But if websites have been part of the problem maybe they can be part of the solution? That’s the idea behind the Israel-based start-up Shidonni.

Shidonni has a variety of fun, imagination-enhansing online games for children. Kids can draw animals, for example, upload the drawing to the Shindonni site, and then have their animal creation roam around the virtual Shindonni world for others users to see.

And here’s our favorite part: On Shidonni you can take a child’s drawing of an imaginary creature and then turn it into a real life stuffed animal!

It’s easy: Simply create a free Shidonni account, have your child draw their animal (either a profile or straight-ahead picture), then go to the website’s “One-of-a-Kind Planet” area and place your order for $80. A stuffed, three-dimentional, 12-inch (30cm) high rendition of the animal in your child’s drawing will arrive in the mail a week or two later. Check out what Shidonni’s animal drawing and manufacture process looks like in the video below.

Shidonni has won a Parent’s Choice Gold Award and is unreservedly declared a Most Excellent Choice by Spot Cool Stuff. But the most important endorsement will come from your children.

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The new Tony Hawk: Ride offers to change that—the game for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 comes with a physical skateboard controller.

So, good news first: The Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard is solidly built and feels great underfoot. It isn’t like the dubious skateboard attachment to the Wii Fit Balance Board that feels cheap and plasticky. The Tony Hawk: Ride board is very much like a real life wheel-less skateboard. The board is curved in the front and back and senses not only back and forth foot motions but also side-to-side and hand motions.

Now the bad news: The board doesn’t work seamlessly. Or, we should say, it didn’t work as seamlessly as our (overly lofty) expectations thought it would. Sometimes it did, usually even. But on occasion the board would register a different action than the one intended. (This was particularly true of the hand motions). Every now and then an action wouldn’t register at all.

Given that is Tony Hawk: Ride worth buying?

For kids, absolutely. It happens that the board works best on the child-friendly Casual mode during which the virtual skateboard is automatically steered leaving the player to concentrate on doing tricks. Kids (eg. around 12 and under) will have a blast flailing around making their virtual Tony Hawk spin, jump and fly around.

For hardcore fans of skateboard video games Tony Hawk: Ride is probably worthy investment too, particularly for the Xbox and PS3 systems that don’t offer any comparable gaming experiences. If you are in this group set your expectations a little low and remember that the board works best on a thin non-shaggy carpet.

For everyone else, you may want to wait until the next version of Tony Hawk: Ride comes along. Spot Cool Stuff has no inside information that there will be a second version, but this game has so much potential that we have to imagine that there will be. In the meantime, you can always go out and buy a real skateboard.

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Here’s a rundown of our personal favorite ten submarine movies:

#10 The Enemy Below

At the height of World War II an American warship squares off against a German submarine. Watch as dueling captains, Robert Mitchum versus Curt Jürgens, struggle for supremacy. Not surprisingly, the 50+ year old The Enemy Below has an antiquated feel, especially the pacing and special effects, but the superlative plot carries it through. 1957

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# 9 Below

Below is less of a submarine movie and more of a Sixth Sense-like horror-suspence movie that happens to take place underwater. Submarine movie purist may want to navigate clear of this haunted tale. For lovers of ghost stories this flick staring Gary Broadway is a worthy watch. 2002

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# 8 Run Silent – Run Deep

A World War II submarine captain, Clark Gable, is bent on taking revenge against the Japanese sub that sunk his previous ship. And he’s determined not to let the safety of his crew or his executive officer (and personal rival) Burt Lancaster get in his way. Run Silent is more of a cautionary tale about the destructive nature of revenge than it is a serious action flick. Still, the close confines of a sub together with the superlative acting from an all-star cast make this psychological tale an entertaining watch. 1958

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#7 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

In Disney’s first (and some would still consider best) large budget movie, Kirk Douglas ends up on a fantastical submarine captained by an eccentric and reclusive James Mason. The duo experience several harrowing adventures, including battles with enormous creatures of the deep. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, both the film and the original Jules Verne’s book, have withstood the test of time reasonably well. A few remakes have been attempted over the years, the best of which might be a Nickelodeon cartoon version. Spot Cool Stuff would love to see a modern well-directed, well-special effected version. Are you listening Steven Spielberg? 1954

