Some Photo Sharing Time

 Well here we are again, alive and ready for what's next. And what's next is some photo-sharing exploration. There are quite a few sites out there where you can get creative commons access to about any kind of photo you can imagine. PhotoBucket offers this kind of service.

Nice Chevy Man

Smoke 3 and call me in the morning.

       

  They have tons of photos you can use as you wish and there are several ways you can easily download them.  As you can see from the images here there are many options to choose from, both photographically and technically.  I think their user interface could be a little better, but it's OK.  The copy feature could be better though.  Photobucket places their links in a convenient window and you can copy the HTML or URL there,  and that is convenient.
  The next site I am using is Image Shack.  It allows you to upload your photos to libraries you create and then edit and share them how you want.  They offer Drag and  Drop, but I had way better luck with the file transfer.  It also has features that allow you to post your photos to other places on the internet, of course.              Anyhow, that's my photo that I uploaded to get an account started.  I got it off of the internet a long time ago, I'm not sure where.  Lightning and waterfalls and craggy peaks go well together I think.  And I adjusted the light, among other features, using the tools at Image Shack to bring the rainbow out better.  They offer a wide range of tools for manipulation.  It's just amazing what you can do with these.  Image Shack has a large archive of public domain photos you can use also. The one below is an example of how disturbed some people are.  It made Chris Ball come to mind almost immediately.  They give free space and that's always a good thing.  The URLs and such are easily located and imbedding and linking are a snap.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

   On to the next site, Dropbox.  This one is really cool.  You download a very simple install that puts a file similar to "Downloads" from Control Panel on your computer and then you can just drag and drop files, pictures, videos, whatever you want into it.  I uploaded a short video pretty quickly on a slow connection.  Dropbox then syncs your contents into 2GBs of space they give you on their site along with any other devices of yours you want.   You can access this content from anywhere.  I uploaded some pics of my car, then sent an email to myself with the photo attached.  I copied the URL and brought it here and inserted it.  Not to complicated .  However, when I tried to use the link feature in Dropbox to send a link directly here,  the password protect feature on Dropbox blocked it.  I spent some time trying to work around this, but I couldn't in a reasonable amount of time.  Let me know if any of you did. This seems to be a useful program and is worth some investigation.  It was an easy install and has a very simple website interface.  Still, Drobox is a sharing sight, so simple is to be expected.
   And so I saved the best for last.  Maybe.  I mean, gee, they hook you up with 1TB.  Yes, ONE TERABYTE of space!  That is awfully nice of them, don't you think?  That's unreal.  Good hook though.  And their site is real nice.......
 Let's hold just a few.
 It dawned on me this is a blog.  I've been trying to completely finish these projects and then post them and that makes it seem I'm not doing anything.  So I'm going to post and I'll be back about Flickr.  See ya in a bit.
   











                        

LibreOffice/OpenOffice : A Comparison, with a follow-up on Google Docs/SkyDrive

  Well what a sweet set of suites.  Just think what the business professional (or any professional or anybody for that matter) of yesteryear would think.  Those were the days of scissors, straight edges and scotch tape. And as few mistakes as possible.  Well, those days are gone and here we are with LibreOffice and OpenOffice.
  Actually, this post is mislabeled because these office suites have way, way more in common than not.  In fact, it would be futile to try to list their common traits. There is little difference in their control panels.  I admittedly have limited experience with Office of any brand, so what I notice may be rudimentary.  I'll spot what I can.
  I thought I had found a significant difference with OpenOffice having the sidebar, but I was digging around and found one in Libre in the advanced options.
  Word : I couldn't detect any noticeable differences.  Both handled Word documents very well for my range in experience.  I loaded docs I already had and downloaded a few just to see.  Easy to create new ones.  I do like the way OpenOffice kind of walks through the opening steps.  Good for those not that skillled in these suites.
  Excel : Again, no noticeable difference.  OpenOffice maybe just a hair quicker at loading?  Seemed maybe.  Both programs handled the documents I tested equally well.  Again, easy to create new forms or such.
  PowerPoint : Both have the right stuff for setting up your slide shows or such, and options aplenty.  OpenOffice has the little walk-through, which is nice, but Libre's kicker is the ability to break PDFs back down into templates (It may be possible to somehow do this with the document converter wizard, but I couldn't figure it out).  That is very handy.  So..........
  These office suites are so similar they had to be born from the same mother.  OpenOffice may be better for the novice user, but Libre is more functional, especially because of the PDF conversion.
 

  Now moving on, we'll look at SkyDrive and Google Docs.
  Well, Skydrive is Microsoft, Windows is Microsoft, so...... get it.  They integrate.  And if somethings not right, they're gonna make it right.  There is a conversion factor involved for Google.  HTML, DOCX, etc, are Microsoft stuff, so points go to SkyDrive.  And Skydrive gives you 7GB free storage over Google's 5GB.
  On the other side though, Google has been at it awhile, and their seamless integration is priceless.  The user interface is excellent, and the functionality of Docs is much greater than SkyDrive's.  With it's format download choices and the fact that it is a fully functional office suite, Google Docs is hands down the better application.

An Evernote/Springpad Comparison

  Hey all, so two good notebook apps for Chrome to talk about.  Evernote and Springpad are both good notebook set-ups for anything you want to catalog, though the lay-out for Springpad is much nicer in appearance, but that's because Springpad is a notebook app and Evernote is so much more. Another big difference is the desktop app for Evernote, which allows you to work offline and then sync to online.

  Springpad lets you design a virtual notebook, complete with binder.  You then can add notes, clip photos, websites. anything you can find practically.  You can design as many notebooks as you want, trade notes and content to build your own personal library for all your needs.

  Evernote on the other hand is a much more all purpose tool because of its syncing features and the prior mentioned offline app.  While the notebook feature may not be as pretty as Springpad's, it serves the purpose very well.

  Both apps are very good and available for free in the Chrome App Store.  

Guest Blog

          Hey, hey, I know we all have things we have to do, like assignments, but at least some of the time we get to have fun.  To me, most things IT are fun.  Does that make me a nerd? Maybe.  I don't care.
  So, we were supposed to do some add-ons reviews for Chrome.  Unbelievable what's out there.  Just about anything you can think of to do just about anything you can think of.
  My buddy Scotty wrote up some stuff about a couple and we swapped out.  Here's what he has to say.

                                                       Google Extensions by Scotty Johnson
  So today I'm going to talk about Google Extensions for chrome.  Now I usually use Firefox, but I decided to try out Chrome for class just to see how it is.  I'm going over 4 extensions; a Pandora radio extension, destroy this page, steam, and Evernote clipper.

  Pandora Radio - So this little extension is very simple and quite nice for Pandora, what it does is that it gets rid of the little "Are you still listening" thing Pandora does every so often if you don't wiggle mouse or bash on your keyboard after a while.

  Destroy This Page - So this one is really quite useless, but really to play with.  What it does is let you destroy the web page you're viewing with a hammer or machine, and if you like on twitter you get access to a flame thrower and a stamp.  It works well on a potato so if your computer is older than dirt it should work with only little lag.

  Steam Extension - This one is really useful if you have over a hundred games on steam and lose track of them all very easily.  It highlights all the you already own on the steam store page.  It only works with the browser version of steam and not the application instead of the browser version.

  Evernote Clipper - So what this does is that it lets you work hand and hand with your Evernote account.  Found a cool picture clip it with clipper and it gets sent to your Evernote account.


  Also since this was a guest Blog visit my blog at "thephoenixhub.blogspot .com" and keep this blog as well.