Saturday, January 15, 2011

Print Images On Multiple Pages With Image Print Wizard

Print Images On Multiple Pages With Image Print Wizard: "

We have covered several programs and online services that allow a user to print an image on multiple sheets of paper. Among them are the online services Rasterbator and Block Posters, as well as the desktop application Poster Printer for the Windows operating system. Why would someone want to do that? Reasons to print images on multiple pages are to print the image in its native resolution and to create a larger printout of the image, for instance to use it as a poster.

The main thing that the photo printing software Image Print Wizard adds to the table is that it does not take longer than 20 seconds to print an image on multiple pages. The program separates the process into three steps. The image that needs to be printed on multiple pages is selected in the first step. This simply opens a file browser to pick the image from the local system.

print image on multiple pages

The printout options are setup in the second step. Here it is possible to define the print mode and scale. Available print modes are printing based on the image size or to fit or stretch the image to page.

  • Image Size: Image is printed with exact size calculated using image size, image resolution and current printer resolution. Scale is used for changing target image size.
  • Fit to page: Image is centered on the page with maximal possible size without distortion. Scale is used for changing target image size. With the scale set to more than 100% image will be cropped by page margins.
  • Stretch to page: Image is stretched to the entire page with potential distortions of proportions. Scale parameter is not used

printout settings

The pages the image will be printed on are selected on the third and final setup page. It is possible to select a page count between 1 and 10 or create a custom page count for the printout.

print images on multiple pages

A click on the print button sends the selection to the printer to print the image on multiple pages.

Image Print Wizard is a free application for the Windows operating system. It is available for download at the developer website.


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Duplicate File Finder Duplicate Cleaner 2.0

Duplicate File Finder Duplicate Cleaner 2.0: "

Computer users have numerous reasons for finding and deleting duplicate files on their systems. Some of the top reasons include freeing up storage space and better manageability of files in the operating system. The duplicate file finder Duplicate Cleaner 2 has just been released as a beta preview.

Duplicate Cleaner is a sophisticate duplicate file finder with lots of options to configure the scanning and duplicate file checking. The main program window is used to configure the search criteria. Duplicate Cleaner can be configured to find files based on the following parameters:

  • Same content (checked by comparing MD5 hashes)
  • Same file name
  • Same size
  • Same created date
  • Same modified date
  • For music files: same artist, same title, same album

Filters can be added to reduce the number of files to be scanned by the program. It is possible to configure a file size filter, which will only scan files of a specific size range, file dates, which will only scan files that have been created or modified between dates specified and file name filters that can be used to include or exclude files based on names and extensions. All file scanning parameters can be combined in the scan.

Folders, partitions and drives can be added easily in the same window. Only the selected folders will be scanned by the duplicate file finder.

duplicate file finder

The time it takes to scan the folder depends on the speed of the hard drive and computer, as well as the files and folders and how much disk space they occupy on the selected drives. A report is displayed at the end of the scan listing the number of files that have been scanned, the time it took to scan the files and the number and size of the duplicate files that have been found.

duplicate file scan

A listing of all duplicate files is then displayed to the user. Individual files can be selected manually, and a preview is available for images for a visual aid.

The Selection Assistant can aid the user if many duplicate files have been found on the system.

selection assistant

Here it is possible to select multiple files at once, based on lots of different criteria including:

  • Shortest or longest filename
  • Oldest or newest file based on creation / modification
  • Smallest or largest file
  • By audio attributes (keep highest bitrate, highest sample rate, longest length)
  • By text patterns in file name, path, sitze and lots of other variables. Supports regular expressions
  • By location based on a selected path

Once the duplicate files have been selected for removal it is possible to configure deletion options. Standard options exist like deleting the duplicates to the recycle bin / without moving them to the recycle bin. Interesting options are available to automatically rename the duplicate files, move or copy them instead or create hardlinks (only on NTFS file systems). The option to create hardlinks could be interesting for users who fear that the removal of files could result in dead links or accessibility problems.

delete duplicate files

It is additionally possible to remove empty folders in the process. Duplicate Cleaner is an impressive program that comes with lots of additional options that have not been mentioned yet. It is for instance possible to change the file comparison algorithm, include network drives in the search and to import and export the results to CSV files.

Here is the feature list of Duplicate Cleaner as listed on the developer website:

  • Find Duplicate Files by content, fast!
  • Cleaner hard drives means faster performance
  • Fast Scanning and accurate duplicate comparison (Uses the MD5 Hash algorithm)
  • Deep scans music – locate duplicate music formats (MP3, iTunes, etc)
  • Flexible search parameters
  • Intelligent Selection Assistant
  • Search home or networked drives
  • Search multiple locations
  • Export / Import results in CSV format
  • View Path,Size and Date of files
  • Large, resizable list window
  • Image preview window
  • Delete duplicate files to the Recycle bin
  • Move dupe files to a new location
  • Turn duplicate file into hard links (NTFS file systems only)
  • Protection for Windows and system files
  • Supports multiple languages

Duplicate Cleaner Download And Compatibility

It is surprising that this high quality application is available free of charge. It is one of the best duplicate cleaners available for the Windows operating system. The duplicate file finder is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It should also run fine on Windows Server installations. Downloads and additional information are available at the developer website at DigitalVolcano.co.uk.


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Anonymously Chat With Other College Students On HowRandom

Anonymously Chat With Other College Students On HowRandom: "


HowRandom, a site for college students, launches today with one core feature — the ability to anonymously chat with people from other schools. There’s no photo uploading, file sharing or video capabilities, just a text entry line and a chat widget.


The student on student communication happens on two levels, a test function where you casually enter in your school (warning, you have to type the full word “University”) and a verified function which allows you to type in your .edu address in order to get “Verified” as a bona fide college student.


Explains founder Jon Cook, “It’s a way for guys at Harvard to meet girls at Yale, etc. And it’s not intrusive. HowRandom has a very solid viral loop. It has the Facebook-like .edu exclusivity. And it’s extremely simple to use.”


Cook and co-founder Jason Humphries think of HowRandom as more of a social experiment than a business. They hope it will mirror the randomness of life and “foster real-world meetings and interactions between two people that might otherwise never meet. ” Like a text-based Chatroulette with no penis problem, there’s also a next feature in case you don’t like who you’re chatting with.


Cook says he wants to keep evolving the app through user feedback, and is considering including limited profile option along with the “Verified” logo.


Facebook initially restricted its users to college students with .edu addresses and that element was crucial to its success, this is also HowRandom’s hook. Colleges are hotbeds of virality in more ways than one, and starting off there is a good move for any social app.







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How a Place Has Changed Over Time?

How a Place Has Changed Over Time?: "

Google today introduced a new version of Google Earth, which among other new enhancements, sports an easier way for you to explore historical imagery of a place.


Now when you zoom to a particular location on Google Earth, it will pop-up a clock icon in the status bar indicating the earliest year for which historical imagery is available for that location.


You can then move the slider in the timeline, using your mouse or with the help of arrow keys, to see how that place may have changed over time.


For instance, here are aerial images of the Whitehouse captured during 1949 and 1999.


Whitehouse 1949


Whitehouse 1999


Historical Imagery in Google Earth


The following video has details on how may access historical imagery in Google Earth.










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This article, titled How a Place Has Changed Over Time?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration under Google Earth, Software.

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Free Videos To DVD, Video DVD Authoring Software

Free Videos To DVD, Video DVD Authoring Software: "

Regular Ghacks readers know that I’m using ConvertXToDVD for all my video DVD authoring needs. The commercial software is easy to use but offers all the advanced options I expect from a program like it.

A solid free alternative is Free Videos To DVD from Koyote Soft. The application is as easy to use as ConvertXToDVD which is its greatest strength. Users do not need to worry about different source video formats, conversions or bitrates as is it all handled by the program in the background.

A video DVD is created in six steps that are displayed in a wizard like interface. It begins with the selection of a video DVD project name, DVD format and working directory. The dvd authoring software supports PAL and NTSC DVD formats and can create DVDs that play in 4:3 or 16:9.

video to dvd converter

The DVD chapters are added in the second step. A file browser assists the user in adding videos from the local hard drive to the DVD. Free Videos To DVD displays the file name and duration of each file as well as the estimated size, duration and quality of the video DVD on the screen.

Here it is also possible to load an existing VIDEO_TS file instead, and modify the quality of the video DVD with the quality slider. A better quality results in a larger size and vice verse. It is important that the size is not passing the red limiter for single layer DVDs. If it does a dual layer DVD is required to burn the video DVD.

video to dvd

The video DVD menu is created in the third step of the process. It is possible to create a DVD without menu which would mean that the DVD plays as soon as it is placed in the DVD player, or a classical menu with options to customize titles, chapters and appearance.

