So you’re little Johnny, or Cousin Myrtle are total hackers and get into everything. They run linux on their handheld and their toaster, and they think Mac is just a palindrome for a Cam which they tune their hybrid’s 3 cylinders to run even smoother and more efficiently on. You have no idea what to get them, and their crazy ways flummox you to no ends.

Fear not dear reader! A solution is on the way!

Open Source (as you well know) has become more mainstream this year than ever! (Or are you not running firefox yet?) It is the movement of movements (and allows us to do wonderful things to our computers without paying huge prices). Granted, we will always have wonderful professional products that we willingly pay for due to their excellence, support, and ease of use, but there are wonderful little products and tools that are available to everyone for cheap as free! (I’m winking at you Strong Bad!)

Now with all the great open source projects and products available many high and low tech gift opportunities arise that were never really a possibility before.

Yes, these often take time, tools, and a small bit of knowledge regarding electronics, programming, or, shudder,, knitting. The upside is a handmade gift for a loved one that knows you spent time working on, and personalizing something just for them.

Think of this as that handprint you made mom when you were 5, only now, you’re hand soldering together a MP3 player put together from parts and pieces found online. This is different mainly due to the fact that you’re no longer using plaster of paris, and are 30 instead of 5.

In this great list over at Make magazine (look into these people, they’re amazing!) There is a rather wonderful little compendium of available products and projects to get your hands dirty with (or just buy you lazy lazy bum!)

My favorite of the list is one of the first actual “products” that Make is making, (it’s not redundant I swear!)

It’s their new “Warranty Voider” (yes I know you can read it here, but I’ve still got to say the name so it’s linked!)

It’ll be 39$ US and should be up soon on their site (they’re a limited edition so get in there!) There are a bunch of tools that are definitly for the DIY set, not the survival set, so don’t get on any Oceanic Airlines flights with these!

Thanks again to Boingboing (those guys are great!)