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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 ;)
These things are future-scary. How soon before we see Pepsi ads on the wheels of school buses?
Best Buy has POS DVD players for $39 - any thoughts on what would be necessary to strap that and a tiny tv into the back of the minivan for a less than $1800 (retail) auto-theater?
My first thought when I saw them was: can they be hacked? Can I change the message they display to a custom one? Can I advertise my web address on them?
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Vectron Blackhawk
UFO-like semi-remote (wired) flying thingy. Before I wrapped it for my son, I HAD to try it out. Hard to fly initially, but very cool.
why is advertising so scary? schools already take money from soft drink makers (mostly Pepsi) to have their vending machines solely in their school districts...school districts advertising has a couple of possible benefits as far as i see...first, schools would have more money to spend on quality teachers, materials, facilities, etc...second, with the added income, the money the schools would need from taxes could go down, and thus taxes would go down...both of these are positive benefits to something that has relatively benign side effects...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
I just got some Beyblades for my son who's birthday was Monday (he just turned 6). I don't know where they would stand on the Geek-Coolness-Meter but they are absolutely a blast. I got Dracile and he's got Dragoon. I haven't had so much fun in years.
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If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
...is something that isn't geeky. Chances are a geek is going to know more than you do about sdram, a tivo, an ipod, a palmpilot, or anything else geeky you can get them. The best thing to do with the gift giving opportunity of Christmas is to buy someone something they wouldn't know how to shop for themselves. Shopping is a skill as those of you with girlfriends know well. If you know a lot about comfortable hiking socks or shot glasses, consider getting some of those for somebody.
In short, the gift you're giving isn't just the amount you're spending (otherwise, give cash) but the knowledge you have about good products and where to find them. The worst thing to buy a computer geek is computer stuff - the worst thing to buy a carpenter is a new drill. Both will object to you usurping their extremely picky opinions. Buy them something they suck at shopping for - something you're great at shopping for. This will vary from person to person.
I stole my father's old slide collection from the attic and spent a couple months with a slide scanner digitizing it. He lost our family's photographic history when he lost his slide projector, and I'm going to give it back. Over a thousand images from when I was growing up that he hasn't seen in years, built into one DVD with a custom viewer application so all he has to do is put it in his computer and autoplay will do the rest. Just one idea, but you get the picture.
Kill Trolls Dead. Here's
[this was blatantly copied from http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/check.htm ]
Gift-giving is an integral part of the holiday season, and one is expected to expend not just money on the endeavor, but time and effort too. To write a check or enclose money in a card is to distill the process down to only one aspect of the tradition, arguably the least important. One, in effect, puts an explicit pricetag on a relationship, making a cold but straightforward assessment of that person's worth in the giver's life. It is for this reason etiquette frowns upon the practice -- though the cash might be welcome, the lack of sentiment behind the present is not.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Who are these people you are referring to? I work in an IT department at a major university and I don't see these extreme geeks you appear to be referring to. Even if they are there, why the hate? What are they doing to you?
Live and let live already!
Reindeer DNA -- the perfect Christmas present - link is here. Weird.
Give them a gift that keeps on giving. Donate money in their name to EFF!
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
give puzzles!
You can have a lot of fun and satisfaction from solving these puzzles.
There's a belgian website with even better puzzles, but I forgot the link and and google isn't helpful. Look for Eureka! puzzles from Belgium.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
I buy enough geeky crap ove the course of a year that what I really want for xmas is a clothing, personal hygine products, or books. If I want something techy, I want to pick it out and play with it first.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
But while we'll buy presents for the kids in both families, once you hit 18, you go into a kind of "secret santa" thing where you're assigned one person to buy for. This is good because when you only have to buy a few present, you can put some real thought into them. Sometimes, it gives an excuse to call extended family members and talk about what you might buy where otherwise you wouldn't make the call. It's especially interesting when I need to buy for an older or younger member of my family and have to think outside my generation when finding something to buy.
It gets Christmas back to basics with an emphasis on giving and not on getting.
How often are you going to actually run out and buy some socks? Never. Just look at 'em. They're probably raggy and in pathetic shape right now.
Socks. The Christmas gift I once hated but now hate to buy for myself.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
kcgeek.com just put up our yearly (last-second) list of items that we considered to be lust-worthy presents for the geeky and pseudo-geeky.
You can check it out here.
We promise the server will keep running :)
Hokeys looked cool, and OK I quickly looked at the price and considered it... but what it needs is better power source.
Surely this one is crying out for converting kinetic energy!
I almost had my immediate family trained to accept the fact that I hate presents for birthdays, Christmas, whatever. The fun wore off about the time I was seven or so. After many years of complaining they finally stopped buying me stuff... Then my sibs all got married and started having kids and started the cycle all over again :( I got married last year and added seven new nephews to my already existing four nephews and nieces (with two more on the way). Can't win I guess. This year I came up with a new idea though, I opened up Brightstart accounts for my brother and sister's kids. Now instead of falling into the crass commercialism trap my gifts are money towards their college education. :)
I wouldn't say I'm a bad gambler but the last time I went to Vegas I even lost a buck on the soda machine.