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Thread: Christmas present ideas?

  1. #21
    Papa Smurf
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by emmylou25 View Post
    Basically, you usb it into your pc when you leave the room and if you've not already done so it switches the pc to standby mode, then tells you how much money you've saved.
    Sending an inactive pc into standby mode is a standard, and easily configurable, feature of windows. Basically you paid money to have something tell you how much money you saved to pay for it when you could have saved that money anyway I have some snake oil for sale - you want some ?

  2. #22
    Registered User emmylou25's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    Sending an inactive pc into standby mode is a standard, and easily configurable, feature of windows. Basically you paid money to have something tell you how much money you saved to pay for it when you could have saved that money anyway
    Well, I know that and my pc does go to sleep mode (annoying I find but would need to change the settings to suit each occasion I leave the room), and I'm sure my mum's does too, but it's all a bit of fun.

  3. #23
    Dickie Davies' love-child Cruella's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    What does he want to do with Photoshop? Graphic design or photo manipulation?
    He's doing A'level art and wants to get into car design as a career. He wants to be able to draw using the graphics tablet rather than scanning pictures in I think. (Hey he's 16, it's tricky getting more than a few grunts out of him!)
    Some graphic tablets used to be supplied with Photoshop Elements, which would be a pretty good deal. Wacom are the market leaders;
    I have been offered the purchase of an A4 Wacom from someone that doesn't use it anymore. Not sure whether to go for this or get a cheapish one as a starter. That usually ends up being false economy though and you end up buying another one. Yet if he get's bored with it i don't want to waste too much money!



    I personally find GIMP impossible to use but the last time I tried it was a couple of years ago: it will have improved since then.
    Not sure I can bring myself to buy my first born something called GIMP!
    Alternatives to Photoshop are Corel Photo-Paint (now available as Corel Graphics Suite, IIRC) and Serif Photo Plus, which is intended to be full featured software but sold at budget prices because they only sell direct.
    Elements seems to be the hot favourite so far amongst my techie friends.

  4. #24
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cruella View Post
    Not sure I can bring myself to buy my first born something called GIMP!
    its FREE, Open Source and well supported and documented. Its just an acronym for "Gnu Image Manipulation Program"

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cruella View Post
    He's doing A'level art and wants to get into car design as a career. He wants to be able to draw using the graphics tablet rather than scanning pictures in I think. (Hey he's 16, it's tricky getting more than a few grunts out of him!)
    I have been offered the purchase of an A4 Wacom from someone that doesn't use it anymore. Not sure whether to go for this or get a cheapish one as a starter. That usually ends up being false economy though and you end up buying another one. Yet if he get's bored with it i don't want to waste too much money!
    If he wants (non-graphic) design he doesn't want Photoshop he needs Illustrator or CorelDraw! or Serif DrawPlus. Even Photoshop Elements won't do it.

    Photoshop, GIMP etc are pixel-editing programs. That is to say their purpose is to take a collection of pixels of different hue and shade and manipulate them. If you want to design an advert, or a web page, or make a photograph better looking or more interesting, a pixel-edit program is what you want.

    If you want to design a car, you need a vector-editing program. In a pixel-editor, if you draw a circle (for a wheel) and then later you want to make the picture much larger, the circle will look less and less like a tyre and more like a collection of cubes. You can enlarge or reduce a vector-editor circle as much as you like and it will remain a circle.

    Here's a wikipedia page which explains it better.

    Vector graphic packages can add textures, colours, shading and so forth and so convincing pictures can be generated.

    Photoshop has almost enough facilities for this sort of design work but only in CS3 Extended and CS4 extended and those are still premium price products. I'm not so familiar with Photoshop Essentials but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have any of the design features which I would have thought (I'm not a designer either!!) your son would need.

    An A4 Wacom at a good price would be an excellent buy but - as someone who recently replaced an A6 tablet with an A4 one and regretted it - an A4 tablet takes up a lot of real estate on the desktop!!!

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    If he's at all serious about car design, or product design in general (car design is a hugely over subscribed area), then he'll need good illustrator and photoshop skills, together with 3D modelling software, which is usually hideously expensive, although there are a few free ones.

    You can get student editions of Adobe Creative Suite in various guises, depending on which programmes are included. Check whether he's eligible, but he should be. Amazon have CS4 design standard student edition (with photoshop, illustrator, indesign (page layout) and Acrobat pro) for £179

    Product designers usually sketch concepts freehand, scan them and then tidy up the drawings in illustrator, or draw them in illustrator straight off. Being able to hand draw well will hold him in good stead. A4 would be the minimum size needed for a tablet, a3 even better. Unfortunately all this stuff is expensive, and it doesn't get cheaper!

