I know nothing about this product other than that I saw someone carry one out of my local hardware store this morning and was immediately fascinated. I tracked it down online and learned it is the Cosco Super Fold 3-Step. It is a standard step ladder that, in a very non-standard and clever way, folds into a cylinder for storage (check out the link, it has a graphic showing it in action). As the owner of a city condo, every square inch of space is valuable, making this the perfect item for hiding in the back of a coat closet for those occasional times when I need to reach something near the ceiling. What an excellent piece of industrial design. Surprisingly, this ladder is on sale right now at Target for $34.99; I can find it other places for over $100.

Finding flexible and durable computer furniture can be a challenge. Many places -- from Ikea to Target -- sell computer desks and hutches... and some of them even look fairly nice. But put a heavy CPU or old CRT monitor on them and the ubiquitous particle board will start to sag pretty quickly. Metal shelving is an (ugly) option but the ergonomics are usually terrible. The best company I've found for housing computer equipment while preserving aesthetics is Anthrocart. Many of their products are modular and adjustable, all of them are extremely durable, and they offer models designed to look nice in a home office where the emphasis really is on "home". I've had a computer desk and a printer cart I've used as a rolling TV stand for going on ten years now and they seem to be indestructible. There are two remarkable things about Anthrocart, the first is their packaging. Really, I'd never seen 2-inch thick cardboard before in my life. The second is their customer service. The people there are impossibly nice and are willing to spend plenty of time with you to figure out what primary pieces and accessories you need to put together your ideal system.

I've already had one request for suggestions on digital cameras for the holidays so I'm going to write up a few of my thoughts and recommendations here. To make things simpler since there are scores of models out there, I'm going to divide things into 3 categories: point-and-shoot, mid-range, and pro-sumer.

Before I look at a few individual models, I want to cover some general principles that apply to all types of digital cameras. The first is the heavily-touted number of megapixels. This value is simply the number of pixels across an image (photographed at maximum resolution) multiplied by the number of pixels down. It used to be that the megapixel count was a critical factor in selecting a camera; these days megapixels are cheap and the quality of the digital processing that takes place when the photo is taken often has more impact on the end result than anything else. As a rule of thumb, 4.0 or more megapixels will do wonderfully for everyday use. I have 8x10 prints on my wall from a 4 MP camera that look great.

When it comes to zoom, immediately ignore the so-called "digital zoom." All that does is enlarge the image already in the camera, reducing the resolution and compromising the quality of any prints you make. In fact, when you get your camera, the first thing you should do is turn off the digital zoom. Optical zoom is a much more important matter since the ability to get closer to distant subjects always comes in handy. In general, try to get a camera with the highest optical zoom number you can find.

In buying a memory card, get the largest you can afford, even if you don't think you will take that many pictures. With high resolution cameras, these cards fill up faster than you might expect.

There are two primary types of digital camera makers: traditional camera companies and traditional computer companies. Since chips and lenses play equally vital roles producing a digital image, there are good arguments in either direction about which might be the better choice. At this point, I think it is probably best simply to follow the reviews and ignore the brand name as long as it seems trustworthy. That said, I personally have a bit of a bias toward the camera companies -- I think they tend to put better optics in their products.

Finally, the single most critical thing in a digital camera is usability. A spectacular device is worthless if you don't know how to use it. If you are technologically hopeless and know that you will never touch a product manual, then don't waste money on a sophisticated camera; most point-and-shoot models take decent pictures and even a low-resolution shot is infinitely better than none at all.

Reviews
There are many places to get good camera reviews, here are three of my favorites:
- Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera - an excellent ebook (see my other post on this series) that will tell you everything you need to know about buying a camera. This $10 book is on sale for $5 through December 26th, 2005. You will definitely recoup your expense in what you save through this ebook's hints and recommendations.
- Digital Photography Review - more detail than you can even hope to digest.
- CNet - Lots of quick, useful reviews.

Stores
Be a little careful when shopping for unbelievable camera deals... they occasionally are too good to be true. Four stores I can recommend, having purchased digital equipment from all of them, are:
- B&H - Their product descriptions are the most thorough I have found.
- Adorama
- J&R
- Amazon

Point and Shoot Cameras
In this category, small size is a premium. You want a camera small and light enough that you can put it in your jacket pocket or purse and forget about it until you need it. The charm of a compact camera is its ability to be there for candid and unexpected moments. And without film to worry about, you can take lots and lots of photos without concerning yourself with the expense of developing them.

I think the ELPH line from Canon is great. They are tiny and tough with good image quality and a friendly user interface. The SD300, for instance, is a nice simple device with just about no manual controls--you just point it at your subject and take the picture. You should be able to find it for $200 to $250 online but look at the other cameras in the SD line for both cheaper and more expensive models.

Mid-Range
These digital cameras are for those people who want point-and-shoot ease along with the capability to get more creative occasionally: manually focus or adjust the exposure, take macro (extreme close-up) shots, etc. They are always somewhat bigger and heavier than the point-and-shoot models so be sure the extra features are worth the greater bulk.
I'm going to be a Canon snob here and recommend another camera from that company. The Canon S2 IS is the highly-anticipated follow-up to the impressive S1 and it doesn't seem to disappoint. This is a remarkably full-featured camera with some really advanced options. Most impressive, perhaps, is its stunning 12x optical zoom!! I also like that the screen swivels, allowing you to fold it backwards into the body so it doesn't get scratched in a bag. See the article at Digital Photography Review for an in-depth look. Note that this camera doesn't come with batteries so budget for that extra expense on top of the $350 to $450 price you should be able to find during holiday sales.

Pro-sumer
This awkward term refers to cameras with many of the features professional photographers require but at a lower price point, generally slightly below $1000 for a camera with a lens or two. Pro-sumer these days means a digital SLR: something that looks and acts like the 35mm film cameras from 10 years ago. I'm not going to pick a single model here since much of the decision is personal preference, familiarity with a company's products, and/or owning a set of existing lenses (several of these models will accept lenses from their film camera counterparts). Two camera that have made big news this year for resolution, quality, and enormous feature sets never before available for under $1000 are the Nikon D70 and the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. These are both excellent cameras. If you are really getting serious about your photography, save your pennies, do your research, and pick one of these. However, make sure to try them both out in person to see which works best for you; since there are scores of lenses available for these models, this purchase can end up being a long-term investment.

The single best idea I've seen in publishing lately is the Take Control Ebook series. These are small books focused on very specific technology topics, carefully edited for clarity, and available in downloadable, PDF format. They are designed to read equally well as printouts or -- easier on the forests out there -- on a computer screen. Perhaps the best feature of all, and as far as I know unique, is that the authors keep updating these books as new information comes out and you are provided with free updates in the same way that software is updated. There is a large button on the first page of the PDF which, when clicked, will check over the internet to see if an updated version is available. If so, you can download the latest edition in a few minutes without having to pay anything extra. Not that these books are expensive -- quite the contrary. Most cost in the $5 to $10 range depending on length while special prices for bundles of related volumes can often bring the cost down even more.

The topics in the Take Control series are primarily, but not exclusively concerned with the Macintosh (the publishers are famous in Mac circles for starting the weekly newsletter TidBITS in 1990 and running it continuously since then). The standards for writing and content are extremely high and the regular updates allow the ebooks to be very topical while remaining current. One thing the authors and editors do well is keep the language appropriate to the books' target audiences; that means an introductory book wont leave a new user behind. All in all, these ebooks are an impressive bargain.