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Let's face it. Web developers are geeks. But that's okay! Who wants to be normal? As I always tell the children - "Geeks rule the world". The problem is that "normal" people don't know what to buy us for Christmas. That's why we always end up with "Photoshop 6 For Dummies". They'll say in a rickety old voice, "It's a little old, sonny - but I got a good deal on it."
So email this list to your family and friends and tell them, "This is what you should buy me.".
Though it's impossible to scan the minds of every web developer, this article will list a roundup of recommendations. Feel free to include your own via the comments.
*Note - Just for the record. This article was meant to inform, not make money. There are zero referral links.
As an American, I hate how the greatest web design magazines all seem to come from Europe - resulting in a high subscription price that I can't justify. This makes it a perfect gift!
It's common knowledge that web developers make their way from screen to screen. We might say, "Man I need a break from work. Wanna go to a movie?" Though videogames may not be everyone's cup a tea, there's a high likelihood that a web developer will enjoy them. Though yours truly might prefer Mario Galaxy or Zelda, it seems that XBOX 360 currently stands as the "gamers platform."
No one can deny how "dead sexy" these laptops are. You can't hide from the huge price either! But if you have the money and want to dazzle your loved one, this will do the trick! Make sure you shop for a good price.
For the mac enthusiast, you'll have trouble finding a more fluid code editor than Coda. If he or she doesn't own it already, buy it!
Mac user or not, you won't find a better media player for the price. But be a trooper and upgrade to the 16 gig model.
This book is for anyone who has to design a newsletter, job ad, flyer, business card, memo, report or whatever, but has no idea what separates good design from bad. Except, of course, that the first looks clear, professional, sophisticated and right, and the second is an ugly, unreadable mess.
For the aspiring PHP developer, or the experienced one for that matter, this book will help a great deal!
Years old, but still relevant. Many consider this book to be their web dev bible. If your loved one doesn't own it, buy it!
You can never have too much harddrive space! Nowadays, don't bother getting a smaller capacity. You can purchase up to 1 TB of space for under $150. He'll love it!
We all want one because we all can't afford it! But if you have the pennies and want to see a "grown man cry like a baby", this will do the trick!
Another contender in the "blow your socks off category" is the beautiful 24 inch monitor. You won't see him returning this the day after!
Obviously, it's impossible to determine the television preference of a complete stranger. However, I know many, many web developers that adore this show (including myself).
You'll have trouble finding someone who doesn't like The Office. Both the US and UK versions are fantastic and will fit quite nicely into his or her collection.
Though irresponsible waggle can potentially destroy half of the items on this list, it's hard to deny how enjoyable a well executed Wii game can be. And come on folks - they're remaking Punch Out! That's reason enough. If you grew up in the 80s, the updated music will give you goosebumps.
Learning jQuery is the best book available on the obvious subject. If your loved one is learning this library, buy it! (Shameless plug...Have you check out the "jQuery for Absolute Beginners" daily video tutorials over on the ThemeForest blog?
Wouldn't we all like one of these? We touch the dang things enough!
Exceptional sound, lightweight, 5 foot cord....gosh I want one!
"This book is absolutely packed with quick solutions to common obstacles or ideas in PHP. The chapters on security are worth their weight in gold, as you'll learn how to properly protect your site against unauthorised use."
We'll all eventually upgrade to CS4, if we haven't already. It costs a whopping $1400 to purchase the entire suite. But how quickly will it pay for itself?
I came across this one via a tweet from Collis. Consider purchasing an engraved notebook for your designer friends. You can engrave images, drawings...pretty much anything.
So that's it for now. What do you think should and shouldn't be on this list? What did we forget?
Check out some more great tutorials and articles that you might like
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Rishi Luchun December 5th
I only Santa gave me all of these!!
( )matt December 5th
For $150 you can buy a USB-tethered Wacom tablet. Sure, you don’t write directly on your computer screen but it works very well and is much cheaper.
