^^ I'm beginning to get the impression that actually the Mac mini is just a piece of junk - a technological dead-end - and that it was that sort of a piece of junk before it came off the production line. It's possibly even the sort of junk that used to be called "a white elephant":
...
The thing seems to have been cynically turned out with all the old tricks for throw-away product obsolescence - including, for example, well-sealed units (difficult to maintain), lock-in, and little or no forwards or backwards design compatibility. ...

I say this after researching across the Internet for "uses for an old ...", where most commenters seemed hard-pressed to think of a use for the thing ...

Quote

iFix Old Macs
You know the ones I mean: those Power Macs, PowerBooks, iMacs, iBooks, Mac minis, etc. based on the PowerPC processor that Apple sold a few years ago. Sadly, support for them is dwindling, but the software is still out there that would enable their continued use.
...

- which absurd statement rather begs the question "...all it needs" for what? For making it "look like a new one"? Why? It's already obsolete. A Spinning Jenny was "a fine old machine" too.

The comparison with the White Elephant is interesting. I will try to separate out a couple things.

A. A lot of the "hatred for things Apple" is that the entire *company* likes to make varying shades of elephants (and put them in your room! Take that, triple joke!)

So I'm not sure if specifically the mini was designed to be quite so aggressive to users as that Sultan from the Wiki snip. I think that the mini is the result of some sales meeting where they drew a chart of specs on a board, some decently high but rather expensive, then said "and we need one with a lower price point. So let's hack it down here, here, here, and here". But I believe there are varying sweet-ish spots in tech, so they hacked it down below one of them, and then when time marches on, (see my post in Deozaan's thread on his game), then later you struggle to find uses for it.

The only non-insulting use for much older tech I've ever seen is people who put it separately monitoring some low level project they have, and just park it there, solely to "efficiently" free up their main computer from having to deal with even that minor processing load.

I've got two aging laptops, with one truly ancient, facing the same problem, except I don't do the right kind of projects to need them for stuff like that. (My third laptop is still aging too, but it's done "emergency backup" duty when something is wrong with my main comp.)

I picked up one of these little guys last week for $22 used:


http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICFC1PJ-Alarm-Clock-Radio/dp/B00IEYHMPK/

It's a Sony ICFC1PJ Alarm Clock Radio, which has 2 alarms, AM/FM radio, nature sounds, and can project the time on the ceiling/wall.
Mirror finish makes it look space aged, and you can can set it super dim so it's perfect for bedroom.

Pretty darn cool and the projected time is hypnotic.  Very happy with the purchase 

Did anybody see this thing? Talk about a gadget for good or ill - depending on who is using it - and for what.

Sony ICFC1PJ

That looks cool too!  You're on a roll! 

This was a gift I received today: Turtle Beach P12

Had a little trouble getting the mic to work with my laptop, and I have no clue what I did to make it work. But the sound is great, it's comfortable, and it doesn't make the inside of my ears itch (a problem I have with most earphones that sit on or in the ears)


http://www.turtlebeach.com/product-detail/ps4-headsets/ear-force-p12/506

Ok here's a post I didn't want to have to make, because I already have a good expensive blender that i bought used and repaired.
However, it needs to be done.  This $40 blender and mini-chopper combo actually is quite the bargain, isn't too loud, outperforms most blenders (it does pretty incredibly on ice), does a bunch of things, is super easy to clean up, and stores wonderfully.

Ninja Master Prep Professional


$40 on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ninja-QB900B-Master-Prep/dp/B003XU3C7M

There are a million Youtube reviews of it:

---

It excels with ice and quick things like smoothies.

It has only a couple of drawbacks that I can see:

• You have to hold button down while it blends, you can't just turn it on and leave room; its so fast that this doesn't seem to be much of an issue.
• It doesn't really create a vortex, so it might be an issue for making very large mixtures; it has multiple blades up the spine though, so it tends to blend everything quickly.

Since I am a nut about saving space in the kitchen, one thing I love is that i can leave the little base plugged in and out of the way on a little shelf, and just bring over the jar when i want to blend something.

Does this count as a gadget? I always have a pencil or two in my pocket, and I get holes in my pockets. This is a cap for a pencil, with a built-in sharpener.
It works on any pencil, but it's best on a shorter one. My plan is to find another solution for multiple pencils (bic pen cap, maybe?), but having the sharpener along is sure handy.

