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Presents of Mind

Backup Plan: Romana Machado craves a Iomega Zip drive for Newtonmas. Tech-heads dream about the smartest toys and tools on their holiday wish lists A COUPLE OF ORANGES and a lump of coal no longer suffice for holiday offerings. Just as fir trees gave way to aluminum surrogates, so have traditional gifts been supplanted by a dazzling array of high-tech wonders. In order to glean a sense of what electronic treats people are giving and hoping to receive this season, Metroactive contacted the people who know best: Silicon Valley computer visionaries, executives and artists and asked them two questions: 1) What is your favorite current high-tech toy/tool? and 2) What high-tech toy/tool do you hope to receive during the holidays? In recognition of how much our lives are influenced by the high-tech revolution, we wanted to know what people play with, what they work with, what inspires them and even what they couldn't live without. The answers ranged freely, in feisty defiance of any guidelines. Musicians touted the pleasures of such relatively old-fashioned items as reel-to-reel tape recorders and oscilloscopes. One respondent pined for nothing more "than a good book"--surely the quaintest of technologies in today's information age. Daniel Kottke told us about an intriguing gadget he designed himself--Cyberlights, an LED display that turns ordinary people into walking billboards--and we decided to put him on the cover. More than anything, we discovered that people are looking for technology that can help them be more productive, more creative. As Scott Noam Cook, professor of philosophy at San Jose State University, put it: 'Whether we're talking about an individual, a community, a corporation or a school, I'd be much happier if instead of saying, 'Here's the newest gadget. How do we adapt to it? How do we exploit it,' I'd rather have us say, 'What do we want to do and what technology do we need to achieve that most responsibly?' " It's not just the thought, but the thoughts, that count. Jerry Mullins President of Stanford ­Palo Alto Macintosh Users Group (SMUG) and a San Jose attorney Fave Rave: Iomega Zip Drive With 100-Megabyte Cartridges You can pack the Zip Drive up and take it wherever you want. It gives you unlimited hard-drive capacity. I seem to be using it most for transferring data. I have my favorite setup at home, where I'm most comfortable. But if I'm going into a workplace, and I want to have everything I need, I bring along the Zip Drive. It's kind of a low-cost way of getting into the game. Conceivably, if you had a family with one computer and four kids competing for the computer you might want to think about each one having a cartridge they could keep their homework on. That way, there'd be argument over where to keep the information on the hard drive. Wish List: Business Card Scanner During the day, you take people's business cards. Now you have a lot of them in your pocket, and you don't know what to do with them. [With a business card scanner], you just feed the business card into it. It doesn't matter what form the card's in. It doesn't matter if there's graphics. ... That would be a labor-saving device for some people. Especially if you're going to a convention and grabbing bunches of business cards. Romana Machado Extropian Fave Rave: Polar Heart-Rate Monitor One my favorite tool/toys is my Polar heart-rate monitor. I didn't mention it at first because I use it every day at the gym. (I don't think "perceived exertion" is a sufficient measure. Without an objective measure, I tend to slack.) It's natural, as technological creatures, for our gadgets to become so much a part of ourselves that we do not notice them. Wish List: Iomega Zip Drive The Iomega Zip Drive I had was a loaner. But it was great! I could back up all my Web sites, and all it took was a small diskette. And it's speedy, too, and under $200. I should have bought my own by now, but maybe I'll get one for Newtonmas (Newtonmas is the transhuman winter holiday. Sir Isaac Newton was born Dec. 25.) Jerry Yang Yahoo!, co-founder Fave Rave: Cell Phone The cell phone is one of those things in the last five years that I've gotten used to carrying around with me. It's not so much for receiving calls but to make calls. Countless times, there's a flight delay, and everyone runs for the phones. I've got my cell phone. Wish List: Combination Cell Phone and PDA (available in Europe). It looks like a phone, but when it folds open, it has a PDA [Personal Digital Assistant] in it. That would be really cool. It even allows you to use email. I don't know how cheap it is, and I don't know how effective it is, but designwise, it looks very interesting. David Redell Computer researcher; member of the Executive Committee of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Fave Rave: Web