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Non-Geeky Gifts for Tech Geeks
An anonymous reader writes "FiringSquad.com has just put out another holiday gift guide. They've gathered together, along with the usual video cards and whatnot, several non-techie toys with a techie slant. With the exception of an mp3 and a digital camera, everything else they recommend is stuff I haven't seen on any list before. They have things ranging from $10 to $7500. My favorite has to be the Blendtec blender. 2 horsepower motor. Turns hockey pucks into mulch."
Try the hidden Printer (and reader) Friendly Version!
Some good gifts:
* GUI C++ Programming Guide
* Hex/socket set
* Leatherman
* Vernier caliper
* Dremel or Rotozip set
Health Blenders BlendTEC for $400
Shiny Porter Cable 7424 Random Orbital Sander for $120
Chill Zwilling J.A. Henckels Cermax M66 Wine Chiller for $130-200 or some knives for $13?
Look good Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Camera or Fuji F31fd for $400 or Pentax K10D Cameras - $4000
Loud SV Sound and HSU Research Subwoofers, etc, $400 to $7500
Fast AMD Processors. Woo!
Morning Impressa Z6 and Impressa E8 Coffee Machine things for around $1000
Tradition 1GB IPod Shuffle for $80
Meh, its all adverts really. Heres some junk for the lameness filter:
Monkeyboi
Yet another website that destroys perfectly playable videos by wrapping them in crappy proprietary Flash.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
That blender is off the hook. Did you see the video of it reducing the rake handle to dust? Crap, one of their blenders has a freakin' 20 amp motor. I just bought a hammer drill that can punch through three feet of concrete and it only has a 7.5 amp motor.
Admittedly, I haven't a clue what I would do with a 20-amp blender, but it looks impressive.
Sorry to dismiss point 2):
:)
:). Using different knives for meat, vegetables and fruits is recommended: meat needs sharpness and doesn't contain acids to eat away the blade - fruits may or may not need incredible sharpness, so you could do with a more stain-resistant knife (less sharp) or a smaller knife made of less resistant steel (sharp but cheap = expendable)
Knife hardness == edge retaining
It's not difficult to get any decent steel knife sharp as a razor. Any knife sharpener can do it. The trick is to have a blade that will retain that sharpness for a while. A very cheap knife will lose its sharpness after slicing the first half of a cucumber, better knives last for cutting half a dozen steaks out of raw meat and professional knives need only one re-sharpening per cooking session. If you seldomly prepare larger meals, any _decent_ knife is enough, no matter what the ads are telling. If you earn a living preparing meals, it's an entirely different matter, though. You'd probably go crazy with knives and sharpening stones through the course of a day
One more thing for households:
-do not clean your good knives in a dishwasher, stainless steel cannot retain edges well enough, so good knives are invariably more prone to stains.
-rinse immediately after using them, especially after cutting fruits. A sharp edge is an infinitely thin part of metal that is not really resistant to even mild acids. Avoid spilling Coca Cola on them for the same reason
-don't store them in a drawer or box, use a magnetic holding bar mounted on a wall or a wooden "quiver" instead. Many hard tools with vulnerable edges thrown together damage each other when their container is moved. ,
-don't sharpen them too much, but sharpen them regularly. The sharp edge isn't simply sheared off through usage, it's folded to the side instead. A sharpening stone brings it up again and hones off wear. If you don't sharpen it, microscopic cracks form and increase edge corrosion plus you need more force driving the knife through the material, increasing shear stress on the folded edge, eventually tearing off parts of it.
link to single page print-ready version, so you don't have to click through page after page of minimal text and maximal ads.
e nt_section=Features&fs_article_id=2069
http://www.firingsquad.com/print_article.asp?curr
-Styopa
To be fair, the SureFires are self-defense flashlights. I keep one in my car in the door compartment. They're meant to create an extremely bright light to blind an attacker, and for that job they work well. Easier to use and safer (more range) than a knife, and the cops won't look twice at a guy with a flashlight on his keychain.
They're definitely not general-purpose lights - you want that very bright light for when you need it. Also, $300 is definitely for their top-of-the-line version - there are good tactical LED flashlights for $60.
In accordance with E.O. 12958, this post is marked Unclassified.