They make beautiful metal versions; I bought the $12.99 plastic one.



http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QUWXYSC/

I've had a particular post in the back of my mind for, oh... let's see... Around about 2.5 years now. Here's the snippet that's been stored in the long term renegade archive:

Basically they just vibrate at high speeds and can accept different saw-like heads.  They are very similar in spirit to the ubiquitous dremel (rotary tool), in that there a million different little tasks that they can make quick work of.

Note: A Dremel is as essential, if not more so, than an oscillating tool -- so start with one of those if you don't own one already.

And tonight I finally got one:

[attachthumb=#]

I'd been looking for one for a month or so, and finally managed to pick up one second-hand (used once) for less than 1/3rd the retail price.

My first little project was to drill holes in the PCB at the tip of the Dremel and then solder on a 12VDC power jack that I ripped out of an old Netgear router.

Other gadgets in the picture there are some "magic hands" or "helping hands" -- the thing with the soldering iron in it and the magnifying glass, and a set of 4 eye loupes from 2.5x to 10x magnifying power - great for reading the text on small chips or the +/- symbols on little LEDs like the ones beside the Dremel (the symbols are about 1mm wide).

I'm trying to shift my development away from the desktop world into the embedded/device world. I'm not interested in doing mobile applications as the markets have just become stupid for any small developer. (For every success story, there's a trail of blood & tears across a wasteland littered with indie corpses.)

I have sooo many more gadgets that I've recently bought, but many aren't remotely interesting to a wider audience, though I'm sure some of the developers in here would be. Maybe another time... after I get the damn card reader on my NEW Dell working... grrr...

Finally got sick of wrestling with wired headphones/IEMs for my computer/tablet/phone and grabbed a set of MEE audio (previously MEElectronics) Wave Bluetooth Headphones, which arrived today.

They have headset functionality but wasn't really interested in that side of them since I use headphones/IEMs for music/video listening not hands-free calling/VOIP/etc.

Audio from the Wave is great, good noise isolation, comfortable, foldable, Multipoint Bluetooth (connect to two devices at once), 24hr battery life, and also comes with a stereo lead so it can be used in wired mode (eg. battery running low, aircraft, etc).



Amazon link - (I bought direct from the company).  Went with MEE audio since the IEMs I have already (S6P, 2 x M9P) are from the same company and the audio is very good.

Addendum: Been using them almost constantly for the last 3 days and they're great.  Paired with computer and tablet, listen to music/videos on the computer and when that gets turned off, it switches over to the tablet.  It will switch to whichever device is actively transmitting even if both are turned on, just need to stop audio out on one device to get it to switch.

Battery life is close to what is specified, I have done about 8-10 hours per day and only just plugged them in for a full charge.  When battery level hits low you get a prompt every minute, so I turned them off and switched to the 3.5mm stereo lead, sound quality was just as good.  Headphones automatically power off after a couple of minutes of no input.

You get voice prompts for various things, eg. power on/off, battery level when turned on (high/medium/low), pairing, device 1/2 connected/disconnected.

What about this for your gf Christmas present?
[snip][/snip]
Vibease smart remote control vibrator

I am still waiting for my someone to get it for me though. 

This should probably be marked [NSFW], moved to the appropriate topic, or deleted as spam...

I am still waiting for my someone to get it for me though.

I suppose this violates your "rules" for this thread:

• 1. You may ONLY post about ONE gadget per week, and only on a FRIDAY WEEKEND.
• 2. Every gadget item post must include an attached image of the gadget.
• 3. Every gadget item posted about should be for sale somewhere; you may include a purchase link with an affiliate/referral id.
• 4. You must personally OWN the item you are posting about.
• 5. The goal is to introduce gadget addicts to new discoveries.

I bought an excellent gadget this weekend, but it's not for sale somewhere and I can't include a purchase link:

love the look of that - how old is it?

It's a 1974 3-cylinder gas Ford 2000 (as you found). I "bought" it with a handshake this weekend but it needs some work and I'll be picking it up before I need to mow in the spring. It was really considered an "economy" tractor when it was made but it's a lot bigger (and better looking) than a modern compact utility tractor (e.g. Kubota) which would do the same small tasks we need. We picked it over something more "classic" because of the presence of the modern hitch and power take-off which allows us to use pretty much any implement, new or old.

Quote from: ginnydecruz on December 13, 2015, 09:01 AM

What about this for your gf Christmas present?
[snip][/snip]
Vibease smart remote control vibrator

I am still waiting for my someone to get it for me though. 

This should probably be marked [NSFW], moved to the appropriate topic, or deleted as spam...

Sorry for my first post being landed in here. Pls remove if it's not appropriate.

Cheers.