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Ask HN: What to get for my brother's 50th birthday?
My brother, who works as hardware installation tech, is an absolute gem who loves communications hardware, radio and internet broadcast tech, cars, bikes, whiskey, camping. I've been looking for something magical, that he will find useful and unexpected.
Over the years I've bought him: expensive whiskey or bourbon, a metal detector, radio gear, antennas, camping gear.. I'm looking for something I wouldn't think of to surprise him. Even better, something he can do with the teenage kids.
Any ideas, of something you bought yourself or were gifted and love?
- paulkrush 4y agoOr a Massey Ferguson 7250 DI Power Up tractor
- telesilla 4y agoHe would love that! Pity the yard is too small to warrant the space it would take up in the garage.
- bombcar 4y agoActually, if he has a power-tool brand he enjoys maybe splurge on something that uses the same batteries that he doesn't have or can't quite spend on. For example, the Milwaukee lawn mower is highly rated but also kinda pricey. In that area they also have some real nice tools for car working now, impact wrenches, etc. But you'd need to know what he currently has to find something nice to have.
- eatbitseveryday 4y agoI don’t get it. Is there something special about this tractor or why would it make a fun gift?
- paulkrush 4y agoBorn in 72 and 50 years old, hence a 7250 DI Power Up. Also yes, it looks fun.
- groffee 4y agoWas he into tech as a kid? Maybe something vintage that got him interested in tech as a kid that he can share with his own kids.
- telesilla 4y agoYes he works in tech on the hardware side, he always regretted not being a programmer but I think he has more fun than me, given how stuffed full his office is of solder irons and boxes full of random connectors. Plus he gets to go outside and install equipment.
- trebligdivad 4y agoSo not useful as such, but I once had a pile of old computer and electronics magazines, and would give people their birth month edition. You should be able to find 1972 ones fairly easily; Wireless World was around then, not sure what else. They're great fun looking at predictions and adverts of the time.
- bush-bby 4y agoMaybe some LoRa goodies. Or a book about one of those topics you mentioned that maybe your brother hasn’t actually gotten too deep into.
- danesparza 4y agoHere's a link if you're wondering what LoRa goodies might look like: https://www.adafruit.com/?q=lora&sort=BestMatch https://www.adafruit.com/?q=lora&sort=BestMatch
- paulkrush 4y agoA LM5072 Texas Instruments | PMIC - Power Over Ethernet Controller
- christophilus 4y agoA friend of mine bought me a fountain pen for my birthday. I expected to have it sit in my standard pile of pens, but no. I love that thing. I'd never have bought a fountain pen otherwise. I've since purchased an inexpensive Muji pen. It comes with garbage ink, but I replaced that with a refillable cartridge and Parker ink. It's now my second favorite pen. (I say this simply to indicate that it doesn't have to be an expensive fountain pen.)
- devNoise 4y agoTo follow up on the pen idea. Tactile Turn pens are popular with the EDC crowd. https://tactileturn.com/pages/shop https://tactileturn.com/pages/shop
- d9000 4y agoNixie watch
- SeanLuke 4y agoAn excellent suggestion, particularly a Round Nixie Watch from Cathode Corner, which has famous adherents including Woz. Also, how about a One Wheel?
- aaaaaaaaata 4y agoFor use in the woods, pretty neat.
