NicEdit and Imageshack : does Imageshack keep our images without account? - upload

I'm using NicEdit for uploading pictures. But I have heard that Imageshack doesn't keep images for a long time if we aren't registered. Is that true with Nicedit ?
Thank's !
Alex

Not familiar with NicEdit, but I've seen imageshack images become unavailable after they got hotlinked too much. It's rare though, and I've used imageshack for quite some years with very few problems. Never used an account.
But since they have been adding more restrictions over the past few months (trying to get people to create an account) I found myself using imgur.com more and more. I like it better than imageshack (the interface is easier, can upload multiple images etc). No account there either.
A site I can NOT recommend is tinypic.com. Been using that for a while as well, but images appeared to have randomly changed (i.e. the same link suddenly resulted in a completely different pictre). Happened quite a few times so I never use it anymore.
So, altogether I'd say imageshack is fine, but imgur remains my #1 pick to date.

Related

Background images - even small ones - not displaying on mobile

I've never encountered this one before - my background images are fine on the desktop but completely invisible on mobile. Not even a "bitmappy" version appears, though the space for them is held open, so to speak.
http://www.compassionglobally.org
I've read several similar questions here on StackOverflow but the issue always seems to be the file size (and iOS's enforced limits in that area). But even quite small images - there are four of them down the page - don't show up.
This is a WordPress site, but I feel like that's probably not relevant here... but I guess I should mention that.
Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated!
This is one of the images not showing, right?
http://localhost/compassionglobally.org/wordpress/wp-content/themes/cg/library/images/site/baby.jpg
Well,
The link above is pointed to an image on the computer that is hosting the site (localhost). That file cannot be found on either your phone, or my laptop.
The fact that "the space for them is held open" is irrelevent, as you've set the div to be 250px high and 250px wide.
To solve the problem, you just need to remove the "localhost/" from the start of the links, like this:
http://compassionglobally.org/wordpress/wp-content/themes/cg/library/images/site/baby.jpg
To quote Bill the Cat... ACK!!!
I'm still fairly new to the "best practice" site-building method of local development, then uploading to the server. Thought I'd worked out a good system but of course I neglected to check my CSS for local references!
Thank you, I'm sure I will solve this fairly obvious-in-retrospect problem quickly now.

iOS App Backend Provider

I've recently submitted my iOS Quiz app to Apple but noticed that the file size for the app is pretty big (about 150 MB). Users would need to be connected to wifi in order to download it per Apple's rules. My quiz app is set up so users are given 4 choices and shown an image and must guess the correct answer from the image shown to them. How would I minimize the file size for my app so that it isn't so large? Is there a way I can host the images on a server without losing the functionality of my app? I heard of something like Backend Services but know nothing about it. If anyone can guide me in the right direction that would be awesome, thanks!
You can check out a free back end service like Parse, it could do the trick for you, especially because you dont have a lot (besides images I guess) that'll be on the server side.
This also helped me start with using it.
Good luck :)
I'm assuming you have all the quiz data (questions and images) within your app bundle?
You can shrink it next to nothing if you move all your questions and images to a backend server and serve the questions and images (links) using simple JSON Structure.
You can build your own backend (Java/PHP/etc..) or look into using Parse.
use JPEG images whenever possible. PNGs costs more space. Do not place jpeg to xcassets, since they will be converted to PNGs. If your pictures should be transparent - it is better to use Webp or JPNG format.
You may use CloudKit to host your data in a public database. You won't need any backend knowledge to do that. This tutorial will help you understand the basics. WWDC videos covers some more, i suggest you to look at WWDC 2014, Introducing CloudKit and WWDC 2015, CloudKit Tips and Tricks.

Downloading and displaying big images: possible approaches

I'm developing a game where the main element of gameplay is an image of 2400x1600 pixels. So we are having some discussion about what's the best approach we could follow and confirm that we are not missing anything in order to download the image from the server and get it displayed on the device. So we thought about the different approaches and see what everyone else's thoughts are. I would really appreciate if you can list another approach you can think of. Before getting into the approaches themselves, some things that we need to take for granted:
User experience since gameplay started should be smooth. This made us get rid of one possible approach that was to implement it like Google Maps i.e. downloading tiles from the server as the user pans/zooms the map since there will be for sure some delay until the tile is finally displayed.
Images cannot be shipped within the binary file since they will be updated frequently.
All the tiles of each image weight around 6MB
So possible solutions we see so far:
Download and tiling the images in a background process/task all at once as they get updated. The big loading time here will be the first time the user launches the app. Images don't get updated together neither very frequently - one day minimum.
From the moment the user gets to the screen to select the image to play, start the process of downloading and tiling. User can select between 2 pictures only.
If user is on WiFi, use solution 1. If user is over cellular network then use solution 2.
Thanks in advance.
Use SDWebImage. It provides a ton of features for caching images, downloading in background, and much more.
The NSURLSession class in iOS 7 is well-suited for your needs. It allows for background downloads, resuming and pausing downloads, and is heavily customisable.
Now, I know this is a little vague, so here are some great references to start with :
Apple's NSURLSession Documentation
Mobile.TutsPlus NSURLSession Tutorials

