So meanwhile, while everyone looks over in the far corner to see how Nest is doing now that it’s part of the massive Google (or should we say Huuli?) empire, elsewhere in the universe more conventional fun stuff is still being made, which is good to know.

Take this ThermNeon, which is a cool little retro room thermometer made out of nixie tubes. The neat little gadget gives you a conventional temp reading without the use of all that nasty mercury stuff, and what’s more you can plug it into a nearby USB socket to do some configuration magic as needed.

The little gizmos are all handmade, and are accurate to +/- 1 degree which is good to know. The color options are also pretty cool. Priced at $200.