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The holiday season is upon us again and the retailers are itching for your cash. Around this time (earlier actually), people start asking me what I want for “Christmas”. Nobody I know is terribly Christian, but we all celebrate the commercialized version of Christmas — you know: eggnog, parties, gifts, Santa, trees, etc. In an effort to help friends and family out, here are a couple things that would interest this geek (Hey, it could help other shopping for their own geeks as well). No one is under any obligation, of course. I’ll update as other things come to mind.

Unicomp Keyboard
Specifically, the EnduraPro USB. I’m not that picky about keyboards, but I do have preferences. I’m really not all that fond of the color scheme (or the price) but this is probably the only high quality keyboard with a built-in “Trackpoint”-like device. As a UNIX developer by trade, I sit in front of a bunch of terminal windows all day. Most of my work does not require the use of the mouse. But all too often, in the flow of things, I have take my hands off the keyboard, reach over to the mouse, highlight something, and paste it into another terminal. This annoys me to no end. The Trackpoint solves this, and I actually prefer the Trackpoint over a touchpad. I’d probably prefer a Trackpoint in the middle of my classic Microsoft Natural keyboard (non-elite), but I’m willing to make some compromises (and with the split the Trackpoint may be too far from the fingers and require me to lift my hands anyways). And remember, it’s the USB version I want.

A Bluetooth headset that works

What do I mean by works?

• Sounds good
• Good reception
• Good battery life
• Replaceable battery
• Charges with a standard mini-USB connector

Since nothing like that exists (sorry they’re all really crap), something like the Plantronics Voyager 510. From reviews, it seems like it’s got pretty decent sound quality and reception and battery life on par with other headsets. It doesn’t have a replaceable battery, but then few headsets do. It’s a touch ugly — it’s got that weird Star Trek prosthetic look going, but my last headset (a Nextlink Bluespoon AX) had the cool look going with marginal sound quality, and I’m ready to swing to the other side of the spectrum. Regardless of the sound quality, a Bluetooth headset does offer some level of convenience.

Serenity DVD (widescreen)

Serenity is the movie based on the Firefly TV show. I never saw Firefly when it first aired, but my friends dragged me to the movie. The movie made a fan out of me. Afterwards, I went and found the Firefly boxset and watched all the episodes.

Maxpedition Fatboy Versipack

Sometimes I carry too much crap to fit in my pockets. Sometimes I could use a “man purse”. I’d get one, except I wouldn’t want it to be confused with a “chick purse”. That’s where the Maxpedition FatBoy Versipack comes in. In fact it may be a little too manly. I haven’t decided if it is too “tactical” looking. But I think in the black, the lines and pockets of the Fatboy will be less obvious and thus less “tactical” looking. Either way I won’t be using it for formal functions. I can see it being used when traveling, hiking, and .. uh.. yeah. I’m not sure about day to day use yet. I’d have to overcome some things first.

Fisher Bullet Space Pen

I had a Fisher Bullet Space Pen a while ago. It was very handy. Then I lost it when it fell out of my pocket somewhere. I eventually got another. It was also very handy. Then I lost it when it fell out of my pocket somewhere. Do you see a pattern yet? They are extremely handy. It was quite convenient for me, the size made them easy to carry. Unfortunately the size also made them easy to loose. At least they aren’t super expensive. Oh well.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2005 at 2:06 am and is filed under Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.