One of the best things about the rise of crafters on the Internet is that you can get pretty much any kind of geek-centric craft you can imagine, all thanks to your fellow oddities. Take, for example, these great video-game-themed home furnishings from Mental Floss.  There are a lot of Pac-man themed shelving units, which would go great next to those Pac-man ghost lights!

My favorite is definitely Soner Ozenc’s Tetris Mirror, but I have to admit they’re all really cool.  As for the Tetris mirror, it’s awesome because it’s in 13 separate pieces, which you can put together to form any Tetris shape you like!  It’s the perfect decoration for, say, a game room or a video gamer’s lair.  Or even a bedroom, since they’re gorgeous and not overtly nerdy!

That Donkey Kong shelf is a close second, if only because of how cool it looks with all those great Nintendo video games of the past arrayed on top of it.  The use of barrels as dividers adds a functional and aesthetic appeal, making it a great bookshelf for old video game manuals.

Now that Apple has jumped into the tablet computing game, expect to see this device everywhere.  But what good is it?  Well, basically, it’s great if you wanted a giant iPod Touch or a less portable netbook.  I keep flashing back to the Macbook Wheel.  It’s not even as useful as the other tablet computers on the market (due to its lack of multitasking ability).

While it is very light (1.5 pounds) and has good battery life (10 hours), it’s also very expensive at $499 for a 16GB model, $599 for a 32GB edition, and $699 for a 64GB edition (not counting the optional 3G data plan from AT&T).  It has built-in 802.11n WiFi and 2.1 Bluetooth support, and it syncs wirelessly.  Unlike most netbooks, it only has a 1GB processor (rather than 1.66GB as is the netbook standard), but its 9.7 inch screen makes it definitely easier to read than an iPod Touch for text purposes and playing Apple’s app store games.  There’s still no Flash support, which means you’re stuck buying those mediocre games from Apple rather than playing the equivalent mediocre game free online.

So what’s the iPad good for?  Well… if you wanted something harder to carry around than a Kindle, then you’ve got your device.  If you wanted a giant iPod Touch, you’ve got your device.  If you wanted a slightly slower netbook that has a very long profile that makes it more prone to smudges, scratches, and breaking, you’ve got your device.  If you like pretending to finger paint, you’ve got your device.

A closer view:

Images: Bitmob

Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.  A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  A rolling stone gathers no moss.  What do those things even mean?  Well, if you’re like most people and you have a bit of trouble learning the virtue of patience, not jumping to conclusions, or being grateful for what you’ve got through those old expressions, then not to worry.  Geek Dad has updated those old sayings for the modern age.

Of the ten listed, my favorite is, “A fool and his password are soon parted.”  Truer words have never been spoken, as the research shows!  “Hindsight is always 1080p” is also amusing, but I’d settle for hindsight being in 480p myself.  As for the one that reads, “E-mail, Twitter, and Facebook are three best friends and three worst enemies.”  There has never been anything said so wise.

Do you have any updated axioms for the modern era?  Perhaps, “That as dead as VHS,” rather than “as dead as a doornail” or “as dead as HD DVD?”  “It’s always darkest before the LED light kicks in?”

Acer is a company with a lot of irons in the fire.  They already have a whole slew of netbooks, desktops, laptops, smart phones, televisions, and that sort of thing.  But they’re set to add to their list of products.  What’s next?  Try an e-reader, an app store, and the first Google Chrome OS-powered netbook, among other innovations!  Oh yeah, they’re also going to roll out a tablet, assuming Apple does the same.

I’m not intrigued by any of their offerings save the Google Chrome OS netbook.  That’s one I’m interested in trying, depending on A) the price point, B) the hardware specs, and C) the dual-booting capability with preinstalled Windows.  I want to dual boot, but I’m too lazy to do the work myself.  If Acer is willing to do it, then we might have ourselves a temptation.

The more I see netbooks in the wild, the more I really want an ultra-portable machine with a ton of battery life.  The temptation is almost unbearable.  Almost.

