~ Texts ~
This section is closed to non seekers :-)
(But see also the [specific search engines] section)
~ Images and sounds ~
[Formats]
[Finding images]
[Images tools]
[Essays]
[Sounds]
Images formats
First of all: some info about the two MAIN formats used on the
web for images: JPG vs GIF (or PNG)
While GIF is great for computer generated images with limited
palettes, JPG is far better for photographs.
It gives better quality images for the same
file size.
JPG is optimized for photographs and similar continuous tone
images that contain many, many colors. GIF compression is unkind
to such images. JPG works by analyzing images and discarding kinds
of information that the eye is least likely to notice. It stores
information as 24 bit color. The degree of compression is
adjustable. At small compression levels of photographic images, it
is very difficult for the eye to discern any difference from the
original, even at extreme magnification. Compression factors of
more than 20 are often quite acceptable. Better graphics programs,
such as Paint Shop Pro, allow you to view the image quality and
file size as a function of compression level, so that you can
conveniently choose the balance between quality and file size.
Currently, GIF and JPG are the formats used for nearly all web
images. PNG
does everything GIF does, and better, so expect to see PNG replace
GIF in the future. PNG will not replace JPG, since JPG is much
more efficient in compressing photographic images, even when set
for quite minimal loss of quality. JPG is better for archiving
images than lossless formats when
disk space is not unlimited: scanning at higher resolution and
then compressing severely results in better images.
Finding images
Search engines make it possible (though
sometimes difficult) to find textual information on the Internet,
but finding specific images can be daunting.
In order to fetch images you can either use a general search engine or use specialized search engines
or, also, use your own bots.
AltaVista allows you to search with the special search
keyword "image:". For example, image:seeker
(without "") returns Web
pages with one or more graphic files containing the word "seeker" in
the title, or words that begin with "seeker," like
"seeker4" or "seekerb".
Careful, you'll have to turn off the infamous alta's censorship filter (tracking inside your cookies).
However this method should never be used alone: for better results
you'll have to use additional searching commands to build a context for the
"seeker" image. You want some "seeker intensive" pages, therefore a
search query like the following one title:search
image:seeker would probably be more helpful.
[http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm] (The Amazing Picture Machine)
Altavista's image search
[http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?mmdo=16&stype=simage]
The following query string has already a target: "bilibin"... substitute to "bilibin"
whatever imagesquery you are interested in
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q&imgset=1&stype=simage&q=bilibin%2A&search.x=31&search.y=13&ipht=1&igrph=1&iclr=1&ibw=1&mmW=1&micat=0
| Allinone for Images browsing |
|
|
Using these sites you can also directly access images,
bypassing text indexing hits, some of these repositories are very limited, though. |
[Three
dimensional Objects Search] (and links, thanks Clancy!)
Pictureagent [pa27.zip]
: 2716159 bytes, version 2.7
Fundamental tool for usenet image retrieval, 'protected' with one of the stupidest protection
you can find around: the program carries a long hardcoded list of
invalid names (probably people that did spread their registration codes on usenet)
and cracker names like "hans die wurst", "donald ibarra", "escom/core", "iceman [ucf]" and so
on,
followed
by this silly codesnippet::41596D 8B442430 mov eax, dword ptr [esp+30]
:415971 3BF8 cmp edi, eax
:415973 757A jne 4159EF ;bad_guy_exit
:415975 85FF test edi, edi
:415977 7476 je 4159EF ;bad_guy_exit
:415979 83F801 cmp eax, 1
:41597C 7C71 jl 4159EF ;bad_guy_exit
:41597E 8D4C2410 lea ecx, dword ptr [esp+10]
:415982 C644242400 mov [esp+24], 0
and, ahem, you actually might want to 'nop' the 4159ef 'bad guy' locations :-)
When will programmers
learn
[some better tricks] to protect
their software?
- [tximasea.htm]: Of Lazyness, Greed, and Image Searching..., by
-Tx: a very good 'image searching' essay, now (April 2000) accessible (it targeted a
running context)
- [ima__sea.htm]:
Searching an image without knowing its name
(wizardry searches),
by An Argy, part of the
[essays]
You'll find some info about total recorder (an interesting tool for sound streams capture) here
~ Files ~
This section is closed to non seekers :-)
~ Citations ~
Autonomus Citations Index
researchindex direct
Blah blah: "ResearchIndex is a scientific literature digital library that aims to
improve the dissemination and feedback of scientific literature, and
to provide improvements in functionality, usability, availability,
cost, comprehensiveness, efficiency, and timeliness".
Of course, for seekers,
the whole point is just to fish some names and/or some more 'angles'
out of the web-void in order to improve their own chances in finding a
specific quarry they were already hunting. This said, believe me (and The+Owl): it would be hard to underestimate the usefulness of
this tool. Note also that ResearchIndex computes citation statistics and related documents
for all articles cited in the database,
not just the indexed articles.
Only retrieving 2000 citations. Only a fraction of citations to each article may be shown.
Order: citations weighted by the expected number for a given year.
May the Abstract be with you, oh intrepid seeker! :-)
(c) 3rd Millennium: [fravia+], all rights reserved