Yule Gifts for the Nerd on Your List
If you’re not in the market for a computer but are looking for stocking stuffers for your technophile friends, here are a few ideas:
* Computer necktie or jewelry from Softwear (https://www.softwear.com/). You can choose from a variety of styles, depending on your taste in computers and software, including earrings and notebooks made from real microprocessors. Prices start at under $15.
* The “Complete Chocoholic Office (https://www.chocolategallery.com/). Choose from the MacSNACK and PC Snack--six-ounce, 3 1/2-inch chocolate floppy disks ($8.95 for two) that come with five real disks--or give new meaning to the term “Intel Inside” by giving a six-ounce box of “Byte Size” computers ($6.50) or two “small computers” ($4.50).
* A mouse pad. Computer Fun (https://www.computerfun.com/) makes some cute and colorful animal-shaped mouse pads ($7.95), including one that’s shaped like a mouse. The company also makes mouse pads for car enthusiasts as well as $4.95 squeezable computer stress relievers.
If you want a mouse pad that’s practical rather than decorative, check out the Precise Mousing Surface ($12.95) from 3M (https://www.3m.com/market/consumer/pms/order.html). It’s an ultra-thin pad with a special texture that keeps your mouse clean and gives you more precise tracking. It sounds like a gimmick, but it really works.
* A mouse. Believe it or not, there are some innovative new mouse designs from IBM and Microsoft. Microsoft’s IntelliMouse (https://www.microsoft.com/products/) looks and acts like a regular two-button mouse but it has a wheel in the middle that you can use to scroll up and down your documents. It works great when you’re surfing the Web. The IBM ScrollPoint Mouse (https://www.us.pc.ibm.com/ibmhome/scrollpoint/) has a small stick (like the TrackPoint device on IBM and some other notebook PCs) that lets you move the cursor in any direction. Each mouse costs about $60.
* A can of air. Available at any office supply store, canned air is handy for blowing dust away from keyboards and the inside of CD-ROM and floppy disk drives.
* A wrist rest. The Kensington Wrist Pillow ($9.99) provides a soft, comfortable resting area for your wrists. Kensington’s $22.99 Contour Gel Wrist Pad is squishy soft and contoured to match the curve of your wrist.
* A laptop carrying case. It’s easy to find cloth or fancy leather ones in just about every price range. I carry my notebook PC around almost everywhere I go, so I recently spent $55 on a combination briefcase/backpack from Eagle Creek (https://www.eaglecreek.com/).
* Internet lessons. If you’re a kid looking for a gift for Mom, Dad or any Internet-illiterate older folks, consider giving them a few free hours of Internet training. After you’ve taught them a fraction of what you know, leave them with a book like “Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages” by Jean Armour Polly (Osborne McGraw Hill, $19.99) or “A Parents’ Guide to the Internet” (SC Press $22.95) by Parry Aftab.
Once they’re on the Web, point them to https://www.learnthenet.com/ and https://www.webteacher.org/
