Author: Serkadis

Fresh off her kiss of death endorsement of ol’ Gluehorse McCain, who is currently looking at a 40% approval rating in Arizona, and her flip-flop on keeping her upcoming Tea Party convention speaking fee of a cool $100K, Sarah Palin is flitting around the country and waving her PAC checkbook around in a nouveau riche attempt to buy credibility:

Sarah Palin injected herself into another 2010 campaign Monday, with her endorsement of Rand Paul, son Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky. “Governor Palin is providing tremendous leadership as the Tea Party movement and constitutional conservatives strive to take our country back,” Rand Paul said in a statement. “Sarah Palin is a giant in American politics. I am proud to receive her support.” Paul also acknowledged that he “has received a generous donation from Governor Palin’s PAC.”

Rand isn’t the only one to receive a “generous donation” from Palin’s PAC. Seems the Snowbilly Princess has been using her PAC to buy up a metric assload of copies of “Going Rogue”:

Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) PAC spent more money buying copies of Palin’s best-selling book than it gave in contributions to political candidates, according to new FEC reports. The papers filed over the weekend show SarahPAC spent $47,777 on copies of “Going Rogue” during the last 6 months of the year. Meanwhile, she handed out just $43K in donations to candidates seeking federal office.

The L.A. Times, however, reports the amount is closer to $63K.

At first blush, this deal smacks of Palin laundering PAC funds for her own bank (hey, it’s hard to keep kids in $60K Cadillac Escalades these days), but the transactions may be perfectly legal because she’s no longer an elected official or even running for office . . . yet.

Still, buying up anywhere between $47K and $63K worth of books for “fundraiser donor fulfillment” is still a lot of books, even if they were purchased either through her agreement with Harper Collins or at full price:

If the campaign team paid the $13.50 hardcover price currently featured on Amazon, those campaign dollars bought more than 3,500 copies of the book. If they paid the full $28.99 hardcover price, they bought more than 1,600 copies. However, if they paid the $9.99 harcover price batted around during the Great Walmart and Amazon Price War, they could have purchased more than 4,700 copies of “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

Well, that’s one way to push that godawful piece of shit up the New York Times best seller chart.

Palin is certainly proving herself capable of an executive position at bulk-order kingpin Regnery Publishing, just in case the whole Fox commentator/wingnut welfare/public speaker thing doesn’t work out. It would be a perfect fit, since both parties truck in parting conservatives from their money.

 

I have to admit that I was skeptical going into MAG, the latest shooter from the folks who did the SOCOM series for PlayStation 2. First of all, the SOCOM series for the PlayStation 2? That’s like the RuneScape of shooters. But then there was MAG’s most prominent bullet point: 256 players on one map! Even if you drop 256 players onto one map, how many of them are actually going to fight each other? Or even see each other? When it comes to the business of shooting your gun at people, is MAG going to be any different than a game with, say, 64 players?

The answer is basically “no.” When it comes down to shooting, MAG is like a slightly clunky Modern Warfare 2. The clunkiness come from the dramatic draw distances where you can see a lot of players at once (the phrase “target-rich environment” comes to mind as I open fire into a cluster of 20 parachuting reinforcements drifting down onto the battlefield). In exchange, you can’t expect the character and atmosphere of the latest round of shooters. Instead, you get a whiff of the generic and slightly dated as you play.

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Published Jan. 23, 2010
By Ben Reynolds, Tri-City Herald staff writer

PASCO — Anyone that knows Mark Wilson won’t say a word about him without quickly mentioning his work ethic.

Mark Wilson (12) comes from a small school — Liberty Christian in Richland — but he has made a big difference at CBC. Photo by Richard Dickin of the Tri-City Herald

“He’s just works hard,” said one former coach. “That’s just what he does.”

Wilson takes pride in his work ethic because of his constant drive to succeed. To put it simply, he wants to be the best at work, in the classroom and especially on the basketball court.

He also trusts all of his hard work. It’s that trust that landed him a starting job on the Columbia Basin College men’s basketball team.

Prior to committing to play for the Hawks, Wilson — a former Liberty Christian standout — had never seen an NWAACC basketball game.

But again, he trusted his work ethic and believed he could play at the college level.

Immediately, he has shown that he belongs on the court. His slashing style of drives, accompanied with a solid long-range jump shot provides him the versatility to score from just about any spot on the court and has created matchup problems for opponents.

He earned a starting spot during the summer and fall and is the Hawks’ second leading scorer at more than 13 points per game.

