The concept is an easy one.  You throw the ball up and the ball takes 36 pictures at the height of the arc.  It then stitches them together and gives you the output.  Just don’t let the kids play soccer with it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Retails for around $100 and you can find it at amazon or sears.  Honestly, I may just buy one of these to carry around.  That thing looks seriously well built.  Comes with 1/2 drive for all your ratcheting needs.  Seriously, couldn’t they really hit something in this video?

The ContourHD is an excellent, lower cost helmet mounting camera.  What it does, it does very well, and with very little learning curve on your part.

The mounting mechanism may take a little bit to get used to, but once you do, you will like it.  It easily slides in and out and locks in place.  This allows you to take the camera off, and do some non POV shots if you want.  Operation is really simple.  You push a button to turn on or off and you slide a button to record.  There is a big red porton that says “REC” when you are recording.  But you will know the button position, as they make that really clear.  Just feeling it with your hands or gloves is enough.

Wind can be an issue if you are flying around on skis or something.  You may be able to fabricate a wind cone to keep wind from ripping past the recording hole.  But, you will have this issue with any camera in this price segment.  The video is amazing in normal lighting, but can become challenged in very low light.  Again, most cameras will have this issue in this price market.

Whatever it lacks in functionality (which really isn’t much!), the ContourHD makes up in ease of use and performance.

Actually, just found a video of someone using a sock to cancel out wind noise:

And one of someone skydiving, who could use a wind dampener:

It’s amazing just how passionate vinyl fanatics are.  Well, if you have one, you may want to consider the Audio Technica AT-LP60 turntable.  You can grab it for under $100.

Built with pre-amp, this turntable can be hooked up to your computer or stereo system without a hitch.  Here are the specs:

• Motor: DC servo-controlled
• Speeds: 33-1/3 RPM, 45 RPM
• Turntable Platter: Aluminum
• Wow and Flutter: Less than 0.25% (WTD) @ 3 kHz (JIS)
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: greater than 50 dB (DIN-B)
• Output Level:
  • Pre-amp “PHONO”: 2.5 mV nominal at 1 kHz, 5 cm/sec
• Pre-amp “LINE”: 150 mV nominal at 1 kHz, 5 cm/sec
• Phono Pre-Amp Gain: 36 dB nominal, RIAA equalized
• Power Supply Requirements: 120V AC, 60 Hz, 3W
• Dimensions: 14.17 x 3.84 x 14.02 inches (WxHxD)
• Weight: 6.6 pounds
• Accessories included: Dual RCA (female) to 3.5 mm (1/8″) mini-plug (male) stereo adapter cable; dual RCA (female) to 3.5 mm (1/8″) mini-plug (female) stereo adapter cable; 45 RPM adapter

Now, I’m not a huge fan of hard drive camcorders, mainly because of the data issues with hard drives.  Having said that, having 220GB of room on a video camera is pretty stinkin nice.  But the main thing about this video camera is, of course, the projector.  This is a no brainer innovation.  People have been wanting this ever since pico projectors started getting much better.  Here is a sample video of that project, with specs to follow:

Specs:

The breathing action of the light on some laptops is really soothing.  I guess that’s because it does mimic breathing.  In any case, you can grab these iCufflinks that breathe and draw attention to you at your favorite top notch party.  Not wanting attention?  Well, then leave the battery out.

The sharp looking cufflinks are cut from aluminum and run on a typical watch battery.  It’s an open source design, so you can hack and mod it to your hearts desire.  $129 from Adafruit Industries, and here’s the vid:

Folks love playing paintball, but they hate the cleanup.  Well, Xploderz guns are very cool as they allow you to play guns, detect shots, but without all the mess and fuss.  That’s because the bullets are actually water.

The ammo is grown in water.  It is a water absorbing polymer that is used in a lot of gardening solutions.  This allows the soil to retain massive amounts of moisture when applied.  Well, this ammo retains massive amounts of moisture, but acts like a gel.  On impact it feels solid, but will not drench you.  So, be warned that if you are wanting something that will be like a water gun – this is not it!  You can get the Xstormer pistol (pictured above) for around $30 on Amazon.  Here’s the commercial:

Dyson does things differently.  They try to innovate on conventional vacuum cleaner designs by thinking outside the box.  They are also exorbitantly priced.  The same is true of the Dyson DC35.  Wanna look like you are weed wacking in your home?

The DC35 is a slim design.  It is pretty lightweight.  It does have some annoying features, but for a small apartment or condo, it would be great.  Don’t expect more than 15 minutes per charge!  Again, if you live in a smaller dwelling, then this may fit the bill for you.  It also shrinks to work like a hand vacuum cleaner.

Here is a video review:

Golf is a game of adjustments and finesse.  But, if you get the Segway personal golf cart, it can be the game of total toolness.  Yep, you too can look like a total dweeb, zooming around the links.  Btw, it’s preferrable if you wear the helmet to complete the look.

The Segway personal golf cart costs $8,000.  It can run through 36 holes, but it can’t make you look cool.  I wonder how prevalent these will become?  My guess is that they will be a specialty item since it’s an individual.

The first thing you are gonna want to do is install VirtualBox.  VirtualBox is a free alternative to VMware Fusion and Parallels.  As such, for most users, I would recommend to at least give VirtualBox a try.  I think it will suit most users’ needs.

So, go download VirtualBox for Mac OS X.

Okay, so, how in the heck do you get going quickly on VirtualBox.  Well, if you have a Windows CD, just insert it in the CD drive.  Alright, I’ll walk thru this part with you:

Obviously, click “Continue”

Type in a name for the Virtual Machine (VM).  Virtual Box takes hints on your naming to grab the best OS and version.  It’s usually right.  This also goes for linux, btw.

Now, I usually allocate about half of my memory to the VM.  So, figure out how much memory you have and make your VM half.  Just don’t start two VMs at the same time if you do that!  That will kill your memory and your Mac will say, “Uncle.”

Again, the defaults are fine here.

Now you get to have fun with virtual disks…

Leave the disk to expand dynamically.  This way you don’t have to mess with expanding stuff later, which is a pain…

Once again, defaults are fine if you want them.

You have now created a dynamically expanding disk for your OS.  Congrats.  Now, go ahead and start your VM…

This screen welcomes you…

This has defaulted to your CD drive to get the OS moving.  This is fine here.

NOTE: For most linux distros, where you have an .iso file, you will want to select the .iso file here to boot from.

Well, lookie here, the familiar crappy Windows setup screens.  Now you should be off and running.

NOTE: Once installation is done, eject the disk, and reboot.  If you are installing from a linux .iso, shut the machine down.  Go into the settings and storage and remove the .iso from the list.  That way you aren’t constantly booting into the live version of the OS.

That’s it!

I love the ease here.  Yeah, you may lose some graphics capability here.  But, if you are wanting test machines, this is a great solution.  If you are needing access to Windows and linux, this solution works very well.

Have fun!