Wireless Musical Mousepad

The time has come for our mouse pads to be something more then just a smooth surface for your mice to move on. There are many variations of mouse pads but this is one of the coolest ones. It does not mean that it is something extraordinary.

The mouse pad can play music from virtually any audio device in your house. You would say that many gadgets can do that but this one is able to do it wirelessly.

Imagine your mouse pad playing your favorite song that is on TV now. This gadget can reproduce audio signals from your TV, any audio player, CD player, iPod, any other MP3 player. You will have pleasure listening to all this right at your computer desk.

However, the sound quality is not very high. Honestly saying this gadget's sound is poor. Besides, who is listening to mono sound anymore? It has only one speaker and it is not even big. The only advantage that it has is its mobility, and ability to let you listen to the music wirelessly.

The other feature that it has is the built in FM tuner so you will be able to listen to the radio at your workplace or your garage. The radio works without the transmitter so you can listen to it anywhere you want.

The transmitter is the other part of this gadget that comes with the mouse pad. This is what you connect to your audio devices in order to make the mouse pad rock. The transmitter works at a maximum range of 50 feet. However, we all know that the conditions for that have to be perfect. I would say that it is enough for my house, but it is not as good on my backyard.

It is very good as a mouse pad but it is not that good for listening to the music. There are many buttons on its edges and they are there to control the sound volume, radio etc.

This gadget has a grey mouse pad, and silver body. Besides, it has some black spots around the control buttons. This way it will fit any color of your computer, monitor, or keyboard. However, it is not very small and it measures about 8 x 11 inches.

Well, because it is wireless it needs batteries to run. I am not sure how much it will hold but it needs three AAA batteries to work.

This piece of technology is available for just $ 30 and if you want to be cool ad geeky you might want to buy it.

Guy is in a SHeD load of trouble

DIY disaster Stephen Lynch dug 200 tons of earth out of his back garden to build a shed — and now faces a £50,000 bill to put it all back.
The plan was to dig 20ft by 15ft footings.

But Stephen ended up with a hole 40ft long, 30ft wide and 6½ft deep.

It threatened to undermine nearby homes — and one is considered so dangerous the postman refuses to deliver mail.

Hapless Stephen, 41, said: “It just kept getting bigger. I decided I wanted two big outbuildings rather than a little shed, so I bought an £18,500 mini digger to make it easier.

“Then I thought I should get value for the money and go down even deeper to make basements for the buildings. I’ve been working 13-hour days for eight months. The earth was taken away in around 40 wagon loads."

The work starts this week and will cost £15,000.

A further £35,000 has been run up in engineers’ and lawyers’ bills, which Stephen must also pay.

GSM lamp: Let there be light, eavesdropping

if someone gave you this stylish table lamp, you'd probably set it down on an end table and then forget about it except when you need a little light. Big mistake. But then how could you know that the lamp has a built-in GSM receiver and microphone, letting the owner dial in and listen to what's going on in your living room? The GSM Table Lamp turns an otherwise innocuous household item into an eavesdroppers' party line with a range of 15 to 20 feet.

While we're somewhat unnerved by the recent proliferation of spy gadgets, we have to respect the innovative use of GSM technology, which is starting to spread out from cell phones. And the lamp isn't without its "legit" uses: as an undetectable nanny monitor, for example. Still, you'd have to think that cheating spouses would be a more likely target. Just be prepared to drop about $1,325 for your spy gadget — couples' therapy might be a more affordable choice.

Think twice before using hotel room coffee pots

Ask just about anyone in law enforcement, and they'll tell you to be careful if you ever brew coffee in a hotel room.

"I know enough now that whenever I go to a hotel, regardless of how nice it is, I'll never use a coffee pot," said Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall.
Instead of brewing coffee, coffee pots are sometimes used to brew methamphetamine.

And since meth labs in hotels aren't anything new, Rick Phillips of the Marshall County Drug Enforcement Unit says there's definitely a risk.

"The coffee makers that you find in every motel room is an ideal heat source. They mix it up in the coffee pot, put it on a heat source and let it sit there and cook," said Phillips.

It's common knowledge to those who fight meth, but a shock to your average citizen.

"That's a little nerve rattling," said Marshall County resident Toni Jones.

"I didn't know that. Proud you told me," said Marshall County resident Daryl Rice.

If you were to drink coffee from a pot used to make meth, it could be hazardous to your health.

