Perhaps one of the most startling things about Dr. Greene is that he uses a Mac. When I was a physics and astronomy undergrad student, all of my professors were serious Unix people, most often with Solaris workstations in their offices, sometimes a Windows workstation with a Solaris box next to it.

Everything Greene does is done with an air of minimalism and professionalism. I’m impressed with how well organized and maintained his office is, but how much fun he seems to have working in it as well.

It’s been a while since we had a workspace contest. What does yours look like? What do you keep nearby to inspire you?

After all, not only do I work full-time in technology, but I’m also a technology writer. It’s not uncommon for me to spend more time at a computer on any given day than I spend sleeping. So what can I do to make sure I’m not dying a slow and hunched-over death? Great question – it’s a question you should ask yourself, too, especially if you spend any significant amount of time at the computer.

Well, with the help of a little proper posture at your desk while working and some simple desk exercises, you can go a long way towards making sure you’re overall healthier and happier even if you have to spend the bulk of your day at a desk. That and some regular breaks to get up and walk around? You’re golden. Hit the jump to see what I mean.

Speaking of Lifehacker, last weekend I took note of some videos that Vodafone put together that remind us to sit up straight and make minor changes to our work environment that actually make a big difference in our comfort and long term health. Here’s one of those videos:

The beauty of it is that it only takes a few minor tweaks. No expensive new chair, no fancy new standing desk, just sit up straight, slide a little closer to your desk, and pay attention to the angle of your back, neck, and your elbows.

If you’re interested in taking it to the next level, over at Dumb Little Man there’s a list of great stretching exercises you can use to stave off bad posture that will help you stay limber and healthy. Some of the stretches, like the Superman, the Reverse Superman, and the Hip Flexors, are stretches you can do anywhere, at any desk, in any work environment. I wouldn’t suggest you start working the posterior chain on the floor at an office where you have to wear a suit, but hey – if your office has that kind of culture, I think a break may be in order.

The other important thing to note is that you can tweak your workspace and stretch as much as you want, but none of it is a substitution for getting up and moving around. Your body isn’t made to sit in one place for hours upon hours on end. You need to get up and move around: walk to get a glass of water or a drink, go get some face-time with a coworker you like talking to (if they’re not busy, of course,) or just walk a lap around the floor.

I keep a bottle of water at my desk for just this reason: I fill it up when I finish the coffee I bring to the office with me every day (you guys know I’m a coffee snob, so I’m not drinking from the push-pot we have in the office,) which makes me get up and head over to the water dispenser. Then when I finish the bottle, I get up and refill it almost immediately: it gives me an excuse to get up and move around.

Most ergonomics experts will tell you to take a 10 minute break from the computer every half-hour or so, but sadly most jobs would never be that lenient with time away from your desk. I say try to fit it in as often as reasonable and that doesn’t draw unwanted attention to yourself.

Between stretches, breaks, and making sure you pay attention to the way you’re seated, there are a lot of little things you can do to make big improvements in your health. Don’t write this one off, give it a try.

By the by, if you’re interested in seeing that “Sitting is Killing You” infographic, and haven’t seen the Lifehacker piece linked above, take a look here, and click to enlarge:

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

images in this post via Joe Loong (IMG_3771.)

Same as before, if you follow me on Twitter (@halophoenix) you’ve probably seen most of the links already – every time I have a chance to post, I make sure everyone gets a link to each and every piece. I know, I know, but I just have so much love to share. Anyway, if you missed the posts from this past weekend, I’ve wrapped them all up nice and tidy for you behind the jump.

• Simple Tips that Make Moving Easier

  It helps that I’ll be moving soon, but I had to share some great tips that I stumbled on around how to make the moving process a little easier. I mean, it sucks no matter which way you go about it, but you can make it easier on yourself by preparing properly, making sure you keep the most important things available and identified so you can unpack them first, and organize things the way you want them when you get to the new place. Minimizing a bit also helps. As for me, I’m in the middle of doing all of those things.

• Say No Without Wrecking Your Career

  If there’s anything I’ve learned in trying to navigate the corporate maze, it’s about how to let your supervisors and management know clearly that you’re pretty much tapped out – without, of course, being disrespectful and landing yourself in a position where someone questions your capability to work effectively. In this piece, I share how to go about doing it.

• Five Best Cheap Travel Booking Sites

  This post and its predecessor where I called upon the readers to let us know what their favorite sites to book cheap travel with are part of the Hive Five series. The sites that made it into the roundup are pretty much the ones I expected, but there were still a few surprises. The ITA/Matrix site is a new one to me, but I’ll tell you here’s one thing I didn’t realize until I saw the votes: Kayak clearly has a posse.

• Family-Friendly Spring Exercise Tips

  When I got the call to do another weekend, I knew I wanted to share an outdoors-y type exercise post. Sadly, they don’t seem to resonate quite so much with the LH readers, but I think it was well liked anyway – honestly, I think there’s still a strong “tech” element to the Lifehacker name, even if there have been more lifestyle posts lately. Still, I found a great article about how to encourage your friends and family to get out and get some exercise, and considering the weather is getting warmer, why not share it?

• Bridg.me Calls You When the Conference Starts

  I actually stumbled on this one a bit late: the download I was thinking about writing about on Thursday got snapped up by another writer on Friday, so I had to adjust at the last minute. No worries though, this new service promises to call you when your conference call is supposed to begin instead of forcing you and your call participants to join a bridge line. With some more detail, I think it can get some real traction.

• One-Line Tips to Stay Creative

  Sometimes, my friends are some of the best sources of inspiration for me, and I stumbled onto this piece at Tumblr thanks to one of my friends’ tweets. I took it to heart personally, seeing as I’m a writer by and large, and would like to be more of a writer if at all possible. Just because it’s my passion though doesn’t mean that I don’t have those times where I just can’t figure out what to write about. Now I have a little cheat sheet to help me stay motivated.

• Use Plasti Dip to Fix Stripped Headphone Wires

  I almost didn’t expect this one to get the traction it got, but it did – I mean, the makers of the product started following me on Twitter and expressed their appreciation. All I did was write about it guys, the guy over at Instructables that originally posted the tip deserves the credit! Still – it does look like an awesome product and an awesome idea. I’ve lost several great headphones to separated wires like this, and I’m definitely going to try it next time one of my pair starts to go this way.

And that’s another week in the bag! I think they liked what I did, I think the community really responded well to it – but there’s always room for improvement and growth. What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know how you like the pieces, either here or there – I’m checking both!

Honestly, the piece is anything but – and it’s actually a pretty great story about how MMOs and other online games where an avatar represents you in a virtual world can actually be a great way for people to get to know each other in a non-threatening way without forcing them to meet up in a crowded bar or put either of them in an awkward situation. Sure, sure, there’s the inevitable “you don’t look like the photo you emailed me” moment that’ll come later if someone chooses to be dishonest, but hey – there are benefits too, you know?

With a little help from our friends at Jezebel and their post World Of Warcraft Is The Future Of Online Dating, let’s take a look at how you can be a classy geek and still get your flirt on, even in Azeroth.

First and foremost, I would say that it’s important to use the blanket of anonymity and distance to your benefit, as opposed to your detriment. What does that mean exactly? It’s simple: Be Honest. Seriously – so many people assume that in a virtual world of environment that everyone will lie and make themselves out to be more than they really are that most people I’ve encountered find it a breath of fresh air that I’m actually very much who I am in analog when they meet me digitally, you dig?

The piece looks over some people who met through the game and wound up falling in love – from a New York Times piece called Love at First Kill, which followed some couples that have or do play the game together. I’ve been down that road before – it’s a double-edged sword, but it’s a good one to have. It can be a great way to meet good friends and spend time with someone you like (especially if you both like the game and have similar interests in that regard) but it can also expose issues in your relationship if you decide to play different ways and it causes friction.

Still, let’s back up to the whole falling in love thing. Over at the NYT piece, they note how easy it can be to let your feelings fly without it being awkward in a virtual environment:

Speaking of emotions, the first time she let Dreadmex know she loved him, she did so in the game, and then swiftly logged off. “You can say ‘I love you’ and then run away,” Ms. Romero said. “That moment – ‘Should I tell somebody I love them?’ – it’s a big deal, right? So to be able to say it and then to disappear is pretty great.”

Other gamers have echoed that sentiment, saying that typing their feelings or flirtations is less awkward than saying them aloud. That can lead to more-honest conversations, and fewer misunderstandings. It’s why many players believe that they come to know each other faster and better than, say, people who meet over a few dates.

