[Newsletter] Announcements from Alchemy Mindworks
Alchemy Mindworks
alchemyreply0991 at mindworkshop.com
Sat Oct 28 09:51:05 EDT 2017
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Contents:
1. Announcing Animation Workshop 8
2. Announcing The Ultimate Screen Clock 8
3. Graphic Workshop Professional 8 Revision 2 (Additional Notification)
4. Animation Tools Bundle Updated
5. Replying to this Message and List Removal
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1. Announcing Animation Workshop 8
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Animation Workshop 8 has been released.
We've refined the internal architecture of Animation Workshop to
make it faster, more memory-efficient and better able to take advantage
of the functionality of Windows 7, 8 and 10.
While most of the seriously cool changes embodied in Animation Workshop
8 are "under the hood," users of the latest release will notice that
it's noticeably quicker, especially for functions that call for
significant system resources, such as rendering large or complex
animations.
The updated architecture will also allow us to add new features to
Animation Workshop that were impractical or genuinely
impossible under version 7.
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WHAT'S NEW
The changes in version 8 include:
- Improves the solid color selection buttons throughout the application
with a quick palette selection window - just hold down the Shift key
on your keyboard when you click to select a color to see it. There's a
complete discussion of this window and how it interacts with the
primary Colors window in the section of the Reference document that
deals with Color Selection.
- Updates the file handling logic for the Tiles fill type to make
the whole works quicker and more memory efficient.
- Implements several significant improvements to the rendering engine to
deal with object precedence inconsistencies in version 6 and 7.
- Fixes a big that caused the document windows to display a spurious
error message in some circumstances if a user clicked below the block
list.
- Improves the color-reduction logic used by the Export to GIF
functionality to produce more realistic exported GIF animations.
- Animation Workshop 8 will optionally import most of the configuration
items of an existing Animation Workshop 7 installation, if there's one
on your system, eliminating the need to restore your preferences by
hand.
It will also remove your earlier software for you if you like.
- Hardens the library interface underlying Animation Workshop to
make it more resistant to tampering. Sadly, the tampering in question
appears to originate with some third-party security applications...
which our lawyers would really prefer we didn't name.
- Updates a number of user-interface issues throughout the application.
- Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that software
developers never really stop meddling with.
- Updates the documentation.
We'd like to take this opportunity to express our sincere regrets for
the minor bump in the price of Animation Workshop. In our defense, it's
been about a decade and a half since it last changed. Bookkeepers may
not be the most irresistible force in the universe, but they are the
most relentless.
You can download Animation Workshop 8 from:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/clock.html#download
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UPGRADES
If you registered or upgraded a registration for Animation Workshop 7 on
or after March 1, 2017, youre welcome to a free upgrade to Animation
Workshop 8.
If you registered or upgraded a registration for Animation Workshop 7
prior to March 1, 2017, you can upgrade to Animation Workshop 8 for half
the cost of a new single-user license.
When you first run Animation Workshop 8, it will check to see if you
have a registration for Animation Workshop 7 on your system. If it finds
one, it will display a window to tell you which of the foregoing upgrade
options is applicable. Click on the Upgrade button to visit our web page
and request or order an upgrade.
The upgrade window can subsequently be accessed through the Help >
Upgrade Manager > Upgrade from Previous Version of Animation Workshop.
You can also visit the no-cost upgrade page directly at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/anmkey.html
and the upgrade order page at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/upgrade.html
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2. Announcing The Ultimate Screen Clock 8 (Second Notification)
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The Ultimate Screen Clock 8 has been released.
We've refined the internal architecture of The Ultimate Screen Clock to
make it faster, more memory-efficient and better able to take advantage
of the functionality of Windows 7, 8 and 10.
While most of the seriously cool changes embodied in The Ultimate Screen
Clock 8 are "under the hood," users of the latest release will notice
that it's noticeably quicker, especially for functions that call for
significant system resources, such as running complex animated clocks.
The updated architecture will also allow us to add new features to
The Ultimate Screen Clock that were impractical or genuinely
impossible under version 7.
........................................................................
WHAT'S NEW
The changes in version 8 include:
- Adds solar transitions functionality - The Ultimate Screen Clock can
determine the precise times of sunrise and sunset based on your
location.
It will tell you when sunrise and sunset occurs for pretty much
anywhere on Earth - select Calendar -> Solar Transitions from the
right-click menu.
It will also display a graphic in most of the digital clock styles,
right below the date, to indicate the current state of the sun. We
hasten to add that this feature can be disabled - see the discussion
of Solar Transitions in the Reference document of the Manual for more.
- Adds the Sun and Moon clock style, which - perhaps not surprisingly -
does something cool with the aforementioned solar transition logic.
It has one face during daylight hours, and a different one at night.
The faces are drawn from classic nineteenth-century acid etchings.
- Updates the digital transitions rendering logic of the clock engine,
which has allowed us to...
- Adds a digital transitions version of the popular Flip style in which
the vanes of the mechanical clock are animated, and visibly drop as
the digits change.
- Adds a digital transition version of the equally popular Tubes style.
