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Ask Slashdot: Geek-Friendly Business Accessories? 81

Posted by Cliff from the breaking-the-pocket-protector-stereotype dept.
As a departure from the usual Ask Slashdot faire, we have this question from Jonas Öberg: "There's quite a lot of misc nerd accessories out there, such as T-Shirts, pens, and mousepads. I've even seen hacker-related underwear! But where's the salvation for us nerds who must spend our days in business environments? Are there some really cool wallets, briefcases, clocks or other cool things out there somewhere?" Underwear? Now I have seen it all! But really, if handhelds like the PalmPilot don't make this list, I'll really be surprised!
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Ask Slashdot: Geek-Friendly Business Accessories? More

Ask Slashdot: Geek-Friendly Business Accessories?

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  • www.sharperimage.com has a lot of Yupppie-scum type stuff, but there are a few gems. Multi-tools, MultiFunction travel alarms yadda yadaa. Caveat: You can find most of this stuff cheaper at other sources. -nme
  • There are tons of catalogues out there of cheapo giveaway items like pens, etc. that can be silkscreened with company logos, slogans, etc,

    I don't see why you couldn't slap a sideways smiley onto one of them.

    Most of it is business-related stuff, too.

    Jon
  • There's a clock on the wall of my office that has the standard 1-12 setup, but all the numbers are written in binary. Makes for some odd looks when I tell people "Oh, it's about 100:101".

    Unfortunately, I have no idea where it came from or how long its been here since it has been here far longer than I have. So my post isn't very useful as far as acquiring one's own. I suppose making one wouldn't be hard, though.

  • I was very impressed with this thing [douglasball.com] called a CLIPPER CS-1. The quick description (schwicked off of the page) is this:
    "The Clipper is a "virtual office", a completely self-contained and enclosed 'capsule', 4' wide, 7' long, and 4.5' high, designed specially for concentrated (and ergonomically correct) computer use."
    A little bit later it says
    Being inside is much like sitting in the cockpit of a small plane...with everything you need within easy reach.
    So, as I said, completely gratuitous, but, damn. I bet it's really comfortable for those Quake II marathons.

    ----------------------
    It's too bad stupidity isn't painful"

  • yeah! (Score:2)

    by neonman ( 544 )
    Well... Copyleft mentions the possibility of ties on their site, but it has been a long time since that was suggested and I have seen nothing. I am not quite in on the business end of things just yet, but my school has a dress code and some geek ties would be good to have. Anyway... maybe someone will get the right idea and start producing these things.

    - Aaron
  • I have a nice time planner from tempus. You can order it at www.tempus.de [tempus.de]. The only drawback is, that you can't get the paper inserts in every US store. Oh, the cover is made of circuit boards of course. By the way, the Tech museum store in San Jose, CA has some nice pencil cases, etc too. ciao, florian
  • ahahah way cool! :) is there one anywhere for emacs too? :)

    ---

  • Customized tripe online (Score:3)

    by Dagmar d'Surreal ( 5939 ) on Friday May 14, 1999 @11:53AM (#1891759) Journal
    One thing that I did find the most useful on rootshell.com was one of their banner ads. http://www.my-mug.com has a just about everything you might find in a gift shop with a surface flat and smooth enough to draw on for sale, and they let you suppply the graphics through a CGI. Thankfully, they let you know in advance what the idea size of the image should be, and you can order single items just as easily as bulk. The site certainly seems like a good place to start if you're thinking about making some smart-arsed novelty item and don't feel like shelling out $$$ for a minimum lot that would leave you swamped in coffee mugs with the name of your website misspelled. ;)

    (for example... I have a "Hacker Inside" logo that's just begging to become a front license tag on my car...)
  • I've got hardly any of this stuff . . .
  • I think that'd have to be a thermos.
    or maybe a big vat.


  • ahahhaha :))

    ---
  • Not seen one. But someone could make a mint off of a emacs beer cooler.
  • I've recently been selling some penguins, which would really look cool at a board meeting, really!, but am also considering some other things. We're working on a couple designs for embroidered polo shirts and we might also consider embroidering other things. Perhaps some ties might work. We're open to adding some things to our 'product line' but as a sideline business, we cannot front what it takes for 2500 coffee mugs and things like that. If there's enough interest, embroidery is the easiest thing for me to do. I have the ability to embroider any BMP you've got onto something, but of course different cloth gives different results. If you have an idea, I'm open to trying it. LEt me know.. personal email address is below (or is it above? :)

  • Foresight has nanotech attaches:
    http://www.foresight.org/FI/Images/Attache.jpeg

    and also office-suitable wall art:
    http://www.foresight.org/SrAssoc/Images/MolArt.j pg

    These are sent as "thank-you gifts" to higher-level donors.
  • my-mug.com does a bunch of stuff, but does any place like that exist that will do those adhesiveless vinyl static-cling "stickers"?

