I’ve been visiting Kickstarter for a couple of years now, and it’s always interesting to peruse the various projects.
Kickstarter is a website that helps people get funding for an idea, project or product. Anyone can choose to donate to the project, and each project establishes funding levels that can offer rewards that are fulfilled if the project reaches its goal. I’ve backed a few projects in the last year or so, from a unique soap design, to a large tablet stylus and even a video game. The funding levels I chose were enough to get me the product, but not enough to break the bank. In most cases, the goal of the project is to get enough funding to bring the product to retail, so backers are often given the chance to get the product at a reduced price along with other possible rewards.
The last and most recently-funded project I have backed was for the Pebble Smartwatch, a wrist watch that connects to your smart phone via Bluetooth. The phone can display incoming call alerts, text messages and other notifications. This kind of thing comes in handy when I don’t have my phone nearby, or I can see who’s calling or texting me without having to find my phone. The watch can also control the phone’s music player. The Pebble also has customizable watch faces (like the one below) which can be loaded onto the watch from the smartphone.
Since it’s a brand new product, the Pebble isn’t completely finished, software-wise. Some of the promised features haven’t yet been reazlied, but that should change once the software development kit is released in the next month or so. So far, I’m really enjoying the Pebble, and I’m looking forward to improvements.
While I’ve had good luck with backing Kickstarter projects, not all of them meet their goals, and of the ones that do, not all of them are successful. Kickstarter is a bit of a gamble. The actual Kickstarter website does not guarantee that your investment will result in a reward. The only guarantee is that if a project does not meet its financial goal in the established time, your money is never taken. So there are projects that have turned out to be scams, and projects that have become bogged down in unexpected delays and challenges.
But despite the risks, Kickstarter is a pretty cool way to be involved in the development of a new project and see how the process of bringing a new idea to market works.
One of the disadvantages of using a laptop on the go is that they tend to get hot, which means using a laptop in your lap for extended periods can be uncomfortable. The Trabasack aims to solve that problem by merging the functionality of a laptop bag with the convenience of a lap tray, all while being easy to use for people with disabilities. Thanks to Duncan at 
The old washer and dryer were ones I had owned since about 2000, and we’re pretty sure the fridge was installed when our house was built (back in 1995/96). And we suspect that in that time, no one had ever changed the water filter. Ice cubes and water from the fridge tasted and smelled pretty bad, even after changing the filter, so we never used them. I think the plastic hoses inside the fridge were the source of the bad taste and smell, but just to be sure, I bought a new water hose to connect the water supply to the back of the fridge. It’s nice to have ice cubes again. 
Cary and I were concerned about the dryer exhaust. Like the fridge filter, we suspected that it had been quite a long time (if ever) since someone had cleaned out the dryer exhaust ducts. Lint buildup in the exhaust can reduce the efficiency of a dryer and even cause a fire in some extreme cases. But we really had nothing to clean the exhaust with, so a little research turned up a product called the 