Larry’s Things .net

http://www.incrediblethings.com/

Observations:  

- the text to speech is not bad…  still pronounces a lot of street names incorrectly though.

Pros: 

- Screen is very clear and bright.   Even works well with polarized sunglasses.

- Menu system is more logically arranged that that of the TomTom series

- the bluetooth link with the cellphone for handsfree calling works very well.   Even with the noisy interior of a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the other person on the call can still hear the conversation very clearly

Cons: 

- the usb car adapter seems to be very specific to the Garmin.   Attempting to use a third party car adapter puts the Garmin into computer connect mode, and you end up losing gps usage while it is connected.

Apricorn Aegis Padlock :    http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=58

Lenovo Thinkpad Secure hard drive  :   http://www.everythingusb.com/lenovo-thinkpad-usb-portable-secure-hard-drive-16313.html

Vantec NexStar VAULT Keypad Encryption 2.5 Inch SATA USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive Enclosure: NST-V290S2 

Data Locker Secured Hard drive  http://www.takeanywhere.com

MD80 mini sport camcorder

Vosonic GV-6300 in-car camera recorder - record resolution 640×480 , frame rate 20-30fps. no lumen rating.    Cool feature - automatically starts recording on engine startup.   Lowest price found on froogle - $229 USD.

http://www.pimall.com/nais/equ.find.html

For the secret service agent who needs bulletproof white shirts:

http://www.miguelcaballero.com/cms/front_content.php

http://www.solarac.com/ultracooled.htm

but is probably referring to a product made by this company:

http://www.coolerado.com/

http://www.buildinggreen.com/

The following is just a documentation of what I did to clean the trackball module of my blackberry.    The reason for cleaning the trackball was because it refused to move downwards.   Left, right, and up worked ok.  Follow and apply these steps at your own risk.  Death and dismemberment may spontaneously occur!   Even the act of reading further can seriously affect the curvature of space-time in your immediate vicinity and may also cause further death and dismemberment.   You have been forewarned.  

Each picture can be opened for a larger version.

  Look closely at the silver trackball ring,  you’ll see that there’s a small space surrounding the silver ring and the body of the phone.  It’s just enough to stick your fingernail in to pry the silver ring out.   Very carefully pry it out while changing sides frequently.   Before removing it completely, I noticed that the silver ring only has 3 prongs (NOT FOUR!!) ,  remember where these prongs are positioned, and also notice that the prongs fit into a slot.   REMEMBER that these prongs have to be seated into these slots…   trying to put the silver ring back on without aligning into the slots will bend+break the prongs - I already made this mistake!

Once it has been removed, it will reveal the trackball module.     It can be easily popped out just by flipping the phone face down into my palm.   <— don’t do this yet!    Very carefully flipped it into my palm and made note of how the module was oriented,  this will ensure that I put the module back in properly.

Notice that there are 4 small roller things.   Take note how they are positioned!   Because after you remove the metal clips, they can easily pop off.   They are also magnetized, so they tend to be attracted to each other.   In order to remove the metal clip,  I had to use something sharp, like a swiss army knife.   Use this sharp instrument to carefully lift the metal clip off the plastic tab.

The pictures below shows the rollers and ball completely free from its’ housing.   I then used some mild cleaning solution like soapy water or windex (basic ammonia based window cleaner) and some tissue to clean the individual components.   I do not recommend using any strong cleansers which might melt the plastic.

Put everything back together.  (and using the previously made notes on how things were oriented) .

 Et viola,  the trackball is working again.

Cool company that makes a kiosk that creates a 3d laser engraved image of yourself in 5 minutes.

http://www.3d-etc.com/

Saw it first at the Montreal Eaton Centre two years ago.   I think it cost somewhere between $5 to $10 to create the image.   Strangely though, it doesn’t seem to have expanded much more in Canada.   Seems to have quite a few installations in the U.S. .     Not easy to find on google either…

Update:  Aug 4, 2010

The website seems to have removed all references of its installed locations.   I can only assume that they might not be focusing on the 3d kiosk any more.

However, I’ve found the parent manufacturer for this kiosk, located in a company that seems to be in China.   The company is called Heifei Cnca Laser.       http://www.cncalaser.com/  .    The only new news item is a reference to a showing in Kuala Lumpur, July 2010.