The price per-pixel of flat-screen computer display continues to drop. At the same time the per-pixel price difference between different size models of large screens currently being sold has gotten very small.

Currently there's no longer a big monetary reason to buy two smaller monitors instead of one big one. That's what I did recently. I got a huge 30" Apple Cinema Display and it changed how I worked. I ended up buying a used one on eBay for $1500. I've seen Dell's 30" monitor for sale on eBay for $1000 or less.

I've upgraded displays before but this upgrade to a Cinema screen gave me the biggest proportional step up in size. It was several weeks before I wasn't awe-struck when I walked into my home office. What I hadn't thought to prepare myself for was how much it changed my work habits.

The first thing I noticed was that the number of times I printed out hard copies of documents went down. Before, I would print copies of diagrams, specifications, and other reference material so that I could easily refer to them while working. Now I have space on the screen to have these visible. I wouldn't say I've made it all the way to the "paperless office," but it's gotten a lot closer.

Within a few days of using a large screen I began to experience a much more significant effect, though: when more of the things I needed to look at were already in view, the amount of time spent on visual context switches went down. Having more documents in view not only reduces the time consumed by the switch, but also the "recovery time" needed to remember what I was doing. A related time savings is that when a document I may need to switch to is visible, it takes less time to realize that I need it.

The display fills a lot more of my visual field - so much, in fact, that it took me a week or so to get used to how far away the left and right edges of the screen were. In the end, I found that this made it a little easier to concentrate (since my attention was less often directed toward wherever I'd been keeping the notes that wouldn't fit on the screen).

I found that once I got used to the idea that most things could be expanded to a size that required no window scrolling, I began to "think big" about a lot of things: my spreadsheets got bigger, my diagrams got bigger - and more unexpectedly: the size of the kind of thing I thought I could handle got bigger; and because I was much less often having to chop things into smaller pieces so that they could fit, things got simpler.

The 30" Apple Cinema Display puts out a lot of light. The biggest difference this makes for me is that even with sun streaming in the window, the display is still bright enough to see clearly; I am no longer tempted to close the blinds. At night, I often turn it down to a dimmer setting to match the subdued lighting of the rest of the house.

I'm recommending a 30" inch display to lots of people. I wish I'd bought one sooner!

-- Stephen Malinowski

30" Cinema Display
$1200 - Dell
Available from Dell

$1710 - Apple
Available from Amazon

I am a dermatologist and often take clinical photos of my patients with a digicam to add to their electronic medial records. With the Eye-Fi, a wireless 2GB SD memory card, I can take a photo and by the time I return to my computer the photo is waiting for me. Set up is very easy. You just plug the card in like you would any other memory card, do some basic configuration (the software works with Mac/PC) and you can send photos to the computer via the wi-fi you configure, or send direct to an online site like Flickr. You can also set the card up so several wi-fi are recognized (home or office, for instance), although you must program each individually. If you are using remote wi-fi access (that you have set up), needless to say, you will only be able to put photos online. In the office, we use the Eye-Fi to send to a local computer only. For someone with a built-in or USB SD card reader or Bluetooth, the Eye-Fi may have less benefits. For my purposes, it's spectacular. Previously, all patient photos would be downloaded as a batch and then each would be tediously attached at the end of the day. With the Eye-Fi, the photos are made available right away and they can be attached right when we write each patient's note. The flow is much better. Surprisingly, I haven't noticed any issues with the card draining the battery either. A few caveats: at any one time, one card can communicate with only one computer and one online site. You can, however, set up your account so your card can communicate with multiple computers. In order to switch computers, you go into the Eye-Fi manager on your computer and change the settings (i.e. if you're switching from work and home). While my use and situation may be unique, I also started my somewhat technophobic father-in-law on an Eye-Fi several months ago and it's been working well for him. Previously, he used to just fill up cards and then buy a new one (luckily, with the price of SD cards, that was still cheaper than film, but this is much better!). All he has to do is remember to keep both the camera and computer on, and the Eye-Fi enables him to share his photos online with us with virtually no trouble. At first, he had a few issues and concluded the card was broken. However, I showed him all he needed to do was make sure the computer was on with the Eye-Fi manager running (it can be set up to automatically run when you boot your computer). Undoubtedly, this technology has major potential to revolutionize digital photography as we know it. I look forward to future drivers that could support instant upload via any unlocked wi-fi your camera wanders near.

-- Jeff Ellis

$100
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Eye-Fi

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Lumix TZ1

Picnik Photo Editor

Bonzai Expandable Flash Drive

These durable cases protect your memory cards from getting wet, contaminated with dirt, or in my case lost. I have misplaced numerous memory cards due to their small size. With these cases not only do I not lose the cards, but I use the cases to organize them. The cases are small and compact (about 4.25" x 2.25") and only about 1" thick. They're available for almost all media types: SD/Mini SD, XD, Compact Flash and for MS (Memory Stick) cards. Each holds anywhere from 4 to 16 memory cards. I now use them to organize all of my media. So my wife has hers (I am not allowed to touch them since I have lost some of her photo flash cards), some for work (sorted by major projects) and then my own personal use cards. All I have to do now is grab the case I need for work, for instance, and I know I will have everything I need. These card cases have an o-ring seal Pelican says is "water-resistant." Though I wouldn't want to find out if they're waterproof, I think they only back off that claim to protect their tail. I have owned Pelican cases for my cameras for years and have found they're pretty much bulletproof. I also have one case for my laptop and use Pelican's cases for work to ship expensive equipment. My only complaint with their card cases is I wish that they had different colors to chose from so I wouldn't have to label them.

