
It’s that time of the year again! With the holidays just around the corner, it’s time for another gift guide for geeks. The 2014 Gift Guide and 2015 Gift Guide both still have a bunch of great ideas there that are still worth reading through. With a bit of help from the folks around our office, here are some toys and fun things that would be bound to please folks who are like the folks around here.
- Nerf guns are great for office warfare. But what if you’re a “Let’s end this” kind of guy? Nerf Nuke is what you need. Nobody will want to mess with you after that.
- Why would you want to cook pancakes when you can print them?
- Need answers to absurd questions? Like What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? This book has the answers.
- I’m a classic Nintendo guy, and spent way too much time playing my original Nintendo Entertainment System (I still own it, though it’s long since died). I was quite excited when I saw the NES Classic Edition, which has the styling of the old-school machine, with 30 games built in. Two problems: it’s pretty much sold out everywhere (it’s $60 price guaranteed that – if you want one, you’ll have to pay up the nose on eBay) and the cables are really short, recommending an extension. But for old school gamers like me who don’t really care about new and flashy, it’s the system to have.
- I’m at the front desk at Weston and the Ball of Whacks (along with my BNC Artwork) is something that pretty much every visitor has a look at and plays with. Or in Steve’s case, drops and shatter’s in a million pieces. Thanks to Brock’s mom for donating that to the office toybox.
- Amazon Echo Dot is about the size of a hockey puck but can do a whole bunch of fun stuff, powered by the Amazon cloud. It’s a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa (Amazon’s services) to play music, control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms, and more. You can also get it with a Philips Hue Smart Lighting Kit to control lights in your home by voice.
- The Raspberry Pi has always been a fun little computer for tinkerers (they’ll even run some Windows apps with a bunch of work), but the Raspberry Pi 3 make the little device much more powerful and useful for day-to-day tasks. To really take advantage of the Pi, it’s best to buy a full kit that includes everything you need.
- You want to see a bunch of grown men get really frustrated, really fast? Put a Perplexus Epic in their hand.
- Everybody in our office listens to music of some sort while they’re working, usually with a set of headphones. While I’m good with just a cheap pair of earbuds, I do also appreciate a good set of ear phones. I’ve read good reviews about the Sony MDR7506 Headphones, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones and the 1MORE In Ear Headphones.
- The Grommet is a great place suggested by Jeff for unique, one of a kind exclusive gifts. I’m digging the KeySmart.
- If you have kids, or even if you’re a kid at heart, this Star Wars-themed Sphero robot is a fun toy. Control the device with your tablet or smartphone, it listens, learns, and reacts to your behavior.
You have a good gift for that geek on your list? Comment below and share it with us!