The totally retro neon-tube digits cycle through their states every
time a number changes, just like they would have back when computers
were the size of Nebraska and had less processing power than a
programmable toaster.
Note that some of the new clock styles reside in the by now slightly
elephantine archive of additional clocks, available at The Ultimate
Screen Clock web page. You'll need to download and install it
separately to experience the full magnificence of this version.
There is, of course, no additional cost for doing so.
Currently tipping the scales at about 200 megabytes, the contents of
the additional clock archive were just too large to include in their
entirety in the primary installer.
- Fixes a number of issues in the Days Until, Days between and Days
Since windows.
- Improves the metrics and hence the appearance of several of the
existing clock styles.
- Improves the reliability of the Net Time feature.
- The Ultimate Screen Clock 8 will optionally import most of the
configuration items of an existing The Ultimate Screen Clock 7
installation, if there's one on your system, eliminating the need to
restore your preferences by hand.
It will also remove your earlier software for you if you like.
- Hardens the library interface underlying The Ultimate Screen Clock to
make it more resistant to tampering. Sadly, the tampering in question
appears to originate with some third-party security applications...
which our lawyers would really prefer we didn't name.
- Updates a number of user-interface issues throughout the application.
- Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that software
developers never really stop meddling with.
- Updates the documentation.
We'd like to take this opportunity to express our sincere regrets for
the minor bump in the price of The Ultimate Screen Clock. In our
defense, it's been about a decade and a half since it last changed.
Bookkeepers may not be the most irresistible force in the universe,
but they are the most relentless.
You can download The Ultimate Screen Clock 8 from:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/clock.html#download
........................................................................
UPGRADES
If you registered or upgraded a registration for The Ultimate Screen
Clock 7 on or after March 1, 2017, youre welcome to a free upgrade to
The Ultimate Screen Clock 8.
If you registered or upgraded a registration for The Ultimate Screen
Clock 7 prior to March 1, 2017, you can upgrade to The Ultimate Screen
Clock 8 for half the cost of a new single-user license.
When you first run The Ultimate Screen Clock 8, it will check to
see if you have a registration for The Ultimate Screen Clock 7 on
your system. If it finds one, it will display a window to tell you which
of the foregoing upgrade options is applicable. Click on the Upgrade
button to visit our web page and request or order an upgrade.
The upgrade window can subsequently be accessed through the right
click > Upgrade Manager > Upgrade from Previous Version item of The
Ultimate Screen Clock.
You can also visit the no-cost upgrade page directly at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/clkkey.html
and the upgrade order page at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/upgrade.html
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3. Graphic Workshop Professional 8 Revision 2 (Additional Notification)
_______________________________________________________________________
Graphic Workshop Professional 8 has been updated.
This release:
- Addresses a number of issues that crept into the initial release of
Graphic Workshop Professional 8.
- Hardens the library interface underlying Graphic Workshop to make it
more resistant to tampering. Sadly, the tampering in question
appears to originate with some third-party security applications...
which our lawyers would really prefer we didn't name.
We urge all users of Graphic Workshop Professional 8 to install this
upgrade, and any users of earlier versions to consider upgrading as
quickly as possible.
You can download Graphic Workshop Professional 8 from:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/gwspro.html#download
Should this be the first you've heard of Graphic Workshop
Professional 8, please see the original announcement for it at:
http://mindworkshop.com/pipermail/newsletter/Week-of-Mon-20170911.txt
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UPGRADES
If you registered or upgraded a registration for Graphic Workshop
Professional 7 on or after March 1, 2017, youre welcome to a no-cost
upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional 8.
If you registered or upgraded a registration for Graphic Workshop
Professional 7 prior to March 1, 2017, you can upgrade to Graphic
Workshop Professional 8 for half the cost of a new single-user license.
When you first run Graphic Workshop Professional 8, it will check to see
if you have a registration for Graphic Workshop Professional 7 on your
system. If it finds one, it will display a window to tell you which of
the foregoing upgrade options is applicable. Click on the Upgrade button
to visit our web page and request or order an upgrade.
The upgrade window can subsequently be accessed through the Help >
Upgrade Manager > Upgrade from Previous Version item of Graphic Workshop
Professional 8's menu bar.
The Graphic Workshop Professional no-cost upgrade key offer ends on
November 30, 2017.
You can also visit the no-cost upgrade page directly at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/gwskey.html
and the upgrade order page at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/upgrade.html
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4. Animation Tools Bundle Updated
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The popular Alchemy Mindworks Animation Tools Bundle has been updated
to include GIF Construction Set Professional 8, PNG MNG Construction
Set 8, Animation Workshop 8 and e-Paint 8.
Get all four of these essential animation applications and save $40.00.
Please see our e-commerce page at:
https://www.mindworkshop.com/orderform.html
The Animation Tools Bundle can be found at the bottom of the SOFTWARE
section.
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5. Replying to this Message and List Removal
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If you have questions about this list or any Alchemy Mindworks
products, please contact us at:
http://www.mindworkshop.com/email-alchemy.html
You can contact us by telephone at (705) 789-5238, and by snail-mail
at Alchemy Mindworks, L10 C8 Brunel, Huntsville, ON P1H 2J3, CANADA.
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