Hard to believe that it’s been more than a year since my last entry. It’s not that there hasn’t been anything to write about – I’ve got plenty – but I’ve been busy with everything from running a company, teaching courses, creating a new course, workshops, various new projects, maintaining about half a dozen websites and developing another half dozen sites, oh, and getting hitched!

There are no complaints! It’s just life happening. And it’s all good.

Now, my work and my life revolve around digital media and the technology behind it. There are many Colleges and Universities that offer up courses in some respect to Multimedia, Visual Communications and Mass Media, hence the term Digital Media.

The Digital Technological Landscape, a.k.a. “Digital Techscape” is the embodiment of various technologies used in multiple combinations for specific projects and therefore can be costly. And although the cost to purchase technology has in many ways come down in prices, they may still be out of reach for most people. Even with academic discounts, students may find it difficult to “legally” acquire current technology. For the non-academic, who is either running a business or thinking about starting one, there are alternatives to the mainstream tech that is used by industries.

What I’ve pieced together over the course of the year is a list of resources designed to help anyone on a shoe-string (or no-string) budget. These are FREE applications and software that can be used to put together a Digital Media Studio.

Keep in mind, there will be some of items below that will work great on your existing Windows or Apple operating system, but there are others that will require some knowledge of Linux.

A note on Linux:
True, Linux sounds difficult and the images of "coding" doesn't appeal to everyone, but there are now a variety of "flavors" when it comes to this operating system.

1) Line coding is still available for the hard coder with programs such as: SuSE, Red Hat, Fedora, Debian and others.

2) For those of us, mere mortals, who are used to the ease of a Windows/Mac environment, there are programs such the Ubuntu family. These operating systems function as easily as your current o/s and look very similiar.

3) Although Linux is FREE, there is a versions such as Xandros and Linspire - which you pay for but you also have tech support available on the phone. Linspire is also offering a free version entitled, Freespire.

Legally Protect Your Work:

Any work you produce can be protected. Whether you're a writer, photographer, artist or musician, it's now possible to protect your property without the expensive-lawyer-babble-filled documentation. Choose which license suites your needs. Find out more when you visit their website. It's FREE!!!

Creative Commons

 

Alternatives to Flash:

Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is the leader in developing interactive applications. Whether you plan to create online environments such as Website, Tutorials, Animation or Graphics for Video, Flash is the best program on the market.

TeeTree Office v.1
Wink 2.0
Flash Slide Show Maker

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Alternatives to InDesign CS2 and QuarkXpress 7:

Adobe InDesign CS2 and QuarkXpress 7 are professional page layout and design programs that are used in desktop publishing for creating magazines, brochures, pamphlets and much more.

Scribus

 

Alternatives to Photoshop CS2:

The leader in graphic design cover a very broad spectrum is Adobe Photoshop. This software is used in virtually every aspect of the media world. From photo re-touching and image manipulation to page layouts to website design to video and film. Whether you plan to work in print, on the web, on the small or big screens, Photoshop reigns supreme.

GIMP
Paint.Net
Pixia
PhotoFiltre
Ultimate Paint
VicMan’s Photo Editor
ImageForge

 

Alternatives for Illustrator CS2:

Illustrations for print, web, video and now mobile are done with Adobe Illustrator CS2.

Inkscape

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Alternatives to Audio Software:

Need to create music, edit audio, clean-up some tracks or re-mix your favorite tunes, the heavy-hitters such as Pro Tools, CakeWalk, Propellerhead, Audition, ACID, SoundTracks and others can handle the tasks you through at it but for a hefty price on both the software side and the hardware side.

Here are some alternatives to the “big guns”:

Audacity (Cross-platform application)
AudioBlast
ACID XPress 5.0
WavePad

 

Alternatives to Video Editing Software:

Yes, the industry is ruled by the giant Avid, but the reality is that it has some heavy competition from the likes of Final Cut Pro, Premiere and Vegas.

If you want more than what I-Movie and Windows Movie Maker can offer you, then try these:

Video Edit Magic (Shareware)
Blaze Media Pro (Shareware)
Cinelerra (Linux)
Kino DV (Linux)

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Alternatives to Web Design Software: (Updated)

This list may not interest the “true coder”, but for those who want to build a website without “knowing the code” Adobe Dreamweaver leads the pack as the best text editors. Followed by Microsoft FrontPage, which is no longer a “freebie” in the Microsoft Office package. Adobe also has Go-Live CS, but this can be a bit intimidating if this is your first time designing a website.

The end of 2006 saw Microsoft putting FrontPage to rest. The company said it will no longer support FrontPage Extensions nor continue the product in hopes that their new products - SharePoint Designer and Expression - will take bring in FrontPage followers. For more information on this, please visit the following Microsoft websites:
- The Future of FrontPage - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/frontpage/default.aspx
- SharePoint Designer - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/default.aspx
- Expression - http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/expression-web/default.mspx

Academic pricing brings these applications down a lot, but the costs may still be to much for many. The list below offers up some great freebies:

NVU
FCKeditor
BlueFish
EclipseStyle
TSW WebCoder
PSPad

 

Alternatives to 3D Animation & Rendering:

Creating 3D imagery requires some pretty powerful hardware to run the mainstream heavy-hitters in the field. This can be very costly. Then let’s add on the price of the software – even with an academic price tag, it may still be just out of reach.

