No comments about Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Upgrade [Mac].

1 comments about LegoLand.

1. This is a great game. It is really challenging for kids, keeps my son occupied for hours. You really have to think, no guns killing or any violence. Just ink blots, that is the extent of it. I would recommend it .

5 comments about Turbocad Mac 2D/3D V 2.0.

1. I've been using CAD since 1991. First FastCad, then AutoCAD, starting with r13 back in '96.
   
   I wanted a CAD program to use on my Mac, to create models for importation into Bryce. I downloaded the TurboCAD 15-day demo from their site. It fits the bill!
   
   I believe it is much better than (the overrated and overpriced) AutoCAD. Case in point: during my day job, I use AutoCAD 2002. I needed to draw a simple spiral, to show the end view of a spring. AutoCAD doesn't do spirals. TurboCAD does (and helixes, too). I came home, created a spiral on TurboCAD, exported the drawing in AutoCAD's .dwg format, and took it to work. The day was saved.



2. This is a very nice software for 3d and 2d work, specially considering it's price. However, as with any other, you should always consider the time to learn it. Sometimes you need 1 simple thing, but since you don't know where it is you loose a lot of time searching for help.



3. It works fine under 10.5 Leopard, but there is a trick to installing it:
   
   The main TurboCad installer works fine, but to to install the Symbols Library you have to bypass their installer app because it doesn't work in 10.5. What I ended up doing was mounting the installer from the disc and then right-clicked to reveal "view package contents". From there just navigate to: Contents/Installer Items/Symbols and just drag the folder over to replace to one already in the application folder.
   
   If you have any trouble be sure and check the permission settings for the TurboCad folder. It's a bit of trouble, but for ten bucks, who cares!



4. TC Mac Pro V2 is well worth the price if you are looking for a low cost highly capable drafting/modeling program for the Mac. I was very surprised to see how many features it had. Snaps, Layers, Symbols, 3D symbols, Bill of materials, multiple scales, it's all there.
   
   Coming from an AutoCAD background ther was a learning curve, but not that long of a curve. You can find video tutorials with the ViaCAD series of demos from punch software. TC Mac is closely related to ViaCAD Pro except it does not have the ability to apply materials to models (yet) or the cost of a few extra hundreds of dollars.



5. Look at the price! It's a steal at the moment, and there have been rebates available lately as well.
   
   Okay, the software itself is pretty darned good. It's setup a bit differently than AutoCAD, but is just as functional. (At least for myself, drawing reasonably simple mechanical and electromechanical systems.) If you have any CAD needs for a Macintosh, this is hard to beat.

No comments about Adobe InDesign CS4 Upgrade.

5 comments about BIAS SoundSoap 2 ( Windows/Macintosh ).

1. I saw the demo of the program and thought, "That's exactly what I need!". I have been working on the post side of a movie Quest for the Golden Rod for over a year now (...) and due to the actors spreading to the four winds I'm stuck with the audio I got from my Sennheiser MKE-300. Which isn't bad, but not great eithor. I was forced to use it both in doors and outside having little "problems" like airplans, TOO LOUD of a river bank and of course the ever famous electronic hum (fridges). So I crossed my fingers and dropped $90 on this tool, plugged it into Adobe Premeir Pro 2.0 and was amazed that it was VERY simular to the results one would expect from a standard Noise Gate feature. Then I watched the online tutorials and learned the magical way of "learn sound" and that helped. I mean it was kind of remarkable it would remove very specific frequences and would behind only the voice (if you desired it). But here in lies it's flaw. DISTORTION. The more noise removal the quiter the audio gets and the more "canny" (that's how I put it) the voice becomes. Still legable and clear, but very distorted. So if you are doing a documentary then A++ if you are doing a film let's hope the background audio you are trieing to remove isn't too bad. Works best against repetitive back ground noise like humming. Very little distortion there.
   
   (...)



