Riding the Rails.

I'm on the train, going to Seattle, using a laptop borrowed from work. Working with this hardware is giving me an appreciation for how irritating alternate input devices are. I'm quite unadept at using the nipple mouse, and I end up circling around my target in ever decreasing orbits before I can reach it. This is only aggravated by the neutered keyboard on the laptop. There's no Windows Key, there's some unknown Fn key where Control should be. Just another lesson along the lines of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Here's what I was really thinking about. My picks for the top 3 hottest kids toys for this shopping season:

• TMX: Extreme Tickle Me Elmo - Seriously, this is going to be just as going to be just as hot as it's predecessor. Apparently it has an epilleptic fit and rolls into a protective fetal position when you tickle it. If I find any, I'll selling them on Ebay.
• FPpod - This is Fisher Price's kiddie-oriented not-quite-an-iPod. This is genius! You can buy songs for it from Fisher Price's website, a la iTunes. This really is pure marketing genius. Though I wonder if they'll get sued by Apple like the other folks using 'Pod' in their product names? Looked on Wired News's Cult of Apple Blog for that article.
• Nintendo Wii - This is my pick for the next generation of consoles. Crazy light saber swinging action, internet browsing, always-on connectivity, and a promised super-library of downloadable nostalgia. The backwards Game Cube compatibility is what seals the deal. Nintendo pioneered this (not Sony) with it's Gameboy / Gameboy Color / Gameboy Advance / DualScreen lines. The backwards compatibility keeps the old line of software alive, and ensures a huge libary of quality titles on launch day. Most importantly, it keeps people from trading in as many of their used games, which means Nintendo can sell more titles new as greatest hits. This is ninja-level marketing genius.

No, you don't get URLs since I'm 'going commando style' as I write this. You'll just have to Google 'em yourself. Time to find me a power outlet.

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