AS SOON AS THE POLICE STARTED USING RADAR devices to clock drivers’ speed, the techno-whiz folks came out with the radar detector that gives you fair warning that a signal is coming your way.

The latest fund-raising gimmick that some cities are using is the red-light camera.  These gadgets loaned out to Big Brother take a photo of a car that might be in an intersection when the light turns red and then City Hall mails out a ticket to whoever owns the car.  These cameras have been adapted recently to also clock a car’s speed through a trap.

Now COBRA, a leading manufacturer of radar detectors, has come out with a red-light-camera detector.  It will also spot the speed cameras.

If you already have a COBRA device, the camera detector can be purchased as an add-on that plugs into the radar detector.  Currently it sells for $129.  It’ll probably get cheaper after all the first-on-the-block guys have bought theirs.

Popular Mechanics has tested the device and they have the results posted on their website HERE.  But they don’t explain why some people feel the need to spend up to $400 just to be reminded to obey the traffic laws.

IF YOU (OR SOMEBODY YOU KNOW) IS ONE OF THOSE COMPULSIVE time seekers, always wondering what time it is, then you need to log onto the INDUSTRIOUS CLOCK and set it in your Task Bar.  You’ll never need to ask again.

So if you’ve got the er, time, log on HERE and get started now.
Note:  It gets really exciting on the last day of the month.

HERE IT IS:  EVEN IF YOU DON’T NEED ONE, YOU JUST GOTTA HAVE ONE.

It’s the 2Gb DVR Camcorder Pen Recorder.  The first mini-recorder in the world that is both a camcorder and a recorder…. in the shape of a pen that really writes.

It features one-touch digital video recording and with the 4Gb upgrade you can store 30 hrs of video or audio on the built-in flash drive.  To view the video you just plug the pen into your USB socket and watch just like any other flash drive.  The smooth-writing pen holds standard ink refills.

The price of this beauty has just been reduced from $360 down to $200.  With savings like that, you can’t pass up this great opportunity!  Add some fun to your committee meetings!  Shop Stewards …… don’t go into an administative hearing without one!

Order yours today by clicking HERE.

WHEN MOZILLA CHOSE TUESDAY AS THE RELEASE DATE for it’s widely-anticipated Firefox 3 browser, they also announced that in cooperation with Guinness Book of Records they wanted to set a benchmark for the largest number of internet downloads in 24 hours.

Since this will be a new category, whatever they get will be a record.  But their hope was to achieve 5 million downloads on that first day.  The official results won’t be available for several days yet, though.  Firefox 2 downloaded 1.6 million on its launch day, but that number will be shattered with this one.  Currently there are approx. 171 million users of Firefox already.

There was a hiccup when the download period first started because so many people logged on that Mozilla’s servers became overloaded and stalled.  In about an hour they had things running smoothly again.  Their dream of reaching 5 million downloads was actually met in just 14 hours.  Now they are optimistic that they can get 7 or 8 million downloaded.

Because of the initial server problem, Guinness allowed the official “start time” to be moved back one hour.  If Firegeezer’s brain is functioning properly today, then the 24-hour window will close at 3 pm Eastern Daylight time today (Wednesday).

The major upgrade from Firefox 2 will make this a popular browser and Mozilla expects to finally challenge Microsoft’s Explorer for browser supremacy.

For a brief review of a few of Firefox 3’s new features, read this InternetNews REPORT.

Update, 5:30 pm EDT:
The unverified results are in.  There were more than 8.3 million downloads during the first 24 hrs.  The official cut-off for the time was 2:16 pm Eastern time.

The download rate peaked at 14,000 per minute Tuesday afternoon, but was still clocking along well at closing time with 6,000 per minute being sent out.  People with broadband connections are getting the full download in about 5 seconds and taking about 1 minute to install the browser.

Mozilla graphic

Early report from cnet news HERE.

KEVIN MARTIN, CHAIRMAN OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, is recommending that the commission approve the proposed merger between the XM and Sirius satellite radio services.  The chairman’s recommendations carry a lot of influence with the commission members, but it is nonetheless uncertain whether they will go along.  The full commission will vote on it very quickly after they have had time to receive and study the recommendations.

The Dept. of Justice Anti-trust division approved the merger in March.  In order to achieve the approval, the two firms voluntarily agreed to several concessions including a new pricing plan that will allow subscribers to purchase a la carte groupings of their preferred channels instead of the entire spectrum.  They also agreed to open the radio instrument manufacture to competition so that anybody could build and sell the receivers.

For a more complete review of the terms and the status of the merger, read the Assoc. Press story HERE.

ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS AT LEEDS UNIVERSITY IN ENGLAND have developed a clothes washer that will clean a full load of clothing with just one cup of water.

These researchers have been alarmed by the increasing use of water for washing  that has occurred because more people can afford to buy washing machines now.  Water usage in washing machines has risen 23% in the past 15 years.  (Firegeezer notes that the UK is an island, completely surrounded by large seas.)

The machine works by using thousands of plastic chips  -  each about half a centimetre in size  -  to absorb and remove dirt.  Around 44 lbs. of the chips are added to each load, along with a cup of water and detergent. During the washing cycle, the water is heated to help dissolve the dirt, which is then absorbed by the plastic chips.

When the cleaning cycle is over, the clothes are still dry so you don’t need to use a clothes dryer.

