One of the coolest fringe benefits related to my work is all the
bright and shiny tech gadgets that magically appear on my desk each
week. These items include prototypes, test units, promotional
giveaways, advertiser freebies, and review units. Some are on loan
for a specified period and must be returned to the manufacturer,
but most come with no strings attached and can be kept forever. For
a gadget junkie like me, this is the equivalent of Christmas coming
several times a month, with Santa disguised as a FedEx driver.
A handful of these products find a permanent place in my front
pocket, my briefcase, or my geocaching backpack. Some are passed
along to coworkers, interns, or friends. Most, however, wind up
stashed in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet, known around the
office as "Chance's Tech Graveyard."
I've decided to lighten my load by releasing some of these
gadgets into the wild. If you see something you like, help
yourself. Don't worry about the the traditional "leave something of
equal value" mantra, but if you have an unused [insert name of
last year's hot item], pass it along. Someone else can probably
make good use of it.
Here's a list of the initial contents of the cache:
You may need to provide your own batteries, memory cards,
earbuds, or cables, but it's all standard stuff that you probably
have laying around. Dig around in the links I've provided to
uncover drivers and user manual PDFs.
You'll be looking for a camouflaged Lock-n-Lock. While hiding
the cache I noticed some transient activity nearby; it doesn't
appear to be recent, but just in case please take the time to cover
the container well in hopes of keeping it as muggle-resistant as
possible. Enjoy!