( )Liam December 5th
=) i live in the UK and orderd my .NET mag subscripton last nite.
( )Emil Melgaard December 5th
A Wii for 30 bucks?
That must be a mistake, the like does also point at The Office Season 4
( )miker1961 December 5th
I could really use the laptop. Man I wish Santa wasn’t affected by the economy down turn like eeryone else.
( )OpenSourceHunter December 5th
Nice
hope to get some of this stuff 
greetz
( )http://www.opensourcehunter.com/
Jon December 5th
hmm… could really use a .net subscription along with about 10 other things on that list. Might just have to update my Amazon wish list.
( )Justin Shreve December 5th
The Wii is $30? lol
Anyway good list
( )Cyrus Kafai Wu December 5th
Love the article. I’m kind of surprised that they sell 1tb externals that cheap. Also, I may also look into buying a .net mag subscription.
Thanks for the article.
( )ryan j December 5th
us version of the office? philistines
( )Greg December 5th
Yes, yes, and yes!!! I Agree with all of it!
( )- Greg
Tommy Day December 5th
I just bought an xbox 360 for myself, but from my wife. Only bummer is that I can’t open it until christmas
( )Jeffrey Way December 5th
Whoops! Sorry about the Wii link and price. It’s been fixed.
Don’t we wish it was $30!
( )no-greetz December 5th
opensourcehunter – your ‘greetz’ are getting annoying.
( )chris simpson December 5th
haha. are we all really this alike?
i start my new developing possition in Janurary. so hopefully santa will get me alot of this stuff in time to have a suitably geeky festive period :]
( )crysfel December 5th
“the big bang theory”?? hahahahaha i love that show!!
( )Craigsnedeker December 5th
haha good list >.<
( )Anthony Bruno December 5th
I have those headphones, they are amazing.
( )Nick Larson December 5th
Wasn’t planning on commenting… but I just loled at the bose headphones idea. Bose is junk
( )Francisco Costa December 5th
Big bang Theory and The Office!!! I would also add Fringe for sci-fi lovers!
( )h-a-r-v December 5th
I hate that stupid association: designer = apple fanboy. Sorry, but I prefer IBM/Lenovo, HTC and iRiver (laptops, phones, mp3 players). The first thing I’d do with an Apple gift would be selling it. I wouldn’t even run it so it stays in the foil and I can get a better price.
( )Jeffrey Way December 5th
@H-a-r-v – That’s ridiculous. It’s not good to be an extremist for either side. I personally work on a Dell, but love my IPOD touch.
To be honest, the PC/Apple wars make me sick.
They’re both good! Each have their own advantages.
( )Naz December 5th
I wish I got at least one of the gifts from here!
( )Joe December 5th
Excuse me; you forgot the PS3. ; )
( )Nice list, apart from that. haha.
I wish I could have a lot of the things on this list … but i’m broke.
h-a-r-v December 5th
Jeffrey Way: I don’t want to be misunderstood, especially we understood each other pretty well in the other article, so let me put myself clear: I don’t like troll forum wars either, not my league, and I’m not about to start one. But everywhere I go Apple is being stick to designers as if it was the perfect choice and this is what I’m sick of – creating an illusion.
I have nothing against MacBooks – they’re powerful and I recommended it to some people few times. in case of Apple monitors – well, they get pretty good reviews, still, not best (display is pretty important for designers so I guess I wouldn’t pick it as the “best monitor for a designer”, but ok, LET’S SAY is a good choice). But an iPod Touch? C’mon, you’ve just confessed you have it and you love it, but you didn’t read any serious reviews in this matter, right? I don’t know the reasons you bought it, but the truth is iPods are in the end of the line of ‘the best sounding players’. So it’s about being objective, that’s all.
( )h-a-r-v December 5th
Jeffrey Way: one more thing, MX Revolution rocks, doesn’t it?
