The Great Geek Manual

Show your support for the piracy scene with this Modern Pirate t-shirt from La Fraise, a French t-shirt website. They’re available in In Europe, they’re available in sizes ranging from Small to X-Large in Europe for €19.00.

I don’t see shipping information listed on the site for U.S. or Canadian orders, but I seriously doubt that they’d turn away the business. While you’re at the site, don’t miss the Homo Geekus design, either.

Source: La Fraise

It’s all too true. Being a dinosaur would have been far more interesting career path for me, as would have being a choo-choo train astronaut (i.e. the pilot of a space train).

Luckily, while I’ll never be as cool (or ferocious) as my past self might have wished, the sentiment still makes a great conversation starter. You can get yours now over at Threadless in sizes ranging from X-Small to 3X-Large in a male or female cut for just twelve dollars. They all come in white.

Source: Threadless

“I♥U Robot” is a new t-shirt design from Mediafury. For some reason, I think about the anime series The Big O every time I see the design, and it makes my fingers just itch to Photoshop the girl’s hair down in an imitation of R. Dorothy’s profile.

These shirts are available in men’s or women’s colors (baby blue or pink). All shirts are 100% Cotton and are available in Medium, Large and XL for US$20.

Source: MediaFury

A short while back, I got an Acer Aspire One Netbook for my birthday. Aside from the way its keyboard makes me feel like my hands are freakishly enormous, I love it.

Basically, I just wanted a cheap computer I could leave on my nightstand to use for my nightly reading, and the Aspire One is perfect for the job. It fits in my hand like a hardcover. Its battery doesn’t get hot; its fan is quiet; and its battery capacity is short enough that it’ll shut down in short order if I nod off mid-Spidey comic. It’s got enough juice for reading digitized comics, listening to an MP3 audiobook, or even running my favorite text-to-voice software, while having too little RAM for me to be tempted into a little late night gaming. The best part though, is that, thanks to the price, I can nod off with netbook still in hand without fear. Always before, I’ve been too overprotective of my laptops to bring them to bed. There was just too much risk that their screens might be damaged if they slid off the covers and hit the floor or I rolled over on to them. Not to mention the niggling fear that an overheated battery might turn me into a human torch.

Just two issues arose with my arrangement. First, I’ve never seen a computer that smudges and shows fingerprints faster than my netbook. Second, unlike laptops I’ve owned, the netbook’s screen is too dim to see the keyboard by or to read by, if I’m just using it as a jukebox while I’m working my way through a paperback.

Luckily, when Budget Gadgets contacted my to write a review for some of their products, it turned out to be an excellent opportunity to remedy both issues.

When they asked me check out their site, I immediately zeroed in on the Notebook Laptop Case Bag from HP and the USB 10 LED Light 896.
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Honor your family, fight the rain, scare the crap out of passers-by in fair weather, and stay dry in fowl weather with this sleek black nylon umbrella sporting a katana handle. Recommended for anime fans of all types. Price: US$30.00

Source: Uncommon Goods

I realize that these are probably intended for kids, but come on! I mean, after my thumbs have cramped into the kill position from an intense Halo match, it get’s kinda hard to hold on to those girlie ovoid bars of soap.

The best part of these beauties isn’t even their shape, though. This soap comes in Apple Jack, Cola, Dragon’s Blood, and Mountain Dew scents! Now, your girlfriend (or mom) can’t necessarily assume that you’re unshowered just because you stink of your favorite sugary treat.

Ironically, the stuff is completely devoid of animal products, detergents, or sugar solutions, at least two of which can be counted among most geeks’ favorite things. I don’t know why they’re trying so hard. They could have put rat poison in the things, and they’re shapes would still have sold me.

You can pick these up over at Etsy, the handmade craft marketplace, for anywhere from US$5.25 to $8.75 a piece. They would make great Easter basket stuffers for your kids or hygene reminders for that “extra-special” roommate in your life.

Source: Etsy

Damn it, now I have to get an iPhone! This is far and away the coolest iPhone mod I’ve ever seen.

The theme in this video can be downloaded at RobotThoughts. If you’re interesting in seeing more of this sort of thing, or you just can’t wait to get your hands on one of these gadgets, you can play with similar interfaces over at LCARS Developer.

For those of you who don’t know (what the hell’s wrong with you?), LCARS is an acronym for Library Computer Access and Retrieval System.

This steampunk-style Rube Goldberg device is both amazing and functional… if you’re interested in verrry slowly pouring yourself a glass of wine. The mechanism, which is comprised of nearly 300 distinct bronze components removes a cork from a bottle of wine and then pours the wine into a glass under its own power. The gallery showing the piece describes it as “priceless,” but of course, it would be more than happy to sell you one of the hundred of the limited edition series.

Source: One of One Hundred