Price vs. Protection

I wanted to talk about an issue with you today. I'm bringing it up because I hear people complain about this subject when it isn't something I can control. In describing the situation, I'll present both sides of the issue and I'd appreciate it if you can post a comment (please don't send e-mail as I'll be the only one to see it) and let me know which of the two you prefer.

What we're talking about is whether you prefer to pay more for an application that has limited security or whether you pay a lot less for a product that has very tight security. Let me describe two very similar products along with their price and the security they impose.

Product A costs $400 and can be transferred to different machines, though it is limited to a single computer. Product B costs $70 but can only be installed on a single computer. If you buy a new computer, you will have to purchase another copy of Product B. For the sake of this discussion, let's say that both products do exactly the same thing.

Now I'm sure some of you will say you want the best of both. Sorry, that isn't an option. You either pay the higher price of Product A and have the ability to transfer your license or you pay the lower price of Product B and it is locked to a single machine. So which of the two would you prefer? If possible, explain why you selected the product you did. Again, please post your answer as a comment.

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Jeff's Magic Erase

Not a day goes by without someone asking that infamous question, how to cut an image out of a background. Many times the process is fairly simple and Jeff Harrison has created a macro to make it even easier. This macro is for images where the background to be removed is primarily a solid color. The more complex the background, the less likely this macro will help. Check out Jeff's Magic Erase and see if it is something useful to you. You'll find a demonstration movie on the page to show you exactly how it works.

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Heart Shape

Can you believe that Valentine's Day is only a week away? I can only guess that you are in need of graphics with hearts of all shapes and sizes. Heart Shape gives you what you need in both AI and EPS formats. Even better, you can download them for free!

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ColoRotate Plug-In

Today I'm going to talk about a Photoshop plug-in. Note that while it only works in Photoshop CS4, I'd still like you all to at least take a brief look at it as I have some questions that I'll pose later in this post.

The idea behind this plug-in is that it allows users to pick colors in three dimensions. The chosen colors can be fine-tuned using joysticks and sliders. Once colors are added to a palette, those palettes can be saved and shared with others. If you want to see how it works, check out the tour of Colorotate. There is also a page on their site that gives you a lot of background about color (this isn't specific to Photoshop at all).

The Photoshop plug-in costs $39 and like I said, it will only work in Photoshop CS4. So I'm curious to know if any of you would find it useful to have something similar for use in CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. And for those who would find it useful, would you spend $39 for it? If there is enough interest, I'll pass along your feedback to the developer and see if they would consider creating a version for CorelDRAW users. Of course if you aren't interested, no need to say anything. So post a comment and let everyone know how you feel. For those who haven't posted a comment, there is a link at the bottom of the post for doing so. Please don't reply via e-mail as I'm the only one who can see it.

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Heartbreaker

We're one week closer to Valentine's Day and so I'll continue my theme of heart and love themed fonts. While Valentine's Day can be a great day for some, it can also be a Heartbreaker for others. This font comes in both a regular and a heavy version. You'll also find a cool logo included within the font. It is licensed for personal use only.

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Turn Off the Eye Candy

We all want Windows to work as fast as possible, right? Part of the progress with Windows Vista and Windows 7 was the aero special effects. They look cool, but they also slow your system down. So if you care more about performance than eye candy, turn it off.

Open Control Panel and type the word "visual" in the search field. You'll be presented with several things you can do. One of them is "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows". Click on it and select Adjust for best performance in the dialog box that appears. Click Apply and you should see a nice improvement in speed. Personally I would rather turn things off on my own. So under the selection for Adjust for best performance is a long list of things that can be adjusted. If you feel daring, turn off the ones you can live without. The more you turn off, the faster things go. But I'm guessing you don't want to turn them all off. Post a comment and let me know what you find the least useful in that list and what you find the most useful.

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Samsung DVD Drive

Sometimes I talk about hardware that is really cool. Other times it is quite frivolous. Today I'm going to talk about something rather pedestrian, yet something very important.

First off, do you have a DVD drive in your computer? Look at the thing where you insert the shiny discs and see if you see a DVD logo on it. The reason I bring this up is because there are users who don't have a DVD drive and they are becoming increasingly important. CorelDRAW X4 was only supplied on DVD. Ditto for Adobe's latest couple of versions. Nearly all of the disc-based products from Unleashed are on a DVD. I bring this up because occasionally a customer will call with trouble reading our discs. The problem turns out that they only have a CD-ROM drive.

The drives aren't expensive. The Samsung SH-S222 that I recommend is less than $40. If you are even a little bit handy with a screwdriver, you should be able to install it yourself. For those intimidated with installing it, find a geek friend to do it for you. Not only would replacing the CD-ROM drive allow you to read DVDs, you will probably also be upgrading to a much faster drive. It may also be that the upgrade is worthwhile for those who already have a DVD drive to get a fresh drive and/or faster speeds.

All I can tell you is that more and more software will be shipped on DVD-ROM discs so it is something you really need to get in your computer sooner rather than later.

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