Google Earth Tracks Flights

Google Earth can give you the precise location of just about any commercial flight, almost in realtime. To get the flight information on just about any flight's progress, download Google Earth, then go to Aeroseek or FBOWeb to enter the carrier and flight number you're interested in. Once you've got it, click the Google Earth link to open that flight in Google Earth and see its exact location updated every few seconds.

Source (Wired Magazine)

Programmable Cocktail Dispenser

The Lazy Drinker is a computer controlled bartender. The modified Igloo cooler can hold 16 of your favorite spirits and can mix up over 5000 drinks automatically. All controlled from your computer, with a database of all the possible drinks. Works on Windows PCs and MAC(in beta). Price: $750 or $550 for the Do-It-Yourself Kit.

The Lazy Drinker comes assembled in a cooler or as a do-it-yourself kit which can be installed in any manner you desire. Requiring only a Co2 tank and a PC with a serial port, the Lazydrinker can be set up anywhere: from a portable dispensing unit, to a bartop installed unit, to a refrigerator mounted unit, the possibilities are endless.

Trackstick: USB GPS data logger

Now here is something cool to get this summer! While this may look like your run-of-the-mill USB drive (albeit a bit big) the TrackStick is actually far more useful, especially for the wanna-be spys among us.

The unit houses a GPS receiver and will autonomously keep track of its location including time, date, speed, direction and altitude and store this data in its memory. The recorded information can then be downloaded to your computer VIA the USB connection and be integrated with Mapquest, Google Earth, Google Maps or Virtual Earth to give you a visual plot of where the TrackStick has travelled. Most of the unit’s size can probably be attributed to the fact it runs on 2 AAA batteries which will power it for about 5 to 7 days of ‘typical operation’ which amounts to about 4,000 records.

Unfortunately the life of a spy does not come cheap. The Trackstick is available from ThinkGeek Computing for about $250 which will probably make you think twice about who to secretly plant this on.