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Ask Slashdot: What's The Best Geeky Gift For Children?
Everyone's suggesting gifts to teach the next generation of geeks about science, technology, engineering, and math. Slashdot reader theodp writes:
In "My Guide to Holiday Gifts," Melinda Gates presents "a STEM gift guide" [which] pales by comparison to Amazon's "STEM picks". Back in 2009, Slashdot discussed science gifts for kids. So, how about a 2016 update?
I've always wanted to ask what geeky gifts Slashdot's readers remember from when they were kids. (And what geeky gifts do you still bitterly wish some enlightened person would've given you?) But more importantly, what modern-day tech toys can best encourage the budding young geeks of today? Leave your best answers in the comments. What's the best geeky gift for children?
I've always wanted to ask what geeky gifts Slashdot's readers remember from when they were kids. (And what geeky gifts do you still bitterly wish some enlightened person would've given you?) But more importantly, what modern-day tech toys can best encourage the budding young geeks of today? Leave your best answers in the comments. What's the best geeky gift for children?
They'll be living on welfare by the time they grow up.
A practice set of student loan applications would be better prep for their future enslavement.
One of the books by Randall Munroe?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Without all the action figure stuff that serves as training wheels their imagination, unless they've demonstrated that they need it.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
A Sphero. They are extra cool, programmable, and there is a platform for people to make and share educational content
They have enough useless crap as it is.
My mom was sick and we were staying with a family. They took us shopping for Christmas, and I found a crystal radio tuned to the local station. They bought that for me. When we got home, their son, who had chosen a funky fire engine, whined that I had the better gift. They took it away from me, and gave me that stupid firetruck. That was almost 6 decades ago, and I am still angry about it. A budding geek lost such a great toy. Later I got into TV repair and I maintained the family TV and radios through the 60's. My love for technology continued to grow despite the loss.
...and they can create and print their own toys.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
- old tube AM radio to take apart (I was 5 years old and had already been passionate about electricity and electronics for the previous 3 years or so)
- crystal radio kit
- build-it-yourself motor kit (very cool - I had to wind the armature myself)
- countless ignition cells and lantern batteries
- 100-in-1 electronics educational kit
- walkie talkies
- wood burning kit (never did any wood burning 'art' with it, but it was my first soldering iron)
Along with new geek gifts for kids, consider old 'junk' that they can take apart, experiment with, and learn from; it won't cost much, and they won't be worried about breaking some new bit of shiny and pissing off Mom and Dad. And remember that the greatest gifts a parent can give to a geek child are TIME and COMPANIONSHIP. Take them to places that they'll love, but that they wouldn't normally go to or wouldn't discover on their own. When I was a kid my father took me to a local hydro-electric generating station. (I grew up in Niagara Falls Canada). And this was no tourist visit; he had a friend who worked there, and we were up on a narrow, high catwalk above the generators - a place where only employees were supposed to go. I'll remember that 'til the day I die.
The above ideas aren't specific to Christmas - but this is a good time to remind ourselves of the gifts we can and should be giving kids all year to feed their passions and build their confidence.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
suitable for all children from age 3 to 123
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I believe these provide immense fun.
If you are a member of a hackerspace, how about:
An optics kit
Some lego-enhanced optics components
Other cool optics components using legos
A home built robot
3d-print an industrial robotic arm
A modular clock kit
Any sciency kit
Any sciency toy
There's a long list of interesting things you could *build* for your child, or build *with* your child, and if they break something or want to modify/extend something, you can build them a replacement or an extension.
What about for the geology geek/rock hound/pebble pup? They'd love for you to get them some opals, or fire agates, or celestite, or maybe some lapis, or perhaps a massive Moroccan trilobite.
Not all geeky children gifts need to be technology-based. You aren't going to get a rockhound geek encouraged to get out and learn more by giving them a calculator.
