Read About Featured Gadgeteer - Gregory Guida

Gadgeteer Article

March 06, 2006

Name: Gregory Guida
Location: British Channel Islands

I started being interested by gadgets more than thirty years ago when the first electronic products appeared. I remember going to school with the first electronic pen watch, pen calculator (stolen from me by a classmate, an event I haven't got over yet), programmable calculator (a Texas Instrument TI58) and the first LED watches. My first computer was an Apple II+ with 16KB of RAM to which I eventually added disk drives and an Epson FX80 printer before changing it to a Macintosh 512K circa 1984. It then evolved into a Mac II, Mac IIfx, Powermac 8500, G3, G4 400, G4 450 and G4 2x976 to which I added the first 20" LCD, soon changed to a 23". I am now working on a G5 2x2.5 with the fabulous 30" Cinema Screen. Beside these, I have a "desktop lamp" iMac 20" which I use for video production and a few G4 act as servers for my home automation system (10 Macs and 2 PCs around the house in total).

On the portable front, My first machine was a Toshiba T1000 (DOS, monochrome not backlit LCD, 1 floppy) then a Powerbook 100, 280c, G3 230, G4 Titanium and now, an AiBook 1GHz. I also use some sort of Compaq for the aviation programs that only run on Windows XP.

I still have all those computers to which I added some collectibles from the 70s and 80s, a total of about 120 machines plus about 30 calculators and hand held computers of the same era. I also have a small collection of "function" watches, including the Seiko Watchman and the beautiful Porsche Design Compass Watches. I now wear a Breitling Emergency with the built in 121.5MHz built-in ELT.

The collection of course extend to video games, especially portable ones and I have accumulated all the Game boy models (except the virtual boy which I am still looking for) as well as a selection of Sega and Atari hand held plus some Japanese oddities such as the Wonderswan.

On the PDA front, I started in 1980 with the pocket computers Sharp PC1200, then 1500, 1600 (with its tiny floppies and A4 tracer), 1250 and 1350, a Casio PF-8000 in 83 (a remarkable machine for its time with an area you could draw letters on with your finger) then a Sharp IQ7000, 8000, 9000, ExpertPad PI-700 (an Apple Newton made by Sharp), Newton 2000, Atari Portfolio, Casio Cassiopea E115, Toshiba E570, Palm V, Sony Clie T625, Sony Clie NR70V, Palm Tungsten, Sony Clie UX50, Palm Tungsten 3 (I bought a 5 but was disappointed by the poor quality and lack of microphone so gave it away, I looked at the LifeDrive, too big, too slow, too late and at the Tungsten X, same problems as the 5 and now am not sure what to upgrade too. I have lost too much hair over Pocket PCs to want to go back to them).

One of my hobbies is house automation and I laid down more than 3000 meters of wire in my house in Scotland. Each room would receive a bundle of Sat Coaxial, Ant Coaxial, Loudspeakers, Telephone, Alarm and the essential Cat6 Ethernet. These all went to a small room where I centralised the services: telephone exchange, fax server, computer based answering machine, weather station, X10 controller, music and video servers, web and email servers and HiFi/Home Cinema remote. Some of the Cat6 were dedicated to IP video cameras (6 in total) and the whole interface was web based so I could access and control all these from anywhere in the world. Now I am faced with the daunting task of starting the wiring from scratch (but on the other hand, I only have to lay Ethernet cables since everything nowadays can run on them including the fabulous Sonos system I use now).

Below, the house network being assembled in Scotland: 24 Ethernet clients, 20 telephone extensions, 60 X10 terminals, 6 IP cameras, 3 MP3 network players, 1 EyeHome network player, Alarm system, SlinkE home cinema interface, Phlink Mac based answering machine, the Mac built-in network fax, a QMS 3100 Network Colour Laser printer

I have always been interested in photography so have had a long range of cameras and having turned professional recently my kit is pretty up to date. I started with a Zenit E (a very poor russian SLR), went on to a few point and shoot, then a Canon AE1, Minolta 7000, 700i, 9xi, and finally 9 with a nice selection of lenses. For underwater use I bought a Nikonos 5 and, later a Nikonos RS with all accessories and lenses (which I managed to drown on its first dive!). I had the first Canon Ixus (Elph) APS, then a Powershot Pro 70, the Digital Ixus, Ixus II, 700 and 750. Then, having waited so long for Minolta to do a Digital SLR, I bought a Canon 10D then an EOS 1DsII and all the lenses necessary for Wildlife Photography. I have a couple of telescopes, a portable ETX90 and a static LX90 with which I intended to do astronomy photography but haven't come around to it yet (not much of a sky in Scotland).

Doing both aviation and boating, I was fascinated by GPS as soon as it became available so I bought the first one, a Sony Pyxis. This impractical behemoth was soon replaced by a stream of Garmins ending in 12cx, eTrex, eTrex Vista and eTrex Vista c. For aviation purposes, I used first a Garmin 190 then a 196. I didn't go further as those handhelds are not very useful flying IFR and I have two GNS430 on my panel.

I also have a weakness for walkie-talkies and have about 10 pairs, including the fabulous XACT wrist watch and the still unsurpassed Alinco DJ-C5T (VHF and UHF transceivers). I have been fairly reasonable with mobiles phones, starting with the first Motorola DynaTac and changing 11 or 12 times until today's Sony K700i. I did get a Motorola 9505 Iridium SatPhone which I love to death even if I only use it once or twice a year while on expedition (cellular reaches almost everywhere nowadays).

Finally, I have three Aibos: ERS 110, 210 and 7 and heard with dismay that Sony just stopped development on them. I might start collecting them soon.

I am also a petrolhead and have accumulated a few sport and classic cars, none, unfortunately, with outlandish kit. I don't see it happening in the near future, but I would love to rebuild a four wheel drive (a Toyota Amazon) "expedition" style with all possible gadgets and/or an old limo (a RR Phantom 5 preferably) with a built in home theatre. Maybe someday.

I prepared the picture below for the Scott eVest web site. It shows the vest loaded with all the kit on the right. Remarkably, it all fits well but the computer in the back pocket is quite vulnerable (don't sit!). While I would probably not wear everything on me, this selection is my normal travelling gear and was prepared for a round the world trip I did in 2004. Notable items include the Yoshinaga titanium flask (brilliant but not easy to find outside of Japan), the Titanium Thermos (superb but very expensive), the Zeiss 5x10 pen monocular (small and light, the perfect alternative to binoculars), the Fisher Space Pen (everybody should have one), the Buck Knives BuckTool (unfortunately discontinued, the best of the Leatherman style pocket tools by far), the Motorola 9505 Iridium Phone (call home from the North Pole), a pair of pocket Sony Noise Reduction earphones (essential in noisy aeroplanes) and the Petzl Zipka Head Torch (easily the most practical and versatile light in the World). The little grey and blue thingy is the smallest electric shaver I could find, but I am still looking.

Today, I would add my Sony PSP, iPod and about 50 pounds of Canon camera equipment.

I skipped over the video, HiFi, walkmen and all the nice trekking and climbing gadgets but I hope the above makes me a bona fide Gadgeteer!

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