Browser Using Web search engines has completely changed the way I look at the World Wide Web. I used to regard the Web as an interesting playground, like a video game where you wander around and occasionally find something of value. [With search engines], it's evolving toward being the reference library of the future. Now, the main time I turn to the Web is when I have a specific question ... and at least half the time, I find the answer I need. Wish List: Dynabook (A magazine-sized computer "book" conceived by researcher Alan Kay 20 years ago. Users could download texts into the Dynabook and read it on the bus or under a tree. This "dynamic" book could also include sound, hypertext and animated illustrations.) It'll be possible to build Dynabooks in the next few years. It could be any book you wanted it to be. If the Web is the reference library of the world, this is the window. It's something I'd love to have myself. It'd be terrific if we could get it into schools. John McChesney National Public Radio technology correspondent Fave Rave: ISDN Connection ISDN is a high-speed connection [to the Internet] on a regular phone line that's four to five times faster than modems. Unfortunately, the phone company's are not doing a good job deploying these. [ISDNs] use the same copper wires that come into your home, but they're digital-only lines. Using an ISDN connection to surf the Web, you get spoiled. You're able to download quickly. It's got great sound. It's something I've become totally dependent on, and I wish everyone had. They are a little more expensive though. Wish List: Cable Modem (@Home, a Palo Alto company, has begun marketing them in a few cities). Cable modems will deliver 10 megabytes per second compared to an ISDN line's 128 kilobytes per second. They'll also deliver full-motion video. That's what I want for Christmas. They're saying cable modems will be available next year. We'll see where they'll be available and when they'll be available. Tom Hayes Co-producer, Webstock Music Cybercast Fave Rave: Psion Personal Digital Assistant You have your life in a shirt-pocket organizer. Thankfully, the silicon content in everything is increasing, so everything is getting smarter. What I don't want is more things. We want technology to simplify our lives. It's kind of an oxymoron: We want fewer things, [but things] that are very smart and very intuitive. Personal assistants help people take charge [of their lives] in a small way that can help society in a grand way. Wish List: WebTV You'll be able to watch television one moment, and when a commercial comes on, switch over to the Net. Once you introduce the Internet to the living room, it'll change the Internet markedly. It'll have to adopt some of the sensibilities of television--more predictability and more entertainment. Web television will introduce popular use of the Internet, which will justify companies investing in infrastructure, which will speed up the Web. The family can gather around the Internet. It's not a solo journey anymore. It will have its consequences. Hopefully, it will be very positive. But we don't know. Bill Cleary CKS Group, founder Fave Rave: Yak-Bak From Yes Entertainment I have to tell you my favorite high-tech gift is the Yak-Bak. This nifty little device allows you to record a few seconds of absurd thoughts on the way to work. Given traffic in Silicon Valley as of late, there's plenty to record. I also use it to test strange accents that I developed over the years--regional accents such as the Boston Bean Mouth, Bronx Blabber and Bubba Breath (found only in certain parts of Georgia). These accents come in handy at cocktail parties or major speaking engagements. You Talkin' to Me? CKS Group founder Bill Cleary expresses himself with the Yak-Bak. Zoe Lofgren U.S. Congresswoman, 16th District Wish List: Portable PC I would like a portable PC with a flat panel that operates on AA batteries. It should have a 300 MHz processor, an internal modem and a wireless phone that has broad-band capacity with free Internet service for the rest of my life in a machine that weighs less than 10 ounces. I use the Internet a lot, and it frustrates me when I'm on the road that the batteries run out on my laptop. And it's too heavy. I would like to have something I can use anywhere anytime. John Markoff Silicon Valley correspondent for the New York Times; co-author of Takedown Fave Rave: Ibis Mojo Bicycle I met Scot Nicol in the late 1970s when he was just beginning to hand-build Ibis mountain bikes. However, for the longest time, I remained a road snob, looking down my nose at fat-tired bicycles. About four years ago, Scot took me out for a ride on one of his bikes, and I realized that not only was off-road cycling safer than riding with cars, it was also so much fun it should be illegal--and in many places it is! Last year, I finally got around to buying a