Coolest. Guy Gadget. Ever.

I got the kewlest new gadget from the company store today for $18. Here it is:

I know what you're thinking -- "A pen? That's not so cool." But wait... there's more. In addition to being a pen, it also has a laser pointer on the other side. As you know, a laser is probably the best cat toy ever:

But this gadget is more than just an ink pen/laser pointer. Because if you open it up, it contains -- a 128MB USB Flash Drive!


This thing totally rocks. Alright, I'll admit it might not be the coolest
gadget ever, but it definitely sets the bar for kewl-to-cost ratio. You can just imagine it in use -- you're getting ready to give a presentation, so you pull out your pen, take out the Flash Drive, plug it into the computer, then put your pen back together. Now, you've got your laser pointer available to wow the crowd while your trusty thumb drive is throwin' down your Power Point.

The best part is, when the presentation's done, you can use the pen to give your contact information to your PDA-less, techno-impaired co-workers who want to start a cargo cult dedicated to worshipping your gadget.

It's innovation like this that makes America great. It also says a lot about the culture of engineers -- one panel from a classic Dilbert cartoon (that I had hanging in my office when I was Eng on Jimmy Carter) explains it better than anything:

When I was a shipyard Eng, I wore a pager, cell phone, dig-it tool, flashlight, and TLD on my belt. There was no doubt that was the best-equipped Engineer in SubLant. Now, as a civilian, I can't beat the guys with their laptops glued to their hands, but I can still have multi-purpose pens.

I can't wait until someone comes up with a way to put a mini-GPS receiver section into these things...