Slashdot's playing a really stupid exclusionary game by basically denying geekdom to massive subsets of science with this Ask Slashdot thread, especially since the originally-referenced thread practically was meant for Geologists.
WhipSlash, you and everyone else should know better than this. What a goddamned shame.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Assuming they're old enough. Lego's suck for learning real engineering. If that's a no-go maybe Lego Technic, but I still think the Erector sets your better buy.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I agree with the lego bricks and if you want to go one step further, get a mindstorm ev3. Yes, mindstorm is expensive but it beats almost any stem toy on the market. It has a low learning barrier to entry but is still pretty powerful and most importantly is not single use. I have bought my kids quite a few other stem toys like sphero, ozobot, mbot, snap circuits, littlebits, preprogrammed toy robots, etc... but most of them either have limited customization or you have to be a programmer to make them do anything cool. The mindstorm kit was the most expensive stem toy I have ever bought but it is the only one that my kids still play with on a regular basis as the rest are now mostly just collecting dust and collectively all the other dust collecting stem toys cost more than the mindstorm set and the mindstorm can basically replicate the functionality of all of them. The only real problem my kids have with mindstorm is that they can only create one thing at a time and must destroy it before creating something new.
A rock tumbler requires patience but has an awesome payoff.
A metal detector has a sense of adventure, finding bits of jewelry and coins at a playground or park.
Get them an age/reading-level-appropriate magazine on some scientific topic.
Ranger Rick (National Wildlife Federation) is good for kids interested in nature.
Monthly magazines with puzzles and games are good for the math/logic-type geeks-in-training.
Comic book subscriptions and fannish magazine subscriptions are good for people whose geekdom is in literature, TV, or movies.
Why paper in the age of digital media? Because it's concrete and tangible, and it still works when the Internet or electricity goes out.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Not at that level of activity, it's under 1000cpm including alpha which means on a standard geiger counter (without a special alpha probe) you won't get much of a reading. If it's not 50 kcpm gummite then you're not even trying...
As a kid, I made most of my own toys from cardboard, Popsicle sticks, toothpick, and twist ties with scissors, tape, glue and paint. And I could make just about any toy I had seen on TV commercials. Radio Shack and The Comic Book Store were my go to places. The best geeky gifts I remember as a kid from younger age to older age are: 1. Lego's and playmobil toys 2. electric train set 3. A clear plastic model of internal combustion engine and transmission with working stick shift (had to turn the fly wheel by hand) and 4. A Book of science fiction short stories. That said, I left out things like Walkie Talkies and Camera, do to the cell phones of today, not to mention PCs and Video Game Consoles. It really depends on the child's age and their interests. So my advice would be to just ask the child what things they like geeky or not. Keep in mind science, technology, engineering, and math. apply to just about every thing.
I would have originally said a mac laptop..... but, apple have destroyed what was insanely great.... ,and left the world with massively overpriced computer like objects that you cant even plug in a usb memory stick.
You could go windows but that would be selling your kids heart to the devil, along with his browsing habits, shopping preferences and anything else microsoft want to monitor.
You could go with a linux laptop like...erm....... errr.... Cant find one for sale. Scrub that.
You could go with a chrome book. BUT.....GOOGLE.....WHY?....the market is shite (see above), you could clear up. WHY DONT YOU WANT TO?
Actually, all things considered I would buy a second hand Macbook white core 2 duo from 2010. they're available for £150, shove in 8gb of ram, and it will easily run the latest OS. If I was a kid, I would love to find this in my xmas stocking more than anything else;
No one was ever passed over for a job because they knew 'too many languages'.
I got the opportunity to work in Germany for almost 2 months because I had passable German.
I flew over there. Made something. Trained everyone there how to use it and haven't had to touch it since. I wish I could train a H1B to do my job so I can do the next thing. I could honestly train a high school student to do 90% of the boring laborious parts of my day and concentrate on the other 10%.