-- Scott Newton

Pelican Cases
$22
(stores 8 SD cards)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Pelican

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Domke Camera Bag

Banana Bunker

CaseXtreme Clam

Millepede is a refastenable cable bundling tie that is very different from the Zip ties we all know and love. It's essentially a flexible plastic strip of little boxes separated by larger D shapes. The strip terminates in a narrow "needle" that can thread through any of the D shapes and be pulled through to a snug connection around a bundle of cables. The holding strength is amazing. I use them for all my wiring harness applications, but I've also connected multiple ties (the larger burly ones) to fasten down car-top luggage. You undo a Millepede by running the same needle backwards through the same D opening, and if you're fastening something small, you can also pull almost the whole strip through, cut it off at the non-needle end -- unlike the cable clamp -- and then reuse the remainder as many more times as it will fit. They're available in a wide variety of sizes and colors and are also produced in various versions for special purposes (think integral vinyl eyebolts, hooks, baseplates etc.). One bag of 100 might be the proverbial lifetime supply.

-- David Perry

$25
(100 12" ties)

Available from RadioShack

Manufactured by Millepede

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Velcro Grip Ties

Griptwist

Atlast IT Cable Analyser

For the last six months, I've been using this small, directional USB adapter to hit marginal hotspots when parked. I'm traveling full-time now in a big bus/RV, so I've been everywhere and anywhere, and it really does work. One example: I was in a remote Alabama campground and their little access point was perhaps a few hundred feet away. With the internal Wi-Fi adapter in my Thinkpad (it's Mac/PC compatible), no go. With the Wi-Fire aimed carefully I got a solid, workable signal. I just rotate it around until I get the best signal. It does seem highly directional, too: an eighth-turn can make a huge difference and it's much, much stronger than with the internal adapter (the company claims up to 1000ft.). The big advantage, aside from the price, is that it uses a standard USB cable, so it can easily be extended and moved around unlike a Wi-Fi antenna which needs special cabling, connectors and isn't compatible with all Wi-Fi adapters. I keep dreaming up ways to do the ultimate, automatic long range communications antenna on the bus, but until then...

-- Barclay Brown

Wi-Fire Range Extender
$80
Available from and manufactured by hField

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter

Some Turtles Have Nice Shells

ARC Freedom Antenna

I have been working in IT networking for 12 years, and I avoided making cables for the first 11. Since I bought the EZ-RJ45 a year ago, I now look forward to it. There are eight wires to connect with UTP cables, and it is important to get the wires in the same order at both ends; otherwise, your computer could be listening for signal on conductor 1 but the signal is actually on conductor 8. With most standard RJ45 crimps you have to cut the wires to about 3/8 inch long and stuff them in the crimp, hoping they stay in the correct order. Since the wires have to lay next to each other in a particular order, that 3/8 inch means you have very little to hang on to, so the wires almost always get mixed up and you have to try again.

What's great about the EZ-RJ45 is that the crimps allow the wires to pass all the way through them and stick out the front. That means you can cut the wires as long as you like and the wires protruding from the front of plug are easy to inspect to make sure they are in the correct order before crimping. The EZ-RJ45 crimps work in the three other crimping tools I have (2 different versions of the Ideal Telemaster, and 1 cheap NoName); but the EZ-RJ45 crimper also has an extra blade that cuts the wires flush with the front of the plug when you crimp it. With the other crimpers you would have to take the additional step of cutting the wires after crimping the plug. With normal connectors I end up wasting a third to half of my crimps. With the EZ-RJ45 I have no waste, and the crimps are right every time.

-- David McGregor

EZ-RJ45 Crimp Tool
$57
Available from Smart Home

Or $70 from Amazon

Manufactured by Sullstar Technologies, Inc.

This portable laptop desk is the most comfortable way I've found to use a laptop in bed. It's a bit pricey compared to the homemade stuff you can find online, but less expensive than similar products like the LapGenie and Laidback, which can go for up to $150. The LapDawg, which is lighter than the Laidback, is also made of wood, which makes it human friendly and gives it a warm touch. It's very simple to put together and fits my 17" notebook perfectly.

The InsTand Laptop Stand is a great travel desk but can't do what the LapDawg does best: allow you to recline. Interacting with your laptop at a comfortable typing angle, right in front of you without feeling the weight and heat you would otherwise feel on your lap is very refreshing. The LapDawg is not the perfect travel solution, but if you have a big enough bag, it doesn't take up too much space and it weighs less than two pounds. Being able to lie flat on my back and use a laptop comfortably is worth making room.