    For good info and a very useful forum on design in all its forms, tell him to check core77.com

    Hope this is of use

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    If you want to design a car, you need a vector-editing program.
    ah, i kind of missed that salient point in the description after all the mentioning of photo shop. So I'll recommend GIMP again for generally imagery and inkscape for actual design. Both free of course.

    Download inkscape here.

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by blackisleboy View Post
    You can get student editions of Adobe Creative Suite in various guises, depending on which programmes are included. Check whether he's eligible, but he should be. Amazon have CS4 design standard student edition (with photoshop, illustrator, indesign (page layout) and Acrobat pro) for £179
    Good catch. I forgot about student editions.

  9. #29
    Registered User Zuhal's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    My daughter leaves for her backpacking 1 Dec and will be away for Chrimbo.

    Due to weight considerations we have made her a crossword with all the clues and answers related to friends and family. At least half of the clues would be decipherable by her travel companion.

    google "puzzlemaker" and a piece of software makes the grid and prints it all nicely.

    Hopefully she will have as much fun solving it as we did composing it.

    Zuhal

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    Senior Member Minnie M's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gojive View Post
    ............What's a digital keyring? ......
    Like a baby digital photoframe - you can download your fave photos on it.


    --ooOoo--
    Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
    Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)

    Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
    That date is recognized as her official birthday.

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Minnie M View Post
    Also, Robert Dyas are selling Digital keyrings for £9.99
    Thanks for this idea, I got one on ebay for £5.99 - sliding in a penny under the secret santa price limit!

  12. #32
    Cheeky by nature Little Monkey's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    After talking to my mum, and after looking through a lot of my photos, I've decided I might get a couple of calendars made with my own photos. I've also looked at getting photobooks made for friends and family. Nowadays when everyone's got digital cameras, it's actually really nice to get some pictures printed!

    I'm also going to get a photobook made with my favourite pictures from New Zealand...... But that's a present from me to me!

  13. #33
    Senior Member rubyred's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Little Monkey View Post
    I've decided I might get a couple of calendars made with my own photos. I've also looked at getting photobooks made for friends and family. Nowadays when everyone's got digital cameras, it's actually really nice to get some pictures printed!

    I'm also going to get a photobook made with my favourite pictures from New Zealand...... But that's a present from me to me!
    That is a lovely idea, my daughter has had this present already from her dad, he put all the photos of the family, and the holiday he had with her to see their cousins in Chicago this year on a calender. I can tell you that she was absolutely delighted with it, and I thought it was a such a loving and unique thing to do.
    if you love the life you live then you'll get a lot more done

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    If you are really stumpted, a worthy Xmas present is a camel £90 or a donkey £60.

    You pay for the animal at Oxfam who give you a certificate.

    The actual animal is donated to poor third world communities.

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    If you are really stumpted, a worthy Xmas present is a camel £90 or a donkey £60.

    You pay for the animal at Oxfam who give you a certificate.

    The actual animal is donated to poor third world communities.
    The trouble is they can't afford the fuel to cook them...

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    The trouble is they can't afford the fuel to cook them...
    pfffft

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    There's goats and Llamas too.

    The prices I quoted seem to have changed.

    You should never get too near a Llama as they love to spit in your eye.

  18. #38
    Registered User Gojive's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    There's goats and Llamas too.

    The prices I quoted seem to have changed.

    You should never get too near a Llama as they love to spit in your eye.
    Or you could turn the grill down a touch

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gojive View Post
    Or you could turn the grill down a touch
    gah - cant rep you again so soon

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    Re: Christmas present ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cruella View Post
    Thought it might save my feet and all that time hunting if we had a thread where people could put any good ideas for christmas presents. Have you ever bought or recieved something for a present that you were really chuffed with?
    My son has asked for a graphics tablet and Adobe Photoshop After seeing the price of the Photoshop I've told him 'Santa says No!'
    Any of you computer wizards got a suggestion for something cheaper that would do a similar job for him?
    I brought my son a GENIUS PENSKETCH 9X12 USB GRAPHICS TABLET from Misco misco.co.uk. £92.00 delivered. As for Photoshop you can download it off Limewire or other Shareware sites. Or borrow a copy from a friend.

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