Why not offer your time and expertise to those who run scared from technology,? asks Karlin Lillington

AS IF you haven't yet had enough suggestions or been reminded till your head is ringing, it's the time of year for gift-giving.

All the papers have been full of ideas for Christmas gadgets and gizmos, including this one. But I'd like to make a few suggestions for gifts that those of us with even an iota of tech capability (and with full humility and self-knowledge, I definitely class myself down at the "iota" end, far from the gurus) might offer to those less fortunate souls who find the concept of the right click, or the ethernet cable, or the software or music download, a terrifying thing.

These people might be friends, parents, grandparents, children, spouses. But you know them - the ones who aren't sure how to transfer their photos from their camera to their computer, to upgrade their operating system, to burn a CD of their favourite songs, to set up an MP3 player.

These are some obvious starting points that will mean more than a tie, a novelty book of jokes, or whatever else you were thinking about instead.

If you are a student and a bit short on the readies, it's also a wonderfully inexpensive way to give great gifts for Christmas. All you need to do is buy - or make - a card offering the service.

So here are some ideas of the kinds of things so many people would deeply appreciate. If you are like most reasonably tech-literate people, you've probably been asked - even nagged - to do some of these in the past. So why not make what are seen as horrible chores to the tech-baffled into charming, generous gifts of your time and your thoughtfulness?

Home networks. This will be the time of year when many people get new computers, printers and paraphernalia. Set them up or, if the kit is already in place, offer to do a network check-up to make sure things are connected efficiently and have firewalls and any other needed security elements in place.

Wireless networks. Creating an at-home wireless network seems to be a perennial nightmare. Get one working, or buy a router and put one in place.

Tech tutorials. If I had a euro for every time I hear "I have a new digital camera but can't figure out how to get the pictures on the computer. . ." Or maybe the issue is: edit photos, or synchronise an iPod, or buy a song online, or order snapshots, or create a document, or scan and e-mail something, or print onto photo paper, or connect a gaming console, or create contacts or set up a message minder on a mobile.

These all may seem trivially easy tasks. Chances are, you know someone who would love to be shown how to do one of them.

Overhaul computer security. Automatic updates and other correct settings for antivirus software may seem obvious to you. They aren't to lots of people. And probably the majority of computer users have no spyware scanning programmes on their PC either and don't realise they really should have more than one, if they are running Windows.

And while you are sorting that out, do a thorough scan of their drives and clean up their machine - but show them what you are doing and how to do it themselves in future.

Operating system (OS) upgrades. If they bought their computer in the past year or so, and depending on what OS they have, they may not realise they can get free upgrades to newer versions of the operating system. Or they may wish to buy an upgrade, but need it installed.

Backing everything up and doing the upgrade is a real kindness.

Perform backups. Most people don't back up regularly, and may never have backed up their drives at all. Get it all onto DVDs or other storage and consider the gift of an external drive or an online backup service and then set it up so it works automatically.

Organising media. Many people using music software or transferring photos are not aware of the many organisational tools included in programmes for managing music, images, or videos. Create playlists, or photo and video folders. Show someone how to use those features or websites like Photobucket or Flickr.

Make something or set something up. Photobooks or notecards from people's favourite photos, or a CD of someone's favourite songs, are obvious options, but what about setting up a discussion board for someone, or a basic website, or a blog, or a Gmail account? A Facebook or Bebo or Nimble or LinkedIn profile? A Twitter account?

Have a happy Christmas, and hope that whatever geek gift you want yourself, it ends up under the tree on Christmas morning.

klillington@irishtimes.com blog: www.techno-culture.com