Pet repellant
You know you do it, too. Magazines, Tupperware covers, books, paper towels soaked in bitter-apple spray--all to prevent your dog from spending the day stretched out (and shedding) on the couch. In the end, all that your efforts really result in is a bunch of torn Atlantic Monthly and Vogue covers from your dog lying on top of them.
(Credit:
Pro-Idee)
Well, no more. Remember the electric fence? Oh, yes. Another cruel invention for the fur kid you supposedly love. The Sofa Guard, about $37.50 on Pro-Idee, is a black mat about 4.5 feet long powered by a 9-volt battery.
When little Hudson begins to climb up onto the Sofa Guarded couch, a 105-decibel siren sounds and jolts him, as well as the neighbors. The alarm stops, once your dog stops touching the mat.
Source: Ubergizmo.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
