Paint.NET vs. GIMP

For years I was a fan of Paint Shop Pro. However, after version 9 or so I decided to look for another graphics program. I like to keep current with my software, but I found that as time when on I really didn't need what was being added to PSP, and I didn't feel like spending the money to stay current. I turned to GIMP as a replacement.

I like GIMP (or "the GIMP", however the hippies say it), but the UI is rather atrocious. I started to get used to it, though the multiple windows thing never did it for me. As I mentioned before, I tried GIMPShop, but I could never use it since it would always crash on startup. I had briefly looked at Paint.NET but it didn't really seem to be that great. However, based on a recommendation from a blog I frequent, I gave it another try.

And I discovered I liked it! The UI is far more standard, at least where Windows is concerned (I'm thinking about shortcut keys in particular). The layout is simpler and overall it packs a far amount of power in a small package. Now, it lacks much of the GIMP's functionality, but for the majority of graphics work I do, Paint.NET is sufficient and the UI doesn't get into the way (I still keep GIMP around if I need to do something Paint.NET can't).

So, if you're looking for a small, fairly intuitive painting/graphics program, give it a shot.

Some Nifty Free Software I've Recently Found

Below are a few free utilities I've recently started using. I thought I'd share them here:

EmEditor: For some time I've been a fan of EditPad Lite. It's a great editor; far better than Window's Notepad. However, I had a problem running it under Vista on my new laptop (review of that to follow). Basically, when I would try to "flip" through my running apps (using Alt-Tab or Win-Tab), EditPad wouldn't go away even though I was supposed to be on a new app. I don't know if that was a Vista issue or one with EditPad, but in any case I needed an enhanced editor that would work well under Vista (and XP, since that's what I run on my desktop). After a little searching and playing around I found EmEditor. It can do everything EditPad could, it's got a clean interface (one of the reasons I don't use editors like TextPad is that they're too "busy"), plus it has color-coding based on the type of file you are editting (HTML, XML, C#, etc.). Like EditPad Lite, there's a more powerful version available that you have to pay for, but for a free editor, EmEditor is very good.

PrimoPDF: This is a free PDF creator which I just used to create the new Mythosa PDF. It works like most PDF creators - it installs as a print driver, so you print your document using PrimoPDF. It's small, quick, and doesn't have any ad banners or other annoyances. Also, unlike CutePDF (which is good, don't get me wrong), you have a few options you can select ahead of time, like print quality and security features. I recommend it if you want a cheap way to create PDFs quickly.

EverNote: This is a cool note-taking application, though I'm still playing with it to get a feel for how I best want to use it. Like the other programs here, it's a "lite" version of a more powerful application you pay for. But, again, for a free program, it's pretty slick. It's even more useful if you have a tablet PC, which unfortunately I don't (though you can still sketch things with your mouse). You can download EverNote here.

The Amazing Crashing Gimpshop

Installed GIMPShop under Windows. Run it, create a new image...crash.

Numerous uninstalls and re-installs - same thing.

Trying again with regular GIMP. If that doesn't work, I'll be going back to proprietary graphics software. Paint Shop Pro never gave me the same troubles that GIMPShop (or GIMP, for that matter) did.

-1 points to the hippies.

TiddlyWiki Code for 2007 Calendar

I couldn't find this anywhere so I had to make it myself (I converted a 2006 Calendar, actually; don't remember where I found it, though). Anyway, if you want to have a 2007 calendar tiddler for your TiddlyWiki wiki, you can use the code below:

