The Lance J. Technoweb

Most people keep a clock radio within a few feet of their head for nearly a third of their life. A clock radio tells people when to wake up hundreds of time a year. So then why do most clock radios sold in the US suck? They all seem to have crappy buttons, an even crappier tuner, and in short, have failed to go through any substantial technology update since the advent of the LED clock - over 25 years ago. Why can't now be the dawning of the age of the modern clock radio? Here's what I'm looking for in a clock radio: Large, adjustable-brightness display. Digital tuning, with presets. Automatic clock setting. RDS - Radio Data Service. Very low power consumption. Excellent battery backup. Reasonable price. Decent buttons and switches. These "requirements" aren't some sort of crazy dream - many very small, low cost devices have some of these features.

Almost everyone I know who is into drums should get their hands on the Yamaha DD65 . It's a low cost, fun little kit that you can throw in your car to jam with your buddies. It's a lot easier than throwing your gear in your Subaru. The DD-65, also known as the YDD-60. Eight pads in a pretty package. I've owned the older, venerable DD-55 for about five years. The DD-55 is the ancestor of the newer DD-65, and is an evolution of the DD-50, which was first released some time in the mid 1990s. I just put my DD-55 on this light snare drum stand it's ready for some jamming. The classic DD-55. Seven pads of rockin' fun, since about 2001. Yes, everyone will tell you that the DD-55 isn't actually a real drum kit. No kidding. However, a skilled drummer can get some great sound out of this little box, and you can definitely keep the band together with it. Plus, it's perfect for apartment living.

There are rumors that the Mac Mini is going to be discontinued. I disagree. Instead, I think it will evolve by being merged in with the Apple TV product. Of course, I don't work for Apple, so I have no idea if my plan is workable. But I do think that it is a possibility, as it considers: Leveraging current engineering projects Reducing manufacturing costs Simplifying the product line Staying reasonable in terms of product costs Here's my thought of how I would converge the Apple TV and Mac Mini concept into one compelling product: Stick the guts of a MacBook into an Apple TV sized case Drop out the LCD, the battery, the keyboard, the DVD Drop in a (cheaper, bigger) 3.5 inch HDD drive, in lieu of a 2.5" notebook drive. Add various Video Out options Provide a standard MacBook power brick Now you've got a fully capable computer - a computer as powerful as a MacBook - that basically cost nothing to engineer (other than reboxing the thing). You still have a computer ...

I really hate vacuuming, and so I vacuum as little as possible. However, in contrast to my hate of vacuuming, I love a clean house. And so I either find myself vacuuming (yuk), or living in a not-so-clean house (yuk). So to reduce my emotional distress related to vacuuming, I recently bought a Roomba .  Here are my impressions and some tips:   Efficacy of the Roomba   The Roomba certainly keeps my floors clean. I'll still have to get out the traditional vacuum to clean the moldings, window sills, and some tricky spots (like behind my desk), but the bulk of my vacuuming effort has gone away. The Roomba is not nearly as fast as the local cleaning service - but it does do a good job of covering all accessible floor surfaces. My routine: I get up in the morning, and just before I leave for work, I ask the Roomba to vacuum a particular room in my house. By the time I get home, the room's floor has been cleaned and Roomba has recharged itself. The Roomba can miss some...

I'm sorry to say that driving a Prius or making your own biofuel doesn't make you "green". These things might make you feel good, and they might reduce the world's energy consumption by a few BTUs. But you can be very "green" by spending NO money at all. I'm not anti-Prius, and I'm not against biofuel. In fact, I think they're both cool. And I'm certainly not an environmental wacko. I'm just a pragmatist. In the end, reducing your purchases, investing money wisely (say, in a new fridge or in CFL bulbs), and recouping money on your prior expenditures is, in the end, a very green strategy that can help minimize your negative impact on the environment. And now, the six most important environmental tips you've been waiting for!... Buy less new stuff. The stuff you buy requires substantial energy and materials to produce, package, and ship. The less crap you buy, the better for the environment. Remember that factories require a ...

For the longest time I used incandescent light bulbs on my outdoor light fixtures, primarily because I had a rather ugly looking timer that only supported incandescent bulbs. I'm totally dumbfounded why retailers and manufacturers seem to focus on electrical products that don't support fluorescent lighting, but that's another story. So I have looked high and low for a timer that met my "simple" requirements: wall-mountable, programmable timer decent looking (or at least not butt-ugly) compatible with CFLs not insanely expensive I went to Home Depot, Lowes, and the little neighborhood hardware store without finding anything that met my simple requirements. Happily, I can announce that I found a decent programmable timer that met all my requirements: It's the Swylite LST100 . They don't seem to be available in many traditional retail stores. It works great, and it looks awesome. It was easy to install, and I've had no issues with it. Now I can sav...

My cheap-but-effective CD-ROM Unit I decided to re-rip my CD collection in a lossless format. Happily, my new ripping experience was fast and reliable. During my last ripping exercise, I used Linux as my OS of choice, and I ripped to MP3. The experience was mostly excellent. But due to a hard disk failure, I decided to re-rip one more time - this time, to a lossless format. I chose the Apple Lossless format - a well-supported and efficient format. One beauty of a lossless format is that the data can be converted into another lossless format without any loss of quality - just in case audio file formats change in the future. I also considered using FLAC lossless, which I believe would have been another excellent choice. My hardware: I used my Mac Mini, along with four inexpensive CD-ROM drives attached via IDE-to-USB adapters. This allowed me to rip four discs in parallel, greatly increasing my ripping performance. I suppose I could have hooked up more drives, but I only had four ...