Sunday, January 24

Internet Appliances

I was off in some far-off time and space this morning, randomly surfing looking for stuff to spend money on trying to find a plugin that scrolls current Twitter trends on my blog. I did find something to do that, but it was a physical device, with just a need for power and a wired ethernet connection. OK, so it wouldn't scroll from within my blog - but the possibilities of this new find piqued my interest. The product, with but one purpose, is the #twatch (for Twitter Watch I presume); a four-line display watching Twitter for you. At just $40 or so, it's a real steal. Your geek will be overflowing with that one.

Note to self - we'll search for the scrolling Twitter trend plugin later.

After finding the #twatch, what I found next was actually something I'd looked for in the past but was unable to find: a small device to monitor external stimuli, over the internet. For you non-geeks, something akin to watching a webcam trained on a baby in a nursery, but in much simpler terms. Like monitoring if the air conditioner is on or off and possibly even controlling it over the internet from miles away.

Really. Cool. Stuff. Here. Folks.

What I found is, interestingly enough, from the same folks who did the #twatch. From Dangerous Prototypes comes a business-card-sized web server. Yes, you read that right: business-card-sized. While not terribly useful in and of itself, other than to impress your geek friends, the possibilities are rather endless. And with eight I/O pins available, you can do quite a bit with it.

It's time to let your mind wander - and at ONLY $35 as a kit or $40 assembled, it's time to start dreaming.

No comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Google Analytics Alternative