bookofjoe

Video iPod Screensavers

Things happen fast in iPodland: 18 days ago the video iPod was introduced

and already there's a company offering screensavers for it.

Out of Germany comes showfootage.com to sell you video clips (above and below, screenshots) ranging from two to 20 seconds long for $4.99.

Just like a screensaver, wrote Frank Ahrens in his "Web Watch" column in today's Washington Post, "the clips continously loop."

If you want to buy one you better move fast because these will be free before you can say "Bob's your uncle."

Mouse Pad Speakerphone

Oh, sure — now you tell me your mouse pad's talking to you.

What next?

Sheesh.

But wait — there's more: this thing's got so many other functions it's not even funny.

From the website:

This space–saving mouse pad has a built–in speakerphone, allowing you to place and receive calls without having to interrupt your work by getting up to answer the phone across the room.

It has built-in Caller–ID capability and stores 110 phone book entries.

The keypad doubles as a calculator and has an alarm clock for convenient functionality in a single desktop component.

The speakerphone's features are fully customizable, allowing you to choose from 48 different ring tones and 16 hold melodies, plus any of 10 display languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, German, Dutch, Turkish, and Polish).

The unit remembers Caller–ID data from the last 90 incoming calls.

An illuminated indicator alerts you to new calls .

Advanced redial lets you choose from any of your last eight outgoing calls.

Measures 12.5" x 9.25" x 2".

Amuse your friends and alarm your cubicle neighbors.

$39.95 here.

Google's Halloween–themed help-wanted ad

Above, Google's full–page ad as it appears on page 5 of today's New York Times Business section.

The graphic appears above the fold and this headline

is below.

That's followed by the fine print:

I know that at least one person who works for Google reads bookofjoe.

How do I know this?

Because that person's email address is "thatperson@google.com."

I mean, I don't think you could have such an address unless you worked there — do you?

Gmail's a whole different kettle of eyes of newt and toes of frog.

World's Best Travel Alarm Clock

Every October, on the last Sunday of the month — hey, wait a minute, that's today! — as I make my way around the house setting back by one hour all the clocks and watches around my house, I smile when I finally get back up here to my bedroom and the mass of alarm clocks lying on one of my nightstands.

Because adjusting them takes about two seconds apiece, as opposed to the pain in the butt of advancing all the other digital clocks 23 hours to set them back.

Crazy, isn't it, that all digital clocks don't have both advance and retreat buttons?

Oregon Scientific thought so too, because that's a signature feature of their excellent travel alarm clock (above and below).

I wrote about it in detail on September 13, 2004.

Many of you weren't here then.

Most of you still aren't.

But I digress.

Here's that post.

World's Best Travel Alarm Clock



It's the Oregon Scientific AS316NE-S Nightfinder, for $13.95.

With a model number like that, you'd think it was intended for the Defense Department or something. But I digress.

I was gonna title this post "The Persistence of Stupidity,"



a kind of mild homage to Dali's 1931 masterpiece but more a bow in the direction of my own tendency toward perseveration, which creates problems for me.

Back in 1997, I was in Duluth, Minnesota for the NorthShore Inline Skate Marathon.

I set the five Westclox Travel Alarms (below) that I'd used for years without any difficulty.



I set them, by the way, as I always do: to go off at five minute intervals, and placed at various places around the hotel room so I would have to get up to turn them off.

Except in Duluth, I forgot to move the alarm button (under the 00 in the picture above) from "Off" to "On."

So all five alarms were set perfectly, but not turned on.

So, long story short, I missed the race.

That's a long way to travel to spend a night in an Econolodge.

But the great part of the story is, I blamed myself for my failure, instead of the clock, and so kept on using it.

Until earlier this year, when I couldn't find it online anymore.

So, I started looking for a replacement.

And I happened upon the Oregon Scientific one featured here.

It's much better, for one big reason: it shows you on the screen not only if the alarm is on, but also what time it's set to go off.

When you're managing five of 'em simultaneously, that's important and very helpful.



It's also better for four other reasons:

1) you can adjust the settings up and down, instead of up only

2) the nightlight/snooze mechanism is activated just by tapping the top, which rocks gently backward on a spring hinge

3) it runs on a AAA battery, instead of one of those impossible-to-find-the-right-one watch batteries like the Westclox

4) it's smaller and lighter than the Westclox

********************

Kevin Kelly liked the clock enough to feature it on his "Cool Tools" website four days after I wrote about it last year.

