Blue Book of Boats

A new device in the market called the TouchSquid, which is a universal remote control tablet makes a nice addition to any home theater system setup in a luxury yacht or megayacht. TouchSquid replaces a basketful of remote controls and keep the home theater room tidy.

TouchSquid Technology Inc. a Vancouver, BC based company is the manufacturer of the TouchSquid Remote Control Infrared Tablet now available through the Amazon store and select dealers in USA, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

TouchSquid has a 5-way multi-touch screen where commands are sent using hand gestures such as a tap, press, swipe, slide or drag…. A squid has ten tentacles built for mult-tasking, which is ideal for controlling multiple remote controls. Hence the company tagline of “Got too many remote controls? get a Squid.”

In an interview with Grahame Shannon, the president and head of the development team. “It is the apps that make a device work. Without the apps, a device is nothing. We are primarily a software developer, and our mission is to develop the best TV universal remote control app in the market.”

TouchSquid tablet comes with an embedded Infrared transmitter/ receiver and a proprietary remote control app. This allows it to communicate with your Home Theater devices, including TVs, Cable and Sat boxes and DVD/Blu-ray players as well as Media centers and Game boxes. The app takes a well organized Activity based approach to Home Theater control, similar in concept to the popular Logitech Harmony controls, but presented on a generously scaled touch screen. Read the rest of this entry »

The world’s largest aluminum luxury motor yacht NOMAD (ex Floridian and Aussie Rules) was featured in the movie “Killers” starring Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl. Nomad was built in 2003 by OceanFast of Australia, and has undergone a superb refit in mid 2005. Designed for long range exploration and comfortable cruising, it has a cruising range of 8,000 nautical miles. She is one of the most impressive and famous yachts available for charter with a massive collection of toys, tenders, fishing and dive equipment; in addition to swimming pool, wet bar, cinema and a helicopter landing pad.

In the movie Killers, there is a scene showing Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher) sneaking onto a boat (The Nomad), putting a time bomb on the bottom of a helicopter, then taking out a guard. He then swims back and goes on the date with Jen (Katherine Heigl). (Photo on left shows Spencer (Ashton Kutcher) getting out of the boat through the anchor hawsepipe by grabbing hold of the anchor chain.

For technical data and interior photos on the yacht Nomad, check out Blue Book of Boat Listing. Charter rate for this yacht – ball park figures around $490,000 to $650,000 US dollars per week depending on hi or low season.

Three separate colourful pieces, the top, the shorts and the leopard skin purse all in different print patterns. Only Beyonce can pull this off. Big clunky necklaces, one on top of another. Large retro bling rings, blue nailpolish. Chunky bracelet.

Beyonce and husband are seen here while holidaying aboard the 180 ft super charter yacht Altitude based in the French Riviera. Find out more about Altitude in our boat design section. Charter rate for this yacht? $377,000 per week. Accomodates 14 guests, crew of 14, 6 guest cabins.

Still think that Tiger Woods’ $20 million yacht “Privacy” is expensive? How about Paul Allen – co-founder of Microsoft, the third richest man in the USA and – his yacht named “Octopus”….Octopus, the world’s 6th largest super yacht comes with a price tag of
$250 million US
with an annual maintenance cost of US$20 million.

The yacht has many additional accessories including
2 helicopters on the top deck,
a swimming pool on deck,
a 10-man submarine which can sleep 8 for a 2 week duration,
a remote control vehicle for crawling the ocean floors,
a 63 foot tender on the transom, and many many more……

The moral is: No matter how rich you are, somebody is richer,
No matter how pretty you are, somebody is prettier,
No matter how smart you are, somebody is smarter,
No matter how young you are, somebody is younger,
No matter how many postings you have on your blog, somebody has more,
No matter how good your blogs, someone else’s is better….

so just accept it, and life becomes much easier and more relaxed.