Community Credit Forums

A Very Important Announcement from Microsoft

DavidSilverlight — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:10:00 GMT

Well the time has come for me to start my venture into blogging about Silverlight. Yes, folks, this is it! I have come across many techniques, tools, resources and so many other Silverlight related topics that I would love to blog on, but.....nuttin..... until now. So look forward to many an interesting blog post to come from yours truly on my Silverlight On Silverlight blog.

So let me start the ball rolling with an announcement of something that you absolutely must attend if you have the chance. It is the Opening of the new Microsoft Store in Southern California... the Mission Viejo community to be more specific. This event is one of those events that you should attend if you are in the SoCal area and buy a plane ticket for if you aren't.

On top of the sheer coolness of a Microsoft Store opening with all of the geeky glitz and glamour that you can handle, there will be some very interesting folks attending. These are the corporate folks that you just WILL NOT want to miss. And if that isn't enough there will be a concert to boot. It is going to be a Microsoft event that you will definitely remember.

Earlier tonight, I received an email from Kim Schmidt, who has been involved in the store opening from the very beginning and she was very excited to email me the official announcement. Up to now, she has been in "top secret" mode and would not reveal any details no matter how much I bugged her. The only thing that she would reveal is just how cool this store is going to be. So here I am including an email that I received from her earlier today.

There is a chance for some special invitation only perks. I can't make any promises, but.... if you drop me an email, you may be able to get in on some additional surprises. If you would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to ping me about it either through email (DavidSilverlight@hotmail.com) or Twitter (HeadGeek).

Now for the big news....

"Microsoft looks forward to joining the Mission Viejo community on Thursday, October 29, when we open our doors in The Shops at Mission Viejo.

Please join us for the Grand Opening this Thursday. The ribbon cutting ceremony is a community-based celebration where we’ll announce several grants to local charities and provide opening day gift bags and special promotions to visitors while supplies last, so come early. (Mall doors open at 7am and store doors open at 10am).

As a special treat, we’re bringing one of the hottest new music artists in the nation to Mission Viejo. Pop star Justin Bieber will perform a 5pm concert at The Shops at Mission Viejo. Concert tickets will be given away to the first 1,000 people who visit the store (limit of two tickets per person). The first 100 visitors will receive VIP access to a special autograph session back at the Microsoft Store after the show.

Thursday is just the beginning. From computers and software to games, music and phones, we’ll not only have what you're looking for, we’ll help you get the most out of it. With group and individual training, personal shopping advisors, and in-store technical support you'll find all kinds of possibilities that are in step with your lifestyle. So whether you bring in your old PC or purchase a new one, we’re here to help.

We look forward to serving you and the community,
The Microsoft Store in The Shop at Mission Viejo
949.325.6100"

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Community Credit Prizes for July 2009

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:16:00 GMT

Note: As always, our prize list can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"Check it out to see past prizes and contest winners.

The items below show the prizes that you can win at Community-Credit this month(July 2009 ). You can have a chance at earning one of these prizes by contributing to the development community this month. Simply log your contributions (points awarded for over 100 types of contributions) and the geeks with the most points at the end of July 2009 Contest will win one of the prizes shown below. You can also see the past winners and prizes on our Stupid Prize Page.

Onto this Month's Prizes...
Grand Prize: Mimo Mini USB Monitor

Looking for that extra bit of screen real estate to get you through the busy workday? Referring to notes while writing an e-mail, checking info in a spreadsheet while entering data into a web page, keeping an eye on your to-do list while browsing YouTube... it's handy to have additional monitor space at the ready. Problem is an entire secondary monitor comes with its own needs like requiring a separate power cord or perhaps an additional video card.

The Mimo Mini USB Monitor changes this equation completely by offering a low-maintenance relationship between you and an extra display. A single USB connection from your computer gets you an instant high-resolution secondary display. This awesome display is perfect for your IM client, widgets, PC gaming tools, your email, a spreadsheet, your PhotoShop tools, or even video! Not only do these displays enhance productivity, they look great!

1st Prize: The Kaleidoscope Projector.

This is the electronic kaleidoscope that rotates at the touch of a button, projecting an array of ever-changing colors on walls or ceilings. A focused LED housed in the spherical chamber projects light through a rotating, removable disc that contains differently colored plastic shapes. Colored light is then refracted by three mirrors arranged in a coaxial, triangular formation inside the barrel--the mirrors' taper generates a multi-colored pattern. The removable disc's contents may be supplanted by transparent beads or other small objects for different colors. Two transparent knobs on either side of the light chamber each house a single LED that changes colors, providing an ambient glow. A knob on the front of the projector's tube enables you to focus the pattern onto any flat surface. The projector easily fits on a desk or table.

2nd Prize: http://www.thinkgeek.com/clearance/toysgoodies/98ab/

You've made the big decision. You could work in the shipyards, you could be a lounge singer - but no, you've chosen to enlist in Starfleet Academy. Here's what you have to look forward to: tons of studying, lots of friends, maybe a case of space acne, and oh so much more. You also can expect one of the most mind blowing orientation sessions ever. You'll get your dorm and roommate assignments, your class schedule, your academic advisor, and your titanium spork. We kid you not. We've always told folks that the titanium spork was the utensil of the future, and now (after we yanked a bunch through a chrono-synclastic infundibulum) we have the proof to um, well, prove it. The Star Trek Starfleet Academy Titanium Sporks are the official sporks of Starfleet Academy, and they have the laser engravings to prove it!

Seriously, folks, the Star Trek Starfleet Academy Titanium Spork is just about the coolest Star Trek collectible ever, because it is fully functional. Just like the one Kirk used while a student (perhaps even while planning to cheat at the Kobayashi Maru scenario), these are laser engraved with the Starfleet emblem and other stuff which we'll tell you about soon. And remember, we know how important it is for you to hold a replica of Spock's Student Spork at the premier of the new movie! Live long, and prosper.

3rd Prize: LED Binary Clock

It's easy for any self-respecting geek to figure out how to read this clock in a few minutes. Check out the image below for the details. Still don't get it? Then this is probably not the prize for you. Sure you could wing it and 'approximate' the time based on the position of the sun and act like you can read this clock, but you should probably go get one of these instead. With one of these puppies and you are on your way to truly becoming one with the binary...

4th Prize: Fly Stick Van de Graaff Levitation Wand

Get a bit of magic for yourself with this amazing Fly Stick Van de Graaff Levitation Wand. This battery powered wand features a mini Van de Graaff generator inside. Push a button on the handle and the static charge built up in the wand causes the included 3D mylar shapes to levitate at your command. You can also do some cool tricks causing the shapes to jump back and forth from your hand to the wand. Not quite Harry Potter... but hey, we do our best for you. "Todays magic is tomorrow's science"... as we always say here at ThinkGeek. Now you can get a bit of magic for yourself with this amazing Fly Stick Van de Graaff Levitation Wand.

5th Prize: Sega Pekoppa Robot Plant

Plants would make great pets if they just did more stuff. Hey, they can grow, they can make oxygen, they can die... but that's pretty much it. Nobody names a plant. You can't really hug a plant. However, luckily for you Sega of Japan has re-envisioned the lowly plant as a cute robotic companion. Using futuristic muscle wires for movement, the Sega Pekoppa Robot Plant looks surprisingly lifelike but never needs watering or sunlight... what it craves is your attention. Talk to your Pekoppa plant and it responds to your voice by bending and moving in a very lifelike manner (if real plants could move, which they mostly don't). Ignore it and it gets pretty sad. The more you talk, the happier it is... making it the ideal companion for your wife or girlfriend.

Based on the research by Dr. Tomio Watanabe the Pekoppa incorporates "Unazuki riron" (nodding theory.) According to Dr Watanabe, nonverbal communication including nodding and face expression is crucial to human communication. Because of this, the Pekoppa has several ways of nodding and changes the ways it responds depending on your voice tone. The more you talk to Pekoppa the more it seems to understand what you say. It's a very good listener.

6th Prize: "What Happens in the Holodeck" T-Shirt

Holodeck technology allows so many incredible things that wouldn't be possible in the real world. You can try out risky medical procedures, teach new recruits with bridge simulations, pull up battle scenarios and take various tactics and work through them systematically to come up with the best approach. The possibilities are endless.

And yet, there's basically one thing humans are going to use that technology for once we get it. You know it, and I know it. And although we may now have altruistic aspirations and erudite ends in mind, more often than not in real life the holodeck technology would be used for a little thing we like to call Gettin' It On. *cue Barry White*

7th Prize: Star Wars R2-D2 Peppermill

Not that you've noticed... but all fine restaurants on Tatooine feature R2-D2 pepper grinders. Usually after you order your salad of Dagobah greens a Wookie will come around and offer you some fresh ground pepper from one of these handy droid-based mills. Word to the wise... never refuse a Wookie.

Fortunately for you we've managed to pilfer a few hundred R2-D2 pepper mills from eateries all over Tatooine for your spice grinding pleasure. Simply twist R2's head and he deposits pepper onto your food. Hey, it's not a glamorous job for a droid... but much better than being abducted by Jawas.

8th Prize: Splat Stan Coaster

Stan was happy and completely oblivious to the dangerous conditions. There were heavy drinks being hoisted and lowered all around him, yet he always felt perfectly safe. Then Stan got splatted by a giant pint. Now the only thing he can do is protect your table top from tea and coffee stains. He was never the smartest fellow but now he's a clever coaster for your mugs and glasses.

9th Prize: You Don't Know Me Anonymous Twitter Shirt

Sometimes people say stupid stuff. Sometimes people Tweet stupid stuff. The difference with the two is that teh Intarwebs is forever. Sure, you can delete it out of your stream after you've realized it was a Bad Decision, but, as many subjects of federal investigations have discovered, digital never really goes away. That's why we've created the "You Don't Know Me" Anonymous Twitter Shirt. Spend the last 140 characters bitching about your boss? Take an inebriated TwitPic that's suitable for your MySpace page? Never fear! Abandon your old feed and create a completely new identity. Sign up for Twitter anew, fresh as a newborn babe. And please -- don't mess it up this time.

10th Prize: Atomic Food Containers & Candy keeps 'em away

These fun Atomic Food Containers & Candy -- food tupperware-like containers emblazed with warnings like "experimental meal, consume at own risk" or “bio-dangerous, yesterday's leftovers". Prize includes three different Atomic Food Containers nuclear-colored bowls -- the smallest filled with Toxic Waste® hazardously sour candy

11th Prize: Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom

Deep in the basement of an ancient house in Sonobe (tucked in the fields of Kyoto, Japan), an amazing discovery has been made: real 1up Mushrooms. We know this sounds unbelievable, and we laughed when we were contacted by an exporter about them two months ago. But then we were sent a sample, and that's when our lives changed forever.

The instructions are pretty simple. All you do is add potting soil to the green sewer-pipe-shaped flower pot, and push the spores deep into it. Soak the soil with water using the dropper, add a squirt of the food solution, and then it's off to a dark location for a few weeks. We left ours in the darkest corner of our server room, and broke out our NES to relive some classic Mario memories. Three weeks later, we checked in on it. To our surprise, what you see in the photo above is what greeted us - a perfect 1up mushroom. Thrilled, we jumped up in the air, punched the ceiling tiles (earning 10 coins), and instantly bought the entire stock of them to offer to you, our friends.

12th Prize: Mario Galaxy Mini Figure Set

What better way to celebrate your love of all that is Mario then by collecting this Mario Galaxy Mini figure set? You get 5 figures in all including Mario with star, Princess Peach, Princess Rosetta, Electro Goomba and Bowser. Each stands about 2" high. No more scrounging through capsule machines in Tokyo... this is the entire 5 figure set imported direct from Japan into your hot little hands.

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in July 2009

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:15:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in July 2009 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of July 2009 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Chris Eargle with 78,500 Points points won a Star Wars™ Darth Vader USB Hub

1st Prize Winner:Andrew Karcher with 41,000 Points points won a The Tabletop Cotton Candy Maker

2nd Prize Winner:Anand Narayanaswamy with 26,450 Points points won a The Simpsons Family Fund Sofa Bank

3rd Prize Winner:Brad Jones with 16,350 Points points won a Euler's Disk Spinning Desk Toy

4th Prize Winner:Mitchel Sellers with 15,640 Points points won a Glow Graffiti Light in a Can

5th Prize Winner:chetan akarte with 14,650 Points points won a 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites

6th Prize Winner:Jace Weiss with 14,000 Points points won a What Would Spock Do T-shirt

7th Prize Winner: dotNETvinz with 11,500 Points points won a Star Trek Interactive Tribbles

8th Prize Winner:Brian Scarbeau with 11,000 Points points won a Mini Shopping Cart Desktop Organizer

9th Prize Winner:David McCollough with 8,600 Points points won a Black Bar Glasses

10th Prize Winner:Tim Heuer with 8,000 Points points won a Fail Stickers

11th Prize Winner:Peter Mourfield with 7,500 Points points won a Optimist Engineer T-shirt

12th Prize Winner:Timmy Kokke with 7,080 Points points won a Dirty Mug

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in June 2009

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:13:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in June 2009 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of June 2009 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Chris Hammond with 27,300 Points points won a The Video Camera Pen.

