What…didn’t realize that yesterday was World Toilet Day? My how the holidays creep up on us. WaterAid has created a fun web site filled with lots of facts concerning toilets. For example did you know that 2.5 billion people use the toilet each day. The average person spends three years of their life on the toilet. In a given year you will flush a toilet 2,500 times, using about eight sheets of paper per day. The first flushing toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington who was a Godson to Queen Elizabeth I. And finally, most toilets flush in the key of E flat! More interesting potty news available at the World Toilet Day site including all sorts of bizarre toilet games.

World Toilet Day

The timing could not have been better. Our ancient multifunction printer had seen its last day, and we needed a good printer to replace it since I do much of my writing from my home study and my wife has recently started her own business.

I was in the midst of doing the research  as to which printer to buy when I was offered the opportunity to review the Epson Workforce 600. As luck would have it, the Workforce 600 was already on my shortlist.

I’m glad I said “Yes” to reviewing the WorkForce 600, as this is definitely a next generation printer. In fact, to call it a printer is rather inaccurate since the Workforce 600 is a Print/Copy/Scan/Photo/Fax office solution that will immediately become a key component of any small office.

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Still being very geeked about the announcement from Neuros, at lunch I was perusing the forums on the Neuros site and discovered just how hackable the Neuros Link will be.  The answer is: VERY

The Neuros Link is running Ubuntu 8.10 according to Joe Born’s post in the forum and the specs page.  That means that you can pretty much run any variant of Ubuntu on it.  Joe himself has installed Boxee on the Neuros Link, so it may even be possible to get Mythbuntu running on the box since you can probably add a USB Tuner to it as well.

UPDATE: Found more….the Neuros Link runs a Athlon CPU, so it’s x86 box!  This is VERY good news!

Yesterday Google updated their Google Sync for Blackberry software to include contact synchronization between Google and BlackBerry contacts. Previously this free BlackBerry download supported synchronization of calendar items only. Contact synchronization has taken forever to be added to the program. Based on my testing (lots of doubled and even tripled contacts), Google should have let this one test for a little longer. Even when I manually correct the duplicates (it makes no difference if I correct them on the BlackBerry or Google Contacts) the duplication of some returns. To be fair it’s not duplicating all of my contacts. However it duplicates enough (repeatedly) that I’d hold off on using this contact synchronization. Others have reported that if different contacts sharing a common email are synchronized only one will be placed in your contacts. What’s so hard about this?? BTW - It takes forever to synch my contacts - even after allowing for an initial synch and using faster Wi-Fi connections.

Google Sync for your BlackBerry

It’s always a sad day when you learn the secret behind things that seem almost magical. My kids got a dose of this type of reality letdown the night they woke up while the tooth fairy was placing money under their pillow. For me it was about five minutes ago when I spotted these Taekwondo Practice Rebreakable Boards on DealExtreme. I’m not sure I’ll ever watch a Taekwondo demonstration the same way ever again. What’s next - psychics who really can’t read minds? Bigfoot in a freezer that’s really not Bigfoot?

DealExtreme - Taekwondo Practice Rebreakable Board

The BlackBerry Storm’s due out tomorrow (11/21) and multiple web sites weigh in with their reviews of the new touch screen device from BlackBerry. Tough to say how well this device will sell. If you’re an email only user - I still think the Bold is your best bet (full keyboard). If you’re looking to use applications on your Smartphone - do yourself a favor and find someone with a BlackBerry and someone with an iPhone - then compare the applications available. Specifically if you’re on FaceBook you really should look at their application for iPhone (awesome) and compare it to what’s available on BlackBerry (the 1980’s called - they want their program back). Use Twitter?, compare what’s available on BlackBerry (one program to the best of my knowledge - Twitterberry) vs iPhone. Here’s a rundown of reviews that I spotted this morning. PS - There’s no Wi-Fi on this at (according to reviews) Verizon’s insistence.

BoyGenius Report - Verizon BlackBerry Storm review
Wired - RIM’s First Touchscreen Device Almost Eclipses the iPhone
ZDNET - Hands On: The BlackBerry Storm
JkOnTheRun - BlackBerry Storm, yes it can cut and paste (includes video)
CrunchGear - Review: BlackBerry Storm for Verizon Wireless
Phonescoop: BlackBerry Storm

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal is out with his feature shootout review of the BlackBerry Storm. He makes sure we know (the first 11 paragraphs focus on or mention the keyboard) that this BlackBerry is different because it has a touch screen. Oddities that I spot in the review. Well for one I didn’t know you had to use the awful SureType in portrait mode and the full keyboard only comes on during landscape use (yuk!). Second Walt points out the device has 9 GB of RAM - (I believe he means 1 GB on the device and an 8GB MicroSD included). Walt finds the lack of Wi-Fi a glaring omission and claims his tests showed that the Storm was faster than iPhone by about 180k (800k for iPhone vs 621k download speed for Storm). Actually Walt’s review reads more like a feature shootout between the Verizon Storm and the iPhone. No comparison of applications and one sentence on the Storm’s multimedia capabilities.

WSJ - BlackBerry Storm Review

Have you ever wanted to watch the stuff on Hulu, NBC.com, CBS or CNN.com on your TV but you didn’t want to build a PC to do this with?  Well, new you can thanks to Neuros!  Neuros has introduced the Neuros Link today on their website and it supports those 4 sites and many others plus local video in up to 1080p on your HDTV!  It’s now available for $299.99 and there is NO subscription service either!  Plus it comes with a spiffy wireless keyboard as well.  Neuros keeps impressing me time and time again!  I can’t wait to look at this device!  Now I really need to get a HDTV…

Oh to be one of those geeks who can effortlessly start up a remote control helicopter and make it fly, but alas. When I play with those type toys I am the one who will almost always immediately crash and burn…assuming I can even get lift off. It’s okay, though; I have found a flying toy which I can operate, and that doesn’t come complete with the same frustration I’ve discovered in others of the type: the WowWee Flytech Bladestar. Built for those who are eight years old and up, it’s even fun for those of us who have hit the big 4-0 (plus one).

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Do you Twitter? Here’s some interesting behind the scenes dirt I’ve culled from public conversations over the last few days. What hot phone scheduled to drop Friday 11/21 in the US has certain top tech bloggers exchanging cryptic messages about bugs, chuckling about 1GB RAM and comparing tedious demo meetings with Verizon? (that’s a hint for ya). One even threatened to throw it out the window. If the early Twitter buzz is any indication we may be in for some stormy reviews. Overseas the gizmo is gathering some puzzled responses for its lack of enterprise support (coming soon) when all it’s other phones allow for integration to MS Exchange, Domino, Groupwise. Then again maybe the sites will work out the issues and users won’t notice any bugs or the shortage of applications to showcase their shiny toy.