Whether Wilson believed he would achieve instant success, that’s a hard question to answer for the soft-spoken 6-foot-3 guard.

But his early success has come as no surprise to others.

“Absolutely not,” said Terry Watson, his coach for three seasons at Liberty Christian. “He is the hardest working kid I have ever coached.”

It goes back to that work ethic. When Wilson committed last spring to play at CBC, he had his reservations as did CBC coach Lane Schumacher about what he could do.

Wilson was one of the top scorers in the state as a senior at Liberty Christian, averaging more than 23 points per game, including a season-high 39 against DeSales.

But for as good as those numbers were, it was against B-level competition where he was easily the best player on the court nearly every night.

Schumacher liked what he saw, but still wasn’t convinced, and knew he was taking a little bit of a risk signing Wilson.

“You always have your concerns,” Schumacher said. “A kid comes from a small school and you wonder if it’s going to be a total shock for them at the next level.”

But that that sometimes rocky transition from a small high school to the college level has been a road without too many potholes.

Wilson admits it has taken him a while to get use to the faster-paced game and has had to make a few adjustments — mainly speeding up the release of his jump shot. But after 16 games, things have started to slow down and Wilson says he has found his comfort zone.

“After about a month, I started to get a lot more confidence,” Wilson said. “I just try to go out and play.”

As Wilson has started to find his game, so have the rest of his teammates.

With only one sophomore on the roster, the Hawks appear to have righted the ship after a 3-11 start.

CBC (5-11, 2-2) has won two straight East Region games, heading into a key game today against Yakima Valley (8-8, 2-2).

The Hawks are coming off an impressive 84-63 road win over Wenatchee in which they shot 10-of-17 from behind the 3-point line in the first half.

“I think things are starting to come together,” Wilson said. “We started playing good defense, and I think that’s what we need to keep doing.”

In other words, Wilson and Hawks are working a little harder.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

We were able to chat with Dexim, makers of the P-Flip docking stations and external batteries for the iPhone and BlackBerry, at CES 2010, where they gave us a look at their latest iPhone battery models. If you are familiar with the Mophie Juice Pack, you’ll be familiar with these. Except that the P-Flip line is a little cheaper, and a bit more feature-rich. In fact, they even have a solar model that’ll charge your iPhone using the power of the sun. All details in the video.

A big thank you to Bing for sponsoring Gear Live’s CES 2010 coverage.

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David Jaffe may not be included in the credits of God of War III despite having been a part of the franchise ever since, but he’s saying he doesn’t regret it in the least bit. Instead, there

While U.S. audiences suffered through yet another anaglyph 3D broadcast as the Grammys presented Earth Song in traditional red/blue format courtesy of Target-distributed glasses, Sky kicked off its first true 3DTV broadcast across the pond during a Man. U/Arsenal match. Distributed to a few select pubs ahead of a wide rollout due in April, patrons slipped on passive 3D glasses and caught the entire match live from Emirates stadium. Luckily this experiment went over far better than the Dallas Cowboys disaster, though several criticized the need to remain more directly in front of the monitor to see the action and that the effect was less pronounced on long shots. However the new tech excelled the most during close ups and slow motion, as Pocket-Lint quoted viewer Kate Cobley “It’s brilliant, the corner and back of the goal views are just amazing. It makes the game so much better. If it’s in 3D then I would definitely be more likely to come to the pub to watch sport.” We figure the real test will come during the World Cup this summer, if ESPN’s 3DTV broadcast can get U.S. audiences tuning into the beautiful game, then 3D may actually live up to all the CES hype, until then check the read and more coverage links for a few more impressions, or the video embedded after the break.

Continue reading Inaugural Sky 3DTV soccer broadcast received warmly, hooligans opt for Michael Jackson & the Grammys instead

Inaugural Sky 3DTV soccer broadcast received warmly, hooligans opt for Michael Jackson & the Grammys instead originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still plagued by the annoying screen flicker on your precious 27-inch iMac, even after the previous update? Try this second attempt by Apple. While you’re at it, there’s also a minor update for iTunes which makes sure it actually “remember[s] password for purchases,” as well as fixing a few sync and performance issues. Good luck with both and let us know if your iMac nightmare is finally over.

