Stephen Ross Scott ™

Wired. Geek .Net. Inspirational magazines...

In all my many years of working in the web world, I'd never have had half the success I've had, if I wasn't continually inspired by whats out there on the web. However even I can only look at a screen for so long every day, so one other source of inspiration for me is, in this case, magazines. Three real favourites of mine are;

• 'Wired' magazine which is a veritable melting pot of all things geek, science, tech, pop culture, and a pinch of anything goes, makes this my absolute favourite every month. Always one article [if not more] every month that will literally blow your mind.
  



• 'Geek' is a relative newcomer, with just under a years issues and is improving steadily with each issue. Covering very similar ground to Wired, it's less of the science, and more focus on media and gadgets. Still it manages in a crowded market to stand out and have some excellent editorial content, and seems to cover some very appealing topics.



• '.net' is a magazine I've read since day one, [still called Practical Web Design in Australia & the USA] but several years ago this magazine went through a massive excellent transformation, and became without a doubt the premier, worldwide magazine out there, for anyone involved in developing, designing or just involved in the world of web. With tutorials, in depth articles and some excellent editorial from real web heroes throughout, it's another accessible, inspirational, essential read in simplifying and demystifying the world of web.
  
  So with a bit of shameless self publicity here, I'm throughly chuffed to bits to be appearing in the March 2008 [on sale Feb 8th] edition of .net magazine, in a short feature on reader sites, of which this one, www.stephenrossscott.com will be one.
  
  Pick up a copy of any of the above magazines if you have an interest in the web, I guarantee you you'll get something from one of these excellent, inspirational titles.
  

Labels: Design, Recommended, Simplicity

Five Star Simple Software: #2 Picasa.

I'm a Google fanboy, sure I admit it. Regardless though, this software deserves a major mention.Picasa is a Photo and Movie manager and does so much I just couldn't cover it all here, but it's good enough that even Microsoft & Adobe have tried [in vain] to bring similar offerings to the table, such as Windows Vista's Photo Manager [Make that 'Photo Mangler'-try it, you'll see what I mean] & the utterly pointless, severely hobbled, nagging at every turn, Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. What a spectacular train wreck of software that is.

Both Microsoft & Adobe's efforts are a pale comparison though to Picasa and make managing your media a turgid, complex, enthusiasm zapping experience from start to finish, and will nag you to pay to upgrade the software regularly, or buy photos from their sources online [and normally only in the USA] at most turns. Both are clunky, overly complex and no fun at all.

All praise then to Picasa then which from the word go, is simply, simple. The install is clean and informative enough for all levels, and intuitive enough to find and catalogue your photos & movie media automatically should you let it. From there on in you have support for TIF, JPG, GIF, PSD, MPG, AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV & more. [As if you'll need more]

The usability of it really stands out, and I've met people from 14 to 65 who've all said they love it. And it's the easiest way to share photos with friends and family out there, because aside from the numerous photo touch up tools, slide shows, wallpaper makers, gift cd's, back up facilities and more, the most recent addition to Picasa is what makes it stand out from the crowd.

Free 1Gigabyte Web albums.

Previously even a fairly awkward thing to do for many, even with web skills, and so for most people it was nigh on impossible to get their photos up on the web. With Picasa it's two or three clicks. Literally. Everything else is automated. And before you know it, your photos you want to share are on the web on your own clear, memorable and useful web address such as: http://picasaweb.google.com/yourname

Now try doing this in Microsoft's offerings and your on to an unusable, almost never ending, indecipherable web address. Not friendly at all. [Adobe have no web offering as yet]. Another hidden Picasa gem is to get your friends to add you as a Picasa favourite [one simple click on your Picasa web page] and then every time they add a photo or album you get an email to let you know. All of which is fully editable and controllable. You can even have the option to allow people to download the entire set of your photos' to their Picasa in one click. Now thats sharing. And incredibly simple to do.

I could spend all day on how good this software is, as many of my my friends and family will testify, but if you haven't tried it, get on it, you wont regret it. After all taking photo's is great, but sharing them is half the fun.

Picasa is 100% free, Web Albums have 1Gigabyte of free online storage.

Labels: Photography, Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Welcome to the WOW WTF?

It's been a great year for software, computing and the Internet.

Except however, if your Microsoft.

