I dislike shopping, but I love finding the perfect gift.

Finding that gift, though, gets harder with time. Those damn adults seem to already have everything. That includes me.

More salt and pepper shakers? Nah. Alternate versions of the shirts I got last year? No, thank you. In the eternal quest to eliminate clutter, I now give Santa a not-to-buy list instead of a wish list.

If you’re having trouble thinking up killer (in the good sense) gifts, here are 12 goods that deliver.

All of them have either changed my life or saved my ass…

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#1 – Israeli SilentEar Ear Plugs – $17.90 for trial pack

I have tried almost every earplug and noise-canceling gadget on the market, from $1 throw-away pairs to Bose headsets. I wasn’t really satisfied until I ordered these SilentEar plugs, introduced to me by Andrew Rosca when we were traveling in Vietnam. Get the trail pack, which includes multiple sizes. It’s not fun to order the wrong size and have to re-order.

#2 – Zorba the Greek – $10.20

Zorba the Greek is one of the two most impactful books (the other is the short Letters from a Stoic) I’ve read in the last two years. It’s both Epicurean and Stoic philosophies wrapped into a laugh-out-loud story you will never forget.

#3 – Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner – $242.99

This is the only scanner I have ever liked. Like isn’t strong enough. I love this scanner and have used it to remove at least 90% of the paper from my life. No more binders and folders for records, no more stacks on tables and desks.

I’ve never had a single paper jam, and it’s small enough to throw in a backpack for travel.

#4 – YouBar Customizable Protein Bars – $15+

Forget the maltodextrin-laden candy bars masquerading as meal-replacement bars. Adding protein to a Snickers bar does not make it good for you.

Skip to YouBars and create your own from all-natural ingredients. I suggest about 12 grams of protein per bar for optimal texture. Delicious and unique to you. They will even label the bars with someone else’s name for gifts.

#5 – Kershaw Ken Onion Leek Serrated Folding Knife with Speed Safe – $36.30

I have collected knives since taking pack trips through the Teton mountain range as a teenager.

This Kershaw knife with “open-assist” (basically a side-opening switchblade) is the most all-around convenient and beautiful knife I currently own. Fixed blade knives are awesome, but the balance and utility of this Kershaw blade is outstanding.

Be sure to get it with the serrated edge.

#6 – The 4-Hour Workweek Organic Yerba Mate Set – All profits go to DonorsChoose.org – $49 (only 250 sets available)

This is an exciting one for me. Samovar Tea and I have partnered to create an Argentine yerba mate set of three mate blends!

Here’s the bonus: All profits will go to DonorsChoose.org to benefit US public school students, and when you buy the set ($49), you get a $50 gift card to DonorsChoose! For obvious reasons, this is limited to 250 sets.

Yerba mate, with it’s unique nutrient and stimulant composition, is my favorite beverage on the planet. 3-4 hours of kick-ass zen productivity with no caffeine crash. Most people have never tried organic mate, and this is your chance.

#7 – Motor Trend 11-410 Power Center Jumpstart with Compressor – $84.16

I bought this Motor Trend device after getting stranded at the airport due to a dead battery. This compact powerhouse has prevented disaster on at least half a dozen occasions. From inflating tires to jumping the car without a second car, this is the Swiss army knife of fixing car trouble. I don’t take any trips without it.

Sidenote: The reason my battery was dead the first time? GPS plugged into the adapter. Even though it was turned off, it was draining the battery while I traveled. Unplug or be prepared.

#8 – Logitech Squeezebox Boom – $275.37

The Logitech Squeezebox Boom was my introduction to Internet radio streaming at home. Though I now use Sonos for higher-end playing, Sonos costs 4-6x as much as this simple and compact device. The Boom allowed me to listen to Pandora (here is my channel) and Rhapsody, the only two places where I now find and listen to music, while jamming on whatever needed jamming.

I haven’t seen anything better for the price.

#9 – Kindle with Global Wireless – $259

I resisted the Kindle for ages, as I like to take copious notes in my books. Then I went traveling with Matt Mullenweg and Kevin Rose on two trips. Then two things happened. First, note-taking became possible (which you can export as text files), and second, I was getting scoliosis from carrying a stack of books with me while Matt and Kevin sat pretty with their slim Kindles.

So I bought one. Now I won’t go anywhere without it, though I still prefer reading paper at home, so I often get both paper and digital copies of books I like.

