While we here at Engadget are doing
everything in our power to get this philosophical "economy" back "on track," it's items like these that aren't doing anything to help. No innovation. No stimulating capabilities. No utility at all, really. Just a webcam that scans business cards, an MP3 player shaped like a cow and a flash drive that's absolutely not certified for circulation by the Democratic National Committee. Though, we must say that they're all tailor made for
Crapgadget, which is (just barely) good enough for us -- drop your vote for the lamest below!
Read - CowCow MP3 player
Read - 4-Port Soccer Ball USB Hub
Read - MSI StarCam Flip Webcam
Read - USB Bird Fan
Read - Bling Bling USB Card Reader
Read - Obama Flash Drive
posted Apr 27th 2009 1:08AM
Obama Flash Drive, definitely.
I bet you I could have sold those Obama Flash Drives at $50 or $100 each before he became President! If only they were out before he won...
Now, even liberals shiver in disgust when they hear his name rather than throwing parades.
Who voted for him anyway?
wow, i didn't realize that many people on engadget disliked Obama...
@ Latin_Trident
Whoa whoa tiger, lets pump the breaks a little - before we deem him awful lets look at act he is following...
@Latin-Trident
Yeah, I guess the highest approval rating for any president in the last 20 years doesn't mean much, huh?
Bush had like 90% after 9/11....maybe Obama will turn out to be just as much of a douche as him. He's got plenty of time to fail....though I must say, he sure is on the fast track with the not really doing anything he promised and just putting a different spin on things. Closing gitmo but keeping prisoners in other countries where they aren't consider prisoners of war..."ending the war" in iraq but securing the fact that 50K troops will stay for "peace keeping"...being anti-war but escalating Afghanistan and spreading the war to Pakistan...I think it took 4 days of him in office before an authorized cross border drone raid killed a bunch of innocent people in Pakistan...oh, but it's different....cause he's on the other team. That's the best part...Democrats and Republicans actually think they are on a different team. Think about it.
As an outsider I can say this; most of the politic news we ear about the USA in the news are way more positive than before. Obama is the best thing happening to the americans in a long time.
side note: I just finish watched The Wrestler and it was awsome!!
You seem to be mistaken. Obama is the best thing happening to the rest of the world, not Americans. The average citizen doesn't care what someone on the other side of the world thinks of their leader. I certainly don't, and I hardly expect my opinion of your leader (whoever the hell that is) to be of any consequence to you. His job is to represent and carry out the wishes of the citizens of the country that elected him.
Bush at least did that job, even if the citizens who elected him lost interest in the middle of getting that job done. He did that job with the worst media-handled military in history of warfare, which in any other country or age would have constituted treason and espionage ten times over. I have yet to hear of Obama actually DOING anything that he was either elected to do, or that people actually want him to do, other than getting Bush out of office. It seems a lot of people didn't realize that with it being his second term, he was on his way out anyway.
Yeah, Obama is pretty craptastic.
you lost bitch.
Oh yeah, Obama's stimulus package is going to be great and do wonders! Obama has only caused more trouble by doubling the national debt than Bush. Get that bastard out of there.
if you are going to attact someone, at least get your facts straight. Bush left office with the country $9 trillion in debt (1). We are currently at $11.2 trillion (2). Has Obama increased the national debt significantly? Absolutely. But I would rather spend $2.2 trillion on fixing our economy than $3 trillion on a pointless war. However, thats my opinion and beside the point. You can criticize Obama all you want for increasing the deficit, but don't make untrue claims like "only caused more trouble by doubling the national debt than Bush."
(1) http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/history.gif
(2) http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Except he's still continuing the pointless war and the money toward the bailout just goes in the trash anyway, look at GM for example knocking every week for some more money, and AIG throwing parties. What he should have done was what the Chinese are doing, spending the money on creating jobs for new infrastructure, the American stimulus mostly goes to dying companies to die slower while around 5% or so toward new infrastructure
boo, you mentioned bush.
