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Father's Day, Geek Style? 77

Posted by Cliff from the no-ties-please! dept.
mstyne asks: "With Father's Day coming up this weekend, it's been put to me to determine what we should get dear old Dad. Pants and ties are boring and old hat. What do you get for the tech-savvy pop that loves new toys?"
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Father's Day, Geek Style? More

Father's Day, Geek Style?

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  • Non-commercial (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 )

    Maybe Mother's Day and Father's Day should be non-commercial. Just let them know you appreciate them.

  • RealDoll! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The gift that keeps on coming, RealDoll!

    I'd include a link, but some folks complain about Pr0n links, even when someone HREFs the SI Swimsuits.

  • Nothing (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by kraf ( 450958 )
    This weekend there is no Father's day where I live.

  • Nixie Tube Clock (Score:3, Interesting)

    by thened ( 530582 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @11:54AM (#3686721)
    I remember seeing some stuff about these on slashdot a while back. I think something analog like this would be a cool present for my dad. He is surrounded by too many digital things. Plus people would probably ask him about it a lot and then he would be able to brag about his fathers day gift.

  • GPS (Score:2, Interesting)

    by adamy ( 78406 )
    My dad is so into his GPS, it is a little scary.

    He takes it everywhere he drives when he travels. He sails and uses it to navigate on the Water as well.The later models are in Color and Have downloadable detailed maps for local areas.

    • Get him a case each of: tupperware, golf pencils, zip-lock baggies, pocket-sized notebooks, and if you really love him - disposable cameras. Load him up with cool little trinkets from bars/computer shows/something else close to his interests. Optionally, a spindle of 3-inch blank CDs if he has a burner and creates anything electronic that is remotely interesting.

      Send him here [geocaching.com], here [navicache.com], here [brillig.com], or here [geocachingworldwide.com].

      To make a real gift basket out of it, add sunscreen, insect repellant, calamine lotion, and bottled water.
      If he really takes to it, next year get him an 8-pack of travel bugs [geocaching.com].

  • Even though ThinkGeek is an ovious choice they do have a "Dads and Grads" section
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/dads-n-grads.sht ml
  • Past Times [past-times.com] (which has stores in both the USA and the UK) sell some really neat build-your-own crystal radio sets. I've bought a couple for friends and family recently and they go down really well.

  • Charitable Works (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ashurbanipal ( 578639 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:29PM (#3687041)
    Some Dads are not entirely self-centered. Go figure. Some Dads are even (gasp!) socially aware. If your Pop fits the profile, try a gift in his name to one of these: Habitat for Humanity [habitat.org] Save the Afghan Children [savethechildren.org] RAWA [rawa.org] The Heifer Project [heifer.org] Southern Poverty Law Center [splcenter.org] Adopt a Solar Family in Guatemala [gmu.edu] Palestinian Red Crescent [palestinercs.org] Maen David Adom [magendavidadom.org]
    • Not quite the formatting I had in mind. Someday I'll get the hang of this computer thingy (right after I master telephones and copiers, I guess).

      Oh, well, my post will get modded out of existence by the resident Zionist and Anti-Zionist fanatics anyway, since neither group has the ability to tolerate equal time for the opposition.

  • Always a winner (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you're female, you can give your dad the gift of grandfatherhood. I'll help!

  • Hopefully, nothing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gmhowell ( 26755 ) <gmhowell@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @01:10PM (#3687335) Homepage Journal
    I really hope my wife/child don't get me anything. I have very specific wants/needs. For example: a new power supply for my computer. No, not a generic, one of the PP&C 400 watt silent jobs. I need a brewpot. Preferably stainless. I need an outdoor cooker. I need to play with the legs to see if it is stable enough.

    The best thing they can do is leave me alone for 24 hours. Barring that, spend 24 hours doing stuff with me. Worst case scenario: buy shit for me.

    • On a related topic, Mother's Day...

      When my kids were younger, the best thing I could give my wife for Mother's Day was to not be a mother for a day. So ahead of time, I planned a day trip with the kids, frequently out of state or far away in-state. In addition, I had a sitter arranged for that evening, and tried to have the house reasonably clean the night before.

      So my wife got to see us get up and out first thing, then had the day to herself around a fairly clean house. Late afternoon we'd get back. She'd "bounce the kids on her knees" (do the fun mommy stuff) for a few minutes, and then the sitter would arrive and we were gone for dinner and movie or play.

      She did the same type of thing for me several times. As the kids got older there was less need for this type of relief.
    • I have a problem where my wife asks what I want, forcing me to give her a list, et. al, I give her *very* specific items (much like yours, but I've already done the research and just hand her the part number, price, and store), and then she goes out and gets me something completely different. I.e., a vibrating back cushion. I mean, wth? Her excuse is that if she got what is on my list, it wouldn't be a suprise! I will never understand women...
    • i just bought a replayTV, and thanked my wife. best gift yet.