|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver; !@@color:black;2 0 0 7@@ |
|>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;January@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;February@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;March@@|
|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|
||1|2|3|4|5|6| | | | | |1|2|3| | | | | |1|2|3|
|7|8|9|10|11|12|13| |4|5|6|7|8|9|10| |4|5|6|7|8|9|10|
|14|15|16|17|18|19|20| |11|12|13|14|15|16|17| |11|12|13|14|15|16|17|
|21|22|23|24|25|26|27| |18|19|20|21|22|23|24| |18|19|20|21|22|23|24|
|28|29|30|31| | | | |25|26|27|28| | | | |25|26|27|28|29|30|31|
|>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;April@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;May@@||>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;June@@|
|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|
|1|2|3|4|5|6|7| | | |1|2|3|4|5| | | | | | |1|2|
|8|9|10|11|12|13|14| |6|7|8|9|10|11|12| |3|4|5|6|7|8|9|
|15|16|17|18|19|20|21| |13|14|15|16|17|18|19| |10|11|12|13|14|15|16|
|22|23|24|25|26|27|28| |20|21|22|23|24|25|26| |17|18|19|20|21|22|23|
|29|30| | | | | | |27|28|29|30|31| | | |24|25|26|27|28|29|30|
|>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;July@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;August@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;September@@|
|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|
|1|2|3|4|5|6|7| | | | |1|2|3|4| | | | | | | |1|
|8|9|10|11|12|13|14| |5|6|7|8|9|10|11| |2|3|4|5|6|7|8|
|15|16|17|18|19|20|21| |12|13|14|15|16|17|18| |9|10|11|12|13|14|15|
|22|23|24|25|26|27|28| |19|20|21|22|23|24|25| |16|17|18|19|20|21|22|
|29|30|31| | | | | |26|27|28|29|30|31| | |23|24|25|26|27|28|29|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |30| | | | | | |
|>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;October@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;November@@| |>|>|>|>|>|>|bgcolor:silver;!@@color:black;December@@|
|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@| |bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;M@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;W@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;T@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;F@@|bgcolor:cornflowerblue;!@@color:white;S@@|
||1|2|3|4|5|6| | | | | |1|2|3| | | | | | | |1|
|7|8|9|10|11|12|13| |4|5|6|7|8|9|10| |2|3|4|5|6|7|8|
|14|15|16|17|18|19|20| |11|12|13|14|15|16|17| |9|10|11|12|13|14|15|
|21|22|23|24|25|26|27| |18|19|20|21|22|23|24| |16|17|18|19|20|21|22|
|28|29|30|31| | | | |25|26|27|28|29|30| | |23|24|25|26|27|28|29|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |30|31| | | | | |

Cool Tech Tip: Easy Encryption for your USB Drive

Just found this blog post recently (via Lifehacker). It's instructions on how to set up your USB drive to be encrypted (using the open source Truecrypt tool). Works well when you're done, too - stick your USB drive in, enter your password, and you're good to go.

Very useful if you want to protect your data in the event you lose the drive.

A Curse of a Thousand Sand Fleas Upon HP Marketing...

...or whoever was the genius who decided that their laser printers shouldn't have power buttons and let them be controlled by Windows. Why the hell would you hand control of your hardware to #$&*#@$% WINDOWS?!?!?

The reason I ask is that I have a Word document that I'm trying to print but each time I do, it locks up my printer. Such that I need to unplug the stupid thing because HP, in it's infinite wisdom, didn't think to put a power button on it! This is as brilliant as taking reset buttons off of PCs (years ago, when I was interning at Compaq, I asked about that (since they were one of the first, if not the first, PC manufacturers to stop putting reset buttons on their computers). I was told that it was a decision by marketing (or some other non-technical group) since putting a reset button on a computer implies that it may need to be reset. Apparently, it was an image thing, as they were afraid people would think it was the hardware's fault that Windows locked up your computer. So, in the end, the consumer was screwed regardless of who was responsible).

(Note: I'm not some anti-corporate socialist hippy, so don't take that as a "Yeah! Down with market forces!" On the other hand, corporations of course aren't the equivalent of bunnies who crap ice cream).

Anyway, this rant is getting (?) incoherent, so I'll stop. For the record, my HP printer (LaserJet 1200) has served me pretty well for a number of years now. But that sort of thing is just maddening. Maddening, I say!

In the end, I finally got it working. How? I opened up the .doc in OpenWriter, saved it as a PDF (since printing from the hippy program gave me the same result), and printed the PDF.

So the points for this round go to: Adobe, since they're the only one involved that didn't give me any problems. And Apple, since I'm still digging my iPod.