Personal experience: I’ve found this is very true, not just romantically. It’s very much easier to be open and honest with someone virtually when you know that you’re interacting behind a screen, but it’s not that it dulls the feeling at all, it just gives you a sense that you have more of an escape route. It’s almost like you’re having an incredibly lucid and emotional dream, but in the back of your mind you know you can always wake yourself up, so it feels a little less threatening. Following me?

Now if you’re a gamer – especially a social gamer and you’ve played MMOs with people and been involved in drama and whatnot with multiplayer games – then you already know what I’m talking about, and you’ve probably already been down this road before.

Like I said before – the important thing is to be honest. And by be honest, I mean be honest to yourself and to the other person, the way I described in Debunking the Myth of the “Nice Guy”. The more honest you are, the more success you’ll have. If you try to conceal something about yourself, or puff yourself up, trust me, you’ll get found out eventually and it’ll be a bigger issue later than it would be earlier on.

One part of the Jezebel piece that I adore is that playing a social game like World of Warcraft automatically gives two people something to talk about, instead of pushing their food around a plate trying to think of a topic of conversation:

One problem with the chat and message functions on online dating sites is that there’s not always that much to talk about. Sure, you can discuss each other’s profiles, but after that, you don’t really have the outside stimulation of an outing or shared experience to keep the conversation going. Contrast that with this:

“There’s something magical about falling in love with someone just through writing and then waiting for a reply,” said Ms. Langman, for whom Mr. Bentley once stormed a castle.

Emphasis mine. Situations of peril can be romantic, even when simulated, and it’s no surprise that some people fall in love after performing acts of derring-do for one another in Warcraft. Compared with your typical dinner date, storming a castle is pretty impressive.

Yeah seriously – he stormed a castle for her? You go, son! That’s how you impress a lady – storm the castle, cut down the trash, and clear a path for her to get out. And you didn’t even have to use a battle rez.

Ahem. Anyway: I think that’s an important point too – sure games turn us into impossible beings that do impossible things, but they also give us something to bond with each other over instantly. Something we can have deep conversations about, conversations which to outsiders may seem shallow, but to insiders have infinite ways they can branch off into real personal discussions of personal beliefs, histories, dreams, and passions.

All it takes is a question like “Why do you play a Paladin, anyway?” to set an RP fan off discussing their character and how they relate – which can open the doors to an element of their personality you would never see on someone’s Match.com profile.

See geeks? There’s hope for you yet, and it’s right under your nose. Just use it wisely, and oh – when you do decide to meet for the first time? Let me help you pick something to wear.

the gorgeous image used as the header in this post and the first one below the jump is called “Lovers in Darnassus” and was done by Sandara, of DeviantArt. Go see her work, seriously.

Now my flask just happens to be one of the many that the retailer of geeky awesomeness that you all already know, ThinkGeek carries. I have The Meh. Flask, but I’m thinking long and hard about picking up The Ethanol Molecule Flask, or even The Starfleet Flask, you know, because I’m a Star Trek fan at heart.

Still, today’s topic isn’t any of those flasks, although I think the brushed aluminum and clean style make for excellent carrying, if you like what you see over there. No, we’re here to turn the clock back a bit – or slip into another world altogether, and hook you up with some drinking gear designed after a little element of geek culture that’s near and dear to my heart: Steampunk.

Tantalus Designs over at Etsy has a penchant for bringing some seriously gorgeous steampunk, Victorian, and Edwardian designs to hip flasks that actually look really sharp.

Now I hear what you’re saying: “Who carries a flask anymore?” You do, that’s who. And if not, you should. Frankly, nothing says class like being able to spike your own drink, or chat up some lovely geek in a corner at a party and offer something stronger than the Heineken that the host has on tap, you follow? Especially if it’s something fancy and nice like a good whiskey or a smoky scotch. Swap our liquor and toss in water or juice for a quirky alternative that doesn’t involve alcohol.

But back to Tantalus: based out of Baltimore, Maryland, their array of designs add beautiful decorations to classic aluminum or leather-covered flasks, and they even have you covered if you don’t drink:

Don’t drink, no problem! Use it for a stylish alternative to medicine or vitamin bottles or even leave it on your kitchen window sill for sea salt! This flask looks great wherever!

Wow, I have to hand it to them: I didn’t even think of that, frankly. They even sell flask funnels if you need a way to get your favorite liquid into one of their flasks without spilling it all over the countertop – and I can tell you from the time I tried to fill my flask with whiskey that even losing a drop is enough to bring tears to your eyes.

Tantalus’ flasks are broken up by type: steampunk, gothic/vampires/horror, and pirates/faeries. Personally, I enjoy the steampunk flasks the most (especially this one with wings and gears on the leather face,) but there are tons of different types of geek, so you might find your favorites in the other categories. After all, some of the gothic ones are pretty swanky as well.

And when you’re ready to share your precious cargo, Tantalus even sells collapsable metal shot glasses, perfect for giving a good friend a swig of what you’re carrying without forcing them to go straight to the flask like you do.

You may not be able to keep the booze cold in a flask like this, but you can certainly keep it available, to say the least. After all, you don’t have to be an alcoholic to carry a flask with you, but a love for a delicious portable beverage you wouldn’t mind taking a swig of now and again is definitely required.

If you know me at all, follow me on Twitter (@halophoenix) or have heard me talk about it at all, then you know I’ve been excited about the opportunity – it’s always a good day when LH comes calling! If you missed the posts however, I have them rounded up for you here so you can click through and browse them at your convenience.

Hit the jump to get the links.

• Get Spring Produce Early, Keep It Tasty All Summer

  Here I share some tips I picked up on how to make sure that the delicious fresh spring and summer produce that you’re likely going to see on store shelves in the next couple of weeks manage to stay fresh, delicious, and available for you to enjoy well into the hot weather months, even when they’re not readily available anymore.

• How to Keep Your Task List Healthy and Focused

  I’m a huge fan of the GTD philosophy, and I think I resonated with this article a bit more than some of the commenters did, but it’s authored by Amber Mac, who I can’t say I don’t adore, and her tips hit home with me. Of special note, I like how she pointed out that you should make sure to reward yourself for the work that you do, and make that a task on your to-do list. I could get used to that.

• Five Best Job Search Sites

  This post and its predecessor where I called upon the readers to shout out the sites they wanted in the roundup, I was pretty busy. I’m still surprised some of my favorite job sites didn’t make it into the roundup, but I think we got a great roundup regardless. Best of all, it’s a great bookmark-able article for people who are out looking for work and need solid resources to do so.

• Add Ground Effects to Your Bed for Gentle Night Lighting

  This one is one my favorite, I think. Partially because it’s just so cool, but partially because I had the opportunity to write about ground effects and pimping out beds on a site like Lifehacker. I think the readers loved it too, actually, and I’m seriously thinking about doing something like this when I move into my next apartment. After all, it’s so incredibly simple to do!

• Use Metal Hairpins to Easily Pit Cherries and Olives

  This one is one of my favorites as well – I’m a huge fan of using things you already have in your home or have lying around to do uncommon tasks, and I’m an even bigger fan of using things that are cheap to replace expensive uni-taskers in your kitchen. I’ve talked about this before, but the idea of using a hairpin to pit an oliver or a cherry, or a baby food spoon to fill a deviled egg? Really resonates with me – and it should resonate with you, too!

• Greplin Adds Faster, As-You-Type Search to Gmail

  Greplin was a fun little tool to use: it really does improve Gmail search as much as they say it does, and it’s a great super-search utility that can search everything across your online life, as long as it has access to those accounts and services. And there’s the rub: it has to know everything about you in order to index it. Yowch.

• How to Save Money on Warm-Weather Energy Bills

  This one is a little early, but according to some of the commenters I might be a little late on the energy-saving tips for warm weather months. After all, I know that the biggest part of my electric bill in the spring and summer is air conditioning, and I’m always on the lookout for ways to keep my power costs down. It’s pretty likely that you are too, so I snagged some tips, wrote them up, and provided them to you. Enjoy!

That does it! I really can’t say how grateful I am to the team at Lifehacker for inviting me back to guest post again. I like to think that I provided some really solid content, and judging by the discussion in the comments, I think things turned out pretty well.

In the interim, I don’t want anyone else to miss out on the benefit of the work I did over there, so you all get the benefit as well. Besides, all of them fit in pretty well here at The Classy Geek too. Let me know what you think of the posts in the comments – either here or there, I’ll be watching both.

