Gossamer Forum: Products: Gossamer Links: Development, Plugins and Globals: New Service

Apr 20, 2008, 5:18 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Apr 20, 2008, 5:18 AM

Post #1 of 11

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New Service - Screenshot Capturing

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce the start of a new server, screenshot captures for the URL's in your database.

Details / pricing can be found here: http://www.ultranerds.com/...inks_Directory_L250/

Please note, we can't really cope with more than 2500 URL's at the moment, as its all run manually - and I have to upload each file manually. The prices may seem high - but don't forget I've got to have a computer dedicated to processing these images, and also uploading them for you =)

If you have any questions, please ask (email, PM - or post it here).

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Apr 20, 2008, 11:31 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Apr 20, 2008, 11:31 AM

Post #2 of 11

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Re: [Andy] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

Hi,

Heres a basic site I setup - which shows you how it looks.

The images are set as 150x150 default, but if you *really* want bigger ones, then an arrangement can be come to (you can even have the full scale images, and shrink them down yourself on the server- but I don't think many people would want that =)

http://www.gossamerlinks.com/...est%2Findex.html;d=1 (obvioulsy this can be made a lot prettier with some CSS - I just pasted the code into link.html, to show you :))

At the moment, it works like so:

1) Every month, a "list" of URL's are emailed to me
2) I run them through my screenshot grabbing script (on my local Mandrake machine)
3) I upload them onto my dev server, and shrink them to 150x150 (or closest they will go like, with Image::Magick's constraints)
4) I then copy them over to your site.
5) You will have a "Screenshots" plugin installed on your install, which will let you just do:

Code:
<%Plugins::Screenshots::CheckImageExists($URL)%> 
    <%if ScreenshotURL%> 
      <img src="<%ScreenshotURL%>" /> 
    <%else%> 
      <img src="<%config.build_static_url%>/no-screenshot.jpg" /> 
    <%endif%>

Couldn't be much simpler from your point of view. Its just quite long winded with my stuff, as I have to do a lot of uploading/downloading. I'm on an 8mb ADSL connection, so I'm not slow - but obviously I have to accommodate for the additional bandwidth I'll need to do all this :)

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Apr 21, 2008, 3:34 PM

Wychwood

User (182 posts)

Apr 21, 2008, 3:34 PM

Post #3 of 11

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Re: [Andy] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

http://search.yahoo.com/...=r1&meta=vc%3Duk

Last edited by:

Wychwood: Apr 21, 2008, 3:34 PM

Apr 22, 2008, 12:44 AM

perhaps

Novice (29 posts)

Apr 22, 2008, 12:44 AM

Post #4 of 11

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Re: [Wychwood] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

Wychwood wrote:

http://search.yahoo.com/...=r1&meta=vc%3Duk

You do realize people don't like trolls, right? Why don't you find another forum to annoy people. *shoo shoo*
Cheers,
Hans Jørgen
www.dicereviews.com

Apr 22, 2008, 2:23 AM

Wychwood

User (182 posts)

Apr 22, 2008, 2:23 AM

Post #5 of 11

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Re: [perhaps] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

I'm preventing people getting ripped off. I'm sure as hell not willing to spend $3000 for something that can be achieved with some cheap software and a trivial amount of knowledge.

If you are happy to do that, then I feel sorry for ya.

Apr 22, 2008, 3:08 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Apr 22, 2008, 3:08 AM

Post #6 of 11

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Re: [Wychwood] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

Hi,

Thats your opinion - and fair enough.

However, a LOT of people, feel better (and safer) having the images served up on *their* server (not a 3rd party source, which could go offline at any time, without warning - and leave their site looking messy)

I know there is software out there to do it yourself too - but again, most of these take the screenshots - but don't "shrink" them down into correctly formatted sizes (i.e one program I tried, you set the dimensions as 150x150, and it would 'squish" the image, and make it look nothing like the site).

As I said - this service is for people who feel it suits them best. This service isn't for everyone - but if people do wish for me to do the "dirty work", and maintain their screenshot archive - then thats up to them Smile

I think what Hans was trying to say regarding the Troll stuff, is that you only ever seem to pick on me Wink

(take a look at all your posts - almost all of them are directed at me - either slating my coding skills, or just generally making a nuisance)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Apr 23, 2008, 7:12 AM

Wychwood

User (182 posts)

Apr 23, 2008, 7:12 AM

Post #7 of 11

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Re: [Andy] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

That's not what the software does that I linked to. It creates the images on your pc and then lets you upload them to your server.

As for why I always reply to you, it's mainly because you are pretty much the only person that posts here and you are charging people for your code. So as a Perl programmer myself I like to scope out the competition, but without meaning to be rude, I can only assume the people that pay for your services know very little about what they are buying because it is poorly written and buggy. The infinite release of updates to your plugins supports that. I think you also pluck your prices out of the air too as they have no relation to the quality or usefulness of the plugin. Looking through your old posts you seem to have been making the same coding errors for years. I think it would be worth your while to go on a programming course to re-learn the basics or at least spend some time brushing up your knowledge so you can offer some quality products.

