Sharpie's Liquid Pencil

I have a more than passing interest in notebooks (the actual paper kind, not the computers!) and writing implements of all types. I know, it's fairly geeky and I've been told that in the past as well, but that's never really stopped me before and it's not about to now. Walking through Staples the other day, I saw a new writing technological breakthrough that seemed to have some promise, the Sharpie Liquid Pencil!

Yes, you read that right, a liquid pencil. The packaging promises all of the advantages of regular pencils and none of the disadvantages. Well, I was sold. And this is how my dissappointment began. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about the fantastic new "pencils" I had discovered, promptly brought out the fresh, new package I had purchased, tore it open and gave her one.

We quickly discussed the various methods in which a pencil lead could be turned into a liquid (my initial thought was that Sharpie had simply found a method to load a suspension of graphite in a solvent of some type), and immediately decided to test it out. Our first reaction was that although the writing action was fairly smooth, it was nowhere near an actual pencil. Our second reaction was that the lines drawn were simply too faint to really replace an real pencil. As advertised though, the liquid pencil was fully erasable, although on its own, that wasn't really a selling point for me.

I suspected that over time, the solvent would fully evaporate from the lines drawn on paper, making the liquid pencil a little more "permanent" and closer examination of the packaging led me to discover that Sharpie was also making the claim that the liquid pencil would eventually be as permanent as a regular Sharpie marker. Hmmmmm

Well, let me clear up that mystery right now... It's not!

In the end, the Sharpie Liquid Pencil seemed like a good idea, but it's not there yet. So save your money and get some regular pencils. You'll get what you pay for at least!

Online Tools review: GuerrillaMail

As many other regular Internet user, I've often run into a situation when I wanted to sign up for a particular web service of some type and one of the most common requirements is a functional email address, where a confirmation message will be sent, which will need to be clicked in order to activate the account. But many of us have become a little guarded with our email address and with good reason; SPAM!

I work in an electronic world and access to my clients is obviously crucial to my business success. So I've come to the same conclusion as millions of other Internet users, which is multiple email addresses. A business address, a personal address and a junk address. This last address is specifically created for use with web services in what I would call "trial" periods. As I'm discovering the service and its features, I can make an informed decision as to whether or not I will continue to use it and at that point, I can update my settings to point to my personal address.

That's all well and good, but my junk account currently has more than 715 messages in the Inbox... since last week! Determining what is useful information from the garbage that invariably sneaks its way in is becoming a part-time job, with no remuneration at that! Time for a change of strategy and this is where GuerrillaMail.com comes in. With the ability to provide you with a functional but "disposable" email address, set to expire in 1 hour, I can now sign up to any service I want without fear. At any time, you can return to the GuerrillaMail page to view and reply to messages, as well as renew the address for another hour.

As of the last time I checked (and this information is updated on the site every 10 seconds), GuerrillaMail has processed more than 89 822 846 emails and going!

If you need disposable email, this is definitely the service for you. Head on over and test it out, I'm sure you'll find some use for this site quite regularly.