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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."
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Gee, that helps!
A bit pricey, no? $300 for a flashlight? A $3600 capaccino machine?
Maybe I'm just poor or cheap, but most of these are outrageous. Who is their target audience? Fortune 500 execs?
Non-geeky gifts for geeks? Why bother? They're geeks for a reason - they like geeky stuff! It's like getting a pair of socks for xmas... you don't want them, you don't need them, and you'd rather something that plugs into your PC. USB socks, there's a gift...
it's full of ads!
ACK NAK RST
Although a bit late for xmas now (or is it), I threw together a brief, 1-page, tech geeks gift list a while back which can be found here. Hopefully it is not modded away into oblivion as being too link-whoreish!
Warhammer forums
Out of curiosity, what's your preferred alternative?
MPEG - open, but filesizes are too big
Quicktime - proprietary, not as widely used
WMV - proprietary
RealVideo - proprietary, with plenty of Slashdot hate toward the company
Ogg video - no market penetration
XVID/various "divx" AVIs - low market penetration
I suppose the best open and reasonably widespread alternative is mpeg 4, but I'm interested in what you think websites ought to use instead of Flash.
Amen! I'm always amused at "gift guides" that are composed of items that are hundreds of dollars. Just how the hell much money do these people think my family is worth at Christmas? A really expensive Christmas gift to me is around $50. If I were married, I'd probably spring for $100 or so for my wife.
Yet I see guides like this, hear radio ads telling me to by diamonds that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, or even to do something stupid like buy a new car for my hypothetical wife. A new car? Do these people honestly think I would make such a huge decision without the knowledge, full acceptance, and blessing of my wife?
Am I just the world's biggest cheapskate?
Wait, no, I think I know what's going on here. They want me to think I'm a cheapskate if I don't buy hundreds of dollars worth of crap for my family for Christmas.
Well, I'm sorry, the joke's on them. I think that along with the lesser-expensive gifts I give to my family, a really nice one is not begging them for money the rest of the year because I'd be in debt beyond my imagination for burning through money like that. And call me crazy, but I also think that a really nice gift for one's spouse instead of earrings or a new car that you don't need is—gasp!—a realistic plan for retiring some day so that we can spend wonderful decades together without having to work our asses off for useless junk like, well, a $300 flashlight or a $3600 cappuccino maker!
Honestly, $300 for a fucking flashlight? If someone game me one of those, I wouldn't be grateful, I'd be extremely condescending. "You spend $300 for a fucking flashlight? Did you win the lottery, or are you just too damned stupid to know that you can get a really good one at Target for less than $10?"
What scares this geek is that there are obviously people out there who actually buy this junk. What's doubly scary is that they're pitching it to my friends and family as if I actually would want any of this crap. God, I hope they're not that stupid.