Any ideas for xmas gifts for a programmer?

[Sarone Thach]

Hi all,
I need help!! I'm trying to get gifts for my boyfriend who has been a softwared engineer for five years now. Does anyone here have any suggestions?? I would like to get something fun and cool. Something a guy finds useful.
Or answer this question:
If you are a 28 year old male, and you are a programmer, would you like for xmas??
Any ideas at all, is welcomed!! please keep it clean though.
thanks,
Sarone

[Jason Menard]

Tivo!

[Tim Baker]

a job?
yes something cool like TiVo would be great, or some DVDs

[Sarone Thach]

oh TiVo sounds great! Only problem is we live in New Zealand, so we don't have such a service here.
Sounds like lots of money can be made here with TiVo.

[Paul McKenna]

Originally posted by Sarone Thach:
Only problem is we live in New Zealand

duh!! why didnt you say so earlier!!
I think you guys in NZ have some bungee jumping fad.. so maybe you want to give him tickets to throw himself off a cliff..
Actually that would be great cos techies dont see any daylight..

[Jason Menard]

How about some cool trendy new cell phone (with camera and J2Me of course), like the Nokia 3650?
Or if he's the outdoors type, maybe a handheld GPS receiver?
[ December 16, 2003: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

[Michael Ernest]

A latest-and-greatest handheld. For bonus points, download the programmable API for it and heave it ready on his desktop computer.

[Ashok Mash]

Well, I am 27 and I am wishfully thinking that my gf would give me one of these.
1. Sony Ericcson T610 or Treo 600
2. iPod or a Yepp or some such portable mp3 players (hdd or flash, doesnt matter)
3. Playstation with additional memory and loads of nice games
4. Cannon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) 6m pix digital SLR.
5. Handheld computers
...
hmm and a lot more!

[Sarone Thach]

You boys have expensive taste!!
I'll go broke if I was going out with one of you! Kidding around don't take offence

These are really great ideas. I'm sure the ladies that read this topic will be interested.
Keep them rolling in.

[paul wheaton]

The 36 episodes of the animated series "The Tick" on DVD from eBay. $30 plus s/h

[Jim Yingst]

Be careful, though, or you might accidentally get the nine-episode live-action series instead.

[Erwin Bredford]

i suggest java wear you can order that at www.java.net . i think

[Randall Twede]

those flash "drives" that hook up to the usb port would make a nice gift and are becoming quite reasonably priced now. i could really use one myself my address is.....just kidding lol

[Sarone Thach]

What flash drive are you talking about, could you send me a link, I'll have a browse.
Sounds like a neat idea.

[Ranga Sreenivasan]

A USB-memory watch...
[ December 17, 2003: Message edited by: Ranga Sreenivasan ]

[Ashish Agrawal]

Give him a compiled CD of tutorials.
If he is an Indian, then definitely a CD Writer.

[Graham VMead]

Mmmm Well seeings as he's obviously got a girlfriend (quite rare for a male software type) i.e your good self something very geeky is out of the question.
How about one of those Palm Pilot/ Pocket PC things. Its the first gadget I've bought that I find indespensible!
Also he can store your birthday/anniversary/phone number/valentines reminder in it and never have an excuse, perfect!
If he's so inclined he can code on it too!

[Randall Twede]

sarone,
they are flash memory chips in a small device that plugs into the usb port. the computer sees them as a disk drive. you can get them almost anywhere. they come in 64M up to 1G now i think.

[Tony Collins]

I would have said a programmer would want a girlfriend for Christmas.
Tony

[Sarone Thach]

Hey plenty of nice gals in New Zealand!! Though if any programmer wants a girlfriend for christmas they better hurry up!!

[Sarone Thach]

Oh yeah, by the way, we are both fulltime programmers, but we don't have a PC at home. 8 hours a day on the computer is enough for us!!
Well if the palm pilot is not too expensive, that would be great, heck I would really love one for myself!! hmmm one for me, one for him --- i wish!

[Paul Stevens]

If he likes the outdoors, a GPS. So he can do geo-caching.

[Tony Collins]

Seeing as there ia an influx, can I have three New Zealander girls then, please.
Send them to:-
Tony
England

[Sarone Thach]

guys are supposed to be the ones that do the chasing...

[David O'Meara]

If you do go with the USB-drive, make sure it's "USB2.0 compliant" and not just "USB2.0 compatible". The first means the drive runs at USB2.0 speeds, the second usually means it will run on a USB2.0 port, but at USB1.1 speeds.
I believe they've made the USB definition as confusing as possible.

[Ashish Agrawal]

Does he like listening to music? If so gift him a MP3 player, so that even u can use it.

[Prakash Dwivedi]

how about giving him ticket for cricket match(Pak - NZ series is going on)?

[HS Thomas]

Originally posted by Graham VMead:

How about one of those Palm Pilot/ Pocket PC things. Its the first gadget I've bought that I find indespensible!

