Christmas for Geeks

So Christmas is right around the corner, and you want some cool gifts for the geek in your life, but you are short on cash. Well instead of a tie with a mouse on it, or a ceramic PC shaped coffee mug (I really have those gifts, and I do like them) how about some good suggestions. Well here is a short list of things I have enjoyed or would enjoy getting, all for under $25. In no particular order

• Starbucks gift card. If your geek is a caffeine junkie like most of us are, this is an awesome gift, and it fits whatever budget. Even a $5 card gets a cup of joe and coffee cake.
• Screwdrivers, little tiny odd tips are better. I found a set at Home Depot for just under $5 that had Phillips, Slotted, Hex and Torx bits. With these tips I can take just about anything apart.
• Flash Drives, stay away for the cutesy ones that are shaped like pizza or whatever (okay, lego ones are okay), and get basic ones. Multi-packs are good, and bigger is better. Unless you want to boot from it. I love cheap ones for making bootable toolboxes.
• Movie gift cards, geeks do love the movies, especially ones with lots of explosions and high tech stuff, like Batman, or Star Trek. Okay we like art films too, but mostly
• Stuff from Thinkgeek.com, most everything they have is awesome
• Cool T-shirts, although this can be personal, some things are always cool, like the ones from Threadless, and of course, Thinkgeek.
• Cubicle or desk warfare tools, like the screaming monkeys or ninjas, or small nerf guns. Helps relieve stress too. (check thinkgeek.com as above)
• And of course, most of us are fond of bags of candies and cookies.

Now maybe I should make one for geeks to buy other people, you know the old expression, beware of geeks bearing gifts.

Antivirus 2009 meet Malware Bytes!

Malwarebytes, from www.malwarebytes.org.

I have seen a lot of computers lately with the fake antivirus warnings, Antivirus 2009, subscribe and we will fix the infections, and fix your registry, but really we are the virus, and probably are looking to get paid to turn ourselves off for a while. It is bad. But malwarebytes seems to fix it pretty quickly, effectively and also for free. I love free stuff. I have found a few cases where the internet browser does not work after fixing, but that is also easily fixed, if you download winsockfix XP again, for free. Two more programs to keep on your USB key. If you watch this weeks Systm the guys show how to make a bootable USB key, using BartPE, and also ubuntu. Both are cool tools for fixing viruses as well.

My New Favorite website name!

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

That is it, my new favorite website. You should visit it, the software is free and it is AWESOME! A lot of people I know get new computers, and they are loaded with crap you don't need and will never use. This free program will remove the most common crapware and do it silently, and concurrently, without you having to figure out if you really do need that AOL Dialer for Slovenia that came with your PC. My other favorite software is Malwarebytes, found again for free at www.malwarebytes.org and it is also AWESOME. Best program I have found lately for removing the Antivirus 2009 trojan, and others.

Really good stuff, use them both!