Professor Stephen Burkinshaw, the machine’s inventor, said tests have produced ‘quite astonishing’ results.  “We’ve shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick whilst using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional washing machines,” he said. 

They also believe the technology could be used for dry-cleaning shops and thus eliminate the need for dangerous solvents.

While the machine, named Xeros, is still in the development stage, the inventors are working with a commercial firm and hope to have a model on the market next year.

Read the full story in the Daily Mail HERE.

COMING SOON TO AN AMBULANCE NEAR YOU. An innovative and effective medicine-delivery device designed for children who are apprehensive about syringes.

The MediDome™ is a simple invasive device that injects a prepackaged dose of medicine through a built-in needle that doesn’t have the frightening appearance that a syringe has. It’s use is described:

MediDome has a unique tester to ensure that a vein has not been ruptured during intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. A sterile cover is removed to expose adhesive wings that stick the MediDome to the required area for injection. The person administering the injection removes the blister cap and presses down on the top of MediDome until a little resistance is felt. A bubble on one of the wings is checked for blood - if it fills up the injection is halted. If all is well, they then give a small firm press until a click is heard, then softly compress and hold the dome. On release, MediDome returns to its original shape (but cannot be compressed again), is removed from the arm and disposed of for incineration. It is a fail safe single use design - once used it can never be used again.

The device was invented and designed by a 21-yr.-old college student in Newcastle, England. He has also adapted the device to be used in absorption delivery. The packets are color-coded by medicines and dosages and they have a safety check whereas if the peel-off backing is removed or tampered with, the rim color changes.

Read more about this nifty tool HERE.

THAT’S WHAT I GET FOR REPORTING (scroll down) on the fire at The Planet hosting service’s Houston facility earlier.

Shortly after I posted it, MY server went down for a couple of hours.  If you couldn’t log on for a while, that’s why.  But they got it fixed and I’m back and ready to post again.

These things happen.  Thanks for checking back.

THE PLANET IS A DEDICATED SERVER PROVIDER THAT hosts websites for thousands of customers world-wide.  They are located in Texas and have six separate sites where their servers are operating.

Saturday evening and fire in an electrical room caused an electrical explosion that knocked out three walls of the room containing the electrical equipment and brought operations in that facility to a halt.

Fortunately none of the servers themselves were damaged by the fire, but approximately 9,000 websites were knocked offline.  The outage did not affect their other server locations and they expected to have full service restored by late Monday evening.

An official with the company released the following statement on Saturday night:

This evening at 4:55pm CDT in our H1 data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room. Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost.

We have just been allowed into the building to physically inspect the damage. Early indications are that the short was in a high-volume wire conduit. We were not allowed to activate our backup generator plan based on instructions from the fire department.

This is a significant outage, impacting approximately 9,000 servers and 7,500 customers. All members of our support team are in, and all vendors who supply us with data center equipment are on site. Our initial assessment, although early, points to being able to have some service restored by mid-afternoon on Sunday. Rest assured we are working around the clock.

We are in the process of communicating with all affected customers. we are planning to post updates every hour via our forum and in our customer portal. Our interactive voice response system is updating customers as well.

There is no impact in any of our other five data centers

They have backup generators, but the Houston fire marshal prohibited using them until a full inspection of the electrical system was completed.  Early this morning the generators were turned on and the servers are beginning to come online, but it will be later on Monday night before full service is restored.

The Houston Chronicle has a late report HERE. 

If you have been having a problem accessing some of your favorite websites since yesterday, it might well be that they are hosted by The Planet.  Firegeezer is hosted by a different company and is not affected by this.

DIRECT DOWNLOADING OF MOVIES and other digital media advanced another step during the past ten days.  Firegeezer readers already knew this was coming because we’ve been talking about it.  Now we are watching it happen.

Netflix announced last week that they will immediately begin selling a set-top box that will allow their subscribers to stream videos directly from Netflix’ website to their television set.

The device is about the size of a paperback book and you plug the output connection to your television.  It is WiFi compatible, so you don’t need to hardwire it to your computer for the streaming of the program.  Netflix is initially offering 10,000 movies and tv episodes from its library for the service.

There are two financial expenditures needed by the subscriber.  First is a mandatory purchase of the “box” for $100.  Next is the “unlimited” subscription of $8.99 a month to use it.  But there are no other charges.  People who already have the unlimited service from Netflix can plug right in and play…. it’s the same service, just skipping the snail mail part and no returns necessary.

The box is made and sold directly by Roku and really is quite small, 5 in. by 5 in. and is HD-ready, once Netflix decides to download the HD versions of its library.  Within a year there will be other brands of receivers on the market which will bring the price down a bit.  Netflix is already working with four other manufacturers that are getting ready to enter the market.

*  *  *  *  *

Blockbuster unveiled on Wednesday their new in-store kiosk that will download movies onto the customer’s own portable storage device.  Their pricing structure is similar to Netflix’ at $10 monthly, but initially you have to visit the store to download your movie, which will take about two minutes.  However, Blockbuster expects to get that down to 30 seconds shortly.

It’s advantage over the downstreaming service is that you can carry the movie with you and view it whenever and wherever you choose, such as when you are away from home on a trip.

Blockbuster will soon be introducing its own version of the at-home streaming service that they are calling Movielink.  So there will be two choices available for downloading delivery.  Beginning in June they will operate the kiosks in a select number of stores to smooth out the kinks before going nationwide with them.