What could be better than working with USB, robots, legos and our imagination? Our beloved memories of childhood play with Legos has now turned into adult fun with the new robotic line of Mindstroms.
The Mindstroms from Lego is based off their NXT Technology whereby a main NXT brain unit controls 5 different robotic functions for you to let the imagination run free. Build anything you want with the legos, intuitive robotic software or get extreme with Lego’s open source developers kit.
So what are the 5 building blocks of the Mindstrom units?
Touch sensor
Sound sensor
Light sensor
Ultrasonic sensor
Servo motors
Through these sensors, some crafty lego design build your robot and communicate via USB for software download and development stages. The world’s next Frankenstein is only a lego or two away.
So this is how it works.
Build your lego monster with available parts kits.
Launch the intuitive robot software and use pre-defined commands to build motion, touch, light and other sensory functions.
Last, connect and communicate via USB to test your functions and ultimately download the finished firmware version to the NXT Lego robot.
USB Fever is sporting their new 11 button multi-media USB mouse as the best ticket to enhance your work productivity, increase your efficiency and ultimately land you that promotion. Well, maybe not the last three, but chances are with an 11 button mouse things will be [a bit] more convenient.
So for those armchair executives, consider the following 11 quick access features the USB Fever mouse offers:
Internet key
Speed switch
Volume down control
page forward
page backward
volume up control
left button
double click button with only single click
click wheel
right button
play and pause button control
Granted you’ll need a weeks worth of practice to flawlessly work the 11 button super mouse, but the payoff is huge.
The multi media 11 button USB mouse is only $15 directly from USB Fever with an additional $3 for shipping anywhere in the world.
Thanks for the tip Thomas!
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Yesterday we spoke about the asterisk USB hub which solved a basic problem of USB ports being too close together. Today, Brando announces a new turnable USB hub which also address tight layout of USB ports found on most hubs. The turnable USB hub not only offers the ability to rotate 180 degrees for each connector, but Brando spiced it up with some flashy color. Making it easy to find that hub in your pile of papers, coffee cups and other desk junk.
Running through the rainbow colors you have a 4 port hub with one up-stream port. From purple, to red, orange, yellow and finally green.
It’s definitely a fun looking little hub which might double as a 1 year old twisty-turn toy. Price from Brando is $12.00 with a few more chips for shipping cost.
Brando Turnable USB hub product page.
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Here is the Personal Pocket Safe UFD which is the first of it’s kind that is an “encrypted, epoxy coated, pin-protected smart drive.” Not the first pin-pad USB stick we’ve seen. But with military grade encryption and a mysterious “track-covering” feature to insure no one can trace it’s where-a-bouts after removing from the host.
Lets say you did find the Personal Pocket Safe, well you still need the pin number. This guy features a 10 digit touch-pad pin code using between 4 and 10 digits to lock down your passwords, documents etc. Get the pin number wrong and the Personal Pocket Safe goes in complete lock-down.
“The Personal Pocket Safeâ„¢ is powered by proprietary software embedded within a pin protected pocket safe that features a host of security-rich options that lock in all of the confidential and critical information that powers the lives of today’s consumers.”
Here are some key bullet points from the press release:
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Lets just raddle off the use of the Cellink USB swivel gadget. Of course you have the shape, look and feel of a typical UFD. With flash memory for…well you know. Next, swivel the Cellink and you’ve got a microSD card reader. Swivel the other direction and you’ve got a direct connected to your USB port and cell phone for some wireless charging. Of course you’ll block all the other ports in the process, but that’s the cost of cool gadgetry.
If these become readily available it would be a great item to have. It seems like down-sizing your basket full of gadgets is a continual process. So here we streamline to a single UFD, forget another reader and the power cord to your cell phone.
That’s progress.
Geek Rockers rejoice and get your bang on with this USB Drum Kit. The kit is much like the USB piano whereby everything rolls up for ultra portability, and of course, is a one-connect USB gadget so no additional power cords or cables. The kit has six different pad areas (snare, kick and a couple of toms) and the included software allows you to control and select the various sounds programmed to each pad from 50 percussion sounds, 20 preprogrammed percussion sets and 100 preprogrammed beats.Girls will flock to your cube as you become a Geek rockstar!
Purchase online at Thinkgeek.
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It’s kill or be killed in office warfare so you need every advantage you can get and this USB Wireless Rocket Launcher gives you 15 extra feet from your base station to smite your enemies, er co-workers, down. No longer do you have to worry about an abduction of your Red Swingline Stapler, your special neon-colored dry-erase markers or that last piece of your boss’ birthday cake while this Rocket Launcher’s got your back!Purchase the USB Wireless Rocket Launcher online at ThinkGeek.
