Description: XnView Shell Extension is a free Windows explorer extension that installs a number of image-related tools in the right-click context menu, including a thumbnail preview, image conversion to a wide variety of formats, image resizing, editing image IPTC metadata, uploading to ImageShack, and other functions.

All you need to do to get a grasp of what this program is about is look at the screenshot above. XnView Shell Extension’s most striking feature is the thumbnail in the context menu, but more than that it offers a number of useful functions mentioned in the description above. Here are more notes on this program:

• Layout: there are 3 different ways that XnView Shell Extension can be displayed in the context menu. The above screenshot, which is my favorite, shows the image preview displayed in the main context menu and the other functions in a submenu, but you can opt to have the preview be pushed into the submenu as well (see image to the right) or otherwise decide to display everything (preview and other functions) in the main context menu (not pictured).
• Image conversion/resizing: you can either convert to another image type or convert and resize. The supported image formats to convert to is breathtakingly long, and includes PSD, PNG, TIFF, and about two dozen others most of which you’ve never heard of.
• Editing IPTC metadata: this stands for "International Press Telecommunications Council". The range of information is exceptionally broad, and XNShellView’s support for this alone makes it worth installing.
• Uploading to ImageShack: ImageShack, one of the biggest image hosting services on the net, allows you to upload images without registering and provides you with a URL for use from any site or project. XnView Shell Extension makes uploading to this service 1-click away.
• Customizability: if you do not want any of the functions in the custom menu, you can pick and choose and simply switch it off. You can make the image preview thumbnail bigger or smaller.
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Description: Vjpeg is a fast, lightweight free image viewing program designed to open "images as objects", such that they are draggable on the desktop and not placed within a program window.

We are so accustomed to images opening in application windows that this viewer at first feels so .. unusual. In fact there is something so pleasing about manipulating images on the desktop as objects, most notably the ability to place them side by side for simultaneous viewing, which might come in handy if you need to, say, compare or contrast a number of images.

The developer writes about his motivation in creating this viewer in terms of viewing large files (the program makes them large images smaller but allows for instant resizing). Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: click on an image file and it will open as a draggable object on the desktop. Right click to close the picture. Note that Vjpeg provides for layered images whereby images can overlap or can be moved on top of each other or other windows.
• Changing image size: left-clicking on the image moving it towards (and then away from) any of the four edges resizes it (actually very easy to get the hang of). Double clicking on an image enlarges to actual size or maximizes full screen if the image is larger than the screen.
• Supported filetypes: becomes the default viewer for JPG, BMP, and GIF; can also open Photoshop PSD but the author does not make it the default viewer for that format. Does NOT support PNG, unfortunately.
• Keyboard Shortcuts/manipulations: the arrow keys rotate images clockwise/counter-clockwise by 90 degrees. Pressing (e) emails the original file, while (E) emails the bits of the image on screen (i.e. a compressed image). For color auto-levels press (a), while CTRL-alt-Q closes all open images. CTRL+0 through 3 resizes images, and CTRL+plus/minus enlarges/makes smaller; Alt+enter = maximize to the edges of the screen.
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Description: this posting will provide a number of mini-reviews for freeware programs written by the amazing Dirk Paehl: SimplyZip, DP MediaInfo, IndexMaker, and UPXG.

I received an email from reader Christ T (CT) which had insightful things to say about a number of freeware titles written by Dirk Paehl. CT kindly allowed me to use his mini reviews as a posting.

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CT: “Purely by accident (I was searching for a “GUI UPX-er”) I came across a website full of Outstanding Freeware Programs, from a guy named Dirk Paehl (visit his site here).

He has a LOT of nice SMALL programs, notably:

• SimplyZip: 2.22 MB Multi-Archive Tool, with GREAT Encryption ability, spanning/multi-zip, supports Many, MANY Archive types, and it can even run Portably! It’s directory looks like “Universal Extractor”, but it can Create as well as Extract, and more - Very Nice! (screenshot above).
• DP MediaInfo: 0.54 MB, kind of like “GSpot”, only much more comprehensive, IMHO! [Note: for a full Freewaregenius review of the related MediaInfo, go here].
• IndexMaker: 187.28 KB (yes, ’KB’!) & CDtoHTML, 208.35 KB - Which create HTML from Files & Folders and from CD’s/DVD’s (respectively), very handy for cataloging.
• UPXG [UPX Graphical]: the reason I found his site, only 372.55 KB (with Docs & Uninstaller); It’s a Single-File GUI for UPX, but with the UPX 3.03 ’Engine’ BUILT-IN to the single 351 KB ’EXE’ file, Totally Stand-Alone or with optional Shell Integration, plus many other options - I still haven’t figured out how the heck he did it, UPX is 265 KB by itself! Maybe his brain thinks at Machine-Language Level? Beats “UPX Shell”, “UPX Front End”, or “UPX Tool+” - Scary Efficient!

