Fleeting Glimpse Images : Visions in words ~ Sagas in light: Software

What's on your start menu?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:54:27 GMT

Windows users have no doubt long noticed that the start button located on the task bar keeps a log of the usage statistics for each program initiated by clicking the Start Button and then navigating through the Start Menu.

The most used applications are at the top in order of the number of launches. Here is my Taskbar captured by Snag-it from Techsmith.

You can "Pin" items to the top so they are always where you expect them to be. These are the programs that sit above the gray line.

I have done this with Bitstream Font Navigator because I am often in a hurry when I need a font added. Character Map is invaluable for finding special characters like the © that appears at the bottom of my blog posts. Quicken is there for my wife so that she can find it. Interestingly enough, MS puts IE, Outlook and Windows Mail into this self-important position as well. Go figure.

The remaining applications are there by pure usage.

CorelDraw X3 is the big dog. I launch it more than any other program. I run a small design company specializing in CorelDraw so that makes sense. Even though X4 is out, I have been doing my client work through X3. Now that SP1 is out for CorelDraw X4, I will likely see the X4 rise and the X3 eventually fall.

I also do web design so MS Expression Web is near the top. Web sites require a lot of updates. MS Office Accounting is next because I diligently maintain books so I can get paid. The next one surprised me. MS Excel? I have no explanation. I must use it a lot. It is number 4 after all. Number crunching is not something I normally do. Perhaps closer evaluation is needed to determine its prominence. Lightroom is next. It would be higher but every time Adobe releases a new updated, it gives it a new executable file. The old are deleted and that is why Lightroom (1.41) is so low. Normally it would be third or second.

The bottom five tends to fluctuate more than the top five. Windows Live Writer (on which I am typing this post) is popular with me because I blog so fricking much. Notice that positions 6 and 8 are occupied by the same program in two different versions. Corel PhotoPaint is my workhorse editor but I am starting to use the new version more than the old. When it falls off and I am satisfied that SP1 has shored up the application, I will likely eliminate X3.

Firefox is in position seven because I cross test web sites on various browsers. SyncToy sits firmly in number nine position because I am a backup fanatic as some of you readers know. Sitting in number 10, just off the graphic is Snag-it which I used to grab the image for this post.

Surprises?

Photoshop didn't make the top 10. It is languishing in number 17. PSP X2 is sitting at number 18. Combine all four image editors and they are probably number 1. MS Word is sitting at number 13. Now that I blog in Live Writer, Word is sitting lonely and seldom used.

Video applications are lower than I expected as well. Camtasia IV and Studio are in the top twenty but lower than I thought they would be.

Where is PowerPoint? Oh yes, it is on a desktop shortcut. Maybe we better talk about that next.

Caveat:

If you launch via a desktop shortcut or a quick launch toolbar instead of the start menu, your statistics do not appear to affect this order. I use Windows Media Player every day but it never appears on this list because I launch it from the quick launch bar. Likewise with Outlook (I guess that is why MS pins it to the start menu) and IE (my browser of choice today) and other sundry items either placed by me or for me by installation routines.

I think our start menus tell us much about our software usage habits. I can tell where the bulk of my work lies quickly by looking at the order of the icons. I can also tell when a version is replacing its older counterpart by watching one slide up the line as the other descends. By right clicking from time to time and expanding the icon list to a ludicrously large number I can see how many programs are hitting occasionally. Google Earth comes in at number 17. I could have sworn I played with that more often.

What does your start menu say about you?

del.icio.us Tags: windows,vista,applications,work habits

Stellarium - A must-have for the Outdoors Photographer

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:01:46 GMT

Often, free software is overlooked by photographers. I am as guilty as any of this trait. Outdoor photographers, particularly those who are in love with sunrise and set, moon rise and set and those who love to shoot astronomical phenomena like star trails and deep sky objects are ever in search of tools to aid them in finding the right place at the right time. Into this scenario enters Stellarium.

