits as a collectible. This is one of them.

This is the Master Replica Mace Windu Lightsaber, who knew that the one thing that would make me want to buy a replica lightsaber was the color purple!

I have a deep sense of guilt in buying this because I'm not a collector. I won't buy a fancy cabinet for it, nor would I care to clean it every few months so that it keeps its golden shine. That's why now after years of neglect, the hilt is reduced to this.

Sometimes when I go to bed after looking at it in it's place sitting on the top of the shelf, I have nightmares of it crying about it's neglect. If anyone has any idea on how to restore it's shine (can I polish it? With what? It's definetly just cheap plating I guess) please let me know.

And so… here's the real final tally of my lightsaber collection. (It's in potrait mode due to a Zoom.It bug)

I've sincerely believed in the moto that "Toys should be played with, not kept behind a glass cabinet." (Yes that's from Toy Story 2) Even more so now that I have my own kid so one word of advice, if you ever thought of getting even getting just one decorative lightsaber think of all the work and effort you'll have to put in to keeping it maintained so it keeps looking great sitting there. Then think of how much you can actually play with one of the toy lightsabers. I know what I'd choose NOW.

"Why is it so dirty?" was my mother's response as I handed a figure over to WZ. She was refering to this.

A McFarlane Toys Spartan figure from it's Halo:Reach line. And the fact that it's following Halo:Reach's design means that like in Spartans in the game the armor is not pristine but looks a bit worn and used instead. Here's another closer shot so you can see more closely how the worn detail is.

I guess the detailing saves people the trouble of trying to make their figures look battle hardened for their dioramas. Me? I just want something to remind WZ of the Red vs Blue action we've been going through recently. :P

So I finally went out and bought myself an actual Garmin GPS unit.

It's a Gamin Nuvi 1250, pretty much the smallest, most basic GPS unit that I found at the local Garmin outlet.

Now.. the obvious question from most people would end up being "Doesn't your phone have GPS functionality?"

So, does me buying a GPS unit is due to the fact that I can't use Bing maps for directions easily with my Windows Phone 7? Unfortunately for the Windows Phone 7 haters, that's not the case though. I pretty much made I my mind that if I replaced my HTC Diamond 2 with it's Garmin Maps software I would buy a physical device if I got a replacement phone that didn't have Garmin software support.

Why? Most important reason is that I don't trust Maxis enough to be the source of my map data, which is the case when I use either Google Maps or Bing Maps for navigation. Not to mention the fact that when I'm roaming in another country, network data usage may simply NOT be an option.

So I really much prefer an offline map solution. (Yes I know that the iPhone has a few too, but I'm getting to that)

The other reason for getting a dedicated GPS device is a matter of power. While most people look to converge all the things they do into one device, I have another view which is "The device I use must be able to serve its primary function with sufficient power reserves for any secondary functions" In this scenario, my phone's primary function is to serve as a communications device that links me to the world through the net, and of course as a phone. It's secondary function is to provide entertainment (games, movies, music) and well.. GPS guidance. Both those things require quite a big gulp of power.

I thought using my phone (The Diamond 2 and others before it) as a GPS wouldn't be a problem as long as I plugged it into the car charger, but after my first extended use of GPS when I was travelling through Melaka all day and on the highway I realized a problem. The combined heat of a working CPU, GPS chipset, screen backlight, bright HOT sunlight and the recharging of a battery is able to trip the phone battery's internal charge protection circuit. Thus the battery STOPS CHARGING until it can cool down so it doesn't EXPLODE!

Realizing that it is possible that under heavy usage my phone can't be recharged I decided that the best thing to do is to just get a dedicated GPS device so that my phone itself has power to spare.

For record keeping purporses, and also as a reference post if god forbid the sensor comes crashing down one day. This is how I mount my Kinect sensor.

The sensor is mounted on the top of your typical flat screen TV. I was going to make a stand using instructions provided here, when I encountered 2 problems.

The first was that the top grills behind my TV ran the full length of the TV, so there’s no center spine area to put the tape on. Therefore I resorted to the use of a smaller tube.

I’m guessing some Asian parents should be familiar with this nutmeg oil can, it’s diameter was just the right size to angle the platform. Speaking of which, the 2nd problem was the platform.

Surprisingly I couldn’t find a simple no entry sign, or anything like that in the ACE Hardware I went to. I saw lots of STICKERS, but no signs. I ended up with a cutting mat that has a melting point of 70 degrees Celsius.

I used industrial strength velcro for all removable points, then I used some duct tape as an anchor to help ease the force of the platform pushing against the can hopefully making for a more permanent bond.

Redundancy wise, in a case of failure. I hope that my used of multiple strips of velcro on the front of the TV combined with the duct tape, will ensure that there’s no SPONTANEOUS LOSS of adhesiveness, should the heat of the TV melt the velcro strip connected to the can I should be able to see it tilt gradually and perform any repairs instead of just watching it crash to the ground.