The problem is residue from chemicals such as red phosphorus and iodine.

"Typical sickness and issues that would come with any chemical exposure, simple nausea, vomiting to maybe a hospital visit," said Phillips.

Phillips says it's pretty easy to tell if a coffee pot has been used to cook meth.

It will have a dark reddish-orange stain.

You should also be skeptical if there's a chemical odor when you walk in the room.

The Pigeon as Cyborg

No, this isn't a punk rock pigeon with a crimson mohawk. Rather, the bird now can receive
computer commands through electrodes in its brain from the device attached--rather cumbersomely,
it seems--atop its head.
Scientists from the Robot Research Center at the Shandong University of Science and Technology
in Qingdao, China, performed the work, which enables them to direct the pigeon's flight (take off,
hover, fly forward, turn right or left) by remote control. The researchers said that the pigeon was under
anesthesia when the device was attached and that it doesn't feel pain at the head. Somehow that seems
unlikely to mollify animal rights activists.

Here is a closer look at the microelectrode, shown off by Shandong University researchers
earlier this week. The implants stimulate various regions of the pigeon's brain. Similar
experiments have been carried out with rats (aka, "ratbots").
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Adobe to take Photoshop online

Adobe to take Photoshop online
Hosted version of program to appear within six months, CEO says, as company looks to combine online features with packaged apps.
By Martin LaMonica and Mike Ricciuti

Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe Systems plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months, the company's chief executive said Tuesday.

The online service is part of a larger move to introduce ad-supported online services to complement its existing products and broaden the company reach into the consumer market, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen told CNET News.com.
Chizen said Adobe laid the foundation for a hosted Photoshop product with Adobe Remix, a Web-based video-editing tool it offers through the PhotoBucket media-sharing site.
Like Adobe Remix, the hosted Photoshop service is set to be free and marketed as an entry-level version of Adobe's more sophisticated image-editing tools, including Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Chizen envisions revenue from the Photoshop service coming from online advertising.

"That is new (for Adobe). It's something we are sensitive to because we are watching folks like Google do it in different categories, and we want to make sure that we are there before they are, in areas of our franchises," Chizen said.
Chizen described the introduction of Adobe Remix and the forthcoming hosted Photoshop as part of a larger move toward integrating hosted services into the company's product mix.
Like Microsoft, Adobe's business is built largely around packaged software, installed locally on users' PCs. Likewise, Adobe's plans to diversify its business with online services mirrors a large-scale effort at Microsoft to introduce a combination of software and services.
As online applications become more functional, Adobe is seeking out areas where Web services can fill out its product portfolio, Chizen said.
The company intends to offer entirely hosted applications, as well as "hybrids," in which Adobe uses the Web to introduce features to desktop products, such as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, he added.

"We recognize there is a customer there--we recognize they are not going to pay us, necessarily, directly. But we could use ad revenue as a model. Google has demonstrated that it works pretty well for certain types of applications," Chizen said.
Indeed, Adobe's online push has as much to do with consumers' expectations as encroaching competition from Google, said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst at Burton Group.
"From a digital-media consumer experience, Adobe really needs, for competitive and customer value reasons, to be the end-to-end products and services supplier," O'Kelly said. "It doesn't portend well if Adobe can't get on top of it."
The latest version of Google's Picasa, which is a desktop application, introduces features to post photos on the Web. It also allows people to read Photoshop files, O'Kelly noted.

Showdown with Picasa?
Chizen said that although hosted Photoshop is meant to be a low-end product, the company intends to ensure that it is of a higher quality than free alternatives. As an online image-editing application, Adobe faces a challenge in providing a good experience for customers, he added.
"You don't want (network) latency to be an issue for the user, so it's harder, in some ways, than a video Remix product," he said. "Even though bandwidth is increasing, the pipes are getting filled with video, so the user experience will likely stay the same for the next three to five years."
The company is also wary of not diluting the brand name of Photoshop, a program widely used by creative professionals such as designers and illustrators.

"If we offered a host-based version of Photoshop that's Photoshop-branded (and is) potentially better than Picasa, you'd probably go the Photoshop route because of your belief in the Photoshop brand and the quality associated with the brand," Chizen said.
A Google representative was not immediately available for comment on Adobe's plans.
As Adobe introduces more online multimedia features and products, the company intends to use its expertise in products such as Photoshop and video-editing suite Premiere Pro, and to combine it with the Web development savvy it gained through its acquisition of Macromedia.

