Ulead PhotoImpact v.10

This is a good time to be a photographer with a digital camera. All of the players in digital photo editing are working hard to create applications that allow novice users to achieve professional results and professionals to do astonishing things. Ulead's PhotoImpact version 10 is one of the new applications.

Ulead has been around for a while -- since the late 1980s. The latest version of PhotoImpact provides tools that make it easier for non-professionals to use the powerful features. A welcome screen provides quick access to major areas of the program -- scanning, downloading photos from a digital camera, and browsing on-disk images, for example. Using the program in what Ulead calls "basic mode" simplifies the interface.

	Artistic effects included in PhotoImpact include engraving, artistic, screening, pen & ink, cartoon, mosaic tiles, contour drawing, impressionist, and stippling. Some of the effects work acceptably only with large images that don't contain a lot of fine detail. This is expected and it also applies to the "painterly" effects such as decoupage, oil paint, halftone, weave, etching, smear, finger paint, pattern fill, and brick tiles. A text tool provides the ability to add standard text as well as text with borders and other effects. One of the new features of PhotoImpact is called Smart Lasso. It's a selection tool that automatically finds an object's best edges. The Smart Lasso works best with objects that contrast significantly with their backgrounds, but the result is often acceptable even when there isn't a lot of contrast. For better selection of objects on low-contrast backgrounds, there's the object extraction wizard. Advanced users will like some of the creative design tools. For example, the touch-up tool makes it possible to remove unwanted details by cloning other parts of the image. One particularly welcome feature requires some planning by the photographer and a tripod, but it allows the creation of images that would not have been possible before. If you're photographing a scene that includes bright sunlight and deep shadow, something will lose detail. Either the highlights will burn out or the shadow detail will turn to mud. Photographers who think ahead, use a tripod, and bracket their exposures will be able to use PhotoImpact's "High Dynamic Range Engine" to combine those images to apparent dynamic range far beyond the actual capability of any sensor or film. PhotoImpact 10 costs $90 and registered users of previous versions can upgrade for $50. PhotoImpact 10 includes Photo Explorer 8.5 to organize and manage images; Web tools for creating buttons, backgrounds, and banners; GIF Animator 5 for creating animations, and Cool 360 to allow users to stitch together a series of images into a panoramic view. It's a UFO UFO stands for "Ulead File for Objects". Did they have to stretch a bit to come up with that name, do you think? By using the UFO file format, you'll save the various objects that are in an image (think "layers"). When you open the file later, each of the various objects in the image file will still be accessible and editable. If you've listened to the show for a while, you already know that it's important to save work in progress in your application's native file format. One of the reasons is that each time you open and save a JPG file, you lose a little more quality. The native format keeps all of the file's quality and maintains objects/layers. When you're ready to create a file for a website, then you should save a copy of the file as a JPG. Maybe you need an image for someone who's in the Feline Witness Protection program: Or you want a funhouse image: Downloading and scanning PhotoImpact has a function that allows users to download images from a digital camera, camera drive, card reader, or image folder and copy those images to a new, existing, or custom folder. PhotoImpact can also control most scanners so that you can obtain images from an attached scanner and load them directly into the program. System requirements PhotoImpact 10 is a Windows application that runs on Windows 98 SE or above. Faster processors are better, of course, as is the case for any graphics application, but the program will run on any processor Pentium III or faster. Ulead recommends at least 256MB of RAM but says the program will run on a 128MB system. IMPORTANT NOTICE: No felines were harmed in the production of this review, although one was somewhat embarrassed.
Here's the image I started with. Because of the strong sunlight from the window at the right, I intentionally underexposed the image by setting the camera manually.
When I asked PhotoImpact to automatically adjust the image, this is what it gave me. Overall, not bad. The cat's color is right, but the highlight has blown out detail in the fur on his neck.
I used PhotoImpact to make some manual adjustments. The color isn't as accurate, but I've maintained detail in the fur.
Just for fun, I thought I'd make it snow in the room.
By adjusting the color of the light, I was able to make the orange cat a little more orange than he really is, but this is what he would look like in late afternoon sun.
It's Mysterio, the cat with the magic eye.
By adjusting the overall color cast a bit, I was able to maintain detail in the fur and get the cat's color right.
We do not have two orange cats. I used the "smart lasso" function to trim Tangerine out of the picture and then pasted him back in front of himself. Fur-covered objects are particularly difficult and PhotoImpact did a good job.

