if you have a geeky other half what are you buying them for Christmas??

[sacbina]

find it impossible to buy presents for dh, so he always ends up with the same - music. which is fine as we're both music mad, but would love to get him something techy and surprise him. last Christmas I bought a cheapie telescope from ebay as I knew if it sparked an interest he'd want to research and get what suited him. it did and he did

but now I'm flummoxed for this year. he has raspberry pi, an add on thingy, turned an old phone into a security camera. has all the hifi you could ever think he'd need. wireless headphones. he's not into smellies, clothes, hasn't read half the books already on his phone

any ideas??? thank you

Now I'll have to have a think. I got my DH a set that you wire up yourself and it makes a light sensor or something like that. It was just up his street, just a bag of wires and chips that needed soldering.
I'll see if I can remember where I got it from.

I got mine a pencil for iPad , at least that's what I think it is!

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00JP12300/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Very nice kate. www.fiftythree.com/pencil

I'm getting this book called "What If?" (I found it cheaper on ebay, new).

It's a compilation of the best of this blog what-if.xkcd.com/4/ plus 50% new material along the same lines. Very geeky, very funny.

Plus my DP regularly takes so long on the loo that he needs something to read there. I don't understand this but there is is.

The XKCD blog also has some nice geek gifts in their store, but it's US based so don't forget to allow time for international postage.

Or try Maplins?

Whenever I see the name Maplins I just explode - they still charge a fiver for a catalogue of the things you can buy - and they are often overpriced...

If the other half is likely to buy from there, I'd tend to suggest an (unromantic) promise of cash, rather than choose something and find it is of no interest compared with something else... (sorry)

he's not a frequenter of maplins, unless it's a techy emergency

thank you for your suggestions, I shall get investigating. hopefully come up with something

You could try firebox? Or a magazine subscription to something like Wired. My DH doesn't read books but since he got the Wired subscription he does like reading it, so I was pretty pleased with myself for that idea

I'm seriously tempted to buy DH this for Christmas

Think Geek do LOADS of really cool kits or science toys and they ship to the UK.

I got DH a flying drone thing on firebox. I know he'll like it in theory, but he's a bit crap at actually using things. I hope he'll use it with DD (4) as he's starting to do sciencey stuff with her and she loves it. Also got him a 3 minute icecream maker and a wrap around pillow yoke. Long live firebox...

This is firebox: www.firebox.com

There's also arduino if he likes making stuff: www.arduino.cc/

They sell arduino at the science museum, too, I'm pretty sure, if you are in London, though I can't see any on their online shop: www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/

I love Thinkgeek, as others have said, but find that it's only worth buying a lot of stuff from them, as if you buy a small thing then the postage works out very steep.

Found where it was a got DH something from years ago. These people: www.techwillsaveus.com

A chromecast

wow, lots of inspiration, thank you all

DH is a geek but has recently started cycling. He wanted a GoPro camera for his cycling helmet but then went to buy one himself so I have bought a smart helmet and all the stuff to fix the camera to it.

What's the budget?

iPad mini

Wanted a Gopro for mine too, but 200 pounds way out of my reach, settled for this: eu.banggood.com/Wholesale-Warehouse-SJ4000-Waterproof-HD-1_5-Inch-Car-DVR-Camera-Sport-DV-Novatek-1080P-wp-Uk-917037.html?p=FB0917407849201401SD
which has excellent reviews and is about a half of the price of an equivalent Gopro, comes with all the bells and whistles, shipped from UK in about 3 days.

and grabbed a watch too eu.banggood.com/Wholesale-Warehouse-TVG-468-Men-3-Dial-LED-Display-Analog-Digital-Military-Wrist-Watch-wp-Uk-88227.html?p=FB0917407849201401SD as a nice stocking-filler, don't know if it's supposed to look like something way more expensive (Tag Heuer?) but it looks pretty swish in the flesh.

A geekbox subscription www.mygeekbox.co.uk/home
Book, Ayoade on Ayoade www.hive.co.uk/book/ayoade-on-ayoade/19150044/
Tshirt www.teefury.com/i-am-a-giddy-goat?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=display&utm_content=iamagiddygoatwcapixel&utm_campaign=galleryfbad
The firefly boardgame

DP has asked for a watch that "does something awesome as well as telling the time".

I'm thinking if getting him one that has a night vision camera.

the geekbox subscription looks interesting, but what's in it?