- golf_mike 4y agoHow about a flipper zero! https://flipperzero.one/ https://flipperzero.one/
- capableweb 4y agoI love it! So many times I've could have used one of those... Unfortunately not in stock at the moment :(
- jimmydorry 4y agoYeah, looks amazing. I was sold on the idea after reading the description, but saw it was out of stock when I went to purchase. :(
- Rebelgecko 4y agoThey're supposedly coming back in stock soon, fwiw
- IceyEC 4y ago"Back in stock" - I'm still waiting on my 12 month delayed Kickstarter ;-)
- dominotw 4y agoAn arcteryx jacket
- bluGill 4y agoIs he into standup desks? https://www.surfmouse.io/ https://www.surfmouse.io/ is something that I just discovered. Mine is still in shipping (ordered 2 days ago) so I can't review (or for that matter be sure it isn't a scam...). A mechanical keyboard if he doesn't have one. Not everyone likes them and there are lots of different switches that fans argue about which is best about. If he hasn't tried one it is a great gift. Out of stock everywhere, but if you can get one a Fisher-Price - Chatter Telephone with Bluetooth is one of those cute things that many people will like to have on their desk (I'm not sure if anyone will use it more than once)
- shimonabi 4y agoVictorinox Cybertool https://www.victorinox.com/global/en/Products/Swiss-Army-Knives/Medium-Pocket-Knives/Cyber-Tool-M/p/1.7725.T https://www.victorinox.com/global/en/Products/Swiss-Army-Kni...
- zeroego 4y agoPersonally I love being gifted experiences. One year I got a tandem skydiving experience for my significant other and I, it was awesome. Another year I purchased my SO and I an intro to pottering throwing class that was fun too. Perhaps you could try something like an aerial tour of the area that they live in? Seeing where you live from the sky is really fun.
- sumthinprofound 4y agoI once found a 2 hour introductory flight lesson on groupon that I gifted as a birthday present. They had a great experience.
- bombcar 4y agoThis can be very dangerous - they may like it so much they end up spending $15-20k+ on a pilot license.
- breitling 4y agoOnly caveat with this is that it could potentially be a hindrance for someone getting life insurance. I recently applied to a couple companies and they all asked me if I had flown an airplane in the last 12 months.
- sumthinprofound 4y agoI would not have known better to even consider this. Useful to know!
- giantg2 4y agoEh, if you're just doing lessons then I wouldn't count that. The instructor is the one piloting the plane. Even if you take control, they're the one responsible for the aircraft as the instructor. I would only answer yes to that question if you solo.
- lozenge 4y agoThat doesn't mean they'll reject your application. I doubt they would reject based on a single lesson.
- senectus1 4y agoI'm a little over 2 years away from that point myself. It depends on how much you want to spend or spend with a group... but a life experience is always a great gift. maybe even a course? I know I'd get a huge kick out of something like a blacksmithing course... or something like that.
- circlefavshape 4y agoFor my 50th my wife rented a 13th century castle for a weekend, and got my friends to come stay the first night and my parents/brothers-and-their-families for the second. It was fantastic
- shmoe 4y agoWow. This is a great idea. Terrible wifi, but great inspiration for planning mine and my wife's 50th.
- aaaaaaaaata 4y agoCastles have bad network admins?
- BenjiWiebe 4y agoI'm guessing the issue is with the stone walls blocking WiFi.
- sdze 4y agoGo for a hike with him. Time shared together is most valuable in my opinion.
- hprotagonist 4y agoAssuming "bike' means "motorcycle": Get him time and instruction on a motorcycle track. There are non-racing focused skills based track days; i was just at one with ages of participants spanning 19 to 78(!). What a way to get your head somewhere else for a day! If you give me a region, i might be able to make some recommendations.
- telesilla 4y agoHis wife made him give up his motorbike when they had kids! She'd not appreciate that from me :)
- hprotagonist 4y agothe track is the safest place to be! everyone's going the same way, the roads are meticulously well maintained, and there are no cops! (I know a few people who exclusively track their bikes now to the point that they're not even plated any more; it's just where they want to go to enjoy the skills, and they've kind of lost interest in road riding entirely)
- serf 4y ago> the track is the safest place to be! everyone's going the same way, the roads are meticulously well maintained, and there are no cops! anecdotal, but in my experience with driving race cars : tracks are pretty far from meticulously well maintained. perhaps meticulously documented; "T12s soft berm had been eroding for years, take a rain line around it.", but rarely meticulously maintained. that said, maybe motorcycles have a different experience?
