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Forum Rules, Status, and Info / Forum Feedback, Status, Issues, etc. / Forum Member List Cleanup: spammer accounts deleted
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on: May 03, 2010, 04:28:09 PM
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Today I've deleted literally thousands of user accounts created by spammers since the forum went online a year ago. Turns out 75% of the members on this forum were spammers who created spam accounts via an automated forum exploit. Fortunately, 99% of the spammers never posted to the forum: they just cluttered the member list with spam accounts.
In this cleanup effort, it is possible that a few "legit" accounts got deleted if they had zero posts and they were in the same IP range as the spammers. If you recently created an account and find it no longer active, simply re-register. Everyone who has already posted here at least once is safe: only accounts in the IP range with no posts were deleted. I've implemented a higher security verification image during the registration process and also require account activation by email now, so hopefully that will eliminate most of the spammers.
See you on the forum.
Mike
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Mike's Software / Qimage / Re: download cutouts?
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on: May 01, 2010, 02:56:35 PM
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Not sure what is happening here. Sounds almost like one of the original cutouts got corrupted. Maybe this will help: if you want to find the "official" folder that Qimage is using, click "Utilities", "Explore Qimage Application Data". It's the "Cutouts" folder that shows up in that explorer window that is the one Qimage is using.
Mike
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Mike's Software / Qimage / Re: Read it & weep...will they never learn?
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on: April 29, 2010, 01:11:26 PM
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Thanks for the support guys! I'm fighting the good fight to keep up with the economic strain but it seems there are just so many programs out there now that it is difficult for anyone (consumers or reviewers) to REALLY know which ones are good, much less which is the best. So I really appreciate people like you who help spread the word. My loyal users are my most cherished commodity, and I know it!
Mike
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Mike's Software / Qimage / Re: Thinking about trying/buying Qimage, but I have a couple questions...
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on: April 29, 2010, 12:57:18 PM
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DO NOT BUY QIMAGE - the customer support sucks. This is a lie and most Qimage users know that. You are not telling us the whole story. Terry Not to worry. I've banned Mr. Mehrle for foul language and belligerent behavior and have deleted his latest posts. I've emailed him a dozen times and he still doesn't have an email that works, so he can spend his time complaining or he can learn how to check his spam folder in his Yahoo mail. I've heard from a few other people from Yahoo and they just "upgraded" their spam filter so a lot of real emails get caught. Everyone else has found my emails in their spam/junk folder. If you want to do business on the internet, you need to have a working email. And if you want to get personalized service or return phone calls when my policy is clearly stated as email support only, don't act like an idiot and start with a tirade in your first email and expect a return phone call! Mike
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Mike's Software / Qimage Studio Edition (archived) / Re: Situation has worsened
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on: April 25, 2010, 02:31:54 PM
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This sounds an awful lot like the symptoms caused by an antivirus/antimalware program. These programs love to open files at inappropriate times and/or lock them so that other software can't get to them. I would suggest making sure you have a copy of your antivirus and/or anti-malware programs ready to install and then uninstall them temporarily to see if it fixes the problem. Entering exclusions, exceptions, or even disabling them often doesn't really disable or correct the problem unless they are uninstalled. So if you can uninstall/reinstall without too much trouble just to test it, I'd do that.
The second thing is that Windows 7 media center and Windows Media Player now have no clue how to properly handle file I/O. If you've set up your Windows Media Player library to monitor the drive/folder that contains your images, this can cause problems with just about any app. Basically, as soon as any file is changed or added in a folder that WMP is monitoring, WMP starts opening those files in exclusive (read-only) mode, screwing up other operations that the program which created that file may need to perform. Of course, like most programmers supporting Windows 7, I've modified Qimage to know about and handle those situations but Qimage is only one of many programs (like the antivirus/antimalware programs mentioned above) that need access to those files. So the final test if you still have trouble without antivirus/antimalware running is to try working with photos on a drive (and folder) that you have not added to your media library.
Those are about the only things I can think of that can cause the strange problems you mentioned.
Mike
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Mike's Software / Qimage / Re: Where can I download Studio version of QImage?
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on: April 16, 2010, 09:46:33 PM
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Of course I checked my spam box and there's nothing. I also sent him another message yesterday and thus far no response. FYI - I am getting emails from everyone I write to usually. I also used to be a software engineer and have run my own mail servers in the past - I would know if this was the case.
Customer service sucks - six days and counting.