-- Tanneth

LapDawg
$100 (includes shipping)
Available from LapDawg

If you have a free PC card slot in your laptop and you like to travel with a mouse, this one is an amazing piece of convergence design. Taking advantage of thin Li-Poly batteries, this Bluetooth wireless mouse is always charged up and always easy to locate. This mouse solves both the problem of wireless devices always having dead batteries, and finding extra space for a bulky mouse in your laptop case. It turns on when you fold it open and is surprisingly comfortable to use, despite its funny looks.

-- Alexander Rose

Mogo Mouse BT
$71
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Newton Peripherals

SpamSieve is the best spam filter for the Mac. It's incredibly accurate yet invisible. I have been using it for almost three years now and its statistics show that over that time it was 99% accurate. SpamSieve is so invisible and maintenance free that I've just about forgotten about it -- despite the fact that my email has been widely posted on the web for 10 years. I don't have to open the app; it somehow sits quietly behind most email programs. My wife, who has a Mac at work, was complaining about her spam load, and I realized, "oh my gosh, you mean you don't know about SpamSieve?"

I've used some good spam filters before but they didn't learn fast enough, or needed too much attention to keep on top of their game. Like many of the best spam filters SpamSieve uses Bayesian tricks to learn from your in-box what kind of mail you approve of and what you hate. I needed only a few minutes fiddling to get it up and running, and thereafter, I merely delete the occasional stray spam with a keystroke that simultaneously scolds SpamSieve about its correct nature and sends it to the dump. Then about twice a month I go through my Junk Mail box and pluck out two or three "goods" that got through with a single keystroke that again admonishes SpanSieve of their proper state. That's it! SpamSieve also knows my friends from my address book, and it can be told about specific address or domains in hundreds of direct ways if you care to, but mostly I simply do nothing. For all that nothing I get a squeaky clean in box with a rare spam intruder.

I think the 99% batting average of my SpamSieve would be 1% better if it weren't for two factors: 1) Because of product reviews my mail is more spamish than most, and 2) in the last 6 months spammers started sending image spam (the text is a picture) which as taken SpamSieve a while to figure out. Without that temporary lapse, I think SpamSieve would filter out 100% of the correct spam. As it is I can happily live with it removing 99+%.

I am sure there must be an equivalent for Windows, but this is the one to cure spam on the Mac.

-- KK

SpamSieve
$30 (30 day free demo)
Available from C-Command

For a SpamSieve-like program for Windows, I've been using SpamBayes (with Outlook on Windows XP) for the last three years. It's brilliant enough that I've never bothered to get an update for it. It sounds like it works just like SpamSieve. I look through the junk folder every month or so for things that have been misfiled - often two or three corporate mailing list things will wind up there. I press a "Recover from Spam" button and SpamBayes moves it to my Inbox. Likewise, for the very rare spam that gets through to my Inbox, I just click a button "Delete as Spam" that teaches the add-in about something new. It's free and it works great, easily 99.5%+ accurate.

-- Colin Robertson

SpamBayes

Eighteen months ago Cool Tools introduced me to SketchUp (since acquired by Google). I love this tool but always missed the discontinued SpaceBall 3D controllers that I used with high-end 3D applications. We'll, that's changed. 3dconnexion (owned by Logitech) now sells a low-cost, very high quality, 3D controller called the SpaceNavigator. You can get an edition for personal use that is only $59 (instead of $99 for the pro edition). This increases Sketchup productivity and fun factor by 2-3 times. If you like SketchUp you have to have this!

The SpaceNavigator is a six-axis controller that you use in conjunction with the mouse and keyboard. With it you can move around the model in three dimensions, intuitively and without changing from one mode to another (e.g. pan to rotate to zoom). You can also configure it to work in what ever fashion is easiest and most intuitive for you. With a little practice you can move through and around the model using the mouse and SpaceNavigator, never touching the keyboard. It provides a huge increase in productivity and, frankly, fun. I'm designing an addition to our house and my kids (6 & 8) have learned to fly through the model without my help. Of course you can use it with other 3D applications, like AutoCAD, Rhino and Maya.

This is one of those things that you purchase and fall in love with because it's useful, high-quality, and inexpensive. (It works in Windows, Linux, Unix -- but not Mac!)

-- Mike Green

SpaceNavigator
$57
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by 3dconnexion

This is an RJ45 cable tester, which recognizes particular kinds of cable (ethernet, rolled, ethernet economisers, audio cables), both 4-wire and 8-wire. If you only ever need to test a few single cables a year, you won't need this. However if you're trying to test more than one cable at a time, particularly if they are long runs or hidden, this is great. Normally ethernet testers come in remote/master pairs, so you have to
- go to remote site (attic, patching closet, whatever)
- attach remote terminator
- go to local end
- test
Rinse, lather, repeat. One trip per cable.