For example, this week I want to highlight a shop called The Uncommon Green. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, The Uncommon Green is the brainchild of Brian Johnson, an incredibly talented designer who has some beautifully geeky wares that won’t make your apartment look like a mad college professor’s office, if you catch my drift.

For example, this set of Pi Glassware is absolutely stunning, and comes with Pi etched onto the sides of shot glasses, rocks glasses, and pint glasses that you can buy either alone or in a set. Me? I recommend the set, or at least get more than a few rocks glasses so you can share a scotch or a whisky with a friend, you dig?

Let’s look at some more, shall we?

I’m also a huge fan of these martini glasses: they sport beautiful modern design and elegance but they still retain the beautiful lines and imagery that make a martini glass what it is. The exceptionally classy bases though add a sharp and very modern look to them that will make any guest or significant other who stops by for a drink look twice, admire, and very likely comment on their beauty.

Best of all, the prices for all of this beauty are fantastic considering they’re generally custom and hand-made, so there’s no excuse to not add a little style and glass to your geeky domain. I mean seriously, they have a Pi-shaped bottle opener too: it doesn’t get much better than that.

Along with the beautiful leaves and flowers and blooming trees and the eventual need to shed our heavy winter coats for something more manageable and cool, we’ll soon return to the topics of clutter, travel, spring cleaning, tasty beverages, and making the most of the spring and summertime.

Before all of that though, I want to make sure you’re paying attention – there are some great things coming from The Classy Geek very soon, so stay tuned!

One of those great things? Well, this giveaway! We’re partnering with Wicked Audio to give away a set of Wicked Metallics earbuds, and all you have to do is leave a comment below (with a valid e-mail address so I can reach you) to win! I’ll pick a random commenter that leaves their note between now and 11:59pm EDT on Monday March 28th, 2011!

Good luck!

It’s something of a tragedy and definitely a vicious cycle: people go looking around the Web for photos of beautiful workspaces, find them, and instead of taking ideas on how their workspace could look better or help them be more efficient, they’re angry that the workspaces in question don’t look more like the ones they already have: disheveled, unorganized, and in need of improvement. So the cycle begins again.

At least until now. I’ll show you five items that I’ve found invaluable in keeping my workspace clean and clutter free – to the point where if I did a little dusting and took some photos, some people would think it’s impossible that I actually did any work there.

Saying these are “gadgets” is a little bit of a misnomer – they’re not all gadgets in the electronic sense where they have lights and buttons, touch-screens and batteries, but some of them will make sure that we steer clear of some the most common pitfalls most of us fall into when it comes to keeping our workspaces organized.

• 31-Day Bill Organizer

  Unless you want all of your bills, mail, and other “I need to pay attention to this on this date” items in a big stack next to the door, you’ll want one of these 31 Day Bill Organizers. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever purchased when it comes to keeping paperwork in my household to an organized minimum.

  The 31 day bill organizer allows me to – as soon as a new bill arrives in the mail – drop it into the date slot on the organizer that corresponds to when it’s due, or at least when I want to pay it. Then with one glance at the bill organizer, I know if something is due today, or should be paid today. I never lose a bill, and I’m never late with a bill, but most importantly, the bill is never misplaced or stuck under a pile of other bills waiting to be paid.

  Between this and (another great suggestion) the recycling box I put next to the front door, hardly any paper mail goes misplaced in my apartment anymore. The junk goes right into the recycling box, and the bills get opened and go right into the organizer immediately. Other things like statements get tossed into their respective folder in the filing cabinet (another great idea, but not necessarily for workspaces only) and that’s the end of that.

  On the other side though, if you don’t want to spend money on an organizer, you can always go paperless when it comes to your bills – your bank and most of the companies you pay on a regular basis for power, entertainment, and your credit card spending all allow you to do it. Some of them will even e-mail you before they take the money out, or let you schedule when the bill gets paid electronically – less paper in the first place means a more organized workspace.



• Laptop Stand/Docking Station

  If you have a laptop – especially one that you take with you to and from the office, or that you keep with you at all times but open up and use when you get home, you probably want a docking station for it, or some other laptop stand or equivalent that gives it a nice home that’s easy to drop it in and take it out of. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting home with your laptop, pulling it out of your bag, and knowing you have to connect a half-dozen cables to it in order to get yourself up and running at home. Video, USB peripherals, network cables (if you’re not wireless, in which case I suggest you go wireless if you can,) power, you name it.

  One little docking station or at least a laptop stand with your commonly used cables zip-tied or velcroed to it (if you don’t feel like buying a docking station for your laptop’s make and model) can make a world of difference when you need to settle in and get some work done at your desk at home. Plus, you avoid the need to fish for cables, connect each one individually, and then try to keep them all orderly.

  Even if you don’t have a laptop, take the phrase to heart even with your desktop computer – you may not need to dock a system when you get home from the office, but you may want to connect your flash drive, external hard drive, phone, or other devices when you get home. Try to make sure you have a space in your workspace dedicated to those devices that get docked or connected when you get home from the office, instead of forcing yourself to clear a space every time you have something you want to put on your desk. Making sure everything has a specific place goes a long way towards staying organized.



• File Organizer

  Most offices provide these to their employees, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t have one at home as well: a desk organizer with horizontal and upright sections for files and folders. If you don’t like the kind with more vertical sections than horizontal ones, that’s fine – you can always get a different desk organizer that suits your tastes. The point here is to give your paper a place to live that’s not all over the place and all over your desk.

  As soon as you start to accumulate piles of related paper, or folders of paper that are stacked on top of each other, you’re starting to lose the battle. You would do well to have something – some kind of filing system that’s on your desk and easily available for the files that you use most frequently and most often, and a simple desk organizer like this one does the trick without breaking the bank or spending a ton of money. Plus, the black mesh look is kinda modern and sleek, don’t you think?



• Cable Organizer/Power Strip

  Remember a little ways up there when I was discussing docking stations? The goal of having a docking station, or even a dedicated place for your computer peripherals where their cables can be easily traced and plugged in to your portable computer, is to reduce clutter from cables and plugs all over your desk and to reduce the amount of time required from you walking in the door with your gear to being productive when it’s time to work. So why not do the same thing with your existing gadgets, not just the ones that need to be plugged in to your computer?

  Cable management is probably one of the hottest topics when it comes to keeping a desk tidy – even some of the nicest workspaces can be pretty quickly spoiled by a rats nest of cables that would make it virtually impossible to swap out your mouse if it broke, or trace your video cable to its end if it fell down behind your desk. Personally, I like the Cordies Cable Organizers – they’re cheap, they’re small, and they fit right in on your desk. You can drop anything in them, from your headphone cables to the USB cable connecting your mouse to the back of your computer, and if you disconnect anything that’s run behind your desk or over to the wall, you’ll never lose the cable again.

  If you’re on a budget, try the Belkin Cable Dome – it’s cheaper, but just not as attractive and doesn’t support the same number of cables. Still – the Cable Dome could be a good complement to the cordies – you can drop one of these on the underside of your desk or on the wall next to your computer and run your cables through it.While you’re at it, why not tie the important ones together (charger and data for your phone, cables for your computer, cables for your laptop, etc) using Velcro Cable Ties? See? Nice, neat, and tidy.

  Another thing you might consider is putting a small power strip or surge protector on the top of your desk. I know, I know, I hear it now – surge protectors are big and bulky and ugly. Well, not all of them! For example, how about this Kensington SmartSockets 6-outlet surge protector – the color coded plugs make it easy to tell what’s plugged in where, and the circular shape means it won’t look horribly out of place on top of a desk instead of covered in dust underneath it. Plug, the nice long cord attached to the surge protector makes an easy run from the top of your desk to an outlet.

  Another suggestion – although this would have to go into a nearby outlet unless you used an extension cord – is the Belkin Mini Surge Protector and Dual USB Charger that I simply refuse to leave the house on long trips without. Even if I’m away for a few days, this goes in my bag. If I had an outlet on the wall next to my desk and it were only two ports, this would live in one of them permanently.



• Microfiber Cloth

  This is a bit of a gimme, since it’s not necessarily going to keep your clutter level or strewn papers or anything in their rightful homes, but it’s definitely something you want to keep around at all times if you want a generally clean workspace. That’s right, the ultimate in screen and gadget cleaning gear, a set of Microfiber cleaning cloths. I like to keep one of these tiny Microfiber cloths on my keychain so I can get a good look at my phone’s display anytime it gets smudged up because I took a call, or because I just put moisturizer on my hands and had to check my e-mail.

