B5 Network - Tech, Gadgets and Weird Things

A knife is possibly the most universal tool ever invented. A folding knife offers all the functionality of a regular knife and adds portability.

At one point in history, someone from Switzerland, a country famous for it’s hot chocolate (and watches as well as banks), decided that “possibly” simply won’t do when talking about their army’s supplies, and created something now called the Swiss army knife – the most universal tool of them all (however, the lethality of the knife was reduced due to a smaller blade).

Of course, soon civilians decided they want those knives too – the small size and the variety of functions makes them great to have in the great outdoors…err, I meant in the wilderness. And, just as surely, soon there were quite a number of variations of this tool – some were actually more like parodies.

Well, the Backpackers’ Cutlery Set is one of those parodies that turned out to be actually useful. The tool (top-right in the picture, near the belt case) splits into two parts – spoon/knife/pick (bottom-left) and fork/screwdriver/bottle opener (bottom-right) – a great idea actually – alternating between a knife and a fork would be difficult. If I may be so bold to say, this is the best pocket cutlery set ever created (not that pocket cutlery sets are often created).

The Cutlery Set costs £5.99 at GoBaz.

In the past few weeks, I wrote quite a number of posts on clocks/alarm clocks. Some of them quite practical, some just classy. Actually, I was growing quite tired from clocks, so when I saw this gadget for the first time (and incorrectly assumed that it is yet another clock) I wanted to just close my browser window.

Well, I stopped at the last moment – I thought it looked nice and promising enough to overlook the clock that I imagined was inside (no, there was no clock inside).

The Zen Dolphin apparently does not have a function as complex as showing time. Nope, actually all it does is imitate swimming while being illuminated from the bottom, and make dolphin/underwater noises. So, what is the use of having one, you might ask. Simple. It looks great. It’s simply a cool little thing to have (and it can pass off as relaxing if you choose your words wisely).

I understand that the picture doesn’t really show why exactly I like this little trinket. Therefor, I suggest you watch the video on the product page. Lastly, let me just say that I believe this would be a great present – nice enough, doesn’t have allusions to any major celebrations, and is unlikely to conflict with anyones’ religion (everyone who believes in the satanic dolphin cult, raise your hand, please).

The Zen Dolphin is $39.95 at MyVirtualZone.

Anyone here has a habit of visiting clubs from time to time? I am speaking about the ones where darkness, strobe lights and overrated pop music (and maybe light alcohol, and (legality depending on the country) sometimes light narcotics) rule tens (hundreds?) of entranced humans as they attempt to move in tune with music while trying to use their brain as less as possible (believe it or not, these words are by a guy who frequents such clubs 1 – 2 times a week).

And with such numbers of somewhat zombie-like people, one naturally attempts to get noticed by being different from the mass. The popular means to achieve that include glowing bracelets and glowing sticks. Nice little toys, eh? Look great after dark, match any style of casual clothing (can’t really expect such things to look good when wearing a business suit, now can you?). Problem is, these things are so cheap (well, they are cheap when buying in high quantities, from a supplier. Clubs often sell them for 5 – 20 times the original price) and there are so relatively few laws applying to them, that they are a pretty common sight. And who cares about stuff that everyone knows about?

Well, how about flashing (no pun intended) a truly glowing smile? With these flashing mouthpieces (made from rubber. Should be more comfortable than the plastic vampire teeth mouthpieces you might have tried), with 4 ultra bright LEDs each shining simultaneously, your smile will be hard to miss (by the way, believe it or not, ultra bright is an actual LED classification).

The Flashing Mouthpieces are £1.99 (discounts are available if you buy more than one) at Glowsticks.

Back in the days when the concept of a modern times gadget was laughable (not necessarily referring to the middle ages) people had to face a task of finding something to amuse themselves with each and every day. That is, of course, excluding those that had to work from daybreak till dawn to be able to live (depending on the time period, that could be the majority of the world).

Well, those that could afford some fun used to take part in a wide variety of activities. Those considered artistic would draw or attempt to write works of literature. Others, less talented would attempt to sing or dance (in this aspect, the world didn’t change much – that still happens far too frequently). And those who regarded themselves as intellectuals would pit their minds against opponents in an old Indian game called ‘chess’.

However, time goes by, and times change. And today’s product is a great proof of it. I’m rather certain that if you attempted to use this chess set in , oh, the middle ages or so, you would be roasted in a huge bonfire (not a particularly pleasant way to leave this world). Nowadays, though, you’ll get only some strange looks at worst (depends on who you are – no one would think it’s weird for me to own such a set).

On a 12 inch (~30cm) square board (which reminds me of a dungeon) that has 4 skulls in place of legs), you and your opponent pit your skeletal head armies against each other (there are black and white skulls).