Handspring's Treo 600.
Or you could embarass him with a PDA/Palm Pilot ?
Requiem for a machine
"That's the secret of the Treo 600: It's not a PDA, or even a combination PDA/cell phone. It's a phone, pure and simple. (Service is available from at least four companies: AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, and soon T-Mobile.) To be clear, this is a phone that contains everything you used to buy a PDA for: Palm operating system, a QWERTY keyboard, a bright color screen, digital camera, Web browser, video and MP3 players, instant messaging, desktop-sync software, and more. But the important thing is that it has the form of a phone, not just the function. If you saw one lying on a desk, you'd immediately know what it was. Could you say that the first time you saw a PalmPilot?"
More on the Treo 600
Beware it's still has software glitches.
[ December 21, 2003: Message edited by: HS Thomas ]

[sunitha reghu]

What about a pair of jockey boxers?

[Randall Twede]

kiwi girls have such cute accents ;^)

[himanshu patel]

Sarone,
This is my personal feeling.It has nothing to do with other's opinion.I believe that if you love someone, than you must know what she/he likes.Bcoz you r the one who know himself very much than anyother.Think what he likes, recall from the talk you had with him in past, ask indirectly what he wants or think what he loves to have rather what he dreams to have. I'm sure you will definately find best xmas gift for your boyfriend.Each person have different taste and you only know the best.
Pls keep in mind that i never said that knowing other opinion is not good.Personally I would love to find myself for best gift to my sweetheart.
In a lighter mood, If you were my girl friend, I would like you to spend
24 hours with me in a place where nothing disturb us.That would have been best xmas gift for me.bcoz I m also a software engineer since past 4 years and i know how difficult it is to spend more time with loved ones.

[Sarone Thach]

Thank you guys for all your suggestions. These are fun gift ideas some I would even love for myself.
Have a Merry Christmas and a joyful new year!!

[paul wheaton]

Originally posted by Randall Twede:
kiwi girls have such cute accents ;^)

Say "aluminum"!
al loo min ee um
I thought it was funny to hear a Canadian say "about" until I heard a kiwi say "aluminum."

[Joe Pluta]

http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.html
Joe

[Jim Yingst]

I thought it was funny to hear a Canadian say "about" until I heard a kiwi say "aluminum."
I don't believe you. A kiwi would never say "aluminum". Not just kiwis - it's basically the rest of the english-speaking world we're talking about here. Probably also the non-english-speaking world, but I'm not so concerned if we use a different word than they do. Oh well - it's all Sir Davy's fault for not choosing a good name in the first place.
[ December 24, 2003: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]

[Jeff Carlson]

Pretty much loads of stuff at thinkgeek.com would work for 99.9% of the geeks I know. It seems to collect all of the stuff we wish we had.
Merry Christmas!
P.S. I am not affiliated with thinkgeek. I just shop there. Like everyone else.

[Meadowlark Bradsher]

Its getting close to X-mas. I hope you'll make it.
I got my wife a shopping spree at the Chicago Prada store. This worked on a lot of levels.
I walked her to the store and had a saleswoman bring her the gift certificate, and this just an hour or so after the prices dropped from 30% to 50% on the Fall line. Then I told her to look around.
Here's what I accomplished...

There was planning involved so it was extra thoughtful

It was a frivolous value for our income so its something she wouldn't buy for herself or do for herself, but she was now forced to do

It was a store that psychically she did not feel she belonged in so it awarded her identity

It showed that I knew of her special interests.

It kinda hurt just a little because of the amount of money so I felt "out of body" too. She sure did. It held a real message, not just a common symbol of one.

If we had a larger income it wouldn't have been meaningful, it was poised against our lifestyle. And contrasted it.

I always try to make it special, over our limit, well packaged, and thoughtful somehow. It has to have a value to her and a price for me, then I feel it really carries a message to her.
I hope that may help, if you haven't already bought him his gift.
[ December 24, 2003: Message edited by: Meadowlark Bradsher ]

[Meadowlark Bradsher]

If you don't mind me asking, what did you get him?

[Sarone Thach]

Well in the end I thought about what he had told me earlier. He said he wanted to get the Lord of the Rings Risk game, but it was too expensive, so he was going to wait for a sale. Now I knew how popular the game was and decided to hunt around for them. Since I couldn't find any in the major stores, I figured no sale was going to be had. So I searched high and low on christmas eve for one, I gave up after 4 hours.So i walked in a toy store and decided to get him a cuddly toy just because there was only 10mins before the mall closes. Low and behold, what did i find - the risk game hiding in the corner. We played the game during the holidays, it was great. Took about 6hours though.
I got him a charmed calender, because he likes Allissa Milano, and a few other little gifts. I think the gift he liked the most was when I sprinkled rose petals and tea candles all over the house. And I lit up the candles. He was coming back from christmas with his family about 1hours flight from where we lived. When he walked through the door, he was speachless. I bet you think flowers are for girls only - but you are wrong. He doesn't get the same thrills as i do with flowers, but he appriciated the effort and the atmosphere it created.
We had a second christmas on the 26th and opened all our presents from family and friends, it was magical and romantic. One that I will never forget, and I'm sure he won't either.
Well thanks for all your suggestions, and the result was wonderful. I hope you all had a beautiful christmas. If you have a fantastic story to tell I invite you to share them with us.

[Meadowlark Bradsher]

Gosh, that sounds really nice! I hope it was a good experience for you. It certainly sounds like it.
Good job!