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©1999, Lockergnome LC. All Rights Reserved. Subscription inquiries are answered below. Content written by Chris Pirillo. Website hosted by DigitalDaze. Repetition does not establish validity.


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Lockergnome
03.01.1999 - GnomeREPORT

Since getting my HP ScanJet 6250C the other week, I've been scanning things left and right. Well, I'm not using it incessantly, but if something needs to be digitally duplicated, then I'm more than willing to do it. The idea of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is to take "scanned text and graphics" and turn them into something you can actually manipulate in an editor. I wanted to do some OCR work, but the software which came with the scanner wasn't very powerful. So, I snagged a copy of OmniPage PRO v9.0 (from Caere).

HOLY COW! I admit that I'm new to this scanning thing, but with the OmniPage PRO installed, I don't have to do much work at all. It handles tables & spreadsheets, scans in color, exports to Word, Word Perfect, Publisher, & HTML, has an automatic proofreader--and is (supposedly) 15% faster on MMX and Pentium II machines. It also comes with different language dictionaries (French, German, Norweigan, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, etc.). PageKeeper Standard is bundled as a bonus application (it's an e-document manager). This is an expensive bundle, gang, but it's very powerful--and extremely accurate. If you (and/or your business) have to do any bit of OCR work, OmniPage PRO 9.0 will give you 99% accuracy (guaranteed).

Now, just to show you how well it works, I found the most complex document I had in my apartment (just so happened to be a Bottom Line Personal newsletter). This has both graphics and text laid out in a "complex" fashion. How well did OmniPage do? Well, I exported it into a MS Word 97 document [1.0M]--see for yourself. Note, too, that I have also included a JPG snapshot of the original document. If it could handle this, it can handle ANYTHING.

OmniPage PRO 9.0 Prices on CNET's Shopper.com
OmniPage PRO 9.0 Prices on Bottom Dollar Network

OmniPage PRO 9.0 Upgrade Prices on CNET's Shopper.com

-- Chris Pirillo        


GnomePROGRAM

ShellGEM v1.3 [348k] W9x FREE

http://www.hace.us-inc.com/files/shellgem.zip
http://home.sol.no/~hace/shellgem.html

Is the right-click menu perfect? I thought so, until I ran into this add-on. When you drag & drop a file using your right mouse button, typically only 3 to 5 options pop up (Move, Copy, Create Shortcut, Cancel, etc.). With ShellGEM installed, you'll have a whole new range of options. Now when you perform the same task, you'll be able to send the objects to any given folder on your system! The cascading menus pop out quickly, and you can configure it to work with archived files as well. It'll even keep a history and favorites list for you automatically. A true gem!


GnomeSYSTEM

Indeo(r) Video Drivers v5.1 [1.9M] W9x/NT

ftp://download.intel.com/ial/indeo/video/iv5setup.exe
http://developer.intel.com/ial/indeo/video/overview.htm

I believe this update can be installed on any PC--be sure to backup your system before installing, though. This driver set boasts: "a new wavelet compression algorithm which greatly improves visual quality; better compression at all levels of video quality than previous generation codecs; playback performance enhancements for both MMX technology and the Pentium(r) II processor" -- among other enhancements.


GnomeCANDY

WordX v1.0 [260k] W9x/NT FREE
Found by Jas Batra

ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/users/knopf/wordx.zip
http://www.halcyon.com/knopf/free.htm

Cat got your tongue? No problem. From the father of shareware (ya know, the person who pretty much made all of this downloading stuff possible) comes a very tiny utility that's guaranteed to help people who play word games. You can type in part of a word (with underscores representing the missing letters) or a mixed-up "word", and WordX will search through it's "database" and display possible answers. This could come in handy for crossword puzzles, word jumbles... or just about any other type of game where words are involved. Thanks again, "Dad"!


GnomeFAVORITE

Weather24 E-mail Service
Found by Bob Kaplan

http://www.weather24.com/

A couple of weeks ago, I featured a relatively simple Desktop program that was designed to show you the current weather conditions where you live. When that site went "down", many of you sent in weather-related URLs. However, this was the best alternative submitted. I've been looking for a service like Weather24's for YEARS! They'll e-mail your weather forecast every day via HTML mail--and you can view more than one city's info. Click on a link within each mailing to retrieve the current conditions. This service is a godsend--and it's free!


GnomeDESKTOP

FONT: Senor Pooglins [60k]

http://www.chank.com/free/product/poog.zip
http://www.chank.com/free/poog.html

I read the author's review of this typeface and one word stood out: Iowa! Apparently, he's a "local". Remember, just because someone lives in the Midwest doesn't automatically mean that I know him/her. Sometimes people ask: "You're from Iowa? Do you know Bob?" Uh... sure. I know about 27 Bobs. You're from Mexico... do you know Senor Pooglins? His creator is quite an accomplished font master--if you have time, be sure to check out the other faces Ben Balvanz has done. They're unique--so you'll wanna nique up on them.


GnomeTIP

I'm generally annoyed when new browser windows pop up when I don't want them to pop up. There are several programs out there to STOP that from happening, but I understand that other sites have to make a living, too. Now, when I WANT a new browser window to open up in IE4, I just hold onto the SHIFT key as I click on a link. Before I know it, I've got 15 different browsing sessions going on at the same time. Ugh... I need a bigger monitor.