There are days when life in the office really is hell on earth.

I’ve been with the same company for more than two years, and it does get staid sometimes. Don’t get me wrong; I love my job as a software geek and I totally love the people I work with. They’re the sort of people you like to hang out with day in and day out.

It’s the routine that gets me sometimes. There are days when the usual 9 to 5 gets a little to staid and boring for my liking; I just want a little spice to shake it up.

On days like that, you might want to try out these USB gadgets that are guaranteed to shake up things in the cubes a bit:

USB Capslocker. Accidentally hitting the caps lock key can be a pain; having someone rig it to constantly turn on and off at random intervals is genius. It even gets the LED to light up when the caps lock key is turned on.

Phantom Keystroker. Now this one’s really freaky. This is not for the faint of heart, so you might want to get a medical record of your intended victim before you plug this baby in. Once plugged into the USB port, it’ll send your keyboard haywire, typing random texts and even moving your mouse pointer a bit once or twice. It’ll definitely drive your officemates crazy, provided you can hold your laughter in long enough to ensure that haywire will ensue.

Just make sure you pick a USB port that’s hard to find. Otherwise, that’ll just take the fun out of the joke. Try it, but don’t blame me if you get kicked out of the company.

[Seen on Softpedia's Weird Gadgets]

Bookworms of the world take heart. Now there’s an even better way to store all of your books. I assume you’ve taken pains to protect them from the harsh elements. Personally, I wrap my books in plastic and keep them out of children’s reach. My cousin once spilled coffee on my Jessica Zafra book; life has not been the same since. I go crazy when my books get even just a tiny crease.

And don’t even get me started on the spine.

Apart from the plastic wrap and all efforts to keep books pristine, I’m constantly in search for bigger bookshelves. I’m constantly running out of space, thanks to my ever expanding collection. I even had to give some of my older books away. Others are stored either in a box somewhere or in a cabinet I rarely even open.

So, you can probably imagine the pseudo-heart attack I got after seeing this bookshelf/stairs. The heart attack was partly induced by the incredible number of books, I admit. I’d certainly love to have one these, though. It’ll give me an excuse to splurge in bookstores even more.

I just think I might never make it to the ground floor at all.

[Seen on Geekologie]

French mobile maker MobiFrance recently unveiled its latest luxury cellphone in remembrance of the country’s esteemed revolutionaries and the nation’s Independence Day. I don’t suppose MobiFrance realizes how ironic it is to equate luxury with the people who sent the royals to the guillotine (a French invention as well), but there it is. In any case, the cellphone, dubbed simply “French Luxury”, resembles the famous Eiffel Tower in all its sparking glory.

The phone is a veritable miniature version of the Parisian landmark, down to the tower’s legs. Though little is known of the phone’s functions, it does have a 7.2 MP camera and a touch screen. But whatever; I’m sure people will flock to it because of its quaint design and the word “luxury”.

Maybe someone will come up with a phone based on the Egyptian pyramids, or even the Berlin Wall, in the near future.

[Seen on The Design Blog]

I was going to blog about something else entirely, but this just begs to be discussed. My first reaction when I saw this was, could it be a prank from Conan O’Brien’s “If They Mated” segment?

But it’s too pretty to be a prank.

Too pretty, in fact, to be reality either.

But it’s free to dream, so let’s still check it out shall we? I’m talking about the rumored “Macbook Touch” — a Macbook built to resemble the iTouch, with all its touchscreen capabilities.

I’m running out of words, so we might as well just quote MacDailyNews:

“Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured multi-touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X. This is why they bought P.A. Semi. Possibly with Immersion’s haptic tech. Slot-loading SuperDrive. Accelerometer. GPS. Pretty expensive to produce initially, but sold at “low” price that will reduce margins. Apple wants to move these babies. And move they will. This is some sick shit. App Store-compatible, able to run Mac apps, too. By October at the latest.”

If that’s not shocking then I don’t know what is.

[Seen on Gadgenista.Com]

I’ve been meaning to post this weeks ago, but somehow other stuff keep coming up and I keep throwing this to the back burner. A serious geek offense, I know, but there were just so many new items that I though this old one would only make people nostalgic, not interested.

Personally, I found this cute because I saw it in Big Bang Theory, my television show du jour. In one episode, Leonard thinks that someone had broken into their apartment and thus emerges from his roomed armed with a light-saber. Technically, he’s using it as a flashlight of sorts, though the way he wields it shows that he’s ready to go Luke Skywalker on the enemy’s ass anytime. Interestingly enough, Leonard is using the green light-saber, which belongs to Yoda.

Licensed replicas can be yours. Visit Think Geek to get your own light-saber. The power down sound effect is so totally worth it.

[This post is dedicated to Zriz, who wants a light-saber of her own.]

I love multi-functional items. Now that the world’s a lot more cluttered than it you used to be, what’s not to love about items that makes life a lot easier and less complicated?

Here’s Cool Tool’s idea of functional and practical: the Scoop Clip. It’s a measuring spoon with a scoop on both ends of the handle; one tablespoon and one teaspoon. But that’s common, you say. Err, yes. This bit isn’t: it doubles as a clip so you can keep your opened packages tightly shut. This works great with coffee, mainly because coffee loses its flavor when exposed to the air.

It keeps coffee fresh and you’ll never have to go hunting for a measuring spoon again. Of course you can use it on other stuff, too, like flour or sugar. I just prefer coffee.

I still have tons of cassette tapes from the 80s and 90s. In fact, I bought then well into the new millennium, mainly because CDs were expensive and young student me didn’t have enough money to buy them.

This is for people who miss those days, when life was simple and the player could easily chew up and throw out the cassette tape after getting everything into a tangled mess.

[Seen on Think Geek]