Recent Posts

11001

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 05, 2007, 05:53 PM »

as i said before
I was very impressed by this capability (in ExifPro) -

in the viewer with more than one foto displaying,
zoom (+) enlarges all photos at the same time -
if you drag one you drag them all - super for comparing details of similar photos.
- Ctrl+drag just moves one ...

  

-tomos (April 04, 2007, 02:51 AM)

Tagging from the viewer is very helpful, especially if trying to decide what to print.

At this stage
I'm also more curious about the "management" side of it -
so I'll shut up about viewers 

... and get back when I've tried a bit of cataloging & tagging

11002

Living Room / Re: engineer joke

« Last post by tomos on April 05, 2007, 04:50 AM »

Someone emailed (Hi E! ) me this about a year ago
I forwarded it to another friend who told me variations had been doing the rounds since Win95 days..

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared
the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had
kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be
driving$25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press
release stating:  If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would
all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love
this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have
to buy a new  car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.
You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the
windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you
could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would
cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you
would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was
reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on
only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning  lights would
all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed an Illegal
Oeration" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you
out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door
handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to
learn how to drive all over again  because none of the controls would
operate in the same manner as the old  car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Please share  this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate -
their  computer!

11003

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 04, 2007, 09:55 AM »

thanks for that info, Mike

I've been trying to think over the last view posts how to slip this comment in and haven't succeeded so, baldly, let me state that I still think exifPro is AMAZING. I haven't composed a coherent note to the developers yet but am off to try that right now. Because I am a lazy sod, I'll probably direct them to this thread!

-Darwin (April 04, 2007, 08:43 AM)

Yeah,
I've been thinking what i need is an ExifPro forum!

I did try contact the developer,
the email link at their website wasnt working so i sent something to info@website ...

But
I think a lot of my questions also are more general - about the benefits of cataloging,
how that relates to tagging,
how they interact (tags & catalogs)*,
whether catalogs update, etc., etc.

I have looked at ExifPro helpfile but think I'll just have to experiment at some stage & see how things work

* Previously, I vaguely thought that tagging would be universal,
but as I say above I presume you only see tagged items for current folder or catalog.

11004

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 04, 2007, 08:08 AM »

I'm going to show my ignorance & ask what the advantage of creating a "catalogue"

-me again

well I notice with tagging,
you can only show tagged files for the folder you are currently looking at.

I presume if all your files are catalogued, that limitation doesnt exist? or exists on a catalogue basis as opposed to folder basis.

It's not clear to me -
if you add images to, say, your photo-folder, will or can your "photo-folder-catalogue" be updated?
This would have a major influence on how I might create catalogues.


Also, I see you can catalogue CDs/DVDs!

I might be totally off beam but I'm wondering if the size of the files has something to do with the metadata it's trying to save???

Worth a look-see, anyway. I've no idea how to go about checking this and will wait to hear what the developer has to say. In the meantime, can anyone else who's used/using exifPro comment on the size of the database that results from indexing digital camera photos (files sizes in the 700-800KB range) using the normal thumbnail size setting (560 X 560 BOX)?

-Darwin (April 04, 2007, 01:47 AM)

I notice when you create a catalog,
under "Show Options" you can vary compression of thumbnails - could that have something to do with it?

11005

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 04, 2007, 06:52 AM »

It seems I havent created a catologue or even a thumbnails folder ?? -

I thought because ExifPro scanned my photos folder

then i clicked on a shortcut to my photos folder & it proceeded to create thumbnails for all 12,180 pictures
(I didnt know how many were there till now    ) 

-me

but
I see that its set to scan subfolders so if you select your photo folder, everything gets scanned.

But I'm still not sure what that means - does it just create temporary thumbnails?

**

I'm going to show my ignorance & ask what the advantage of creating a "catalogue" is -
is it simply to differentiate it from other catalogues?
or is it for searching reasons?
or can you only tag stuff in catalogues No, tagging works fine

I must go look in the help i think 

EDIT on looking again I guess its partly so it loads [even] quicker?

11006

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Print2Flash (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by tomos on April 04, 2007, 02:58 AM »

great review!

11007

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 04, 2007, 02:51 AM »

Darwin, where does exifpro store thumbnails -
I had a look in the usual places but couldnt find it (& it's still morning here    )
- I just found one ExifPro folder hidden in an "MiK" folder in Anwendungsdaten (I forget the english name - User, Application folders?), but its only got a text file about LightTable ???)

in the viewer with more than one foto displaying,
zoom (+) enlarges all photos at the same time -
if you drag one you drag them all - super for comparing details of similar photos.
- Ctrl+drag just moves one ...

  

11008

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 03, 2007, 01:50 PM »

tomos - exifPro installed "normally" for me! Based on your comment I created a folder called exifPro in My Documents and dropped the *.exe into it, expecting the app to run. Instead, it installed to my Program Files folder.

-Darwin (April 03, 2007, 12:27 PM)

lets see, the date is wrong here cause I just edited it - no, it is right - it was posted around half eight of an evening -
and
I haven't taken drugs in years,
honest!

Just tried to install ExifPro
and it doesnt install - it runs ...

-tomos (April 02, 2007, 01:21 PM)

I dont know,
I must have been verrrry tired & forgotten the bit where it actually installed    

11009

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 03, 2007, 11:26 AM »

Wow, exifPro IS fast!  That's pretty cool.  I don't know how much it will slow down once it has thousands of pictures, but it's definitely faster than any other application I've tried.  It seems to have a lot of nifty features also, at first glance  ..........

-superboyac (April 03, 2007, 10:59 AM)

nice, innit !?!

also nice to hear it's much quicker than Lightroom 

I have no experience of tagging
(apart from gmail - which has given me a taste for it)
so I would be curious to hear what you think of how tagging is implemented - will try it myself too ...

Re the Viewer side of things -
could anyone compare the screenshot of ExifPro viewer above  to *their* viewer & talk about pros/cons?
I've only ever used Irfan, and well Directory Opus (which has been slowing down more & more displaying thumbnails & well isn't really so good for comparing for example)

11010

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 03, 2007, 09:02 AM »

From scanning thread again, one advantage of SmartPix -

Smart Pix does read IPTC data, and can write new data to an image also.

-JeffK

-tomos (March 20, 2007, 04:04 AM)

It seems ExifPro is also IPTC compatible or whatever you'ld say



as a viewer it's wonderful - with a few caveats if that's the right expression.
Wanted to contact the authors/website but can't find any contact details.

Heres the viewer


Pros -
- You can compare up to 4 photos and have a stash of selected photos in the "Light Box" (right hand side there)
- Lots of shortcuts, e.g."B" toggles the "Preview Bar" on the top
- Fast

Cons -
- magnifying glass only works for selected picture - to change,
you have to click on a different picture, then go click on magnifying glass icon (no shortcut). Its a pain cause if you comparing photos & think you've found the best only to find it's not quite in focus...
- if you look at photos at either "end" of a folder, theres no "Back" button to get back - you have to scroll back along the preview bar (top) or go to a drop-down-list which is handy enough so long as you remember the number/name ... (don't  know do any viewers do that?)
- can't find any option to open file in an external editor
[EDIT - Alt + Enter will open file in external editor]

These are first impressions of it as a viewer. I like it

11011

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on April 03, 2007, 03:16 AM »

but which ones     

11012

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on April 03, 2007, 02:33 AM »

Thanks Cynic,
I missed that.