  Sure sure, it’s not going to help you keep your cables in check, or make sure your display is at the optimal position, or save you time when you have to get to work, but I’ll say this: one of the first things to go when your workspace starts to get dirty is your sense of how clean it is. If you think your workspace is getting messy, it will get messy. When your monitor starts to get those little smudges on it because you were drinking tea and read your favorite webcomic, or because you were on the phone having a shouting match with someone and you want to clean them off, use these. If your laptop display is looking a little dusty, a quick swipe with a microfiber cloth will make it look like new again.

  Little things go a long way towards keeping your workspace looking sharp, clean, and like it belongs in pictures – and trust me, if you do the little things when you notice them, you won’t have to do the big things ever because you won’t let your workspace get that bad.



• Bonus: Second Monitor

  Was that five? Okay, let’s make it six with this bonus item: an additional display. Those of you rocking more than one display already know what I’m talking about – those of you who are sitting in front of a computer with one display, even if it’s nice and big, or worse in front of a laptop perched on a desk, don’t know what you’re missing. I’ve written about this before, but it holds true now as much as ever. If you have enough screen real estate, multitaskng is easier – especially when your working on something that requires you to go back and forth between documents, views, or your work in one area and research in another.

  Need a use case? I’ll use myself – it’s clear I do a lot of writing (hit me up if you need a writer, of course!) but in the course of my writing I frequently do a lot of research and tab back and forth between the documents I’m composing and reference material that I use to either link my points or back up my statements. You know, like a good writer would! It helps a ton to be able to write on one display with minimal distraction on it, but if needed, bring up my research or referential web site or another great article on my second monitor.

  If you’re rocking a laptop, you just need to invest in an external monitor to go with your laptop. If you have a computer with one display, consider a second one – if you have the space for it, it can make a huge difference in keeping you from printing things that wind up on your desk so you can refer to them while you work on your computer, and it can make a huge difference in keeping you from needing paper on your desk at all – you have space digitally now that you can use. It’s a wonderful thing.

The spring is coming, and a lot of people will consider a little spring cleaning. If you’re looking to make your workspace a little more organized and a little tidier, I hope these tips come in handy for you! It’s really impressive how sometimes taking the initiative to organize your paper, reduce your cable clutter, and overall just make sure your workspace stays tidy can stave off the big cleans and organizational projects that you’re probably dreading. Remember – do the little things when you notice them, and you’ll never have to do the big things.

As always, let me know what you think! Leave me a comment below.

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user pixelsonly (IMG_0812) and respective product pages for the products shown above at Amazon.

Lifehacker isn’t afraid of long-form content either, as long as it’s concise and to the point, which is pretty much the spitting image of my personal philosophy towards writing. Thankfully, they accepted me into their fold for a one-day guest posting gig, and I put together some pretty awesome articles to share with them and the robust community at Lifehacker (of which I’m a part: you can find me in the comments as “phoenix”) as well.

So – without further ado, hit the jump to get links to my three piece: one on rolling your own HTPC on a budget, one on making the decision whether or not to go back to school versus stick it out in a dead-end job, and one on a handy mobile app for tax time!

[ Lifehacker :: Roll a Powerful Media HTPC for Less than $500 ]
This piece was tons of fun to write – partially because of the speed with which I had to assemble the component build for the HTPC, and the fact that I had to stick to a budget. I wanted to stay under $500, but I wanted to make sure it was chock full of quality components that would get the job done. As usual, the comments are great for my piece, with lots of great critiques of some of the areas even I think are most flexible.

For example, a lot of commenters suggested going AMD instead of Intel to save money – great idea, I just went Intel because it was tried and true and proven to me, and frankly I’m not as familiar with the AMD chipset and its current-gen processors. A number of others suggested going with less RAM (something I don’t agree with at all) or with an Atom/Ion processor/chipset combo (skeptical, but open to the idea,) but if you’re planning on building an HTPC anytime in the future, this is a good guide and parts list.

Alternatively, you can accomplish much of the same by installing XBMC on your Apple TV 2, but the article was really targeted at people who wanted the ability to have complete and utter control over their home media solution – and who could drop the media management software anytime they chose to stream Hulu and Netflix even if those two services block the set-top software they’re using.

[ Should I Go Back to School? ]
This “Ask Lifehacker” column was partially torn from the pages of my own life: back in 2002 I was debating the same thing. I was stuck in a job where I didn’t think there was much career growth for me, and I had to make the decision whether I wanted to go to grad school or stick it out in my current job and hope for the best.

I decided to go back to school, get a Master’s, and stick it out in the job at the same time – partially for tuition benefits from my employer but partially because I didn’t want to just quit my job wholesale and go back to school full time. I had an apartment I had to keep and bills I had to pay, and while the tuition assistance was great, it wasn’t everything. When I did graduate though, it was clear that my current employer at the time still didn’t have any growth opportunities for me, so I left in favor of an employer who did. Best decision of my life.

But it may not be the best decision for everyone – and that’s what I point out in the Ask Lifehacker piece: weigh your options, your pros and cons, and whether you’re actually going back to school for something that will make a difference in your career. Discuss with your family and determine whether you can pay for it or get help from your employer to pay for it. Then make your decision.

[IRS2Go Tracks Your Tax Return from Your Phone ]
A simple little piece on a handy mobile app that – even though it has some pros and cons – allows you to track your tax return from your smartphone and get tax tips and updates from the IRS…if you actually want them. Handy!

And that’s it. I really can’t express my gratitude enough to the team at Lifehacker for allowing me to guest post among them last Friday, and judging from the reception in the comments, it looks like the posts were more than well received. As usual with Lifehacker, the comments tell an amazing story: some of the personal stories shared in the comments of Should I Go Back to School are incredibly moving and really enlightening when read as someone who’s been on both sides of that question.

I’m hoping that people get something from my work there, and you never know, with a little luck you may see me over at Lifehacker again soon. I’d definitely love to work with them again!

So I won’t make your wallet whimper this month with shiny HDTVs to watch the Super Bowl on (lots of sites are doing that roundup about now, I don’t need to repeat it for you) or whether or not this month is a great time to buy a car, but what I will do is help you out with a few things that will make the year a little smoother….or at least more interesting.

• KOR One Hydration Vessel

  

  You made a New Year’s resolution to get to the gym more often, right? Or maybe you made a smarter New Year’s resolution and decided to try and live a little healthier, right? Good. In that case, you’ll need to stay hydrated – most of us are perpetually dehydrated and don’t nearly get enough water during the day to stay healthy and keep our bodies working smoothly. We wind up with mystery headaches, aches and pains, and wind up snacking when our bodies are trying to tell us that it’s thirsty.

  I had a dietitian tell me once that you should drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day. That means that if you’re 200 lbs, you should be drinking 100 ounces of water daily. I know it sounds like a lot, but it’s something to work up to, and you’ll be healthier overall for it.

  The best way to do it is to pick up a nice shiny water bottle, like the KOR One Hydration Vessel, which not only looks sharp but holds a ton of water (750ml, approx 25 ounces,) and figure out how many of the bottle you should drink per day. If you’re 200 lbs, you probably want to drink four of those bottles each day – not at once, just over the course of the day. See? That’s not so bad.

  The beauty of the KOR One is that it’s attractive, it’s BPA-free so you can get around that whole controversy without having to think about it, has a tapered shape so it can fit in most bags and backpacks, has a wide mouth so you’re not sucking on a sport top for ages trying to get water out, and it’s dishwasher-safe. The handle makes for easy cleaning, and – before I forget – the water bottle was seen in Iron Man 2. Take that however you choose.

• ThinkGeek Joystick-IT

  Sadly the Joystick-IT controller for iPad isn’t available just yet, but it will be soon. The sheer awesomeness of the device though comes through in the YouTube video above – and if you have an iPad you’ll want to spend the $24.99 on one when they’re available to order later this month. Tons of games use virtual joysticks to control your character movement, the direction you’re facing, or both, and one of the most common complaints about iPad games that use virtual keyboards is how difficult it can be to control while you’re holding your iPad.

  That’s what the Joystick-IT was designed for: to give you a way to use the virtual joystick on-screen more like an actual joystick. The conductive suction cup on the bottom of the Joystick-IT is designed to keep your iPad’s screen safe from smears and scratches, and can be repositioned anywhere on the display that the control joystick is located. So the next time you fire up Street Fighter IV for the iPad, you can actually execute all of those special moves as though you were standing in an arcade.

