Made some small changes to the blog. Worth mentioning is the removal of all advertisements and modification to the category names I used in this blog. The latter inadvertently changed all the permalinks as well, but I don’t think there’s a need for me to 301 redirect the old links since judging by this blog’s traffic, any loss is probably negligible.

I also recently made the switch from MediaTemple’s grid hosting service to WiredTree’s managed VPS hosting (specifically, the VPS1024 package). It’s one of the best purchases I’ve made online. Fantastic customer service that respond within 15 minutes on average (as opposed to that number in hours) and incredible speeds so far. If you’re interested in them, feel free to use my affiliate link!

Expect more blog posts from me in the upcoming weeks. I know I say this every year, but consistency is now a priority of mine. The blog is due for a major custom makeover so expect that too.

Images that are uploaded in Blogger are stored at Google’s Picasa Web Albums at its original file size and dimensions. If you login to Picasa with your Blogger account, then lo and behold, you shall see your original images!

Interestingly enough, the image code that Blogger inserts into your blog post are modified. Instead of linking (Blogger automatically links the images to itself) and displaying your original image file, Blogger links to a scaled-down, resized version instead. I believe only images wider than 800px are affected by this protocol.

Displaying/linking to full-sized images is pretty simple since we know that our original image files are stored on the server – we just need to access them! I have 2 solutions on how to display full-sized images in Blogger.

Posting images in their original sizes with Blogger

Alternative 1 – Using Blogger

The image code that Blogger returns to you when you upload and insert an image will look similar to this:

<a href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/a_bunch_of_random_characters/s640/image.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”>
<img border=”0″ src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/a_bunch_of_random_characters/s640/image.jpg” />
</a>

Note: In the above code, I removed a bunch of numbers and letters and replaced it with ‘a_bunch_of_random_characters’ for simplicity.

The important part of the code is the s followed by the number. In this example, it is s640. This variable may contain different numbers such as s400 and s800.

All you need to do is replace the original variable with s1600-h in both the link and image tags. Although I am not 100% sure, I believe this should always link to your original file size.

Alternative 2 – Using Picasa

Login to Picasa with your Blogger account. As mentioned above, all images uploaded in Blogger is actually hosted here.

At this point, you have two options. The first option doesn’t directly solve our problem per se, but it will still give users access to the full-sized image and it will give you some additional features. The second option directly solves our problem without the bells and whistles.

Option 1

First, click on the image you wish to insert into your blog post. Look to the right and you should see some image options. Click Link to this Photo.

Picasa's image options

You can either use the Link or the Embed image code generated for you. Embed image gives you the added bonus of using thumbnails which saves you the hassle of creating them yourself.

Either way is fine, but you should note that both links and embedded images will link to a scaled-down version of your image and that the image will be displayed within Picasa’s photo viewer. Of course, users can still click on the Magnify Glass icon to view the original size.

Option 2

While viewing an image in Picasa, click on the Magnify Glass icon at the top right until you are viewing the image at its original size. Right-click the image and select Copy Image Location if you are using Firefox, or select Properties to find the image location.

This will give you the direct link to the full-sized image.

And that is all there is to it. Happy blogging!

Time to make this blog more personal so I’ll talk and empty my mind here a bit for is this not where random lies?!

I finally updated WordPress from 2.3 (yeah, it’s been a while) to 2.8.4. Never thought WordPress could get any better than before; the dashboard is much more pleasing to the eye and it looks like there is a bunch of useful new features like the Media library. Can’t wait to play around with the GUI and get used to everything. Unfortunately, the custom WordPress theme I was using wouldn’t cooperate with the new upgrade so I’m going to use Thematic for now and perhaps customize it heavily over the next little while. We’ll see.

Hmm. It seems as though I haven’t done anything web-related in a while. Like web design. Kinda itching to crack open Photoshop and work off the rust. Maybe hit two birds with one stone by entering some contests at 99designs. A little extra cash wouldn’t hurt.

I brainstormed some interesting blog material on paper over the months and I’ll probably start posting some of them up here. Topics mainly on technology and the internet. Maybe I’ll even start up a little portfolio of my digital works here.

I’ve also returned to an idea I wrought up nearly 3 years ago which I’ve been planning (something I love to do) on and off (more off then on). It has to do with ‘web 2.0′ and folksonomies and the like. I hope posting about it here will motivate me to actually polish it off and shift it into development mode. Haha, who am I kidding?

There are many things that I have grown interested in over the years and one of them is hockey. Today, I assembled a hockey net which was 45-minutes of fun (I love building things, it goes back to when I played with my first Lego set). I probably took longer than normal as the weather started off uncomfortably sunny and then started to drizzle). Now, I can practice wrist shots and the like in the comfort of my backyard. I will need to buy some plywood or something so that I can handle the puck more smoothly (rubber and concrete don’t mix). Before, I have been using one of those smart hockey balls, the kind Vincent Lecavalier supposedly uses in the off-season, but I’d rather get used to a puck since nothing can mimic a puck better than a puck. Of course, I still need to learn the nuisance of skating – my new Bauer 22s are barely worn in – which I’ve done only a few times the past winter in a nearly outdoor rink, but I’ll worry about that later. On a hockey-related note, I can’t wait for the NHL season to start! Canadian football just isn’t enough in this long and boring off-season.

That’s all for now.

This was once a blog dedicated to web development and it was located at amplifiedShock (now redirects to my online web portfolio). More details about this can be found here (this link can also be found at the footer of every page in case this post is lost).

As the title of this post suggests, this is basically an expansion of my old blog with a more personal injection of random stuff. Things to expect are rants about everything, updates on my projects, a comic that is a mix between Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and online gaming drama, and more!