My 5-year-old is turning six. He has informed me that six-year-olds are allowed to own pocketknives. Since this is a kid who a) has learned to split wood with a small hatchet at our friend’s wood shed and b) likes to stash stuff — from cool stones to lizard tails — in his pockets, I’m wondering if this might not be a worthy gift. No worrying about nature deficit with this boy!

Also, no worrying about finding a suitable model, what with about 1,800 versions of pocketknives available on PriceGrabber.com.

But I’m looking for something that falls somewhere in between this Swiss Army Swiss Champ, which offers about 400 tools, and the Valor Pocket Knife, which resembles the choice of a backwoods psychopath.

Now, here’s a model that has appeal: The Victornix Swiss Army Knife 53857 Midnight Manager in sapphire. The blue is a definite plus. Also, the knife is only two and a quarter inches long. It includes a small blade, some scissors, a pen, a nail file with a screwdriver tip, a magnetic Phillips screwdriver tip and wire stripper, plus an LED minilight.

I like having a few options, but not too many, because the recipient will be able to find what he needs without taking an hour. Plus, because it really only offers one blade among eight functions to dink around with, the likelihood of his losing a fingertip falls drastically.

Reviewer omahawk likes this knife too, because he (I’m almost certain omahawk is a “he”) says it’s small enough to get through most airport security and the knife and scissors will stay sharp for years. But he does point out that there’s a tradeoff: having that light means no place for tweezers. Considering my guy would probably end up losing the tweezers on his first official outing with it, that’s a loss I can live with.

Imation has just come out with a flash drive that purports to be about the size of a paperclip and that holds up to eight gigabytes of storage. While I was searching around for that on PriceGrabber (not there yet), I noticed this little charmer. It makes up for its lack of roominess (256 gigabytes) with its stylish design: Modeled after a Gumby doll, this one wraps around your wrist, so you’ll never mislay it.

The latter point is an important consideration. According to research from the Ponemon Institute, most people don’t think twice about copying corporate data onto a USB device to move it to another computer, but if that USB device is misplaced, unlike with a missing laptop computer, they won’t necessarily report it as lost to the enterprise security folks.

Eventually, maybe manufacturers will come up with access control cards that grant you entry to your place of employment and that act as a data retainer, allowing you to move information easily and securely.

In the meantime, a low-cost blue Gumby isn’t a bad idea. Wonder if it has “storestrong” imprinted on the rubber.

Roller derby is a making a big-time comeback — and the girls are getting wild! This is a full-body contact sport where the tougher you are on the rink, the louder you fall, the harder you use your elbows, the more the crowds adore you. (With rink names like Broadzilla, Eva Destruction and Myna Threat, you know these are not people to be messed with.) As writer Brian Haney puts it, “Clobbering one’s opponents is not only legal, but highly encouraged.”

I’m still waiting for derby wear to show up at my local Target. But quad skates are everywhere.

Since I know nothing about skates, I’m going to venture that the more you spend, the better you get.

That’s why my pair — when this lower back pain eases, mind you! — will be a set of Riedell Vandal Derby Quads. These pitbulls of the roller rink cost $274. The description talks about things like plates, wheels, bearings and top stops. (You can get “optional jam plugs,” while you’re at it, whatever they are.)

Reviewer Princess Rotten declares, “Put these babies on and you’ll be flyin around that rink. Perfect fit. Super smooth and derby tough!!!” Anything that gets said with three exclamations surely must be true, right?

So, until that lower back problem dissipates, I’ll spend my time thinking up a rink name for myself… Derby Di is a bit milquetoast. Di Another Day? Bomba Mama? I’ll keep working on that. In the meantime, watch that jammer. She is coming through, headin’ for you!!!

If there’s one searing memory that will live in my sweetheart’s brain until the day she dies, it’s the moment she realized I had sold all of her LPs to an enthusiastic buyer for a dime apiece at a yard sale many years ago. I often rationalized the loss by telling myself she didn’t have a turntable upon which to play those albums anyway — so what good were they?

No longer. Now I have to own up to my grievous blunder. ION has come out with its Audio LP Dock, a USB turntable that transfers your vinyl collection to your iPod.

