Incredibly Unique Gift idea: Bonsai Desk Calendar

This adorable bonsai desk calendar would likely be the most unique thing you can give someone this Xmas. Not only is it really kewl to look at, it's truly bonsai-inspired in that you can move the month "branches" around to make new shapes.

Just remember, find the tree hiding inside. "Just like bonsai choose own way grow because root strong you choose own way do karate same reason." [Karate Kid]

Available from Replug (Japanese site)

[Source: SPGRA Design Blog]

How many days until next summer? Kewl new movie: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Ok, Hollywood sucks. Really -- a trailer, nay, an AWESOME trailer for a new Nick Cage movie hits the Interwebs and the movie isn't being released until next summer. It's based on the Sorcerer's Apprentice (you know the one, the super scary one you saw as a child that wouldn't let you ever look at a broom the same way again.) Aside: is there anything more scary to a child than an army of headless brooms wielding buckets, attempting to drown Mickey Mouse?

Anyway, there are waaaaay too many sleeps until this movie comes out...

Top 10 Top Ten Lists of 2009

There are so many top 10 lists coming out for the end of the year that I thought I would compile a list of my favourite lists on a range of topics from gifts to searches to predictions. Enjoy!

1. Wired’s Top 10 Gifts under $100
   Timely, ‘cause I know you haven’t finished shopping for your favourite geek yet…(I like the Powermat, in case you were wondering, although this Xmas, nothing compares to the WTF snow globe)
2. Top 10 Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument
   Note: most of these can be resolved in a rousing game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.
3. The Ten Most Influential Internet Moments of the Decade
   I heart the Webby awards! It’s the only list containing Craigslist, Google Adwords, Facebook, Obama, and the Iranian election protests…
4. Most Expensive Cars In The World: Top 10 List 2009-2010
   My favourite car of 2009 is #1 on this list! Check out the list or my post {drools}
5. Forbes’ Top 10 Billionaires 2009
   Apparently I’m too poor to have ever heard of most of these people…
6. Google’s top 10 search terms for 2009
   I love that people are going to Google to search for yahoo mail, youtube.com and other things they could just directly type into their browsers.
7. Bing’s Top 10 Trending Topics
   Well, Googlers want to social network, Bing users (Bingies?) want their infotainment: Jon & Kate, Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson…
8. Yahoo’s Top 10 Search Terms
   Do you think Yahoo would be confident enough to admit that most people who go to its site are searching for other sites? Me neither. I really think this should be renames “Top 10 Infotainment Searches on Yahoo”. Like the Bing one.
9. Top 10 Radical Environmental Ideas That Might Just Save the Planet
   Permanently cloudy skies, peeing in the shower, underground houses… if we implement this list everyone will have to live underground because the earth will be a downright gloomy place to live…
10. Top 10 Forecasts for 2009 and Beyond from the Futurist
    And now for the tin foil hat side in all of us…

And now for something a little different: Prediction lists from early in the year

• How did Gizmodo do in their predictions? So it’s not a top 10 list, but at the beginning of the year, Gizmodo put together a drool list of their fave gadgets to come in 2009. How did they do? Were Netbooks as big a trend as anticipated?
• What about PC World's list of Top 10 Websites that Will Matter in 2009? Do you use them? The only one I've used was Blip. Have you even heard of the others?

With all of the lists coming out now, do you have some favourites? Do you agree with the predictions from the beginning of the year? Leave a comment!

4,000 Tweets: Looking back at my first year on Twitter

So a friend recently asked me for some advice about getting more followers on Twitter. I'm a bit of a Twitter fiend: I've been on since January and have tweeted almost 4,000 times. My 1000 followers has grown organically in that time, but with some help. Let's be clear, with 1000+ followers I certainly don't consider myself any sort of "Twitter expert". But I have made some mistakes and learned a few things, so I thought I would share my view of Twitter, one year later.