1st Prize Winner:Philip Japikse with 24,000 Points points won a Aqua Dance nanotech water slide

2nd Prize Winner:Brian Genisio with 23,000 Points points won a Credit Card Size Digital Video Player

3rd Prize Winner:Sandeep Aparajit with 21,000 Points points won a Star Wars Light Saber USB Glow Lamp

4th Prize Winner: Dave Campbell with 20,000 Points points won a Star Trek Red Shirt Cologne

5th Prize Winner:Hal Hayes with 19,250 Points points won a The Office Interactive DVD Board Game

6th Prize Winner:Gustavo Cantero with 17,025 Points points won a Rock Em Sock Em Robots

7th Prize Winner:Laurent Duveau with 16,000 Points points won a Wacky Packages Book

8th Prize Winner: with 14,600 Points points won a Star Trek Peel Wall Applique

9th Prize Winner:Timmy Kokke with 14,500 Points points won a DIY Drinking Strawz

10th Prize Winner:Gian Maria Ricci with 13,500 Points points won a Ninja Star Push Pins

11th Prize Winner:Fabio Carucci with 12,600 Points points won a Origami Sticky Notes

12th Prize Winner:Joe Brinkman with 12,500 Points points won a Paper E-mail

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Community Credit Prizes for May 2009

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:38:00 GMT

1st Prize: Aqua Dance nanotech water slide

If you're looking for something new to take your mind completely off your job at the office, then enter the world of nanotechnology with the cool new Aqua Dance - Nanotech Water Slide. This amazing water fountain / pachinko machine / Plinko game drips water droplets down a nanotech coated obstacle-laden maze-like slide. As the beads of water fall, the high-tech coating causes them to slide, bounce, scatter, break apart and join back together like mercury does (like the Terminator T-1000). The water thens drops into holes at the bottom, where they are then pumped back up to be reused over and over again. No batteries are needed, just press the pump button and swivel the adjustable faucet to aim. This should definitely waste a few productive hours a day

2nd Prize: Credit Card Size Digital Video Player

These mini video players are small on size but are big on features with full-size bright high-res screens and 8 hour battery life. They're perfect for playing your favorite movies and music. With 2GB of storage built-in, but can be expanded via memory card.

3rd Prize: Star Wars Light Saber USB Glow Lamp

If you ever wished you could wield a lightsaber like a Jedi Knight and needed a unique lamp for your workspace, this lamp doubles as a desk light and a glowing mini lightsaber! If you don't have an R2 unit handy, simply plug the lamp's base into your computer's USB port and slide the lightsaber in upright to recharge it. While it charges you can use the bright blue adjustable glow from the lightsaber's energy blade as a lamp and if your boss or Sith Lord approaches, it can be removed to strike them down to replace peace and justice to the office

4th Prize: Star Trek Red Shirt Cologne

Red Shirt Cologne is made for the young, modern man of the galaxy who doesn't hesitate; who revels in being alive today. Red Shirt Cologne instills confidence, showing the universe your strength, your valor, your devotion to living each day as though it could be your last. Bright, clean and Direct with Top notes of green mandarin, bergamot and a hint of lavender, Red Shirt finish strong with base notes of leather and grey musk. It's a daring men's fragrance for those brave enough to place no trust in tomorrow. Bottle is 100 ML

5th Prize: The Office Interactive DVD Board Game

Dwight Schrute understands that all work and no play makes a Dunder Mifflin employee less efficient. So he created this DVD board game to enlighten and entertain, mapping out the cubicle farm for your playing enjoyment. Answer questions about the show clips and earn Schrute bucks; gather fellow The Office fans to watch a few episodes and play a few rounds

6th Prize: Rock Em Sock Em Robots

The original Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots™, first introduced in the 60s, are back and hotter than ever in this nostalgic reproduction. Maneuver Red Rocker® and Blue Bomber® around the ring as you try to knock your opponent's block off with jaw-jolting action! Remember how the losing robot's head pops up with the power punch?

7th Prize: Wacky Packages Book

Tucked inside Topps Bubblegum, the stickers featured parodies of consumer products and well-known brands. This first-ever compilation showcases images of all 223 rare and hard-to-find stickers. Includes an interview with Art Spiegelman, the brains behind the concept, and a bonus pack of unreleased stickers. Hardcover; 237 pages.

8th Prize: Star Trek Peel Wall Applique

These wall appliques are a must have for any Star Trek fan! Featuring designs and characters from the original TV series, you can decorate your office anyway you want! These easily removable and reusable appliques come on and off without any problems. Just stick, admire, and show off your inner Trekkie!

9th Prize: DIY Drinking Strawz

Liquids are fun outside your body (like swimming in a lake or pre-set grape gelatin) and they are fun inside your body (like Bawls, Jolt, and the occasional Zima - just kidding). But really, the big problem comes when deciding how to make fun liquid get from outside your body to inside your body. Our favorite method is drinking. And when we drink, we like using straws. But sometimes a straight straw is boring. So we combined a few chemicals in a test tube and DIY Drinking Strawz were born.

Composed of 44 dishwasher safe components, DIY Drinking Strawz guarantee that liquids get into your body exactly how you want them to. Want to mix drinks? Well, then build your straw to dip into two (or more) cups. Want to share? Then build an extra drinking branch. Want to mix drinks AND share? You can do that too!!! Amazing, ain't it? And hey, if you want to go nuts and really suck, you can buy more than one set and make a mondo-gigantic straw. You could be the Suck-Meister.

10th Prize: Ninja Star Push Pins

There are many nonverbal signs you can use to let those in your office know how you feel about them. You can leave a sticky note saying "Good Job" on their monitor. You can put laxatives in their coffee. Or, you can do as the ninjas done did: stick an angry note on their cubicle wall with throwing stars. Of course not real throwing stars, but Ninja Star Push Pins.

This prize will bring you three Ninja Stars of posting doom. Each star has one corner cut off and replaced with two push pins, so when they are embedded in the wall (or cork board or foam board) they look like they were thrown with great force. And apart from looking cool in the wall, the stories of how the Ninja Star Push Pins got there in the first place will quickly become the things of office legend - because nothing adds emphasis to a sign or note like a Ninja Star

11th Prize: Origami Sticky Notes

Origami is a Japanese art which is practiced to create a representation of an object using paper folding and crease patterns typically without using glue or cutting the paper. Now you can practice origami in the office and make use of all the old sticky notes you have plastered to your desk.

These Origami Sticky Notes provide something fun for those dull moments at the office. You can now re-cycle your old sticky notes and turn them in to paper 3-D models.

12th Prize: Paper E-mail

Ready for a strange fact we discovered recently? E-mail has been around since before computers. At first, e-mails were written on rocks and thrown at neighbors. CC-ing a rock e-mail could be dangerous for an entire village. Then, e-mails were written on paper and put in weird paper things called envelopes and the postal system delivered them. This was slow. Finally, e-mail as we know it came around. Well, for fun, let's take a technological step backwards.

Paper E-mail is perhaps the funniest way to pass messages in your office. Why? Because it will confuse the person you send it to. 'Why didn't they just e-mail this to me?' they'll wonder, 'is their computer down?' Great for sending IT e-mails on - especially if you mention they are a test of the new e-mail servers. Paper E-mails are a great, funny mix of new ideas and old school technology. So take a step back in time and find out how folks e-mailed other folks in the dark ages (that is, a long while ago).

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in May 2009

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:36:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in May 2009 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of May 2009 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Michael Wood with 62,000 Points points won a Alien Air Remote Controlled Jump Jet

1st Prize Winner:Anil Pandey with 50,950 Points points won a Mirror

2nd Prize Winner:K. Brian Kelley with 41,300 Points points won a Super Teeny Tiny 16GB USB Drive

3rd Prize Winner:Dennis Bottjer with 39,000 Points points won a Babushka Lights

4th Prize Winner:Lee Brandt with 31,000 Points points won a The Pin Clock

5th Prize Winner:Andy Leonard with 27,000 Points points won a Hacked And Frayed Spy Flash Drive

6th Prize Winner:John Blumenauer with 27,000 Points points won a Lightbulb Light

7th Prize Winner:Mitchel Sellers with 25,550 Points points won a Tiki Head Tissue Box Cover

8th Prize Winner:Colin Eberhardt with 24,500 Points points won a Splat Stan Coffee Coaster

9th Prize Winner:Victor Hurdugaci with 23,000 Points points won a Arcade Game Tie

10th Prize Winner:stan naspinski with 21,500 Points points won a Amazing Sea Monkeys

11th Prize Winner:Joydip Kanjilal with 21,000 Points points won a Dress For Dinner Napkins

12th Prize Winner: D'Arcy Lussier with 16,500 Points points won a Tetris Magnet Set

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in April 2009

DavidSilverlight — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:39:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in April 2009 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of April 2009 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Chris Eargle with 100,500 Points points won a 8GB Video Watch

1st Prize Winner:Satheesh Babu with 71,200 Points points won a Retro Cube Stereo Speaker and Mood Light

2nd Prize Winner:Emanuele Mattei with 69,937 Points points won a Flexible Illuminated Keyboard

3rd Prize Winner:Vivek Thangaswamy with 45,525 Points points won a Homer Simpson USB Desk Lamp

4th Prize Winner:chetan akarte with 29,250 Points points won a Retro Web Cam

5th Prize Winner:Eric Hexter with 29,000 Points points won a Sun and Moon Jars

6th Prize Winner:Tim Tyrrell with 26,900 Points points won a The Manga Guide to Databases

7th Prize Winner:John Dunagan with 26,750 Points points won a Lego Block USB Flash Drive

8th Prize Winner:Phani Harshitha Madala with 21,550 Points points won a Nerf Elimination Office Warfare Set

9th Prize Winner:Armand Datema with 21,000 Points points won a Space Invaders Ice Tray

10th Prize Winner:Tim Heuer with 18,500 Points points won a Rare Earth Magnetic Fridge Pins

11th Prize Winner:Chris Williams with 17,000 Points points won a The Cubes Corporate Protester

12th Prize Winner:Esteban Garcia with 16,000 Points points won a Family Guy - Stewie Mints

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Community Credit Prizes for April 2009

DavidSilverlight — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:37:00 GMT

1st Prize: Mirror

What if you were able to obtain information, access services, communicate, play or have fun, just by showing an object to a mirror, a Mir:ror that, like magic, gives life to all your everyday things?

Mir:ror is a simple and elegant device that connects to a computer. It recognizes the things you show it and performs the tasks you've assigned to them. Simply affix RFID Ztamps to your objects and they become interactive, content rich items. Examples of use are limitless: show your umbrella to a Mir:ror and it will give you weather forecasts; wave your keys on top of Mir:ror and it will send an email to your loved ones saying that you are back home safe; put your pill box on Mir:ror and it will recall you when you last took your medicine!

RFID technology is getting hotter everyday. Mir:ror is the first mass market RFID reader with a rich set of applications and services. It is designed to be so simple that a two year old child can use it. With this empowering, intuitive and revolutionary device, Violet is once more expanding "the Internet of Things", bringing the magic and the power of content, personalization and interactivity to the thousands of inanimate objects that populate our lives and homes

2nd Prize: Super Teeny Tiny 16GB USB Drive

Geeks, who have been around for long enough, remember their first hard-drives. Some remember their first gigabyte, others remember forty megabytes while even some remember luggage-sized 5 meg drives. It continually shocks us when newer and smaller storage is made available, and we get all giggly when it happens. No exception, this little drive is the smallest we've ever seen. Barely bigger than the tip of your pinky, and less than 4mm thick, it's positively small. The polished chrome finish is certainly shiny, but at 16 gigabytes, it's redonkulously teeny! Store up to eight full length ripped movies, ten days worth of music, more than eight-thousand 5 megapixel photos, or one-hundred-sixty-meters worth of shelved books. Sure, it's so small you could easily lose it, it includes a chain to help keep it around.

3rd Prize: Babushka Lights

Traditionally Russian nested dolls consisted of a large wooden figure that could then be separated to reveal a small figure inside, which could also be separated to reveal smaller and smaller figures down a very tiny figurine in the center. The Mathmos Babushka Light is the modern, lit version of this concept where the dolls are revealed in a sequence of different coloured lights and effects. When the buld lights red, the infinity effect is visible revealing a seemingly never ending row of red dolls, when blue the edges of the larger dolls are lit and also cycles through red to pink and purple and on to blue displaying different effects as it goes. The lamp can easily be turned on and off by pushing down on the top of the light. Kind of a unique and hypnotic nightlight.

