Download Free High-Quality Album Artwork for your CD Collection

I stumbled across a relatively new site that offers very high quality (approx. 1000x1000 pixel) downloads of album artwork. Check out www.allcdcovers.com, and thank me later.

Amazon's New MP3 Store: Taking the Beta for a Test Drive

Remember this post I made a few weeks ago? Well my dream is finally coming true.

As of today, the long-awaited release of Amazon.com's MP3 Store is finally here! It promises DRM-free album downloads encoded at 256kbps VBR - but does this service live up to expectations? Lucky for you, I'm already out on the front lines testing it.

Since the service is only in beta, the range of available download-able material is quite low. Nevertheless, I managed to find something I didn't already have: The Best of Blur. (An album I should have bought a long time ago, but hey...)

After you go through usual payment procedures, you must first install a small piece of software titled "Amazon MP3 Downloader". After the software is installed, you can begin downloading digital albums.

Whenever you purchase a digital album, this program will reside in your system tray and quietly download the album you've requested. After it's completed the download, it can automatically add your newly downloaded music & album artwork to your iTunes or Windows Media Player library. Pretty sweet.

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger image)



So sit back and have a cup of...whatever...while your music downloads. Or, work on some graphical achievements in Photoshop CS3, like I do.

The icon in the system tray actively keeps you informed on download status.



So I got my music, dragged it over into my Winamp library, and it plays flawlessly. And I'm as happy as ice cream in July! Well...maybe not because...the ice cream probably wouldn't be happy because...it would be melting. I guess maybe I am as happy as if I were eating ice cream in July, but you know, you get my point...

Final Verdict: The MP3 tracks are pristine quality, the Amazon MP3 Downloader software is hassle-free, download albums start cheap at $8.99, and the album payment / download procedure is nearly as simple as iTunes.

So far, I am one very happy customer. Smart move Amazon, now just keep expanding the download library, and you may convince me uninstall iTunes altogether!

Let's Start Using "CSS Frameworks"

From the almighty Digg comes this very useful and informative article. It details how to set up CSS templates, known as "CSS Frameworks", in order to save time and improve workflow when designing / coding sites from scratch.

CSS Frameworks + CSS Reset: Design From Scratch

Darn, I really should start using these in conjunction with my XHTML templates now!

The new Winamp v5.5 is coming soon. Two words: Highly Recommended!!

Any Winamp fans out there? If so, grab the new Winamp v5.5 beta from here, because I guarantee it will rock your world.

There are so many things to enjoy in this upcoming release. One of the most notable additions is a new skin called "Bento". Instead of Winamp's traditional way of having multiple windows positioned independently, the new "Bento" skin contains all panels in a single streamlined interface. Here's a screen shot, click on the thumb for a full view:




This new skin also contains an integrated web browser for freely surfing the web right in Winamp, an easier way to update MP3 info tags, full-screen visualizations (with better beat detection), and a more detailed now playing section that displays album art.





I haven't tested it yet, but Winamp's portable media player support (especially for ipods) is supposedly improved, and can be used as a replacement for iTunes. When I'll finally get my first MP3 player this Christmas, I'll definitely be putting Winamp's ipod syncing abilities to the test.

Oh sure, v5.5 will be in Beta until October 10th, but that doesn't mean it's not very functional as of now. =)

Spam on MySpace is Rapidly Increasing - Evacuate to Facebook!

I'm sure you don't need to be told about this, but I've found profile spam to be increasing lately on MySpace. And it's getting highly annoying. To the point where I just may delete my MySpace account altogether in coming months.

You know what I'm talking about - those mildly attractive girls that have one picture uploaded, have a copy-and-pasted description which usually contains a link to "CHECK OUT MY SEXY NUDE PICS!!!", or something of the sort. Some of them even have full-page transparent banners, so that no matter where you click on the page, you'll be redirected to some porn or "Sexy Singles" website.

I'm thinking of maybe just using solely Facebook from now on, because that is where the future of online social networking is headed anyways.

Compressing Image Files in Powerpoint Presentations

So I've been working at the Computer Help Desk of my university lately, and I've run across a professor who constantly needs the file sizes of his Powerpoint presentations to be compressed.

Now, we're talking presentation file sizes in the range of 100 - 300 mb! I was shocked when I first saw this, because I didn't even know it was possible to make a Powerpoint that large. The main culprit of the ginormous file size? The images contained within the presentation.

