Dramel Notes: countless

Christmas is a great time to be a movie lover: there are countless re-runs of classic films on television, endless discounts on merchandise in stores, and lots of recent Hollywood flicks being released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Put the shoe on the other foot for a moment though. What if you’re buying a gift for a movie lover this Christmas? What should you get them? Will your 50-year-old dad really want a “Special Edition” release of the year’s biggest romantic comedy, or would he prefer something a little more nuanced to his personal tastes?

To help you decide what to buy the film fan in your life, we have put together a special guide to the best gifts for movie lovers this holiday season. Enjoy!

Netflix Subscription

If they have not already got a Netflix subscription, the movie lover in your life is missing out. Big time.

Netflix launched back in 1997 and has since gone on to become the gold standard for on-demand video streaming around the world. The most recent estimates suggest that at the end of the third quarter of 2015 the service had almost 70 million subscribers, and its content is now available in more than 80 countries.

Netflix offers three price plans – $7.99 per month for “Basic” (one screen, no HD), $9.99 per month for “Standard” (two screens, HD available), and $11.99 per month for “Premium” (four screens, HD, and Ultra HD available).

The best way to provide the service as a present is to buy a Netflix Gift Card from Amazon. Online cards are available for any denomination between $25 and $100, while physical cards can be bought to the value of either $30 or $60.

Xinda 100 Projector

If they have already got a subscription to a video-on-demand service, why not buy them a wall projector? It’ll let them watch their content in all its glory, thus making the home cinema experience a lot more enjoyable.

The Xinda 100 Projector is currently available on Amazon for $79.99. It comes with a 500:1 contrast, support for both 4:3 and 16:9 screen ratios, and connection ports for Video In, USB, SD cards, VGA, and HDMI.

Finally, its LED lamp will last for 20,000 hours – that’s almost 2.5 years of around-the-clock, 24/7 playback!

Samsung BD-J5100 Blu-ray Player

For those who don’t know, Blu-ray discs are the high-definition version of traditional DVDs. They can store video with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and can support 60-frames-per-second during playback, whereas DVDs can only support a maximum resolution of 720p x 480p.

Blu-rays endured a slow start when they first hit the shelves, but are now the industry standard for high-density optical discs. 4K Blu-ray discs are set to become available in the first quarter of 2016.

Let your movie lover enjoy some of this high-definition action by getting them the Samsung BD-J5100 for $47.99. It has HDMI, USB, Ethernet, and HDMI-CEC ports, and comes complete with YouTube, Netflix, Yupp TV, Pandora, and Amazon apps built in.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Blu-ray)

With the imminent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, now is a great time to catch up on the previous six episodes of the epic series (it’ll also give your movie lover something to watch on their new Blu-ray player!).

This boxset includes all six previous releases, more than 40 hours of extras, 45 deleted/extended scenes, 90 minutes of bloopers, cast interviews, and audio commentary. The total running time of the nine discs is a mammoth 891 minutes – more than enough to keep someone busy between Christmas and New Year.

Roku 4

Roku 4 is the latest release in the ongoing war between Roku, Google, Apple, and Amazon for control of the streaming stick market.

If you’re looking for TV “channels” that could replace your cable subscription, a Roku product is probably your best bet – though you can make your own mind up by reading our comparison of the various offerings.

The Roku 4 comes with 2,500 channels, 4K Ultra HD capabilities, voice search, and an earphone jack on the remote control for “silent” listening.

Infinity Floorstanding Speaker

Once you have the projector and Blu-ray player in place, the visual side of your home theater is complete – but what about the audio?

For true movie lovers, the quality of audio is just as important as the on-screen images. There’s little point in your eyes making you believe that you’re actually stood on the bridge of the Death Star, only for your ears to give you an experience more akin to going for a ride in a clapped-out Mini Cooper.

Try getting them the Infinity Floorstanding Speaker to add to their set-up. It should cost around $115, but comes complete with three individual speakers, dual 6.5-inch MMD low-frequency drivers, a 4-inch MMD mid-range driver, and a 3/4-inch MMD hi-frequency driver.

Chromecast 2

Chromecasts are probably the biggest rival to Roku, and like Roku, Google has also released a new version in time for the festive season. It comes with better connectivity and a more user-friendly design.

At just $35 it’s the best value of all the options on the market, but it also differs quite drastically in that it doesn’t have a user interface. Instead, you need to use either your smartphone, tablet, or computer to push content to the dongle.

The biggest downside is that it doesn’t support Amazon Instant Video, but at the low price point, one can hardly complain.

At the moment it’s only available through the Google Store, not via Amazon.

Cuisinart CPM-100 Popcorn Maker

It’s no good having all these fancy gadgets if you can’t enjoy a good snack once you sit down to enjoy your movie of choice.

For just $35.99 this popcorn maker will give you cinema-grade nibbles every time you want them. It works solely using hot air, and can make up to 10 cups of popcorn in three minutes. It comes complete with a butter-melting tray, and is entirely dishwasher-proof.

Logitech Harmony 650 Remote Control

Universal remote controls are nothing new; they have been around since the mid-1990s. However, with the increasing number of gadgets that are now hooked up to your TV, they’re becoming more useful than ever.

This $65.95 Logitech offering can support up to eight different devices and works with more than 225,000 different devices, including everything from old legacy VCR players to the latest and greatest high-def television sets.

Sennheiser RS120 On-Ear Wireless RF Headphones

“Turn it down!” – the most frustrating three words for any movie buff who’s trying to watch a film in peace.

