It was a cold, rainy Spring day here in Southwestern Minnesota yesterday, so of COURSE my mind drifted to only one thing: disc golf. My normal daily routine is to start my day in the late morning, catch-up on email and voice mail for about 3-4 hours, then head out to our local disc golf course for about an hour or two to clear my head and get a little exercise…before returning to the office to put in another 8-10 hours of hard work at mapformation and GraphicsOptimization. When that routine is interrupted, by travel, meetings, weather, health, etc., I can really feel it…both physically and mentally.

That must mean that the fine folks at the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) are doing a top-notch job at encouraging my addiction! The PDGA is a 35,000+ strong group of disc golfers from around the planet who are working to expand the reaches of the sport, both in the number of players and the number of quality courses that are available for people to play. I recently joined the association (member #35462), and have been learning on-the-fly ever since on how to try and bring my game up closer to the levels of some of the better players in the world. I’m still WELL-BEHIND the very-best players out there…but I’m working every year to get better.

I thought I would look at a few of the graphics that can be found on the PDGA web site, to see how they are doing related to image optimization. The results of that quick test can be found below: Read the rest of this entry »

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For as long as I can remember, I have been completely and utterly absorbed with music. Music of all kinds! From alternative, acoustical/vocal and rock to classical, blue grass, jazz and hip-hop, I just absolutely LOVE music of all kinds. Well, new country isn’t really my favorite…but every OTHER kind of music you can possibly think of. For a small taste of the type of music that I listen to while I work each day, you can check out my “Mapping Music” station at Pandora.com.

One of my friends asked me a seemingly simple question last week: “What is your favorite artist?” Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. For me, the answer to that question depends upon the time of day, the weather, what time of day it is, my mood, etc. It is practically IMPOSSIBLE to narrow down hundreds of fabulous artists into one single choice for the title of “favorite.” However, my friend wouldn’t let me “Bill Clinton” my way out of his question, a la “It all depends upon what your definition of ‘is’ is,” so I thought and thought about it, and I have to say that my answer was Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson is an absolutely outstanding talent, and his music just transports me immediately to the California surf…hanging out with friends around the bonfire as the sun is setting in the West. The first few times I listened to Brushfire Fairytales, it just struck me how “different” it was from almost anything I had ever listened to before (at the time)…and the more I listened, the more I wanted to listen! Years later now, Johnson’s music has continued to get better and better, and he has seemed to resist the temptation to put out his “White Album” to show how strange/different he can be. Other artists are emulating him…not the other way around.

I was surfing the Jack Johnson web site tonight (while listening to him on Pandora), and thought it might be fun to take a look at a few of the images on the home page…to see what might be done related to optimization. Without further ado: Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the services which caught my attention in previous months was Google Website Optimizer. The service is not focused on image optimization in any direct way, although their web site mentions increasing visitor satisfaction, which faster page loads and much smaller image caching requirements will definitely contribute to visitor satisfaction. I have attempted to contact individuals at Google who are offering their Website Optimizer service regarding the potential for some type of synergy and/or partnership, though I have yet to receive any type of response from the organization.

Google has the one thing that this site will likely NEVER have: an absolutely enormous audience and voice…as well as a tremendous amount of access to financial resources. I am basically doing this by donating hundreds of hours of time, writing, presenting workshops, creating, designing and publishing web content, etc. That is why I wish with all my heart that we could get one of the REALLY big companies…the Googles, the Microsofts, etc., to take notice of what we are attempting to accomplish and help us spread our message to web developers and graphic designers across the planet. I am doing as much good as I possibly can given the limited time and finances I have to contribute to this effort! The money those organizations spend on their respective web content in one day could probably power and fully fund this optimization “crusade” for the next 50-100 years.

With that in mind, I thought I would make a quick “in-kind” contribution to Google by illustrating what they might be able to do to improve the presentation of imagery on the home page for their Website Optimizer service. The results of that process can be viewed below: Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the cool programs that I use in my regular efforts to optimize files is PPTMinimizer. Developed by German-based Balesio, this is a program designed to take existing Microsoft PowerPoint files and reduce them in file size by over fifty (50) percent without any noticeable degradation on-screen. I didn’t believe the claims at first…until I tried it! Lo and behold, a few dozen .ppt files later, I had achieve an over fifty percent decrease in the cumulative size of my files, and have now saved well over 100 MB of file size on .ppt files since I began using the program.

We have included a written review of the product on our main GraphicsOptimization site: http://www.graphicsoptimization.com/other/reviews/pptminimizer.htm, which I have updated tonight to include a bit more product information to their recent release of version 4.0 of the software.

The program does everything as effectively and efficiently as before…only with one major additional enhancement: individuals may now also optimize their Microsoft Word (.doc) files as well. The new 4.0 software also has add-ins for Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Windows Explorer as well…though I have not personally had a chance to play around with much of that particular functionality, since we are OpenOffice and Mozilla apologists around here.

The price for the new software version went up by $10 (US) to $39.95 (US). However, I still will say that PPTminimizer is one of the bigger bargains in the marketplace for this particular type of functionality. Great, GREAT piece of software that achieves and exceeds the results you might expect. If you have a great-many .ppt and .doc files on your computer or server(s), it is a program I would strongly recommend that you consider.