The nice thing about this tester is that with the numbered terminators, you can test several lines at a time, without having to dash up to the attic each time to change the remote terminator. You can also see easily when you've mislabelled cables. ("Patch panel port 2 has terminator 8 on it? Bugger. Time to re-label...") It's also useful when you have a mixed bag of cables which you need to identify and sort into boxes. As a network engineer, this is something I have to do quite often...unfortunately.

Oh, and one other thing -- if you switch it on without a terminator, it will show you how to wire ethernet patch and crossover cables, including the cable colors. It's kinda shiny. Yes, it's more expensive than the kind you get for cheap off Ebay, but it also does so much more.

-- Donal Cunningham

Atlas IT Network Cable Analyser
Model UTP05
75 Pounds (~$159)
Available from Peak Electronic Design

This site was recommended to me a few years ago by a friend of mine who works for a large architectural firm that builds all its computers in-house from parts bought from this site. Since then, I've built half-a-dozen computers and have bought parts for several others from them, without any problems. They are almost always cheaper than anyone else, with the exception of extraordinarily large or small items which run more expensive due to shipping costs.

A couple years ago, a motherboard I got from them quit working. I used their on-line return form, and within an hour I received an email stating that they no longer carried the same part, and offered to replace it with a later model motherboard from the same manufacturer, or pay me back the purchase price. I chose the former, and had my replacement within the week.

One of the unique features of this site is the review system: unlike most .com stores, a large percentage of the products sold have multiple reviews by customers, and if an item is consistently rated poorly, it is removed from sale.

The site's organization also stands out: items can be separated by features, brand, and price in any combination, using either the "power search," enabling a wide variety of options at once, or by "drilling down" through several searches, isolating items by category.

By the way, NewEgg sells lots of tech gear, not just computers. For instance the Lumix TZ1 featured recently in Cool Tools is available from Newegg for $45 less than the price quoted by Amazon.

-- Edwin M

NewEgg

Who knew that Google needed a manual? Google's simple interface covers an immensely sophisticated tool that does all kinds of tricks, many of which have little to do with searching and much to do with harnessing the collective power of the web. As a non-programmer I probably won't use many of those hacks. But simply by enhancing my ability to google, this guide -- now in a meaty third edition -- is worth the price. It's the Missing Manual to Google.

-- KK

Google Hacks, 3rd edition
Rael Dornfest, Paul Bausch and Tara Calishain
2006, 543 pages
From Amazon

These days debugging is an necessary life skill. Anything high tech has more ways of failing than running. Since failure hides in complexity, you need to be systematic to fix a break in a system. But debugging skills are not taught anywhere.

This book teaches you how to troubleshoot. It is meant for engineers debugging computer programs, but the principles of debugging can easily be applied to any engineered system -- your car, home plumbing, a new gizmo, old laptop, hi-fi system, or anything with many dynamic parts.

The book is easy, with lots of war stories. I learned a lot. Lately I've become the defacto system administrator for the network of seven computers in our household, and these principles have upped my success rate in clearing up the inevitable problems.

What you get: essential technological literacy.

-- KK

Debugging: The Nine Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems
David J. Agans
2002, 192 pages
$17

Available from Amazon

The basic rules can be found here

I hate touchpads on laptop computers. What to do when traveling? The obvious answer is a travel mouse, yet I seldom see people using them. My preferred model has a Xerox brand name stamped on it, probably because it was a promotional giveaway; I bought it on eBay for $5. Since it is optical, I can use it on any surface, even the fabric of an airplane seat beside my leg. It has a spring-loaded pulley in the center of its cord, so you don't have to extend more wire than strictly necessary. Because it was so cheap, I don't worry about damaging it. Because it's so small and light, I don't notice it in my computer bag.

I tried other travel mice but like this one best. Identical versions are on eBay (without the Xerox logo) for 99 cents plus shipping, or you can buy one with a JMTek brand name from Amazon for slightly more money.

Mini Optical Mouse
$15
Available from Amazon

This case costs a full order of magnitude more than a regular case, but if you can't live with noisy fans any longer, then be assured that this really lives up to its name: Totally No Noise.

Ten heat pipes and about 50 lbs of carefully machined aluminum draw the heat away from your computer's delicate parts, so that even a reasonably powerful pc can run cool without any fans at all. This case is about more than just quiet, though; it's a work of real engineering art (well, nerd art, anyway) with many nice touches that make installation and operation a pleasure. No stamped sheet metal, just carefully rounded machined edges, means no more cutting yourself when working in tight spaces. Clearly labeled built-in wiring for the front panel ports and switches, integrated silent 400W power supply with profuse connectors, super-heavy-duty casters with individual locking and leveling, and more. Besides, this thing looks like a Krell relic (Krell or the Krell, either one.) I love it, and I'm getting another.

-- Carl Shapiro

[For a very extensive review of this item see System Cooling.
-- CP]

Zalman Totally No Noise TNN500AF
$1200
Available from Unique PC Gear

Manufactured by Zalman

During a recent "upgrade" of my cellular phone I discovered Gomadic. I was uninterested in cluttering my car's interior with yet another unwieldy and obtrusive cord to charge my phone (and I abhor uni-taskers). One of Gomadic's core products is a retractable unit with a USB A (the kind that plugs in to the back of most computers) plug on one end and a 1/8 jack on the other. This configuration allows you to choose the type of device you will be charging and how you will be charging it.