Buying them a quality pair of wireless headphones will quickly remove this frustration. This product from Sennheiser will give the wearer interference-free reception through walls, along with a range of 300 feet.

It comes with a two-in-one charging dock that also acts as the wireless transmitter. They will set you back $69.66 on Amazon.

What Will You Be Buying?

Have we inspired you with our gift ideas for movie lovers? Which of our 10 gifts do you think is the most appropriate for the film fan in your life? Please share your thoughts with your fellow readers in the comments section below.

Image Credit: cinema by Syda Productions via Shutterstock

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From the title, you probably think I’ve got some major beef with Codecademy. I don’t.

In many ways, I admire them. Since 2011, they’ve introduced countless millions to the noble craft of software development, and have launched the careers of thousands of developers. That number looks set to soar with the release of their first Java course. But at the same time, their product – and to be more precise, their teaching methods – leave a lot to be desired, and are leaving thousands frustrated, and unsure of where to progress with their formative development skills.

So, what’s so terribly wrong with Codecademy?

And how can you, as a journeyman coder, circumvent these flaws to reach your programming potential?

Problem One: It Doesn’t Teach the Mindset

Being a programmer is more than simply being able to regurgitate syntax. It’s about having a particular mindset, where you are able to systematically breakdown a problem into individual and logical steps, and then recreate that in a language that the computer understands.

You need to be able to look at a problem at a grand scale, and understand how each step you take affects the rest of the program. Moreover, you need to be able to tolerate a high level of frustration, and be able to persevere when you hit a mental brick wall. You need to be able to be able to research bugs and error messages, and communicate your problem to others. Simply put, you need to be able to think like a coder.

Codecademy does not teach you to think like a coder.

Rather, it teaches you the basics of a number of programming languages, without any real instruction on how you’d apply them to real-life problems.

So, how can you get that invaluable experience?

Personally, I’m a big fan of Project Euler and Reddit’s Daily Programmer SubReddit, which features enough mind-bending programming puzzles to sink anyone’s teeth into. I’m a big fan of the latter, because you’re encouraged to share your code in order to receive feedback from other members of the community.

The Daily Programmer subreddit, as the name suggests, comes with daily puzzles for all skill levels, from absolute beginners to hardened code jockeys.

Problem Two: Blink and You’ll Miss It

One of my biggest frustrations with Codecademy’s approach to teaching is that it feels so incredibly transient. You learn something, then you complete a challenge, and you scarcely revisit that topic again. Blink, and you’ll miss it.

It’s unlike the approach taken by Duolingo, for example, where you have to regularly revise and reinforce what you’ve learned in order to progress.

So, if you want to cement your progress, you’re going to have to do some deliberate practice outside of Codecademy. One of the best ways to do that is to simply write code. Many programmers – and I include myself in that cadre – also swear by deliberate notetaking and regular revision with flashcards.

Paper flash cards are cheap and effective. In fact, you can buy 1,000 on Amazon for less than thirteen dollars.

For those digitally inclined, there’s also a number of apps you can use. I’m a huge fan of Anki, simply because of how customizable it is. It boasts thousands of community-built flashcards, and is extensible through its powerful and well-documented application programming interface (API).

For mobile users, there are also lots of flashcard applications for Android, and for the iPhone. You can also use Google Sheets to make them!

I’m currently using CodeCode.Ninja – which, full disclosure, was built by my friend and former MakeUseOf writer Erez Zukerman. This subscription service is built with programmers in mind, and you can build a living, flash-card based knowledge base of everything you need to know.

What I like about the approach taken by CodeCode.Ninja is that to progress through your deck, you’re forced to deliberately type out the answer to each card. This, I’ve found, helps build up your muscle memory.

Problem Three: Syntax is Not Programming

Again, Codecademy will teach you the syntax of a programming language, but for the most part it won’t tell you how to apply it. Which is why you often see questions like this, which was posted on the aforementioned LearnProgramming subredddit.

The introductory JavaScript course doesn’t teach you how to embed a script in a webpage to add interactivity to otherwise flat, static HTML. The Java course doesn’t teach you how to compile your code in order to run it. Hey, it doesn’t even tell you that Java is a compiled language, or the difference between a compiled language and an interpreted language.

There’s other stuff that’s skimmed over. Codecademy doesn’t teach you how to write code that’s clean, and stylized in order to be readable and easy to understand. It doesn’t teach you how to write code that’s self-documenting. It doesn’t teach you about package management, and how to use other people’s code in your own code.

This is something you can only overcome by leaving the safe harbors of Codecademy at the first possible opportunity. By writing code, and learning on your own steam.

Problem Four: Too Much Cake, Not Enough Vegetables

The reason why Codecademy is successful is because it takes coding, and transforms it into addictive bite-sized pieces that are easy to accomplish, and offer instantaneous feedback. It’s the candy of coding.

The problem is, learning to be a developer often means that you have to learn about things that are important, but from the offset aren’t terribly exciting, or for that matter, easy. You don’t learn about the theory of programming. The stuff that Donald Knuth spent thousands of pages – and the best part of two decades – writing about in The Art of Computer Programming.

Codecademy essentially shields you from the sticky, complicated part of programming. There’s no way around this, other than by being disciplined, and doing your own research. If you don’t know what you should be looking at, consider asking more established developers for guidance.

Codecademy Isn’t That Bad

There’s a lot to like about Codecademy. They’ve introduced thousands to the fundamentals of computer science. But there’s a lot of room for improvement, too.

Have you used Codecademy? Did it hurt or hinder you? Tell me about it in the comments below.