Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sleep Phase Monitoring Alarm Clock

Just bout an axbo
http://www.digitalreviews.net/reviews/miscellaneous/axbo-sleep-phase-alarm-clock.html
Had to order from europe. Denmark? It was ~$283 shipped.

there are 2 other products.

SLEEPTRACKER. Almost half the price. No problem getting it in the US. Plentiful at Amazon.

Supposedly the axbo is better because the wrist band is more comfortable than a watch, and the alarm is better (and no worries about it being covered.) Not sure about underlying technology.

SleepSystem is unreleased, but it is the most promising because it actually uses brain waves (it seems) to determine your stage of sleep. most accurate. it was a hot topic as a cog sci major at UCSD. Good to see products finally exist. Unfortunately you can't get SleepSystem right now, and i need something now.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, The Family Edition

i was at frys and this 12 yr old kid was with his parents and he had GTA San Andreas. one of the customers pointed out to the parents that its a pretty violent game. so the parents told him to find another game. of course the kid started throwing a fit. i never really gave it much thought, but i guess most parents really don't care about even reading the ESRB ratings. and parents, including mine have a set belief that, video games (and cartoons) are strictly for kids. if i was a kid, i'd be the one trying to get my parents to buy me the game, betting on their ignorance. but if i was a parent, there's no way in hell that i'd allow it under my watch. its just as bad as the kid buying a porno. as bad, worse, or not as bad as buying a porno depending on what you think porno is to violence. we live in a funny society. we allow pretty extreme violence on tv, then all of a sudden a nipple makes an appearance, and the whole country holds a press conference about getting a control of media and their standards.