27-inch iMac gets another display firmware update, everyone else gets minor iTunes update originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I like the idea of LED lights, as I’m sure you do, too. Like you, I dislike the inefficiencies of incandescent bulbs, although I like the bright, warm light they produce. Like you, I like the power efficiency of CFL bulbs, although I dislike all that nasty mercury inside them. LED lights look like a big win, except, of course, for the fact that the light is either too diffuse to be useful, or too focused to make a general purpose bulb. Acriche, a division of Seoul Semiconductor, may be changing the game with their announcement of a 100 lm/W LED bulb.

PORTLAND, OR, FEBRUARY 1, 2010 — Seoul Semiconductor, a leading global LED manufacturer, announced today that it will introduce the first 100 lm/W AC LED light source during the first quarter of 2010. Offering 25% greater efficiency than existing LED light products, this latest offering from Seoul Semiconductor’s Acriche brand will be available for sampling by March 1. It will be supported with a global marketing campaign.

Seoul Semiconductor, which has pioneered development and manufacturing of next-generation LED light sources since 1992, notes that Acriche outlasts incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, and due to its long life is less costly to use than traditional lighting methods.

Like other Acriche products, the new 100 lm/W LED needs no AC-DC converter. Additionally, it generates less than 1/10th the carbon emissions of an incandescent bulb, an important consideration in meeting new regulatory standards in markets worldwide.

Seoul Semiconductor is in the process of carrying out investment activities, active research and development activities, and marketing promotions to boost the supply of Acriche in the United States, and has thus far invested nearly $20 million with plans to expand the investment in the future. In particular, it is making a huge effort with Acriche’s patented technology for use in multiple lighting applications through continual research and development for dynamic evolution of the product.

“We’re proud to introduce this next-generation Acriche with its environmentally friendly profile, and cost-efficient application,” said Mr. S.M. Lee, Vice President of Seoul Semiconductor in Korea “This new product represents great strides by Seoul Semiconductor’s Technical Research Institute. Acriche now has up to ten times the efficiency of incandescent bulbs and greater system level performance as compared to generic DC LEDs.”

The global market for LEDs exceeds $5 billion annually, and is expected to grow at a pace of more than 24% annually. Acriche is expected to appeal to the U.S. market, where the race to instill “green” living practices has intensified, resulting in increased numbers of lighting systems being replaced or upgraded with LED solutions.

Anticipating a continued robust U.S. demand for Acriche, Seoul Semiconductor is dedicating foundry resources to ensure supplies of the product are readily available. Mass production of the new Acriche will begin in the first quarter of this year. In addition, research and marketing campaigns are underway to raise consumer awareness about the benefits of LED technology.

What is Acriche?

Seoul Semiconductor’s main product, Acriche, is an AC-driven semiconductor light source. Because the LED does not require a converter; it is more energy- and cost-efficient than DC LEDs. In addition, Acriche is officially recognized for its safety, having acquired CE and TÜV certifications as well as UL certification in the United States due to the reliability of its electronic parts. Acriche is easy to install. In addition, with a life span of more than 35,000 hours, Acriche LEDs meet Energy Star requirements for indoor and outdoor solid state lighting.

About Seoul Semiconductor

Seoul Semiconductor is the fourth largest LED company globally, according to IMS Research, a British electronics market research agency. The company has more than 5,000 patents and owns internationally recognized technology such as Acriche, developed by its own original technology; Deep UV LED; and Non-Polar LED implementations. The company runs 33 overseas operations, including three subsidiaries, and 150 worldwide distributor locations. Visit www.acriche.com for more information.

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If you want to be a great public speaker, your preparation has to be more than just blasting gangsta rap and shadow boxing in front of the mirror. Whether you have to videotape yourself speaking, join a presentation club, or rewrite your PowerPoint deck 40 times, it’s important to be able to tell your own story. Few of us are born with the gift of public speaking but with a little preparation we can learn to persuade, sell and inspire.

Sponsor

1. How Not to Suck at a Group Presentation: LA-based investor Mark Suster teaches startup companies how to present on stage with some great suggestions. In addition to excellent points on structure and the importance of practice, he suggests entrepreneurs join Toastmasters or take an acting class to become more comfortable in front of an audience.

2. 10/20/30: Guy Kawasaki wrote the 10/20/30 rule where presenters create a PowerPoint of no more than ten slides, in a 20 minute time frame, with a minimum font size of 30. While Kawasaki’s rules are meant for VC presentations, the fact that each slide has a purpose and covers only key points can carry over to larger presentations.