I Have Joined the Cult of Apple

Bought a Mac? No, I wouldn't do that. But I did purchase my first Apple product - one of them fancy new iPods (the 30GB model). I have a new job that involves an hour train ride into the city (Chicago), so I figured I was finally justified in getting one. Right at the point where they're going to die, according to this article (which I agree with; the comments amuse me since they make it obvious that the fanboys posting really don't understand markets or economics...though most people don't, but that's a discussion for another time). Well, not die, but fall out of the vast market share they've had. But, for my purposes, it does the job so I can't complain. Not about the iPod, at least. iTunes leaves a bit to be desired. I'm getting more used to it, but my initial use of the software was a bit frustrating, which surprised me since Apple products are supposed to be so awesome and intuitive. Uh...sure. And desktop publishing isn't painful in Scribus on Linux.

But, in any case, I'm enjoying it so far. And it's finally allowing me to watch the episodes of BSG.

Firefox Developers: Read Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface

Why? Because it will explain why it's better to have the "close tab" button where you had it in version 1.5 rather than giving each tab it's own close button as you've done in 2.0.

Very aggravating, not only if you've grown used to where it is. I've seen commentary where some people are saying the old way was a bad design decision ("You can't tell which tab it's for!" - please, it's obvious it's for the tab you're viewing). One even claims that there could be a timing issue with opening and closing tabs. Poppycock, says I. Most of the people who claim this is "better" are people who seem to be using other methods to close tabs (like Ctrl-W), so they don't really get it. Granted, keystrokes are quicker than mouse actions, but if your hand is already on the mouse...

Fortunately, this comment here describes an easy way to go back to the old way (i.e.; the right way).

On the other hand, they've made it easier to manage your search engines in the search bar. You actually have an interface to remove items you don't want, like the majority of what Firefox gives you by default (in my case). Of course, until I found out about the keyboard options for the search bar (Ctrl-K plus Ctrl-Up/Ctrl-Down). I never used it.

(Yes, I recognize I'm complaining about a feature I always use the mouse for and talking about a feature that I ignored until I learned about a keyboard shortcut; it's not irony, it's the way I use the application. Deal.)

Adobe - WTF?

Why does it require rebooting Windows three times to update Acrobat Reader? Heck, why do I have to reboot at all? It's Acrobat Reader!

Sigh...one of the reasons I divide my time between Windows and Ubuntu these days...(more on that in a future post).

Freeware Installation Tool - Advanced Installer

So version 5 of TableSmith is finally in its last stages before release and I realized that I didn't have anything in place for its installation. An advantage of a program that uses .Net is that you can simply copy whatever files you need wherever you want them and you don't really need an installation process. However, many of the people that use TS aren't necessarily computer-savvy so I still need some standard way to install TSv5 - a setup program that does all the work for them. Previous versions of TS used VB6, which had an "Application Deployment Wizard" (or something like that) which created the setup files I needed. I didn't see anything like that with Visual C# 2005, at least not at first.

Upon further review, I discovered "ClickOnce", which is Microsoft's build-in deployment tool. Unfortunately, though rather unsurprisingly, it didn't turn out to work for me. Without going into details, the tool took what should be a simple process and made it more complicated than it needed to be. What's worse is that ClickOnce installs an application into its "application cache" on the target machine, rather than wherever the user wants it to go. Now, there are some distinct advantages to ClickOnce (such as having a program automatically update itself when a newer version is available), but for what I want it just didn't work.

Fortunately, I was able to find a freeware alternative - Advanced Installer. Intuitive and easy to use, it does exactly what I want and need it to do. There are other versions you need to pay for if you need something beyond the freeware version, but so far that's working out good for me. If you're looking for a simple tool to create installation MSI files, I'd recommend it.

Today's Euphamism: "Limited Connectivity"

Still can't get the wireless to work with Vista. I'm even trying a new network card from Belkin (versus the old one from Netgear) and getting the same results. Since the hardware works fine with XP, there's something with Vista that won't work with my network. Vista can identify the SSID of the router, but that's it. Of course, I'm told that I'm connected but I have "limited connectivity". Which is apparently Microsoftese for "no goddamn connectivity worth anything beyond giving you an SSID and signal strength." Gee, thanks.

So, my opinion of Vista is that it's still crap. If the wireless networking can't function - on the exact PC where it works perfectly fine with XP - then there's a problem.

