Evernote or Microsoft One Note?
Several years ago I found Microsoft OneNote and immediately fell in love with it but there are several problems with OneNote: First and foremost, Microsoft doesn't include it with every version of Office. No matter what Adobe Creative Suite package you buy, Bridge is included. OneNote is to Office as Bridge is to Creative Suite but Microsoft has never figured that out. If you want OneNote, you have to buy one of the more expensive suites or license it separately. If you're not willing to pay extra for OneNote, consider Evernote.
One Note costs $80 per computer. It's a one-time fee and applications such as the free SugarSync synchronizer can keep your OneNote files in sync from one computer to another. Evernote is free if the files you're sharing total no more than about 5GB. For more than that, you need the premium version for $45 per year regardless of how many computers you're synchronizing files on. Monthly uploads are limited to 1GB per month, though, which seems a bit stingy.
When it comes to formatting data, Microsoft One Note turns out to be the Ferari while Evernote is the Yugo.
Evernote has an advantage in that it's available for Windows, Apple's OS X, the IPhone, the IPod Touch, Android devices, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile devices. It also has plug-ins for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. One Note runs on Windows and offers some capabilities on Android devices and Apple's portable devices but it's not available for Apple computers.
Unfortunately, Evernote is so minimalistic that it lacks even basic formatting capabilities and this compares with OneNote's relatively robust and sophisticated formatting (it's not Word) and OneNote's ability to add tags with icons.
I've reviewed OneNote previously and the 4-cat rating I gave it in 2010 still stands. Evernote falls short in many areas but it's still an applications that's worth considering.
Evernote's biggest advantage is that it works just about everywhere -- PC or Mac computer; IOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows phones; tablets; notebooks; everything. I like that.
Because formatting is limited, you won't be distracted while entering notes by thinking about the formatting. This is the same logic I use when I prepare reviews in a text processor (UltraEdit Studio) instead of in Word or Dreamweaver. During the writing phase, the words are important and formatting is unimportant.
Despite the sparse interface, Evernote does a lot. You can add an "ink" note if your computer has a stylus or a video note or an audio note. When it comes to text, though, your only choices are standard paragraphs of text and extremely basic tables. But, as I said, maybe that's not so bad.
You can of course drop an image or a URL into Evernote and, as you do that, you can apply one or more tags to the note so that it'll be easier to find later.
The Evernote Trunk contains information about and links to add-ons for hardware, software, and notebooks that can enhance your note-taking experience. If you choose Evernote, it's worth taking a look there from time to time.
Just Do It
Regardless of whether you choose OneNote or Evernote to help you keep track of bits of information, the key is to use the application. This may seem painfully obvious but it's easy to install an application that you hope will help you, continue doing things the way you've always done them, and then feel that the new application isn't helping at all.
Keep track of people, places, and things. Both applications have good search functions so both applications can help you find what you're looking for even if you don't organize it very well.
Record information about procedures you don't need very often. I have to change my password every 42 days and the password change procedure is complicated because it involves corporate facilities, division facilities, my local computer, encryption software, and access to a variety of local resources. When I update the password for one system, I want to update it for all systems. A note reminds me of the many steps in the process.
Make note of anything you need occasionally and might forget. How many things are there that you need to do only once or twice a year? Places that you go occasionally but forget the details of which exit to take or where to turn? Medications that you take daily but can never remember when asked?
Evernote Is Serious Competition for Microsoft's One Note
Microsoft's OneNote may have more features but Evernote works on more operating systems and synchronization is easier and more automatic than with OneNote. Either will work for most people but the key point, if you decide to start using a note tracker, is to force yourself to use it consistently until it becomes a reflex action.
For more information, visit the Evernote website.
Film, the Final Frontier for Digital Photographers
Digital photography offers huge advantages over film photography: Cost, performance in low-light situations, and immediate feedback to name just three. For others, ask the Eastman Kodak Company. But the small minority of photographers who have stuck with film well into the digital age say that film has a special look. And you know what? They're right. But maybe they're also a bit shortsighted because that film "look" can be replicated digitally and you're not limited to any one film "look" with any individual image. Try several and see which works best.
I decided to start with a picture of Neko, the cat that my younger daughter lives with. In this picture, Neko was preparing to look out the front window, possibly watching for another cat that sometimes stops by to engage in a staring contest.
Click a small image for a larger view. Click the larger view to close it.
Having just loaded the latest version of Alien Skin's Exposure plug-in for Photoshop (CS4 and later) and Lightroom (version 2 and above), I thought I'd see what I could make it do.
If you like what you can do with Instagram (see the story about Instagram in Short Circuits), you're going to love Exposure. And if you thought Exposure 3 offered a wide choice of film appearances, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
The first thing I noticed about Exposure 4 is that it seems to offer many more selections than were available in Exposure 3. This may in part be the result of Exposure 4's combining color and monochrome films in the same control panel. No longer must you choose between monochrome or color versions of the filter. Start with color and then try monochrome without having to back out and switch gears.
