Transparent Agenda

Gift Guide Day 10 Magnetic Photo Rope

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Photos, photos, photos! You have a digital camera and snap, snap, snap you go. You have hundreds or even thousands of digital photos on your computer. Sure you can share them on photo sharing sites like Flickr, SmugMug, Picasa Web Albums , Zooomr, etc… but what about those who don’t have a computer? I know that is an urban myth. Everyone has a computer, play along with my for a moment.

In the old days people used to get their film developed and printed on paper. They would then put these in a book or hang them on a wall. Now you can too! Check out the Magnetic Photo ropes from Photojojo. If you are not familar with Photojojo you really need to check them out. My favorite service is called Time Capsule. Setup the free service by connecting it to your flickr account and twice a month you will get an email with the best photos from a year ago at that time.

DAY 10 Magnetic Photo Rope

Gift Guide Day 9 Lutron Maestro

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For day 9 I chose a gift that may make a better stocking stuffer for yourself than a gift, especially for your wife. I bought one of these this summer and love it. We have an overhead light in our room and I am the one that gets to turn it off. It never fails I am in bed nice and cozy then my wife jumps in bed and reads a while. After about 10 minutes it is time for someone to turn off the light. Some how I always get the short straw. Now that I have my Maestro switch I just click the button on the little white remote and the lights slowly fade to off. Ahh zzzzz.

The Maestro has more buttons than necessary but works just fine when you understand it and includes preset dimmer settings. Maybe you would like to turn on your house lights from your car? Then try the Lutron Maestro wireless

DAY 9 Lutron Maestro

Top 10 of Everything

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Time Magazine has lists of the top 10 of anything. Some interesting, some not but still worth a look

Gift Guide Day 8 Nike ID Gear

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I like custom things. I wish I could get everything custom. Ask my wife I am impossible to shop for. Something has to hit me just right before I will buy it. If I could get everything custom this wouldn’t be a problem. This brings us to the selection for day 8. Nike ID gift card. The perfect gift for someone like me. The recipient can design their own shoes, clothes, bags or a number of other items from Nike. Just don’t be a cheapskate on this one. The cards start at $50 and the shoes start at about $100. If you are giving a gift card make sure they can buy something without selling out a lot of their own dough.

DAY 8 NIKE ID GIFT CARD

Gift Guide Day 7 iStik

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Do you have to buy a gift for a runner, walker, biker or just mobile ipod user? Check out the iStick. Great product as tested by my running fanatic wife. She is my tester for all things running. She used to wear a Nike ipod watch remote for her Nike iPod system. She loves the way it works. Just stick it where you want and it stays in place through the magic of magnets.

DAY 7 iStik ipod holder

Gift Guide Day 6 Gladwell Books

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For the sixth day of my gift guide I thought I would go with something that will make you smarter. Well maybe not smarter but at least it will make you think. Rather than just recommend Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers: The Story of Success I will recommend his previous books which I have read. They will make you look at the world a little differently.

DAY 6 Malcolm Gladwell Books

“The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”

or maybe the Blink audio book?

“Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking [AUDIOBOOK]

“Tipping Point/Blink Bundle

Been there done that?

Then get the new one. I know it will be part of my New Years reading.

“Outliers: The Story of Success”

HDTV Buying Guide

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Looking for a new HDTV to put on your list for Santa? Check out the HDGURU’s buying guide. They not only explain the differences between technologies they list (by make and model #) which TV to buy at all sizes. Cool.

Flickr Meme

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Notre Dame vs USC Upstate, originally uploaded by gfurry.

“It works like this: if you use Flickr, go to the sixth page of your photostream and pick the sixth picture there, then post it to your blog.”

Gift Guide Day 5 DSLR GPS

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For day 5 this is the type of item you only buy a photo geek. In this case a photo geek with a high end Nikon camera. The Nikon GP-1 GPS Unit. This will automatically geo tag all your photos for you. Great for certain professions like Real Estate and fun for the whole family. This is a nice toy and ridiculously expensive for a GPS considering you can get one with full maps of the US and Canada for just over $100. But hey it is a gift. I look at a gift as something you want but wouldn’t buy yourself.

DAY 5 Nikon GP-1 GPS Unit $239

Pick one up at Amazon.

