A little version of the "Big Dog" robot featured a couple days ago…

I like the handle on the back.  Makes it look like a four-legged appliance.

A loud, buzzing version of a pack mule, but at least one that doesn’t leave piles of donkey poo for you to step in.

Check out when they try to kick it off it’s feet.  That’s groovy!

No, these are not roller blades. It would be more accurate to describe them as foot bicycles.

“Booster Blades” are a very groovy advancement in personal transportation technology. It’s funny to say it that way, but, again these are not roller blades. There’s a propulsion system built in, and brakes.

Yes, brakes. True brakes. The one thing that I always thought roller blades needed.

Unlike roller blades, when you want to move forward you don’t push your feet side to side to build momentum. Propulsion is produced from a regular, normal stepping action. The lifting and lowering of your feet power gears with your own weight, spinning the rear wheels and moving you forward. In a way, you’re actually peddling the blades forward. They have video of them in action on their site, and also up on YouTube.

Move your feet up and down, just like walking, and you roll forward under power. To stop, you lean your feet back, and it applies brakes.

I think they’re ingenious. And yes, you can buy them now.

It appears the HeadThere Giraffe has some competition from iRobot.

While this telepresence robot lacks the screen to display the controller’s face, it appears to be designed to take more abuse … which it will undoubtedly receive.

The purpose of the robot is so that a company expert can tour a factory or job site and get a first-hand view of a project without having to board a plane and fly halfway around the world. So you can think of this as more a robotic project manager, whereas the Giraffe is more like your robotic CEO.

If one of these were running around my company … people would glue spring-ball bug antenna to the top, and tape a sign to the back that says “Kick me.”

I love the idea of the thing, but I also loved the idea of talking computers — that is, until I actually had to talk to them. Now there is nothing I hate more than a talking computer.

So it will be with these.

We all know Scotty brought transparent aluminum to our century from the future. You remember, when they saved the whales in Star Trek IV?

Well now, finally, someone has found a use for it besides making a giant aquarium for space-faring Cetaceans.

It’s about time, too!

Transparent aluminum is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s really wild drinking from a can that you can see through. It has practical uses, too, because now you can see what is really in the can. As in, no more surprises! Not that things normally spoil inside the can, but, how many times have you bought what you thought was a dark beer only to find out it’s a light?

No? No one? Am I the only one?

That’s what I get for buying beer while already inebriated.

Anyway, it’s awesome that the cost of producing transparent aluminum has fallen to the point where they can now use it in the beverage industry. No doubt we’ll start seeing it everywhere.

Too bad it’s actually plastic. April fools everyone! However, this is a real transparent “can” — my kids and I found it at the local Asian shopping center.

I like the packaging! Didn’t care too much for what was inside it. Yuck.

Here’s a groovy one for the girls!

It’s a phone. No, wait…

It’s stylish jewelry. No, wait…

It’s a unique combination of both.

From Yanko Design. Designer: Tao Ma

This is none other than a vacuum chamber for your fruits, veggies, etc.

Place your bread and other yummies into the Auto Vacuum FoodFresh, close the lid, and this gizmo sucks all the air out of the chamber, thus making your food last longer and stay fresher.

I think it’s great!  It’s a true kitchen-geek toy if I’ve ever seen one!  I think I’ll vacuum everything I can stick into it.

This groovy gizmo doesn’t yet exist, but it will. It will.

Please ignore the fact that it’s a Microsoft propaganda film, and just go with it.

So, really, how many fish have you ended up flushing down the toilet?

Here’s an idea: save yourself some trouble by keeping them in the toilet. AquaOne Technologies has made it possible with their amazing Fish ‘n Flush.

No, I am not kidding you.

Imagine how unnerved your PETA-associated friends will be upon seeing this in the bathroom at your next party. I hesitate to say, but it would be almost worth hiding a video camera to capture that initial expression of shock and disbelief.

The secret to this is, though, that there are actually two tanks of water involved. One for the flushing, and one for the fish — and nary the two shall meet. The fish tank itself is actually removable so you can clean it out, etc.

The idea is so silly it’s cool.

And yes, in a way, the fish are living right at the doorstep — so to speak — of the fish cemetery. So when little Goldie is found floating upside-down at the top…

Yeah. She can quickly be flushed laid to rest in the great fishpond in the sky.

This interesting contraption is a remote controlled robot called the Giraffe, made by HeadThere Inc. of San Francisco. It connects via Wi-Fi or G3 to the net and you control it from anywhere in the world, sending it rolling through your office, home, whatever. Via camera and microphone you see everything it sees, and via speaker and video screen people see and hear you as well.

That’s right, your very own roving telepresence! No longer is this technology only the plaything of NASA and big city bomb squads. Just like it says on the HeadThere website, you can be in two places at one time.

I can see people buying this. Really. Unlike many, I think there is a huge market out there for this device. In my mind’s eye, in fact, I can see these things wandering all over the Google office complex, dodging Segues and Aibos. I also see paranoid parents forcing teens to take it along on dates. I can see it rolling into university classes while the students remain in the dorm nursing a hangover.

Also, mark my words, it will end up one of the most abused and vandalized pieces of technology since the payphone. In an office environment, indignant workers will cover it with plastic bags, kick it over, and throw it down stairs. At home, being used as a baby sitter, the kids will plot evil against the poor thing and blame it on the dog.

Oh, woe is the Giraffe. It will be a hard life, to be sure. I think it’s a cool, smart, and well-meaning gizmo, but really … I feel very sad for it.

It’s doomed.

UPDATE: I just had an interesting email exchange with Roy Sandberg, the founder of HeadThere Inc. He pointed out an important fact: The Giraffe does have an off switch.

After another conversation about it, this time with my girlfriend, she and I decided the attitude toward the Giraffe would depend completely upon its use … if it’s used as a communications device, then it should be relatively innocuous. If it’s being used to check up on you, that is where the animosity comes into play.

It’s an interesting subject because as we go from here, mobile telepresence will become more and more common.