When it comes to the gadget-minded geek there are many items that are deemed as essential. Obviously a computer comes first on this list, but there are more, somewhat obscure items that they might not have even known they needed. Feel free to leave a comment and mention what gadget you can’t live without.
Herman Miller Aeron
When spending over 10 hours per day at your desk, a comfortable and supportive yet stylish chair is of utmost importance. Few desk and work chairs come close to the quality of Herman Miller’s products. The Aeron chair is the pinnacle of computer chairs, but for that prestige comes a hefty price tag. The Aeron runs for over $800 dollars. However, that price hasn’t deterred many from them. Herman Miller chairs can be found in campus libraries, executive hotel rooms and other such fine institutions.
EVDO Connectivity
Being connected 24/7 is a top priority among geeks across the world. The new breed of EVDO devices are just the ticket, offering 3G speeds up there with broadband. Many PCMCIA EVDO cards are offered from wireless providers such as Sprint and Verizon. For those with the MacBook Pro, you can expect an EVDO Express Card soon. Popular smartphones such as the Treo 700w and Motorola Q feature EVDO connectivity. Most EVDO-enabled cell phones double as a modem for your laptop or desktop via a USB or Bluetooth connection, which comes in handy if you’re traveling or when your internet dies.
Widescreen LCDs
Upgrading to a larger computer display can reduce eye irritation, increase productivity, save time and eliminate the stress of constantly having to minimize and maximize windows to display what you want. There’s a reason that the headquarters of Flock and Yahoo! are filled with 20, 23 and 24 inch displays. Any geek still making do with 1280×1024 or lower resolution should consider an upgrade.
Multi-LED Flashlights
Most geeks tinker inside computers or venture to the cable mess behind their desk to find that gadget that fell, making do with a wimpy single LED keychain flashlight. Those things have long expired in the techie community. The replacement: a compact double or triple A battery-powered flashlight featuring an array of 15 or more LEDs. These can commonly be found on eBay for $10 in any LED color you want, even ultraviolet. Do yourself a favor and pick one up, they really do prove indispensable.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, give me a break. A few months ago I just escaped the 1024×768 world and now you tell me 1280×1024 isn’t enough. When will the madness end?!?!
Anyway, I need to figure out how to tether my RAZR to my MacBook. I seem to get EVDO wherever I go, so once I get that setup I’ll have internet everywhere.
EVDO: I’m guessing it’s soon. I’m not sure where Om Malik got his date of “possibly May” from – no comment from Novatel ever mentioned May. In fact, pre-commercial shipping has only just begun last week. I think you’ll be lucky to see anything on the shelf by end of 3Q, if that. In fact, that tallies with Novatel’s latest release – and that’s only for one of the specified models.
LED lights: How much ambient(?) light is put out by a UV LED?
LCD and Aerons: absolutely agree. However, I’d actually argue that two 17″ LCDs with the same resolution as a larger LCD will actually be more productive. There’s something to be gained by having that psychological – and physical – separation of screens. One for source code, one for web browser, for example.
I absolutely agree about the Aeron chair. My bottom has been cradled in one for about seven years. When I finally realized that I spent more time in my office chair than my bed, it made the expense much easier to bear.
I disagree about larger displays; they are not for everybody. What counts for me is resolution – and what is most comfortable to me is a 17-inch display that has plenty of it. I can work up close at a comfortable focus, without having to turn my head so much to scan all of the screen; yet, with decent resolution, I can also take in a lot more information or work on larger graphics.
This is why I am still using CRT displays. At only 1280 x 1024, I find the resolution of modern LCD flatpanels to be absolutely pathetic, and very uncomfortable to deal with. My CRT displays are specially ‘tricked-up’ Panasonic PanaSync/Pro PL70i units – normally rated for 1600 x 1200, but actually capable of 2048 x 1536, when modified by adding some cooling fans and better heatsinks. They were the sharpest, highest-resolution commercial-grade monitors ever made, and I find them adequate for the moment.
What I would really like to see is a 17-inch transparent-OLED panel, with 300-dpi pixels – the same resolution as a really crappy old LaserJet – as a minimum. To put it in more familiar terms, that’s equal to a resolution of 3860 x 2895.
“Oh, but the text would be impossible to read!”
Bull. Was the text “impossible to read” on a printed page from one of those old laser printers too? Text is _scalable_, people. As are icons, borders, and everything else. I’m middle-aged, and I’m having no troubles at all with my old Panasonics running at 2048, so what’s wrong with your eyes, then?
