IRONHIDE

Rating: AA
Pros: It, um… Rolls. Also, once you can get the freaking thing into robot mode, it looks snazzy.
Cons: Bits break off, plastic's bent and the thing takes about 15 minutes to actually do anything.

Riiiiight, so not being content with just ONE Transformer, I wound up with another. Well, another couple. I figured that while I think about work or work-related endeavours, these things are great to sort of snap around. It's like a Zen garden, or a Rubik's cube, but for an idiot.

Read On

JETFIRE

Rating: AAAA ½
Pros: Makes me feel young again; looks freaking cool
Cons: I can't make it stand up if I move the legs, like, at all.

Just to make sure that we can propagate the confusion that our readers feel when they attempt to assess our level of maturity here at Awesomeness (though I think it’s obvious by now), I went out of my way to buy myself a Transformer toy.

Read On

Rating: AAA ½
Pros: You can TOUCH your MUSIC!
Cons: Even with all these touted features, and the nuclear explosion price tag, it's still just a damn iPod.

So, my old iPod conked out on me. It was a good iPod. A faithful iPod. My old 40GB 4th-gen monster with its black-and-blue screen and that fantastic 'alarm clock' that never succeeded in waking me up, even when it was expressly required. I was using the bastard to record interviews for work purposes when it failed to sync with my PC and essentially fucked itself.  ÂRead On

OK, I'm a busy man so naturally I take the odd look at www.Zazz.com.au.

That's an online store where all self-respecting people shop. Zazz.com.au only stocks 1 item, and at the end of the day that item changes.

Yes its stupid, but they get cool stuff cheap. How else would I have got these bad boys for $11?

 

That's right, people! A chance to combine two loves of my life: rechargeable batteries and UBS devices.

Read On

If there was one thing that was desperately lacking in my life last week it was the lack of networked USB ports. To remedy this situation I tracked down a device that is commonly referred to as a SLUG.

With the attractive name I was already practically sold, so I decided to buy it. I could only find two sites in all of the country that were selling it! So I knew it must be popular and a hot seller. I picked the one with the cheaper postage to buy from as both web sites looked equally shoddy. It arrived 4 days later.

I have decided to implement some Q&A style questions as I realise not all people have a deep urge to play with all networking equipment possible and some of you may have some questions that I might be able to answer, mid review.

Q1. So what is it?
It's a little computer that allows any USB storage device to act as a shared network drive. It's infused with a 133MHz CPU, 32meg ram, 8meg Flash, 2 USB ports and a network port. No party hats or beer dispensers.

Q2. Can it do tricks?
Yes. Yes it can.

Q3. Like what?
Oh, you can install Linux on it.

Q4. Why would I want to install Linux on some things that shares my USB drives on windows networks?
Look, it's a cool feature ok!

Back to the review.

So I flashed my brand new device and put Debian on it.

It did not boot up.

After an hour of pointlessness I decided Debian was not for me. I then tried a few more things for an hour or two and yet it still did not boot up.

I went with a more common firmware upgrade for my SLUG called Unslung. The fancy things about this it keeps the old linksys menu, while still allowing you to telnet (or SSH) directly into it.

Some more questions:

Q5. Why, why are you wasting all you time on a bloody networked USB port?
Well you see, I can now run little programs off this thing and connect remotely.

I have put an 8gig USB drive in the back, and I installed a torrent client. I now have a little downloader I can leave at home or with friends who do not use all their bandwidth.

For general awesomeness I give this device 3.5/5.

For a really, really shit name I subtract 1 point.

For being a consumer networking product that actually works I give it 1 point.

All in all it's an excellent device that is only held back by its lack of speed strips.

3.5/5

Captain Yesterday - 28/04/08

Users recommend checking the device for real slugs.

So I bought a new eee laptop. I bought it because it was so small. For some reason having a tiny screen, dwarf sized keyboard and slow processor, (that has been waaaay under clocked ) were all strong selling points to me. Its not like I could have bought a normal new laptop for $70 more. But hey the eee is small, oh and it'swhite, well white-ish, I though it was white when I bought it, but it turns out its pearl or something, is that girly? I'm worried, I take this thing to client meetings.

