

Ask HN: gifts for geeks? - will_critchlow

What are the best ideas you've seen for gifts for geeks this holiday season?<p>I thought I had a couple of brilliant ideas (space flight simulator and TED tickets) before realising they cost about $1,000 and $5,000 respectively.<p>I'd love to hear creative ideas at all price ranges and I imagine there are others here who would as well.<p>My favourite recent idea was a flying trapeze lesson I bought for my brother. I'm not sure why this appeals to the geek in us - probably something to do with pendulums - but it's a great fun present for active geeks.
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anthonycerra
The Arduino is pretty awesome and relatively cheap. The board itself is around
$30, but you can get bundles for $50+.

I asked for the Arduino Uno and an ethernet shield for Christmas because I
couldn't think of anything else. And let's face it, the idea of programming
your plants to tweet when they need water is pretty awesome.

Here's a link for your reference:
[http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&...](http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=193&zenid=ffecc1d1b5a7599131b7a604a9ef7f82)

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maguay
Wanting to shoot small? If they don't already have them, Dropbox Pro or
Evernote Pro subscriptions sound like a good idea. Or a Kindle/iTunes gift
card; you can never have too many books/apps/albums/movies. Also, O'Reilly
books can make a great gift.

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andrewtbham
[http://kevinrose.com/blogg/2010/11/27/2010-geek-holiday-
gift...](http://kevinrose.com/blogg/2010/11/27/2010-geek-holiday-gift-
guide.html)

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bobf
A solid state drive (SSD), if they don't have one already. Prices have become
more reasonable and performance gains over traditional drives have become more
worthwhile. For example, I recently bought one of the better performing 120GB
drives for $220, though they've been available for less with rebates.

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civilian
Dominion is an amazing board game. The best mechanic is the re playability-
you only use 10 action cards out of a possible 25 in each game. Which gives
you 25choose10 = 3,268,760 possible combinations.
<http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion>

~~~
ddrmaxgt37
well to be fair, some combinations won't really work since they depend on
others being in use. e.g. curse cards

~~~
civilian
The gold,silver,copper,victorypoints and curses are all part of the cards that
are automatically added in every game, regardless of the 10 kingdom cards.

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dcaldwell
Olympic curling lessons - strategy, minimal athleticism, and fun.

