360 DEGREES Weblog

It’s amazing to think that the World Wide Web part of the Internet was born less than 17 years ago. When WWW inventor Tim Berners-Lee put the very first web site online from his office at CERN in Switzerland, he stuck this note on the NeXT Cube computer to make sure it would stay online. While the Internet had already existed in various capacities for decades, it is the WWW that is now practically synonymous with the Internet for most users. Hard to believe that a fastidious Swiss cleaner looking for a place to plug in the vacuum could have turned the whole thing off.

Thanks Dvice

As an admirer of beautifull watches Zenith normally isn’t my brand. But this watch really caught my eye.
It’s their new top-of-the-line debuting at Baselworld 2008 in April. This limited edition all-black PVD coated El Primero Zenith Zero-G Multi-Dimensional Tourbillon will start around €350,000 ($500,000+).

SpongeBob wants to get into your pants and make beautiful music with you. At least according to the packaging for this Musical SpongeBob Digital Thermometer. It plays the show’s theme tune whilst tracking your temperature and is suitable for oral, underarm and rectal use. Just, please, decide on one and stick to it.

How many of you carry an umbrella when it’s raining? Unless I know that I’ll be walking for long distances in the pouring rain, I won’t bother. I figure that I’ll spend more time standing in the rain closing the umbrella and trying to put it in the car than I’ll actually spend outside. If you have a thing about getting wet, you might want to check out the very interesting Nubrella.

The idea here s that you can have an umbrella that doesn’t require any hands, because lets face it, you don’t always have one. The other benefit is that your head is blocked from the elements on all sides. On the downside you look like you’re being eaten by a transparent Pac-Man. If you don’t mind the strange looks you’ll get, you can pick one up for $60.

It’s time to bring in some marine elegance inside your home. This is not a product of Pininfarina Extra. The stunning Grande Croisière bar counter comes straight from the house of Deck Line. Perfect for long trips with your friends, the boat-shaped bar counter comes with sliding doors and Inox foot stool. If you don’t like the combination, they will personalize your counter in color, sliding doors, material. Do check out their long color chart and you will definitely find one of your liking.

When I was a kid and would get dragged to the mall by my parents, I would always gravitate to stores like Sharper Image. These gadget-stuffed stores probably never actually got a sale out of me, but they were stuffed to the gills with impractical and expensive gadgets for me to ogle, and there was generally an expensive, ultimately-uncomfortable massage chair near the entrance that lured me in every time. Sadly (I guess), it’s now the end of an era: Sharper Image has filed for bankruptcy.

For all of you out there who have a lifetime’s worth of memories on Polaroids, the firm’s announcement of shutting down its instant film production seems as shocking as the loss of a loved one. The company has already announced that they are manufacturing just enough film to last through 2009 before they close down the factories. But I guess the company will give its faithful customers a goodbye present in the form of a digital frame that will allow users to view images saved on memory cards in ‘Standard’ mode, which is regular digiframe view, and ‘Classic’ mode which lest you see your pictures as if they were taken on instant film! And since the frame also features a hole for a pushpin, you’ll never miss those old stick-it-on-the-corkboard Polaroids. The frame’s rechargeable battery allows you to do away with the annoying cord while the dry erase surface on the bottom of the frame lets you write your custom message for the slideshow, just like the good old days! Which only makes me wonder if the Polaroid will make a grand comeback as one of the greatest retro must-haves of all times.

The champagne cork and cage set from Michael Chiarello’s home furnishings company Napa Style is kind of kicky. Then again I’m a fan of small things made large. The cork stool in bright orange is not made of cork but of polyethylene and the stool is made of chromed steel. The fun part is that the two pieces can function as one unit or a separate stool and a table. It costs $448 for the set.

What’s in the perfect license plate number? Does it hold emotional significance, prestige or just bragging rights? Incredibly, a select few numbers placed on an aluminum license plate may bring all the above. In Abu Dhabi, monthly auctions of worthy numbers, (typically 1-10 and 11-99 are the most popular), bring high bidders and license plate collectors forward to spend millions on that perfect number. The most expensive to date was the recent sale of plate No. 1 which sold for a whopping $14.3 million sold to businessman Saeed Abdul Ghafour Khouri. The price paid for these plates is much more than the vehicle they adorn, but at least you can keep the plate and put it on the next Ferrari you own. The cool thing is that in the past five auctions alone $56 million has been raised for charity — and that is only for 393 plates.

When I was in college, my friends used to laugh at me whenever they saw “rent” written in permanent marker on my hand each month. Strange as it may have looked, it was the only surefire way to remind myself that rent was due. I didn’t refer to a calendar often enough to ever know what day it was and anything I wrote in the margins while in class were promptly forgotten about, so my hand was really the only sensible option.(and a great way to cheat)

To-Do Tattoos don’t just understand what I mean, they validate my idiosyncrasy. Who knew the line between abnormal and normal was made up of twelve temporary tattoos and a skin-safe gel pen.

Thanks Popgadget.