#10 – Aqua Sphere Kaiman Swim Goggles – $11+

Some of you might recall how I conquered my fear of swimming. I went from a maximum of two laps to almost two miles in about two months. It’s still hard to believe.

In doing so, I logged a lot of swim time–I now love swimming–and tried every goggle out there. These are the bomb and elegantly seal the eye chamber without me feeling like my eyeballs are getting sucked out of my head. In world where it is rare, these puppies are comfortable and stay in place.

#11 – Sous Vide Supreme – $449

I first saw this French-inspired water oven, designed by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, demonstrated by the world-famous Heston Blumenthal, head chef at the Fat Duck restaurant in the UK, which was voted by his peers as the best restaurant in the world in 2005. This is the first device to allow the “sous vide” method (French for “under vacuum”) of cooking at home.

I had the single best chicken and steak of my life using this machine. It is possible to evenly cook just about anything while retaining all of the juices. From main courses to desserts, Heston called it the greatest home cooking innovation of the last several decades.

#12 – Dedicated Virtual Assistant Through AskSunday – $279

AskSunday is the personal outsourcing service I’ve used most in the last two years. Speed-dial a NY 212 number and get connected to someone in India or the Philippines who speaks English well and can do just about anything. For everything from fact-checking to travel on the run, it makes life infinitely easier.

#13 – The New and Expanded 4-Hour Workweek – $14.85 (Kindle $9.99)

First, let me apologize, as I know this is my book. But there is a good reason.

The truth of the matter is that since April 2007 when this book first came out, my life has changed dramatically. It’s hard to believe how much has happened. 100s of case studies have come over the transom from 35+ countries, I’ve found gaps in the material, more families have provided tips, and this new and expanded edition adds in everything I’ve wanted to add for the last 2.5 years. It quite simply applies to more people and provides more examples.

Don’t get me wrong: the older edition still works just fine. This version is just better, and includes the best updated resources as voted on by 60,000+ people.

If you order two copies, you can get free shipping, so why not give one to your friend or dog? Dogs love the 4-Hour Workweek.

I will also do a live 2-hour Q&A on Dec. 22nd for all who order now. Take a perusal through the new edition and think up some questions!

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Happy hunting!

May you get what’s on your wish list, and give the same to your loved ones.

This pre-China trip includes the below:

- Personal experiences with Y-Combinator, demo days, and pitching new ideas through avenues like YC.

- Five things you can do as a new startup to get your ideas, app, or product in front of influencers.

- Tweaking your website: per-user metrics, cost per acquisition, lifetime value of the customer, etc..

- The iPhone 3GS, talking some about the new updates and then a short comparison with the Palm Pre.

- Learning new languages and reactivating old ones (in this case, Mandarin Chinese).

The above list is taken from Glenn McElhose’s blog, where you can also find links to all of the sites and products mentioned in the show.

(Total read time: 8 minutes)

In this post I’ll cover how I identified the best high-end chairs in the world, which I ultimately chose, and the tangible results that followed.

In January of 2005, I found myself on a veranda in Panama after the usual afternoon rain, dreaming of the upcoming year and reflecting on lessons learned since leaving the US. Maria Elena, the matriarch of the Panamanian family that had adopted me, sipped her iced tea and pointed at my bruised feet:

“Tim, let me share some advice I was once given. Buy the most comfortable bed and pair of shoes you can afford. If you’re not in one, you’ll be in the other.”

I followed her advice upon returning to CA and the results were sudden: Plantar Fasciitis disappeared, as did shoulder impingement after switching from coil-spring to foam-layered mattresses.

But what about chairs? On January 4th, 2009, I tweeted out the following:

“Is the Aeron chair worth it? http://tr.im/2uxd Do you have any fave chairs for extended sitting and writing?”

…

Even though I’m financially comfortable now, I didn’t grow up spending a lot of money, which I’m thankful for. To this day, I’ve never paid for first-class airfare for myself. Not that it isn’t worth it — I just can’t do it. Similarly, I had trouble believing a chair could possibly be worth $850-$1,200, but my back pain led me to pose the question to the omniscient Interweb.

How did others feel?

More than 95% of Aeron users replied with “yes, absolutely”, but it wasn’t the only chair with a cult-like following.