  • Old geezer engineer types love the old-skool reverse-polish-notaion HP calculators. There hard to find but worth it.

    Normal calc: [2] [+] [3] [=]

    RPN calc: [2] [3] [+]

    RPN calcs are really cool if you have a lot of parens in your formula, and getting the right operation order is easy. RPN calcs are basically a little stack computer.

  • This "Ask Slashdot" question has been brought to you by ThinkGeek

    Stuff for Smart Masses [thinkgeek.com]

  • Chatpen? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Miska ( 45422 )
    How about ditching trying to get your dad to learn 'conventional' emailing and getting him an Ericsson Chatpen (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=ERIC_CHA TPEN).

    This is win-win thing - he can write you as much as he likes and you'll be forced to reply in writing.

    .

  • TiVo (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NetJunkie ( 56134 ) <jason.nash@CHICAGOgmail.com minus city> on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @01:36PM (#3687564)
    Everyone needs a TiVo.
  • Never underestimate the joy that small radio control devices bring. Most hobby stores are carrying affordable "USA flag" radio control blimps right now. This will be enjoyed not only this sunday, but also July 4. If you're not American, then helicopters and cars are also generally appreciated, and can be had for not much money. For the dads, try to actually have some *fun* with your kids, and put stress behind you for a day. Trust me, your kids will appreciate it too.
  • Toys are irrelevant and useless. Get him something he'll appreciate (and if he doesn't then he didn't deserve toys to begin with): Spend the day with him and go do something interesting--whatever gets your goat. Mini golf. Canoeing. Rebuilding that old engine sitting in the old rust bucket out on the lawn.

    Buying him a toy is shallow and uncaring. It just demonstrates you couldn't take the time out of your busy schedule to do something with him yourself.

    Worse, it promotes the idea that you are a consumer, and not anything more. At best, you'll keep him occupied with a few hours of novelty before it wears off and he puts it on a top shelf and forgets it.

    But if you spend some time with him and it's meaningful, believe me he'll cherish it much, much longer.
    • My thoughts exactly. My dad and I are going to golf 18 holes on Saturday and then hang out at the club house for a while.

      As I've gotten older, I've developed more of a guy relationship with my dad instead of the whole father - son thing. I think the big turning point was when my wife and I bought a house and I asked for some help doing painting and such around the place. I'd much rather spend time with him than box him up a tie and UPS it to him.
    • a nice thought, but what if you live over 2000 km away from your dad?
      • Then you visit the man. If one is asking Slashdot for cool geek toys, one can afford to pick up a plane ticket for a weekend.
        • Hmm, a $500 plane ticket vs. sending a gift and calling long distance...you say that's comparable? Note that I wasn't the one asking /. for cool geek toys, I was merely responding to the suggestion saying "visit him instead of sending him something" and noting that we do not all have that luxury.

  • Thinkgeek.com (Score:2, Insightful)

    by reddog1 ( 470465 )
    Check out ThinkGeek.Com [thinkgeek.com]. Lot's of cool toys to tinker with. Personally I think the Binary Clock [thinkgeek.com] is cool.
  • dad wants the very latest, so get him one of these [slashdot.org]. Duh.
  • I'm getting my dad, or rather making him, a t-shirt. I got my mom a license plate thing that said Got /.?

    SOmething like that
  • Let's take a step back and look at the falacy of this "Ask Slashdot" question:

    How could you have a geek for a dad when we all know that kids require sex?

  • Get me nothing! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have three kids. I don't want anything. If you're a good parent, your reward is a good relationship with your kids.

    Father's Day is an idiotic response to an idiotic Hallmark holiday (Mother's day). If you look into the history of Mother's day you'll find that the woman who started it was unhealthily devoted to her own mother. And things just went downhill from there.
  • A grandson, just three weeks ago. He doesn't want anything else.

    (However, I did make a nice print of him holding the baby and put it in a frame for him)
  • Last year, I sent this mail to staff:

    "Dear All,

    Why not treat your loved ones this Father's Day with a free network card! Stocks are limited, so hurry!"

    Not only did I get read of all those horrible Realtek cards that had been sitting in a box somewhere, but also several 100m of coax cable that was gathering dust.

    The ensuing fight over the terminators was quite amusing too....

  • Nothing says "I -am- manager of this IT dept." quite like a tie made of chainmail. Delightfully anachronistic, and can double as a flail to be used on those who aren't being 'team players.' ;)

    See this [angelfire.com] one for an example. (Not mine, not me, just a random example).

    "Carpe vitam globis!"

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