I have just launched Blink File. It’s overlapping a bit with the United Bimmer File Manager currently, however I have a feeling Blink File will eventually exceed UBFM because of it’s ease of use, auto-thumbnailing, multiple-simultaneous file uploading, and no quota limit. Here’s an example of it in action:

Blink File is designed to be as simple as possible to use. It can host anything from images (any size) to videos to music to programs to pdfs and other documents. There are no limits on the file extention. The cool part is the system can recognize over 400 different file types, and responds appropriately. For example, if it detects you uploading a JPG file, it’ll look at the dimensions, and if it’s a large file, it’ll automatically generate a nice thumbnail complete with the bottom black text bar, showing the size and dimensions of the original file. When you click on the thumbnail (from the source code it generates automatically for forum use), it’ll open in and render a larger version of the file on Blink File’s servers, which you can click on to instantly see full-size. Erm, that’s kind of wordy, but when you try it out, you’ll see what I mean. If you upload a video file and try to view it, it’ll automatically detect it’s a video and generate an embedded video preview control on the website (the little video box built in to the site) based on what type of video it is (the site knows the difference in a quicktime and windows media video, for example). That way anyone can watch the video on the site itself… however if you’d rather download it directly to your harddrive, there’s a link for that as well. If you upload a program for example, the view page just has a direct download link with no previews of any kind. It’s smart.

Another cool part of Blink File is the ability to email files to someone else. On the homepage, when you use the right-side form, it’ll upload a single file and send the recipient a very nice looking HTML email with a link to the download page. If it’s an image you’re sending them, it’ll even include a thumbnail of the full-sized image in the email itself. The verbage of the email is also programmed to be intelligent and dynamic to ensure it never ends up in the spam folder.

Now the downside. Hosting files with an unlimited size, no user quotas, unlimited downloads, etc. can hurt bandwidth and server harddrive space. You guys know me pretty well, and you know I hate advertising on community-focused websites unless I absolutely have to, which is why United Bimmer still doesn’t have any advertising (sponsors don’t count, I’m talking like google adwords or something) after being around for over a year with total bandwidth bills in the thousands. However, I unfortunately had to add Adbrite ads to Blink File because of it’s unusally expensive setup. They’re not very bad and only appear on the view-download page… no where else on the site, though I do still allow direct hotlinking for files under 1MB (if you try to hotlink a file over 1MB, it just redirects you to the view page where you can download it). Sorry about that.

Anyway, I think Blink File turned out great and if you guys have any suggestions or find any bugs in it, let me know. Thanks!

Last post I covered the technical / geeky side of car-wallpapers.net. Now what you guys are probably more interested in, widescreen support. I’ve done a bit of research on different resolutions and aspect ratios of widescreen monitors, and decided the best move forward is going to be redesigning the auto-resizing engine of the site based around aspect ratios, rather than hardcoded sizes. I also realized (in math and theory first, but then looked and saw in practicality) 1280×1024 is a different aspect ration than the standard 4:3 resolutions (such as 1024×768), and as such, most 1280×1024 images are stretched and distorted. 1280×1024 is unique as XSGA, and while it’s the default size for many LCDs, it breaks the rules of standard aspect ratio practices. I’m probably going to have to keep it in the 4:3 ratio bank and deal with the distortions unless someone has a better suggestion. Anyway, my plan for revising the uploads auto-resizing system is to, rather than create a static set of accepted resolutions, create a static set of accepted ratios, then check the uploaded image’s ratio against that static list, and confirm it’s larger than 800×600 overall. At that point, the system will automatically flag it as widescreen (if it is) on the view page, and automatically generate new wallpapers on a simple algorithmic step down, continuing recursively until breaking when the size drops below 800×600. This would allow you to upload a 1600×1200 and generate all the standard 4:3 background images, as well as uploading a 1920×1200 and stepping all the way down the widescreen list. When it’s rewritten, it will probably only support 3:2 (only because Apple went and changed things with Powerbooks), 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10. I was considering adding support for HDTVs and projectors (for the higher-income geeks), however I think that would be in vein, and add more junk to the galleries than anything else. I’m going to do a bit more research on this over the next week and ensure I’m not missing something so I can develop it correctly the first (or second, if your a pessimist) time. I’d appreciate any suggestions, comments, or ideas on this. Thanks!

I just added a few more categories to car-wallpapers.net, per the request of members:

-Mazda
-Koenigsegg
-Nissan
-Other

Anything other makes should go in the Other category, and after enough of one make accumulates, I’ll create a category for that make and move them all over.

Yesterday at this time, car-wallpapers.net had about 6 unique visitors in the logs. Me and a few people I asked for suggestions from during the development. Today was the official launch, and we had well over 1,200 unique visitors from all around the world (not just US). Also today over 200 wallpapers were submitted by members, over 300 tags saved, and almost 1,000 downloads. Not a bad start.

