I like to stay in shape. Some days are easier than others. But I have a home gym full of fun gadgets that make it easier to work off a few pounds or build some muscle, because I get to play with the toys. These gadgets have heart rate monitors, computers that calculate calories, miles, cardio conditioning goals, and much more.

Home Gym Equipment

A really nice treadmill. I live on a mountain. We like to take the dogs for a walk up to the top of the mountain. But when it is raining or snowing, it is nice to have an indoor treadmill that can tilt up to 15 degrees, to match the workout the dogs give me. The Sole F83.

A fancy weight machine. Free weights are fine when you have a spotter to catch them when you are really working that last one. But a good modern weight machine gives you the same freedom of movement, but with the safety of a steel frame to catch the weight. The Hoist V5.

A recumbent stationary bike. Our home gym has a television, and when we want to watch TV we can lessen the guilt by getting a workout. A nice quiet recumbent bicycle means that the volume doesn't have to wake the neighbors (ours are a mile away). The Cybex CR 330.

A rowing machine. A rowing machine gives you a cardio workout using all of your muscles instead of just your legs. A quiet one is nice, and this one has a nice computer too. The Kettler HKS-Selection Coach.

An abdominal exerciser. The weight machine can exercise the abdominals, but this little machine seems to really give a good workout. The Torso Track 2.

Some hybrid cars are about more than just gas mileage. This one is about power, with a big electric motor helping the engine with the front wheels, and another big electric motor just for the back wheels, this four wheel drive SUV can do zero to 60 in under 6 seconds, and still gets better gas mileage than most ordinary cars on the road.

Hybrid Car

Lexus RX 400h Hybrid SUV.

This is my baby. I love this car.

It's a hybrid. But that doesn't just mean gas savings anymore.

This car has two huge electric motors, one for the front wheels and one for the rear wheels (four wheel drive turns on quietly and automatically whenever the sensors see it would be helpful).

Electric motors have full torque at zero RPM, meaning that this car takes off at a light like a sports car.

It has satellite nagigation, leather seats, four doors, seats five, and it has a continuously variable transmission. No lag while it shifts. No drop in power transmission to the wheels when the engine is not at optimum RPM, because it is always at optimum RPM. Smooth acceleration. And when you drive under 30 miles per hour, it is dead quiet, since the engine is off, and you are fully electric.

The headlights track with the steering, so you see ahead on curves.

The rear hatch opens and even closes using the remote control in the ignition key. There is a camera built into the rear hatch just above the bumper, so you can see little kids when you are backing up.

Bluetooth phone controls in the steering wheel. Moon roof. Heated seats. Even the headlights have little washers in case they get mud on them when you're four wheeling.

You can get it with laser radar built into the cruise control, so the car slows down and speeds up to keep the right following distance.

Great fun. About $50,000, but check the web.

No so luxurious, but with an extra seat in the back for two more passengers, is the Toyota Highlander, built with the same engine and frame.

This is the most popular hybrid car made, by quite a bit, and no wonder. The continuously variable transmission keeps the engine at the optimal RPM for most economical operation and highest power output, something cars that have to change gears just can't do. It has room, four doors, and can use the carpool lane in California even when the driver is all alone.


Hybrid Car


Toyota Prius.

I bought this great little car for my wife for her birthday.

It gets over 55 miles per gallon. It has satellite nagigation, leather seats, four doors, seats five, and it has a continuously variable transmission.



I used to swear by manual transmission, I liked the control I had, and the better mileage and performance. But CVT solves all of those problems, and all of the problems of a manual transmission. Faster 0 to 60 times because you aren't shifing. Ever. Full torque at all speeds. Smooth acceleration. And when you drive under 30 miles per hour, it is dead quiet, since the engin is off, and you are fully electric.

Great fun. About $20,000, but you can get better prices by checking on the web.

Cute as a button, this slippery little jellybean of a car moves through the air with one of the lowest aerodynamic profiles of any production car. Coupled with a manual shift hybrid engine, this is a gas sipper that is really fun to drive.

Hybrid Car

Honda Insight.

Ok, this is actually my daughter's car, not mine.

But it is so nice.

Two seats, but room for cargo (or the dog) in the back.

Environmentally friendly.

Zillions of miles per gallon.

You can turn it around in the garage, and park it anywhere.



