This column continues with its quick round up of gifts for geeks.

Remember, you can go to many Internet sites that review some of the choices, or which offer more suggestions. A good start is www.zdnet.com for independent reviews of computers, software, digital cameras, and many things electronic.

To get an idea of the range of goods for youngsters try www.etoys.com. Don't forget to include shipping and duty in the prices given if you are unable to find the goods on the Island.

For the music and computer fiend take a look at buying a CD-ROM drive that reads and writes to blank disks you can buy cheap.

This is ideal for storing up to 650 megabytes of data or store 74 minutes of music that most computers and stereos can read.

Of course this kind of machine doesn't please the software or music industry a bit.

One of the newest machines is the Hewlett-Packard's HP CD-Writer Music, a recordable drive designed specifically for creating music CDs from music CDs or MP3 files. Most people now use CD-R or CD-RW drive for creating music CDs but the process can be a long one. The CD-Writer Music comes with a special edition of Sonic Foundry's Siren software that handles both tasks, and includes limited copy protection.

Siren comes with a jukebox that plays back music files and comes with a graphic equalizer. When recording, users can select which tracks they wish to copy from the original source and reorder them on a target disc.

The user can intersperse MP3 and CD tracks before burning the disc. Siren also supports Microsoft's recently released Windows Media Audio (WMA) format.

Unfortunately, the Siren software can only transfer tracks to blank CD-Audio discs.

This is an attempt to appease the recording industry, which gets a royalty for every CD-Audio sold. The HP CD-Writer Music sells for $300 in the US.

However, that said, at this stage I would consider just getting a regular CD-RW drive. But first find out the connections your recipient needs for his or her computer.

Now for the terminology. A CD-R disk can be filled with data once. A CD-RW (CD-Rewritable) drive allows you to randomly erase and rewrite data to the same disc for as many as 1000 times. A CD-R is a write-once format. But remember a CD-RW disc can only be read by a multiread CD-ROM drive and so older computers are out of the picture.

Depending on the manufacturer the machine can cost from $330 to $600.

You should also consider a DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk) system. The DVD-ROM disc can store up to 17 gigabytes of data allowing users to view full length feature films with digital clarity and sound. The DVD-ROM drive will also read existing CD-ROMs.

For the avid boater try the Nighthawk ON1X20 /IR from Lan Optics, a night vision goggles used by the military, pilots and builders.

The goggles can illuminate up to 200 metres, weigh two pounds and can convert to binoculars.

The goggles cost $660.

I'm a big fan of SmartDisk's, FlashPath (www.smartdisk.com), which looks like a 3.6-inch floppy disk, but lets users transfer digital images from a camera to a PC and perform digital audio exchanges. I use it to transfer images from my Olympus C-2000 Z digital camera to any computer with a floppy-disk slot and the FlashPath software without the use of cables or a memory card. The company also makes Smarty, a smart card reader/writer. FlashPath uses SmartMedia flash memory cards from Toshiba Corp. and Samsung.

These are wafer-thin memory cards which are about the size of a postage stamp, can currently hold up to 32 megabytes of information. The companies are developing 64 and a 128 megabyte versions.

I slide the card from my camera to the floppy-disk, then insert the disk into my computer's floppy disk drive. Imagine! A floppy-disk holding 128 megabytes of information. A regular floppy holds just 1.44 megabytes.

Toshiba's eight megabyte Smartmedia card sells for about $46, but you can get other manufacturers' for about $23. The FlashPath itself costs anywhere from $70 to $100 depending on the manufacturer. You can use the card for general storage of files as well. The US military is testing out SmartMedia as a digital dog tag for soldiers, containing all their personal and medical information.

For the clean at heart there's the Sonicare toothbrush which cleans your teeth with sonic waves, powering around your mouth at 31,000 strokes a minute and vibrating all the dirt away. The company claims the brush will take off 80 percent of tea, coffee and tobacco stains, although that is enough to make me wonder what it eventually does to teeth. The powertool costs about $105 at www.sonicare.com. Telephone 1.888.278.7496 for information.

The Intel Play QX3 Computer Microscope (www.intelplay.com) connects to a computer and projects images onscreen up to 200 times. The computer costs about $100. `This high-tech microscope detaches from its stand (while tethered to your computer), letting you focus on anything around you, from a scab on your arm to your best friend's ear wax!` according to the blurb.

In an aside from the run down on gifts I note that Shell has just warned cell phone users in Bermuda to switch off at service stations for fear of explosions. The warning should be an outright ban.

Tech Tattle issued that warning back in September when a driver was burned and a car damaged at a service station in the Canadian province of British Colombia.

Back then Canada's major gasoline retailers -- Esso, Petro-Canada, Shell and Sunoco -- banned cellular phone use at service stations, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Now apparently there has been another explosion at a gas station in the US, believed to have been caused by sparks inside a phone, generated during its operation.

Shell Companies of Bermuda operations manager Stanley Marshall was quoted as saying that the safety warning was one `pretty much like the one's they have on planes'.

Well the safety warning in planes is for possible interference with pilot communications. Explosions at gas stations is an entirely different matter.

Until there's a clear indication that cell phones are not responsible for the explosions, can there be any doubt that it's better to ban the things outright at stations? Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at ahmedelamin yhotmail.com or (01144)1273708386.