Shimano-equipped Ibis Mojo, which I like to take out on weekend rides in the Santa Cruz Mountains or in Marin. I just couldn't bring myself to buy one of his dual suspension Szazbos, no matter how much I was lusting after one. I have this rule of thumb: Bikes should cost less than computers! David Filo Yahoo!, co-founder Fave Rave: Wireless Modem While you were driving down 101, you could be logged on and doing work with a wireless modem. If you're going to meet someone, it's [often] pretty inconvenient to get a phone line from them. Some places may not have a phone line, say an airport. For a lot of people, it's really hard for them to get away from work without being connected. If you can get away and be connected, it gives you more freedom to get away from the office. At the same time, there's the potential to never get away from work. But you can also get lots of other information off the Internet, say maps and driving directions, that can be useful. Tobin Mori Guitarist for indie-rock group Korea Girl Fave Rave: TASCAM DA-38 Digital Tape Recorder I'd have to say that the TASCAM DA-38 is my favorite piece of gadgetry right now, because I'm using it to record Korea Girl's first album. It's a lot nicer than my old four-track tape recorder, because we can record over and over without any loss in audio fidelity; that's the beauty of digital! Wish List: DAT (Digital Audio Tape) Player; CD-ROM Burner; Color Inkjet Printer What can Santa bring me? How about a DAT player so I can mix down the record? Or better yet, a CD-ROM burner so I can make my own CD masters! They're getting cheaper--copy video games, software, all that fun illegal stuff. A color inkjet printer would be nice, then I could make my own bumper stickers that say, "My son sells crack at Lincoln Elementary." Or just buy me a good book on philosophy or religion. Alex Bennett Morning host on radio station Live-105 Fave Rave: ISDN Modem and Line ISDN runs at roughly four times the speed of a 28.8 modem. It sure makes sailing through the Net a real joy, and it's not all that expensive. Wish List: Automobile Navigation System I tested one for the TV show and fell in love with it. I'd never get lost again. World Wild Web: Pink Poodle site designer Michael Kuzinich wants a scanner for Christmas. Michael Kuzinich General Manager of the Pink Poodle and designer of the club's Web site Fave Rave: Custom-built PC by Tru Comp I couldn't do without my computer. It has 166 megahertz for the Internet and makes our Web pages great. We're close to 2,000 hits a day, and we're not on any search engines yet. Wish List: A Scanner I'd really like a scanner. Right now, I have one of those digital cameras. We can use the scanner to put up pictures for the Web site. Scott Noam Cook Professor of philosophy at San Jose State University and consulting researcher at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Fave Rave: Email I like email best because the convention has emerged around it. And I use that word intentionally--the convention has emerged around it of short, casual, frequent communication. So there are people around the world with whom I keep more up-to-date with, friends and colleagues, than was the case beforehand. Again, there are things that go into postcards, that go into letters and that go into email. They're not interchangeable. There's a kind of casual chitchat that doesn't happen by letter or telephone. A letter is more of a gift. So if it were something important or very personal, I would put it into a letter. I wouldn't email. And email is nearly free, where phones are not. Wish List: A New CD Player I'm a great lover of classical music. I study voice, singing. As a consequence I have a serious CD habit. And I need a new CD player. I'm quite fascinated at the subtle difference between the different types--aesthetically, in terms of the quality of sound and character. One of my major interests is crafts. At this point, the craft of CD electronics is working on refinements which make these differences. The technology has been around long enough that people are experimenting with stylistic differences, which is what you find in crafts. Fred Davis Director of Strategic Development for CNP Productions; one of the founders of Wired Magazine Fave Rave: CD-Recorder I have a computer peripheral I'm particularly enamored of: the CD recorder. They're like a CD-ROM, but you can record your own CDs. A lot of people think of CD recorders, "That's only for multimedia." To me, it's as important to my computer as my printer is. ... It's the printer for the digital age. It used to be a tool of the elite. Now it's something that almost everyone can afford." Wish List: A Digital Camera You take a picture, and you can see it instantly on the back of the camera. You take it. Click. There it is. If you don't like it, you delete it. You can download the images to a computer and print them