$21,000, although you can do much better than that by shopping around.

While we wait for lithium polymer battery prices to fall to the point where fully electric cars are both high performance and affordable, the best alternative at the moment is a hybrid car.

Hybrid Cars

We have three different types of hybrid cars on my solar powered farm above Silicon Valley. We love each one for a different reason.

My daughter inherited my wife's wonderful little Honda Insight when I bought Kathleen a new Toyota Prius for her birthday. The Insight bets better gas mileage, and has an amazing turning radius, but the Prius has four doors, seats five, and has extra cargo space.

I used to drive a pickup truck everywhere, since you need one on a farm, and I figured why have two cars for one person? I got really used to sitting up high enough to see over most of the cars ahead of me. So when the thought of commuting in a truck that only got 23 miles per gallon got to be too much, we parked the truck next to the chicken coop and I bought myself a Lexus RX 400h hybrid SUV. I still sit up high, I have satellite navigation, a rear view camera built into the back bumper, headlights that turn as I turn the wheel, to light up my winding mountain road, a moon roof, even seat warmers. And I get much better gas mileage, better than most of the much smaller cars I share the freeway with.

An external combustion engine. Or a no-combustion engine, powered by the heat from the sun, or in my case, from the heat of the network switch it is sitting on, or the wood stove in the living room.

Stirling Engines

Some tools are so much fun they might as well be toys. Like a microscope or a telescope, an oscilloscope shows you parts of the world that you can't see any other way.

Oscilloscopes

I love my Tectronix TDS 3032 oscilloscope.



300 Megahertz, 2.5 billion samples per second. Dual trace. It has a computer inside, so it can store the waveforms on the built-in floppy disk or the optional RS232 port in Excel format. It can be battery powered for field use. The display is in color.

And it's the size of a lunch box.

$3695

Digital technology keeps getting smaller and cheaper and better. Now you can capture your home videos in High Definition, using a camera that fits in your pocket, and records onto solid state memory chips the size of your thumbnail.

Sanyo Xacti HD1

This camera fits in my shirt pocket, or the front pocket of my jeans. It does 1280 pixels wide by 760 pixels high progressive video, and saves it in MPEG-4 format on tiny 2 gigabyte SD cards. One card can hold 28 minutes of HD video, or an hour and a half of super high quality standard definition video, before you have to swap the memory chip for an empty one.



It also takes 5.1 megapixel still images.

It has a 10x optical zoom, and a 10x digital zoom. Normally I don't care for digital zoom, but since the 5.1 megapixel sensor is much bigger than the 1280x760 video format, you can digitally zoom 2 times and still have a pixel for pixel match between the sensor and the output. Think of it as a 20x optical zoom.

It has a Organic Light Emitting Diode display, which is bright even in the sunlight.
It has Image Stabilization, so you can hand hold even at high zoom.

It will focus down to 1 centimeter for super macro video.

And you can use it as a super web cam.

I love this little camera. Xacti VPC-HD1 by Sanyo.

I probably don't have to tell you the virtues of digital video recorders. No longer at the mercy of programming schedules, you watch what you want when you want to watch it. Because you can record two channels at once, and it records all day and all night, there is always something good on television. And you can skip over the commercials.

DirecTV HR10-250 HD Tivo

We bought ours expanded to a full terabyte of Maxtor Quickview hard disk, so we can store 130 hours of HD video, and 870 hours of standard video. We never miss a program since the machine is never out of room.

If you don't have Tivo yet, you are really missing out. It truly changes the way you interact with your television. You are in control now. You no longer have to be home at the right time to watch your favorite shows. They will be recorded for you, and you can watch them any time you like.



You can fast forward past the commercials. You can pause the action to get a sandwich, or to see that scene again. You can push a button to replay that last 8 seconds to catch the dialog that was mumbled, or competing with the telephone. You can freeze the frame to study the background, the wardrobe, or the special effects.

This Tivo has four tuners (2 satellite and 2 over-the-air), so you can record four HD programs at once.

You're watching TV for entertainment. Spoil yourself. There are larger screens available, but this one does full 1080p, makes a wonderful computer monitor, or game console monitor, and has a bright gorgeous screen that can be seen from a very wide range of viewing positions.

