First, VTC has been around a while. They offered training cd’s over a decade ago, when the concept was still new. So VTC definitely has a solid background in application training. But the second reason is what caught me: The email was from Mark Vernon,  the founder of VTC.

vtc.com is an online learning library similar to lynda.com, but with 80,000 tutorial videos. We started in 1994, delivering online in 1997, so we’ve been around a bit longer than most.
Check out the library using a 7 day free pass, using promo code “twitter”, at vtc.com/promo
cheers

Mark Vernon

The Virtual Training Company

So please, feel free to sign up and give it a whirl. Read on for a short review of the material as well as my overall opinion.

I actually received this email about two weeks ago.I didn’t publish it then because I wanted to try out some of the videos myself, gather an opinion, and put that into the post for anyone interested. First the bad.

The site design for VTC.com is a bit aged. It’s definitely not as colorful or friendly as Lynda.com. Even the videos tend to feel a little more old school in their presentation and feel. The videos themselves are current (training is available for the Adobe CS4 applications, for example), they just look like they were put together by older technology.

The navigation is a little spartan as well. Lynda offers navigation with multiple drop down menus, allowing me to choose by subject, vendor, application, or even author. VTC offers navigation by subject, and then takes me to a page offering a list of applications. There is a search tool however, so typing in Photoshop will take you to all Photoshop related lessons.

So why would VTC.com use an older platform to showcase their videos?

My guess is that it’s to maintain compatibility with their own LMS (Learning Management System), which allows them to offer their training as a system for corporate clients. This is good and bad. It’s bad because there are obvious limitations to the technology behind the LMS. To maintain compatibility, they can’t go too cutting edge.

But the benefits are numerous. VTC offers courses in English, French, and Spanish, and subtitle captions for several videos. If you’re hearing impaired, speak Spanish or French, or simply like to read along with your videos, then VTC.com is for you. Lynda.com will only give you videos in English, with no captions. It’s good to have choices. I’m actually considering taking some of the Photoshop courses in Spanish (which I speak and read, but only at a basic level) in order to learn the lingo for creative applications in a different language.

They have nearly 80,000 videos, covering a gamut of applications that I never even knew existed. How bout networking and security? How bout learning a new programming language? VTC.com goes beyond the standard creative applications that Lynda.com does (though Lynda.com offers courses on certain niches like Ebay, and WordPress).

They offer Quicktime and Flash, as well as having a High and Low bandwidth option. This can be nice when you’re on the road using a wireless card rather than a dedicated home network. It also helps when you want to view something quickly rather than wait for the higher quality download.

Content wise, the training is solid. Personally, I don’t recognize many of the names of the trainers for either VTC or Lynda, but I’m not necessarily in the e-learning industry, so I don’t know the bigger names as far as online training is concerned. In fact, the one name I recognized instantly on Lynda, Deke McClelland, I recognized from Total Training videos I had viewed.

VTC seems to have hired people from around the world, as is evident by some of the accents. I kinda dig that, but it can also cause me to break concentration when I decide I’m quite happily trying to do an impersonation of the various accents.

On another note, I did recognize the Photoshop instructor, Dwayne Ferguson. Kind of a weird character, but as it turns out, he was the guy behind Mutant League Football. The earth cracks in half during a normal game, radioactive stuff turns players into all sorts of mutants, but wanting to keep earning that paycheck, they play on in a new mutant league. Anyone who knows me knows that mutants playing sports and ripping each others appendages off sounds like something I’d want to watch even now as an adult. Where were we? Oh yes.

VTC offers payment options for one, three, and six months, as well as a yearly. The cost is the same for each of the plans except the yearly, averaging 30 dollars a month. The yearly is priced at 250 dollars. This is about the same as Lynda.com, which offers a monthly of 25 dollars, or a yearly of 250.

Ultimately, it’s difficult to compare VTC to Lynda. They both try to achieve similar goals, but in very different manners. If we were going by style alone, Lynda.com would win. But that’s just window dressing. Content being the main selling point, VTC offers a lot more options and features that Lynda doesn’t match. But if you don’t need to take a course on Sharepoint, then some of the subjects that VTC offers training in may not mean much to you.