Update: Naturally, shortly after I posted this I got it working. The problem seemed to be with the wireless security I was using. No security didn't work (odd, though that could be by design with Vista, even though it didn't tell me that), WEP didn't work, but WPA did. Of course, I had to switch to the old network card because Vista told me that the Belkin didn't support WPA, despite the fact that it does. Now, this isn't the final release I realize, but you still expect a little more from a beta.

Initial Thoughts on Vista

So I installed Windows Vista Beta 2 on my other computer (this laptop has more RAM, a faster processor, and other superior features but only has 64MB of video RAM, so it's not an option here).

My initial impression: It sucks.

Of course, I'm basing that entirely on the single fact that it doesn't seem to want to connect to my wireless router. I'll play around with it more tomorrow and see if I can get that working. What surprises me, though, is you'd think that would be a no-brainer, given how ubiquitous wireless networking is these days. The XP install on that machine still connects fine to the router, so I don't know what Vista's problem is.

Great Mapping Tool for MasterMaze

If you use MasterMaze scenery from Dwarven Forge, you'll want to visit this site. It contains tiles for MasterMaze for a program called "Tile System" (originally created to make maps for FFG's Doom game). The "photos" sets work the best.

It's nice to find this kind of thing - it saves me from having to write it myself.

Hoody Hoo!

This website got mentioned in the latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. Two paragraphs even! The Summon Web Scryer column, which looks at Internet gaming resources every month, discussed a variety of software tools available on-line and said some nice things about TableSmith and some of the other tools on the utilities page. Very cool.

If you're not familiar with KoDT, head over to the Kenzer and Company web page and check it out.

Free Development Tools from Microsoft

In case you're interested (and aren't already aware), Microsoft recently released a number of free development tools as part of their rollout of .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. Until November of 2006, you can download "express editions" of the latest version of Visual Basic, C#, SQL Server, and others from their website.

I'm not certain if "express = suck" as I haven't looked at all the tools in-depth. I have installed Visual C# Express Edition and it's actually pretty slick. I haven't found any limitations in it for developing Windows applications so far. I've switched the development of TableSmith version 5 from SharpDevelop - a free, open source tool - to VCSEE and haven't had any problems yet. SharpDevelop is quite an accomplishment but it's not without it's problems. The biggest factor in my switch, though, is that SharpDevelop doesn't support the .NET Framework 2.0 yet.

The "express editions" are billed as being for "hobbyists, novices, and student developers", none of which describe me. I suspect that's partly to dissaude "real" coders from using them so they'll shell out for the full Visual Studio. But for what I'm doing at home, VCSEE is more than enough. And since I prefer to use legimate software, the fact that it's a free download is great.

Bustin'...um...a Move...like...Hobbit-style. Um...yo.

The Unicorns LA video made me want to have a bleach eye-wash, but I kind of like the LotR video from Lords of the Rhymes.

Um, yo.

On a related, negative note, WTF is up with Apple requiring you to install iTunes now if you want to install QuickTime? And then the asshats at Apple break one of the Cardinal Rules and put the goddamn QuickTime icon in your Quick Launch bar without asking you for permission. You never put something in someone's Quick Launch bar or the root of "Start" or on the desktop or in your bookmarks/favorites without asking first. Yeah, I'm looking at you, too, AOL (a new version of Winamp? Great! Now let me track down the goddamn artifacts you bastards scattered all over my PC). And Sierra - they used to be notorious for that. Look, if I want to install the goddamn Sierra Utilities I'll make the request - you don't do it for me! Of course, those things are mild compared to a company like Sony installing a damn rootkit on your PC!

I swear, Microsoft isn't going to be the one to push me off Windows onto Linux; it's going to be all these other corporations screwing around with my system because they assume I'm a moron, a criminal, or both.

Sorry for the rant...

Cool Sticky Notes Program

Find this recently: ATNotes. It's no longer being supported, but the program is very useful and a lack of continued development shouldn't keep you from using it. It's a "sticky notes" program, similar to Post-It notes but for your (Windows) desktop. It also has a little calendar as well as alarm capability and some other features. Overall, it's a pretty slick utility.