Sharp Aquos Titanium LC-45GD7U

For our home theater, we chose the 45 inch Sharp Aquos LCD television. It supports 1080p HD content (the best there is), scaling up lower formats to the higher resolution, instead of scaling them down as lower resolution televisions have to do.

Because it is so bright and high contrast, even with the lights on, we don't need a dark room. It has a very wide viewing angle, so it doesn't matter if you are lying on the floor, standing up, or standing in the doorway, you can always see a great picture.



It has lots of inputs, so we have attached a laptop computer to it (with a wireless Bluetooth remote keyboard and mouse, so the laptop computer stays hidden behind the screen), and we can sit on the couch 9 feet away and still read the finest print. An XBOX 360, a high definition DVD player (when they become available), and an HD camcorder can all have their own inputs, switchable with the remote control.

With more High Definition content becoming available all the time, the days of the tiny tube are numbered. Once you go HD, you never go back. Some friends of mine refuse to watch anything that isn't HD. I haven't gotten quite to that point yet, but when all of my favorites are finally in HD, it will be hard to get excited about some show that comes out in standard definition only.


Home Theater

We turned the back bedroom into a library/guestroom/home theater. Since the room is not huge, a 60 inch screen would have shown all the scan lines and artifacts, but our 45 inch Sharp Aquos is just perfect. It has a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, so it will handle the best of any HDTV content there is, and then some, and when 1080p content is available, we will be ready.
The picture is very sharp, bright, high contrast, and can be seen from all angles in the room, whether you are standing in the doorway, lying on the floor, or standing up.

It makes a great computer monitor, too, so we have a laptop computer sitting behind it, connected to one of the HDMI inputs, and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so we can use the computer from the couch. The 45 inch screen means that all the text is easily readable from 9 feet away, relaxing in style. The remote control switches between Tivo and the computer, so we can IMDb the actors while the movie is paused.

Our Tivo solution is the DirecTV HR10-250 HD Tivo, expanded to provide 130 hours of HD program storage and 870 hours of standard definition program storage, using a terabyte of Maxtor Quickview disk.

We never miss a show due to space limitations, and DirecTV is great!

But now that I have a nice big screen that can do HD video, I need a camera that can do HD. I found a wonderful little camera that does beautiful HD video, and fits in my pocket -- the Sanyo Xacti HD1.

Long distance communication. High speed networking over distances of miles. With cheap WiFi gear, and this high gain parabolic dish antenna.

Computers & networking

When you want your signal to go a long distance, there is nothing like a parabolic dish antenna.
A smaller version of a radio telescope, this dish does the same thing -- it makes the signal from far away look much closer.



But it does more than that. Just like in a telescope, what the radio sees through the dish antenna is a smaller area, so there is less noise coming into the radio. Better signal, less noise, means much better communication.

We are getting measured download speeds of about 4 megabits per second at a distance of 2.55 miles. The nominal speed (how fast the radio is sending each packet) is 11 megabits per second -- as fast as the 802.11b radio can go.

The dish has an 8 degree beamwidth. If you hold your fist out at arm's length, that is the size of the spot the beam will illuminate.

In the photo, the house we are aiming at is a pixel or two big at 2.55 miles away, sitting above a rock quarry. The gray box attached to the back of the dish is a weatherproof 200 milliwatt access point. These days, I would use a MAXX 2400 instead.

24 dBi parabolic dish.

Your laptop might have 802.11n built-in if it is new enough. OK, maybe not until next year. But you can add the new MIMO technology with a tiny little USB gadget, and get 10 times the range of your old 802.11g networking.

Computers & networking

The next generation after 802.11g is 802.11n.

Called MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out), the new standard has 10 times the range of 802.11g, and makes use of reflections from walls and objects to increase the range, speed, and eliminate dead spots around the house.



When your laptop just doesn't reach that hammock under the tree, or the lounge chair by the pool, this tiny little gadget can plug into the USB port and make a world of difference. And unlike adding a 300 milliwatt PCMCIA card and high power access point, this does not resort to brute force and chew up all of your battery time.

Because it is a tiny USB device (it comes with an extension cable) and is weatherproof, you can duct-tape it to the focus of an old satellite dish to get a range of several miles, so you can share a neighbor's Internet access. I share my Internet access with several neighbors, using similar techniques.

It is compatible with all of your old 802.11 equipment also. But do yourself a favor, and get the RangeMax 240 to go with it, so you get even better range, and up to 108 megabits per second speeds.

