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Essential hacker stocking stuffers

Like most of us, you've probably got some last-minute shopping to take care of. Or maybe there's a special someone in your life who keeps asking you for gift ideas and you need to start dropping hints to avoid another button down and a neck tie. Whatever the reason, here's a quick and dirty hacker gift guide with a variety of gift ideas that should put a smile on someone's face.

Make sure to add your own favorites to the list in the comments area and pass it along. I'm focusing primarily on smaller items that are available in local stores, but feel free to toss in whatever you think is important and shouldn't be missed.

Reading Material:

• Make: The Best Of - a killer collection of the best 75 projects from our favorite magazine.
• The Dangerous Book For Boys - this is a great book for sharing with your kids. Chock-full of essential information like how to tie knots, play poker, use a compass, build a tree house, and relate to girls.
• Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition - the swiss army knife for your computer.
• Illustrated Guide To Astronomical Wonders - ideal for anyone who's interested in knowing their way around the universe.
• Also check out other books from the O'Reilly Hacks Series - Link

Gadgets:

• Asus Eee PC - this ultra-tiny Linux laptop is just starting to appear in stores - Hacks
• Linksys WRT54GL Router - the L in the GL stands for Linux. It's a $60 router that can be customized to do more than it's thousand dollar big-brothers - Hacks
• Western Digital MyBook World Edition External Hard Drive - any extra storage is really nice to have, but this network-available drive contains mirrored RAID storage and a mini Linux computer that can run a web and database server - Hacks
• iPhone or iPod Touch - did I really put that here? - Hacks
• Broadband Mobile Card from Verizon or Sprint - they are getting super
  popular, and heck, they are cheaper than an iPhone.
• Nokia N95-3 - the winner of our most hackable mobile phone survey - Hacks

Toys:

• Air Hogs Havoc Heli Laser Battle - remember the Picco-Zs and their clones from last year? Here's two of them in a single package, enhanced with a trigger that let's you zap your friend's heli down.
• E-Sky Lama V4 Helicopter- Yeah, I'm crazy for helicopters right now. The counter-rotating models like this one are about $100, ready (and easy) to fly, and very hackable.
• WowWee RoboSapien V2 - fun for the kids. More fun with a soldering iron - Hacks

Gear:

• 2GB or larger micro SD card, plus various SD and USB adapters - perfect for scooting files around, the size of a finger nail, and you can put a full Linux distro, anti virus software, or a Puppy Linux virtual machine on it - Hacks
• Mini Multimeter - always handy.
• Bike Multitool - a good one will pack allen and hex wrenches, screw drivers, and a knife into a pretty small package. Perfect for voiding warrantees in a pinch. Oh, and there's a chain tool, too - Link, Link
• Soldering Tools - whether it's a new Weller or just a pair of helping hands, it'll be welcome in any stocking - Link, Link

What have we missed here? Add your wishes to the comments. Then find a completely non-tacky way to get this list into the hands of someone who wants you to be a happy hacker.

Posted by Jason Striegel | Dec 21, 2007 08:03 PM
Electronics, Flying Things, Hacks Series, Hardware, Life, Lifehacker, Linux, Mobile Phones, Ubuntu | Permalink | Comments (5)

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