This set could actually solve one problem that quite a few chess fanatics have – lack of willing opponents. Most people don’t particularly like chess, or they lack patience for it. But really, who could resist playing with something like this?

The Skulls Chess Set costs £29.95 (could be cheaper, but souvenir glass chess sets tend to be even more costly). Found at Gobaz.

Here’s a riddle for you (I’m not ripping off ‘Brainiac’, am I?): who is dead, yet walks, moans and says “Ughhhh….BRAAAIIIIINS!”? That’s right, a zombie.

Side story: recently I had to pull through an evening with a lot of masked (and incredibly loud, louder than I’ve ever been at least) six year old nuisances children. Anyhow, when the reason for my torture adults asked them to tell them what they knew about zombies, everyone started shouting some thing or another about Frankenstein or mentioned eating flesh and brains. When asked about vampires, all they could say was “they drink blood”. A question about Count Dracula returned zero results. A strong evidence that zombies are more famous than vampires, wouldn’t you say?(that or those kids were brain-dead, which isn’t so hard to believe after 6+ hours with them)

So, what do you need to do if you want to join this society of living corpses? Well, basically, walk slowly and in the strangest way imaginable, moan, have a glazed look and the classic part – eat brains. Now, raw brains might not be incredibly appetizing, and a zombie is technically too stupid to cook (though cooked animal brains is considered a gourmet dish). Solution? - fake, edible brains.

The Brain Mold allows you to use gelatin to produce an edible jelly model of the left hemisphere (slightly bigger than the average though, but chances are your’s are too). All of the brain parts are there, so the jelly can be used for educational purposes. Still, nothing beats good old brain-eating-zombie routine (there’s a recipe included to make the brain jelly brain-colored just for this purpose).

The Brain Mold is 7.89$ at PrankPlace. Affordable enough, and if you think of it, the faces of your guests when you serve them brains have an estimated price of priceless

Hey, gadget lovers! Are you enjoying the summer? How do you like the weather? Personally, I just love the warm, and yet not really hot days. The perfect stereotypical summer. The weather is so stable and consistent that no one really expects any surprises…….say, for example, like a freak snowstorm.

Now, unless you live in the polar regions, obtaining a sizable amount of snow in this time of the year could prove to be quite a difficult task. I suppose it could be done if you’d set the freezer and the air conditioning system to work well above it’s usual limits, but that is not recommended (really, don’t, it’s a bad idea).

You can, however, turn to the next best solution – artificial snow, that comes in 8oz (~0.24 liters) jars. Sure, the amount doesn’t look like much. But here comes the best part. You only need to add water for the jar of powder to inflate to approximately 2 gallons (~7.6 liters) of snow.

A little personal input:
Take a cheap one-time-use pen, and throw away everything but the main body. Pour it full of instant snow powder and plug all holes with toilet paper. Then repeat the procedure with other pens. Put the prepared pens in a plastic bottle. Then just add water to the bottle (and DO NOT put the cap on). In a few minutes, the bottle will start spewing snow. Results may vary depending on the amount of powder used and water used and the type of toilet paper (it should ideally dissolve easily, but slowly).

Or, you can prepare the pens the same way, but put them in a bottle that is half full with ice (freeze it beforehand). Make sure to put the bottle in as warm a place as possible. This way, the snow will be slowly pouring out for an hour or two. With a little creativity this could be a great addition to any party.

A jar of instant snow powder costs $11.99 at KlearGear.

We humans like to fight. It’s ingrained into our blood. Thankfully, our blood doesn’t determine our preference of the type of combat nor our preference of weapons. Therefor, we can sate our thirst for blood in a simple (if a bit childish) water balloon fight.

Actually, a water balloon fight is, at least in my opinion, the most noble form of warfare. It’s advantages, compared to common wars, include: relatively low death toll (somewhere around zero or so), low collateral damage and no need to rebuild entire countries and their economies after the war. Also, a lack of skill, aim or ammo will not get you killed, but, if you’re not good at dodging, will give you a bath (in the hot summer months, this could we quite welcomed). Moreover, such conflicts are incredibly cost-effective – the only supplies required are water and balloons.

Apparently, someone disagrees. It’s the only reason I can think of for developing these water bombs – a multi-use alternative to the water balloon. Made from incredibly absorbent sponges, these bombs only require you to immerse them in water to soak up a lot of it, and that’s it – it’s armed and ready for combat. Just throw them at some innocent and dry victim your opponent, and watch as the bomb releases the water contained inside it, thoroughly soaking the poor and formerly dry victim your opponent.

Each bomb (they come in packs of six) is 11 x 9 x 9cm, black, with a fake fuse and has a totally inconspicuous red BANG written across it. Six bombs should be just about enough for two or three people to have a match, unless their less childish family members decide to teach the overgrown kids a lesson in maturity by, say, aiming a garden hose at them (not very mature, I know, but for some reason these self-proclaimed “mature” people never take that into account.0.

