Tom's Holiday Buying Guide

Thoreau writes "With the holidays just around the corner, it's nice to have some help in finding just the right gift for your gadget hungry friends and family. Tom's Hardware seems to think they have the answers for this year's holiday season. Everything from Swiss Army memory sticks, to monitors that Bill Gates couldn't even afford!"

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

NSFW

[Jucius Maximus]

Seriously, there should be a warning in the post about this.

Re:NSFW

[Nos.]

I could understand if this is was an article about a new security patch or a new version of a particular app/os. However, this is a holiday gift buying guide. A holiday gift buying guide is not suitable for work at all, regardless of the content on the page.

Ha!

[mfh]

FTFA: Sex And The Sidekick ???WTF??? How blatant is that????

Christmas buying guides are nothing but adverts anyway, and this article is nothing but a slash-ad. GRRRR. Did you see the boobs on that model holding the side kick? She could sell me SCO stock, if she was holding it like that, petting it gently! (*passes out*)

Re:Ha!

[Brandybuck]

Dammit, she did make me buy SCO stock, and I loved every teasing minute of it.

Re:Double reply to same post :-o

[kin_korn_karn]

I don't recognize her from VW, but IMO she resembles Mila Kunis of "That 70's Show" fame.

Mrs Claus

[se2schul]

Wow! Mrs Claus is skankier than I had imagined, but for some reason, I just have to buy a T-Mobile Sidekick II.

Re:Mrs Claus

[Ced_Ex]

Nooooooooooooo!!!!

I'm like 5 seconds too late, and the site is /.ted.

Damn you!! DAMN YOU ALL!!!

PS: So... Exactly HOW skanky looking is she??? *drools*

Re:Mrs Claus

[doublem]

Exactly HOW skanky looking is she

Too Skanky for WWE broadcast, but just right for the Pay Per View 18 and over special.

Re:Mrs Claus

[ArsonSmith]

I'll be in my bunk...

Re:Mrs Claus

[theridersofrohan]

Mrs Claus,

I've been a really naughty boy!

Re:Mrs Claus

[gad_zuki!]

The irony is that the article (and photos) look like crap on the sidekick because of the sk's problems with frames. Nothing like one word per sentance and photos that load off screen, if at all.

Maybe she can make it all better...

Well if Bill cant afford it

[Timesprout]

Larry Ellison is definitely putting his name down for one.

Pictures in article

[jawtheshark]

Why, oh why, does that fat-bellied-white-bearded guy get all the sexy chicks? *sniff*

Re:Pictures in article

[NardofDoom]

He uses Unix. [funhouse.com] Chicks dig that.

At least in my fantasy world they do.

Re:Pictures in article

[doublem]

Simple, he has all the stuff.

You think Money can get you women? Imagine having all the stuff people normally need money to buy.

She wants a diamond necklace? No problem, the miner elves brought up a fresh batch of diamonds just this morning.

Easy as pie to get chicks with all that loot.

Fat, bearded guys get all the chicks

[Gothmolly]

Since we have access to the Mainframe.

Re:Pictures in article

[djocyko]

It's not that hard to die your hair white...

Re:Pictures in article

[Mad_Rain]

Since when did CowboyNeal start getting all the sexy chicks?

Re:Pictures in article

[Anonymous Coward]

One word: "presents". That, and the pick-up line: "You've been a very good girl this year!"

Of course, his sex life isn't really that great -- he only comes once a year!

Re:Pictures in article

[Minwee]

The pick-up line gets attention, but a lot of the girls get pissed off when he tries to slip a lump of coal into their stockings for being naughty.

Bummer...

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't list a price for the one thing I'd really want...

Re:Bummer...

[empaler]

The price tag isn't the most costly part about those, it's the time and the headaches...

Re:Bummer...

[InfiniteWisdom]

and the headaches.
yours or hers? They're different problems :)

Re:Bummer...

