Mother's Day Tech Book Sale at O'Reilly

O'Reilly media is celebrating Mother's Day by offering a 40% discount on tech books.  Whether she's a CS geek looking for the latest book on Linux, or would love to have an effective manual for using her brain, there is something for every geeky mom.

Get your 40% off discount code.

Circuit Board Cake

Ryan Nelson got a cool circuit board-inspired cake for his 40th birthday (click link or image to see full cake design). Ryan and his wife are a wonderfully geeky couple - their wedding cake topper was Han Solo and Princess Leia.

(Via Craftzine.com blog)

Dead Tech Corset

Gallery Serpentine's Dead Tech Corset is sexy geeky chic. This model was worn by computer scientist Ellen Spertus when she won the 2001 Sexiest Geek Alive contest, so it has serious geek cred.

You can also get an Edwardian style corset printed with the same design.

Capacitor Folk Art by Obvious Front

OBVIoUS FRoNT takes our discarded computers, radios, televisions and other gadgets and refashions the bits and pieces into jewelry and art. You can find all kinds of fun creations at the Obvious Front shop at Etsy, including earrings, charms and colorful critters.

Image: "Dot Lipped Quartet" charms

The colored dots that sometime appear on a robot's lips are all natural. I like matching them up in pairs for a special look, as most of a robot's personality is in their lips.

This group consists of four Dot-Lipped charms, each one about 1.5" (4cm) tall. They're all built with cleaned electronic components salvaged from discarded TVs and VCRs using lead-free solder.

Each piece is individually bagged with a suction cup for hanging by your computer (helps prevent crashing). A 7mm jump-ring is included for use as a necklace from your chain (turns heads in the IT department). You'll also get four gift cards, making these robots great little surprises for you favorite computer geeks.

Gifts for Your Favorite Maker

If you have a a girl geek on your holiday shopping list who likes to make things from wires and solder and chemicals, you should definitely check out the Maker Shed. Some of their coolest offerings:

• EX-150 Electronic Experimental Kit
• Genetics & DNA Kit
• Mechamo Crab Kit (pictured)
• The Best of Instructables, Volume I. 
• Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments
• Measure for Measure Pocket Reference

Or if you can't decide, just give her a MakerSHED gift certificate!

Shirley Geek Robot Tee

If you like your geeky t-shirts to be glossy and stylish, the Shirley Geek robot tee adorned with rhinestones and beads might be for you. Shown is the longer length short sleeve women's tee in black for a not-so-cheap £48.

The Hungry Scientist's Handbook

The Hungry Scientist Handbook is a new book for geeky foodies. It's full of kitchen biochemistry and crafty housewares with the techie in mind. 

Featuring twenty projects ranging from edible origami to glowing lollipops, cryogenic martinis to Tupperware boom boxes, the book draws from the expertise of programmers, professors, and garden-variety geeks and offers something to delight DIYers of all skill levels.

It looks like a lot of fun. You can find out more at the Hungry Scientist web site.

(via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, where some of the projects were originally posted.)

Circuitboard Coasters

FractalSpin sells a set of six circuitboard coasters. They are enthusiastic about the design too:

These are really cool--you get six neat-looking circuitboard coasters that come packaged in a metal tin with a circuitboard top. Each coaster has a ring of clear vinyl material around the edge to protect your furniture from scratches. It's a nice touch.

The tin is also cool--if you were so inclinded you could just stack the coasters neatly on an endtable and use the tin to store small interesting bits, like case screws, Dremel drill-bits, processors, USB adapters, soldering iron tips, ball bearings, Linux case stickers, or whatever.

Perfect for cocktails with your favorite robots.

Women of Valor T-Shirt

I'd guess most graduate students are familiar with Jorge Cham's web comic Piled Higher and Deeper (aka PhD), which is about "life (or the lack thereof) in academia." Now you can purchase a t-shirt featuring geeky engineering student Cecilia from PhD's online store.

Geek Pop 08

Null Hypothesis ("The Journal of Unlikely Science") has compiled a great set of science-themed songs from "brilliant unsigned bands" as the Geek Pop 08 music festival. The song list:

• The Amateur Transplants - Anaesthetist's Hymn
• Jonny Berliner - Dark Matter
• Let's Tea Party - Reptiles
• Down with Gender - The Robot Island
• Tales from the Birdbath - The Scientist
• Logan Wright - Zero
• Photomixers - Hotel Mauna Kea
• Professor Science - Sweet Home Apparatus
• Emily Schulman - Dinosaur Extinction

My favorite is Tale from the Birdbath's  "The Scientist". From the lyrics:

Pocket protector and microscope
Protective eyewear and labcoat
The lab is silent at 1AM
She's worked a long night once again

And if that's not enough, here's a massive list of what they call "Sci-Pop".

St. Patrick's Day: Irish Heritage and Geek Pride

St. Patrick's Day is the day to celebrate your Irish heritage, so why not combine that with a display of geek pride?

Irish Engineer Shamrock T-Shirt from Cafe Press

Shamrock Pi stickers by googolperplexd at Zazzle

Kiss me, I've got Irish DNA! pin or magnet by Geospiza Education at CafePress

Irish SCIENTIST T-Shirt from CafePress

Elegant Component Jewelry

Component girl's Elegant Electronica Etsy shop has some lovely jewelry made from diodes and capacitors. Pictured: Graduated Drop Fancy Necklace made from 5.6V 500mW Zener Diodes and 2mm shiny sterling beads that are connected via sterling jump rings into chains of graduated lengths.