2. The SoundSoap 2 software (running on my older Mac) is a neat tool to go with BIAS's Peak recording software. It works quite well in dealing with my albums (33 rpm records, licorice pizza, stacks o' wax, etc.) and the pops, clicks, and scratches that sometimes came on a brand new vinyl LP. You should take a tour of the BIAS website and watch / listen to the demo they have for SoundSoap. It will do all that, but it is possible to overdo the signal processing and swamp out some of the music content. However, that can be the case with other click repair software too. The best approach I've found is not to try to create a 'master recording' with studio like audio qualities, but instead focus on cleaning up an obnoxious record or cassette.
   
   SS's 'learn noise' feature is dead handy, and the 50/60 cycle buzz remover works great. Best of all is being able to keep your master digital recording (mine done through BIAS Peak LE) and play with the settings in SoundSoap. Too little click removal? Too much removal of crackles and the music suffers? Delete the file and try again. A very easy to use, effective, and affordable tool for the music lover who's facing a stack of wax unplayed for years. I breathed new life into Moody Blues 'Days of Future Passed' and Horst Jankowski's 'Walk in the Black Forest.' Next up, the overplayed and abused vinyl of The Doors. I wonder how that will turn out...?BIAS SoundSoap 2 ( Windows/Macintosh )Bias SoundSoap 2, Hybrid CD Win/MacBIAS SoundSoap 2 ( Windows/Macintosh )



3. Expensive program with almost no features other than what it says it does. Poor instructions on usage. I have had two months and have yet been unable to successfully utilize.



4. This may be a fine product. It appears to do exactly what I need. Unfortunately, I'm not able to launch the application. After buying direct from the Bias website on a Sunday afternoon (could have saved $50 buying form Amazon, but I'm on deadline for a project) I am unable to authorize my legally purchased software. The application crashes during the authorization process. Since the software won't run without authorization, I'm out of luck.
   
   I've contacted tech support and submitted an email authorization request. I received an automatic response warning me that it may be 1 to 2 business days before I hear back from Bias. I might as well have ordered from Amazon.
   
   To be honest, if I had known that SoundSoap used this sort of software authorization scheme I probably wouldn't have purchased the product. This sort of restrictive DRM almost always harms legitimate consumers while doing nothing to stop piracy.



5. for cleaning snap, crackle and pops from your recordings. With just minimal adjustments, I was able to remove all of the above from old and battered 33s and 78s that I transfer to CD using my beloved ION TTUSB turntable. These two products are the best money I've ever spent to save my favorite music. Unbeatable!

1 comments about Corel Family Pack 2009.

1. I put out a newsletter for our non profit club and publish a few obscure local history books.
   
   As a 20 year wordperfect (WP) user who has purchased previous versions of Word Perfect, I am really disapointed by the simplest of things. After running a computer with Win98SE and Word Perfect 6 and then going to a newer OS Win2000 and getting a Family pack that included Word Perfect 11. Now I am running Vista 64 and I find my previous versions of Word perfect can not be upgraded to run with Vista.
   
   Fine I ain't so cheap that I can not buy a few new software products for my new computer.... so I buy the latest Family Pack with Word Perfect X4, and by Corels own product description, I expected it to be at least as functonal as the old WP11. But Corel is killing me, just to force users to buy a premium X4 version, this one does not come with a PDF converter, which all my old WP versions have. I can not throw away my old computer because I have to load my WP X4 files onto WP11 which will not run on my new computer. WP11 changes the format of the file, the number of sentences per page, etc... which throws off the formatting and alignment of my pictures and articles. So I have to realign everything and convert it using WP11 to make my final PDF file. It is almost less bother to do everything on the old computer as any editing would then need to be done on the old computer also. Thanks Corel, my gift to you is this loving review. The new program runs faster on the new computer but since I farm out my publishing, editing, and product, I need the PDF capability. Corel has made the program worthless to me by one stupid, greedy, basic function omission.
   
