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5951

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual Drive Pro

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 12:37 PM »

Uniblue will offer you additional 15% rebate if you abort the purchase before its too late

 

I thought I was the only one that had noticed vendors doing this... I've taken advantage of the same tactic when purchasing from Nuance (Digital River?) and Tenebril. Nuance gave me a further $20 off and Tenebril gave me a free copy of their StickyNotes programme.

Another tactic I've noted is that some developers offer a significant discount when you uninstall a trial of their product - at one time Actual was offering a full 50% off the price of their products via a link displayed in a webpage that popped up after uninstall. It's subsequently gone down to 20%... No, I didn't take advantage of their offer (not that I don't like their products, I just don't need them!). Good to know...

5952

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 10:59 AM »

Hi Superboyac - that's a very nice summary of recent developments on this thread. I've invited the developers of both exifPro and Photo Collector to join the conversation, so I hope we'll be welcoming one or both of them soon!

As an aside, as alluded to by Superboyac, this thread has evolved significantly from MrCrispy's original post - I hope he doesn't mind!

5953

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 08:43 AM »

Hi guys -

tomos, the catalogues are stored diffferently by both programmes. Photo Collector creates a folder in my documents called "Photo Collector" and places subfolders in this, one of which contains all of the thumbnails it generates. The folder also contains *.phc files, which are the catalogues themselves, and subfolders called templates and  backups (where backups of the catalogue files are contained - I moved mine to a different location). My catalogue file is 9.8MB and holds info on 14GB (19000 images) of pictures. The thumbnails subfolder is 425MB. exifPro creates a *.catalog file that it places by default in "My Documents". The files are specific to each folder or drive that you index (kind of nice) - not unlike the way WhereIsIt? catalogues media - and are self-contained, ie the index and the thumbnails are all contained in a single (wrapper?) file. I did play around with the thumbnail sizes (compression) and found that the quality of the image reproduced in exifpro's image viewer suffered noticeably as a result. NOTE: I negelected to mention earlier that the degradation was most evident in files that I had compressed in the past (e.g. I created smaller versions of jpg's to use as my screensaver) BUT that these same files do not exhibit any perceptible degradation as indexed by Photo Collector. Note, too, that my Photo Collector catalogue was created using it's low thumbnail quality setting (it only offers two, that I can see, low and high).

Jeff - thanks for checking that, it confirms, to a point, my experience in terms of cataloguing speed and size of catalogue produced.

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!

Thanks,

Mike

5954

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 01:47 AM »

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)?

5955

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 01:20 AM »

I might try that, Jeff, although I just indexed a folder with exifPro at three different settings for thumbnail generation (normal, small, and tiny) which resulted in an index that ranged from 484K to 14MB in size. Not even the thumbnails generated at the Normal setting (EDIT: 560 X 560 Box) had the resolution of the Photo Collector thumbs, which were rendered into a much smaller database. Anyway, I think I'll try contacting the developers before doing anything else.

5956

Best File/Folder Compare Tool / Re: Araxis Merge is still my favorite

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 12:34 AM »

When Beyond Compare 3 Professional is released, it's 3-way merge and in-place editing will close the gap.

Yes, but WHEN will Beyond Compare be released?! Even the lead developer holds little hope for a public beta being released on schedule (July of this year).

I'm not disputing your suggestion that it'll be a killer app; just wondering when we'll ever see it!

5957

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 12:04 AM »

Well... early days yet. I'm not giving up on it just yet. I'm going to try indexing individual folders and see where that gets me. As I said in an earlier post, it's a shame that there's no option to skip files/folders that contain errors.

PS Indexing smaller batches of files will also allow me to experiment with the thumbnail sizes!

5958

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 10:25 PM »

Jeff - just curious, how big is your database? Photo Collector has ALL my pictures (19000) indexed and is 414 MB, including the thumbnails that it generated. exifPro hasn't yet successfully indexed my pictures (keeps choking as noted above) and had indexed 1500 of 19000 images (with a projected index size of 1.4 MB GB) at the time of freezing. At this point, the index was 319 MB in size. This is a huge difference in size and I wonder if playing with the thumbnail size will alleviate this? I don't see any difference in terms of size or quality in the thumbnails generated by Photo Collector and exifPro...

Thanks,

Mike

EDIT: corrected size of projected database. If it was really 1.4MB, I'd be over the moon! Update, too: still haven't managed to index all my pics with exifpro 

5959

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 10:08 PM »

PS Not yelling from the rooftops about OS X's superiority and Steven Jobs' genius is modern day heresy. Just warning you...

5960

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 10:06 PM »

I even tried OS X for a couple of weeks and apparently I'm the only person left who wasn't really impressed.

No, join the club - we've got jackets...

5961

General Software Discussion / Re: Paperless Home: Need document management software

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 06:43 PM »

Thanks rbruce - I'll take a look. Welcome to the site, too!

5962

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 02:48 PM »

Oh well, not to worry. tomos. It's all fine - the important thing is HOLY COW! I can't believe how fast exifPro is and how attractive its GUI is... It's also ridiculously light on resources (Private bytes, or VM, usage of 12,460K vs. 52,476K for Photo Collector both with the same picture selected - granted Photo Collector has 19000 images in its database and exifPro only 200...). My main complaint so far is that in indexing my main 19000+ image main picture folder (which has many subfolders) it chokes on a folder with recovered files in it. Fair enough, but it doesn't give me the option of "ignore folder and continue" or "ignore all files with errors and continue", it just spits out an error message for each file... Other than that, brilliant so far. I've already written the collectorz.com development team with suggestions based on my use of exifPro so far. Top of the list? Explorer view. Makes all the difference. As I explained to them, I am trying to use Photo Collector to get a grip on eight years worth of digital photography that has not been organized efficiently other than some half hearted attempts to place photos in folders created for them by theme and or by date. Explorer view allows me to make use of that half hearted organization. It's absence means that I am looking at accessing my photos by sifting through virtual folders organized by the datestamp contained in the exif data. Lots of pictures were taken with a digital camera with the wrong time and date stamp...