Four of the five are manufactured by Herman Miller (HM) and Humanscale (HS). Prices are from Amazon, as are the star reviews, but discounts of $200-400 can be negotiated with dealers. Both eBay and Craiglist offer similar discounts.

In descending order of popularity:

1. Aeron (Fully loaded) (HM) – $879 (1 review; average review: 5 stars)
Used at NASA mission control and tech start-ups worldwide.

2. Mirra (fully loaded) (HM) – $829 (14 reviews; average review: 4.5 stars) Note: the Herman Miller sales representatives I spoke with preferred the Mirra seat feel for shorter legs vs. the Aeron. Easier to adjust: Mirra is about 9 revolutions from loosest to tightest settings; Aeron is 40+.

3. SwingChair – $495 Recommended by a strong contingent of writers, including one of my favorite visual storytellers, Kathy Sierra.

I like the design concept, but I would suggest other forms of “core exercise”.

4. Liberty (HS) – $899 (6 reviews; average review: 3.5 stars)

5. Freedom Task Chair with Headrest (HS) – $999.99 (1 review, average: 4 stars) Used at the FBI and by other governmental agencies with three-letter acronyms.

6. Embody – $1,800 list price (negotiated with dealer: $1,200-1,300): Basis of chair design – sitting is bad; movement is good. Even in locked position, it still has some backward flex at the top position. No forward tilt option.

For personal testing, I also added a Swiss-ball chair (Isokinetics Balance Ball Chair – $75) to the mix, as seen below:

3 Key Findings

Surprisingly, the Isokinetics chair is more comfortable than most fixed chairs I tested, though there is some minor… ahem… testicular compression that isn’t nearly as pleasant as it sounds. If you don’t have jewels to worry about, this chair could well be an ideal cost-effective choice.

The chair I most wanted to test was the Mirra, which seems to have the best combination of price point (bought used or via eBay) and multiple 5-star reviews. Not to mention it’s also the name of one of the best BMXers of all time. But I digress.

In the end, I bought a used C-size (technically a bit too large for me) Aeron for $450 on Craigslist. I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait over the weekend to schedule sittings for other Herman Miller chairs with a certified dealer. Once I have some conclusive comparable data, I want closure.

Aeron sizing chart. I’m 5′ 8″ and 170 lbs., but the C works with no problem.

3 Personal Lessons:

1) The lumbar support is — by far — the primary determinant of comfort or pain. I’ve lowered this adjustment and found that maintaining the natural S-curve through pressure on the lower back is what prevents pain most consistently. Comfortable sitting time is now 7-8 hours vs. less than 2 hours, with no ill after-effects.

Sliding lumbar support on the Aeron.

2) Seat height (and secondarily, depth) will determine the rest.

If the flats of your feet don’t make complete contact with the floor, you will move your hips forward and slouch, eliminating the S-curve in the lower lumbar. If your seat is too low and your knees are above your hips, you will shorten the habitual range your hip flexors (negative neural adaptation) and end up with severe lower-back pain.

Aim to keep your hamstrings parallel to the floor, and if the seat is too long for your femur (thigh bone) — as is mildly the case with my C-size Aeron — just separate your knees a bit. If you’re not wearing a tight skirt, I’ve found a basketball of space between the knees to provide the best lateral stabilization, which reduces torso fatigue. Take off heels when sitting at a desk, lest you end up with hot calves and Quasimodo-like posture. Not good for mating. If you are wearing a tight skirt, I suggest taking up the Japanese tea ceremony and sitting on tatami side saddle. It’ll be more comfortable than crossing your legs all day.

Parallel hamstrings?! True, I’ve thought more about chairs in the last few weeks than anyone should, but I do it to save you the trouble. Benefit from my OCD so you can obsess on other things.

3) Using a 3′ long and 6″ diameter foam roller three times per day for 5 minutes can eliminate persistent middle-back pain from mediocre chair use; conversely, it can extend your comfortable sitting time by 30-40%.

A Visual Before and After

Knowledge workers often log more ass-in-seat time than sleep. Coders, in particular, are often subjected to a steady diet of Mountain Dew and hunching for 12+-hour marathons. I don’t put in these hours, but I found myself with severe mid-upper back pain from using a non-adjustable chair and craning over a desk that was too low, even for 30-60 minutes per day.

Two doctors suggested various therapies, but a quick experiment (placing a laptop on top of a dresser and writing while standing for two days) proved that posture was the problem.