• Logitech Couch Mouse M515

  

  Logitech took the wraps off of the Logitech Couch Mouse M515 just last week. It’s $49.99 list price, and features a simple, ergonomic design with a fully-enclosed bottom that also encapsulates the optical sensor on the underside. The M515 also has a hand-activated sensor on the top so the mouse only turns on when there’s a hand on top of it. This way, Logitech promises you can get up to 2 years of battery life out of the little thing.

  If you’re wondering why it’s called the “Couch Mouse,” and why there’s so much emphasis on keeping it all enclosed and the battery life good and long, it’s because the M515 is designed mostly for people who need a mouse to use with their home theater PCs: a mouse that’ll work just as well on the couch as it would on a flat surface like a desk. The enclosed body design is so you don’t get lint and other debris in the seams between the top and the bottom, or lodged into the space where the sensor lives. It also makes for an smooth glide across any type of textured surface, like a blanket, pillow, or just the fabric surface of your couch.

• Click N Cook

  

  The Click n Cook actually started out as a project over at Quirky, where the community wanted a way to quickly move between kitchen implements with the same handle design without filling a cabinet full of various – and often expensive – tools that each only do one thing.

  The Click n Cook gets around this problem by giving you a single, ergonomic, and attractive handle that attaches to and detaches from different cooking ends easily when you need them. When you don’t need them, they live inside of a knife block-style holster that lives on your countertop, ready for use. Need a spatula? Just click the bottom into the spatula attachment and go to work. When you’re finished, you can detach the spatula end, drop it in the sink, and attach a different end if you need it, like the slotted spoon attachment for stirring pasta, or the mixer attachment for stirring batter. You even get two handles, and the whole kitchen system will only set you back $34.99.

• Gear4 Unity Universal Remote

  

  The Gear4 Unity Universal Remote turns your iPhone into something we all need in your home theaters and entertainment centers but don’t want to spend any additional dough on: a universal remote. After all, you have your smartphone with you at all times anyway, right? Why not put it to good use while it’s sitting on the coffee table and you’re watching television?

  The puck – which in reality is the only part of the Gear4 Unity Universal Remote that you actually wind up purchasing, is actually an IR base station that can be programmed to control virtually every device in your home entertainment system that accepts controls via IR signal – you know, like a normal remote control sends? Here’s how it works: you program your phone to connect with the puck over Bluetooth, and your phone tells the puck what devices are in your home entertainment setup and what their model numbers are. You use your iOS device to send commands to the puck, like “volume up” and “channel up,” or “switch to DVD player,” and the puck then interprets those commands, translates them into IR signals that your home entertainment gear can understand, and then sends them out on your behalf.

  The beauty is that your phone uses Bluetooth to talk to the Unity, and the Unity uses IR to talk to your gear – no conflicts, and the gadget can be regularly upgraded to learn new devices, as can the app on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. It’s a perfect universal remote system, and it makes use of a phone you already have in your pocket.

That’s all for this month’s Classy Gear segment! Most of the items in the list are useful, affordable, and won’t kill your wallet or your budget. As usual, leave a comment if you’ve seen a useful gadget you’d like to see included in a Classy Gear roundup, or have some experience with one of the items in this week’s roundup.

This year has been a great one for The Classy Geek, thanks to you for sharing the articles with friends, passing them around, sharing them on Twitter and liking us Facebook, participating in our Workspace Contest, and letting us know how you feel in the comments of the articles!

Now then, to celebrate our 1-year birthday, let’s take a look back at some of the best articles of the past year, some of our most popular features, and some articles that if you missed them, they’re still worth looking back to see:

• What Does Your First Anime Say About You? – December, 2009
• A Geek’s Guide to Picking Out the Right Tie – December, 2009 | Ties Revisited – Picking the Right Tie: Part II – July, 2010
• Must Have Bar Essentials – Part 1: Essential Spirits – December, 2009 | Part 2: Essential Mixers – December 2009 | Part 3: Essential Bar Equipment – January 2010
• Mobile Apps to Find The Haps – March, 2010
• 3 Thinks You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Drop Cash On – April, 2010
• Cooking Steak for Apartment Dwellers – May, 2010
• Debunking the Myth of the “Nice Guy” – June, 2010
• Buying Groceries Online Can Save You Money (And Shrink Your Waist!) – July, 2010
• Hanging Posters and Wall Art… The Classy Way! – July, 2010
• Anime Wednesdays – Paranoia Agent! – September, 2010
• Beer and Wine: The Right Glass and the Right Poud Make A Difference – November, 2010
• 5 Tips for a Classy Thanksgiving – November, 2010

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user geishaboy500, (Dom Perignon Champagne)

1. Microsoft XBox 360 Slim w/ Kinect
   

   Perhaps one of the smash hits this holiday season was just released a few weeks ago, and will likely make enough waves that you won’t be the only person asking for it when you get to your local electronics store or department store: it’s Microsoft’s new Kinect motion control system for the XBox 360 game console. Now, I’m suggesting the XBox 360 Slim with Kinect, because there are some great prices on bundles available right now from a number of retailers both on-and-offline, but if you already have an XBox 360 that you’re happy with and you’re not looking to upgrade it, you can pick up a Microsoft Kinect system for your current XBox 360.

   Even so, the new XBox 360 Slim reportedly is much more stable than the old version, runs cooler, packs a more powerful processor, and is Kinect ready, meaning you don’t need extra power cables for Kinect – you can plug it easily right into the new XBox 360 Slim instead of having to connect the Kinect (see what I did there) and then plug it up to power. Regardless, the Kinect is definitely one of the best gifts you can give anyone this holiday season: the gift of having fun playing games – either alone or with you – while being simultaneously forced to get off the couch and get active.

   

2. Apple iPad
   

   It seems like it’s been so much longer, but the Apple iPad was only announced in January of 2010 and released in April – the gadget that’s made itself a mainstay in so many people’s lives, spawned an array of peripherals, cases, stands, and generally horrible Android-based copycats, and all but defined what a tablet computer should be, has only been with us for less time than it takes to have a baby. Isn’t that scary?

   Regardless, the iPad makes probably one of the most bang-for-your-buck gifts that you can give anyone this holiday season, whether they’re a technophile or a self-proclaimed luddite. Aside from being a ton of fun to use for the basics like checking e-mail, watching Web video, listening to music, surfing the Web, and keeping up with your social networks, the device is also backed by Apple’s iTunes App Store, which has literally hundreds of thousands of apps that extend its functionality beyond what it can do out of the box. Best of all, many of those apps are free, so it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

   Admittedly, the iPad is an Apple product, so there very well may be an updated version announced early next year, but there’s no way to really tell. In the interim though, the iPad makes a great gift, and if you’re the type to personalize gifts, it might be worth ninja-syncing your gift iPad with your recipient’s iTunes account (or set one up if they don’t have one) and download some apps you know they’ll like to the device so they have something fun to play with when they open it. By the way, I suggest picking up the Wi-Fi-only version, unless you know they’ll want the 3G model and you’re not handing them an unwanted monthly fee by way of a cellular service bill.

   

3. Ten One Designs Pogo Stylus
   

   Regardless of whether you pick up an iPad for the geek in your life this holiday season, your gift receiving geek likely has a touch-screen device in use in their life somewhere, whether it’s a smartphone or a tablet. The Pogo Sketch
   and the Pogo Stylus from TenOne Design both work swimmingly with capacitive touch-screens, you know the kind you have to actually touch with your finger to make work?

   If you’re like me at all – or better yet, the person you’re buying for is like me – your fingertips can sometimes be a little big for those small touch-screens, especially on smartphones. The Pogo Stylus is the smaller model designed for smartphones, and the Pogo Sketch is a larger, longer model designed for tablets. Personally, I don’t find the Pogo Sketch too large to use on my smartphone, but you can decide which one will work best for the lucky geek you’re shopping for. It’s a great way to give a gift that lets someone continue to use their smartphone with solid accuracy even if their hands are in gloves, or even if they’re sitting around someplace warm and comfortable but need a little precision on their touch-screen.

