It’s already here!  Time to start thinking about what your favorite syndicated columnist wants this holiday season.  Peace?  Goodwill?  If you can deliver them, by all means.  My guess is that you might be a few credits shy of making that one happen.

So a quick reminder how this works.  I make a list of cool, affordable awesome. (That’s right, awesome is a noun too.)  Readers race to purchase said awesome and deliver it to me. The first reader to deliver each item earns points. (The points are new for 2009! Creative, right?)  Wait a second, have you never read this before?  If not, the idea behind “My” Techlife Gift Guide are things that I want.  Self-serving?  Yes.  So let’s begin!

I loved the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.  Their newest economic’s masterpiece, Super Freakonomics (yeah I said it) arrives just in time for the “big economic season.”  How fitting! I can’t wait to read it. (First delivery = 1001 points)

Call me old school, but look who’s back. Mario. Make that New Super Mario Bros. for Wii. Think back to the side scrolling days from NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Gameboy, DS….hmm I guess these guys must have Levitt’s Freakonomics. Give the masses more of what they crave, economics 101. This newest installment has our favorite plumber able to play in 4 player mode. Let’s go rescue the Princess, together! (First Delivery = 3029 points)

Our world relies heavily on power. Laptops, games, phones are power hungry. Batteries are great, but sometimes it would be nice to use the solar power staring me in the face. I want the Brunton 26 Watt Foldable Solar Array. First off, I’m not a solar expert so I need something easy.  With more than 15 reviews and 12 5 star reviews at Amazon, it seems like a great option for keeping me powered up. And hey this one benefits the buyer too, it means more Techlife can be written and delivered. No more “my power went out” excuses. (First Delivery = 8359 points)

Finally, here’s something that each reader can get me. A Pix-Star digital picture frame with FotoConnect. Why this specific model? Because if offers the chance for each frame to be able to receive new photos without a PC! With just an internet connection, it can share photos, be addressed via email, pull up photos from Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Windows Live, Smugmug, Photobucket, Shutterfly, MobileMe, and more. It means you can update your gift to me with new photos whenever you like. How cool is that? And the kicker, no monthly fees to boot. (Each Delivery = 1304 points + bonus 293 points per photo sent)

These gifts give you a great idea of what I am looking for this holiday season. Please be generous and give your favorite writer something they can’t live without.

A good idea before a bad economy has turned into an even better idea during a horrendous economy. Freecycling. While many people use Ebay to sell items for money to anyone and other people use Craig’s List to sell (and sometimes trade or give) items somewhat locally, there is another option, Freecycle.org. Started in 2003, the non-profit organization is basically a simple way to offer items you no longer want to people who might want them, the only catch: everything is free.

Initially Freecycle was conceived as a way for people to offer items to non-profits, and non-profits to respond if they wanted them. It quickly expanded to include anyone, anywhere and now there are 85 countries and near 5000 local group made up of 7,000,000 people all following the same set of principles. Let’s fill up fewer landfills with items that other people might care to rescue.

It is recycling with a few well thought out rules. One of the biggest is letting people join any group, but keeping in mind each group is based on a small geographic area such as a town, or county.  As such groups vary in size.  The other important rule is what you can’t offer including no listing illegal items, tobacco items, alcohol, firearms, people, pornography, or medicine of any kind. Each local freecycle group is run by volunteer moderators who enforce the rules and the very specific way to offer, inquire and list items.

Most groups use a simple email list tool called Yahoo Groups to share their items and indicate items they are looking for or items that have been taken.  Techlife has been a user of YahooGroups since 1998, as a long time user who was introduced to this great service by Alan Braverman, employee #1 at YahooGroups (formerly eGroups) we asked him what he thought of Freecycle.

“Freecycle has a great mission.  It is gratifying to know something we all worked so hard on more than 10 years ago at eGroups is not just being used but growing, growing a great organization and supporting such a beneficial cause as saving the environment and helping people recycle.  Grassroots movements have always been great at adapting new technology, but with close to 5000 groups and 7,000,000 members it is clear that Freecycle.org is successfully spreading a positive message worldwide.”

How to Freecycle?