3. How to Present While People are Twittering: Presentation trainer Olivia Mitchell has a great guest post on Laura Fitton’s Pistachio blog where she teaches presenters to incorporate Twitter and feedback loops into their presentations. Although this adds a layer of complication to the presentation experience, it does have the advantage of offering cues to the speaker in addition to creating a long tail of social media pointing back to your words. You can download Mitchell’s book entitled, “How to present with Twitter (and other backchannels)” here.

4. Uncovering Steve Jobs’ Presentation Secrets: BusinessWeek columnist Carmine Gallo wrote a great article dissecting Steve Jobs’ MacBook Air presentation. What I find interesting about this advice is the fact that Gallo points out that part of the Apple narrative requires a binary opposition or an “us versus them” scenario. Gallo writes “in every classic story, the hero fights the villain.” If you as a startup founder can position yourself as fixing an industry evil or vanquishing a lackluster market leader, then you’re more likely to have a compelling story.

5. The Lessig Method: Upon first arriving in San Francisco I had the pleasure of seeing lawyer and activist Lawrence Lessig speak on copyright and remix culture. In echoing David Hornik’s post, we cannot agree more with the statement that Lessig’s presentations are a “fantastic combination of content, art and brand.” The former Stanford professor weaves a narrative of higher purpose while his staccato imagery injects a freshness into what is often considered dry subject matter. Presentation Zen offers a great breakdown of the many methods inspired by Dr. Lessig’s style.

6. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces: This may seem like an abstract resource, but reading about archetypes is a great way to learn the components of a great story. It is well-documented that George Lucas’ Star Wars was heaving influenced by Campbell’s work. Luke Skywalker went on an epic journey, was mentored by Obi Wan, overcame Darth Vader and returned with control of the force. Which of your mentors is your Obi Wan? What is your greatest obstacle? And what is the skill or lesson you’ve learned in starting this company?

Discuss

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The Civil War, written by Georgene Poulakidas is a chronological record of events leading up to and throughout the Civil War.  The book starts off with a well written explanation of “One Country, Two Ways of Life”.  Throughout the book examples are given for each side of the war, the North (Union) and the South (Confederate) with their beliefs and what they fought for.   The book concludes with President Lincoln’s assassination at Fords’ Theatre where he was celebrating the end of the Civil War. 

Curriculum Connections:

This is a very detailed book with just the right amount of material for a child to grasp.  Great vocabulary words are highlighted with a definition following (outstanding teaching aid).  The Civil War would be a great teaching aid for The Civil War (SOL I.9 a,b,c,d,e & f).  The book can introduce the events of The Civil War or be used at the end of the lesson for all of the SOL’s there were taught.   There is a Timeline and a Glossary in the book to aid with highlighted words that are defined in the content of the pages.

 Additional Resources:

1) Students can color a picture of Grant & Lee as they learn about the end of The Civil War.  
2) Civil War activity worksheets are a great teaching supplement with the following worksheets:
    Fill-in-the-blank, Word Search & A Civil War Diary.
3) A Map of 1861 will help students visually see what states were apart of the Union, Confederacy & the territories that were not yet states in 1861.

General Information:

Book: The Civil War
Author: Georgene Poulakidas
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 24
Grade Range: 2-4
ISBN: 1-4042-2684-2

theodp writes “Ex-Googler and now White House Director of Citizen Participation Katie Stanton, who’s charged with promoting open public dialogues, snagged a patent on displaying financial news Thursday with her former employer. The patent for Interactive Financial Charting and Related News Correlation (as seen on Google Finance), which Google explains is an invention designed to ‘facilitate and encourage the user’s use and understanding of financial information,’ expires in the year 2027.”

To be fair, Google has only been a defensive, rather than offensive, patenter, so I wouldn’t read too much into this. However, it does seem a little ridiculous to patent the process of displaying news with financial information. It’s a neat UI concept — but deserving of monopoly protection for decades?

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Garlic is an exceptional food. It can be used as a condiment and elevates acid foods at least 0.5 in the alkaline direction. It is powerful for sexual energy, high blood pressure and numerous other conditions. Garlic is also an anticoagulant—a natural blood thinner.

The Behemoth’s Game 3 finally has been officially titled “BattleBlock Theater,” as gleaned from the newest official trailer (above). The makers of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers have been secretive about this latest project, only giving a few vague tidbits so far. This particular trailer refers to “hundreds of prisoners forced into deadly plays,” which seems to be the game’s premise for the arena-based battles.