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Someone once asked the question if they could network their external USB hard drive so other computers could share and store information on it.
Surprisingly it isn’t that hard. There is no need to build a NAS (Network Attached Storage) server or configure NAS software on a host computer. All you need is changing some privileges to the USB external hard drive.
Granted, this solution isn’t for the hard-core network user(s) environment, nor is it ideal for business applications where large or frequent data storage transfers are required or networks where users are accessing storage via a remote server. Rather, this is a simple solution for a home network or small business office.
Simply use the file and printer sharing setting in Windows to network a USB external hard drive. Or you can use the Windows mapping tool to map and share a drive to other computers on the network.
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Scratching your head for a unique, personalized gift? How about writing down some lofty jargon and laser etching it to USB? ZaNa Design now offers laser engraving to fully customize your USB.
What ZaNa Design has done, is place a metal plate on the outer wooden chassis of their USB drives whereby you can laser etch any message you see fit.
These folks also encourage a simple design, logo or piece of artwork if you find yourself tongue-tied.
ZaNa Design has customized drives available from 1GB through 8GB and with many of them Vista Readyboost certified. Did you hear how to get Readyboost with your XP machine?
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Vital Key is offering a new service whereby medical records are distributed via USB for personal archive.
The trend is beginning where medical records are put to USB for immediate and on-site data sharing for life threatening situations. In a critical moment, time-is-life, and having data is a powerful tool for keeping someone out of harms way.
“It really gives you peace of mind to know that you have all your medical records with you,” said Jackie Dudding, a patient. “God forbid something happens, everything a caretaker needs to know is on this thing.”
Vital Key offers an on-line service to download all your medical records in the event the key is lost or misplaced.
One of the most powerful sentences on the Vital Key website is: “More Americans die each year from medical errors than from breast cancer, colon cancer, and car accidents – COMBINED.” That’s amazing and for anyone with a medical history or condition which requires special needs, I think the Vital Key is a vital device for your longevity and health.
Source: 9 News Denver.
Vital Key website and service information.
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So many have asked the question: How do you make DVD rentals easier than running down to the video store. Well, we’ve seen NetFlix with their rapid shipping and quick turn times and Blockbuster on their heels. These big-boys are now turning to on-line download and “content on demand.” It all sounds nice, but even with great bandwidth and streaming video you still have a fundamental problem. You must watch those vidoe’s on your TV.
PortoMedia of Ireland has a different take on DVD rentals. How about rent movies on flash memory?
May seem a little crazy, but think about it. Once you have that content on flash, the ability to watch video on any portable device, be it a laptop, PDA or other device makes enjoyement of that DVD when and where you want it …well…ideal.
So what is the process?
“PortoMedia is setting up kiosks that will let consumers download movies to a flash memory key or portable hard drive. The kiosks will be packed with hard drives that can hold 350 to 5,000 titles. Users then plug in a memory device from the company, enter a PIN code, and buy or rent a movie. When consumers get home, they simply slide the memory device into a dock their viewing device and enjoy.”
If you are not on board with the idea of PortoMedia, don’t worry – you are not alone. Others, like Ziff-Davis, have doubts, but consider this:
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Click – Hard drive locked and encrypted.
Click – Hard drive unlocked and ready for use.
Yup, that’s it for security when using the RFID USB hard drive enclosure. The enclosure is designed to hold any number of 2.5 inch hard drives and with the embedded RFID technology a simple RFID ringkey is all that holds your data safe and secure.
Upon connection to your system, the RFID key identifies the USB hard drive for setup and connection, from that point forward the USB enclosure needs the same RFID signal to lock and unlock the drive.Several LED light configurations provide status: Red for lock, Green for unlock and Blue for write process.
With all this high tech RFID security, you can still be a knucklehead
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What could be better than working with USB, robots, legos and our imagination? Our beloved memories of childhood play with Legos has now turned into adult fun with the new robotic line of Mindstroms.
The Mindstroms from Lego is based off their NXT Technology whereby a main NXT brain unit controls 5 different robotic functions for you to let the imagination run free. Build anything you want with the legos, intuitive robotic software or get extreme with Lego’s open source developers kit.
So what are the 5 building blocks of the Mindstrom units?
Geek Rockers rejoice and get your bang on with this USB Drum Kit. The kit is much like the 
It’s kill or be killed in office warfare so you need every advantage you can get and this USB Wireless Rocket Launcher gives you 15 extra feet from your base station to smite your enemies, er co-workers, down. No longer do you have to worry about an abduction of your Red Swingline Stapler, your special neon-colored dry-erase markers or that last piece of your boss’ birthday cake while this Rocket Launcher’s got your back!Purchase the USB Wireless Rocket Launcher online at 
