Franchu’s Lair

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
Dalai Lama ’Instructions for Life’

The seven deadly sins of meltdown

La imagen anterior resume bastante bien las causas de la crisis (de arriba a abajo y de izquierda a derecha):

• Envidia
• Gula: “Home Equity Line Credit” -> Crédito avalado por el valor de la casa.
• Avaricia & Lujuria
• Pereza: “Regulations” -> Legisladores/Organismos reguladorres
• Soberbia: “His fault” -> Su culpa
• Ira: “Bailout” -> Planes de rescate de los gobiernos; “401k” -> Planes de pensiones

En pocas palabras, la gente se muere de envidia por tener lo que tiene el vecino, y vive por encima de sus posibilidades hipotecándose hasta las cejas. Los banqueros, corredores de bolsa y demás prestidigitadores del dinero se frotan las manos con las obscenas cantidades de dinero que manejan. Los organismos de control se hacen los tontos porque la economía va viento en popa (o eso parece). Cuando todo se destapa y se descubre el truco de los magos, la gente solo sabe echarse la culpa los unos a los otros sin asumir su parte de culpa. Y al final del ciclo están los ciudadanos otra vez, que no entienden porqué el gobierno tiene que pagar para rescatar empresas y bancos, y que ven como sus ahorros desaparecen de los bancos.

Yesterday my friend Filip asked me why I had decided to start posting my pictures in Flickr instead of continuing with Picasa. As I had to google a bit to take the decision a year ago, I decided now it was a good time to share my rationale with you in case it might be useful for you.

I changed because I ran out of space on Picassa and having to pay the Flickr option was cheaper at that time (unlimited space with the Flickr Pro account vs. pay per GB scheme that Picassa uses). As I was planning to upload many photos (in high resolution) in the long run Picassa would have ended up being more expensive

And now that the rationale is more or less sketched, let’s put some numbers to it.

Flickr Pro Account Store:

• Unlimited upload
• 1 year – 24.95$
• 2 years – 47.99$

Picasa Web Account Store:

• 10 GB ($20.00 USD per year)
• 40 GB ($75.00 USD per year)
• 150 GB ($250.00 USD per year)
• 400 GB ($500.00 USD per year)

With these parameters for my usage, I estimated I would run over the 10 GB limit in one year or two if I upload a selection of my photos in high resolution, as I plan to use these services as an online backup for my photos. It is important to note that the 10GB is the total size of your account and not the quota that you can add to it every year! Therefore in the long term, as you keep uploading photos you will be forced to move into the 40 GB plan which is clearly more expensive than Flickr.

If you plan to upload small or medium sized photos, or not many of them, then Picasa might be a good choice for you, but if you plan to make a heavy use of the account, Flickr is your best bet.

In the meantime, if you want to browse around both platforms to compare their functionalities, you can take a look to my galleries: Franchu’s Flickr Photostream and Franchu’s PicasaWeb Gallery