4th Prize: The Pin Clock

This is one of the coolest clocks ever seen, The Pin Clock. Remember those pin toys that you could press your hand into to make a design on the other side, well this clock operates on the same principle. Pins raise and lower to create the actual time. Let time pass you by and enjoy every minute of it! Very Cool

5th Prize: Hacked And Frayed Spy Flash Drive

Imagine yourself, sitting in a coffee-shop. You pull out your venerable laptop, and fire it up. You may not realize it, but there are jealous eyes on your hardware. They see your computer and size you up. Is the computer you carry worth trying to steal? Are you enough of a threat to them? The mental-calculations proceed apace. That is until you reach for your flash drive.

You pull from your bag a seemingly torn and frayed piece of USB cabling. Immediately, your potential miscreant raises an eyebrow. Exactly what does he think he's going to do with that cable? Grinning like a madman, you plug your phantom USB device into your computer, and happily continue on with your work, apparently oblivious to your devices obvious lack of connectivity. It appears to all around you that you are, indeed, mad. In fact, what you’ve really done is plug in a 2 gigabyte flash drive that's masterfully disguised as a frayed and broken USB cable. You've managed to make it appear that you're insane, and as all thieves know - never EVER mess with an insane person.

6th Prize: Lightbulb Light

It's hard to think of a light source as mundane as the naked bulb. In a surprising twist, the Lamp/Lamp gives the lowly light bulb a new and delightfully absurd personality by simply adding an extra socket.

7th Prize: Tiki Head Tissue Box Cover

The Tiki Head Tissue Box is basically a tiki head cover you place over your regular tissue box that allows tissue to flow from its nose.

8th Prize: Splat Stan Coffee Coaster

Stan was happy and completely oblivious to the dangerous conditions. There were heavy drinks being hoisted and lowered all around him, yet he always felt perfectly safe. Then Stan got splatted by a giant pint. Now the only thing he can do is protect your table top from tea and coffee stains. He was never the smartest fellow but now he's a clever coaster for your coffee mug.

9th Prize: Arcade Game Tie

Imagine combining the classic necktie with classic arcade games like Asteroids, Pong, Tetris and Space Invaders for these cool new Arcade Game Ties. Whether you were into inter-galactic boulder destruction, heart-pounding block stacking, rapid-fire ball bouncing or destroying alien armadas, your choice of one of these ties will help satisfy the retro gamer inside you.

10th Prize: Amazing Sea Monkeys

As kids, we all saw that advertisement for the Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys in the back of comic books that showed a family of little magical underwater creatures and placed an order immediately. Dreams of ruling over a kingdom of these instant pet mer-people were soon dashed when we realized they were neither people, nor monkeys, but tiny marine micro-crustaceans. Now that we are adults and a bit less naive, we can finally appreciate the science behind this unique mail-order underwater world and showcase it once again in our offices or cubicles with the cool new Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys - Executive Set. Brine shrimp never looked so good as in this newly decorated black and gold accented tank equipped with a ventilated lid and a mound of gold on the bottom. Like always, this set includes everything you need to hatch, feed and grow them and they are guaranteed to hatch & grow for up to two years. Who knows, maybe this time will be different. Maybe this time they'll finally evolve! Maybe this time they'll become a true human-worshiping marine species. Maybe this time, they'll try to speak to you... Well, back to work. -

11th Prize: Dress For Dinner Napkins

Forget to dress up for dinner? It's no problem if you have one of these cool new Dress For Dinner Napkins handy. Each of these quality 3-ply paper napkins has an elegant necktie printed on them so you can quickly tuck it into your shirt like a bib. This prize contains twenty napkins of four different style tie designs. At least when you spill on your tie, you know you're covered.

12th Prize: Tetris Magnet Set

This prize includes all seven of those dearly beloved pieces ready to hold up all your loose papers in various configurations all over the fridge. Best of all, these magnetic pieces won't fall down like in the game. Very cool.

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in February 2009

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:27:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in March 2009 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of March 2009 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner: Dave Campbell with 70,500 Points points won a The Remote Controlled Hovering Space Surfer

1st Prize Winner:Brian Scarbeau with 49,000 Points points won a Nintendo Collector's Edition Monopoly Game

2nd Prize Winner:Brandon King with 24,600 Points points won a Remote Control Laser Megabotz Tanks

3rd Prize Winner:Chris Hammond with 20,525 Points points won a The Hovering Target Shooting Game

4th Prize Winner:Will Strohl with 18,010 Points points won a ThinkGeek Bluetooth Retro Handset

5th Prize Winner:Rainer Habermann with 18,000 Points points won a 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites

6th Prize Winner:Jeff Certain with 14,175 Points points won a Virtual Finger Game

7th Prize Winner:Peter Mourfield with 13,000 Points points won a R/C Zombie

8th Prize Winner:Fabio Carucci with 12,000 Points points won a Domo Fun Time Magnet Set

9th Prize Winner:Charles Young with 11,500 Points points won a Petri Dish Plush Giant Microbes

10th Prize Winner: dotNETvinz with 10,500 Points points won a Ultimate 5-in-1 Geek Pen

11th Prize Winner:Jesse Liberty with 10,200 Points points won a Pi Symbol Ice Cube Trays

12th Prize Winner:Philip Japikse with 9,500 Points points won a Barrel of Monkeys

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Silverlight Write and Win contest

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:53:00 GMT

The Silverlight "Write and Win" contest is in approximately it's last two weeks, so if you love writing articles about Silverlight, then definitely check out the competition. In short, you write a cool article about Silverlight and submit it at www.SilverlightShow.net or email it to editorial@silverlightshow.net. This year's contest will be judged by some of the most prolific members of our Silverlight Community, including: members Adam Kinney, Chris Anderson, Dave Campbell, Emil Stoychev, Michael Sync, Shawn Wildermuth and Tim Heuer. The jury will read your articles, judge them and pick three winners. The first three articles will be awarded with cool prizes:

1. Telerik Premium Collection for .NET; ComponentOne Studio For Silverlight; Divelements SandDock for Silverlight; $100 in Amazon Gift certificate

2. Telerik RadControls for Silverlight and WPF; Divelements SandDock for Silverlight; $100 in Amazon Gift certificate

3. Telerik RadControls for Silverlight; Divelements SandDock for Silverlight; $100 in Amazon Gift certificate

This should be a fun event and with all of the great articles that I come across every day, I am realy looking forward to reading the winning submissions. Please remember, the deadline is January 31st, so don't wait too long to join in on the fun!

For more details about the contest, visit The Silverlight Show

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Community Credit Prizes for January 2009

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:12:00 GMT

No words can adequately describe quite how breathtakingly cool this i.Tech Virtual Keyboard is. Bluetooth enabled, it uses infrared to project a clear and crisp keyboard onto your desktop, and then transfers your keystrokes via wireless networking to your PDA, Pocket PC or smart phone - it sounds far too futuristic to be true. But it's very much for real, and it's awesome.

This 22nd Century gadget is about half the size of your average deck of cards, sits wirelessly on any flat surface, and projects a red standard QWERTY-layout keyboard on any flat opaque surface. Using detection technology it "watches" your fingers hit the key locations it has projected, and then sends the keystrokes through to your PDA, smart phone or pocket PC via Bluetooth.

The projected keyboard is highly visible even in strong light (though it does of course look spectacularly cool in the dark). It's highly portable as well, though it will make you look a bit of a lunatic at the local, as you will look like you're typing on nothing more than the pub table (which also raises some serious health and safety concerns), and you will of course be interrupted every fourteen seconds with someone coming over and wanting to know where they can get one.

1st Prize: The Remote Controlled Hovering Space Surfer.

This is the remote controlled 9" space surfer that hovers in the air, spins 360°, and moves left, right, and forward--all while levitating parallel to the ground. Capable of indoor or outdoor flights, the space surfer has dual propellers that generate enough thrust to send the device from a stationary position without requiring a hand-launch. The 27 MHz radio-frequency remote control has proportional throttle and trim settings that allow it to be precisely controlled through climbs, descents, and turns. Made from durable EPP foam, the aircraft's body withstands turbulent flights and crash landings. Pre-assembled and ready to fly, the device is powered by a rechargeable battery that recharges via the included AC adapter.

2nd Prize: There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Door/Floor mat

Tired of people stepping all over you? Well take your frustrations out by stepping all over these choice door/floor mats. Adorned with the peculiar 'There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1' phrase, consider them your own personal wormholes to a place where users invented clue and upper management gets outsourced. Just step on 'em, click heels twice, and off you go! Perfect for both outdoor home and indoor office use alike, so that makes them extra tastylicious!

Includes one Polypropylene surface, vinyl backed entrance mat with the phrase 'There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1' with raised printing front and center. Dimensions: 2' x 3'. Extremely hardy!

This floor/door mat is a densely needle punched, polypropylene carpet mat that combines durability with attractive appearance. The high low surface pattern promotes aggressive cleaning action while its rugged vinyl backing provides skid resistant traction. A great mat for stopping dirt and moisture at the door and promoting cleaner, safer interior floors. Ideal for use indoors or outside and built to handle heavy traffic! Easy to keep clean by sweeping, vacuuming or spraying with an ordinary garden hose.

Magical wormhole transporting enzymes not included.

3rd Prize: R2 Fish Training School Kit

Picture it: Lassie returns to the house barking. "What is it girl? Timmy's fallen down the well?" And then everyone runs to get that little fool out. But it's too late. Goldie already saved Timmy's sorry butt. Because Goldie is the goldfish you trained with your R2 Fish Training School Kit - and fish lives in the well! Ok, so that was a little overdramatic, but when you put your fish though Fish School, you'll be amazed by the talent of your little scaly friend.

Take a sec and watch the video, we'll wait . . . done? No stunt fish or special effects were used; that was an actual fish trained using this kit. You get everything you need to teach your fish to play football, play soccer, limbo, weave, fetch, go through tubes, and more! And then you can quit your job and go on tour. It'll be just you, Twinkie the fish, and the open road. With the R2 Fish Training School Kit and a little perseverance, the world is your oyster . . . well, goldfish.

4th Prize: Fly Stick Van de Graaff Levitation Wand

This battery powered wand features a mini Van de Graaff generator inside. Push a button on the handle and the static charge built up in the wand causes the included 3D mylar shapes to levitate at your command. You can also do some cool tricks causing the shapes to jump back and forth from your hand to the wand. Not quite Harry Potter... but hey, we do our best for you

5th Prize: Plasma Bulb Night Light

Plasma is the fourth state of matter. When a solid melts, becomes gaseous, and is stripped of its electrons, it becomes a plasma. Plasma has found uses in wide-screen TV sets, fusion generator research, and has even been focused into saber like devices and offensive bolts! Now, we've harnessed the massive potential of plasma by using it to gently illuminate your bedroom.

We all know that the monsters under your bed and in your closet are only afraid of light - it's a documented fact! The challenge becomes, how to generate enough light to scare away the monsters, and yet still let you sleep through the night. This plasma bulb nightlight does just that, filling your room with the soothing purple-glow of electrons cascading back down to the ground state.

The Plasma Bulb Night Light fits lovingly into your 110v US power outlet, and will last for years. It generates light with only a teensy bit of heat, so don't worry about the kids or your drapes. Just bask in the glow, and sleep easy.

6th Prize: USB Desktop Dunk

You may think this is just another silly USB desktop toy, and it is, but it's not! Sure it's cheesy looking and, to be honest, we don't even typically plug it in or use the score keeper or the included fake fan cheering. It's plenty fun as just a mechanical desktop toy. Just put it on your desk, and before you know it, co-workers will be flocking to your desk and you've got a real game going! It takes a little skill to bounce the included mini-basketballs off your desk and into the hoop. But once you figure it out, you'll be finger dunking like a pro. And you'll barely break a sweat.

7th Prize: Office Monkeys Playset

These monkeys have not heard of business casual, as they are all dressed up in their finest (just like some of the monkeys in your office, we're guessing). The Office Monkeys Playset is a great stress reliever. Name the monkeys after folks in your office - and where you go from there is up to you. You can recreate office drama, act out fictional office playlets, or just throw them across the room if their real-life counterparts make you angry (it's a lot safer and easier on the back then throwing the real person across the room). Monkeying around was never so much fun.