on a color printer or save them to a disc and stick them on your Web page. The prices have come down, but I hope the quality improves. Sheldon Laube Chief Technology Officer, USWeb Corp. of Santa Clara; former CTO of Novell Inc. Fave Rave: Frox Home-Entertainment System My favorite high-technical tool is my Frox home-entertainment system. This is the coolest audio/video control system ever built! It controls my entire home theater in a way that my 69-year-old mother-in-law can use it! Wish List: A Porsche turbo!!! Jay Vance Bass player for ska group Skankin' Pickle Fave Rave: Multimeter My indispensable gadget is not new. It's a multimeter. A multimeter tests ohms and tells you if transistors are okay. It measures AC/DC voltage. You can fix anything with it. It tells you what's going on inside an electric appliance. If you don't know what's wrong with an amplifier, or to see if the speakers are okay, a multimeter will tell you. It's like a road map. Wish List: Oscilloscope For a gift, I'd like either a new multimeter or an oscilloscope. An oscilloscope shows sine waves. All music is based on waves. A sine wave is a pure wave. It's what you saw at school. It shows you what the sound waves look like. Harry Saal Chairman, Network General Corporation and former CEO of Smart Valley Inc. Fave Rave: USR Pilot Palmtop I don't go anywhere without my USR Pilot Palmtop. It allows me to keep a 3,500-plus-entry address/phone/email list, to-dos, calendar, etc., all in my shirt pocket. And I've downloaded lots of neat games and accessories from the Net. Buy the entry-level Pilot 1000 and then add the 1MB upgrade. Spending the extra $$ for the 5000 is a waste. Wish List: Nintendo 64 Game System I put my request for a Nintendo 64 in to Hanukkah Harry this year. It would be my first MIPS RISC Graphics­accelerated computer in the house. Oh, and it plays neat games too! Judy Malloy Hypernarrator; editor, Arts Wire Current Fave Rave: Toshiba T3400CT My Toshiba T3400CT laptop that I work on day and night. Wish List: A combination high-speed Web surfer, washing machine, and automatic cash dispenser. A magic carpet would also be extremely useful. D. Kent Cullers Manager for Project Phoenix at the SETI Institute. Gadget: Pocket DAT (Digital Audio Recorder) The pocket DAT is vital because I'm in so many meetings and lectures, and it makes utterly clear, high-gain recordings. It means you can hear the question in the back of the room. I originally came across it when I saw a reporter use one. I carry a lot of electronics already: a Pentium, an electronic Braille writer and a cellular phone. These things go with me all the time so one more thing would have to be very small. Heidi Roizen VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple Computer Fave Rave: Song Servant, Gig 'o Bytes Music Song Servant is a software/hardware combination that consists of a CD-changer and software that controls it that can run on a Macintosh. It turns your stereo into a very high-tech jukebox controlled by the Mac. On the screen, Song Servant looks like a jukebox, and you can drag songs you want over to the play list. At home, we put a sequence of dinner-music together, like Natalie Cole, Linda Ronstadt and Frank Sinatra. I have one called "Cheer David Up" with a play list of my husband's favorite songs. Captain Crunch (John Draper) Legendary phone phreak Fave Rave: Wireless I like the wireless Personal Digital Assistants or wireless modems. Wish List: See above :-) John Farley Meteorologist for KNTV Newschannel 11 Wish List: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite I'd like my own satellite: a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. I'd like it with an infrared channel, a visible channel, a water-vapor channel and an ozone channel. And I'd like it to have 10-meter resolution. Then I could send it over the Bay Area and tell the exact movement of the clouds. On clear days, I could even tell who was driving a convertible BMW on 880. Unfortunately the price tag on that is about a billion dollars and that doesn't include launching. Maybe save it for that extraspecial weather guy on your list. Think Globally, Predict Locally: Meteorologist John Farley wants a satellite in his stocking. Ron G. Pirate-radio (KKUD, 104.1FM) operator, Willow Glen Fave Rave: Minidisc Recorder It's like a recordable CD player. You put all kinds of stuff on there, and it's right there on your fingertips--BAAAM! I don't care if it goes out of style, it'll still be functional for me. Wish List: Power Boost; Wireless Modem For the holidays, I would love more power for the station through a beefier transmitter and a higher antenna location (anybody sympathetic to the cause of pirate radio with a high piece of property, tune in). And I would love to get the Ricochet Wireless Modem. It'd give me a reason to buy a laptop computer. Daniel Kottke Apple's first