Those colorful arenas host two-on-two matches for a a variety of game modes. The producers promised us matches suited for more players at a time, and a story-based campaign to tie it all together. Check out our hands-on preview for details about the two-on-two matches.

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JamLegend, the LaunchBox-backed ‘Guitar Hero For The Web’, has just reached a fairly major milestone: it’s now signed up over 1 million users. Co-founder Andrew Lee says that the site is up to around 60 million total song plays, of which 45 million have come from registered members. He says the site has seen especially good growth since it integrated Facebook Connect.

For those that haven’t used it before, JamLegend takes the music-as-a-game formula popularized by games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and brings it to your web browser. Gameplay is pretty simple: a series of colorful dots scroll down the screen, each representing a note or chord in a song, and you rhythmically tap the proper keys on your keyboard to “play” each note.

To play a song on JamLegend, it needs to have a note chart. The site offers 300 professionally crafted note charts (and their corresponding songs), and last summer it added support for an automated system that can generate a note chart for any song. In practice the system isn’t perfect, but it’s probably good enough for casual gamers. JamLegend monetizes these songs by restricting how many you can upload at a time — if you’d like to store more than a handful at once, you have to sign up for a premium subscription. Lee says that users have uploaded over 600,000 songs to their virtual lockers.

Lee says that JamLegend’s community is playing a strong role in helping it get traction. He says that indie musicians often come to the site and upload their own songs, and then members of JamLegend’s community task themselves with converting those songs into quality note charts. In effect, it’s giving these bands another outlet to get new fans, and Lee says that some of the bands have managed to get more fans on JamLegend than they have on MySpace.

One other thing worth noting: while Compete shows JamLegend’s traffic taking a dive over the winter, Lee says that their data is off. Instead, he says that traffic has largely been flat recently, but that it hasn’t dipped. Still, the company is going to have to come up with some innovative features to get to critical mass, especially as options like the Rock Band Network become increasingly enticing to indie bands.

JamLegend wil

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As you may have heard by now, many of Apple’s new 27-inch iMacs are more like iLemons. While the systems themselves are fine (and fast) there have been a ton of reports about problems with the screens (including mine and at least one other TechCrunch writer). Apple issued an update on December 21 that did not fix the problem for most of those users. Today, they have issued another update — so far, so good.

While the December 21 update was titled “27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0,” this new update is called “27-inch iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0.” A slight variation, but a big one, as this apparently is altering the display firmware itself rather than that of the graphics card. This update is also about half the size of the previous one. As with the other update, this takes a few minutes to install.

Earlier today, it was reported that Apple was halting production of the 27-inch iMacs until it could solve the issues afflicting the line. Aside from the screen flickering issue, other iMacs apparently have a yellow-tinting problem. As reports of troubles kept piling in, indications were that Apple was seeing long wait times for the devices, which some attributed to popularity, while others attributed to these problems.

The Apple Discussions forum on the topic now has some 271 pages (up from 191 a couple weeks ago) of comments/complaints and over 500,000 views (up from 400,000 a few weeks ago). It has more views than all the other threads combined — by far. Apple still has yet to say officially what the problem is with the product, and why the original update didn’t fix the issue. Hopefully this update will once and for all.

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Microsoft Tag, whose slogan is “Linking real life with the digital world,” is another stab at digital scanners that aim to connect printed materials with online content. The advantage of Microsoft Tag, which first began as a Microsoft Research project and was unveiled at CES 2009, over previous digital scanner attempts is that it doesn’t require a special device. It’s simply software that you can load on your cell phone; the phone’s camera is used for scanning the bar code and the digital content shows up on the phone, provided your phone is online. Microsoft Tag can run on devices from basic Java phones to smartphones, including Windows Mobile devices, BlackBerrys, and iPhones.

Over the past year, the tags have started showing up in magazines, newspapers, yellow pages, and public transportation tickets, though they can also be placed on business cards, directly on products, and even on large billboards. The tags can link to anything on the Web: be that additional information on a product, interactive content, or just a company’s website. CNET has a video up that demonstrates exactly what the technology is all about:

Since advertisers and publishers can set up tags by themselves, and the technology is freely available to try for anyone who is interested, the Microsoft Tag team is only four people right now. Microsoft thus has a little bit of trouble keeping track of everyone that uses the technology since it does not charge companies that want to create a tag or for the reader software itself. “It’s the hyperlink in the physical world. We believe the basic services we provide now are going to be free,” Marja Koopmans, Marketing Director of Online Services at Microsoft, told CNET. Microsoft may charge for more advanced services sometime in the future though, she said.