    Company facilities people and townhouse association weenies get pissy about things permanently stuck to windows, see...
  • Badtz-Maru [badtz-maru.com] has some great geek merchandise [sanriostore.com] (even wallets, Jonas). I've got a great Badtz-Maru time-keeping device. If you live outside the United States, however, eBay [ebay.com] is the only way you're going to be able to get the goods.

    --InitZero--
  • how much stuff can you fit into a nanotech attache?

    wouldn't that be a bit small?

  • I think the word you're looking for is "sink".
  • I've got my entire office in Batdz-Maru. Note pads, pens, metal lunchbox, My StarTac is in a Badtz case.... the whole nine :)

    I love buisness trips to CA, they have the best SanRio stores!

    LONG LIVE BADTZ! LONG LIVE HANNA! LONG LIVE THE ORIGINAL SPACE WARRIOR!!!!!!!!

  • KMFMS (Score:1)

    by tgd ( 2822 )
    KMFMS [kmfms.com] has some cool stuff on it. I bought the mousepad/t-shirt combo.

    Any industrial geek's gotta have it!

  • Update: Search for "promotional items" (Score:3)

    by Thag ( 8436 ) on Friday May 14, 1999 @12:21PM (#1891777) Homepage
    So I went to find some of these places on the Web.

    Basically, do a search for "promotional items" and they'll be coming out of the woodwork.

    A brief list:



    Some things have to be ordered in bulk, still...

    For OTAKON [otakon.com], we give out customized fortune cookies.

    Jon

  • As always the Dilbert Store [umstore.com] is your friend, with watches, mugs and whatnot.

    But then, Dilbert is more about nihilism than geekdom...

  • Computer Gear [computergear.com] is the best.
  • My favorites are the clocks that have something other than standard fare for the display. The Signals catalog[1] usually has a kinetic clock where you count the number of marbles displaying to get the current time. Another cool clock is one where the display is simply 6 or 8 LEDs on the end of a wand. The wand is mounted in a base in such a way that when the wand is waved back and forth, the LEDs display the time much like a dot matrix print head would on a piece of paper.

    [1] I couldn't find a URL for it, but the if you sign up for the Prairie Home Companion catalog, you should get Signals as well. The URL for the PHC catalog request form is http://phc.mpr.org/catalog/order_cata log.html [mpr.org].

    --
    Sean Lamb

  • These guys make the most stylish and functional briefcases in the world. Waterproof and made of aluminum. I have seen anodized aluminum from them in bright colors like lime, fly yellow, and cobalt blue. These a briefcases for the fasionable geek. http://rootintl.com/halliburton/
    http://www.buythebest.com/comp_case.html
    They make laptop cases, camera cases, briefcases, cigar humidors, and many other functional and useful cases.
  • I got one just like it (with binary numbers) as a watch. Take a look at it here: http://www.designbuy.com/o.html [designbuy.com] I bought it at a museumstore in Atlanta, GA, but I think You can order them online. AKTEO [akteo.com] also has a large selection of watches, some of which are computer related.
  • I bought a Slashdot mug from them and was *very* disappointed with the quality. Its looks like just a sticker stuck to the mug, and the image on the sticker is extremely blurry.

    I wouldn't waste the $$$. If you've got a burning desire for a custom mug, a lot of photo stores can have them made and the quality is a lot better.

  • What, you wanna drink your coffee from a five gallon gasoline can? Hey, that's not a bad idea!

  • There is one for emacs as well, but it's a little bit larger than your average coffee cup. Actually the name of it is 'the emacs portable hot tub quick reference manual.' It seats eight people comfortably.

    Turning on the bubbles requires a long sequence of keystrokes though, and the 'emacs hot tub quick reference manual manual' is sold seperately.
  • Using computer items for clock faces is somewhat popular. The hole in the middle of a CD allows nondestructive use so you can use it as a way to frame your first *nix CD-ROM. I've also seen 8-inch and 5.25-inch floppies. You can find some of these things at electronics flea markets and surplus stores.

    I do use "saytime" to have a computer speak the hour (of course, the computer uses NTP to have the correct time).