First you purchase from the Gomadic web site a cable for the specific device that you want to charge. If you'd like to charge other devices you buy additional tips, which are interchangeable. Just pull the first tip off the 1/8 jack and replace it with the one appropriate for the next device .

I can now charge my phone on my laptop through the USB port and in the car with the same cable. When it comes time to change phones I can simply order a new interchangeable tip and continue to use the retractable cable. All this and it's backed up by a lifetime warranty.

-- Scott Custer

Gomadic
$18
Available from Gomadic

Manufactured by Gomadic

Outside of music, I prefer my working environment to be as quite as possible. One thing I've found which helps is a hard drive enclosure called "Smart Drive 2002".

The enclosure itself fits inside a 5 1/4" drive bay and houses a 3-1/2" drive. It is basically one big heat sink that completely encloses a hard drive with a combination of dampening foam and metal contact to reduce noise emissions as much as possible.

The hard drive inside will run a little hotter, but as long as the ambient temperature isn't too high and your machine has a base level of air flow this should not be an issue. (I've run a 150GB and a 120GB in a pair of enclosures stacked on top of each other for a year now and have had no issue with overheating.)

The enclosure comes in a standard version and a copper version, the latter providing more efficient heat transfer, marketed as being suitable for the hottest drives and possibly even lowering their operating temperature.

-- Alan W. Smith

Smart Drive 2002
$60
Available from End PC Noise

What an astonishing book. Seth Lloyd, a quantum bit wrangler at MIT, proves that not only is the universe really a computer, but the universe is a computer we can program! He is not the first to see the world this way, but he is the first to translate this mathematical intuition into plain English. Lloyd is at the forefront of a revolution in science that says everything that exists (atoms, energy, space) is just bits of information. As the new mantra goes: all its are bits! The beauty of this book, and Lloyd's heroic achievement, is to transform that utterly mind-boggling view into a reasonable idea that anyone can begin to understand. A programmable universe is a scientific idea whose time will come in future decades, but you can read it here first.

-- KK

(This is a bit of a tease because Programming the Universe won't be published until March 2006. But do the book a favor and pre-order it now.)

Programming the Universe
A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos
Seth Lloyd
2006, 240 pages
$17
Available as a preorder from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Ultimately, information and energy play complementary roles in the universe: Energy makes physical systems do things. Information tells them what to do.

The conventional view is that the universe is nothing but elementary particles. That is true, but it is equally true that the universe is nothing buts bits -- or rather, nothing but qubits. Mindful that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's a duck, form this point on we'll adopt the position that since the universe registers and processes information like a quantum computer and is observationally indistinguishable from a quantum computer, then it is a quantum computer.

GOOD BOOKS

While I gather more and more of my conceptual trends from blogs, and still remain an unabashed magazine junkie, there is nothing like a book to frame and surface the deeper news. The longer cycle of reflection demanded by the full rhythm of a book allows bigger questions to be asked and hopefully answered. The next five entries will be five great new-ish books that have recently floated to the top of my bottomless pile of new writings. Each of these five is stuffed full of novel things not heard or said before, lacking the usual fluff and repeats; each is an original vision that captures a bit of where we are headed, and are easy-to-read. As accounts of what's next, they are definitely way ahead of the curve. I recommend them to all trend-spotters.

-- KK

About five years ago John Battelle started pursuing his hunch that search technology like Google was the most powerful cultural force at work in the modern world. Few believed him. Back then search was pure nerddom. Ugly algorithms and no money. Geekware. The Google IPO in 2005 woke up the last doubters to the fact that search is at the heart of the next new new thing. Battelle has great sense of timing (John was one of the co-founding editors at Wired with me), and he delivers a marvelous introduction about where search came from and what search means in technology, in business, in society and in ourselves. Listen to the technology, Carver Mead preaches; John Battelle has listened harder to search technology than anyone else, and he can tell us some amazing things it is telling us.

-- KK

The Search
How Google and its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
John Battelle
2005, 320 pages
$16
Available from Amazon

Excerpts:

Search straddles an increasingly complicated territory of marketing, media, technology, pop culture, international law, and civil liberties. It is fraught not only with staggering technological obstacles -- imagine the data created by billions of queries each week -- but with nearly paralyzing social responsibility. If Google and companies like it know what the world wants, powerful organizations become quite interested in them, and vulnerable individuals see them as a threat.

That key element is your clickstream. Given that nearly every major search engine has a search-history feature, it won't be long before we begin to se significant changes in how results are tendered to us. By tracking not only what searches you do, but also what sites you visit, the engines of the future will be able to build a real-time profile of your interest from your past Web use. They can then fold that profile into both your search results and the search interface itself, making for what can become, with regular use, an entirely new approach to searching. Call it searching your personal Web -- search enhanced by everything you've seen, every query you've clicked on, and every page you've bookmarked or otherwise interacted with.

