Just in Time for Halloween: Scary Tech Products

Halloween brings thoughts of all kinds of scary things. Anyone who follows high tech knows that you don't need to look far to make a list of the scary. Scary products, scary ideas, scary services...these are the some of the ones that haunt me. What tech scares you?

Web Addiction Web Sites: Sending an Internet addict to a web site to get help is like sending a junkie to rehab in Afghanistan. First take the quiz on NetAddiction.com to see how bad off you are. Then head over to sites like eGetgoing.com. They offer 12-step programs for conquering Internet addiction with online counseling.

The Camera Calculator: Don't tell me this is just what you were looking for? You can snap a photo and figure out what the honeymoon is going to cost you at the same time. This camera has a built-in calculator, but I'm not sure it adds up to much.

Bulletproof Backpack Insert: I wrote about the Backpack Shield recently and won't rehash the details, but bulletproofing your kids' backpacks seems like a scary thought to me.

Windows Vista: I'm not sure what the scariest part of Windows Vista is. Is it: How hard it is to just figure out which version of it you need? How to move your XP life over to Vista? How to find a driver for your old peripherals? The monthly critical fixes? Pick your poison-it's clear that the chief beneficiaries of Vista so far are XP and Apple's OS. Scary.

iPod Docking Station for Dogs: This one falls into the scary pet tricks category. Bad enough that pets are wearing jackets that are more expensive than mine. Now their jackets are doubling as iPod docking stations. Still in the conceptual phase, the jacket has speakers on each side and a space for the iPod in the middle. The remote control is in the dog leash. "Full metal jacket" takes on a new meaning.

WhyCry: This is a electronic gizmo from Spain that monitors your crying baby and then tells you whether she's hungry, bored, annoyed, sleepy, or stressed. What you do with that information is up to you, but based on some testing I did I'd take mom's intuition over a WhyCry reading any day.

Bowlingual Dog Translator: The WhyCry of the four-legged world. This gizmo analyzes your pets' needs by their barks. The URL: Bowlingual Translator is up for sale these days ($34K), but it was Time Magazine's most innovative product in 2002 and it caused a ruckus in Japan.

Status Technology: Scary to think that you could spend $150,000 on a pair of Cabasse's La Sphère coaxial speakers. The speakers have a unique eyeball-style shape that Cabasse claims delivers the best linear response time with a fraction of volume through its woofers. If you like the speakers try the $25,000 mouse. But does having an 18-karat white gold-encrusted mouse with 59 brilliant-cut diamonds in the shape of a flower really make you a better game player? Top it off with the cable of all cables. A meter pair will set you back $2,700.

Enough to Make Me a Vegetarian: It's called Sensorfresh, a small gun-shaped device that lets you discover if the meat in your fridge isn't fit for human consumption anymore. After tagging your raw meat, you hold the device a half-inch above the meat or poultry, press the button, and wait 30 seconds for a reading. If bacteria is detected, eat pasta for dinner. Three indicators tell you whether meat is fresh, edible or gone. $89.95 at Amazon.com.