Happy 26th Anniversary to the Apple Macintosh.  Make sure you head over to Mental Floss and check out a great 1984-era video of Steve Jobs giddily demonstrating the Mac way back when it was revolutionary technology!  If you think Macs are overpriced now (and they are), just imagine how bad it was back then, when the first Macs went for just under $2500 brand new!  That’s $5000 in 2010 money!  The visual OS made it all worthwhile, though; no more having to learn DOS!

Of course, the linchpin of the Mac’s launch wasn’t buying up all the advertisements in Newsweek, or their free trial test-drive, or even that presentation above, it’s the infamous commercial 1984, directed by Ridley Scott.  It was actually only broadcast once in its initial run, but has gone on to become world famous and instantly recognizable.  Kind of like the Apple Computers apple logo (thanks to a little help from the Beatles).

Data protection firm Imperva analyzed the hacked password details from website RockYou.com, and they have released the results of their information.  As it turns out, most people get hacked because they use the most brain-dead simple combinations possible for their passwords.  I mean, just take a look at the 10 most-hacked passwords.

To steal a snippet from the brilliant Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs:

[King Roland has given in to Dark Helmet's threats, and is telling him the combination to the "air shield"]

Roland: One.
Dark Helmet: One.
Colonel Sandurz: One.

Roland: Two.
Dark Helmet: Two.
Colonel Sandurz: Two.

Roland: Three.
Dark Helmet: Three.
Colonel Sandurz: Three.

Roland: Four.
Dark Helmet: Four.
Colonel Sandurz: Four.

Roland: Five.
Dark Helmet: Five.
Colonel Sandurz: Five.

Dark Helmet: So the combination is… one, two, three, four, five? That’s the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

Also stupid are passwords like “password” and “princess.”  Definitely don’t use “qwerty,” either.  To be safe, you need to have a password 8 letters or longer in length (rather than 6), use a random combination of letters and numbers (rather than a single dictionary word and a date), and use special characters when possible.  Odds are you know all that, and still refuse not to do it.

I love salty, greasy snack foods.  Popcorn and potato chips?  Yes please!  However, the thing I hate most about those snacks is that nasty, greasy feeling you get all over your fingers from eating said snacks.  Plus, while you eat, you can’t do ANYTHING else or you get whatever you’re working with/on absolutely besotted with chip bits and salt and congealing oil.  Yuck.

That’s why Japanese toy company Takara Tomy has released the Potechi Hand.   It’s like a miniaturized pair of those collapsing gripper arms, but made so as to not smash potato chips to smithereens in the process of going from bag to mouth.  I have to say, I’m pro-Potechi.  This invention cannot get to the US fast enough for me.

It actually solves two issues for me.  One, it keeps my hand clean.  Two, it means I never have to stick my arm into a half-bag of snacks again.  Knowing that I hate grease on my hands, can you imagine how much I hate getting grease and salt all over most of my forearm?  This is an invention that’s a LONG time overdue, in my opinion.

Image:  Make-Secret bar in office

Let’s say you went out this Christmas (or after Christmas) and you picked up a whole bunch of new, energy-efficient LED light strings.  Even on sale, those aren’t terribly cheap.  So, there’s a neat and fairly easy way to get yourself a little extra mileage out of those lights:  use them as house lights!

All you do is take a standard pole-style light, get a $2 socket adapter from basically anywhere that sells anything, and then you plug your LED lights into your lamp, put the shade around them, and voila!  I never would have thought of this myself.  It’s killing two dollar-sucking birds with one stone.  You get to avoid light bulb bills, you cut down on your energy bill, and you get to reuse those expensive LED lights.  It’s like a perfect storm of money-saving tips, three in one.

Of course, you have to have one of those type of floor lamps, or some way to string those lights inside a lampshade.  They’re pretty cool-glowing, so that’s probably safe to do.*

*May not be safe to do.