Category Archives: web-based apps

cooltools, online, photos, web-based apps

Online photo editor

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I just bought a new computer (Windows Vista) which comes with some very basic photo editing software (I’m also playing with Picasa to see if that will do the resizing and cropping that I want), the rather clunky Windows photo gallery (at least that’s what it’s called in Japanese), so when I read Larry Ferlazzo’s blog entry about FotoFlexer, an online photo-editing app, I quickly clicked on it.

I just played with the demo, and it does all the basic stuff I want to do – resizing, cropping and some simple effects. I’m too cheap to spring for Photoshop which will come with a ton of features I’ll never use.

web-based apps, web2.0

A month-long dive into web-based apps

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Wired News editor and Mac-user Michael Calore used nothing but Google Apps for a month. Here’s his report.

At first, he’s ecstatic, then he starts to see cracks in the system…

The first major stumbling block was Google Talk, the web-based chat client. I could chat with other Gmail users, but I couldn’t connect to my co-workers on AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. Something about the way our proxy servers are configured was blocking Google Talk.

I tried a few hacks that I found online, but they didn’t work. After two days, with a cold feeling of isolation creeping in, I gave up and went back to Adium. Not Google’s problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Problems With Microsoft Office: Google Docs & Spreadsheets threw a wrench into the works, too. Since the rest of my co-workers continued to use Microsoft Office on the desktop, if I wanted to share a spreadsheet or document with them, I would have to export the file to my desktop and mail it.

Well, not if your co-workers used and shared the document in Google Docs. And you can always download a Google Doc as a PDF, Word Doc or RTF file. I don’t see the problem, frankly.

Bye, Bye Drag and Drop: In Gmail especially, the loss was palpable. To attach a file to an e-mail, I’d always just drag it from the desktop onto an open message. But not in the browser — there’s a whole heap of clicking and menu navigation involved.

He obviously needs Lifehackers Greasemonkey Firefox add-on for Gmail.

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blogging, cooltools, edtech, web-based apps

Can’t WriteToMyBlog

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Thru Borderland’s Google Reader feed I discovered WriteToMyBlog It looks cool, and I’m all for web-based applications. Only one problem – I can’t for the life of me get it to work! I always get an error message when I click “Manage posts” or “publish”. Can’t be bothered to write for help.

Update: I take that back. I’ve finally managed to get something posted, after going around and around in some kind of Kafkaesque loop. Plus, for some reason all the <> and () and similar characters were all screwed up which took 5 minutes of just editing. Not sure it’s worth it.

I just added this post: after writing in the edit window, I click “publish”. A new window opens with the editing window still open. The new window is the main WriteToMyBlog window, which shows me which ID I’m logged in under. There’s a bunch of options and buttons, fortunately including the one I want: PUBLISH (why are all the others there? I just GOT here from clicking the PUBLISH button, so take me straight there already). Then I get another funny window which lists the blogs listed under my login ID. I click the one I want and hit PUBLISH NOW. Am I published yet? The editing window is STILL open. Weird.

Now, how do I create a NEW post?

Can’t get Ecto’s trial version to work, either. Oh screw it.

Zoho looks interesting (via the Fischbowl ). I think I’ll drop all this grading and go and explore! On the other hand, maybe later.