[Aside: By NOT proclaiming to be a Twitter "expert" I might already be ahead of the game vs. all those other people out there who open Twitter accounts and suddenly brand themselves as "social media gurus". So first  tip to any Twitter newbies is to unfollow anyone whose profile contains the phrase "social media guru"]

What Twitter's done for me:
I love Twitter. On Twitter, I've managed to do a bunch of things I would normally never have:

• won beautiful art, a Frommer's travel guide and yummy red pepper jelly :)
• had my son's hallowe'en costume seen by over 11,000 people
• chatted with people all over the world about a bunch of different topics
• found a blogger to design a colleague's community association site
• helped an out-of-town developer look for a job in Ottawa
• stayed in touch with a former co-worker based across Canada
• stayed up to date on breaking news
• found great deals and freebies
• found remote support for running & cycling
• increased the readership on my blog
• and tons more...

Slow start
I've intentionally tried some stuff out to grow my readership, but I think that my attitude towards my subscribers is a little different. I consider my followers to be readers, not merely auto-follows who artificially increase my numbers.

When I first got on Twitter back in January, I started following like-minded people and people from Ottawa.

Then I tweeted. A lot. My tweets might seem pretty random, but they are generally along a few themes: geeky stuff (web, tech, science and space), parenting, design, green/charity and my blog.

In early days, here are some things I did to make myself interesting: When I was a newbie, I would get on around 8 am and check news related to my fave topics, and then tweet headlines. I found that people who want the latest info will read and RT these types of posts, which helps to more followers. At lunch hours, sometimes I would check BusinessWire for stories related to my topics of interest and then tweet or blog about them.

Now-a-days:

• I drive traffic to my blog by having my new posts syndicated to Twitter and Facebook via FriendFeed and the selective Twitter status app on Facebook.
• I drive traffic to Twitter by having a widget on my blog that shows my posts.
• Follow people who say things that you find interesting and there is a good chance they might follow you back
• Follow people who you'd like to have follow you
• RT and get Rt'ed. Get RT'ed by people who have lots of followers: e.g. Jason_Pollock was offering RT's for followers at one point, so I tweeted back and got retweeted to his 50K+ followers. I've also been RT'ed by Adam Savage of Mythbusters (he has 100K followers).
• I tweet and follow a bunch of hashtags related to sports (running, cycling), Gov (goc, w2p, gcpedia, gov20), ottawa, etc.
• The Ottawa community is pretty strong online, so chatting with local folks and getting on local lists can get you more followers.
• I've also used my Twitter ID on conference badges and Tweeted during conferences, etc.
• The other thing I've done is gone to Tweet-ups. Tweeps tend to be really great people who are interested in networking for all sorts of reasons. Meeting in person cements connections; tweeps who meet tend to stay connected virtually.

Getting listed
Here's a bunch of lists I like: [Most you can just register and then they will start monitoring and grading you]

• http://ottawa.meme.ca/twitter (list of local Tweeps)
• http://wefollow.com/twitter/ottawa (based on number of followers and overall influence -- e.g. I'm #21 in Ottawa by number of followers, but #15 based on influence) - just add yourself and monitor your progress as your readership grows
• http://twitter.grader.com/ (Ottawa) (based on a calculated ratio of followers, following and tweets. I've dropped off the top 50 b/c my grade is 98.1 but they cut off at 99.3 right now. Changes frequently)
• http://twitterholic.com/

I didn't realise I'd done so much deliberately until I started typing. Guess my follower growth hasn't been so organic after all.

What have you done to increase your readership? Do you auto-follow? What has been your Twitter experience overall? Please leave a comment...

According to Santa, I'm on the naughty list...

So we went to the Sympatico holiday site and prepared a video from Santa to the Dude. Grandma did this last year for the Dude and we thought it was really incredible.

Well, this year they've really outdone themselves with a bunch of pre-packaged clips you can select based on what you'd like Santa to say to your little one, and the ability to upload a photo of your child which appears in Santa's special book.

So hubby sent me one too! Turns out that this year, the best part is that Santa can also send one "from your colleague/ wife/ husband/ etc." and say a bunch of really funny things like "you spend too much time on Twitter". Really funny, babe. Really. I can't wait until you open your present this year. Really.

Watch the video I got from my ever-loving hubby. [He's sleeping on the couch for a little while]

(Almost) brilliant idea: Vertical wall-mounted alarm clock

So I came across this alarm clock which at first glance, looked silly then simply brilliant: it's wall mounted vertically, so that you can read it while your head is still happily perched upon your pillow. Brilliant!

