Category Archives: Gadgetry

Lexus GS400, June 1998

June 15, 1998 Phil Wherry Leave a comment

February 2014: I found these photos of my 1998 Lexus GS400, taken in June 1998. I’d just made the (fairly significant) upgrade from my 1992 Honda Civic and originally put these together to send to my brother Matthew, who was studying automotive design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

In-car navigation was a new thing and a Really Big Deal, so there are a bunch of photos of the car’s navigation system in operation since I thought Matthew would be interested.

I still drive a relative of this vehicle (2013 GS450h) today.

Click the image below for the full set of photos.

Gadgetry

A Tutorial Introduction to DJing

February 24, 1998 Phil Wherry Leave a comment

Note: this is a guide that Doug Austin and I originally developed in 1992 after DJing a lot of parties in college. I made one attempt to revise it in 1998; that version appears here.

Continue reading A Tutorial Introduction to DJing →

Gadgetry

Ricochet

February 16, 1998 Phil Wherry Leave a comment

For the past several months, I’ve been using a Ricochet wireless modem with my laptop computer for Internet access. The short summary? It’s one awfully interesting gadget.

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Gadgetry, Photos, Retrocomputing, Security, Travel

Online Stock Trading System circa 1997

September 18, 1997 Phil Wherry Leave a comment

February 2014: I found these photos of the equipment used in one of my early security consulting projects. This was the gear used to support Europe’s first Internet-accessible stock trading system:

There were two firewalls in this configuration (separating the DMZ from internal and external networks), plus two application processors. All of these were built atop Sun Ultra 1 systems (each one featured a 143 MHz processor, 32M RAM, and a 1GB disk for about $16,000 in 1997 dollars).

Gadgetry

The Nikon LS-1000 Super Coolscan 35mm Film Scanner

November 16, 1996 Phil Wherry 3 Comments

The Nikon LS-1000 Super Coolscan is a SCSI film scanner capable of scanning from both slides (positive images) and color negatives. Both PC and Mac software is supplied with the scanner.

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Gadgetry

The Casio QV-10 Digital Camera

February 12, 1996 Phil Wherry Leave a comment

Remember how frustrated you were when you last used a product so badly thought out that you wondered if you and the designers were natives of the same planet?

If not, may I recommend the Casio QV-10? I can guarantee you’ll be left wondering about the possibility of alien life forms and their potential role in consumer electronics design on Planet Earth.

Continue reading The Casio QV-10 Digital Camera →

Gadgetry

VideoGuide

January 8, 1996 Phil Wherry Leave a comment

VideoGuide is one of the neater pieces of consumer electronics that I’ve run into recently. It’s a set-top box designed to make the process of finding and using television programming easier.

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