The Cultured Girl

I’ve been wearing Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars since seventh grade, but I never dreamed I’d get to dress my iPod in them too. Now, you can have a laptop case that looks like a wine tote and an iPod case that looks like a sneaker (Thanks, Shiny Shiny). Plus, this Speck accessory looks like it would provide great rugged protection if you drop or otherwise imperil your gadget.

Built NY’s wine bottle totes are the type of thing you’d never buy for yourself but would love to get as a gift. Not only are they cool-looking but the neoprene sleeves are also pretty ingenious in the way they insulate and protect wine bottles on the go. Now, the company has made a logical jump from adult beverages to neoprene laptop sleeves, which cushion your computer when you want to schlep it around in a backback or other normal bag. They start at just $30, and they’re pretty darn stylish to boot.

Here is a time-wasting toy (via Shiny Shiny) that you would never buy for yourself. But as a gift, it’s actually way more fun that it looks on first glance. Called 20Q, the handheld gadget is a computerized version of the 20 questions game: You think of a thing, and with some surprisingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, it guesses what you are thinking by asking yes or no questions on its little LED screen. My roommate has one of these (which he got as a gift, of course), and the thing is almost always right, or at least very close. (Instead of guessing “marijuana,” it asked “Is it a weed?”) A mind-reading marvel for under $20.

Before you decide to recycle your old computer (either through Dell’s new recycling program or other services found here), you need to erase all of your personal files, especially sensitive financial documents. After poking around on CNET and other tech-review sites, I was delighted to learn that some of the best disk-cleaning software for Windows is actually free. It’s called Eraser, and you can download it here. It’s relatively fast and easy to use, letting you drag and drop the files you want to eradicate.

For about a year now, my old Dell laptop has been gathering dust in the closet, while the phrase “recycle laptop” has haunted my to-do list. Now, thanks to Dell’s new recycling initiative, which I just read about on Treehugger, I’m finally gonna take the plunge. You can too, whether you have a Dell or any old computer that needs recycling. Just visit the recycling section of Dell’s website and check out the information on Recycling at Any Time. For just $10, Dell will send you a prepaid, pre-addressed airbill, and you just pack up your computer (with the files cleared off, of course) and send it back. It’s so easy I no longer have an excuse to procrastinate.

Now I just need to find some good disk-erasing software. Stay tuned.

With those colorful KitchenAid mixers all the rage, I wondered how long it would take for the retro appliance trend to expand beyond the kitchen. After all, one problem with modern electronics is that they’re sorely lacking in character. I mean, iPods and plasma TVs are sleek, modern, and easy to use, but they don’t have much decorative charm. For nostalgic TVs, there are several cool models from Predicta, which look like 1950s versions but are entirely modern in their engineering; you can easily hook one up to a DVD player, for instance. Now Engagdet has turned me onto the SpeckTone, a retro iPod speaker set from Speck Products (in avocado green, no less). Sure beats a pair of cheap black computer speakers from CompUSA.

If left unchecked, I can be a somewhat negative person. Which is one reason I actually like this site, Lovelines (thanks, Saheli) , which is devoted to things that people love. It scans blogs, flickr pages, and the like for sentences that begin with “I love…” (such as “I love the endurance test that is the sample sale”) and then links to the lovable things in question, everything from “i love ponies” to “i love that truck too much.”

If you’re feeling more curmudgeonly, there’s a whole separate section devoted to things sentences that start “I hate,” which, because it isn’t nearly as fulfilling to read, serves as an argument in favor of positivity.

The Morning News today tackles one of the biggest issues of modern day etiquette: obnoxious public cell-phone use, particularly that which involves highly personal conversations. The column offers several clever tactics for dealing with rude cell-talkers, such as offering unsolicited advice about the topic at hand or handing out fill-in-the-blank “Dear cell phone user” cards from the Society of Handheld Hushing. Of course, we’re are all guilty of the occasional violation, but even if a friend’s crisis requires an immediate phone call, it doesn’t give you an excuse to talk loudly or obnoxiously, and handing out personal information (like addresses or credit card numbers) during public conversations is just plain dumb.

First, there was Gmail, which burst onto the scene offering 1 gigabyte of email storage. Soon, other web-mail services, like Yahoo, followed suit. Then Google upped the ante, promising 2.5 gigs and counting—more storage than most mortals could ever occupy. Now, reminiscent of the Onion’s spot-on parody of the razor wars, “Fuck Everthing, We’re Doing Five Blades,” a new email service called 30 Gigs is raising the stakes to a ridiculous 30 GB of storage. The interface doesn’t look particularly appealing, but I can imagine 30 Gigs serving as a great secondary email if someone ever needs to send you an enormous file. Try it yourself by signing up for a free trial of the beta service.

For any girl who ever wished she could time her orgasms to musical crescendos, a British sex-toy company has created the iBuzz, a $60 accessory that turns an iPod or other MP3 player into a vibrator. And yes, it actually vibrates along with the music. Use it in tandem with those Etymotic headphones and your body will really thank you.