I recently had to modify an online slide show for a site I was working on and had the pleasure of working with a shareware program called Slide Show Pro.
This software has a Flash based (.swf file) player that interacts with a standard XML file and a folder of images to create a very classy looking player that can be easily modified by the user.
I liked it so much I went and purchased the Flash version yesterday for the reasonable price of $29. It was easy to purchase with my PayPal balance or you can use a credit card.
You install it into Flash and then it is available as a component from within Flash. You just drag an instance of the player onto the stage and size it how you want. There are dozens of options available to customize the player via a simple drop down menu interface and the changes show up live on the stage.
Making a folder of images interact with the player and the XML file is super easy and they have video help and instructions for the whole operation. You don’t even have to re-size the images before making it because the player adjusts all the images to the size of player you set.
I really love this program. Please check out the site and try the demo if you want to play around without committing to the $29 price.
I have already used it today on a site I am designing and it saved me many hours that I would have spent setting up a gallery by hand.
If you try one yourself, give me a link to the player so we can check out your example.
Just a little follow up to Hotel WiFi does not always work when you try to work remotely about the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio.
While we were there the customer service was really poor, but since getting our bill they have messed up even more and have not been nice.
While checking out, my wife gave them her work tax exempt certificate, they honored it and gave her the bill with no tax. It just cleared our bank a few days ago and suddenly was $79 higher than the bill! They had added the tax back.
Ruthie had to spend a bunch of her valuable time calling and emailing the hotel, dealing with a rude desk clerk who did not want to help resolve the issue. She finally got through to the General Manager, who took care of the problem (we got a credit issued, but have yet to see it hit the account), but was not too friendly and emailed her the credit, which came without even a “sorry” note or anything.
This was a really neat historic hotel behind the Alamo with a really cool suite. The service was way below what we expected though and San Antonio has way too many other nice hotels for us ever to spend a dime in this joint again. I have to say – avoid The Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio, TX – bad service for $159/night and the $24/day parking was way too high.
Well, my intentions to get a lot of work done was there, however the WiFi was not.
Let’s just call this test #2 of working freelance remotely.
I just spent 3 days in San Antonio, TX with my wife for a work conference she was attending. I was going to get a lot of freelance web design work done from the hotel during the 3 days while she was off learning about new things going on with cities and municipalities at the Texas Municipal League Conference.
Enter crappy WiFi service at the Emily Morgan 4 star hotel we were at. The suite we had was big and beautiful with the Alamo just across the street. If only I had been able to get some work done!
From 1-2 bars out of 4 bars to 0 bars (most of the time the service was just not even there) it was very frustrating.
The first day I was only able to get about 15 minutes of actual work done. The hotel staff were total ding-dongs…useless at helping. I called the company that provided the WiFi service (they were in Georgia) and they got it back for 10 minutes for it only to drop off again.
They tried to tell me that someone in the hotel was using all the bandwidth and that was the reason for my lack of a good signal. Hah! Call that the answer they give customers as a stock answer. I had no signal at all, not a weak one.
The second day I just grabbed my trusty Apple Powerbook laptop and walked along the river until I found a very nice little spot in another hotel on the riverwalk that had free WiFi, a nice quiet table with plug and even a coffee/tea/soda station right next to me. I spent the afternoon here and was very happy and actually got work done.
We will stay at that hotel next time in San Antonio.
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