I guess this counts as a gadget. I just installed a very slick utility for Outlook called Lookout. It does blazingly fast searches across the email, schedule entries, contacts, etc. in your Outlook files; it can even index your documents. The speed makes it so much more useful than Outlook's search functionality. Like Google, it makes it practical to query over your data to find stuff rather than having to try to organize it.

Microsoft liked this so much, we bought the company, Lookout Software You can download it for free here.

I have a bit of a problem with computer games from time to time. While I normally avoid playing them (I'll never look back on my life and wish I'd played more), I occasionally lose big sections of my life to a particular game. In the past, I've wasted precious brain cells and my limited time on earth on Age of Empires and MechWarrior, but recently, it's been Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.

Not exactly a macho game, it's a GameBoy title that my boys play. You basically run a farm in a small town, trying to make ends meet, make a local girl fall in love and marry you, and raise lots of kids. In the meantime, you raise crops, chickens, cows, etc. and try to keep them all happy (you need to talk to your chickens or they get cross.) There are a bunch of little side games and a surprising amount of depth for a handheld game.

It's a very simple and charming game, not unlike Animal Crossing (another sordid tale of addiction and self-loathing). There's a GameCube version as well that interacts with the GameBoy version via a special cable. I'm resisting the urge to go out and buy the GameCube version, but I'm afraid I may fail.

It seemed appropriate this weekend to finally build and launch the Meteor Rocket that Michelle bought the boys a while back. It's a kit from Scientific Explorer that results in a C02 powered rocket that is supposed to go a hundred feet into the air. The C02 is created by mixing vinegar and baking soda in a 1 liter pop bottle with fins (really). It's got a pretty cool system that keeps the vinegar from mixing with the baking soda until you're ready and that allows the C02 to build inside before shooting out the bottom.

We went to a baseball field near our house for the inaugural flight. I thought I was very swish for having had brought all sorts of nifty tools to help load the vinegar and baking soda. Feeling pretty confident, I began the first fueling. The kids and Michelle stood back as I sealed up the container, shook it up, and proceeded to shoot CO2 foam, baking soda, and vinegar all over myself. Michelle nearly died laughing, practically falling the ground.

I quickly diagnosed my errors, reloaded, and successfully launched the rocket about 50' into the air where it tipped over, and then headed right at my family. Fortunately, my mini-Scud missed all the Chors it augered into the field, cracking the nose cone and part of the body.

Buoyed by the successful launch and unswayed by the damaged rocket, I reloaded, stepped back, and waited for the second launch. And waited. And waited.

Like in a bad slapstick routine, I then walked up the stalled rocket, picked it up, shook it, and sprayed C02 foam, vinegar, and baking soda all over myself. Michelle, love of my life and my greatest supporter, was once again bent over with laughter.

Having exhausted our quart bottle of vinegar and virtually all of my pride, we packed up the debris and walked home with the kids saying, "Was that all?"

Anyway, if you can read directions, it's a pretty cool toy. They have a C02 powered rocket car and a rocket glider too (is it a glider if it's powered?)

This isn't a new gadget, but it may be new to you, so what the heck.

I'm a huge fan of the flashlights from Surefire. These guys take their flashlights very seriously. They are mostly aimed at military and law enforcement applications, so the stuff is very tough, insanely bright (they have a light that can blind you through your eyelids), and super functionally designed.

The 6P is the granddaddy of their lights and a personal favorite. It's a good size, bright (see above), and happens to be a good fighting light if you find yourself in a shootout in lowlight. (Doesn't everyone?)

They have very slick LED and weapons-mounted lights too. Their website and catalog are glorious and really show off their passion for excellence.

I love companies who really care about what they build, are honest about what they can and can't build (e.g. they don't claim their LED flashlight is visible at 20 miles and can last a lifetime on a single battery), and build great products.

Great, great stuff.

During our vacation, I encountered an error downloading photos off my CompactFlash card (very bad.) Despite my prodigious troubleshooting efforts, I was unable to get the photos off the card. As I sat in frustration that morning in the hotel room, I was sure these were undoubtedly the best photos I'd ever taken.

I then remembered a conversation I had with a developer at Photokina (photography trade show) in Cologne, Germany a few years ago. He made a product called Photo Rescue for just such emergencies.

A quick download and some munging around later, I got all my photos off the card. They turned out not to be the best I'd ever taken, but they were important to me.

I highly recommend this app. I was well worth the $29.

I really like my Motorola Smartphone, but the next version is way cooler. For starters, it can open either like a regular flip phone or sideways so you can type on the built-in QWERTY keypad (for doing email, etc.) Add Bluetooth, a 1.3mp camera, WiFi, and touchscreen to this Windows Smartphone to really top it off.

Of course, it's not shipping yet (expected second half '04), so nothing counts yet. Still, it looks sweet.

More details. Thanks to Gizmodo.

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The new Canon 1D Mark II has been pre-announced on DPreview. 8.5 frames per second, 8 megapixel, ISO 50-3200, distance based flash metering, and the list goes on.

Canon also announced some cool new lenses including a 28-300 3.5-5.6L IS. Nice all-in-one lens, even if it is a little slow.

Mmm. Yummy.

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I'm a geek, no doubt. I am surrounded by geeks, so trust me -- I know geeks.

So, I say with some authority that this guy is truly a dork (much lower on the social scale than geeks). Who spends this much time, energy, and money turning his car into a Star Wars fighter? Clearly, someone who has not discovered girls or really any kind of meaningful social interaction. The worst thing is that there are enough of these guys to have a club.

Get a life!

OK, this is the coolest thing I've seen for a while. I will probably have to get it, and maybe more than one.

I'm talking about the Scott eVest. This is a jacket with a thirty pockets (42 with the zip-out liner) plus channels that connect the pockets so you can run wires between them to create your own personal area network. These guys have done a great job with clever design points like being able to divide pockets so you can keep stuff from banging together or to hold up a water bottle.

Camera gear, phones, other gadgets? No problem. And, to protect all your gear, the "Stealth" edition (originally built for the Secret Service) adds side zippers so you can reach your gun. Slick.

Tons of pockets without looking like you're on safari or going fishing. I love it.

GPS' are super cool. I've been carrying a Garmin eTrex for a while to put GPS coordinates into the photos I've taken. This is part of the WWMX Project from Microsoft Research. It's very slick.

One of the cool side effects of always carrying a GPS is that I can see where I've been. It's been neat to see my paths charted out. Now, people with too much time and money have started drawing pictures by moving along the streets of their town with a GPS. The resulting tracks make words 70 miles high, etc. Kind of neat. Check out http://www.gpsdrawing.com.

I should note that this entry and the food simulator entry come from today's New York Times Magazine. This issue has a fun article on the "Ideas of 2003". Other "winners" were things like the "Nicotini", "PowerPoint Makes You Dumb" (a view I have expressed for years...), and more crazy Japanese inventions like "Spray-On Stockings."