For the Nerd Who Has Everything

It's that time of year again: the season that children of all ages, all over the world, look forward to and dream about. The only ones who count down the days to Christmas with more of a sense of wonder and joy are retailers and credit card companies.

Finding a gift for that special keyboard nerd in your life at Christmas can be a difficult task. Computers are, shall we say, temporary things. They don't have the same kind of permanence as the typewriters and fountain pens of previous days. Plastic is the building material of choice in today's offices.

But giving a holiday gift that will be thrown away by the recipient in a few months (Remember the decorative "bugs" made out of IC chips that were popular a few years ago?) carries with it an immediate feeling of sadness on the part of the giver on Christmas morning. After all, we can use only so many mousepads, coffee cups, and baseball caps.

I, for one, think that tools and working environments -- no matter how technologically advanced they are -- should be designed to make humans feel comfortable and at ease. A century ago, craftsmen decorated their new machines as if they were works of art. Back then, you could have put a steam engine in your parlor and it would not have looked out of place. Sadly, such niceties are ignored in the waning days of this century. I know of no manufacturer who employs a full-time gilding artist.

But, just like on 34th Street, miracles can happen. Recently, I ran across a mail-order company that has begun servicing Japan. When I first opened their catalog, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Levenger is a Florida-based mail-order company that has decided to stake out a niche supplying readers and writers (and that includes all of us) with the best quality tools-of-the-trade in the age of the computer. These folks, who appear to be ex-yuppies with taste, supply the sort of stuff Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway would have loved using. They sell solid wood desks and chairs designed for computers, including a great lap desk for working in bed. They also have leather bags, organizers, possibly the largest collection of quality fountain pens around (give one a try sometime), great stationery, leather desk accessories, and -- get this -- 3.5-inch disk storage boxes made of wood!

The nerd in your life would probably love the leather pocket protector. (Monogrammed, at that.)

Since Christmas is just around the corner, having a catalog sent to you in Asia, picking out what you want (and you'll want a lot), then sending your order and getting it in time for the holidays may not work. Fortunately, the folks at Levenger have an e-mail address (info@levenger.com) and a website (http://www.levenger.com) complete with photographs and detailed descriptions. You can order directly from their website with a credit card or, if you prefer the old-fashioned way, contact them by phone (+1-561-276-4141).

Please note that, while the catalog I received had a Japanese-language order form with information about shipping rates to Japan, as of late October the Web site did not. You might want to call and ask, or call to confirm after placing your online order just in case the machine part of the equation fails.

Coming in '97

Alas, another year has almost passed. What do the keyboard jockeys living in Japan have to look forward to in the Year of the Bull?

The next release of Microsoft Windows is supposed to be out in 1997. For those of us still trying to learn all the ins and outs of Windows 95, let's hope they don't change things that much.
A new device that I think has potential is a dedicated Internet terminal for the home or office: basically a telephone with a computer screen built in. Some of the reports I've received have been about units without hard disks installed. Sounds interesting.
The installed base of home ISDN (integrated services digital network) is set to greatly expand next year. Rates may even fall, but who knows when you are dealing with a monopoly?
By this time next year, Hong Kong will again be part of China. Watch for political tensions in the region to affect the prices of computers and components over the next year. If Taiwan eventually goes, Communist China would control much of the world's PC production and then... well, we'll see.

Thomas Caldwell is a radio correspondent and Japan marketing manager for the United Press International Tokyo Bureau. E-mail:caldwell@gol.com