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#6 The Hunley

The first submarine to ever sink an enemy warship: The H. L. Hunley in 1864. The Hunley, a made-for-TV movie, stars Armand Assante and Donald Sutherland and depicts the incredible true story of this Confederate submersible and the soldiers who sacrificed to produce and operate it—and to keep it secrete from the Union. Sadly, is movie is only available on VHS though several compelling documentaries about the Hunley are available on DVD and Blu-ray, the History Channel’s History’s Mysteries Raise The Hunley foremost among them. 1999

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#5 Das Boot—The Director’s Cut

Many a movie critic has declared Das Boot the best sub movie ever. Spot Cool Stuff can not see why. We understand that real submarine warfare involves a lot of monotony and long bouts of tedium. But that doesn’t mean we want to see a movie with that same tedium, which is what Das Boot delivers. For the first 90 minutes of this movie we follow along as almost nothing happens aboard a German u-boat. Literally, even the movie characters spend this time lamenting the lack of action. The pace finally picks up 1 1/2 hours into this 2-DVD disc flick, enough to keep Das Boot from sinking out of our Top 5 . . . barely. 1981

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# 4 The Abyss

Can you make a thrilling submarine movie without the specter of war as part of the plot? The Abyss proves you can. A crew including Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are underwater petroleum engineers called upon to help recover a lost nuclear submarine. What they find is a mysterious race of creatures who live in the uncharted depths of the ocean and who seem to be plotting to wipe out humanity! 1989

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#3 U-571

A submarine movie with Matthew McConaughey and Jon Bon Jovi? That might seem like a recipe for disaster, yet somehow U-571 delivers a gripping tale of a WWII spy mission to secretly capture a German enigma decoding machine. Our band of heros begin their daring undertaking aboard a fake German submarine but soon find themselves in command of a real (and crippled) German u-boat after their plan goes awry. The plot was inspired by real mission conducted by the British. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair thought it an “affort to British sailors” that U-571 depicted all the heros as American. Nevertheless, this suspenseful yarn is anything but an affront to lovers of submarine movies. 2000

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# 2 Crimson Tide

Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington serve as the Captain and Executive Officer of an American nuclear submarine. The submarine is ordered to fire their missiles to prevent a nuclear launch upon the United States. Or is it? Hackman and Washington disagree, to say the least, on the proper course of action. What follows is a riveting chess game of mutinies and counter-mutanies between the two men. Crimson Tide is superbly acted and contains nearly the perfect mix of dialogue and action. 1995

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# 1 The Hunt For Red October

The Soviet Union built a new type of submarine that could alter the entire balance of the Cold War and its captain, Sean Connery, decides to defect to America with it. The Soviet navy tries to sink the sub before it falls into enemy hands while CIA operatives Alec Baldwin and James Earl Jones try to figure out what heck is going on. That’s the gist behind this superbly acted thriller based on a Tom Clancy novel of the same name; in addition to getting our vote for the best sub movie ever made The Hunt For Red October is also among the best book-to-movie adaptations we’ve seen. 1990

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That’s what Reko Rivera and Bobby Hartman did. Two years ago they developed an iPhone costume that simply played a looped video of an iPhone on a wearable TV screen. Not content with that, the duo recently decided to set about creating a “working” wearable iPhone that would respond to user input.

Their ingenious solution for doing that: Modify the software on a real iPhone to allow a live dual image output to the lcd TV while maintaining that image in landscape mode.

Obviously, the TV does not have touchscreen functionality. But all the data on a the screen is real time. Check out the video below.

By the way, Rivera and Hartman have set up an email where fan can contact them: guyphones@gmail.com.

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The vast majority of LOST was set in various locations around Hawaii. Even many of the locations that were supposedly not on the survivor’s island were shot in the Aloha State. The Sydney airport in LOST, for example, was really the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu.

Here’s our roundup of our favorite Hawaii LOST filming locations. They are each worthy travel destinations, both for those who are fans of the show and those who have never scene it (ie LOST fans-in-waiting):

Mokule’ia Beach

On the show: “The beach” where (most of) the main characters from Oceanic flight 815 crash landed. The majority of LOST episodes, especially in the first three seasons, include at least one look at Mokule’ia Beach. The island scenes in the very first episodes were almost exclusively shot here.