I am aware that 3M has an actual "Post-It" software program, but having used it for awhile I've found ATNotes to be better. I've also tried the various sticky note widgets for Konfabulator, but they all left me wanting.

Misadventures with the Audible Manager/Player

Recently I started listening to RPG podcasts on the drive home from work (I'll be talking more about that another time; that will be a far more pleasant post than this one). For this, and other reasons, I'm planning on getting a new car stereo that can handle MP3s. However, that's presently lower on the "funding" priority list, so for now I've been using my Palm (Zire 72) with a cassette adapter. Works fine, though it's a somewhat of a hassle.

I'm using the Real player for the Palm, and it works fine for the most part. The biggest problem is that it doesn't remember where you were in a song/MP3 if you turn off the Palm or switch to another program. So if I'm halfway through a podcast when I get home I have to pause it, record the time, and then select that the next day. Not a huge deal, granted, but is it so hard for the player to remember where you stopped? I'm familiar with how PalmOS programming works, so it's not some special "Palm thing".

I went looking for a replacement, preferably a free one since this is temporary until I replace the stereo (I don't listen to MP3s on my Palm otherwise). I eventually found the Audible player, which did exactly what I wanted. Though I then discovered that Audible uses a proprietary format and won't play MP3s (not on my Zire, at least). I figured that they would have something to convert MP3s to their "AA" format since MP3 is a popular, known standard.

Apparently not. At least, not for the Palm.

Foolishly, I downloaded and installed their desktop manager, thinking that would convert MP3s to AA. Granted, I didn't verify this ahead of time. But the hassle to install, set up, and uninstall their software was maddening. If it'd just been "Oh, this doesn't do what I thought it would." it would have been no big deal and I'd have no ill-will towards Audible. However...

First I had to register an account with Audible, which included giving them a CC# for when I actually ordered things from them. I had no plans to do that, but you shouldn't have to do that until you do order something. Then, the software on the desktop and the Palm had to be "activated", so more of a hassle there. Finally, when I decided that it wasn't working for me I went to uninstall everything, but that didn't work because the installation process said the desktop Manager was still running. There was no indication of this - no program running, no icon in the system tray. It wasn't until I found the process in Task Manager - running with no indication that it was there.

My experience with Audible's software took more time and was more frustrating than how it may appear from the previous paragraph (which is more of a summary than a detailed account). Now, it's very likely that I could have avoided some of the headache I received if I'd read through their docs a little more carefully. But, really, all I wanted was a simple Palm MP3 player that would remember where you last left off on a track. It shouldn't have been that much of a pain - but it was, and it totally soured me on Audible.

There's a big difference between how most software is and how it should be. And this is a perfect example.

Documents-to-Go is a piece of crap

Transferring files to a new PC should not be this big of a pain-in-the-ass. More on this later (including my tribulations with Gateway tech support).

I should not have to tell "Documents-to-Go" the location of every goddamn file I have to re-sync with the Palm. I should be able to do it en masse.

Is there a way to do it? Probably, but it's not intuitive. And people still wonder why the average person is computer illiterate. I'm far from that myself, but I don't relish taking time out of my day to restore everything back the way it was. I have better things to do with my time.

Using the TenFootWiki for a Campaign Journal

I've set up the Campaign Journal I mentioned in my last post. I'm using the "TenFootWiki" I talked about. I'm hoping it proves to be useful, though I'll no doubt be tweaking it as time goes on.

I'm also putting together a page with the wiki for a Mythosan glossary. I'll be posting what I have soon, though it'll be incomplete for quite some time. Initially it will probably be rather bare-bones, but my eventual plan is to make it more like the "Hârndex" - more an encyclopedia than a glossary.

Uncle Bear's "TenFootWiki"

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, check out Uncle Bear's "TenFootWiki". A very cool tool you can use for campaign reference, campaign management, or whatever. I have to admit that I wasn't particularly impressed when I first started playing with it, but then I unchecked "EnableAnimations" under Options. That made all the difference.

The thing that impresses me the most is that this whole thing is done in a single HTML file via Javascript and CSS ("div tag"-o-rama). If I find the time I'd like to dissect it to see how it's done. I have a good idea, but I'm curious about the details.

