Just about every portable media player that will vie for your hard-earned dollars between now and the holidays is dubbed an "iPod killer." Why, exactly, must the iPod die? Probably because it's got more than a 90 percent market share in hard drive-based players, according to this article, and marketing people think we're all stupid and mutable. If you're up for driving a nail in the coffin of Apple's little music dynamo, then this four-page guide of iPod assassins might be worthy bookmark fodder.
Sound mirrors were a precursor to the world-changing radar and were known as acoustic detection posts. The pictures on this low-bandwidth site give the game away. The concept seems to be that a microphone was placed to funnel sounds from a large circular stone amplifier. One could use it to hear enemy airplanes flying over the English Channel in the first World War, for instance. Its use was limited, though, as planes got faster. It's a nice historic curio.
Twenty or so years ago, I might have spent what spare cash I had playing this game. Perhaps it might even have lured me away from the oh-so-hip and retro pinball machine. It's a highly addictive, arcade quality Flash-based game. The idea is that you buzz your mining robot around collecting valuable materials. You can drill through the ground and fly with a built-in rotor blade on your head. Yes, it takes a few seconds to learn but a whole lot of time to master.
I'm shocked and awed by somebody who would customize his entire house into a Disney wonderland, then follow up by doing the same to his body. It's like a car crash and you just can't stop clicking.
If you'd like to digest your news in a more random or even leisurely rate, then these apps might be for you. They graze RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds from sources you define and then show them like a ticker on a news show. If something catches your eye, you're a click away from reading the story. The Mac version is $19.99, and the Windows version is "beerware" (as in "buy me a beer" by way of a PayPal donation).
