Friday, July 1, 2011

Slideshows and the new SkyDrive

For the most part we take pictures to preserve memories, and we enjoy reliving these moments by sharing the photos. In the early days of photography the rare and precious images were presented as prints, often elaborately framed. As the cost came down and cameras became accessible to everyday users, albums became a means of sharing. Then the thirty-five millimeter camera and 2009-09-07 McDFP-90907 002 (2) (1024x682).jpg<br /><br /> Kodachrome ushered in the era of the slide show.
Albums are still very much with us, but the computer, the Internet and digital photography have given “slideshow” a totally new meaning. Online photo sharing sites are  ubiquitous. One of the pleasant features everywhere is the self-running slideshow. So when Microsoft recently polished up their SkyDrive service and omitted the automated presentation feature, I and a whole lot of others cried foul (see my post: The new SkyDrive – Bouquets and Brickbats. The picture of the yellow flower here links to a small album so you can see the new look – Maybe the complaint has been corrected by the time you get to this album).
Here is a tongue-in-cheek look (just 50 seconds) at the new SkyDrive with its miniature slideshows in the album view and a light-hearted stab pointing out an unfortunate little bug:
A witty peek at the new SkyDrive
Things are never as dark as they seem, and the self-paced slideshow of SkyDrive albums is by no means gone for now. If you have Windows Live Messenger you can still get gorgeous, full-screen, self-running slideshows of your friends albums. To illustrate this other way to an automatic slideshow, view the movie clip below (this one is just over 2 minutes in length). This clip shows the desktop of my virtual friend “Student M”. He launches Live Messenger and sees some images. Moving the pointer to these starts a tiny slide show. Clicking on one opens a viewer with all of the expected slideshow features – even allowing full screen view.
This little movie is presented in HD for better enjoyment. You can double-click on the image to go to YouTube directly where you can see it in full-screen “high definition”  (alas, high speed access to the Internet is required for best viewing).
Getting to a slideshow by way of Messenger
How do you share your albums? Are slideshows important to you? I would really like to see your comments.
.:.
© 2011 Ludwig Keck
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 2, 2011 at 1:46 AM

    I like the automated slideshow and was particularly impressed with the way that SkyDrive had done it in the past. Also the way that the background reflected your photo by mirroring the main colour. Lot's of backward steps in my opinion just to comply with HTML5. Remember also that long ago in a Windows Live far far away (Wave 3) we could show our photos off on a blog page in Spaces as well! All built in. I can't understand MS at times. It's just like they take some wonderful ideas, implement them, we all love them, then they take them away! LOL

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  2. LudwigJuly 2, 2011 at 5:06 PM

    Indeed, one good tool after another keeps getting eliminated. Today I tried to sign in to Live with another account - that used to require just one click on one of the displayed user ID icons. That seems to be no more. Full sign in is now required - address, password. What next? How can I teach using Windows when I am constantly sabotaged?

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  3. LudwigJuly 2, 2011 at 5:08 PM

    Anyone know how to run windowslivephotoviewer.exe by itself?

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  4. AnonymousJuly 29, 2011 at 1:41 PM

    I switched to FLICKR.... a online photo album is not complete without a slideshow... i just dont get MS.. f*cking retarded. i will probably not be comming back to skydruive, my photos are uploading now to flickr.... my friend is over and wanted to see my photos, we dont want to have to click on each one.... we want to watch a fullscreen automated slideshow. ITS A NECESSARY FEATURE OF ANY ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM. THE NEW SKYDRIVE SUCKS!@

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  5. AnonymousJuly 30, 2011 at 8:41 PM

    Skydrive is missing: the screen show feature, the full screen feature, and the caption displaying across the bottom of the picture. All three are very important when sharing pictures with friends. My friends do not care about the picture specific information such as: date taken, camera used, f-stop, or file name.

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  6. LudwigJuly 31, 2011 at 1:02 PM

    Small consolation: The F11 key will switch to full screen and back, the info panel on the right can be turned off (small arrowhead top left of pane). The bottom thumbnails are removed with a click on the picture. Moving the pointer to the right and bottom removes it (mostly) from the screen and you can click the mouse to advance. A lot of clicks to get started. Not as nice as an automatic slide show and the presentation does not look as good as it used to.

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