The story of the cat: This is Tangerine, our orange cat. We found him at Citizens For Humane Action in December of 1999; I was voting for a large 2-year-old gray cat, but daughter Kaydee and spouse Phyllis liked a scrawny little orange cat. Needless to say, we brought home the scrawny little orange cat. As soon as we got him to the house, he largely ignored Phyllis and Kaydee. I became the object of his attention. I am Tangerine's person. He's a pretty good owner.

GMail might be the best webmail ever

I should start by admitting that I detest Web-based e-mail. The interfaces are usually slow and keyboard shortcuts don't exist. Google's GMail is the best Web-based e-mail I've seen: It has many keyboard shortcuts, it offers 1GB of online storage, it offers the ability to organized messages by labeling them manually or automatically, it includes a spam filter that learns to recognize what you consider to be spam, and it's reasonably fast. But it's still a Web-based e-mail client.

After using GMail for several weeks, but not as my primary e-mail client, I have to admit that the folks at Google have done an excellent job. But this is still a webmail application and the limitations, when compared to full e-mail applications, are significant.

GMail's spam filter needs work, too. Instead of allowing less and less spam to reach my in-box over time, it's allowing more. Even though I routinely use the "Report Spam" button when spam appears in the in-box, I now see 10 to 15 spams per day instead of the 2 or 3 when I first started using GMail. The image at the right shows 8 new messages, of which 5 are spam.

GMail did catch about 30 spams and throw them into the spam mailbox, but each day the service incorrectly identifies half a dozen or more good messages and throws them into the spam box. As I report misidentified good messages as "not spam" and misidentified bad messages as "spam", GMail is supposed to learn. So far, it's not doing a good job in that regard.

The large storage space, the cost (free), the ability to file messages by category, and the excellent search facility will be enough to win over a lot of users. But it's still webmail.

Technology corner rating for GMAIL FROM GOOGLE

SEVEN CATS: There's no question that this is the best webmail going, but it's still webmail. Until Google starts accepting new accounts, you'll still need an invitation to get an account. (If you need an invitation, let me know and I'll send one along.)

How the Technology Corner rating system works.

When Newsweek speaks, Microsoft shudders

I don't know if that's true or not, but it made a cool sounding headline and that's all that counts these days, isn't it? Microsoft may say that a little change in market share doesn't matter, but when market penetration drops from just shy of 100% to about 90% in less than 6 months, alarm bells should be ringing.

I was flipping through the January 24 issue of Newsweek and there among tsunamis, mud slides, and John Ashbrook was a almost-full-page article about Firefox, the browser I've been recommending since shortly before it move from beta to release version.

By late January, more than 17 million people had downloaded Firefox. A month later, the count had increased to 25 million. That still leaves Microsoft's market share for Internet Explorer around 90%, but a drop of several percentage points doesn't play well in Redmond.

And what's interesting is that the people who are downloading Firefox are no longer just the computer geeks who can't bear to use the same applications as the hoi polloi. It's gone well beyond that. Now the hoi polloi are downloading Firefox. Not only that, they're telling others how much they like the way Firefox works. I can't help but think of Arlo Guthrie singing, "Can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in, singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant, and walking out. And friends, they may think it's a movement. And that's what it is, the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement. And all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar." That's the kind of marketing that's driving downloads.

I'm involved with an on-line discussion group for editors and the geekiness varies from significant to non-existant. I've heard from people at both ends of that spectrum who have downloaded Firefox. Many of those have also decided to give Mozilla's e-mail application (Thunderbird) a spin, too. Thunderbird doesn't have a calendar or an address book, but it's a good e-mail application.

Compared to Microsoft's campus, the Mozilla Project's setup is somewhat spartan. The group has about a dozen or so paid programmers. Most of the work is done by the open-source community, hundreds (hundreds of thousands?) of programmers who donate their time to making Firefox better.

Is open-source better?

Definitely yes. And definitely no. Well, maybe. Ahhh ... I really don't know. But I do know that Firefox doesn't have nearly as large a target painted on its back as Internet Explorer does. That's similar to what I say when it comes to security on the Mac. So maybe I should wish the Mozilla Project great success and hope that most people continue to use IE so the target will stay there.

