I spent a few minutes this afternoon browsing around Tiger.com checking out computer components. My home server is getting a bit old and I’m thinking of doing a complete upgrade.

Then I stumbled upon this video of a very serious computer build that includes a 24 SSD drive array. So…no moving parts and scary speed. I so want one (but am not a Google founder unfortunately). I wonder what things will look like 10 years from now?

‘Cause she is going to get to play with stuff like this. Very very cool…I want them already.

Created by MIT graduate David Merrill and called “Siftables”, each block is its own interactive computer with a color screen, infrared communication, accelerometer and Bluetooth radio. The number of neat things and games you can dream up with these little computers and a good development kit would be just about endless. Add WiFi to the mix so they can interact with the net and the package would be complete.

I’ve been renovating part of my basement for the last while in an attempt to turn an old, musty space that was poorly finished into a combination gym and playroom for my daughter. We are almost done with what turned into a six month project and one of the last steps was installing a dehumidifier to keep it from getting too moist in the summer months.

After killing two portable units in years past I finally went looking for something a bit stronger and that could handle the entire basement area (almost 1500 sq feet). Thanks to the mighty Google gods I stumbled upon Sylvane’s website and more specifically a Sante Fe dehumidifier that seemed to be just about perfect. It could handle the size of room, would allow me to duct it in and was EnergyStar rated.

Everything showed up exactly as ordered and very fast (two days!) by UPS truck. I installed the unit in a closet that I had wired up specifically for this type of dehumidifier (it had a drain available) and mounted the remote controller on the outside of the wall. I then ran ducting into two rooms (a trick - buy flexible 10″ ducting at your local Lowes or Home Depot and strip off the insulation…it works perfectly and is really easy to work with).

The one issue I ran into was that I forgot to order a special switched plug for the external controller - so I just wired in a new receptacle that was powered off the controller. Problem solved. All in the installation took me about 4 hours including some head scratching to get the ducting to fit (I forgot to include it when I measured the space).

I insulated the walls of the closet to cut down on the noise but the unit is actually not that loud despite pushing a lot of air. You can definitely hear it but you need to be in the same room as where it is running or very close. It is about as loud as a forced air furnace when running.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Apparently the police in France have got a lot more to do rather than walk up and down the street looking for parking violators so they have made their parking meters intelligent so they notify them when a car overstays its welcome.

With the exception of eliminating that feeling of relief you get when you get back to your car, you are over your time yet there is no ticket, this seems to me to be one of those ideas where the only comment is “about time”. I’d rather have the police out catching bad guys as opposed to checking meters. Now if we could only convince the meters to email us when they are getting close to being out of time so we can add money virtually and avoid that mad dash outside in the middle of a meeting to feed the meter. Better yet, just have the meter read an RFID tag on the car and bill me for the time used.

Welcome to Web 2.0…parking meter style.

As an avid diver and underwater photographer I’m always looking for a way to reduce all the gear that ends up hanging off me when I dive. This mask, which records 720P video and also takes still pictures is one of the more creative things I’ve ever seen and is being shown at CES 2009.

The mask is certified to a depth rating of 115 ft which is a bit concerning as an expert recreational diver can definitely go to that depth and slightly below. But I guess for an estimated $215 it is a pretty good package given that the rig I normally carry for video set me back over $3k. The optional lights are a nice addition although they do sort of make you look like a giant insect and I’m not sure how they will affect head movement through the water.

An interesting piece of diving gear.

The Wall Street Journal has a rather cool video on a new “grapefruit” camera that stitches together an 360 degree view in real time. It kind of makes Google street view seem quaint.

I’d embed the video but the WSJ, in true 2005 fashion, doesn’t support embedding yet. Come on guys…