At exifPro's price, it's tempting to purchase a copy to support development (which, despite the low version number, looks to extend back to 2000. I don't know, though, that I need two Photo organizers...

5963

General Software Discussion / Re: Paperless Home: Need document management software

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 12:51 PM »

Just a follow-up: after tomos kindly posted a link to Ashampoo's new Batch Image Optimizer in this thread, I was spurred to action and actively sought an alternative to Paperport's wonderful image editing tools. I found that using a combination of Vicman's Photo Toolkit and Photo Editor provides the functionality that I seek. These are both now free. I went with an alternative, however: PhotoFiltre, which is available in both free and shareware versions. I love this app - it would be perfect if it had an easier to use straighten tool. I liked it enough to spring for the Studio version (25 Euros) and will be requesting modifications to the straighten tool. Why did I go with shareware? I want the tools in one package, not spread over two, and I wanted to support development of PhotoFiltre. PhotoFiltre has a much better GUI (IMHO) than the Vicman offerings as well. I'll probably be uninstalling PaintShopPro (v.9,X, and XI) soon, PhotoFiltre is that good and so much more stable, less resource hungry, and, most importantly, QUICK.

I'm still waiting to hear from Nuance about my request that they release Paperport's tools as a standalone app. My gut tells me that they won't be rushing to make it happen though...

5964

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 12:27 PM »

By the way, actually dropped in here to say that I've purchased Photo Collector using the donationcoder discount and that I really like it. However, have just downloaded and am running exifPro - Wow! Very impressive so far (based on a cursory examination).

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.

5965

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 12:14 PM »

Directory Opus (which has been slowing down more & more displaying thumbnails & well isn't really so good for comparing for example)

I thought this was only happening to me! I wonder if deleting the thumbs cache and having DOpus regenerate it would have a beneficial effect? If I can get around to it today, I'll query their users forum about this.

5966

General Software Discussion / Re: Fun Quiz

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 09:59 AM »

All right, here goes:

History 7/10
Science 8/10
Photos 1 6/10
Photos 2 4/10
Photos 3 7/10
Photos 4 5/10
April Fools 12/16
Christmas 9/12

Didn't do so well on the photos!

5967

General Software Discussion / Re: Fun Quiz

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 09:20 AM »

Drat! I've just realized that I only did the history and culture test - I'll have to do the others later... So, for now, 7/10 on history and culture and DNW the others.

5968

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 09:18 AM »

Sorry, I should have read the thread more clearly before dropping in with my comment - I didn't mean to confuse 

5969

General Software Discussion / Re: Fun Quiz

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 09:16 AM »

I'm still trying to find a definition of the word gullible - it's not in my dictionary?

5970

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2007, 12:11 AM »

Don't forget to check the box underneath the list for "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file."

5971

General Software Discussion / Re: Batch image optimisation from Ashampoo

« Last post by Darwin on April 02, 2007, 09:20 AM »

Well... although this isn't what I'm after at all, I'm quite impressed. It's blazing quick, even when doing batch optimizations. The optimized files look good as well. However, it is truly automatic - no user controls for anything, so not really suited for my purposes (I need to be able to selectively remove parts of a scan). After I realized this, I downloaded a trial for Ashampoo PhotoCommander 5 on the assumption (only partially correct) that Photo Optimizer is a streamlined, dumbed down version of PC's editing tools. It was impressive as well. It's a small download for what it does and is also blindingly quick. Unfortunately, it doesn't do what I'm after, either!

What I'm after is something that will allow me to remove artifacts from scans before converting them into pdfs (you know, the patina that overlays the image itself, splotches, etc). So, for example, I need to be able to select a colour and remove all instances of it from a file. Paperport also has an automatic straighten tool that is really easy to use (and very useful when dealing with scanned documents). I can do both tasks in PaintShop Pro but the bloat - it takes over a minute to load and once I'm there it's not as easy to use - is a turnoff and I don't find it does as good a job. If Nuance/Scansoft marketed a standalone version of their scan editing application, I'd buy it in an instant.

EDIT: Just send a PaperPort "feature request" to Nuance BEGGING them to consider releasing a standalone version... Of course, I am convinced that something similar already exists, and probably as a freeware/open source project, but I haven't found it yet

5972

General Software Discussion / Re: Batch image optimisation from Ashampoo

« Last post by Darwin on April 02, 2007, 08:24 AM »

Thanks tomos - I'll take a look. I think that the thread you're referring to is this one, wherein I asked about something lighter and cheaper than PaperPort for cleaning up scans of documents...

5973

General Software Discussion / Re: Fun Quiz

« Last post by Darwin on April 01, 2007, 11:41 PM »

Well... I'm embarrassed to admit that I managed only 7. Come on now, Renegade, let's see your results!

5974

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: ($3 bounty) Automatic Stitching of Screenshots (freeware)

« Last post by Darwin on March 30, 2007, 04:55 PM »

Dang! Ah well, we tried. Hope you do find something that works.

5975

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 30, 2007, 11:20 AM »

brotherS, I don't know if this will help/interest you, but GiveAwayoftheDay has Frigate3 on offer today (for the next 16 hours. One of its features is both folder syncing and file comparison. Dunno... May not be what you're after but I *think* (without having tried it) that it will do the job for you...