Get them good tools. Then teach them how to use them. I can barely remember disneyland, vacations, movies and the other passive activities from childhood. Building or fixing something with my dad or grandfather are all still strong memories.
Pine Book laptop. $89. Awesome.
https://fossbytes.com/dollar-8...
Just kidding
http://saveie6.com/
Let them learn about the old days when there was nothing to do on Sundays but watch guys throw a weirdly shaped ball around. Let them learn tech by 'rebelling' against your wishes, "Don't go into to tech, go outside and sports!"
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Best geeky gift for kids? Time to play, have fun. Less tech toys that are meant to 'train them for tomorrow'.
It's a nukular technical term.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Ah yes, murrica. Merry Bangmess.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Geeky like me? Get him an assortment of tools and all the cardboard, construction paper, popsickle sticks and rubber bands you can find. Hell, if I hadn't run out of that earlier I would still be in the basement building my own toys!
Then I turned 30 and my dad said I'm too old ... other story.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory
Today's drones are 'extreme geek'. Having upwards of 12 microprocessors, flight controller, radios. GPS, gyros, accelerometers, barometer, magnetometer...
That's why you should get your kid a drone kit of parts. Plus all of the tools, soldering iron, hand tools, volt meter, shrink tubing, wire, etc.
How about an Arduino starter kit?
And a link to Jeremy Blumm's tutorial series on youtube of course.
"A microscope. I suspect if they bothered, a CCD device would be cheaper and do a better job than a cheap manual/eye optical one, but have no idea if that's available."
For the price, these USB microscopes and similar offer incredible quality at that price point over any "real" optical microscope. You need to spend over $500 before an optical microscope "looks good" to casual users.
How about an old inner tube and directions to the nearest snow covered hill. Lots of physics to learn from that.....
I hadn't seen those USB scopes before, and they do look pretty awesome for the price. That said my Father bought my kids a microscope that I'm pretty sure cost under $150. While that microscope isn't professional grade or anything I can't see any reason to fault it, and I'm not sure why you might think it wouldn't look good to casual observers. What kind of qualities are you measuring to make that assertion?
Maybe a snow, scate or surfboard or perhaps a climbing harness ( depending on where you live) might be a better present. Maybe its just me, but I think the first world kids today might need encouragement _not_ to sit inside.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I can't get you that, but would you settle for Uranium?
I'll see your uranium ore, and raise you. This should have traces of plutonium:
https://www.amazon.com/Images-...
Geeky children have specialized interests, so there is no one-size-fits-all Science Barbie that would satisfy them all. Depending on your geeky kid's particular talents get a telescope, a chemistry set if you can sneak in a real one, a computer with specialized software of some appropriate kind, a paint set, a camera, or an Estes rocket kit.
With the right gift, your geeky kid can get the start in life that he/she needs to be the billionaire boss of those ACs in this thread who have given up all hope for the future. Their role in life will be getting enough Basic Maintenance Income to keep themselves perpetually stoned and out of your kids way.
Screw lego and mindstorm and mechano. Your kids would probably prefer a guitar, especially since their peers will see it as a cool gift. It's something that is hard for them to learn but will give them a well-deserved boost in self-esteem each time they learn something new. It's also a gender-neutral gift, so no issues there.
Plus, there's the opportunity to bond by teaching them to play Stairway to Heaven, etc. The Stones ain't dead yet.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
A stack of razor blades, individually wrapped in oiled tracing paper, was one of my favorite presents as a kid. It came with a knife handle that took standard size razor blades, and I could adjust the edge with a wheel. Much like x-acto knives, but sharper, more adjustable, and a much better handle.
In the course of a few weeks, I taught myself a lot of nifty things I could do with razor blades, and while I undoubtedly cut myself a few times, that's what band-aids are for.
Don't be afraid of giving kids "dangerous" items that have a real utility. Unless you suspect that your kid really is stupid.
Good parenting goes a long way.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
They are turning 7 soon.
