The Ultimate 2020 Health Gift: the Peloton Bike
(Starting at $1,900 for the 21.5-inch screen, not including subscription)
Yes, it’s expensive (as our previous review of virtual cycling machines pointed out), but it’s also so much fun. You get to pretend you are riding with groups of cyclists or are in Spin class—just like it’s 2019. You’ll want to tell all your friends about it, but be careful: you could alienate yourself as someone who has thousands of dollars to indulge yourself when COVID-19 is making many of them suffer.
Kodak Luma 350 Portable Smart Projector
($300)
Tired of having your phone fall on your face as you fall asleep watching Netflix—and having to cover up your bruises with makeup for video meetings the next day? You need a projector that will beam your small screen to the ceiling while you remain comfortably horizontal. Unlike the projector in your conference room, the LUMA 350 is so small and so portable that you can move it around the house or apartment with you, projecting to any wall, door (or ceiling)—unlike the big flat-screen TV that’s permanently attached to the wall.
Fidget-Worthy Magnets
($25)
Do the hour-long Zoom meetings make you fidget? Do something with your hands that will not get you in trouble with magnet toys by Speks. Do it gently, and your colleagues may not ever hear you (unlike when you are answering email with your noisy keyboard).
Leica DISTO D2 Laser Measure
($142 on Amazon)
Throw away your tape measure. With a laser measuring device, such as this one from Leica, you can measure from wall to wall with precision. With a little less precision, the device can solve the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the distance between any two points you beam it at, with the loss in precision due to pivoting the handheld device.
The Mind-Bending ThinkPad
($2,500 without keyboard and pen)
Lenovo brings the first folding screen to laptops with the ThinkPad X1 Fold and it is going to cost a lot of folding money. It starts at $2,500 without its special keyboard (add another $100 for that) and Mod Pen (add another $100). Is that a small price to pay for the ultimate cool device, and having the first giant folding tablet among all your engineer friends? Most did not know a computer screen could do that. They will look for a crease where the screen is folded—but they won’t see it.
Make Your Face a Joke ($10)
The pandemic has made humor in short supply. You can fix that by wearing a joke on your face—and let everyone know of your exalted status as an engineer with one of these engineering-themed face masks by Teepublic.com (they’re best known for making tee shirts with jokes on them). Several other facial jokes are available for around $10.
Logitech C920 Webcam
($80)
The pandemic and the accompanying need to have video meetings resulted in a rush to buy cheap USB webcams for those who found that their laptop cameras were making them look less than optimal. But the cheap USB webcams don’t always hold up. We found that the Logitech C920, while more expensive than most webcams at $80, provided a high resolution, wide angle image with its glass lens that is well-made, sturdy and worth the price.
Build Your Own Self-Driving Robot Tank
($139 on the Yahboom site)
The Yahboom Raspberry Pi Tank Robot uses a Raspberry Pi board and 5G to transmit HD video and with AI recognition functions, and you can program it as a self-driving vehicle.
Oldie but Goodie—The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
($14 in paperback on Amazon)
So enamored was veteran documentarian Ken Burns of this David McCullough book, that he based a documentary on it and asked the author to narrate it. It’s a must read for civil engineers (it was the first steel-wire suspension bridge in the world), but the behind-the-scenes dealings, controversies and construction challenges make for a most interesting read for any engineer.
Google Mesh Wi-Fi
($269 for router and point)
Kids bombing your video meetings may leave you seeking refuge in another room—only to have the video turn into still images due to the location being on the fringe of your Wi-Fi system. You can equip your house with wall-to-wall coverage—even your panic room, walk-in closet, bathroom, or other refuge—with a mesh network. Unlike the single signal of a router, a mesh network will create a seamless, multipoint coverage that blankets an entire house. It is expandable, and additional points can be added to extend coverage to the farthest reaches of your mansion. The system on the Google site includes its router and one “point.”