Blogs & Data usage

Submitted: Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 16:13

ThreadID: 85925 Views:5464 Replies:3 FollowUps:15

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RodnSue

Hi every one,
My apologies for this long winded story.
Tues next wk we are leaving Bris for NT & WA for 7mths caravan travel.
We plan to free camp as much as possible.
I have a blog set up for family & friends to follow us on our travels.
I would like to upload more photos than words into the blog if possible.
We will also be doing the other internet things such as emails, banking, skypeing family, etc.

I was planning on buying an Elite Next G pre paid internet USB dongle today, so as to capture the bonus ?2G of data allowance when buying 10GB for 12mths for $150.
I didn’t really want to be locked into contracts for 12 or 24mths. (will do so if need be)
I’ve worked out the costing of buying say 20GB data plus the pre paid ‘Elite’ dongle, as apposed to 12mths plan buying the ‘Ultimate’ outright for only 1GB per month, & “use it or lose it”.

The girl in the Telstra shop was helpful, & thought that the prepaid ‘Elite’ would be very slow for uploading photos and use ? 1GB per dozen or so photos. (her words, not mine)
She also suggested that the “Ultimate” dongle would have better out of town coverage & be a lot faster.
We have an aerial on the car & will have a patch cable.

I have 2 questions for you folk who have lots of experience with blogs & data usage with photos etc ‘Elite’ vs ‘Ultimate’ dongles
1 – how much data would be used for eg 10 photos upload, & how much time involved in uploading same?
2 – is the Telstra girl right in saying that uploading for eg 10 pics would take forever & maybe not be as good marginally out of town - (I could of course plan my blog entries & other internet stuff whilst in a van park!)

Thank you in advance
Sue

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Reply By: Notso - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 16:57

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 16:57

Mate for viewing online you can resize the photos to something like 80 or 90 Kilobytes and they still view OK on a screen. That means you get something like 12 or 15 to a megabyte.

Heaps of options and you could even use your next G mobile with a cable connection to the puter, buy data packs.

AnswerID: 452580

Follow Up By: RodnSue - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 17:06

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 17:06

Hi Notso
thanks for your reply, this really helps
could you please tell me what size in cms a photo of 80 - 90 Kb would be?

Regarding the mobile as a modem - I have a Samsung & I tried this option, but after downloading the program etc & son having a go at getting it to work plus a tech man @ Telstra shop failing same, I gave up the idea.
cheers Sue

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Follow Up By: Notso - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 17:59

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 17:59

80 or 90 will display on the monitor around about 5 inches (125mm) X 3 (75mm)

160 will give you about 6 inches (150mm) X 4 inches (100mm)

I have a samsung A412 and it works with windows 7 OK.

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Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 18:12

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 18:12

RodnSue

Notso's suggestion to downsize images is a good one. An 800x600 pixel image uses about 70-80 kB, and at 400x300, about 30 kB. 800x600 is ok for showing on screen, but not enough for printing. (Our signature photo is 800x600 - double click it to see as full size.) Anything much smaller than 800x600 is getting pretty small to be useful.

Blogging photos - Suggest maximum of 800x600 pixels. Uploading is very time consuming. We blogged recent trips as we travelled to keep the family up to date, and uploaded using a next g phone as Notso suggests. None of the family bothered looking at them!

If you don't have image editing software, there are quite a number of good free editing programs available. We use XNView for image manipulation and resizing. A bit of editing (mainly cropping and and colour adjustment) can make huge improvement to some photos. All time consuming but satisfies the creative urge! Some of the results are in our blogs.

Cheers

John

J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein

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Follow Up By: RodnSue - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 18:18

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 18:18

Thanks Notso, The 5 x 3 size will be ample for me.
I have an A411, followed instructions, but somehow failed badly.
Will go the simple route with a dongle
thank you again
Sue

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Follow Up By: RodnSue - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 19:04

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 19:04

Hi John
thanks for your advice. At 1st some of it sounded too technical for my little brain, but re reading helps :) I can do picture fixing in windows gallery & I've done this for a few pics with to adjust lighting etc.
I feel happier that pics don't use as much data to up load as indicated by the Telstra staff member.
Do you have any idea how long say 10 pics would take to upload?

John, I've been following your flora blogs with interest since you & Val started posting them - & enjoy the read & appreciate the time you've taken in their preparation. I also had enjoyment out of starting my blog, be it small thus far.

Thanks Sue

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Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 22:21

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 22:21

Hi Sue,

The time it takes to upload photos can vary a lot. Using our home computer the time taken putting up blog photos (on this site) depends on where they are stored (all in the same file is quick, much slower if in different files), how fast the ISP is running and how fast EO is running. If all goes well it might take a minute per photo, assuming that the photo is already resized and ready to go.