8th Prize: Magic IQ Gift Box

If you want something good sometimes you need to work for it. Look at your ungrateful friends and relatives. You give them nice gifts and get a half-hearted "thank you" with no true appreciation for the time you took from your busy gaming schedule to visit a physical store and select something. Finally with the Magic IQ Gift Box you can give a gift and gain evil vicarious enjoyment for yourself. This devious box of delight can be used to store a small gift, then you can give it to your unsuspecting giftee and watch the fun begin. With no obvious opening, latch, or moving parts your gift recipient will struggle in frustration as they are dominated by the task of opening a simple wooden box.

The Magic IQ Gift Box is not the same as those Chinese puzzle boxes you may have seen before with multiple sliding parts you push in a certain order. It features a simple mechanism that's a snap to open if you know how, but really frustrating when you don't. Try as you might to slide all the edges and corners of this box... nothing seems to move. No instructions of any kind are included so you'll need to figure out how to open the Magic IQ Gift Box beforehand and insert your gift...

9th Prize: Japanese Popping Edamame Keychain

Edamame are baby soybeans, picked before they blossom into adulthood, and boiled. Edamame are also delicious and fun to pop out of their pods (especially when they shoot across a crowded restaurant and you have to explain to a room full of people how the 5 second rule still applies in public). But say you want the fun of popping edamame, but you're not very hungry. Oh, then have we got the keychain for you!

Each Japanese Popping Edamame Keychain has three beans. The end beans are small and immature. The middle bean, however, has one of 12 random faces printed on it. Why? We don't know, but there is nothing like the smile it puts on your face. And the beans are connected to some sort of elastic band, so they pop back in to be popped again as many times as you want. It sounds silly, but trust us, these things are highly addictive. They are also a great way to keep your fingers busy during boring meetings and your mood positive - because no one can frown when their edamame smiles.

10th Prize: The Annoy-a-tron 2.0

Now that they've mostly recovered from the twisted mind maze that was the original Annoy-a-tron, send them on a new journey of "self discovery" with version 2.0 Now featuring 6 sound choices plus volume control, it's at least twice as fun (and annoying) as the original. For effective deployment, we humbly suggest the following sound and volume combinations, but you can conduct your own field research for more insight.

15kHz (Mosquito tone** - young folks can hear it, older folks cannot!) (full volume)
Cricket chirping (medium/low volume)
IM Doorbell (low volume)
Grating Electronic noise (full volume)
Typical Electronic Beep (medium volume)

The cricket sound is interesting because someone will instinctively look near the ground when trying to locate a cricket. So, placing the Annoy-a-tron several feet or more above the ground will help to obscure its location. The 15kHz sound is also interesting because this frequency range of sound cannot be heard by everyone. In older adults or those with deteriorated hearing (a condition known as presbycusis) this high frequency sound will not be audible, while others will clearly hear the sound and find it quite annoying. They also might think they are going crazy when people nearby report that they don't hear anything.

Assuming you have done your part in selecting a suitable hiding location for the Annoy-a-tron, it will do its part to drive your co-workers slowly mad with its short and seemingly random beeps. And when someone does locate the Annoy-a-tron, they're really not going to know what it is - which is almost as much fun as watching them search for it. Muahaha.

The Annoy-a-tron 2.0 takes one CR2450 battery (included) and measures approximately: 2.5" x 1.5" x .35". It will run for over 4 weeks on a single battery.

** - The 'Mosquito Tone' is a frequency that young people can hear but older folks cannot. Sometimes younger folks cannot hear it and sometimes older folks can hear it, but, in general, it's called the 'Teen Buzz' tone. When you can hear it, trust us, it's annoying. Dogs agree.

11th Prize: Cubicaller Cubicle Doorbell

Tired of co-workers barging into your cube without invitation? Do you jump whenever a cubemate materializes silently behind you and taps your shoulder? Install a cubicle doorbell so visitors can civilly announce their arrival. Choose from 3 volume levels and 12 sounds, from "ding dong" to "aroooga" to "quack quack." Includes adhesive squares.

12th Prize: Mario Kart Wiimote Projector Light

If you had a tiny keychain that looked like a itty bitty Wiimote what would you expect it to do? How about project images of Mario Kart characters on the wall? You're in luck because that's exactly what the Mario Kart Wiimote Projector Light does. Simply push the tiny "1" button on the Wiimote and an internal LED projects one of 6 different Mario Kart characters. Collect all six versions.

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in December 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:09:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in December 2008 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of December 2008 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Chris Hammond with 66,200 Points points won a Handpresso Portable Espresso Maker

1st Prize Winner:Chris Williams with 66,000 Points points won a LED Binary Watch

2nd Prize Winner:Antonio Chagoury with 49,600 Points points won a Micro R/C 4-Channel Flying Saucer

3rd Prize Winner:Laurent Duveau with 35,500 Points points won a Tetris Wall decal. Fun Kit 7 Colours

4th Prize Winner:Mike Brown with 33,000 Points points won a Puzzle Cube Alarm Clock

5th Prize Winner: Dave Campbell with 26,000 Points points won a Rocket Alarm Clock

6th Prize Winner:Pietro Libro with 24,975 Points points won a Star Trek Tribbles

7th Prize Winner:Carey Payette with 23,000 Points points won a USB Owl

8th Prize Winner:Joseph Guadagno with 21,200 Points points won a Star Trek Retro Action Figures

9th Prize Winner:Will Strohl with 20,500 Points points won a Stickman Action Figure

10th Prize Winner:Tim Heuer with 19,500 Points points won a Fruit Powered Clock

11th Prize Winner:Sandeep Aparajit with 18,800 Points points won a Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom

12th Prize Winner:Colin Eberhardt with 16,575 Points points won a Wasabi Gumballs

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Community Credit Prizes for December 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:51:00 GMT

Note: As always, our prize list can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"Check it out to see past prizes and contest winners.

The items below show the prizes that you can win at Community-Credit this month(December 2008 ). You can have a chance at earning one of these prizes by contributing to the development community this month. Simply log your contributions (points awarded for over 100 types of contributions) and the geeks with the most points at the end of December 2008 Contest will win one of the prizes shown below. You can also see the past winners and prizes on our Stupid Prize Page.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

Onto this Month's Prizes...
Grand Prize: Video EyeWear

Basically these space age shades are your very own take anywhere 50 inch movie screen. Weighing in at just 68g, ezVision Video specs plug into your iPod Video or any portable video/movie/DVD player and screens your movies in such a way that it seems as though you're looking at a huge screen. They allow you to zone out from the world around you and get right into the movie, slide show, or whatever. There are retractable headphones that are built into the arms of the specs, so you can truly plug-in and zone-out. Watch movies in bed without disturbing your better half, chill out on the train in front of a top film, or plug in in-flight and free yourself from those horrible little seat-back screens.

1st Prize: Star Wars Darth Vader USB Hub

Embrace the dark side every day with this animated Darth Vader USB hub.

His eyes light up red as he moves his head from side to side and performs his trademark heavy breathing. Push button activation or select random intervals throughout the day. Plug a peripheral in and Vader activates to the sound of a light saber.

2nd Prize: Personal Soundtrack Shirt

The Personal Soundtrack Shirt is an amazing new wearable audio solution that features a working speaker embedded into the front of the shirt. When you push the appropriate button on the pocketable remote you get music or sound effects appropriate for any situation... everything from drum roll, to cat call whistle, to western showdown. Check out the chart below to see the extensive list of built in sounds and suggestions on using them for dramatic punctuation in your everyday life.

Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt In Action

3rd Prize: Lego Calendar

Supplied in three blocks displaying day, month and year which can, thanks to their Lego brick type design be assembled at will, each yellow, white and red block measures in at 80mm square with the click over display being changeable with a simple depression of each of the blocks.

4th Prize: Puzzle Calendar

Your desktop calendar. Look at it. All plain and vanilla-boring. Blue squares on white paper, perhaps scribbled with dentist appointments or Mom's birthday. Maybe there's a cute calico-kitten-photo above that says "Hang in there!" It's enough to make you want to rethink your very existence.

Lucky for you, the calendar you use to keep track of days of the week and major events is made from puzzle tiles. Not only does the Puzzle Calendar keep your brain wrapped around your busy schedule, but it keeps your fidgety fingers occupied - it's got the added bonus of letting you play with puzzle tiles while on the job.

5th Prize: Despair, Inc. 2009 Custom Calendar

Each calendar is a work of staggering depression and includes twelve Demotivators and chock filled with a plethora of depressing dates. We've meticulously combed through the annals of important techie dates and presents them to you in this one-of-a-kind 200 calendar from Despair, Inc.

Some sample dates of import:

August 4th, 1997 - Skynet goes online. After starting a nuclear war, sends Terminators into the past.
May 22nd, 1973 - Ethernet invented. Thus begins the ascendancy of the geek.
September 19th - Talk like a pirate day.
March 10th, 2000 - The Dot Com Bubble bursts. ROFLCOPTER.
July 9th, 1982 - Theatrical release of TRON. Always remember arcade culture. Always.
July 5th, 1687 - Newton's Principia is published. Math classes now more difficult with the introduction of this new fangled calculus stuff.
November 16th, 1952 - Shigeru Miyamoto's birthday. As a baby, he enjoys collecting coins.
October 4th, 2004 - SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. Flying car still not invented.
June 20th - It's International Take Your Dog To Work Day. Mailmen rejoice.
April 4th, 1984 - Winston Smith begins his diary.
April 23rd - International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day -
And dozens and dozens more!

6th Prize: USB Powered Cow Slippers

With this USB Heating Slippers, you don't need to worry your feet getting chilled anymore when you are working in front of the computer. Just plug it into the USB port to heat it up. Moreover, you can unplug the USB cable if you want to walk away from your PC. Its separated USB cable design allows you to wear it freely.

7th Prize: The Plug Mug

If your fed up with your co-workers pinching your favourite coffee mug, then you need one of these fun Plug Mug’s. This fun mug has a hole in the side, and a matching plug that fits the hole, pull the plug out and no one can use the mug as the liquid will pour out this side.

8th Prize: The Star Trek Cookbook

Is there one food that humans, Klingons, Bajorans, and Vulcans would like? If so, what would it taste like? How would you prepare it? Could you find all the ingredients locally?

This is the task that faces Neelix, chef for the U.S.S. Voyager™, every time he takes on the challenge of trying to feed its crew of 140 food critics. But over the course of their journey, Neelix's learned a few tricks of the trade. He had to, just as a matter of self-preservation.

Ethan Phillips, in the persona of Neelix, and William J. Birnes, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Day After Roswell, throw wide the vaults of interstellar haute cuisine, revealing for the first time the secret preparation techniques behind all those exotic dishes and drinks. The favorite foods of characters from every Star Trek series and movie are here, all adapted for easy use in twentieth-century kitchens. The Star Trek Cookbook also features a complete guide for whipping up the all the drinks served at Quark's.

Fun, and easy to use, the Star Trek Cookbook is your indispensable guide to the food of the stars!

9th Prize: The Mario and Duck Hunt NES Cartridge Clock

Made with an original Nintendo Mario/Duck Hunt Cartridge, this clock is sure to be the coolest clock in the cubicle farm.. This upcycled clock stands 5 1/4 inches high by 4 1/2 wide and has a quartz motor and brass hands. Stand on it's own or use velcro on back to mount on a cubicle wall.

10th Prize: The Encyclopedia Shatnerica

Actor, singer, director, novelist, horseman, game-show host, spoken-word performer, legendary Hollywood lothario - is there anything William Shatner can’t do? Beam aboard the starship Irreverent you get taken on a guided tour of the Emmy-winning entertainment icon’s universe. And it's a universe more twisted than a Tholian Web and more dense than the Mutara Nebula.

Inside you’ll find more than fifty years of major film, TV, and stage appearances (from Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone to Star Trek, T. J. Hooker, and Boston Legal); Shatner’s many musical misadventures, including his legendary covers of Rocket Man and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; scandalous allegations and scathing anecdotes from Star Trek costars; plus more girdle, divorce, and toupee trivia than you can shake a phaser at! Fully updated for the first time in ten years, with all-new material on Denny Crane, Nerine Kidd, Iron Chef USA, and more! The Encyclopedia Shatnerica remains the definitive biography of an entertainment icon.

Author: Robert Schnakenberg		Publisher: Quick Books
ISBN: 978-1-59474-230-9		Pages: 288
Covertype: Paperback		Year: 2008
Edition: 1st		Genre: Reference - Shatner

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11th Prize: Nano-Tech Japanese Aqua Drop Game

You've no doubt heard about how nano materials are going to revolutionize our existence on earth... but frankly we've seen none of the microscopic robots and superconductive microprocessors we were promised. Fortunately Bandai Japan has stepped in to reveal that the real purpose of nano materials is to become our frivolous playthings as we continue our journey to master the universe. Bandai's amazing Aqua Drop game features an internal nano surface that causes water to hyper-bead using "Adesso WR", a nano-tech agent invented and patented by Nikka Kagaku Co., Ltd. Japan.

