Gas prices are still really high. I gotta say I am glad they came down a bit but where I live they are still around 4 bucks a gallon which makes filling up my 13 gallon car a bit expensive at 52 dollars. I hate bitching about the issue since I know many places in the world have been paying such prices for the last 10 years, but here in the U.S., we are not yet used to it.Europeans have always had smaller, more efficient cars and some have even come up with the air car. The air car is a car that is fuelled by compressed air. How cool is that? You would think a car running on air would be as fast or as sick as a donkey car, but seems the manufacturer says that they will go as fast as 68 MPH. Check out these air cars below.. 

The air car is made by Tata Motors, an Indian company, in collaboration with the French company MDI.  The production models will be sold in Europe and Australia. Seems they thought that bringing it to the U.S. would not be a great idea because of the lower speeds and power… maybe they need to reconsider that since the gas price issue hit the U.S.

The OneCAT, is supposed to be the first production model made for urban and rural driving specifically designed to be driven in congested cities and priced in the $5,100 to $7,800 range has a range of 125 miles before needing more air. Gas stations will have compressors and the charge about $2 per fill-up.

 This is the motor that powers the air car

Where do I get one? 

For those of you bored with the standard keyboard and in need of learning a new skill, there is a product called the OrbiTouch Keyboard. Now the company claims this is the ergonamic wave of the future, however, after looking at the confusing instructions on how to type the letter “Y”, I have my doubts.

Easy, isn’t it? ha, ha… NOT! Not only do you need to memorize new key positions… but the colors they go to as well. Reminds me of those 1980’s memory games where you have to memorize a color and a number.

So here’s the choice… fancy new computer keyboard or not too fancy used car. O.K. not really because I would never even imagine paying that much for a keyboard, but I guess some people are.

This is the HHKB handmade and super expensive keyboard from Japan. Each keyboard is made to order and there is a 3 month wait time between ordering the keyboard and it being shipped. I hope the 3 months is how long it takes to make one since the price tag on the HHKB is between $4k and $5K. This is not the $4.99 made in Japan plastic babies that I tend to shop for at all.

So here’s what makes this keyboard so expensive…

For one, HHKB stands for Happy Hacking Keyboard and I believe that name alone should be cause for a small discount. It’s just so wrong for a “luxury” product.  I would expect some exotic name or maybe even being named after its creator, but Happy Hacking? that sounds about as expensive as calling it the Acme 37069B.  If the name alone does not convince you to shell out part of your kids college fund, maybe these features will.

The HHKB is completely handmade by fine craftsmen and every key is individually laquered with something called Urashi. Urushi lacquer is made from the sap of a plant native to the northeast Asian forest called Rhus vernicifula. Items laquered with Urrushi can be traced back as much as 6800 years.

Each key receives as many as 10 individual coats of this laquer with a sprinkling of gold dust to finish it off. Now, personally, I would have a difficult time using this keyboard since the keys are polished smooth and left blank.

Oddly enough the website these are sold on is in Japanese only, maybe they skipped the english version of the site thinking the $5k wooden keyboard may not catch on in the U.S.

I must admit that as luxurious as the HHKB may be, I am much more excited about getting a really cool 50 buck flexible keyboard. Yahoo even makes them in purple! Somehow, I doubt the HHKB has any cool color choices.