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Geek Gift Ideas 2001
Once again its time for Slashdot readers to chime in on what they think would make good gift geek christmas presents. Please put approximate prices in the Subject so Santa can more easily decide your gift ;) I'm still stuck for ideas for a few people yet. Of course I'll have to post my ideas anonymously so people don't know what they're getting ;)
MediaFour is working on an app to allow the iPod to work with Windows. Hopefully Apple won't nuke them with the DMCA.
I've always enjoyed brewing my own beer.
For under $100 you can get all the stuff you need to brew and bottle your own beer.
If they are the handy person type, gift cards for your local Home Depot, Loews, Menards, etc. are good.
Bookworms always like gift cards to Barnes-Noble, B. Dalton, Waldenbooks, etc.
Or Lego Mindstorms whan all else fails
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
With all the hype of Xbox, Gamecube, and even remaining hype of PS2, people seem to forget that lonely Sega Dreamcast sitting on the bottom shelf for $80. It runs linux! It has an ethernet port! It's the ultimate geek hacking toy for Christmas. Info here.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
109 at cotco.. check www.costco.com
***There is no point in asking, you'll get no reply***
Think Geek has RF Dealbolts. Basically, deadbolts for your home that have a remote control.
Digital picture frames are cool. The ones that plug into your computer via USB don't require a subscription. Kensington makes a good one (640x480) around $200. People ooh and ahh over it. (For the rich geek, get him 20 and let him make a collage over a wall. Sorry. That's more Martha Stewart than Slashdot.)
TiVo! If you haven't already joined the revolution, join it. You'll thank yourself. It will *completely* change the way in which you use your television. Oh, and for the better, too.
An 80's Arcade Game. One of those real-life 6' stand-up arcade games. Any self-respecting geek wouldn't snub his nose at one... well, unless it was a really bad title. "Oh, wow! Pit Fighter! I've always wanted one of THOSE."
Along with the idea of the RF deadbolts, various places sell mechanisms which are used for opening and closing outside gates ($800?). Would be awfully handy for the geek to fit that on a door. Bringing in the groceries or heavy electronics, having the door swing open on command (wireless or touch-pad) would be really handy. [Insert standard disclaimers about potential for misuse.]
X10 remote control stuff. 'Nuff said.
Satellite radio for car. If you've got a musical geek.
Roller Shoes. If they haven't gone out of style already. Like normal shoes, but at the flip of the button, wheels pop out from below and turn into roller skates. Yes, they make these.
Two highly geeky DVDs (amongst many) are:
The Matrix/Matrix Revisited Box Set
The Star Trek Box Set (Treks one thru nine)
And not quite as geeky, but with heavy Internet overtones:
Serial Experiments: Lain Box Set
The iPod is a pretty cool little device, but it would be even cooler if it could record sounds on the go. That way, it could be a replacement for those microcasette voice recorders that a lot of people use, or you could just (assuming an input jack, rather than a little built in microphone) plug it into the headphone jack of a soundboard or walkman or whatever. You get the idea.
Don't just think music here: consider that, if paired with moderately decent voice recognition software back on the desktop computer, you could have close to instant transcription of speeches, lectures, meetings, etc. This is really what the PDA was invented to do, but you have to teach yourself how to get data in & out of the device, and even with experience it's a slow process.
Something like the iPod could solve the same problem in a completely novel way. It has more than enough storage capacity to record a lot of audio data, and might [???] have the processing power to do so easily. [If it doesn't have the horsepower, then maybe iPod2 can bulk up on cpu & ram, along with that built-in mic.] No futzing around with graffiti -- just leave it on your desk, recording passively. Later on, it can be rapidly synced with the much more powerful Mac/PC/whatever, where you can do the interesting heavy duty processing on your data -- transcribe it, upload it, burn to cd, whatever. Brilliant.
Having audio out -- where you can record stuff (songs, etc) on your computer & carry it with you on the go -- is cool. Having audio in -- where you can bring sounds from out in the world back to the computer for processing -- would be even better. I want to see someone build such a device.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Pretty sure it would make me a hero... on the cheap!
Skip the commercial crap altogether -- exchange gift exemption vouchers and do something relaxing on Buy Nothing Day.
Nothing funny about photos. They're among the best presents you can give. I gave framed prints of a b&w photo that I took in high school to my family. To this day, it still hangs on their walls.
