PixelBrat's Blog

November 2, 2006

My mom has found her inner-Gadgeteer!

My mother and grandmother are going on a road trip to Charleston this weekend. Unfortunately, mom is deathly afraid of highways and interstates so she avoids them like the plague. When she realized it would take her an extra 2+ hours to get to Charleston by back roads she decided to brave the interstate with the help of my portable GPS unit for turn-by-turn directions. Now you must understand that my mother is not tech savvy at all.  She still takes pictures using a film camera and  wouldn't know how to turn on a computer if her life depended on it.   We aren't sure but we don't think she knows how to get the voicemail messages off her cell phone either. Knowing this, I was a little concerned that the GPS would be too complex for her. I decided to prepare a printed tutorial with photos and detailed instructions for her to use when she's alone on the road. I also took a day off from work to teach her how to use it. Much to my surprise she took to that thing like a duck to water!! I think the new-found freedom to go where ever she wants without the fear of getting lost helped a lot. 

She has been practicing with it this week to get used to it before the trip and has even named the woman's voice that recites the directions. She named her Bella - this is derived from the loud bell sound that goes off right before the next turn.  She has even begun arguing with Bella when it tells her to turn somewhere she doesn't want to turn.  I only wish I had a picture of her wagging her finger at it in protest...    

I'm really proud of my mom and see this as just the beginning of her inner-Gadgeteer coming out in full force. If I'm not mistaken a GPS unit is now on her Christmas list. It's just a matter of time before she's using a digital camera and downloading the latest Food Network recipes off the internet. Go Mom, go!!  Have fun and be careful!!

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:20 PM | Comments (2)

August 20, 2006

The Deja View Camwear 100 in action

I know it's been a couple of days but I was finally able to test out my Deja View Camwear 100.  I'm happy to report that it works pretty decent for the price I paid for it.  It's certainly not Mini DV quality by any stretch but it's fun for quick stuff around the house.  I haven't captured any spectacular moments yet so you'll just have to suffer through this quick test video of the kitties below if you'd like to see how it looks.  I had it attached to my hat for this one.

So far so good, right?  Well, I decided to take it on a motorcycle ride today, which was really my intended purpose for this cam all along.  I hooked it to my sunglasses and ran the wire from the camera down the inside of my shirt so it would stay out of my way.  Off I go on the bike, zipping around the block hoping I've grabbed some cool video.  Much to my disappointment I found that the bike appears to be causing some sort of interference in the video.    It shows up as a reddish area on the bottom of the video that fades in and out.  This happened in all of the 15 clips I got on the bike.  Click on the image below to see what I'm talking about. (To save your ears I went ahead and muted the sound on this one.)

Any video/electronics experts out there know how I can prevent this color distortion?  Any info would be much appreciated.  I may try a few more experiments to see if I can find a workaround.  If you can look beyond the red funk it's a pretty neat perspective.  Almost like you're riding it yourself.  I'll be sure to post another if I get this little glitch worked out.

Posted by pixelbrat at 9:50 PM | Comments (2)

August 17, 2006

A new (to me) gadget and mini-rant

I think it's cruel and unusual punishment to make a gadget-lover wait over 3 hours for batteries to charge before they can use their new gadget.  It's simply wrong... WRONG I say!  What is this glorious new piece of gadget love I have purchased?  Well, it's actually not new at all but very cool nonetheless.  It's called the Deja View Camwear 100.  This ingenious piece of equipment is a small wearable video camera that records events "after the fact".  I can almost hear you now..."What in the hell does that mean?"  It's a wearable video camera that's designed to ensure that the user never misses that important moment.  The camera mounts to a hat or glasses and monitors everything you see. When something happens that you want to save, you simply press the record button and the last 30 seconds of video with audio are saved to an SD memory card.  Neat, huh?  These came out in 2002 at a prohibitively high price of $400.    I got a used one for a fraction of that from ebay.  I think it will be neat to wear this on motorcycle rides.  When I ride through a particularly cool section of twisty road or when some cuts me off I can hit the record button and save the last 30 seconds.  It should be fun catching the kitties when they do cute stuff too.  Of course, I can't do this, or even test it to see if it works, until the damn batteries finish charging!!! 