A pack consisting of six bombs costs only £4.99 (pretty cheap) at IwantOneOfThose.

What’s a party without cold drinks? And what better way there is to keep them cold than popping a few ice cubes.

Now, the idea of ice cubes is good and all, but some of us like to show off, so we look for an ice tray that produces ice cubes in a form that is more imaginative than a cube. I have already seen ice trays that produce such forms like jewels, flowers, cylinders and even duckies…However, none of them look as good as these…

A single ice tray has three molds, each with a different guitar design (specifically – Les Paul, classic and Fender). Making ice guitars is easy – just place the plastic guitar neck in the mold and pour water in. Then just leave it in the freezer.

Once frozen, the guitars are 5.5cm long, and since the necks are from plastic, they can serve as stylish spoon to mix your drinks (do take into account that ice melts, so such spoons won’t hold out for a long time).

These guitar ice trays were found at ParamountZone, and cost £5.95.

There are very few ways to pass (or waste, depends on the situation) the time as enjoyable as playing cards. A simple deck of cards can be used for anything – from childhood games such as, for example, Go Fish, to internationally popular games like Poker and Blackjack. And an average deck of cards is compact enough to carry in your pocket. True, it’s low-tech, but it’s an unbeatable classic.

While simply playing cards is a great pastime, it’s more fun to be the winner rather than the unfortunate guy who looses each game. Well, luck cannot be changed (you can try carrying around horseshoes and four leaf clovers, but in the end, you’ll just look stupid). And since most games heavily rely on luck, skill might not be enough. Sometimes your luck and skill may require some ‘assistance’.

Well, maybe the ability to recognize the cards by their covers is just what you need? If so, this deck of cards is a must have. While the cards look like any regular deck would, each of them has a subtle mark, that shows the card’s suit and number – IF you know what to look for.

Aside from that, the cards have absolutely no difference from other decks. Regular size, plastic coating, same old pictures on the back and some very abstract art on the backs – giving no reason at all to suspect that they were prepared for the game in any special way.

A deck of these cards will cost you £4.99 on GadgetShop.

NOTE: using marked cards is considered cheating. And if you’re caught cheating, you have to deal with the consequences, that usually are NOT pleasant. Therefor, DON’T GET CAUGHT.

For today, we have a gadget that’s innovative, small, 2-in-1 and is related to fire. In other words - perfect.

Well, maybe not. My evaluation may have been influenced by the inner pyro (most of my friends say that it’s actually an outer pyro - well, they are allowed their opinion, though I don’t have to respect it). Still, i love this little gadget. A jet ligther with an inbuilt clock. what’s not to like?

The lighter’s corpus is designed to look like polished bronze. Looks elegant, and at the same time, not tacky (though I personally would prefer something a bit brighter. Still, I don’t have a reason to complain). There’s a spring on the “hinges” of the lid, therefore the lid is kept tightly shut or open and doesn’t wobble - and taken into account the fact that this lighter can be used upside down, it is really a welcomed feature - you wouldn’t want your lid getting into the way of fire everytime you try to light a candle.

As for the clock, it is nothing special (you weren’t expecting a Swiss made mechanism I hope?), but it does the job - you set the time, it ticks and shows the time. The design of the clock is either non-intrusive or elegant - depends on your taste. However, I’m certain that noone would complain about it.

The lighter itself burns with a strong, green flame and the appropriate jet-engine-like sound (A word about the pictures - they don’t show the flame - neither me nor my camera are good enough to capture it). In truth, the green will wear off with time, and be replaced with classical blue jet flame. In the case of my lighter, it has already begun, however, it took two weeks of extremely heavy usage to get there (no, i wasn’t trying to get rid of the green - I just felt the urge to set a lot of things aflame). The overall construction is quite sturdy, so I don’t have any complaints about it. Also, you don’t need to carry any tools for refilling - no unscrewing or anything. Though you will need something like a screwdriver (I prefer using a knife - a lot easier) to adjust the flame height.

A word of caution if you’ve never used a jet lighter - the jet flame is hottest just above the tip of the visual part. Be careful - if you burn yourself, it will be with a 1300 degrees Celsius hot flame.

Also, to keep your lighter working longer, use only purified butane. Preferably one that’s been purified 3 times or so. One of the more common brands is Supaflame. If you don’t have a better choice (for example, I don’t - there are no other brands of purified butane within a radius of 60 kilometers), I have tested it and can confirm that it is good enough for jet lighters.

Never be tempted to use unpurified butane (filtered butane is also usually far from being sufficient), as it will clog your lighter after a single refill - I did that mistake with my first jet lighter.

Like what you’ve read so far? Well, in addition to that, the lighter is actually pretty cheap. It’s 4.74$ from DealExtreme.