As a thank-you for presenting at TechReady11, the conference organizers gave me (and presumably the other speakers) a portable speaker with the Windows logo printed on it. The speaker underneath the logo is the X-Mini II Capsule Speaker, and I have to agree with Steve Clayton that they pack a lot of sound in a compact size. Great for taking on trips, or even picnics. It’s been a long time since I last recommended a Christmas gift for geeks, so maybe I’ll make up for it by giving two suggestions this year. The second suggestion is a response to a comment from that old article: My bicycle lock is just a laptop combination lock that I repurposed as a bicycle lock. It’s a pretty clumsy design for a laptop lock, since it comes in two parts, one of which is easy to lose, but if you just “accidentally” lose the clip part, what’s left is a simple cable combination lock that easily tucks into a side pocket of my bicycle trunk bag. Yes, that lock isn’t going to stop a dedicated thief for very long, but fortunately, the Microsoft parking garage is not crawling with dedicated thieves because, as a rule, Microsoft tries not to hire dishonest people.

So, um, that’s a suggestion for a bicycle lock for somebody who lives in a low-crime area. Hm, maybe that’s not a very good suggestion after all.