Low bandwidth travel

Whilst more and more of the world is getting wired to the broadest-band width, the places I often find myself seem to be less connected at slower rates. So here a few more tips and revisions about trying to travel and upload photos & blog.

1) Turn off automatic updates (found under control panel). This avoids a really long delay before you can even get connected.

2) Resize your photos, for blogs and to emails others, your photos only need a lower resolution and considerably smaller file size (eg 600 by 800 pixels is generally plenty) see earlier resizing post

3) Use the no frills methods, the normal flickr web portal for your web browsers is a bandwidth nightmare (I just had a week of hell trying to use flickr in indonesia, usually  waiting 10 minutes plus just to load the log in page! Other times I get a flickr is taking to long to respond message or it crashing out my net connection. You can also access flickr via the mobile portal (http://m.flickr.com/) from any computer and this is a very stripped down version. The biggest trouble for me is this portal does not have access into flickr groups. I also find that the standalone flickr uploader doesn't work on low bandwidth or from internet cafes. If it does work it takes for ever, so I end up using the http://www.flickr.com/photos/upload/ old fashion web page uploader, and patiently waiting.

4) Use offline set up and editing, there are many tools that let you set up blog posts using an off-line editor. I am using Windows Live Writer now to edit this post. Picasa lets you set up local albums of photos n your notebook and then upload them to you web album when you get a good net connection

5) Use email to upload photos. Most services. like Flickr, Photobucket and Blogger all offer email upload facilities. Some do take a while (several hours) before the updates are posted.

Finally another warning about mobile phones and global roaming. Whilst global roaming is handy for phone calls and you can get yahoo mail, gmail and even flickr tools on your mobile phone and these will be able to roam with you but check the cost before you start using them overseas (data roaming charges are normally just straight up daylight robbery).