When I grew up as a kid — not dating myself here — Tonka trucks where made of metal and bathed in a healthy coat of lead based paints. Yellow paint. Today, you find cheap plastic, flimsy parts, and horrible sticker placement. But it doesn’t even stop there, apparently. Nope.

Not even a month after the opening of my sons Tonka fire truck from his Uncle and Tia, the batteries died with moderate play time. When I flipped over the truck to surgically remove its belly to gain access to the battery compartment, I was stunned to see AA batteries within its haul instead of the C cells specified by the cover! Using some cheesy plastic holders to keep the AA’s centered on the terminals, Hasbro deemed it necessary to save a few cents (maybe a buck,) with the lesser capacity battery than going with it’s recommendations. Incredible.

You know, I don’t mind purchasing products made in China to save a dime or two, but doing something like this doesn’t save me money in the end. It saves Hasbro. That’s weak. Bring back my Tonka, Hasbro!

Again, when SvenOnTech is on the job, what ever happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas very long. Point in case, Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons walking the Central Hall checking out all the stuff he could afford. And I mean all.

So here I am walking through the hall and this guy with cameras in front of him is in ahead of me. Sure, I’ll tag along with him since he’s clearing the path. Why not? It’s tough walking all these miles of halls with the tons of people here. When I catch up to this guy and walk to his left, I take a peak at him and I don’t recognize him. ‘Who is this guy and what’s the big deal?’ I’m asking myself as I cruise on with him. Finally, I hear someone yell, “You rock, Gene!” I look again and yes the light bulb comes on, Gene Simmons. It’s hard to recognize the guy without make up.

So I tag along for awhile and share some camera time with him (hopefully ). We come to a split and he makes a right while I go left. I see him down the way when I pop out next to LG’s 102″ plasma TV. I figure, ‘Ahh, I should probably get a picture,’ and I walk back to LG’s booth front desk. When I got there, he was talking to the lady at the booth and the guy next to her. Not able to hear much of what he’s saying, I get closer. I then hear him tell the guy, “If you want to kiss her, you’ve got to look straight in here eyes,” as he points his two fingers in a V shape and directs them to her eyes. With that, he stares into her gaze and leans her back as if to kiss her. She giggles like a high school girl about to be kissed by Bobby the quarterback for the first time. Simmons then stops, reels back up and turns to the guy and says, “That’s how you do it,” to a chorus of laughter. Only in Vegas, right?

You’ll never know what you’ll see in Vegas. But untrue to the cities slogan, we won’t let this stay here (even though we now look back at this and think maybe that was the better idea) and we bring to you the Sansa mascot for your enjoyment. Watch him dance it up for all y’all and note his hand signals when we ask him to bust a real move and do some head spinning like the guys did for us at the JBL booth at Macworld. I tell you Sansa, how rude!

Don’t worry about if CES steals attendance from Macworld this year due to both happening on the same week or not. Nah, let’s get down to the true meat of the two competing shows and vote whom really is hot or not.

You select which picture, representing CES or Macworld, is truly hot…or not. Waste tons of time just clicking on the pictures as you would on that other site that started this crazy, and sometimes cruel, voting pattern of pure opinion. Will the ultra-cool consumer geeks be hot or will it be the uber-hip different thinking bunch? Your opinion can be the deciding factor!

Thanks Matthew for the tip!

A sign in the Bank Lobby reads: “Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through teller machines enabling customers to
withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts.

After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE procedures have been developed. Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender. Read the rest of this entry »

Ya, ya, we know this is old news, but we thought for the iPod birthday, why not bring it back? I mean it really is good humor and Will Ferrel is just too nutty not to have you witness him tell you how the iPod plays about 50 songs only.

Give the Switch parody a look over at YouTube and enjoy iPods birthday with Will (in a way.)

Robert Scoble, aka Scobleizer, wants a MacBook Pro. By his own admission. Heck he even raised money to buy a reader a MacBook and threw in XP for the Boot Camp. The guys own brother in-law works at Apple. Do see the connections people? He’s been in Silicon Valley for a while now and he’s been bathed in the cutting edge of Apple. Mountain View, former home of his SVC work headquarters, is just next store to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. What influence!

Scoble has known for a long time just how much better OS X is than Windows. Come on, take a look at the Vista beta and see just how much it looks like OS X. You think Robert didn’t have any input on that? “Can’t we make the folder Windows look like glass?” I’m sure he could be heard asking the Vista UI team one rainy morning at Microsoft’s campus. After using Spotlight and realizing just how powerful it was, I’m sure Scoble was running to the engineering team on that one! Hey, don’t even get me started on the widgets.

Then just a couple of weeks ago, Scoble stops by the Apple Store in San Francisco to do an episode of TWiT with Leo Laporte. What better place to be in just hours before announcing to the world he was leaving Microsoft? Don’t you see it?!

Robert Scoble was just looking for an excuse to work for a place where he could freely walk into an Apple Store, probably Valley Faire’s store in San Jose, and load up on some high quality Macs without having to worry about Steve Ballmer throwing office furnature at him. I’m sure of it!

I’m sure Robert will never admit leaving Redmond for his secret love of Cupertino, but you know, we all here down in SV know the truth. Everything’s out in the open down in the Valley and it’s just too hard to hide it and live a false life. Scoble knew it and now he’s free!

[Picture Via Scobleizer Moblog]
Read the rest of this entry »

You would think with all the paparazzi filming Paris Hilton that she would have at least stopped and got out to leave a note on the car she hit, don’t you? But no, all she could do from within her Range Rover was utter an explicit and drive off. Now she must have had been slightly stunned since she took a pause before squealing out of the parking garage, but fact still remains, she broke the law and now we can all sing in chorus that Def Leppard song together about Paris. “HIT AND RUUUUN!” Man, the 80s rocked.

[Via Autoblog]

Here"s something to ease your tech frenzy day and help with having a good laugh. Note on number 24; I have no brake fluid. I checked.

The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas… Things I"ve learned from my boys
(honest and not kidding):

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old boy"s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy
wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to
spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn"t stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a challenge today? Throw an egg up these moving baskets and see how good your judgment is. If you make it to the top without dropping an egg, then you are a true master.

Ya, I know, this isn"t the cutting news for the start of the week, but it"s something to start your week with.