If you want something a little more featured, you might want to check out GTDTagglyWiki, which is a derivative of GTDTiddlyWiki, which Uncle Bear's tool came from.

I'm currently setting up a copy for a campaign journal, and I'll probably some other things with it in the future.

What's Been Going On...

Given that I haven't posted much to the site recently and haven't put up a new Mythosa Chronicle in awhile, I figured I should post an update as to what I've been up to for the five or six people who visit this site ;)

World of Warcraft: Of course. I'm past the "I can stop any time" stage to "This really is a problem - someone should intervene". It's not as bad as it could be, but it is cutting into other leisure activities. Work? No. Wife? No. Website, painting, world development? Yes... But if it I wasn't playing WoW I'd be spending a lot of time on Jade Empire for my Xbox, so if it wasn't this it would probably be something else...

Mythosa Chronicle: Originally my plan was to publish this monthly, and it still is, though now it's more like "monthly...or so". You know - like KoDT... Anyway, the Chronicle isn't going away, I've just been busy with other things (outside of WoW) lately. It'll continue in the near future...

Hex Maps: I started working on the hex maps I mentioned in an earlier post. Unfortunately, in the process I discovered that the scale of the main Mythosa map was larger than I really cared for; something I didn't see until I "zoomed" in, as it were, to the smaller scale of the hex maps. So, I scaled down the map by about 20%. This, in turn, invalidated the hex maps I'd created, so I need to create them from scratch. They'll be going up once they're done. Or re-done, as it stands.

TableSmith 5.0: Work continues on TS 5, slowly but surely. The remaining work consists of the DataSet functions, a few other functions, and much of the UI. The bulk of the engine is complete, though I need to do some optimizing as the new version is currently slower than version 4.5.

That's about it for now.

Hex Maps

For my current campaign I wanted to put together some regional maps for overland travel. That wasn't much of an issue in my last campaign; I generally just hand-waved that sort of thing, and at high levels teleportation handled the lion's share of travel. I've also become enamored of the old Judges Guild maps, with the 5-mile hexes where each hex always has something in it: a mysterious (or mundane) village, a monster lair, some weird ruin or crumbling statue, etc. The question then came down to "what to use" for the maps.

The first obvious choice is CC-Pro since, well, I own it and I should get my money's worth. I also found a JG-style hex template for CCPro on the web, complete with numbers in each hex. The problem with going this route is that it's not particularly fast. It's not bad, but I wanted something quick. To that end, I decided to use a mapping tool that was specifically designed for creating hex maps. I looked for how to do this in CCPro (other than just throwing a hex grid over a regular map), but didn't find anything. So, I looked for other software designed for hex maps. I found four: Grid, AKS Hexmapper, Hex - World Creator, and Atlantean Enquirer. Oddly enough, these programs are all pretty old; as far as I can tell they haven't been updated past the 20th century. I suspect part of the reason is that hex maps have gone out of style; TSR used to use them all the time. Some people seem to think they're only really for old wargames. Others believe that every map must be an artistic masterpiece with utility being a quaint afterthought. There are even a few who are so immersed in their own egos that they can't fathom the value of a hex map and think that they're only for people who can't read a "real" map. In any case, I believe hex maps do have value and are quite useful in a tabletop game setting. Anyway...

I remember Grid from years ago. It's a very complex mapper, but it's a DOS program, so I pretty much set it to the side. I realize I can run DOS apps in a command window in XP, but I'd rather deal with something written with Windows 3.1 in mind at least. Hex - World Creator has a lot of potential (as well as some extra features I don't need), but the biggest problem with it is that it's very unstable. Given it's repeated crashes, I rejected it pretty quickly. From what I've seen elsewhere, others have had the same problem as well. Atlantean Enquirer was just...weird. I filed it away for ideas but I'm not using it. I ended up selecting AKS Hexmapper. Like the others, it appears to be unsupported, though it does have a small community of followers on Yahoo, mainly for trading tilesets. I was actually pretty impressed by Hexmapper. The program is small and fairly simple, but it has a clean, fairly intuitive interface and works well. One nice feature about it is that it can load any BMP file so you could convert existing maps into hex maps if you so desire.