I would think that if you've been in the business, it wouldn't be that difficult to get an email address that works... and you probably wouldn't be relying on a Yahoo email address! On April 11 at 8:57am eastern time, you were sent an automated reply from the system (to the Yahoo email address you used on the form) advising you that you didn't follow directions when you filled out the form. You used a brand new (Yahoo) email address that you've never used before and you didn't include your old email address in the message section of the form as requested so we can verify your account. Apparently you never got that "invalid email address" message. Today you sent another email from the same Yahoo email account and I replied immediately advising you to check your spam/junk filter. Since you're using Yahoo, you'd have to log into Yahoo online to do that. My guess is that all my messages to you are sitting in an overzealous spam folder on your Yahoo account. Mike
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Technical Discussions / Articles / April 2010: Understanding Your Photo Printer
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on: April 13, 2010, 01:37:59 AM
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April 2010: Understanding Your Photo Printer
Background
Years ago I wrote four articles related to the understanding
of how to make the most of the paper you use in your printer, the tradeoffs of
borderless and non-borderless printing, and some problems you might run into
if you are new to photo printing... and possibly even if you are a seasoned
professional. Judging by the number of emails that I get each week
related to these topics, I thought it important to go over these points again
and point my readers to the in depth articles that discuss each of the topics.
To effectively use any photo printing software, you must understand the basics
of how your printer handles paper and how to work within the limitations of
the equipment. As such, these topics are applicable to every photo
printing application available since they all are bound by the limitations of
your printer and its associated driver! To make each subject clear, I'll
pose questions as I normally receive them via email and I'll then offer
solutions to each.
Why can't I print a photo that is as big as the
entire sheet of paper?
Printers have physical limitations that result
in mandatory margins along the edge of the paper. If you have 8.5 x 11
paper loaded in your printer, you might notice that you can't print anything
larger than an 8.23 x 10.76 inch print. The exact numbers aren't
important: the question that often arises is "Why can't I print an 8.5 x 11
photo"? The answer lies in the fact that your printer has physical
limitations that make it impossible to print over the entire surface of the
paper unless you print in borderless mode (see next topic). If you
haven't selected borderless printing in your printer driver, no software will
be able to print over the entire page: all software will be limited by the
capabilities defined by your printer driver and if those limitations are 8.23
x 10.76, then that's the largest size you are going to get regardless of the
printing software used.
Limitations such as the fact that the print head must be able
to accelerate and decelerate near the edges of the paper, and the fact that
the roller can only guide paper a certain distance from the top/bottom dictate
the margins. The smaller size is often referred to as the "printable
area" of the page.
Here's my article that explains the process in detail.
I checked borderless in the driver but now my
prints are the wrong size or some of the edges are missing
To overcome the limitations of non-borderless
printing as outlined in the section above, most printers now offer borderless
printing. Just check "borderless" in your printer driver and, as long as
the paper type you have selected supports borderless printing, you're off and
running. Well, not quite!
Borderless printing comes with a new set of limitations.
In order to print edge to edge (and top to bottom) with no gaps or white
slivers at the edges of the paper, most printer drivers expand the size of
your prints when you print in borderless mode. If you are using 8x10
paper and you are printing in borderless mode, your printer will actually
expand that 8x10 to be larger so that parts of the print are actually printed
beyond the edges of the paper! For example, your printer may decide to
expand your 8x10 to 8.2 x 10.2 so that about .1 inch of the print is actually
printed off the edge of the paper (many printers actually have a sponge to
soak up the excess ink that prints off the edge of the paper). This is
an "artificial" expansion because the user often cannot tell that it is
happening: the printing software actually sends an 8x10 size but the driver
then takes over and has a mind of its own, adding whatever amount of expansion
it thinks it needs and therefore making the size bigger than 8x10.
If
this artificial expansion is not done and you try
to print exactly 8.0 x 10.0 inches on paper that measures 8.0 x 10.0 inches,
inevitably you'll end up with a print where a tiny sliver is cropped off on
one side and a white sliver appears unprinted on the opposing edge. The
reason is that the paper loading mechanisms in printers are not exact.
If the paper loads even a small fraction of an inch or a fraction of a
millimeter too far to the left or right or if the paper isn't perfectly
"square" or it doesn't load perfectly parallel to the guides, you'll notice
immediately. Any error at all will result in cropping on one edge and
unprinted paper on the opposing edge. The expansion (and printing beyond
the edge of the paper) is a way to mitigate this problem.
Unfortunately, this
artificial expansion always occurs no matter what size you are printing which
causes a slightly different issue if you try to print multiple prints
on a borderless page. If you print two 5x7 prints on an 8x10 sheet of
paper for example, the 5 inch side of the prints will be expanded to about 5.1
inches each so you'll end up with part of the left edge of one print being
cropped off (it will print beyond the left edge of the paper) and part of the
right edge of the right print on the page being cut off (it will print off the
right edge of the paper).
Here's my article that explains the ins and outs of borderless printing in
detail.
When I print a large print, pieces of my print
are missing or the page prints blank
This is an age old problem that is a leftover
from the Windows 95 era that still exists in even the latest printer drivers
and operating systems. When printing large prints, particularly on
wide format printers, your system has to be able to handle huge amounts of
data. A modest poster size print can be well into the gigabytes as far
as the amount of data being sent to the driver. Your computer,
operating system, Windows print spooler, and printer driver all have to be
able to handle the amount of data being sent to the driver.