@thatrotierkid:
Obama's increased the debt by 2.2 trillion in 100 days. It took Bush 8 years to increase it by 4.5 trillion, Obama would pass that mark in less than 1 year. :) (assuming he keeps on passing stimulus packages haha)
@Brian
well somones gotta fix the mess dubya made
I'm fairly certain that whenever you hear anybody referring to Obama doubling the national debt, they're actually referring to the growth of the debt over the next several years not just because of increased spending, but also because of the interest that it will rack up over that time period, which is quite significant.
So, could you guys tell me what increasing the National debt does to the country and to the average citizen?
Without using Google.
Bush generated more debt than all previous presidents combined within the first year of his second term. He started with a surplus. Obama has inherited enormous debt and has to borrow to get things back in shape at home, which was not done under Bush. Levies/bridges/schools/etc
Before elected he promised the'd be out in 6 months but promised to start removing them little by little immediately. First thing he does when he becomes president? He cuts funding to our underfunded troops and sends 16,000 extra poorly armed men over there to die. Yeah what a wonderful man.
Actually, it's the morons in congress that are allowing the likewise moronic d-bags (yes, both bush and obama) in the white spend all the money. The imperialist has a different face so Dumb-dumb Americano thinks things are different. People just sit around arguing over what's a better color - red or blue? All the while, you're getting screwed by the federal leviathan. To answer what increasing the debt does...well, we're not spending money we have. Instead we are borrowing (thank you China - for the time being) and printing it at interests...including this interest you have to consider what adding trillions of dollars does to the market. Printing money out of thin air (since our currency is a fiat-currency and is not tied to anything of tangible value like the dollar used to be) basically creates inflation - which is by definition an increase in the money supply....the rising prices that you get are a RESULT of inflation. Those usually come later and what really sucks for all of use is that our pocket money or what's in our savings account diminishes in value. If we continue inflation the money supply at this rate over the next year we'll have our own little (HUGE, actually) Wiemar Republic fiasco. Now, there's a lot of blame going around as to who is responsible for this mess....Dumb-dumb Americano usually limits the argument to the left or right of the political spectrum...all the while the congress is still doing exactly what the Federal Reserve wants - allowing them to print more money and by time while they and their buddies can line their pockets. Most of the guys at the FED are ex- JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, et cetera. They think in the same Keynesian terms (in some cases directly responsible) as the idiots who bought into securities and other BS investments. Anyways, inflation is going to suck...buy gold or something of intrinsic value. Maybe vote libertarian next time around - those guys haven't had a chance to screw things up like the other dems or repubs....perhaps they'll be better with their true fiscal conservatism and Austrian School Economics.
Lols at the government thinking they can outsmart the market....bwahahahaha!!!!!
i really wish that for once someone in the media would tell the f&*%(ng truth about the Clinton surplus. THERE WAS NEVER A SURPLUS!!! GET OVER IT!!! in 1999 (as the dot com bubble was bursting) the republicans in congress passed a budget (that Clinton opposed so vigorously that the shut down the federal government for weeks rather than sign it) that projected a surplus in TEN YEARS assuming that the "DOT COM BUBBLE" would keep expanding FOREVER!! ---- i am no fan of clinton, i am no fan of george the third, i am a fan of the truth.
That and congress borrowed from the social security "surplus" for that year to foot part of the bill as they do every year...billions and billions borrowed from social security every year to make ends meet...how are we paying for all this again? Oh yeah, printin' up some good old treasury bills and beggin' China to buy them at a super awesome deluxe discount rate! The shit hit the fan a long time ago...most likely 1971 with the failure of the Bretton Woods system. All downhill from there...suppose you could go back to 1913 and say the Fed. Someday all this will be on "Engineering Disasters" on the History Channel. Thanks, Uncle Sam!
"So, could you guys tell me what increasing the National debt does to the country and to the average citizen?"