   

4. Samsung Galaxy S (Multiple Carriers)

   Android phones tore up the smartphone market this year, and unless you’re absolutely sold on the iPhone specifically (and you’re willing to go with AT&T for one – at least until Apple ditches them) or you’re really eager in Microsoft’s recently released and still somewhat unproven Windows Phone 7 platform, Android’s the place to be if you want a smartphone that’s functional, fun to use, feature rich, is under active development, and who’s star is rising. You won’t go wrong picking up an Android phone for someone this year – assuming, like I’ve said before – that they’re okay with inheriting a cell phone bill for the holidays along with their shiny new device.

   Granted, there a re a number of Android phones on the market, and a lot of them are great devices. What tipped me over to the Samsung Galaxy S line of smartphones is the fact that Samsung did something that a number of manufacturers didn’t have the money or the desire to do: break the lock that American wireless carriers have on device by releasing slightly remade and remodeled versions of the same phone on each major carrier. You have to salute that.

   For example, the Samsung Captivate has been tearing up sales on AT&T, the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon Wireless is second in power only to their flagship device (one I prefer actually,) the Motorola DROID X, the Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile is doing exceptionally well, and the Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint comes with a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard, front-facing camera, and so much horsepower it’s the least like its brothers. All four are “Galaxy S” phones, so regardless of the carrier the person you’re shopping for currently uses, you can spend some cash to get them a great smartphone upgrade without forcing them to pay a termination fee and switch carriers unless they already want to.

   

5. Barnes & Noble Nook Color eBook Reader

   Last year, we suggested that you pick up the Amazon Kindle eReader for the holiday season. That suggestion still stands – it’s a great device, and this year the Kindle got smaller, got smarter, got a bigger battery and a sharper screen, and overall improved a lot. The Kindle has a lot going for it, no doubt, but if you want the experience of an eReader but you also like the color screen of something like the iPad, the new Barnes and Noble Nook Color eReader was designed to strike that middle ground perfectly.

   Granted, it’s still more of an eReader than it is a tablet, but it’s a remarkable eReader at that. The bright color display makes magazines (and there are lots of magazines available for it) and Web sites pop to life, and you still get the benefit of a crisp and high contrast display that’s easy to read e-books on. The display isn’t e-ink, but it is bright and clear, runs 3rd party apps developed for it, and comes in at a comfortable 7-inch portable form factor. Oh, and did I mention it comes in at $249, making it cheaper than the iPad (which makes sense, the iPad is more powerful) as well as the Samsung Galaxy Tab (which it’s more like than unlike?)

   If the geek in your life this holiday season is looking for an eReader, or if you’re shopping for someone who wants something more than an eReader but less than a full-blown tablet, this is the gadget to wrap up for them.

   

6. Beats Studio by Dr. Dre – Hi-Def Noise-Canceling Headphones

   Sometimes you get what you pay for, and even though the Beats Studio by Dre Noise-Canceling Headphones and their smaller, more affordable cousins the Beats Solo by Dr. Dre On-Ear Headphones were made through a partnership with Dr. Dre’s new Beats Audio program (to which a number of manufacturers have signed up) and Monster Audio – a company who’s name brings fear to the hearts of cost/benefit minded geeks everywhere – these cans deliver in a huge way.

   I first had the privilege to listen to a pair at CES in January of 2010 at the Microsoft booth, where all of their Zune media players had the eadphones attached, and I fell in love. They’re by far not the cheapest active noise cancelling headphones on the market, but they’re definitely the best at both active noise cancellation and audio quality. Note I said “both.” There are headphones out there that are better at noise cancellation, and there are audiophile-level headphones better at audio quality, but if you want both of them at a premium level that doesn’t simply gut one of those features to boost another, these are the headphones to get.

   The Solo keep the same look and strong audio quality and deep bass, but drop the active noise cancellation. You’ll get them a bit cheaper, but if you’re looking for a good pair of noise cancelling headphones for the classy geek on your gift list, buy the Studios. The Solos look and sound great too if you don’t want to spend the $299 retail on the Studio model.

   

7. BlueAnt Q2 Bluetooth Headset

   A number of states, including the one I live in, have recently passed laws restricting use of cell phones while you’re driving unless you’re using a hands-free device. Admittedly, I still see a lot of people driving around with their phones up to their ears, but if you want to obey the law, get the most use from your cell phone, and get clear and crisp audio when you do have to take a call, the BlueAnt Q2 Headset (or its freshly released but more expensive successor the Q2 Platinum) is worth the sub-hundred dollars you’ll put into it.

   Your recipient will get the best benefit if they have a smartphone that has voice commands – when paired with the Q2, the user gets access to the phone’s voice commands through the device, hears their text messages read aloud, and gets the benefit of mobile apps that help configure and control the headset. Your lucky geek will also get caller announce – meaning when you call them, the headset will tell them who it is, not just that they have an incoming call.

   Perhaps most importantly, though, they’ll get some of the best call quality you can get in a Bluetooth headset and the benefit of BlueAnt’s Wind Armor technology, which makes sure they can hear clearly if they’re driving with the windows down or are outside in the wind, and that you can hear their voice clearly when they speak in those conditions. I know, I know, Aliph’s Jawbone ICON and Jawbone Prime are the mainstays in this category, but I have to admit, I have a soft spot for the Q2′s price point and the fact that you get free smartphone apps and features along with it.

   

8. Mass Effect 2
   

   Maybe you’re looking for something to wrap up for the gamer in your life? Well, if they haven’t played this title already – one that came out at the beginning of the year to much fanfare – this should definitely make it onto your holiday shopping list. You can pick up a copy of Mass Effect 2 cheaper now than its release in January.

   Mass Effect 2 is the latest chapter in an incredible sci-fi series that combines drama, incredible story, truly unique gameplay, and tons of fun and crams it all into a package that’ll make any gamer happy on any platform. from all of the customization options to the wealth of missions and storylines to follow to the intricate interpersonal relationships you cultivate in the game, Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games of the year, and definitely one that, if your lucky gamer gets it, will keep them busy well through the new year.

   

9. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

   I’m cheating a little bit by suggesting this title, because it’s actually not going to be released until December 7th – but when it is, oh boy will it be amazing. I partially say that because I’m a World of Warcraft player, and I completely realize that the people who will get the best benefit from the latest expansion to the World of Warcraft franchise are the people who have been playing and looking forward to it already, but if your gamer geek stopped playing sometime during the last expansion, this is the gift to get them back in.

   And yes, I fully realize that even though I frown on essentially gifting someone a bill, this is a subscription-based MMO where recurring payments are required to continue play. To remedy this, I propose giving your gamer a World of Warcraft 60 Day Game Card with a little pre-paid play time to see if they like the game, and then they can decide if they want to continue. If they’ve never played, you might want to give the gift of a 10-day free trial to see if they’d really play before snagging the game and its expansions up through Cataclysm first, but trust me, with 12 million active subscribers, you can’t really go wrong.

   

10. Minecraft

    Give the gift of addictive, minging, crafting, zombie-slaying, creeper-dodging, build-anything-you-can-think-of gameplay by giving the gift of Minecraft. The smash hit has made one independent developer very very happy, and for the price of less than $15 USD, it’ll make a geek on your list very happy too. There are thousands of Minecraft servers up and available all over the world, where people are building things as massive as an in-game scale model of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D to massive castles and structures to live in and more.

    The game has a culture all its own, and is under incredibly heavy development, with more features, multiplayer support, and additional changes to the game base and the world on the way. You can even buy the game and roll your own Minecraft server to suit your preferences and live in it all alone, building everything you want to your hearts content, or open it up to your friends or to the world to join in on. See the possibilities? Make them real for someone on your shopping list, they’ll thank you.

    

11. The IT Crowd (Season One | Two | Three | Four)

    You don’t have to be a huge fan of British comedy to appreciate The IT Crowd, but if you are, it’s even better. The television series, which just finished airing its fourth season in the UK on Channel 4, has endeared itself to geeks on both sides of the pond with its hilarious characterizations of your typical small, basement, underfunded IT department that largely escapes the watchful eyes of the rest of the company because no one thinks of them until something goes wrong.

    You meet the team’s egotistical but somehow adorable manager, someone thrust into managing something she knows nothing about, and the 2-man IT team that manage to embody virtually every geek stereotype at one point or another while simultaneously getting themselves into and out of situations that would make any geek laugh, point, and say “yeah, I’ve been there.”

    Best of all, the DVDs come loaded with extras, gags, behind the scenes views of the set that’s loaded down with gear from ThinkGeek and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and more. If you’re shopping for someone who’s ever worked in a corporate IT department in their lives, especially someone who’s had to work in IT support at one time or another, this is a gift they’ll treasure forever, and then show their friends.

