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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 ;)
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
The website says that they are fully programable. You can use the ir port of a Palm Pilot to communicate with them. So yes you can make them say dirty words or your web address. If anyone is looking long and hard enough to read the words though they are likely to hit you unintentionally if they are in a moving car. Other patterns might hypnotizethem or trigger siezures. Maybe these aren't a saftey product after all...
Lasers Controlled Games!
...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
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!
Give them a gift that keeps on giving. Donate money in their name to EFF!
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!