   In the past, it has not been important to me that my friends and associates, and publisher did not use WP as I could easily generate a PDF to share. In a world full of software users provided for mainly by Gates Inc, Corel should know that if they disable their users ability to share files with most of the world their product is basically useless.
   
   I would appreciate if anyone knows of a way short of buying Adobe Acrobat or the Word Perfect upgrade that will convert these files to PDF without messing up the format.
   
   I can not find any low cost PDF converter that both works with Word Perfect X4 and that does not put an advertising logo on each page. I would not be half so mad about this if Corel would at least have let a buyer know ahead of time that they had removed the PDF converter from their low end X4 version. The dark side is so strong and calling, I am about ready to throw in the towel and use the free MS Word that is already on the new computer.
   
   I guess if you need a word processor, without the ability to share files this program will be "perfect" for you.

2 comments about Pinnacle Studio Plus Version 12.

1. I used this software back when it was at Versions 7 and 8, and switched to Ulead's VideoStudio because I found it to be less crash-prone. Now that I'd purcahsed an AVCHD videocamera and wanted to author BluRay discs in AVC format (which VideoStudio 11.5 cannot do), I thought I'd give Studio another try. First, understand that AVCHD editing requires a very powerful computer with this software. My Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ with 4GB RAM was barely up to the task, and even then Studio would frequently hang if I tried to move too quickly from one task to another. However, despite numerous tries, I could not get this software to successfully burn a BluRay of my finished project. I could get as far as encoding the final movie, which is the hard part, but the software seemed to have some kind of bug that resulted in an unuseable BluRay image every time I tried.
   
   Normally, I would not go to the trouble of posting a review concerning an issue that I thought might be isolated or due to my particular hardware setup. But in this case, after spending hours on the Pinnacle Support forums, I think these problems aren't isolated and that there is a significant number of Studio 12 users who are having problems with BluRay burning and AVCHD editing. Moreover, I downloaded the trial version of Sony's Vegas Pro 8 and had no problems with it whatsoever - It ran slowly to be sure, but it was reliable and produced a perfect BluRay disc.
   
   My advice is to check Pinnacle's support forums before purchasing and see if others are still having issues. I'm sure Pinnacle is working on it and will try to address problems with a future patch, but right now I found this software to be completely useless for my intended purpose.



2. A few months ago I purchased my first HD digital camcorder (Sanyo Xacti HD1000). I soon set about trying to figure out which editing software application to use with all the AVCHD footage I created. I tried the software bundled w/ my camera (uLead 11) as well as trial versions of any of the other products I could get my hands on (Sony Vegas 8, Adobe Premiere Elements 7).
   
   Adobe Premiere still doesn't handle AVC/H264 footage natively and I found the interfaces of uLead and Sony Vegas in particular hard to use. I also found Vegas more prone to hanging/crashing even on my relatively powerful machine (see below). So I decided to buy Pinnacle Studio 12 sight unseen (no downloadable trial) and have been very pleased ever since. Pinnacle is the consumer arm of Avid, the gold standard for digital editing in Hollywood, and it seems technology trickle down really works.
   
   Pinnacle Studio handles AVCHD footage natively and lets you create and edit projects in any format ranging from low resolutions to 1920x1080 60i frame rate. You can output to files or discs including standard DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and AVCHD disc (burned on DVD media, playable in most Blu-Ray players). The burning software is integrated in the package and not separate as w/ uLead and other apps.
   
   Overall I find the Pinnacle Studio interface to be the easiest to use as well, this side of Apple iMovie. I'd never owned a camcorder before this and hadn't really edited video or created DVDs before and I was able to create a 30min DVD from 2hrs of footage that I shot that I'm very pleased with.
   
   The only caveats I would include are 1) editing HD footage natively in Pinnacle Studio (or any app) requires powerful hardware. I ended up getting a new desktop to do video editing among other things and am running a quad-core 2.6Ghz Intel 9300 processor w/ 8GB of memory. There are settings you can vary within Studio 12 to suit your hardware, i.e. not doing full-screen previewing, memory cache sizes, etc. The second caveat is that unfortunately Avid/Pinnacle don't offer a trial version of the software for consumers to really see how good it is. So you have to take the word of reviewers like me.
   
