Month: March 2008

Yesterday I gave you some tips on the weird and wonderful world of fractals. Today, I’m having a look at vectorizing which similarly applies mathematical principles to images, usually to allow you to zoom-in and enhance images with no visible loss of quality. This is as oppose to simply blowing-up bitmap images on your screen which turn out to be blurry or pixelated.

Aglolab Photo Vector is one of the original tools for this task and popular amongst CAD professionals to cleanup images. By allowing them to enhance, in high detail, specific aspects of drawings and images, the program allows them to produce more accurate and professional results. A more advanced program is MAGIX Xtreme Photo and Graphic Designer which offers more complex editing of both bitmap and vector images. Of course, probably the ulitimate tool for vectorizing graphics and images is Adobe Photoshop although be warned that like any of the programs advanced imaging functions, it takes more than a few hours to get to grips with vectorizing.

If you’re looking for a lightweight and most importantly, free solution, then Vectorian Giotto Light is is a quick and easy GIF and JPG animator which can also handle vectors and allows you to create some pretty cool animations. If you’re just getting started with vector imaging, check out this short video tutorial about how to turn a JPG image into a vector:

[youtube]2QCkDkOJp3Q[/youtube]

You know Silverlight, Microsoft’s rich media plugin, also known as Adobe Flash’s direct competitor. Last year Microsoft had announced that Silverlight would be available for Linux and Mac. Well in a move to win over even more of the market, Microsoft have cut a deal with Nokia to offer Silverlight on their S60 and S40 mobile devices and Nokia Internet tablets. The announcement will be made today at the MIX08 web conference in Las Vegas. The next generation of Windows Mobiles will also support Silverlight in what is becoming a truly cross platform plugin, the only way for Microsoft to win some terrain on Flash. John Case, general manager at Microsoft, claims that more than 8,000 applications have already been developed for Silverlight.

The Silverlight plugin allows you to watch any rich media or video from the internet straight into your browser. It supposes a significant gain in image quality and streaming performances. Having tested it out a few months back, I wrote that I found it overall pretty impressive, due in some parts to the fact that Silverlight supports HD quality video and how easy it is to install and run. I also liked how Silverlight allowed developers to build their own Rich Internet Applications (RIA) from the program. The only thing that I complained about was the lack of support for H264, Flash or AAC.

Offering Silverlight on mobile phones is a smart move by Microsoft, especially as the quality of video streaming on portable devices is increasing every day. As GigaOm do well to point out though, video streaming on mobile phones will really launch when speedy and cheap broadband will be available anywhere.

And in a future move, Microsoft have also announced that Silverlight would eventually be taken offline, much the same as Google Gears or Adobe AIR already do, so that the rich media plugin can really be accessible anytime anywhere. Beware Adobe Flash!

The ability to manipulate, manage and create images in 3D is one of the greatest advances that computing enables designers to do. Now, designs, prototypes and special effects that would would have been extremely expensive to create for real can be reproduced and changed at will for absolutely nothing. If you’re a design professional, or especially if you’re involved in CAD, then you’ll probably deal with 3D objects and images on a daily basis. If you’re into 3D art, you’ll need a decent viewer to admire your creations or share them with colleagues and friends. Or, if you just want to breathe new life into a photo collection, why not consider running through a 3D viewer? Here is a list of five top viewers that can handle just about any 3D image:

Free DWG Viewer – Designed especially for CAD professionals and uses ActiveX

Alteros 3D – Simple but powerful 3D viewer with 3D text editing options

Pictomio – View and convert your photos to 3D

Presenter – Adds 3D effects to presentations and slideshows

CyberMotion 3D-Designer – Specifically a 3D design tool but also features an advanced viewer

When asked what he thought of Western civilization, Gandhi once famously remarked, “It would be a good idea”. No doubt if he could see the world today, he would still say the same thing although I wonder what the “Great Soul” would have made of civilization games on the PC? I mean imagine, if he could have released all that anger at the British Empire on a game, the history of India could have been very different…

Games based on building up, destroying or conquering civilizations remain some of the most popular downloads on the net, increasingly harnessing the power of multiple users to add to their reality and challenge. The Civilization series was one of the first to innovate this genre and considered the pioneer in turn-based strategy games. In 1996, it was even voted Computer Gaming World magazine’s number 1 game of all time and although things have moved on again since then, it still remains a copper bottomed classic. The last release was Civilization 4 but the game is about to be given a new lease of life with Civilization Revolution due for release on consoles in June.

Of course, the other classic civilization series is Age of Empires which has seen an amazing 7 editions and was the first history based real-time strategy game released in 1997. It’s often described as a blend between Civilization and World of Warcraft, the latter of which OnSoftware’s Elena is the resident expert. The other great thing about Age of Empires is that each series was usually followed with extension packs which added new civilizations to the game such as this one for Age of Empires III.

While Civilization and Age of Empires remain the standard that such games must reach, there have also been some respectable attempts at emulating them. One example is Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War which might not feature the depth or graphics of the big boys but it’s a much gentler introduction for those new to the genre. If you prefer your civilizations set in space meanwhile, then Galactic Civilizations II allows you to boldly go where no man has gone before as does the more watered down and user friendly Space Rangers 2.