The package also comes with software to let you record your records to CD or MP3. But the coolest aspect of this product is the fact that it includes something called Gracenote MusicID technology, which, according to the company, analyzes the record and retrieves album, artist and song information.

You simply play your record and record it with the conversion tool. At the end of each track, you click a button. When it’s finished, the song goes straight into iTunes. Of course, listening to your old tunes may send you down memory lane, making you forget to click that track button.

When you’re not moving music, you can just haul the turntable over to your sound system and play the albums through that.

Look, do me a favor. Don’t mention this one to my spouse, please? It’ll start the grieving process all over again, and, as the saying goes, when mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

When a guy goes around the country showing off the fire resistant capabilities of his company’s new hard drive by throwing it in a barbecue and firing it up to 1,400 degrees for several minutes, those of us who monitor stuff you gotta have sit up and take notice.

The guy is Robb Moore, and his company is ioSafe, based in Auburn, California. ioSafe used to be in the business of creating products that sold for many thousands of dollars. But lately, they’ve come up with a multi-gigabyte hard drive that sells in the $350-$400 range.

The ioSafe Squadron is a 200-gigabyte internal hard drive will preserve your data from multiple disasters: server failure, fire, water, theft and building collapse. Inside is standard hardware from either Seagate or Samsung. That’s surrounded by a waterproof barrier which allows you to lose your computer overboard and still access the data later. That’s protected by another layer of insulation material, which preserves the components in the event of fire. All of that is placed inside a 3.5-inch enclosure, which makes it standard computer equipment.

In the grilling demonstrations, according to Sacramento Bee columnist Bob Shallit, Moore would cook his drive, then connect it to a notebook computer to show that the data on it was still quite accessible. (It required a bit of cool down time in the demo Shallit saw, but then the device pulled through.)

As Shallit concludes: “Don’t try [this] at home.”

Summer has officially arrived, and so has the big debate: Should we or shouldn’t we get a portable DVD player for those extended car trips we’ll be making this summer? Our son, the five-year-old, knows nothing of these discussions; if he did, the decision would already be made. Instead of choosing books and trucks from his ample collection for the trip, he’d be selecting from among his DVD compilation.

And here’s the model we’d probably get: The Sony DVP-FX820. This eight-inch portable player comes in black, blue, white, red and pink. (Our son would opt for the blue; my spouse would choose pink; and I rather tend toward red.)

But it’s not the color choices that would drive the decision; it’s the fact that it’ll play for six hours non-stop, and he can use headphones to hear the sound. That’s six hours of relatively blissful quiet from the backseat, leaving his mother and me up front to discuss such compelling topics as whether to stop at the Dairy Queen in Fernley or try to make it all the way to Fallon.

When he gets sick of hearing the theme song from GeoKids, we can play our audio CDs on the Sony player.

The screen rotates to make for comfortable viewing from a booster seat and includes two jacks for headphones so a cousin can sidle up next to him and tune in when we arrive at our destination.

Plus, the player offers some video features my son doesn’t get on our player at home: motion zoom, repeat mode, slow-motion and title/chapter search. That makes this an educational device! Once he and I have convinced our other household member that a big screen is really a necessity, he’ll be able to show me how to work the controls.

We heat with a woodstove in my house. Now, you may be wondering, with temperatures in the 90s here in California, why would I be thinking about heat? Because now is the time to get our wood stock in for the fall. Everywhere I look on our nearly four acres, I see Manzanita just waiting to be cut up and stashed in our woodshed.

For that, I use an Alligator Lopper from Black & Decker. It’s an electrical chainsaw with a protective jaw so I don’t cut off a leg while doing yard work. Plus, unlike a gas-powered chainsaw, I can turn it on. But being electrical, it requires access to power. And that means sticking close to the house, where the outlets are.

I’ve lusted after a power generator with some heft, something I could carry around the property to set up where I’m cutting; but those tend to be pricey and, well, hefty.

That’s why I’m intrigued by the Xantrex 400-Watt DC Powerpack. This is a rechargeable unit that you can haul around where you need the power. It includes jumper cables, an AC charger that recharges the Powerpack from a standard wall outlet, and a DC charging cable to recharge the unit from the battery of a vehicle. It also includes a built-in air compressor with nozzle adapters.

