[January 25th] 📰 Steve Dougherty's This Weeks News You Can Use

Published: Tue, 01/25/22

Hello,

Here are this weeks Tips, Guides &
News You Can Use.

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Lossy vs Lossless Compression: A Beginner’s Guide to Both Formats

Digital images are an inherent part of the web, and it’s hard to create any content without some media.

The humble still image is a terrific way to offer extra context to your writing.

However, an image can be enormous in file size without optimization.

Lossy vs lossless compression is a common consideration because each can reduce the size of an image, although there are quality trade-offs to consider too.

You will almost always need to apply some compression to an image.

This keeps the quality at a level you specify as acceptable while keeping file sizes down.

Choosing the right compression level will depend on your end goals and requirements.

In this guide, we will look at lossy vs lossless compression.

Throughout, we’ll talk about the process an image takes to get “into shape,” what compression is, and many other aspects of optimizing your images.

How To Find Your Niche
In 4 Easy Steps

Wondering what a niche is, and how can you find yours?

Google defines a niche as: “products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population”.

That’s a bit abstract, but the chances are that you already have a good idea of what your niche is, and you just need to put it in words.

This guide will make it easy.
Read on!

Sleep vs. Shutdown: What's Best for Your Laptop?

Is it better to shut down your computer?

Or is using sleep mode fine?

What's the best option for your laptop?

You'll agree that your laptop is a device you can't do without, so it's essential to keep it running at its optimal level.

That also includes how you power it down when not in use.

So should you let it remain in sleep mode, or is it better to shut it down altogether?

Let's explore both these low-power states and find out what's best to use and when.

HDMI vs. Mini HDMI vs. Micro HDMI: What’s the Difference?

The HDMI standard has established itself as a mainstay of the post-HD digital age.

While new versions have arrived and speeds have increased, the connectors have remained the same since their initial introduction.

So what’s the difference between standard HDMI, Mini HDMI, and Micro HDMI?

Let us have a look-see and find out.

8 Great Plugins to Add Fun to WordPress Websites

As we head into 2022, WordPress remains the most popular content management system on the Internet.

At last count, it powered 43.1% of all websites online today.

By comparison, its next closest rival, Shopify, only accounts for 4.4% of current websites.

Part of the reason for WordPress’s dominance is that it’s simple to use and almost infinitely extensible.

At the time of this writing, WordPress (dot) org had nearly 60,000 plugins available for creators to use to adapt it for almost every conceivable purpose.

That flexibility means WordPress works as well as the base for a travel blog as it does for an eCommerce website and everything in between.

When creators go looking for WordPress plugins, though, a great majority of what they’ll find are plugins designed to add useful features to their website or to make their job as site administrators easier.

But those aren’t the only type of plugins available.

Some are designed just to add a little bit of fun to the mix, instead of being “useful”.

And those types of plugins don’t get nearly enough attention.

To remedy that, here are eight of the best fun WordPress plugins available today.