Simply insert some water into the top of the Aqua Drop using the included dropper. Instantly the water turns into tiny beads that race across the surface in an unnaturally fast manner as you tilt the Aqua Drop from side to side. With the reduced friction the natural surface tension of the water takes over to create some unusual liquid dynamics. The challenge is to collect the water into all of the dimples in the board... easier said than done of course.

12th Prize: USB Moody Light 4-Port Hub

USB Moody Light 4-Port Hub allows you to connect 4 different USB devices at the same time. Lights soothe mood, the changing light gives you sensation of relaxation. It brings harmony to your workplace and calms your mind

13th Prize: Super Mario Cufflinks

You can choose to have a matching pair of red or green Mario Mushroom cufflinks or go for a combo pair with one green and one red.

14th Prize: USB Revolving Hub

USB 180° Revolving 4-Port Hub II allows you to connect 4 different USB devices at the same time. In addition, the colourful design helps to decorate your desk.

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Top Contenders as of January 17th, 2009

DavidSilverlight — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:07:00 GMT

There are alot of new folks competing this month. It is an MVP month as well, so this would be a good month for folks that received their MVPs to contribute since the MVP award is a high value category. At the current time, the top submitters are running pretty close. Steven Andrews, speaker extraordinaire is currently holding the top slot. It is not a tremendous surprise that he has the top slot, since he recently announced that he has the ambitious/insane goal of giving 52 presentations this year. Steve is raising the bar pretty hight this year with his goal to give 52 presentations this year. Is it achiveable, to the mere mortal no.... but to Steve, pretty likely since he did give 48 presentations last year. But Steve has done more than give presentations this month. You will find a good mix of blogs and articles submitted as well.

Right behind Steve is Tamir Khason, who has secured the 2nd slot (for the time being ) by creating some very interesting articles and examples explaining how to build an FM radio with RDS support and with a very cool WPF Client. If you look at Tamir's blog and his background, you can see that he does quite a bit with WPF and is definitely a code junkie. He has also added a few other articles and examples where he uses his FM Radio to demonstrate some useful XAML Time Savers. I can see a nice potential collaboration between Tamir and Jay Smith of UserGroupRadio.com.

There are alot of other new faces this month and this post is what will be a regular blog topic on Community Credit, to give folks more of a play by play so you can keep up with how everybody is doing throughout the month and to see what your fellow geeks are up to in the community.

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in November 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:49:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in November 2008 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of November 2008 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Stephanie Grima with 95,500 Points points won a The Robotic Junkyard Dog

1st Prize Winner:David Betz with 73,200 Points points won a The Tantrum Throwing Alarm Clock.

2nd Prize Winner:Brandy Favilla with 64,950 Points points won a Pac-Man Hoodie

3rd Prize Winner:Pete O'Hanlon with 62,675 Points points won a USB 8GB Flash Drive Lighter

4th Prize Winner:Szymon Kobalczyk with 60,550 Points points won a Electronic Drum Kit Shirt

5th Prize Winner:Stacy Vicknair with 44,050 Points points won a Pointer Kite

6th Prize Winner:Brad Jones with 41,725 Points points won a Donkey Kong Jenga

7th Prize Winner:Don Burnett with 36,000 Points points won a Family Guy Monopoly

8th Prize Winner:Massimiliano Urioni with 34,000 Points points won a Pac-Man Magnet Set

9th Prize Winner:Michael Paladino with 31,500 Points points won a Slave Leia Poster

10th Prize Winner:Joydip Kanjilal with 30,000 Points points won a Power Klingon

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Community Credit Prizes for November 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:27:00 GMT

Note: As always, our prize list can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"Check it out to see past prizes and contest winners.

The items below show the prizes that you can win at Community-Credit this month(November 2008 ). You can have a chance at earning one of these prizes by contributing to the development community this month. Simply log your contributions (points awarded for over 100 types of contributions) and the geeks with the most points at the end of November 2008 Contest will win one of the prizes shown below. You can also see the past winners and prizes on our Stupid Prize Page.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

Onto this Month's Prizes...
Grand Prize: Handpresso Portable Espresso Maker

The Handpresso Wild portable espresso machine is capable of generating 16 bar of pressure with a handpump. Put some hot water in the reservoir, place an E.S.E. Espresso pod in the chamber and release the switch. The pressure chamber forces the hot water through the coffee, creating a perfect little demitasse of rich black goodness. Our own coffee snobs here at ThinkGeek World Domination HQ rated the espresso "excellent," and "spectacular."

1st Prize: LED Binary Watch

This watch displays time in binary format. It uses LED lights to display the time. Need we say more? Okay, we will. The watch face contains 10 red LEDs that are used to indicate the numbers of the binary sequence (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) and the values of the lighted LEDs are added to determine the time. There are two rows of LEDs - the top row for the hours and the bottom row for the minutes. With a little practice you can learn to read this time format easily. Won't it be fun the next time someone asks you "what time is it?" and you can enjoy their bewildered expression when you flash your wrist emblazoned with glowing binary? Yes it will, you quietly smirk to yourself.

2nd Prize: Micro R/C 4-Channel Flying Saucer

If you're looking for the smallest most sophisticated R/C flying vehicle around then your wait is over. The Micro R/C 4-Channel Flying Saucer incorporates amazing technology in a package not much larger than your outstretched palm. With 4-propellers you'd assume the Micro Flying Saucer would be hard to keep balanced in the air, however this problem is solved by the built in solid-state accelerometer. Similar to the technology in the iPhone and Nintendo Wii contoller, the accelerometer senses tilt on two axes and adjusts the power of each propeller to keep the Flying Saucer rock solid in the sky.

The built in automatic trim means no trim dials or buttons to adjust. Simply power-cycle the remote before your flight and the Flying Saucer auto trims itself using the accelerometer as a reference. Complete 4-channel control allows you to move directly forward, reverse, left or right. Plus you can rotate in place, and move up and down. It's everything you would expect from a mini Terminator style drone except for the weaponry.

3rd Prize: Tetris Wall decal. Fun Kit 7 Colours

Ok Ok, we ALL played Tetris at one point or another, I know.
I played for the kickin' Tunes though.......

This vinyl wall decal set is created with 7 colours.
Sorry, but they're already made up, and cannot be changed!
Orange, Green, Flouro Green, Yellow, Red, Blue, Purple,
Each square is 2" Square, and there will be a variety the actual numbers you get of each colour. Just like Real Tetris! Don't worry, you'll get two of each. You may be waiting for the "4 in a row" for a while......Just kidding.

These decals are cut with high quality vinyl! Removable, and non permanent. {Old paint may come off with decals. Heat them up with a blow dryer to ease removal}

4th Prize: Puzzle Cube Alarm Clock

The 80's saw many trends come and go - our favorite, of course, was legwarmers, but coming in a close second were those colorful cubic twisty puzzles that boggled our minds. Remember solving them with a screwdriver? Yeah, we did that, too. We won't tell if you don't.

Eventually, though, we figured out how to solve the thing properly. Before too long, we got fast at it - fast enough to compete professionally! There's even one monkey that can glance at each side for a few seconds, close his eyes, and solve it in less than a minute. He's a genius, but he's also memorized the phonebook. Up to "G." Kinda scary.

Since we live the cube, it's time to BE the cube. Our desktops will show our love for the venerable puzzle from the days of Duran Duran. The LCD display of this unique clock shows the time, sure, but give the top-row a twist, and you can switch the display between the Alarm, Calendar, and even the Temperature settings! There were lots of great things about the 80's, certainly. We're just taking those great ideas and updating them for the new millennium. Now, if we can just bring back the piano necktie...

5th Prize: Rocket Alarm Clock

Blast off every morning with our Rocket Alarm Clock! Just set the digital alarm, and as "launch time" approaches, you'll hear a countdown begin. If you're not awake to disarm the launch procedure, the Rocket Alarm Clock's launches its missile, beeping until you return it to the clock's base. It's a space-age wake-up call! Features a Snooze function and backlight. Imported. Wipe clean.

6th Prize: Star Trek Tribbles

In the 23rd century, an enterprising trader named Cyrano Jones procured an interesting and adorable little creature. These tiny furry beasties had a calming effect on the nervous systems of humanoids - well most humanoids, anyway. They were called tribbles.

These tribbles, when they're not busy being cute and purring, were prodigious breeders. As one country-doctor once quipped, "Well, the nearest thing that I can figure is that they're born pregnant - which appears to be quite a time-saver!" In fact, their ability to multiply is so incredible, they can fill an entire cargo hold in three days - that's one million, seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty one tribbles... assuming one tribble with an average litter of ten producing a new generation every twelve hours. That's some impressive breeding, right there. It would make any man want to high-five any tribble, except tribbles don't have arms.

These tribbles, however, are genetically altered to be sterile. In fact, ThinkGeek will guarantee that, should our tribbles somehow begin to multiply, we will dispatch someone to remove the infestation from your starship or space-station - even if it takes seventeen-point-nine years.

7th Prize: USB Owl

We often wish we had a wise owl perching on our monitors and able to dole out sage workplace advice when needed. Handy tips like "Joe is making double your salary with the same job description as you"... or "only one donut left in the kitchen" would certainly be helpful. However, this USB Robot Owl does nothing of the sort.

Imported from Japan the USB Robot Owl blinks his eyes and turns his head from side to side in a quizzical manner... almost to say "I'm damn cute and I know it". Plug him into any handy USB port and he can perch on top of your laptop with the included clip, or set him on top of his comfortable stump. Push the button on the back to choose from three owlish moods; Active, Mellow, or Sleeping.

8th Prize: Star Trek Retro Action Figures

Ah, the 70s. So many things happened which affected Geekdom forever. Perhaps the most important thing to happen was the introduction and proliferation of Mego action figures. There were tons of cool figures to choose from, but the Star Trek figs held a special place in our hearts. And now the great folks at Diamond Select have made wonderful reproductions for a whole new generation of Mego fans.

In the 70s, things weren't politically correct - so Klingons were bad and that was that (and they don't like to talk about the lack of a wrinkly head, so don't ask). Both Kirk and the Klingon come with real cloth costumes, multiple points of articulation, and weapons (in UFP blue or Klingon orange). They are so much fun we can't stop playing with them. Get them now, before they are gone for another generation.

Oh, and there was one other major geeky thing that happened in the 70s: Star Wars. Ironically, Mego chose not to take the Star Wars license, and that led to Mego's eventual downfall

9th Prize: Stickman Action Figure

The Stickman action figure has a bajillion points of articulation, so he can get into any pose. And each leg and arm ends in a hole that can connect to one more ball jointed peg on the action base - which means you can balance him on one hand or one leg. Snap in the warning sign backdrop, and you create any sign you can imagine. Warn folks that the breakroom is an authorized "Handstand Zone" or that the leaking water cooler is a "Swimming Zone." With the Stickman Action Figure, your office can always be the official "Party Zone" - just add some sticky note confetti to the backdrop!

10th Prize: Fruit Powered Clock

Did you ever do a grade school science experiment harnessing the power of the common potato? Well, this clock will bring back fond fruity memories of No. 2 pencils, slamming lockers and whoever your 7th grade lab partner might have been. This fruit-powered digital clock and calendar combines micro-electronic technology with the natural electrical potential of a fresh fruit or veggie. The ultimate in clean and renewable power sources! A new spin on power juicing! Imported.

11th Prize: Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom

Deep in the basement of an ancient house in Sonobe (tucked in the fields of Kyoto, Japan), an amazing discovery has been made: real 1up Mushrooms. We know this sounds unbelievable, and we laughed when we were contacted by an exporter about them two months ago. But then we were sent a sample, and that's when our lives changed forever.

The instructions are pretty simple. All you do is add potting soil to the green sewer-pipe-shaped flower pot, and push the spores deep into it. Soak the soil with water using the dropper, add a squirt of the food solution, and then it's off to a dark location for a few weeks. We left ours in the darkest corner of our server room, and broke out our NES to relive some classic Mario memories. Three weeks later, we checked in on it. To our surprise, what you see in the photo above is what greeted us - a perfect 1up mushroom. Thrilled, we jumped up in the air, punched the ceiling tiles (earning 10 coins), and instantly bought the entire stock of them to offer to you, our friends.

12th Prize: Wasabi Gumballs

Like a ninja, wasabi sneaks up on you. With ninjas, one moment you are partying down and the next moment you are dead in fifteen different ways. With wasabi, one moment you’re innocently enjoying some nigiri, the next moment you’re squinting, wincing and reaching for the sake. And then next, next moment you are wincing even more as you realize your "good friends" put wasabi in your sake too. Stupid friends. But there is a safer way to enjoy wasabi - these new Wasabi Gumballs!

