Daily Bits

Christmas

Where to Get High Quality Christmas Wallpapers for Your Desktop

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You can always take your own photos, and set them as your wallpaper, of course. But there is something to be said about the scenery and artwork that some people have taken and transformed for the specific use of adorning the desktop of a computer screen.

Word of warning: If you do not do Christmas, then I am afraid this post will be of no use to you. Go spend time with Scrooge instead.

Moving on…

If you do like feeling the spirit of Christmas, whatever that means to you, then you might want to have a wallpaper that exudes all that good cheer. There is definitely no lack of web sites offering Christmas eye candy, but to help you narrow down your search, here are five sources of Christmas wallpapers that will incite you to be good till Christmas Day – and the days after.

Specky Boy

In an entry posted last year, this blogger collated 60 beautiful Christmas wallpapers. The collection is an eclectic mix, with the usual snow scenes and Christmas decor that warm the hearts of even those who have never seen snow in their entire lives. It also includes a wallpaper featuring a cat – always a win, but this one got me sold on the list.

Christmas Wallpapers
Messy Christmas

We’ve all had our experiences with a messy Christmas but this wallpaper goes beyond the usual. [Read more…] about Where to Get High Quality Christmas Wallpapers for Your Desktop

5 Tools to Make Christmas Shopping Easier

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online shopping
Online Christmas Shopping

Christmas is coming ever so near, and shopping is becoming even more frantic. The bad news is that everyone is scrambling to get their Christmas shopping list done as soon as possible. The good news is that practically everything can be done or bought online. Of course, there may be some things that still require you to actually get up from your chair and to experience the real world.

Still, there are a lot of tools at your disposal which you can take advantage of. Tools that will make Christmas shopping a little easier. Let us help you out with that. [Read more…] about 5 Tools to Make Christmas Shopping Easier

Tech Gift Ideas 2012

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ipad mini

How are you with your Christmas shopping? If you are not the kind who does Christmas shopping all year round, then you might need a helping hand with what some might consider last-minute gift buying. The great thing is that you practically don’t have to leave your house or office. Just go online, and you’ll be able to tick off the items on your shopping list!

If you’re not sure about what to get friends and family, but you know that you want to give something related to tech and gadgets, here’s a quick guide to help you complete that list. These tech gift ideas will come in really handy. [Read more…] about Tech Gift Ideas 2012

Little Drummer Boy Brought to You by a Robot and a Scanner

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Little Drummer Boy Robots
Little Drummer Boy

Nope. You won’t see the little drummer boy that you are used to seeing around this time of the year in that picture. You know how some technophobes (and even technophiles) say that people will one day be replaced by machines? Well, this is a great example of how that is totally possible.

YouTube user bd594 apparently had some time on his hands, so he decided to tinker around with an HP scanner – the flatbed kind, obviously, a snare drum, and some other electronic items. His masterpiece? A two-gadget band rendering its own version of the Little Drummer Boy. Yes, that ubiquitous piece of Christmas music that I am pretty sure you have gotten enough of by this time. [Read more…] about Little Drummer Boy Brought to You by a Robot and a Scanner

Geeky Gingerbread Goodies

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What’s better than having a wooden AT-AT liquor cabinet for Christmas? A lot of things, if you are not into Star Wars, really, but I am being serious here. What if you like geeky things in general, and you want something geeky for Christmas?

How about some geeky gingerbread goodies? Very recently, my social network streams were filled with the Gingerbread TARDIS, courtesy of Geeks Are Sexy. ((GAS)) You have probably seen it, but just in case, here is the geeky gingerbread creation that started it all.

Gingerbread TARDIS
Gingerbread TARDIS
[Read more…] about Geeky Gingerbread Goodies

Amazon Patents “Return-to-Sender” System

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bad presentChristmas is the time to give, but some people have a knack for giving inappropriate gifts. Inappropriate may be a relative label, but we know just how many people return unwanted Christmas gifts. We also know that this period after Christmas is the busiest time of the year for retailers when it comes to returning/exchanging items that are unwanted.

Now, personally, I don’t believe in returning gifts. I am a firm believer in the thought being more important than the actual gift, but apparently, not everyone thinks the same way; and due to this, shops such as Amazon have to deal with tons of requests after Christmas. In order to avoid this, the online superstore has reportedly come up with a system – patented, of course – that will avoid people having to return gifts (and Amazon having to deal with the issues).

The idea is simple: users can label people who have a knack for sending “bad” gifts. If these people send the user gifts, Amazon takes care of the “problem” even before it crops up. It does so by NOT sending the gift at all. More so, users will have options to customize the parameters as to what is a “bad” gift. For example, keywords such as “Hello Kitty” can be used – anything with this tag will not be sent to the user.

Now how do you deal with the sender who might get offended? It seems that Amazon has thought about this as well – users still know that they have “received” a gift and can thank the sender, without the latter knowing that the gift has not been delivered. (With everyone knowing about the system, though, wouldn’t paranoia just make things worse?)

I say it’s a nifty idea, technically, but poses a whole lot of potential complications (relationship-wise) that it simply isn’t worth it. If this thing pushes through, however, the face of online shopping might just change.

Photo via wfnx