In less than a week following my switch to the Aeron, all upper middle-back (lower trapezius, rhomboid major) pain disappeared completely. The results: better output during work and writing, faster and deeper sleep, and a huge smack on the forehead. Why the hell didn’t I do this earlier?

In my case, was it worth it at $450? Most definitely. Particularly looking at the value of time per hour and the lost income due to doctor visits, massage, etc., this is $450 I should have invested years ago.

Before:

After:

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Odds and Ends: Twitter Giveaway Winners

Coming soon! Patience, young Jedi. The travel bag and Fujitsu color travel scanner are gone. More giveaways coming here this week…

This video (link) was the end result…

It contains some fantastic visual effects and showcases my aversion for wires. Note: the book fondling was requested by the team, so apologies for the Groundhog Day What About Bob?-type moment.

Most of the gadgets we filmed were edited out or just a blur in a camera pan, so here are a few of the goodies that I showed at home:

Suunto Core wrist-top computer
BonJour laser culinary thermometer for cooking and mischief
Fujitsu ScanSnap travel scanner and Canon SD300 Powershot for capturing documents (I don’t use a fax machine)
Philips noise-canceling headset (the best dollar-for-value noise-canceling headset I’ve found)
Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech-recognition software (Note to Nuance: Mac version, please.)
Sony VAIO VGN-TXN27N/T 11.1″ laptop (no longer available; similar model here) with extended battery and tweaks for 12-hour+ life
17″ MacBook Pro (I don’t use a desktop at home because you can’t “close” a desktop screen for closure and work-life separation)
Victorinox E-Motion 360 4.0 25″ Trek Pack Plus (Trial by Fire winner of this bag to be announced next week!)
Firelite external USB-powered storage for travel and back-ups
Cellphone – LG basic (recently replaced with the LG Chocolate) from Verizon w/ extended battery – I go low-tech here for reasons obvious in my book. I don’t email from a handheld. I have multiple cell phones for overseas use.
Safedrive pocket breathalyzer (I originally bought this to bring to a party; it’s the ultimate conversation piece — “I can beat you!” “No, I can beat both of you!” Use responsibly.)
Sony DreamSystem home entertainment system with 5-DVD changer and surround speakers
Sony Grand WEGA 60″ HDTV-ready widescreen TV
Belkin PureAV power surge protection

These students really busted their asses to get the video done, and it’s a view count and ratings competition, so if you like it, please click here and rate it well! This team flew to SF, shared rooms, pulled all-nighters, and — in my opinion — deserves it. It could be their big break.

What new digital tools or toys can’t you live without at home? Do you have anything that sets you apart, or that provokes “oooh”s and “aaaah”s from friends?

—

Follow Tim’s misadventures and experiments in real-time on Twitter.

Odds and Ends: Victorinox Winner

Thank you all for your patience — and awesome promotion — with the Victorinox Trial by Fire competition! I was totally overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and innovative approaches. I’m humbled and honored to have you as readers. Kick-ass! No word back yet from History Channel on the show, but you’ll be the first to know.

Without further ado: the winner is Mr. Raley, who got the show (and The 4-Hour Workweek) mentioned on the Dennis Miller live radio show with 1.5+ million listeners. The runner-up is Lee Burrell, and an honorable mention goes to Markus for his Facebook campaign. Markus, the .jpg link in the comments wasn’t working!

Many thanks to Charlie Hoehn for helping with selection. Mr. Raley and Lee, please look for an e-mail in your inbox in the next 48 hours.

Thanks again to all, and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

38.16% of the people who visit this site are still using Internet Explorer (IE). It’s like buying a hybrid car for the gas mileage and then driving with flat tires and the doors open.

This post will serve two purposes: first, to introduce beginners to features of Firefox (FF) that make it worthwhile; second, to introduce more experienced users to the favorite add-ons of Matt Mullenweg (lead developer of WordPress) and Garrett Camp (co-founder of StumbleUpon). Perhaps you’ll like one or two of mine…

If you aren’t using Firefox, here are a few short reasons to start:

* Built in spell-check
* Lightweight and fast
* Intuitive shortcuts
* Continually being improved
* Better than a college degree (some think)
* Extensions (also called “add-ons” or “plug-ins”)

Extensions lead us to this post. Kid in a candy store time.