I hope!

For spatial reference

The space from the TV, to where the white couch is, happens to be JUST THE RIGHT SIZE for 2 players. 1 player is where WZ is sitting.

Because my wife was complaining that I got way too many Nerf guns, I promised her that I’ll only get guns that have a different design compared to any one I’ve already owned.

Well… out comes the Nerf Barricade which uses a sort of motorised dart launcher mechanism instead of a traditional pump. So… new mechanism means…

Brand new gun! Yippee!!! One of the main difference is that this gun CANNOT be used without batteries, because unlike the Vulcan there is no manual mechanism to shoot darts with.

All it has is an on/off switch, which uses some very interesting markings instead of the standard on/off marking.

Off is basically indicated by a no shot icon, whereas on is indicated by a burst mode icon.

The 3 AA batteries that power the gun are contained behind this battery door.

The dart chamber is capable of holding 10 rounds.

The firing mechanism is interesting, when a chamber is rotated into firing position the dart is pushed forward into the barrel and…

See the 2 pink gears at the bottom of the barrel, when you turn the gun on they start spinning, and when a dart is pushed into the barrel the gears basically grip the dart and accelerates it out the barrel.

There are 2 interesting things about the gun, the first is that it shoots surprisingly fast, almost as fast as you can pull the trigger. The second is that because the gears are constantly spinning as long as its on, it’s constantly draining power from the batteries… So battery life is suspect for this gun.

It’s a very interesting design, it’s compact, high capacity and high rate of fire is enticing, but the fact remains that it is a potential battery hog.

And here's a video.

Recently I came into possession of two wireless keyboards which might be of interest to some people. The first one is this little guy.

This is the Cideko Wireless Keyboard, small and compact little guy which looks like any normal wireless keyboard. But then you’ll notice something, why is there a key with a mouse in the upper left corner. And then when you look at the top of the keyboard.

It has buttons, but WHERE’S the mouse control? This is because the Cideko is what people like to call an air mouse. Which in plain English means you tilt the mouse to control the cursor. The problem here is that the tilting of the keyboard is very errr… unnatural in some cases, I guess I’ll have to make a video for a better example of that. It really isn’t as nice or useful as it should be.

The Cideko runs on a pair of normal AA batteries nestled in the grips. The back of the keyboard is also where you dock the wireless receiver.

Between the keys feel buttons on an cheap remote control, and air mouse control doesn’t feel intiuitive at all. This thing is only worth its expensive price tag to you if you REALLY REALLY need an air mouse.

And now for keyboard number two.

You might have seen this available in the local shops under the name of Rii Mini or something like that, you also might have seen something that seems similar design and goes under another brand name. That’s just the typical OEM factories at work.

It’s a small flat thing. Let me break out the rulers to show you.

So it’s about 15CM x 6.5CM in size, very small and pocketable. There’s one difference between this and the Rii’s that I’ve seen being sold here, let’s focus in on one particular key.

Instead of using a proprietary 2.4Ghz dongle, this Rii which I have uses BLUETOOTH. I got this from Brando instead of any shop here in Malaysia because well… I’m planning for the future, hoping to use this on any future slates, phones or other devices I might get which don’t support USB HID devices but DO support Bluetooth. But other than the difference in communication hardware, everything is the same as the 2.4Ghz model probably.

The keys have the phone style keyboard feel to them, so they feel nice when you thumb type. You can also turn on a backlight so you can see what you’re typing in the dark.

The keyboard is powered by a non removable battery, and recharged using a mini USB connector as pictured above. No… plugging it in through USB DOES NOT make it work as a wired keyboard.

A dinky red laser (I say dinky because when you go green, you don’t wanna go red anymore) sits on the right end of the keyboard.

Personally I found red lasers to be pretty much useless in a presentation scenario but if it works for you....

If there's one bad thing about the keyboard, it's the touchpad.

It COULD have been a little bit more sensitive but instead you'll probably finding yourself surfing around the pad more often than your regular notebook touchpad.

Of the two, I'd say the Rii is the better wireless keyboard even with it's little touchpad issues, mainly because the touchpad works MUCH BETTER than the Cideko's air mouse control!

So I got a new 32GB iPod Touch 4G a few days ago for my wife, and I couldn’t get any screen protector or case for it yet because… well no one had any thing for it yet. So I was extra careful in handling it, also made sure WZ didn’t toss it around when he was getting some bullet hell action going. But… after less than a week of very babied placing on tables…

Horrible horrible scratches! What did they use? Butter coated metal? It’s almost as if they delibrately made it so fragile to make it a NECESSITY to buy a case. hmmmm……

Here’s a Zoom.It version of the pick so you guys can take a closer look.