( )Alex December 5th
Big thing missing on that list is any 2nd monitor rather than the 24″ Apple display. For anyone who doesn’t have two monitors, it’s probably the single thing that can boost your productivity the most.
Good headphones (for those who work while listening to music), a good mouse and a good keyboard are essential too. I’ll vouch for the Logitech MX Revolution shown above. It’s an excellent mouse for working. Very comfortable. If you game seriously on the side, you might want a backup though (I don’t game, but I know the mouse isn’t a gaming mouse)
You can’t go wrong with any of logitechs higher end keyboards either. All are very nice.
( )h-a-r-v December 5th
And one more thing on Apple:
Considering who we are and what we do it’s kinda ironic that some of us use their stuff and/or want it hard. Personally, I admit: I hate my freedom limited and that’s what Apple’s policy about. Not to mention their deluding marketing. Their product design is a subjective thing so I won’t comment. I suggest you learning the latest research:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/apple_more_closed_than_microsoft/
( )Duluoz December 5th
I will have to agree with h-a-r-v in that Apple’s monitors tend to be on the consumer grade level, mid-range quality. I’d stick to promoting and gifting higher professional grade monitors in the Ezio or NEC’s professional grade line-up. Sure they’re ghastly far more expensive – but you get what you pay for, not just a neato casing.
( )Dan Oliver December 5th
Hi Jeff, many thanks for including .net magazine in your list
I’m the current editor, and if anyone has any questions about subscriptions, or anything else related to the magazine for that matter, please mail me at dan.oliver@futurenet.com. I always reply, though sometimes it may take a few days.
( )Kai December 5th
Wow I want that cinema screen 24″
( )Mac Tyler December 5th
I already own all these things… no seriously I do.
( )Vasili December 5th
iPod Touch and PHP Cookbook are amazing. I borrowed the book from the library and I’m really tempted to but it.
( )Jeffrey Way December 5th
@Dan – Not a problem. It’s a fantastic magazine….one that I wish NETTUTS was mentioned in from time to time.
( )MMA Web Design December 5th
Buy me a year of hosting so I can launch my own projects and I’ll be happy.
( )yamaniac December 5th
Eh!!!!…. But if you have the pennies :O hehe! Anyways like it though! neat collections of wanna haves
( )Mike rice December 5th
*Passes it on to friends in hope of receiving one of these things*
( )SuperMario290 December 5th
Those are awesome! Thanks a ton for the list! I know what list I’m giving to everybody I know!
( )Amr December 5th
I agree with the wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!
( )LOL
Liste de cadeaux December 5th
Pour tous les p’tits Frenchies… A l’approche des fêtes, n’hésitez pas à mettre à jour votre liste d’envie cadeaux sur Kadolog (http://www.Kadolog.com) !
Joyeuses fêtes à tous….
( )demogar December 5th
I want a Mac! I dont care which one!
( )I’m using Ubuntu/Linux + Windows by now, but let me be honest: osx is better
Drew Barontini December 5th
Just ordered the Learning jQuery book today before this article was posted. Looks like it will be a little Christmas present for myself
Nice list!
( )Alberto Villalobos December 5th
This list would be perfect if you would put the ps3 instead xbox 360, hehe, but whatever i’ll send this to my girlfriend
( )Critter December 5th
A .net subscription is really nice. I’ve made it a necessary part of my budget for the past 3 years and think it’s really worth it!
( )dj December 6th
“greatest web design magazines all seem to come from Europe”
I noticed that too, but with Linux magazines (www.linux-magazine.com).
Clicked on the “.Net subscription” here, and it doesn’t seem to be $50, but rather it appears to be $97 for 13 issues.
( )leksa December 6th
well,
i prefer to send some flower for my fiance in Boston…
Geek’s Girls need flower too, dont you?
( )Start Your Own Website December 6th
I really want a Macbook Pro. I think its gonna be way more than $1500 though!