After you’ve made the leap and switched to Firefox (download it here), here’s are the extensions you can use to take it to the next level:

Google Toolbar

Installing the Google Toolbar is the key to Firefox efficiency. It is the starting point.

It gives you one-stop access to Google RSS, Google Docs, Google News and Google Blogsearch. Google Docs lets you store and collaborate with word processing without being tied to local Microsoft applications. Google RSS lets you read news without surfing and Google News and Blogsearch are two of the best methods for bloggers to track trends and events. I use Google Highlighter to find terms on pages with tons of text.

The FF search bar in the top-right corner is one of the most helpful features of the browser. Instead of going to Google.com to do your searches, you can search Google and others sites from a drop-down window in the top-right of any window. Just hit Cmd + K to jump to the top-right search box, then Cmd + arrow up or arrow down to choose among searching on Amazon, Creative Commons, eBay, and more. If you get stuck without FF, you can do the same in the Google search field on any browser with “parkour site:youtube.com” to find parkour videos on YouTube, for example.

Alexa Sparky Toolbar

Try and use simple tech tools to separate professionals from amateurs whenever possible.

The Alexa toolbar – a small plug-in – lets you do that in a ruthlessly numerical way. As you surf, it gives you each site’s traffic rank (and historical chart of traffic, like a stock chart), based on several metrics, in the bottom right-hand corner. I often use the web for meme research, media filtering, and competitive analysis instead of web dev, and this tool is my first line of defense.

Some estimate that a million-plus rank is just a few dozen people a day. In the mid-six digits (Ex: 200,000), you’re looking at people with sizeable audiences, and once you crack 100,000, you’ll begin to find professionals, some with readerships larger than most newsstand magazines.

General Rule: Alexa is a valuable first-look tool to keep you from giving too much credence to a professional design, or — alternatively — being scared off by site that doesn’t care much for first impressions.

Alexa is not a complete rank, however, and is flawed in many respects. It’s the first step for me when evaluating media opportunities or baseless traffic claims, but I supplement Alexa with the following analytic tool: SEO for Firefox.

SEO for Firefox

The SEO for Firefox add-on is used for search engine optimization. I don’t use it for tweaking this site. I use it for media and competitive research, as it allows you to see in normal Google results — once turning the add-on “on” — the resulting sites’ pagerank, links on Yahoo!, Alexa traffic rank, Compete traffic rank, Bloglines rank, Technorati rank, and much more. To supplement this, if serious about competitive research, I suggest viewing Quantcast when possible.

Important: turn off this add-on when not in use.

Definr
I’ve used clunky dictionary extensions for Firefox before and — in all cases — I’ve found simple to be better. Definr is a company that takes clean interface to a new level – the homepage has four links and one of them is the search button. It caches the most commonly searched words so it doesn’t waste your time.

Delicious
Using Delicious, every article I’ve ever felt was worth saving is available to me anywhere in the world from any computer. This is something we’ve discussed here before.

Delicious lets you batch your daily read (I tag things with “to_read”) into one single task instead of an unending barrage of distractions or tangents. It also makes it possible to quickly and conveniently track down things resources you’ve used in the past, so you don’t waste time in fruitless searches.

Make sure you install the Classic Delicious extension — it’s cleaner, easier to use, and less prone to feature abuse.

Matt Mullenweg and Garrett Camp’s Favorites

Matt Mullenweg’s favorites, which he explained on a ferry en route from Santorini to Milos island in Greece, include:

Foxmarks – syncs bookmarks across multiple computers

Google Browser Sync – syncs cookies and passwords (see these newer substitutes)

PWDHash – auto-generated customized passwords for various sites

Firebug – according to Matt, “one of most significant web dev tools of the last 3-4 years.” It’s a “net profiler” that indicates how long each element on a page takes to load.

Google Gears – faster and improved browser performance (local caching, etc.)

Garrett Camp’s must-haves include:

TabCatalog – shows contents of all of tabs as a thumbnail-style list (using F8 or other hotkey you designate). Great for not having to flip through tabs to see what is open or find what you’re looking for.

Stylish – Customize the look of your browser or mail client. Stylish is to CSS what Greasemonkey is to JavaScript.

StumbleUpon (please slap yourself if you’re surprised) – Learn how to stumble across things you like, kill memes dead, or spread idea viruses. Here’s the description of how it works.

Experiment, extend, and go nuts. Have any of your own favorites to share? Better alternatives to the above? Please share in the comments.