But seriously, once you replace the Linux OS with Windows, add some more memory and design a few principals for quantum computing, you have the coolest solid state laptop in town. Hmmmm with the Macbook Air being the only competition in the ssd department this really is not much of a crown but any way, well unless your a billgillionaire. If I lost my eee I would have a hole in my heart for at least a week, or until I got some of these or one of these.

Find out relevant information about the eee here

For eee mods and hacks click here

- Captain Yesterday 15/02/2008

I bought a solar charger of an ebay store.

You know that your buying a quality product when the item you buy costs about the same as the postage.

I decided that electrical outlets we not meeting my personal power availability needs. (Translations: There are not enough power points in the walls near me)

So I decided to buy a solar charger.

It’s essentially a solar panel with a 1500 mA Battery.

It came with a bunch of adapters. (mini usb, phone pluges and other useless ones).

The fact my charger came with instructions was reassuring. However despite appearing to be in English, I found upon closer inspection the instructions seemed to be just random English words. This disappointed me and made me question the quality of new purchase. I was only reassured of its obvious high quality by the fact it is blue in colour.

The device has a light that turns on when its charging, and sometimes when I leave it in the sun the light goes on, but sometimes is does not. (guess you cant have everything)
That’s it for this feature packed gismo. A solar panel and a light. Wooooooohooooooo!

You can also charge it by plugging it into a UBS port on any computer, I can confirm this actually works!
However I am still unsure if it actually works as a solar charger, but I can assure you, dedicated reader, that this solar charger can definitely be charged by plugging it into a computer. (but If could do this, I could simply charge my devices instead, making the whole device somewhat useless).

I think I wasted my money, But it looks very cool. I give it 0/5 for being a solar charger and 2/5 in the looks department.

2/5 (If I find it works make that 4/5)

List of quality merchandise from Ebay

Captain Yesterday
26/02/2008

Ok

So I got myself a 2gig SD card.

I know its sooooooooo exciting!

Actually this card is strangely kind of cool.

If you snap it in half it doesn’t break! Instead what you get is a little USB slot so you can connect it straight to your computer.

 That’s actually useful, as you don’t need to bother with cables or card readers.

Now this card is the ‘ultra’ variety so that means it goes fast or comes with a skateboard or something. I don’t really care. I think it achieves its faster speed by having red on the label of the card (this rocket scientist certainly agrees with me)

What amazes me is how they fit a midget in there with such a good memory, and all for $30! Amazing.

I think is might actually be a worthwhile gadget.

So I’m giving it 5/5

As not only does it do what its meant to it also a USB drive, top that off with the fact I have had it for 2 weeks and its still not broken.

I deem this an Awesome card (well as Awesome as memory cards can get.) 

Update: It turns out cards don't get very Awesome, but the score stays. 5/5

- Captain Yesterday, 27/02/2008

Genius!

A mini Keg!
And even better it contains beer!
The boffins over at Heineken must be pretty god damn happy with the one.

And so am I.

For $37 I got a 5L keg, (Yes I know you could probably get a whole slab for that price)

But with a keg you get a pour at home frothy goodness and that is priceless.

Now all of us here are Awesomeness.com.au like coffee. I think we have made that quite clear. What we have not made clear is amount of alcohol we drink and as far as we are concerned we would like to remain in denial about our drinking habits.

As far as the taste of the beer is concerned well that’s up to you.
Here are some useless reviews

If you still don’t know about the beer, hey why not actually try one.

And here is an odd add for it.

I got my Keg from a bottle shop cold room, compared to this add simply buying it from a bottle shop is quite disappointing.

To sum up I have compiled a rational and unbiased list of pros and cons for buying this mini keg

Why buying a keg is better.

1)      You own a keg of beer

2)      You can drink from the beer tap and you wont be kicked out! (as long as its yours or no one else is watching)

3)      You own a keg of beer

4)      Less wastage and thus better for the environment (great excuse)

5)      It tastes good

6)      You own a keg of beer

7)      You can join the elite society of Keg owners

8)      Excellent for those without bottle openers.

 

 
Faults with the keg:

1)      Not Boags beer

2)      Does not contain an unlimited amount of beer.

3)      You will need to own a glass.

 

I give this keg 4.5/5 (Fanbloodytastic )

I give the beer 3.5 /5 (It's not bad)

Captain Yesterday,  03/03/2008