Mable's Unique Shopping Blog » Nerd

Start Jumping to Conclusions on Leap Year

Sean — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:20:18 +0000

In honor of leap day I’d like to invite you all to start jumping to conclusions. Thanks to modern science we are all able to easily jump to conclusions by simply leaping forward in a particular direction. Simply amazing. Also included in the official Office Space Kit is a mini red stapler, Initech mug, TPS reports, starter “flair”, “Is this Good for the Company” sign, and a sticker for a copy machine that says “PC Load Letter.”

All this for only $12.99.

What does this mysterious “Jump to Conclusions” Mat look like? Find out.

Gadget Gift Roundup Part 1

Lauren — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:22:50 +0000

Gadgets are a part of daily life for pretty much everybody in 2007, so gadget gifts aren’t just for computer nerds anymore! We’ve rounded up some great tech gift ideas for everyone on your list. Whether you’re shopping for a business professional, social network butterfly, or any gadget-lover in-between, keep reading for some retail inspiration.

6 Device Electronics Charger: This little beauty is going to simplify a lot of lives. It’s six tentacles contain “six adapters that fit most portable devices, allowing an entire briefcase-full of electronic office tools to be fully powered in an average of two hours”. Comes with a regular and car charger so that you can also power up on the go.

Roomba 500 Series Robot Vacuum: It’s December 2007, and jet packs are still not available yet. The next best thing would definitely be the cleaning robots available from iRobot. Not only is the new 500 series vastly improved from earlier models, but there are also robots that mop your floors, vacuum up your shop, and clean your gutters. Also, with no AI chip* there’s no threat of your Roomba leading an electronic revolt. *(You’ll need iRobot Create developers kit for that)

Chaotic-Artistic Gadget Organizer: Shopping for an oxymoron? This beautiful tangle of wires is named Harry, and he is as unique and tech savvy as his future owner. Inside his guts you can have fun nestling not just gadgets, but keys, wallets, and whatever else you’re likely to throw on the table as soon as you get home.

DIY Laptop Sleeve/Bag: The laptop bags that we featured in our Indie Christmas part 1 post were amazing, but sometimes totally custom is the way to go. Let your laptop lover design every detail of their bag with the Skooba customizable sleeve that also cleverly transforms into a handled bag.

Bluetooth Rear View Mirror: Between cell phone laws and sloppy drivers, Bluetooth devices continue to prove themselves invaluable for traveling. The only question is, which will make you look crazier: talking to an earbud or talking to your rearview mirror?

USB Podcast Studio Kit: Blogging is so 2006. All the cool kids (and pretty much everyone else) know that podcasting is where its at. With this kit, give your nouveau podcaster “everything needed for crystal clear audio recording and editing”, packed up all cool into an aluminum briefcase.

Check back in a couple days for some last minute gift ideas in our Gadget Gift Roundup Part 2.

The 8-Bit Tie for those 8-Bit Gamers

Sean — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:54:23 +0000

Remember the 8-bit days of running and jumping from left to right and trying to avoid those carnivorous plants that arose from sewer pipes? Yeah me too. I was a rough life. Well fast forward 2 decades or so and now we are dealing with wireless controllers with like 8x more buttons and visual effects that we swear look totally real. If you or someone you know likes to reminisce of the simple 8-bit days then this pixelated style clip-on tie, dubbed The 8-Bit Tie, is a unique gift sure to be enjoyed. It has a silk-like feel, and each one is handmade for that special touch. Wear it with a button up, regular t-shirt, or snap it on your dog, where ever it goes it screams video game nostalgia and lets others know you are an old school techie fan.

For other novel ties with a techie flair check out ThinkGeek’s “Ties Suck” Tie and their Power Tie.

IM IN UR (noun) (verb)ING UR (second noun)

Lauren — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:39:52 +0000

You know you’re an Internet nerd when you actually LOL at shirts like this… which I did. Several times. Internet memes spread like wildfire, taking a decently funny or interesting idea and morphing them into something even better. A joke is always more enjoyable when you can look around the room (metaphorically, when it comes to Internet stuff) and see that other people get it, too. Internet memes are like that. Now that Think Geek has made a writable/washable shirt about it, it probably qualifies for the Internet Meme Hall Of fame. The possibilities are endless with this phrase (as seem in the galleries linked below), so get creative and be sure to keep the included marker handy. As TG says “Bored with what you wrote this morning? Throw the shirt in the wash and think up a new saying. It’s like Mad Libs meets Photoshop in a head-to-head deathmatch on your chest.” Yep, it’s exactly like that. You can also just use water and wipe the marker off, for rapid-fire slogan changing.

$16.99

iPod Converter: Upload any media to your iPod

Sean — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:01:10 +0000

Do you have a bunch of CDs, cassette tapes, vinyl, VHS tapes, etc. that you want converted to digital format for future preservation? This iPod converter can convert any media directly to your iPod (video or otherwise). Although this is aimed directly at the iPod enthusiast it can be extremely useful to anyone who wants to convert their media to digital format (MP3 for audio and MPEG4 for video).

Simply plug your audio or video device in the iPod converter with the included RCA connections (add S-video for video conversion), and plug the other end into your iPod or USB hard drive and press the magic button. Voila! Now your media has been converted to digital for you to listen, edit, or watch on your computer or iPod.

