10 Tech Gifts to Buy Your Engineer for Christmas

12/14/2012 10:17 AM EST

I've heard that the "all-purpose toolbox" is duct tape and WD-40. If something moves but shouldn't, use duct tape. If it should move but doesn't, use WD-40.

12/14/2012 4:38 PM EST

The flying car concept has appeal, certainly, but materials technology has a long way to go before it's strong enough to take a road beating for 200,000 miles and light enough to fly for 5,000 hours. Until that happens it will be little more than a pipe-dream or very expensive novelty.

12/14/2012 5:23 PM EST

If you are driving your flying car 200,000 miles, you are forgetting about an important feature of your car.

12/15/2012 5:09 PM EST

$279k is quite a bit for the flying car. Knock off the 1st digit and make it $79k and I think they'd be plenty of techie buyers for it.

12/17/2012 1:35 AM EST

I don't know, with the exception of the flying car, which would be wayyyyyy cool, I don't see many of these being "real engineer" gifts. They have already downloaded (legally) Big Bang Theory. They design Raspeberry PIs, they don't buy them, and they graduated to that oh so cool self healing silicon tape ages ago. Big data would equal Big boring coupled with frustration at how dumbed down it is. Now a tube amp, that would be cool, even if it was just to look at, sort of like my Model 200 HP Oscillator.

One thing I have found though is that all "real" engineers, the ones that design hardware :-) love hard music played loud, so I am thinking any compilation that includes AC\DC, Stones, Rush, Metalica, Zeppelin, etc. Played loud its quite possibly enough to forget about that nagging quiescent current problem, your non techy senior manager who thinks fixing it is like fixing a number in a spreadsheet, and that you were smart enough to be a doctor, but not smart enough to actually be one and be making 3 times the money with 10 times the respect.

12/17/2012 12:11 PM EST

Sorry in advance for the plug, but if anyone in North America wants a Raspberry Pi, they can order one now at http://www.newark.com/pi for delivery before Jan 6. Happy holidays!

12/17/2012 6:58 PM EST

I have to agree with Semiman_#1 -- this is a boring list of gifts for any engineer, "real" or otherwise :)

12/17/2012 9:33 PM EST

The vacuum-tube sound is more than just soft clipping. There have been several attempts to imitate its sound using DSP's to implement soft clipping etc., but only tubes sound like tubes.
The warm (or sweet) sound is partly due to the even-order-only harmonic distortion (e.g., from a single-ended triode amp), which results in distortion products at musically-pleasing octave and perfect fifth intervals) and to the absence of evil transient distortion because tube amps can be built with little or no negative feedback.
Even though I'm a DSP researcher, as an audiophile I appreciate the sound of my SET amp in spite of its higher THD. It sounds "sweeter" than my more more expensive solid-state amp. Much of how engineers quantify amplifiers is irrelevant for audio: music is dynamic, not simply continuous sinusoids.

12/17/2012 9:41 PM EST

Very good point!
What about FETs? They are supposed to have transfer curves very similar to tubes?

12/17/2012 11:46 PM EST

What a horrible article. NONE of this is what an engineer would want - woe be to the wife or GF who reads this and buys any of it as a recommendation.

Nowhere is a 3D printer listed, nor is there a surface mount reflow oven. Stuff we actually WANT.

This is all STUPID techie stuff - stuff that's boring to ENGINEERS. Mind you, TBBT DVDs are the exception, but with Youtube, even that's lame.

And, if you're going to write about things you don't know about, go find yourself someone OLD engineer to set you straight (they can be found at the unemployment office or greeting people at Walmart). This is laughable, particularly in having "gone to print" in EE Times:

"it mediates the flow of electronics from cathode to anode via a piece of metal mesh in the middle called a grid. "

The only thing that "mediates the flow of electronics" is a patent litigator.

In the words of Leslie Winkle, of TBBT, "Dumbass..."

12/18/2012 8:40 AM EST

very attractive gifts for an engineer in these celebration days

12/18/2012 5:24 PM EST

Apparently it's joke although a lame one.
All engineers read like little children waiting for a nice surprise only to get a disappointment.
Really geeky presents:
- hey hon, look at that cool domain name - "electric-melon.org"
- easy with that laser pointer, darling, it was upgraded.
- a van graaf generator (hey , a spare !)
- a sterling engine (Shiny!)
Of course these things are mostly useless just like Xmas present should be. If they would be really useful an engineer would already had them.

12/18/2012 8:22 PM EST

I agree: Next year we need to include WD-40.

12/20/2012 8:20 AM EST

In a world full of conflict - and I'm thinking engineering business disputes, contractual bickering, Apple-Samsung patent disputes, etc. It's nice to see pure engineering enthusiasm to the fore. That's why we all came into this business. Can't wait to get my hands on the Raspberry Pi, that I hope someone has bought me as a Christmas gift.

Great article. Thanks.

12/20/2012 9:41 AM EST

Not to be too dismissive, but really, now! The only thing exciting here is the incredible engineering missteps. While others have focused on how none of these things (really, none of them) would make an engineer's pulse quicken (unless, perhaps, a savvy spouse had acquired a Pi a few months ago and had it _now_ to give, when you can't buy it _now_), I focus on the real, serious, painful error that no engineer should be caught making.

Drivers' ed instructors _sit_ in the passenger seat. The Drivers' ed instructor who is thrilled about sitting in the seat that 1) endangers his life even more than sitting in a regular seat with all those driving learners and 2) leaves his charge without adequate supervision... doesn't belong teaching drivers' ed.

Did you guys actually ask any engineers what they _want_ for Christmas? Here's a short list that would make some sense:
1) A steady job, doing interesting things that need an engineer to get done right.
2) Tools which can be reconfigured on-the-spot to do an uncomfortable or impossible job more easily without breaking _anything_.
3) A healthy economy which can afford to support engineering-done-right, rather than "just enough to sell, and the consumer take the hindmost".
4) Just enough time available to do the job (and do it right): No sitting around waiting on administration or getting ulcers trying to get five things done before the next six pile on.

12/31/2012 7:54 AM EST

I for one would like the personal rocket propulsion backpack system as depicted in the movie Minority Report. Just imagine all engineers buzzing to work with landing pods in the parking area ;)