Comments on: Unitasker Wednesday: USB Pet Rock

By: warf

warf — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:22:07 +0000

It’s not a joke, and I thought it would be funny to mention that I saw one of these in person, before I saw one online.

By: Andrei

Andrei — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:24:40 +0000

I’m thinking next year… Wireless enabled Pet Rock!

By: DixonHill

DixonHill — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:56:01 +0000

Wireless Pet Rock FTW!

My favorite unitasker paperweight is an old, well-worn solid brass Brunton compass made by Stanley London.

Actually, as both a paperweight and compass, I suppose that it’s a multitasker after all. And the mirror has come in handy from time to time… a more industrial/steampunk version of a makeup compact I suppose.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:56:52 +0000

On my desk sits a smooth rounded river stone, about 3″ in diameter – it’s been there for 15 years now – from time to time I think it might make a good paperweigh – thanks to Spencer I now realise it is in fact a CORDLESS PET ROCK! Thank you Spencer…

By: gypsy packer

gypsy packer — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:22:38 +0000

Hope the stupid things can be put out to street vendors. It looks like the ideal product to get money out of the hands of affluent idiots and into the hands of the unemployed.

By: Shalin

Shalin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:55:37 +0000

Sad that this is even on sale – mostly because no one would buy it with an ounce of value in mind. …so, this version would be considered the physical embodiment of “Amusing but Useless 2.0″?

–S

By: Robbin

Robbin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:54:32 +0000

I loved my pet rock. Even as a 10 year old the health care line “if your rock bleeds, immediately call the I.R.S. They’ve been trying to get blood from a stone for years!” made me giggle. It still sits in its “crate” on my bookshelf.

From this site, it looks like you could fill UTW for eons!

By: TheChristianMinimalist

TheChristianMinimalist — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:46:11 +0000

Like…ummmm…if someone really wanted one they could just…ummm…make one. Buy one? Ha! ha! Ho! Ho! He! He! (etc.)

By: kbfenner

kbfenner — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:45:57 +0000

I dunno–this looks pretty useful to me. You can keep papers from flying away, threaten annoying colleagues, use it as a hand pacifier/worry beads type thing….it lends a touch of nature and Zen-like calm to the bustle of our techno-workplace….it absorbs radiation (it gets warmer if it’s next to something warm, so….)

Gosh, I got to get me one.

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:36:20 +0000

@Amanda — The first rule of Unitasker Wednesdays is that there are no rules for Unitasker Wednesdays. You can’t be upset about us selecting an item that was produced as a joke because there are no rules for Unitasker Wednesdays. Jokes, not jokes, all are fair game.

We simply ask: Does this make us laugh? If the answer is yes, then we’ll probably run it. Non-taskers, multi-taskers — they’ve all been featured. Taking offense to a Unitasker Wednesday item is pointless. We are not going to take the item down nor are we going to create rules just because you want them. There are no rules.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:08:06 +0000

@Erin – Actually, this was an April Fool’s Day joke. http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/

However, like several other items thought up for the same purpose, Think Geek decided to really make the item because of customer demand.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/blog/.....april.html

@Rachel – “Finally a unitasker that you can post without someone getting their feelings hurt.”

To tell you the truth, I’m a little offended by this post. This item is clearly intended as a joke, so it seems like a lazy cop-out for a unitasker post. To point out parts of ThinkGeek’s description that is already making fun of itself doesn’t take any creativity.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:46:51 +0000

Coming soon: The U.S.B. "Jump to Conclusions" Mat. Michael Bolton: You think the pet rock was a really great idea? Tom Smykowski: Sure it was. The guy made a million dollars. You know, I had an idea like that once. A long time ago. Peter Gibbons: Really, what was it, Tom? Tom Smykowski: Well, all right. It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor, and it would have different conclusions written on it that you could jump to. Michael Bolton: That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life, Tom. Samir: Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

By: momofthree

momofthree — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:21:18 +0000

OMG, my pet rock from the 70′s is now all grown up and gone digital!!
wifi spots, here we come!

By: pam

pam — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:18:29 +0000

Hilarious. Oh, I dearly want to make some of these and give them as Xmas presents. Yes, I have _those_ sorts of people on my gift list.

By: Brit

Brit — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:30:43 +0000

Having spent a long career in retail bookselling, I would watch the seasons (i.e., “Back-to-School,” “Halloween, “Valentine’s Day”) come and go, and along with them, an assortment of “impulse buy” merchandise. (Anyone remember Billy Bass, the singing fish-on-a-wall-plaque?) Most of it amounts to a joke that tickles you just long enough to want to pay for it, then cart it home, where in as little as a day it becomes… clutter. What didn’t sell went to clearance, thus giving someone else a laugh at a bargain price and some clutter (“but I can’t get rid of this, it was such a deal!”)

The astonishment to me in all this is how much of the planet’s industrial capacity is devoted to manufacturing and shipping….nonsense. What do you suppose the environmental impact of that is?