I envision this being plugged into a 250GB external hard drive and converting an entire music collection (vinyl, tapes, CDs, etc) plus old family videos (VHS, DVD, etc) directly to the external hard drive. Then plug that external drive into your PC and enjoy. Imagine all the space you can save if you converted all your VHS tapes, cassette tapes, and vinyl to digital format (MP3 for music and MPEG4 for video).

$199.95

Celebrate 30 Years of Star Wars with Cake!

Sean — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 03:21:12 +0000

If you haven’t already noticed it’s the 30th anniversary of Star Wars (1977-2007); so we all have a reason to celebrate the entire year. Well, at least Star Wars fans, like myself, have a reason to. What’s the universal sign of celebration? Cake! Everyone loves cake, and most people love Star Wars, and I just want to bring those two things together.

If one were so inclined they could adorn their Star Wars costume and fly hundreds of miles to the official Celebration IV to be surrounded by Force sensitive people and the creators of Star Wars. Or perhaps you can join me and others with bad motivators and just buy a Star Wars cake pan off eBay and celebrate at home with friends and family.

I can envision multiple weekends being filled with Star Wars movies and cartoons coupled with delicious cake shaped and frosted like Darth Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, Boba Fett, and more.

Does your sweet tooth require more than just cake? Check out the Star Wars cookbook or the Star Wars Party Book and supplement your celebration with Wookie cookies and other Galactic specialties.

Heat Sensitive LED Faucet Light

Sean — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:07:00 +0000

Ever used your sink directly after someone else and were unpleasantly surprised with scalding hot water? Well now you can color code your water with this heat sensitive LED faucet adapter from ThinkGeek. Just to state the obvious; red water means hot (89 degrees or higher) and blue means cold.

I’m a little leary about the fact that this extends your faucet quite a bit (2.25 inches), but if you have the room in your sink, then I’d definitely join the cool kids on the block and get one. Midnight trips to the bathroom, tooth brushing, even simple face washing would become fun just by using this technological marvel. This LED faucet light attachment comes with two universal adapters for use with almost any standard faucet in the USA. Be sure to check out the customer action shots to see all the fun others are having.

$12.99 – $19.99

Express Yourself While Driving

Sean — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 03:45:22 +0000

When a simple hand gesture just isn’t enough, use an emoticon to tell them exactly how you feel. The driving LED emoticon suction cups to your rear window and is controlled via the included wireless remote. This handy little gadget has 5 different messages: smiling face, frowning face, “Thanks”, “Back Off” and “Idiot”. Just be careful which button you press when the fuzz is behind you. Watch this YouTube video to see it in action.
$29.99

I’ve always wanted something that could express my true feelings or send a message out to others while driving, but I always envisioned some scrolling text. Another option in road-based communications is the scrolling LED license plate frame. Most geeks prefer blue LEDs because of their elite status, and this license plate frame not only has all blue LEDs, but is made of rust proof aluminum alloy for that extra bling. Programmable with up to 120 characters per message it can hold 5 messages and is controlled via included remote control.

39.99

This is only the beginning since it looks like Volkswagon’s Electronics Research Laboratory has designed a programmable electronic bumper sticker that can be used to communicate in real time with an unlimited amount of messages. [via] – Link

Yoda Plush Backpack

Sean — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 02:21:05 +0000

Want to learn how to use the Force? Need to lift your X-Wing from the swamp? You want to be a Jedi.
Now you can learn from the best, just like Luke, every time you wear this Yoda plush backpack.

Warning: wearing this backpack may result in large muscles, rock balancing abilities, and freaky visions in a cave. Well I saw it in a movie once, OK more like a hundred, but every time I watched it the same thing happened, so it must be true.

$37.99 at ThinkGeek

Related: Most Jedi build their own, but they probably didn’t have the Internet, so get your very own lightsaber replica to complete the look.

Preserve Your Old Media Digitally

Lauren — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:00:27 +0000

The vinyl versus CD debate has been going on since since CDs first became available to consumers in the early 80’s. We’ve had 20+ years to acclimate to the crystal clear sound of compact discs, but vinyl enthusiasts still long for recordings “the way they were meant to sound”; fuzz, pops and all. As someone who falls in the middle of these camps, I’m dying to see what my old records would sound like when converted to MP3 files. I appreciate the sound of vinyl, but just can’t be bothered to flip the record every 20 minutes each time I want to hear some tunes. In addition, sometimes it’s nice to let an album (or perhaps 5+ of them if you’ve got a multi-disc player) repeat several times while I’m busy working for hours at a time. Vinyl has several selling points, but convenience just isn’t one of them.

With the InstantMusic Vinyl & Cassette Ripper, you just hook it up to a turntable or cassette deck then plug it in into a USB port on your PC or Mac. The included software lets you to convert your music to MP3 files, or burn directly to CD. It also has an awesome feature that detects the gaps between songs to divide old LPs into individual MP3 files. Just a couple years ago I remember lamenting that products like this were really expensive and/or hard to find, but now Think Geek makes them available for a mere $50. Thank you, technology!

The only problem this doesn’t solve is the room that vinyl takes up. If you’re anything like me, even if you’ve got a digital copy of your records, it’s not like you’d even consider getting rid of the originals! At least you can listen to them anytime you get the hankering, and without all that fuss of flipping, flipping, flipping…

$49.99 Windows
$59.99 Mac