About Chris Williams
Location: Dallas, Texas
Occupation: Web Designer
Bio: Webmaster for PopSyndicate.com and other sites. You can see more of his work at his web design site, Martini Lab, and his blog as well.
Posts: 163
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Pop Quiz: it's Friday, December 22 and you still haven't bought your geek a gift. What do you do?
Buying holiday gifts for someone can be difficult. If you don't know the person or their interests, you run the risk of gift wrapping a white elephant. And while money is always a great gift, so is something that lets your fellow nerd know that you pay attention to his or her geeky interests. Don't worry, there is still time. The weekend is coming up and the holiday rush is at hand. Here is my helpful guide to gifts that would make any geek happy.
Designing With Web Standards, Jeffery Zeldman - Even the most adept web designer can learn from Zeldman's second edition knowledge base of slick code and well executed compatibility. If your dot-com scriber doesn't own this book already, get it. Technical books can be pricey. Often times, programmers will opt to going to an online reference or wiki rather than dropping sixty bucks every time they run into a challenge. This way, they have a great reference on hand, or at least a new book they can exchange for a more applicable programming language. Other books to consider are anything from O'Reily Books like Head Rush Ajax, by Brett McLaughlin.
Flickr Pro Account - Nothing says Merry Christmas like increased bandwidth. Flickr's pro account comes with unlimited storage, uploads, bandwidth and more for a year at $24.95. This would be a great gift for those bloggers with a digital camera. Pro Accounts can be gifted for LiveJournal, Salon, and PhotoBucket as well. Not only that, but there are other online services that may be a great gift idea. Blockbuster Online and PVP The Series are great options too.
World of Warcraft Time Card - Humbug Damage +7. Time cards are redeemable allotments of play time to ease the burden in beating the latest campaigns worthy of Kael'thas Sunstrider himself. Time cards can be purchased online at Amazon, but you would be better off by braving the mob scene at Best Buy and picking up a 60 day time card for $29.99. City of Heroes/Villains is another game that has the time card option.
Apple Quicktime 7 Pro - Give the gift of eliminating registration reminders. The commercial version of Quicktime does everything as the free download, but its features allow movies to be saved from the web to the iPod. Quicktime 7 Pro is available for both Mac and PC for $29.99. There are also some really great shareware apps out there that may be installed and running on your friends machine already that hasn't yet been registered. Other Mac apps to consider are DragThing and TubeSock.
Klear Screen - Call it a hint if you want, but that LCD is filthy and the keyboard has unidentified hair in it. Klear Screen (or iKlear) runs about $24.95 and is available at most computer retail stores. Were there more time, the Techspray Zero Charge Screen and Keyboard foam spray cleaner would be more ideal. Everybody likes that foam spray action. However, its an industrial tool and available only through online stores. Canned air is always appreciated. Also, any lint-free lens cleaner will work with plastic-safe cleaners to keep your loved ones computers smudge and dust free. A clean computer is the gift that keeps on giving. Your tech support will thank you for it.
Happy holidays everyone! I hope this was a little bit helpful in any last minute Christmas shopping you have planned. And remember, if all else fails, you can't go wrong with an iTunes gift card. I'm just saying.
Designing With Web Standards, Jeffery Zeldman - Even the most adept web designer can learn from Zeldman's second edition knowledge base of slick code and well executed compatibility. If your dot-com scriber doesn't own this book already, get it. Technical books can be pricey. Often times, programmers will opt to going to an online reference or wiki rather than dropping sixty bucks every time they run into a challenge. This way, they have a great reference on hand, or at least a new book they can exchange for a more applicable programming language. Other books to consider are anything from O'Reily Books like Head Rush Ajax, by Brett McLaughlin.
Flickr Pro Account - Nothing says Merry Christmas like increased bandwidth. Flickr's pro account comes with unlimited storage, uploads, bandwidth and more for a year at $24.95. This would be a great gift for those bloggers with a digital camera. Pro Accounts can be gifted for LiveJournal, Salon, and PhotoBucket as well. Not only that, but there are other online services that may be a great gift idea. Blockbuster Online and PVP The Series are great options too.
World of Warcraft Time Card - Humbug Damage +7. Time cards are redeemable allotments of play time to ease the burden in beating the latest campaigns worthy of Kael'thas Sunstrider himself. Time cards can be purchased online at Amazon, but you would be better off by braving the mob scene at Best Buy and picking up a 60 day time card for $29.99. City of Heroes/Villains is another game that has the time card option.
Apple Quicktime 7 Pro - Give the gift of eliminating registration reminders. The commercial version of Quicktime does everything as the free download, but its features allow movies to be saved from the web to the iPod. Quicktime 7 Pro is available for both Mac and PC for $29.99. There are also some really great shareware apps out there that may be installed and running on your friends machine already that hasn't yet been registered. Other Mac apps to consider are DragThing and TubeSock.
Klear Screen - Call it a hint if you want, but that LCD is filthy and the keyboard has unidentified hair in it. Klear Screen (or iKlear) runs about $24.95 and is available at most computer retail stores. Were there more time, the Techspray Zero Charge Screen and Keyboard foam spray cleaner would be more ideal. Everybody likes that foam spray action. However, its an industrial tool and available only through online stores. Canned air is always appreciated. Also, any lint-free lens cleaner will work with plastic-safe cleaners to keep your loved ones computers smudge and dust free. A clean computer is the gift that keeps on giving. Your tech support will thank you for it.
Happy holidays everyone! I hope this was a little bit helpful in any last minute Christmas shopping you have planned. And remember, if all else fails, you can't go wrong with an iTunes gift card. I'm just saying.
Chris Williams writes a weekly column for PopSyndicate. He is the webmaster for this site as well as Zeus Comics and Cape. Chris really wants a pony.
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