My Problems:

• Huge volume of photos on my computers and other devices that made it difficult for me to appreciate the photos I have previously taken.
• I do not find external USB drives reliable for long term storage and tend to keep multiple copies of the same set of photos on at least 2 different drives (on top of what I already have on my PC).
• I am looking to free up 20-30GB of photo storage on my PC to work on other stuff.

Drivers for finding online photo storage:

• I find myself getting out of touch with the online tools over the past 3 years while concentrating on my work.
• Facebook disabling my account without evidence of me violating their terms of services made me lose all my photos tagged of me overnight. This made me re-think about whether photos
• I was looking for a way to synchronize media from multiple devices (mobile devices, PCs from different sources, web pictures) onto the same storage platform,

Considerations:

• Credibility of long term backup storage, ie do I think the company’s business model is feasible for it to survive?
• Ability to mass download/export the photos on my local drive when needed.
• Security and Privacy with fine-grained gallery/photo based access control
• Decent navigation and good user interface capabilities.

Smugmug
I actually wanted to get a SmugMug account back in 2008, but I just graduated and did not want to commit to a monthly expense that can take potentially up to infinity. I’m also not a professional photographer, and I’m not sure how much I will be using Smugmug.

Smugmug Pros:

• -Fine-grained access control that allows users to password protect their galleries and specific photos. People who are invited to view your photos need not register an account with Smugmug.
• Beautiful organization of photos with different themes for the display of photos.
• Single application provider which provides iOS applications themselves, and their willingness to open up their APIs provides for a lot of third party tools to be created.
• It does not compress your photos upon upload, but retains the full resolution of the photo.

Smugmug Cons:

• It’s relatively expensive compared to Picasa (difference of US$20-US$35 a year for basic users with less than 20GB photo storage).
• Their iPad application seems to be a little unstable. I can’t pin-point it exactly, but it seems to keep crashing on me when I use it.

Picasa 3.8  (as of Sep 2011)

Picasa Pros

• It’s cheap, and operates on a pay-as-you go basis. This means that light users will not be penalized for what other users are using.
• It helps that photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes will not count towards your free storage.
• It is functional and the photos are relatively well-organized with minimal frills.
• It has some good third party iPad applications.

Picasa Cons:

• Lack of fine grained access control for individual albums and users.
• Privileged users has to register a Google account just to view photos (not everyone has a Google account)
• It is not optimized for a single source of backup despite what it mentions.
• The web sync is a uni-directional sync. Users who are not careful might end up losing their photos for good if they delete the photos on their local drives, thinking that their web copy will stay intact. It’s not very nice to know that Google is unlikely to restore photos that you have removed from Picasa Web Album.
• I am not convinced about Google’s roadmap and direction for Picasa web albums since they are too highly diversified. It didn’t help that the roadmap I see so far is only on the Picasa web client.

My decision:

While I’m really attracted to the pricing of Google Picasa, and finds that Picasa has its technical merits – it does not help that I’m not confident in data privacy when it comes to storing my data with them.

Because of Picasa’s lack of fine-grained access control for photo viewing/sharing, and that I do not think it functions well as a single online photo backup solution – I have decided to go ahead with SmugMug. I’m uploading my photos to test out their trial account now, and will probably purchase the application once the 14 days trial is over.

Some use the words carpet and rug interchangeably. Historically, however, some have distinguished between carpet and rug based on size (the former being larger) or use (carpets on floors, rugs on beds or on the hearth).

Anyway for the purpose of this blog entry, take it that carpets are similar to rugs. The store I’ve chanced across is named Superior Rugs . Their collection of rugs ranges from silk rugs, traditional wool rugs, contemporary wool rugs in various shapes such as rectangular, round and runner area. They are currently (as of the time of writing) having a free delivery promotion for all deliveries within the United States of America. Their normal delivery charges ranges from $35-$80. Apparently they have a refund policy which ensures that their customers receive non-defective rugs. Restocking fees still apply though.

Check out a picture of their silk rug!

Silk Rugs

In addition to being part of your flooring, these silk rugs can also be used for wall tapestries. The rug you eventually choose can change the mood and/or atmosphere of the room. Some rules of thumbs for choosing rugs as quoted from their guide on how to shop for rugs. A light colored rug will help to make a room more spacious. In contrast, a rug with strong colors are likely to be the focal point for a room. You can complement a room with a bold rug with furniture that have weak colors and patterns.

Wool Rugs are more common and they are in general cheaper than their silk rugs collection. Wool Rugs are known to be water/fire-resistant, and their natural elasticity allows wool rugs to preserve their springy pile even after a long period of time. It also resists static (good for those who have electrical cables all over their apartments) and is easier to maintain. You can check out one of their wool designs here below.

Check out their gallery of rugs , and see if you are interested in any of them!

An incredible alarm clock that will never ever cross my mind. It’s wi-fi enabled, and is linked to your online banking account. Every time you hit the snooze button, it will donate a sum of money to charity. It’s actually a pretty good idea for you to set a specific amount to donate to charity. I think it should be more well received if this clock allows you to set a maximum limit per month that you would want to donate to charity. Check it out and I will appreciate it if you could share your experience with the alarm clock with me.

But the designs of the card were pretty interesting also. Check this out:

And this

The designs in the site ranged from Bold and Modern , classic and traditional or simply Casual .

The store ships the cards internationally, but they are not cheap. You might want to consider an alternate way of sending wedding invitation. A friend of mine is in the business of setting up wedding websites for couples about to get married. You can check out some of the samples here and here . Let me know if you are interested in setting up a website with your beloved!