A close second is the improved and enlarged control panel. The interface is still easy to use, though: Pick an overall look in the left column, examine the modified image in the center, and then select the various tabs at the right and modify the positions of numerous sliders to change the image's appearance.
In this image, I selected Tri-X with 2-stop push processing. What this means is that the 400-speed film would have been exposed as if it had a rating of 1600 and then would have been processed in a way that would bring out some of the shadow detail but would also increase the film's inherent grain. Here I've also added some "age" effects to the image by adding a vignette. One might convincingly pass this off as an image exposed in the 1960s with an inexpensive camera.
Fuji Neopan 1600 was a high-speed but still tight-grained low-contrast film and this filter closely approximates the look of the film.
I made no modifications to the default settings.
Some films and processes are no longer available and calotype is one of those. William Henry Fox Talbot invented the technique in 1841. Instead of using film for the original exposure, the process used paper that was coated with silver iodide.
Talbot's earlier methods required exposures of an hour or more in sunlight but the calotype process made short exposures (a minute or so) possible. This made possible the photography of any person or object that could be convinced to sit still for a minute or so.
The calotype process produced a translucent negative that could then be used to make prints by what is called "contact printing". The negative is placed on top of the paper that will be used for the positive image and then the sandwiched pair is exposed to light. This was a distinct improvement over the daguerreotype process, which created a single positive image in the camera—an image that could be duplicated only by being photographed again.
And speaking of daguerreotype, Exposure 4 offers that process, too. The daguerreotype image is formed on the surface of a mirror-like silver plate. The resulting images are unstable and will oxidize when exposed to air. The image can also easily be rubbed off the plate so daguerreotypes are usually placed inside sealed cases or at least frames with a glass cover.
Because they are so fragile, most daguerreotypes exhibit at least some damage and Exposure 4 make it possible to add that kind of damage to your new daguerreotype. The earlier Exposure 3 also made it possible to add dust and scratches to images but the process wasn't very good. The dust and scratches were computer generated and generally unconvincing.
Jeff Butterworth, the founder of Alien Skin Software, says " Exposure 4 uses a new texture overlay feature based on real photographs which does a much better job." And indeed it does!
Most Kodacolor prints made before about 1970 have faded badly because the early commercial color papers weren't stable. Even at their best, the colors in those days weren't particularly accurate or saturated.
Here's an example of Kodacolor (1942-1953) and it's realistic.
It's possible, with Exposure 4, to replicate the look created by older 35mm or 126-film cameras that had light leaks but light leaks could also occur in cameras that used what was called roll film (120, 220, and 620 are some of the many sizes.) The film in these rolls was taped to a carrier paper and the photographer who didn't seal the roll of film well would find light damage on some of the resulting prints.
The real key to enjoying Exposure 4 is experimenting with the array of settings in the right panel: Color, Tone, Focus, Grain, IR (infra-red), and Age each have many sliders that change what the image looks like—sometimes subtly and sometime not so subtly. But if you don't want to experiment at first, you can choose from a nice selection of "factory presets" and, when you begin experimenting on your own and find a setting you like enough that you want to repeat it, you can save it as one of your own presets.
Exposure 4 Brings the Film Look into the Digital Age
You would be forgiven for expecting that Alien Skin Exposure 4 would be a minor upgrade from Exposure 3 but the instant you open the new version you'll know that's not the case. If you bought Exposure 3 in November 2011 or later, the upgrade to Exposure 4 is free; otherwise, you'll pay about $100 to upgrade. A new license can be had for about $175 (until 17 April 2012) and Exposure 4 is included in Alien Skin's Photo Bundle (also including Bokeh, Blow Up, Image Doctor, and Snap Art) for $350 through the 17th. If you're the kind of digital photographer who likes to create images with highly distinctive appearances, it's money well spent.
For more information, visit the Alien Skin Exposure 4 website.
Windows 8: "Radical Redesign"
This week I was watching a short (72 minutes) Windows 8 presentation on Lynda.com by David Gassner in which he described the upcoming operating system from Microsoft as a "radical redesign" of Windows. That's an apt description but "radical" is likely to frighten some people. That's unfortunate because, while the changes are radical, they are also designed to make it possible for Windows users to have similar experiences across various platforms, from tablets to notebooks to desktop systems to servers.
In recent days, we've learned that the Start Menu will definitely not be coming back. Although I realize that the Start Menu will no longer be an important part of Windows 8, I'm still concerned that many users will take one look at the new operating system and decide that they will not upgrade. For those users who are currently running Windows 7, that decision won't be a significant problem. But those who are still using Windows XP will soon find themselves in uncomfortable surroundings.