I have had an overwhelming number of requests for widescreen support however. Does anyone off hand know the standand wide-screen resolutions?

I’ve also integrated it with United Bimmer, eliminating the old gallery we used to support.

However I am actually thinking about renaming it already. Car-wallpapers.net sounds too cookie-cutter. I’m thinking autobackgrounds.com or something like that.

In response to many people’s suggestions, I’ve added an Aston Martin, Lotus, Maserati, and Subaru category to car-wallpapers.net. I also went through the tag system and hardened the security, as one forum member explained an exploit he found in it.

We’ve had almost 600 unique visitors in the past hour or two, so hopefully some of the visitors will begin posting new wallpapers and giving back to the site.

Googling around for wallpapers, I don’t think ANY site is doing what I developed. I might even go as far as to say, this could be the single most advanced wallpaper gallery on the internet, hah. I haven’t found one close.

Anyway, check this out:

http://www.car-wallpapers.net

I’ve just finished developing this from the ground up. It’s a wallpaper gallery that’s completely member-run, without all the flashy ads, popups, and deceptive links of other wallpaper galleries. Anyone can upload and submit a wallpaper, and it goes through a period of pending addition. During this limbo period, people can thumbs up or reject it. If the wallpaper is given enough approvals, it’s automatically moved to the correct category and indexed in the database. If it receives enough reject votes before it’s added, the uploaded wallpaper is automatically deleted, and all data related to it purged from the system… never reaching it’s category (exploring the website will help clarify this, or read the further description here).

Another cool thing on uploading: say you upload a 1280×1024 wallpaper. As soon as you submit it, the system will automatically generate additional wallpapers for the resolutions 1024×768 and 800×600, the two steps below the size you uploaded. If you upload a 1600×1200 (max supported), it generates copies for all the resolutions. This adds more choices for the user. Also when uploading a wallpaper, the image’s size are checked strictly against standard wallpaper sizes, so small or oddly shaped images will never clutter the system.

Now, I’ve coded a complete tagging system and implemented it on the wallpapers, very similar to the tagging systems of Technorati, del.icio.us, and digg.com (as well as countless others like netvouz, blinklist, simply, shadows, etc). When you view a wallpaper, for example (http://www.car-wallpapers.net/view-wallpaper-22.html), you will notice on the bottom middle the tags the wallpaper is marked with. Anyone can add new tags, and through the edit mode (button below the bottom right corner of the wallpaper thumbnail), people can issue votes to delete tags. Tagging is great because it connects wallpapers with similar features. For example you can click on the M3 tag of that example and see all the other M3 wallpapers in the system, bringing up the search results from that tag. Then you can change the drop-down to filter by category within the tag search. For example, when you’re viewing all M3s (http://www.car-wallpapers.net/tags-M3.html), you can change the drop down from “Show All” to “BMW”, and only see the M3′s in the BMW category (this is more appropriate for cross-make tags, such as convertible), or you can change the tag to “Girls and Cars”, and see all wallpapers containing a girl posing with an M3. If you’ve never used tags before on another website, play around with them on here, as they’re quite useful.

Now the cool part, navigation. When you click on BMW on the left navigation menu, for example, you see 5-10 submenu items that appear below it (e36, e46, m3, z4, etc). These are not hard-coded, but completely dynamic. When you click on BMW, the system goes through and looks at every BMW wallpaper in the gallery, and analyzes all the tags. It then chooses a handful of the most popular tags (algorithmic), and lists those below the Make as suggested subcategories. This setup is great because say someone logs on and uploads 150 wallpapers of the new M6. After the system detects enough popularity of that tag, it’ll automatically add M6 to the submenu below BMW, so people can go straight there.

And also, this site is extremely search engine friendly and optimized, so as soon as it starts gaining some popularity, search engines will love it.

Keep in mind, the site just was finished this afternoon, so there may be a bug or two (if you find anything, let me know), however so far it seems pretty bulletproof.

The next step is to grow the database, so if you guys have any great wallpapers sitting around on your computer, please upload away! We need to bulk up a bit now (however make sure it doesn’t already exist in the system before you upload). As soon as it matures a bit, I’d like to replace the UB wallpaper gallery with this one.

Let me know your thoughts and opinions! I need some feedback!

Thanks guys!

I have been reading people’s blogs for years, but ever since my anti-live journal campaign, I haven’t had one myself.

One reason I’d like to start one now though, is to discuss the e-happenings of me. I’m not going to use it as a diary, but more as an annoucement board for any projects that I’m working on. There is going to be a lot related to United Bimmer, of course, but also just my general commentary on the news.

But enough with that, if you wish, read it and find out for yourself.