your daily useless information

I talked to my Dad last night and he mentioned that I neglected to give him credit for the two books I recommended in this post. So just so everyone knows, my dad has great taste in books :) My birthday was in December, and I feel I should also mention that he gave me the coolest birthday present ever... he found my old Speak 'N Spell! And it still works!. I was just watching Modern Marvels on the History Channel (here's where the useless information comes in) and the Texas Instruments Speak 'N Spell, introduced in 1978, was the first hand held devise to use DSP (digital signal processor) technology. DSP was used to create the "voice" of the toy. So when you hear your cell phone or GPS, know that the technology used to create the rings and the voices is the same technology first introduced in the coolest kids toy ever. To add a little financial useless information to this, the Speak 'N Spell originally cost $60 when it was introduced in 1978. That's about $200 in inflation-adjusted dollars. My Speak 'N Spell is circa 1984, and look just like the one in the picture.