employee, now a law student and design engineer at Silicon Gaming. (In his spare time, he is building a product called Cyberlights, which, he says, will turn wearers into their "own walking Times Square billboard.") Past Rave: Apple Computer To think that just 20 years ago the Apple-I would have been a real high-tech gift! We've come a looong way. Wish List: Cyberlights Although I've only got a dozen left, what I make is Cyberlights, for $75. It's a 3x4-inch LED display that you can program yourself, and it will hold up to 384 characters in nonvolatile memory. The display only shows two characters at a time, but since they scroll smoothly, you can read a much longer message without difficulty. It runs on a wall transformer (supplied) or a 9V battery, so you can wear it and become your own walking Times Square billboard. The characters are 2 inches high. My new model is smaller, exactly the size of a business card, with three characters one inch high, and a memory of 512 characters--and you'll program it by using any standard PC keyboard plugged into a little adapter. It's not ready for production yet though, and I'm so busy with my job and school that I've given up the idea of having it for sale for this Christmas, sorry to say. The existing model is programmed using four little buttons on the back and a built-in edit program. Bart Thurber Recording-studio Guru for Soda, Luxo Crush, Jalopy Taco Stand and the Kindred Fave Rave: Analog Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder Reel-to-reel is phat and quick and reliable. Digital recording drives me crazy. Digital is a good storage medium but not a good creative medium. It keeps crashing, and you lose parts of songs, and there's times when we had to re-record entire songs because the machine decided not to read the tape anymore. Analog is fast, easy to edit and always works. It's like an old Chevy. I love the big, fat bottom end. Wish List: A New Microphone There's a lot of good new stuff out, and a lot of them are trying to marry the best of the old and new. I'd like a really good microphone. Everything starts with a microphone. Nolan Bushnell The man who brought Pong and Chuckie Cheese to the world Fave Rave: Hands-free Earphone/Microphone My current favorite is a hands-free earphone, microphone for a cellular telephone. It is great walking through an airport getting my calls done while carrying luggage act. Chris Lancelotti Director of Operations, Cupid's Corner Fave Rave: Rechargeable Rabbit Picture a regular vibrator shaped like a penis with a rabbit coming off to one side with bunny ears that vibrate back and forth. Inside the dildo part are little pills that vibrate and rotate around. The rechargeable unit you put on a regular charging stand like a cell phone or a Makita. The vibrator looks real sleek and slender, so it's not like anyone is going to get scared looking at it. It's a real popular item--ready to go when you are. It's kinda costly, but definitely worth it. What's Up, Doc: Chris Lancelotti of Cupid's Corner prepares to demonstrate the Rechargable Rabbit. Tim O'Reilly O'Reilly and Associates, Internet firm in Sonoma County Fave Rave: Digital Camera; BeBox Operating System From BE Inc., Menlo Park I saw a really cool digital camera when I was last in Japan. It was one of the few new gadgets that really rang my chimes. Unfortunately, I didn't note the model number. I liked the way it had a really nice large luminous screen, so you could see what you were getting, erase it right away if you didn't like it, and try again. The other new gadget that really got me going recently was the BeBox from BE. It is a really cool operating system that is well targeted. I don't know that the BeBox will take off, but I'd be very surprised if the BeOS doesn't clean up on Apple platforms whether or not Apple makes a deal with BE. If I were a developer instead of having my hands full running my company :-), I'd get a BeBox just to play with and see where to go with a new operating system that's been designed from the ground up for the needs of the next generation of computing. Wish List: Codex Leicester CD-ROM From Corbis I might like to see Corbis' CD-ROM based on Leonardo's Codex Leicester. I just saw the exhibit (which included workstations running the CD) at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, and it was wonderful. Farzad Dibachi President of Diba Corp., maker of software for information appliances Fave Rave: A 15-pound sledgehammer. Wish List: Combination DVD (Digital Video Disk) Player, Digital Camera and GPS Navigation Portable Box Jan Hutchins Ex-newscaster; recently elected to Los Gatos Town Council Fave Rave: Motorola Gold Line Pager My current techie tickle is a Motorola Gold Line pager. Coupled with a cell phone, I'm never out of touch (or out of batteries for the phone, since I can keep it turned off). Wish List: Chip-Driven Toys I lust