But then I took a closer look: it's 3 feet away from where I'd be on the bed! And the buttons, esp. the snooze... well they're on the back of the clock! Which means I can't see them when I'm fumbling around still half asleep. That won't do at all!

Oh, and although it looks like the $9.99 alarm I bought from K-Mart when I was in university, it's $129 USD from Generate Design. Really? For a clock that's essentially upside down? Gonna pass on this one... maybe they'll improve the design on the next pass...

My kind of snowglobe

Snow globes are kitschy and cute but I wouldn't want one in my house. Because they're kitschy... and cute... Which sort of goes against everything I stand for.

But a GEEKY snow globe, now you're talking!

Straight from Urban Outfitters, I present the WTF snow globe. A wonderful Xmas decoration that any geek would be proud to display.

Source: Holycool.net

The Matrix is 10 yrs old. Celebrate with a LEGO Matrix video!

The Matrix is one of my top favourite 10 movies, so of course I completely LOVE LOVE LOVE this LEGO movie entitled "Trinity Help", depicting "bullet time".

This video took 440 hours to make and has been released in honour of the 10th anniversary of the original movie release. Find out how the did it at LEGO Matrix.

Enjoy!

DoGooder: What if you could choose the type of ads you see online?

You've totally been there: surfing your favourite sites and some stoopid ads are running down the side for things you could absolutely care less about. What if you could choose what kind of ads to see when you surf? Well if you care about green initiatives and social change, you might just be in luck!

DoGoodHQ.com offers a downloadable plug-in which will hide those pesky ads you hate and replace them with "thoughtful green related initiatives, philanthropic calls for action, and health and wellness ideas instead." And if that doesn't make you feel good, then I hope this will: they will donate 50% of their profits back into green initiatives, charities and non-profit orgs. And if that doesn't make you feel good... well you might just be dead inside.

My only complaint (and I've chatted with their reps about this via Twitter: @dogoodhq), is that they currently don't support Chrome, which is my default browser. They do however support all the major players (FF, IE and even Safari for all you Mac fanboys).

Surprisingly, after several months online, they have fewer than 2000 downloads (which is kinda sad). I hope more people will catch wind of the good work they are doing and spread the word.

I encourage you to download their plug-in and help save the world click-by-click.

(Via SuzeMuse)

Which one are you?

I'm the one on the right. Left. Right. Guess it depends on the day...

Obviously, these work best as a pair :) and you can buy them at Because Studio.

(Via Holycool.net)

Green tech for kids: Tio lightswitch teaches kids to conserve energy

First of all, check out Inhabitots! A kewl site full of green products for kids and families. According to their site, "[Inhabitots recognizes] that the birth of a child is a turning point in people’s lives and the impetus for many people to ‘go green’ and really start researching the materials and production involved in all items that closely touch our lives." So, a really great resource in general.

Now what brought me there was this: a light switch intended to teach children the concept of energy conservation in a fun and simple way. [Saw this on Ubergizmo]

This is just a concept, but a really great one: "Tio shows he is happy and green when household lights have only been on for a short period of time — but the longer the lights are left on, the angrier and redder he becomes". The brilliant part is that it can be understood by kids who are too young to tell time, 'cause it's never too early to start teaching kids about the environment.

Check out some other great green products at Inhabitots:
- Piperoid paper robots (pictured)
- Organic kids' and baby clothes
- Eco furniture for kids' rooms
- and of course, Toys (It is getting close to Xmas!)

If you know of other great green resources, please leave a comment!

Green tech: Sundrive solar charger for your gadgets

This funky little gadget called the SunDrive is a USB solar charger. Yep, that's a tiny little solar panel that can store enough energy to recharge your digital devices -- camera, cell phone or MP3 player. According to the manufacturer, it can recharge your device with 35 hours of power and your cel with 100 mins of talk time. AND it's a USB stick, available in 2,4,8, and 16 GB.

What a fantastic way to recharge your devices for free! And in a green way!

The really kewl part is that it only costs $23 USD. Plus shipping from Korea.

Oh. Wait. Suddenly I'm not feeling so green... It'll be nice when these get a little closer to home...

Have you seen any other affordable portable solar technologies? Leave a comment!

(Via Ubergizmo)