photos

Overhauling Facebook's photo system

This was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Facebook's photo storage system holds 850 million photos and costs a lot of dough. Niall Kennedy has a nice overview of what Facebook is doing to minimize its storage costs.

Facebook's system, dubbed Haystack, is custom-built but relies on content delivery networks and NetApp. Facebook is trying to minimize the custom stuff and use commodity hardware.

Kennedy does a nice job of synthesizing Facebook's storage system. In a nutshell:

• Facebook's previous system relied heavily on Akamai and Limelight to improve latency. • That Akamai and Limelight use … Read more

iPhone apps gateway to full-strength software?

With Friday's announcement of an update to Tiffen's popular photo app for the iPhone/iPod Touch, Photo fx, I started wondering how many people use a developer's iPhone app, eventually pick up the full-size software package? (If one exists that is.)

For example, Tiffen's little $2.99 app (or free for those who currently own the last version) now features "the ability to apply multiple filters without saving, image cropping in portrait or landscape mode, option to save camera images separately at full resolution, filters with presets, display all presets when filter is selected, maximum … Read more

Ritz Camera store liquidations start Saturday

In case some of you missed this Thursday, Ritz Camera--and by association Wolf and Kits Camera among others--is shutting down more than 300 stores around the U.S. as part of a court-supervised bankruptcy reorganization. This of course means stock liquidation sales, which will begin Saturday, April 4.

As with the Circuit City liquidation, I wouldn't expect huge discounts despite a senior VP at one of the four LLCs handling the sale saying we'll find "quality, brand-name merchandise at greatly reduced prices." (I'm willing to bet his idea of "greatly reduced" and … Read more

Freeware optimizes images side by side

Anyone who has posted images to a Web site or blog knows that making the image "Internet-friendly" is crucial to fast page-loading times. Similarly, optimizing images for e-mail is important because sending enormous image files through your e-mail client can cause problems for those with slower connection speeds. There are several software tools available to reformat and optimize your images, but I found one recently that's free, easy, and effective.

RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool) (Free) for Windows takes the side-by-side interface approach for painless image optimization. Those who have used Adobe ImageReady will immediately recognize the … Read more

Unboxed: the Nintendo DSi

Nintendo sent us our Nintendo DSi review unit this morning. Follow along all the excitement step by step with our unboxing slide show. Like the previous two DS systems, the packaging is overly simple, very much in the vein of an Apple product.

Right away we noticed the free games promotion sticker we talked about last week. Anyone who purchases a DSi by October 5, 2009 will receive 1,000 free DSi Points to spend in the DSi Shop.

When we first turned the DSi on, we were greeted with a setup screen followed by a short tutorial that explains … Read more

Facebook retools password resets, addresses app

Facebook has changed the way its password reset tool works so that it does not easily verify e-mail addresses to potential spammers, after CNET News contacted it with concerns from an Israeli security expert.

On a separate matter, the company also has asked the maker of the Photo Stalker Facebook app to make it clear that despite the name, the app conforms to Facebook's privacy guidelines.

First off, Facebook is making it harder for spammers to mine the site for valid e-mail addresses.

"Last night, we took steps to make sure that our password reset tool is not … Read more

What Windows 7 might have been--photos

CNET Senior Editor Ina Fried got her hands on some early sketches of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 7 operating system from its early design stages. A slideshow of fascinating screenshots traces the evolution of the Windows operating system from its earliest incarnations (back when we thought "Back to the Future" had stunning special effects) to a concept of a bat signal prototyped in February 2007. These are some rare views into Microsoft's design mind that are worth perusing--or at least peeking at.

Supr Flickr makes Flickr better with subtle changes

Supr Flickr is a new Firefox extension that's a hodgepodge of small changes that make the site better suited for power users. I like it because it quietly brings many of Flickr's deeper features front and center, keeping you from having to dig around too much to get at them. Things like viewing multiple sizes of a shot, remembering formatting tags when writing descriptions and replying to comments, and grabbing a photo's source link are all made simpler.

Among its handier features, the add-on includes quick links to the third-party Hivemind search engine, which offers search filters … Read more

MySpace introduces FotoFlexer's editing tools

MySpace has brought on board some Web-based image-editing tools from FotoFlexer so that members can fool around with the photos they've uploaded to the site.

It's no Photoshop. But FotoFlexer can perform basic editing tasks (cropping, resizing, flipping, red-eye removal), as well as distortion, color effects, and some decoration and "bling" features (always important).

So far, FotoFlexer on MySpace is available only to U.S. users. The tools will roll out internationally soon, however.

This move makes sense for MySpace. Not only does image editing tie in nicely with its longstanding express-yourself, customize-anything vibe, but it'… Read more