Easy! First make sure you have a Yahoo ID with an email associated to it, this lets you access any of the nearly 4800 local freecycle groups which use the Yahoo Groups email list system.  Once you have a Yahoo ID, visit freecycle.org, and sign up for an account with the other 7,000,000+ members all over the globe, of course sticking to your little area of it.  (Krakow, Poland has 231 members for example!)

To join a local group, search for your hometown and you will likely get at least one town nearby if not a few hundred.  Sign up on freecycle.org and make sure you use the same email as associated with your Yahoo ID (little known fact, you don’t need to use your Yahoo email as your main email).  Then select one or more groups, each which might have a slightly different set of rules but all following the same overarching principal.

Click “Join this Group” and away you go.  I joined quite a few groups in my area, each with a different feel.  One let me join right away, another had a lot of “we are looking for quality and people who give not just take” and yet a third let me browse the current listings before even joining.

Start listing your items and you will soon have a few people who want them.  Arrange a pickup and you are done.

Is this for real?

While your experience may vary, I was looking over items here at Techlife HQ and considering what we should recycle with the locals when emails started coming in for various items; some candles, a dsl modem and a working Palm Tungsten T.  I have a friend who still (tries) using their Palm but was complaining how it was getting pretty old and not always working.

I replied to the original poster indicating when I could get the device, drove over, picked it up and in just a few hours I had completed my first freecycle.  I plan on giving my friend this one for a backup device.  Plus it was saved from a landfill. (Thanks Marija!)  Your mileage may vary, but if all you want is a clean basement, here’s a great easy way to make that happen and keep the Earth a bit cleaner.

Freecycle.org is a Techlife must try.  It is easy.

Thanks to loyal reader Brad for sharing his experience and introducing us to Freecycle.  Please email or comment ideas for sites you find amazing.  It’s our own little way to recycle.

Before Clark Griswold loaded the car, he planned his Family Vacation using a computer.  I am sure all Techlife readers have used their computers to plan trips and book accommodations for years now.  

For our reader’s travel plans Techlife has covered sites like Travelistic, Farecast, Google’s MyMaps and RovAir which all aid the traveller.  Today there are countless websites devoted to planning a trip by air, land and sea along with various hotel accommodations.  But there is another way…vacation rentals. 

A Techlife reader shares this story with us…

We were heading from Oakland to Chicago for a week of fun this spring.  Our family has two small children and a week cooped up in the hotel would have been unbearable.  So we hopped on the computer and found salvation.

If you are looking for a bit more local flavor and unique roof over your head, combined with a chance to get a great deal in a down economy vacation rentals are a great option.   So this is just another Craigslist article, right?  C’mon give Techlife a little credit.  Check out VRBO.com, which stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner, to find over 120,000 properties all over the planet.  

In addition to a more local experience, a VRBO is perfect for the travelling family, as the typical listings are condos or  homes instead of just a hotel room.  This gives you bedrooms, a common area, and often a kitchen for equal or even less money than a single room.  For the family with small children through the extended family or friends travelling together, you get the privacy of your own room but the fun of hanging out at night and in the morning.

As one friend of Techlife is fond of saying, “vacations with little children aren’t vacations but just changes of location.”  Searching the VRBO site, has listings that include all sorts of kid friendly amenities, including homes with pools, swing sets, beaches, dvd players, and a few with use of the property’s boat!

Due to the economy we put ourselves on a tight budget, after searching around VRBO.com we realized our budget was not enough money, but we couldn’t spend anymore.  So we waited, and waited, and waited some more.  Then just a week before our trip, we put our plan into motion.

VRBO does have some drawbacks, each listing is maintained by the property owner so the occupancy calendar is not always up to date.  That alone gave me pause about some of these owners in maintaining their property.  In addition, unlike a normal travel site the search tools were a bit weaker.  I was looking to travel over the Fourth of July weekend and had to visit each property, and then click a second time to the occupancy calendar.  I would have preferred to only be shown properties that fit my criteria from the start, including date.

Price also is weak search criteria.  The site has to sell itself to the property owner and the owners clearly prefer a week rental or longer.  Some owners see the value in offering just a weekend or single night price, but again a bit of manual search is required.