The previous two years, I gave my father $150 Amazon certificates. Last time I was home, I opened up the kitchen drawer and found the unused (and expired) certificates under a pile of junk. Perhaps I should go back to making prints this year.
Handmade presents are the best, and handmade presents with a geek theme are great for geeks.
Why not give your s.o./parents a portrait of yourself made out of your code, like using the Text-Image plug-in for the GIMP, or my own image to text. Get a nice hi-res image of yourself and your best perl script/r00t sploit, combine the two and print it out on some photo quality paper, mat and frame it.
use the case of an old monitor as the pot for a large plant.
make a custom keyboard which only has the letters of your s.o.'s name.
get out the dremel, epoxy, spare parts, creativity and go at it.
-f
www.blackant.net
I had an idea a while ago for a permanent website of this type.
:-) The site provides links to shopping sites, allows you to search by category, price etc. You then give people your site ID and your friends and family have access to a list of what you _actually_ want, making present giving potentially simpler. Wouldn't be that hard to set up, organise a small commision payment from the sites you send customers to and this could make money. Pity I don't have the time or energy to actually do it :-)
;-) <duck>
:-)
:-)
:-)
:-) but any reasonable, boxed model car will be appreciated. Honestly, little £5-10 cars make me very happy...
;-) Or, if you happen to be determined to throw money at this one, an SLR body using a more modern lens mount than M42 please :-)
:-( and I _prefer_ keyboarded PDAs. I want another.
:-(
:-)
6 0144) I was discussing what I'd enter into Robot Wars / Battlebots if I was up to it, had the time & ability and so on. I'd love to see a robot of that rough type built and entered, just to see how good an idea it would really be.
;-)
You log on, create a list of things you like, things you don't like, things you already have, things you like but you're so picky about that anyone buying for you is a bad idea
Anyway, what _I'd_ actually want:
* Sorry if this makes me sound like I'm trying too hard, but I'd be delighted if someone gave money to a charity I support (or one I didn't yet but whose aims I agreed with) as my present. Let's be honest, I make good enough money and there's only me to support, so I don't need generosity particularly and could get pretty much anything below myself if I put my mind to it (and in some cases, not for very long, either). Others need it more than I do.
* Pretty much impossible to give, but I wouldn't say no to a larger circle of friends. If I came out of the Christmas season with nothing listed below (or similar) but having met just one or two people whose company I genuinely enjoyed, I'd consider it a good Christmas. On the same line, I'm single, ladies, fuzzy photo at the out-of-date URL above...
More traditionally:
* Books. Good fiction or several different non-fiction areas.
* Films. Has to be Widescreen, beyond that I'll try most films _once_
* Music. Play it safe and get me rock or metal, play it slightly more adventurous and get me orchestral music, try pushing the boat out by getting me some jazz or blues. Pretty good chance I'll like any, though, in some places
* Chocolate. Pretty difficult to go wrong with a big box full of chocolate
* Model cars. Don't care what size (though bigger is preferrable
* Camera equipment. I'd feel guilty if someone spent a fortune, but if you happen to see some M42 lenses, filters, tripods or gadget bags going cheap...
Less practically...
* Those desktop RC tanks with the laser tag are _too_ cool. 3 of them shipped to the UK and we could have some cool deathmatches at the office...
* My Psion 5 seems to have packed up
* Hovercraft are cool. Either give me a working R/C model hovercraft, or a good set of plans and components. Or, let me know what will make a good liftfan because I can't find one so far when I'm trying to build my own
* No DVD here yet, so, please, a region-switchable DVD with 5.1 out and ideally a Macrovision defeater so it'll work with a video projector. Oh, how about getting me that projector, I've already got a large empty white wall that would make a lovely screen...
* One of these days I'll get round to building a _serious_ video jukebox (thinking 100+ hours of storage here...) to replace large piles of VHS cassettes and just make it all more practical. If anyone sees them ready-made and upgradeable, that'd be cool.
* Left Europe for the first time this October, visiting my sister in Ontario, Canada. Loved it. All offers of trips to interesting parts of the world gratefully recieved, as long as they come at least half board and flights paid
* Over in a recent poll thread (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23631&cid=25
* I need to replace my car at some point...
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!