Slashdot Mirror
Geek Christmas Gift Ideas
Anonymous Coward writes "EDN magazine for December 12 has an article on Christmas gifts for techies. The best are a mouse pad that uses your hand as the mouse and Hokey Spokes (Why didn't I think of that?)." Getting desperate for ideas yet? I'm currently in the juggling fedex tracking numbers phase of christmas ;)
Tech TV has had a "Top 20" geek christmas list for a few weeks now. Good stuff-Told all of my friends to get it. And don't tell me you can't get Tech TV, do like me, and be a dishhead! Tech TV is free on Satcom C4 Transponder 12!
They're tiny (2" 1:66) Remote control cars that run off a rechargeable battery charged on the remote control.
They're affordable ($20 for a starter kit) and upgradeable (faster motors, better tires, NiMH battery pack).
Perfect for boardroom tabletop racing!
When you can just get a Touchpad Mouse that'll probably do the same and be more compact to "slip easily into your travel bag as the perfect external USB pointer for your laptop."
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Amazon.com has lists of gifts for different types of people including:
Gifts for Brainiacs (mostly books & brain-teaser party games) and
Gifts for Gadget Lovers (uh... gadgets).
Their Impossible to shop for list is also worth looking at (all sorts of weird stuff).
For your non-geek kith and kin here are all the other Gift lists by recipient
a dvd player (or a ps2/xbox), one of the LCD displays for PS1 or Gamecube, and a DC-AC adaptor works great to keep kids quiet on long car trips. I just strap the screen to the back of the front seat, sit the PS2 between the kids, and you're all set.
A good mobile dvd player would no doubt be less prone to skipping, but if you aren't offroading (ie; highway driving) it's all good.
Be warned: many, if not most, children will get carsick trying to watch a movie or play video games while driving. Whether you spend 2000$ or 400$ on your car entertainment center won't make kids puke any less.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
That's how a bunch of us get to work.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
I got a NeoGeo Pocket, and a Flashlink adaptor and 2 blank cartridges. I had tons of fun boxing day hacking homebrewed stuff, and whatnot. Though I pretty much had to spell out *exactly* what to get and where to get it for my wife.
I'd frankly rather let people surprise me with whatever. A far as the 'geek' stuff goes: computer parts, video games, etc, I know what I want better than anyone I know. It's less fun when you have to give people the exact part numbers of what you want.
It's better to give than to recieve, so this year I'm giving the geek gifts. I bought up a couple of abandoned 'barbie' pc cases for 6 bucks, fitted them with Shuttle FV25 flex-atx mainboards, 1.0A Celerons, a chunk of ram, some dvd players, and am giving each kid their own media PC. One painted up to look like Scooby's Mystery Machine (for the boy), the other upholstered in mock leapord-skin fur (for the girl).
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Lots of neet stuff, T-shirts, coffee mugs, gadgets, etc. Mostly stocking-stuffer type stuff, but some larger items as well.
TM
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
bill's married and has kids - I'm sure he hears the 'Hey Bill, wanna go fishing?' from them. Well, maybe more 'hey dad, wanna go fishing' - but its pretty much the same
--to get free or cheap big dishes, drive around in the country and look for them, then see if they also have a small dish installed. Chances are pretty good if they have a small dish the big dish is now yard art. Knock on door, ask if you can have it for dismantling it, or perhaps a small fee and dismantling it. It's Christmas season, people are up to extra cash in their wallets. I got one for just the asking, but alas the receiver was broken, I'll find one though sometime. The dish itself and the pole mount and tracker/adjustment mechanism are "neat stuff", even if I don't ever get the receiver I was thinking of some solar projects with it, or maybe some other wireless stuff. Don't know but I collect gadgets like that, ya never know when a project inspiration will present itself. Conversely if you can get the dish, perhaps ebay would provide the receiver cheaply.
I'd rather bet on the random asshole not running into someone directly in front of him than I would bet on him not breezing by me on my left and then immediately right-hooking me at the next driveway. The latter accident is more common and hugging the curb puts you at more of a risk for it.
Correct bicycle lane-positioning requires more than a slashdot post to do it justice, though; see John Allen's Bicycling Street Smarts (read it online or order it for cheap) for a good concise summary of the standard advice on this subject.
--Bruce Fields