Mainstream software includes: Maya, 3ds Max, Poser, Lightwave, Bryce, Cinema 4D, AutoCAD and many others. This list is composed of free 3D software.

Note:
Read the specs first to make sure your system can handle the load. Rendering a 3D image can strain your systems processors.

DX Studio
Blender
VIZup
SketchUp

 

Alternatives to generating PDF files with Adobe:

True, Adobe is the leader in PDF creation, but here are alternatives to the big guy.

PDF4Free
Go2PDF

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Alternatives to Microsoft XP, Microsoft VISTA and Apple O/S X: (Updated)

The biggest news in 2007 comes from both Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft which will release its new operating system - Vista, which is the replacement for Windows XP. And Apple will launch OS X: Leopard in the Spring of 2007. To keep up to date with the latest in Technology, please click on the following websites:
- News.com - http://news.com.com/
- Tech News World - http://www.technewsworld.com/

The main staples of operating systems, Windows and Mac, have always had the “open source” operating systems around, but “open source” systems such as Linux have come along way. Now there are various versions of Linux available.

For the “coder”, there are programs such as SuSE, Fedora, and Red Hat. For the rest of us mere mortals, who are accustomed to the simplicities of “click-here-to-open” comes Ubuntu. Ubuntu, roughly translated means, “humanity towards others” and carries with it a great philosophy. Ubuntu has spun-off several versions which include; Kubuntu, "towards humanity" (which I’m currently using), Edubuntu (for educational institutions), and Xubuntu (for computers that are a bit older and not as powerful).

These operating systems, once loaded onto your computers work as smoothly as your current o/s. Also, it is very possible to have at least two operating systems on your computer, but attempting to set this up yourself requires some knowledge of how to partition a hard drive and some other techniques.

I was first introduced to this o/s by the younger brother of one of my former students. Here’s a big ‘thank you’.

Ubuntu
Kubuntu
Edubuntu
Xubuntu

How does find out about the latest Linux-based operating systems? Check out DistroWatch to learn more.

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Alternative to Microsoft Office: (Updated)

Yes, it’s true. This entire package is FREE to download! OpenOffice has programs that are compatible with Microsoft Office. OpenOffice contains the following programs: Writer, Calc, Impress, and Base - and are the equivalent to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. OpenOffice also has two additional applications: Math, for working with mathematical formulas and Draw, similar to Paint.

OpenOffice allows you open up existing Microsoft documents or save to any Microsoft format. It even lets you save to a PDF file instantly.

OpenOffice (with PDF)

 

Alternatives to Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio:

Planner (for Project)
Dia (for Visio)

FYI:
Although hese two programs are Linux-based and work well with operating systems such as Ubuntu, Planner will actually work with Windows XP.

 

Online Collaboration:

Now check this out! You can work, save it online, share it with others at remote locations, they can then modify the work and send it back. Whether you’re building a slide show-type presentation, working on some spreadsheet or collaborating on a paper continents apart, there is something to be said about this next list.

Thumbstacks.com (Collaborate with Online Presentations)
iRows (Collaborate with Online Spreadsheets)
Writely (Collaborate with Online Documents)

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Calendars: (Online)

Need to keep tabs on important dates, meetings, birthday, etc. Then try these online calendars that only you can view and access.

Google
Calendars.Net

 

Calculators: (Online)

Need an online calculator? Try this one:

Calcoolate

FYI:
You can also use Google as a calculator. Give it a try!

Google

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Misc.

More downloadable “goodies”.

FileZilla
XnView
The Plug-In Site

 

Stock Images

Here are some sites for high impact and good quality stock images.

Morgue File
Stock XCHNG
Design Packs
Image After
Unprofound.com
YotoPhoto

 

Free Fonts

The font you need is not on your system, no problem. Check these site out and download the fonts you need to complete your project.

My Fonts
Web Type Primer
Identifont
Goodfonts.org
Search Free Fonts
The Evolution of Type
Simply The Best Fonts

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Complete Multimedia Download Websites:

Here is a list of FREE websites where you can download enough goodies to meet any situation that may come up.

FYI:
May contain Freeware, Shareware, Vaporware or “Crapware”

All Web Soft
Free Serif Software
Softpedia
Canadian Content
SimTel
Shareware Plaza
Freeware World Team
Freeware Guide
WebGrid
Free Download Center
File Forum
DownSeek
Free Download Manager

And there you have it! As more information comes down the pipe, I’ll update this page with additional resources. Hopefully, it won’t take me another year before I post again.

Til next time…