Oh Corel, you’re still around? Hello Bibble!

I’m a big fan of Bibble Pro by Bibble Labs so when I saw an email from them a few days ago announcing their sale to Corel I was a little worried. The last time I had anything to do with Corel software was when they had a Linux distro. That didn’t end so well.

Here’s some blurb from the press release:

Corel bought us for a couple of reasons. First, they were looking for a top-of-the-line technology to complement PaintShop Pro, their flagship photo editing solution. They were blown away by the speed of Bibble’s technology and saw the opportunity to invest even more in development and in bringing our technology to even more users- something that Bibble Labs simply couldn’t afford to do on our own. We’ve been working with the Corel team for the past few months and it’s clear they’re committed. They are excited about our technology and processing power, and the opportunities we see to take the product forward. They recently released PaintShop Pro to very strong user and industry reviews, and are now keen to offer photographers a powerful workflow and management solution. Corel knew there was no better match for them than Bibble.

All of us at Bibble have joined the Corel team. We’re keeping Mac and Linux support and we’re staying in Austin. I’m now running product development for Corel’s new photo workflow solution that is based on the core Bibble technology. What’s even better is that I now have access to dedicated user interface and graphic designers who are helping to improve usability and make the product even better looking. I also now have a full QA team dedicated to product testing, along with documentation and localization teams, marketing and sales teams, and a huge, international distribution system to help get our technology the notice it deserves. We also have access to a customer support team to help provide the personal attention I had always wanted to provide, but couldn’t do on my own. Not only does this mean that many more folks are working on this product than ever have before, but it als o means that all of us at the Labs can focus 100% on the core technology and the product.

Bibble Pro has been transformed into Aftershot Pro. You can download a trial version here. It looks very like Bibble Pro but it’s a lot snappier. It loads very quickly, previews show quickly, applies filters quickly. It also feels lighter on my system.

The upgrade for existing Bibble users is $19.99 (EUR/GBP 14.99 incl. VAT) up to the end of January so I decided to go for it. Hopefully the speed increase isn’t because there isn’t a huge catalogue of imported photos! It would be nice to have some way of importing the Bibble photo catalogue.

Reaction elsewhere has been mixed. Check out these threads: one and two.

Oh yeah, Bibblelabs and Corel. Thanks for supporting Linux!

Hey The Cork News! Give to charity?

The other night my wife showed me a local paper pointing at a picture of Ray D’Arcy and Jenny Kelly that sat next to a report about their recent engagement. Great! We’re fans of the show, they’re nice people, lovely!

Only thing is, that photo looked familiar. I searched and found it in my US Book Launch Party post from way back in 2005. I’m used to websites borrowing stealing my photos but it saddens me when commercial newspapers like The Cork News do it too. I found their Twitter account too and guess what? I’m not the only photographer who’s had a problem with them.

So… @TheCorkNews- can you address this? MT @ElishaClarke Don’t appreciate my photo being used without my permission. http://t.co/tCqnTTKk

@TheCorkNews did reply positively which is good.

@DeclanMadsen Sure, we’ll be in touch with the photographer.

But the fact remains that they used another photo without permission, my photo. Leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

The Cork News, I don’t want payment for the photo, or reimbursement for the 100 Euro train fare to Dublin, or the 40 Euro it cost to stay in a local hotel that night. If you want to make this good, please make a donation to Matt’s charity water campaign for his birthday. Thank you.

The Joy of Books

This video reminds me of that feeling walking into Waterstones or other book shop of the worlds waiting to be discovered on the bookshelves lining the walls and in the “3 for 2” piles of books displayed near the door.

I love reading, but I’ve hardly read a paperback in over 18 months. When you’ve found a great book it doesn’t matter what format the story is in. I do miss the book shop ritual though.

From one of the comments on that video:

I read, share, discuss, donate, gift and love my ebooks. So should you. Don’t hate only the latest incarnation of? books. I imagine scroll-fetishists thought that bound folios were the work of the devil. Sigh.

(via Kathy Foley)

Welcome Home Xeer2000!

My gaming blog, Xeer2000 has found a new home. You’ve guessed it, here!

Yesterday I imported all the entries from there into the xeer2000 tag here. I converted status messages on my old blog into Asides which look well. I did have to edit a huge 5MB xml file but thankfully it imported without a hitch. (Tip: always import into a test blog first, and make a backup!)

Why? I used to post on that blog every day but lately that hasn’t been the case, and since I have really failed to keep updating this blog on a regular basis I thought it was time to merge them together. This is after all my personal website. If you came here for WordPress goodies check out the WordPress section!

Following in the grand tradition of asides as used by Matt and others I’ll be making smaller posts and snippets more often. I used to do this all the time years ago. Some things I’d fire off to Twitter without a thought will get pushed here instead. Half the time I retweet something it’s to have some record of a witty or interesting article. I’ll invariably never go look for those RTs ever again (such is the fleeting nature of Twitter) but if they’re here I like to think I’ll stumble across them again and enjoy once more. I can reference them a lot easier here too! So is this a Twitter vs Blog thing? Not really. I just want ownership of my thoughts.

I actually hesitated to bring everything over here. I mean, a grown man playing computer games? Aren’t they for kids? Well, apparently I’m part of a growing demographic.

Most striking is the ESA’s claim that the average gamer is now 37 years old. This theoretical person has been playing games for 12 years and there is a pretty solid chance that he might actually be a she.

I’ve no idea where the ESA pulled those figures, but it’s not hard to believe. Most of the guys I play online with are in their 30s or 40s with only a couple of exceptions!

If you’re a regular reader thank you for hanging around even though this site wasn’t updated very often. Feed readers are great aren’t they? Hopefully you’ll continue to enjoy what I post here in the future. If not, well, thanks for stopping by!

Boqueria mini review

We had a most delicious meal in Boqueria, Bridge St. Cork this evening. It’s a tapas, wine and cocktail bar that serves delicious food and I’m sure the alcohol tastes nice too but I only had a sip of my wife’s white wine. Staff are super friendly too and even though they squash people in there you should try it out. Recommended!

Close

Ad-blocker not detected

Consider installing a browser extension that blocks ads and other malicious scripts in your browser to protect your privacy and security. Here are a few options.

  • uBlock Origin is a free, open source, ad blocker for your browser.
  • Use pi-hole if you have a spare Raspberry Pi on your network.
  • Set the private DNS settings on your phone to dns.adguard.com to block adverts and trackers.