My search for the best tablet pc to write on continues, and this time the subject is the Asus T101MT

The T101MT is an 10 inch SVGA widescreen (1024x600) Intel Atom N450 powered Netbook class PC so it's basic performance parameters are pretty much the same as any of the recent N450 Netbooks such as the Lenovo S10-3T.

Inside it looks pretty plain and simple with not much in the sense of bells and whistles. You get a Chiclet style keyboard.

Which I can't tell you how well it works because I have been running an experiment to keep off the keyboard for as long as possible. As is typical for convertible Tablet PCs, the screen hinge rotates in only one direction.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term Tablet PC, that means the T101MT's screen can be folded 180 degrees and closed down on the keyboard to become a writing pad.

Unlike the Lenovo S10-3T though the Asus T101MT reaches the This feels quite a bit heavy region due partly to the higher capacity battery.

Depending on your usage and how you choose to throttle the CPU using Asus's Super Hybrid Engine app, you should be able to get around 3 ~ 4 hours of battery life.

The Asus T101MT does not have an accelerometer and thus doesn't do auto screen rotation (which I absolutely HATE!) Instead you press and hold on to a button beside the power button to rotate the screen.

As it is a full sized netbook, the Asus T101MT doesn't skimp on ports. You get all 3 USB ports in total, and the whole shebang of standard connectors at the back.

The main exhaust port is on the left side, along with the audio out and SD Card slot.

And now for the people who are interested in modding the T101MT, the bottom panel.

After I went through the shock of not seeing the usual regulatory stickers, Windows key stickers, serial number, etc. etc. (they're all under the battery) I noticed the lone panel on the back. That's the EXTRA memory slot. The Asus T101MT ships with 1GB of RAM... INSIDE the system underneath the keyboard, also known as the serious modders access only location. So you can add one extra GB of RAM while the additional slot, problem is that... because there's already one piece of RAM in the system, any other piece you get would have to work well with the preexisting one, so be sure to boot into Windows and crunch some numbers when buying additional RAM to ensure that the new RAM you bought works fine with the existing one.

Asus is not scared of Steve Jobs whole It's Wrong To Have A Stylus spew, and has a magnetic stylus silo on the right side of the screen.

Not just any cheap piece of plastic, it has a metal body giving it weight and feels like you're holding a real pen.

And it extends to a more reasonable pen like length.

And now let's talk about the touch screen, now we come to the one reason that I was willing to go through the wrath of my wife screaming "You bought ANOTHER ONE?!?!?!" to get the Asus T101MT. My whole purpose in getting Tablet PCs is to find that best machine to bring to meetings, write notes on, and brain storm on. And the Asus T101MT's touchscreen is almost close to being the perfect thing to write on.

First of all, it's a resistive screen instead of a capacitive one. Not as good as a real digitizer but a resistive screen is much better to write on than a capacitive one as I mentioned here.

Then it has 2 point multitouch so once app developers finally start making mutlitouch aware apps for Windows 7 you can use them properly.

But those reasons are not what tipped the scales in favor of risking the wrath of my wife vs living a calm peaceful life. What tipped the scales was that.

The Asus T101MT's touchscreen has PALM REJECTION.

I've seen palm rejection in resistive touchscreens before with my Fujitsu P1610 and U1010. They worked, but still left quite a bit to be desired.

After testing the Asus T101MT's palm rejection in the shop, I knew that I had to have it! While testing it in the shop I found that it could detect the palm and reject input from it 95% of the time! So I was elated when I found that out.

The main difference between the T101MT's palm rejection and the previous ones I used was that you have to specifically turn it on by running a program which Asus docks to the task bar. That's probably why it works so well, because in previous cases the touchscreen was basically trying to guess between what's valid input and what's not. Whereas for the T101MT the user specifically tells it that they ONLY want stylus points to be detected and nothing else.

As I was writing around in OneNote and in Journal I suddenly noticed something, my ink input looked different... it looked as if... the touchscreen was supplying Windows with PRESSURE INFORMATION!

Which means that not only did the touch screen do palm rejection, it was pressure sensitive as well! Which made it a very interesting touch screen indeed, and such an interesting touch screen deserves a video!

But... alas it is still not perfect, while the palm rejection works very well, it seems to falter at times, and fails to detect pen inputs. Not enough to call it a failure, but enough for me to get nit picky about. Still, it is by far the BEST Palm Rejection I've used outside of a digitizer! And that's saying a lot!

After using the T101MT, I sincerely wish that Asus is gonna put this same touchscreen (or an even better one!) on their Windows 7 powered slates in the future (hopefully something that's 10", anything bigger is too bulky to be called a pad).

So what's the verdict? If you're looking for an affordable tablet pc to write on NOW, I don't see why the Asus T101MT won't work for you. If you can wait, there should be better things come in the future, and of course if you have the money. You can go for one of the tablets which offer a hybrid digitizer for the BEST writing experience!