In real life: Mokule’ia is a gorgeous beach, surprisingly unvisited considering its LOST fame. Plus (as of October 2009) the section of the Oceanic airplane that was used as a prop in the first few episodes of the first season was still there! (To see it keep driving on the road for a few minutes past He’eia Pier).

To get to the beach from central Oahu—Wahiawa or Pearl City, for example—head north on route 99 (the Kamehameha Highway). Just before Hale’iwa there will be a sign for route 930 (the Farrington Highway). Head west. About 1 minute after you pass Dillingham Airfield on your left you’ll see Mokule’ia Beach Park on your right. Scenes from LOST were shot all along this stretch of shore, from the beach area across from Dillingham to the Kaena Point State Natural Area Reserve at the tip of Oahu.

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The Banyan Trees & the Turtle Bay Resort

In the show: Pay close attention to the foliage that forms the backdrop of several LOST island scenes and you’ll notice a reoccurring set of distinctive Banyan trees. We first see them in season one when poor Charlie is hung up by “The Others” (pic below). Survivors often walk past these trees on their way to some adventure and several characters have taken refuge within the arboreal ring the trees form (including Walt when he hid from the polar bear).

In real life: The Banyan trees are on the grounds of the Turtle Bay Resort. The portions of the lush resort for the backdrop for many other LOST snippets. Pretty much any scene in which the characters are walking through thick jungle were filmed here.

The Turtle Bay is close to other LOST locations (including Waimea Falls and Waialee Beach, reviewed below). No wonder then that members of the LOST cast and crew stayed here during filming. You can too. And you should. The resort is stunningly set on a peaceful and picturesque parcel of Oahu coastline. Tennis (there are 10 courts), surfing (with optional lessons through the renown Hans Hederman School) and horseback riding (on secluded beaches) are among the activities on offer. The standard rooms at the resort are a bit small and uninspiring—it is worth the money to upgrade to an ocean view room, if not a suite.

Note that non guests will have to pay a fee to enter the grounds. Guests at the resort can, of course, explore as they wish.

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Waimea Falls

On the show: Waimea made its first appearance on LOST in the episode where Kate and Sawyer had their first flirtatious swim—and found two dead bodies. In a later episode Paulo came across these falls and found within its waters Nikki’s bag with the diamonds and the Nicotine gum that ultimately lead to his demise.

In real life: The Waimea Falls are inside the Waimea Valley Audubon Center (formerly known as Waimea Falls Park) located on Oahu’s North Shore. Bring your bathing suite—visitors can go for a dip in the same swimming hole that Kate and Sawyer did. (Although, perhaps happily for visitors, the underwater dead body scenes were filmed in California). The 1,800 acre Audubon Center also features beautiful walking trails through lush foliage and wild peacocks roaming the grounds. The park is well worth a visit even apart from it’s link to LOST. The entrance fee is $10 but the parking, thankfully, is free.

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Waialee Beach

On the show: Most LOST scenes that took place on a narrow rocky beach were filmed here. This is the beach where those in the tail section of flight 815 landed. It is also where Jin liked to go fishing, where Kate took her revealing bath in the pilot episode (pic below) and where Jack got stitched up from his wounds.

In real life: Waialee Beach is the one attraction in this review that we might not suggest to non-LOST fans. It is a nice beach, but there are better ones nearby (around Kawela Bay, for example). This beach lies to the west of Kawela Bay before Hale’iwa on the north side of route 83.

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Byodo-In Temple

In the show: This is Sun’s father’s extravagant mansion in Korea. We got our first look at the mansion and its meticulously kept grounds in season one when Jin proposed to Sun on a bridge here.

In real life: LOST’s supposed Korean mansion is neither a mansion nor Korean. Instead, this elegant building is the Byodo-In, a fully functioning Buddhist temple a 30 minute drive north of Honolulu. The temple was built in the 1960s and is a near-exact replica of a temple of the same name in Uji, Japan (near Kyoto). Visitors (and their $2 admission fee) are welcome provided they are quiet during their stay and remove their shoes outside the temple. Open daily from 8:30am to 4:30pm.

