electron zoo

I was absolutely tickled to read that PEZ would soon be distributing an MP3 player that looked like a PEZ dispenser! To me, this means hardware hacks are going big time, having recently inspired an Altoids MP3 player and now an MP3 PEZ dispenser based on a blogger’s vision. As Napoleon Dynamite would say, that’s “friggin sweet!”

Next, hackaday.com’s Jason Striegel predicts the latest bicycle wheel “persistence of vision” laser light hacks will become the next “spinners”, and we’ll all be thinking WTF as we watch laser lights reading “Jesus Saves” spinning on the tricked out cars in our neighborhoods.

Well, uh, I can’t pretend I’m going to be thrilled with this development, but at least I’ll be able to say, I told you so.

The biggest recent story in the crossover news category of celebrity gadgets is Paris Hilton’s hacked Sidekick 2. I know, this is so a couple of weeks ago, but hey, I’ve been busy.

First off, as a gadget fan, I think it’s sorta cool that she has a Sidekick. It makes me think she’s a bit of a gadget affectionado when, according to a New York City blogger who chatted with her on the street, she tells strangers all about her (diamond-encrusted) Sidekick 2, saying “it’s way better than a Blackberry”. I can relate. (Although part of me wonders if that’s because you can’t get a diamond-encrusted Blackberry. Or perhaps because advertisements for Blackberrys don’t heavily use bright magenta like T-Mobile’s Sidekick ads do. But I will give her the benefit of the doubt — for now.)

But what actually interests me about the story isn’t Paris Hilton’s rich-party-girl star appeal or the Sidekick 2, it’s actually the lamest bit, being these lame, lame, lame “secret” questions that are supposed to keep our highly sensitive information secure. In the case of Paris Hilton’s supposedly secret answer that she kept with T-Mobile, the answer was Tinkerbell. For all you Celebrity Jeopardy fans, please answer in the form a question. “What’s the name of your favorite pet?” Ding.

What’s next? How many ID theives are trying to get into Chelsea Clinton’s personal accounts with her mother’s maiden name (Rodham, as in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton) or wait a minute, don’t around five hundred people your age know exactly where you went a elementary school — because they were there too?

Next time someone gets “hacked” because a stranger guessed that their favorite color was purple, maybe they should point a finger at the telecom companies for allowing such insecure information to govern our privacy.

Uh oh. More evidence that the robots are taking over. (Okay, not really.)

We are engaged in an epic battle between genetic engineering and cybernetics — that is, which will become the standard for tampering with human potential? (Well, if Microsoft gets involved, I guess we can just let them decide.)

I like to refer to this epic struggle which will determine the fate of mankind as … MONKEY VERSUS ROBOT!!

But maybe that’s just me.

For your listening enjoyment: a little ditty about the FCC by Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame).