Stephen Ross Scott ™

Five star simple software #5: Ashampoo Burn Studio

To me it's rare in software when things just work as you really need them to, and that's the point of this not very regular spotlight series. You may have many pieces of burning software installed and often vying for attention, particularly if you have a new machine. [Nero, Roxio trials anyone?]

However this is free, simple, light, and comes with the ability to burn just about anything. Cd, DVD, even Blu-Ray discs are on offer. With enough tweaks under the hood for those that need it, but clean enough for newbies, it does an excellent job, and makes sure you don't end up producing DVD coasters.

Completely Free, no spyware, simple, and...just works. Enough said.

Labels: Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Picasa 3.0, It's all grown up and groovy.

A five star price of software I've mentioned many times before, Picasa, has had a massive update. Overshadowed by the equally uber cool Google Chrome, Picasa 3, brings features that truly wipe the floor [and walls] with many paid for offerings out there. A new, mega idiot proof red eye feature, video editing, syncing free web albums, face tagging, image previewer, the list goes on. It's a monster release, and all for $0.00.

Check the whats updated video, their great blog or click the title link and just download and have a blast with one of my all time essential favorites.

Labels: Photography, Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Video

Ideas worth spreading...

Over the years, one site whose content I've continually found to be nothing but always inspiring and thought provoking, [that's no small feat!] is TED. Focusing on Technology, Entertainment & Design, Ted is an annual gathering which has pulled in people from all over the globe, and from all walks of life. What's produced, is some deeply inspiring talks and information on a huge variety of subjects related to the TED theme. With reams of content released regularly, and with each talk fairly brief, this is certainly no death by PowerPoint. I've referenced many times before a TED talk on simplicity by John Maeda which you'll find on the home page of my site, however, I've pulled a few more recent highlights below. Make sure you bring some TED in to your life by visiting the site, or catching up with their TED talks RSS feed.


Find out more about Ted by clicking this posts title, or viewing some recent favourites of mine below:

Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

J.J Abrahams: Mystery box

Alison Jackson: A surprising look at celebrity

Labels: Design, humour, Recommended, Simplicity, Video

Five star simple software #4: Ant Renamer

If your doing some organising of your digital files, you'll invariably come across piles of music , photos or other items that from a naming point of view aren't named correctly, are misspelled or just plain all over the place with no structures or order. With better things to do with your time I'm sure than name each item one by one, help is at hand with the Swiss army knife like, 'Ant Renamer' from Ant Software.

Allowing you to rename files or folders in one go, or rename/remove extensions, change case, delete characters en masse from any part of the file name, even use mp3 meta data info to rename the file, and much more. You might not use it every day for sure, but when you want something to just simply do what it says it will, and save you a load of time, this is one of those great little apps that's just indispensable.

100% Free, with no nags or spyware.

Labels: Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Five star simple software #3: SyncBack

Making backups is often something many don't think about, or make the time to do. Until of course the day that it all goes pear shaped, and you wish you'd done something about it. I'm an efficiently geeky kinda guy, so I try and do this regularly, and I've tried many different types of back up software. I don't want, or truly need anything complex, don't want real time back up, I just want it to back up all my stuff, when I say, from place A to B, end of story.

Simple you'd think to get software for this, but many just don't do what you want. They either limit you, or charge a fortune to do something basic. By default Windows 2000, XP & Vista have their own offerings, but none cut it for me. I was close to giving up, especially after a disastrous attempt at the other offering from Microsoft called Sync Powertoy. However the only 'power' involved was the waste of power I used in testing it out. Firstly having to validate my copy of Windows, then to be told I can only download it if I use Internet Explorer. Nice guys. Stupidly, I persevered, but the app itself has easily breakable logic behind the so called syncing, so I ended up with multiples of the same files, and worse still, it deleted some which were perfectly legitimate. Awful, awful, piece of software. And I only bash Microsoft here in the hope you avoid this, and try out the real piece of five star software...

...Which is by a company called 2Bright Sparks. Their offering is called SyncBack, and is a fantastic, light, and simple application, that just works, and very well at that. The logic, layout and overall experience of using it, is simplicity itself. Admittedly, the first time you set up a profile for the sync to run, you have to think carefully about the process and set options, but once done, it works like a dream, and simply does what it says on the tin. The paid version comes with more features than I think I would ever use, and I find their older freeware version: SyncBack Freeware V3.2.14 [Click for a direct link to the file] to be more than adequate, with full reporting, and plenty of other options to get advanced, should you wish, its pretty perfect. Click the title to go their main download page with all their products, or visit the direct link just above to get straight to the freeware version.