Legos and the basic Perplexus. The latter is a difficult game of angular motion.
Here it is:
https://www.amazon.com/Perplex...
BlameBillCosby.com
So they fight off all the H-1Bs
FTFY
The biggest problem with cheap microscopes is not so much the optics, but the illumination.
I'm thinking about the same phenomenon a lot of kids/people have with telescopes. They expect to set up the one they got for Christmas in the back yard and see images of the Orion nebula just like they see on the internet. This is of course, not going to happen.
With microscopes, I think a child will experience more wonder and have more fun with a reflected light scope. To get the most out of any microscope, then sample preparation and illumination are key. Most cheaper hobby microscopes only use transmitted light. With such a scope you won't see much on most specimens without decent sample prep. Rocks? Forget it, you need to make thin sections. Cells? Forget it, you need to stain them and prep them a certain way. And so on. I just think there's more to see for kids with a reflected light scope.
To get a scope with a decent reflected light mode costs more money than the cheaper transmitted scopes. Heck, a starting level reflected light illuminator (just the source) is over $500 by itself.
Once you get into reflected light you really can play a lot more with the scope. Pretty much anything you put under it will look good and they really feel like you're an explorer of the miniature world!!
Of course, I take your point entirely. Once a child is enthusiastic enough that they want higher mag and/or are prepared to mount the specimens properly, then a good beginner-grade scope will bring hours of fun and education.
Best one I ever got was a Kenwood TS-520S amateur radio transceiver (I'd passed my Novice Class License exam by that point, but the radio was $700 in 1978 - my awesome dad took a leap of faith, and I'm still using it today, though it's been largely supplanted by a more modern one.) 2nd best geeky gift: one of those Radio Shack 150-in-1 electronic project kits in 1976 or so. Both crucially important gifts, in addition to being turbo awesome.
Well yes, but the point is the same... there is no maximum age. I just wanted to be inclusive for the category of AFOL's that happen to be centenarians (and there are a few out there now, I hear).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
A lot of people are rooting for Legos and I don't really disagree, but my personal experience as a kid was waaaaay better with Meccano. The box had a booklet with instructions for various stuff, but at the end it had an "advanced" category where each model was only shown using three pictures. You had to figure out the rest yourself. It was awesome.
Give your kids something of everything and let them chose their own life.
I remember getting a Chemistry set, bug catchers + biology kits, toy microscopes, lego, a telescope, and at some point I received "The Fun Way Into Electronics Part 1". Then I asked for part 2, and 3 and a few years later a university degree.
I'm an EE now.
Even better, take out a loan in their name. Then they get the experience of how to deal with debt when having no prospect of getting a job.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I don't have any great suggestions for others because I can't seem to find what I think should be out there right now based on where tech is at. I'm looking for things for an advanced seven month old to enjoy over the next year, and I'm seriously thinking I may just have to get some little WiFi or bluetooth device (preferably cheaper/smaller than Alexa or Google's new offering), cut a stuffed animal open, and sew it in.
Does anyone know of a stuffed animal or something similar that has a bluetooth microphone/speaker combo built-in and uses software running on a computer or phone to help it (with adult guidance) interact with a child?
Do any of you know of a toy that simply answers the question "why?" with some semi-reasonable answer - endlessly - without tiring? Just a little bit of voice recognition tuned to the kid level, a (child safe) internet lookup to retrieve the answer, and some text-to-speech packaged in the form of a stuffed animal would be awesome.
Since the order in which sounds are learned (in general) is well known, is there a toy out there that detects what sounds the child is making, baby-talks back to them (during appropriate pauses) with those sounds sprinkled with the next ones in the progression, and gets excited in some way to encourage new ones when they are detected?
How about a toy that just says a calming "Shhhhh" and perhaps vibrates in a purring sort of way when they cry out at night?
Or a stuffed animal that simply reads whatever e-text I feed it?