- hprotagonist 4y agoi think "significantly better maintained than public roads" is sufficient. "meticulous" might be a stretch, but for the most part, track condition is not something you have to worry about to the degree you have to keep an eye out for tar snakes and potholes and oil slicks and whatnot on the road -- and in the event of trouble, you have corner workers who will tell you about it, too!
- bradfa 4y agoA helicopter ride for you and him (and others if they'll fit) around where he lives or likes to camp. It's one thing to see your local places from an airplane, it was a completely different experience for me in a helicopter. If you can get one where the front seats have a window in the nose/floor and have him sit in the front with the pilot, that would probably be really cool for him. Maybe go fly by some nearby broadcast/communications towers or something, too?
- 0x00101010 4y agoHave the same question for the weekend. I'll give him mini gold bars, like 1 gram. For his retirement!
- yakito 4y agoI don't know your brother so it would be hard to think of the perfect gift, but I do think that the best gifts are those that let us create something with them and express ourselves. It can be something as simple as a pencil or expensive as a machine. I would think what he enjoys doing and then about a gift that would help him expand his horizon.
- preturbed 4y agoPlants; favored vegetable, or tree to grow. Something ALIVE to celebrate his life!
- nickt 4y agoFind out what his first 8/16 bit computer was and get him one with some peripherals and OG games. At his age, and with the bourbon reference I’d guess a Commodore 64.
- mgkimsal 4y agoFather, not brother, gifted me a guitar. Now, we're both amateur guitarists, as are some of my other brothers. In the last 5-10 years my dad has started to collect more guitars. He's nerdier than some of the tech details on guitars than I am (hardware, pickups, etc) but ... we both enjoy guitars. My dad looked - for a long time - for a guitar that was made on my birthday.- same day and same year, then same month and year. He couldn't find anything that specific, but found something made the following month (which, in my mind, was probably being built a few days before, in my birth month). So on my 50th birthday I was given a guitar with almost the same birthday as me. It was pretty cool :) There may not be interests that align with that sort of timetable directly, but perhaps that can spark an idea. I just priced out some 50 year old whiskey, and... that may be too much :)
- agentultra 4y agoSome old photos of you cats together at different stages of your lives. Put them in a nice scrap book. Write a thoughtful message at the end.
- csw-001 4y agoFor a buddy’s 40th we contacted as many of his friends and family as we could find, and asked them to make a short video telling a joke/story/greeting for him. Then we hired some of his favorite TV show stars to do the same via Cameo - Billy D. Williams was hilarious! We stitched it all together in iMovie and surprised him with it. We got folks he hadn’t seen in a decade to say hi. We got poetry, jokes, even videos with painting people made him. His dad drove to their old neighborhood and took him on a short walking tour. We got his mom to give us pictures of him as a kid to cut in (gotta include that ubiquitous tub shot!). When we showed it to him and we recorded his reaction and set that as a screen-in-screen video back to everyone who contributed, and couldn’t come to the party (darn COVID!). It was a big lift - lots of coordination - but as you get older, old friends are harder see and older relatives begin to pass. That video lasts forever, which is cool.
- tra3 4y agoSuch an amazing idea. I’m saving it.
- pavel_lishin 4y agoI know the ISS speaks to folks on Earth via ham radio - I don't know if those sessions are scheduled in any way, but talking to an Astronaut or Cosmonaut could be a treat for him.
- throwaway3neu94 4y agoFortunately that's not something you can buy. These contacts are occasionally scheduled with organizations (schools etc.), but unscheduled for the general public. Exchanges tend to also be one short question (how does earth look from above right now?) and one short answer (earth looks beautiful), and then it's on to the next person. Not just due to congestion, but also because the ISS is only visible for a few minutes.
