Automated Web Albums

A friend showed me yesterday that Photoshop has the ability to create a photo album for the web. I decided to play with it this morning. I discovered that it does pretty much the same thing that Picasa does when you export to an HTML page, but with a few more options and the ability to create a Flash-based album too. I won't provide any instructions here (that would be for the other blog), but only links. The Flash site is so far the prettiest, but I don't think there are enough options. The HTML site from Photoshop is pretty good, but there could always be better templates. The Picasa web album leaves too much to be desired - UX being the biggest piece. Not very pretty or dynamic.

Anyway, it's time to do some real work.

It Was Over a Long Time Ago

I forgot to tell you that my Windows 7 Beta box crashed over a month ago. It wasn't Windows 7, though - the hard drive was one that I'd bought back in '01. Maybe before that. The old Seagate 40GB EIDE just couldn't hang any longer.

I have tried to restore the machine to a new drive via a backup from the Windows Home Server, but the backups weren't available for some reason. I have not had the time or inclination to try again, and I simply don't want a computer in my bedroom any longer. I enjoyed the time I spent with Windows 7, and it looks to be a good change for Microsoft.

In contrast, I thought of something the other day: I have been scouting computers for years, even though I have so many. Since I got this MacBook a year ago, I can't remember the last time I tried to plan out buying another computer. It just doesn't happen anymore. I believe that deep down inside, I am content with my current computer. The only things I research anymore are servers. I want to build a distributed system for cluster computing. I haven't shopped for a Windows Laptop (or any laptop, for that matter) for a long time, and I believe my next trip to get another computer will be a short one. The MacBook Pro will do.

SLAM Fun-Fly

If you've ever wanted to see someone knock a plastic bottle off of a traffic cone with the tail of a radio-controlled airplane, here's a video of it. Warning: >29MB. Please right-click and download as you'll likely encounter problems trying to stream it.

We had a great time at the first-ever SLAM Fun-Fly on April 4. Visit South Land Aero Modelers at slamrc.com.