[Newsletter] Posting
Alchemy Mindworks
newsletter at mindworkshop.com
Fri Apr 18 10:01:57 EDT 2014
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THIS IS AN AUTOMATIC POSTING FROM
THE ALCHEMY MINDWORKS UPDATE MAILING LIST
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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
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WARNING!!! NSFW!!!
(This book is Not Safe For Work... unless all your colleagues are
bloodthirsty and treacherous.)
http://www.stevenwilliamrimmer.com/theorder.html
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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)
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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
_______________________________________________________________________
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