TuxJam 61 – Gifts for Geeks 2017

It’s that time of year again when we suggest gifts that we you might like to find stuffed into your stocking by our partners Santa. We’ve handily organised them by price to ease the pressure on your Santa’s wallet.

• USB Mix Tape (pictured below)
• Pop Vinyl Figure
• Password book
• 5V DIY Dot Matrix LED Clock and Temperature Kit
• VRidge FREE (10 min per session)
• GOJI cardboard VR

• Imusic pillow
• Take a look at their Steam account, most users have games on their wishlist. Buy the game on Christmas Eve, print off an item saying here’s your present and put it in a card.
• Personalised glasses or a mug with their name and likes on it (make it extremely personal).
• Stealth VR
• VRidge FREE (10 min per session)Google cardboard £15 for one, £25 for two
• Electronics starter kits: Sometimes are self-contained kits with pluggable components, but be aware that some of these may be intended specifically at beginners.  Other times, they are filled with various kinds of components with instructions to make a number of projects.  You may need additional equipment – like a soldering iron – so always check the product description!
• Soldering starter kits: Usually contain a soldering iron, holder, solder reel, desoldering pump, at a minimum. These are often Chinese imports from unknown companies.  Do a search in your shopping site of choice, and make an informed decision. Or go somewhere like Maplin.
• The micro:bit (pictured below)
• ANENG AN8008 Multimeter

• Get something that people wouldn’t normally spend money on: a Razer product (mouse, controller or keyboard)
• Home Brew starter kit Plymouth Hop Shop
• Goldring NS1000 Headphones
• Think about what they were into years ago and search out any memorabilia, the more obscure the more they will probably appreciate it.
• AIY Projects Voice Kit
• Raspberry Pi 3
• Samsung Gear VR V2 with Occulus for certain Samsung phones (pictured below)

• Buy a star https://www.buyastar.co.uk/
• Beer club beer52.com
• Roberts Smart Radio
• Boldport subscription (see below)
• Samsung Gear VR V2017 with Occulus for certain Samsung phones
  OSVR HDK 2 £400 – 20% off for students and developers
  Occulus Rift

Wow,you really love them

• An all inclusive trip to FOSDEM (Brussells, 3rd & 4th February)
• A trip to Glasgow at the end of July for Podcrawl
• HTC Vive

Festive Tunes:

• Explosive Ear Candy -Christmas All The Time
• Sergey Gulevich – Make a Wish
• Draganov Veaceslav – Be Christmas
• Instantperson – Christmas Song
• Jason Silver – In The Bleak Midwinter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Author: Kevie Macphail

Kevie is from the Outer Hebrides, in the north west of Scotland,UK. He started podcasting with TuxJam back in 2011 and followed this by co-hosting tech-themed, discussion show Crivins along with Gordon Sinclair. A full time Linux user, currently using Debian as his distro of choice, and a keen promoter of unknown artists/bands, especially those who release their music under a Creative Commons license, this led Kevie to starting the CCJam community podcast. Always keen to spread the word on Creative Commons music and open source projects, Kevie has appeared as a guest on the Bugcast, Hacker Public Radio, Music Manumit Podcast, Rathole Radio and TINT. View all posts by Kevie Macphail