A display tells you how much battery capacity you have left and the watts of power being drawn from its two AC outlets. Two AC outlets?! That means I could run two appliances — the Alligator and an Hawaiian ice machine I’ve also been eyeing, which, when you’re cutting wood in 90-degree weather, could also be considered a necessity.

Summer’s here, and the living is easy. In fact, it’s downright besotted, what with baseball games, neighborhood potlucks, riverside picnics and work-time happy hours come a Friday evening. But how do you know if you’ve quaffed too much alcohol to get behind the steering wheel? Face it, somebody who’s had a few isn’t the best judge of whether or not he or she is sober enough to drive.

That’s why a little gadget like the AlcoHawk Elite Digital Alcohol Detector might be a smart gift for the designated non-drinker in your life. This is a device that person can make you breath into to find out your blood alcohol concentration, thereby preventing arguments.

There’s one button on the unit, which presumably makes it easy to use. And it comes with a carrying pouch and five mouthpieces. So, here’s a clue: If the person to be tested can’t see the single button, it’s probably best not to waste a mouthpiece. Just hide the car keys before you begin.

According to the vendor, Q3 Innovations, the Elite has an electronic airflow sensor to ensure the user continues to blow through the unit. This is a “vital new function,” says the company, “because only samples of air from the deep lung are proportionate to blood alcohol content. This new innovative sensor ensures the user exhales through the mouthpiece over the 4-5 second exhale.” No quick breathing to get a favorable reading.

The detector also includes a temperature sensor that displays the temperature at the time of testing. If it’s too hot or cold, apparently, the readings may not be accurate.

How does it work? You put in a new mouthpiece, prime the sensor by having the subject blow into it for a few seconds, then turn the unit on. A beep will sound and the temperature will display. Then a countdown occurs and another beep sounds. RDY will show up in the little display. From there, the user takes a deep breath and blows steadily into the unit until another beep sounds to signal that the test is over.

If the number showing is greater than .02, the vendor advises against driving. This is, of course, way below the .08 that most states consider you intoxicated. But as the saying goes, never drink and drive.

There’s not a notebook bag in existence that takes into account that fact that you might be traveling with a mouse. The makers of these accessories must assume you’re relying on the computer’s built-in touchpad. Note me. I’m a big believer in copy and paste, and my fingers absolutely spaz when I try to do that quickly with the touchpad. Yet, packing that mouse — as modestly sized as it is — is no picnic. Face it. Mice tend to be bulbous.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the bulky mouse in your life, check out the Newton Peripherals MoGo Wireless Bluetooth Mouse.

This one is sleek — meaning flat — and about the size of a business card. Plus, it’s Bluetooth enabled, which means no cables, no wires. It recharges inside a PC card slot, not via USB. (I’ve always wondered what I could do with that PC card slot, which sits unused on my notebook.) That’s also where you can stash it when you’re traveling. If you don’t have a PC card slot, you might want to seek an alternative, because those tend to cost more than the mouse. It runs on both Macs and PCs and can be made to work for righties or lefties.

Best of all, as itsalesguru points out in his or her review on PriceGrabber.com, this device is a conversation piece. “Every time I bring it out in a meeting, people think it’s really cool.” I like that in a product.

If my dad were still around, here’s what I’d try to pick up for him for Sunday: a gas-powered party blender. This in spite of the fact that he was a Budweiser guy. Face it, this gadget is cool! He’d have found a use for it!

Picture this. It’s Father’s Day. Hot afternoon out on the deck. Your dad grabs the ingredients for the Hussong’s Cantina margarita recipe: tequila, Mexican Controy or Cointreau, fresh-squeezed lime juice and ice. He dumps in equal amounts of tequila, Controy and lime juice, tops up the container with ice, and cranks the engine. Hold onto those handlebars to rev up the action. Then pour into frosty, salted glasses and pass around. He’ll be the most popular guy on the block — invited to untold numbers of outdoor BBQs!

The most powerful edition has a 4-stroke engine. But if your dad is new to drinking, you might want a 2-stroke starter edition.

And gas prices be damned! The guy gets recognition only one day a year!