Casio Calculator Watch CA-53W

I remember when I was a youngish kid, I always wanted one of these calculator watches, but I thought I was too cool to wear one.(Funnily enough, I opted for the Casio Melody watch, which my folks got for me when I was six, which was as geeky as any calculator watch.)

Now that retro-geek seems to be chic, I decided to get one and try to revisit those old fantasies of cheating in an elementary math quiz. I got this Casio CA-53W for about 18 bucks and it's faithful to the old Casio form.

It has your standard black resin rubber build (including the straps) with a stainless steel back. I always thought these Casio calculator watches are weighty and thick... yeah, like having a real calculator strapped to your wrist, but this one is surprisingly light.

Two of my other Casio "Functional" watches... the aforementioned Melody Watch and a late nineties Camera Watch had stainless steel casings so that's probably why I always think Casios are heavy.

The watch shipped with an non-updated date and time and the date was initially set to the year

1980 which I found rather funny and cool.

This is just your run-of-the-mill calculator watch with the basic math functions like addition and subtraction. It's not a scientific calculator like the later models. But hey, I bought this just for the retro

style and looks, nothing else.

Other functions include your standard alarm clock, stop watch and that's pretty much it.

So the Casio CA-53W is worth getting if you want to get a piece of tech history. There's not too much utility for it nowadays but for sheer retro geek fashion cred it's worth revisiting.

Attack of the Ramen Monster

Lazy afternoon, hungry and I'm feverish. Decided to do an impromptu acoustic recording. Haha I want some Ramen!

Drifting and Finger Injury

Here I am, having fun with Mckee's Drifting until I hurt my finger! This is probably the first injury I've ever sustained from guitar playing ( except for callouses). My fingernail caught a fret and it pushed it out from underneath! Bloody! So much for drifting.

AppWall Screensaver for Mac

Just got this screensaver for my iMac and it looks great! And it's free. It mimics the WWDC app wall. Here's a short video I made of it in action.

And here's where you get it...
http://appwall.net/AppWall.net_-_by_iapp.pl/AppWall.net.html

Cinch for Mac

If you've used Windows 7, you've probably used the nifty and useful Window Snapping feature. And if you have that mammoth 27 inch iMac, you're probably wishing for a similar feature just to have two neat browsing windows side by side. Well, I just got Cinch and it emulates that. Here's my short video showing what it could do.

iPod Nano unboxing and Watch Conversion

Just got the new iPod Nano and what's the first thing you got to do? Convert it into a watch! Got a cheap Toy Story kid's watch, gutted it out and turned it into a watch band! Here's my video unboxing and the watch conversion! Ended up looking pretty garish but sweet!

T-Qualizer!

Just got a Tqualizer. The most awesomest T-shirt ever made! You'll look like a big dork, but it's too cool! Caution: Not for epileptics.

Gran Turismo 5 Head Tracking

Now here's another cool thing about Gran Turismo 5.
If you have a Playstation Eye setup, it would actually track your head movements so the game camera moves with it. You could scan your side mirrors just by doing head actions.
Check it out...

DLogitech Driving Force GT Force Feedback

Here's my short demo of the Driving Force GT's force feedback. To display how awesome the feedback is, I just let my car wander aimlessly until it hits a wall. Now with force feedback, this would translate into a physical force going against your wheels and it affects steering appropriately. The DFGT translates every force, parallel and from the road perfectly.

Guitar Shirt

Ok, I got this guitar shirt from ThinkGeek as a gift. It's sleek because it's playable and it's got its own mini-amp.
First one I received stopped working immediately. Now I returned that and got this replacement. This one worked fine out of the box but I noticed the fretboard was lumpy. And... it STOPPED WORKING after a few minutes. I think the problem with these shirts are the thin connector cables from the amp.
Well, I'm returning this again and I'm getting a refund. Cool idea but NOT RECOMMENDED.

Logitech Driving Force GT Unboxing

Here's my unboxing of the Driving Force GT for the PS3. Designed specifically for Gran Turismo 5.
This wheel is excellent especially for the price! Brings the Gran Turismo game to all new levels. Even makes your driving replays awesome (none of that wobbly wheel syndrome you get from a controller).
The build is a bit plasticky (especially the pedals) but the rubber/ faux leather covered wheel itself feels really substantial and well-built. The clicker sequential shiftstick is OK but I would have liked a clutch pedal and a proper H config shifter.
There are two reasons why you should play Gran Turismo with this wheel. First is the 900 degree rotation. Makes movement more precise and realistic. Sometimes a little bit too realistic because it's tiring doing turns, which brings me to my next reason...
Force Feedback! This is probably why you should get this wheel. Polyphony Digital did a marvelous job programming the force feedback in the game probably designed around this official wheel. It's powerful and you could feel everything... the road, the bumps, the G-Forces, understeer, oversteer, wheel skid, monster cars resisting your commands, you could actually feel the differences in EVERY car... the feedback just gives you information a controller can't match.
This takes my fondness for racing games to new levels and this could could change how you look at racing sim games. GT5 and DFGT= sim heaven!

Here's my cover of Akaskero by Thomas Leeb. Sorry for the video quality. My cheap camera sucks in low light.

C-3PO Backpack!

Getting stuff from ThinkGeek has its perks, I accumulated enough points to get this cool C-3PO full length android doll/bag for free! (Technically not really because of the higher shipping costs but whatever.) Anyway, this makes the perfect iPad/ Xoom/Whatever Tablet case because it oozes sex appeal! Nothing gets women riled up more than a disassembled robot. And the eyes light up! Oooh, what a bad boy.