Giving a domain as a gift--what software and links do you recommend?

May 7, 2007 10:22 AM

My wife's brother graduates from art school this weekend. The family chipped in and bought him a MacBook, his first new computer and first Mac. He's wicked talented and a natural tinkerer, but I get the sense he's not that computer-savvy. He's a printmaker, painter, and music freak, and his many talents skew to the analog. I registered his name as a domain and I'm going to give it to him as a gift, and I wanted to give him a CD or something with some links and free software to get him started. What would you recommend for a dude like this?
posted by aLearnerRather to computers & internet (23 comments total)

Perhaps setup a year of hosting for him with someone fun like DreamHost? DreamHost specifically has one click installs of Gallery (php gallery), WordPress (with tons of themes) and other funness. There are some discounts on the forum at Dreamhost for $97 off a years hosting, so it comes out to be like $24 for a year. Rather frugal.

Otherwise, making a website can be rather cumbersome for the newcomer, especially without a nice WYSIWYG editor.
posted by SirStan at 10:35 AM on May 7, 2007

Have you considered getting him a Wacom drawing tablet?... it might be a good way to "bridge" his analog tendencies into a digital medium.
posted by jmnugent at 10:38 AM on May 7, 2007

A wacom tablet is a great idea! The only possible downside to that is their rather high admission price.
posted by SirStan at 10:44 AM on May 7, 2007

With iWeb he can make websites pretty easily.

Oh, and those drawing tablets are way cool!
posted by radioamy at 10:44 AM on May 7, 2007

I vote for the Wacom tablet too. Great transition tool.
posted by clh at 10:48 AM on May 7, 2007

I got the Levenger Lap lander lapdesk for someone's graduation recently. I also ended up getting one for myself. I tend to work on my couch or in bed more than on a desk, so it's great because my mac laptop gets HOT.
posted by spec80 at 11:02 AM on May 7, 2007

iLife?
posted by brinkzilla at 11:14 AM on May 7, 2007

Artcat is specifically designed for artists and gallery websites.

According to their site....

ArtCat is a web hosting service dedicated to helping artists and galleries build their presence on the web.

ArtCat is a fully hosted content management system. You will use a web interface to update your site. You do not need to know any HTML. You only need to provide web-ready images and other information. We even generate the thumbnails for you.

We have created an infrastructure optimal for creating an art website within hours.
posted by RMD at 11:20 AM on May 7, 2007

brinkzilla writes "iLife?"

This is useful, and it comes with every MacBook.

Seconding the wacom tablet. If he's still a student, he can also get Photoshop for a bargain, and if he can't afford it at the student rate there's always the ever-friendly (and free as in liberty) Gimp.
posted by mullingitover at 11:33 AM on May 7, 2007

The Wacom tablet is a great idea; unfortunately, this is already running to be a pretty expensive gift, between our share of the laptop and the domain reg. I'll remember it for later though. As for hosting, I have a lifetime account at TextDrive, so I can host it for him for awhile. Thanks for all the suggestions!
posted by aLearnerRather at 11:36 AM on May 7, 2007

Have you thought that maybe he isn't tech savvy because he is opting not to be? I have a degree in photography and shoot film exclusively and if people thought that giving me a digital camera was an awesome gift, I'd wonder if they've ever paid any attention to my work at all. Are there any unique or rare tools that are used in his printmaking?
posted by pieoverdone at 11:48 AM on May 7, 2007

I love Omnigraffle. And it's cheap too!
posted by MarshallPoe at 11:51 AM on May 7, 2007

If you think he might want to dabble in web design, why not get him a copy of Coda? It's got built-in reference books for HTML and CSS, and also has an FTP client, text window, and even a terminal. It's all he really needs apart from an image editor to get started.
posted by ukdanae at 12:17 PM on May 7, 2007

You could install Wordpress on his domain and put a nice theme on it to get him started. If he's into music, maybe install a Last.FM plugin or podcast plugin.
posted by deern the headlice at 12:24 PM on May 7, 2007

If putting together a website is something you find easy, the best gift would be making one for him. Possibly one that he can very easily upload new pictures of his art to.
posted by Margalo Epps at 12:28 PM on May 7, 2007

@pieoverdone: I imagine you are correct; he probably _is_ analog by design. And I certainly respect that; I'm definitely not trying to impose anything on him. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about printmaking, or what gear he already has, to make any good guesses in that direction.

I know what sites and software _I_ geek out on, as a Web developer, but looking at it as a newcomer, I wasn't sure.
posted by aLearnerRather at 12:50 PM on May 7, 2007

I'd caution against Coda. It's an okay product, but it's for people who want to hand code sites. The references included with it are useful for people who know HTML but need to double check what attributes OPTION takes, not so much for people who are just starting out.

Besides, as an app, it's a terrible value. With the exception of the nicely integrated uploading, Coda doesn't offer a whole lot above TextMate and it costs more. It's also got a number of fantastically annoying interface features that I just can't get over.

I'd say let him start with iWeb and see if he wants to graduate to more professional tools later.

I also like the "make a site for him" idea. If you make it simple and well documented, it'll be a great way for him to play around and get the hang of it before striking out on his own.
posted by heresiarch at 1:05 PM on May 7, 2007

You could install Wordpress on his domain and put a nice theme on it to get him started.

Seconding a hosted wordpress install. Unlimited storage for creations and such and a nice user interface.
posted by cowbellemoo at 2:03 PM on May 7, 2007

inkscape is an excellent free graphic design tool that stands up quite well to illustrator.
posted by paradroid at 2:51 PM on May 7, 2007

Get him an external hard drive and help him set up automatic backups. You can never have too many backups.
posted by crazycanuck at 4:00 PM on May 7, 2007

As a soon to graduate art student I can say that any help putting together a respectable online portfolio would probably be greatly appreciated. Besides that the best thing I can think of is to introduce him to the wide world of bittorent music and mp3 blogs. Unlimited free music is pretty much the best thing ever for someone spending a lot of time in a studio. Also I would second the idea of him being analog by choice, there are plenty of digitally interested people in art school and if he had wanted to pick up photoshop and a tablet he already would have.
posted by CaptMcalister at 4:06 PM on May 7, 2007

Filezilla to upload his web site
posted by WizKid at 6:43 PM on May 7, 2007

htp://www.pure-mac.com for plenty of software.
posted by drstein at 10:10 PM on May 7, 2007