Who says engineers can't have fun?
By Joan Lynch -- EDN, September 2, 1999
See the light
The FlashLED flashlight lights up a 1m-square area at 1.5m while protecting your night vision, courtesy of clusters of LEDs. Because there are no fragile filaments, the flashlight hangs in there with even the clumsiest user. It has a long lifetime, too: The LED lamps operate for 100,000 hours (or about 10 years) before they need replacing. You can get the flashlight in infrared and in red, yellow, blue, green, and white LED color wavelengths (in three- or six-LED configurations) for $29.95 to $79.95. LEDtronics Inc, 1-310-534-1505, www.ledtronics.com.
Cheap at twice the price
It's not the fastest or the biggest. But, if you need access to e-mail or the basic functions of a PC, it could be one of the cheapest. It's called the iToaster. Sign up for two years at $19.95 a month, and you get a 15-in. color monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, technical support, and 150 hours of Internet access. Not only that, but it's Windows-free. The device, which includes a Web browser and word-processing, spreadsheet, and graphics programs, features 32 Mbytes of RAM, a 2.1-Gbyte hard drive, and an Intel 266-MHz processor. You can also buy the unit (minus monitor) for $199, plus $14.95 per month for Internet access through the manufacturer's Internet-service provider. Microworkz, 1-888-306-2044, www.microworkz.com .
Link up
Transform your older computer from an expensive paperweight to a useful tool again by networking it to your newer PC. With the AnyPoint Home Network, PCs can share one Internet account, share printers, and share files and drives. With successful installation, both PCs can take advantage of one digital-subscriber-line (DSL) connection or cable modem. Your computers need 486 or higher processors, Windows 95 or 98, 18 Mbytes of free hard-disk space, and 8 Mbytes of RAM. AnyPoint costs $189 at CompUSA. Intel Corp, 1-877-649-5817, www.intel.com/anypoint/ .