My advice is that you take the seven day trial to see if their offering suits you. The promo code will run through the end of April.

The week long pass that I posted about last week expired. It was a very popular post on this blog, so I contacted Lynda.com to see if there were any other trials available or coming up. It took a few days, but they responded.

As I mentioned in my other post, Lynda.com is a good resource for training, and the monthly or yearly cost is a boon to anyone who has an interest in learning more than one application. For my review of the service, read last weeks blog post

Click more to read on about my response from Lynda.com customer service, and the link to the 24 hour pass.

After writing Lynda.com customer service regarding the expiration of the week long pass, I received an email a few days later. Here is their response:

Hello,

We currently do not have any other 7 day trials for you to share but we do have a one day trial, www.lynda.com/freepass/24 Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thank you for your interest in lynda.com,

lynda.com Customer Service

So, the good news is that there is still a trial available. If you have a day where you can sit in front of the computer or laptop and really poke around, give that link up there a shot.

One thing to note: for some reason when I first went to the link, it didn’t work. I had to click the link twice, or refresh it. This may be because I’m already a subscriber. Just warning ya in case it doesn’t work the first time around.

Second note: They mention that by signing up, you become part of their newsletter, but won’t sell your info or anything. Fair trade for the pass I guess, but that’s a decision for you to make.

Questions, comments? Email me, or post a comment.

Let’s install Windows. Where was that disk again? Countless reboots and hours later, you have Windows. But no updates. Reboot more, like it’s going out of style. Ok SP3, here we are. But no Photoshop. No Photo Mechanic. Crap, even my email hasn’t been set up yet. Oh and if you run Vista, you may just be better off going without a computer until Windows 7 shows up.

The last time my computer went out on me, I reasoned that it was old enough to not be worth saving, so I went and got a Mac. That’s how much I hate reformatting. Also, to be honest, I was simply unprepared. So how could having software like Acronis True Image have saved me? More on that, and the link to the article and info after the jump.

Acronis True Image creates a copy of your drive, known as a disk image, in its current state. It can then write this file to an external drive, or DVD’s. Because it’s a copy of your current set up, you can use it to go back to this setup anytime. Lets say you create an image last tonight. Then today, you install some software, but somehow it messes up your computer. No problem, just use the DVD’s you created, and in little while, your computer will be set up as it was last night. For that alone, it’s a lifesaver. But there’s more.

Let’s say you got a new computer. Why would you need an image of that? Well, you really wouldn’t. But what’s the first thing we do when we get a new computer or laptop? Install software. Well what if you installed your software, and your computer was spiffy clean, and running fast. Why not make an image now. That way, when your computer starts slowing down, and maybe has a few too many glitches, instead of reformatting, and going through some Sisyphusian install procedure, you can load up that image from when you first got your computer. Now it will have all that software preinstalled. You can even take out all that software that’s bundled with your computer that you never want to use, install the programs you do want, and make an image of all that.

The best part is that the process is automated. Creating a boot disc and the DVD’s of your image takes a few clicks. Put in the boot disc and follow the instructions, and you’re back up and running, complete with all your applications.

BTW, I found out about this from Lifehacker. Much as I enjoy people visiting my blog, you could cut to the chase by going there and checking that place out. I found out about a lot of tools that I use for everyday productivity over at Lifehacker. Definitely worth a bookmark (maybe next to your bookmark for my blog?)

Here’s the article at Lifehacker (Click here) with instructions on registering for the free software

And the link to Acronis (Click here)

The link to the Acronis site is VERY busy. it took me no less than three tries and a minute to load it.

Feel free to comment, especially if you’ve used Acronis software in the past.

Even if you don’t like Acronis, you really should consider SOME drive imaging software. Ghost and DriveImage XML are both alternatives you should look into.

UPDATE: The trial offer has now expired. I will do my best to find a new one.

UPDATE 2/17/09: The trial is back on. I believe it will alternate on and off, so try it. if you’re in a rush, try the day pass in my other post. Remember, each one requires an email address.