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Ka’a'awa Valley

On the show: The island scenes that take place in an open, grassy field were shot here. Ka’a'awa is where Hurley built his golf course and went on the joy ride in the van. When characters hiked to and from adventures on the “other side of the island” their trek often included a shot of them traipsing through this valley. In the second episode Sayid, Kate, Charlie, Shannon, Boone, and Sawyer camp here and nearly come to fisticuffs arguing over the then-mysterious French woman’s radio transmission.

In real life: The Ka’a'awa Valley is private property, part of the Kualoa Ranch. (In fact, Ka’a'awa is often referred to as the Kualoa Valley). Fortunately, the ranch offers tour of their property by ATV, bus or horseback. In addition to showing you the LOST filming locations you’ll also see where scenes of several movies were shot, including 50 First Dates, Godzilla, Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park and Windtalkers.

LEARN MORE | FIND LOST GEAR | GET DVDs | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER |

Tours & LOST Gear

Tours

Kos Tours will take you by Hummer to all of the LOST locations we mention in this review.

Hawaii Activities has a four-hour-long tour that doesn’t involve riding in huge gas guzzling vehicles. The company also runs private, customized LOST tours.

Big Kahuna Hawaii has full-day tours for the serious LOST fans who aren’t content with the half-day offerings from Kos and Hawaii Activities

Gear

If you haven’t yet watched LOST absolutely must start from the very first show and work your way forwards from there. Amazon has the best prices on Bluray and DVD discs of past seasons.

For various LOST merchandise the official ABC store has a surprisingly large selection to choose from.

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Not so today. The internet is the great music equalizer. If you are looking to expand your musical horizons, or simply hear a cool tune you’ve never heard before, here are eight of our favorite sites. Though some have pay options, each site can be enjoyed free of charge:

Musicovery. This site is free?! Audiophiles who want to discover new music, or simply don’t know what they are in the mood to listen to, would pay a lot for Musicovery.com. (And, indeed, the site has a premium membership that streams higher quality music). What’s so cool about Musicovery is the interface. Select the genre(s) you want to listen to and your mood from a matrix of energetic to calm, dark to positive, and your suggested song starts playing on a page with a a sort of flow chart to similar tunes.

TuneGlue is similar to Musicovery in that you’ll get a visual representation of bands that are of similar music styles. The service is powered by Last.fm which is a great site in it’s own right for finding new music—type in an artist you like and you’ll get great musical recommendations.

Seeqpod is like a music search engine with streaming audio player. Type in an artist and Seeqpod will return all the tracks by that artist that are available on the internet. And we do mean all. Our search for “Kate Nash” came back with nearly 2,700 hits. Through Seeqpod you can play the whole of every track. If available, you’ll also get links to that artist’s MySpace, Wikipedia and streamSurf pages as well as links to buy the track, buy the ring tone and see upcoming tour dates. For each artist there’s also a “Discoveries” tab where you’ll get song recommendations.

Contrastream is a site where indie bands—especially in the soul, folk and hip-hop genres—upload songs. Site users then vote on their favorite songs, Digg-style. Most songs are available for free download though not always at the highest quality.

OWL. What a cool idea for a site! You upload the MP3 file of a song you like. Then select the part of that song you like most. Then OWL will analyze that snippet of music and use it to suggest other songs you may like. We’ve found their suggestions very hit & miss. But it’s always fun to see what OWl comes up with.

Pandora misleadingly claims to provide “internet radio.”The site is much cooler than that. You type in one or more of your favorite musical artists and Pandora will stream through a playlist of tunes it thinks you’ll like. Unlike normal internet radio, you hear all the songs from the start and have the ability to pause and skip tracks. You can also give songs a thumbs up or down. It is well worth creating a free Pandora account because in time the site will get smarter about serving up music to your tastes.

One Llama is certainly not the only aggregator of internet radio stations. But it is our favorite. (Many a post on Spot Cool Stuff have been written to musical accompaniment provided by One Llama). The site generally provides high quality streams, which is one reason why we like it. That the site lists each station’s recently played tracks is another. Most of all, we like One Llama’s system of browsing stations—find a stream to listen to by genre, artist, popularity or location of origin.

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Do you have a favorite source of music on the internet? We’ll listen to your comment below: