ImageWalker Blog

Obama Posters

2009-01-24T03:54:00.000-08:00

Great detective work and a happy ending for photographers getting credit for their work.

I am always amazed by how much photography gets used and reused without permission.

Read the full story on Scene on the Road.

ImageWalker 3.0

2009-01-07T05:06:00.001-08:00

ImageWalker 3.0 ScreenShot
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

It has been quite a while since I added an entry here. In my defence, I have been off travelling the world and prior to that extremely immersed in my day job.

ImageWalker 3.0 is a new version of ImageWalker written in WPF and .NET 3.5. It is still not ready for even a beta phase so I won’t be releasing anything yet.

ImageWalker 3.0 will be far more focused on workflow and connectivity. The idea is to support the modern/connected user: import, keyword, search, upload to Flickr/Facebook, synchronise to Flickr/Facebook, synchronise comments added in Facebook back to local images, manage backing up images to Skydrive/Amazon s3 and a few other tasks. Of course it will still do all the things it does now :)

Using C# to write for .NET has many advantages and can lead to better designed and tested applications. Now-a-days I am finding it arduous to go back to fix bugs in C++ as almost all the coding I do is in C#.

The ImageWalker 3.0 is 100% managed (C#) and does not call out (Pinvoke) to any old C++ code. To this end I have invested time in writing my own managed infrastructure: for example image codecs and thumbnail/keyword indexing database. I will discuss them in further blog posts.

Zac and Zane

2008-09-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

Zac and Zane
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

Zac (Me) and Zane Camping with in the New England National Park, NSW, Australia

Been to India

2008-04-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

Been to India
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

Been to India (Kerala, Vembanad Lake)

ImageWalker now supports XMP

2007-11-07T16:40:00.001-08:00

ImageWalker now supports XMP
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

Took me about a month (of odd evenings) to add XMP support to ImageWalker. I adhere to the IPTC Core Schema for XMP and it all seems to be compatible with Windows Vista and Adobe Photoshop.

ImageWalker will now read image metadata from XMP or IPTC and will save updates to both these blocks. I am interested in your experiences so feel free to email me on Zac@ImageWalker.com. Download build 12 from here and give it a try.

Graffiti from the local area

2007-11-07T16:20:00.001-08:00

Graffiti from the local area
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

I have seen many people taking shots of this on Rosebery Ave, Farringdon here in London

XMP, IPTC or EXIF

2007-09-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

I have been doing research on what options I have for supporting XMP. It is a priority for me but with the image meta data standards being so ambiguous it seems like a lot of work to take on.

So where should I store an images description: XMP, IPTC or EXIF. All three blocks I guess. What happens if when scanning an image the multiple results for a description are different, do I take the IPTC or XMP value?

In the XMP schema, I have even more options with the different schemas available. For example the Author property can potentially be stored in the following locations:

The Creator tag in the XMP Dublin Core schema:
/ifd/xmp/purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/dc:creator

The Artist tag in the EXIF schema:
/ifd/{ushort=315}

The Artist tag in the EXIF schema embedded in an XMP block:
/ifd/xmp/ns.adobe.com/tiff/1.0/tiff:artist

So I guess one option is just to reverse engineer what Windows Vista does but even the Microsoft APIs scare me: just read this!

I am currently working on a .NET version of ImageWalker (v3.0) and what I would like to do is focus on that after this release. The problem is I am not sure how long before the .NET version is releasable. Bit of a dilemma really, if the .NET version comes along quickly I will add XMP to that; if it is slow I will add it to next release of V2.3x.

Being a one man part time project makes everything slow...need to work faster!

ImageWalker 2.31 Build 6

2007-09-19T13:22:00.001-07:00

The Lord Mayors Fireworks
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

I am getting a lot of good feedback on ImageWalker's UI improvements. Download build 6 from here and give it a try.

View from my office

2007-08-25T03:47:00.001-07:00

View from my office
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

My day job is wrecking all my fun by eating greatly into ImageWalker development lately but I am still slowely working on a new version (2.31). Following feedback, some of the cooler version 2.20 look and feel will be added to 2.31. I will post a screen shot soon!

Real diamonds

2007-08-25T03:39:00.001-07:00

Real diamonds
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

Real diamonds in the palm of my hand. The bigger yellow one is nearly as old as the earth: 3.5 billion years old!

5 stars GTdownload

2007-05-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

Users at GTdownload voted ImageWalker 5 stars, Thanks!

