Free online file conversion

I have often spent a lot of time searching for file conversion sites, for one purpose or another. This site looks as though it might streamline the whole process.

Zamzar free online file conversion.
I came across this today, and although I havn’t yet used it, or had it recommended, I thought I’d do a quick post for my own reference, bookmarking will inevitably get lost amongst all the other semi interesting sites I find on a daily basis. That is another story for a later post.

The site covers image, doc, music and video conversion, you simply upload file and submit e-mail and in theory they post back the converted file. Goooooooodo!!

Sa Coma Mallorca

Have just returned home from a sunny two weeks in Mallorca. It was a nice break and all involved had a great time, especially the kids.

We had a car for a few days to get out and explore the island a little away from the tourist resorts.
Below is a couple of pics from around Palma, Mallorca.

Check Mini album here

Google Personalized Homepage

I have read a few blogs and articles today about googles new personalized style. I was quite surprised at some of the reactions and comments I read. Not all in favour that is. Each to their own i guess, I for one really like it. I get the same functionality as before, the classic google search box usually the starting point of any browse session. Prior to the change I would hit msn and check my hotmail account, read delete etc, then check blog for spam with the ever decreasing hope that someone out there might have posted a real comment. One day at a time the gurus tell us.

I would log into adsense, followed by Analytics, logging in with different passwords, now everything is in the one place it helps keep things organised. Initially I could’t find a way to add url’s onto the home page, but after looking through the tools section of the ‘add stuff ‘ i found bookmarks.

You just paste your desired links into the little pop up box. The layout is modular, so you can delete, or move them around to display the page to your requirements. There are literally hundreds of these add ons You can also add extra tabs allowing futher categorisation. A few fifferent themes to choose from, and I’m sure loads more to investigate. So what do you think, any other features i should know about?

In twelve months

Hamish, Rachel and family are off today, to begin a world tour. Very exciting stuff, looking forward to seeing the pics and hearing about their adventures.

A few words from Rachel

Our loose itinery at the moment is States..overlanding through mexico..into Hondurs central America…across the states ..from LA to cook islands then New zealand..both Islands..austrailia..brisbane melbourne and lots of overlanding…singapore..poss malaysia..then India before returning. There is apossibility of fitting Canada in..but looking unlikely at the moment. We must be slightly mad! but very excited too.

If you are interested in their progress, you can catch up with them through their blog.

OMFG I am a train spotter

As I write this my partner Jodi is whizzing cross country from Liverpool to London on the Virgin Pendolino tilting train.

She is speaking at a conference tomorrow, and during our text chat I asked what train she was on, so I could get a picture and shoot it back to her.
Geek

Nice pic, she then asked me if there was any stats. Geek

The technology of the day has turned me into a cyber trainspotter and I love it. I now know for example that the pendolino has a top speed of 135mph up from 125mph after track upgrades in 2005. It has seating for 439 passengers, but averages 224 per train, and emits 76% less CO2 than same journey by car or plane. This stat comes from a study by ECCM Ltd based on flights between London, Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool. Are we to assume from this that cars produce the same emissions as planes.

Re-calculate your carbon footprint and re-book your overseas holidays..

Note: If you had wondered what OMFG is an abbreviation for, here is the long winded version to clarify.

Obscurus Mesozoic Fenestrosaurus Gizzard

I have been reading an article on the sitepoint forums

The article concerning traffic, or indeed the lack of to the authors website. I am in a similar situation, looking to my stats daily and seeing no page impressions.

Time to go PROACTIVE

Quality content is a must, that’s a given. I know I personally am not gonna stick around if the subject is uninteresting, or it is regurgatated old news.

That being said, I have been paranoid at the mere possibility that someone might actually read any of this, which to be fair can often stifle the creative process. Continue reading ..

Just a shot from the back door

Nice little on-line application

I came across this today

At first I didn’t think there was anything revolutionary about it, but when I read the comments asociated with the post that brought me to it, I realised it’s potential.

On-Line photo editing suite

It’s free, very easy to use and a fast method for those often time consuming tweaks we have to perform on graphics to make them more aesthetically pleasing.

Beta Version

It’s new, and we are in test mode, and all features are currently available. looks like some of these will be lost when the full package is released. Never-the-less, the functions that look like remaining are worth consideration in there own right.

Rounded corners

I for one love this kind of app, just makes the job easy,

Add Border

Inner and outer borders, very nice feature, comes with hex. colour input, so there is no messing trying to match shades.

Loads of other more standard stuff

Crop, resize, sepia, black and white etc.

I think it’s main potential lies in the situation that occurs when a site for a client has been designed, and you the designer hand over the reins.

The site as your project, you have become immersed in, and know intimately is out there.

Don’t break the layout

Thus far I havn’t faced this scenario, but I imagine the situation is likely to occur when a graphic is uploaded to a site that exceeds the containg div’s dimensions, things will burst, folks will not be happy your design did not automatically compensate.

To the future and beyond my kindred.

Just reading through a few e-mail news/web dev articles, when I came across this post on SitePoint Forums.

I decided to post this link just for the fun of it, some interesting comments along the way.Enjoy:

Trials and tribulations

Read part 1 and part 2

With the recent upgrade release of wordpress, version. 2.1.1, a security hole has been found. Continue reading ..