PhotoShop or Flash?

On the way home from the army last week, I met Elie and drove him home. At one point, he asked, “PhotoShop or Flash?”

I was distracted. Work. House. Holidays. Family… and answered eloquently, “huh?”

“A course,” Elie explained.

The army is many things in Israel – it is the greatest social integrator and equalizer there is. Rich and poor, religious and secular, kibbutz and city dweller, tall and short, fat and thin – all go into the army, into this great machinery that integrates them and often introduces them to elements of society that they may never meet otherwise. The boy in the bed next to you is as likely to be rich as he is poor, as likely to be religious as not.

After two years in the army, thoughts begin to shift to what the man will do when he is discharged and in this, the army becomes a facilitator. What will you do when you leave the army?

Many will go to university; many will travel, perhaps to try to find the time they lost in the previous years. Some leave, thinking they are invulnerable. Others want to go to the far ends of the world, away from the guns and the noise…only to find when they get there, that as beautiful as all these places are, there is no where else but home for them.

Still others go into trade or business, using the skills they learned in the army. To help these soldiers, the army offers them opportunities to enhance their skills. In Elie’s case – computers. PhotoShop or Flash? He has but to choose and the army will send him to a week-long course.

Exciting because he’ll learn something new. Exciting because he’ll be able come home each night and sleep at home. Exciting because it means the end of the army is coming sooner, rather than later, and exciting because it is yet another indication of how much the army of Israel cares of the soldiers of Israel.

So – what do you all suggest? Please vote in the poll to your right ——>
(well, up there a bit…see it?)

PhotoShop or Flash? That is the question of the day.

5 Comments

  1. I do websites every day (except on Shabbat). I use Photoshop every day.

    Problem with Flash is search engines STILL cannot read the content. And it is a pain to edit sites in Flash.

    Definitely, definitely, Photoshop. (then learn PHP and HTML, too — and CSS).

  2. Photoshop might be more marketable, and it’s not REEALLY a program you can learn on the fly, but FLASH has so many more uses than the web. Flash is real programing, and a good introduction. You can always help him learn Photoshop or set him up with someone (you have someone “in house,” do you not?). Flash is something you can ONLY learn in a course. I have lots to say on this, but call me. I’ll tell you the opinion of a TW friend who knows both.

  3. If he’s going into web design he’ll need both. He should take whatever he knows less, or whatever costs more in the private sector

  4. Photoshop. Hands down. As someone who has been working with web sites since 1994 (the first popular web browser in the US was developed at the University where I work), I have to say I use Photoshop all the time. I would agree he’ll need to know both, but I predict Flash’s use will disappear long before Photoshop goes away…

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