Miranda Portable is the pocket-sized version of the popular cross-network IM client Miranda. Install it in your USB memory device and you’ll have a powerful instant messaging tool always at hand, no matter which PC you’re using. Miranda Portable also supports the most popular IM protocols and can be widely customized with more than 350 plugins.

Submerge is a little application that will suit iTunes and Apple TV users that love to see movies in their original languages. The application lets you download and setup subtitles in a wide range of languages for movies downloaded from Apple’s online store. It’s very easy to use and can add the subtitles to any format. You can also use it to merge movies together and make them playable on an iPod.

Let’s face it, the default Contacts section in Windows Mobile isn’t all that good. That’s why it’s a good idea to install a third party address book application onto your Pocket PC as soon as you get it out of the box. Inesoft Address Book proves to be one of the best options you’ll encounter, offering a wonderful environment for storing and managing your contacts.

Maths can be beautiful – yes I find it hard to believe too but the world of fractals has convinced me. The word ‘fractal’ might frighten the wits out of anyone who hasn’t got a head for numbers, but they do allow your PC to create some rather pretty pictures. A fractal is basically a mathematically generated geometric shape made up of separate parts that, when broken down, is an exact reduced sized version of the whole. The important things for viewers is, they look amazing.

Apart from making psychedelic images that may resemble some kind of LSD trip, fractals can also be used to enhance existing images. One of the best examples of this application of fractals is Genuine Fractals, a plugin for Photoshop which allows you to blow-up images by up to 600% in stunning quality. The complex mathematical algorithms used mean that there is far less loss of image quality than if you use a normal size enhancement tool.

It’s the weird and wonderful images that attract me though and there are several programs out there designed to help you create your own unique images. Ultra Fractal is a classic example of a program that takes beginners by the hand and guides you through your first tentative creation attempts. What’s really cool about this program though is that it allows you to connect to other PC’s running the program, thus allowing you to harness their processing power and produce some really stunning fractals. Meanwhile an open source solution is the excellent Fractal Forge, written in Delphi, which allows you to print poster sized versions of your creations and even add filters for even greater psychedelic effect.

If you can’t be bothered to create your own however, or just simple don’t want to go near anything mathematical but like the pictures, then why not choose a fractal as your screensaver with Amazing Seattle Fractals. You can choose from a number of stunning fractals and configure them with basic controls to enhance the parts you like the most.

Bookmarks are one of those little things in life we don’t pay attention to, but which we certainly miss when we don’t have them around. Our bookmark collection should be taken as seriously as backup copies or password managers: someday it can save your life – or at least save you the pain of recovering all those links one by one.

So if you’ve decided to take care of your bookmarks, the first thing you should probably do is grab hold of a bookmark manager, like URLBase. Yes, web browsers do have embedded bookmark managers, but third-party ones usually include more features and extended functionality. You may also need a tool to clean your bookmark database a bit, that is, scanning it for dead links and duplicate entries. AM-DeadLink is a good choice for this task.

Now, once your bookmark collection is perfectly organized, it’s time to backup it. MozBackup is probably the best option for Firefox users, while IE supporters may turn to myFavorites, an all-in-one management and backup tool for Internet Explorer.

Finally, for those of us who use different computers in different locations (home desktop PC, office desktop PC, laptop while commuting) a bookmark synchronizing app is almost a must. You can use BookmarkSync for general syncing needs or the more specific Foxmark extension just for the Firefox browser.

Not many people may know it but on February 19th, Photoshop celebrated its 18th birthday. Yes, that’s 18 years of constant improvements in what has been and remains the best image editing application to this day. From the release of PhotoShop 1.0 to the latest version of Photoshop CS3, the program has always lead in terms of simplicity, powerful editing tools and new imaging possibilities. In what is much more than a coincidence, Adobe shipped new versions of both Photoshop and Lightroom this very 19th of February.

If you’re a real Photoshop fan or if you’re just curious about the story of Adobe’s image editing suite you can read up all you want on it, via John Nack on Adobe, who has a great post roundup of various blogs counting the history of Photoshop, from the evolution in features to the changes in its design. For one, I actually learned that the original icon wasn’t the famous eye, which you see in versions 1 to 7, but actually a 1hour photoshop, where people used to drop off their film rolls to get prints. The new icon, a more formal ‘Ps’, is much more minimalistic but blends in well with the line of other Adobe programs, making them all look like a periodic table of the elements. True, the pictures from back in the 90s really look dated, but you can quickly see the same logic and construction in the application throughout the years, the sign of a well built and solid program.

When internet cafés first came along, I thought it was completely weird. I mean, surely cafés are supposed to be about relaxing, having a chat, socialising, reading a book etc. Now of course, people do exactly all those things at cyber cafés – via messenger clients, websites and webcams, the difference being that the person they are having the coffee with could be on the other side of the world. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a world without them. What on earth would backpackers do now if they couldn’t drop a quick e-mail to mum to let them know they’re half way down the Ganges and where else would you go if your home internet connection broke? If you’ve ever thought about running your own internet café, then it need not be such a distant dream. All you need is a few computers, a small shop to put them all, and you might find one of these top tools useful:

HandyCafe – Complete cybercafe administration system for beginners

CyberCafePro – Advanced cybercafe admin tools for large networks

SiteCafe – Administration tool that allows for a wide range of payment options

CyberCafe SurfShop – Completely free cybercafe administration tool for up to 20 PCs

Serpol Cafecontrol – Allows you to take greater control of your cafe’s security features