Recently in web/tech Category

Something I wish I had done earlier on in my programming career . . .

Or, perhaps it's more a function of the library in the city I happen to live, is that the library will often order books that you recommend. When a book comes out, related to something new that I've been hearing about in the field of web development or programming, I recommend it to the library for them to purchase and check out. They've never turned down one of my requests, but there's a caveat:

Sometimes actually getting the book into my hands can take a while. It's great that I can request books ( as well as DVDs and other materials ), but the book I most recently requested, Practical Django Projects, has really taken a great deal of time. I requested it clear back in June. I just noticed today, ( as I can check my account with the library via the web ) that the book was finally checked out to me. The funny thing is that the library actually received the book and had a status of "Newly Acquired" a few weeks after I requested it. So, it actually sat in limbo for almost three months. Just two weeks ago I finally saw the status change to "In Processing" meaning that they were preparing it for checkout.

While this method is less costly in terms of money than going out and buying technical books, the opportunity cost can be quite expensive. However, I guess at the end of the day you have to decide which is more important. Do you want to buy technical books that you may or may not end up using for a while and then transfer to the shelf never to be used again, or can you put off certain things you want to read more about?

I started using Django about six months ago and I really like the framework. While the online documentation is pretty good I've been looking for some pratical examples that can help me expand and try out some more advanced techniques. The reviews have been a bit mixed on the book, but I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. Sometimes, when the reviews are mixed on books like these, it's better to try before you buy. I've sunk a bunch of dough into tech books that sometimes I wish I had back in my pocket.

I've often wondered if this specific case would ever eventually come up. Consider, for a moment, that you are a user at some kind of social content website like YouTube, Flickr or some other. You faithfully upload content that you produce. Somehow or another, the website figures out a way to make money.

Shouldn't you share in that success? Somehow? Someway?

One of the users at YouTube, who applied to YouTube's partner program but was denied, is not exceptionally happy about the outcome. Apparently he has some videos on YouTube and they get pretty good traffic. Ever since YouTube decided to share some of the ad revenue with popular, traffic-generating users, it is possible that people can start getting something back for being a contributing member - if you're selected to be one of the "partners."

Since he was denied a partnership, he is suing Google ( since they purchased YouTube ) and believes he is entitled to some sort of compensation.

I see two sides to this:

First off, social sites like YouTube and Flickr ( to name just a couple ), I believe should give something back. Google paid 1.5 BILLION dollars. They didn't just buy the software and hardware, they bought YouTube for it's popularity. The members of the site ( through their contributions of content ) made the site as popular as it is. Of course, figuring out exactly how the members should be compensated is yet another matter even though using traffic to particular viewings of a specific video is a good place to start.

On the other hand: The people that built YouTube had the foresight and the know-how to build the software, make it scale and promote it in order for it to be as successful as it is. It isn't as if there are no other options to upload and view video on the web.

Either way, it should be an interesting case that ultimately could change the social content sites that we know now.

Adobe released Photoshop Express to the masses - online as a beta web service. I wandered over there and took a look at it. It has its ups and downs, but for the most part I think it's a pretty good offering. Some initial critiques suggest that it's a pretty decent offering.

You're going to need an email account to sign up. After you've validated the email account you can start working with the service. The first thing I did was upload a picture that I took of the tree in my front yard on a rainy day.


It's your standard picture.

After you've uploaded your picture to your library, you can select from a variety of actions to take with your uploaded image.



I chose to edit the image and use a number of the available edits. Here's a screenshot of the editing screen using the autocorrect feature.



By hovering over the smaller boxes located at the top of the workspace, you can instantly see the effect applied to your image. All told I applied autocorrect, exposure, pop color, and sketch effects to my photo. In the end, this is what I ended up with:



Not bad, as far as I'm concerned. Once you're done, you can email it, embed it, or download it, to name a few options. I chose to download it to my laptop.

Overall, I think this service is a pretty good deal to the average user. It's very simple to use, available wherever there is a connection to the Internet ( I used the wi-fi connection at my local library ) and, of course you can't beat the fact that it is FREE. This is great for those unwilling to shell out $100 - $800 for software belonging to the Photoshop family.

On the downside ( I gotta be fair ) you may only use JPEG images with Photoshop Express. That is a bit of a limitation, but most consumers will upload images taken using their digital cameras, so that shouldn't be a huge problem.

Photoshop Express allows you 2 GB of storage space. I imagine that it won't be long before people will exhaust that allocation. I expect that after a period of time a premium account option will be rolled out so that people will be able to purchase accounts with more storage space and perhaps, other types of effects.