Simple, it works, and free. Now go get backing up.

Labels: Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Wired. Geek .Net. Inspirational magazines...

In all my many years of working in the web world, I'd never have had half the success I've had, if I wasn't continually inspired by whats out there on the web. However even I can only look at a screen for so long every day, so one other source of inspiration for me is, in this case, magazines. Three real favourites of mine are;

• 'Wired' magazine which is a veritable melting pot of all things geek, science, tech, pop culture, and a pinch of anything goes, makes this my absolute favourite every month. Always one article [if not more] every month that will literally blow your mind.
  



• 'Geek' is a relative newcomer, with just under a years issues and is improving steadily with each issue. Covering very similar ground to Wired, it's less of the science, and more focus on media and gadgets. Still it manages in a crowded market to stand out and have some excellent editorial content, and seems to cover some very appealing topics.



• '.net' is a magazine I've read since day one, [still called Practical Web Design in Australia & the USA] but several years ago this magazine went through a massive excellent transformation, and became without a doubt the premier, worldwide magazine out there, for anyone involved in developing, designing or just involved in the world of web. With tutorials, in depth articles and some excellent editorial from real web heroes throughout, it's another accessible, inspirational, essential read in simplifying and demystifying the world of web.
  
  So with a bit of shameless self publicity here, I'm throughly chuffed to bits to be appearing in the March 2008 [on sale Feb 8th] edition of .net magazine, in a short feature on reader sites, of which this one, www.stephenrossscott.com will be one.
  
  Pick up a copy of any of the above magazines if you have an interest in the web, I guarantee you you'll get something from one of these excellent, inspirational titles.
  

Labels: Design, Recommended, Simplicity

Five Star Simple Software: #2 Picasa.

I'm a Google fanboy, sure I admit it. Regardless though, this software deserves a major mention.Picasa is a Photo and Movie manager and does so much I just couldn't cover it all here, but it's good enough that even Microsoft & Adobe have tried [in vain] to bring similar offerings to the table, such as Windows Vista's Photo Manager [Make that 'Photo Mangler'-try it, you'll see what I mean] & the utterly pointless, severely hobbled, nagging at every turn, Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. What a spectacular train wreck of software that is.

Both Microsoft & Adobe's efforts are a pale comparison though to Picasa and make managing your media a turgid, complex, enthusiasm zapping experience from start to finish, and will nag you to pay to upgrade the software regularly, or buy photos from their sources online [and normally only in the USA] at most turns. Both are clunky, overly complex and no fun at all.

All praise then to Picasa then which from the word go, is simply, simple. The install is clean and informative enough for all levels, and intuitive enough to find and catalogue your photos & movie media automatically should you let it. From there on in you have support for TIF, JPG, GIF, PSD, MPG, AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV & more. [As if you'll need more]

The usability of it really stands out, and I've met people from 14 to 65 who've all said they love it. And it's the easiest way to share photos with friends and family out there, because aside from the numerous photo touch up tools, slide shows, wallpaper makers, gift cd's, back up facilities and more, the most recent addition to Picasa is what makes it stand out from the crowd.

Free 1Gigabyte Web albums.

Previously even a fairly awkward thing to do for many, even with web skills, and so for most people it was nigh on impossible to get their photos up on the web. With Picasa it's two or three clicks. Literally. Everything else is automated. And before you know it, your photos you want to share are on the web on your own clear, memorable and useful web address such as: http://picasaweb.google.com/yourname

Now try doing this in Microsoft's offerings and your on to an unusable, almost never ending, indecipherable web address. Not friendly at all. [Adobe have no web offering as yet]. Another hidden Picasa gem is to get your friends to add you as a Picasa favourite [one simple click on your Picasa web page] and then every time they add a photo or album you get an email to let you know. All of which is fully editable and controllable. You can even have the option to allow people to download the entire set of your photos' to their Picasa in one click. Now thats sharing. And incredibly simple to do.

I could spend all day on how good this software is, as many of my my friends and family will testify, but if you haven't tried it, get on it, you wont regret it. After all taking photo's is great, but sharing them is half the fun.

Picasa is 100% free, Web Albums have 1Gigabyte of free online storage.

Labels: Photography, Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Five Star Simple Software: #1 Gom Player.

The first of a long promised series of software recommendations, where I'll highlight the picks I've found in my travels and experiences online. As we all seem to get more time poor these days I just don't have time for software unless it sticks core guidelines that tend to be along the lines of;

1. Simplicity, in design, operation & usage.
   
2. Lightweight in file size & processor usage.
3. Just get the job done well
   
4. No sneakiness. So thats no nagging or overtaking your system. [A la' usual suspects Adobe, iTunes/Quicktime & Real Player.] So that means no making useless folders in your 'My Documents' or shares or phoning home.
   
   
   

So up first, the unusually named GOM player. While most people have Windows Media player or Quicktime by default on their platform, why do you need one more? Well, probably because the other two try painfully hard to be the center of attention on your system. Both are large in file size [Quicktime needs a diet for sure], one prompts you to have a license just to listen to your music, or the other hogs your system tray and asks you pay to do anything other than basic features. No thanks.

With those two trying to compete and hog your system whenever they can, it's a breath of fresh air with software that just does as it says on the tin. Being the 'Computer guy' amongst many family and friends, I've throughly road tested this for over a year on many different machines. To date I've heard zero complaints. As the Gom player site says, its free, light and just works. No spyware or ads, and with some excellent features such as intuitively playing the next file in alpha/numerical order such as a tv series your watching, and also finding the codec you need, without you having to all the work.

With an excellent set up process, and enough advanced features there for those that want to get technical with it, it makes it a great all rounder for everyone. It keeps its interface, simple, clean, and effective. Playing MP3,WMA,OGG and most other music formats as well as XviD, DivX, FLV, MP4, H263, MOV [sadly you'll still need Quicktime or Quicktime alternative as its a closed codec to get .MOV's thorugh it] but once done, it truly is one app for the lot. With low CPU usage, skins should you need them, and much more, this is one of those essentials I install on every machine.

Oh yeah, it's also 100% free.

Labels: Recommended, Simplicity, Software, Usability

Music industry begins to use brain. World in shock.

It's only taken crippling, costly DRM, rampant, widespread piracy, and the best part of 10 plus years, and slowly, [make that very slowly] someone, somewhere, in the music industry is beginning to understand. Or maybe just run out of ideas... With unbelievable spectacular PR disasters, such as Sonys Rootkits fiasco several years ago, the suing of children for downloading nursery rhymes and clunky, over zealous music applications, as well as big budget failures of DRM media players such as Microsoft's Zune, you do have to give them points for trying just about everything.

Everything that is, except what the consumer wanted in the first place.

Complexity sells, and the music industry knows that. Witness eternal 'Limited editions' and repackaging, and releasing four versions of a single by an artist. So when the web first introduced us to people who were able to buy music cheaper than we could, the days of fat cat music industry execs getting away with charging £15 for a CD, were never going to last. We knew that. Sadly they weren't ever going to play fair.

Fast forward to February 2006, and Apple fanboys will probably praise Steve Jobs eternally for his open letter as being the one who turned the tide. However, as many have already stated, he only pointed out what everyone already knew. Just that he was the first real corporate media mogul to admit it. [Cough, improve iTunes revenue, cough.]

So is this a win for the consumer? Give it time, but the beginnings are there, and that could mean less clutter, improved software. And the simplicity of just being able to listen to what you want, where you want, on what you want. With software or player that doesn't require a lawyer and tech support person be with you at all times.

Techcrunch.com does a great round-up of the hopefuls out there offering unburdened legal music, check out the link in this posts title, for some [un DRM'd] music to your ears.

Labels: Music, Simplicity

Transparency. 'Clearly' the way forward...

Transparency is on the increase, particularly in the web world, and the old cobwebs and obscurity of commerce of the past, are thankfully changing. Out goes complexity & obscurity, and in it's place, the simple, transparent & 'Don't be evil' Google type mantra of 'new' commerce.

Of course a huge win for the consumer, but given the right approach, it can also be a huge boost for the [let's call them] 'non-evil' businesses out there. Of course for many companies this is not good news. However, with sites such as Digg and other social networking tools on a virus like increase, businesses have no real option but to embrace this consumer change, and take responsibility, or their bottom line will be affected, no doubt about that.

Recent examples such as Greenpeace with their iPoison site, is likely to hurt hard. Especially considering the almost undying love & scrutiny for the brand from Apple fan boys worldwide. [Even Greenpeace manage to squeeze in some adoration for the brand in their site!]

The pressure's building, and with sites such as Tripadvisor and the multitude of reviews, feedback and rating sites available, it's very simple. If you want to get ahead, get seen to be as open, clear, and as transparent as possible. You never know, your customers might like what they see.

Labels: Simplicity

Kinda puts it all in perspective...

Labels: Simplicity, Video