Diptic has one of the best basic but useful wysiwyg in-app photo editing functions. Brightness, contrast, saturation, and the ability to do a mirror image and adjust the width and colour of the border.

Collage apps are rare. Great collage apps are even rarer. This is the only one you’ll ever need. A steal at $0.99.

As you’ve probably noticed, I have added Twitter updates on the top right hand box there to humanise the blog a little. ->

The default setting in Stylesheet flushed it right against the margin which is ugly and awful design.

To fix it, simply open your Design -> Theme Editor -> Stylesheet.

Look for the line: .sidebar ul

and add: padding-right: 10px;

Tweak as needed till both left and right white spaces look equidistant.

The good:

There’s seamless integration from the time you download your pics from your SD card, fast and intuitive sorting into albums, one-touch (or two if you’re fussy) editing where it also saves your original in an embedded folder within your folder, and a speedy and easy uploading within the same program with SSI (single sign in).

I love that you can make collages with one click, resize your pictures, and automate batch edits. There’s an option to keep your photos private or public, both of which you can embed in a blog or email. You can also link to your friends who have Picasa Web.

While you can do the basic and it is quite easily done, arrange photos, name them, and share them with your friends, there is much lacking in comparison to other photo sharing services out there.

The bad:

What it is lacking is a way to see which friends you emailed have viewed your pictures, a photo view that offers you a url to click right away to copy and paste into your blog, there are no communities right now, and no html or Flash widgets to add to your site.

Still, it is one of the best photo sharing services out there and best of all, it’s free. Get it today at http://picasa.google.com.

Here’s a great suggestion from the WordPress Codex. In the stylesheet, paste this:

img.left { padding: 4px; margin: 0 7px 2px 0; display: inline; }

And in your markup code in whichever file you’re editing, e.g. About, in my case, code it like this:

<img src=http://www.whereveryourpicis.com/pic.gif class=left>

Tweak the padding and margins till they align nicely. And you’re done!

Your brand, and I may cite John Chow, who successfully marketed himself as a “dot com mogul” alluding to wealth and prosperity, is the most important thing about your blog. That makes people come back. At one glance they recognise what you stand for, and if that resonates with you, you will most likely go.

And what is my brand? It is:

1. Good, clean, usable information design from a programmer/information architect/producer who has worked in the industry for over 8 years, rode the boom and the bust and stayed till I decided to quit my job to stay home and raise my son (and that’s another blog).

2. Straight-talking advice and reviews from real user testing in real life situations.

3. Some fun and entertainment (from a pro writer too – that’s my other specialty so I never starve) while we’re at it.

The second, your design. Because that is the first thing a first time visitor to your site sees. And that is what I am having trouble with today.

Because we are still in beta, and I’ll confess, I am still pondering the branding since this idea to go domainy was sparked during a very recent late night convo with my best friend Shen. As with the best travel plans, the most exciting way to embark on any adventure is to plunge right into it without much notice. Improvising is a real high and to be honest, it is safer than skydiving into a jungle on a moment’s notice. But I digress.

I am not a designer. I’ll state that much. I used to architect how content was to be laid out in a page and what sort of information, and how that information should be categorised and accessed and through how many paths. So all websites I designed myself are simple, clean, load quickly (for the lowest common denominator – and this is before mobile web took off), and contain very few, if any, images.

While choosing a theme, I seem to be veering toward the same, although I must say I enjoy the super high tech ones that have come my way. Still. If you like any I have chosen, feel free to say so. Meanwhile, the search continues.