20 Totally Awesome Valentines Day Gift Ideas for Geeks

Sometimes, it feels as though the universe is conspiring against us when it comes to getting quality shut-eye. Know what we mean? You finally get snuggled up in your bed, ready to crash, when the baby next door decides to get colicky. You move to the living room to crash on the sofa, but it sounds as though your other neighbor’s girlfriend is home from college. How about the basement? Surely it will be quiet there, right? Not with that constant dripping sound – where is that coming from anyway? You go back to your bed and pop in your earbuds, but no matter how you position your head, pain is shooting through your skull. Before you go for the prescription drugs and the vodka, perhaps we can help. Sleep Phones are the comfortable headphones you can wear while you sleep. They are nestled inside a soft and cozy headband that you can wear around your head or over your eyes like a sleep mask. Plug the Sleep Phones in to your mp3 player or CD player and set it to play your favorite relaxing music, audiobooks, hypnosis CDs, affirmation tracks, or maybe just some white noise to drown out the world. If your mp3 player has an alarm function, you can even set the time for it to wake you up in the morning. And trust us, you’ll need it after the deep and relaxing sleep you’ll get wearing your Sleep Phones.

ThinkGeek World Domination HQ is in Fairfax, Virginia, but thanks to the magic of the intarwebz, we have friends all over the world. Real life friends, Facebook friends, Twitter friends. And the ones that live near a Tim Hortons speak of it as if it were the fast food establishment of God himself. We assume that despite its humble appearance, it serves coffee laced with ambrosia and donuts made from the purest sugar crushed in the hands of archangels. Our Tim Hortons-loving friends are that serious about it. Alas, it appears that we are several hours away from the nearest Tim Hortons (who knew there were so many in West Virginia?), so we’ll have to settle for drinking out of this super cool Scott Pilgrim Mug. Our coffee will be a little bitter (tears always make it so), but at least we’ll have the smooching faces of Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers to keep us company.

It’s been a long time since high school math for some of us, so we got WolframAlpha to help us out on this shirt design. We knew what we wanted to do, and we knew that there were multiple ways to do it. WolframAlpha elegantly graphed a bunch of our options for us, and we went with this one. We love it. We hope you love it. And we hope you love someone who also loves it (and you). Equation in white on front and implicit heart plot in white and red on the back of this black, 100% cotton t-shirt.

The eloquence of a few lines of verse can be a powerful thing. Poetry can cause you to pause and think about life. It can incite feelings of rage. A good poem can even bring you to tears. We’re not sure where this one lies in the spectrum of emotional reactions, but we’re thinking somewhere between a chuckle and a look of heartfelt confusion. This shirt, designed by ThinkGeek Love Labs® makes an especially good gift to one you love or love to confuse, depending on their knowledge of hex and Internet lore. roses are #FF0000 violets are #0000FF all my base are belong to you Also available in a Ladies Babydoll version! 100% cotton t-shirt in our favorite color, black. Heavyweight, preshrunk cotton tee with the lovely poem above printed on the front in white, blue, and red.

Made from Super Duct Tape (specifically engineered so that your wallet won’t lift, peel, or get sticky), these duct tape wallets are one part high fashion, one part weekend warrior, and another part sheer cool. Super Duct Tape is tougher and better looking than traditional duct tape which would make a lousy wallet – think of glue leaking into your pocket and then sticking to all that lint and dog hair. No way. These next generation wallets don’t even smell! And they are soft and gentle on the hands with no sharp corners to talk about. Sure you use duct tape to mount your hard drive in your case, or as floppy labels, or even to upholster your office furniture – but not until now could you realistically hope to use duct tape to carry around your bling. These durable and well-constructed duct tape wallets are great for all programmers, but Perl coders might enjoy them the most. Availble in two styles, Bi-fold (dimensions 4.25″ x 3.75″) and tri-fold (dimensions 4″ x 3.25″). See additional images for pics of each. Wee!

On the Internet, we’re a pretty hate-y bunch. We’re darn effective at telling people we dislike them. n00bs master how to flame before they learn not to use the Reply All button. Maybe it’s one of the reasons we like the Internet so much. We digress. This is not about hate. It’s about love. Specifically, the love between two people communicating digitally. The sideways heart. Less than three. our web site to begin with?), rotate your head 90 degrees clockwise. Once you get back from the chiropractor, tell us what you saw. And don’t say “A W with a party hat on.” That’s counter-clockwise. You got it? Awww. Isn’t that cute? It’s a heart. On a t-shirt. Which means you, too, can have a heart on for someone. *rimshot* The less than symbol and the number 3 printed in red over the left chest of a black, 100% cotton t-shirt. Yeah, we know most of the heart isn’t really there. But the apex is, as well as the left ventricle. which is our favorite. Shh. Don’t tell the right ventricle.

