Super Pooper Scooper

May 23, 2010

I’ve been through a wide variety, and I finally found one that works and holds up over time. I don’t coddle my pooper-scoopers – I leave them outside in the rain, the dogs have full access to them for their destructive pleasure, and I still expect them to work perfectly and easily every time I go for my half-acre poop hunts.

Here are some of the ones that have failed:

One-piece-but-still-two-handed-pivoting rake-into-shovel or shovel-into-shovel devices

Rake-like devices

Two-piece rake-into-shovel devices

All of these have fundamental flaws. Two-handed operation means I have to put the bucket down to use the device. The 90-degree rakes and shovels require that you tip the scooper at the same awkward 90-degree angle to release the contents, which means you still have to put the bucket down to get the handle out of the way. Many have wooden handles, which don’t survive being left outside. The rake-style has the most flaws – the tines bend, causing pieces to fall through, they tend to stab, making the release phase more difficult, and if the consistency isn’t perfect, well, use your imagination.

Finally, thanks to my cousins Bruce and Jill, I found the pooper-scooper that actually works. Let me introduce you to the Four Paws Allen’s Spring Action Scooper. I had seen it in stores, but it looked clunky and over-engineered (read doomed to fail). When I saw it work at their house, I decided to give it a try. Turns out it’s a plastic spring-loaded design wonder that meets all of my criteria.

  • One-handed operation
  • Works on all surfaces (there’s a special model with teeth for grass, but I haven’t found that necessary)
  • Effective on all consistencies
  • No bending
  • Ecologically sound (bagless)
  • Simple and complete release into the bucket in my other hand.

It comes in several sizes and models, and is widely available online and at pet stores. There are other brands out there with similar designs, and I have no reason to believe they don’t work just as well. But this is the one I have used and can vouch for.

Happy Poop-Hunting!!!

1 Comment | Dog Gadgets | Permalink
Posted by agilepooch

Essential Tools for Dog Lovers

May 22, 2010

Hi, my name is Holly and I’m a gadget-freak. Oops, wrong meeting. Hi, my name is Holly and I’m a dog-lover. Wait, still not right. Hi, my name is Holly and I’m a dog-loving gadget-freak. Yeah, that’s the one.

I’m not afraid to admit it publicly. I love to explore gadgets, and my dogs have provided me with a whole new world of opportunities. Some work, some don’t. I figured the least I could do to redeem myself  is to blog about it and save you all the trouble. After all, why should we both throw money at the bad experiments?

I already have a couple of terrific items to catch up on. I’ll post the good, the bad, and maybe even the ugly. If you have a fantastic dog gadget that I need to know about, please let me know.

3 Comments | Dog Gadgets | Permalink
Posted by agilepooch

iPad for me? Not quite ready yet.

May 6, 2010

When the iPad was announced, my response was “bulky sorta iPhone/sorta iPod Touch, lotta money, why bother?” But when our company President recently wandered in with his and enthusiastically gave me a demo, I completely changed my tune – I was ready to gulp the entire pitcher of Kool-aid and pull out my credit card….

Fortunately…

I took a moment to do the math:

  • $829 for the 64gb 3G model (why settle for anything less?)
  • $39 for a case (don’t kid yourself, anything with a touchscreen needs a decent case)
  • $69 for a Bluetooth keyboard (I’ve already established that I can’t survive with on-screen keyboard alone…)
  • $99 for an extra year of Apple Care (like the iPhone, it still doesn’t have a user-serviceable battery)

Grand Total: $1,036, plus tax. PLUS $30/month for the 3G data service. Hmmm, this definitely exceeds my gotta-have-it-right-this-second threshold. So in a rather uncharacteristic display of self-restraint, I resisted my initial impulse to buy the shiny toy and sat down to consider …

How Exactly Will I Use It?

I came up with the following use cases, the first two based on the big boss’s demo:

Media-rich newspapers. Wow, this is dramatic – color photos, tap here and there to see what’s behind it, slide over here to get a searchable, tappable index. Snazzy. But wait, I don’t read national newspapers now, and having a fancy colorful device isn’t going to change that (any more than joining a gym is going to make me work out). I have no idea when local papers like the Press Democrat will be producing this content (if ever).

Media-rich magazines. Again with the colors and tapping and sliding (or is it ‘gesturing’?). More pizazz. But wait again, what magazines do we read at our house? Time and The Economist? Nope. Clean Run, American Rifleman, Rider, and <insert equally obscure and niche-y magazine name here>. Clean Run has already stated that their small circulation (and even smaller number of iDevice customers) can’t possibly support the investment in ‘rich’ iDevice-ready content.

Watching videos. Yep, I thought this would be the winner. I do watch videos on mobile devices, mostly when I’m traveling in the trailer with the dogs. Currently, I use my MacBook Pro to watch Netflix movies on DVD, and my iPod Nano or MacBook to watch training DVDs that I’ve Handbrake‘d into iTunes. The iPad will clearly excel at the latter, but really, we’re talking about training videos – quality and size aren’t that important and they work quite nicely on the Nano. And what about movies? Oops, no DVD player on the iPad. Streaming? According to reviews I’ve read, streaming only works on Wi-Fi, not worth a hoot on 3G. I’m not surprised, given that the cell networks are already completely overwhelmed by the streaming that is happening now. And in most of the places I travel, there’s no Wi-Fi. Next?

Kindle backup. Rich and I share a Kindle and we both love it. So far, we haven’t had too much usage contention so it’s working out fine. When there is a conflict, I’ve discovered that the Kindle app works very well on my laptop and is even serviceable on my Blackberry. But the iPad was really compelling on this one, with its big screen and longer battery life. However, it won’t replace a second Kindle (which I’m pretty sure is in our future) for two important reasons: even the 10-hour battery life isn’t nearly enough to survive a week at the lake where there is no power source; and because the screen is backlit, it doesn’t work well outside in the sun. Um, never mind.

As It Turns Out, I’m Not Alone

I’m not the first one to take a closer look at personal use cases and reach this conclusion. Here’s a great article I found when I googled “ipad use cases” – The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It. If you are reading this blog with any interest at all, please, please, take a moment to read Mr. Wilhelm’s article. He reminded me of something I hadn’t even thought of – this fancy device can only run one app at a time and has no tabbed browser capability. Are you kidding me? No multi-tasking? Even Palm switched from the Treo to the Pre. No tabbed browsers? Even the luddites amongst us finally abandoned IE6 for Firefox and (at least) IE7. (Obviously I don’t use an iPhone or I wouldn’t even find this surprising.)

Conclusion (for now, anyway . . . )

Many geek pundits are heralding the iPad as a game-changer and a laptop/netbook-killer. I’m inclined to agree, long term. But it’s not even close to being there yet, at least for me. Time will tell. Perhaps an app will show up that I simply must have. Perhaps the cell carriers will finally beef up their infrastructure to meet the demand. Perhaps the price will fall below my gotta-have-it-right-this-second threshold. Perhaps they’ll introduce a multi-tasking version of the OS, or at least a tabbed browser. I’ll wait and see. And when my friends approach me for my geek opinion, my answer will be “Validate your actual use cases before you decide and don’t get sucked in by the ‘Shiny!’ factor alone.”

1 Comment | Computing and eReaders | Permalink
Posted by agilepooch