In what may well be the dorkiest thing I’ve ever posted here on UM (yet!), I present to you some dood’s sweet steampunk versions of Star Wars action figures.
I don’t care where you’re from, R2D2 looks bad ass.
If you’re not familiar with the whole ’steampunk’ concept, a quick wiki overview:

Thanks to longtime reader Jess for another great guest post!
ProQuo is a free service which has the primary aim of greatly reducing the amount of junk mail, credit card offers, etc that you receive in your normal snail-mail box.  Additionally, they’ve recently added a feature to do the same with catalogues, too (honestly, who still [...]

Back in December, UM fan and friend Jess wrote a great review of online telephone number-juggler Grand Central.  I was hesitant at first, but finally set myself up.
(There is a short wait to get a number, as they’re in ‘beta’.  I think it took about a week to receive mine). 
Being that they haven’t yet integrated [...]

Recently I purchased an adjustable height stand for my laptop.  This allows me to position the display of my laptop in line my external flat panel monitor.  Operating in extended desktop dual monitor mode, I’ve been adding a few tools to increase the productivity.  This one though is purely for aesthetics.

I put a time limit on my business computers.  2 years on a laptop and 3 years on a desktop.  Occasionally I’ll even sacrifice them earlier in favor of a beefier upgrade.  My Dell laptop, having made the last 22 months triumphantly, is getting ready for an upgrade.  One option I’m considering is an Apple [...]

The United States Postal Service recently announced a 10 city trial run of a free recycling program for used electronics.
From the press release:

Last Minute is a travel site whose sole focus is on deals happening in the next two weeks.  Great for procrastinators and the spontaneous alike.
Sample price?
Denver to Phoenix, next weekend, air+hotel: $250

I found out about ‘Nabaztag’ after one of their Google ads appeared on UM.  How Nabaztag is considered ‘contextually relevent’ to our content is a mystery.
Not so mysterious? 
That pre-teen girls and gay men everywhere are shreiking with delight because of it.
Seriously though, gadgets like this are the future of the internet, and foreshadow a complete [...]

A report out of Tokyo about a new breed of robots designed to watch children is fascinating and freaky in equal parts.
The fascinating:

One of the best things about upgrading to a Mac (hopefully within a month or so!) will be the seamless upgrade of iTunes when new versions are released.  There have been SEVERAL window’s iTunes updates that have practically crashed my computer, given me general heart failure, and sent me scrambling to roll back.  This sometimes [...]

Getting more excited by the day about my pending upgrade to a mac mini, I’ve been coming across all sorts of cool stuff online.
For instance, this steampunk mac mini mod that Dave Veloz made as a wedding gift for his bride to be.
It’s a jawdropping work of art that reminds me of one part Mirror [...]

As the wikization of the entire world continues; those techie gurus over @ Wired dish up one that actually matters:  The Wired How To Wiki.  Featuring articles ranging from “How To Cheat on the Need to Sleep” to Card Counting and beyond, Wired will learn you real good.

Not having cable / satellite service has its pros and cons.  Pros; not being able to spend all night watching mindless drivel on my TV.  Cons: not being able to spend all night watching mindless drivel on my TV.
Let’s face it; sometimes after a long day’s work there’s nothing more appealing than collapsing on the [...]

 
Toothpaste For Dinner
Although I briefly went on a ‘low information diet’ from all things news/non-essential on the web (per Tim Ferriss’ excellent suggestion in 4HWW), I’ve found my addiction harder to beat than I thought.
In my defense, I have set up a pretty effective way of getting my fix; devoting the first 20 minutes or [...]

Between blog posts, facebook photos, and craigslist postings, I resize a lot of pictures.  Typically I’m popping open gimp, adjusting the scale and saving.  Last week, with 8 images on my desktop needing resizing, I decided to take the time I would’ve spent opening them individually to find an easier solution.
Surprisingly, Microsoft had the answer.  [...]