Geekspace for Women

Posted by ubergeeke on July 9th, 2008 in blogpost

Every girl has her must-have gear list. Here’s mine.

1) Amazon Kindle

I’ve already got myself an older iPAQ that I use to read novels in HTML format, but it’s nowhere near as cool as a Kindle. I’ve been whining about getting one of these for over six months, and since everyone from Santa Claus to the mailman is ignoring my hints, I may have to break down and get it myself. Now, I know that I can browse the RSS feeds of my favorite sites without this gadget, but what I love about the Kindle is that I’m not tied to my desk or the nearest power outlet. I can read stuff in the hammock, at the pub, in the park - and I’m not limited to wi-fi range. Keen! Plus, I can carry around a ton of scifi novels without breaking my back. (I don’t go *anywhere* without at least two things to read.)

The only downside is that I’d end up shelling out a lot of cash for more content. That’s worse than a crack habit for me. I’ve got a hellacious iTunes library because buying episodes of "The Dresden Files" seemed like a good idea at 3am. I can only imagine what my Kindle directory would look like after an extended layover on a cross-country trip.

2) ASUS eee PC

This is pure, unadulterated gadget envy. Sarah Sharp has one of these, and every time she busts that thing out in a meeting, I drool. It looks like it’d be more portable than my Apple PowerBook G4 (which is more portable than my IBM ThinkPad), and it runs Linux instead of OSX. The only problem I’ve heard about concerns the wireless, which worries me because the sole purpose of this thing would be to browse the web instantly from anywhere without lugging around a bigger laptop. Given a choice between this and the Kindle, though, I’d probably opt for this, but only because it would be a one-time purchase, and I wouldn’t constantly spend hard earned latinum on more content.

3) Fluke Digital Multimeter (DMM).

Of everything on this list, this will probably be the one item I end up purchasing. Between circuit testing and general gadget-making, I need to have one of these on my workbench. I’ve got a temporary DMM at the moment, but it can’t measure capacitance. Fluke is top-of-the-line and pricey, but this isn’t exactly an area I want to screw around in.

4) Make microcontroller board.

Everyone in the world seems to have made the jump to Arduino boards, but I think this one would work just fine for me. I don’t know much about microcontrollers (YET, and that is the biggest "yet" you will ever see on .51 ), though I’ve messed with Phillips NXP LPC boards a little bit. I’ve wanted one of these Make microcontroller boards every since they were released, and I really like that it comes with some pre-programmed functions. I think that would help me make the jump to blinkin’ lights (the microcontroller equivalent of "hello, world!") a little faster. Don’t ask me what I’d do with it, because I’ll only reply, "you know, stuff" but I think that’s the point of having one.

5) Make Open Sourcerer Leatherman.

These guys just have all the stuff I want. This item speaks for itself. Want it!

And one bonus "no-way-in-hell unless I suddenly fall into a vat of cash" item:

I’m getting sick and tired of migrating data back and forth between half a dozen systems via USB-key sneakernet. I need to setup my home network with file-sharing and printing (hello, Samba!) with one master data server for archival and backups. There. I said it. Now, 1700 USD is a frak of a lot, so I’ll probably end up tweaking one of my older P4 systems with ginormous mirrored drives. Sigh. Performance is not in my future, but as long as I sleep for 6+ hours a night, archival and backups shouldn’t be a problem.

What about your dream gadget list? What are the things you need, and what are the pie-in-the-sky gadgets you want?