Gift Guide Day 4 iPod Touch

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For day for of the gift guide I go the obvious route. The iPod Touch. These devices do the opposite of most consumer electronics, they actually get better with age. Every few months Apple updates the system software for free or a nominal charge and users gain new functionality. The iTunes store gives users music, TV shows, Movies and over 10,000 applications to choose from for little or no cost. Every few weeks a new application comes out that make my it better and I get the new toy feeling all over again.

The iPod Touch can make a very pocketable replacement for a laptop for checking email surfing the net, checking stocks, weather or finding directions. Sure you can’t do it everywhere with the touch but the same applies with a laptop and it is much easier to carry.

DAY 4 iPod Touch

Don’t even think about it. Grab one from Amazon now. 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB, Make sure you get the 2nd Generation

Gift Guide day 3 Custom Sunglasses

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Today brings us to something custom. I thought I should get this out of the way since you need time for custom items. This may not be the most ideal Christmas gift unless you really know what the recipient likes but I thought it was cool.

First a little back story. You don’t see a new Porsche in my driveway right now because I spent all my Porsche money on sunglasses over the years. I was happy with my last pair but apparently they weren’t happy with me. They left me one day, never to be seen from again.

Anyway I went to replace them at my local sunglass shack/hut/emporium and I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. Even though I liked the pair I had I wanted to get them without the polarized lenses. Sure polarized glass is the way to go for water sports and such but not so hot when trying to read lcd displays including those on the back of my camera. Not a problem said the clerk, we can order then for you. Great! I thought to myself. We flipped through the virtual pages of the on-line catalog in the store and found the right make and model. Slight problem though. The frame colors weren’t the same. The Polarized models had 3 color choices and the non=polarized models had 3-4 other choices. I decided I would wait and search the net when I got home to find a better option.

DAY 3 Custom sunglasses from Oakley

1. First choose from over 30 frame styles. - I went with the Fives

4. Choose your logo color - Gun Metal

5. Get a custom engraved lens - I had my email address engraved. Maybe the next time I lose them someone will see this and email me so I can retrieve them or at least send me pictures of them wearing them as they travel the world. If you are annoyed by things on the glass don’t get the engraving. It looks just like it does on screen and you can see it while wearing the glasses.

6. Pay for your glasses and wait for shipping. Only took at few days and still cost less the off the shelf polarized model.

Autos continue death spiral

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The U.S. automakers have become the butt jokes recently. People are blaming the big 3’s poor products as a cause for their peril. Regardless of what you think of American cars, this isn’t a U.S. car problem. This is an economic problem that hit all car makers hard. The lone year over year bright spot is Mini. I am pretty sure this is just several years of Nintendoesqe supply issues.

The these numbers are similar to September and October.

Anyone tried to buy a new car lately? I heard from one person that said the dealer wasn’t dealing and another that said the salesmen were more interested in the pizza that was delivered than helping them buy a car. Both of these people went to the dealer to buy a car and walked out without one.

The funny thing is I thought about buying a new car today. I saw a sweet deal on a 2008 Suburban 13K off sticker. Then I came to my senses. Probably not the time to buy a car unless you have to. If the Suburban deals are still around in the spring when my minvan lease is up it will be hard to pass up. The difference between a minivan and a suburban isn’t as far apart as people think when you drive less than 12K miles per year. In some parts of the country SUV’s still make sense. A family of 5 plus a dog and an occasional boat to tow. There still is a market in the midwest, especially this time of year. These were the vehicles that helped the big 3 survive while dragging along thousands of workers paid not to work. Will the U.S. auto makers survive? Who knows. Here’s General Motors (pdf) plan what do you think?

Here are the highlights. See Autoblog for the full list.

General Motors -41.3%

Ford -30.6%

Chrysler   -47%

Toyota -33.9%

Honda -31.6%

Nissan -42.2%

BMW -26.8%

Gift Guide Day 2 - Tiki Bar DVD

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For day two of my gift guide we take a turn towards the wacky. Get your mind off the economy with some Tikibar TV. This Collector’s Edition Double Disc Set of Seasons 3 & 4. 20 Episodes for the FIRST time in FULL RESOLUTION! Admittedly you should be in the right frame of mind when watching Tiki Bar but it can be quite entertaining when you are in a sophomoric mood.

DAY 2 Tiki Bar Collector’s DVD

Multicolr Search Lab

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Cool color picker or is it pickr? Pick a color or up to 10 colors and flickr photos are displayed.

Where can I get a mypod?

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The Simpson’s on Apple