( )Janko December 6th
What a great ideas, Jeff! Maybe I’ll buy some of these for my wife
( )ashvin December 7th
Playstation3 + large hdmi screen
( )Lamin December 7th
From a Microsoft .Net developers point of view, Apple products are a No No. Every Microsoft technology developer will tell you this.
( )YouWeYouCoding December 7th
Haha, very good gifts. But do we need .net magazine if we have nettuts.com?
( )Matt December 7th
lol, i love it
santaaa can u check this list??
( )Bogdan Popa December 7th
What, no netbooks?
( )Peter December 7th
Is .net magazine really only $50 for a subscription? All the prices I saw were around $90 or more. I might subscribe if it was $50 though…
I think I’ll check PHP Cookbook out. I haven’t really read any web development/design books, I just read websites like NETTUTS.
( )Todd December 7th
Best. Evar.
( )insic December 7th
i need my santa! lol,
( )Andy Ford December 7th
If you give them Coda, remember to also give them the receipt so they can take it back and get TextMate instead. ho ho ho!
( )Takumi86 December 8th
Ohh thats was a nice gift but i do have my own present for this christmas
( )Bryan P. December 8th
I saw some things on their I could actually use and hope to get. Outside the things no one would spend, including myself for a tech gadget.
But I can hope and wish someone loves me enough to buy a tablet pc.
I am drooling already.
( )Kirstin December 8th
Hey…. why are you always talking about the guys? Chicks are geeks too… I own some of those items already and covet the rest
( )Kelly December 8th
When did developers become designers? When I saw this post I was expecting USB gadgets and alienware, not macbooks and tablets. Being half way in between (front end development) this looks like a list for the designer half of me. I guess the lines blur more every day.
( )Jeffrey Way December 8th
@Kirstin – I don’t. It just isn’t fun to write “he or she” every few sentences. I do it a few times in the list, but end up getting lazy.
( )Bobbi December 8th
I was subscribed to “Practical Web Design” magazine. I loved it! I couldn’t wait for my copy to arrive and I still have EVERY copy I purchased. I use them as references constantly. However, when Practical Web Design merged with .NET magazine I didn’t like the magazine as much. I thought it lost a lot of the details and information the Practical Web Design had.
I especially loved reading the Redesign article (they’d take an website and redesign it giving the readers reasons why the changed things. It was a great reference for Best Practices). I also loved the Designer Challenge. They would give 4 designers a concept and let each designer create a concept. It was very inspiring. In the .NET magazine, they weren’t as predominately featured. I missed it too much and canceled my subscription.
I do from time to time pick up a copy in the book store when the issue strikes my fancy, which I have noticed is still called “Practical Web Design” in the magazine stands in the US.
Great list, btw.
( )Will December 8th
I always presumed .net magazine was about microsoft products thus I stayed well clear of it. The name of it is a little misleading.
I’ll take a look at an issue next time I’m near the mag stands though since people are praising is. Shame about Practical Web Design. Seemed like one magazine I would actually subscribe to.
( )abdusfauzi December 9th
on top of this, i wish i have a girlfriend first. T_T
( )Timm December 9th
yea, im going to agree and say that i would cry if i ever got a sweet wacom like that.
( )Rich December 10th
hrmm..
I got a Wacom Cintiq 21UX already!!
I’m Set!
( )Josh Drake December 12th
Nice…and expensive! Man, I would love to get just a few of these things for Christmas!
( )Olivia Bell December 13th
What a fantastic post! Rather amusing too, I didn’t think I could be called a “geek” until I read this post… you’ve got it down to a T!
( )Flashed Reader December 16th
I Want all of these Things.. my girlfriend sayd “i dont buy you technical things. bla bla”
( )Daddy Yankee December 16th
Great!
( )kost December 24th
Thanks for Big Bang Theory. i gonna watch it.
( )Adrian Rodriguez December 30th
I actually wound up getting the Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium!!!
( )Alex Jeffreys January 29th
I love these gifts. Does that make me a geek?
( )