GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX

Technical wizard Guru, he of the barely functioning network and ever-broken printer, man of 1,000 terrible ideas, has invested in a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4 (£75 in total) ostensibly to tinker with and improve his Linux knowledge. Let us be real: GaGu will tinker to the point that he has a RetroPie setup even better than that of his Pi 3, then tinker just beyond that point and irreversibly break the lot.

Sticking with computers, Guru was lucky and cool enough to be sent a prototype of the previously Kickstarted and now IndieGoGoing Woo-dy (from $129/£102), a compact mechanical keyboard with a puerile name that’s too obvious even for GaGu to abuse. The moniker stems from its real wood underbelly – in GaGu’s case it was cherry, but walnut is also available – and it’s a really neat and incredibly sturdy little thing, with (in Guru’s model) some excellentfeeling Gateron Brown switches below a set of utterly classy keycaps. Pity it only has half the keys of a normal keyboard.

Guru’s house renovations continue apace, as much as a job that has so far taken him six months can be called ‘apace’ – and he’ll soon be in the market for some new smart home gear to hook everything up. Given that his new bedroom will be in what was once the Basement of Discarded Technology, a full floor away from the other goings-on of Guru Towers, the list includes a smart doorbell, the appropriate videoaddled smart assistant to go with it, a new bedroom TV, and something to keep the kids in line while they’re out of earshot. Give GaGu your tips – perhaps you can pull your finger out and do his job for a change eh? Cuh, you lot. Don’t know you’re born.