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Father's Day, Geek Style?
mstyne asks: "With Father's Day coming up this weekend, it's been put to me to determine what we should get dear old Dad. Pants and ties are boring and old hat. What do you get for the tech-savvy pop that loves new toys?"
Nope.
Duh!
I have been pwned because my
Maybe Mother's Day and Father's Day should be non-commercial. Just let them know you appreciate them.
Stop with these moronic questions!!! Search any existing website for tech gifts for dad. Amazon among others. Asking every brain fart of the Slashdot audience is a waste of everybody's time!
I'd include a link, but some folks complain about Pr0n links, even when someone HREFs the SI Swimsuits.
This weekend there is no Father's day where I live.
I remember seeing some stuff about these on slashdot a while back. I think something analog like this would be a cool present for my dad. He is surrounded by too many digital things. Plus people would probably ask him about it a lot and then he would be able to brag about his fathers day gift.
My dad is so into his GPS, it is a little scary.
He takes it everywhere he drives when he travels. He sails and uses it to navigate on the Water as well.The later models are in Color and Have downloadable detailed maps for local areas.
Open Source Identity Management: FreeIPA.org
Even though ThinkGeek is an ovious choice they do have a "Dads and Grads" sectiont ml
http://www.thinkgeek.com/dads-n-grads.sh
Carpe meam simiam!
Past Times (which has stores in both the USA and the UK) sell some really neat build-your-own crystal radio sets. I've bought a couple for friends and family recently and they go down really well.
Some Dads are not entirely self-centered. Go figure. Some Dads are even (gasp!) socially aware. If your Pop fits the profile, try a gift in his name to one of these: Habitat for Humanity Save the Afghan Children RAWA The Heifer Project Southern Poverty Law Center Adopt a Solar Family in Guatemala Palestinian Red Crescent Maen David Adom
If you're female, you can give your dad the gift of grandfatherhood. I'll help!
I really hope my wife/child don't get me anything. I have very specific wants/needs. For example: a new power supply for my computer. No, not a generic, one of the PP&C 400 watt silent jobs. I need a brewpot. Preferably stainless. I need an outdoor cooker. I need to play with the legs to see if it is stable enough.
The best thing they can do is leave me alone for 24 hours. Barring that, spend 24 hours doing stuff with me. Worst case scenario: buy shit for me.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Old geezer engineer types love the old-skool reverse-polish-notaion HP calculators. There hard to find but worth it.
Normal calc: [2] [+] [3] [=]
RPN calc: [2] [3] [+]
RPN calcs are really cool if you have a lot of parens in your formula, and getting the right operation order is easy. RPN calcs are basically a little stack computer.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
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Stuff for Smart Masses
"We'll reach that bridge when we find it" - Suzy Romer, prime minister Netherlands Antilles '98-'99
How about ditching trying to get your dad to learn 'conventional' emailing and getting him an Ericsson Chatpen (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=ERIC_CHA TPEN).
This is win-win thing - he can write you as much as he likes and you'll be forced to reply in writing.
.
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On a related topic, Mother's Day...
When my kids were younger, the best thing I could give my wife for Mother's Day was to not be a mother for a day. So ahead of time, I planned a day trip with the kids, frequently out of state or far away in-state. In addition, I had a sitter arranged for that evening, and tried to have the house reasonably clean the night before.
So my wife got to see us get up and out first thing, then had the day to herself around a fairly clean house. Late afternoon we'd get back. She'd "bounce the kids on her knees" (do the fun mommy stuff) for a few minutes, and then the sitter would arrive and we were gone for dinner and movie or play.
She did the same type of thing for me several times. As the kids got older there was less need for this type of relief.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Everyone needs a TiVo.
Why should someone get a free house just because they can't afford one? When I couldn't afford one I, *gasp*, stayed somewhere I could afford, even though I didn't want to. I don't understand Habitat for Humanity. In my experience, when you give someone something for free, people don't appreciate it as much as if they worked for it. I've even noticed this in my own life when given "handouts".
Spend your money on yourself. If you want to help someone, don't do it with money, do it be volunteering your time to help them by teaching them something or help society as a whole by adopting a highway, picking up trash, whatever.
Fucking society is so damn stuck on possessions like houses and Habitat for Humanity furthers that by making it look like a house is a damn necessity. It's not.
Not a troll, but perhaps offtopic. Regardless, those are my thoughts.
The perfect Father's Day gift or any time gift for that fact to a geek would be to name a star after them... this would also be a good valentines present to some chick... lol!
Go Here to buy a star... who knows, it could even have it's own earth2... you would own it!
Erutangis ym si siht.
