Christopher Prall

I have recently been going back and forth on using Flickr and Picasa Web Albums.

Inspired by a recent comment left on a photo I shared, I decided to do a comparison between the two, and why I have come to selecting Picasa as my choice of sharing photos online.

In conclusion, the biggest factors that made me go with Picasa is the desktop tool, the value for the price (free), and the ease of use of the site and tool. Though Flickr has a lot of cool online options, I just don't prefer to use/manage photo sharing in that manner.

Posted by Christopher Prall at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the last 2-3 years, I have been a Flickr Pro Account user. I was with them pre-Yahoo purchase and when it was in Beta form. Since then, I have seen the functionality grow and grow to where it is a very versatile online picture sharing application. However, 2 things that sort of has been a draw back for me: 1) I cannot manage my pictures easily offline and share online, and 2) most people don't view your pictures, you just do, so why continuously upload them all online.

Here comes Picasa - Picasa has been around for awhile, but I have just most recently found out that they do websharing now. So, I'm going to give Picasa a try and see how I like it. It seems to have similar functionality as Flickr, but I have just begun playing with it.

Posted by Christopher Prall at 07:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

. . . or at least I think that's what you should call it.

As I am downloading all my music on CDs I have come to a bit of a dilemma on how to categorize the music. Do you I go by genre? Artist? Era? Favorites? Tagging has resolved some of this dilemma as you can identify an article with several tags (Tagging is currently not available on Windows so that doesn't help me); however, there is no structure around it. I think that solution is limited because it looses the tree structure of a filing system or groupings. My solution: Dynamic Directory.

I, the user, would define a tree structure of how I want my folder (tag) directory should be, and through those paths, I could get to the same articles without having duplicate articles.

So, for example, at Level 1, I could have Genre, Era, Band.

Genre could then go: Genre > Band > Song or Genre > Era > Band > Song or Genre > Band, Era > [Band > Song], [Era > Song]

You get the idea. By the tagging of the article and defining my tree structure, I could navigate through my groupings as I see appropriate and still reach articles that should be within those groups (tags), even if they are in multiple groups.

This concept could be applied to any application which requires directory structures.

Addendum:
Actually, now that I think about it, as long as you define the next-to relationship and the Level 1 tags, the directory structure could create itself, rather than you defining the paths. The user could have the flexibility to define multiple next-to relationships on one tag.

Posted by Christopher Prall at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't have a land line phone. I haven't had one in years. I've had the same mobile number since 1999 - it's like my own ID number. I am not tethered by a line in the wall for people to reach me.

The wireless Internet, however, is not as mobile or productive. Mobile wireless Internet has slow upload and download speeds, causing people to be frustrated by the service and inevitably, not being frequently used.

Technology has been focused to change this problem. By the end of 2005, Nortel and LG Electronics hope to be offering High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). The downstream speed is near broadband DSL transmission. Other companies, such as Nokia are also already focusing on this technology.

There is also WiMAX technology which offers much faster larger bandwidth and better upload and download speeds, but it is not entirely mobile yet - it works on a fixed radius and is not scheduled to hit the markets until next year.

I am thoroughly interested to where this will lead - these two technologies seem to be the front runners in this space and will drive each other to become faster and more mobile. What will this mean to the consumer? Free Internet? No more cable or DSL? No more TV through lines? Bye bye Satellite?

Posted by Christopher Prall at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

J$ has passed me The Musical Baton, and I will do my obligatory Internet meme.

Total Volume of Music On My Computer: 4.2GB

The Last CD I Bought: I have no idea. I either enjoy newer music via the radio, but I generally spend most of my music enjoyment in 80's and 90's. Probably the last CD I bought was by Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Song Playing Right Now: Hey Girl by O.A.R.

Five Songs I listen to a Lot: (in no particular order)
1. "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks - Wedding favorite
2. "Money, Money, Money" by ABBA - I'm not ashamed!
3. "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago
4. "Take Me Home Tonight" by Eddie Money
5. "Something Like That" by Tim McGraw

Five people To Whom I'm Passing the Baton:
Man, I don't think I even know 5 bloggers who have not received the Musical Baton.
Woon Yen's Blog
Rich

Posted by Christopher Prall at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

IBM to employees: blog on | News.blog | CNET News.com

Posted by Christopher Prall at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since having my website, I am the 1st hit when googling Christopher Prall. However, if I google just Prall, I am now the 2nd hit. Still far from making it when googling just Christopher.

Posted by Christopher Prall at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

It looks like Google is expanding it's services by providing their own version of Mapquest or Yahoo! Maps. We may be waving Goodbye Mapquest (by Jeremy Zawodny) in the near future. The site is still in Beta form, but from just a few minutes of playing with it, there are some quite cool features:

- Google Maps have much larger maps than other sites
- I think much clearer maps to read
- Can get maps by searching just near an area, as opposed to a specific address or intersection
- You can click at each direction step and a pop up of that specific direction is blown up
- You can drag the US Map and move it around once you have your directions, as opposed to waiting for the constant refreshes like the other map sites

The verdict isn't out, but I like what I've seen so far. I'll need to play with it some more . . .

Posted by Christopher Prall at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

So, Windows XP is not as smart as I had originally thought. I had Anna's digital camera the other night because I had taken pictures of Olivia and I wanted to upload it to Flickr.

The instructions are simple: plug the data cable from the camera into the USB port of your computer. Windows XP will recognize the new device and create a removable drive for the digital camera.

Did not work. However, after speaking the follow IT people at work, they were able to quickly resolve my problem.

Continue reading "Assignment of Mapped Drives" »

Posted by Christopher Prall at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)