3.18.2008

tick-tock, tick-tock

Spring forward, fall back—all this fooling around with the the time really messes with my internal clock. One day you wake up and it's light outside, the next day you wake up at the same time and it's dark. It's just not natural. Oh, I know about all the benefits of Daylight Saving Time and once my body gets used to it, I'll be happy for the extra daylight at the end of the day. But right now, my body is just sleepy and confused and every time I look at a clock, I'm surprised at how late it is.

The Dayclock that only keeps track of the days is the only clock that makes sense to me right now. It does have a noon marker so you know when to go to lunch. For people who don't care what time it is, the Whatever Clock and Watch are perfect—all the numbers have fallen to the bottom of the face in a pile. And the Backwards Clock, which keeps perfect time—backwards—sort of puts the whole idea of keeping time in its place. It's a great reminder to slow down and enjoy the journey.

Some people are just obsessed with time and have to know what time it is all day and night. The Smith & Wesson Tritium Watch is guaranteed to glow for 25 years. It's powered by Tritium, which gives it enough power to illuminate the hands and hour markers for a full 25 years and it doesn't need any light to recharge. The glow is continuous and doesn't fade even in total darkness.

Keeping time can be fun, too. Being the pop culture junkie that I am, I had to have this Star Trek® Watch. It plays the original Star Trek theme song and the second hand is a tiny U.S.S. Enterprise™ second hand that orbits around the dial. It's the coolest (or geekiest, depending on your point of view) way to keep time.

I've always liked pocket watches. Our Military Mascot Pocket Watches play "Reveille" any time you want to hear it—even at night. They're high quality, precision time pieces that showcase the official mascots of the U.S. Armed Forces—the Marine Bulldog, the Army Mule, the Navy Goat, and the Air Force Falcon.

For more eclectic tastes, check out this Stonehenge Watch. It's a pocket watch that lets you tell time accurately—well, like the ancient Druids, to within an hour. The ancient stones are reproduced to scale on the inside and it includes a compass so if you point it due north, you can quickly determine almost exactly what hour it is on a sunny day. With extreme patience, you can tell which season it is, determine significant days like the winter solstice and significant events like the next lunar eclipse. You can also read the time on the face of the outer watch, but that sort of takes the fun out of it.

3.11.2008

security things

From personal safety to protecting your belongings to identity theft, it's important to be security conscious today. It seems that almost every night I see stories of break-ins, burglaries and other attacks on the evening news. A lot of the time I find myself thinking that the victims might have protected themselves, their loved ones, their homes or their property with one of our simple little Things.

Our Wall Clock With Hidden Safe looks like a regular wall clock at first glance. But it's actually a battery operated wall safe that cleverly hangs in plain view. There are three shelves inside for valuables such as cash, jewelry and other precious items. When I got this Spare Key Hider for my aunt, who constantly locks herself out of her car, it didn't occur to me that it would contribute to her personal safety. Now instead of having to wait outside the safety of her car for the auto club (or me), she has a spare right under her license plate. Within a minute or so, she's back in her car and out of harm's way.

We've all heard the horror stories about household helpers who mistreat the children or steal or commit other crimes against the family. This Color 5.8 GHz Wireless Camera transmits signals on the newer 5.8 GHz frequency band, which makes it much less likely that neighboring electronics (like cordless phones, microwave ovens, and wireless LANs) will interfere with the signal. The color CMOS camera has 12 infrared LEDs for "night vision" surveillance and the receiver connects to a computer monitor or TV for viewing and/or recording.

With the Audio Jammer you can keep your private conversations private. It emits an unfilterable white noise that varies in frequency and amplitude to desensitize any bugs in the room. As long as your conversation is lower than the volume of the jamming noise, it masks human voices. Bugging devices can't separate the white noise from your voices--all the listener hears is a loud hissing noise.

Identity theft is one of the biggest topics on television, Internet newsgroups and office water coolers these days. Since I'm trying my best to go “paperless” both at work and at home, I burn a lot of backup CDs to store data I don't want to print. But my shredder won't shred a CD when I don't need it anymore. So this CD Destroyer is perfect. A rotating head with three steel points deeply scratches the surface of the disc. In just a few seconds, the disc is completely unreadable and you can throw it away with confidence.

My dad has this Driveway Patrol. At first I thought it was kind of silly that he had to know every time a car pulled into his driveway. But it detects more than expected visitors—it also detects people walking up to the door and the kids across the street who sometimes use his driveway as part of their skate park. And this Alarm Security Bar does the same thing for your doors. You just put the yoke against the doorknob and if anyone touches it, the alarm sounds. Or you can set it to play a recording of a barking dog to scare away intruders.

It's a shame, but the world we live in today requires us to be vigilant and security-minded at all times, so I'm sure glad these Things exist.