Now I have objective data to back up my theory--independently supported by Nelly--that it's gettin' hot in herre, and we should take off all our clothes.

@scarbrtj: I'm thinking that phenomenon might possibly be happening in conjunction with the roof being on fire.

Although I haven't performed a detailed analysis, at this time the involvement of H2O to retard further combustion appears unwarranted.

Combust, oedipal actualizer, combust.

Probably more for an enterprise environment where you need environmentals from a remote location. Having a remote data center hit 120F room temperature because some janitor decided to switch off the AC sucks.

Sorry Kit, I know this is OCD on my part - but the pic has the temp as -40°C to 120°C. That is -40°F to 248°F.
I guess if you leave your running laptop in a parked car on a hot August day.

You know we have a lot of fun here at Gizmodo, but one thing sure isn't funny:
Not replacing your smoke alarm batteries.

Do it today.

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So what's stopping you (or me) from taking a moderately powerful laptop with wireless capability and connecting a webcam and this module to it via USB.

Now combine that with some sort of interface to control an RC vehicle remotely via that wireless connection and stick the thing on top.

Even with short battery life you end up with a cool little ROV.
Eventually I'm going to dig out my own wheeled ROV and retrofit the thing's old analog systems out to do just that.

Aside from that, a few different USB modules like these plugged into a wireless USB hub could be fashioned into an interesting little remote weather station if done correctly.

Stick that mess in a weatherproof box and use a directional antenna or something to get longer range, or have it right outside your window!

Science!

Really this would work at my work. I work in a hospital and we have x ray power rooms that have PC's that run the in's and out's and i could have one of these hanging out in the room logging the data to the network drive and maybe if i had a time machine i could get this 2 weeks ago before a AC unit went down and did about $400,000 worth of damage to our IR sweet.

Or. now this is just a big guess, these things could be used as a cheaper alternative for probing conditions in data centers in different environments. LOL crazy thought, I know, but just imagine that. Wowsers

@wk1234: Nope - you're right. Cheers. :)

no OS X drivers? Shoot, until that it sounded interesting...

@strider_mt2k: Science! Neato ROV idea. Do it!

I actually have a use for this...

Wireless USB!

If you have an internal USB port available you might like to do trend reporting on your computer with this. I have Macs, so I can't use this (well, in Mac OS X mode anyway), but it sounds pretty nifty. I have temp and humidity probes around my servers that hook into my APC UPSes with network and environmental monitoring cards, which can shut down the systems if it gets to hot in the ambient area. It would be neat if you could use these USB sensors to do that, as it would sure be cheaper than what I use.

Wow...this will go perfect with the magic mushroom growing setup right next to my computer....

@strider_mt2k: The More You Know [RAINBOW]

I would be great if it could send out an SMS or email alert just before the servers start to melt.

Make it pollable by SNMP and I'd buy three.

I'd buy it if it told me the barometric pressure. I get migraines sometimes when the barometer changes rapidly.

If you don't know what to do with it, you probably don't need it!
But it could be useful for growing pot, ya know, so the water and ventilation are automated while you're out working da bong.

'twould be cool for a garden 'bot of some kind too...

Some sort of a retractable probe to get soil data: Temp, moisture, pH while something like this grabs ambient air data from above that location.

If you're into it enough the thing could do daily rounds, gathering enough data to create graphs and charts and all kinds of other neat stuff the inventor/gardener can think up.

Of course I'd really want to have three of 'em so i could name them Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

"Take care of the forest..."

Wish they'd come up with one that includes a barometer. That, I would buy.

This and a whole lot of other stuff like this have been on dealextreme.com for a long time, I hear the software is terrible and you can't do many of the things you dreamed about in the above posts.

@mojoald: most of the server grade APC UPS systems have temperature and humidity sensors as options. more than $24... but it's not like the UPS systems themselves are cheap... so you might as well. most server rooms have some sort of battery backup i would imagine.

@mmcdermot: ...and the server grade APC UPS systems also have a three-tier warning system that can send out emails / SMS for various events. i just have mine send an email to my cell company provided SMS email account... no specific SMS feature.