Perhaps I’m just odd (I’ve been accused of it before), but I really enjoy the sounds of the city in my apartment. Much like staying inside and listening to the rain, there is a certain joy that comes from absorbing yourself in the world outside while also enjoying the comforts of your home.

However there are times when the hustle and bustle of the city is not the optimal soundtrack for your relaxation. Sure you can play some music or ambient noises to drown them out, but the effect can be quite harsh and serve as a poor substitute or combatant to the ambience of the outside world.

Designer Rudolph Stefanich apparently felt the same, which may explain what led him to design a world noise canceller prototype of sorts called the Dial it Down.

Featuring a touch controlled dial and affixing to the inside of your window, the Dial it Down acts much like a pair of noise cancelling headphones and can either tone down, or completely block the noise of the outside based on your settings. More impressive, though, may be its ability to filter and replace the exterior noise and turn it into something more docile like the sounds of nature or even just isolate certain noises until you’re hearing exactly what you want to in your home.

While still in the prototype stage, it’s clear that the complex design of the Dial it Down is more than just a whimsical notion and is realized enough to actually come to fruition. Let’s hope that is the case too, as its ability to allow the user to control the noise of their home in a more organic and natural way not reliant on blasting as many decibels as possible is a very desirable luxury.

Touch screens have become so commonplace that it’s difficult to remember the thrill the mere idea of them once generated, or recreate that rush you got from actually using one the first time.

They are still incredible pieces of technology despite their prominence, and to help remind you of that comes a system called Ubi interactive that turns any hard surface into a touch screen.

Developed over several years by Ubi, and sponsored by Microsoft, the program uses a special projector, the always impressive (except when it comes to gaming) Kinect sensor, and a compatible PC. The projector displays the PC image onto the surface of your choice, and the Kinect lets you interact with it using many of the same gestures you do to interact with the touch screen of your favorite device.

The demo video shows off several uses for this tech (from museum guides, to boardroom presentations and retail displays) but from the looks of the technology’s accessibility and functionality, there are few public venues or businesses that don’t have some use for this technology, even if it is largely to make a cosmetic improvement over an existing function. Even in the home, where the Ubi loses some practicality, I’m sure it’s not hard to imagine an entertaining use or two.

Considering that the basic package of this software runs $499, you probably won’t be seeing as many companies that can potentially use this tech actually implement it, but this looks to be a finely honed piece of technology that will be popping up in offices, classrooms, and more very soon, and reminding everyone who encounters it just how incredible touchscreen technology is.

I like to think of myself as a practical man who at least recognizes the rules of the world, even if I don’t always understand them, and doesn’t live to long with his head in the clouds pondering on impractical notions.

But for the life of me, I just don’t understand why dieting means I can’t eat fried foods.

Sure they’re just about the worst thing in the world for you, but they’re also really, really good. No that doesn’t justify them as a health food, but it’s not fair that we can’t eat the most delicious achievement in culinary evolution just because you can feel it chipping away at your life as it goes down.

Recognizing the problem lies in that delicious oil that frying takes, Hammacher Schlemmer have crafted a viable deep frying alternative that instead uses infared heaters to reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees and produce perfectly fried foods that are actually, if only slightly, healthier for you. You even get separate compartments so you can have even more slightly healthier for you deep fried foods.

Minor health element aside, the real appeal of the lack of oil to use this device is the fact that cooking oil for deep frying is actually incredibly expensive and, as news stories every Thanksgiving remind us, very dangerous if not handled properly. For $250 then, this is actually not an entirely impractical kitchen gadget, for those who want the ability to take a perfectly reasonable food, and deep fry the hell out of it at their leisure.

If I were to tell you that a creative and reasonably priced item with a unique, yet practical, solution to a common modern day need was coming out, you wouldn’t be blamed for looking for the obligatory Kickstarter link, and start wondering how much the minimum contribution is.

That’s because while that site is heavily flawed (for instance, some developers exceed their requested amount by almost a $100,000 and still blow all the money, not release the product, and fail to have any reasonable plans for a refund in sight), it’s a consistently entertaining source of devices that make you go “Hmmm, interesting” possibly while smoking a pipe.

But this particular device actually comes not from Kickstarter, but from our friends at Google.

Called the Chromecast, it’s capable of broadcasting content from popular devices (be it iOS, Android, or computer) straight to your TV. Admittedly that’s a feature only impressive if you’ve never heard of HDMI, DVI, or VGA cables, but the Chromecast gains a leg up in that it’s not a cable at all, but rather an HDMI plug-in that can transmit the feed wirelessly from your selected device. All you have to do is find a compatible program, select a cast button, and you can view the feed from that program on your TV.

Of those programs, only the presence of Netflix seems to be superfluous, considering that anyone with an HDMI port on their TV likely has Netflix compatibility for it in one way or another. The other compatible programs like Youtube, Google Play, and Google Chrome are much more encouraging, with that last one really driving home the point that the Chromecast is aiming to turn almost any TV into something more resembling a “smart” TV for the mere cost of $35.

Even though I think the adding of the word smart before a device and calling it a day is a trend that needs to die a thousand deaths, the Chromecast is far and away the most exciting device of its kind I’ve ever seen, and with more program support (fingers crossed for Steam) can become an essential home device, though its base loadout justifies its meager $35 asking price already.

Plus, unlike Kickstarter campaigns, this one is actually supported by a legitimate company (rather than “some guys”) and is not only likely to properly function as advertised, but will also probably include a definitive release date, which are things that are becoming significantly more foreign in the world of intriguing and affordable devices than I tend to like.

Whether it be the suspicious prices, the forced conversations (or awkward silences depending on your barber), or the odd social phenomena that is staring at yourself in a mirror while a stranger runs their fingers through your hair, men have plenty of reasons to not like going to get a haircut.

Much like the dentist though, it’s just one of those unpleasant things that you have to suck up and get through every once in a while, especially since the act of cutting your own hair is usually only associated with comically bad hairstyles and behind the back laughter.

However, in case you’ve forgotten, we do live in an age where everything that once was suddenly no longer has to be and, thanks to a little gizmo called the single handed barber, that may now include the stigma surrounding self-haircuts.

The single handed barber is an electric hand held rotary cutter that promises to give you a clean and even cut, with no more effort than it would take to comb your hair. Thanks to separate attachments, you can get cuts at 1/8”, 1/4”,1/2”, or 3/8” lengths, and the rechargeable battery works for five minutes with a 16 hour charge (though a plug in option is available).

While you probably won’t be able to use this device to fashion that mohawk you’ve always wanted, as long as you don’t mind trusting your hair to something that looks like the little cousin of a Roomba, the single handed barber might just be the perfect $60 solution for those times when you need a trim, and really want to skip the barber.