I really like UPXG & SimplyZip particularly, and have been using them a lot lately, with no problems at all.  SimplyZip and Pismo File Mount are working beautifully together. Read more »

Description: “Ben there Dan That!” is free a point and click adventure game in the old LucasArts tradition that loosely explores the theme of “the death of the adventure game”. It chronicles the adventures of Ben and Dan, the digital versions of the two developers of the game, as they solve puzzles and engage in clever and amusing dialogue containing numerous humorous references to old 90’s adventure games.

This is a point and click adventure game that’s designed to challenge you with some interesting (and mostly logical) puzzles and to put a smile on your face. The latter it accomplishes through humorous tongue in cheek references to classic adventure games (the Space Quest series, Escape from Monkey Island, etc.), but also by poking fun at the adventure game genre itself. The following exchange is a case in point:

(In the context of examining a note stuck on a door)
Dan: What about the extra-sticky BluTak on the back? … that might prove useful
Ben: Stop questioning my authority, quisling. We leave the note and the sticky-sticky BluTak right here, ok?. It’s not going to help make an aerial, is it?
Dan: No, but we might be able to use it with something else. You know… later on.
Ben: Oh, I see. So I’m supposed to just start carting junk around with me all day …on the off chance we need it for something later?
Dan: Um.. yeah.
Ben: Well, in the unlikely event that happens, I shall make a mental note of the BluTak being here… and simply return to collect it should the unthinkable happen, and we find ourselves BluTak-less in a BluTak crisis situation ok?
Dan: Yay! Thanks Pal.

Of course, carting junk around for no apparent reason is exactly what you will need to do in point and click adventure games, and this one is no exception . Here are more notes on this game:

• Actions: right click to switch across the different possible actions then point to the object you would like to perform the action on.
• Inventory: mouse over to the upper left corner to see your inventory.
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Description: Desktop Media is a free program that can display shortcuts on the desktop to USB drives, CDs/DVDs and other media when you plug them in, and automatically removes these shortcuts when you unplug. It can also alternately create so-called "hard links" to your media instead of shortcuts.

[Update Jul 24, 2008] This program has gone through several changes as to warrant an updated review and a "Freewaregenius Pick" award!

This program is similar to the afore-mentioned "Desk Drive" in that it aims to provide the user with automatic shortcuts to their USB and other drives that appear and disappear from the desktop as the user plugs their media in and out. Shortly after posting the review for "Desk Drive" I received the following email from the author of this program, which pretty much sums it all: "I just saw your post on the Desk Drive application yesterday, and I thought it was a great idea ….. Unfortunately, I usually prefer not to install .NET apps, so I decided to write my own version of this… It also has a feature that Desk Drive does not, which is support for Symbolic Links via the Junction utility from SysInternals… Please let me know if you run into any bugs and I will be glad to fix them. This was a great idea for an application and I wanted to create an app with a small footprint to make it a little more appealing." This about sums it all up. Here are more notes on "Desktop Media":

• Supported media: optionally supports any or all of: removable drives, fixed drives, network/remote drives, CD/DVD drives and RAM disks. Also allows the exclusion of specific drive letters that you might want to opt out of displaying desktop shortcuts.
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Description: this posting will describe how to create program shortcuts on the root folder of a USB drive that preserve the relative path of the USB drive’s folder structure (such that these shortcuts will always work no matter what drive letter Windows assigns the drive). It will also aim to preserve the icon of the application in the new shortcut.

The problem: say you have a portable app that in a folder on a USB drive with, for example, a path such as “F:\EjectUSB\EjectUSB.exe”. Say, moreover, that you would like to create a shortcut to “EjectUSB.exe” and place it on the root folder of your USB (”F:\”, in this case). You might be tempted to simply copy a shortcut and place it on the root folder; except for one thing: that shortcut will always refer to “F:\EjectUSB\EjectUSB.exe”, and should you plug your USB drive into a computer that assigns a different letter to the USB drive (i.e. a letter than is not “F”) the shortcut will break down and not work. Hence the need for a shortcut with a relative path.

The solution:

• Windows does not support relative paths in shortcuts. Instead, this article will describe a solution based on creating a so-called batch (.BAT) file and converting that into an executable (which nonetheless displays the original program’s icon).
• I will use the example outlined above (”F:\EjectUSB\EjectUSB.exe”).

Step by step:
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Description: EjectUSB is an open source program that is run from a USB device to close all programs running from the device and eject the drive for safe removal. It will also remove registry entries and recent document shortcuts that refer to the USB device.

If you’re not to keen on Windows’ default method of safely ejecting USB devices (the little icon in the system tray) and/or if you encounter the dreaded “The device cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later” message more frequently than you care for, EjectUSB might just be exactly what the doctor ordered. Running the EjectUSB executable is simple and easy and can provide a one-click solution for getting all file/program contingencies resolved

Here are more notes on this program:

• How to use: extract the EjectUSB folder onto your USB, and then when you are ready simply run the “EjectUSB.exe” executable to eject. If you would like to have a shortcut on your USB’s root folder that runs EjectUSB check out this posting.
• Does it work: mostly, yes, with some exceptions. There are times when EjectUSB will keep trying to eject the drive and/or close running programs or files but fail. I would suggest that you close open documents and programs as you would normally then use EjectUSB to eject the USB after that; this always seemed to work on my system (to quote the author “EjectUSB was designed to eject the drive as quickly as possible, not to manage programs that the user hasn’t saved data in yet”).
• Note on performance: some performance kinks have been ironed out across various releases of this program, and I expect future releases will continue the trend.
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Description: Pismo File Mount is a free program that makes it possible to mount compressed archives, ISO CD/DVD image files, and its own custom encrypted private folder files as virtual drives that can be accessed freely through the Windows file system. Provide context menu integration for mounting/dismounting volumes quickly and easily.

