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We all know someone (ok, we’re guilty too!) who is tied to their computer during the work day and sometimes after… As the holidays are coming upon us quickly, here are some great gift ideas for the geek in your life.

If you know someone who is addicted to Facebook, give them the ability to pass judgment on things in the real world with these “Like” and “Dislike” ink stamps. They could use them for employee reports or they can go around stamping their co-workers on the head to let them know how they really feel. $12.99 — Amazon

If you’ve ever knocked over a drink at your desk that ended up destroying a keyboard or laptop, you’ll understand how the Spink cup holder can be a real lifesaver. It firmly attaches to the desk with a suction cup and drinks can be nestled within its walls for protection. It’s a great gift for clumsy people, which is why I’m putting it on my wish list. No more sippy cups filled with beer for me! $10.99 — Amazon

In case you haven’t heard, sitting can kill you. That’s why a lot of office dwellers are moving to standing desks. If you happen to know a cyclist, it’s also possible to get desks that are custom made to accommodate a bicycle. Kickstand Furniture designs adjustable desks that can do just that, making it possible to mount a bike on a trainer and cycle as you work. $1,499-$1,650 — Kickstand Furniture

For the full list, visit MSNBC Tech

Top 10 Gifts for People Tied to Their Computers

• Time poses this interesting question – is a bookless library still a library?

• Have you joined Google + yet? CNN Tech discusses some of the growing pains thus far…

• A possibly unnecessary technology creation – a wearable LED television, thanks to Geekologie.

• There is a new TED app available – receiving high praise thus far from Tech News World

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

Looking for the perfect gift for your geeky dad this Father’s Day? Look no further, here are some of the best gifts we’ve discovered…

• 640 GB USB Portable Hard Drive – Leather Wallet (available from VerbatimStore)  “Thin, portable and executive-inspired–the Verbatim Wallet Drive looks like a billfold but holds something even more valuable—your memories and data.”

• Space Invaders furniture – perfect for a game room or ‘man-cave’ (designed by Igor Chak)

• Noise Canceling Headphones (available from Bose) – these are especially great if your dad travels frequently. Comfortable and light, they also come with an airplane adapter.

• Outdoor Inflatable Theater (available from Hammacher Schlemmer) – that’s right, a 72 inch screen frame, weather-resistent PVC construction and it inflates in 5 minutes or less.

Do you have any fun & geeky ideas for Father’s Day? Feel free to leave them in the comments section!

This new book highlights the top 128 places any certified geek should visit-

“The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive by John Graham-Cumming takes a journey through the places where inventions and discoveries were made. Visit the world’s largest science museum in Munich or see Leonardo da Vinci’s last home in France.

For a real-life adventure to some of the places on the list, here is an article by Anne B. McDonald of PC World.

To order this book from Amazon: click here.

Frank Rose of Wired Magazine Online has some thoughts on it too – he wrote a great article about Hulu pulling some older episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” after feeling pressure from the powers that be, also known as the people who control the cash.

Read the whole article here: Hulu, a Victim of Its Own Success?

To those of us that live in the future and use Vista, (yes, I’m an optimist!) I wanted to share some of the Sidebar Gadgets that I have found the most useful since the time of release. I recently went through an update check on them all so they should be current.  I get most of my gadgets from http://thehobbylounge.com. Please note that you have to register to download.

 
So- what’s in the rar?*

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If you have a Windows Mobile device, chances are you are less than happy with the mobile browsing experience that IE gives you. It’s pretty bad – there is no Flash Player, pictures take forever to upload (if you can see them at all), and did I mention how sl-ow it is? Well fret no more!

Skyfire has just released their new beta browser and I think I’m in love. It’s fantastic – you can watch videos, listen to music, check your social networking sites or whatever you need from the internet that you couldn’t previously get on your phone. No longer is the IPhone the lone purveyor of  YouTube on the go! No longer is Active X and Flash the bane of your mobile experience!

If you have a Windows or Symbian (Nokia) phone, you owe it to yourself to download this as soon as you have a chance.

http://www.skyfire.com/

I give this 4 out of 4 lightsabers.

(Image source: Wikipedia Lightsaber Collection)

I was tooling around this weekend trying to find a media center that can play Divx, Xvid, H.264, .MKV, etc  video files and I finally found a winner. Windows Media Center does not like any of these formats, though Divx and Xvid will be available with Windows 7 edition.

The XBMC Media Center is an Open source little bit of wonder. It comes in a Windows, Linux, or Mac client and can do pretty much everything you would wish for out of an open source media center. (BluRay support is not quite there yet)

http://xbmc.org/

It’s an 80 meg exe, and pretty lightweight. It ran great on my wife’s old laptop, and streams music and video from other networked devices like a champ. You can also use a Windows Media Center Remote and Transceiver, though it takes a good amount of work.

Even though the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads were almost immediately deemed confusing, ineffective and worse yet – unfunny, it appears they did manage to at least get people’s attention. However, the new hot rumor running rampant on the internet is that Seinfeld was fired and Microsoft is now panicking to push out their next step. Other “sources” from within Microsoft are insisting it’s all part of a multi-phase ad campaign and they are simply moving on to the next phase.

But with the new “I’m a PC” ads, it looks like they scrambled to put something together that doesn’t really set or match the tone of the original commercials/message. To make matters worse, the new commercial opens with a John-Hodgman look-a-like saying “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” They paid over $300 million for the Seinfeld ads and this was the best they could do? A swipe at the competition?

Don’t get me wrong- (more…)

Samurize is a robust and versatile utility you can use to embed information on your desktop. You can have everything from a stylized clock to RAM to CPU statistics, an embedded text file to controls for your media player of choice.

The program creates .INI files which are used as configuration, displaying your chosen information on the desktop. You can create and edit these configurations from the Config Editor, which gives you a desktop template for you to play with. You can add system meters, pictures and text to your hearts content, placing them wherever you want.

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