With these Wasabi Gumballs you don’t have to go out for sushi to experience that intense explosion of pleasure/pain. Each tin contains twenty-two wasabi flavored gumballs and has amusing sushi chef graphics. And you can tell these gumballs are wasabi-rific by the chef's anger and raised cleaver. Because nothing says "please share in the pleasure of my gumballs" like a raised cleaver. Wasabi!

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The INETA Community Champion Award

DavidSilverlight — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:05:00 GMT

INETA Rewards those Active in the User Group Community

An XBox or MSDN Subscription to the 10 Most Active Contributors in the User Group Community each quarter.

How? By doing what you are doing already, you stand to win:

a) Valuable Prizes: An MSDN Subscription. And, if you already have one, you can choose an XBox instead.

XBox	MSDN Professional Subscription

b) The Fame and Prestige of having an award to hang on your wall that shows that INETA recognizes your contributions to the User Group Community.

c) Official Recognition on the INETA Website for one year.

All of your peers will be able to see that you stand out above the crowd. If the opportunity presents itself for you to show your dedication to the User Group Community in a public way, there is no better way than to show off your name highlighted on the website of a highly respected organization like INETA.

d) A Badge for your website showing that you are a Community Champion.

When folks visit your website, blog or any other place where you publicly post your work, they will see that you are a Community Champion.

Oooohhhh. Recognition by INETA? Valuable Prizes? An award to hang on my wall? A Badge? How can I participate?

Well, I am glad that you asked.

INETA has long been known for it's support of User Groups and this year, there are a number of great new programs supporting the User Group Community. The Community Champs program is one of them. INETA wants to recognize individuals who are demonstrating their involvement in the User Group community. The program is aimed at rewarding those that are the most active with the prizes and award mentioned above. It is INETA's way of recognizing the ones that really bring the community together. So, in short, if you are the kind of person who helps to run user group meetings, codecamps, or helps out in any number of other ways, you should let INETA know the kind of activities that you are involved in. If you are very active, you may be recognized by INETA in a very public and spectacular way for the activities that you currently do to help the user group community.

INETA and Community-Credit are making it happen.

Community Credit has been helping to recognize fellow developers for the past number of years for their accomplishments and INETA has been the mainstay of User Groups for many years, so it is no surprise that the two would be working together to make this great program possible. Best of all, the contributions that you record will also count toward Community Credit prizes, so you may even have a chance to be rewarded with a Geeky, Community Credit prize as an added bonus.

How do I submit my contributions?

Visit the INETA website and go to the Champions section, sign in and let INETA know what you are doing by recording your contributions. The current quarterly period counts for contributions during period of June 30th, 2007 to June 30th, 2008. The final submissions can be made until July 14th. Keep in mind that the end of this current quarter is coming up pretty soon, so if you have been very active over the last year, be sure to enter them soon so that you don't miss this great opportunity.

What are the benefits of participating?

If you are an individual who is always contributing to the User Group Community, you do it because you like it. You don't do it because you expect to be rewarded. At the same time, if you just happen to be rewarded and recognized then that makes it that much better. Imagine playing on an XBox that you received as a thanks for all of your hard work. It makes the games just a little bit more fun. Using your MSDN subscription that you "earned" makes the tools just a little bit better and seeing the award hanging on your wall is a reminder to you and your colleagues just how committed you are.

Can anybody participate?

Unfortunately, the current period (being our first) is for participants in North America only.

Feedback

If you have any thought, comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact the INETA Community Champions Team

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The INETA Community Excellence Award

DavidSilverlight — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:49:00 GMT

In addition to the INETA Community Champion award, another really exciting new program that INETA has launched this year is the Community Excellence Award.

The INETA Community Excellence Award is given to individuals for their extraordinary efforts and prolonged contributions to the developer community at both the local and national levels. Through their commitment and passion, these people have made profound impacts that will be sustained for years. In honor of their accomplishments, the Community Excellence Award is a one-time award of recognition that will last a lifetime.

There are many great leaders in our midst, so we are counting on the developer community to nominate the people who you believe most deserve this recognition. The INETA Champs Selection committee will then select the recipients from the most compelling nominations.

The first Community Champions Recipients have been announced and you can see them on the Community Excellence section of the INETA website. If you know of somebody who has spent year after year contributing to the User Group Community, please take a moment to nominate them so that they have an opportunity to be recognized for their dedication and work.

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Community Credit Prizes for June 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:09:00 GMT

Note: As always, our prize list can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"Check it out to see past prizes and contest winners.

The items below show the prizes that you can win at Community-Credit this month(June 2008 ). You can have a chance at earning one of these prizes by contributing to the development community this month. Simply log your contributions (points awarded for over 100 types of contributions) and the geeks with the most points at the end of June 2008 Contest will win one of the prizes shown below. You can also see the past winners and prizes on our Stupid Prize Page.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

Onto this Month's Prizes...
Grand Prize: Video EyeWear

Basically these space age shades are your very own take anywhere 50 inch movie screen. Weighing in at just 68g, ezVision Video specs plug into your iPod Video or any portable video/movie/DVD player and screens your movies in such a way that it seems as though you're looking at a huge screen. They allow you to zone out from the world around you and get right into the movie, slide show, or whatever. There are retractable headphones that are built into the arms of the specs, so you can truly plug-in and zone-out. Watch movies in bed without disturbing your better half, chill out on the train in front of a top film, or plug in in-flight and free yourself from those horrible little seat-back screens.

1st Prize: Mario Kart Race Set

It's a race to the finish-line with your favorite Nintendo® characters, Mario and Donkey Kong! Kart-racing action takes place on a slot car track where you dont need banana peels to spinout! Think you can handle the curves?

2nd Prize: USB Fridge

This USB Fridge is the only way to keep your drink cold while you're at your computer and it looks cool on any desktop.

You can keep your beverage chilled and stay at your computer longer.

Just minutes after plugging in the USB Fridge the cold plater chills to the perfect temperature for helping keep your beverage cool.

Takes 5 minutes to bring the fridge down to 8°C (47°F).

Blue LED lighting effects.

Easy installation, no driver required, plug & play.

Compatible with all platforms.

Dimensions: 19.5 x 9 x 8cm

3rd Prize: USB R/C Mini Car w/Garage

Every morning you do the same thing. You get up, brush your teeth (hopefully), get dressed, and drive to work. You sit looking at the same cars and the same tired faces also participating in the great morning commute. You get to work and sit at your desk, a new day of the same old sh...stuff. Wouldn't you just love, for once, to drive during the week and not hit traffic? Well, now you can - right on your own desk - with the USB R/C Mini Car w/Garage.

Just plug the garage into your USB port, load up the software, and give the car about 10 minutes to charge (inside its garage). Once it's done, open the garage door and drive the car out using your keyboard's arrow keys. And if that pesky coffee mug gets in the way again, hit the space bar to honk your horn. But really, there isn't any traffic on your desk, so you should enjoy a wonderfully relaxing drive. Take a right at the coffee mug, then a left at the stapler, and cruise on to Funsville (population: you).

4th Prize: Engine-gear Clock

This fascinating clock will keep you captivated, entertained and on-time. Glass face reveals the intricate moving gears and pays homage to the intricate beauty of the clock’s mechanism. Elegant and stately timepiece stands on desk or mounts on wall.

5th Prize: TIX Led Clock

Patterns can be found everywhere in life. In our DNA, in cloud formations, during a chess game, in your code, in your deviant behaviors, and even in your bottle of Bawls. Patterns give us clues. Clues give us information. Information makes the world a happier place (not necessarily a safer happier place though). In the case of the Tix clock, the patterns can give you the time.

Millions of patterns are possible with the futuristic-looking Tix clock, yet the clock is extremely simple to read once you grasp the basic concept. The four seperate fields act like the four digits of a digital clock. The value of each digit is simply the number of illuminated squares in each field. So any given time of the day may have thousands of different ways of displaying the time. The clocks in the image are displaying the time 12:34. It's that easy! Of course your friends are just going to take a look at your Tix clock and think it's just modern LED art. Dullards...

Please note that the image to your left shows the clock static. However, you can set your Tix clock to update every second so that you end up with a constantly evolving change of patterns that reveals to you the time.

6th Prize: Office Space Milton Bobblehead

Rumpled, disgusted and filled with cataclysmic rage, Milton is anchored to reality by his red Swingline stapler. Even as Milton is indirectly fired from his job, his office possessions ransacked, his office cubicle downgraded to the storage basement, Milton hangs on to his precarious sanity---until Lumbergh decides to take the coveted Swingline too.

Milton complains and mutters incoherently, incubating inside his narrow office cubicle while he clings relentlessly to his stapler, having no idea that he’s been fired because no one will broach the actual subject. The taking of the Swingline officially pushes Milton beyond the brink. Milton returns to start a fire, jabbing Lumbergh at the empty core exactly where it hurts by destroying a massive swath of the Initech building

7th Prize: Inflatable Alien

Was it coincidence there was a reported UFO sighting the same night we inflated this green alien? Start your own alien invasion!

8th Prize: Dragon's Lair Mordoc

Back in the day, Dragon's Lair was a true breakthrough. If you grew up with this game, you will appreciate seeing a part of this game coming to life in real world format.

9th Prize: USB Thinklight

Do you put in a lot of effort in the office, but feel that your time and hard work is going unnoticed? What you need is some sort of insignia to help others recognise all the hours you're putting in. The USB Thinklight helps you get noticed and provides a bit of fun along the way! Once you have installed the supplied software, just plug in the USB cable attached to the Thinklight and type as fast as you can! The faster you type, the brighter the light gets! Have this little device sat next to your computer and there is no doubt that in a dark, drab office you will stand out and shine like a bright spark!

10th Prize: Anti Sleep Driving Alarm

It's a pretty typical situation. You've been gaming for sixteen hours and downed plenty of Bawls and Foosh Energy Mints, but the inevitable has begun to happen - you're starting to get the dreaded drowsy head tilt. Maybe this means it's time to quit your session and get some rest. We think not. The better answer is to put on the Anti Sleep Driving Alarm and keep on going.

A device designed for long distance truck drivers or professional drivers who run the risk of falling asleep behind the wheel, the Anti Sleep Driving Alarm rests comfortably behind your ear. If your head tilts forward more than 30 degrees a high-pitched alarm will sound and bring you back to reality. Great for gamers, students, security guards, late-night coders, secret underground bunker employees, convenience store nightshift, pilots, etc.

11th Prize: Mooning Alien

Intergalactic mischief maker proves pranks are universally funny.

11th Prize: Face Bank that Eat Coins

Save Your Money with this "Creepy but Cute" Bank. With an Object-sensitive Censor in the eyes, once you reach your hand to feed it a coin, it opens the mouth. This Robotic Piggy Bank Eats Money and Gives you Nightmares.

12th Prize: ScreenSmasher

The ScreenSmasher: the perfect gift for anyone who spends too much time with a computer.

True Story. A man walked into a bar with a laptop, told everyone to cover their ears, and then shot it four times. He hung the laptop's remains on the wall like a hunting trophy.

Millions of people suffer from Computer Rage, the intense frustration of being tormented by soulless machines. Who hasn't fantasized about smashing their computer?

The ScreenSmasher™ is the cure for Computer Rage. When your PC makes you want to strangle someone, whack it! It really feels like you're smashing it to bits, complete with realistic graphics and glass-shattering sound effects.

Wouldn't you love to whack your computer right now?

13th Prize: Mini Rubber Band Artillery

Here in the US we get the shaft when it comes to capsule toys. Gum balls, stickers, temporary tattoos... nothing good. However, amazingly in Japan instead of one of those gummy hands on a string you can get an itty bitty rubber band gun. Now you can stage a tiny stinging ambush with miniscule rubber band guns. Hand assemble each one from eight separate parts. If you buy more than one gun you can link them all together to form a whole battalion of guns. Just turn one of the cranks on the bottom and they all fire together. There are six varieties in all, each with a different flywheel. Luckily rubber bands are included.

14th Prize: USB Desk Assortment and Gift Set

Hey folks, grab this gift set at a great price now! It's like a tentacled USB desktop thingy, without all that dangerous tentacle baggage. Use the light to see in the dark. Use the warmer to keep that java fresh, use the lighted cup to stick stuff in and use the mini vacuum to pick up those crumbs from your flavor saver. But whatever you do, don't press the button. Really, we mean it. Don't.

15th Prize: Dilbert Board Game

Combat your boredom when you and up to five friends play this Dilbert board game toiling in a office of evil HR directors, accounting trolls, canine consultants, and a boss who resembles the devil. So much fun, why bother with work?

