The highlight from this week in gadgets and technology for us here at Gadget Freaks would have to be seeing the footage of Fusion Man flying his jet pack. We have posted here about the Gryphon Flying Wing and seen all manner of this type of gadget but at last someone actually flyng one. On May 14th 2008, Yves Rossy became the first man to fly a winged jetpack strapped to his back. Rossy, a Swiss pilot, has spent $285,000 on his creation and jumped out of a plane at 7,550 feet. After unfolding the wings he fired the 4 jet engines and flew for 6 minutes high above the Swiss Alps performing 360 degree turns and figure eights. Although the first flight with the prototype was a huge success there is no word on a production model at this time. I want one!!!!!

Regular readers to Gadget Freaks will already know how much we love motorsports. So not surprising that when we saw this Race Simulator we had this sudden feeling that our lives were not complete. If you have a spare $20,000 you might want to buy the Virtual GT model but hey, why fanny about when you are shelling out this much cash! You might be better off with the Motion Pro 2 at a cool $25,995. Then there are the upgrades which include a panoramic display ($12,995), a six-speed gated shifter and progressive clutch ($1,049) and even enhanced on site set/training ($2995). I can just picture one in the Gadget Freaks office!

Another slightly less expensive gadget spotted this week are these neat Spy Camera Sunglasses. The glasses have 2 in-built cameras on the side arms and transmit video to a wireless receiver. The receiver has a 2.4″ screen with an internal memory of 128MB and supports an SD card up to 2 GB.

Here’s one that will surely qualify for the Darwin Awards! This Pulse Jet powered bicycle looks rather lethal in our book. It is the creation of Robert Maddox, a 47 year old American who designs and builds the largest pulsejet engines in the world. This contraption runs on kerosene and can thrust power between 14-1000 lbs. Time to start chlorinating the gene pool we think!

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We here at Gadget Freaks just love motorcycles and motorcycle racing of all kinds( esp. Moto GP). Throughout the ages there have been some amazing motorcycle designs and some monster creations. Some of these have caught on while others just kind of fade away and pop up in a museum somewhere. The golden era of the 50s and 60s saw some of the best and worst in bike design especially in competition machinery with some crazy aerodynamics. However, the entrance of the Japanese manufacturers in the 1970’s saw somewhat of a homogenization in bike design. These days though there many new designers bringing out some awesome concept bikes and radical new designs and as with the past some will be groundbreakers while others will just be bank breakers.

One of the legendary competition bikes that really set tongues wagging was the 1975 Yamaha TZ750 Dirt Tracker ridden by none other than the legend himself, Kenny Roberts. When they wheeled this thing out for the 1975 AMA series most people( including Roberts himself) thought they were joking. King Kenny had won the 73 and 74 series using Yamaha 4 stroke twin engines but 1975 saw Harley Davidson pull back the advantage. So Yamaha decided to take the TZ 750 4 cylinder two stroke road race motor and slot it into the dirt track frame! Pure insanity! The machine spawned one of the most famous quotes in the history of motorcycle racing.” They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing”, said Kenny Roberts. Read More…….

Who could forget the movie ‘Easyrider’. That iconic flick where Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper go in search of America on motorcycles. As ‘iconic’ as the movie itself was Fonda’s Captain America chopper. Starting life as a 1952 Harley Hydra Glide which Fonda bought at a police auction, only the original HD pan head engine was retained while everything else was chopped stretched or twisted to make the final bike. Read More……..

Going way way back now to the dawn of motorcycle racing in The US. Back in 1908 if you were looking for a supersport bike for racing this is probably what you would have ridden. This 1908 Indian 1000cc twin was the state of the art back then and would have cost you US$360. It weighed 120 Lbs and had a top speed of 65 mph. Pure history. Read More…….

Well after looking at 3 of the classics we have this rather strange looking cycle! Almost a hyrid Segway/motorcycle this Uno Cycle looks like it has one wheel but in fact has two. Controls are quite simple as it only has an on/off switch and its electric motor is controlled much in the way a Segway is. That is push forward to slow/stop, lean back to accelerate. Looks sporty enough but will it stand the test of time. Read More……

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This simple, four-step walk-through to loan closing will help you understand the procedure and give you an idea of what to expect.

1. Processing

When we initially meet, I will request and collect the information needed to process your loan. Documentation requirements vary depending on the loan program you apply for, as well as your individual financial and credit profiles. Subject to your overall profile and documentation, I will send you a commitment letter detailing any documentation requirements you’ll need to meet should your loan be approved. At the same time, one of my teammates will order an appraisal. At this point, you’ll have the option to lock in your interest rates or float it.

Items We Discuss Early In The Process

Floating The Rate: You’ve applied for your loan but you’ve also decided to wait before committing to an interest rate, perhaps because you think interest rates stand a chance of going down in the short-term. Your loan can stay in a float status up until 10 days before closing in most cases. During any float period, you can stay up to date on interest rate by signing up for the daily interest rate e-mail available on my Web site. It’s important to remember, NOT locking in is something of a calculated risk.