WinCatalog "Standard" (non-free version)
has following advantages -

-Support of ZIP, RAR, SFX RAR and multipart RAR archives.
-Support of non-file items: it is enabling you to catalog your books, videos or even postage stamps and coins!
-Ability to manage your collection between virtual folders using Drag'n'Drop.
-(NEW) Powerful search functionality: ability to use AND, NOT, OR operators and wildcards.
-Ability to find duplicates by all or any of the search criteria.
-Ability to generate reports.
-Ability to generate HTML reports for sending to someone, publishing on the Web or printing.

11013

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 01:21 PM »

Just tried to install ExifPro
and it doesnt install - it runs ...

then i clicked on a shortcut to my photos folder & it proceeded to create thumbnails for all 12,180 pictures
(I didnt know how many were there till now    ) 
fairly quickly too it done it

but it definitely caught me off guard - I've no idea where the thumbnail cache is but sure I'll find it (well I hope so).
Wonder will it still work if I move the programme..

Anyways, it is very fast, very pleasant that way.
I can compare 2 photos in the viewer, has a magnifying glass.
I'm happy so far...

11014

General Software Discussion / Batch image optimisation from Ashampoo

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 03:55 AM »

Ashampoo Photo Optimiser

Features at a glance:
» Photo optimisation with just a click of the mouse.
» Fully automatic improvement of contrast, brightness, colour
   intensity, sharpness
» Picture preview possibility to undo the picture optimisation any time
» The untouched original remains as a backup
» Batch processing of all pictures in one folder is possible
» Turn picture to right or left

Quoted price is $14.99

Maybe there's other programmes do this?

There was some thread somewhere lately where people were looking to optimise scans/photos of documents - I've no idea would this be good for that, but if it were    it would be good - wouldn't it?

11015

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for XP

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 03:45 AM »

does WDS keep indexing your drive(s)
or
can you tell it to do it -

• manually
• or, e.g. at a particular time each day/week/whatever

11016

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review: TimeKeeper v2.20c by TSM, Kevin Pluck, Crypto-Central

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 03:38 AM »

Ampa
how did you get

NOTE: All these annoyances can be removed if you apply for a generous 2 month Demo Registration (via the About box)

I tried to email them but got no answer - maybe I misunderstood your directions?

It would be nice to be able to try it out without limitations ..

11017

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: EX Cat - a strightforward reliable catalogue program

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 03:30 AM »

hi dalchina,

I added that to the List of disc cataloguers

Any chance of a screenshot of search window?

Are you looking for a new programme because "No mp3 tags, doesn't look inside mp3's."
or is it for some other reason ?

11018

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 03:25 AM »

Added EZ Cat
up to 25 now ...

11019

General Software Discussion / Re: Need Virtual Desktop software recommendations

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 03:16 AM »

thankls for that Curt 

EDIT:- "thankles" sounds good, but i mean thanks!
(they're now saved to surfulator)

11020

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 02:37 AM »

Bits du Jour (http://www.bitsdujou...og2/wordpress/?cat=7) has an upcoming discount on WinCatalog (http://www.wincatalog.com/) -  DC forum search reveals no mention of this cataloger - does anyone have experience with it?

-mwb1100 (April 01, 2007, 09:35 PM)

dunno
from their website
http://www.wincatalo....com/standard.html#1

Ability to catalog any storage devices accessible from Windows environment.
Ability to catalog individual folders on disks.
Automatic extraction of archive file descriptions when scanning a disk.
Scanning archives contents and adding archives to the catalog as folders.
Support of ZIP, RAR, SFX RAR and multipart RAR archives.
Automatic extraction of mp3, html file descriptions when scanning a disk.
Retrieval of Audio CD track names from Internet CD database (freedb.org).
Support of non-file items: it is enabling you to catalog your books, videos or even postage stamps and coins!
Individual comments for each item: disk, folder or file.
Ability to manage your collection between virtual folders using Drag'n'Drop.
Each item is associated with a set of keywords to increase the search relevancy.
The catalog can be searched by file name, comment and keywords, date and size.
(NEW) Powerful search functionality: ability to use AND, NOT, OR operators and wildcards.
Ability to search the entire catalog or an individual disk.
Ability to find duplicates by all or any of the search criteria.
When the disk data is updated, the previously entered comments and keywords are preserved.
Ability to delete from the catalog the unnecessary files and folders.
Handy management of the lent disks.
Ability to export and import parts of collection and the list of contacts.
Ability to generate reports.
Ability to generate HTML reports for sending to someone, publishing on the Web or printing.
Ability to export any folder to .CSV file (comma separated values) for opening catalog in MS Excel or other applications.
Ability to automatically open the last catalog when the application is started.

it's been updated regularly for the last few years

when's it on BitsduJour ? - Just checked - Thurs April 5th
EDIT: added it to list above

11021

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on April 02, 2007, 02:24 AM »

I am, for several years, in the lookout of a cataloger with indexing capability (something similar to the desktop search tools). I use X1 for indexing my desktop. Unfortunately, it does not support disc spooling.  Any recommendations

-ganrad (April 01, 2007, 08:43 PM)

do you mean indexing of contents of files as well?
If not,
from what I've heard, Locate 32 would do the job -
but it would be nice if someone could confirm that 

11022

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Ashampoo Burning Studio 2007

« Last post by tomos on March 30, 2007, 03:52 PM »

Okay,
I got version 6 at the time of this thread.
I haven't used it much - tried one multisession DVD - it wouldn't update & I sort of gave up there.
In fairness I should try again.
Anyone else had problems with it?

I got newsletter mail to say there's a new version - $19.99* for the update (!) ("Special Offer", it's $39.99 from release date)

Video DVDs
Create Video DVDs from normal movie files.
Almost all formats are supported (WMV, AVI, MPEG, ASF, ...).
Add amazing looking animated DVD menus.
They not only look impressive, but they also allow you to directly choose the movie to play on your DVD-Player.
Many animated themes for the menu.
When you change the theme you instantly see an animated preview of the new one.
You can fit much more than 120 minutes of video on one DVD.
Burning Studio will automatically adjust the encoding quality according to the available space on the disc.

Create modified copies
Create modified copies of your existing CD/DVD/Blu-rays.
Those are similar to a normal copy, except that prior to burning you can add and remove files and folders. These changes will then automatically be incorporated when the copy is made.
Modified copies of bootable discs will stay bootable!
So you can now easily add fil to a bootable disc.

For experts
Allows you to directly change file systems
UDF 1.02-2.6, ISO 9660, Joliet are supported.
Make discs bootable and specify the bootimage.

Improved backup and restore files
Specify at what size backup files will be split up.
Select files and folders that you want to restore.

Improved Audio-CD ripping
Store your audio tracks as MP3 files.

EDIT *for that $19.99 price they do throw an extra copy of version 6

11023

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on March 30, 2007, 03:32 AM »

cheers Lanux128 

Peter, that sounds very good (WhereIsIt)

I'm in the market myself for a programme (how i started on this thread ..)
I guess i should have a closer look.

I know a couple of DCers chose WhereIsIt after a bit of debate in this thread Re: Your experiences with disc catalogers and most wanted/used features

If you get a chance have a look at the last post there, there's some comments about version 3.73
It's up to 3.83 now so it would be interesting to hear your opinion on the comments there ..

11024

General Software Discussion / Re: backup question: how to backup/sync my HD and USB HD #1 to USB HD #2?

« Last post by tomos on March 29, 2007, 12:23 PM »

have a look at this thread -
theres recommendations for NHbackup which recognises usb drive from serial number or by drive.
https://www.donation...30.msg55451#msg55451

11025

General Software Discussion / Re: A programmers notepad w/ syntax highlighting

« Last post by tomos on March 28, 2007, 02:51 PM »

If only I could find a color scheme which resembles the old green text with black background like on older terminals for it.

You shall customize as you wish within five sixtieths of the hour and it shall be well

= Settings > Style Configurator if i understand correctly