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Geeky Gift-off

Dec 26, 2007  By Carlie Fairchild

LJ Gadget Guy Shawn Powers managed to keep us busy one-upping each other in the office today -- he wanted to know who got the geekiest gift this holiday season. Of course he proved to be the geekiest of all when he went as far as producing a full video review of his gift:

I myself got a Pleo for Christmas, a robot "specifically engineered and enhanced to mimic life and to assist, entertain, and relate to humanity on a personal level". It gets extra cool points for having an SD slot so that I can load programs onto it to change its behavior. I too created a video of my gift but unless you're interested in seeing a robot dinosaur do a Tim "the Toolman" Taylor impersonation, I don't know that I'd recommend watching it.

LJ Reader Advisory Panelist Ken Firestone got an XO laptop developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) social welfare organization. The XO is an inexpensive laptop intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world. Ken participated in the limited-time Give One Get One program the OLPC is currently running in the United States and Canada. During this program you can donate an XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for your own child (or you), all for just $399 USD. Give One Get One only runs through December 31, 2007 so if interested make sure to check it out before the end of the year.

Another of our esteemed Reader Advisory Panelists Adam Dutko got the gift of micro-controllers this holiday when he was gifted Arduino. Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible hardware and software. The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased pre-assembled and the software downloaded for free.

Last but not least the obligatory penguin gift. When you work for a company like Linux Journal you tend to get a lot of penguins. This holiday proved no exception for webmistress Katherine Druckman who shows us the I-CY Penguin she was gifted this season.

Did you get a geeky gift? Let us know in the comments below. We want to drool a little over others' gifts. In fact, if you upload a video review of your geeky gift to YouTube, or your video distribution platform of choice and e-mail me a link to it we'll even send you a free T-shirt. I'll send out free shirts to the first 20 reviewers and will post the videos in the comments below for others to enjoy.

Happy holidays, everyone.

UPDATE: Shawn Powers wins 5 of the 20 free T-shirts:

There are 15 left, folks... :-)

______________________

Carlie Fairchild is the publisher of Linux Journal.

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Reader Submitted Geeky Gift Video

admin's picture
Submitted by admin on Thu, 01/03/2008 - 08:39.

Thanks, Brad. Yes, definitely geeky too. :)

Electricity?

Verlager's picture
Submitted by Verlager (not verified) on Sun, 12/30/2007 - 02:14.

Did I hear you correctly? Did you say that winding up the poopy penguin "stores electricity" ? More likely, it winds up a coil spring, which then propels the toy.

Where did you go to school?

It was a joke.

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/30/2007 - 09:24.

Storing electricity = joke. Lighten up.

:-( I got nothing geeky at

Nathan who came here via Shawn's blog's picture
Submitted by Nathan who came here via Shawn's blog (not verified) on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 09:38.

:-( I got nothing geeky at all. Does crappy count?

Crappy?

Shawn Powers's picture
Submitted by Shawn Powers on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 09:59.

Realize, Nathan, that the current title holder got a pooping penguin -- I think we've established that crappy counts.

Shawn Powers is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel, or Twitter

Candy Suggestion

VL's picture
Submitted by VL (not verified) on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 00:41.

Jelly Bellies!

They come in multiple flavors and I bet they would be small enough to fit in Tux's plastic abdomen!

geeky gifts

deadcats's picture
Submitted by deadcats (not verified) on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 00:23.

Well, my wife--a Windows applications developer who understands my love of all things Linux and Tux-like, got me this via ThinkGeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/rc/9df0/

Tux is now my newest best friend and able companion. If that isn't geeky, I dunno what is. Please note that Tux ONLY responds to a Linux environment! :)

regards,
-dc

Geeky Gift Tux Droid

Mike Roberts's picture
Submitted by Mike Roberts on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 13:16.

Not only is that cool, it is sold out. That makes it Geek Unique in my little corner of the world!

Mike Roberts is a bewildered Linux Journal Reader Advisory Panelist.

Cool gift! How about a

kalyanakrishna's picture
Submitted by kalyanakrishna on Fri, 12/28/2007 - 15:55.

Cool gift!

How about a subscription to LJ? Would that count as a geeky gift? I am sure it does. :)

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