Ever since I was a kid I have always loved Robotech. It was one of my first introductions to anime, of course in my youth I lived in South Africa and TV really didn't start until 6PM before then we spent most of our time playing outside. So naturally I missed quite a lot of episodes of this great series. But not to fear through the magic that is Amazon I have now purchased the complete box set of Robotech which I intend to watch in its entirety. 

Robotech for those not in the know is set in a fictional future (1999) where the world is embroiled in war until an alien space craft crash lands on Macros Island in the South Pacific. All of a sudden the wars on Earth stop and the worlds most brilliant scientists set to work investigating the alien technology and restoring it under the guise of project Robotech. From project Robotech comes SDF-1 its flagship and many Veriatech fighters which are effectively the coolest part of Robotech. Basically F15 style jets that transform into robotic fighters, later we are introduced to motor bikes and tanks that do the same thing. However its not long until alien badies are on the scene in the form of the Zentraedi who want the advanced technology for themselves and thus the war begins. 

He he just found this on Classic Funny Quotes

How cool is this a robot vacuum cleaner for £49.99 from eBuyer!

Once I have enough money in my gadget fund, I think this will be my next purchase. I only hope it can actually clean the room and is not just a bit of a gimmick. Even so I can imagine it being hours of entertainment for the cats.

Take a look at this cool personal foot powered energy device called the Weza.

Its battery at full charge is capable of jump starting a car. It can also be used to power other electrical devices.

There is an interesting article on the BBC web site on how Internet bank Egg is writing to 7% of their credit card customers to inform them that they are withdrawing their credit cards. Egg believes these customers pose an unacceptably "high risk". However the interactivity of the BBC's web site appears to have revealed the truth on the matter, when customers left comments behind on the BBC's web site.

It appears Egg are ditching customers who pay their debts off in full each month, basically customers Egg isn't making any money off in interest charges. If you think about it, it kind of makes sense credit card companies don't like people who pay any debts off their card each month. These customers don't use their credit card as a credit card they are using it more as a debit card but with the safety a credit card gives you when purchasing goods. If this is the case I will be expecting a letter from Egg pretty soon telling me that they will be withdrawing my card.

What I find interesting is there are people credit card companies are targeting (their ideal customer) who ring up debt and don't pay it off, or only pays off small amounts each month. However there is also a smaller group of more frugally minded people who use credit cards to their advantage and quite legally, who are not profitable to credit card companies. These are people who will:

• Put all of their work expenses on 0% interest free credit cards and when they claim the money back from their work, place it in a high interest savings account. They then pay off the card completely at the end of the 0% interest free period and keep onto the interest they have owned.
• Use credit cards purely to earn air miles and pay off the balance in full each month.
• Use credit cards to earn Nectar points and pay off the balance in full each month.
• Jump from card to card as the 0% interest free period runs out. These people are better known as "rate tarts". Some are incredibly well disciplined in how they switch from card to card and actually make a bit of interest out of the credit they owe in the process.

Its starting to make me wonder if these happy days for the credit savvy consumer are coming to an end as the banks start to feel the crunch?  

Its amazing how cheap laptops have suddenly become, you can now pickup an ASUS laptop from eBuyer for £189.96!

How cheap is that! The laptop comes with Linux and software for reading emails and working with office documents, it also boots in 15 seconds!

I'm pretty sure it won't be long until we are seeing laptops for £50 or £60.

Okay the title is a bit cheesy and I apologise for that, but the EzVision is sooo cool! I had seen one of these for sale ages ago and then when my wife left a Christmas catalogue from I want One of Those with the convenient little tabs you could use to mark what you liked (so Santa might buy it for you) on the coffee table. I made sure that this gadget was at the top of my wish list!

On Christmas day the first thing this little gadget was plugged into was my iPod video. I thought it would have plugged into the socket I used for syncing my iPod with my PC but it actually goes into the same socket as the headphones. The EzVision comes with its own headphones connected to the eyewear. The first thing I was expecting when I put these on was to feel as though I was right in front of a large 52inch TV screen or as if I was actually in the movie I was watching. Well its not quite like that, when the box it comes in says a 52inch screen its actually feels more like sitting near the back in a cinema and watching a large screen. At times you almost expect people to be getting up or arriving late to take their cinema seats.

The other thing I like about the EzVision is it just looks so cool, several times I've been tempted to rush outside with them on and say "Quick! What year is it?!"

Not just for your iPod

Its important to note that the EzVision is not just for your iPod it also comes with a connector that will allow it to connect to any device with an RGB or composite video output. What this means is you can connect it to an Xbox, Playstation and Wii console. Yes you heard that right you can connect this to a Wii console. "But doesn't the Wii remote need to see the TV screen?" I hear you say. No actually, if you are playing games such as Wii Tennis it works just fine and I found it was even more fun playing it this way than it was on the TV screen! Just remember than when you are trying to select menu options on the screen before a game you need to be facing the Wii sensor that is usually located on your TV. Other devices this little gadget will connect to is your Sky box if you have a scart to RGB converter, these usually come with a PS2 or you can pick them up for a couple of quid from Maplin. You can can also connect it to your PC if it has a video output socket!

Looks like Microsoft are teaming up with BT to provide BT Vision content on the Xbox!

Now it wasn't to long ago that I mentioned how perfectly suited the Xbox 360 was to such a service when I started using it to view DRM content downloaded (via my PC) from on demand services such as BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Sky Anytime. I couldn't quite figure out why Microsoft hadn't signed up a dedicated content provider or several for that matter?

What is taking place makes perfect sense there are obviously more XBox 360's in circulation than there are BT Vision box's which according to the BBC only have 100,000 customers. The only problem I can see is that BT Visions content doesn't seem all that inspiring, either that or they are just not showing all the content they really have on their web site. The other thing is that Sky seems to have most of the interesting content as far as I am concerned and no one seems to have an on demand versions of killer shows such as Hero's, Battle Star Galactica, Prison Break etc.