Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

Running around a maze with ghosts on your ass and gobbling dots all day works up quite the thirst. It’s important for a Pac-Man to keep hydrated. While Pac-Man Energy Drink is hard to come by these days, there are plenty of other thirst quenchers to choose from.

When you do something bad on a Starfleet ship, you’re likely to end up confined to your quarters. Frankly, that doesn’t sound so terrible to me, as it’s an opportunity to catch up on your rest.

From our smartphones to our laptops to our cars to our kitchen appliances, touchscreens have turned up just about everywhere. But touchscreens are generally limited to flat, squared-off surfaces. Now, a team of engineers at the UK’s University of Bristol are demonstrating a technology that could enable touch-based interfaces on all kinds of surfaces.

The Nintendo Switch and its docking station are pretty good looking the way they come from the factory. But that hasn’t stopped people from wanting to customize their game systems to their own liking. If you’re into the look of classic Nintendo game systems, then you might want to build a Switch dock like this one, which a modder built into the case of an old Super Nintendo console.

It’s like 90ºF and 80% humidity here in Chicago this week, so the idea of sipping a hot beverage doesn’t have much appeal to me at the moment. But when the weather inevitably cools off, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a nice cup of hot cocoa, along with a bunch of mini marshmallows floating on top.

Looking for a unique piece of furniture for your living room or game room? Well, skip the IKEA and go for something a bit more geeky, I say. This cool coffee table has LEDs built into its top which can display a colorful light show, or even play simple video games.

Do you find yourself stuck on endless video conference calls these days? Looking for an excuse to tune out? Blame it on your crappy internet connection. This silly gadget from Japan makes it look like your video is stuck buffering by popping up one of those loading circles in front of your face.

As much fun as it is to play with a Rubik’s Cube, it can also be quite frustrating if you don’t know the proper algorithms to use to solve it. There are countless videos and reference materials which show you how to solve the puzzle, though they assume that you can actually see the colors.

Ketchup, mustard, mayo, teriyaki, bbq sauce, sriracha… Let’s face it, I’m a big condiment fan. While I don’t always mix my condiments, some combinations work better than others. Ketchup and mayo generally work well together – especially on a cheeseburger – and actually are pretty good on french fries too.

Don’t you just love ramen noodles? Well, now you can enjoy some instant ramen every time you take a bath. I’m not talking about nuking a package of Nissin or Maruchan and taking them into the tub with you (though you could do that.)

The internet is a strange and wonderful place. The nature of its persistent storage means that you sometimes discover things within 10 seconds of them going live, and other times 10 years after they’re posted. This is definitely one of those 10+ year situations, but it’s too good not to share.

Despite the amount of content I consume via digital screens, I still like to dust off the occasional paperback when I’m feeling the need for something more tactile. While I store my books in an an ordinary IKEA bookshelf, I’d much rather have one of these shelves that looks like a giant face.

In Back to the Future, Marty loved to play the guitar. I’m thinking if he ever asked Doc Brown to make him a musical instrument, it might have looked like this. Sure, he’d have to learn to play the bass, but I’m sure he’d be fine with that.

For many of us, summer means heat and sweat. And there’s no better way to cool off on a hot summer day than a plunge in the pool. But if you’re going to float around in there, you might as well look like you’re having fun.

So you have a pair of fancy and expensive AirPods. You could just carry around them in the standard, nondescript white case that Apple ships them in, or you could dress them up and make them your own.

The Batmobile has been in the news recently with the reveal of the version that’s expected to appear in Matt Reeves’ upcoming Batman movie. While Batman’s new sled looks like a muscle car on steroids, previous versions were much more based in fantasy.