Pac-Man’s Mom, Mrs. Pac-Man (not to be confused with younger, more curvaceous Ms. Pac-Man), would be proud. Pac-Man is the most recognized video game character, according to the Davie Brown Celebrity Index, a report intended to direct marketing departments to the right endorsers for their products. Pac-Man scores an A, recognized by 94 percent of U.S. consumers. Our favorite plumber, Mario, isn’t far behind at 93%, a B+ or possibly an A-, depending on your school system. But both of them get schooled by Tom Hanks, Will Smith, and Michael Jordan, who come in at the top of the list. However, considering Pac-Man is fictional, we think he’s doing pretty good for himself. This full-zip, black hooded sweatshirt features an all-over print of Pac-Man. And we mean all-over. The hood is even adorned. The cuffs and inside are blank. Has two pockets in the front. Made from 80% cotton, 20% polyester. Note: The dots and power pellets on this print are tan. On the old version they were light blue. We don’t know why, but apparently Namco thought it was cool enough to keep it like that, cause this is an officially licensed product. All we can say about that is, “Waku waku waku….”

Looking for that extra bit of screen real estate to get you through the busy workday? Problem is, an entire secondary monitor comes with its own needs like a separate power or an additional video card. The Lilliput Mini USB Monitor changes this equation completely. A single USB connection from your computer gets you an instant high-resolution secondary display. This handy display is perfect for your IM client, widgets, PC gaming tools, your email, a spreadsheet, your PhotoShop tools, or even video. Oh… and the diminutive price won’t make your main monitor too jealous. Drivers are available for Mac (Intel only), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Only XP and Vista drivers come in the box, but you can download the others here: [DOWNLOAD] Win 7 (64bit), Win Vista (64bit), Win Vista (32bit), Win XP (32bit), Win 2000, Win 7 (32bit) [DOWNLOAD] Apple OS X – Tiger 10.4.11, Leopard 10.5.6 [DOWNLOAD] Apple OS X – Tiger 10.4.11, Leopard 10.5.7 [DOWNLOAD] Apple OS X – Snow Leopard (Beta Driver)

This watch displays time in binary format. It uses LED lights to display the time. Need we say more? Okay, we will. The watch face contains 10 blue LEDs that are used to indicate the numbers of the binary sequence (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) and the values of the lighted LEDs are added to determine the time. There are two rows of LEDs – the top row for the hours and the bottom row for the minutes. With a little practice you can learn to read this time format easily. Won’t it be fun the next time someone asks you “what time is it?” and you can enjoy their bewildered expression when you flash your wrist emblazoned with glowing binary? Yes it will, you quietly smirk to yourself. This watch also has a soft leather band, a circuitboard watch face, and stainless steel back and casing. It is water resistant to 3 atmospheres and comes with batteries. The LED Binary Watch has these features:

We’ll get right to the point with this product – it’s a wicked cool design for a knife holder and certainly a lot more edgy than the standard old block of wood. We’re not sure who the designer might have been thinking of when he created this but we definitely like the results. And it includes five knives!. This unique artistic knife holder is made of heavy duty ABS plastic and will be the talk of the party! It’s an innovative knife suspension system with individual protective knife sleeves for each blade. The five knives are made from heavy gauge durable stainless steel. The slots are magnetized to secure knives in the holder. Overall, we’d say The Ex Knife Set is very cutting edge!

We’re no stranger to stress here at the ThinkGeek office. We toil night and day tortuously sorting through shiny new toys and electronics while we down loads of caffeinated beverages and try to select only the choicest gadget fruits to satisfy your discerning palette. Yep… it’s a tough job but we have these handy Stress Relief Pillows to help out. Clutch them to your chest and they vibrate with a special rhythmic heart beat to calm your nerves. We were skeptical at first, but found that they really do de-stress even the jaded amongst us. The amazing thing about My Beating Heart is that every time you turn it on, an entirely unique heartbeat rhythm is created. In fact, every rhythm itself gradually changes and subtly dances, algorithmically modeling the heartbeat in a deep meditative state. This isn’t a pre-recorded rhythm and this isn’t a “heartbeat sound.” This is a physical heartbeat that realistically changes over time. Our hearts naturally begin to dance and sync with the hearts of other we hold or hug. This is a phenomenon we have observed for ages. Hugging the Beating Heart a few minutes allows the calm and dreamy beat to relax the body, ease the mind, and cajoles the spirit

