Hey everyone,
With the advent of Facebook, I’m not sure blogging sites are worth it anymore as the traffic has just died over the years. But I guess I will attempt to post once in a blue moon to show that this site is still active. Well pages certainly are, but the front, rarely.
They always say to post something that is unique, or different that you can’t find anywhere else so maybe I’ll post reviews on my gadgets or thoughts on my canoe trips or something.
In that vein, I’d like to point people towards the website of Kickstarter It is a website where people with ideas/projects come forward asking for money. Similar to Dragon’s Den in Canada/UK and Shark’s Tank in the USA, if the project gets funded you usually get rewarded with some kind of unique gift, like a prototype or first run of the product. It usually doesn’t take much money to get in on these projects and there really is something for everyone, from technology, to plays, to food, to fashion, games and more.
For those that know me, I’m a gadget fanatic and I like small devices that make life easier somehow, especially for canoeing/camping/hiking or just outdoorsy things. Here are the projects I’ve backed so far:
tPod: Power from a tea light candle
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tpod1/tpod1-thermoelectric-power-on-demand
Steam Bandits: Three interconnected games all done in one. This combines different games styles into one game, where one person might like to build a small town, and another do tactical battles, it combines them so you can play with each other.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iocainestudios/steam-bandits-outpost-0
Trifecta: A card game for two people
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1248483236/trifecta-a-card-game-for-two-players-0
Limeade: A very high capacity battery, I chose the 18,000mAh
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mylimeade/limeade-blast-18000mah-ultra-high-capacity-battery
Shroud of the Avatar: Lord British himself (Richard Garriot) is bringing back the world of RPG
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0
Pocket Monkey: a slim utility card for your wallet
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1185529597/pocket-monkey-the-wallet-utility-tool
Dice Rings: Similar to meditation rings, these guys spin on your fingers and produce random numbers
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/critsuccess/dice-rings
Star Citizen: Chris Roberts, the man behind Wing Commander bringing back the space genre game style
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen
Java Tea Project: Tea that tastes like coffee, I got in on their first run
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1346532519/the-java-tea-project
Smallworld 2: Bringing a better version of Smallworld to portable devices
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daysofwonder/small-world-2-the-return
myLED: The one thing I miss about my Blackberry is the visual notification from the little light, this guy fixes it for the iPhone. No SMS support (yet) but everything else is good.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/673308573/myled-bringing-external-notifications-to-iphone-an
WakaWaka Power: A super efficient solar battery with USB output, and this guy is just pumping out products for charity around the world in Haita and Syria, the support helps him do that
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wakawakalight/wakawaka-power-the-best-compact-solar-power-statio
NeuroDreamer Sleep Mask: I always thought lucid dreaming was kind of cool, so thought this may help out
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maltman23/neurodreamer-sleep-mask-0
Castle Story: A voxel based strategy game, think Minecraft meets Starcraft, you build it, then you have to defend it
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/902505202/castle-story
Those are the successful ones, I have also back two others that didn’t make it, the one to remake M.U.L.E. and another that was going to build a real life physics game based on flight backed by Bill Nye.
So you can see my interest is gadget techie things, for the most part, but there are tons of things in there for everyone. Check it out, you will find yourself getting hooked like me.