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Each year around this time, I ask the same question: what's the best gift for the ardent the computer and internet user?

With the whole scene getting more and more "mainstream", I'm not sure there's a clear winner this year, with no single item setting my heart a flutter.

A potential "must-have" however, is Robosapien, a cute little robot that is the human equivalent of Sony's little robotic dog AIBO.

Although it's been around for a while, the good old Apple iPod is something few people (including computer geeks) would be likely to turn down.

But what about stuff that's out of the mainstream consumer market?

What about the kind of gift that only a die-hard programmer or technophile would lust after or enjoy?

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When I was about eight or nine, I got a Philips Electronics Engineer set for Christmas and I was chuffed to bits.

That collection of wires, resistors, diodes and capacitors introduced me to the exciting world of electronics and provided endless hours of experimentation and enjoyment.

Another cool gift I received a few years later was a chemistry set -- complete with sulphur, potassium nitrate, magnesium ribbon and other pyrotechnic ingredients which, these days, would only be found in the hands of terrorists ;-).

I wonder how many other kids were kickstarted into useful and valuable careers in technology or science as a result of such mind-altering gifts?

Unfortunately, I see few such things on the shelves of our toy-stores these days. The closest thing to that old Philips EE set is the Funway Gift Box from Dick Smith but it's really hard to make a purchasing decision based on the *very* limited information on that webpage.

Perhaps the closest we get to a gift that encourages "thinking" are the carefully cartoned PCs loaded with Microsoft Windows and Office applications. But do they even provide a copy of the BASIC programming language these days? Is their *anything* in those boxes to challenge the minds of our youngest and brightest and kick-start them into the world of programming?

It seems that today's gifts are more likely to create a generation of kids with bad RSI (from game-controller over-use) than a generation of thinkers.

But what say you?

What techie gifts would *you* most like to find under the tree on Christmas morning?

What kind of gifts have you found which are likely to engage kids and encourage them to think, rather than interact solely at an eye-hand coordination level?

Have your say on today's column

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