The people's responses from 4:50 onwards are pure gold. This is seriously at the core of why geeks and the internet get along so well together.

I've always wondered where one could find such a thing as an egg-cooker like this. Rice cookers are cheap and ubiquitous, but I haven't seen egg cookers anywhere other than my parents' kitchen.

Seriously, the egg cooker is as useful as a rice cooker and an electric kettle, when compared to a traditional stovetop pot.

I saw one of the old mini-fridge-sized HDDs in the German Museum of Industry, last January. I don't recall seeing any stats about the HDD's size, but it was a super-amusing 70s plastic color. (http://flickr.com/photos/klitaka/1430915098/in/set-72157602127630059/)

@dougnelson (#22)

I'm exactly the opposite way: used books are wonderful; the smell of old books in a bookstore is one of the best in the world. Used books, library books, and sharing of these things is wonderful.

I'd like to make note of the idea of releasing free copies of digital books, as a retaliation against all this DRM. One author's books stand out in my mind — David Webber's Honor Herrington series. In 2004, in the back of the latest release, he included a CD-ROM with digital archives of all the previous books in the series, encouraging readers to copy and share the disc (but not to sell, natch) — which is how I first came across the series.

More recently, Webber's publisher, Baen, has put copies of works by many of its authors online for free as well. There is also a nice, witty introduction.

http://www.baen.com/library/

I get around archiving books and newspapers and whatnot by thinking "I can always find it at the library." Except for those few comics that I can't find at the library.

Seriously, Libraries are the organised hoards of books. They're valuable and magical.

Pretty knobs! Sliders!

I think this might avtually be a better device for running and mixing video on the fly, replacing a larger box of analog video feed equipment.

It's still expensive.

And a studio of second-hand linear analogue video editing equipment might be cheaper these days.

But ... knobs!

Joel,

This Zune advert is seriously the funniest thing I've seen all day.

"Submitted without comment."

It figures: the same inscrutable Scandinavian minds that brought us the flat-pack to-it-yourself furniture would be the same ones that made the snap-together building toy!

IKEA: legos for adults?

Nah--no one ever really grows out of LEGOs.

I switched my dad over to MacBook Pro this Christmas as well (my gift to him was data transfer from his Windows machine, rudimentary setup of applications, and an SD card reader to fit into the ExpressCard slot).

He's been nothing but pleased, and finds the system quite natural to use. He especially loves how silent the machine is. He is also blown away by the integration of applications in the system.

I think that the coolest thing is that he understand the paradigm of "operating system" and hasn't had any trouble switching. Whereas most people probably only understand the steps of doing something in Windows, my dad understands the idea behind what he wants to do. The method to get things done in Mac OS is a slightly different paradigm than in Windows, but since my dad understands the idea behind this, he has had no trouble not only adapting to, but utilising the Mac.

He seriously glows when he's talking about his MBP. He never did that when talking about his old Windows machine. Even better, we're now discussing the finer points of what the MacBook Air does and doesn't do well.

I've thought about these devices a lot. There are two things that I really do use a somewhat-buff laptop for: video editing, and graphic design. Less important is off-loading pictures when away from my desktop. The rest of the things I do with the laptop--internet, e-mail, wordprocessing, and chat--can all be handled by a less-powerful machine (even a 500 MHz G3 PowerBook). The music is taken care of with a portable player. Same with a lot of video.

I recently "did away" with a dedicated Palm device, switching to a blackberry. It's wonderful, and even though it has a modified QWERTY keyboard (it's the Pearl), I can type quickly with it. I can send pictures to Flickr. I can blog from it. Just about the only things it can't do are real word processing (though DataViz is apparently working on a version of Docs to Go), and internet (I don't have the Internet plan for it, it lacks WiFi, and the browsing on such a small screen is terrible and slow). But for e-mails (the biggest reason to have the laptop around, besides the word processing), the BlackBerry can do it all. It can easily do things like IM and IRC as well.

And if I were to use it for word processing? I'd get myself a Bluetooth keyboard and use that. That's far more portable than even a sub-notebook laptop. The fact that I have 2Gb of MicroSD goodness inside the phone is also helpful.

Exactly!

It's really nice, but it's too wide. I realised this about my MacBook after having it for about a month. I'd get an old 12" PowerBook, if not for the fact that they're still expensive for their size and feature set. Since using the MacBook, I'm loathe to switch back to a slower, single processor Mac laptop (unless it was a G3/G4-upgraded PowerBook Pismo--that design was the best, even if the machine was somewhat large at 14". I have also been tempted to put the guts of a 14" iBook in the old G3 PowerBook's case, too).

But the MacBook Air does what it does both elegantly and smashingly. Unfortunately, it's not the computer for me. I'd get more use out of a new SSD for the MacBook I have (it would be cheaper than Apple's premium price, too). We've re-hashed the video/graphic professional view on this, too.

But it is too wide. Not to thick, but too wide. If it were a 12", I'd be all over it (like flies on honey or whatever other apt metaphor you can think of). As it is, the size of my MacBook makes me think twice before throwing it into my bag.

Plus, the niche (itch) that I would want the laptop for--e-mail, some web, some video--is already filled (scratched) by the combination of BlackBerry (for e-mails--though an iPhone could be easily put into the same place) and an iPod for video (save for YouTube vids). The lack of the optical drive is not a deal breaker, but the ability to watch DVDs is quite handy on a laptop.

I suppose that I'm simply not the target customer for the thing. But it's still pretty, and terribly useful. And it costs the same as the old PowerBook G3 did in 2000, with all its features.

An indispensable part of my dorm room/small apartment, for teas, hot coco, and instant ramen noodles.

Also, I forgot to mention the Deutsches Teknikmuseum Berlin--it's full of cars, airplanes (many somewhat broken from shrapnel and explosions), boats, and engines and trains and their history. I'd liken it to the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle, but with a focus on more things than just airplanes.

@10 Joel Johnson:

Weißwurst is more of a Southern German thing, but the Döners are wonderful. Also, be on the lookout for Käsespatsel--sort of a fried noodle dish with cheese. It's terribly delicious.

Ride the U-bahn (but don't forget to purchase and validate your ticket). I love those yellow subways.

If you do get the chance, go up and see the Mirrored dome of the Reichtags but there's usually an hour-long queue to ride the elevator to the top.

Look into visiting some local breweries (each region has its own type of beer, and in Berlin it's a light Pilsner).

There are some cool, small jazz clubs in Berlin (perhaps someone else knows what they are).

Do check out the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedenknesskirche (Memorial Church), which is built of the ruins of a bombed-out church.

You'd probably also be interested in the old Olympic stadium, to the West of Berlin. It's towards the end of one of the central U-bahn lines.

At the very least, take your camera with you EVERYWHERE.