From newsletter at mindworkshop.com Fri Apr 18 10:01:57 2014 From: newsletter at mindworkshop.com (Alchemy Mindworks) Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 10:01:57 -0400 Subject: [Newsletter] Posting Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.20140425100157.01bf0337@localhost> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THIS IS AN AUTOMATIC POSTING FROM THE ALCHEMY MINDWORKS UPDATE MAILING LIST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contents: 1. PNG MNG Construction Set Professional 4 Patch 24 (New this Weekend) 2. Presentation Wizard 4 Patch 9 (Second Notification) 3. Graphic Workshop Professional 4 Patch 41 (Additional Notification) 4. Announcing the Amazing MOZ JPEG Plugin for Graphic Workshop 4 (Additional Notification) 5. Graphic Workshop PostScript Plugin Patch 4 (Second Notification) 6. Heartbleed is History (Second Notification) 7. Classic Windows Paint for Windows 7 and 8 (Second Notification) 8. Replying to this Message and List Removal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WARNING!!! NSFW!!! (This book is Not Safe For Work... unless all your colleagues are bloodthirsty and treacherous.) http://www.stevenwilliamrimmer.com/theorder.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _______________________________________________________________________ 1. PNG MNG Construction Set Professional 4 Patch 24 (New this Weekend) _______________________________________________________________________ This release of PNG MNG Construction Set Professional 4: - Nails several lingering - and malingering - bugs in the new Crop manager. - Improves the document window driver. The recent Patch 23 release: - Rewrites the Crop function, with an adjustable selection rectangle and a more informative and intuitive user interface. It's also somewhat quicker. - Fixes a bug in the Display Panel function. It was obscure and remarkably well disguised, but we found it and... let's just say that things didn't end well for it. - Adds edit lists to several windows around the application, to remember and reuse things typed into them. - Updates the plugin interface with several new features too technical to describe... 'cept they're necessary for the next updates to the plugin library. - Fixes a bug in the Resize function. - Improves the Registration Key window. - Addresses an issue in the driver for the PNG MNG Construction Set document windows, such that the Image chunk thumbnails update way quicker, and with far more modest demand on your system resources. - Fine-tunes the Animation Wizard window. - Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that the development people couldn't resist meddling with. - Updates the documentation. ........................................................................ PNG MNG Construction Set Professional 4 is available for download at: http://www.mindworkshop.com/pngpro.html ........................................................................ If you're still using PNG MNG Construction Set2, we invite you to enjoy all the new functionality, enhanced performance and cool things to click on - for half the new-user registration price. Please see: http://www.mindworkshop.com/upgrade.html to upgrade. _______________________________________________________________________ 2. Presentation Wizard 4 Patch 9 (Second Notification) _______________________________________________________________________ Create professional interactive multimedia Windows applications with your graphics, music, video and other content... even if your only computer programming experience to date has involved an eight-pound hammer and a chainsaw. No knowledge of Windows or other nasty digital stuff is required. ........................................................................ This release: - Adds a new object type - Shapes. Insert stars, rectangles, octagons, starbursts and a rich palette of other shapes, with your choice of graphic attributes. There's an example Shape object on the third page of the Example.exe presentation document installed with Presentation Wizard. You'll find a complete discussion of Shape objects in the Reference section of the Presentation Wizard manual. Be sure to review the section of the manual that discusses how the Example.exe presentation was assembled - there's a step-by-step procedure for creating the angled text overlay. - Nukes a somewhat insolent little bug that prevented Sound objects from being inserted into Presentation Wizard document pages under some builds of Windows. - Adds edit lists to several windows around the application, to remember and reuse things typed into them. - Improves a number of user-interface items in the object editor windows. - Fine-tunes several more run time issues to ensure compatibility with Windows 8.1. - Tightens up a number of GDI functions in the runtime. - Updates the documentation. - Updates some Windows 7 and Windows 8 issues. - Improves the usual GDI and performance things that programmers just can't resist noodling with. - Includes the usual library maintenance and security trolls and demons. ........................................................................ Presentation Wizard will assemble: - Interactive photograph albums. - Digital portfolios. - Slide shows. - Electronic books and brochures. - Clickable catalogs. - Splash screens. - Custom Windows applications. - Multimedia presentations. ...and just about anything else you can think of that will fit in a window. Unlike other presentation packages, Presentation Wizard's documents are entirely self-displaying. It creates Windows EXE application files which can subsequently be distributed and viewed without any additional software. ........................................................................ Presentation Wizard 4 is available for download at: http://www.mindworkshop.com/prspro.html ........................................................................ If you're still running Presentation Wizard 2.0, you can upgrade to the new version 4 software for half price. Please see: http://www.mindworkshop.com/upgrade.html to upgrade. _______________________________________________________________________ 3. Graphic Workshop Professional 4 Patch 41 (Additional Notification) _______________________________________________________________________ Graphic Workshop Professional 4 has been updated. This release: - Addresses several issues in the newly-redecorated Crop function... hence this out-of-band update. - Updates the Resource Extractor application with a file history menu, faster source file reading and browser windows for the Bitmap, Cursor and Icon resource types. Right click on their respective tree list labels and select the Select item in the right-click menu to access a browser. It's all explained in the Help. The release several weeks ago: - Rewrites the Crop function. It now supports a fully interactive selection rectangle and an Apply to Batch option, to allow it to crop multiple images to the same dimensions in a single operation. It's also somewhat quicker. - Fixes a bug in the Supercompressor that prevented it from properly analyzing JPG files under some builds of Windows. - Adds JPG subsampling to the Supercompressor. - Adds a Shape Mask filter, to frame the subjects of your pictures with stars, octagons, star bursts and other geometric shapes. - Adds an Alpha Shadow filter to apply soft shadows to irregularly- shaped objects with alpha transparency. - Adds support for the MOZ JPEG plugin, discussed in the next section of this posting. - Updates the EXIF decoder to format a number of its fields more intuitively. - Adds EXIF field support to the titles printed by the Print, Watermark and Contact Sheet functions. - Adds drop down lists to remember the contents of fields typed into a number of Graphic Workshop's user interface windows... and hopefully to save some keystrokes. - Fixes a bug in the SWF Flash writer. - Performs some cosmetic housekeeping on a number of Graphic Workshop's internal windows. - Improves the usual GDI and performance things that programmers just can't resist noodling with. - Includes the usual library maintenance and security trolls and demons. - Updates the documentation. The world's most popular Windows image management package supports over seventy graphic formats, batch processing, a rich library of filters, thumbnails, an intuitive user interface, lucid documentation and almost enough sunflowers to cheer up an economist. You can download a copy from: http://www.mindworkshop.com/gwspro.html#download ........................................................................ If you're still using Graphic Workshop Professional 3, we invite you to enjoy all the new functionality, enhanced performance and cool things to click on - for half the new-user registration price. Please see: http://www.mindworkshop.com/upgrade.html to upgrade. _______________________________________________________________________ 4. Announcing the Amazing MOZ JPEG Plugin for Graphic Workshop 4 (Additional Notification) _______________________________________________________________________ The MOZ JPEG plugin will allow Graphic Workshop to write the smallest possible JPG files. The functionality that drives the MOZ JPEG plugin was developed by Mozilla, the creators of the exemplary Firefox web browser. It uses sophisticated enhancements to conventional JPEG logic to create JPG files that are typically about ten percent smaller than files written by Graphic Workshop's internal JPG processor, with no loss of image quality. This plugin is available at no cost for users of Graphic Workshop Professional 4. You'll need patch 40 or better of Graphic Workshop to support it. Please see the discussion of JPG files in the Formats document of the Graphic Workshop manual for more about the MOZ JPEG processor. Please see: http://www.mindworkshop.com/gwsplugins.html#MOZ to download this plugin. _______________________________________________________________________ 5. Graphic Workshop PostScript Plugin Patch 4 (Second Notification) _______________________________________________________________________ The Graphic Workshop PostScript Plugin adds new functionality to Graphic Workshop Professional 4 - it can view, convert, create and processes EPS, PS, AI and PDF documents. We've created an extensive Q&A document to address the installation and functional questions that arose for some users of this plugin. Please see: http://www.mindworkshop.com/gwsepsqa.html The Graphic Workshop PostScript Plugin is available at no cost to users of Graphic Workshop Professional 4. ........................................................................ This release of the Graphic Workshop PostScript Plugin: - Fixes several minor bugs. - Updates the documentation. ........................................................................ Click on: http://www.mindworkshop.com/gwsplugins.html#EPS to download the Graphic Workshop PostScript Plugin. Ghostscript is a product of and/or a trademark of Artifex Software Inc. PostScript is a product of and/or a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Alchemy Mindworks is not affiliated with Artifex Software Inc. or Adobe Systems Incorporated. _______________________________________________________________________ 6. Heartbleed is History (Second Notification) _______________________________________________________________________ We'd like to take this opportunity to assure all our customers that the recent Heartbleed security vulnerability has been addressed at the Alchemy Mindworks e-commerce servers. All the personal and financial information of our customers is safe. Specifically: - OpenSSL, the encryption technology affected by Heartbleed, has been updated to close the vulnerability. - The certificate for our secure server has been reissued. - We've been in contact with Moneris Solutions, which powers our paypage payment system, to ensure that their server is also secure. - We've run the Comodo CA security vulnerability check against both our server and that of Moneris Solutions. Needless to say, they both passed. Thanks to everyone who contacted us about this issue. _______________________________________________________________________ 7. Classic Windows Paint for Windows 7 and 8 (Second Notification) _______________________________________________________________________ The "original" Windows Paint application that shipped with Windows XP was easy to use, kind to the graphics it opened and about as reliable as components of Windows are likely to get. The new Windows Paint, as it appears under Windows 7 and 8, offers all the logic and organization of a spaghetti dinner, without the option of a bottle of Chianti to wash it down with. If you miss the classic Windows Paint and you'd like to see it pop open once more upon clicking on or selecting the various Paint functions of Alchemy Mindworks' applications, please see our blog entry that discusses excising it from the dust of ages and powering it up under the latest releases of Windows. http://www.mindworkshop.info/gif/classic-windows-paint-for-windows-7-and-windows-8/ We too were shocked when this worked. _______________________________________________________________________ 8. Replying to this Message and List Removal _______________________________________________________________________ Do not reply to this message -- all returned or replied messages from this posting will be ignored by the server. 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