Roscoe Gort, a Gearhead reader from Durham, N.H., just wrote in commenting on the recent Gearhead column “Jott, Twitter, RSS Feeds and Goosh”: “If this were April 1st, I would think your 6/9 column on Jott, Twitter, etc. in Network World was a spoof.” Really? OK . . . 

“The description of using Jott to remind yourself to get milk is a classic example of a technology looking for some justification -- and not finding it. You would pull off the freeway while calling Jott from your cell phone, right? And you would pull off again when the reminder was texted to you, right? Whatever happened to the idea of having an index card and pen in your pocket and marking "milk" on it as you drive down the freeway steering with your knees (as you would be with your cell phone anyway)?”

Roscoe, I know three people apart from me who use Jott religiously and have made it part of their working tools. I think that Jott, like Twitter and other novel communications tools, may seem at first blush to be weird, but once you “get it” you’ll wonder how the service could ever have escaped your notice and your use.

Roscoe then questioned why I would recommend Goosh, “the unofficial google shell.” “As for Goosh, why exactly would someone want to use this shell? Yes, it works as you describe, but so what?”

That’s easy -- because the concept of Goosh is cool. There are many of us who prefer command line interfaces because we find them faster in many situations than clicking around with a mouse. And just think about it: You could extend Goosh to interface with any Web service (Goosh actually has an extension system) and with the addition of pipes and redirection, you could create a ridiculously powerful set of Web service tools.

Well, that was kind of stressful. I feel a little tense now. How about you? Stupid question. I would bet cold, hard cash that you’re a little stressed most of the time. In fact you probably have trouble sleeping at night not only because you are a little wound up but also because you’ve worked too late for too many nights. You need to relax, unwind, de-stress. Here’s an answer: The Stress Eraser.

The Stress Eraser is very clever. It’s a sophisticated biofeedback device in a plastic box slightly smaller than a deck of cards with a flap on the top left corner, a small LCD screen on the front, and controls on the front and right side. You lift the flap, stick your left index finger under the flap and the Stress Eraser graphs your breathing and heart beat as a single curve on the screen the company calls a “BreathWave.” The device tells you when to exhale and the idea is to produce as smooth a curve as possible. Optionally you can have the Stress Eraser beep when it is time to exhale.