Locking In: You and your lender commit to a range of interest rates for a specified period of time – up to 180 days for new construction loans. During that period, your interest rate range is protected from increases. If you close your loan during that period, you get the rate range. If you go beyond the lock-in period without closing, you may have to work with the rate ranges available at that time. Locking in is something of a calculated risk.

There are also some reasons why a rate could change even during a lock-in period. For instance, a change in your credit profile could occur, you might decide to change your down payment, or you might change your mind on how many discount points you want to pay.

Whether you decide to lock or float, you’ll be taking a calculated risk. It’s a tough decision, and you’re the only one who can make it. Talk with your me to get an idea of what interest rates have been doing recently. You should also find out if there are any economic events coming up that could affect mortgage rates in the short term.

2. Title Insurance

There are two types of title insurance: one protects the lender, the other protects the borrower from claims against your ownership of the property. Such claims might be made by undisclosed spouses, heirs of previous owners, creditors holding liens against previous owners, or other parties. Your lender will most likely require you to purchase a title policy, which will cover their interest in the property.

It’s up to you if you would like to purchase a policy to protect your interest in the home. I will be able to recommend a title insurance company who can provide you with additional information about the policies available in your area.

3. Homeowners Insurance

As mentioned on other posts, most mortgage lenders require proof that you’ve purchased homeowners insurance at closing.

In the event of a loss such as a fire, tornado, or burglary, homeowners insurance can pay for damages to the home, as well as for costs to repair or replace contents. If you are unable to live in your home as a result of damages, homeowners insurance can cover additional living expenses for a period of time while your home is being repaired. Homeowners insurance can also protect you from loss if someone is injured or their personal belongings are damaged while on your property.

Your Insurance company will be required to provide proof of insurance in time for your closing.

4. Closing

At your closing, you’ll go through all the final steps of securing your new loan. The most important thing to know is that all closing costs must be paid in full at this time. Make sure you work closely with your attorney and any me to find out exactly how much you’ll have to pay at closing. At this juncture, I’ll work closely with you to make sure no last-second surprises affect your closing.

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Whether we meet face-to-face or talk on the phone my initial step will be to explain and walk you through the application process. It is a simple interview, and most of the information you’ll need can be taken straight from your credit report. The amount you’ll actually need to provide on your own isn’t overwhelming.

There are generally six areas that will be covered:

• Personal Data: Full names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of all borrowers.
• Income: The amount and sources of income for all borrowers.
• Assets: Information on all assets you’ll be using to qualify for the loan. This includes things like checking and savings accounts, stocks and bonds, retirement plans, and other real estate owned.
• Debt & Obligations: Information on all outstanding debt and other financial obligations.
• Credit References: Information concerning loans or debt that have been paid, plus any other references to good credit use.
• Property Information: Specifics on the property you wish to buy, if you’ve chosen one.

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With the online video industry taking off, you may want to know some easy ways to add video to your WordPress sites. There are several great WordPress plugins for adding video content to your blogs. In this guide I’ll go over:

• Adding your own hosted .flv videos to WordPress
• How to embed videos from video sites such as YouTube

Start adding videos to your WordPress sites today and read on…

Playing hosted flash videos

If you can create your own .flv videos, and would rather not host them on a third-party site, there’s no better plugin than FLV Embed. With this plugin you can add your video to a post or page with a quick tag. First you need to get the plugin from WordPress.org at install it through OneClick or manually.

Once installed and activated, you’ll be able to configure the settings of the FLV player when it’s displayed on your blog.

flv embed options for wordpress

In addition to setting options such as colors, you can also have your own logo embedded, have “Full Screen Mode” enabled, set the default volume, among other features you’d expect to see from a fully featured video plugin.

The first option, currently your-video.flv, is obviously the name of the video in the path you set on the options page. You can also set it as a full URL. The optional-portrait.jpg is optional, and is what will show up as a “preview” before the video is played. The 2 numbers are width and height, respectively.

Embedding videos from other sites

Several popular video sites such as YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, IFILM, and others offer “embedding” code that will allow you to place a hosted video up for display on your own site, without sacrificing your own bandwidth resources. For WordPress, there is an easy plugin that you can use to embed videos in a similar “quick tag” format as above. It’s called Viper’s Video Quicktags.

Currently this plugin supports the following video sites:

• YouTube
• Google Video
• IFILM
• MetaCafe
• MySpace

These among other hosted video formats as well. You can get the plugin at WordPress.org. Once activated, you’ll see the options for the video sites on your post menu, which will prompt you for the video URL. It will generate the code in quick tag format to be displayed in your post.

vipers quicktags in action wordpress plugin

As you can see, it’s a very simple format. All you need is the YouTube video URL. It’s a similar format for the other supported video sites as well.

Conclusion

If you post videos frequently on your blog I’d highly recommend these plugins, especially Viper’s for the quick tag post integration for all those video sites.

Feel free to comment and share if you liked this WordPress video guide. Subscribe to the feed for more Theme & Plugins updates.

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