Nuff sed.

If you don't have the interest or the time to read about how great this clock is but just want to buy one, OK — I feel your pain.

I mean, I am your pain.

You can now buy one of these superb clocks for $7.12 here.

A year ago they were $13.95 — if this keeps up they'll be giving them away by Halloween 2006.

BehindTheMedspeak: Can breathing cold air kill you?

Until this morning I didn't think so.

But then, on page 29 of the latest Herrington catalog, in the copy describing the benefits of a cold–weather heat–exchanging breathing mask (above), I read the following: "You'll avoid the potentially lethal cardiac effects of breathing cold air."

I guess there's always something new in the world of heart disturbances.

Funny, though: I never heard a word about such a thing during medical school, internship, residency, my research fellowship in cardio–pulmonary anesthesia or in my subsequent years in academic anesthesia, nor have I ever read anything about the dangerous cardiac effects of chilly air in either the anesthesiology literature or the medical literature in general.

Time for the crack research team to have a look, what?

Here's what they brought back:

1) It is true that sudden exposure to cold water can cause cardiac arrest.

2) Breathing cold air can trigger an asthmatic episode. However, any shortness of breath resulting from inhaling frigid air has never been reported to have a "potentially lethal" effect on an individual's heart.

3) The use of cold to treat cardiac arrest is well established and routine practice around the world.

Long story short: Should you choose to purchase one of these masks, do so because breathing warm air feels better, not because it's going to protect you from cardiac arrest.

The XChanger Fleece Face Mask (above) comes in medium and large sizes, in your choice of cream, black, grey or navy and costs $34.95 here.

Both the Under–Helmet version (below)

and the Balaclava (below),

offering "full head, neck and face protection for extreme cold," are one–size–fits–all, black, and cost $42.95 here.

Weight of Time Calendar

Li Zijian took first place in the 2005 Kokuyo Design Awards competition with his singular calendar (above).

With every passing day torn off at the bottom, the load lightens....

[via AW]

The 100 Most Powerful People in the World of Art

Tomorrow's a big day in the art world: ArtReview magazine's influential Power 100, a list of the 100 most powerful people in the art world, goes on sale.

But guess what: not only do you not have to wait, you don't even have to pay for it or even make any effort at all to see it — beyond clicking here.

Nice, eh?

For those who don't have the inclination or energy required to visit the link above, here are the top 10, from the most powerful person in the art world — artist Damien Hirst — on down:

1. Damien Hirst

2. Larry Gagosian — dealer/gallerist

3. François Pinault — owner of Christie's/collector

4. Nicholas Serota — Tate Museum director

5. Glenn D. Lowry — MoMa director

6. Eli Broad — collector/philanthropist

7. Sam Keller — Art Basel art fair director

8. Iwan Wirth — dealer/gallerist

9. Bruce Nauman — artist

10. David Zwirner — dealer/gallerist

Here's a link to Jackie Wullschlager's article, in this weekend's Financial Times, about the list and its back story and ramifications.

At the end of her article are sub–lists in which are noted the top artists and top 20 women.

Here's a link to ArtReview's website.

I have always considered the title — "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" — of Hirst's iconic 1991 work, a shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde (above), to be the best thing about it.

Nonslip Rug Grips

Tired of your rugs migrating all over the room?

Had enough of tripping and falling over them when they slide around under your feet?

Thought so.

But perhaps you don't have the energy or the time to trek to the store to buy a huge roll of foam padding to put under them.

And besides, that stuff has gotten really expensive, what with everything derived from oil now skyrocketing in price.

And who wants to go to the trouble of moving the rugs so you can put the padding underneath?

Besides which you'll pass out from disgust when you see what's there.

No problema.

Rug Grips offer a quick and not–dirty solution.

They're strips of material covered on both sides with a special adhesive that keeps rugs snugly in place on wood, tile, linoleum and carpet.

No sticky residue stays behind when you remove the stuff.

It doesn't mar your floors.

You cut it to fit your rugs.

I'm sold — where can I get some?

Right here — $5.99 for two rolls, each 3"W x 15'L.