I’ve finally got to grips with my photo collection, which currently stands at around 10,000 images. Of course, I could always delete a lot, but that the number of times I’ve come back with fresh eyes to a photo that I had discarded suggests that might be counter productive.

There are any number of applications that want to manage my “on line” stuff, every camera maker ships you one, and they are all reasonable, but for me Picasa, free from the world domination freaks nice guys at Google at (www.picasa.com) is all I need. (I’m using 2.5 Beta, can send a link if required) It integrates a wealthof basic image management good enough for all but where you need Photoshop and has a few features that set it apart, and makes me recommend it:

• All edits are held apart from the image - you always have the original to revert
• Interface is fast and intuitive, very flexible
• Understands RAW files
• Understands a lot of things like eMail, blogging, printing

But this post isn’t about Picasa, because that is still an online management system and as your collectionbuilds it becomes as unmanageable as anything else. It doesn’t matter how large your storage is, sooner or later it gets overwhelmed.

Enter stage left Thumbs Plus Pro. Not free software (evaluation available) but it does one thing I haven’t found elsewhere: It keeps thumbnails of your offline CDs. It also has a built in webpage wizard that allows you to make up thumbnailed HTML pages. So here is how I do it now:

Let us assume the pictures I want to offline are in a directory C:\LotsOfPics\PiggyPics. I first create a temporary directory called C:\Empty. I use the web page wizard to create HTML pages, and putthe thumbnails in C:\Empty and the images in C:\Empty\Images, setting the option to no resize (image is then copied). This order is important. I then delete the images in PiggyPics, and move the contents of Empty into PiggyPics. This directory is then ready to offline. I then burn to CD and delete from disk. I give all my CDs a consecutive number, preceded by a letter. For example L0001 (for London pictures) would be followed by P0002 (for our piggy pictures). My CD now has several directories, such as PiggyPics. In ThumbsPlus, I then scan the directories and if necessary re-name the CD with an Alias - the CD number.

Job done. I now have a list of CDs (sorted by type) that I can quickly scan. When I find the one I want, it is in a single place.

However, there are those that object to the “not free” part of ThumbsPlus. For you I would offer the best (=most configurable) free HTML thumbnail software. YoPoW is very good, DMIN does some very powerful HTML coding and Easy Thumbnails is probably the most powerful thumbnailer (only), all free.

Do you do anything better? do let me know.

If you have this problem, it is worth downloading and installing the User Profile Hive Cleanup (snappy, huh?) service. This is the Microsoft link (which checks windows authenticity and here is a non-M$ site. May not help, but can’t hurt. Typically, you should see an improvement.

If you do that on your camera, all you need to do is download PC Inspector ffrom here, install and run. Dead easy and free!

If you want to sell a broken laptop as a working one, and not give back the money, make sure you erase the hard drive first This website is the contents of one such drive, edited appropriately.

Then sashay over to the Half Bakery. I’d recommend exploring using the “best” and “random” links. Love it or be nonplussed.

Of course, it is the proverbial mexican on a bicycle, you must remember that old chestnut? Well, if you have an idle five minutes you might like to explore retrievr, a service that lets you sketch in a box and then tries to suggest flickr pictures that match it. You can also give it a picture to search, this is that mexican. Enjoy.

Another quick post - this reverse dictionary can be handy when you want more than a Thesaurus. http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml is the URL.

Not much time to write today, so here is a quick tip for searching the Internet. Do you remember what it was like when you first found Google? How all of a sudden the search results were what you were looking for rather than just pages with the words on? Google is still good, but have you noticed the holes? Sometimes, you want STUFF, and Google just doesn’t deliver. Factbites is the first really useful alternative, I’ve been using it for some time now (since Beta) and it’s a really useful addition to Google. Try it and see.

Here is a good page to show hte differences between Factbites and Google. (Oh yeah, you might also notice that this link uses Unipeak, a free anonymous proxy, but that topic will be the subject of a detailed post another day)

While I’m at it, here are some quick Google tips you may not know:

• You can use Google for currency conversions, try: 25 pounds in dollars
• You can use Google as a calculator, try: 34 * 6.3 / 8.9 =
• You can use Google as a dictionary (”define:” is the command) try: define: blog
• New stuff appears on Google Labs, worth checking from time to time

I remember how much I lusted afer one of these sets as a kid, and the excitement of seeing the pattern develop. This page takes you back to that time. Looking around, there are now several pages with similar code, but this was my first. Enjoy playing, have a look underneath the app for suggestions of settings to use to create different patterns.

Oh no. Feeding Frenzy. My feed is not working. Long term this is not sustainable, it could wreak havoc with my figure. Only thing to do is to move onwards and upwards……

There was a discussion in a Blue Witch post and comments about what you save if you charge your phone in the car, also how much equipment uses on standby.

One of the difficulties is that the rating of equipment doesn’t really tell you how much it is drawing in use. It’s been niggling away at me for a while and while doing an energy audit in the sty, I’ve acquired a AC power meter. The results are interesting, although much as I thought. (I’m basing costs on £0.06p/Kwh electricity costs, costs in pence)

• To charge my Nokia phone: 0.25p
• To leave my Nokia charger on standby 24/7: 3p per annum (max)
• To leave a 14″ Sony TV on standby 24/7: 50p per annum
• To leave an LG 17″ LCD TV on standby 24/7: 400p per annum
• To leave a VCR on standby 24/7: 350p per annum
• To leave a VCR ON 24/7: 2000p per annum
• HiFi & TV on standby 24/7: 600p per annum
• Cost of Doorbell transformer: 50p per annum

So an interesting result. As you can see, you can make meaningful savings by not having some equipment on standby, but others make less difference. Curious.

I’m considering renting out the power meter for relatively low cost, with the proceeds to go to my daughter’s fundraising for a trip. Let me know if you are interested.

Here’s a little starter tech tip - try Opera web browser. Why? It is stormingly fast, it has some really cool features (like cycling between open pages with click/scroll wheel, real easy switching of cookies, java settings etc) so many that I think I would sound like a bore very quickly. It is NOT a replacement for IE (some pages only work in IE) or Firefox (some pages work best in IE or FF), I tend to use all three at the same time. If you ask, I’ll explain more detail.

Another quick tip - NoNags Software. Does exactly what it says on the tin, all software is fully functional freeware or no-nag shareware.

Hello everyone. As I am spectacularly famous, I shall refrain from introducing myself and instead allow you to discover the multitudinous facets of my personality as time passes. I am helped in this venture by my able student and assistant, Ham, who has his own blog. We have been working together for so long, often people find it difficult to telll the two of us apart.

What, then, has brought me to this juncture? The truth is that there are limited platforms where a ein gebildetes Schwein, un cerdo educado, an educated pig, if you will, can be fully appreciated. The blog appears to be the ideal opportunity. As they say, on the Internet, nobody knows if you are a pig.

You may expect this diary to range freely across many different topics. Those closest to my trotters will of course be prominent - food may figure from time to time. I hope you enjoy participating.