The barrier is not technology; if old LaserJets could print 300 dots in one inch reliably, then OLED panel manufacturers can certainly fabricate their screens at such a coarse resolution too. No, people; the barrier lies with you – you’re the ones who put up with the current crappy “level” of technology. You _accept_ it; you think it’s “normal”, or “cutting-edge”, even… so there’s no marketing pressure put upon the manufacturers to give them any incentive whatsoever to improve things. They’ll just keep cranking out shiny new monitors with really crappy resolutions, and you’ll keep right on buying them, thinking you’ve got the “latest and greatest” thing.
So it’s up to you, then, to ultimately develop enough awareness to start enabling a real change. Otherwise, display techology will not advance very much at all, will it? And “WYSIWYG” will remain as nothing more than a half-hearted approximation… an ever-elusive “goal”, or dream.
da.
I personally prefer having two screens as opposed to one giant one. With dual 17’s I can have two instances of Firefox/Flock up and running when I am writing, one for research and the other for writing. The same goes when I am writing a research paper, just relaxing, and what have you. Whenever I am gaming on one screen I just shunt all the crap over to the second screen, if someone IM’s me then it is there immediately. Good stuff.
These guys might have some Aeron chairs left over.
I definitely agree with the first two. I had an Aeron when I worked for EarthLink…it was difficult deciding to leave EL to join Yahoo!. I knew I’d be going to a better place, but I was fully aware there were no Aerons. Fantastic support, oh so comfortable and they’d never overheat you in the summer months.
My 24″ LCD is the greatest thing ever. Combined with my 15″ MacBook Pro, I have a ton of desktop real estate and the thing is gorgeous. Even playing games on it is great. Yahoo! was kind enough to give me one at work as well (I have one at home).
@docatomic: Yes! OLED panels would be awesome…. you know they’re being built right now too. =)
Yes; I agree, Paul – OLED displays *could* be awesome… if the manufacturers make them properly.
What I am dreaming about specifically is _transparent_ OLEDs, you see. The idea behind the transparency is that the primary colours could be stacked one atop the other – giving the full RGB gamut of colour _per pixel_, instead of *beside* each other as in phosphor-dot triads or LCD stripes. So in other words; no matter how closely you look at the display, you would never see individual primary colours, or any colour fringing – each pixel would appear to be a tiny square block of pure colour.
And the resolution, of course… the manufacturers are still going nowhere with that problem, and they never will, unless the consumers demand for it to be improved considerably.
da.
Wow! Having a geeky life style is pretty expensive. According to these must have geek contraptions it will run $800-chair, $500/year evdo, $3000-widescreen lcds, and the led flashlights, and not to mention the computer itself, and all the other items. So it can really put a toll in your wallet.
@Vlad, it’s true that the chair and evdo are going to be pricey, but if you look on ewegg right now you can find some really nice widescreen monitors. I recently purchased this monitor. It’s a 24″ widescreen with 1000:1 contrast ratios and it’s only 709 dollars.
I’m really happy with it, and I thought it might be worth sharing that not all widescreen monitors cost an arm and a leg.
Hravis: Yea you’re right you can defiantly find great deals on newegg, but paul wrote widescreen lcds – plural so its going to be twice as much, even at $1400 for 2 screens I think that is quite expensive.
Err no I put plural as a generalization towards the category. I was only referring to a one-screen setup.
I’m going to have to agree with a few of the above opinions. I think I would have trouble using a single screen as opposed to two. The physical separation allows my mind to be at ease that I have both my code and browser maximized. There is something unsettling to me about a window that isn’t maximized, and I’m still not comfortable browsing the web in a browser that is maximized wide screen style. Just a personal preference of mine is all. Entertaining reading, Paul.
(offtopic)
Paul… just added some photos from our san francisco fun… including the ones from you at Flock HQ, go check them out.
Awesome, thanks.
Aerons are great, but Geek Chair 2.0 is the Humanscale Liberty.
I drove across LA to sit in a Liberty yesterday, and pulled the trigger on one last night. $654 shipped (a RIDICIULOUSLY low price) at MCErgo.com.
The chair has an incredible design; it has only one lever that raises or lowers the chair. The rest of teh adjustments are made on the fly using the sitter’s bodyweight and position. Plus, it looks damn cool.