Where have you signed up before? And what’s left?

October 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment
usernamecheck-screen If you tend to use the same usernames for most of your social networking site (and it is a good idea), Usernamecheck is a great way to see where you’ve been and what is still unexplored territory. Type in your username and you’ll get back a report of all the 68 sites that Usernamecheck, well, checks and whether or not your username has been taken.  Also good for checking some of the more common usernames like initials or first initial and last name. So far, 146155 usernames have been checked according to their web page. Since the site also links to the dozens of social networking sites, it’s a nice directory for finding new sites that you might find interesting. Give Usernamecheck a try. Here’s my report for my favorite wckdgfy name.  Looks like I have miles to go before I sleep. usernamecheck-screen2
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DrPic: Online Photo Editor That’s Easy on Your System Resources

September 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment
drpic-logoUsing web services rather than desktop applications is great, but their down side is that some have been built using heavy frameworks like Java and Adobe Flash that require your browser to load large amounts memory in order to operate. This can cause slow performance on many computers especially older underpowered ones. DrPic is a free online photo editor that doesn’t require your system to strain.  Besides being light on memory use, it boasts several useful features including multiple-step undos and blurring and sharpening of images.  Give it a try when you want to make a quick fix to a picture and you don’t want to slow down your computer in the process. Use DrPic [Via lifehacker] drpic-screen
Filed Under: Digital Pictures, Technology, Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,

Would you like to create an album from pictures in your email?

September 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment
2pad-logo 2Pad.com, a recently announced photo website, automatically retrieves photos and videos from your web-based email service like Gmail or Yahoo and stores them in a private online gallery. It’s a good idea.  Friends and family email you pictures that are special to them.  You email pictures of your new baby or car.  If you consistently use a web-based email system, it contains plenty of your history. Sign up for a free account with 2Pad and give it your email address and password, they make sure your password is protected, and 2Pad will scan all of your email and copy the photos and videos to a private personal gallery for which you can share photos, if you like, or order prints.  2Pad stores contextual information about your photos like what was in the email message that contained the media.

What I like

It really is great to be able to look at all of your pictures and get a look at some of the older ones of friends and family.

What I don’t like

There are some annoyances on the business side of 2Pad that interferes with the way it operates.  A free account (see chart below) accepts a maximum file size of 100 megabytes.  Now the nice way to act, if you know how, is to reduce the size of your pictures before you email them.  Unfortunately, today’s high megapixel digital cameras create large images and many people don’t reduce the size of their image before emailing so you probably have a goodly number of large photos stored in your email. If you first scan your email with a free account (who wouldn’t?) 2Pad simple ignores the larger photos leaving large time gaps in your generated gallery. No question the answer 2Pad wished you to choose is to upgrade to a paid account.  It might create a better first-impression of the service if all your pictures were there and you just used up your free gigabyte and stopped scanning. My other annoyance is not limited to 2Pad, but 2Pad is also guilty of making you pay what they call a “price per month” on an annual basis (lump sum) when you first sign up rather than a monthly payment.  I understand why they want you to do this, but I have signed for too many “cute” services that I ended up not using after the first month.   2pad-pricing               Sign up for a free account and try out 2Pad 2pad-screen
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Want a free Personal Assistant? Get Sandy

August 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment
sandy-logo.jpg Here's a free online productivity tool that can be very useful and even has a certain "fun" factor. Iwantsandy.com is an online personal assistant. Email your Iwantsandy.com special email address, that is provided to you when you sign-up, using regular natural language requesting reminders of appointments, to do items and things to remember, tell her when you need to know be reminded and she'll send you by email or text message at the appropriate time. Email Remind me to call Mom today at 4pm and your Daily Digest will contain a 4pm entry to "Call Mom". If you need help remembering a weekly staff meeting or putting the Recycling bin out to the street on Mondays, you can make your reminders repeat weekly or monthly. Sandy can remind you of your spouse's birthday. Here's Sandy's cheatsheet of how to write to her and what she can do. Sign up for a free account. sandy-screenshot.jpg
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Try an Online Word Processor from a familiar name

August 21, 2008 By 2 Comments

buzzword-logo.jpgAnyone who reads Enquiring Mimes regularly knows that we think that web applications are the best substitute for old style desktop applications, especially because they're cross-platform, automatically backed-up, and available anywhere you can access the Internet (and in many cases even that restriction is removed by using Google Gears which allows applications like Zoho Writer to be used offline).

 

Today we'll introduce a new online word processor from a well-known and respected name in web and desktop applications, Adobe Buzzword. An open beta was just announced for Buzzword and it will be worth watching as it moves towards production, of course what application ever stops being in beta and moved into "production" on the Internet?

While not yet as powerful as Google Docs or Zoho Writer, Buzzword is clearly the best looking and graphics-friendly of the online word processor applications (which isn't surprising for Adobe, the czars of graphic programs for web design).

In addition to a slick and elegant interface, great graphics handling, Buzzword is designed to allow documents to be shared and developed collaboratively. Documents can be exported in various formats including PDF, Microsoft Word, HTML, Plain Text and the Open Document Format.

Give it a try, if you don't have one, you'll need to sign up for an Adobe ID first.

buzzword-screenshot.jpg

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