http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
No benign excuses to cook up for this small non fruit based company for their crappy gadget? ]]>Mar 13th 2009 7:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 9:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 8:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
both of them]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Blue LEDs are the metaphorical icing on any Crapgadget cake.]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 8:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 11:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 1:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 7:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 10:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 1:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
My only real objection to it (besides that I don't want to learn Mandarin, and my MP3 player needs can be met better by dedicated devices) is that you probably wind up speaking the Mandarin equivalent of Engrish and make yourself a universal laughingstock.]]>Mar 13th 2009 7:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 7:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 7:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 7:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jKAiUEgXE]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Depends -- there's actually a good argument for French. Mandarin is spoken in China, and as a second language in nearby countries. That's a lot of people, to be sure, but not much area.

Because the French (like the English) went on a colonial spree a while back, there's all sorts of places around the world where you're likely to meet up with French speakers, so it might be more useful, and it should be a lot easier to pick up (for native English speakers).

(I speak neither Mandarin nor French, but do know a good smattering of computer languages...)]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
What are your feelings on Perl? I don't know Lisp, but I've experience in a fair few other languages and find Perl to be both the most fun and the most useful (there have been so many occasions where 10 minutes of Perl has saved me hours of pain).]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
For a company based in NY I am disappointed in Darren's apparent ignorance of the international community. But whatever, I guess it's just a tech blog for geeks - who cares if it's accurate... oh wait.]]>Mar 13th 2009 9:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Never really saw the point of perl in practice -- you can do most of the q&d stuff just fine with any modern shell, awk, and sed. The bigger apps that sometimes get written in perl are, IMHO, just as handily written in a "real" language (usually I'd recommend a Lisp of some sort), and will be more easily maintainable.

Of course, I have _very_ limited perl capabilities -- perhaps if I was as good with it as with lisp, bash, and awk, I'd find some stuff it's better for. It looks ok, from what I've seen, but since I don't see the point, I haven't made time to really mess with it. (Maybe I'd think awk was the useless thing, if I'd picked up perl first!)

But I dislike Python (just one more attempt from the parenthesis-haters to stumble backwards into lisp-like features), and _everyone_ knows Python's the greatest thing since transistors, so my judgment is suspect on all this. ;-)]]>Mar 13th 2009 10:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 7:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 12:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Mandarin is the highest ranked SIL Ethnologue language, which means that it's the language with the most native speakers (873 million) in the world. China is one of the fastest growing economies. If anything is a useful language to learn next to English, it's Mandarin Chinese.

But sure, be a dismissive jaded douchebag and act like it's a meaningless language that's only spoken by a bunch of farmers in remote huts.]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/(one way or the other) by "blindly" learning them. For instance, learning French and Spanish seems useful, if you're simply interested in covering the largest possible speech area (South America, large parts of Africa) with the least effort.]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 8:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 9:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 10:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
And the cam comes with a sucker...namely you for buying somethng from a website with name like Gizfever....hehe Giz.]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
the bilingual pen is not a crapgadget at all, from what i saw in the promotional video it's an excellent way of learning pronounciation, i think it's very innovative. i have no idea how it recognizes which sentence it's being pointed at.

the bamboo fountain looks ok if you find that kind of stuff relaxing. but maybe water and electricity are a bit too close together

the mickey webcam thing's page doesn't load


clearly the crappiest gadget is the buffalo speaker]]>Mar 13th 2009 8:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 8:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 8:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 10:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 9:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
That Chinese teaching pen is freaking gi-nourmous! I can't imagine trying to get that through airport security in my carry on. The useful application is if it has the menu of my favorite Chinese food place loaded and can teach me to order those off menu items that only people "in the know" can order.

I think the sound of water trickling all day would make me have to go to the restroom a lot more often. Not a good investment.

I think I got one of those buffalo USB speakers in a Bag of Crap from a recent Woot Off! Mine had evil red LEDs instead of blue. ;-)]]>Mar 13th 2009 9:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
This is actually stupider, and it was on the same page:

http://www.gadget4all.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00574&cat_id=013&dept_id=003
]]>Mar 13th 2009 9:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Those sheep speakers are definitely crappier. At least the buffalo head has enough room to fit a decent-ish speaker. These small buggers just cannot deliver. You're better off using your notebook's integrated speakers - unless you don't mind the roaring laughter of passersby and hold one to each ear.
]]>Mar 13th 2009 12:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 9:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 9:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 9:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 10:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Me, either.]]>Mar 13th 2009 10:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Wow, the hypocrisy is just overflowing the proverbial bucket here.

-1 for massive amounts of undeserved arrogance]]>Mar 13th 2009 2:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 10:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
I thought the buffalo speaker was kinda neat actually, my vote goes for the mickey webcam -.o]]>Mar 13th 2009 11:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 11:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Hats off to all you guys commenting! your comments are the only things worth reading on this website!
Keep it up Fellas!]]>Mar 13th 2009 11:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 11:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/Mar 13th 2009 11:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
What an idiot you are. The fact that you are a writer and a tech blogger no less goes a long way to describing your capabilities as an individual in general.

I learnt Chinese. So I could be a self made man and not a douche that has to work in NYC for a company and write on a blog all day for a crust while thinking that the universe is limited to English and the USA. Yeah - good future buddy.

The cow - well guess what Lunar year it is?

Chinese is the most important language to learn after English. Are you just pissed off like most other (formerly) over paid and poorly skilled USA tech heads that are losing more and more jobs to the region?

Reading your diatribe is where you should first look for the answer. That along with your skanky arse, I need a sheep dip adn a bath, poorly spoken editor in Chief that is also a closet anti China racist - quite funny coming from someone with a name like Topolsky and a uncanny resemblance to an ethnic and religious heritage that has had its (un)fair share of being singled out.

Advice. Go and get a real job and leave the geopolitical commentary to the experts. Maybe learn about the world, and do something of actual importance and real value output as opposed to writing about products that you could hardy design, manufacture or market any better.

You are a writer. You are a blogger and for tech too. Are you seriously thinking that you are in a position to put down others? You ONLY speak English, yet you seriously think you're in a position to put down others that may want to learn (basic economics - no demand - no enterprises will design a product to meet said demand).

Then again, I do need some light reading before bed or trips to the urinal. How you have come to manage to take yourself so seriously shows just how deluded you are. Go vicariously play with some USB device - the world REALLY needs that only-Mr-Murph-can-provide output. Yeah - your job and future is secure and rosy. Keep bagging out the others who are actually in the arena trying.

Drop kick.

RF.


]]>Mar 13th 2009 12:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/crapgadget-wow-just-wow-edition/
Get a life and as always if you don't like it, don't read it!]]>Mar 13th 2009 1:47PM