Manage Image Submissions in WordPress

I have a client WordPress website that allows users to upload custom artwork from the front end.
I use TDO Mini Forms to create the submission form, but it doesn't seem to have options for file manipulation on upload. As a result, the images are often very large, sometimes in CMYK, and have various other issues.
I've managed the size issue, to some extent, using WP's media settings, but there are two issues that have vexed me:
It doesn't address the CMYK issue (which admittedly happens very rarely, but still prompts a call from the client).
WP doesn't discard the original image, which creates huge backup files.
Is there an extension out there that better manages submitted images? Even if it involves replacing the submission form (TDO Mini Forms works well, but has been unsupported for some time), I'm looking for any solution that meets this need.
IMO, the gold standard would be a WP equivalent to ExpressionEngine's Safecracker + DevDemon's ChannelImages.
Is there anything out there? I can't be the only one looking for this.
As always, any help is greatly appreciated.
ty
Don't know if it's exactly what you need, but this may help you out:
http://www.verot.net/php_class_upload.htm
It's integrated into this plugin I used some months ago for a client:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/photosmash-galleries/
The solution is a plug-in called Imsanity (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imsanity/).
It still doesn't address the CMYK issue, but it does manage the file sizes, which is the more pressing issue.
It also works retroactively, so if you already have large images on your site, you can bulk resize them.

Do you chat online for work purposes?