I've tried many mice for my notebook, and the best most comfortable tiny mouse, for travel or stationary use, is the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse. It's as fast as a wired mouse; there's no lag. Maybe you don't want a mouse that requires a battery since it could leave you stranded, but the battery lasts a few months (I use mine daily), the USB adapter snaps into the bottom turning off the power when traveling to save battery life. It's snappy, very responsive, accurate.

-- Frank

Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse
$22
Available from
Amazon

A superb genesis story about that most essential invention, the personal computer. Before it was an industry, the personal computer was a strange hobby for nerds, who were definitely not cool back then. In three parts, tech gossip columnist Robert X. Cringely gives a very personal, breezy, witty, and remarkably lucid technical summary of the origins of Microsoft and Apple. Even better, he focuses on the forgotten founding companies and figures who did not make it. Cringely turns this story about hardware into one about humanity. By taking you step by step through the process of invention, counter-invention, claim of theft, bankruptcy, and bad timing, you see how accidental success was for the winners. And how vital their ability to listen to the technology. This classic documentary series should be required watching for anyone who uses a computer -- that is, everyone. It's that good.

-- KK

Triumph of the Nerds
1996, 165 min.
Directed by Robert X. Cringely
$50
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix

The Bonzai Expandable Flash Drive is a typical USB flash drive, except you can plug in a memory card in the back, meaning that it:

1) is infinitely upgradeable
2) (and here's the rub) can be used to rapidly copy photos/files from a camera, phone, mp3 player, or other flash device that uses an SD/MMC card, meaning that you don't have to travel with those pain-in-the-neck cables.
3) it's cheap: less then $10. Use a card you already have.

I keep one SD card in the Bonzai, and one in my camera. This way I always have a USB drive for my files, a spare card for my camera, and a way to get my photos onto a computer, at all times. I've seen a CompactFlash version (made by another company), if SD/MMC doesn't work for you. Obviously, though, that one was a bit bigger.

The Bonzai is small enough to fit in the coin pocket of my jeans, so I hardly realize it's there. In fact, it's gone through the washing machine at least once (with a card in it). I just let it dry it out, and it still worked like a charm. I love mine.

-- Kevin Cooney

Bonzai USB Card Reader
$9
Previously available from
Amazon

[online stock of this item appears limited; if you have recently purchased this item and have a reliable source, please let us know; OR if you use a newer model/version of this item to recommend, please let us know --sl]

I have always suspected computers had a secret history, and here it is: sex, drugs and rock and roll. This outlaw culture birthed what we now call personal computers. Not VCs, not the military, not universities, but hippies, activists, bums, and outright visionaries with visions. A story this strange you could not make up. The surprising countercultural roots of our essential technology is not only an amazing hither-to untold tale (laid out with fast-paced charm by the New York Times' chief technology reporter), it also remains a pertinent lesson to anyone hoping to use technology to remake society: First, feed your head! The money will come. What a wonderful story!

-- KK

What the Dormouse Said
How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer
John Markoff
2005, 336 pages
$17
Available from
Amazon

Sample Excerpt:

[Stolaroff] returned to California a zealot, a convert to the new LSD faith. He had decided that experiences like the one he had had in Canada were the answer to the world's problems. LSD would give society a new set of powerful tools to advance human development. Like Engelbart, Stolaroff set off on his own grand quest to augment the human mind.

For an hour, Evans took the system through its paces, showing the writer how it was possible to manipulate text, retrieve information, and collaborate with others. At the end of the demonstration Kesey sighed and said, "It's the next thing after acid."

Canary's hot spot finder is the best of the several stand-alone Wi-Fi detectors that I've tried -- three of which I've gone so far as to purchase. The Canary uses AAA batteries, rather than the button cells that some detectors do (harder to replace in a pinch); consequently it's not quite as svelte as some, but the extra goodies are worth the chubbier, still-palmable housing. Canary's unit scrolls across its 12-character LCD display the name, channel and signal strength (4 bars is the highest) of the networks it finds, which makes it truly useful for checking where your own access point's signal reaches.

It also displays each network's encryption status. (Encryption isn't the only means of preventing access, though, so an "open" network may not be open to you if your MAC isn't on the "approved" list.) Bonus: Canary's is the most sensitive of the detectors I've tried; my older Kensington sometimes didn't want to light up unless it was nearly on top of an access point. I've used the Canary to find the best parking spot when working from Flying J truckstops around the country, which sure beats walking around with an open laptop playing "find the antenna."

-- Timothy Lord

Canary Wireless HS10 Digital Hotspotter Wireless Network Tester
$60
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by
Canary Wireless

I really did not like MS Windows before reading this book. I prefer a UNIX-based OS, and I could care less for the Windows OS, but this book explains how to tweak everything. Not only the looks of Windows (the boot screen, the logon screen, your icons, the start button, etc.), but also performance modifications that can decrease the boot time and overall performance of your OS. It also gives tips on how to secure the system from spyware programs, viruses, etc. Most of these tips can be implemented for free (even the anti-virus software)! The book is well-written and easy to follow; I highly recommend it.

