GeekSugar

Oh, Good. Another In-Flight Fire Hazard to Worry About

GeekSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:45:02 -0700

In-flight fires caused by gadgets are back in the news after a recent piece in the New York Times warned of yet another risk: fires caused by the rechargable lithium batteries in handheld credit-card machines used by flight attendants to ring up purchases. The Federal Aviation Administration considers the batteries hazardous, and requires special training for flight attendants on airlines who carry spare batteries (some airlines, like Delta and JetBlue, don't carry spare batteries at all).

No fires from the readers have been reported, but according to the same article, in the last two years, a portable DVD has caught fire on a plane, a flashlight placed in a storage compartment exploded, turning into a projectile, and eight people were injured when a battery fell against a metal seat frame and exploded.

The best way to keep devices from overheating, or worse, catching fire? Keep them out of overhead compartments, and turn them off completely before storing them for flight. Do you take special precautions when flying with gadgets?

Has a Gadget Ever Caused You Serious Distraction?

GeekSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:44:11 -0700

Reports last week of a commercial plane that missed its destination airport by 150 miles initially raised fears that the pilots had fallen asleep, or, worse, that the plane had been hijacked. But according to the Natural Transportation Safety Board, it turns out the pilots were working on their laptops in the cockpit, causing the error. Before you ask, no, working on a computer while in-flight is absolutely not allowed.

Talk about a scary situation! The pilots didn't realize their mistake until a flight attendant called into the cockpit asking for an estimated arrival time. If you ask me, that's far worse than texting while driving. They tried to contact the silent plane for over an hour with no response. What could the pilots have been doing on their laptops that distracted them from responding to calls for nearly an hour - not to mention flying 150 miles in the wrong direction?

MySpace Streets Are Safe Again: 90,000 Sex Offenders Booted

GeekSugar — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:00:59 -0800

We all know the dangers of letting children (or even childish adults) wander around on social networking sites without supervision. Issues like cyber bullying and cyber stalking are things we hear about everyday, but an even scarier subject is one that involves sexual predators. How do you know that the nice 14-year-old girl your daughter met on MySpace is really a nice 14-year-old girl?

That's exactly what worried Connecticut's state attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who successfully pressured MySpace to increase its security standards. Because of Blumenthal, 90,000 MySpace accounts, which were held by convicted sexual offenders, were deactivated. This has been an ongoing battle between Blumenthal and MySpace, who initially refused to give up the information due to federal privacy laws.

Since I grew up in such a technological age, I've been aware of the dangers behind the computer screen from day one, but unfortunately not everyone is so lucky. Do your children know about online safety?

Geek Tip: Use Your Strap to Keep Your SLR Camera Safe

GeekSugar — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:35:15 -0800

You know your expensive camera needs to be kept safe, but besides the obvious commonsense of wearing your camera strap around your neck, there are other precautions you can take to prevent damage to your snapper.

Wrap it: Holding the camera body in one hand, put your other hand through the strap, then twist that hand around the strap about four times. Grab the other side of the camera body with that wrapped hand. This makes it so that if someone bumps into you or you trip, your falling camera will just slowly unravel, giving you a chance to grab it. Whereas if you just had your hand through the strap, it would slip off your hand and hit the ground before you had a chance to do anything about it.

To see my other tip, just read more.

When setting your camera down, you generally always want to put your camera in the middle of any table. If it has to be near an edge, make sure you flip the strap up over the camera body instead of letting it dangle off the table or surface.

You'd think this was common sense, but I see people doing this all the time and it's painful to me. Be a pal next time you see someone's strap dangling, and flip the strap up over the body.

Personal Safety Alarm: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:00:46 -0700

A couple of my friends recently got mugged in San Francisco, so after a few years of acclimating to this city that I love, I feel like a recent transplant again, because I'm feeling a little paranoid.

Last week, I would have said this Personal Safety Alarm from Brando was unnecessary and unsightly, but this week, it's lookin' pretty good. You don't have to clip it to your handbag like that, but I actually don't hate it there. It has a better chance of being accessed if I don't have to dig through my massive bag, after all.