I've worked with folks who are chatting online with their peers, constantly batting around ideas. I've also worked with folks who adamantly refuse and think it's a waste of time.
Are online live chatting forums of particular use to you? Why or why not?
Internal to your company, or external and world-wide?
Does your employer encourage or discourage their use?
Update: I see some people are voting this question down, yet so far all the answers have been positive, if with some reservations. If someone has a strong negative opinion (I hate online chatting and think it should be banned etc.) I'd really like to hear why.
If you have telecommuters, not chatting online will be the death of you.
Without chat, there is no interaction.
Without interaction, there is no problem solving.
Without problem solving, the code will suck.
The chatting part does waste a lot of time and I often wish I could just pull them out and just WriteSomeCode, but yeah, trade off scenario.
There's an additional benefit to using online converstations, in that it doesn't /have/ to be an interruption. If your working on something you can ignore them till you're done and they just have to deal with it. In real life you have a talking face to try get rid of. ( And the cool thing here is you can ignore them and they still get heard, have your cake and eat it too! )
I've used IM at the last three places I have worked. Currently the building that I am in is so large that it takes a couple of minutes just to walk to my managers office. Then there are the days that we work from home (1-2 days a week). Email for some purposes just doesn't cut it and the phone can be too disruptive and all encompassing for some tasks.
When I was doing consulting work I would give my IM contact information to my clients. About 25% of them would use it to contact me and I am still in contact with them to this day which opens up the possibility for future work! The clients that used IM felt that they had a better connection with me because they could see when I was online and available to talk.
I'm still in contact with old work colleagues through IM and this allows me quick access to their knowledge base as well.
My suggestions for using IM in the workplace are:
Use a client that supports multiple
protocols (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Jaber,
etc)
Setup and use personal accounts for
each of the networks you are on
(i.e. don't use accounts tied
directly to your work)
Make sure your IM client records a
history of all of your conversations
Always be available but minimize
personal conversations
Provide your IM information freely
to friends, clients, and colleagues
Add appropriate groups (i.e.
friends, family, work) and filters
to reduce undesired interruptions
while still being available if
needed
Don't feel that you have to
respond to every chat request. Let
it set until you are ready to deal
with it
One other trick I use is to use text to speech software so that when a chat message comes in it is read allowed. When I am at home (or preoccupied away from the computer in the office) the message is automatically read allowed (I liken it to a ringing phone call) in order to get my attention. But, I don't have to stop what I am doing in order to know what the message is.
I used to. I found it a great resource to chat with people I used to work with. In our business I find that we tend to network alot and using that collective knowledge is awesome. Of course my company turned that off so they lose.
I know that a certain large Bank hasd an internal AIM setup so that they can IM each other. That was refreshing and dang useful. They also allowed some external access. Talk about getting the value of IM!
Yes, absolutly, I work with most of my employees, and employers via MSN/Yahoo/Skype/.../ it makes the work easier, because I can hire the better people without having to pay them to move to me.
When I need to collaborate with someone in another office, it's great ... when I'm deep in thought, I have to turn it off (just like e-mail).
It depends on the group dynamics and personal preferences. Personally, I have enjoyed my work groups that use chat to feed on each other's ideas and troubleshoot without as much walking around. If you are geography dispersed, its almost a necessity.
I find online chatting invaluable in many cases, but not normally instant messaging. Since I use many open source technologies at work, I tend to join the respective IRC channels, both to ask questions there, and sometimes to help others if I know the answer offhand.
It may depend on the work environment. As a self employed consultant, I'm always in chat - it's my primary communication to the world, along with emails for more official type communications.
Being able to converse with others creates synergy, but it also can cause distractions. A good manager can tell the difference.
At my last workplace, we used IM extensively for collaboration. Not so much at my present workplace. Infact, i have not once had to do that here in 6 months. But i do look around on the net for answers and sometimes i have posted queries on forums too. IM is a nice tool to have, but its also a time sink. Also, dont underestimate the lost focus. Its particularly hard to concentrate on getting that algo implemented right if someones constantly pinging you about how to establish a connection to an oracle database.
I work at home 2 to 3 days a week. I mainly use MSN to stay in touch with my coworkers. It's pretty useful to ask short questions quickly. If we find ourselves typing whole conversations we often agree to continue the conversation by phone.
I use IM to communicate with colleagues in other offices when it replaces a face-to-face chat. I turn off notifications in all my comms apps at work though, because they distract me otherwise.
I telecommute from California to Colorado and never have used chat. We do have daily SCRUM meetings and constant email threads. When I first started working remotely, we did try it but it seemed intrusive to several co-workers so we stopped using it, that was 4 years ago, I probably should give it another try.
It seems I have nothing to really add to what hasn't already been written.
I use it extensively, especially when remote people are involved in development. Without it your real time communication dies. It is the only viable method of communication that isn't as interruptive as phone calls or something of that nature. As we all know we can't just sit on the phone the whole time when developing, so chat is the next best thing for real time communication.
I personally don't like it. I think email allows you to take a little time to compose your thoughts.
IM seems to work for other people though. Whatever works!
Our entire business unit telecommutes. Only us first years are required to be in the office, so our enterprise IM solution is vital to staying in touch and on task. Its how my manager lets me know what project I'm working on, if I need to bill my time to another customer, or if I need to bounce ideas around. So yes, I do. Is it open for anyone to get on? No, not at all. You have to be on the intranet to access the system, and it is closed to any and all outsiders.
Out of the four professional jobs I've had over the past 8 years or so, I've only worked at one place that did not allow any type of instant messaging. All the other companies had at least some type of setup for intranet instant messaging.
I think that IM is almost necessary in today's business environment. I don't IM very much, but it's nice to have it available. Especially when I just need a quick answer to a question - like "Where is this file located?" and then boom I have a link to the file pop up right in front of my face.
I use IRC at work - it's almost a requirement for all of us who interact remotely (workign from home, different offices, and client sites) to be able to get help on problems fast.
Yup. It's actually required here. But only MSN though. We use it for development/task related communications with the team... which also help minimize noise since this company I'm currently working in is a big one where 90% are developers so utter silence is a MUST...
But if I've got questions to other members of the team, I prefer asking it personally though because I find it hard to explain some things when just chatting...
I've had to use it in my last job as my co-workers lived in the UK and my boss worked in California whereas I'm in Atlanta. It was used for quick questions and when it was "whenever you get the chance to respond" type thing. I could be on the phone and an IM pop-up and they would get an automatic message telling them that. Longer discussions were done with web cam and telephone and the ability to share a desktop to view code, data, etc.
My company won't allow it. Even if we run a IM server in house (so we aren't wasting time chatting with friends). I've tried to convince them, I find it really useful for knowing if someone is at their desk or not. The phones don't do that so well since if you don't pick up it redirects to a secretary that will get pissed if you are checking if someone's back every 5 min...
So I run a IM client on my phone so I can at least chat with a few people through out the day. (Less interrupting to others if my wife IMs me vs calls me and also easier to ignore if I need to).

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