Alec's dashboard

A comment on the discussion "New Features?" in Octeth:

Hey Jason,

What's strange is the Oempro does have autoresponders so clearly Octeth has the code for autoresponders? Why aren't they allowing us to use it in SendLoop?

Very strange. – Alec, on March 15, 2009 23:28

Alec replied on March 15, 2009 16:07 to the question "Large PDF from Web Snapper opens in Preview (MAC) but Adobe won't open it?" in Tasty Apps:

Hello Marc,

There's a great free alternative to WebSnapper called NetFixer. Give that a try.

Works every time for me. I also had issues with WebSnapper as a licensed user (html links were not live).

Alec replied on March 15, 2009 16:04 to the praise "Great support from Tasty Apps" in Tasty Apps:

That's funny. Web Snapper wouldn't work on my computer (no live links in the pdfs). Tim blamed me and my computer and wouldn't swap the app for VideoBox. And it took him a year to get me a refund.

Nice to see customer service has improved somewhat since last year.

A comment on the discussion "Interested in Topaz Adjust plug-in for Apple Aperture?" in Topaz Labs:

I would also be good with beta-testing (assuming it's beta and not alpha, library erasing stuff). Keep the heat up on those programmers. We really need Topaz DeNoise for Aperture. I love the soft glow effects I have been able to get with custom settings. – Alec, on March 06, 2009 00:46

Alec replied on March 06, 2009 00:37 to the question "Sync with Highrisecontacts tagged with spesific keywords" in Newsberry:

Thanks for the quick reply, Chris. I'll be pushing 37signals hard (we are long, long time Basecamp users). Unfortunately, they are not a very customer responsive company.

Alec started following the question "We have a store that sells products in US & CDN dollars" in Shopify.

Alec replied on March 05, 2009 14:36 to the discussion "New Features?" in Octeth:

Hello Cem,

Some of Big Jason's requests are pretty sophisticated programming.

What we really need to get down to work are autoresponders.

Please add autoresponders faster.

Alec replied on March 05, 2009 14:21 to the question "Sync with Highrisecontacts tagged with spesific keywords" in Newsberry:

I'm looking for this too. It would make me a Newsberry customer.

In the meantime, can I retag the Highrise contacts within Newsberry?

James replied on February 27, 2009 02:34 to the question "How do I keep my photos looking like photos instead of paintings?" in Topaz Labs:

Hello Eric,

The painterly effect seems to be part of the technique of Topaz DeNoise. I wasn't able to diminish it substantially without more or less disabling DeNoise.

Hello Anita,

The little imagistic lines in the dark patches annoyed me at first as well but then I compared what Topaz DeNoise does in comparison to Noise Ninja and Nik dFine which are the other top-rated competition.

In the dark patches at 3200 ISO on a Canon 5D there are little colour blobs which stay around with Noise Ninja and Nik. DeNoise wipes them out completely.

Here is an example with Nik on the left and Topaz DeNoise on the right (warning: 1.7 MB). Look closely at the dress and you'll see lots of small dots left by Nik. On the other hand, on the Rigmor Gustafsson's face on the very right hand side right side I'm not overly convinced by the wavelets at 100%. As soon as I scale the image down to even 60% the Topaz result looks fine.

I also find that in lower res versions those strange little patterns actually look much better than heavy blurring. Here's a cityscape of Vienna at night which was very noisy - again 3200.

You don't see much noise at all - and you don't notice the wavelets at all either. What effect they have is actually even agreeable to the eyes.

For your sport photography, you might need to have an alternative noise reduction system in place for those few shots where the wavelets simply don't work. But expect the noise reduction to be less effective and the details to be less sharp.

James replied on February 27, 2009 02:06 to the question "Topaz Adjust crashing Photoshop for Mac" in Topaz Labs:

It's A-OK for me here on a Mac with Photoshop CS3 so it might be something specific to your setup.

James replied on February 27, 2009 02:04 to the question "Topaz Adjust Batching???? Yes Or No?" in Topaz Labs:

Hello Albert,

I'd like to use batch processing on Topaz DeNoise.

I know you refer us to Photoshop actions but is there any way you could set us all up with an action template for using Topaz plugins with Photoshop actions.

Of course we’d have to tune it ourselves but it would give us a headstart.

I'm pretty happy with the defaults most of the time (DeNoise is not like Adjust) so I'm almost looking for a droplet to run on the noisy images in a set before creating web versions.

Thanks for writing such great software and keeping it affordable!

James replied on February 27, 2009 02:01 to the discussion "Interested in Topaz Adjust plug-in for Apple Aperture?" in Topaz Labs:

Hello Eric,

I'd really like an Aperture plugin as well.

I'm ready to buy the special bundle offer if you come up with one.

For what it's worth you guys beat Noise Ninja and Nik dFine in direct head to head testing on tough 3200 ISO Canon 5D files.

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