    

12. Aeropress Coffee Maker

    We’ve done enough food and drink stories that you should know by now that The Classy Geek isn’t just about technology and gadgets and gear – I mean, who doesn’t love the stuff, but sometimes we have to get our caffeine on too, and if the folks you’re shopping for this holiday season appreciate a good cup of coffee as much as I do, they’ll love the Aeropress.

    The Aeropress is a portable coffeemaker that takes ground coffee, boiling water, and with the power of your hands and the miracle of emulsion, turns it into a delicious espresso-style pressed coffee drink that will fill about a cup at a time. The best thing about it is that even though it’s a little more labor intensive than a drip coffee maker, it makes fantastic coffee, and the show you put on when you use it (and the show your recipient will put on the first time they try it) is enough entertainment to make the gift worthwhile in its own right.

    It’s no side-kitchen gadget either: the Aeropress may be a unitasker, but because the coffee that comes out of it is more like espresso than it is like drip, you can make more complicated coffee drinks with it, and perhaps best of all, it’s a geeky gift in an affordable package: you get to give a gift that lets your geek learn a little something, tell others when they fall in love with it, and get their caffeine fix all in the same box.

    

13. Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter

    The folks at ThinkGeek outdid themselves with this, to the point where I’m so in love with it that I’ll overlook the not-quite-so-classy aspect of a pizza cutter that’s shaped like the starship Enterprise from the original Star Trek series. Here’s the clincher though – it works, it’s amazing, it’s stainless steel, it’s an officially licensed Star Trek product, and it’s something that you and every other geek on the planet have to admit you’ve thought of at some point, and even if you haven’t, you have to admit it’s pretty damned cool.

    The Enterprise Pizza Cutter slices through pizza with ease, and is a geeky goodie worthy of a place of honor in your kitchen. I know, I know, it’s not easy to clean, it’s not a multi-tasker, it’s not a handy kitchen gadget that you’ll see on a gourmet’s must-have list, but work with me here: it’s the Enterprise. As a pizza cutter. Careful though, that saucer section is sharp!

    

14. Whiskey Stones

    Turning up the class a notch, these handy little soapstone cubes help you avoid a cardinal sin when sipping fine liquor: diluting it with ice. Some people say a splash of water in a glass of whiskey, scotch, bourbon, or rum will help open up the flavors, but I tend to prefer my sippable liquors neat, without water or ice. At the same time, I also prefer them a little chilly, so instead of putting an ice cube in my glass of scotch, I’ll toss in a couple of these.

    The stones themselves live in your freezer until you need them, and when you’re ready to have a drink, just take them out of the freezer and toss them into your glass. They’ll be as cold as ice, and when you pour your liquor of choice over them you’ll cool it off substantially. Best of both worlds – you get a nice chilled scotch, gin, or whiskey, and you don’t lose the flavor by adding water. They’re the perfect gift for the geek you know who either has a bar, or followed the advice in our Bar Essentials series!

    

15. Tulip-Style Beer Glasses

    I mentioned the importance of having the right beer glasses in our feature on how the right glass or pour can make all the difference when it comes to drinking a good wine or beer, and now that it’s the holiday season and time to shop for others, do yourself a favor and get your friends who are still drinking their beer out of red plastic cups frathouse style a set of nice beer glasses. You can pick up a set of 6 tall Pilsner Beer Glasses like you can get at just about any department store or liquor store, but if you know someone who loves a good beer, loves learning about beer, and loves growing to appreciate good beer, do them a favor and get them a tulip-style beer glass set, or at least a flared imperial pub glass or two.

    The benefits to the tulip style is that after the pour that bulbous space in the glass gives the aromatics a great opportunity to develop along with the head of the beer as its slowly settling down. There’s a reason they’re so popular in Belgium when you order a nice ale, now you can give the gift of a better beer for the budding beer connoisseur in your life, and you won’t have to spend a fortune to give them a gift that boosts their knowledge, benefits their taste buds, and gives them something fun to talk about the next time they share a beer with a friend.

There it is, folks – a great list of geeky goodies that will make any type of geek on your holiday shopping list happy. Regardless of if they’re a food and wine geek, a gadget fiend, a phone freak, a gamer, or all of the above, there’s something up here that will make them happy. Best of all, a number of the suggestions are budget friendly, so if your’e shopping with costs in mind you can take some of these suggestions to heart and know you’re getting something the guy or gal geek in your life will appreciate without breaking the bank to make them happy.

Granted, I’m assuming you’re shopping for someone else – if you read this over and said to yourself “wow, I wish someone would get these for me,” may I suggest sending a link to your friends or family?

And with that, let me wish you a happy, classy, and geeky holiday, whatever you celebrate!

We’er suspending the productivity and elegance clauses for this month’s Classy Gear, and we’re tipping out hat to the venerable ThinkGeek, which has a massive and wonderful array of Halloween-themed products and gadgets that are perfect for the spooky season. No, no – we won’t bother much with costumes, after all, I don’t know if there’s a way to really class up that sexy maid costume or that werewolf costume that you’re planning to put on for the party this weekend, but there are some other spooky items that can help you dress up your halloween affair or at the very least have a good time this weekend!

• Blood and Zombie Blood Caffeinated Energy Potions

  

  Now this is guaranteed to be a hit for your Halloween parties, and if you haven’t ordered yours yet, better do it now and make with the overnight shipping! ThinkGeek’s Blood Caffeinated Energy Potion looks like it shouldn’t be drinkable, and trust me, you’ll look strange when you’re drinking a red liquid from what looks like an IV bag, but trust me, the stuff is delicious, I’ve tried it myself. The human version is red and fruit-punch flavored, but if you’re looking for something with a tasty lemon-lime flavor you can try the Zombie Blood Caffeinated Energy Potion, which comes in a similar bag with a biohazard seal on it and, of course, the liquid inside is a bright, almost radiant green.

  Both versions are caffeinated for that light, perk-you-up feeling after sucking them down (about 80mg of caffeine each) and each package has about 1000ml of “blood” inside. If these aren’t the perfect treats to have lying out at your Halloween party, I don’t know what is. Even if you don’t pick them up for Halloween, they’re perfect year round anytime you want a little spooky or gross-out flare in a gift basket. Best of all? They’re pretty cheap, too!

• Ghostbusters Ecto-1 License Plate Replica

  

  How cool would this look hanging in your home office? The Ghostbusters Ecto-1 License Plate Replica is a perfect addition to any grown-up playspace, especially if you’re old enough to remember and love the original Ghostbusters movies.

  I’m not suggesting you put this puppy on your actual car, especially if you’re like me and live in a state where you’re required to have license plates on both the front and rear of your vehicle, but I would definitely hang this on the wall in my office or den as a tribute to the absolute greatness of old school geekery that is Ghostbusters.

  The plate is an exact replica of the plate that’s actually on the Ecto-1 in the movies, in all of its bright yellow glory, and is made for wall hanging as well as standing display. It’s wider than is street legal in most states, but if you live in a state where you can have a vanity plate that’s non-functional in your window or on the front of the vehicle, I suppose it’s okay. Make sure you check with your local jurisdiction first, okay? That way you don’t get pulled over and send me your ticket claiming it’s may fault this happened to you.

• Star Wars Jedi Bath Robe

  

  This is perfect for Halloween if you’re looking for a pretty easy costume to do, but the best part about it is that it’s great year-round as well! The Star Wars Jedi Bath Robe is perfect for lounging around the house in geeky glory, but it can also function as an integral part of a functioning Jedi Knight costume! The robe has a hood that you can easily lift on and off and is for more than show, and even has the Jedi insignia on the left chest.

  It’s made of terrycloth, which any bathrobe connoisseur would know is the best possible material for a nice, moisture absorbing, comfortable bathrobe, sports a cinch belt, and is large enough to fit just about anyone.

• Batgirl and Wonder Woman Costume Babydolls

  

  Don’t worry ladies, if the Jedi bathrobe above isn’t really your style, you don’t have to be left out – these two lovely costume shirts above are long enough to be worn as parts of costumes, but when Halloween is long over you’re not stuck with a clothing item that goes in the back of the closet until next year – the Batgirl Costume Babydoll and the Wonder Woman Costume Babydoll both look great on any occasion, and can be used as part of a costume or just worn out and about any time of the year.

