online tool apps-1

A couple of online tool apps I came across, have used and recommend, starting with the latest, which I am posting for easy access when sometimes I have to use other people’s computers:

•  Filedropper.com quite possbily the biggest free file upload allotment service available at a whopping 5gb limit. The site was created on 19 March 2008 and is based in the US. Very simple interface with very simple terms and conditions. However, there is no status bar/indication and uploading takes some time.

Another 5gb site is esnips.com which has added a social networking feature.

A frequently-used file upload service is yousendit.com (1 Gb limit for free use) and megashares.com (1.5 Gb), both with status bar/upload indicators. Megashares.com has a password-protection capability. Both are highly recommended free file-sharing sites that do not require registration.

• Zamzar.com, the site we use for converting received .docx files (this happens when the sender creates a document in Word 2007 and the recipient has a lower version). It converts other files, too: images, videos, audio and zip or compressed files.
• Vixy.net, an online FLV to mpeg4 converter
  
• VectorMagic.com, converts bitmap files to vector files
• Wobzip.com, an online file unzipper still in developing and testing stage. Useful for unzipping files you might suspect may be malicious of coming or transmitted from from an unsecure source as public internet cafes or infected computers.
• Htm2pdf.com, a UK-based pdf converter. The title couldn’t be any simpler.
• Lipsum.com and Malevole Text Generator, two very useful, simple copyfitting sites.
• A working Tagalog dictionary which has been online for sometime hosted by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Northern Illinois University. The dictionary service is available in three (3) types. The site says:

“Our Tagalog Online Dictionary’s basic contents were based on Dr. Teresita V. Ramos’ Tagalog Dictionary published by the University of Hawaii Press, 1971, but we made major modifications on the style and structure of the entries. The Tagalog root words are the main entries in the dictionary, with the English definition and active/passive forms of Tagalog verbs provided. Synonyms and variations of the Tagalog terms are also provided (under L2 definition), along with the language origin (entered under Notes) of the words — e.g., Spanish, Malay, Chinese, Sanskrit.”

the default header image

I like this theme’s default header image for now. I pretty much have the same kind of books: old, worn out, mostly acquired from used bric-a-brac shops and other such serendipitous places.
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I would like to be able to install themes by Derek Punsalan. This guy rocks. From the name alone, one can tell he is Filipino, so that makes me really proud. Derek’s progression as a designer has been consistent, that is, his designs being consistently good and well thought-out. He makes WP worth the choice.

I’ve been watching (mt) MediaTemple for some time, too, and still hope I can use it as host for some project next time (Derek is hosted by (mt) MediaTemple). However, it’s gone mainstream in the sense that the big players like Starbucks and Diesel and a couple of other corporate names are in its list of clients.

When I came upon (mt) MediaTemple sometime in late 2003 (company history says they’ve been a host provider since 1998), it was marketing itself to designers and those with bandwidth-hogging design portfolios as Flash and interactive designers. (mt) MediaTemple boasted — it still does — of ultra-fast dedicated servers (I believe this was the time web hosting services started cropping everywhere, largely due to the demand for more space and falling storage prices), its landing page was so clean it looked like it was a designer’s page, not a webhost. Yeah, those were the internet days not so long ago.

So I guess the fact that (mt) MediaTemple has all these big names in its list is a testimony of its quality of service. I hope they can still cater to designers and artists’ portfolios.

Derek Punsalan | (mt)