One other suggestion is to ask his friends - they'll usually have a good idea of what he's been eying and should be pretty good at guiding you to something unexpected that he'll love. A geeky surprise is always better than getting something that you know is coming. More than likely, his friends will also be able to guide you to a specific model and give you purchasing advice - so that you don't end up, say, purchasing a terrible NAS that he'll hate for years.

Bonus tip; if you're confused about something be very wary about asking salesmen at big chain stores. They often either don't know what they're talking about or are just looking for a quick buck. I can't begin to count the number of times that I've stepped in to correct one and guide a non-techy in purchasing something. My favorite instance of this was when I was standing in line behind someone purchasing a Wii for their kid (hey, this one applies to kid purchases as well as lovers!). The salesdroid started ringing her up but stopped short; "Oh, would you like to insure this Wii's MegaPixels? It's only $xx.xx.". As the woman was pondering her response I couldn't resist but chime in with "What megapixels? Should you ask her if she'd like her blinker fluid changed as well?". Suffice it to say, after I got done explaining what megapixels were, she declined purchasing the insurance for a unit of measurement that she had never heard of before. Seriously,I think that they were trying to charge her $50 for this.

Bonus tip 2: Check with Newegg.com. If you're looking for something like a NAS device or a new monitor, newegg.com will help steer you in the right direction with an easy to use interface and wonderful customer reviews. That way, rather than trusting a salesman or praying that the random box you picked up is good - you can rely on all of the people before you tell you how well the device performs. You can even sort search requests by customer ratings - ensuring that you only end up looking at quality products, instead of duds.

Another possibility is to give him something he'll like that isn't tech-related. It's always really difficult to shop for a present in another person's area of expertise when you're not an expert there, too.

Thinkgeek has some tech-neat stuff, but also the nongeek and random gifts tend to please my tech-guy husband more than a genre specific item. A couple holidays ago I got him one of those baseball sized 20 questions things and one of those cooltouch battery operated soldering irons with some other things thrown in, and he seriously loved those more than the true techie items.

Also, I have never given a disappointing gift to him from the xkcd offerings, he loves the webcomic and the online communities poster is now displayed near his computer.

Great Geek Christmas Gifts for 2007

Tis the season for commercialism. It is that time of year that you buy for your friends and family. What do you buy someone who likes to surf, play games for hours and loves gadgets? It is tough, I understand, we are not that verbal about what we want and when we do talk you can't make heads or tails of our geek speak. So here are the generic top 10 Great Geek Christmas Gifts for 2007 (not in any particular order): on Discourse from Demiurgics

...follow the white rabbit...