Toys

Pure Chronos DAB Radio – July 2006 (Wedding Present)

The best radio alarm clock we’ve ever owned. We like the large central snooze button and a sleep timer (adjustable by 5 minute increments up to 60 minutes). The radio stations don’t need tuning in because they are digital and it hides no less than four alarms, which can be individually set to any combination […]

HP PhotoSmart 3210 Printer/Scanner/Copier – 11th Mar 2006 (Birthday present from kix, £200 )

This is my first printer and I’m glad I waited so long because it’s grown up enough to play nice with Linux (it was actually easier to get working with Linux than it was with Windows)! It’s a network printer so Kix and I can share it and we can put it where we have […]

Humax PVR9200T Digital hard-disk recorder – 1st Jan 2006 (£200 from John Lewis)

This is the king of current generation freeview box’s and a pretty good PVR. It has a 160 GB hard-disk with enough clout to record 2 channels simultaneously while playing back a previous recording. It finds and sets it’s clock automatically when it is powered up. It has a nice 7 day EPG that you […]

Nintendo DS – 20th Mar 2005 (Birthday present from Kix)

This has the power of the N64 in a portable form but with the quirk of two screens (DS). The touch screen is certainly interesting and I think the long battery life, zero loading time and backwards compatibility with the GBA makes it better than the Sony PSP. Playing Super Mario DS is certainly bringing […]

Cordless Headphones – 20th Mar 2005 (Birthday present from Grandpa)

These Philips HC 8520 wireless headphones are great. They are comfortable to wear and easy to use because they automatically tune into the signal. They are easy to charge up because the base station is also the charging station. The most impressive thing about them is the range that the signal can carry – I […]

Squeezebox – 25th Dec 2004 (Christmas present from Kix)

This is the most awesome toy! It plays music and radio. It gets the radio from the internet and it gets the music from mp3’s stored on a PC. It is called a “Digital Media Adaptor”. It streams files over our Wi-Fi network. All you need to do is to run Squeezebox software which acts […]

Wi-Fi Access Point – 25th Dec 2004 (Christmas present from Kix)

Kix gave me this Linksys Wi-Fi access point for Christmas. We use it to connect our Squeezebox to our network without needing to trail Ethernet cable all over the house.

L.E.D Binary Clock – December 2004 (Christmas present to Kix)

This clock may take a few seconds to read but it’s worth the effort for the interesting factor. It’s a bit easier to read than if the entire time was coded into binary. Instead, each decimal digit is encoded separately:

“Lance” – 2nd May 2004

I bought this “Ford Ka” because he was built recently (1999) and has 4 stars in the parkers guide for reliability. But he’s an upgrade in a lot of other ways, power-steering, airbags, immobilizer, back-wiper, lights-on-doors-open warning sound, 1.3 engine, slow-speed wipers, 5-gears. He’s got good head room but not enough space to rest the […]

32 Mb USB Memory Watch – 20th March 2004, birthday present from Kix

Contains 32MB of Toshiba flash memory USB cable securely integrated in to the watch strap Water resistant, Shock proof and Anti-static Oh, I don’t have a floppy with me… hang on I’ve got 30 floppies permanently on my wrist! I think it is amazing cool to carry around a backup of my most precious files […]

Nintendo GameCube – 28th December 2003, birthday present to Kix

I feel a loyalty towards Nintendo since it was part my childhood diet and the gameCube seems to be in trouble so I decided I would rescue Nintendo by getting a gameCube for Kix’s birthday. I know she’ll like Zelda and I don’t feel like a proper gamer unless I can criticise Mario Kart Double […]

Freeview – December 2003, Christmas present from Mum

It was easy to setup and gave vastly improved reception. We don’t watch many of the extra channels except the music ones (TMF and the Hits) and ITV2. We sometimes have a laugh at the shopping channels.

Sony Digital Camera (DSC-S70) (was dads but mum doesn’t know how to use it)

Digital photo albums cannot compete with the magic of a normal album in your bookshelf but they can save money and are good if you want to put photos on a website. This is a 3.3 Megapixel camera but the big problem with it is that there’s a massive delay between pressing the button and […]

Polar Heart Rate monitor – 20th March 2003, birthday present from Mum

Normally shows the time but can show my heart rate if I wear the special belt. I use it to exercise in a zone that is not too high or low (120-140). It’s really helpful.

Microsoft XBox – 20th March 2003, birthday present from Kix

This big fat American beast is my first ever console and DVD player. The higher hardware spec, internal hard disk and promise of XBox live is why I chose to get this instead of the competition from Nintendo and Sony.