Lynda.com has always been a great resource for a variety of training. In my experience using them for two years, I find that Lynda offers the best bang for the buck when it comes to training for creative tools. at 25 dollars a month, or 250 for a year, it’s hard to beat their offerings. They have training for all the Adobe apps (which do include the former Macromedia apps), as well as Apple’s own creative suites (Final Cut, Aperture, etc). I could spend another few paragraphs listing it all. Instead, just look at their online training library master list

So, is Lynda.com is a clear choice, a must have? Not necessarily. Read on for the link to the free trial (really, the best way to figure out if you want it), and my opinion on Lynda.com

First, the training varies in length and subjects. Photoshop training used to be more about Photoshop as a graphics editing tool, not really photographer specific. Recently that has changed, but it took a while. Also, they may not have a robust library of videos for the apps you really need.

I found as well that my ability to learn what I was viewing was very dependent on the style of the instructor. Maybe this isn’t true for all of us, but for me, I found people with higher energy like Deke McClelland kept me engaged. Others were the equivalent of online NyQuil.

The training is also basic to intermediate level. I’ve had the opportunity to try out Total Training for various Adobe applications. I really felt their product was better, and really geared towards someone who wants to work in the creative industry. But for 150-200 dollars per course, it had to be. Of course now (years later for me, sigh) they offer online libraries, for 299 a year. A good deal, if you specifically want Adobe, Microsoft, and audio training. Apple users, there’s nothing there for you.

Lynda’s goal is simply to get you comfortable using an application. How far you take it after that is up to you. Because it’s online, the videos are broken up into various sections. I don’t like having to click through video by video, but I do like that I can quickly cover a small topic by clicking on the relevant link. I do this often with Illustrator, where I forget as many shortcuts as I remember, so I’m always running through video snippets to remember what I need.

For an extra fee, Lynda offers access to the work files for certain training, such as PSD’s for Photoshop, and sets of Images for Lightroom. The first year I used Lynda, I had this service. I never used it. I honestly was too interested in learning what I needed to know, then use it on whatever I needed to know it for.

You need an internet connection to view the files, as there’s no offline caching of the videos. So if you were hoping to save hours and hours of training for an especially long road trip or airplane ride, try again. Lynda offers them for some courses, with a per course fee of about 100 dollars for a DVD. No thanks.

In a nutshell, Lynda is a great idea, but far from perfect. It offers basic training, which may not be enough for you. It offers a huge library of application training, but you may not use them all (I basically stick to Adobe, Apple stuff, Cinema 4D, and soon the WordPress training). It has a ton of videos, but no way to view them on anything but a laptop or desktop, maybe a netbook (mental note: get a netbook). And to me, the training really depends on the trainer. You may just soak in the knowledge regardless.

So uh, why am I recommending them? Because, as imperfect as it is, it’s still useful. Lynda is always on top of new versions of applications, even using beta versions to display the new features. This is great when evaluating whether or not you need the upgrade. They’re great about adding new applications. They just added WordPress training. I would have loved that 8 months ago, when PShizzy.com was born, but hey, I’m still gonna view it. All of the new and extra training is including in your monthly/yearly fee. Instead of having to shell out some money to buy a book (so 1986…) or get a new training DVD, I just log in, find the new stuff, and view.

But maybe you’re a book learner. Maybe you want HD quality video. Maybe you want specific training for a specific app to get you up to speed at an advanced level. Maybe Lynda isn’t for you. Why not try it out for yourself first, for one week, for free. Click the yellow link below. UPDATE: The trial offer has expired.

UPDATE 2/17/09: The trial is back on. I believe it will alternate on and off, so try it. if you’re in a rush, try the day pass in my other post. Remember, each one requires an email address.

Click Here for the Trial: Welcome, Fans of Deke.

If you’re a user of the service, please feel free to comment. Questions? Email me.

Let’s take email. Everyone’s got an email address. But not everyone supports the same file size for attachments and downloads. I can send 20MB files (thank you GMail), but you might only support 5-10MB (like my Cox account supports). Now what?

How bout IM’s? Excellent. I use AIM. You use MSN? How are we even friends? Ok I use Adium. What? Ya, it lets me use AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc. Great. Wait, does it let me share files across? Yes. But crap, I’m on a router, so now I have a firewall. What, you’re on a router too? But it says the file is sending. Of course, it’s said that for the last 10 minutes. And ya, I’m just trying to send you a small jpg, so this should have been done nine minutes ago.

