Christmas gift idea for your favorite glasses-wearing geek

Date:July 31, 2006 / year-entry #258
Tags:non-computer
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20060731-19/?p=30283
Comments:    8
Summary:Yes, I'm talking about Christmas gifts (or "winter solstice gifts" if you prefer) in July. I'm one of those people for whom buying Christmas gifts is a brain-wracking ordeal, and I'm always on the lookout all year round for the "perfect gift". Last Christmas, a friend of mine gave me a micro-fiber lens-cleaning cloth that...

Yes, I'm talking about Christmas gifts (or "winter solstice gifts" if you prefer) in July. I'm one of those people for whom buying Christmas gifts is a brain-wracking ordeal, and I'm always on the lookout all year round for the "perfect gift".

Last Christmas, a friend of mine gave me a micro-fiber lens-cleaning cloth that comes in a pouch you can attach to a keychain. Example 1. Example 2. (I have no affiliation with those two sites; I just hunted around looking for a picture.) Best gift ever. I use it several times a day.

My keychain has only four things on it: The aforementioned cleaning cloth, a USB thumb drive, my car key, and my house key. And I could do without the thumb drive and car key most days. But don't take away my cleaning cloth.


Comments (8)
  1. Anthony Wieser says:

    Do you not need a bike key on the Microsoft campus, Raymond? Or do you have a combination lock?

    You don’t keep an unlocked bike long here in Cambridge!

  2. michaele says:

    hmmm…  I may need to get one of those for myself!

    What I really need, though, is one of those extendable key chain thingys you all have for your card keys.  

    And I lost a locked bike in Cambridge.  Having a lock doesn’t mean much there.

  3. Peter Ritchie says:

    Speaking of locks not meaning much; NYC has the same problem:  see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbklkFuFk-4&search=stealing%20bike%20nyc

    One "concerned citizen" actually offered some advice to a guy cutting through a bike chain, without ever asking if the bike was his…

  4. Gabe says:

    Anthony: In theory, Raymond could just carry his bike up to his office and leave it there all day. To go to another building he could take a shuttle or walk, never needing his bike to move around campus.

  5. Eddie Parker says:

    Neat-o.  I could use those for my sunglasses. :)

    That said, as a geek who used to neglect my thumb-drive, I have to point you to what I’ve done with mine.  I can’t live without my thumb drive anymore…  See http://www.kickingdragon.com/2006/05/25/usb-drive-madness/.

  6. asdf says:

    You should get an LED keychain flashlight, it comes in handy often.

  7. Ron Bellomo says:

    Great idea! I could definitely use one of those.

    Are they fairly easy to clean after they have been used for a while and pick up dust, dirt, oils, etc?

  8. Thomas says:

    I don’t have the micro cleaning cloth, but I do instead have a little LED torch. It’s probably the most useful £5 I’ve spent.

Comments are closed.


*DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THIS CONTENT. If you are the owner and would like it removed, please contact me. The content herein is an archived reproduction of entries from Raymond Chen's "Old New Thing" Blog (most recent link is here). It may have slight formatting modifications for consistency and to improve readability.

WHY DID I DUPLICATE THIS CONTENT HERE? Let me first say this site has never had anything to sell and has never shown ads of any kind. I have nothing monetarily to gain by duplicating content here. Because I had made my own local copy of this content throughout the years, for ease of using tools like grep, I decided to put it online after I discovered some of the original content previously and publicly available, had disappeared approximately early to mid 2019. At the same time, I present the content in an easily accessible theme-agnostic way.

The information provided by Raymond's blog is, for all practical purposes, more authoritative on Windows Development than Microsoft's own MSDN documentation and should be considered supplemental reading to that documentation. The wealth of missing details provided by this blog that Microsoft could not or did not document about Windows over the years is vital enough, many would agree an online "backup" of these details is a necessary endeavor. Specifics include:

<-- Back to Old New Thing Archive Index