-- Ken Chien

Hacking Windows XP
Steve Sinchak
2004, 384 pages
$16
Available from Amazon

I use this in my home office, and it works well. It's a refillable pressurized air duster. While it doesn't provide quite as much pressure, or last as long as a commercial Dust-off can, it is refillable using a standard bicycle pump, so there's no danger of running out and it's better for the environment. The product description says it requires their expensive compressor to refill, but that's not true -- you can use a bike pump to recharge it by connecting to its standard bike tire valve. (It explicitly says on the can you can use a bike pump.)

-- Adam Fields

ReAir Refillable Duster
$14
Insta Office

Previously available from Amazon

Laptops are curiously named, since they don't stay on your lap for long. With the heat generated by powerful chips they'll just as soon singe your lap as sit on it peacefully. As a traveling geek, I end up using my laptop for extended periods of time in all sorts of settings, very often in rooms with plenty of chairs, but no tables. I ran into the perfect solution for the problem of where to perch my laptop at a business event: an InsTand. This is a collapsible stand that's light enough to carry around with your laptop, yet offers a sturdy platform you can slip between your knees while sitting. The short sit-down model is what you want, unless you work or give speeches standing up a lot.

-- Jerry Michalski

InsTand CR1
$100
InsTand

Many websites, particularly media sites, now require registration, usually to gather demographic data about users. If for any reason you don't want to register but still want to view the site, go to www.bugmenot.com, which offers valid logins and passwords for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sites.

-- Lee Dembart

BugMeNot

Most mice are a pain in the neck to use on uneven surfaces when you are traveling with a laptop, but this sweet black tiny USB mouse is a simple pleasure. $29 bucks gets you a terrific, small, well designed optical mouse you can take with you�sporting every feature you would expect from a full size mouse. What more can I say: it works whereever you need it and it's so much better than the feeble pointing devices built into the laptop that I find awkward and largely impossible to use.

-- Dan Dubno

IBM's Mini Optical 3 Button Travel Wheel Mouse
$30
Buy.com

Manufactured by
IBM

Years ago Apple figured out it doesn't need to write manuals for its products because David Pogue will, and he'll do it much better. Pogue, the New York Times computer columnist, is among the worlds' best explainers. His Missing Manual for the Mac OS is legendary; his Missing Manuals for the iPod, iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie are likewise behavior changing. I've found managing the iPod a pleasure once I had the Missing Manual in hand -- easing the chores of downloading books on tape, or sync'ing backups. Likewise attempting to make an actual movie on iMovie was near impossible without the aid of the Missing Manual, but an amazing joy once this book was in hand. There is a tendency to view the iApple applications as elementary because their interface is so minimal, but as these manuals show, that simplicity masks tremendous capabilities -- which are fully revealed in these pages.

It's not uncommon for a deep program to need guidance. The Missing Manuals are a thrill because they reverse the usual formula for guidebooks. Most manuals assume you have some knowledge, but no intelligence. Pogue assumes you have some intelligence, but no knowledge. He reminds constantly rather than assumes you remember. That shift makes a huge difference. Pogue knows you are entering the book at random and have not read all previous chapters, so he will always explain things from the bottom, not assume short cuts, and he does this without being pedantic, verbose or repeating himself. That systematic attention is the ultimate consideration for the perplexed. It helps of course that his knowledge of the all tips, cheats, hacks, and workarounds for each product is encyclopedic.

The Missing Manual series is simply the most intelligent and useable series of guidebooks on any subject. I only wish there was one for all the other tools on my desktop.

-- KK

iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition
J.D. Biersdorfer (edited by David Pogue)
2004, 349 pages
$17
Amazon

iPhoto 4: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition
David Pogue, Joseph, Schorr, Derrick Story
2004, 352 pages
$17
Amazon

iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual
David Pogue
2004, 504 pages
$25
Amazon

I've tried using a few different dedicated ebook readers. They suck; they are much worse than paper books. But I do like using my Palm handheld as an ebook reader, especially at night in bed with the backlight on. I bought a Sony Clie T615C with a color 320 x 320 screen for about $75 used. I see they're going for less than $50 on eBay now. A great deal for a 16MB device.

The screen is about 2.5 x 2.5 inches and it's at least as legible as a computer screen, if not more. The pixels are very small and the characters are very sharp. This high resolution is key for reading -- the kind of screen that comes with the Treo 600, for example, is no good for long texts. Any Palm device will work, but standard low resolution (160x160) makes it more difficult to read. The Sonys and the Palm Tungsten have that satisfying high resolution (320x320).

The free Palm Reader allows bookmarking, searching, and note-taking. It's a great little app. Invisible until you need it. To turn the page, you just tap the screen (there are several other ways to turn the page).

The best place to buy ebooks for handhelds is from Palm Digital Media, which sells ebooks for Palm and Windows handhelds. Palm Digital has lots of the books I want, like Steven Johnson's Mind wide Open, and Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Nearly Everything. The prices are good, too. Mind Wide Open costs $13.49 here. It's $17.50 on Amazon in paper. Best of all, there's no waiting for the book to show up in the mail -- you get it the instant you pay for it. I've read a couple of dozen books this way, and have come to resent having to use real books, which now seem too heavy to have to hold up.