On the other hand, I feel like I'd totally set that thing off in my office or home and make some innocent ears bleed. What do you think?

Save Me Hello Kitty, Save Me!

GeekSugar — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:00:30 -0700

By design emergencies are stressful, freaky situations that wreck your mood and shake your world. But wouldn't they be a little bit happier if you had a Hello Kitty Hand Crank Generator by your side? The smiley little device includes a tiny port on the side and houses a 9V battery for whenever your arm gets tired. Lost in the woods? A non-electronic compass will help you keep your bearings and a LED flashlight will keep you on the right path. Of course, don't forget an AM/FM radio so you can listen to emergency broadcasts!

And because no one wants to get stuck without a charged cell phone - this bad boy can juice up your cell phone too. Who would want such a device? Certainly not the guy from Hello Kitty Hell.
Source: Popgadget

Safety Notice: PowerShot A530/A540 Overheats

GeekSugar — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:03:15 -0800

Though the Canon PowerShot camera is considered to be one of the best digital cameras on the market, the manufacturer has issued a warning that a number of its PowerShot A530 or A540 cameras have a tendency to overheat.

A press release issued by Canon says:

We have discovered that, in a very small number of PowerShot A530 and PowerShot A540 digitalcameras, the area around the battery cover on the bottom of the camera may become hot. We would like to convey the details of this phenomenon and our service policy.

We have discovered that in cameras where the opening/closing spring on the inside of the battery cover (see images below) sticks out beyond its regular position, if a battery is put into these cameras and the battery cover is closed, it causes a short-circuit and the following phenomena occur: The bottom of the camera becomes extremely hot near the battery cover; Batteries that are loaded are depleted quickly; The number of shots that can be taken becomes extremely small.

To find out if your PowerShot is among the affected models, just read more

The affected serial numbers include cameras with 21, 22, 23, 24, as the first two numbers from the left. If you open your battery slot and notice the opening/closing spring sticks out like in the ones shown in the images above -- they are affected by this malfunction, do not touch them, as they may be extremely hot.

Canon will repair the affected PowerShot A530 and A540 digital cameras free of charge, regardless of warranty status. Call 1-800-828-4040 for help.

Crazy Wii Video: Nintendo Wii Safety Video

GeekSugar — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:13:14 -0800

For all of you that got a Wii for Christmas, this faux safety video will serve as an entertaining guide to your new console and remote. For all the rest of you, it's just plain entertaining.

If you have a Wii, and a video camera, read more

You can make your own Wii video, use my Three-Step Guide to Uploading Videos on YouTube and share it with me in the Geeks Gone Wild: Wii Videos group. I'll feature my faves on geeksugar!

Should Airlines Allow In-Flight Phone Calls Via WiFi?

GeekSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:33:00 -0700

In a recent USA Today article, I read about a man who was able to make in-flight phone calls on his iPhone during a flight using WiFi. With WiFi enabled, passengers on one of the 600 WiFi-enabled planes taking off in the US can use any number of video-chatting or voice programs like Skype or Gchat.

According to the article, a survey by the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics found 45 percent of Americans thought voice calls should be banned on flights, while 40 percent said they should be allowed if they don't pose a safety risk.

When we polled you guys, 74 percent of you said you'd switch airlines to have WiFi. I used Google Video chat on a Virgin America flight last month and actually turned my computer's camera so a friend at home could see the clouds out of my window. The person sitting beside me even waved hello! Chatting live at 30,000 feet was a pretty surreal experience - I love Gogo In-flight Internet!

The U.K. Government Examines the Impact of Wi-Fi on Health

GeekSugar — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:01:10 -0700

With some studies saying that WiFi is dangerous and others saying that it is harmless, the U.K. government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) is taking matters into their own hands by carrying out an in-depth study into how wireless networks are being used. The HPA has already indicated that the signals used on Wi-Fi networks were very low power and well within guidelines issued by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation (ICNIRP).

Considering not too long ago the BBC reported that there was no evidence to suggest a link between the use of Wi-Fi and damage to health, this new research should prove to be interesting.

Source