Background Image Generator

Background Image Generator by SiteOrigin is a good resource if your looking for a basic seamless image. Make your images POP by using a simple pattern image generator.

This is not only good on websites, you can also use this as background in graphic designs.

There are 296 pattern and 42 Blend Modes. Giving lots of different ways to create different style and color patterns.

Website Description

http://bg.siteorigin.com/

Samples Using OmniGraffle

engfto.com Text Effects

engfto.com is a great website to animate your text images. There are all sorts of creative effect to make your text POP. For starters, on the homepage, there are 43 general styles to pick from. Within each style, you have the flexibility to change all sorts of options.

If you want to brighten up a chatroom or a social media comment, this is the place to get it done.

Tip: You have a lot of flexibility to change the way the graphic design. I would suggest spending time using the site. While the default options are pretty cool, you can certainly spice things up to your needs with just a simple change here and there.

Website Description

http://engfto.com/

There is no cost to use this site and many images are available as animated GIF or HTML5 effects.

Sample Effects

Here are just some of the cool effects that I was able to generate:

Embossed Label

Embrossed Labels is a quick way to generate labels online. You can use the graphic for any purpose.

This is a unique way to communicate a message on a Blog or Social Media.

Description from the Website

Embossedlabels

Sample Design Ideas

These labels are perfect for displaying short text in the graphic form. You can combine labels with interesting graphics layouts.

QR Code

QR Code Monkey is a fast easy way to generate QR codes. People can scan the code to get more information about a product or to visit your website.

Website Product Description

https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/

Cool Use of a QR code

Do you have company over your house that wants to get on your WiFi? Want to keep your WiFi access point secret?

Easy, simply create a mini-poster with the QR code for people to scan. Hang the poster where people can see it. When they scan the QR code it automatically connects that device to the WiFi access point with the WiFi password.

How cool is that!

Now you can have some complex password and not have to worry about someone incorrectly typing the password.

Simply scan the QR code and they are online. Works well with laptops that have a camera too. Apple iOS users can use the camera app

This is a good idea for doctor offices, gymnastics waiting areas, bars etc. Just about any place that wants to promote Free WiFi..

Now people can get online without typing in some highly encrypted password.

Deposit Photos

If your looking for great stock photos or vector images - Deposit Photo is the way to go. You can find lots of great graphics and ideas.

These files aren't free, you need to buy a package to download the files. They often run a special promotional deal where you can download 100 files for $100. It's a great deal since the 100 credits don't expire.

If you're really into Deposit Photo, you can subscribe to their services - there's a monthly and a yearly plan.

From their Website

depositphotos.com

You can find great Christmas graphics, images for invitations, infographic designs or graphics for blogs.

I have found that some designs from Creative Market are also available on Deposit Photo. Instead of paying $8, I paying $1 for virtually the same graphic design.

Get Started

Check out their site and search for images to see what they have in their library. See if it meets your image demands.

camelcamelcamel

camelcamelcamel is a great site to find out if your getting the best deal on a product on Amazon.com. Simply enter the product name or Amazon URL and it will display the product price history for any duration.

Website Description

https://camelcamelcamel.com/

The website will also display the current top Amazon price drops and the most popular products on Amazon.com.

This is a great site for anyone looking to get the best deal on Amazon.com

Spell with Flickr

Spell with Flicker is a cool service where it searches Flickr for the letters of the word that you want to spell. This is pretty cool for a social media post to highlight a name or word.

If you don't like a particular letter simply click on it to get another design style.

How it All came about

http://metaatem.net/words/

Sample Designs

Here are some cool designs that you can create with Spell with Flickr.

Dummy Image Generator

Sometimes you need a placeholder image for testing functionality or for as a template to build around. Dummy Image Generator is a great place to create a basic placeholder image.