Stellarium is a free planetarium software package based on open source. It is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It offers you the ability to enter your own location, save it as a preset and use it to find out the times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, phase, proximity of other night sky objects. Not only are the times offered, but you can find out where to look on the compass to see the sun peaking up behind that favorite rock formation or to find the moon setting behind your favorite lighthouse.

Another feature of Stellarium allows you to play the night in real time or at fast speed so that you can plan your shooting for tonight, tomorrow morning and anywhere in between. This is particularly handy for determining the exact time an subject will interact with your location over the course of a long weekend or a month of great weather. In combination with a map and a compass, it becomes a deadly precision tool in getting your tripod placed in just the right spot.

The program offers realistic horizon portrayals to help orient you and you have the ability to incorporate your own panoramic photos into the scene as well. See this link.

The best part about this software is that it doesn't require a connection to the Internet. It works where ever you and your laptop are making Stellarium a legitimate field tool for any outdoor photographer's gear bag. Find out more about Stellarium at www.stellarium.org.

Three images where Stellarium put me in the sweet spot!

Split Rock Lighthouse at Sunrise courtesy of Stellarium's Planning

Here is a video where I used Stellarium to put me in the sweet spot. Check it out today!

del.icio.us Tags: software,outdoor photography,sunrise,sunset,moon phase,free,stars,night

CorelDraw Unleashed User's Conference

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:53:09 GMT

del.icio.us Tags: Corel,field trip,software,image editing,RAW

We've now reached the shameless promotion section of the blog. July 9 - 12, 2008, the Corelians of the world will descend upon Phoenix to learn, yearn and earn. This conference, hosted by Foster Coburn is a chance to meet with some of the more prominent power users of the CorelDraw Graphics Suite as well as a select group of people from the Corel, related vendors and kindred spirits.

I have been fortunate to be selected by Foster to be one of your instructors at this year's event. In addition to teaching some sessions on image editing, I will be leading a field trip where those budding photographers can gain some real world field experience and have a lot of fun in the process.

My experience at seminars like this, including Corel-centric events in the past is that the contacts made, the access to manufacturer's staff, and the knowledge shared make the price a bargain. I would strongly urge you to attend this event and I hope to see you all there.

A Viable (Free) Backup Solution for Digi-Photogs

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:10:33 GMT

One of the first things a Digital Photographer discovers is that the proliferation of files created becomes megabytes, then gigabytes and finally terabytes. As we buy new cameras with ever larger megapixels, shoot RAW, and do things like Panoramas and HDR which require multiple exposures, we find our hard drives filling up rather rapidly.

Part of image management for me was the realization early on that external hard drives make good sense. They compartmentalize my data and segregate it from the system drives. I can add to them, store them, back them up and manage my images much as if it were a box of negatives.

Now the backing up portion has always been a bit of a chore. With 250 GB of digital images, it is not always easy to find only those files which need to be backed up. Without mirroring or RAID software, expensive utilities are the usual alternative. Not anymore.

Microsoft has a solution in the guise of their SyncToy.

For someone like me whose work flow is:

1. Copy Image from Card to Onboard Drive: E

2. Import Image via Lightroom to External Drive G:

3. Erase Card

4. Monthly Backup Drive G to Drive K

5. Store Drive K in Fireproof Safe

6. Alternate Drive K every other month.

Copying those files from G to K was always a chore. I had to sort repeatedly through folders for those files which had changed in the last thirty days and duplicate the file structure onto the new drive. Or, if I was really not anxious to use my computer, duplicate the entire drive over 14 hours.

SyncToy allows you to manage entire folders and choose how files are copied. You can also save the recipe for use later. It only took me two minutes to set up a synchronization of my web site to a USB Drive. Formerly the 45,000 plus files had to be deleted and then copied onto the 4GB drive at a 25 minute premium. Now it takes one button click and two minutes to do the operation.

I can tell you now that using SyncToy will make my backing up a breeze and that I will be backing up much, much more often. Give it a spin.