Netgear WPN111.

There's a new trick in wireless networking. Called MIMO, or 802.11n, this new technology has up to 10 times the range, and several times the speed of the older 802.11g wireless networking products, and yet it still works with the older stuff, so you don't have to upgrade all at once.

Computers & networking

To go with your WPN111 Wireless USB Adapter, you will want a MIMO (802.11n) access point.
You don't need it, you can still use your old 802.11 access point, but the Netgear RangeMax 240 will increase the range considerably, and boost the speed from 54 megabits per second to 108 megabits per second. The access point can actually do 240 mbps -- it is the USB adapter on the laptop that limits you to 108 mbps.



However, if you are simply connecting two computers in a home or office, and you don't want to string wires all over the place, the RangeMax 240 can be configured as a bridge, and a pair of them will talk to one another at 240 mbps, over twice the speed of the 100 mbps wired equipment most people install.

I have one of these in our treehouse. With the USB adapter on the laptop computer, I can reach the treehouse from anywhere on our 20 acre farm, and from two neighbor's yards. And if I am close to the tree, I get over 100 megabits per second transferring files from the server in my office.

Netgear RangeMax 240.

I live on a 20 acre farm. On a mountain.

Computers continue to get cheaper and better all the time. And the ways to connect them together in networks keep improving in speed and capabilities, and dropping in price as well. Life is good for geeks.

Computers & networking

MAXX 2400 high power outdoor access point

A weatherproof 800 milliwatt 802.11g access point, wireless bridge, and wireless client, with optional 8.5 dBi antenna.

Netgear RangeMax 240

A MIMO 802.11n access point -- this device gives you much better range and speed than an 802.11g device, and it actually benefits from walls and objects that reflect the signal around corners, to eliminate dead spots around the home, office, or (in my case) farm.

Netgear WPN111 USB Wireless Adapter

Get 108 megabits per second and up to 10 times more range by pairing the RangeMax 240 with this tiny USB WiFi device. Your laptop's internal WiFi just won't compare to the speed or the range of this little gem.

24 dBi Parabolic Dish Antenna

I share my high-speed Internet access with a neighbor 2.5 miles away, using a quarter watt access point and a 24 dBi antenna at each end of the link. Works like a charm!

Some of the most beautiful shapes and objects come from mathematical formulae. Now, with computers and "Santa Claus" machines that can "print" out three dimensional objects in wax, plastic, or metal, we can make objects that would be impossibly time consuming and expensive to make any other way. The results are amazing.

Bathsheba Grossman's Mathematical Art




Amazing sculptures and jewelry

Intricate and delicate three dimensional forms made by sending computer designed files to various "Santa Claus" machines, that "print" the objects directly in metal, or in wax for later casting.

These are objects that would never have been made using any other technique -- they would be far too difficult to make, and far too expensive to own.

The one above is similar to the one I received as a gift from Theodore Gray when he came to visit the Maker Faire, and to see my treehouse and get a tour of Google.

Beautiful, mathematical, and stunningly amazing art. Some are small enough to wear, others will sit proudly in places of honor around the house. There are even lamps that will amaze anyone who sees them.

http://www.bathsheba.com/

Watch the little characters play with their sticks and dogs and ropes and balls, and doors and trapdoors. They move around from cube to cube, visiting and interacting with one another. Tip them and they fall over. Play games and compete for high scores.

Cube World

People in little boxes.

The little people interact with their environment. If you tip the cube over on its side, the people fall over. They have magnets in them, so they stack neatly into highrise condominiums. Then the fun really starts, because they interact with each other. They open doors into the next cube, and walk in to play with the characters there. They slide down ropes through trapdoors, or lasso things in other cubes. The dog chases the stick, the people slide on the rope or bungee jump several stories.

There seems to be no end to the things they do when stacked in different ways. We played with these for a couple hours in a restaurant with friends, and had a great time. We play with them whenever someone new comes over.

There are games you can play with them by clicking on buttons, and you can compete for top scores.

There are two sets (so far) with two different characters each. We had to buy four sets altogether -- they are a lot of fun with just one set, but when you can build a big tower, it is like an ant farm of constant activity.

Someone very creative had a lot of fun coming up with these.

Cube World by Radika Games.