[fubar1971]

The price tag isn't the most costly part about those, it's the time and the headaches...

I believe it is the maintenance contracts that cost the most.

Not sure what they're selling

[LabRat007]

...but how do I buy the chick in the santa costume?

Re:Not sure what they're selling

[phaze3000]

Judging by the look of her, I reckon $100 should do it.

Re:Not sure what they're selling

[Allen Zadr]

I think you and I are the only ones here who noticed the fugly face, and unshapely legs attached to that otherwise attractive looking picture.

But I may be buying one of those skirts for my girlfriend. ;-)

Re:How to buy the chick

[onicofago]

Try the contact page at http://www.musecube.com/donnafeldman/index.htm [musecube.com].
You may reconsider using the term "buy", though...

Ob simpsons

[DarkHelmet]

"Do you come with the car?"
"Oh you!"
"Do you come with the car?"
"Oh you!"

Argh!

[nek]

Kind of hard to read this article at work with dumbass geekboy-Mrs. Claus fantasy pictures plastered everywhere.

Re:Argh!

[nomadic]

Kind of hard to read this article at work with dumbass geekboy-Mrs. Claus fantasy pictures plastered everywhere.

Yeah, but I like a challenge.

Re:Argh!

[Bombcar]

Hmmm.

Yes, it sure was nice of that Mrs. Claus to go out of her way to give us all something to drool over... [an error occurred while processing this directive]

something gates can't afford

[MoFoQ]

can't also be afforded to be built, especially if the US govt expects to award it to the lowest bidder.

Re:something gates can't afford

[empaler]

Yeah, I'm only looking thru the article to find these mythical monitors...
(let me beat the replies: Yes, I'm sure it's not to look at mrs. Claus... not that I'm complaining...)

mrs. claus [was Re:something gates can't afford]

[MoFoQ]

I'm not complaining either....though searching thru the article would be faster if I didn't have to go back to mrs. claus each time.

Re:Master Card

[MoFoQ]

...to monitors that Bill Gates couldn't even afford!

the original did say "monitors" not twins or something synonymous to u know what.

Besides, how do you think Santa can afford to make toys for billions of kids especially with those new labor laws and elf-unions? He works for chippendale's during the off-season and she works for Freddericks of Hollywood.

Sidekick

[macdaddy]

Does the T-Mobile Sidekick II come with a fully licensed copy of Mrs. Claus? 8-)

Game Potatoes Ultimate Play Seat

[macdaddy]

Or the Game Potatoes Ultimate Play Seat. Does the seat come fitted with life-sized version of Mrs. Claus? Or is that an add-on feature?

Or the Thrustmaster Enzo Ferrari Force Feedback Wheel And Pedals. "Hehe, he said Thrustmaster. Hehe."

Good model :)

[dwipal]

Most of the things are quite expensive for my range, but a good summary (and a even better model) though. I was hoping they also included a "moded xbox" in it ;).

Re:Good model :)

[wed128]

Turn in your geek card! it's much more fun to mod it yourself...

Just in case you missed it

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a girl in the picture. She's wearing a Santa Costume.

Re:Just in case you missed it

[ArsonSmith]

Really? I noticed that the first 3-5 ads were pretty good then I just sort of lost interest?

Re:Just in case you missed it

[ArsonSmith]

hehe, reminds me of the porno reviewer from, was it "Saturday night live"???

It started slow. Then it got a little better. Next it got much better. Then I got really into it. Then I lost interest.

geeky christmas ornaments

[ed1park]

I need to buy a christmas ornament for a couple who work in the IT industry. So I was wondering if anyone knew of any good geeky christmas ornaments I can buy out there. gracias!

Re:geeky christmas ornaments

[BearJ]

Hang some old ram on a string! No, I'm serious. Or, find an old CPU and hang that on the tree. I've got a nice looking Cyrix 6x86 that I took out of a box someone was throwing out. It's not a nice goldish chip cap and the pins are golden too...would look nice on a tree. Except...I'm Jewish. Cue the Hanukkah bush jokes!

