Fun prizes for hackers

March 8, 2009 5:08 PM

Can you suggest prizes and trophies for a software/hardware hacking competition?

Hey hivemind.

I'm running an creative, open source hack weekend at my university (link if you're interested) and I have around 150 Great British Pounds to spend on prizes and trophies for the winners in at least three categories:

• Best overall software hack
• Best overall hardware hack
• Most creative project
• Heroic failure award

This isn't much money, particularly since I have either to find a prize that a team of 4 or 5 can share, or buy five little things.

One thought would be to buy something totemic or trophy-esque for each category and just split up the rest of the cash as a little bit of beer money for the team.

Do you have any thoughts on techy, shareable prizes or nice cheap trophies?

I appreciate it!

posted by godawful to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Something involving lots of caffeine would be appropriate. From what I hear, it's the primary source of sustenance for hackers in the wild.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:14 PM on March 8, 2009

Best answer: Shifting spanners. They're the tool that can't do anything very well, but can do almost anything badly.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:23 PM on March 8, 2009

I'd say take a look at thinkgeek.com for ideas. They have lots of fun little tools that are quite inexpensive.
posted by frieze at 5:23 PM on March 8, 2009

Best answer: I think these PICAXE chips are great. They make cheap little starter packs which maybe you could afford one-per-person, or maybe you could get one of the nicer kits for a team. Also, they have bulk rates so you could buy one bulk purchase and then pass out the kits / chips like candy. They may not be sophisticated enough for some people, but I'd think anyone winning a hacker contest would have fun figuring out something to do with these.
posted by doteatop at 7:20 PM on March 8, 2009

Save it for a rainy day.
posted by netbros at 8:35 PM on March 8, 2009