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Archive for the ‘Toys’ Category

Source … Engadget

I’m definitely in the wrong line of work.

Manapotions.com details their howto HERE.

I got home yesterday to the sight of a huge box sitting next to my front door. Inside was my new Trek 820 mountain bike, courtesy of Pepsi Sweepstakes at PepsiStuff.com.

After getting rid of the zip-ties, foam sheets, and cardboard protections, all I had to do was mount the tire, handlebars, pedals and seat. The bike helmet was included in the box as well. It’s been a pleasure being a Pepsi drinker this summer.

Yes, you can win prizes from the PepsiStuff.com sweepstakes. Tuesday, August 26th, I received a package through FedEx from Young America Corporation where a representative was congratulating me on being a potential winner of one of the Trek mountain bikes. Potential, not official, until they receive my signed and notarized release form. Once they receive it, it should take up to 4-6 weeks to actually receive the prize. It almost feels like waiting for a rebate check to arrive.

If you’re not familiar with this, Pepsi and Coca-Cola products have a ten or twelve digit code located somewhere on the packaging. Usually, they can be found on the underside of the bottle caps. If it’s a pack of cans, it’ll appear on the inside of the box somewhere. You take those codes and submit them to each company’s respective website where you earn points for each code. You can use those points to either “buy” goods or products, or use them towards sweepstakes where each entry is worth a certain number of points.

I had been skeptical in the past as to whether or not these prizes that Pepsi and Coca-Cola are giving away were actually awarded to anyone. The goods you can buy are usually pretty cheap looking or require an outrageous amount of points in order to get them. The sweepstakes appeared as black-holes for points. I was quite wrong.

I have no idea what the Trek bike is supposed to look like or even what model it is. There wasn’t much information along those lines. Only the retail price of the prize is given at $330. I’ll have to throw a few more dollars towards my IRA next year to offset the 1099 claim on the taxes.

I finally broke down and bought an Asus Eee 8G this past week. Newegg finally had them for sale (again, I assume) for $499.99 plus $10.84 for shipping. As of this writing, it appears as a deactivated item. Apparently they sell them in spurts. Here’s some pics and other miscellaneous info.

Showing the ugly mug with the Eee’s built-in webcam with the stock Xandros OS.

Feeling constrained by the limitations of the stock Xandros OS, we begin the Ubuntu-ization.

A wah-lah! Apophis is born. Thanks to Pendrivelinux.com for the how-to guide in building a Ubuntu Live USB, and to C.K. Sample III for the rest of the procedure.

Here’s a size comparison between the Asus Eee PC and my Thinkpad T41.

Here is a comparison of the maximum screen resolutions with a common layout between the two laptops. The top is the Thinkpad with a 1440×1050 resolution, and the Eee at the bottom with a 800×480 resolution. You can see that there’s a definite lack of real estate for multiple windows on the Eee.

One of the limitations I had with the Xandros OS was having one single workspace. It is a KDE environment, albeit modified, but no discernible way of improving it. Ubuntu supplies Gnome with Nautilus which can allow multiple workspaces. KDE has the same feature but the Xandros OS doesn’t appear to allow it.

There’s plenty of guides across the internet for installing your own choice of OS on the Eee. Without a floppy or an optical drive, it presents some obstacles. Fortunately it has three USB ports making it easy to use an USB DVD drive or USB flash drive. The User Guide that comes with the Eee even has instructions for installing Windows XP. You still need your own copy of XP, but they’ve at least gone through the effort of supplying the steps for you. And in case your choice of an alternate OS doesn’t quite work out, they supply a DVD with a recovery option and instructions for the different ways to approach it.

The packaging was quite professional along with the provided documentation. The satchel, or carry pouch, is decent and the AC adapter has a wonderful length. An unexpected bonus that was boxed in with the Eee was an optical USB mouse. While I am a fan of the touchpad, Eee’s can be stubborn sometimes. Even after tweaking the sensitivity, there are times when it requires extra foreplay in order for the magic to happen. The mouse has a slight red glow to it that can either be mistaken for something ominous or feminine. I opt for the former.

It did only come in white Pearl White when I bought it. My brother, who also wants one, is hoping for a black edition. Since everything else I own is black, having something in white is a nice change of pace.

Things I want (or have already) change:

• Replaced the Xandros OS with something more configurable.
• The ‘Intel Inside’ badge that was mounted to the bottom left corner was hanging over just enough to annoy me. I replaced it with a ‘powered by: ubuntu’ badge.
• Upgrade the ram to a full 2GB.
• Install an encrypted flash drive for personal files.

All in all, it’s a wonderful little machine despite its shortlist of
cons. It has plenty of punch for a such a little, under-powered machine.

Source … Gizmodo

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Mattel’s toy car line, they unveiled an $140,000 23-carat encrusted Hot Wheels car. The toy was made by a celebrity jeweler, Jason of Beverly Hills, using 2700 blue, black, and white diamonds placed on the car’s 18-kt gold frame. Rubies are used as the car’s taillights. If that wasn’t enough, the case that holds the car is also encrusted with its own 40 white diamonds to signify each year of the anniversary. The toy was unveiled by Nick Lachey and will be auctioned off to benefit his chosen charity of Big Brothers Big Sisters.