Most tech-oriented holiday gift guides are for engineers, by engineers. Unless you live with your coworkers, all that'll get you is another sweater or a bottle of Old Spice in your stocking. Better to plop your laptop on the dining room table so your significant other -- or your cat -- can tune in to what you'd really like. Spoiler alert: Many of these suggestions are off the beaten path.
Click on the image below to see our guide. Then, get to the mall.
Apart from Steve Jobs, the non-engineer who's had the most influence on cultural perceptions of gadgetry is a fictional character. That would be "Q," played for 30 years by Desmond Llwelyn, acting the part of the absent-minded professor. In the new Bond film Skyfall, Ben Whishaw reimagines the part as part accountant, part geek. (Monty Python's John Cleese had a brief turn in two turn-of-the-century movies; let's call him Dennis Miller of the Q crowd.)
Fictional Qs would find a quantum of solace in the raft of "Spy Shops" dotting the streets of most major cities. In New York, Google turns up a good 10. Most offer an array of gear more appropriate for prospective witness protection program enrollees than for the folks on your holiday gift list. Still, trust me when I tell you that any engineer would love an Aston-Martin with a passenger-side ejection seat. (Actually, so would driver's education instructors.)
If that's too pricey, how about an $80 water-resistant HD video watch, a $650 nanny cam hidden in a Teddy bear, or a $200 tiny GPS live tracker, which "is the fasted way to retrieve a person or vehicle's current location." Nah, better wait til Valentine's Day.
Great story--ALTHOUGH, my kids and grandkids better not show up Christmas morning with duct tape for the old man. I will admit, like any hands-on engineer, I have use miles upon miles of duct tape over the years to cure any number of problems. Even used tape to patch over the exterior of my Piper Tri-Pacer. It was a fabric-covered flying wonder I loved to fly around in. One bird strike pretty much did me in one sunny Saturday afternoon but I was back in the air quickly after the "patch".
Duct Tape and Krazy Glue would be such a thoughtful gift! I have to send this list out to friends!
I'll have to look for the Lomography store here in San Francisco. Coincidentally, I just exercised my shutters on my old Canon the other day. I miss film.
This is a nice mix of items that any engineer would appreciate. Duct tape can fix most things and anything it can not fix, super glue can take up the slack. Big Ban Theory is also a classic that can be enjoyed again and again.
Ahh, the Lafayette catalog. The other kids would look at the Sears Wish Book around Christmas, but for me it was the Lafayette catalog. I always wanted one of their bass amplifiers, can you imagine how cool it would be to own one now? In the end I got a Fender Bassman, which certainly performed better, but to have an old Lafayette now would be very cool.
Wow - talk about your basic blast from the past... I started as a salesman at Lafayette in the Atlanta area back in '78 and ended up as the assistant mgr in the area manager's store. One of the saddest things I've ever had to do was help close out two of the area's six stores when they went under in '80. Lafayette had some of the coolest stuff and they catered to real electro-geeks. Nowadays all we have on the national front is a shell of Radio Shack, but unless you want batteries, a cell phone, or an audio cable there's no real point in even entering one of those places....
OH... You just did NOT diss The Doctorlike that! I enjoy the Bang just fine but IF it lasts HALF the number of seasons that Doctor Who ran (I'm talking "classic" alone, not even the new batch) then maybe you can start a discussion.
I worked for Lafayette in the 70's in the Chicago area while I was in school. Still have some of the old catalogs. The gear we had ran circles around what was at "Rat Shack" at the time. Unfortunatly, the management back east was slow and inept. I'd love to take a TARDIS ride back and pick up a few items.
No you're not the only one who doesn't like a recycled "that 70's show" with a geek spin. I think that top 10 list symbolizes the problem trend with the internet. The really good stuff out there is not accessible anymore, or you have to pay for access to even look. Candy-colored cameras, really? I think you put that list together in like two hours. Hope your other chores got the attention they needed. How 'bout an electric christmas cookie press or instant tree light set in a box.
Am I the only EnG that doesn't really care for this show?
Oh, and for the Raspberry Pi, I'm working on building a Pandora music box (some good designs out there on instructables.com). I have a friend who put together an asterisk box as well, the GPIO pins can be fun to play with.
I'm suprised the Arduino didn't make the list. The Maker community is getting so big - 10 years after graduation and I'm playing around with basic components and breakboards again!
Years ago before the iron curtain came down, I was stuck in a Hungarian border compound between Austria and Hungary. I was there in a truck with Hans, a German driver, carrying performance gear for a music performing group. The Hungarian guards instisted that everything be taken out of the truck and inspected. While waiting for this process to start, a very small ratty, dumpy russian car, clattered by us and stopped at the Hungarian gate with a sigh and cloud of steam. Hans and I along with who I assume was the compound mechanic and several guards gathered in front of the car with the hood open. When the steam cleared a babylon of languages declared something along the lines of 'There's the problem, a hole in the radiator hose, it cannot be fixed here'. I got a large roll of duct table from the truck and proceeded to wrap the hose with the tape. The compound mechanic took over and after a few more wraps around the hose looked at me as if to say 'is that was enough?', I indicated it was, whereupon he searched his pockets for a knife to cut the tape. I indicated 'not necessary' and reached down and tore the tape in two with my fingers. Apparently, the miracle that is duct tape was not known among the Hungarians as a babylon of voices declared something along the lines of ' An't going to work'. Water was put in the radiator, the engine started and we all waited for the water to begin flowing. When it was clear that the tape had indeed performed its miracle, the babylon of voices declared it to be so. When the mechanic handed me back the tape I indicated he could keep it. Hans and I returned to the truck and in just 2 minutes we were told we were clear to enter Hungary.
I am sure, that I had a new friend and that he had fixed every damn thing in that compound until the tape was gone.
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