5 ms·

2018 Engineering Gift Guide

116 points by wallflower 8y ago

notimetorelax 8y ago
I’m getting a Proxy Error, is it one of the gifts?
- glitchc 8y ago
  The best kind of gift is a proxy error from a website. Not only have you saved yourself some time you would have otherwise wasted on that site, you saved some energy too by downloading fewer bits. The planet thanks you.
nik_0_0 8y ago
Great list - "fun toys, games, books, and applications to engage girls and boys ages 3-18" Although Exapunks is on there, which is still on my wishlist.
xchaotic 8y ago
Marble run is a safe bet for a surprising range of ages
- wbeckler 8y ago
  Are you talking about Turing Tumble or a different marble game?
Eire_Banshee 8y ago
Boiler Up
jammygit 8y ago
A bunch of gift guides are coming out lately. Here's the fsf one: https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/ https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/ (saw mozilla post one recently too)
- nixgeek 8y ago
  “Stay away from iPhone”. Predictable behavior from FSF but still disappointing to me in 2018, given iOS is one of the hardest targets from a security perspective with a comprehensive guide on techniques used [1] and offers an excellent overall user experience. [1] https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide....
  - jolmg 8y ago
    It's not free software, so what's the point of being disappointed that an organization, whose sole purpose is getting the world to favor free software over closed source, is going to be against it? It's like being disappointed that businesses look to make money, or homeless shelters look to help the homeless. It's their purpose. > given iOS is one of the hardest targets from a security perspective with a comprehensive guide on techniques used [1] and offers an excellent overall user experience. Cool, but none of that matters for the purpose of the FSF. That's not the reason for their existence.
  - Delmania 8y ago
    The FSF is not a software or technology organization, it's more a political one that uses software as it's platform. They don't care about ease of use or security. They care about how the software did their message.
  - LukeShu 8y ago
    The FSF's core message is "users deserve source code." Apple does not give users the iPhone source code. It's as simple as that.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    Others have mentioned why iOS is not on the FSF's list of good holiday gifts. However, I did find their "Proprietary surveillance" page to be hilariously bad: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary-surveillance.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary-surveillance.html. There are a couple of good things on there, but the majority of it seems like it was written by a 12-year-old who searched Google for "[thing] is spying on me" and took bullet points on what showed up.
beefsack 8y ago
Turing Tumble[1] is wonderful, happy that it got a mention. I thought it'd be a great idea for our office as we've got a lot of staff here who love logic puzzles, but my 4yo daughter at home had the first try and she won't let it out of the house now. The game feels like a physical version of The Incredible Machine or Zachtronics games. It's essentially a marble run on a board which you can add logic gates to. There are two different colours of balls which serve as input, and the puzzle specifies what output you require. The later puzzles in the book are much too complex for my daughter but she has actually been able to solve the easy ones on her own. She uses it creatively too, making machines which she likes to show off to her mum and I. Even without my daughter enjoying it I'd keep it at home because I've found the puzzles really fun and is satisfyingly tactile. I'm hoping they create a community puzzle repository for people to contribute to - might be a good project idea for people if they don't though. Highly recommended. [1]: https://www.turingtumble.com/ https://www.turingtumble.com/
app4soft 8y ago
So many (LEGO® clones) building bricks in this catalog... Anyway, wooden Bi-Plane on p.19 would be awesome gift!

116 points by wallflower 8y ago

notimetorelax 8y ago

I’m getting a Proxy Error, is it one of the gifts?

glitchc 8y ago
The best kind of gift is a proxy error from a website. Not only have you saved yourself some time you would have otherwise wasted on that site, you saved some energy too by downloading fewer bits. The planet thanks you.

nik_0_0 8y ago

Great list - "fun toys, games, books, and applications to engage girls and boys ages 3-18" Although Exapunks is on there, which is still on my wishlist.

xchaotic 8y ago

Marble run is a safe bet for a surprising range of ages

wbeckler 8y ago
Are you talking about Turing Tumble or a different marble game?

Eire_Banshee 8y ago

Boiler Up

jammygit 8y ago

A bunch of gift guides are coming out lately. Here's the fsf one: https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/ https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/ (saw mozilla post one recently too)

nixgeek 8y ago
“Stay away from iPhone”. Predictable behavior from FSF but still disappointing to me in 2018, given iOS is one of the hardest targets from a security perspective with a comprehensive guide on techniques used [1] and offers an excellent overall user experience. [1] https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide....
- jolmg 8y ago
  It's not free software, so what's the point of being disappointed that an organization, whose sole purpose is getting the world to favor free software over closed source, is going to be against it? It's like being disappointed that businesses look to make money, or homeless shelters look to help the homeless. It's their purpose. > given iOS is one of the hardest targets from a security perspective with a comprehensive guide on techniques used [1] and offers an excellent overall user experience. Cool, but none of that matters for the purpose of the FSF. That's not the reason for their existence.
- Delmania 8y ago
  The FSF is not a software or technology organization, it's more a political one that uses software as it's platform. They don't care about ease of use or security. They care about how the software did their message.
- LukeShu 8y ago
  The FSF's core message is "users deserve source code." Apple does not give users the iPhone source code. It's as simple as that.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Others have mentioned why iOS is not on the FSF's list of good holiday gifts. However, I did find their "Proprietary surveillance" page to be hilariously bad: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary-surveillance.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary-surveillance.html. There are a couple of good things on there, but the majority of it seems like it was written by a 12-year-old who searched Google for "[thing] is spying on me" and took bullet points on what showed up.

beefsack 8y ago

Turing Tumble[1] is wonderful, happy that it got a mention. I thought it'd be a great idea for our office as we've got a lot of staff here who love logic puzzles, but my 4yo daughter at home had the first try and she won't let it out of the house now. The game feels like a physical version of The Incredible Machine or Zachtronics games. It's essentially a marble run on a board which you can add logic gates to. There are two different colours of balls which serve as input, and the puzzle specifies what output you require. The later puzzles in the book are much too complex for my daughter but she has actually been able to solve the easy ones on her own. She uses it creatively too, making machines which she likes to show off to her mum and I. Even without my daughter enjoying it I'd keep it at home because I've found the puzzles really fun and is satisfyingly tactile. I'm hoping they create a community puzzle repository for people to contribute to - might be a good project idea for people if they don't though. Highly recommended. [1]: https://www.turingtumble.com/ https://www.turingtumble.com/

app4soft 8y ago

So many (LEGO® clones) building bricks in this catalog... Anyway, wooden Bi-Plane on p.19 would be awesome gift!