Way Up On My Christmas List

Now some people would say that your Christmas list is the place to put those things that you really need, like sweaters or a new hip (yeah, it's been one of those weeks again where I spent two days flat on my back, then three days slowly getting back to normal walking around). But I agree with my son, Nathan, who says that Christmas lists are for those things that you really would like, but would never spend your own money on. So this thing is going to the top of my list (and probably Steve's list, too). It's called a Makey Makey and it looks like this:

It's a circuit board that acts like an input device for a computer, video game system, or whatever.

The device gets connected to your computer input with a USB connector. Then you connect something (an apple, say) to the device with the alligator clips that are included. When you touch the apple, you make a connection, and MaKey MaKey sends the computer a keyboard message. The computer just thinks MaKey MaKey is a regular keyboard (or mouse). Therefore it works with all programs and webpages, because all programs and webpages take keyboard and mouse input. If you are having trouble picturing how this works, here's a video in which bananas play a major part:





They are available now for $49.95 from this website. Seriously, can you think of something better than a way to play the piano on bananas?