What to Get My Geek for Valentine's Day?

A reader writes "Help!!! I've been dating my geek for three months and I'm in a bit of a dilemma. So I thought I'd ask the men of Slashdot what they would want as a Valentine's Day gift. I'm looking for something out of the ordinary that will knock his socks off. Somthing clever, crafty and unique. The budget is $100. My geek's interests are typical geek fare, games, computers, music and gadgetry. So! You, men of Slashdot, tell me what you would want to recieve for Valentine's day and help me make my geek happy."

Comments

Computer Parts

[darkstar949]

Computer parts can be a very good thing to get: new hard drive, more RAM, new CPU. If you realy want to make a statement there is always that realy big LCD panel screen that most of the geeks I work with drool over.

Or if you have a hard time picking one of those out, then sex is always appricated ^_^

Tools!

[JoeCommodore]

$100? How about some useful tool or hardware necessity. First thought would be one of those Keychain USB drives. If you want him to think of you often get him something he finds useful and will use a lot.

USB pendrive/MP3 player

[cybergeak]

my girlfriend got me one for x-mas, and i love it. although it looks sorta stupid (and she was the first to admit it), its hella handy. its only about 75 bucks i think for 128mb, but shop around online.

the only thing that sorta sucks about it is, if you drop it, or tap it, or once in a while, look at it wrong while its playing mp3s, it turns off, and then give a low battery warning, but that could just be mine. i just take the battery out, and pop it back in, and all is well again.

http://www.apacer.com/

Re:Really consider sex

[colmore]

And if you're in to that sort of thing, you might want to spend that Benjamin on some toys for the night (or afternoon's, or morning's) activities:

babes in toyland

Or if you resent a web forum telling you how to run your sexlife, then yeah, thinkgeek.com. Or how about this take him to CompUSA or Electronics Boutique or Best Buy to pick up something basic (you need new blank CDs or something) and as soon as you see him oggling something in your price range, yank it from his hands, march to the register, say "I love you sweetie." (or "happy valentines" if at 3 months, that's a bit much) and buy it for him.

Re:The Best Store

[Mattcelt]

Agreed. There is lots of cool stuff there.

I would also suggest a Leatherman, if he doesn't already have one. Most models are in the $30-$70(US) range, and are very handy. I have actually given them to two of my past girlfriends (no jokes about the reasons for them being ex's, please). They both loved them.

Commenting on lots of comments here ...

[LoudMusic]

Sex: I've always been of the opinion that sex and sexual acts should not be "gifts" to your significant other. If you're not both into it, then it shouldn't be done. And if you're getting something out of it for yourself is it really a gift? That's not to say I wouldn't like a lil' sum`n sum`n, but it shouldn't be the gift.

ThinkGeek: A friend of mine gave me a $100 gift cert to TG for Christmas. It was actually difficult for me to find something with their current stock. Perhaps TG isn't your best option right now - it'll improve soon I hope.

Non-Geek: I think this is a really great idea. Geeks have non-geek interests. In fact their geekiness is probably a small part of their personality, but because it's so in the media right now it tends to be the only thing people see. The computer geek persononality is usually paired with a mechanical personality, tools, cars, the like ... musical interests, and even art. Not to sound pompus (but it does) "geeks" like smart people stuff .

Here's an idea. A nice picture of yourself in a nice frame. Prepaired dinner. Rented movie. And a smaller purchase. Perhaps a little toy of some sort he can keep on his desk near his computer. The dinner and movie at home would be excellent as resturants are usually flooded. You can still get dressed up and all that, I would suggest it even. Geeks like romance too, you know.

Re:Something special

[Dalcius]

"Get him a nice piece of decoration he can use to brighten his computer/workplace/shrine with. Good modern art, some kind of astronomy picture, something to focus his eyes on when he needs to calm down after some bughunting"

As cheesy as some might think it, most geeks I know would appreciate a lava lamp. I've got one on my desk at work -- it's relaxing after a long coding session to lean back and stare at the globs rising and falling and smacking into each other.

Just a thought. :)

Cheers

Re:Blow job

[khoward1]

Give him a Simpsons Valentine. It says "I Choo-Choo-Choose you", and there's a picture of a train!

Re:The Best Store

[xmedar]

FireBox is great for gadgets and toys, run by a couple of real geeks, and no I dont work for them, family member etc, I'm just a customer.

you should know better

[CAIMLAS]

You should know better than to ask a bunch of geeks what a girlfriend should get for her boyfriend. The obvious answer will more than likely be: a blowjob, sex, unobligated sex of his type choice (my vote :P), and "Just feed and water him, he should be OK".

However, in terms of gadgetry, I'd have to put up for these as particularly good products:

Arc-AAA LED Flashlight (they look damned cool and industrial, and are incredible little lights - possibly the AA model, depends on what you're going for)
Kershaw folding knife (I personally like knives; he may not. However, there are a lot of things you can do with a knife that most folks don't think about. You might find that getting him a Swiss Army knife (or leatherman's tool) would be more appropriate to his tastes)
a flight watch - you might be able to find one of these at sub-100$ prices, I'm not sure. Flight watches have lots of nice dials and such that are sure to entertain him; a nice timepiece is fun to wear, IMO.
possibly something like a dremmel - it depends on how much he's into making things; it's possible he already has one, though.

Remember, the cardinal rule when buying gifts for guys, and geek guys in particular is: the exact opposite when shopping for woman. If it's not practical, we don't want it (more often than not). Don't waste your time/money on a card; they're impractical and don't mean anything unless you wrote it/made it yourself anyway.

I'd probably say it's harder to shop for men, as there's got to be a balance met amongst various factors: practicality, whether the person could/would use it, and the "nice to have" factor: sure, you could use a sexy looking flashlight, but a 10$ from kmart would probably do just fine: a nice one like the one above shows you care.

IMO. :P Of course, doting on him and making him dinner or such would likely be just as appreciated, if not more so: not many typical geeks spend their time cooking. Show him how cool and counter-culture you are (valentine's day is typically a "guy sweats blood trying to please the female, for hopes that she'll appreciate his efforts" affair), and break some rules.