Open-source software can have security holes and bugs, the same as commercial software. To some extent, the difference is in how programmers respond to these threats. Microsoft will schedule a meeting, analyze the threat, assign a team to develop specifications, assign a team to code the new specifications, assign a team to analyze the new code, assign a team to establish implementation of the new code, and .... well, you get the idea. The open-source gang will all look at the problem, independently develop solutions, and submit the solutions. Neither approach is better or worse than the other.

An open-source project such as Firefox or WikiTiki, each of which has attracted hundreds of talented programmers, will produce an application that is as good as anything commercial developers will turn out. Open-source projects that attract 2 or 3 unemployed coders won't fare as well.

Open-source isn't magic. Neither is Microsoft's approach. Each is what it is.

And that's all there is.

Trouble for Firefox?

Open-source software is a wonderful idea, but it depends on volunteers. The problem with that is that you might attract some top-notch coders, but you won't attract them for a full-time gig because the grocery store isn't open-source and neither is the bank, the car dealer, or the other things that programmers and their families need or want.

Burn-out can be a problem and Eweek's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols quoted Firefox developer Mike Connor, who talks about that burnout problem in his blog:"In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue."

This is not a good thing. Vaughan-Nichols feels, as do I, that Firefox is the best browser available now, but if the development team implodes, it won't be for long. The Mozilla Organization wants Firefox to reach a 10% market share this year. That could happen, but not the way things are headed now.

For a sobering look at Firefox, take a look at Vaughan-Nichols article.

Nerdly News

In the market for a Mac ...

An acquaintance asked about Macs this week. "Once again, my PC is costing me a fortune in time to try to figure out and solve some Windows operating system and Microsoft software problems. As usual in this situation, I am thinking of getting a Mac. But this time I mean it!"

I own both kinds of computers and I find Macs considerably harder to use because Apple has the opinion that users don't really need to know what's going on. Big Brother will take care of it all for you. My background with computers pre-dates DOS and the time when homes had computers, so I want to know what's going on. In fact, all users still need to know what's going on because no computer -- Windows or Mac -- is yet sufficiently advanced to take care of everything on its own.

I've owned three Macs since 2001 (when OS X was released). The computers arrived with, at most, a pamphlet telling me how to turn it on. I have since purchased and read probably 3000 pages of documentation to figure out what the machines are doing and how I can fix problems that arise.

I'm also no fan of Apple's overall corporate attitude. By comparison, Microsoft is a beacon of enlightenment.

But that doesn't mean I dislike my Macs. As I said, I have 3 of them (although one is my younger daughter's). I think OS X is the best operating system on the planet, barely edging out Windows XP.

Which is also not to say that either operating system is perfect. Neither is and I'm not holding my breath.

The $600 Mac Mini looks interesting (don't even consider the $500 model) but I wouldn't buy one now for several reasons: Major lack of expansion ability and newness. Wait until they've been around for a year and see what happens.

I probably wouldn't buy a G5 IMac, either. That's the all-in-one that looks like an overgrown Ipod. I have read several reports of these overheating and threatening to catch fire. Apple is being its characteristically silent self on this issue.

My daughter's Mac is a dual-G4 desktop system. I own an older (really slow) Ibook and a G4 Powerbook that spends time at the office and sometimes comes home. Holding the Powerbook on my lap is painful. The thing gets so hot that I have to put it on a thick book. Heat is not a computer's friend and Apple should have sacrificed some of the "sexy thin" look to get better cooling in place.

You can buy directly from Apple or an Apple store, but look at some of the independent vendors, too. You'll often get a better price there.

It's huge! It's tiny!

Disk manufacturer Seagate is now shipping the world's largest capacity 1-inch hard drive -- 6GB. In the overall scheme of things, a 6GB hard drive would seem to be no big deal, but note that I said it's a 1-inch drive. These are the drives that fit in handheld appliances.

How much is that? It could be 150 hours of music.

Seagate ST1 drives are in a lot of handheld devices. The first models hit the market in June of last year.

For those of us who remember when 40MB disk drives sat in large cases on the floor, a 1-inch 6GB drive is quite something.

Depending on the resolution of your monitor and the size of your monitor, the image above may be about full size. The case is 1-inch across, not including the connector.

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