Re:geeky christmas ornaments

[Helmholtz Coil]

How 'bout Hallmark's Star Trek ornaments? Don't know if Hallmark proper still carries them but there are other places [federationmodels.com] to get them.

I have the Warbird and the Bird Of Prey. Both are pretty cool detail-wise and have interior lights.

Re:geeky christmas ornaments

[sprior]

How about those AOL CDs you've been collecting.

Screw the hardware

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm still imagining picking feathers from between my teeth.

Re:Screw the hardware

[filenabber]

How was this modded up as Informative?

Usual Tom's hyperbole

[Junior J. Junior III]

I see the usual Tom's Hardware hyperbole is now corrupting Slashdot's tradition of journalistic integrity.

"Monitors that Bill Gates can't even afford?" Bill Gates can afford anything. Entire WALLS of his 9000 sq ft. house are comprised of monitors. Tom's is a consumer whore site that used to publish half-decent articles. Now all they do is hype and shill products.

Re:Usual Tom's hyperbole (OT)

[ebrandsberg]

About your sig, it should be "Give a man a fish, he owe's you a fish plus interest".

Re:Usual Tom's hyperbole

[Junior J. Junior III]

Thanks for getting the joke.

/.'ed

[mfender9]

Looks like Tom's Hardware has closed early for the holidays this year...

Is that Santa helper chick, German?

[vision33r]

That Santa helper chick picture on the page. I didn't know German chicks look so feminine and sexy? Unless she's not German..

Re:Is that Santa helper chick, German?

[AvantLegion]

>> That Santa helper chick picture on the page. I didn't know German chicks look so feminine and sexy? Unless she's not German..

She's not German. You don't see many German women. In fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, they are often mistaken for German men!

And this in turn has given rise to the belief that there *are* no German women. And the Germans just spring out of holes in the ground! Which is of course ridiculous.

Re:Is that Santa helper chick, German?

[jettoblack]

It's the beards. ;)

They need a warning on this Slashdot article ...

[YetAnotherName]

... "NOT SAFE FOR WORK".

Re:They need a warning on this Slashdot article ..

[inkdesign]

A little warning is always nice, but if your job will react poorly to a scantly dressed woman, you'd better just stay FAR away from the internet in general, as I can't seem to find a site that doesn't feature a half dressed woman, either within it's content or in ads on the site.

Re:They need a warning on this Slashdot article ..

[inkdesign]

You know, playboy.com, wetsluts.com, that kind of thing. ;0]

Re:They need a warning on this Slashdot article ..

[Malc]

Where do you work? A nunnery? *strewth*!

Re:They need a warning on this Slashdot article ..

[Odin's Raven]

... "NOT SAFE FOR WORK".

No kidding! My boss walked by while I was looking at the page with the $1,999 OQO, and damned near fired me on the spot for using company resources to view obscene material.

;-)

Where do you work?

[jotaeleemeese]

In a convent?

Al Quaeda HQ?

The Whitehouse?

Honestly. Where in the civilized world do you work?

New Server

[Doc Ruby]

If Tom has all the answers about PC HW, including performance, how come they can't handle a run of the mill slashdotting after all these years, when Slashdot itself can handle it?

Anybody has a cache of the link?

[freedom_india]

looks like the site is already slashdotted...

Tom's Post-Recession Buying Guide

[Dr. Dew]

Didn't realize anyone considered a $94 widget that won't be allowed through the security check at U.S. airports a "stocking stuffer." (I'm talking about the Swiss Army Knife + USB)

In my household, items of that size and price are wrapped in progressively larger boxes to draw attention to their, well, size and price. (Still talking about the Swiss Army Knife + USB here.)