Professional high quality photo printing applications like
Qimage typically send much more
data to your printer than a typical "dumb
printing" app like a photo editor. Fortunately Qimage is designed
to handle unlimited amounts of data without overwhelming the driver because
it sends data in smaller chunks rather than just dumping an oversized image
all at once. Still, your system must be set up properly or it may be
overwhelmed by the data processing required for large prints. There
are quite a few techniques and tips to be aware of when it comes to printing
large prints including Windows printer spool format, network printing tips,
and more.
This article on wide format printing and
this one on print troubleshooting both serve as a repository of tips
that can help you if you run into printing problems when printing large
prints.
Some other questions I often get as author of
Qimage
My printer isn't
holding it's page size or the settings are behaving strangely: Qimage is the
only application on the market that allows you to save and restore printer
setups that record all printer driver and program settings, allowing you to
recall all driver and program related settings at any time in the future.
Unfortunately if you've updated your printer driver, it is possible that the new
driver is not compatible with settings from the previous driver that was used
when printer settings were saved by Qimage. To correct this, you must recreate
the driver settings from scratch. Click "Help", 'Reset printer settings" and
when you restart Qimage, set the driver settings manually (without recalling a
printer setup or job). Once you recreate the settings, you can save them for
future use. The problems occur when you load an old printer setup or job that
has settings based on an old (and now incompatible) driver.
Qimage reverts to
"print to file" when it starts or Qimage hangs on startup: Like the previous
tip, Qimage tries to restore the printer settings that were used previously each
time it loads. With many users switching to Windows 7, be sure you have
updated your printer driver to a driver specifically designed for the edition of
Windows 7 you are using! If you are trying to use an XP or Vista driver in
Windows 7, it is possible (likely in fact) that some of the functions in the
driver will not work properly and it is actually your driver locking up or
causing the problem. Search for a driver that is specifically designed for
your operating system.
The color of photos
printed in Qimage is better (or worse) than software XYZ: Qimage uses
standard ICC (International Color Consortium) color management like most high
end photo applications and in almost every case, will produce color visually
identical to the printed color produced in any other application that also uses
ICC color management provided your software, printer, and ICC profiles are
set up the same way in both applications. If you observe any
difference, the difference is likely caused by a mismatch in the ICC profiles
being used, their rendering intent, or the driver settings such as paper type,
quality, and whether or not you've switched color management on/off in the
printer driver. Carefully go through Qimage and the other software and
make sure both the software settings and the settings used in the printer driver
are identical in both programs. Since Qimage allows you to save these
settings and the other software you are comparing likely does not, once you get
things right in Qimage, just use "File", "Save" and click the "P" button to save
a printer setup so that those exact settings can be reloaded at any time.
Then you only have to worry about replicating those (correct) settings in the
other software XYZ each time.
Mike Chaney
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Mike's Software / TT Dyno / Welcome!
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on: April 08, 2010, 11:11:27 PM
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We've just released TT Dyno, software for the automobile performance enthusiast. If you're into performance tuning for late model vehicles, this software can produce real dyno graphs so that you can evaluate your tuning: http://www.ddisoftware.com/ttdynoMike
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Mike's Software / Qimage / Re: Need help to receive camera profile
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on: April 02, 2010, 04:35:33 PM
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Thanks, Terry! My mail is only filtered at my end and I have checked for that.
Don
I emailed you the profile twice and also a simple text message the second time telling you I resent it. Something is obviously wrong with your email. Please email me at mchaney@ddisoftware.com and give me an alternate email address. Mike
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Technical Discussions / General Photography Discussion / Sports Photography and World Cup 2010
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on: March 17, 2010, 12:29:25 AM
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For anyone thinking of mixing their passion for photography and the World Cup, a good friend of mine just released an iPhone app that I think is really nice and shows all the matches, times, dates, and a nice tree showing the finals and which teams are in/out. A bit of a shameless plug maybe, but I did wonder how many people here plan on attending the World Cup whether for professional sports photography or just enjoyment. If you do plan to attend, this app can make a good companion in your pocket to keep an eye on things. Anyway, for any fans out there, here's the app if you'd like to take a look: http://www.yorksoft.com/There are a lot of these type apps out there, so when in the iPhone app store, look for the one that lists Andrew Wilford as the author. Mike
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Technical Discussions / Articles / Re: March 2010: Smart Photo Printing
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on: March 12, 2010, 05:14:07 PM
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Will there be a follow up to sketch the differences between Qimage and Lightroom?
I've updated the article to include an actual print example from Lightroom 3 versus Qimage. Just look at the bottom of the article. Since I'm focusing on print quality with this article, I don't want to get into the ins and outs of the interface, function vs function comparisons, and so on. Even though Qimage can do a lot more than LR when it comes to printing and printing features, my new "campaign" is focused on print quality as I believe that's what sells Qimage. Mike
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