This is an interesting app that allows for mounting compressed archives as (well as ISO files, open-format CFS files, and private folders) as virtual drives. This means that instead of unzipping or extracting a zip archive you could simply mount it as a virtual drive (with its own letter drive number) to access the files within it.

The idea of mounting compressed archives has a certain appeal to me (as compared to the ’messiness’ of decompressing an archive, with its inherent duplication of files, that have to be deleted later on). However, to be honest the practical benefits/application of mounting ZIP files are not very obvious, especially as the mounted volumes are not writable for most supported file types (aside from the private folders which Pismo can create).

Nonetheless here is a list of practical scenarios where this could be useful:

• Working with files within archives: you can view, say, media files, images or other filetypes that are compressed into zip archives without unzipping them. Simply mount the ZIP file and view the files on the virtual drive. Unmount when you’re done; no decompressing or file deletion afterwards needed.
• Using system-wide tools on archived files: if for example you would like the files in as ZIP archive to be subjected to file-system-wide tools such as desktop search or file de-duping software. Simply mount these archives as virtual drives and you will be on your way.
• Installing software: can be useful if you would like to install zipped software without decompressing then cleaning up. Simply mount the zip file, install, then unmount. No need for decompressed folders cluttering your working space.

More info on this program

• How it works: right-click on a supported archive (e.g. a ZIP file) and you will find (self explanatory) "Mount" and "Unmount" options in the context menu -see screenshot above.
• Encrypted folders: can create (writable) encrypted private folders that are mounted to a virtual drive and accessed through a password.
• Supported filetypes: ZIP, ISO, CFS (read), as well as writable "private folders" (see above).
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Description: Incollector is a freeware note-taking program that runs in the background and offers simple notes on demand from the system tray. It uses user-defined tags and saved searches to structure information rather than a traditional folder/category hierarchical structure.

If you have been following this blog you may have noticed that I am always on the lookout for good note-taking programs. Lately I’ve been keeping an eye out for non-hierarchical, tag-based notes apps (see the Tobu review), moving away from the standard, hierarchically-structured notes programs. Incollector is another good option that uses tags as its primary means of organization. It resides in the system-tray to facilitate the quick creation of notes and even provides a search box in the system tray for easy notes retrieval. Here are more notes on this program:

• Structure: note are structured using a framework of user defined tags as well as virtual “folders” that are created out of saved searches.
• Tags: allows you to create tags on-the-fly when creating a note. What’s cool is that a dropdown will appear as you type in your tag that filters the letters you type by the existant tags and allows you to scroll down and select a tag that has been defined previously. You can view information by checking or unchecking multiple tag labels in the left pane.
• Note types: Incollector provides for 7 different note “types” (note, quote, conversation, serial number, web address, source code, word). The difference between these is the in the form used to enter information (for web address, for example, it asks for title and URL; for source code it will ask for the language used, etc. Personally I am uncertain as to the usefulness and value that this extra layer of information might provide.
• Other info: aside from tags and type, each note can have a star rating (out of 3) and have a comment text filed associated with it.
• Search box: a quick and easy way to find what you are after. Scans all fields including tags, comments, content, etc. The system-tray based search box is really cool.
• Saved searches: a virtual folder is created for each saved search. What is interesting is that you can apply multiple filters that utilize the tags created, the note type, the rating, and the contents including the comment field. You can either require the search to satisfy all or some of the search criteria when retrieving results.
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Description: the new Radiohead music video for their song "House of Cards" was created using a technology that captures 3D images as data, without cameras or lights. A version of the video was released on the Google code page, which allows you to manipulate and move in or around the objects as the video is playing using a 3D viewer. You can also download and modify the data to come up with your own version of the video.

Its hard for me to wrap my head around this but apparently neither light nor a camera was used to capture the images in Radiohead’s "House of Cards" video, but rather it was created using a combination of technologies that model objects as data. A "Geometric Informatics" scanning system was used to obtain the close-up images of the singer’s head, while a "Velodyne Lidar system" was used to capture the large cityscape environments, apparently by shooting some 64 lasers in a 360 degree radius.

To see the video, go to the bottom of this posting. If you want more information check out "The Making of "House of Cards" video on YouTube. (Where, interestingly, I learned that the distortions seen in the video were not only intentional, they actually had to work hard to create them).

What’s cool here (aside from the inherent coolness of camera-less imaging) is the following:

1. You can play around with the images using the 3D viewer on the Google code page.
2. You can download the data and use it to create your own visualizations.
3. If you do create your own version of the video, you can upload and share it to the House of Cards YouTube group for the world (and the band) to see.
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