When we have uploaded blogs on the road we have used our Samsung A411 phone as a modem. Have managed to upload quite quickly at times, very slow at other times. Remember that you will only get reasonable Next G service in or close to population centres - if you are camped out in the bush happily away from it all you probably wont get any phone/internet connection.

I think for future blogging while on the road I would use smaller photos and fewer of them, with a view to adding more and replacing the small photos with larger versions when we get home. At least for EO blogs it is very easy to go back to edit and add things.

Thank you for your kind comments re our wildflower blogs.

Cheers,

Val.

J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein

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Follow Up By: RodnSue - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 22:38

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 22:38

Hi Val
thanks also for your reply. If we need to do internet 'stuff' other than blogging & forums, will try to be near or in town that has mobile / internet service. Thanks also for mentioning the time frame it takes to upload. Will def be copying pics for uploading into a separate folder for ease as well.
Like you I can also edit the blog later.
cheers Sue

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Reply By: Member - The Bushwhackers -NSW - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 19:22

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 19:22

Hi RodnSue

Not sure about data usage yet (will find out very soon!), but I downloaded a free program from the net, at the suggestion of Doug (NT) called Easy Thumbnails. It allows you to resize your pics (either up or down) to minimize data usage. You just set the program settings to the size you want, eg: 800 x 600, and it converts them to that size. The new pic is called by the same name you originally called it, but with the letters tn (Thumb Nail) after the name.

You can have a look at the program here Easy Thumbnails.

I find it great, not just for this site, but sending to others that don't need great detail, or have low download limits, or perhaps a slow connection, due to location.

Cheers, & good luck, Dave

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Follow Up By: RodnSue - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:12

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:12

Hi Dave
thanks for your reply. Sounds easy enough, will have a look it tomorrow.
So if I made a separate file of the pics that I want to upload to my blog, then re size that lot of pics using that program, & upload as smaller pics therefore less fuss elsewhere?
cheers Sue

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Follow Up By: Member - The Bushwhackers -NSW - Friday, Apr 29, 2011 at 16:45

Friday, Apr 29, 2011 at 16:45

Hi Sue

The thing I found about the program is it lets you select your 'output size', and renames it with tn on the end, but also keeps the original on your computer. So, you will end up with a big pic of say 'Campsite', another for uploading (or emailing etc) called 'Campsite_tn' at the size you decide on (800 x 600 is recommended for this site), also on your computer.

If you download and have a play with it, won't cost you anything, and see if you like it. I think you will. Doug (NT) is a regular contributor to this site, particularly with his Sunday history lessons, and has many, many photo uploads. I'm sure he wouldn't suggest the program if it was no good.

Cheers, Dave

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Reply By: Member - Toyocrusa (NSW) - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:35

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:35

Hi Sue. I am currently on the road using the nextG ultimate modem. I have been uploading 5 megapixel photos for about 12 days now. I have the 1g allowance. I was uploading full size to facebook not thinking about them using up my allowance and suddenly yesterday my speed almost stopped as I have reached my limit. I think I have put about 270 photos up all told and the upload speed prior to being slowed was brilliant. Some examples are here. Lesson learnt so will now work out how to resize them but ultimate works well even with only one bar reception. Cheers,Bob

AnswerID: 452647

Follow Up By: Member - Toyocrusa (NSW) - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:37

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:37

Try

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Follow Up By: Member - Toyocrusa (NSW) - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:39

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 21:39

Try here. (I hope)

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Follow Up By: RodnSue - Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 22:22

Thursday, Apr 28, 2011 at 22:22

Hi Bob
being more re assured with each reply I receive with the number of pics I can upload for 1 GB. Will give the Ultimate some consideration. Will concentrate on the blog & some to facebook as well. Will just do a link to my blog.
Unfortunately your link doesn't allow me to view your pics on FB. There's no photo thingy to click onto & going into your profile only goes to my profile. Wierd.
Cheers Sue

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Follow Up By: Member - Toyocrusa (NSW) - Friday, Apr 29, 2011 at 08:23

Friday, Apr 29, 2011 at 08:23

OK. Sorry for that. We may have to be Facebook "friends" I do find it best for keeping in touch with friends and family though. Bob

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Follow Up By: deserter - Friday, Apr 29, 2011 at 20:08

Friday, Apr 29, 2011 at 20:08

Another easy option is to use Microsoft Paint - its already on your puter. Just use the resize option to make the photo 20% and it will drop to under 100k. Save it to your desktop then upload from there.

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