Remix, for example, was written using Flex, the development environment for Adobe's Flash Player.
Chizen noted that Google's wealth of technical talent in Web development makes it the most likely candidate to challenge Adobe as it offers hosted media-editing applications. He indicated that Adobe is still weighing its options in regard to how it will deliver hosted, ad-supported services.
Its deal with PhotoBucket around Adobe Remix is not exclusive. The partnership arrangement allows Adobe to share advertising dollars without having to invest in the computing infrastructure and people to operate the Web site, he said.

But revenues from Web ads could potentially justify an Adobe investment in offering hosted services directly, Chizen said. "Once we see that it could be a significant revenue producer, then maybe we'll want to deal with it," he said.
The company already offers Acrobat Connect, a service for Web conferencing
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Dog With College Degree Called to Court

Dog With College Degree Called to Court
Mar 1, 7:35 AM (ET)

FOSTORIA, Ohio (AP) - An attorney challenging the authority of the city's police chief wants the department's police dog to appear in court as an exhibit, because he says the dog and the chief have criminal justice degrees from the same online school.
The issue gives "one pause, if not paws, for concern" about what it takes to get the degrees from the school based in the Virgin Islands, Gene Murray wrote in a court document filed Monday.
Murray is seeking to have a drug charge against a client dismissed by arguing that police Chief John McGuire - who is accused of lying on his job application - was not legally employed and had no authority as an officer.


McGuire is to go on trial in March on charges of falsification and tampering with records. A special prosecutor said McGuire lied on his application and resume about his rank, position, duties, responsibilities and salary in three of his previous jobs.
McGuire was hired as chief of this northwest Ohio city a year ago.

The union that represents Fostoria police officers and dispatchers filed a lawsuit challenging McGuire's hiring.
Murray said asking that the police dog, Rocko, show up in court at an evidence hearing is a key to discrediting McGuire, who took part in a traffic stop and search in October that resulted in drug possession charges against Clifford Green of Fostoria.
Both McGuire and Rocko, who is listed as John I. Rocko on his diploma, are graduates of Concordia College and University, according to copies of diplomas that are part of Murray's motion.
The court filing did not say how the attorney knows that diploma is for the dog or how Rocko allegedly managed to enroll in the college.
"My client had absolutely nothing to do with any animal getting a degree from an institution of higher learning," said McGuire's attorney, Dean Henry. "The whole thing is bizarre."

He said the dog was with the department before McGuire began working there.
Seneca County Prosecutor Ken Egbert said he will ask the judge to deny the request and limit the hearing to matters that are relevant.
"I don't think it's necessary to bring the actual dog," Egbert said.
A date has not been set for the evidence hearing.
City leaders have said McGuire's hiring was not influenced by his college degree, and any confusion about his background was resolved during interviews.
"We've already been through all that," Safety Service Director Bill Rains. "That was answered to our satisfaction."
Fostoria is about 35 miles southeast of Toledo.

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NASA wants permanent moon base

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- NASA's plans for returning people to the moon -- an objective called for by President Bush in 2004 -- includes establishing a permanent outpost would be used to prepare for a manned trip to Mars.

The moon base would be at either the north or south pole of the moon, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said during a news conference Monday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Increased sunlight at the poles would allow better use of solar energy to power the outpost, she said.


NASA's lunar architecture team decided it would be better to establish a base than to conduct individual missions to the moon, as in the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s, she said.

Team scientists believe astronauts could use the moon's natural resources to maintain the outpost, and could use the base to prepare for the trip to Mars, an objective also set forth by Bush.

Sorties to other locations on the moon could also be carried out from the outpost, Dale said.

Deputy Associate Administrator Doug Cooke said one promising location is the Shackleton Crater at the south pole.

In addition to having an area that is almost permanently sunlit, it is adjacent to a permanently dark area that might yield water ice.

NASA Associate Administrator Scott Horowitz said the goal is to conduct the first manned missions to the moon by 2020, starting with short stays by four-person crews that would establish the outpost.

He estimated that perhaps by 2024 there might be a continual presence on the surface, with crews rotating in and out, as is done with the international space station.

Before the manned missions NASA plans a series of robotic missions. The first of these, using the lunar reconnaissance orbiter, is scheduled for 2008.

The orbiter is designed to create high-resolution maps, look for good landing sites and search for water ice and other resources.

NASA said an an important component of the moon mission will be international participation.