Ok how bout FTP? Great. I have one. Do you have a server? What’s your ftp address. What, that’s private. Ok. I’ll post the file on my webspace. Wait, now it’s too public.

Using a common protocol is tough for sharing because we may not have any in common. Making a file public is bad because now the file is public. It’s funny because the answers we seek end up being their own problems. So what if I had a place where I could store files, make them public or private on a file or folder level, share them via email, a special link, or otherwise, and generally have the ease of use of a download for our users, while we have the security of using a service with its own protocol on our backend.

Oh ya, what if it were free too, unless you want to move single files that are over 100MB (which at the rate cameras keep upgrading the sensors and megapixels might be next year)? Keep on reading!

And so I present to you, Mediafire. You don’t need an account to share files, but if you try to access your files from another computer, it’s not possible. Accounts, as I mentioned, are free. You are limited to 100MB per file, but unlimited space total.

Uploading files is easy. Just hit the big green “Upload Files to Mediafire” button. Then select all the files you wish to upload. You can only select files within a folder (not the folder itself), but if you have files within multiple folders, you can select any in one folder, hit OK, then hit upload more files to select another folder and any files in there. You can opt to save to your main area, to any of your folders, or even create a new folder to upload into.

Once you start the process, it will upload a few files simultaneously, and once each file is done, will proceed to verify the file (not sure what that process does, but I’m guessing a virus and encryption scan). On average, I have 1 or 2 files fail per 100 with some obscure error ID. The interface offers a Retry button for that file (while every other file is still uploading, so no time is really lost), and I’ve never had a file fail on a retry. Once everything is done, you can review the files, share them, etc.

Files are easy to share, and you can hit the share button to copy a link to the files for sending to others, or even email them the link from Mediafire. Mediafire even supports download plugins like Getright or DownThemAll, so you can resume a broken download. Nice.

Files and/or folders can be made private, public, or shared. Not only that, but you can share your Mediafire area, and can even get a custom URL for it. Here’s mine:

http://www.mediafire.com/pshizzy

When I access this area myself, I can view all my files, including private ones, as per the left. The viewing public can only access my public files, as per the right. So when you click, you’ll only see two Quicktime movies and a “softball” folder. I can also set a password on my files (the exception being images, which is weird), so that only certain people can download them. (btw, I used Firefox for the left, and Safari for the right, so I could simulate not having an account).

While you can’t see the private folder above, I can still opt to share a file in there. Here’s a link to a file inside my private folder.

That softball folder is a folder I used to show off Dropbox’s image gallery feature. If you don’t know about Dropbox yet, they’ve finally come out of beta, and the service is still awesome. Feel free to check out my review of Dropbox here. Mediafire also offers an image gallery feature, different from Dropbox, but equally as convenient in creating a gallery for you to display your images without any work on your side other than uploading the files. Where Dropbox goes for simple, Mediafire goes for thorough. Different size thumbnails, downloading, embedding of images, etc.

So, all these great options. There’s gotta be something wrong, right? Well, you can’t upload files that have a password of their own (so no password protected zip files, as an example). The 100MB limit isn’t a big deal, until you want to upload a large Photoshop file, or a big zip file or something. You can’t create any direct link files, so anyone who clicks on your link has to go through Mediafire and their ads (which pay the bills). You can even see an ad in the image above.

And the big one: While Mediafire offers some privacy features, anything that’s public is still really public. As in you can download the files, share it with others, etc. Not only that, but you can search Mediafire for any public files. Which means someone can search your public files. This isn’t a big deal if you just want to share pictures of the family or something. Without properly tagging your images, there’s no easy way to root out your specific files. Sure, we can look for jpg files in general, or mov or avi, but I’m pretty sure a website called Mediafire has a bunch of those. Just a hunch. Finding your specific files probably means that a person would have to guess the filename, or tags you added. So just don’t add tags (and why would you, unless you wanted to be found). But I do mention this because for some of us, especially the paranoid type (like me, who has duplicates of every file, plus online access with their own backups).

Pro accounts (starting at 6.97 a month) can eliminate some of these issues, but then it’s not free anymore, and what’s the fun in that?