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In all the CES madness, we somehow missed MSI’s previously-teased Wind Box DE220. Fortunately, Liliputing didn’t; the site’s just now putting up impressions and along with it some specs of the novel-sized nettop. It’s packing Pinetrail for starters, in the form of a single-core Atom D410 or dual-core D510. Also included are an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330, up to 1TB HDD / 4GB memory, 802.11b/g/n, and Windows 7 home premium. Mum’s the word on price or release date, but from what we’ve seen, you can at least start decorating around its known color options: blue, red, and black.

MSI Wind Box DE220 displayed and detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh boy, I hope this is true. I’m shooting with an XSi, and it’s a great camera, but damn would I like to have me some movie-shooting ability. The T1i was a bad bet for that because it shot at 20FPS, which is ridiculous, but this new T2i allegedly has selectable frame rate modes. 1080p/24? Oh pleeeeeease!

According to Canon Rumors, the T2i is on its way next week and has, in addition to better movie-shooting, the following features:

• Higher-resolution LCD
• Revised body
• New battery and battery grip

But no articulating screen, which personally I am okay with. I’d prefer that in-viewfinder LCD anyway.

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Short version: An excellent backpack for bloggers or the Batman. It has a ton of pockets and compartments, lots of space, a padded laptop section, and a water-resistant exterior. Its main flaws: no good spot for a big camera, and no readily accessible outside pockets.

Features:

• Laptop compartment fits up to 17″
• About a gazillion sub-pockets
• Water-resistant outside
• Wide-mouth cargo section for easy access
• MSRP: $149.95

Pros:

• Comfortable
• Roomy, lots of pockets for thermite, batarangs
• Sleek and understated design

Cons:

• No good place for your DSLR and lenses
• Few outside pockets
• Expensive!

Full review:

At the end of Bag Week, we had just received the Booq Mamba Shift, and I didn’t want to give it a rush review. We were about to head to CES, and I thought that’d be a great place to put the thing through its paces anyway — so I did, and it performed admirably with some minor caveats. Before anything else, though, here’s the video tour of the thing that I put together, so you know what I’m talking about.

So I won’t waste your time with descriptions — you can see for yourself above and in the pictures just how it looks. I want to add the result of some hands-on time with the thing.

Basically, it’s great. CES is a madhouse and not only are you trucking around the convention center for miles at a time, but whatever bag you’ve got is going to be a mess of cables and devices. Luckily, the wealth of smaller, well-laid-out pockets on the interior of the bag made separating my card readers, generic cables, power adapters, 3G modems, and all that stuff easy as pie.

There’s a ton of padding and the straps are comfortable. No complaints there. The backpack itself is very well put together, having very few seams to unravel or edges to catch on things. The counterpoint to that is that there are very few outside pockets, so if you like having a water bottle or point and shoot within reach, you’re out of luck.

The main trouble I had with it was that it was not at all optimized for camera gear. The bottom of the cargo pocket is quite narrow, and had trouble fitting my Rebel XSi, which anyone can tell you isn’t a big camera. Furthermore, the pockets are obviously designed for separating small items from one another, not for carrying anything bulky — so if you want an extra lens around, it too will have to sit in the undefined middle space. Obviously this isn’t a problem if you’re not a photographer, but the result for me was that I had to carry my camera separately most of the time.

There’s also the issue of price. $150 is a lot to pay for a backpack, though the Mamba Shift L is both large and high-quality. So it’s not that you don’t get what you pay for, but whether you’re willing to drop the cash in the first place. Personally, I might save $50 and go with the Boa Squeeze.

Conclusion

The Booq Mamba Shift L is a terrific backpack for anyone who carts a laptop around a lot, but doesn’t need room for a camera. The L of course means it’s the large version, so if you have a smaller laptop it might be worthwhile to wait for an M to come out.

Booq Mamba Shift L

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As much as I love digital watches (and watches that take some work to read), there is something comforting about an analog dial. And the 01 watch takes analog dials to a whole new turning disk level.

What is a turning disk dial? Well essentially, instead of hands your watch has two dials that turn, indicating the hour, minute, and sometimes even the second (but not in this case). Turning disks have been around for quite a while, but it’s rare to see them used in a contemporary timepiece. There are three models of this rather unusual timepiece; it’s available in black, brown, and white faces, all three with leather straps for $170 each.

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