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Gas prices here in Springfield, Minnesota hit $3.65/gallon today, and are getting to the point where we are feeling a serious pinch in our wallets. Our options here for vehicles are somewhat limited…not in what we can buy, but in what we can buy that is easy to maintain without having to drive longer distances for service and repairs. However, I’ve continued looking for more fuel efficient options than our current Toyota Corolla, despite the challenges related to servicing those new and unique types of vehicles around here.

One alternative I have seen that can achieve as much as 150 MPG is the Loremo low resistance mobile. Very intriguing from what I have seen on their web site so far…at least as a work or second vehicle, since a “family vehicle” it is not.

Of course, I simply HAD to also check out a few of the images found on their web site from the standpoint of optimization! That’s what I do, right? Read the rest of this entry »

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We all struggle with the occasional lack of productivity and efficiency, right? Well, three individuals in Seattle, Washington (USA) decided to try and do something about that, and created a new service called RescueTime which is meant to help people track how they are spending time on their computer or Internet connections in effort to find opportunities to become more efficient in their day-to-day activities.

Since GraphicsOptimization is, in part, also about time savings and efficiency, I thought it might be fun to take a quick look at a few of the images on the RescueTime web site…to see what might be able to be done: Read the rest of this entry »

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When I packed up and left for college in 1989, I knew I had a strong interest in art, business and entrepreneurship. However, I had no idea how I wanted to take those interests and turn them into a potential career. I also had a bit of a rocky or distant relationship with my father, and was looking for some male role models who could help give me a bit of confidence and guidance in my life. For me, professors Tom Johnson and Dale Johnson at Bethel College (now Bethel University) were an absolute God-send. I took numerous classes from both men, as well as served as a Teacher’s Assistant (T.A.) for both of them as well. Good times, and many valuable lessons learned…although it feels as though my undergraduate years were a LONG time ago now.

Dale Johnson is one incredibly talented artist and designer! He has so many great gifts that it was just fun to spend time with him and watch how he works and creates. One thing I have always, ALWAYS wanted to do was be able to purchase one of his paintings so that I might proudly hang it in my home and use every opportunity to tell my daughters and the visitors to our home a few of my “Dale” stories from back in the years before the Internet added graphics. Sadly, however, I have never been in the financial position where I could afford the “luxury” of investing several hundred (or thousand) dollars in original artwork. Things such as mortgage payments, food and diapers have always had to take priority. Maybe one of these years, however.

I thought it might be fun tonight to take a few minutes to evaluate a few of the images off of Dale’s web site…both to give that incredible man and artist a bit more exposure for his work AND to see what might be done to potentially improve his web presence. Without further ado: Read the rest of this entry »

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I was thinking tonight about this blog and how a few readers have told me that they would like me to include a few more “tutorials” in my posts which help to reinforce many of the techniques that I have included on our main GraphicsOptimization site (rather than simply illustrating the positive impacts said techniques can have on a WIDE variety of “live” imagery on some of the web sites that I happen to come across during my exploration of the Internet). With that in mind, I thought that tonight I might talk more in-depth about a common task that many designers likely find themselves performing throughout the year: taking a printed image, digitizing it via a scanning process, then uploading it to the web for incorporation within a web site.

For my “guinea pig,” I selected a disc golf course map from the newly-opened nine-hole course in Jackson, Minnesota. Justin Pederson was kind enough to share a copy of that course’s scorecard with me on Sunday, and I wanted to get that image into digital form in effort to share it with other disc golfers throughout Southern Minnesota at 800×580 pixels. Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the really fun marriages between photography and technology that I personally have enjoyed over the past several years relates to panoramic photography. I LOVE panoramic photos…and have been manufacturing them by-hand since true 360-degree photography was even commercially possible (shooting a still, turning 10-15 degrees, shooting another still, etc.). Given my previous experience using glue, tape and exacto knives (dating myself just a bit…back to when humans created the wheel), some of the software, cameras and lenses available in the marketplace today absolutely blow my mind!

While doing a bit of Internet surfing this afternoon, I happened to stumble across a site called Panedia that was apparently built by people who share my love for panoramic photography! Panedia combines several thousand panoramic photographs of interesting, popular and prominent destinations around the world and geotag them…displaying the end results via Google Maps. The end result is a searchable collection of professional panoramic photography displayed via .swf files which is freely available to end users, with low monthly fees for commercial licensing of said content. Very nice! Read the rest of this entry »

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As I have eluded to in previous postings, I happen to be a big politics “junkie” and a supporter of Barack Obama, in particular. All this past week, all of the various talking heads at CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc. were only talking about the upcoming Democratic Party primaries in the States of Indiana and North Carolina. Almost everyone seemed to forget that the Democrats in the United States territory of Guam were also caucusing for their choice for President on May 3. So, in honor of the Island of Guam, I thought I would spend a few minutes tonight looking at a few of the images on their official home page and see how things look from the standpoint of image optimization. Read the rest of this entry »

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