- CosmicShadow 4y agoIf you end up making an event out of the gift, you can always surprise him with custom realistic tickets to whatever you plan from stubforge.com
- aaron695 4y ago
- lcordier 4y agoOn my wishlist ;) Does he shave? How about something "vintage"... https://merkurshave.com/merkur-safety-razors/ https://merkurshave.com/merkur-safety-razors/
- sys_64738 4y agoA500 Mini
- mskullcap 4y agoFor my 40th, my wife rented out a theatre and paid them to project my favourite film (2001 A Space Odyssey). It was all done in secret. My wife dropped me off in front of the theatre to look for parking (we were going shopping, or so she said), and then I noticed that the theatre had 2001 posters up with MY FACE photoshopped onto the characters. Talk about triggering an identity crisis! When I walked into the theatre with her all my friends were sitting ready to watch the movie. I am tearing up now just reminiscing :)
- telesilla 4y agoThat's incredible. What a meaningful event, and a great inspiration.
- busterarm 4y agoProbably extreme in terms of budget but maybe a Pinzgauer 710M to use as an adventure/radio truck. I know a few folks who've built these out and it's a whole lifestyle but it sounds like it might line up with what he likes.
- incomplete 4y agoif he likes cars, i'd HIGHLY recommend a 1-day course at Dirtfish up in Washington: https://drive.dirtfish.com/ https://drive.dirtfish.com/ caveat: i celebrated my "early" 50th this year at dirtfish. it was an absolutely incredible experience and i never realized how different car control in rally is vs on the track/street. completely mindblowing! pro tip: if you can wait, they offer a 20% discount (+ $100 merch gift card) on black friday. :)
- tra3 4y agoAn FPV drone! It's kinda like racing a motorcycle and flying. Not talking about a DJI drone, but something that's amenable to hacking and fixing because you'll crash a lot when you start. It's a wide ranging hobby, and sounds like your brother could leverage some of the skills he already has. Depending on the budget, could start with something like a tiny whoop [0] that fits in the palm of your hand or a 4" quad that has a 20km range [1]. There are a lot of sub-genres within the FPV community, from racing [2], to bandos [3] (acrobatic flying around/in abandoned structure) to long range cinematic flying [4]. You have to have quick reflexes (so it's kind of like racing) but ultimately you're flying and getting such a different perspective. Could expand into HAM radio to get truly long range flying. The FPV industry is going through such rapid progress and it's really fun to follow. To start, you'd need: - goggles (to see what the camera on the drone sees) - Transmitter (control your drone) - The drone itself - Batteries and charger I recently destroyed a motor on my tiny whoop so I had to learn how to solder. Considering the motor is the size of a penny that was by far the most precise work I've done. It's a bit daunting to figure out all the pieces, but something like a tiny hawk bundle [5] is a great way to start. 0 https://www.getfpv.com/happymodel-mobula7-1s-75mm-analog-whoop.html https://www.getfpv.com/happymodel-mobula7-1s-75mm-analog-who... 1 https://flywoo.net/products/explorer-lr-4-v2-analog?_pos=12&_sid=5b03b139e&_ss=r https://flywoo.net/products/explorer-lr-4-v2-analog?_pos=12&... 2 https://youtu.be/bZvNLuC12R0?t=659 https://youtu.be/bZvNLuC12R0?t=659 3 https://youtu.be/wzwW5vuuK5w?t=374 https://youtu.be/wzwW5vuuK5w?t=374 4 https://youtu.be/dIP7wWY4Znw?t=89 https://youtu.be/dIP7wWY4Znw?t=89 5 https://www.getfpv.com/fpv-quad-kits/emax-tinyhawk-iii-fpv-racing-drone-rtf-bundle.html https://www.getfpv.com/fpv-quad-kits/emax-tinyhawk-iii-fpv-r...
- brudgers 4y agoA Leatherman.
- BrandoElFollito 4y agoI got a set of kitchen knives, medium++ quality. That was a great gift because I occasionally cook and never have anything appropriate. I very much like the japanese chef knive (large rectangle one). After that I got an electric sharpener (chef choice 15xv)