There are some other things a traveller has to get used  to, dealing with countless different owners.  You can easily call or email each owner though from VRBO’s easy to use interface to book or ask a question.  The best feature of VRBO is consistency, you get used to the way the listings are laid out, photos here, description here, bullet points here, price here and can quickly assess properties.

At that late date, I sent out emails to all the best properties on the site in the Wrigleyville area of Chicago where we wanted to stay.  We explained we had this much to spend, and understood they were asking more.  We quickly got a few replies from aggressive owners who realized some rent is better than no rent.  We also lucked out, no Cubs games that week so the owners were going to be fighting for us.  What we got was….

Techlife has been using this site for some time and enjoys the adventure of finding the perfect place and that moment where you open the door and hope it really is perfect.  Of course some properties have guestbooks with comments which really helps.  Remember if your vacation rental ends up like a Griswold vacation you will always have the memories and a killer script.

An amazing place with hardwood floors, cherry cabinets, granite counter tops, stainless appliances and we actually entertained at our place one night while our kids slept.  It was truly a great vacation and the vacation rental was the best.

Dear Techlife,

I don’t have a lot of money, but my old computer is dying on me.  I think there is something wrong with the power supply or the fan thingy.  Either way, I am going to replace this 5 year old beast with a new one.  Tell me how to buy a computer with today’s choices, and I will.  I am drowning in too much information.

To many computer choices and no time,

Overwhelmed

Dear Overwhelmed,

As a writer for Techlife and the owner of an internet marketing and hosting company we are actually asked this question a few times a week.  We have got “How to buy a new computer” down to the following three simple questions, cause hey, we like things simple.

Of course we need a quick paragraph of assumptions.  You are replacing an existing machine, pretty much a given these days.  You have data you don’t want to lose. “Duh!” You would like something that will last, so you don’t have to buy again in 1 or 2 years.  Yes, the word genius is tossed around quite often, feel free to to use it again.  You are going to at a minimum surf the net and send email.    ”Of course I am.  Enough of the small talk, let’s skip to the questions already, you had me at easy.” 

Top 5 Laptops on Amazon – $675 – $1600, 13.3 – 16 inch screen size, 2 – 3 GB RAM standard and DVD Drives

Question 1 – What can you bench press?

Answer – “Are you kidding?  This is your first question?”  Give me a chance, I have a reason for this.  These days there are a few types of “new” computers for you to consider.  The standard desktop, a laptop or a netbook.  ”Yeah I know this already, the desktop is the cheapest, the laptop is the lightest and – ”  Not so fast there professor, things have changed.  Netbooks are even smaller laptops, and are often both the cheapest and the lightest.  Many also have longer battery life than a regular laptop.  ”So what’s the downside, they sound perfect?”  Well these machines are normally small which means, a smaller keyboard and a smaller screen and most don’t include a DVD player/recorder.  We typically tell people to visit an electronics store or even your local Target and Walmart to see these machines first hand.  They are also sometimes a bit less powerful than a laptop or desktop, which is probably ok if you are doing the basics; email, web surfing, paying a few bills.

Top 5 Netbooks on Amazon – $319 – $389, 8.9 – 10.1 inch screen size, 1 GB RAM standard, some with 9.5 hour batteries

Question 2 – What’s the demo?

Answer – “The demo?”  Sorry, in marketing speak the demographic.  Who is using this machine?  Business, Family with little kids, a young woman on her way to college? What will they do on the machine?  If you are a single business user who will be the only person on the machine, what do you use it for?  Presentations?  Invoicing? A family might have a dad into photography and who pays some bills, a mom who shops for the kids clothes and researches and plans her garden, a son who wants to play video games and a daughter who wants to use voice and video chat.  ”What about homework?”  I did say “want” not “need.”  Finally a college student can hopefully get by on a single machine for the life of school, which means staying in touch with home, writing papers, research, and maybe some 3D models of chemicals, people, art, or fashion depending on her major.  