after several chip-driven toys. I'm currently researching which personal assistant best fits my needs: Psion, Pilot, Newton, Zaurus, HP--you tell me. Shawn Hernandez Director of Information and Technology for City of Sunnyvale Fave Rave: Pencil and Paper I'm pro-technology, but we have to keep things in perspective and not get carried away. People are so consumed by technology. People forget there's basic ways of communicating. You can't become too dependent; you have to have a backup. It's good to visit the backup once in a while. I have one of these business organizers. Twice it's gotten wiped out. Wish List: Laser Printer I do a lot of work at home in the evenings. I have a need to print. Denise Caruso President and Editorial Director, Technology & Media Group Inc.; columnist for New York Times, San Francisco Examiner; founding editor of Digital Media. Fave Rave: Leatherman (a compact all-in-one tool kit) My Leatherman is not very high-tech (in fact it's not high-tech at all), but I used the pliers to get me out of a restaurant one night when the doorknob fell off from the outside, and we inhabitants were all trapped like rats. Try to get a computer to do that for you. Wish List: Motorola Microtac Cell Phone I'm dying for one of those little Motorola Microtac cell phones that double as a pager. But they cost $800 or something like that, so I guess I'll have to buy it for myself. Jeff Patterson President and Founder of IUMA (Internet Underground Music Archives) Fave Rave: Electric toothbrush; home computer When I think about it, I don't use too many high-tech things. I have an old car, an old stereo, an old TV. But with the computer I make sure I'm connected to the net at all times. It dictates my life, really. When I want to see a movie, I check the 777-Film Web page. I order CDs over the net. I do everything on the net. Wish List: Personal Digital Assistant I'd probably want to get a electronic personal assistant. I use a Day Runner in conjunction with various programs I wrote. Mark Zimmer CEO of Fractal Design Corp. Fave Rave: Astarte's Toast This one's unusual, but the latest gadget I like is actually a piece of software. It's Astarte's Toast, the CD-ROM-burning software. I've tried many pieces of burning software, but Toast can burn with the best of them. It supports multisession and audio, which I use to burn CDs of my own music. I'm using it with my Philips CDD-2000 and it was plug-and-play. Particularly because the CD-burner I bought was a Windows release of the product, and I'm using a Mac for audio stuff." Wish List: MMX Pentium or 500MHz PowerPC I'd settle for an MMX Pentium or one of those rumored 500-MHz PowerPC chips from Exponential I've been hearing about. I've always felt the need for speed, and the MMX Instruction set represents Intel "blessing" pixel-blending operations, one of my favorite pastimes. Aside from that, the raw speed of the Exponential chip will speed up anything else I decide to code up. Pat Brenner President and CEO of Ganesa. Brenner skipped Comdex this year because business is booming. "This week we're launching a site for Grafix CyberWear to support the premiere of Star Trek: First Contact. We've also got about 300 Barter Connection member companies to add to the www.microscopolis.com marketplace directory. And, a new distance learning project for Harcourt Brace is kicking off. No time for trade shows this week!" Fave Rave: Synthesizer/Computer/ Studio Setup; Eye of Crosis My college background is as a composer, and my synth studio provides everything needed to get musical ideas out. It's a great stress reliever as well. As far as gadgets go, my fave is currently my Eye of Crosis, a gift from my friends at Grafix CyberWear. When it comes to indispensability, though, I've gotta say the television remote is a must. Wish List: Roland Orchestra Sound Expansion Module; QuickCam; ISDN line I'd really like to add a new Roland Orchestra Sound Expansion module to the synth studio. That would really expand my orchestration options. A color QuickCam would be wonderful, for better video-conferencing with our clients. And, in an ideal world, I'd love to have a full-time ISDN line at home, because the T1 at the office has me spoiled. Adam Fleischer Producer/President of E.ON Interactive Design, a Santa Cruz multimedia company Fave Rave: Real Estate; Cable Modem Three and a half acres and a house. After that, I'd like a cable modem because it gets you on the Web a hundred times faster, or more, than today's average Internet connection. Wish List: Real-Time Internet Audio I like having real audio so I can listen to Joe Frank [on the Internet]. He's sort of a theatrical-philosophical radio dramatist from L.A. The shows are very bizarre, and he has an amazing sense of humor. Hip, smart people from L.A. know who Joe Frank is. Metro | Metro Santa Cruz | Sonoma Independent Metroactive Central | Archives