OT - Pixelmator sale
Storypilot
Posts: 1,683
Hopefully ok to post this. The wonderful image editing app Pixelmator is having a sale in the Mac App store, 50% off ($15)
It is a great way to make use of Ron Deviney's brushes, etc. and do other post work if you don't have Photoshop.
I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just use it myself and like it. Mac only (sorry other OSes).
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Greetings,
+1 to this; Pixelmator's an excellent program. I do all my postwork in it, and load Ron's brushes and PSDs into it. If it's on sale, and you're on a Mac, you should get it.
-- Morgan
...wish there was a PC equivalent. The cheapest is PSP7 or PS Elements usually at 69$ on sale (normally at 99$). PSP also no longer is offered in a "physical" format and it costs extra for a backup DVD.
The latest version of Gimp can handle PS brushes (not layers like Ron's Explosions though) but they seriously bloat the application (slowing down start up and performance) when several sets have been loaded in.
Got news for you and you're not gonna like it...
Most PCs and laptops being made by the major manufacturers, including Apple, no longer come with a drive to read that backup DVD even if you could order such a DVD/CD; beginning in earnest in 2011 or 2012. You can still get drives as USB or SATA addons, but they're only made by a couple of manufacturers now and soon it won't be economically viable for anybody to make either the devices or the media. At any cost.
As a software delivery medium, the optical disk is nearing the end of its storied lifecycle. So vendors are already beginning to deal with it. As well they should. Huge music sample libraries are distributed and shipped on 1TB+ installer hard drives; used to be 3.5" SATA, but more and more now they're laptop-sized USB 3.0 drives with special labeling. Soon, they'll go to SSD if they haven't begun to do so already, while smaller products are going download only.
Many vendors will offer a "backup download" option for a nominal cost; I think Corel is one of these.
...hmm I still have a SATA DVD R/W in both my notebook and workstation.
Granted, USB sticks as a backup media for software do make sense. Sadly it seems software companies are going strictly to the cloud/electronic download route these days and charging you extra for the the ability to backup your applications should something go wrong and you need to reinstall.
But you can self-insure, rather cheaply too, by establishing your own backup strategy. Everybody should do this; many don't, at their own peril. However, I know that you, KK, have IT experience so I'll hold you to an even higher standard... ;-)
Once you choose your data-mover (I like Macrium:Reflect the best, but I hear Microsoft's included Windows backup program works well), you can cover yourself really well by adopting the "3-2-1 backup rule", which is...
at least 3 copies (*)
in 2 different formats
with 1 copy stored off-site
(*) You should not consider your original disk partition/device as one of those 3 copies, because that does not count as a "backup", it's your data!
I back up both my laptop and my workstation with automated Macrium tasks. The laptop, when sitting in my living room, is always plugged into its backup media. Every other month or so, I swap the backup media. The media is 3.5" swappable internal hard drive in my workstation, a USB 3.0 drive (also 3.5", but in an enclosure) for the workstation. Both backup drives are 4.0 TB capacity, and can store more than one backup cycle of every partition, including the download folders for DIM, as well as the Corel installers, and anything else I download free or purchased items.
So rather than start a new thread, I noticed early this morning that E-On has finally released Vue 2015 and Plant Factory 2015, both are temporarily 40% off.
I just had some major work done on my house and can't afford either one right now even at the discounted prices. But <$800 is very appealing for Vue, so I'm thinking of juggling some things around and making it happen anyway.</p>
..yeah I have a pack of R/W DVDs just for that purpose (pretty cheap these days). However USB sticks are also pretty inexpensive as well. Have literally a fistful of 1GB ones that were just given away by a client of the last company I worked for. Even the big ones like 64GB are under 30$ today.