Software For A Deserted Island

If you were on a deserted island what would you want to have with you? One technology writer in Missouri recently asked this question and his software catalog of choice was NCH Software. As you can imagine we were tickled pink to hear it. One of the things that quickly makes us a top runner is our wide range of software products with applications for business, dictation, transcription, utilities, music and more. Also, "unlike many publishers that charge high prices for all-in-one suites that do more than you probably need, NCH Software takes a modular approach, designing smaller apps that do specific tasks, usually for a lot less money. It’s simply a smarter way to work."

To read about some of Scott May's favorite NCH programs, see his complete article, NCH Software offers fantastic, affordable apps published in the June 28, 2011 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune. Then make NCH Software your first stop the next time you are looking for a software utility whether you are editing audio at home, or setting up a webcam broadcast of the view on your deserted island.

Now In 3D

One of the favorite comics here in the office is xkcd, a somewhat geeky webcomic with math, science and technology themes.

For April Fool’s Day the site went 3D (XK3D). Since this foray into the third dimension lined up so closely with NCH Software's own 3D addition, with the new stereoscopic 3D video content support that was added in the most recent release of VideoPad (version 2.30), I thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce any of our readers who are not familiar with xkcd to its wonders.

Note: if you're new to xkcd, make sure you don't to miss the hover over text on each comic as you surf through their archives.

KeyBlaze a Trail to Finesse (and Fitness)*

Here's a fun fact: The average WPM (words per minute) typed by the average American computer user is 19.  19!  To put that into perspective, the last sentence you just read had 19 words and would've taken the average computer user a full 60 seconds to type. More and more, typing has becoming a commonplace part of the daily grind, whether you're typing an email or chatting with friends and knowing not just how to type, but how to type correctly, can help you succeed in more places than than the workplace - it might also help you work off those love handles!

Wait...what?

We all realize that sitting in front of a computer all day isn't an optimal position to be in for 8-12 hours straight. This gets a lot of flak from the health community in particular, having brainwashed us all into believing that we're all typing and clicking our way to inactivity and poor posture. But did you know that typing for 8 hours can burn over 800 calories? That's over 100 calories an hour and, depending on your size, age and BMI, may be a good chunk of your daily calorie intake! While you push papers for the man, you may already be working toward to a slimmer, sexier you!

Now, I'm not seriously suggesting you include typing as part of your daily exercise routine, and the catch concerning the aforementioned 800 number is that only the fastest typists can hit such a high mark. But like we've already covered, most people peck at keyboards, bastardizing what is already an archaic input method. The good news is whether you're 18 or 80, it's never too late to turn over a new leaf and learn the subtle nuances of typing correctly. If you're ready to accept the inevitable importance of learning to type, KeyBlaze typing tutor from NCH Software can help you improve typing accuracy and speed. It's straight-forward, easy-to-understand and best of all, free! You may even turn your typing into an art form and resolve to become a typist for a living in which case, we have software for that, too!

*Typing is not a viable source of daily activity. Please practice proper exercise and diet routines to experience real weight loss and health benefits.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival December 6, 2010

Audio is everywhere you look, or listen. Add a little time a dash of creativity and you will be surprised at what you can find out there to listen to. Take for example the discovery that you can get the Google translate tool to sound like a beat box. But be warned playing around with the different language combinations will suck away a chunk of your day before you know what happened.

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:


Nils J. Sandback presents Piano Humour: A Victor Borge Tribute posted at Piano Street's Classical Piano Blog, saying, "A tribute to the Danish pianist and humorist Victor Borge."

Bart Bryars presents First Time Success Making A Music Video, saying, "This is my first video, and the opening number the musical, Joey, that my wife and I have been working on."

Gregg Fine presents Getting Started in Advertising Music-The Video Reel Pt. 1 posted at Hidden Tiger Music Blog, saying, "This blog focuses on the art and craft of making music for advertising and television commercials. Additional topics include mixing, recording, audio engineering, composing, arranging."

You might also be interested in:

• Boost Audio Quality for Radio and Podcast Production
  
• Make your own haunting halloween soundtrack
  
• More awards for NCH Software including a new award for the audio editing favorite WavePad
  
• Showing that Good Things Do Come in Small Packages since the last edition we announced the WavePad Audio Editing iPhone App, and have had a stellar user review
  

That concludes this edition of "Do more with audio." Be sure to Submit your audio article, story or success to the next edition.

The Lego Principle: How building from blocks, sets and platforms applies to software

Do you remember playing with Legos when you were a kid? I was thinking about my surplus of Legos the other day, and it got me thinking about software…

When I was a kid, I literally had tens-of-thousands of Lego blocks. It didn't start this way. I grew my collection from the first few space sets I could afford into a massive armada of ships and bases. With each set I added something new to the foundation of what I could already create with my current Lego supply.