Surprisingly the business user might be able to get by with a low powered netbook, if they have a lot of travel and a full size monitor, keyboard and mouse in their office.  The active family needs a bit larger hard drive with all the users and their various needs.  The college student has to consider a combination of power, speed and mobility as well as what their prospective career calls “standard.”

Question 3 – Lottery or  Stimulus?

Answer – For the high percentage of lottery winners who read Techlife we want you to know the price of a computer is just as important to those looking for a little economic stimulus love. When it comes to price each of the three types have their high and low end.  I always recommend looking at the maximum amount of RAM your machine can accept, it rarely comes with all that can be put on board.  Buying extra RAM is one of the best ways to ensure a speedy machine.  If you are looking to skimp, you can always opt for a smaller hard drive and use an external drive to store archives, which has another benefit of being a bit more secure.  

Final thoughts:  We have been suggesting people get laptops these days.  They are less power hungry then a desktop which means a slightly lower cost of ownership.  They have their own battery backup in case of a power failure while you are working on that masterpiece.  With your keyboard, monitor and mouse can act very much like a desktop and take up less space in the process.  Let us know what you think the best machine and why.

Wow that is an ugly title.  Let’s dissect it a little.  OLPC is the One Laptop Per Child non-profit organization that’s goal is to spread computing and learning with computers to children across the planet.  The XO Laptop is the small green and white, ruggedized computer that the OLPC uses to help fulfill this mission.

G1G1 v2 stands for Give One , Get One and v2 is version 2, since this is the second holiday season where OLPC is using their marketing muscle philanthropically inviting you to help, with a unique program.  Donate $399 via Amazon.com and an XO Laptop will be shipped to you and another XO Laptop will be shipped to a child in a country somewhere in the world.

Techlife has been using our XO Laptop for over a year now and the machine has been a big hit.  We have let various children bang on it and even loaned it out and the excitement was overwhelming.

The Techlife Gift Guide has brought you the Metrokane Corkscrew, the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard, the Tent Cot, Wired Magazine, a Skull Bowling Ball, Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones, a remote controlled helicopter and the Ironman DVD.

The G1G1 program is the ultimate in tech goodness.

Goodness is in the cool laptop you will get to play with and share with a child locally.  More importantly, there are countless children who with some small aid from YOU can make a difference in the world starting today.  Economic hardship in our life is one thing, like going to Starbucks once a day or dropping the movie package from your pay-tv package.

Techlife rarely asks for anything, and now we are.  Please consider this program.  Read up on the machine and learn about it.  Then help a child.  It’s what the holidays are all about. You could always give a velociraptor in the OVPC project instead.

Original Unboxing of the OLPC XO Laptop from the G1G1 Program

The Metrokane.  Techlife may only spring for the cheap stuff but it still comes with a cork, or whatever that new age cork material is these days.  Screw tops are so European.  When we saw the Metrokane Houdini in Blue it was clearly a gadget must-have.  So which reader will do us the pleasure of sending this gift our way?  Don’t be shy, we’ll even share a bottle of wine with you.

Ok, we want you to get something nice for you. Splurge! Necessity! It may look odd, but the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000, which is their way of saying funky keyboard with even funkier mouse, is something Techlife is already using.  The split keyboard with a unique angle and the baseball mouse begin to feel better and better.  Your body will thank you.

At the Techlife offices we crave unique and ingenious the Kamp Rite Tent Cot is part Tent, part Cot, and all good.  It combines a tent and cot to keep you sleeping off the ground. Easy to setup and take down this something we are drooling over.  Be sure to check out the Double Cot model too.

Dead trees? Check. No beeps? Check. Analog page technology? Check.

We still enjoy reading, on dare we say it, on paper. There we said it. I mean sure our syndicated column, Techlife is printed so maybe that’s our love for going old school with Wired Magazine. Wired’s writers are some of the best in the business and technology world. Sure you can read them online, but live the oxymoron with us. Get us a subscription.

Strike fear into the heart of your opponent as you mess with their heads.  When you pull out this skull bowling ball, you tell all comers no one is spared with your take no prisoners bowling style.  Oh yes, tonight my friends, heads will roll!

As seen in Mystery Men and most certainly not seen in Kingpin or The Big Lebowski.  We thank you in advance for this gift.

