Alexandra Samuel » Blog Archive » Halfway to hex: Anniversary gifts for geeks

Halfway to hex: Anniversary gifts for geeks

July28

Today marks the eighth anniversary of our other founding partnership: our marriage. July 29th, 2000 was the Big Day not only for the two of us, but also for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

Alex and Rob with MacBooks We know that popular opinion lays the blame for the Brad-Jen breakup at the feet of a certain Ms. Jolie, but we recognize a completely different kind of relationship pressure. With all the press coverage of their marriage, did you ever see them pictured with matching his 'n hers PowerBooks?

We don't want our own marriage to fall victim to the specter of insufficient technology. And yet the traditional roster of anniversary gifts is still geared towards the analog lifestyle.

To celebrate our half-hex anniversary, we're proud to present a new, geek-friendly set of recommended anniversary gifts. Do note that the recommended 8th anniversary gift is a nice, fresh web link...hint, hint.

Year	Traditional	Geek	Notes
1	Paper	Manuals, documentation	Electronic documentation is just as appropriate as paper manuals.
2	Cotton	Tech conference and tech culture T-shirts	100% cotton and size-appropriate, please, if you want to create passionate users.
3	Leather	Protective cases, luggage	Before you buy that leather laptop case, make sure your geek isn't a vegan.
4	Fruit, Flowers, Linen, Silk	Apple product	To a true geek, there is no fruit besides Apple.
5	Wood	Fonts, input devices	Early typewriters were made from wood.
6	Sugar, Iron	Red Bull, energy snacks	Sugar, in its geek-preferred form.
7	Wool, Copper	Circuit boards, hardware upgrades	Circuit boards use copper circuits.
8	Bronze, Pottery	Web links	Bronze is used for bells, i.e. a way of drawing people's attention.
9	Pottery, Willow	Data storage	For holding things -- the modern equivalent to willow baskets.
10	Tin, aluminum	Enclosures, CPUs	CPU enclosures are often made from aluminum.
11	Steel	RAM, memory	RAM chips are typically held in a computer by steel clips. Think of this as the digital equivalent of a wedding photo album.
12	Silk, Linen	Security devices and software	Silk is made by worms. Security software protects against computer worms.
13	Lace	Portable electronics devices	Microchips, like lace, used to rely on women with good eyesight to do the manufacturing (both have since automated). Assembly of small products still relies on fine motor work by women.
14	Ivory	Electronic instruments, speakers	Piano keys were originally made from ivory.
15	Crystal	LCDs	Liquid CRYSTAL displays. Get it?
20	China	GPS	Ceramics are part of the miniature antennas used in GPS devices.
25	Silver	Digital photography equipment, image capture	Silver used in early photo processing.
30	Pearl	Smart phones	Like the Blackberry Pearl.
35	Coral, Jade	Linux boxes	The Linux OS, like coral, is made up of thousands of individual contributions that are nonetheless "commonly perceived to be a single organism".
40	Ruby	Web applications	Preferably applications written in Ruby on Rails.
45	Sapphire	Laptop computers	Laptop screens use LEDs; some LEDs use a sapphire-like crystal as part of the manufacturing process.
50	Gold	MP3 players	Gold is used in semiconductors; radios were one of the earlier applications of semiconductors.
55	Emerald	Code, custom software	As created on the Emerald Isle.
60	Diamond	Pre-release alpha technologies	Synthetic diamonds are projected as a future material for superconductors, capable of withstanding great heat.