Software developers do much the same thing, starting out with a few basic pieces. By learning and accumulating more interesting bits of code overtime, more designs and possibilities begin to emerge. Eventually developers collect a whole range of different building blocks that they can use and the number of possibilities skyrocket, which we refer to as exponential growth.

This phenomenon also occurs on a more local level at NCH Software. Our products are based upon blocks which can be built into a powerful conglomeration of tools. With so many software products, we often use blocks of code, or functions, from our library in multiple products and stack them together to add to the features.

One of the more banal examples of using these building blocks is in our dialog windows. Using the same code ensures that our software products will have a similar look and feel throughout. You wouldn’t want to build a castle with a mixture of Legos and Lincoln logs, would you? A more interesting example is our sound effect library, which is available in WavePad, VideoPad, and MixPad. Think of each of those applications as an already-constructed Lego spaceship, and the sound library is a fancy laser gun we’ve added to all three to make them that much more effective at what they do.

Yet another example is the weblet. In some programs, the weblet is where you go to run your business when you are away from home. In others, it’s where you configure the settings for your phone system, or where you test the video streams you are going to put on your website. The weblet is a foundation we lay down and build on top of to suit the needs of the individual program.

Lego has the right ideas – expandable and always interoperable. At NCH Software, we have the same ideas so that all of our products fit our users' needs. By making core features in our library, we gain a lot of dynamic power to make future products more robust, making our entire development team more powerful. And you can never have too much power.

An Audio Swiss Army Knife

Once again I find myself taking inspiration from Twitter. Similar to the "Twitter Principle of Software," I recently saw another tweet that stood out to me as really great q target="_blank"uote. This time about our Switch audio converter software:

@MountainDan: Switch from NCH Software is an amazing audio swiss army knife for Mac

I really like this metaphor. A pocket knife is compact but doubly handy because, despite its size, it has a tool for everything. We pride ourselves in the number of audio file formats that Switch can handle. It really can fit the job and convert the file no matter what audio file format you find yourself coming across or in need of. And, like a Swiss Army knife, it is all neatly packaged together in a light-weight, less than 500k application download that installs fast and is easy to use.

In fact, I'd like to think that our whole range of file converters and software are like the various tools of a Swiss Army knife. Need to convert a video file? We have Prism video converter for that. Need to remove background noise from an audio recording? We have Wavepad Audio Editor for that. Need to record what you are seeing on your screen? We have Debut Video Capture Software for video screen recording to solve that one. We have so many simple software solutions it's like having a full tool belt at your disposal, and we hope you remember that and turn to NCH Software when you are looking for solutions, whatever the problem at hand might be.

Naming New Software Programs

Coming up with names for new software products has become a never ending challenge. We've recently introduced several new applications including Bolt PDF printer, Doxillion document converter, CardWorks business card designer and, most recently, Reflect CRM Software. And there are three more programs in development that are still waiting to be christened.

The name of a product is only one piece of the branding puzzle, but deciding on a name is an important step that influences the box design, webpage, and sometimes even the product's interface. So choosing a solid name for a new product is both an exciting and sometimes daunting project, and with so many exciting new products coming through lately, we are slowly turning this naming process into an art form.

After the specs for a new software product have been outlined, the developers give the marketing team a run down on what the new program will do and its key features. I use this information to paint as clear a picture as I can of "Audio Joe," or "Entrepreneur Jack," who is chomping at the bit waiting to buy the new software. Describing not only the target market, but getting a firm grasp on who the customer is and the solution that the software will provide them, is an important step to helping decide what the personality of a product should be.

This is where brainstorming begins. We always at least consider names with 'Express' and 'Pad' in the name, since that is a recurring theme in many of our product names, and sometimes those suggestions spawn lots of laughter as we come across all of the silly and strange words that you can append 'Pad' to. But I think that the laughter is a helpful step that helps get the creative juices flowing and makes a smooth transition to searching the thesaurus for synonyms of key words and feelings that sparking more ideas.

Sometimes we get the opportunity to come up with new words, or combine two ideas as in Disketch CD labeling software. Sometimes the name we decide on is single word that fits the idea or emotion of the software. For example, Prism video converter can split a video into a wide spectrum of different file formats and compressions. The word prism opens up a lot of options; the way a prism opens up white light is a very nice association for how Prism the video converter opens up video files and possibilities.

Our goal throughout is to find a name that leaves an impression with the potential user. With Reflect, we wanted the name to convey that the software gives the user an accurate impression of their clients, an idea we then try to carry to the artwork, text and broader branding for the software. When we've done the job well we usually find that by the time the product is released it is hard to think or it having any other name.