Finally: Cheap, Easy and Bullet-Proof Backup!

UNRECOVERABLE HARD DISK FAILURE!! If that happened to you -- right now -- what would you lose? E-mail? Family photos? The report you've been working on? Your job? Everybody knows backups are a great idea, but most don't do it. That's because backup hardware and software SUCK.

Now there's a backup service I just discovered that:

* Backs up files automatically and constantly
* Stores off-site
* Is cheap
* Is very secure and reliable
* Lets you look at, open and verify any file, any time
* Works on Windows, Mac and Linux
* Lets you back up from one system and retrieve files from another

Could THIS be the PERFECT BACKUP SOLUTION?
 

Wi-Fi Aquarium Lets You Feed Your Fish Online

An inventor has created a WI-FI ENABLED AQUARIUM called the "Wi-Aquarium," which lets you watch your fish via webcam, feed them remotely and adjust heat, lights and filter online. The aquarium will even send you an e-mail to report aquarium status.

'Super Automatic' Coffee Maker Reads Your Mind

A company called JL Hufford Coffee and Tea is reportedly working highly intelligent coffee machines that READ YOUR MIND -- at least the part of your mind devoted to coffee. This "super automatic coffee machine" actually "learns the drinking patterns of its users," and recognizes the patterns of when you want a cappuccino, and when you want an Americano.

USB Gadget Hall of Shame 

Solid Alliance, which is known for making rubber USB memory drives in the shape of Japanese food items, now offers ENTIRE MEALS made out of USB memory drives.

Memorex's new 1 GB Poker Chip Flash Drive looks like a stack of three POKER CHIPS -- until you slide out the USB drive part of it. The drive comes loaded with "Texas Hold 'Em" software.

A new, 29.95 USB dongle jiggles your mouse pointer so your system WON'T GO INTO SLEEP MODE or run the screen saver. That's right: It's hardware for people too lazy to change their Windows or Mac settings.

Why Environmentalists Are Wrong About E-waste

Environmental groups like the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, among others, have been in the news lately, chiding gadget makers in general and Apple in particular for bad environmental policies. They're also saying consumers should take action and they're really pushing recycling. Trouble is, recycling electronics is actually BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

Fight Crime With Rented Robotic Exoskeleton

Need to move a piano? Picked on by bullies? Want to uproot trees in the backyard? Not to worry. Soon you'll be able to RENT A HAL-5 EXOSKELETON for just $590 per month. The robotic suit gives its wearer super strength. 

Like the List?

Do you like this newsletter? You'll notice that Mike's List has NO advertising, but costs a few hundred dollars each month to publish. If you want to donate a few bucks to help the cause, please GO HERE. This week's Mike's List is brought to you by Herbert Kantrowitz ($20).

Cell Phone Follies

A new product will let cell phone callers OVERRIDE THE RINGTONES of the people they call with one of their own choosing. Called a "push ringer," the ringtone can include both audio and video.

A new, $225 cell phone called the AK-47 Walkie Talkie Phone is designed to look like an old school Communist China RED ARMY WALKIE TALKIE, and comes with military surplus style bag and gear. Oh, and it works as a walkie talkie, too. "Down with capitalism! Oh, wait, that's my broker -- I gotta take this...."

Chinese Theft o' the Week

Intellectual property thieves in China are already selling copies of the new "Spider-Man 3" movie TWO WEEKS before the movie debuts in theaters in the United States. The DVDs cost $1 each, and even include a warning on the back against pirating the movie.

Hollywood Spy

The Warner Bros. movie, "Get Smart," starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, is scheduled to premier next summer. But in an unprecidented move, a direct spinnof from the movie, called "Get Smarter: Bruce & Lloyd Out of Control," will go straight to DVD just TEN DAYS after the premier of the original "Get Smart." The spinnoff stars Masi Oka and Nate Torrence. Oka plays a tech geek named Bruce.

Gotta-Get-It Gadgets

A wired prototype jacket from Germany's Lodenfrey works like many other such garments -- it sports built in music player, cell phone and GPS. The difference is that the io-Jacket also supports GPSoverIP, which uses the mobile phone connection to provide backup location data -- even when you're INDOORS. (Video after link.)

Gardner Post is now selling its Baby Grand Master "piano" -- a baby grand jammed with a complete DVD-based DJ kit, including MASSIVE SPEAKERS.

Japan's Nap Enterprise Co. plans to start selling next month a new, $227 cell phone earbud that picks up your voice not from your mouth via the air, but from INSIDE YOUR EAR. Combined with the sound dampening pad that cuts outside noise by 30 decibels, you can use the buds during heavy metal concerts and other noisy places -- without raising your voice.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Computerworld - Mike's column about gadgets and mobile computing.

Datamation - Mike's column about using technology to be more productive.

Vegetarian Organic Life - the awesome healthy living newsletter, blog and RSS feed published by Mike's vegetarian organic wife.

Wacky Web Sites

They're probably in the minority, but here's a web site that believes people just aren't FAT ENOUGH.

This site is for people who don't mind getting a LITTLE BEHIND in art history class.

Musicovery isn't all that wacky, but it IS cool -- any style of music, any time.

This is why Al Gore invented the Internet: for sites like Gamecakes, devoted entirely to cakes decorated with video game themes.

Regiftable is an entire web site devoted to the practice of giving things received as gifts.

Twisted Game

Acrobots

Got a Blog? Got a Web Site?

SMS-Mail.com

Ronnie's Tech Blog

American Legends

Wildman's Hangout

If you have a blog or Web site, let's trade links! Please add the Mike's List blog, which is called The Raw Feed, to your blogroll or as part of a post or promotional link, and I'll link to you right here in Mike's List! The URL for The Raw Feed is:

http://www.therawfeed.com

Once you've created the link, let me know by dropping me a line at this address!

Mystery Pic o' the Week

What is it? Send YOUR guess (you must send name and location to win). If you're first with the right answer, you'll earn the dubious honor of getting your name in the next issue of Mike's List!

LAST WEEK'S MYSTERY PIC: No, it's not a "Chardonnay bomb," a "traveling oxygen bar," or even a "nuclear powered ion drive from Volkswagon" as suggested by some readers. In fact, it's a scent-sampling car for trade shows dubbed the "VbubbleU" -- a "one-of-a-kind interactive scent-sampling kiosk from a 1967 Volkswagen Microbus" put together by ScentAir to promote their devices that produce desirable smells "from Apple Pie to White Gardenia." Congratulations for Alexander Rogge of Lorton, Virginia, USA, for being first with the right answer.

New E-Mail Address? 

Don't forget to tell Mike's List! It's easy! Change it here. The whole process takes about 5 seconds. Change your address as often as you like.  

Web Mike's List

If you don't have anything nice to say, say it to me!
Send rumors, gossip and inside information here.

Go here to keep Mike's List Ad-Free