The first time I heard of GIMP was in the year 2000 when I was in a web development company and one of our casual conversations shifted to alternatives to Photoshop which is a powerful but rather expensive tool. It is good to know that GIMP is still going strong!

GIMP stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It was developed under X11 on a UNIX platform, but it is also able to run on Windows and Macs. I have not personally used it myself, since it has always become a rather fortunate circumstance that I always have Photoshop made available in my line of work, but GIMP is surely something I will like to tinker on when the opportunity (or the need, whichever comes first) arises.

It has tools for painting, image manipulation, even animation! It also supports a wide range of file formats including - surprise! - PSD. This is certainly something to consider when you need a graphics program but on a tight (or no) budget.

I stumbled upon this internet service a couple of years ago, and we did a birthday poster for my boss. When my son's birthday turned up and my wife asked me to make a poster for him, I thought immediately about this free service.

What it does is, your photo becomes a series of dots (the size of which you can also dictate). So you simply upload you photo, follow the instructions, and then you get to choose the paper size and the size of the poster depending on how many papers the poster will span. You will then be given a PDF file of the pages which you can then print and connect together. Really simple and awesome!


Rasterbator

Ever noticed that some sites would display a nifty icon beside its name on the browser's url field? These 16x16 pixel images are called favicons. You can make one for yourself, but you need to have administrator access on your site because you have to upload the icon file onto the root of your site (where the index.html is located, for example).

One easy way to create your favicon is through the use of Photoshop. IF you already have this application, that is. It does not natively support the .ico file format but you can get a free plugin that will enable this. Download this from PhotoshopSupport.com. The instructions are very straightforward. Soon your site will sport its very own favicon!

Now, I wonder if I can do this on my Blogger blogs...

Yahoo! has announced that they will be closing down Geocities later this year. I have fond memories of the free hosting service. When it opened its doors in the mid-90s, it became my testbed for starting out my html skills. Who knew that years later it will come in handy as an important skill?

It is sad to see Geocities go but I guess its time has finally come. The advent of more interactive sites such as online communities and blogging has eclipsed free hosting services.

So what will I do with our Voltes V website? Transfer it someplace else. And Webrings has just given me a nice alternative. I received an email from them with the following information:

Last month we wrote to all active members with a registered Geocities URL because Yahoo! is planning on closing Geocities down soon.

Now we are expanding this appeal to ALL users in an effort to reach as many people as possible, whether they have a Geocities website or not. Even whether they are WebRing members or not.

Thanks to our recently launched Webspace, you can have your website hosted on WebRing. WebRing webspaces are completely free for all WebRing members! You can read about how to move your site to your Webspace at http://www.webring.com/h/geomove.

To date we've replicated over 2000 sites, mainly from Geocities, but also sites from Angelfire, Tripod, Fortunecity and several others. If you're one of the 2000+, THANK YOU, and now go tell someone how easy it has been!

Here is our challenge to you: Help us spread the word to ANYONE you have contact with and tell them about our offer. This is not limited to Geocities members. We encourage anyone with a "free" site - especially Angelfire and Tripod because of their instrusive ads - to consider WebRing's new Webspace. It's FREE, and it's ad free for anyone who creates a webspace or asks us to help replicate from another service.

Email your friends, post in blogs, add a link to your website, go door to door (just kidding).

Why switch? For starters, Geocities and Lycos are closing down. More importantly than that, WebRing has numerous advantages over other services:

* We've been around for 15 years.
* We're not placing ads on your pages.
* WebRing has a member directory, so your site can gain visibility there. We have plans to expand our directory as well.
* Most important - you gain exposure through the tens of thousands of WebRing communities that have been driving traffic to sites since before most of these services existed.

Our Offer: Would you like our help in replicating your site(s) to your WebRing Webspace? Simply reply to this email and say "Yes, please transfer my site." We'll attempt to automatically replicate your site. In most cases this works well.

You can read about the transfer process here:
http://www.webring.com/h/geomove
and here:
http://www.webring.com/h/nl_0906

If you want to transfer your site files on your own, you can access your personal storage (when logged in) at: (url for my eyes only)


Who should not transfer? If you have your website hosted on your own domain then we recommend you keep it there. If you run cgi-scripts, or have your site hosted on a non-free service that you're happy with then stick with them.

Sincerely,
WebRing Member Services
membership@webring.com

Still skeptical?

If you think it's going to take too much work to move over your site, we invite you to read a WebRing member's personal account:

http://pg.webring.com/cgi-bin/members/blog.cgi?userid=9970254786008&targetdate=2009_4_22&monthyear=Apr_2009 - "How WebRing Saved My Butt and My Website"

Suddenly, my iPhone just got a whole lot older.

Apple has released the latest version, the iPhone 3G S. Touted as being at least twice as fast, with 32G memory, 3MP camera, now with video (including video editing on the phone itself!), voice control, and a new 3.0 OS.

I skimmed through the videos available on the Apple website and the Apps advertised are simply amazing. It now supports MMS and has cut-copy-paste ability.

Other features which are great improvements are the landscape keyboard, spotlight search (something I used regularly on the Mac), and voice memos. It truly is a phone that I would love to have.

The iPhone 3G S will be available in the US on June 19 for $199 (SRP) for the 16GB model and just $299 (SRP) for the 32GB model in both Apple and AT&T, Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores.

Microsoft unveiled a new service last May 28. I heard about it from a friend last weekend, and he said he was going to give it a whirl when it's launched. He was all excited about it, and so I decided to take a look myself.

Microsoft has launched Bing.com, a Decision Engine. They call it a Decision Engine because it is designed to help you... um... decide. Touted as more than just a search engine, this service is designed to focus initially on four vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition, and finding a local business. In essence it will more than just provide you search engine results, but it will also intuitively go beyond giving internet facts by, for example, displaying the best rates possible for a hotel booking, or help you decide when and where you can get the cheapest plane fare.

Bing.com's interface is simple enough; it reminded me of Ask.com, actually. And there was no apparent link to what it was all about, and so I had to Google about it. Hmm... the Bing Travel sounds intriguing, though. Will check that out.

I can't get enough of this video, and I would like to share it with you. A feel-good video to make your day!



A description of the video reads:

More than 200 dancers were performing their version of "Do Re Mi", in the Central Station of Antwerp. with just 2 rehearsals they created this amazing stunt! Those 4 fantastic minutes started the 23 of march 2009, 08:00 AM. It is a promotion stunt for a Belgian television program, where they are looking for someone to play the leading role, in the musical of "The Sound of Music".