Sponsor shout-out: SparkFun Electronics

Boing Boing is thrilled to welcome SparkFun as a sponsor this holiday season! Check out their fantastic gift guide!

Back in 2003, the world was still celebrating its unexpected triumph over Y2K, and SparkFun was but a twinkle in Nathan Seidles eye. Then, after the University of Colorado engineering student shorted out a component for a project and struggled to find a replacement, he threw up his hands in true infomercial style and shouted, There has to be a better way! Several credit cards maxed out on inventory and pizza later, SparkFun was born, and through twelve years, 150 employees (and 30 or so dogs), two buildings and over 2,000 DIY electronics products, the company has flourished under the banner of open source accessibility and education on which it was founded.

SparkFun also lives up to its name from its annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition, to letting employees build an apartment inside the office for field testing projects, to years of elaborate electronic office pranks, SparkFun plays as hard as it works. Need more evidence? Check out this years edition of their decidedly creative annual gift guide and come away with some excellent ideas for everyone on your list AND an alternative use for all that eggnog.

And finally as an added bonus use the promo code BoingBoing2015 for $10 off your order of $50 or more until 12/31/2015. Happy inventing!