Dad, back in Pleasantville you ruled the roost. You shaped us. You molded us. You brought us to our first baseball game. You taught us to drive. Your word was law and, no matter the issue you ALWAYS knew best.

And the list goes on.

You bailed us out of jail. You looked the other way when our friends came over “to study”. You took us to our first (ah hem) “private entertainment” club. You got us a top notch lawyer and got the judge to reduce that small indiscretion down to a misdemeanor.

Yes dad your impact is everywhere and we can’t thank you enough!

No doubt our love of all-things-electric comes straight from you so with Father’s Day on the way we wanted to tick off some of the best gear you might like.

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I always find it hard to buy my dad a nice simple gift for Father’s Day, but this year I have an extra selection of gift ideas to peruse at Cufflinks.com. They have everything from the almost ordinary to the completely unique.

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While shopping for holiday gifts on Amazon, I came across something I didn’t know existed: kits which include logs that have been impregnated with mushroom spores, and that will produce fruit for years with the proper care. Huh!

I like the idea of being able to grow my own cooking mushrooms, so I picked out a shiitake kit and placed an order. There are also other mushroom breeds available.

Yesterday I received the package, and today we started the process of preparing the log for fruiting…

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It seems perfectly natural to want to upgrade from the cheesy white stock headset that come with the iPhone, to a much more compatible – and complimentary – headset in silver and black…and that’s where Zagg Z.buds come in.

Z.buds feature convenient in-line volume control and a premium length, tangle-free cord. Multiple sliders mean better cord management and greater listening convenience – try our “Hangin’ Tight” slider alignment in image above. Z.buds Music Control for iPhone completes the experience, allowing iPhone users a seamless switch between their calls and their music.

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I just took a quick look at some of the goodies offered on Geek Stuff 4 U, and they have definitely got something for those looking for unique and geeky gadget gifts.

Let’s take a look at some of the items that caught my eye…

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This contest is now closed, and kenneth2009 is the winner. Thank you all for entering, and be sure to enter our HP Magic giveaway!

Still having trouble deciding what to get the budding techie on your list? You know the one…the youngster who is fascinated by your fancy feature phones, the teenager who has discovered text messaging and Facebook, the young entrepreneur who wants a way to keep in touch with the office when she isn’t able to be there; these are just some of the people who might like to receive a Palm Centro.

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Nice! Those of you who have managed to hold out may have just lucked into a few holiday gift items that were worth the wait; these are the Cyber Monday deals from Sandisk…

Sansa MP3 Players

* 35% off Sansa Clip MP3 Player (4GB) / New price: $51.99 (from $79.99)
* 23% off Sansa Fuze MP3 Player (8GB) / New price: $91.99 (from $119.99
* 20% off SanDisk Sansa View Video MP3 Player (32GB) / New price: $199.99 (from $249.99)

USB Flash Drives

* 45% off SanDisk Cruzer Micro® (16GB) / New price: $43.99 (from $79.99)

Flash Memory Cards

Cameras

* 48.9% off SanDisk Standard SDHC™ Card (8GB) / New price: $22.99 (from $44.99)
* 58% off SanDisk Ultra II SDHC (8GB) / New price: $20.99 from $49.99
* 50% off SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo™ (4GB) / New price: $19.99 (from $39.99)

Mobile

* 34% off Mobile Micro SD (8GB) / New price: $32.99 from $49.99
* 57% off SanDisk microSDHC (8GB) with SD Adapter / New price: $29.99 from $69.99

Link: SanDisk’s Cyber Monday Sale

Listening to the tunes on a digital music player can be such a solitary affair; if you want your favorite audiophile to get into the spirit of the season and share a bit, then you might want to gift him or her with the Altec Lansing Orbit.

Although it is larger than some of the other diminutive plug-in speakers I have tried before, the Orbit isn’t too huge and it doesn’t scrimp on sound. Let’s take a look…

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Oh to be one of those geeks who can effortlessly start up a remote control helicopter and make it fly, but alas. When I play with those type toys I am the one who will almost always immediately crash and burn…assuming I can even get lift off. It’s okay, though; I have found a flying toy which I can operate, and that doesn’t come complete with the same frustration I’ve discovered in others of the type: the WowWee Flytech Bladestar. Built for those who are eight years old and up, it’s even fun for those of us who have hit the big 4-0 (plus one).

