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r/santashelpers•
bayesianqueer

I made a tactical error... [Husband 48 consummate geek, ~$200]

I'm usually really good at Christmas and my husband sucks. However I have no ideas this year, he can't think of anything he wants, and I told him exactly what I wanted.

He's a Linux geek, but a new laptop wouldn't help he's cheap about hardware. He will take a shitty old laptop, install Linux and be happy with it. He almost doesn't like new hardware. He's also into arduinos, internet privacy/security (the kind of guy who puts duct tape over the webcam and has a rooted android phone with cyanogen mod that is so hardened that he uses Osm instead of google maps), and hero worships Glenn Greenwald but has all his books.

I got him a DSLR last year and he loves it but doesn't want a new one.

The other problem is we have a decent enough income that we don't want for anything much.

Posted Dec 10, 2014, 3:58 PM UTC

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TurnerClassics•

I know this isn't along the lines you mentioned above, but my fiance did something similar one year and I loved it:

Surprise him with a wrapped box that has a hotel booking # in it, along with concert tickets for a band he likes, and some sexy lingerie that you will wear that night. Give him a night he won't forget. BOOM. Profit.

Source: Male, geek.

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bayesianqueerOP•

Well, sexy lingerie would definitely surprise him, since I'm a guy. Though since date night has mostly been beer, pizza, and gaming recently, you are giving me a few ideas.

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pixielady•

I'm with u/TurnerClassics, think about giving him an experience as opposed to a physical gift.

Be it tickets to a concert or play, a trip somewhere, a great dinner, going bungee jumping, something he'd enjoy.

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arghabargh•

New lens for DSLR? Sounds like he might have fun farting around with one of these too: http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ? Good luck!

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m4n715•

Yeah I immediately thought of one of those raspberry pi starter-kits.

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bayesianqueerOP•

He just gave away one of his 2 raspberry pi. If there is a cheap piece of hardware you can play with he's got it. He even still uses his XO laptop sometimes. Our property has like 8 routers on it... 2 are old cell phones.

I thought about the DSLR lenses, but he's bought several and I have no idea what they do, so I'd probably end up duplicating what he's got.

I was just online searching online this morning after I posted and saw this at thinkgeek. I have no idea what the specs they list mean but I gather its something you have to mess with to get going - which he likes, and he's big into old school games.

I just can't let him win the gift giving competition. I have a decade long streak going.

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arghabargh•

For $200 you could get a pretty great set-up to start homebrewing some beer. I see that you like beer, don't know many geeks who haven't wanted to make their own (or at least try it!)

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bayesianqueerOP•

That's a great idea..... thanks!

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