adobe captivate 3 out ….

adobe has announced the release of adobe captivate 3 here and is expected to ship in August 2007 or later this summer at an estimated price of US$699.

the release says “….. Adobe® Captivate® 3 software, a powerful eLearning authoring tool for the delivery of robust and engaging computer-based simulations, scenario-based training, and interactive quizzes. Adobe Captivate 3 offers enhanced features including multi-mode recording, rerecording, new Microsoft Powerpoint import capabilities and support for rich media formats, such as Adobe Flash® Player compatible .SWF, MP3, and AVI files. Easily mastered, without the need for programming or multimedia development skills…….”.

the new features as described by the press release are -

• multi-mode recording.
• rerecording – The new rerecording feature captures actions taken in Internet Explorer Web applications, enabling learning professionals to easily build interactive software demonstrations with step-by-step instructions.
• new Microsoft Powerpoint import capabilities – The enhanced Microsoft PowerPoint import functionality supports the conversion of slide animations into Flash Player compatible SWF format.
• support for rich media formats, such as Adobe Flash® Player compatible .SWF, MP3, and AVI files
• create effective quizzes and helps reduce cheating by randomly drawing questions from a pool
• shuffling answers in multiple-choice formats
• rollover objects
• animated slide transitions
• The new XML export and import feature simplifies the localization process of projects by exporting captions to the XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF).

experience the files created using new version here.

logo and box designs are refreshing change from previous versions. logo follows the new logo strategy of adobe as written in this entry.

adobe photoshop and forensic invsetigation?

sound like two very dissimal words to me. But forensic is “The recognition, collection, identification, individualization, and interpretation of physical evidence, and the application of science and medicine for criminal and civil law, or regulatory purposes.” Adobe Photoshop deals with photographic evidences.

Adobe Photoshop helps by clarifying the images to an extent it can be used as evidence in court. Here is an intersting tutorial and there are websites dedicated to this subject. One of them is this.

bangalore to yelagiri

this weekend we have been to yelagiri.to go to yalagiri follow hosur road to reach krishnagiri and then take left turn towards chennai. Go straight till almost Vinayamwadi where you can see the sign for yalagiri. Follow the signs and the next prominent left turn which is almost 15 kms goes to yelagiri hills. Though we missed this turn and went to jolarpettai raliway station to come back. overall the drive is very comfortable.

the place is very small, so small that on foot you can cover it in 20 min. there is nothing besides a lake. Market is also very small. No glitzy resorts. All resort looks from back days. we found a place to stay in one of the newer places which was clean and in main road of yelagiri, close to lake.

what the place has is good views, good climate – though a hill station yet less colder than bangalore, clean roads, fruit trees on the road – jackfruit, mango, jamun, guava. you can visit around nurseries and pick some plants. There was no decision to make , just go around the place and do everything there still you have lot of time left. could find only one restaurent where we spent long lunches and dinners.

search things as they are ?

search engines have become such an integral part of our life. they are by far the most visited sites on internet. even if one knows the site url , it is not uncommon that he goes to search engine and types first few words and then clicks the url from the results.
As far as I understand almost all are based on text search, be it from content or metadata or any textual information. It makes sense also as if I would like to find apple I would speak out apple, I cannot tell the other one exact picture of apple. I would say a kilogram of apple and not grapple with how to make him understand my idea of a kilogram. Anything is not explainable as it is – there are human coined words which explains them and that is what search engines are doing. Searching based on the words which describes the information and finding a pattern of importance of words based on context, position and many other things.
but lately there have been some attempts at trying to search objects as they are. If images are made of pixels then find images made of same pattern of pixels. I came across Riya search which is a image search and geometric software’s 3dSearchIT which is a 3dmodel search.