Tribute #1 - Gizmo of the Week

I picked up this can-opener from eBay for a steal. It was listed as $79.99 but I was able to use 200,000 miles to knock down the price 5 bucks.

It's a big improvement over the previous version, along with the can-opening piece it has 802.11g so I can control it from my office. I hate wasting time for the can to actually open so this way I can get it started before I get to the kitchen.

It came with management software but I didn't like how the menus were on the left-hand side so I wrote my own instead. If anybody is interested in doing some interop testing against my implementation just let me know.

I had earlier tried another manufacturer but found that its frequency interfered with that of the cereal bowl heater I had bought my wife for last years Xmassss. I had originally thought the problem was solar flares so had built a 300-foot tall geodesic dome to shield the house but this turned out to be a mistake (not mine, somebody elses). I had to take it down because it was clear plastic and the girls were always riding their horses into the thing.

My son (who is in a school for enriched students, not sure if I've mentioned that) was eventually able to diagnose the problem by building an interference detection system from Knex, a piece of aluminum foil, and three discarded Qtips.

Now if only Cheerios came in cans.

Tags: geeking out