Ask HN: What's a Good Gift for Programmers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's a Good Gift for Programmers?

18 pointslemonada48 comments

What's a useful gift to give to a programmer? I am trying to think of something that they will either use daily, or increase their knowledge/productivity. Budget $100USD. I was thinking one-off/non-subscription high-quality paid utilities, e.g. diff tools such as Beyond Compare, HFS+ file system driver etc. I also considered courses/ebooks but generally I feel that, unless these are the highest quality, utilities will be more often used. Anyway, all suggestions welcome, regardless of targeted developer platform/domain.

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In the interests of shameless self-promotion, I made these calender's I think are pretty cool: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1012906584/wooden-calendar-p...

Just finished programming a solver (well, ripping apart someone else's solver) to solve for all the possible states (hint, look up Knuth's Algorithm X).

Don't imagine they'd ship in time though if you were interested.

At first I was, WTF?!? But when I saw the second image, I must admit I love it. Will now share with daughter who was asking.

That is a very nice design, did You use a diode laser to cut it?

No, I used a CO2 laser. I don't imagine a diode laser would cut it.

I have just started getting into wood working and want to build whirlygigs which I believe would go a lot faster with a laser cutter. I am thinking the way to go for now might just be a scroll saw for cutting and diode laser for pattern transfer but eventually I'll probably get a CO2 unit.

Would You mind telling us what brand You are running? I have heard good things about the Epilogs.

I inherited a glowforge from a failed business venture. I can't say I'd recommend that brand for serious works, among other things it requires an always on internet connection and need to re-process your files after every run.

It is very easy to use though, and aside from normal maintenance and one $1600 hardware failure that I had to pay out of pocket to fix, it's been generally rock solid and zero configuration/tinkering. Just reliable results every time.

For serious work I'm looking at an omtech laser. They're basically inexpensive chinese laser cutters that have a parts warehouse and support in north-america.

Their entry level machine is less than a grand, so I'd probably recommend one of those instead of a glowforge to start with. I only really have experience with the glowforge, but even if I wasn't price-sensitive the time it takes to process the designs and the SaaS business model would mean I probably wouldn't get another one.

Not useful but fun:

LED controller so you can e.g. have mail notifications as an LED on your desk https://www.blinkstick.com/

A clock that you can reprogram to e.g. to kind of a drunken walk with the seconds hand and still be on time. https://www.tindie.com/products/nsayer/crazy-clock/

I really enjoy my pbt key caps. Programmers spend all day at the keyboard and the oils from their fingers wear down the key caps and make their keyboards look terrible. PBT feels better and takes longer to break down. You can get a good set for $30. Just make sure the key caps on their keyboards come off.

Logitech also makes some nice wireless mice around $100 that are pretty ergonomic and comfortable to use. Anything to help prevent carpel tunnel is nice.

A lot of programmers really love the jetbrains tool suite, but that's more subscription based.

A lot of free database viewer tools pale in comparison to their paid counterparts. So something in that arena could be nice

or even just a single keycap with a character or design they enjoy to replace their Esc key or something

those things can get up to $30-50 or higher depending on materials, putting it exactly in the range of "would never buy it themselves but would still love to get it" which imo is peak gift territory

A one-way plane ticket to somewhere else, ideally with limited internet connectivity.

https://www.workaway.info/

https://www.worldpackers.com/

"Merry Christmas, friend. Please fuck off to Norway." :D

Not sure if this really counts under your original spec, but I’m a programmer and I think they are cool.

Desktop steam engines [1]

You can get the engine on its own which can be powered by a candle or small oil burner. Then you can build your own stuff to starch to it to be powered!

1. https://www.amazon.com/steam-engines/s?k=steam+engines

This could be tricky! More and more, programmers are moving away from the stereotype of white dude who likes to play computer games in their spare time, and is always on the lookout for a gadget. I’d opt for giving them a gift voucher for an area of interest to them. That way, they could buy a raspberry pi if they wanted, or art supplies, or get nails done, or have a spa treatment. They could even use it to top up their own spend :) Key thing is to know your audience. If you don’t, maybe setup a system where they can choose. I wouldn’t recommend buying equipment for them. They’re a very particular bunch, and you could end up buying “rubbish” in their opinion! Maybe one of the options could also be to not give the money to them, but to a charity. Only if they choose it though!

I would say money instead of giftcards then make a nice card with the intend, that way it doesnt rot in shelf somewhere and will hold value..

Agreed, I hate gift cards as they force where to spend the money. But when my kids get Amazon ones, I trade it for cash and then just register it. I know we have at least one outback steak house card somewhere,never remember to bring it with us. Cannot keep up with it.

Yeah exactly its just silly

> stereotype of white dude who likes to play computer games in their spare time

That was me until I was about 31. Then I had a daughter and had even less time or energy to play games. Now I'm 40 and suffering from health anxiety, and have found gaming as a good way to cope... Specifically Skyrim :)

Also my daughter is into Minecraft.

> More and more, programmers are moving away from the stereotype of white dude who likes to play computer games in their spare time, and is always on the lookout for a gadget.

Yawn

I have always liked these but felt it was too much of an extravagance to buy for myself and it is 25 dollars over your budget.

Etsy Link...err tindy

https://www.tindie.com/products/stephanelec/mooltipass-mini-...

But what programmer wouldn't want their own open source customizable authenticator?

Edit** I guess it is technically just a password vault but I think it is still a pretty cool gift. Another thing I think would make a nice gift is this (I must be on a password kick tonite)

Tindy Link

https://www.tindie.com/products/russtopia/psstm-mark-ii-pass...

Lol, I guess I just bought myself an Xmas present...Just ordered a matched pair of the keychains and 2 sets of rings from 2nd link.

Time. I wish 4 weeks of "me" time to write my own code and not be disturbed by anybody.

This isn't really something you can gift to someone else.

Sure it is. It only takes a gift certificate to pay for one month of their salary.

You can tell them in a believable way that it's okay for them to do this, and leave them alone for the agreed upon period of time :P

If they have showed any interest in math and/or physics, you should consider getting them my MATH&PHYS book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0992001005/noBSmathphys it's very popular for programmers.

I also have a book on linear algebra, which would be good for people doing more machine learning or data sciency stuff: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0992001021/noBSLA

Both books are perfect for math haters, since they start out with a review of high school math.

Looks good, thanks, I bought the math one for my son.

USB electronics toolkit, scope, psu, signal generator... https://espotek.com/labrador/

Looked so good I bought 2, one for me and one for my son. Thanks for posting this.

Rubber duck

For those not in the loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

Use daily and increase their productivity? Have you thought of getting them some kind of coffee machine?

Aeropress for example is quite cheap and makes good coffee.

Scotch.

I’m a huge fan of Dash[0]. Being able to instantly summon documentation for many, many languages and third-party packages is a superpower.

[0] https://kapeli.com/dash

I use it and love it. Integrates great with Alfred.

I’d love to have received a license.

So what's the upside compared to devdocs.io? Seems restricted to macs for a negative...

More RAM, USB stick, an external disk, solar charger, the more the better.

Previous thread from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29380795

tungsten cube

A USB security key such as Nitrokey could be handy for code signing, git and Github access.

Raspberry pi? Keyboard? Mouse?

RAM

Knuth’s AOCP boxed set!

A reason to live

$100 gift card.

A hug.

Facepalm.

* Palm may be applied elsewhere if desired.

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