Amongst many, many things that have not went well for them recently, the item in discussion here is Windows Vista. [In all of its overpriced and many, many flavors] Five years in development, almost the same in billions of dollars spent in research & development, and don't even mention the advertising budget. All for the spectacular damp squib that was the release of Windows Vista.

Sure this isn't breaking news, and plenty of sites exist listing all the many things wrong with this operating system, but being the 'computer guy' for my family and some friends, I've had it with trying to get anything working as it should on Vista. I'm not in the habit of kicking anyone when their down, but I've first hand used this, struggled with it, tried to fix it for others, and literally just sat bewildered as many have, being just utterly gobsmacked at the total mess this is. With glaringly obvious, Grand Canyon sized holes in usability, scalability and common sense. It's frankly had just odd, and very strange choices made in this software, and is overly complex, despite it's supposed simplifying from XP, and it's just a real 'wow' how this ever got released...

Apple of course are loving all this, and their long running PC vs. MAC ads are celebrating it loudly. [Their ads have been so successful have created a whole spoof market of their own such as this Wii Vs PS3 ad.] Apple are not without question either though, with themselves having many dubious tactics and plenty of dubious software, however, they do tend to get the aesthetics and marketing on the money. For many the best choice out there is [and it seems like heaven when] reverting back to Windows XP.

So if you've just bought a new latop or computer and it has Vista installed, be warned, you will experience the 'Wow'. Just not quite the wow you hoped for...Click this posts title to view an Apple Vista ad.

Labels: Gaming, Software, Usability

Five Star Simple Software: #1 Gom Player.

The first of a long promised series of software recommendations, where I'll highlight the picks I've found in my travels and experiences online. As we all seem to get more time poor these days I just don't have time for software unless it sticks core guidelines that tend to be along the lines of;

1. Simplicity, in design, operation & usage.
   
2. Lightweight in file size & processor usage.
3. Just get the job done well
   
4. No sneakiness. So thats no nagging or overtaking your system. [A la' usual suspects Adobe, iTunes/Quicktime & Real Player.] So that means no making useless folders in your 'My Documents' or shares or phoning home.
   
   
   

So up first, the unusually named GOM player. While most people have Windows Media player or Quicktime by default on their platform, why do you need one more? Well, probably because the other two try painfully hard to be the center of attention on your system. Both are large in file size [Quicktime needs a diet for sure], one prompts you to have a license just to listen to your music, or the other hogs your system tray and asks you pay to do anything other than basic features. No thanks.

With those two trying to compete and hog your system whenever they can, it's a breath of fresh air with software that just does as it says on the tin. Being the 'Computer guy' amongst many family and friends, I've throughly road tested this for over a year on many different machines. To date I've heard zero complaints. As the Gom player site says, its free, light and just works. No spyware or ads, and with some excellent features such as intuitively playing the next file in alpha/numerical order such as a tv series your watching, and also finding the codec you need, without you having to all the work.

With an excellent set up process, and enough advanced features there for those that want to get technical with it, it makes it a great all rounder for everyone. It keeps its interface, simple, clean, and effective. Playing MP3,WMA,OGG and most other music formats as well as XviD, DivX, FLV, MP4, H263, MOV [sadly you'll still need Quicktime or Quicktime alternative as its a closed codec to get .MOV's thorugh it] but once done, it truly is one app for the lot. With low CPU usage, skins should you need them, and much more, this is one of those essentials I install on every machine.

Oh yeah, it's also 100% free.

Labels: Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Photos - Great Ocean Rd/Twelve Apostles

On an initial holiday to Australia in Feb 2006, we wanted to check out the famous Twelve Apostles which are located on the Great Ocean Road, just outside Melbourne. Pretty awesome stuff to say the least, and the day trip we took stopped at everywhere you would need to see along the road.

From great surfing communities like the renowned Bells Beach, to Koala sanctuary's, and an insight into some of the historical details on the road and why it was built, and finally on to the remaining of the great monolithic apostles.

Now almost two years later, we'll be heading back for another trip hopefully soon, and if your ever out this way, make sure you add this as must do on your holiday. It isn't called the Great Ocean Road for nothing.
Click this post's title or the link below to view photo's.

Great Ocean Rd - Picasa

Labels: Photography, Travel