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Everyone knows someone like this: they won’t trust their data to a PDA or mobile phone; they trust their important personal information to scraps of paper and cards that they stow in their wallet, gearbag or purse. This holiday season, you can help your favorite Neo-Luddite keep organized without the use of technology by giving them a Pocket.doc by Buttoned Up.

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According to Wikipedia:

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.

[snip]

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual craftpersons into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical “steampunk” style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

Now that we have that bit of background out of the way, allow me to show you what Steampunk looks like when it is interpreted through jewelry…

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Mike Cane and I have a running rapport about how bad the economy has become, and is still becoming. He is constantly encouraging me to build a bunker at the ranch, and warning me to prepare for the Collapse of All Things, or C.O.A.T. as he calls it. I used to tease him a bit for being such a fatalist; I would say that I had a freezer full of beef, a stocked pantry, and that I was ready for whatever comes. He would tell me that I was being naive.

About the time that Congress was debating the $700 Billion Bailout plan, something clicked for me. Maybe it was that I could see some of the things Mike had been predicting for over a year coming true, or maybe it was that the idea of what might happen if the bailout plan did not go through; I don’t know. Whatever it was, I finally started to think about what living in the United States might be like if we were in the midst of a second Great Depression. A Mad Max type of world is the scenario that scares me most, so of course that is what I imagine. Mike evidently envisions something similar…

Don’t expect electricity. I’m not saying your lights will be turned off for non-payment. That’s naive. I’m talking about the breakdown of the infrastructure. I’ll coin the term you’ll be hearing in this alternate awful future: micro-terrorism. All of you think terrorism means some madman with a bomb strapped to him. That’s the past. Micro-terrorism is this: you live in an area where your electricity and cable TV and telephone are delivered on old wooden posts? Expect bastards to go out there with chainsaws and take those poles down. This is micro-terrorism. An entire town’s or city’s lights don’t have to go out all at once. Terror can be done neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Hardly any of this will be political. It will be criminal. A population kept off balance is easy prey.

He goes on to say:

You’re isolated. No electricity means no Internet, no TV. And if you don’t have a hand-crank radio, you’ll run out of batteries. You won’t know what reality is because you’ve been cut off from the flow of information. You’ll hear nothing but rumor. And lies. None of it will be good and your daily sense of dread will eventually turn to gut-wrenching panic. You will have no rest. You can’t sleep at night. And you need to also be awake during the day to try to connect with people to see if anyone knows what’s really going on.

The funny thing is, what he describes about living without electricity could easily apply in the aftermath of any disaster, economic or natural. Compiling all of the materials to be completely self sustained and “off the grid” would be time consuming, expensive, and more than a little bit daunting if starting from scratch, but there was one thing mentioned which would be easy enough to do: buy a hand-crank radio.

Let’s take a look at two models I recently received…

The Etón FR150 Microlink

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At the moment, there aren’t many geeky things more decadent than being able to say that you have got a SanDisk 16GB microSD card. This doo-dad is the size of a woman’s fingernail, and it has as much memory as a 3G iPhone…amazing. Popping this minuscule card into your mobile phone’s card slot can turn your phone or PDA into a multimedia powerhouse!

photo by Mitchell

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If a certain child you know is a budding paleontologist, then you ought to give a gift that will be sure to keep them interested and occupied for hours: a Giant Timeline Floormat from Charlie’s Playhouse. Children will enjoy reading the Timeline like a book, or spreading it out for over 18 feet of colorful and informative fossil history…

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A few years ago I had a custom PDA wallet made by Ron Bryant, of One Too Many Design. I have loved owning and using that wallet, so when it came time to purchase a truly unique and personal gift for my fiancé Kevin, I knew exactly where to turn. Ron is a leather artist, and in his capable hands something as utilitarian as a wallet can become a one of a kind masterpiece.

This is Kevin’s wallet, made of hornback alligator with two custom XTC sterling silver snaps. As outrageous and amazing as it looks, this is actually one of Ron’s more conservative designs…

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