Perhaps you have been asking yourself, what do I get my activist-geek boyfriend / girlfriend / life partner for Christmas / Kwanzaa/Hannukah? Well, just in time for the holidays, here is rikomatic’s Gadgets for Good Gift Guide (or G4, if you like).
Enjoy all the eco-friendly, social justice-y goodness after the jump…
UPDATE 2PM 11/30/06: I just saw that Rocketboom has a cool video interview with Mark Torrone, senior editor of MAKE Magazine, talking about the MAKE Open Source Gift Guide. Worth a view.
Gadgets for Good Gift Guide
Cool holiday present ideas for the good-hearted techie in your life:
- Give a Sick Kid a Wii: "Child’s Play" is an awesome gamer-inspired charity organized by those funny guys at Penny Arcade. They collect money every year to provide video games for kids in hospitals all over the world. Three years running, Child’s Play has amassed over a million dollars worth of donations.
Recycled Motherboard Cufflinks: Men have so few jewelry accessories compared to women. Only Guidos and raps stars can get away with lots of rings on their fingers. But every man looks dashing in a French-cuffed shirt with stylish cufflinks. Even better are cufflinks that say "I’m a stylish nerd and I want to save the planet." The company Motherboard also does business card holders, clipboards, clocks, coasters, photo frames and much more.
Buy a (red) iPod – Fight AIDS: If you were thinking of getting your special someone a digital music device anyway, consider getting them a (red) iPod Nano. Proceeds from each sale goes to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. You can also get a (red) branded Armani watch or a Motorola cell phone.- Recycled Tire iPod Case: If you want to protect that new (red) iPod Nano, you might consider getting this eco-friendly recycled tire iPod case made by Solio. Also good for rubber fetish freaks and gearheads. All the cases are made from recycled tired from Colombia.
Give the Gift of Gore: Al Gore that is. What geek wouldn’t love seeing Al Gore talk about how technological progress is killing the planet? Even the most red-state techie will appreciate the nerdy goodness of Al Gore tapping away at his MacBook Pro or talking on his Treo 650. And no one does Powerpoint better than Al.- Transport Data Securely – the Kingston DataTraveler Secure: If your geek activist is transporting sensitive data (say, the email addresses of Chinese dissidents or videos of Guantanamo prisoners being tortured) and wants to keep it away from spies and snoops, consider getting the Kingston Data Traveler Secure. It’s got 256-bit AES encryption and self-destructs (auto-formats) after too many attempts to crack it. Not to mention its water-proof and virtually indestructible.
So How Much Electricity Does that XBox360 Use?: The Kill-a-Watt
is not, as I suspected, a new gansta rapper from Watts, it’s actually a
device that you hook up to your electrical outlets to tell you how much
energy your various electronic products are consuming. This is a good
way to find out how much the stand-by mode of your computer and TV and
stereo is costing you.- Harness the Power of the Sun Just Like Ultraman: All those
gadgets in your favorite geek’s bulging pockets take lots of
electricity to stay happy. Luckily there are several great
solar-powered chargers out there that can keep your iPods and cell
phones and PDAs ready for action. Check out Solio’s and Soldius1’s cool solar chargers. The Soldius even comes in several fruity fashion colors. 
The Aluminum Foil Mind Control Blocking Hat: I’m actually not suggesting you get this for someone. But I just love this picture, and the fact that someone is selling it for $9.99. See the link for more awesome pics of various people and pets in tin foil hats.
NOTE: Many of these gift ideas were shamelessly stolen from the excellent Treehugger website.