I had so much fun browser-window-shopping last week I thought I’d follow up with ten more favourites.This time, they may not fit under your tree or within your budget, but here goes:

1. Dreamcade Arcade Cabinet:
http://www.dreamarcades.com/100inch.shtml

Sate your inner 8-year old with this baby! Compatible with projectors and most consoles.

2. Star Wars USB flash drives from Mimoco
http://lab.mimoco.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=13

3. Sphericle Speaker Set
http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/Sphericles/index.cfm

4. The Amazon Kiundle - eBook Reader - The Literal iPod.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA

5. Another Sadistic Alarm Clock:
http://www.americaninnovative.com/products/neverlate-exec.php#

Set 7-days worth of specific wake-up times, including which station/buzzer to set off, and an anti-snooze function.

6. A Philips Hi-Res CT Scanner
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7112688.stm

At this time of year its time to take a look deep-inside ourselves.

7. Noon Solars Solar powered Backpack - Get your geek-on and your gadgets charged.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/noon-solars-stylish-bag-collection-charges-your-gizmos/

8. Akai Headrush - Guitar loop/memory pedal, for the digital one man (or woman) band.
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/5529
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIO2qpSsUTA

9. A hard core macbook metal jacket
http://www.kkshimura.com/export_pc_price.html

For when you’re designing, say, a logo for the Taliban.

10. Christmas night Carols, replete with plasma screen and surround sound.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/media-center-meets-piano-results-are-questionable/
“Gather round kids, and we’ll play oh come all ye faithful, followed by some Bluray Die Hard!”

– Ben Prendergast

On my wife’s side of the family we do this Kris Kringle type deal each Christmas, where you pull a name from a hat and spend $100 on that person. Being the kind of guy that doesn’t really wait for Christmas before buying that must-have accessory, my annual gift is usually marked “Dear Impossibloke, buy less stuff next year mkay? Love Kris Kringle”. This year however we’re nominating some gifts (kind of like a gift exchange program, I don’t know why we don’t just buy ourselves a $100 gift each year, but I digress).

Admittedly I thought this would be a difficult undertaking, but sure enough Google was quick to direct me to 10 gifts that would sate my little scientist. If you know someone like me, or me, buy us one of these.

1. A Polar RS100 Heart Rate monitor - For those who like to measure pain incrementally.

2. FIFA 08 for xbox360/ps3/wii (NOT FIFA 2007, FIFA 08! There’s a difference) for when your thumbs need a workout.

3. Armani Attitude Pour Homme mens cologne - Via Strawberrynet.com, Another great fragrance from Armani.

4. Black Leather driving gloves- The one thing I couldn’t find anywhere on the web. Little Help?

5. Kenneth Cole Watch

6. An Eco Sphere - Seamonkeys for big boys

7. An Ebay BMX
That’s right, every good boy deserves an old school mongoose, complete with padding and optional spokey dokeys. Seriously though, all blokes should have a knock-around bike, even if just to “ghosty” into the christmas tree

8. A sadistic looking knife-block (We have these knives, they’re actually really good).

9. An alarm clock with an anti-snooze facility (read: it runs away)

10. A SOG multi-tool (Insert satisfied male grunt here)
For when you absolutely, positively have to cut/saw/squeeze/measure/pinch/poke/open/repair/kill something.

– Ben Prendergast

News from the IT world doesn’t come any bigger this week, here are some of the top stories:

Apple Launches Leopard, no kitten!
I won’t review the new features here, other than to say the new version at $150 bux is well worth the coin, in terms of personal efficiency you can’t beat Time machine for keeping your info safe, Quick Look for speeding up review of files, Mail improvements for bringing your to-dos into line, Spaces for keeping your various work roles split neatly, Boot Camp for running those pesky Windows apps. But in addition its the little things like having wikipedia entries linked to your dictorianary (apple click any word anywhere to gain clarity) or being able to quickly google map an address book entry. While some criticize the update as being a service pack, I’m here to say Apple are still the leaders in inspired software development.

NY Times says: More readers trading Newspapers for Web Sites
That’s right, treehuggers should be happy to note that newspaper sales are on the decline while online readership is on the up. Now if only I can get a raise.

Facebook Ads - Having your cake and feed your friends too.
Big news on the Facebook front, with the social media company announcing an ambitious new ad infrastructure that will allow advertisers to target specific demographics whilst presumably (it will be launched tomorrow morning our time) allowing a brand-based referral network. While social referral isn’t new, the notion that the estimated 25 million daily users of facebook be presented by brand messages from their trusted friends offers a new and potentially highly profitable revenue stream, akin to Google Adwords or YouTube’s embedded ads. This morning, there’s already a backlash

Digg, the online news ranking site close to sale
One of the internet’s more popular blog ranking site is close to a US$300-$400m sale to a ‘major media player”. Rupert? Is that you?

– Ben Prendergast