Some things are just really hard to categorize. But these are not just miscellany on this page. These are wonderful things, and decidedly eclectic.

Wonderful & Weird

Cube World: People in little boxes.

We have lots of fun with these amazing little boxes with animated people in them. Like an animated robot aquarium or ant farm, you can watch them for hours doing tricks and interacting with each other and their environment.

Amazing mathematical sculptures.

Sculptures and jewelry by Bathsheba Grossman, done by "printing" materials directly from three dimensional computer files.

Blimps and flying saucers flying around the living room, buzzing through doorways, chasing the cat. Slow enough that they are easy to learn and control, and, of course, if they bump into something, they do no damage, since they are just bags of helium. OK, maybe you should move that one vase...

Tri-Turbofan Powered RC Saucer

Fill them with helium from a cheap little party tank, and they will last a couple days before needing to be topped up.

You can spin them in place, raise or lower them, or race them across the room, or have fun trying to navigate them through doorways, or buzz the dog.



We used two of the blimp balloons, one taped to the top of the other, so we had enough lift for a tiny TV camera and transmitter. Now we can fly it around the living room while watching from the TV in the office or a back bedroom.

Tri-turbofan RC Saucer by MicroBlimp.

Tiny little airplanes! Small enough to fly in the house! Made of a sturdy type of hard rubbery plastic foam that bounces off of walls and windows without getting damaged or doing damage. The controller and the plane together are only $30! There are three different channels, so you can have races and dogfights.

The Aero Ace
That really is the whole airplane sitting in my hand in the photo below.

It has a Lithium Polymer battery the size of a postage stamp that can power both electric motors and the receiver for over 10 minutes of flight. It recharges from the controller in about 15 minutes.

You can fly them indoors, or out on the lawn if the wind isn't too strong. The controller has a 300 foot range.



And, complete with controller, the whole package is $30.

Aero Ace by SpinMaster.

You can modify them with lights, landing gear, replaceable batteries, or just about anything you can think of.

I bought six of these great little planes.

Radio control toys have come a long way since the big clunky things I had as a kid. Now we have tiny little airplanes and cars, and big off-roadable trucks and tanks. Blimps full of helium fly around using three individually controlled fans, and all of these toys can be equiped with tiny television cameras and transmitters.

Radio Controlled Toys
The Aero Ace: an amazing tiny airplane.
Fly them around the house. Fly them ouside on a calm day. Modify them to have lights for night flying, landing gear, swappable batteries. The body is a sturdy foam that resists being battered against walls or trees.

Blimps and Flying Saucers.
Fill them with helium and they will fly for days before you need to top them up a bit. Gang them together to lift a television camera and transmitter. Have slalom races through doorways. Chase the cat. Great fun!

Obviously, I like toys. My tastes run towards the technical. I like toys that teach science, toys that are high-tech, and toys that are interesting. I make a lot of toys, but this section is devoted to toys that I bought, particularly for myself.

Microscopes
I love microscopes. I love looking at pond water and seeing all the weird little animals swimming around in it.
A good microscope makes it much easier to see everything. A microscope with a digital camera makes it easy to record what you see.

Telescopes
Telescopes are magic. I love looking at glowing nebulae, spiral galaxies, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its rings. Great fun.

Modern telescopes make it easy, with computers to aim the telescope at anything in their huge catalogs of things to see in the night sky.

Radio Controlled Toys
I have lots of RC toys.

I particularly like the Aero Ace tiny airplanes, although we have a lot of fun with RC blimps in the house.

Wonderful & Weird
Some toys defy categorization.

Computers & networking
You can do amazing things these days.

Home Theater and HD Video Camera
A big screen, high definition DirecTV Tivo, a computer, an XBOX 360, and a high-end DVD player round out a nice place to relax and have fun.

A really nice HD Video camera rounds it all out.

Oscilloscope
Sometimes tools are toys. I have so much fun playing with a good oscilloscope that sometimes I make up new projects just because they produce interesting waveforms.

Stirling Engine
There is something amazing about precision machinery spinning around from the tiny amount of waste heat given off by a network switch or a wireless router.

Hybrid Cars
Why have an ordinary car, when you can drive a high-tech toy and play with all the gadgets? And it is better for the environment.

Home Gym
Staying healthy means getting enough exercise. Having fun toys to play with in the gym makes it more likely you will actually use it.