Among the options are titles, fonts and colors for the DVD title and its chapters, the position of those elements on the screen and a background image with options to use the default image or an image on the local system.

dvd video menu

The output parameters are defined in step 4 of the process. Video DVDs can be burned directly to a writable DVD, saved as an ISO image for mounting it or burning it later or created as IFO and VOB files only. The DVD writer and speed are selected in this step as well.

burn video dvd

The selected videos are then converted by Free Videos To DVD. The speed of the conversion depends largely on the speed of the computer system. It is possible to enable a preview of the video in this step, but it is generally not recommended as it may slow down the conversion.

file conversion

The videos are processed in the last step of the authoring process. DVDs are either burned directly to a writable DVD, saved as an ISO image or as IFO and VOB files.

Free Videos To DVD is an excellent free application for the Windows operating system. It has been designed to give users of all experience levels a video DVD authoring tool at hand. Advanced users will find out that it lacks a few features that other tools, like ConvertXToDVD, are offering. Still, if you need to quickly turn some videos on your PC into a video DVD then this tool can do that for you, quickly and without problems.

Free Videos To DVD can be downloaded at the official Koyote Soft website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.


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Download Websites With Fresh WebSuction

Download Websites With Fresh WebSuction: "

You sometimes may want to download websites to your local computer system to preserve the information and access them offline. Fresh WebSuction, a software for Windows, can be used to download single pages or entire websites. Users of all experience levels can use the program to download the websites.

Projects are assigned to each website download. The minimum information that is required is the website address. Most users may want to change the project configuration to to better control what gets downloaded from the website. The default download depth is set to download the selected page and all pages that are linked from that page. This alone can go well into the hundreds of pages. Users who want to download more of the website can change the download level in the project settings.

download websites

File filters can be configured to only download specific files or types of files from the website. This ranges from only downloading HTML files to audio, video, document and user defined files.

It is for instance possible to download only zip archives from the selected website.

Preferences determine how links and download locations are handled. Downloads range from strictly including downloads that are in the same directory structure to downloads from all over the Internet.

The program distinguishes between followed and unfollowed links with options to make them relative, absolute or leave them as they are.

A click on the download button pulls the information from the selected web address, parses the information and begins the download of all files that fall into selected parameters.

Users need to make sure that they define the right web address for the download, www.ghacks.net and ghacks.net are handled as two different web addresses (which is correct by the way).

fresh websuction

All downloaded files and the file structure is displayed in the project contents sidebar during and after the downloads have finished.

It is possible to click on a link to load the downloaded page right in the Fresh WebSuction interface. The files can also be opened in another web browser by loading them directly in that browser. Fresh WebSuction offers to display the online version of the web page as well.

Projects can be updated by selecting that option from the file menu or Download button.

Options are available that are used by all projects. Here it is possible to configure Internet connection details like the number of simultaneous download threads, timeouts and delays, the number of retries, if cookies should be used and how the program should identify itself to the website.

Fresh WebSuction is an easy to use website downloader. It is not nearly as complex as HTtrack which supports additional features like authentication but that does not have to be a disadvantage depending on the project at hand.

The software program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Downloads are provided at the developer website (with email registration) and third party download portals like Softpedia.


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What Programs are Accessing the Internet?

What Programs are Accessing the Internet?: "

You only have a couple of websites open on your screen and yet the data activity light of the modem / router is constantly flashing indicating that one or more programs are actively uploading or downloading data from the Internet.


How can you easily find out which programs on your computer are accessing the Internet and what websites are they connecting to?


internet connecting programs


You have quite a few options. If you are on Windows 7 or Vista, you can use the built-in Performance monitor utility to see a list of all running processes that are currently accessing the Internet.


Alternatively, if you are on a different version of Windows or want something less complex, try TCPEye 1.0. This is a free network monitoring utility that creates a self-updating list of all processes that are currently using your network connection.


What makes TCPEye a bit different is that it also lists the websites / servers that the programs are communicating with and the location (country) where those servers are located. Most other network monitoring tools only mention IP addresses and thus it is up to the user to determine the underlying server name.


If you notice an unwanted connection or a suspicious entry in the TCPEye log, just right click to end the process. Tech-savvy users may also use the netstat command to get similar information.


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This article, titled What Programs are Accessing the Internet?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration under Windows, Software.

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