Great Graphic Viewer and Converter Program; Also Download Bu

[Anonymous]

I have used the CompuPic program from Photodex for several years ( through several upgrade versions) to sort, convert, adjust, crop and edit graphics files. It is a very easy to use program and you resize files or adjust the size of the image to print.
I use it to organize files and the slide show and thumbnail features let you quickly scan a folder for images. It isn't free, but at $39.95, is a lot cheaper than some of the high end programs. (I have Paint Shop Pro as a more sophisticated editor.)

Some of the very useful features are: 1) convert file types, i.e., .jpg to .gif or almost any format; 2)resize - These big Gif's become manageable quickly; 3) Brightness, contrast, color correction, etc.; 4) create backgrounds and screen savers; 5) and the list goes on.
No, I'm not associated with the company, just a very satisfied customer!

You can download a fully functional trial version for free at: http://www.photodex.com/products/pro/index.html

Even with such a program, downloading is still a pain! I wasted almost 4 hours this afternoon just downloading Bauplan; Dubinsky and Histology!!!

And that was with my daughter's late model Pentium with a 46K connection! It was impossible on my older computer.
I wish we could just stick to lectures by Eric and the textbook material and get away from this frustrating downloading excercise. I already know how to download and print and would rather spend my time reading and learning more about coral biology!

D*ickV

------------------
http://www.thereeftank.com/

[This message has been edited by FishDaddy (edited 05 April 2001).]

 

[Anonymous]

Fishdaddy..Thanks for the program info, but you know what? After reading your second comment on the time to download and over an hour just looking at a few of the uploads, I'm not going to bother. I've got better things to do. And you know what? I bet Bill and Eric do to. I agree! Lets just go with the texts. I've gotten so much out of Aquarium Corals in such a short time it's unbelievable. That treatise should have been our only text.
Again, Thanks for trying to help everyone.
D*ckT

 

[Anonymous]

I agree. I'm enjoying, and learning a lot from the lab assignment. AC is the best book I've seen on corals. I'm content

------------------
Dennis
The Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County meets the 2nd Friday of Every Month.
More info at http://www.maslac.org. Upcoming events:
April 13 Meeting: Frag Swap. Speaker: Steve Tyree
May 11 Meeting: Eric Borneman speaking.
May 12 LFS and Reef Tank Tour and BBQ

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the complements, I am really really flattered!!

...but my intent in this course was to take you guys further than you would go by simply buying an aquarium book...good as it may be. I want you guys to know coral biology beyond what's in that book. Or, at least have the opportunity to do so.

I know the downloads were troublesome this week. The pdf's aren't such a pain, and they will be back as small files when i return.

But, besides all that, you guys aren't getting off that easy! LOL

I want to present just an overview of some really good reading I happen to have and am able, thankfully, to share with you - its only a fraction of what is possible to learn. No way are you ever going to get material like the histology section this week (or what you will get in upcoming sections) anywhere else. I am fortunate in having taken the class from Dr. Peters, the world's foremost authority on coral disease and the origin of those micrographs. You guys will understand so much about the health and phsiology of corals from this and I can't tell you what this will do to your abilities as an aquarist. Even without ever looking at coral tissue under a scope...it will still make a difference. You may not all comprehend all of it, but that's ok...you''ll get more than you realize..for others, this may be a walk in the park, I don't know.

But, as we progress through this course, I will be doing handwritten lectures, and occasionally throwing in other material. This week, it so happened that there was some material good enough that I didn't feel it necessary to basically retype in Word what was already available. So, instead of me typing 40 pages, you had to download it. I know better than anyone the time involved, believe me.

I'm still packing and have to go through slides for my presentation tomorrow, and I am still here with you guys.

So, please try and bear with us with this jpg stuff this week...looks like its almost straightened out, you guys have time to catch up...you don't even need to download Week 4 until next week, and you can download big files overnight while you sleep. By time we psot the next lecture, they will all be nice pdf files in manageable and readable size, on time, etc.

So, take a deep breath, take your time, and read a page while another downloads.

Its nearing 11 pm and I need to get back to work. See you guys via laptop from Monterrey tomorrow

Eric

 

[Anonymous]

As an aside on the download issue: I did my time with the downloads yesterday on a 56K baud modem link. Quite a labor of love on everyone's part. I started to read the Dubinsky text while running the .gif's through a OCR (optical character recognition) program. Does a good job. Will hopefully have a perfect Word file to run off as a PDF when I'm finished.
This stuff is very, very good, Eric. Thanks!
--Paul

 

[Anonymous]

Hate to say it ladies and jents. Most of the files won't compress much more. Most of b&w pages are either 1 bit (2 colors) or 4 bit (16 colors). So don't be surprised when you run em through a ocr make a pdf and they aren't much smaller. Anyway Paul when you get the pdf's done send em to me
Bill

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, Bill. Well, I may not have the time to do a full-blown job of this; we'll see. However, the .pdf of the first 4 pages (all text) is 8K (yes KB not MB) as a .pdf file. (Dubinsky) I admit that the images will add to the file; but certainly not at the 1MB per picture level. The tricky part of the process is dealing with the tables in Dubinsky. Anyway, we'll pass them along if we get them completely converted.
Regards,
--Paul
(P.S. This compression does not have anything to do with bits/pixel or jpg quality level. It has to do with the OCR program converting an image (the .gif scan) into text, one byte per letter of text

 

[Anonymous]

Well-- I take that back. It is 8K per page, not 8K for the first 4 pages.
--Paul

 

[Anonymous]

You are right that the downloads this week were a pain.... however, I have read Histology and Bauplan and I have to agree with Eric that it is definitely worthwhile stuff! The in-depth coverage of the subject matter and the variety of sources is exactly what I was looking for when I signed up!

I would like to thank Eric and the Maco2 administrators for the time and effort it has taken to provide this valuable information.

 

[Anonymous]

I must chime in here as well. Eric, Bill, and James have really put in the extra effort here. Thanks!
--Paul

 

[Anonymous]

After reading all the material for the class this week, I must say that it is exactly what I wanted and expected from Eric for this class. The whole reason for my taking the class has not been to get a reiteration of the materials that I can get by purchasing a book, but to glean that information that I cannot get or would be difficult to obtain otherwise. I have seen the database that Eric has been developing for the Hawaiian corals articles (sorry Eric, I can't recall the name of the database at this point) and I am thankful that there is SOMEONE who is sifting through all those articles to get the information that is most important out of them and presenting that information in an organized fashion. I realize that there are several different knowledge and experience levels in this class, and that some of the material may be beyond the abilities of some to comprehend, but just being exposed to the material will help folks understand the scope of what is out there to learn, and for some of us, it is essential in developing a fuller understanding of the intricacies of the coral reef ecosystems. We never know it all, we are always learning. Let this class be a push for all of us, not just a little reiteration of what we have heard over and over again. Thanks for your time and effort, Eric, in developing an interesting, challenging, and in-depth format for the material.

You can pay me next week ;-)

------------------

 

[Anonymous]

i'm downloading the program recommended in the hopes that it will correct the download printability. hope it helps. price is right

 

[Anonymous]

i'm downloading the program recommended in the hopes that it will correct the download printability. hope it helps. price is right

 

[Anonymous]

I've e-mailed the text of the histology article to Bill. It's 28K or so, minus the micrographs. I'm working on the Dubinsky article and am over 1/2 finished. The tables and photos of that will be next. If anyone wants what I have so far on that, let me know.
--Paul