Editors Note:  Yes, I realize I will look like an enormous dork wearing something like this in public.  I think I can pull it off wearing it under a motorcycle helmet or around my family.  Hell, they know I'm not right in the head so it shouldn't phase them. 

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:15 PM

June 25, 2005

Gadget fun at Six Flags over GA

Continuing our vacation activities, Rob and I headed for Six Flags on Thursday hoping the crowd would be light.  This did not prove to be the case but more on that later.  The day didn't start off very well, thanks to a two hour drive through Atlanta traffic to get there.  Being the gadget hound that I am, I packed a couple of cameras in my fanny pack so I could capture the "fun".  The one that got the most use was a tiny little thing, a Philips Key019, that fits in the palm of your hand.  It does all sorts of things but it's best feature is shooting video.  You can see a photo below of it's diminutive size.

Admittedly, the video isn't great and it only shoots it in 320 x 240 resolution but this is a decent size for web posting.  Due to the camera's size I thought it would be perfect for shooting video of roller coaster rides.  Now, you're probably thinking... weren't you scared you'd drop it?  Sort of but I attached a safety strap to it that I then strapped to myself so I felt fairly confident.  Besides, I wasn't about to miss the opportunity to use a gadget.

To read more and see some cool videos click the link below...

Now for the videos.  The first one is the Mindbender, a great looping coaster.  It had a horrible 2 hour wait time with people constantly breaking in line. To make matters worse those same line cutters were breakdancing!  But I digress... Download instructions:  You can just click the link and Windows Media Player will be open and play but if you think you'll want to watch the videos more than once please Right click and choose "Save Target As...".  That way you can save it to your PC and watch them over and over at your leisure.

The next video is of the Ninja.  Another looping coaster with a thankfully short wait time. 

I've saved the "best" for last... Acrophobia!  This ride consists of a 200 foot tall tower with a circular row of seats.  You sit in a seat with your feet dangling and a shoulder harness holding you in.  It slowly rises up and rotates to give you a lovely view of the park.  Once you're at the top you are given a few brief moments to say your prayers, the seats tip forward slightly so that you are looking straight down and then boom... you drop at a mind-numbing 70 mph!  It was terrifying, like you just jumped off a building to your death... but once it was over I loved it!  The videos just don't do this ride justice!  I really wanted to go again but Rob wasn't havin' it!

As you may have noticed we didn't ride many rides.  The lines were really long and Rob and I are no spring chickens.  The 90+ degree heat quickly ate up any energy we had and the crowd was unreal. (and unbelievably rude!)  We still had fun though.

Posted by pixelbrat at 11:27 AM

April 20, 2005

Wow...

I just had to try posting an entry from my Blackberry to see if I could do it and to my surprise it worked! I'm actually laying in the bed with no computer in sight. How neat is that? Or maybe I'm just easily amused...

Posted by pixelbrat at 10:39 PM

April 18, 2005

A slight change to the PixelBrat logo

I've made a slight change to my PixelBrat logo to include one of my latest and coolest gadgets.  I recently sold my boring old Sony T610 cell phone and got a Blackberry 7290.  This puppy is sweet!! In addition to replacing my cell phone, it also replaces my old RIM 950 work pager so that's one less device I have to carry around.  These little handheld's have been lovingly nicknamed  "Crackberries" by users due to their addictive nature.  Heck, what's not to love?  I can surf the web, use it as a phone, get all my email, play games, etc, all in the palm of my hand.  You name it, it probably does it.  I've only had it couple of weeks but I'm completely in love.  Because I'm so enamored with my new gadget I decided to add it to my logo, removing the old mouse that was there.  I also flipped it around and gave her a smile.  Below you can see the before and after. 

I had a lot of fun playing around with the logo.  I guess because it's been so long since I've done any graphic work, now that I'm no longer creating/selling stickers.  I've missed it.  I also made a little brat "favicon" to go with it.  If you're wondering what that is, it's the little tiny icon up in the address bar of your browser, next to the URL.  It will also be saved if you add my site to your favorites/bookmarks. (hence the term "favicon")  Neat, huh?

I guess I shouldn't make a habit of putting my gadgets on my logo, cause anyone who knows me knows that I'd never be able to fit them all in!  Not to mention how often I "recycle" them when I get bored with them.  I'd be changing the damn thing every week! 

Posted by pixelbrat at 11:38 PM