There are some features that are lacking ("undo", for instance), so I'll likely do some post-work in Paint Shop Pro. But for something that's easy to use and gives pretty decent results, I'd recommend the program. It's everything my own Wilderness Mapper should have been but wasn't.

Once I finish the maps, I'm hoping to put together some JG-style tables to generate interesting features that can crop up in each hex...

Rant: SheetToGo and an MS wireless mouse

SheetToGo is a program for PalmOS that allows you to view/use Excel files on your Palm. It's part of DocumentsToGo from DataViz (which also allows you to view/use Word files on the Palm as well - that's the "WordToGo" part of the suite). Since I'm an Excel junky (I find it easier to organize thoughts and ideas in a spreadsheet than a word processor), I really like SheetToGo. It makes me regret buying...I forget the name, but it was another Excel-like Palm program. I bought it awhile back and it was OK but not quite what I wanted for a Palm spreadsheet. Then I ended up getting DocumentsToGo for free with a new Palm. Sigh...

Anyway, that's not the rant. The rant is that when I try to adjust the size of a column, nine times out of ten the stupid program brings up the pop-up menu that assumes I tapped the column rather than the divider between two columns. It's probably something I'm doing wrong, but still... I still like the program, but that issue always annoys me.

As long as I'm ranting, what's the deal with the stiffness of the mouse wheel button on the Microsoft wireless "Intellimouse Explorer" mouse? I picked one up the other day since one of our cats has taken to going after my mouse cord when it's moving around (usually while I'm doing something vitally important, like playing World of Warcraft). I tried one in the past but discovered that the weight difference compared to the old mouse I had was adversely affecting my performance in Unreal Tournament 2004; having batteries in the mouse makes it a lot heavier and I had gotten very used to the lighter mouse. However, since WoW is my addicition these days and isn't a twitch-heavy game like UT2004, it's not as much of an issue. And this mouse is quite nice (though I disagree with the feature that allows horizontal scrolling; we really don't want to encourage that). But clicking the mouse wheel button is maddening; it's very stiff, and half the time I end up in "autoscroll"mode when I'm trying to open a link in a new tab in Firefox. And I do that all the time.

I like the mouse a lot, but that aspect of it is really getting on my nerves...

Interesting Blurb from Dragon #41

In an article from the September 1980 issue, Tom Wham predicts:

"The microcomputer will take the garbage out of gaming, and leave the fun to us humans. Instead of a DM’s screen, the chic Dungeonmaster of the future will sit behind a computer, do a better job of monitoring the players and non-players, and enjoy the game more.
...
And the poor gamer who just can’t seem to find anyone to play with will be blessed with a 24-hour opponent. One who never wants to quit, doesn’t break for meals, never goes home to a spouse, and who knows the rules to every game the two of them play."

The second forecast has been with us for quite some time (since about when the article was written); it's taken a little while for the first. But laptops aren't so uncommon at the gaming table any longer.

The problem these days isn't having a computer to use, it's actually having software that makes a DM's job easier. Granted, there are a number of programs out there that are supposed to do that, but in my experience the more they try to do the more they get in the way. There are exceptions (DM's Familiar and TableSmith come to mind, of course), but they're precisely exceptions because they don't try to be the do-all and end-all of gaming software.

Of course, that's a discussion for another time...

DRM, PDF, DTRPG, and other acronyms...

The current debate sparked by the emergence of DriveThruRPG.com concerning the security on the PDFs they sell is interesting to follow. On the one end of the spectrum are gamers who are screaming about their "rights" being "violated". At the other end of the spectrum are publishers who, quite frankly, are being complete asses in their responses (I understand how frustrating dealing with people at the other end can be, but please - aren't you guys supposed to be the "professionals" in this industry? Try to act like it). In between - fortunately - are rational arguments by both "sides" about the pro's and con's of what's being done.

My take on this (for anyone that cares) is that I don't like it. The "copy/paste 10 times every 10 days" thing isn't that restrictive, it's a combination of two things - lack of portability and cost. From what I understand, it sounds like it's a major inconvenience to use one of these PDFs on more than one machine. So if I plunk down $30 for one, I need to re-register it on my laptop it I want to use it there as well as if I want to copy it to my USB drive and read it at work during lunch. Note that I'm talking about legitimate uses of something I legally bought - I'm not advocating piracy. I wouldn't be posting an opinion about this if I did - I'd just shrug and grab the files off of Kazaa or one of the other file-sharing networks. I need to look into this more, though, as I'm not entirely sure this is an issue as some are describing it.