If you're at all interested in where Windows 8 will take you and how it will get there, I strongly recommend watching David Gassner's program at Lynda.com. As with the recent Adobe Photoshop CS6 program I recommended, this entire program is available for free.
The program shows how to get started with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which was recently released. It describes the 3 installation options: Windows 8 as the primary OS, replacing Windows 7 (use this only if the machine you're installing on is a test system), side-by-side with Windows 7, or in a virtual machine that runs under another operating system.
Gassner also shows how the Windows 8 user interface works both on tablets and on computers with keyboards and mice. He explains the differences between the Metro interface and the Desktop, both of which are available if you run Windows 8 on a desktop system or a notebook. There's even a brief session on the Windows Store, where you can purchase apps, videos, and music.
In all, it's an hour well spent if you're interested in what's ahead for Windows users.
Short Circuits
The Bumblebee is Dead
A man from Poland, whose name means "bumblebee" has died. He drove a taxi and repaired typewriters. The man from Poland went into business with a company in Czechoslovakia when that country was behind the Iron Curtain and set up a business front in Toronto so that he could import parts for office machines that were assembled here. Jack Tramiel was 83.
Why is this man's passing of note to TechByter Worldwide? Well, the company he founded to import parts from Czechoslovakia was called Commodore International and Jack Tramiel (Trzmiel) was one of the first people in the world to recognize that a market existed for personal computers. The Commodore Pet went on sale in 1977 and then, in 1982, the Commodore 64. In 1984 Tramiel bought the Atari Corporation after resigning from Commodore in a dispute over how to run the company.
The Atari 800 was my first personal computer. I still have it and as of a few years ago, it still worked.
But the Commodore C64 was the first blockbuster computer. It sold 15 million units over the years, probably in large part because of Tramiel's motto: "We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes."
Tramiel was sent to Auschwitz with his family during World War II and arrived in the United States in 1947. Commodore began in 1955 as a typewriter company and moved on to calculators in the 1970s.
You can still buy Commodore C64 computers today. The C64 Supreme costs $1300 and comes with 4GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive. The Commodore operating system is installed but you can also add Windows if you want.
Jack Tramiel is not as well known as some of the personal computer pioneers, but he is someone who should not be forgotten.
Instagram to Become Part of Facebook
Recently my daughters have been adding images to Facebook via a service called Instagram. Now it turns out that Facebook will acquire Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock. That makes the acquisition Facebook's largest so far.
If you have an Apple or Android smartphone, you can download the Instagram app and use it to reduce the quality of the images from your phone.
Yes, you read that correctly. Instagram says it's a fun and quirky way to share photos with friends. Applying Instagram filters make the photo you take today look like something from a $5 camera made in 1956. That's not a criticism, by the way. Sometimes these conversions can create striking images.
Facebook, about to be flush with cash from its initial public stock offering, realizes that Instagram has something that a lot of Facebook users will like. By "flush with cash", I mean that the IPO could raise $10 billion for the company.
The purchase isn't a bad deal for the founders who created Instagram just two years ago, fresh out of Stanford University. Initially Instagram worked only on Apple's Iphones but recently it's been updated to work with Android devices, too.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom gave one of the keynote presentations at this year's South by Southwest conference in Austin. In that speech he described the application's growth, doubling its number of users since December. With the launch of the Android application, Instagram picked up millions more users and now claims to have more than 30 million users.
What makes Instagram worth $1 billion? Probably not the employees. There are only a dozen or so. Probably not the income because the application is free. Definitely not the company's revenue because there is none.
But this is an application that can be monetized, or at least somebody at Facebook must think it can be.
A year ago, Benchmark Capital invested $7 million in the company and said at the time that it was probably worth about $25 million.
Some users are concerned about privacy and security. Instagram currently offers users relatively strong controls over who can see their photos. Facebook's privacy policies have been a bit less robust.
Apple's FlashBack Trojan Attack (Take Two)
After dawdling for long enough that fraudsters were able to take advantages of flaws in its OS X operating system, Apple has issued issued two updates within about a week. It's too little. It's too late. More than 600 thousand Apple computers have been affected. This didn't have to happen.
The fault in Java has been known for months and Oracle patched it months ago. This isn't something new. The vulnerability was discovered last September and in the intervening half year it has become a more serious threat. Why Apple waited so long to address the problem is unclear.
Last week's second iteration of the patch apparently was an attempt to correct problems with the first version of the patch. As usual, Apple won't say. Instead, Apple says that the new patch "delivers improved compatibility, security and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to Java 1.6.0_31."
Then, this week, Apple released an integrated tool that removes the malware. It's part of a security update that became available at mid week and joins similar tools from F-Secure, Kaspersky, and Symantec. Estimates of the number of machines infected range from 270 thousand to 600 thousand.
The author's image: It's that photo over at the right. This explains why TechByter Worldwide was never on television, doesn't it?