Never underestimate the joy that small radio control devices bring. Most hobby stores are carrying affordable "USA flag" radio control blimps right now. This will be enjoyed not only this sunday, but also July 4. If you're not American, then helicopters and cars are also generally appreciated, and can be had for not much money. For the dads, try to actually have some *fun* with your kids, and put stress behind you for a day. Trust me, your kids will appreciate it too.
I know of a company that sponsored a house and the person got it for free. Oh, sure, once a week they had to go out there and figure out which side of the hammer to use and pound a few nails, but they put no real work into it from what I understand.
I recommend volunteerism to you as a way to put a little perspective in your life. Habitat might be a good start - check out your local chapter. Keep in mind that although it's a Xpian charity, you are not required or even expected to have any particular religious affiliation (the local chapter in my neck of the woods is run by Unitarian Universalists and Bhuddists!).
I'm Karma whoring here, but you're post reminded me of this: FreeBSD Girl
Toys are irrelevant and useless. Get him something he'll appreciate (and if he doesn't then he didn't deserve toys to begin with): Spend the day with him and go do something interesting--whatever gets your goat. Mini golf. Canoeing. Rebuilding that old engine sitting in the old rust bucket out on the lawn.
Buying him a toy is shallow and uncaring. It just demonstrates you couldn't take the time out of your busy schedule to do something with him yourself.
Worse, it promotes the idea that you are a consumer, and not anything more. At best, you'll keep him occupied with a few hours of novelty before it wears off and he puts it on a top shelf and forgets it.
But if you spend some time with him and it's meaningful, believe me he'll cherish it much, much longer.
Check out ThinkGeek.Com. Lot's of cool toys to tinker with. Personally I think the Binary Clock is cool.
Ummm... Okay. Whatever. Reread the comment, moron. I clearly stated I would rather spend time with them than have them buy me stuff. If you'd be happier with a crappy tie than wrestling with the kids (and 'special wrestling' with mommy later on) I think you're the one in need of relationship help.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
...Habitat for Huge Manatees instead.
:)
obSimspons
(extra karma if you can name the episode!)
dad wants the very latest, so get him one of these. Duh.
Light cup, beer drink, thin so chain, neck turtle fat, man I won't say it again
So, carpentry isn't work? What is - posting your uninformed hearsay bullshit on slashdot? Habitat makes the prospective homeowner *work* and I've seen it with my own eyes. Get a life, loser.
I most enjoy gifts from my kids that they have made themselves. Something that is a kind of keepsake to put on my desk.
;-)
From my wife, well let's just say that I'd like her to embark on a quest to make the floppy go away.
Is that a true naming system, will books of the sky actually call the star buy the name that it was givin? If so thats neat, I've hear of it before but didn't know the web site. Or is it only called that in starregistry.com's database???
LinuxWorx
Spelling errors are intentional as are gramatical error
oh no not just any dimmer switch, a remote controlled dimmer switch, for his theater room. the bad thing is that i bought it 4 weeks ago, got it out a couple of times to play with it, show it to friends, now i cannot find it
I'm getting my dad, or rather making him, a t-shirt. I got my mom a license plate thing that said Got /.?
SOmething like that
Let's take a step back and look at the falacy of this "Ask Slashdot" question:
How could you have a geek for a dad when we all know that kids require sex?
I have three kids. I don't want anything. If you're a good parent, your reward is a good relationship with your kids.
Father's Day is an idiotic response to an idiotic Hallmark holiday (Mother's day). If you look into the history of Mother's day you'll find that the woman who started it was unhealthily devoted to her own mother. And things just went downhill from there.
A grandson, just three weeks ago. He doesn't want anything else.
(However, I did make a nice print of him holding the baby and put it in a frame for him)
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
To clarify, you did list leaving you alone for 24 hours as the "best" thing they could do for you. Coming in second was spending time with you. So, yes, I did read the comment. And I re-read it.
"Dear All,
Why not treat your loved ones this Father's Day with a free network card! Stocks are limited, so hurry!"
Not only did I get read of all those horrible Realtek cards that had been sitting in a box somewhere, but also several 100m of coax cable that was gathering dust.
The ensuing fight over the terminators was quite amusing too....
My dad has a fav coat that my Mom got him to work outside in when I was a baby (30+ years ago) - it's pretty ragged out, but still his favorite for hard work around his 7-acre place. I'm taking it to a tailor to try and have its rips sewn up, new lining, all the buttons replaced, etc. - basically make it warm and sturdy again.
See this one for an example. (Not mine, not me, just a random example).
"Carpe vitam globis!"
There's no wrong way, to eat a Rhesus...