    Or, a step above a sundial is XEarth, and tell the time based upon where the shadow is on the globe.

  • Tux Polo Shirts? (Score:3)

    by jibersih ( 50414 ) on Friday May 14, 1999 @04:46PM (#1891791)
    I don't know if these are available or not, just struck me as a good idea. you take a polo shirt(or golf shirts?, the knit ones, with a collar), and replace the little horse with a penguin...

    just an idea...
  • I made a hexadecimal clock a few years ago.

    More recently I've begun making and selling (analog) desk and wall clocks from trashed (or just obsolete) hard drives. The entire drives, not just the platters! If anyone is interested, email me.

    The horrifically headcrashed ones look the best, IMHO, so if you've got a favorite "old friend" that went down in flames, I can very probably fix it up into a nice clock for you...

  • I bought some Slashdot mugs and mouse mats from mymug.
    Whilst the mug is clearly just a mug with a sticker on it, the image quality was excellent.
    The overall look of it was quite impressive, though not as good as the vi-reference mug.
    The Slashdot mouse mat was very good quality though.
    My Mum was totally impressed with hers. :-)
  • My-Mug.com has lots of stuff including Tux on Polo Shirts...
    Use this link [my-mug.com] to see the Tux stuff...and then jump to the 'Wearables' category after the upload for the polo shirts..

    If you are interested in Slashdot stuff...go here. [my-mug.com]

  • My-Mug.com has lots of stuff including Tux on boxer shorts.

    Use this link to see the Tux stuff...and after the upload choose boxershorts under 'Wearables'.
    http://www.my-mug.com/art/linux.html [my-mug.com]

    If you are interested in Slashdot stuff...go here [my-mug.com]

  • There is a small store here in Houston, Texas that sell geek ties. Printed circuit board ties, ties with mainframes on them, they even have a tie that is made out of printed circuit board, it's done like plate mail withe cloth behind it, kinda takes some getting used to but it look really cool at project meetings.
    _______________________________________ _________________
    Can We trust the future - Flesh99
  • Surely the serious geek mousepad is the 3M one. How can you not have a 'precision mousing surface' and specialty wristrest gelfilled support when you _know_ since it's 3M they invented every material in the thing from scratch, just to do it right... 3M are unbeatable for chemicals and materials, and this just confirms it. I bet it improves Q3 scores too. >;)
    On a less serious note, I have a calculator watch :)

  • I like some notebooks I found with circuit boards as covers. Anyways else ever seen them? They are fscking heavy though. But rather geeky. I also have my Yoda watch that got turned into a necklace cuz the strap broke. I also have a Pikachu on my Jaz drive.

  • I've had a ZH, and now have a toolkit made from a Pelican Case (same thing, but polycarbonate, for expensive cameras). I dont carry it on airplanes anymore, since every snot-nosed security guard learns that the only thing ever carried in these is hard drugs. But just asking you to open it and look at the stuff inside is too simple for them. They will pull you off to a small room and search everything, wait for the dogs to show up, etc.

    I got smart after about the third trip, that I really don't need to protect my electronics that well. Now I just use a cardboard box, and they dont care. Only lost one color LCD screen in about 40 trips.

    But the cases are cool, when you have to go to a customer site and impress the shit out of the suits. They can be very "james bondish" if done right :-)

    And yes, I made my own. True geeks always assemble their own stuff.
  • I don't know about America, but here in the land of downunder, you can get shirts with two little penguins as the logo. This is in fact the logo for the company that makes said shirts. I assume that they're still being made, seeing that I haven't seen them advertised heavily on TV recently, nor have I checked in a clothes store recently.
  • Well, the usual boring stuff can be found at the local Comp USA or Babbages, including Circuit Board Keychains, Clipboards, and Day-Books... But isn't the essence of geek ware to make it yourself?? I work at newspaper where we used to use the bullets and pneumatic tubes, and the left over bullets make great change holders, pen holders, and attaching a handle makes a groovy tranparent lexan tool kit for screwdrivers and such. Also a left over tampon dispenser made a great "help request form" holder for the front door to my office.

    Gut the sheetmetal from an old PC case, preferably the screwless kind, and add a handle, and you have a breifcase. AT ports become a great place to make a pencil/pen holder that is accessible from the outside, as well as the old serial port holes making useful for an eraser etc... A slimline calculator can be put on tracks inside the floppy slot. Mine is my olde Packard Bell 286, and I just joke with people that I have finally found a use for a Packard Bell... Again, put your "Hacker Inside" logo on the front and you'll be the envy of Linux Expo.