The space agency will reach out to other nations to determine how they would like to take part.

Special Vista Keyboard and Mouse

Finally when Vista software is out on the market the M'zoft Corporation has released its new wireless mouse and keyboard. The M'zoft Wireless Entertainment desktop 7000 is a set of a keyboard and rechargeable mouse.

The mouse is the M'zoft’s first rechargeable mouse and they have made it great. First of all, the mouse and the keyboard work using Bluetooth technology. They can work from up to 30 feet away from you computer. Not bad for a keyboard, huh.

Why is it made for Vista? Additional buttons like multimedia and some gadget buttons are placed on the keyboard. These buttons will work only with Windows Vista because only Vista has a "gadget" side-bar. And there are a lot of them, in addition to multimedia buttons that have become usual for a keyboard. The multimedia buttons will let you remotely control all the devices that are connected using Windows Media Center; this makes your keyboard a cool remote control.

Mouse keys are specially created for Vista too. For example, pushing the middle button (scroll) will let you see the thumbnails of all the windows that you have opened. The other cool function that is added: You can magnify a portion of the screen. This will help you when viewing some pictures, or reading small fonts.

Being made in grey colors the keyboard and the mouse will match any computer white or black. Besides, the keyboard is made thin and the buttons are pressed easily and don't make much noise.

The first rechargeable mouse made by M'zoft? Yes it is. The mouse has a rechargeable battery and you can charge it when you do not use the mouse. I think that would be at night, or when you are at work.

A vending machine that makes… pizza?

You can purchase all sorts of things from vending machines these days, from soda and candy to iPods and cell phones. But freshly made pizza? That just doesn't seem to make any sense. How can you make pizza in a vending machine? Has the whole world gone mad?!

Well, guess what? It's coming. Wonderpizza vending machines provide you with a 9-inch pizza in 2 minutes without you having to worry about humans touching it at any point in the process. That is unless the secret of the Wonderpizza machines is that they have very small people inside making pizzas very quickly. In which case I would feel pretty bad about buying pizzas from them.

Gadget Trak finds your stolen stuff for you

Getting your electronics stolen really sucks. You spend all this money on a new iPod or laptop only to have some sleazebag swipe it from your backpack on the subway — it just hurts. Until now, there wasn't much you could do to get your stolen toys back. But a new company is looking to make it easier to retrieve your stolen goods.

GadgetTrak is a small piece of software you can load on any portable USB device. When you report it as stolen, the software then loads itself on any computer it's plugged into, starts gathering data, then lets you know where it is. It's like lowjack for gadgets. The best part? The software is free. Yep, you can go download it now and load it on any devices you'd like. Now you have no excuse to worry about getting your stuff stolen, so go ahead and flaunt that gadget in any bad neighborhood you want.

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Healing Moon

Can the moon heal you of whatever ailments you're afflicted with? And even if somehow I could, would a replica of the moon share the original's healing properties? I highly doubt it. But hey, who am I to judge? But no, seriously, I'd judge you if you believed that.

OK, let's just call this e-Revolution Healing Moon a nightlight then. That should keep things civil. It's a neat light that automatically turns on when it's dark, and it has programmable cycles. It might not cure cancer, but it could be a soothing presence in a child's bedroom, or hey, even in your bedroom. But seriously, it doesn't have healing properties. Trust me.

The e-Revolution Healing Moon is available now for $100.

Man Tries to Cash $50K Check From God

Man Tries to Cash $50K Check From God
Mar 1, 6:14 AM (ET)

HOBART, Ind. (AP) - Kevin Russell found out it's not easy trying to cash a check from God. The 21-year-old man was arrested Monday after he tried to cash a check for $50,000 at the Chase Bank in Hobart that was signed "King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant," Hobart police Detective Jeff White said.
Russell was charged with one count attempted check fraud and one count intimidation, both felonies, and one count resisting law enforcement, a misdemeanor. He could face prison time.


Police were called to the bank after Russell tried to cash the check, which was written on an invalid Bank One check with no imprint, White said. Russell had several other checks with him that were signed the same way but made out in different dollar amounts, including one for $100,000.
Russell struggled with police as they tried to detain him, White said, and then threatened police as they transported him to the Hobart Police Department.
"I've heard about God giving out eternal life, but this is the first time I've heard of him giving out cash," White said.
No court date has been set for Russell. He was being held Wednesday at the Lake County Jail on a $1,000 bond.


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