This week marks a milestone in Techeye’s professional life, an event so momentous that we’ve actually written a journal entry about it. That might not seem significant to you, but consider this – the last time something journal-worthy happened was in 1988. The passage in question reads: “Best day ever. Tommy puked on Sarah Pinkus after lunch and pepperoni chunks were stuck to her forehead.”

What could top that? Well, here’s a short list: Being elected grand poobah of the Isle of Muck. Inventing a delicious, nutritious form of dust. Gaining society’s approval to live in a polyamorous relationship with a women’s volleyball team.

Sadly, none of those things have happened yet. But we’re still excited to announce that this week, for the first time ever, Techeye is featuring reader-submitted gadgets.

The first of these was brought to our attention by a reader who might be a sentient-but-deranged algorithm making contact from the depths of cyberspace or a human being who struggles to spell his own name. Either description matches our readership.

In any case, friend Dabiel wrote to us about the Zeta Zero, a line of high-end speakers from Polish audio equipment-maker TR Studios (www.audio-high-end.com). This is a relatively young enterprise, but it’s clear that Tomasz Regula, founder of the firm and a sound engineer by trade, has ambitious plans. His website, while still a work in progress, promises an impressive 12 language options, including Arabic, Hebrew, English and “United States.”

Pictured is the Venus Picolla model from the Zeta Zero line, a speaker capable of blaring out 120 decibel of sound pressure. That’s about as loud as a vuvuzela or an American tourist in Rome.

The Venus Picolla speakers are currently available at select audio-equipment shops in Warsaw as well as online. Price ranges from zł.24,000-60,000 and three finishes are available: “bronze-mahogany transparent,” “black” and “sahara.” If anyone’s interested in seeing the speakers up close, they’ll be on display at Audio Show 2011, taking place November 12-13 in Warsaw.

This week’s other product recommendation came from a reader who asked to remain anonymous. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call her “Mom.”

Technically “Mom” told us about the Lytro (www.lytro.com), a new light field camera from the eponymous American tech firm, a long time ago. But that was before the company actually had the product ready. That didn’t stop “Mom” from pestering us about the Lytro, though. Week after week, all we heard was, “Why haven’t you written about it yet?” and “What’s the matter, are you too busy to write about it?” and “Doesn’t this skin tag look like the Virgin Mary?”

So Techeye is finally writing about the Lytro. Happy “Mom”? Really, are you happy now?
At first glance, the Lytro looks more like a kaleidoscope or the kind of flashlight you find in a duty-free catalog. That’s because the technology inside – which we won’t pretend to fully understand – demands a long casing rather than a wide one.

But the rectangular-ness of the Lytro isn’t why it’s generating major buzz. The main selling point is that instead of focusing before you take a picture, you do this afterwards, focusing on whatever you want. Also, because no auto-focus motor is necessary, there’s no shutter delay.

The upshot is that the internet will probably be inundated with baby and/or pet pictures, as those creepy people who spend hours trying to take silly photos (which they then spam unfortunate family and friends with) finally achieve a measure of success.

Currently the Lytro comes in three variants: graphite or electric blue, both of which have 8 GB of memory (enough for 350 photos), and red hot, with 16 GB (750 photos). The former run $399, the latter $499.

Techeye might even pick one of these up, if only to document our life-long quest to create delicious, edible dust.

Ever lived in a polyamorous relationship with an entire sports team? Let us know: techeye.wbj@gmail.com