Why am I not finding things like this out there?
Runs Linux pretty much "out-of-the-box". All sorts of deployment options for kids with software or electronics aptitude.
One fun thing to play with is a USB microscope: even with low magnification (x50 or x100) can be really interesting for looking at both man-made objects as well as insects and plants. It's engrossing. Get a pad- or phone-connectable one to take into the field.
Try an edison as a much cheaper lego compatible robot:
https://meetedison.com/
They are still quite programmable and the built in barcode programs make them quicker to get started with especially for younger kids.
Note: I'm not an affiliate, just a happy customer
Never buy lego sets. Buy cleaned used lego by the pound.
Building exactly the 'kit' in a set is a sure sign of stupid. If your kid only makes what is on the package then loses interest, you should get him a nice suit and tie for christmas.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I got my daughter Snap Circuits two years ago and we try to do a page in the book each night. https://www.amazon.com/Snap-Ci... last year we got her the Osmo Genius Kit https://www.amazon.com/Osmo-TP... this year I went with the Wonder Workshop Dash Robot and the lego attachment arms. https://www.amazon.com/Wonder-...
Some tools. Needle nose pliers, wire cutters, wire strippers, small ratchet wrench set, nut drivers, screw drivers, a cheap multimeter (analog so they don't get dumbed down). A small hammer, some vice grips, dikes, soldering iron and solder.
Then get them a book on electronic projects and some old piece of crap TV or radio that no longer works. Have them take it apart. Try measuring stuff with the multimeter. Maybe a crystal radio kit.
If you're really in to it, find an old Heathkit shortwave receiver that hasn't been built yet (it'll cost you) or anything else by the same name.
Show them how to "get all of the smoke out of a part".
What first starts out as destruction turns (hopefully) in to construction.
Model rocketry too...
It all worked for me and I still have all of my eyes and fingers :-)
One thing led to another and I ended up with a long career as an engineer.
How about an inexpensive software defined radio receiver? For about $25 these open up a whole lot of radio and computer fun. RTL-SDR and NooElec both offer kits which include the USB receiver itself along with one or more whip antennas and a cable - everything a kid needs to get started, minus a computer and the free software.
As an AFOL, I know that we build what is in the kit to learn possibly new design patterns that we can then apply to our own original creations. About 1/3 of my lego is kits, and most every single thing that I've built has taught me something that I didn't think of to do previously.
It's only a sign of stupid if you think that learning is a sign of stupid.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
or another term would probably be 'problem solving' type. After all, geeky people are people that solve a lot of problems in math, science, technology, etc.
So Lego would be an ok all around gift as it inspires creation. A science kit, kid electricity kit or puzzle game would be better for problem solving.
How about a nice little Dobson telescope plus sky chart? You might add in a sun filter. You're good for many hours of admiring celestial objects with your kids.
For kids of a certain age, a light equatorial mount plus 'scope may enable them to start taking their own pictures.
There's also lots of opportunities to make your own accessories, way cheaper than what you can buy.
I had such awesome fun building stuff with mine. And not the "build this thing" stuff - find a proper, old fashioned, box with 300 pieces you can build anything with.
My little one is still a bit small for mecano (even for lego actually - her fingers aren't that nimble yet) but it's definitely on the list for when she's a bit older.
And a little after that, a raspberry pi ! Best thing I had growing up was my own computer I could mess with and learn to code on, I would not deprive her of the same opportunity.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
an exciting entertainment for your lovely angel (https://goo.gl/j4P9cU)
I'll have to see if I can find the box for ours tonight and find a web link for it. It has multiple illumination options including a light from above, although that possibly isn't what you mean by reflected. We've been able to look at lots of stuff that wasn't transparent. The only difficulty that I've noticed is finding a good focus point when the viewed object isn't flattened under a slide. My Father bought a number of them for various grand children after seeing them at a kids science museum and being impressed.