-- Mark Frauenfelder

Sony Clie T6152
$160 new
Amazon

Plam Digital Media

Palm Readers

It used to be that if you wanted to get involved in micro-controllers, you only had a couple of options: 8051 or PIC. The 8051 is a old, tried-and-true architecture, which is fine if you're building a microwave or the controller for a car's fuel injection system. The PIC is an easy to use device, but it's slow and runs BASIC. What options are left for the basement mad-scientist intent on creating an army of robots to do his bidding? Enter Atmel.

Atmel makes the AVR series of chips. They're small (as few as 8 pins), low cost (they start around $0.75), and they're fast (execution speeds as fast as 16MIPS). The AVR architecture executes most instructions in 1 clock-cycle, and supports most modern languages. What makes AVRs great is the dizzying array of on-chip peripherals they support, their awesome developer friendliness, and the great user community that has grown up around them.

To get started with AVRs, you need a developer's kit. There are 70+ different boards available from various vendors, ranging from base-bones starter boards to boards that have onboard LCDs, ethernet jacks, or FPGAs. The best board (in my mind, at least) for general experimentation is the STK500, distributed by Atmel. You can pick one up for $79 from DigiKey, but remember to get a 12V power adapter as well, as one isn't included. Atmel makes a free assembler and IDE, and you can get a copy of gcc for the AVR from the good folks at ww.avrfreaks.net. The board has a serial port, LEDs, and pushbuttons, as well as headers for all of the ports your AVR may have. The STK500 will program any device in the DIP form factor, and with the optional STK501 daughter-board, it will program surface-mount TQFP's as well. Of course, since all AVRs are in-circuit programmable, you don't need anything except 4 wires to program them.

-- Michael DeRosa

AVR Freaks
Digi-Key
Atmel
Atmel AVR � STK500

The Missing Manual is a trove of liberating remedies and deep understanding of the Mac. It's the best Mac self-help book in print. Don't even think of upgrading or switch to OSX without it. I find myself paging through it constantly and still uncovering essential knowledge. Half of my joy of owning a Mac is now soaking in these pages.

-- KK

Mac OSX: The Missing Manual
Panther Edition
David Pogue
2003, 761 pages
$27
O'Reilly & Associates
from Amazon

Excerpts:

Mac OS X brings to life a terrific idea, a new concept in mainstream operating systems: icons that tell you something. As shown here, for example, you can often tell documents apart just by looking at their icons. Some program icons, furthermore, actually change over time. The clock program (in your Applications folder), for example, is a living icon that actually ticks away the time, right there in the dock. The Mail icon (see Chapter 19) displays a live counter that indicates how many new email messages are waiting for you.

The Location feature lets you switch from one �location� to another just by choosing its name � either from the apple menu (top) or from this popup menue in System Preferences. The Automatic location just means �the standard, default one you originally set up.� (don�t be fooled: Despite its name, Automatic isn�t the only location that offers multihnoming, which is desribed later in this chapter.)

My fingers are too broad and my precision too challenged to use the little keyboard on my Sony VAIO laptop effectively. Stuff I write in a coffee shop or when on the road ends up with tons of mistakes to straighten out when I transfer it to our desktop G-4. I recently bought this hokey looking rubber keyboard and it works amazingly well. You can roll it up, bend it, spill water on it, plug and unplug into a laptop at any time and it works great. My one objection is that it has no mouse, so you have to go back to the laptop for mouse movement and clicks.

-- Lloyd Kahn

GrandTec Virtually Indestructible Keyboard
$35
TigerDirect.com

Previously available from Amazon

What a lifesaver! When the electrical power suddenly vaporizes, the files you were working don't disappear. This reasonably priced unit gives you 6 to 17 minutes to close down your computer, depending on the size of your equipment. That's plenty of time to get through an orderly shutdown. In sleep mode my Mac G3 and 21 inch monitor once lasted 5 hours during a blackout when I was away. Brands of gear seem pretty interchangeable. The one I use, the APC Battery Backup 500VA, also has surge protection for the phone or cable modem line. The price of a battery backup, or Uninterrupted Power Supply (USP) as it is called technically, has dropped sufficiently so that every computer should have one. (Except laptops, which have their own built in supply.) Where power is especially unreliable, or where you want to power printers as well, you can buy more capacity.

-- KK

APC Battery Backup 500VA
$55
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by American Power Conversion (APC)
Model info: Back-UPS ES 500
Part #: BE500U
877-272-2722

As a Mac user I am spoiled. Among many other built-in goodies the Mac has notes. These are screen equivalents of post-it notes. They linger on your screen as reminders until you release them. I use them all the time. Joel Garreau made this suggestion for the majority Windows users.

-- KK

Joel writes:
You know about computer screen stickies? Here's a little program I'm in love with. Available for free, although it gives you an opportunity to tithe on Paypal.

Stickies 4.5