    But c'mon, you're a geek! Use your imagination. I have even used the old platters from our RLL hard drives to make an attractive desk cover. I'm talking the big suckers that used to attach to our PDP-7's. An Autokon front panel with a light bulb and a rotating multicolored transparent sheet makes an attractive wall covering.

    Hmmm, Maybe I sould start a website selling this stuff....

    Jason Maggard
    Richmond Times-Disgrace
  • He's right, if you like industrial then you'll appreciate the KMFDM rip-off, anf the artwork is even done by BRUTE himself!
  • I recently got a cool shirt as a gift -- a polo-style shirt featuring Marvin the Martian with the caption "As a matter of fact, I am a rocket scientist."

    You can get it at the Warner Brothers store in the local mall...
  • Last fall I visited the Computer Museum in Boston , whose gift store had a wide variety of items made from old circuit boards -- binders, notebooks, planners . . . I think they even had a breifcase. I bought a gorgeous pair of earrings there made from chip frames.
  • I'll be selling a sideways smiley t-shirt on my site soon. See http://geekshirts.com [geekshirts.com] for more info.



    Cheers.



    Ian Wojtowicz

  • www.everglide.com

    Yes, it's a mousepad.
    No, it's not a lubricatant.

  • HotBox (Score:1)

    by moche ( 15780 )
    There's lots of interesting stuff at our site www.hotbox.co.uk [hotbox.co.uk] Chess sets made of shot glasses, pictures made from pi, programmable frisbees, puzzles with a first prize of $1.6 million etc etc
  • Intel Inside has several really neat items. besides the jackets/t-shirts/hats/etc... they have really neat jewellery items like earings pendants etc... that seem really cool One of my favorite items is a P2 chip mounted in Pewter to be worn as a pendant. get your BunnyPeople dolls, shirts, and other stuff.- http://www.intel.com/intel/intelis/shop/bunny.htm [intel.com]

  • Underwear? Now I have seen it all!

    I don't know about you, but I'm wearing Mozilla underwear right now! Unfortunately, it seems to have been discontinued: along with all other Mozilla items! I can't find any of them in the Netscape store [netscape.com]. There used to be a ton of things with Mozilla on them: beach towels, hats, there was even a Mozilla beanie baby. But no more.

    This is a sad day.

    (A few weeks ago I was riding my bicycle in downtown SF, and someone saw my mozilla.org sticker and yelled out, ``Go Mozilla!'' I thought that was pretty cool.)

  • Yikes! Why not just tattoo a MICROS~1 logo on your forehead?
    ----------
  • The company is surprisingly enough Pengiun... and you can still get them at places like K-Mart, Tareget, Dimmey's Forges, and in the bargain basement at Myers/Grace Brothers.

    I think they are around $5-10 still
  • I sure hate those things. Circuit board stuff that is, not the earrings in particular. Although I've never actually seen someone with one, they are the most ugly idea I can imagine for a planner type thing. Yuck!
  • If you're really lucky, you might even find the big bad Badtz wallets at a REAL low price at a local car-boot fair in London. Heh! Along with a real neat little tin of mini-stickers which adorn so many of my things it's not funny.

    There's only one thing though - coming from the UK and living now in Sweden, I've never seen a Badtz Maru 'toon or anything APART from my wallet and stickers.

  • Ahhh.... the Forminco Mouse Arena... Im sitting in a Forminco Chair right now, probably the most comfortable chair I've ever found, even better than a Steelcase. Forminco was originally run out of a little town just north of Montreal QC, however, I know that the original company went bankrupt some years back. The original address was: Forminco, 9610A Ignace, Brossard, Quebec, Canada J4Y 2R4. I really miss Forminco... I have (let me check) one mouse arena, one chair, and two footrests (heated). I should've bought the workstation (check http://www.homeofficedirect.com/fr1500.htm) but I found another one that seems to fit what I need - mostly. Could probably come up with an `Ask Slashdot...' for what people consider to be the idealized workstation. I'm looking for something with an even mix of open expanses of desk space, and the `command cockpit' that would seem to be ergonomically better.

    J
  • Jeez, sounds just like the Cuborg 2000 from the Dilbert strip. IIRC, they planned to add ventilation holes to next year's model.
  • "The pen is mighter than the sword... But what if you can't write?"
    -=Ellis (D)25=-

    What does my keyboard count for?
  • I've got this 72oz coffee cup from 7-11 that might work, if the print was real small...

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