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in June 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:06:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in June 2008 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of June 2008 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner: Dave Campbell with 83,200 Points points won a USB Podcast Kit

1st Prize Winner:Don Burnett with 46,900 Points points won a Green Laser Pointer II

2nd Prize Winner:Martin Hinshelwood with 41,000 Points points won a The Hypnotic Jellyfish Aquarium

3rd Prize Winner:Christopher Steen with 37,800 Points points won a USB Finger Dance Mat

4th Prize Winner:Jeeva Paramasivan with 27,725 Points points won a Marshmallow Assault Rifle

5th Prize Winner:Antonio Chagoury with 27,212 Points points won a USB Speed Typing Mouse

6th Prize Winner:Vivek Thangaswamy with 23,800 Points points won a USB Warming Mouse Pad

7th Prize Winner:Joseph Guadagno with 20,000 Points points won a Palm-Z Mini Indoor R/C Airplane

8th Prize Winner:Colin Mackay with 19,500 Points points won a USB Whack A Mole

9th Prize Winner:Tim Heuer with 18,000 Points points won a Computer Bug Zapper

10th Prize Winner:stan naspinski with 17,932 Points points won a Wacky Pack Sheets

11th Prize Winner:Shawn Weisfeld with 17,000 Points points won a USB Stress Panic Button

12th Prize Winner:Rob Foster with 16,500 Points points won a USB Security KeyThe Cubicle Doorbell

13th Prize Winner:Michael Eaton with 16,500 Points points won a USB Fragrance Oil Drive

14th Prize Winner:Brian Scarbeau with 16,000 Points points won a Star Trek™ Collectible Watch

15th Prize Winner:Marco Minerva with 15,250 Points points won a Desktop Water Dispenser

16th Prize Winner:Nick McKenna with 15,000 Points points won a Beat It Up! Computer Stress Toy

17th Prize Winner:Michael Paladino with 14,900 Points points won a Acrobots

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Community Credit Prizes for May 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:04:00 GMT

Note: As always, our prize list can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"Check it out to see past prizes and contest winners.

The items below show the prizes that you can win at Community-Credit this month(May 2008 ). You can have a chance at earning one of these prizes by contributing to the development community this month. Simply log your contributions (points awarded for over 100 types of contributions) and the geeks with the most points at the end of May 2008 Contest will win one of the prizes shown below. You can also see the past winners and prizes on our Stupid Prize Page.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

Onto this Month's Prizes...
Grand Prize: USB Podcast Kit

This prize was brought back by popular demand. It's an indisputable fact that our own lives, thoughts and insights are considerably more important and fascinating that anyone else's. Thanks to the internet, we can now enlighten the world with our wit and wisdom by producing our very own Podcasts. At last someone has put together the ultimate Podcasting kit that comes with everything you need to broadcast professional and fascinating (well that bit's up to you) podcasts to the planet.

1st Prize: Green Laser Pointer II

This pointer is significantly brighter (about 50 times) than a red laser pointer and because of its unusual color it is much more noticeable. I mean come on, a 532 nm green laser wavelength is obviously superior to a laughable 650 nm red laser wavelength. And unlike a red laser, the green beam itself can be seen in mid-air in dark conditions, not just the laser beam dot. This allows the green laser pointer to be used for pointing to star constellations (skypointing) and also just generally look cool as hell. The green laser beam dot can be seen at much greater distances than with a red laser pointer.

2nd Prize: The Hypnotic Jellyfish Aquarium

The Hypnotic Jellyfish Aquarium features three artificial jellyfishes that move in the water amid seaweed and coral reefs, and the LED backlighting highlights their movements. Each “jellyfish” has a silent, integrated motor which generates gentle currents, causing it to rise and fall in the water.

3rd Prize: USB Finger Dance Mat

If your chubby fingers make it hard to dial phone numbers, don't resort to buying one of those phones with over-sized buttons they make for the elderly. Instead, trim those sausages down with a little finger exercise! At first glance, this USB-powered mini 'Dance Dance' game appears to be some glorified, real-time version of Simon, with mini-lights and sounds that would only make old-school Mattel handhelds jealous. Of course, that's before you knuckle-up to the female cardboard cut-out and settle into a DDR-groove sure to burn tens of calories.

4th Prize: Marshmallow Assault Rifle

First, you'll notice two different barrels. The bottom barrel shoots mini marshmallows and should be used for cover and strafing fire. It is your main weapon - learn to love it. The magazine holds up to 12 mini marshmallows and is very easy to reload quickly. The top barrel will hold one regular sized marshmallow at a time. It is your grenade launcher, and you'll know when you need it. With the Marshmallow Assault Rifle, a lotta luck, and some good soldiering you might just survive to fight another day. Oh, and if you get hungry out there in the field, you can just eat your extra ammo.

5th Prize: USB Speed Typing Mouse

If you have your own private office, you might find yourself getting a bit lonely from time to time. This cute little pedaling mouse will keep you company and let you challenge your typing ability!

This cute little hairy-chested mouse plugs into any USB port on your computer! The faster you type, the faster he pedals! Keep note of the number on the LCD display and set yourself challenges!

6th Prize: USB Warming Mouse Pad

Planning and doing some coding on one of those cold nights? Some times typing quickly doesn't quite do the trick. But you are in luck. This Warming MousePad is part mousepad, part hand warmer. It has a warmer pad inside. Once you plug it in the USB port, your hands will get warm. Great for those who live in cold places.

7th Prize: Palm-Z Mini Indoor R/C Airplane

The Palm-Z Mini Indoor R/C Airplane has a wingspan of only 8" and weighs less than 10 grams. But don't let the tiny size deceive you, this beauty is a fully functional indoor flyer with digital proportional speed control. The dual-wing design gives the Palm-Z plenty of lift, so it can fly slowly as it glides across your living room. Dock it with the remote to charge for about 10 minutes and you'll get 5 minutes of flying time to circle your dining room chandelier and bewilder your pets. As with any new R/C nugget you'll need a bit of practice to fly like a pro and having a larger sized room to fly in wouldn't hurt.

See it in action here:

8th Prize: USB Whack A Mole

Everyone remembers the classic arcade game 'Whack a Mole', where you bash the head of some poor creature as it emerges from it's hole. Now you can play for free at the comfort of your own desk with this USB Whack It game.

9th Prize: Computer Bug Zapper

Computer Bug Zapper does blink and buzz at your command whenever a software bug is detected and destroyed. For your stress level, that may be just enough to get you through the day. And, if you're a programmer .... well, then it's your job to convince everyone around you that it works!

Place one on your monitor today to attract those nasty Computer Bugs. It won't help, but it's fun!

10th Prize: Wacky Pack Sheets

If you're old enough, you may remember Wacky Packs. Issued in the late 1970's, Wacky Packs were very funny stickers featuring sick and weird twists on famous products.

11th Prize: USB Stress Panic Button

It is a system that works via USB and when you press the button there is a count down clock and a screensaver that take over your monitor. There are 3 different screensavers that can be used depending on the situation: A-Bomb, Working Diligently, and The Boss.

See it in action:

12th Prize: USB Security KeyThe Cubicle Doorbell

So, how does someone "knock" on your cubicle? Well, one way would be to use The Cubicle Doorbell - a small device that provides a more civilized way for visitors to announce their arrival at your cubicle entrance.

13th Prize: USB Fragrance Oil Drive

Need a little relaxation break during work? The employee lounge is for suckers. Simply dim your monitor brightness, spin up a Kenny G disc and insert this aromatherapy device into a free USB port. You can choose between rose, peppermint, jasmine and lavendar -- three to five drops of which will take you through the day. Your coworkers will thank you with wedgies!

Features & Specification:

Diffuse fragrance oil with your computer

Drop fragrance oil in the cross-shaped hole

3 to 5 drops are enough for operating all day long

Mini size for a discrete use

14th Prize: Star Trek™ Collectible Watch

Be the envy of fellow "Trekkies" when you wear this one-of-a-kind STAR TREK™ Musical Watch that plays the original STAR TREK™ theme song at the touch of a button!

15th Prize: Desktop Water Dispenser

Our desktop Water Cooler-style water dispenser serves up 64 ounces of water or other liquid, all without needing to leave your chair! Place it on your desktop or end table and start burning fewer calories right away.

16th Prize: Beat It Up! Computer Stress Toy

This soft, desktop substitute for the real thing is a great stress ball for every desktop. Go ahead, beat it up! Does your computer ever drive you to point of insanity? What about anyone you know? When it crashes right when you want to get something simple done and it turns into hours of troubleshooting. Don't beat up your real computer, beat up the Beat it Up Computer! At only about 6" square, it won't clutter up your desk.

17th Prize: Acrobots

Articulated, stackable and very artistic, Acrobots feature crystal clear round heads, magnets in their hands and feet, flexible joints and the ability to contort into hundreds of shapes. Pose them gracefully and stick 'em on metallic stuff. Great to fidget with.

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Community Credit Winners Recognized in May 2008

DavidSilverlight — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:01:00 GMT

Let's see who was recognized with geeky gifts in May 2008 ...
Note: As always, our prize list with all of the past winners can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"

The folks listed below have truly exceeded in their contributions to the development community and have been rewarded with some really geeky prizes. How did they win? They simply went above and beyond in their contributions to the development community and logged their contributions here and the geeks with the most points at the end of May 2008 Contest won one of the prizes shown below.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

And now, onto the winners
Grand Prize Winner:Dan Rigsby with 98,450 Points points won a 4-GB Halo 3 Master Chief USB Drive

1st Prize Winner:Andy Leonard with 80,500 Points points won a Palmsize Battle Tanks

2nd Prize Winner:chetan akarte with 53,500 Points points won a Space Warp Desktop

3rd Prize Winner:Dhaval Faria with 47,125 Points points won a Tengu

4th Prize Winner:Mickey Gousset with 47,000 Points points won a GX-10 Interactive Gaming Cam

5th Prize Winner:Brad Jones with 46,800 Points points won a Mr. Burns USB Webcam

6th Prize Winner:Andy James with 45,500 Points points won a Broken Image Necklace

7th Prize Winner: John Alexander with 44,500 Points points won a Mini Business Card File Cabinet

8th Prize Winner: with 43,500 Points points won a Phantom Keystroker

9th Prize Winner: with 42,425 Points points won a Plush Mario Sound Bops

10th Prize Winner:Antonio Chagoury with 38,000 Points points won a Star Trek Classic Communicator

11th Prize Winner:Sandeep Aparajit with 34,725 Points points won a Super Mario DX Vinyl & Fabric Figure

12th Prize Winner:stan naspinski with 33,000 Points points won a RTFM Mug

13th Prize Winner:Andrew Karcher with 31,500 Points points won a Dissolvo Spy Paper - Water Soluble Security Paper

14th Prize Winner: Doug Butscher with 31,000 Points points won a Inanimate Character Stickers

15th Prize Winner:Lou Vega with 28,150 Points points won a Extreme Office Crafts

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New Debugging Technique - User Comments about why my site isn't working

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:28:00 GMT

In the past few days, I have been struggling with a rather strange error. For some, and only some people, they would get an error showing "Critical error: SiteURLs.config" and they could not access the site. Now, not being a Community Server expert, I had a hard time explaining this. It would seem to me that this type of error should show up everywhere or not at all. However, since it would show up for some folks and not others, I was running out of explanations and techniques to fix it. This morning, in a really great blog post by Dan Rigsby, who just happened to be the grand prize winner this month (Congrat's Dan), somebody left a comment saying that deleting cookies would solved the problem. Lo and behold, it did. This is the first time that I actually solved a bug based on blog feedback. I will have to add this to my list of debugging techniques. It is a good thing that Dan has such an active readership. A quick shout out to a few folks.

Dan Rigsby - Thanks for the great blog post. It was very nicely written and appreciated.

Aaron Lerch - Good job pointing out the cookies issue. You are obviously a lot wiser than I.

The image below shows off what has been my nemesis for the past few days...

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A really bad bug, A really stupid bug, An easy fix with some crazy attempts

DavidSilverlight — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:52:00 GMT

I just fixed what has apparently ( and sadly) been a longstanding bug in Community Credit having to do with logging in. In a nutshell, if you enter your username and password when logging in and hit enter, you will see the profile of Karl Shifflett. Sounds pretty crazy, eh? Don't get me wrong, Karl is a highly accomplished individual and I am happy to show off his profile to anybody who asks. Heck, I even nominated him for an MVP which he was just awarded, in fact. However, you shouldn't really see his profile as a result of trying to login. Although this bug is rather simple, it is pretty bad from a perception standpoint. It makes the site appear to be badly broken, IMHO. Since I am in the habit of clicking on the login button, it is something that I never encountered.

After chatting with Chris Williams, last night, he mentioned that if he types in his UserName and hits enter, he sees Karl's Profile. I tried it and sure enough I was able to reproduce it. At this point, I said to myself, the bad news is that this bug exists, but the good news is that I can reproduce it very easily.

