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©1999, Lockergnome LC. All Rights Reserved. Subscription inquiries are answered below. Content written by Chris Pirillo. Website hosted by DigitalDaze. For a wise man to achieve brilliance, he must first look foolish to the crowd.


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Lockergnome
03.02.1999 - GnomeREPORT

I figured it was about time I told you guys (and gals) that I used to be a redhead. Well, not a NATURAL redhead; I used to dye my hair orange--for giggles. In fact, I'm thinking about doing it again soon (ya know, before it all goes white). What you should be seeing here is a picture of myself (four years ago) holding a big wooden 'E' over my head. My plan was to send it in to the "E! Entertainment News" channel. I never got around to it.

So, why am I dragging this out of the locker now? I got ahold of Ulead's PhotoImpact 4.2 the other day, and wanted to see what it could do with both photos, web graphics, and text. The outcome: most impressive! However, getting to the final product took a little time. While the tools in PhotoImpact are killer, the interface is confusing and not very well laid out (IMHO). Of course, it might take more than just a few editing sessions for me to get used to it, but my initial reaction was 'confusion'.

After fussing with it for an hour or so, I figured out how to perform most common editing tasks. I think I was most pleased with the text editing capabilities (although the applet isn't as user friendly as I would have liked it to be). After I finished "creating" this scary portrait of myself, I took a look at the size of PhotoImpact's folder. It was over 100MB in size... WOAH! Yes, this is a GREAT image editor (don't get me wrong), and it comes with a suite of other "web" utilities. If you love clip art, you'll be set with the bonus CD-ROM.

PhotoImpact has tons of "filters" (and you can always use others), comes with a wide range of image utilities (including a photo-optimizing Wizard and a GIF animator), has excellent JPG & GIF tweaking tools, and once you get used to how it works, I believe you'll be happy. And by the way, OCR stands for OPTICAL Character Recognition (not Optimal--my finger slipped yesterday).

Download the PhotoImpact Demo

PhotoImpact Prices on CNET's Shopper.com
PhotoImpact Prices on Bottom Dollar Network

-- Chris Pirillo        


GnomePROGRAM

SideBar v1.0 [150k] W9x FREE

http://www.diamond-valley.com/lion/down/sidebar.zip
http://www.diamond-valley.com/lion/

Still haven't got enough utilities to make your PC more Mac-like? Even if you hate Macs and want nothing to do with them, you've got to admit that SideBar is a fantastic utility. You'll get a little tab on the left side of your screen--press it, and out pops a range of icons that perform various system-related tasks. When you're finished, press the end of the tab again and it'll return to its minimized state. I remember seeing something like this on my friend's Mac once--rather ingenious. If you know of any other "Mac" utils for the PC that haven't been featured, let me know!


GnomeSYSTEM

Startup CPL v1.0 [37k] W9x/NT FREE

http://www.monmouth.com/~mlin/files/StartupCPL.zip
http://www.monmouth.com/~mlin/software/

Windows 98 users have the "MSCONFIG" utility, but Windows 95 users are pretty much stuck with having to dive into the registry to edit/remove all "startup" programs. Not anymore! Any one of you can download this excellent Control Panel Applet to help manage your system's startup stuff. This applet also works in NT.


GnomeCANDY

Tyler v3.0 [320k] W9x/NT FREE
Found by Christoph Flögel

http://www.smalleranimals.com/zips/tyler.zip
http://www.smalleranimals.com/tyler.htm

A few weeks ago, I covered ArcSoft's PhotoMontage in an HTML Daily issue--it's a software package which takes an "unlimited" amount of photo snapshots and puts them together to form a larger picture. Kinda neat, actually. If you've already got hundreds of digital photos sitting around, consider picking up Tyler as an alternative to ArcSoft's CD ROM. The more digital (or scanned) pictures you have, the more varied your "montages" will become. Your co-workers will be taken aback with amazement. Don't tell them you're not as smart as you look, though.


GnomeFAVORITE

Acronym Finder
Found by David C. McMasters

http://www.mtnds.com/af/

You need to GYBOH ASAP to see WTFIAA... er, you need to Get Your Browser Over Here As Soon As Possible to see What The Fuss Is All About. If you've ever read an acronym and had no idea what it meant, you can finally educate yourself! FYI, there are over 72,000 different acronyms indexed here (computers, technology, military, etc.). You can even search for a word or concept (when you're ISO an acronym). It's just the CATNIP waiting for an HTB to issue a CVR. BTW, when you're PYCOW, you can use this resource as an OLHS. HTH! TTYL!


GnomeDESKTOP

THEME: Funny Cars [1.1M]

http://computernet.hypermart.net/funcars.zip
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6546/

My first automobile was a 1966 Karmann Model Convertible VW Bug. For some odd reason, I always pictured myself as a "bug" guy. Of course, learning to drive on that thing took a lot more courage than I had expected. I remember my dad taking me out to the fairgrounds and having me "hover" at the top of a steep hill. Well, at least I know how to handle a 'stick'. But boy, winters were cold in that car... I think I topped out around 45MPH one day. No heat, no defrosters, AM radio, rust, holes, a wheel for a pedal... I'm lucky to be alive.


GnomeTIP

Here's an easy way to view the Windows 98 Easter Egg instantaneously (without any fancy clicking): create a new shortcut (right-click on your Desktop, select New, then Shortcut), browse to "C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Welcome", Click OK, Next, then Finish. After that, right-click on the shortcut and pull up its Properties. At the end of the Target string, add the following text: You_are_a_real_rascal -- then select "Minimized" from the Run drop-down menu and click 'Apply' then 'Close'. Your Windows 98 Easter Egg shortcut is ready to rock & roll!



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