The Nintendo Wii is a big hit in our offices.  It works for the video game fan and the casual fan to sit down together and enjoy playing.  The most popular game in our office is the Lego Star Wars series.  Which means the Lego Batman series would certainly go over well.  Another option is always the man in the Fedora with Lego Indiana Jones.  If the person you are buying for has a Playstation or Xbox these great games are available for all systems.  BAM! POW! KER-SPLAT!

Look out Airwolf and Howlin’ Mad Murdoch its time to ditch the simulator. These remote control micro helicopter’s were our fun gift in 2008 to everyone. Of course we picked up one for Techlife but a few more wouldn’t hurt to have around for friends and clients.  Simple to understand but challenging to fly, RC Helicopters are certainly fun toys.

We’ll start off with a nice budget buy of $15.  One of the best movies of the summer was released on DVD and owning this movie to watch Robert Downey Jr, deliver his Stark-isms again and again is certainly something to cherish.  Iron Man and Stark’s performance are clearly something that we can watch until the sequel.

As you read this your holiday shopping list just increased by 1, me!  This holiday season don’t forget your favorite Techlife author who is always appreciative of a trinket or toy.  But just in case you are not sure what tickles the fancy, we have a few suggestions.

Because we love our readers we want to make your shopping as easy as possible, aren’t we thoughtful. (It’s the thought that counts right?)  We are going to sprinkle our wishlist with things that others might want too.  After all in the spirit of giving, this makes giving with others easier.

So fire up your browser and look for our gift guide articles.

As we manage the rising costs of business and energy I am reminded of a story, so sit back and enjoy Techlife’s tale of power.

The typical company rolls along putting out daily fires, and not giving employees the true time to make work a better experience. Most of you readers will skim over that last sentence just as easily. Let me repeat it, as it bears repeating. The typical company rolls along putting out daily fires, and not giving employees the true time to make work a better experience. Ah, you get it now? You think this is going to be another column about taking time to breathe, but you are wrong.

As we all coast along in work and life I want to share a small tale with you. Many years ago I learned of a new site, Woot, a site that sells one item a day. One day they were selling “Random Crap” (yes Woot faithful, this pre-dates Bags of Crap), so I took a gamble for $.03 and ended up with a variety of, you guessed it, “Random Crap.”

One item was an Auto Starter – Car Battery Charger. While reading up on this I learned that inside, this device was powered by AA alkaline rechargeable batteries. Hmm, interesting I thought. I could use some AA batteries, so I used a hammer carefully opened the case and found a small pot of gold.

Gleaming up at me were Pure Energy’s AA gold rechargeable alkaline batteries. And in typical story fashion our hero doesn’t really recognize the true power of his finding. I began using them and they were great, long lasting batteries. Of course, I forgot one thing. They were rechargeable and I didn’t own a charger.

Research online showed most chargers worked for various other types of rechargeable batteries, except alkaline. Then I found Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools, article about the Battery Xtender for recharging alkalines. A bit more research led me to the Rayovac Universal Battery Charger.

I still use the batteries and the charger today nearly 4 years later. The batteries are long lasting like regular alkalines and the charger works for some other non-alkaline rechargeable batteries I now own. I decided to look for a few more Pure Energy batteries and found they have updated their technology, to the new Pure Energy XL Alkaline, which have:

…longer charge retention (up to 7-year storage life), higher battery capacity (rated at 2000 mAh), and overall up to 80% more service life (up to 500 cycles) compared to the original gold line.

My company has saved hundreds of dollars on batteries. I enjoy the power and durability of an alkaline battery and the eco-friendly ability re-charge again and again. Going green is easy! A happy ending to our tale.

So how does this relate to our statement: The typical company rolls along putting out daily fires, and not giving employees the true time to make work a better experience. As a consulting firm we often see valuable ideas employees have that are just not getting the attention they deserve. Our own cost-saving approach resulted in stepping away from the “fires” and being given the freedom to think, research and act.

We encourage you this July to think about Independence Day, truly as a day to provide co-workers the chance to make a positive independent change. And if you need a little kickstart, let us know.

How have you made a difference? Tell us in the comments.