Yoda

2007-05-28T11:51:00.001-07:00

Yoda
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy

Walked down to the StarWars Exhibition yesterday. Exhibition was great but the exhibits are all lit quite darkly; stopped me taking a lot of pictures as I didn't take a tripod :(

I have been in Australia

2007-05-15T01:20:00.001-07:00

Esther's view in Rylstone
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

I have been in Australia visiting my family but I am back now. My family low-tech live in the country and have no Internet…weird feeling to be completely offline for 2 weeks. Just easing back into using a mouse in a coordinated manner today ;)

Two Spires

2007-04-13T01:53:00.001-07:00

Two Spires
Originally uploaded by Buff Portion.

You have to like this shot taken by a friend of mine; really makes Islington (our Neighbourhood in London) look very romantic. Him being a Nikon user, while I am a Canon user, just adds to the rivalry.

Back from Prague

2007-04-01T14:27:00.001-07:00

crawling babies by David Cerný
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

After Tram-Bus-Plane-Train-London Black Cab...with the obligatory flight delays and waiting in the cold at 2am for a taxi we have finally made it home from Prague!

Folder View Buttons

2007-03-27T01:10:00.001-07:00

Folder View Buttons
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

If you look on the bottom right of this picture you will see I have added some folder view selection buttons to ImageWalker 2.31 similar to previous versions of ImageWalker. Forgotten how handy those buttons were until I was reminded by Olivier Cousinou.

Download build 105 from here.

Printing Sticks

2007-03-25T15:18:00.001-07:00

Sticks
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

The latest build of ImageWalker currently available here has improved memory usage and ‘hopefully’ speed for printing. This has been achieved by scaling images appropriately before sending them to the printer; simple but effective.

Presented at Microsoft Architecture Insight

2007-03-18T16:06:00.001-07:00

The Celtic Manor Resort
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

Last week I presented at the Microsoft Architecture Insight Conference a case study about the project I am currently working on for ThoughtWorks. I filled in for someone else at the last moment and unfortunately they haven’t put my name up on the site.

The conference was great; even though I consider myself far more hands on than the average architect, I felt the audience really enjoyed our session. We ran through all the details of what it means to run an agile software project; stand-up meetings, card walls, simple emergent design, continuous integration the whole lot.

So, I would just like to claim some recognition right here: It was me up there presenting not Ian, I did it, ME!

Cool...Got 5 stars at ShareMe

2007-03-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

YesNo Dialog

2007-03-18T14:00:00.001-07:00

YesNo Dialog
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

I should have done this a long time ago; simplify the save changes dialog, big usability improvement.

ImageWalker 2.31 build 103

2007-03-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

ImageWalker 2.31 build 94 can be downloaded from here. What is new in this build:

Fixed Flicker downloads
Added 'easy to use' save changes dialog
Hide flicker download link when cannot download
Fixed 'Select all images' selecting folders
Added support for old cache files
Added spell check to flicker upload dialog
Fixed Autoplay when a CD is inserted

If I don’t get any bug reports on this version I will change my homepage download links to point to the 2.31 release. 2.31 has so many improvements over 2.30 I would really like to see it more widely used.

Whirling Dervishes

2007-03-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

Whirling Dervishes
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

This is a picture I took with my Canon 350D last year when on holiday in Turkey. I just really love the sense of movement in this shot.

Cache files

2007-02-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

I have had several questions recently about how the cache works in ImageWalker Version 2.3x.

In earlier versions of ImageWalker it was possible to save a cache file in a folder. This would contain pre-calculated thumbnails and greatly speed up loading of folders with many images. Many users took advantage of this feature when archiving images to CD/DVD and are now missing it.

ImageWalker 2.30 uses quite a different format internally to store images and it has been difficult to get the old cache code working with this new structure. Also version 2.3x uses an intelligent centralized cache to store thumbnails in a very efficient way. For these reasons the cache file support was dropped from 2.30.

I am currently working on returning this feature to version 2.31: please check back here occasionally for more information on how this release is going.

ImageWalker 2.31 build 94

2007-01-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

ImageWalker 2.31 build 94 can be downloaded from here

What is new in this build:

Fixed invalid loading and display of RLE PSD images
Fixed incorrect sorting of web gallery items
Added more/less buttons to image info panel
Compiling with Visual Studio 2005 SP1
Building setup with NSIS 2.22

PC on the coffee table

2007-01-21T14:10:00.001-08:00

PC on the coffee table
Originally uploaded by imagewalkerguy.

Checking all those ImageWalker emails, never seem to catch up!