Unrelated Inventiions: Catering for the uncommon denominator

Written by Gabriel Nijmeh


This is a first in a series of Software/Shareware developer profiles as presented by MP3-CDBurner.com. Let's get started with a brief profile of Unrelated Inventions.

Unrelated Inventions - http://www.unrelatedinventions.com is an umbrella for shareware developed primarily by Andrew Fish. The name comes fromrepparttar fact that Andrew doesn't want to be tied down to writing collections of software with related purposes, preferring to keep his imagination in tip-top shape by developing a broad range of applications and using lessons learned developing one to improverepparttar 124166 other unrelated inventions. He also feels that he should develop software which doesn't pander torepparttar 124167 broadest range of people by only including those features which most of them will use, but to provide for a broad range of people by providing software which is flexible enough to be adapted to many tasks, providing many unusual features whilst lacking none ofrepparttar 124168 obviously useful ones. Few people will use all ofrepparttar 124169 features, but all will benefit from some. Hencerepparttar 124170 motto: Catering forrepparttar 124171 uncommon denominator.

Q: What motivated you to create shareware software? A: I never actually intended to create shareware. Audiotools was developed to solve a particular problem that I faced back in March 1998 andrepparttar 124172 release as shareware was an afterthought. After that I was drawn into continuing its development byrepparttar 124173 interesting code and by user feedback. Q: In developing software, what part ofrepparttar 124174 process do you most enjoy?

A: I loverepparttar 124175 actual process of working out new algorithms and techniques - Audiotools is not an off-the-peg package by a long stick of limestone, so there's a lot of scope for imagination. I also like responding to user comments - when I used to work at BSS,repparttar 124176 marketing manager told me that nobody ever contacts you just to say how well you've done: well I've got stacks of email that proves him wrong, so I'm quite happy about that. Q: Do you have a clear vision of whatrepparttar 124177 end product will be?

A: Haven't a clue. The software is partially driven by my ideas and interests and partially by user requests and, since one effectsrepparttar 124178 other, I can't really predictrepparttar 124179 future. I'm continually working out ways to increaserepparttar 124180 feature count without overburdeningrepparttar 124181 software with complexity, so I imagine thatrepparttar 124182 "end product", if there ever is one, will have some unique user interface features anyway. Q: What is your favourite feature of your software?

A:. In development terms, probably auto-track - it's a very elegant piece of code and there were some good ideas went into it. Q:. What do you think isrepparttar 124183 key to developing good software?

A: Good ears. The key is to listen to your customers - don't blindly take on every feature that they request as they request it, try to distill it into something more general which serves a wider set of purposes.

Q:. What were some of your setbacks and highlights you encountered in developing software?

A:: In terms of setbacks,repparttar 124184 obvious and periodic one isrepparttar 124185 unexplained bug. I have a virtual armoury of tools to help me test Audiotools on different versions of Windows, but I can't test for different combinations of hardware. There's nothing worse than a showstopper bug which you can't reproduce. In terms of highlights,repparttar 124186 fact that two of my users have freely given time and effort to translaterepparttar 124187 program into French and German and to continue translating as I make changes is incredible. I just couldn't have predicted that degree of support when I started out.

Review of Procreate KnockOut 2

Written by Tim Skyrme


Procreate Knockout 2 Email: for further information.

KnockOut 2 is a masking plug-in for graphics programs such as Corel PaintShop Pro, Painter7, Photoshop, etc, and not a stand alone program. , but it has a lot of power

Masks enable you to cut out backgrounds or foregrounds using alpha channels. Don't worry about understanding these, as KnockOut 2 does it all for you. Even havingrepparttar ability to knock out background from areas that still have opacity, such as dragonfly wings, water, clouds, glass, and hair.

Hair is always tricky when you want to change a background, but not with this program. Just drawing a line is as hard as it gets, with a little more for extra fine work. These masks can be saved and loaded into graphics programs for further work. such as making selections from them.

The simple user interface is easy to learn, and keyboard shortcuts are included inrepparttar 124165 booklet, and onrepparttar 124166 quick reference card supplied.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use