Hot Products for a Cool Home Office

Get a load of these six geek-tested gizmos that make my PC work a breeze.

Contributing Editor Steve Bass is the author of PC Annoyances, published by O'Reilly (ISBN: 0-596-00593-8). Contact him at homeoffice@pcworld.com.

The native habitat of the species Geekasaurus horribilus: Note the haphazard distribution of the species's electronic gadgets.

Why is my home office cooler than yours? Mine's got six super products that make going to work pure joy (well, most mornings). Don't believe me? Click the image to view my office, taken by yours truly. (And no, I haven't cleaned up the place; the mess you see is authentic Bass.)

The first thing you'll notice (after the crime-scene tape) is that at only 10 by 10 feet, my office is small. With two or more PCs running, it would soon heat up to sauna-like conditions, even in the winter. What saves me is APC's NetworkAir Portable air conditioner. This sweetie cools down my office (and me) in 5 minutes. It costs about $800 (street), and at 12 by 16 by 30 inches, it's not small. But it's on coasters, so I can roll it out of the way when I don't need it.

Home-office helpers (clockwise from top): Maxtor OneTouch, Kingston PCMCIA 4-in-1 Adapter, Pocketec DataStor, Rayovac recharger.

As you gaze around my office, try to count the number of battery-hungry items. In one quick glance, I register at least a dozen. Instead of buying old-fashioned, nonrechargeable batteries, I use Rayovac's 15-Minute Rechargeable System. For roughly $20, the gizmo charges two rechargeable AA or AAA batteries in a quarter hour (the $30 model handles four batteries at a time). The batteries are said to last up to 1000 charges, and they cost about $9 a pair, so not only are rechargeables environmentally friendly, they're bottom-line cheaper than buying throwaways.

Take a look under my desk, near my PC and assorted dust balls, and you'll find something you need if you're feeling clueless about backups yet suspect it's something you ought to do (often and early). Maxtor's $180 (street) OneTouch is an external 120GB drive that runs at a fast 7200 rpm, connects via USB 2.0, and includes the backup software I've used for years--Dantz Retrospect. The OneTouch is also great for offsite backups: When I'm on the road, the backup comes with me.

Right next to my backup box is another nifty external drive: the Pocketec DataStor, a 20GB device that's small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. It looks like a thin handheld, measuring about 3 by 5 by 0.5 inches. The DataStor costs about $160 and includes its own cables. Because it's a USB 2.0 device, it doesn't need drivers on Windows XP systems. I use mine to share photo and video files with friends and family.

Next, check out my notebook computer, down there on the floor. It has a Kingston PCMCIA 4-in-1 Adapter--the perfect gizmo for connecting my notebook and digital camera--and a puny 8MB memory card. I just pop the memory card into the $25 adapter, download the images from my camera to the notebook, and I'm oh, so very ready to take more pictures. The PC Card adapter reads five varieties of memory devices, including Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, SD (Secure Digital), and SmartMedia.

Now step across the dogs and over to the bookcase to see Epson's double-duty Stylus Photo 900; it prints photos and also "label-prints" directly onto special CD-R and DVD-R discs, so there's no paper and glue to peel off the disc and gum up your player. The Photo 900 is reasonably priced at about $170 (street), and its high-resolution photos look great. The 4- and 8-inch rolls of photo paper are easy to use. The downside? The special CDs the printer requires are roughly 50 cents more expensive than regular discs, and its DVDs cost about $4 more.

And if you're shocked by my untidy office, just be grateful I didn't post any pictures of the garage.