Category5 Technology TV - Online Image Compression to Speed Up Your Web Site

Online Image Compression to Speed Up Your Web Site

S05E46
August 7, 2012

Robbie and Christa take a look into the Web Developers' Toolkit to see how to compress an image to save bandwidth and improve your site's response time.

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This episode is sponsored in part by: Netflix, Eco Alkalines and Cordery Electric.

Topics Covered:

Robbie Ferguson and Christa Wells present from the Category5 studios in Barrie, Ontario.
Christa is done school in two weeks.
Category5 Technology TV was featured in the Haliburton Highlander newspaper and on Canoe FM.
{play 6:17}Christa Wells states publicly that she will "maybe" open a Twitter account. A glimmer of hope for Twitter users who are Christa fans?
Greetings to viewers in the chat room.
{play 10:30}Viewer Questions.
Viewer Comment: I can't help but send another testimonial. What a beautiful web site! Well done. I find your anti-spam method on the "Ask a Question" page. It's a very idiot-proof method.
Viewer Question: On Episode 252 you looked at the KeePassX software to rememember my passwords. What do I do for new web sites and how do I generate strong passwords?
Creating strong passwords with safepasswd.com.
Generating extremely strong (more than 300-bit) passwords using KeePassX on Linux.
Viewer Comment: I enjoy watching your show on a number of devices, including my new Aios! I couldn't get it on Tivo, but I contacted them and they've since added Category5 TV to the Tivo service. See: cat5.tv/tivo
Robbie talks about the new Aios firmware which is faster, sleeker and more feature-packed than the stock firmware.
Why Category5 was removed from Tivo a while ago.
Thank you to viewers who have shown their support for the show with a financial donation this week.
Viewer Question: I've switched from Ubuntu to Xubuntu. Now, I cannot get HDMI 5.1 surround sound working. In Ubuntu it worked fine, but in Xubuntu only the front left and right are playing. How do I fix this?
- Try this thread on askubuntu.com.
In the near future, Category5 will be using TeamViewer to conduct remote support sessions with viewers during the live show.
Viewer Question: In a previous episode, you had mentioned an easy way to edit id3 tags on MP3 files. How do I find out what episode that was on?
- Note: This was Episode 218.
Using the Category5 "Search Our Network" feature to find episodes or pages within our network.
{play 29:57}Top Stories from the Category5.TV Newsroom.
{play 35:51}Using the GiMP (free download) to add a logo to a wall behind your subject in a photo.
- Zooming in the GiMP
- Using the marquee (Free Select) tool to trace your subject
- The reason GiMP's free select tool is better than Photoshop's
- Creating a layer mask from your selection
- Resizing your image for web using the GiMP
{play 45:37}Using an online tool from Robbie's Web Developer Toolkit to make your images smaller (in KB) without losing much (if any) quality to improve the performance of your web site or blog.
Viewer Question: How was the end of your vacation?
{play 52:15}Viewer Question: Has Christa backed up her Mac?
Robbie gives Christa a reality check with regards to her backup process, which currently involves storing single copies of files on an external hard drive and then backing up to DVD every 6 months or so.
How Robbie uses his Pogoplug device to backup his files off-site.
Robbie's so particular about his backups that he had 3 copies of everything even when he was on vacation.
Important food for thought about your backups.