   Overall highly recommended. Best Windows app for HD video editing out there in my opinion, having tried all the rest.

No comments about Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Upgrade.

5 comments about eMedia Rock Guitar Method.

1. This is way better than the eMedia Guitar Basics CD-ROM because you actually know what the songs are supposed to sound like when you play them. They have rock songs that you've heard before, unlike the "folk" songs and spirituals that Guitar Basics teaches you.
   
   Unfortunately this does not work with Windows Vista, so I have to use it on a computer that uses XP.



2. So me getting this was kinda moot, but all in all it's really beneficial if you're just starting out. For anyone who's played more than 2 years even... Don't get this. I give it a 5 star for the beginner, cause this thing is packed with some really beneficial stuff for you all to learn. Everything from chord finder "all the decent sounding ones anyways" and a built in tuner and a good deal of lessons are what you'll find on this disc. You have to have the disc in order to access alot of the video and audio, but it's still alright... All in all I'd endorse it for anyone wanting to learn the guitar. This'll have you playing some pretty good sounding progressions within' hours.



3. The best product I have ever found for learning guitar, almost better than paying for lessons!



4. I began with eMedia's beginner CD-ROM and next moved to the Rock Guitar. One of the things I enjoyed most about the former was that it taught lessons with entire songs. However, in Rock Guitar, you only learn bits and pieces of songs--and fewer ones at that. Many are not titled songs, but something like "a Nirvana-like song." So if you loved the amount of music on the beginner CD, you may be a little dissatisfied. Additionally, some chords are taught with different fingering than in the beginner CD.
   All in all, I learn very quickly with emedia. I really enjoy playing along to their riffs and pieces of songs. Putting the voice to the songs to play with is probably my favorite feature (don't tell anybody that I sing along while playing in the privacy of my room).
   This is certainly a really great step towards learning the basics of rock guitar, but should not be your first eMedia CD-ROM (buy the beginner one first!).



5. I would really prefer a lesson were the video plays most of the time. This is mostley reading the screen, which is very small and they are so paraoid that you will copy it that they disable printing, The video really does not help much and i have been through half of the course. I personally would reccomend metal method with doug marks over this.

5 comments about Apple Final Cut Studio 2 Upgrade from Final Cut Studio (Mac).

1. I've been an Apple user for many years. This package is the best editing package available for the money.



2. Because this is an upgrade, most users will be familiar with the product.
   My complaint is that, while it comes with 90 days of support, by the time it is delivered and installed, you only get about 60 days of support. Learning this software is like trying to get a PhD in Astro Physics and the training is outrageously expensive. The difference between 90 days support and 60 days is probably worth 6 or 7 hundred dollars. It's like the old ad for Listerine. I hate it but I use it.
   ----



3. Great product and easy to update for old version 5.5
   Very good set of books that has detailed information on very part of the program.



4. I've been using FCP since version 1, and it just keeps getting better and better. I started out doing linear editing on 3/4", 1" and then Betacam. Moving to non-linear was the best thing in the world ('cause everyone wants to make changes!). What's frustrating for me is that FCP allows me to do anything I see on TV, and I'm only limited by own creativity (which is the problem!).
   The only drawback I see is the loops and clips for motion and soundtrack take up like 40gigs of my 100gig Macbook Pro! If you can find a big flashdrive, I'd recommend storing the loops/material on something external.



5. I love this product and wish I could use it all this time. Perhaps then I'd master more. As it is, it has overshadowed Photoshop as the finest software I don't know enough about. The manuals are great though. If I devote the time, I can do anything I want. I'm still struggling with the chasm between Adobe Flash and Final Cut. I wish I could meld them together. Photoshop CS3 has helped with its movie and 3D features.