Now, if I'm buying a PDF, I expect it to cost less than the print version of the book. If part of the cost of a print book is due to costs for paper, ink, warehousing, etc., and those costs are eliminated with a PDF, I expect that savings to be passed on to me. Particularly since if I decide to print out the PDF, it's going to cost me additional money to do so. And if the PDF is in color, I need to print it somewhere other than my desktop (my laser printer is B&W)...which leads back to the inconvenience I mention above. Now, if the PDF is being released at the same time as the print version, I can understand charging the same price - you don't want to cannibalize your sales of the print book by charging less for the PDF. But I would expect the PDF price to decrease, then, after the initial front-log time of 90 days (or whatever they call it) is done.

There's also format issues. Again, many publishers are dismissing that as a concern, but my 1st Edition DMG still works - and it's over 20 years old. So do the Original D&D and Travellers books I have - with the former being almost older than me. Adobe stands to be around for a good while - but for how long? What if their format for DRM'ed PDFs change in the next 3-5 years? How easy is it to "convert" a DRM'ed PDF to a new version? Format obsolence is a bigger deal than most people think, in my opinion. And the world and computer industry do change rapidly; how many people are still using VisiCalc or dBase, or TurboPascal? Extreme examples, to be sure, but this is still an issue. Track down a copy of "Dark Ages II: When the Digital Data Die" and read it (informative, though a little dry) if you don't think so.

Anyway, that's my opinion. I think this is still a great way to get old, OOP stuff and it's certainly nice for the people who can't get the print version of books easily or cheaply. But for me, the way the DRM is being done adds no value, and actually reduces the value of products where the option is an eBook or a printed version in almost all cases. If I want cut-and-paste ease, the value may increase over-and-above how much it's decreased by DRM, but in general, all the DRM does is make it less likely I would buy the eBook over the printed product.

Again, I'm not claiming my "rights" are being "violated", and I'm not trying to tell any of the publishers how they "need" to run their businesses. I'm simply expressing my opinion as a consumer. I may be one of the 4-5 insignificant geeks that the publishers don't care about, and if that's the case, then so be it...though I find it odd how they keep reminding us how small the industry is, but then dismiss out-of-hand those people who disagree with them - which right now isn't really that small a number (I'm extrapolating a bit, but remember that it's people on-line who buy PDFs, so using the people who are debating the issue right now as a sample isn't too outlandish); but hey, who are we to question them? Our purpose is to buy their books regardless of quality so the Stackpole's of the world don't have to get real jobs!

Another Palm Utility and Other Stuff

I'm in the process of tweaking "XP Tracker", another (my third!) PalmOS RPG utility. This one allows you to keep track of things your PCs do for experience. Primarily the slaughter of misunderstood forces of darkness, I'm sure, but other stuff, too. Whatever has a CR...

I should be posting the app in the next day or two. The next one is a character manager, though it'll initially be fairly small. It's primarily a focal point for a lot of other apps I'm planning (treasure tracker, spell tracker, etc.).

I've got a write-up on Prestige Classes and where they fit into Mythosa ready for being put into XHTML and uploaded, but I decided to hold off on posting it. With Complete Divine coming out this week (it's probably already out; I need to swing by the game shop this weekend), I figured I'd wait to see what I would include from that.

It's raining again, which likely means more water in the basement. Sigh...gotta get that taken care of.

My latest gaming tool for PalmOS - "Almanac" - is coming along nicely. It's a calendar/weather generator, similar to some of the other programs I've written for Windows in the past. Currently, it's specific to Mythosa. If there's enough interest, I may make it customizable. I'm not real enthusiastic about that, though, given that I've had a grand total of two registrations of TableSmith eXpress. Granted, TSX is rather slow for older Palms, the RPG utility market is pretty small, and calendar/weather programs are a pretty niche product. Given all the other things on my "want to-do" list, customizing Almanac isn't high on my list.