Steve's Ravin' Reviews
~~Steve Mills

"Darn, that's nice!"

Over the recent holidays, we had a number of house guests, most of which used computers, but are not geeks (like me). A number of times they would use my computer and make comments about something I use - ask me where I got it - etc. I decided to review those programs which received the most favorable comment to start the year. I'm sure I'll cover things we have already seen, but these are the things I use every day and programs that regular users found very helpful. I hope you do too!

• JPEG Resizer - 5 geezers
• Copernic Agent Basic - 4½ geezers
• cam2pc - 6 geezers
• AI RoboForm - 5½ geezers
• Startup Control Panel - 6 geezers

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JPEG Resizer
Version: 2.02
Date: January 8, 2003
Author: Virtualzone
Web Site: http://www.virtualzone.de
Freeware
Rating: 5 Geezers

Does this look familiar? It should! I covered this in December and a new version was recently released. The new version comes with a complete new design, improved performance and various advanced features such as Anti-Aliasing, Colorization and selectable JPEG Compression factor. When we shot pictures at Christmas, this thing made it a snap to reduce the size to something manageable for email. The batch mode makes preparing a bunch of pictures a snap.

If you shot photos with a digital camera at a resolution that is too high for presenting your photos on the internet, you need to resize them. JPEG Resizer makes this job quite easy as you don't need to resize each single image for itself.

The new version has earned an additional Geezer™. Oh - it's true Freeware. There's no reason not to try this.

Copernic Agent Basic
Version: 6.01
Date: January 14, 2003
Author: Copernic
Web Site: http://www.copernic.com
Freeware
Rating: 4½ Geezers

It seems Google has just about taken over the web, as far as search engines go. It's a victory they have rightfully earned. No doubt - they are the best at what they do! They get a lot of my search queries, but I still drift to a meta-search program with regularity. For a standalone program, Copernic is my choice. According to their web site they can interrogate over 90 engines when you do a search. I like the way you can save and modify searches. This version is free and they offer more sophisticated versions which will search newsgroups and other types of databases. As a practical matter, Google Groups is the only news archive worth searching, so you might as well go direct, rather than pay. The interface is very friendly and I find even total novices become quickly comfortable. It's worth a download and test.

For those that prefer an online resource, Vivisimo is without peer.

Both of these programs have the smell of boom time projects that could quietly die at any time, as so many have. In the meantime, they are great resources. Maybe they'll make it - who knows!

cam2pc
Version: 3.01
Date: December 6, 2002
Author: Nabocorp
Web Site: http://www.nabocorp.com
Freeware
Rating: 6 Geezers

Another recently reviewed program that has been tweaked recently. It also perfectly fits the theme this month. It was a simple matter to stick the memory card in the computer from the camera and cam2pc took over and gave us total control of the transfer.

This is one of my most used programs. I pull the memory card from my camera, put it in the reader and let cam2pc do its stuff. Cam2pc is a complete solution to ease your everyday work with your digital camera and your pictures. Its primary feature is to automate the transfer of pictures from the camera to the PC. By being able to automatically detect your camera, create the destination directory and transfer your images, the whole process is now done in a single click! For this particular feature, cam2pc is compatible with the following cameras:

• Digital cameras (and card readers) that appear as removable devices in Windows and are assigned a drive letter
• Digital cameras based on the Sierra Imaging chipset (that includes Nikon Coolpix and many more)
• Canon digital cameras

Once your images are transferred, cam2pc includes a fully featured image browser and viewer. You can quickly review your images, losslessly rotate them, rename them, resize them and of course view them in full-screen. There are an incredible amount of options you can see on the web site. If you have a digital camera, you need this software.

AI RoboForm
Version: 5.07
Date: January 26, 2003
Author: Siber Systems
Web Site: http://www.roboform.com
Freeware
Rating: 5½ Geezers

This would be one of the last programs I would erase if I ran out of space. AI RoboForm is a password manager and one-click web form filler with some serious Artificial Intelligence inside. What it can do:

• Save password info from login form.
• Auto fill password info to login form.
• Automatic login to password-protected site.
• Fill long registration forms from Identities.
• Save encrypted text snippets to Safenotes.
• Password Generator generates passwords.
• Bookmark Manager is included.
• Encrypt password and sensitive info using DES.
• Print your passwords on paper.
• Backup & restore passwords.

And… a whole lot more. This is one well-conceived and executed program. The only reason I didn't award it 6 Geezers is limits kick in after 30 days, which reduce the usefulness, but still adequate. The advanced version is 30 bucks and well worth our consideration. The picture below shows the toolbar installed in IE.

Startup Control Panel
Version: 2.8
Date: January 3, 2003
Author: Mike Lin
Web Site: http://www.mlin.net
Freeware
Rating: 6 Geezers

Don't even read this review - just download this program! I don't know about you, but I REALLY hate programs that load a bunch of unwanted crap in your startup process. This 19-year-old genius has created the most elegant solution I've seen. It's an intuitive addition to your control panel and you can delete or disable this garbage any time. If you screw up, everything can be restored. Seldom a week goes by that I don't use it.

Final Thought:

"There are three reasons why lawyers are replacing rats as laboratory research animals. One is that they are plentiful, another is that lab assistants don't get so attached to them and the third is that they will do things that you just can't get rats to do."

Steve Mills has been reviewing software in different capacities for many years.  He has recently left his job with a search engine consulting firm and is looking for a new adventure.