Some say love is a series of chemical reactions in the brain, but what is the result of those chemical reactions? Ion exchange causes a small electric charge to travel through the circuits in the brain creating cascading reactions of serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine… all coalesce into what we call love. It’s easy to break down such a wonderful mechanism full of magic and emotion into something as dry as biology, but you’re a geek and that’s how you roll. Gifts are often given as tokens of affection. Most commonly, flowers and chocolates are given, but possibly the best gift one can give is jewelry. It shows your potential mate that you’re a provider, capable of taking care of a family. It shows your thoughfulness. Also, it shows your creativity and identifies the kind of person you are. As a self-professed and proud geek, the jewelry you choose will help identify you as such. This beautiful stainless-steel and silver chain necklace represents the circuitry that make up the neurochemical pathways of love – give it to your sweetheart to remind them that your neurotrophin levels are significantly higher now that they’re in your life. You silver tongued devil, you!

It’s been a long time since high school math for some of us, so we got WolframAlpha to help us out on this shirt design. We knew what we wanted to do, and we knew that there were multiple ways to do it. WolframAlpha elegantly graphed a bunch of our options for us, and we went with this one. We love it. We hope you love it. And we hope you love someone who also loves it (and you). Equation in white on front and implicit heart plot in white and red on the back of this black babydoll (fitted) t-shirt.

When this 15″ Digital Photo Frame arrived at the ThinkGeek world headquarters of doom we thought to ourselves “That is one huge-ass photo frame”… and we’re thinking that you’re going to feel the exact same way when you’re viewing sumo wrestling snapshots from your Tokyo vacation from across the room without squinting. But hey big isn’t everything… you need to have the moves to back it up. Luckily the 15″ Gigantor Digital Photo Frame really delivers with a sharp 1024×768 resolution, built-in speakers, support for 8 different media types including USB thumbdrives, and MPEG Video & MP3 playback all at a reasonable-size price. While your geek friends are boasting about their paltry 8″ photo frames… whip out this gigantor frame and shut them up in seconds.

Love potions have been around for ages. Ever since the first person was told, “Let’s just be friends,” people have been searching for a magical elixir to sway the mood of the uninterested. Well, this ain’t it. What this is, however, is the only love potion you will ever need to get yourself in the mood. Love Energy Potion is a little bottle of magical magic. Read on, alchemist-to-be. Love Energy Potion is chock full of goodies to get your body in high gear and ready for action. 90mg of caffeine per tiny, 1.69oz bottle (that’s more caffeine than a standard 8oz energy drink) plus a load of vitamins awaits you. Plus, since this is a love potion, you’ll get some aphrodisiacs: damiana to relax you, ashwaganda to relax and titillate you, and horny goat weed to . . . well, you can guess by its name. Drink it by the ounce, drink it by the dram – but imbibing Love Energy Potion will make certain you are ready for love. For nutrition information, click here. Love Energy Potion A tiny bottle full of some powerful energy and love enhancers. Delicious strawberry flavor. Available in single bottles or as a six pack. Caffeine Content: 90mg per bottle. Lovin’ Content: Damiana, Ashwaganda, and Horny Goat Weed. Net Wt.: 1.69oz per bottle.

It is common practice, amongst the primates with digital watches on planet Earth, to make offerings of the cut blooms of magnoliophyta, or flowers, to individuals for whom they have affection. The pleasing shape and olfactory emissions of the Rosaceae Rosa, for example, evoke feelings of love by stimulating the amygdala. So it could be said that love is an entirely chemical process. So when it comes to you, as a proud and self-professed “geek,” showing your affection for your significant other will likely happen in a similar fashion. We say similar because while a beautiful flower will still be presented, it is the vehicle inwhich the rose is given that changes. As a geek, you find nothing aesthetically pleasing about the glass vase that the florists offer. Those haphazard shapes can’t even be mathematically described by a polynomial. No way will you give a rose to your sweetie bare. Your flower will wilt before you even getting it home. Don’t even think about a wet newspaper bundle. While practical, the wet newspaper bundle is ugly and unpleasant for your love to touch. You need a test-tube! Known the world over as a vessel of science in which chemical reactions are initiated and monitored, the test tube is perfect! We’ve established that love is just a series of neurochemical reactions, so why not begin the process in a test tube? This tube is glass with a wall-hanging suction cup mount suitable for any smooth and flat vertical surface. So show how much you

Right, so you can’t literally give your heart away. Well, you can, but that tends to work out best for both involved if you’re dead and there’s a medevac helicopter standing by. Love tends to work out best, on the other hand, if you’re both still amongst the living. So allow us to recommend this slightly-more-literal-than-a-cutesy-heart-but-not-as-literal-as-organ-donation option. Give your significant other your “heart” on a chain for safekeeping. This pewter heart hangs from an 18″ braided sterling-silver plated chain. This is paired with a second sterling-silver plated decorative chain featuring garnet beads. Heart measures approximately 1 inch high and .75 inch across. Toggle closure.