In short it will cripple our ability to live a normal life. Already, every person in the nation owes tens of thousands of dollars for this debt, and the big O is looking to put us on the hook for even more, all to "save the economy".
People that aren't high on the Kool-Aide know that this is going to lead to disaster like you've never seen.
The sick ones think that this money being spent will never come due with interest, and that magically it will lead to 4% unemployment and Dow 20,000.
The problem is they cant prove that's possible by doing this.
A good place to start to see how screwed we are thanks to BOTH parties:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNS8IY_Td14
@ thatrotierkid
yeah - ok - Bush is responsible for all of that debt..... the US was debt-free when Bush started....
Ummmm no - stfu
@Phenoum
I never said Bush put us $9 trillion in debt. I said thats what the debt was when he left office. I said he put us $3 trillion more in debt b/c of his war. If you had even read what I said or looked at the sources I gave instead of shooting off your mouth maybe then I would take you more seriously. However, until you prove to me otherwise, you are just another anonymous uneducated drone on the internet who doesn't know the difference between a debate and random name calling.
The only thing crap-gadgety about the Obama USB drive is that it comes preloaded with crap. Besides that, it's a somewhat reasonably priced 2GB usb drive that just happens to have Obama emblazoned on it. If you don't like that, you can be just as happy formatting the stick and scratching out the picture of Obama. Or maybe stick a few stickers over him.
and is waterPROOF!
"...Also be informed that this cool drive is waterproof. A must-grab at under $10 from Amazon...."
The usb card reading webcam. Most impractical device so far. The rest have a basic use to them at least.
Ever get a stack of business cards at a conference? Want to get ahead by having them in your contact database and the sales process started before you even leave the hotel room?
You don't know useless, my friend. That little flip cam would've been awesome for me more than once.
The flash drive is useful and waterproof as well. I've run two flash drives through the wash now, and only one survived, so waterproof is a plus for me. Some might like the bundled content as well, I see no harm in including it to be different and give people an excuse to choose this flash drive over the hundreds of others available.
With tiny soft fins like that, the USB Bird Fan can't possibly blow hard enough to compensate for how much it sucks, so I picked that one as the crappiest crapgadget of this lot.
@ Michael
Try asking santa for a Cardscan. The msi thing is no better than using a digital camera... useless!
The camera is actually quite nice with a glass lens and useful for for business men who digitally file their business cards. I would not mind owning one myself, It also functions as a webcam.
@Noodles2k The Cardscan is a nice product.
However, I could have used the MSI StarCam in its place.
The clear point is that the MSI product here is certainly NOT a crapgadget.
Now there's at least one good reason for voting for McCain: not having to deal with crappy Obama gadgets.
are you under the impression we can still vote for him?
You think I am? lol
You mean McCain gadgets, right?
Oh wait, this is 2009....:P
apparently obama likes to play rock, paper, scissors. sorta. :)
Those hands aren't on the actual product, I don't know why Darren decided to add them.
Way to pick on gadget4all, Engadget, haha.
Really? People are picking fully functioning flash drives and mp3 players over a tiny fan that takes up a USB port? Seriously?
USB bird fan...
Agreed.
Also engadget really is giving an unfair advantage by dispaying only the obama flash drive
Ironically the obama flash drive is probably the only thing there that might be worth something in 50 years. Love him or hate him he is historic.
Can I interest you in some bicentennial swag.
It's historic you know.
ANYTHING with the words "Bling Bling"
Yea I was thinking the same thing. I at least the others serve somewhat of a purpose, the fan is just...a fan.
I voted for that too... if I'm a Secret Santa for one of the airheads I work with, I know what I'm getting them now! :D
Ok well that was supposed to be a response to Shadoblak...comment system fail
merchandise should be made of people that are less contraversial.. like robert mugabe
any gadget that has the Wingdings font used on it for graphics is an automatic win