Last edited by:

Wychwood: Apr 23, 2008, 7:16 AM

Apr 23, 2008, 10:16 AM

Matthias70

Enthusiast (893 posts)

Apr 23, 2008, 10:16 AM

Post #8 of 11

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Re: [Wychwood] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

Wychwood wrote:

As for why I always reply to you, it's mainly because you are pretty much the only person that posts here and you are charging people for your code.

Hi Wychwood,
you could be the second person, that posts his code here. Just do it!

Wychwood wrote:

So as a Perl programmer myself I like to scope out the competition, but without meaning to be rude, I can only assume the people that pay for your services know very little about what they are buying because it is poorly written and buggy.

Hey competiton would be great, so why don't you start, writing better plugins and srcipts?

Wychwood wrote:

I think you also pluck your prices out of the air too as they have no relation to the quality or usefulness of the plugin.

I love cheap, well written und useful plugins Wink

Where can I download your plugins...

Wychwood wrote:

Looking through your old posts you seem to have been making the same coding errors for years. I think it would be worth your while to go on a programming course to re-learn the basics or at least spend some time brushing up your knowledge so you can offer some quality products.

When I look through Andy's old posts, I can't even count how many times he helped people out.

But it would be great to have another perl guru in this forum.
I only can say it again. Show us, your coding skills...

Matthias
gpaed.de

Apr 23, 2008, 10:29 AM

pugdog

Veteran / Moderator (6956 posts)

Apr 23, 2008, 10:29 AM

Post #9 of 11

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Re: [Wychwood] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

Wychwood wrote:

That's not what the software does that I linked to. It creates the images on your pc and then lets you upload them to your server.

I wrote code that did that years ago, and required human intervention. Apparently now firefox allows you to read the screen buffer and capture/save it as evidenced by two (at least) separate plug ins that let you capture/save parts of the screen. I knew something like that would have to happen, so maybe there is a way to automate it further. The script I wrote in response to the thumbshotter system required perl on a Windows machine, and used the MSIE window for screen capture, then save, but because of all the various scripts/etc on pages, some pages hung. Not easy to do. But maybe in the past 2 years FireFox allows access to the screen buffer, and that would solve huge problems (eg: access to a bitmap after it had been rendered).

Wychwood wrote:

As for why I always reply to you, it's mainly because you are pretty much the only person that posts here and you are charging people for your code. So as a Perl programmer myself I like to scope out the competition, but without meaning to be rude, I can only assume the people that pay for your services know very little about what they are buying because it is poorly written and buggy. The infinite release of updates to your plugins supports that. I think you also pluck your prices out of the air too as they have no relation to the quality or usefulness of the plugin. Looking through your old posts you seem to have been making the same coding errors for years. I think it would be worth your while to go on a programming course to re-learn the basics or at least spend some time brushing up your knowledge so you can offer some quality products.

It's easy to criticize. And Andy has held the fort down here very well for a long time. If you can do better, do it, don't talk about it. Prove it. I'm sure everyone would like high quality free plugins with round-the-clock support and regular upgrades.

PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.

Apr 23, 2008, 3:08 PM

Wychwood

User (182 posts)

Apr 23, 2008, 3:08 PM

Post #10 of 11

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Re: [pugdog] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

I'd love to offer quality commercial plugins but I just don't see any demand here, or at least enough demand to justify spending my time on such a project. There are a handful of people showing an interest in Andy's plugins and a limited number of people posting on this forum in general. I can't imagine I'd get a decent enough return on any plugins I released.

Apr 23, 2008, 4:18 PM

pugdog

Veteran / Moderator (6956 posts)

Apr 23, 2008, 4:18 PM

Post #11 of 11

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Re: [Wychwood] New Service - Screenshot Capturing In reply to

Wychwood wrote:

Then why criticize someone who *IS* taking the time to support/help those here?

I've just returned, but it seems your participation here is pretty much limited to destructive criticisms, and I had a "shiver" of a feeling you've been here before under a different ID.

Not everything (eg: business) is conducted in the public forums. When you start putting out code, or help, it's amazing what shows up in your Inboxes.

Why not test the waters and release something even moderately useful that shows off your talents, and abilities? Maybe you'll find the need materializes when people see you are more than just a mouth.

If you have constructive criticism of any of the Ultranerds plugins, I'd like to hear them, and maybe incorporate them into the next releases. I'm picking up where I left off with the profile manager, gallery system (different from Andys) and the Model/Photographer site software. Suggestions and constructive criticisms are always welcome. Everyone sees things a little differently.

PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.