Re:Tom's Post-Recession Buying Guide

[javaxman]

Funny you should mention the USB Swiss Army Knife for it's price, since IT"S THE CHEAPEST THING THERE!!! Oh, I do know they make a 'travelers' version with a pen and something else useless instead of those 'dangerous' inch-long blades.

Hell-o, Tom's Hardware? Yea, uh, 2000 was several years ago, and we're programmers and IT workers around here? Yea, uh, we don't make that kind of cash anymore, right? And we blew our credit on new computer systems already? Can I see even _one_ item less than ninety bucks ?

Re:Tom's Post-Recession Buying Guide

[javaxman]

Darn it, as soon as I posted the above, I realized that they did have _one_ keyboard on the list that was only $45... but my complaint stands. I'd like to see a few more neat things that someone might _actually_ get as a gift.

The Gamer's Seat

[hcob$]

If Mrs. Clause is the gamer, I'll be the seat... I even come with a stick shift for those really intense.... games

All I want...

[Malc]

... is to sit down with my friends and family and some good ales and enjoy life and share some experiences with them. I try to do it all year around, but people seem to make a bigger effort at Christmas (a.k.a euphemistically in a large fundamentalist Christian superpower as "the holidays") that results in better and more cherished memories. All this materialistic crap can be damned: I spent all my present money on airline tickets to the UK (where my family lives) because seeing people is better than a quick chat on the phone or sending presents with that missplaced expectation that the recipients are then beholden to you in some stupid way.

Re:All I want...

[I_Love_My_Mac]

Dude, seriously... lighten up. You'll live longer and not be such a bore.

Re:All I want...

[DogDude]

Mr. "I Love My Mac", you're one of the people he's talking to.

Re:All I want...

[dokkalf]

"...a.k.a euphemistically in a large fundamentalist Christian superpower as "the holidays"..."

You are aware that midwinter festivities pre-date Christianity, aren't you? (Check out Saturnalia, Brumalia, etc. Just be sure to look for sites with real history, not New Age/Wiccan versions of it.)

Re:All I want...

[idontgno]

Holy Wotan, don't forget Jul [wikipedia.org]! (Ancient, not neopagan.)

Hell yes

[DogDude]

Christmas gift guides with overpriced techo-junk? Call me nuts, but most people I know are like me: saving up to be able to take a day off from work, or saving up to get some dental work done. This isn't the dot-com boom late 90's, any more, so I predict that most of this crap will just sit on store shelves and collect dust, which is where it belongs. I agree completely. Christmas for me will be just another day that I can use to catch up on work, and if I'm lucky (very lucky), spend some time with frie

Re:All I want...

[zx75]

Amen,
When you're living in a different city/country from family, it can be tough to see them even a couple times a year. Though I dislike the gross commercialization of christmas that has occured, I more than welcome the excuse to take a couple weeks off work and fly away to see the people I haven't seen for most of the year.

Re:All I want...

[Malc]

I faced this situation a couple of years ago. My solution was to get my arse out of bed on Christmas Day and help out feeding the homeless. As it transpired, things changed and I didn't end up following through. I'll do it next time though, or something else worthwhile. I should do it all year around, but I'm too self-absorbed.

Be proactive and do something good - it'll do your mental health so much more than sitting at home feeling lonely and sorry for yourself.

Bill Gates

[freaksta]

"...to monitors that Bill Gates couldn't even afford!"

Umm, if Bill can't afford it, no one can.

For those who actually read the piece...

[yetanothermike]

...instead of looked at the pix (or did both):

Maximum PC has their Gear Of The Year on newsstands now and a lot of the items listed on Tom's aren't rated too highly. Many of the things they are pimping here are either overpriced or underperformers.

That said, I REALLY would have enjoyed some shots from the Aibo's webcam during that shoot.

Mrs. Clauss

[Balaurul]

And of course you can see more of the girl at: http://www.musecube.com/donnafeldman/index.htm [musecube.com]. But, judging from the general slowness of the site, most of the Slashdot is already there.

oh man...

