Saturday, September 10, 2011

And since I couldn't figure out how to upload two pics at once...

IMG00327-20110910-1456 by decgem
IMG00327-20110910-1456, a photo by decgem on Flickr.
...here's my li'l bookshelf in the library :-D I'd move my stuff over to the Third Man's shelf, but there's no telling when he'll be back to claim it.

Visit my photostream!  http://www.flickr.com/photos/67409505@N06/

I've always been pretty solidly a Facebook photo album sort of guy, but I'm liking some of the features on Flikr--especially the ability to map where your photos were taken.  I love mapping, and I love linking my experiences to my travels!  So maybe I'll be wasting a lot more of my precious studying time sloooowly adding all pics to this.  We'll see.

EDITED TO ADD, post readings, with a little more depth----

I've been tinkering around with flikr and some of the other web things, and one thing I think they don't succeed at is simplicity of use, as Krug defines it.  Granted, his bar is pretty low--simplicity means "so easy I don't really need to be sentient to operate the thing"--but even so, the complications of the the flikr interface, in particular, seem a bit much.  And I'm a guy who's reading this text of ours and thinking, "I get your point, but I don't like the lowest-common-denominator subtext, and I actually enjoy puzzling out how things work, so you're not really speaking to me."  So for me to be a bit nonplussed by the thing is saying something.  I mean, it's cool; there are a lot of features.  Tagging.  Geo tagging. Albums.  Yadda yadda yadda.  But i think it's too much.  And it's all on different pages, and all the pages look slightly different, as though it's several different utilities that have been linked together.  Coming off of the extremely slick Facebook albums experience, Flikr is overcrowded.  And yeah, I don't think Krug would approve--but streamline it just a little, smooth out the rougher edges, and I think I'd be happier.

4 comments:

  1. It's interesting that some of the other students' posts about Flickr mentioned the mapping feature as well - but were skeptical about its uses. Privacy concerns are legitimate and I can see both sides of the argument. Personally, I have utilized both the geo-tags (usually when the pictures are travel-related) and tagless photos (mostly when photos are taken in people's homes).

    An interesting technology related to both photos and geo-tagging is the new Eye-Fi storage cards for digital cameras. The cards automatically tag the photos and then they connect to wi-fi networks to automatically upload your pictures to photo sharing sites right from your camera, placing them on the site's maps. This is a great way to keep point-and-shoots competitive with smart phones that can also wirelessly send photos to sites.

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  2. Eye-Fi sounds like a worthwhile tech upgrade. Part of me loves slogging through the upload of all my photos, but part of me dreads it, so I'd welcome the automation.

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  3. I was experiencing the same slow-as molasses upload time in Flickr. I decided to install the Flickr uploader for Mac (they have a pc version) which allowed me to upload many photos at once at a far more acceptable speed. Another nice feature of the uploader is that you can add your tags, titles, and descriptions before uploading so they arrive in Flickr ready to be sorted!

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  4. Alex, I see you have a copy of Stephen R. Donaldson's latest book. In my Flickr blog I actually posted a picture of one of his books that I have signed. He is my favorite author.

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