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Geek-gift time

Wow, Christmas is only weeks away so if you're planning on making any personal imports as part of your gift-sourcing activities then you'd better get your skates on.

Over the next few weeks, the wheels of international carriage will start to grind ever-slower so it's getting very late to order that book from Amazon or that cool toy from an eBay trader.

Of course it's also time for the annual "Geek Gift" column here on Aardvark.

What do you buy a geek for Christmas this year?

If you're a geek, what would *you* like to receive?

The forums are still buggered so you'll have to email me your suggestions and I'll list them all in a column next week so that we can share the cumulative knowledge and wisdom.

I'm picking that the number-one "want" on any serious geek's list will be the latest incarnation of the XBox or Playstation.

Gamer-geeks will want to add these to their collection of gaming hardware even if only to sate their curiosity as to what's new and how they perform. Of course there are many gamers who claim that the PC is the only real platform for serious gaming these days -- but who said playing computer games was supposed to be serious?

The other must-have toy is your own personal "drone".

A company which has been at the forefront of consumer drones (DJI) have released version 2 of their world-famous and very popular Phantom quadcopter just in time for Christmas.

Although they are very spendy (around US$1K), they are a nicely shrink-wrapped turnkey product that requires the user to know nothing about RC equipment, ESCs, flight controllers, and all the other gobbledygook that DIY drone builders have to get to grips with. For this reason alone, I expect they'll be very popular.

If you're a geek with far to much money and bad fashion sense you might pick up one of the growing number of smart watches. Personally, I haven't worn a watch in over 30 years and none of these bulky wrist-worn systems inspire me to change my mind about that. However, if you're a bleeding-edge geek then I suspect you might want one.

What I would suggest as a gift to anyone who's getting tired of paying an ever-greater monthly stipend to SkyTV or who long-ago tired of the seemingly endless assault of ads on FTA TV -- is an android-based GoogleTV box.

The one I use is an MK808B system and it's still going great (although I had to reflash it after a power spike a couple of months ago). After six months of use we still haven't run out of great stuff to watch of an evening and we haven't seen a single ad nor paid a cent in monthly fees in all that time. Entertainment bliss!

For the *real* hardcore geek however, you might want to get something really cool -- like an FPGA development kit.

Why would you want one of these?

Well this is the stuff that Bitcoin mining machines are made from!

Learning the basics using a kit like this would stand you in good stead to sit down and design/build your own Bitcoin miner. Who knows, maybe you'd strike the motherlode?

Those are my suggestions -- let's hear yours!

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(Sorry, forums are stuffed at present)

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