In my social circle we tease one another about who is out-geeking whom. A web developer was last on the out-geeked list for being the only one in the group not to have a cell phone. Before that it was a trainer who was Palm Pilot-less. Another friend once trumped the entire group by bringing a laptop to the premiere of Star Wars:The Phantom Menace and using it to map genetic code while waiting for the film to start.

I read a story once on rec.talk.bizarre called "The Cool Chips". In this futuristic society, everyone wore a wrist device with a "cool chip" in it. The chip received a constant data stream of what was cool and what wasn't so that the wearer could always be sure that what they were doing or saying was cool. As in all futuristic stories, the society became completely dependent on the technology and could no longer make any decision without chip consultation. For geeks, it's not the information but the chip itself that's cool.

Knowing what's cool is part of geek culture. New technology makes us tingle. I've shared the glee of beaming my card to a stranger's Palm Pilot at business functions just because we both wanted to show off. I couldn't fall asleep the first week I had Napster because songs I wanted kept coming to mind and I had to get up to add them to my search list. Non-geeks don't get it.

Most geeks stay on top of what's cool through word of mouth. We share it like juicy gossip. We hear about the latest site, coolest app, neatest download, newest toy, and we can't wait to e-mail everyone we know, even if it's after midnight.

I'd like to act as a conduit for geek tech information. I'll look for what's cool and you'll look for what's cool. It will end up here. Now, I'm not talking about stuff for work. We all have much too much of that already, thank you. So unless it's something that makes your job so much easier that you can announce to your boss in Scotty-esque fashion that it will take you AT LEAST three hours to get it done and then go back to your desk and be a hero in three minutes, it doesn't count.

I'm talking about the stuff that YOU MUST HAVE. The stuff that speaks to your inner geek. The stuff you covet.

It's the question that drives us. It's the question that brought you here. What is cool? The answer is out there and it will find you if you want it to.

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