What could cause such strange behavior you may be wondering? I know I was. Believe it or not, it had to do with the fact that if you hit enter when logging in, it doesn't trigger the Submit Button on the login control, but rather the Enter key must bubble up to the next active element, which in this case was the first Profile display icon. As a result, you see the profile of the first person in the list.

So, how to solve it (or not to solve it)... Well, start by looking at this discussion thread (57 replies). If you haven't clawed your eyes out yet, keep reading. These are some pretty convoluded attempts which I am sure may have worked, but I just couldn't bring myself to do them. Although I did convert the login control to a template, going through some of the other steps just felt so wrong....so did the javascript solution and a few others that I read.

The Solution?
The solution was on the page, though, and was the post by Benazir Mandli which was essentially to set the default button on the form to the login button. Simple as that. Problem solved.

Page.Form.DefaultButton = btnSubmit.UniqueID;

It is nice to have such a bad bug fixed.

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Community Credit Prizes for April 2008

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:53:00 GMT

Note: As always, our prize list can be found on our "Stupid Prizes Page"Check it out to see past prizes and contest winners.

The items below show the prizes that you can win at Community-Credit this month(April 2008 ). You can have a chance at earning one of these prizes by contributing to the development community this month. Simply log your contributions (points awarded for over 100 types of contributions) and the geeks with the most points at the end of April 2008 Contest will win one of the prizes shown below. You can also see the past winners and prizes on our Stupid Prize Page.

But first... a word from our Sponsor: StupidCubicle.com
This month we are happy to have a brand new sponsor. It is our sister site, StupidCubicle.com . The site only has a few products right now, but they are cool products. Be sure to give them some love. Drop us an email and let us know what you think.

Onto this Month's Prizes...
Grand Prize: 4-GB Halo 3 Master Chief USB Drive

In celebration of the ultimate shooter, Halo 3, our Grand Prize this month is the 4GB Halo mimobot® Series 1 Designer USB Flash Drives! Not only will you have the most badass USB Drive around, but it arrives preloaded with tons of Halo content, including the mimobot soundByte™ application, artwork, excerpts from the upcoming Halo novel, and a special episode of "This Spartan Life."

Note: If you are not a Halo 3 fan, you can select a different MimoBot design here They have some truly amazing designs.

1st Prize: Palmsize Battle Tanks

Office disputes can be handled in a most diplomatic manner. As standard procedure, the offending parties are teleported to the surface of Vulcan where they duel to the death to resolve their differences. However due to the high employee turnover rate we have revised the policy to declare a victor based on Palmzsize Battle Tank warfare. These detailed diminutive r/c tanks feature authentic tank sounds and IR based "laser tag" action with realistic recoil. A hit momentarily disables your opponent. Get enough hits and take control of your enemy's tank. Each set contains two-tanks, but buy an extra set and up to four tanks can battle at once to solve those more complicated office disagreements

2nd Prize: Space Warp Desktop

You know those desk-based toys of yore where five balls hang from strings and clink back and forth in different patterns? Well slap that old desk gadget in a Delorean at 88 Mph and you'll get the futuristic Space Warp Desktop. Imported from Japan, this mesmerizing desk toy features either chromed ball bearings or glowing orbs perpetually rotating on a clear track. Flip a switch on the back to choose which type of balls you prefer, while the ones you don't want are automatically sorted and stored in the base. The glowing balls are powered by a built in UV light in the base which charges them up, causing them to glow as they roll down the track only to be charged up again at the end of the run. It's Japanese efficiency at its finest served up for your desk-based enjoyment.

3rd Prize: Tengu

There is a philosophy in Japan with regards to electronics that a new bit of gadgetry doesn't exactly have to be practical to be useful. One only has to look at their total embrace of household robotics to see the truth of it. Their approach to gadgetry is to develop the product first, then create the need for it.

For example - here we have a cute little white plastic brick with a face made of LEDs. The tiny microphone in the base picks up sounds in the room, whether it's music, or your loudmouth boss, and makes his mouth move in time. It's like he's lip synching to the song! Kinda like Britney, only much much smaller, and probably smells better.

He's USB powered, so plug him in to any powered USB port, set him near your favorite sound-source, and your little buddy will perform for you all day long!

4th Prize: GX-10 Interactive Gaming Cam

Web cameras have revolutionized the way people communicate. Board meetings can be held across the planet, parents can monitor their kids in school, you can even monitor your jerk neighbor as he sneaks into your yard and steals your tomatoes. Webcams extend your vision by huge distances, but did you know that webcams can actually inject you into your videogames?

No, it's not quite as sinister as it was in Tron. There's no Master-Control-Program to force you to play. No Sark demanding you join with the MCP or die in the games. Still, these games can be so addictive and fun, you may never want to leave the world of the games!

Three games, Kung Fu, Super Knight, and Funny Stair will have you fending off Ninja attackers, running jumping and avoiding falling deadly spikes, and shooting down rocket-powered mutants by swinging your arms up down, left and right. The camera and the sophisticated software included, interprets your movement, and makes your on-screen doppelganger fire devastating lasers or issuing the virtual smackdown to flying martial assassins.

5th Prize: Mr. Burns USB Webcam

Charles Montgomery Burns, the owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, believes in productivity. "A well oiled machine", he is often found saying, "is made up of one part human resources, two parts quality equipment, and three parts soul-crushing surveillance." He is known to have his long skinny fingers in every pie in Springfield and the surrounding boroughs.

"A good worker", he elaborates, "is a monitored worker. Also non-unionized mind-controlled automatons do a fine job." So, until he perfects his R&D's department's work in cybernetically enhanced capuchin helper-monkeys, he'll have to settle for keeping a close eye on his employees.

"Those nincompoops think I'm giving them a nifty doo-dad that lets them communicate with acquaintances over the Internet-o-phone," he says conspiratorially, "but really I'm watching their every move." His finger, then, wavers precariously over a button marked, "Hounds."

A high-quality webcam shaped like Monty Burns at his desk includes a large clip that allows it to be attached to your flat-panel monitor or laptop screen.

6th Prize: Broken Image Necklace

Green circles, red triangles, and blue squares. No, these are not the the latest polygons in the Lucky Charms lineup. They're your friendly "broken image" icon component parts, er, well, maybe not yours. Depending on your browser, YBIIMV (Your Broken Image Icon May Vary).

Hang the broken image symbol around your neck, and voila. Your necklace has failed to load. It's a freaking clever idea we couldn't resist. The necklace is on a 17" leather cord closed with a sterling silver clasp. The pendant itself is lightweight, made from non-toxic shrink plastic (with a protective coating) and measures about 1 inch square. These are handmade by the artist in California, so expect some slight variation which betrays they were not made by a robot. At least, not so far as we know, but we didn't do a Turing test on her

7th Prize: Mini Business Card File Cabinet

You've collected hundreds of business cards since that last conference. Now, they're scattered between stacks on your desk, stuffed into files, mixed into papers, and wrinkling in your back pocket. That's hardly the way to maintain a proper business relationship.

This little file cabinet looks like a shrunken version of the real thing, but holds up to eight hundred business cards. Two drawers pull out, letting you shuffle through your entire collection. We've even included lettered-tabs to help keep everything organized.

8th Prize: Phantom Keystroker

In a new era of sophisticated office pranks sure to drive your co-workers bonkers while you snicker silently at your desk, the next advanced level in stealthy office joke electronics is ready for your enjoyment. The Phantom Keystroker may look like a harmless circuit board, but it's actually a devious contraption of unlimited office-based torture. Simply discreetly attach the Phantom Keystroker to any extra USB port on your victim's computer, no drivers needed. The Keystroker emulates a keyboard and mouse and periodically makes random mouse movements and types out odd garbage text and phrases. A simple jumper setting allows you to choose between either keyboard garbage typing, annoying mouse movements or both. An adjustment pot sets the duration between "events". We recommend you don't set it too frequently so as to extend the agony. Your hapless co-worker pal will think his computer has been possessed or infected by a destructive virus. As he writhes in anger and furiously dials tech support you can rest easy with a job well done

9th Prize: Plush Mario Sound Bops

Think about re-configuring your office like a Super Mario Brothers Level. Desks become platforms, leftover donuts become mushrooms and the office dogs get really really confused. With these Plush Mario Sound Bops peppering the course when we squint our eyes we can almost envision being in a real video game. Hit the plush Brick Block on the bottom and you get a coin sound from the game. Jump on the plush Goomba (or simply bop him on the head) and he makes the defeated Goomba sound... unless you bop him one too many and you get the "game over" noise.

10th Prize: Star Trek Classic Communicator

Captain Kirk is known for many things; one thing is being prepared for anything. Whenever Captain Kirk left the Enterprise, there were always three things he made sure he was equipped with. His Phaser, a tear-away shirt, and his Communicator. The Phaser we already sell. The shirt you'll have to make yourself. And the Communicator . . . has finally arrived.

Now you too can talk to the Enterprise no matter where you are. Just flip up the grill, and you'll be greeted with the lights and sounds you've come to know and love. But not content with mere beeps, the UFP has packed this replica with voice clips from the actual series. Delight as you hear Mr. Spock ask you if you want an armed party beamed down and thrill as you call the Enterprise and hear Bridge here, Captain. So equip yourself with the Communicator that futuristically prognosticated the invention of the cell phone, and get ready for a communication . . . from the stars.

11th Prize: Super Mario DX Vinyl & Fabric Figure

Mario loves to party. Some evidence of this is the game Super Mario Party (and all its many sequels). He loves the new friends he meets, he loves showing off his dance moves. But more than everything else, Mario loves showing off his new clothes... especially while reclining on your desk. The Super Mario DX Vinyl & Fabric Figure has a detailed vinyl head hands and feet, while his body and clothing are made from plush fabric. We recommend you keep him next to your mouse to ward off any marauding goombas out to kidnap your princess.

12th Prize: RTFM Mug

This is a Very Fine Mug, you might even call it a VFM. And if you can understand/relate to the following paragraph, then just perhaps this VFM is for you.

"AFAIK, I'm a BOFH for continually bashing you with a clue-by-four. OTOH, if you would just RTFM every once in a while, my life would suck *much* less."

10 ounce black mug with bold white "RTFM" design on front.

13th Prize: Dissolvo Spy Paper - Water Soluble Security Paper

Dissolvo® is an extraordinary paper that, when placed in or flushed with water or steam completely dissolves, along with anything printed or written on it. Dissolvo looks, feels and tears like ordinary paper. You can write on it, photocopy onto it, coat, emboss, and print on it - just like any paper. Our Dissolvo paper provides top security for classified or confidential documents.

Developed and used extensively by government agencies, this special water sensitive Spy Paper makes the need for shredders virtually obsolete. Dissolvo is nontoxic, biodegradable and 100% recyclable.

14th Prize: Inanimate Character Stickers

We do it every day, though mostly without thinking about it - we get angry at the stapler that mangled our presentation, or the phone when it can't get a signal. We say we "love this coffee mug," and sometimes we even imagine a face on the clock on the wall. It's called anthropomorphizing, and it's where we imbue human characteristics to inanimate objects.

But are they really inanimate? Certain mythologies suggest that the more we use and include these objects in our daily lives, the more connected they become with our lives, thoughts and feelings. They are pleased when we use them, and are sad when they're discarded. Think back to that stuffed monkey doll you had when you were a kid. You threw him away one day, and there he sits - vacuously staring at rotting garbage in a landfill for all eternity. Not very nice at all!

So some of these objects can be construed as to have a personality. Why not make it official? Stick a couple of googly eyes, and a goofy grin on a coffee mug, and hey-presto! Your happy smilin' coffee-buddy is happy to let you drink from his skull! That letter-scale looks a little like Domokun, doesn't he? I think that tape dispenser has something evil on his mind… Hmm…

15th Prize: Extreme Office Crafts

There’s a good reason Dilbert and The Office are so popular: today’s most popular sport is mocking life on the job. After all, the average work environment is filled with undesirable people, unpleasant situations, and hours of clock-watching boredom. So what’s a person to do but get this subversively funny gift book? It’s a sanity-salvaging guide for someone on the fast track to burnout. Waiting for the copy machine? Stuck in a claustrophobic cubicle? Then pillage the supply closet, and make the most of a bad situation by creating projects that range from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Relieve cubicle hell with sticky note mosaics or a privacy “curtain” made from key rings and ID tags. Deem yourself Employee of the Month, and craft a glittering crown embellished with colored paper clips and highlighters. Help pass the afternoon with a game of “Boss Phrase Bingo.” From beauty pickups (a correction fluid manicure) to novel ways to get even with an evil co-worker, Extreme Office Crafts is full of fabulous activities that could be considered brilliant exercises of whimsy (or grounds for termination). Tongue-in-cheek, on-location office photography will have readers lol-ing . . . out loud.

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