Fortunately, I was able to help him. I decided to post the solution online here as well, for others who may face similar problems.

You see, he had been dragging and dropping Bitmap (.BMP) images from his scanner and digital camera directly into Powerpoint. Those raw, uncompressed files were embedded in the presentation, and taking up a great amount of space. When working with Powerpoint, doing this is very inefficient, and can slow Powerpoint down to a crawl when working on slides with the huge images.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to compress these existing images using Powerpoint itself. Note, this does NOT require any third party software to accomplish. The necessary tools are already present in Powerpoint. AFAIK, this can be done in Powerpoint 2003 and Powerpoint 2007, but I'm not sure about previous versions.

Look for any image(s) you suspect may be large in file size. If you imported some images directly from a scanner or digital camera, go for those images first, because they are more likely the ones causing the problem. Images gathered from the web (clipart, things found on Google Images) are not usually that large in size, so those wouldn't be a problem.


Now, let's right-click on the image and go to Save As Picture. Save the file in any location you want, as long as you can find it later. The file we save here will not be needed after we finish working in Powerpoint, so go ahead and save in a location you can remember. When saving, ensure the file type "JPEG" is selected in the dropdown box. Powerpoint will then save the file as a highly compressed JPEG, getting rid of any excess information. Note that the clarity of the images will not be affected at all during this process!

Now let's go back into Powerpoint, right-click on the same image and select Change Picture. Find the file you just saved somewhere on your computer, and import that back in. Notice that the image itself has not changed at all - but it is now as compressed as possible!


If the Change Picture option is not available, you will need to manually re-import the saved file. Delete the image out of the powerpoint slide, and go find the compressed file you just saved on your computer. You can now drag-and-drop that image file into Powerpoint, or (in Powerpoint 2007) click on the Insert tab, and choose Picture. Either way, you will get the newly-compressed picture back into your slide.

Lastly, check the file size of your slide show in Windows Explorer. If it's gone down quite a bit - congratulations, you've just eliminated some bloated images from your presentation!


Note that many other applications like Adobe Photoshop, IrfanView, or even Microsoft Paint can accomplish file compression tasks. But with the way Powerpoint has it set up, it is much more streamlined, and takes less time.

I hope this tutorial has taught you something about file compression / saving features in Microsoft Powerpoint!

Apple cuts 8GB iPhone price to $399

http://www.digg.com/apple/Apple_Cuts_iPhone_Price_to_399

I feel sorry for all the early adopters out there. The ones who forked over all their money to Mr. Jobs, the total job.

Though, I'm still not sure exactly why ANYONE would pay $600 for a phone that:

1) Doesn't take video
2) Has no integrated IM programs
3) Is locked into a plan with the worst cell service carrier in the universe

I guess people overlook minor details like that though.

"It's a touch screen! You can pinch it! Slide it! Woohoo! I love throwing away money!"

In other news, Apple have also virtually taken the iPhone and turned it into a fancier iPod. (Minus phone capabilities.) And it's nearly the same price as regular iPods, except for fairly limited storage capacity at 8 or 16gb.

Lucky for me, I've been avoiding the Apple "hype" for years, and continue to do so.

Consequently, I think I'll be getting a Zune in the near future.

Apple vs Amazon

Looks like Apple got shot in the face by NBC, in terms of offering their content for download.

http://www.thestreet.com/s/nbc-picks-amazon-over-apple/
newsanalysis/techgames/10377959.html

Downloadable movies and TV shows are a great start. The day Amazon starts selling high-quality DRM-free music downloads for $0.99 is the day I uninstall iTunes. Not that I necessarily hate iTunes, but if there is a more hassle-free way to buy online music legally, I'll go with it.

It's Aliiive!

So this is the creation of the CS188 Designs blog. A love for technology/software news and discoveries shall soon follow.

First off, hooray for recycling an old and outdated blog for something more useful!

I have to admit, normally I'm not much for writing. The previous blog I used to have here was updated once, maybe twice a year. And it was rather boring. It was about my daily life. And since it was only updated twice a year, it was more...semi-annually.

Anyways, who wants to read more of that? Out of all the other more interesting lives in the Blogosphere, nobody would want to take an in-depth look at mine.

With that being said, it's time to now form something more solid. Something which will be of use to people. Something related to my likes (and dislikes) for new advancements in technology.