Basic Concept

The URL generates the image. Which makes it easy to create images. You simply pass through the dimensions of the image and any color or text that you want to be displayed.

https://dummyimage.com/

Five Samples

Here are a few links to practical Dummy Images

• Facebook Ad Size - perfect size for Facebook ads.
• Google Display Ad Size - Considering advertising on the Google Display Network? Use this as a starting point.
• 16:9 format for a standard Website - Good for displaying an image perfectly in any platform.
• Nice Slack image size - ideal size for Slack.
• Album Art size - quickly create an album art placeholder. Perfect when your sick of the default album art.

memegenerator.net

Meme are captioned photos that are intended to be funny. Usually two lines of text with a reaction image in the background.

Over the past few years, there has been a few photos that have become standard designs for memes.

One of the best places to quickly create a meme is memegenerator.net, they have all the popular meme images. You have the option of uploading your own photo.

Description from memegenerator.net

memegenerator.net

You can search the memegenerator.net database of creations done in the past.

Sample MEMEs

Here are some sample images created using the meme generator.net:

Photofunia

Photofunia is a really cool site to add some effects to any picture. If you want to add a bit of creativity to your otherwise boring photos.

Sketch, Pencil Drawing, and Watercolor are great effects to add to ordinary photos. They are great for social media profile photos. With photofun.com you can make it look awesome.

Description from their Website

photofunia.com

There are 568 effects that you can apply! Wow! That lots of cools ways to spice up a photo or message. You don't always need a photo too, there are plenty of designs where text is the key graphic element.

New designs are added every week! Check out the blog for updates. Download the iOS app to use pictures you take with your camera.

Sample Designs

Here is just a small sample of some of the cool things you can do with PhotoFun. Since the website is 100% free, I would highly encourage you to head over to photofunia.com and check out some cool designs.

hotsheet.com

HotSheet.com is what Yahoo.com use to be - a resource to the best sites on the internet. It's a great place to go to find sites in just about any category.

Websites are nicely grouped into various categories such as News and Sports, Entertainment, finance, home life and more. It's a good way to expand your Internet Horizon. The nice thing is that the list is small and practical so you won't be inundated with lots of links.

hotsheet.com

Description from their site:

Certificate Magic

Certificate Magic is a quick way to create an Online Certificate. Simply select from several popular design choices and then add your text.

CertificateMagic.com

You can use it to create Certificate of Appreciation or Accomplishments for taking your training.

It's also a fun way to lighten the mood - Give a Certificate to someone who just microwaved some popcorn to smell up the entire office. Not working from home today - congratulate them on showing up in the office!

Certificate Magic is a fun way to create Certificates - and it's free!

Check out these Examples

Internet Speed Test

Google has a cool built in Internet Speed Test. Simple go to Google.com and search for Internet Speed Test.

Google's Internet Speed Test

The complete test is actually run by the Measurement Lab (M-Lab). They are a partnership between New America's Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University's PlanetLab and other partners.

Speed Limit 700 Mbps

The speed test max out at 700 Mbps, so if you have a really fast bandwidth, your test results will not be accurate. Google Fiber has speeds of 700 Mbps. 1 GB Ethernet, OC-48 Carrier, and 10 GB Ethernet are all faster than 700 Mbps.

Wireless Bandwidth 802.11ac and 802.11ad are faster than 700 Mbps but if you don't have the external bandwidth to handle it, you won't see the difference. These are great if you have home cloud storage.

IFTTT Weather Information

Have you checked out IFTTT yet? It's a cool service that allows communication between Internet services.

From the IFTTT Website:

IFTTT Sample Results

I setup the following rule on August 25, 2016:

This was configured check the temp in Framingham, Massachusetts at 3 pm every day and put the data on Google Sheets.

From that Data, I was able to get the following information:

Coldest Days		Warmest Days
December 28, 2017	11	June 12, 2017	95
January 7, 2017	19	May 18, 2017	94
March 4, 2017	19	June 13, 2017	93
March 11, 2017	19	May 17, 2017	91
January 9, 2017	20	July 19, 2017	90

Average Temperature in Framingham was 58.76 degrees.

Weather Chart

I was also able to create this Weather graph to see how the temp changed throughout the year in Framingham.

Click on image for a larger version.

Setup your IFTTT Chart

On this New Years Eve Weekend, set up your own chart and have it run every day. You don't have to worry about it running. Then next winter you can open up the data and Google and look at the data.