frequently asked questions
What is CoverPop.com?
This is a website create by Jim Bumgardner, of KrazyDad.com,
to house his experimental coverpop project. Yes, that's me.
What is a CoverPop?
A coverpop can be a unique work of art, a software toy, or a fun way to shop for stuff.
Each coverpop is an interactive mosaic, made of tiny images, such as magazine covers. These are called
"micro thumbnails". As you drag the mouse over each micro thumbnail, it pops up to a full-sized thumbnail
image, and provides some information about the item. For some coverpops, you can click again to
produce either a full-sized image, or to go to another website to learn more information about the item.
Some coverpops arrange the images by time, by price, or color. Other coverpops arrange the images into
a photomosaic.
What's the Point?
I hate this question (that is, if you are asking it rhetorically to imply that there is no point). Read Ecclesiastes.
Let's assume you actually want to know what the point is...
It has been quite obvious for some time that we are in the midst of an information explosion.
The current means we typically use for searching and browsing through visual image collections are
inadequate for large collections of images. Most large image collections support some kind of metadata search, such as a tag
search. In other cases they support browsing thru ordered lists of thumbnails (sometimes pages
and pages of them). The problem with both of these methods is that the user is distanced from
the data - you don't really get a good feel for the character of the entire dataset. The advantage
of the Coverpop interface is that the entire dataset is in front of you, and you can very quickly
target interesting areas from this "mile high" view. Another problem with most web-based interfaces is that when you
click on something, you are taken away from the search results - so you constantly have to go back and
forth, which causes context shifts. Coverpop pops images up over the existing dataset, so you can very quickly examine a large
collection. If you've used it, you know it's a lot like a very large coffee table, and that is
the intent. Coffee tables are excellent interfaces. The purpose of Coverpop is to apply this
excellent coffee table technology to the interwebs.
Where do the thumbnail images come from?
Coverpops get their thumbnail images and information from different sources, including amateur magazine collection
projects, amazon, target,
flickr, and youtube. Each
coverpop credits the source of the information on the top of the page.
Will you make a new one of THIS stuff?
I just might, if I have the time. If you know someone with an interesting collection of visual
material, contact them and let them know about the service. Don't contact me if the material
isn't yours, since I can't use other people's stuff without their permission, and I don't have
time to go hunting people down.
If you yourself maintain an interesting and comprehensive collection of visual material that is
already on the web, please DO contact me. All I need to make a coverpop is a list (typically
a CSV file). Each line should contain a URL to one of your images,
and other fields which describe the image in some way (such as title, date and other descriptive
fields). For a well organized dataset, it typically takes about the same time to make a coverpop
as it does to cook a meal.
If the collection of images is interesting and clearly a labor of love, I just might do it for free.
If you wish to profit from the interface, then so do I.
How does it work?
The mosaic image is a single JPEG image. It is produced using a Perl script written by me (Jim Bumgardner). The interface
which pops up the thumbnails was also implemented by me using Flash.
How are they made?
Here is a webpage which describes how the first coverpop was made in greater technical detail:
http://www.krazydad.com/visco/howitworks.php
How does the puzzle feature work?
The puzzle feature is a separate flash interface which uses the same background image to make a sliding puzzle.
Click on "Make a puzzle" on the menu on the right to make any coverpop into a puzzle.
What was the first Coverpop?
The first coverpop was the science fiction magazine coverpop. It used
images from the visual index of science fiction cover art, courtesy of Terry Gibbons.
Doesn't this guy have too much time on his hands?
I hear this a lot. Yes, I guess I do. Lucky me!
Can I put an amazon coverpop on my own website?
Yes you can! The affiliate page provides a set of banner-sized coverpops that
you can put on your own page. If you have an Amazon affiliate ID, you can make money from these,
as the amazon purchases which result from the ad will be credited to your account. 9/10ths of the affiliate
sales will be credited to you, and 1/10th to Jim Bumgardner.
If you are interested in running a full-sized (800 x 600) amazon coverpop on your website, and profiting
from the amazon links, contact Jim at [email protected]. Jim takes 50% of the affiliate links from
full-sized coverpops.
Ask Jim about generating customized amazon coverpops for your particular needs.
How can I be sure that the affiliate banners only credit 10% of the clicks to Jim?
It's easy to confirm this by clicking on the banner yourself, and looking at the address bar when you
get to amazon. You'll see that each link to amazon contains an affiliate link, embedded in the URL, like so:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009WPM1Q/krazydad-20
The banner ads will use the krazydad-20 affiliate id 1/10th of the time, and if you count
them on your own ad, you'll see this is the case. If you only do a few clicks, the number will
probably be below or above 1/10th, since a random number generator is used to determine when
to use the krazydad-20 id, but over time it will indeed average to 10%.
How can I learn about new additions to the coverpop site?
Jim often mentions new additions in his blog.
Why are you talking about yourself in the third person?
He doesn't know.
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