DPHOTO: Online Photo Sharing

by Adrienne Wilson on

Sometime long ago when I first discovered the amazing Escape Lab / Route photographic travelouge created by one guy to share his worldwide experiences with friends and family back home, I blogged about it here on Gadling and now I will happily blog about it again. I was blown away by the 3D, 2D, and flat interface of the project. Easy to navigate through and stocked with high quality shots from damn near everywhere I could begin to dream about, I remember feeling jealous. Not from the travels abroad, but from the advanced nature of his online photo album. I wanted one just like or something close.

Thankfully, after what looks like a while in the making, the same dude brings us DPHOTO, an online photo sharing site. I know many of us are already big fans of Flickr and I am by no means trying to start a revolution or move over to DPHOTO, but I promise you it’s worth a look. The high-speed photo uploading of multiple pictures is one of the more impressive features. The album also looks a bit more elegant and sleek than many others I’ve seen. Last night, I set-up an album of my own and was sad to find I exceeded the trial size limit with my shots from across the country, but when more storage space becomes available I’m almost positive it will be the next big deal in online photo sharing.

TV From Everywhere

by Erik Olsen on

The Web is an amazing place. I know, that’s a rather absurd statement of the obvious, if not a completely useless platitude. But that is exactly what came to mine when I saw this site called Medinalia on a random click-stroll around media sites. I’ve seen similar sites to this before (I can’t remember where, though), but the thing I lie about this one is that it seems to be very well organized and nicely designed. Essentially what Medinalia does is allow you to watch television channels from countries and cities all over the world. They are listed alphabetically from (yes, Neil) Albania to Yugoslavia (what, no Zimbabwe channels available?!), and the various programs can be viewed by not just country, but also by type (i.e. Christian, Adult) and language (anyone out there eager to catch a little Papiamentu TV?)

I imagine one could spent a fair amount of time checking this stuff out. The only problem on my end seemed to be buffering. Maybe my connection today is slow, but it took a good long time to get some of these channels to play, and even then the experience was often frustratingly bad quality. But it is still a rather amazing grouping of lots of visual media from around the world and, well, the Web IS an amazing place.

World Factbook Updated

by Adrienne Wilson on

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been in an elevator and the permits were expired by a range of two days to two years. Why I take notice of those rectangular size certificates in lift boxes worldwide isn’t hard to comprehend, for the most part I don’t want to get stuck in one. I don’t fancy the thought of getting trapped somewhere in between my final destination and so it peeves me that those certificates are almost never updated. Anywhoodle, this isn’t a piece about the lack of attention or examination of elevators. Nope, not at all. Not even close. It’s about things that do get updated. Things we can count on and trust like the online World Factbook.

Updated as of July 20, 2006 there are a couple points of interest in this new edition. For example Serbia and Montenegro are both formally and officially recognized as separate Balkan countries. There is a new Appendix G which includes weights and measures. Some country maps introduced in the 2001 edition have been revised and regional maps have been updated to reflect boundary changes and place and name spelling changes. Most of you who use the factbook on a day-to-day basis have probably already been made aware of the new changes and for those who haven’t – now you know.

Travel Writing’s Travails

by Erik Olsen on

For those who have ever entertained dreams of gallivanting off to exotic lands to pen travel guides, hold on just a moment. The travel-guide writing life ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, when you are a guidebook writer, you are more likely to find yourself checking under toilet seats or sniffing mattresses than hanging on the beach or sipping tropical drinks with the locals.  The job is work, not vacation. There was an interesting article about this in a particular paper about which I cannot write. But as a secondary source, I point you to two places. Both of these sites actually do a fine job conveying what life as a travel writer is like. In this site by the travel writer Leif Pettersen, who happens to be in right now, we learn a lot about guide writing in Eastern Europe. Here in this post he coaches you along to help you nurture your skills of asking for free carp…um, I mean crap. 

And then in one of my old stand-bys, I urge you to pay a visit to FriskoDude, aka Carl Parkes, who often ruminates on this very subject. And even if you can’t find a post to your liking (unlikely), you can at least admire his wonderful sense of humor in the photos he posts.

So where do I stand on this topic, you ask? Well, I would love to write a travel guide. I hate the fact that the money is as bad as it is. I think the whole guidebook thing should be a form of profit sharing. But obviously any time there is such high demand for a job, there are going to be talented people willing to do it for next to nothing…if not nothing. That said, if I had many-a-million dollars right now, I might just go out and write a travel guide for fun…smelly mattresses be damned.

Latitudes July

by Erik Olsen on

It’s that time again for us to direct you to one of our favorite online travel magazines: Latitudes.  I think I’ve been pretty consistent for perhaps a year or more in drawing attention to this lavishly photographed, often quirky little travel publication.

Every month they cover places that you don’t often read about in magazines like Travel and Leisure, although they cover some that do make it into the mags as well. This month we’re talking Congo (come on…who ever covers the Congo?!), Antarctica, Bhutan, Barcelona and more.
 
But what I like most about Latitudes, or the Web version at least, is how sumptuous the pages are, and how they introduce fun little flash animations or sound in some of the stories. It’s always a pleasure to read, and more often than not will fill your head with notions of immediate escape.