Each year, as the holidays approach I start strategizing how to inflict, I mean give, technology-related gifts to the people on my list. My favorite part of the Christmas season is giving gifts to other people, and part of the special joy for me is finding a gift that the recipient will really appreciate—even if they don’t realize it at first. This process is tempered by the unfortunate fact that my wife generally dislikes technology for technology’s sake—something she apparently inherited from my mom—so my gifts generally have to have some practical appeal. (Of course, my dad and brother are both gadget fiends, so that helps balance things out.) So, here are the practical-but-still-cool items that my friends and relatives might just receive this year (assuming that my extensive holdings of Worldcom, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and ImClone stock regain their value, that is).

First, a little something for my two young sons: a way to reliably print to the Windows printers in my basement office from the family PowerMac G4 Cube upstairs. This is theoretically possible by installing the CUPS package for Mac OS X, but darn if I can get it work properly with my particular printers. (I wouldn’t mind having a good way to let the family access my calendar and contact information stored on my Exchange server from the Mac, either, but that may have to wait until Santa’s trip next year.)

My first PDA was a Newton MessagePad—nifty, but big, heavy, and clunky. When I got it, my wife was baffled at why I wanted to carry something the size of a VHS videocassette everywhere I went. I eventually replaced it with a Palm 5000, but she’s never wanted a PDA of her own. I think Dell’s new Axim Pocket PC series may change her mind. The combination of the Pocket PC platform (with its familiar Windows interface) and a reasonable price ($299 for their top-end model, compared to $600 or so for the more capable high-end iPAQ) makes this a tempting alternative to the usual holiday gifts. On the other hand, she’d probably rather have jewelry.

My mom is always hard to buy for. In past years, she’s gotten an assortment of gifts that she at first sniffed at but now wouldn’t give up for anything-- her 17” monitor, cable modem, and scroll-wheel mouse, for example. Last year, I bought her a TiVo, which she has come to treat with the same regard she gives her valued kitchen equipment. I think this year she’s going to get a touchscreen remote, like one of the Philips Pronto family, to automate the process of switching between the DVD, TiVo, VCR, satellite, and stereo components that are perilously stacked on top of the TV. (Maybe a new TV cabinet would be a better idea, but a) that’s not very technical and b) it requires assembly).

Shopping for my father is hard, but for the opposite reason—he buys things more or less on impulse, most recently a cool Sony CLIÉ NX70v that he bought himself as a Halloween present. Because he’s already got an in-house 802.11b network, I’m leaning toward getting him Sony’s proprietary wireless card for the CLIÉ NX series, but I may have to fall back on the surprise hit gift of the year—a DVD burner. I’ll throw in a little free consulting to get his old-but-still-kicking Vaio laptop to properly recognize Clie Memory Stick media in its internal Memory Stick slot.

My brother is easy; as a young single male, practically anything with remote controls, buttons, or batteries is welcome. This year, I think an inexpensive 5-disc DVD changer, plus maybe a trial subscription to the Netflix service, will keep him off the streets.

My sister and her partner both carry Palm IIIs. While these are decent machines, I’m betting that as expatriate Manhattanites, they’d both welcome a little more flash and color in their handheld life. So, for Julie a Treo 90, and for Paul, a Palm m515. I wanted to give one of them the super-cool new Palm Tungsten T, but I didn’t want to be responsible for them fighting over whose turn it was to use it.

Finally, a little something for me—Santa knows I’ve been pretty good this year. I’m ready to replace my Kyocera QCP-6035 Smartphone. It’s done yeoman service in the two years I’ve had it, but I’d like something smaller, faster, and in color. I sure hope Kyocera can get its replacement, the QCP-7135, out by Christmas—the combination of a faster processor, more RAM, a nifty color screen, an improved form factor, and an SD expansion slot makes this the #1 item on my letter to Santa this year.