When was the last time you gave a gift you made yourself? Elementary school? Get off the consumerist fast track and quit copping out with inferior gifts like candy and flowers. The LED Flashing Sweetheart Kit contains a circuit board, 28 LEDs and various diodes and resistors you solder together (with your own two hands) to create a lovely romantic knick knack. We won’t kid you here… You’ll need some basic soldering skills and it took one of our robotic monkeys about an hour to assemble one of these flashing beauties. But just think how impressed your gift recipient will be when he/she realizes you have created a high-tech electronic gizmo from scratch… plus you can practice up on your console modding skills to boot. Please keep in mind you’ll need to provide your own soldering iron, solder and a 9V battery to complete this kit.

There are a couple of ways a girl can get that “glow” people talk about: 1. Get pregnant. We hear this is a sure-fire way to glow. Of course, it involves several complications, some of which will be with you for the rest of your life. Possibly living in your basement. 2. Expose yourself to low levels of radiation. This one’s nice because you might get a bonus super-power with it. But, once again, it leaves you with lifelong issues. Course it might not be that long if you pick the right irradiated materials. 3. Pick up one of these: the Crystal Cube Firejewel Necklace. If number three sounds like the option for you, we’ll fill you in. It’s a solitaire necklace with a single AB-coated* 10 mm Swarovski crystal as its focal point. Inside that crystal is a tiny LED. The 17″ neckwire which creates that hip, floating “illusion” look is also functional. It carries the current from the clasp, inside which is housed three easy-to-replace, LR41/AG3 batteries. When you close the clasp, it creates a circuit and voila. To cut off the current, just disconnect or reverse the clasp. You glow. Each necklace comes in a small gift box. Choose between a white, blue, pink, or violet** LED. Batteries included. * We took this opportunity to look up finally what “AB-coated” means, and it’s pretty cool so we thought you might like to know. It stands for Aurora Borealis, so named for the changing colors reflected in the result. That unique, iridized look is achieved by blasting the crystal in a vacuum chamber with a vapor of metal atoms. Neat, eh? ** The wavelength of the violet is 415 nanometers. That means it’s almost in the ultraviolet spectrum. When it sparkles, it occasionally messes with your eyes and almost disappears. It’s our favorite. Check this out: some of you asked about a longer length on this necklace, which we passed along to the manufacturer. However, if you have the choker style now and want to make it longer, you can use BuckyBalls to do it. The current conducts right through the string of neodymium magnets. It’s a little flicker-y since the necklace wasn’t meant to do that, but it gets you the longer necklace you want with the sparkliness of Firejewel.

If you’ve ever run across a “403 Forbidden” error on a web site, it means you’ve either stumbled onto the wrong page, or you’ve been snooping where you shouldn’t be! One nice thing about the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that runs the web (HTTP for short) is that it includes helpful status codes such as “404 Not Found” when a resource can’t be found and “403 Forbidden” when the web site you’re knocking at does not want you to come in. One rarely seen status code is the elusive “200 OK” which basically means that everything went fine, and you’re seeing the page you’re supposed to be seeing! We thought it sure would be handy if life came with status codes, but since it doesn’t, we did the next best thing and printed them on stuff you wear. But not just any old stuff – we had to try something different, and print them on undies. So we bring you HTTPanties for the discriminating woman who would prefer a web-savvy and somewhat-direct approach in the romance department. Feeling frisky? Well then don the black “200 OK” panties and see where they take you. Alternatively, the white “403 Forbidden” style sends a very different and hopefully clear message. We think “411 Length Required” and “413 Requested Entity Too Large” are pretty self-explanatory. Our W3C Compliant HTTPanties are 100% cotton and very soft, comfortable and stretchy. They are designed to fit low and have full coverage in the back. Sizing Info: Size 1 Size 2 Size 3 Corresponding US Clothing Size 0-5 6-10 11-14 Hips 34-36 in 37-39 in 40-42 in