  Granted, I’m somewhat partial to the Batgirl version, but they’re both really sharp. Both babydolls are 100% cotton and durable, and it’s worth noting (the same way ThinkGeek notes in the product description) that both of these babydolls are longer than most normal shirts – they’re designed to come down over your hips for a more costume-y look. Still, any lady wearing one of those to the movies with me automatically gets geek points in my book. Check the measurements before buying to make sure you get the one that gives you that superheroine look!

• Skullhub USB

  

  Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well Horatio.

  If you’re the type who can be found brooding over your desk, and always wished you could have a skull on your workspace to “remind you of your own mortality and impermeance” but didn’t want to clutter your desk with useless objects, now you can have your skull, have a useful gadget, and have a container you can put things in as well!

  The Skullhub USB is a skull, pure and simple, that sits on your desk, and has two USB 2.0 ports on each side for a grand total of four ports. The top of the Skullhub USB is shaped like a bowl, so you can stuff other things in it: you know, snacks, pencils and pens, anything that’ll fit nicely.

  Seriously though, this is definitely the USB hub for horror fans, or even if you want to spook out your coworkers or friends with a big skull sitting on your desk that just happens to be connected to your backup hard drive and USB key. It’s not made of real bone (if you couldn’t tell from the picture) but it is durable, so it’s not that spooky. Still looks pretty cool, though.

That’s all for this exceedingly spooky Classy Gear! Hopefully I’ve given you a few things that you might want to make sure you get shipped 2nd day for Halloween, or even a few things that might retain their usability and fun well past the spooky season. If you’re planning festivities for Halloween, make sure to have a good time and stay safe, no matter what you do!

As always, leave me a comment if you like what was featured this month, and if you have an item you’d like me to look at or feature in a future Classy Gear segment, drop me a line. Happy Halloween!

So since most of us are back to school or back to work or in any event sitting (or standing) in front of a workspace for a good chunk of the day these days, let’s take a look at some gadgets and gear that will help you keep your space nice, tidy, organized, and effective, shall we?

• Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter

  

  Okay, it won’t really help your productivity, but this fantastic item came out of the labs at ThinkGeek last week and has taken the world by storm, and for good reason. After all, the Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter is one of those things you look at and wonder “why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?!” and then of course you head over, add it to your cart, and buy one for yourself. And then maybe a few more to give to fellow Star Trek fans around the holidays.

  And believe me, you’ll need them – I can only imagine that with the sheer amount of coverage the Enterprise Pizza Cutter has been getting that they won’t go pretty quickly. That said, head over and get yours today.

  Seriously, I know it’s not traditionally what you would consider “classy,” it’s not ergonomic and it’s not super stylish, but sometimes you just have to give in to your geeky side. Trust me, I understand. Don’t fight it, do it right – and this my friends, this is right.

• mStand Laptop Stand by Rain Design

  

  One of the things I noted in the previous column was that you should try to remember to at least think about ergonomics when you’re laying all of your stuff out for a new workspace, or even if you’re just giving your existing workspace a little sprucing up. What makes you comfortable now will save you injury and aches and pains for years to come, so exercise your brain power a little bit to be a bit more comfortable and active when you get a bit older, okay?

  Part of that is making sure that your displays are at eye-level as much as possible, and you’re not turning and tilting your head a ton to move from the display on the left to the display on the right, or wherever you have them oriented. If you have a laptop and an external display, it can help a lot to keep the laptop display at the same level as the stand-alone monitor (preferably both are at eye-level,) but to do that, you’ll need something to stand your laptop on, won’t you?

  Enter the mStand Laptop Stand By Rain Design. Designed for the Macbook and Macbook Pro, the mStand can work just as well with any other laptop with a good flat underside, and it tilts the bottom so if you have to you can still use the keyboard while tilting the display back far enough that it’s easy to see while you’re sitting in front of it using an external keyboard and mouse.

  Each mStand is carved from a single piece of aluminum (which helps dissipate heat) and has a stop at the bottom so your laptop doesn’t slide out of place. The rubberized stoppers around the body of the mStand also keep your laptop secure in one location, even if you’re swapping cabled and peripherals on either side. You can read more about the design here at Rain Design’s mStand page.

• Twistits Cable Organizer

  

  There reall is nothing more frustrating than having a bunch of cables connected to your computer, knowing that if one of them slips or gets unplugged that you’ll be fishing around behind your desk for ages trying to find it, and then you have to deal with the arduous task of feeding the cable up to the top of your desk without it falling back down on you. That last bit is the part I hate the most. That’s why I’m a huge fan of desk accessories like the Twistits Cable Organizer from ThinkGeek.

  Just bundle up a bunch of your cords and cables into the Twistits and leave yourself some slack at the other end for your connectors, and you’re all set. Sure, you could accomplish the same thing with twist-ties, but they’ll fray and look awful. You could get velcro strips, but you’ll eventually misplace them and they’ll come apart. The awesome thing about the Twistits is that they’re small enough to not be horribly notable on a bundle of cable, they come in black or white so they blend in with your cable instead of stick out, and they’re inexpensive, at $8.99 for a 20-pack!

• Creative Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling Headphones

  

  Nothing’s more disruptive when you’re zoned and getting some quality work done than a chatterbox coworker who insists on having a conversation right next to your desk, or outside noise when you’re working serenely at your desk in your home office. Maybe you just like music while you work, and you really want to hear everything without having to hear the ambient sounds of the air conditioners turning on and off at your office.

  Well, if you want quality noise cancellation but you don’t want to sacrifice audio quality, you won’t go wrong with the Creative Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling Headphones. The X-Fi may not be quite as elegant as the noise cancelling champion, the Bose® QuietComfort 15 Noise Cancelling Headphones, but they’re over $100 dollars cheaper than the champs, and according to PC Mag they get the job done better at a lower price point.

  Regardless of which of these guys you buy, you’ll be happy, and you’ll never have to hear the coworker who insists on having all of his meetings behind your chair or loudly at his desk ever again. Even if you don’t want to listen to music, just toggle the active noise cancellation and you’ll find a little peace and quiet. If you’d rather rock out, just plug them into your music player or headphone jack and it’ll be you, the work you’re trying to get done (or the gaming you’re trying to do) and your music.

• LaCie Network Space 1TB/2TB Network Attached Storage Drives

  

  One thing I’ve learned to be a little greedy about when it comes to my workspace is the amount of storage I give myself for files, downloads, music, and movies. I have a ton, and they’re only the tip of the iceberg. I’m starting to get pretty obsessive about backups as well, which means I need to have copies of my data in case something happens to my computer or the data I have on it. And then I need backups of the backups in case something happens to the backups. And then I need offsite backups of the backups in case something happens to my apartment. You see where this is going.

  In there somewhere I’ve learned to love the external hard drive for what it is – a quick and sensible solution for backing up your data and keeping a few big files available at all times. Still, don’t just stick with a plain old USB hard drive, go big and get serious with the LaCie Network Space 1TB NAS Drive. What’s that? One terabyte just isn’t enough for your massive music collection? Okay then, spring for the 2 terabyte model, the LaCie Network Space 2TB NAS Drive.

  The important thing that makes these guys impressive is the fact that they’re LaCie, which is pretty well known for its quality in desktop hard drives (and don’t get me wrong, these drives aren’t horribly cheap, but you get what you pay for) and they’re all Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, which means you can plug them into your home network and access them like a shared drive from multiple computers. That also means that you can install your favorite backup software on all of the computers in your home, make folders on the LaCie Network Space drives, and back up directly and automatically to the drive without plugging in another cable to your computer.

  The Network Space drives have a USB port on them so you can attach yet another external hard drive if you like, or any other USB device that you’d like to add to the available storage or back up to the Network Space with a single touch. These guys even act as iTunes servers, so if you put your iTunes library there you can stream music and movies on it to other devices. Connect it to your network and your XBox 360 or PlayStation 3 will see it as a media device and let you play your media.

  Yup, instant and automatic backups without you having to think about them, and multimedia features for your home network? You can thank me later.

That does it for this month’s Classy Gear. Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas and options for keeping your workspace tidy and ensuring it helps you work, instead of you working to get around it. Also, take a little time and make sure that your workspace has the tools and utilities on it to keep you working productively, whether it’s something as simple as some noise cancelling headphones to help you block out ambient or annoying noise, or a little extra disk space to keep your important files backed up or to save you from deleting something every time you want to save a new project.

As always, leave a comment and let me know what you think about the gear this month! If you have any suggestions for items to be features in a Classy Gear segment, say the word!