Flash Photo Albums

There's countless ways to share photos online. But i'm all about freeware, so today I offer up two options using Flash to display photos.

1. Simpleviewer




2. Expose

They are both easy to use, and Simpleviewer comes with a variety of plugins to make it work with other graphics programs like Picassa, and Photoshop.

Both are free, both use flash to display photos, but in very different ways. I've been looking for a free viewer that could compile everything into a single SWF file. I have yet to find one. But if you have no restrictions on your website about folder structure, etc. Check out either one. Hooray for freeware!

If anyone does find a free single SWF compiler, please let me know!

Easy DWF sharing

Over the years, I've been patiently waiting for Autodesk to take DWF sharing to a higher level. At first, they were gearing DWF to be the PDF replacement. Now they've taken DWF to be more as part of an information/design workflow tool, and not so much as a publishing format. I have to say DWF has come a long way, but sharing DWF with those that don't have a viewer has always been a bit of pain. Yes, you could send them the link to www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer but for some reason, Autodesk insists on making a user fill out a form to download the dwfviewer. (what's the emoticon for annoyed?)

On the plus side for DWF users, Autodesk has been doing the right moves to promote the file format. First, they enhanced the viewer and made it have more features than the free PDF reader. Then they made the enhanced viewer free (Design Review 2008). Now, they give users a way to share DWF on the web to users that don't want to install the viewer. A smart move, because the need is there. Casual users don't want to download a 30MB viewer to view a 10kb file. In the past, I was looking for a way to convert DWF to SWF. Almost everybody uses flash now. But with the power of AJAX, Autodesk has a neat way to share DWF files to non-technical users. This is what autodesk's new service, FREEWHEEL, is all about. Check out the samples from AutoDesk's site.

Photo Challenge

I've been in a photographic rut as of late, and then I came across this. I saw this on the Martha Stewart show of all places. Anyway, it inspired me to attempt a similar project. So if you're stuck in a photo rut, and need something different, try to do some "letter" hunting. It's not as easy at it seems! Remember, look for letters that aren't letters. Think Pareidolia !