[BrainInAJar]

Blatant OSDN plug.

This story's an Ad, people... it's just a particularly insidious one, because it's impossible to block.

Link is wrong

[gorbachev]

It'd be nice if the link pointed to the FIRST page of the holiday buyer's guide [tomshardware.com] rather than the page where the submitter was spanking his monkey while submitting the /. story.

Cold soldering iron?

[jfengel]

I like the look of the cold soldering iron [archway.com]. I don't do very much electronics, so I only own a cheap soldering iron, which is very inconvenient (slow to heat up, corded). This thing isn't terribly expensive ($20) and sounds useful.

Anybody ever tried it? Does it really work?

Re:Cold soldering iron?

[Lao-Tzu]

I've got one, it works great.

An error occurred while processing this directive?

[ballpoint]

among others:

"I call it the Commander Data kill switch, as the dog immediately goes slack and crumples to the ground when you push the switch. [an error occurred while processing this directive]"

roku soundbridge versus slimdevices squeezebox

[ripflash]

The roku soundbridge that the article recommends is just a different display on the squeezebox by slimdevices [slimdevices.com]. The squeezebox has the community support, while the soundbrige has flashy marketing.

The article would have been more helpful if it listed other products besides the one in each category. In each instance, it looked like they were trying to choose the glitziest product, but not usually the best.

The Sidekick needs work

[winkydink]

The T-Mo version has no synchronization sw. I have almost 1000 contacts. No way am I entering each one manually on that dinky kybd.

The batter life is horrid and you cannot (easily)remove the battery and swap in a fresh one. Plan on charging this sucker nightly if you use it much.

On the bright side, there is an ssh client.

Everything? I think not.

[smooth wombat]

Everything from Swiss Army memory sticks, to monitors that Bill Gates couldn't even afford!

But does he have sushi usb drives [dynamism.com]?

Santa could I have...

[hey]

An AMD Opteron (64-bit) 4 CPU system with a LinuxBIOS and silent cooling please.

Remember guys...

[Coppit]

she's already married. To the fat guy.

Re:Remember guys...

[graphicartist82]

Rings don't plug holes

The chick

[AviLazar]

She has a hot body, but maybe its the picture but her face looks a bit manly to me....anyone else think this?
Other then that - sex sells!!! I like it

Re:The chick

[fubar1971]

Good lord, it's sounding alot like FARK [fark.com] around here. Next thing you know everyone will start b*tching about her sharp knees.

Wrong pr0n

[GrouchoMarx]

Damnit! What are they doing sticking real pr0n into our gadget pr0n! Get out of the way, Mrs. Clause, I'm trying to see the gadgets. Besides, I don't go for married women.

let me guess...

[mapmaker]

Tom recommends buying a computer with Intel Inside.

The holidays just ended!

[MMHere]

With the holidays just around the corner,

What do you mean just around the corner? Ramadan [holidays.net] just ended!

I got myself a Saitek Gamers Keyboard...

[NeuroManson]

Not so much for its gaming capacity, but because it's a damnned good (and sturdy) keyboard.

After seeing it, now my mom wants one, I'll give you one guess on what my Xmas gift will be.

Re:Why?

[Justin205]

Link goes to here: http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=3&q=http://ny ud.info, and I assume that redirects to http://nyud.info, whatever the hell *that* is.

Damn, those aren't even well disguised URLs. Didn't even use that URL spoofing trick that works in IE. Pathetic.

Re:gmail invites

[bhtooefr]

I checked the first three, and they were used. I knew not to click on the links, as mousing over revealed that they were an I'm Feeling Lucky search for nyud.info, AKA the Last Measure.

I didn't bother checking all of them, as I already have GMail.

Re:More American Centric crap on Slashdot ...

[Stone316]

When will you realize your browsing an American based site? I don't browse British or Chinese portals and complain....