So, there it is. The service isn’t perfect, but it is free, convenient, and safe enough (given that it’s free). I personally use it to store large movies that I have put on my blog, and for any file that’s a little to big to email to people. I wouldn’t use it for clients or anything, but see no problem with using it for files that I already wanted to be public or didn’t care if it went public.

Whether or not this service is something you can use is a personal decision. I hope that my article has at least given you enough information to figure that out.

You panic, of course. It’s an important shoot. It’s a memorable family gathering. It’s an image of you with Charles Barkley. Whatever it is, it’s lost. You think it’s unfair. You always backup (you do, right?), having two or more copies of a file, offsite (so both copies don’t burn down in a fire or short out in a flood), perhaps online (so that you always have access to it), and in different mediums (DVD so you can’t overwrite a file incorrectly). But how can you backup something that’s corrupt before you even get to a computer? Forget that. How can you at least get back a single copy of all your images? Oh God, what’s it going to cost?

We’ve all read about those companies that will recover your files for you. They often have engineers in bunny suits (cleanroom outfits, not the mall kiosk gig). Those bunny suits ain’t cheap, and neither is the service fee for file recovery on any sort of disk.

So how about FREE, and Mac/PC friendly. Link after the jump.Lexar, a brand name in the memory card business, has a link to their software, Image Rescue 3.0. It’s available for both Mac and PC. Note on the page, it states the following:

Congratulations!
Your card purchase entitles you to a free download of the Lexar Image Rescue 3 software. Simply enter your email and passcode below.

There you have it. You should have purchased a Lexar card. Normally, the software is priced at $30, so if you don’t have a Lexar card, it won’t kill you to spend as little as 21 dollars for an SD card (and for 30 with shipping, you could get a 2gb CF card)

The software is easy to use, and will recover cards (even non Lexar cards). It recovers RAW files for all the majors such as Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fuji, Pentax, Minolta, and Sigma. It recovers JPG as well as TIF and PNG, and even recovers audio and video files. There are even advanced tools to test, format, and securely erase your cards. For free

Now, as with any recovery software (free, not free, or expensive), recovery is NOT guaranteed. Sometimes you get lucky and get it all back, sometimes you get some of it back. Sometimes nothing. There are different levels and types of corruption. But if you’re in the unfortunate circumstance where you have a card go bad, you have nothing more to lose. I hope you never have to use this software, but we should all have it handy just in case. Personally, I’ve had three card errors in five years, but my friend had twice that many in the last six months. I lost nothing important (two cards failed upon formatting in camera before a shoot, one failed after writing one file, but every other file still worked, without recovery), while my friend, each time, lost portrait images. Each time I was able to recover most of the images, enough that he didn’t have to do a reshoot.

Ok I’ve said enough. Here’s the link:

Lexar Image Rescue 3 – Free Download Offer

I’ll cover backup, synchronization, and different storage types (and services) in the future.

But it gets worse. What if I have a document, image, or file that I need on my laptop (which I worked on while I was out of the home/office), and I turned off the laptop. When I get home, I now have to get that laptop, boot up, log in, connect to the network, check to make sure my Mac can see the laptop on the network, then pull the file. Fun, huh? Even if I left the laptop on, I’d still have to log in, connect, check the connection on the Mac, etc. It’s not so much that it’s difficult, but it is tedious, and a waste of time, which I value very much.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just put my files on my laptop or Mac in a folder, and have that get pushed to the other computer? And I’m not talking about running a program, and putting a file in there, or uploading to an FTP. I’m talking about opening your standard Windows or Mac folder, and dragging and dropping your files in, and that’s it. Now you check your other computer, and it’s there. Better yet, what if I put the files in the folder, and then turned off the computer, but it doesn’t matter, because the other computer can still access the file? And what if I’m at a different computer altogether, and I need to access it via a web interface.

Enter Dropbox. They do exactly what I said, and more. Of course, this kind of timesaver is something I regularly find over at Lifehacker, and they are running a poll comparing five different file and folder sharing applications, which Dropbox is winning. The problem is that Dropbox is so popular that it’s now in closed beta. You can sign up at the Dropbox site, but only to be notified when they open the beta up to the public again. Or, you can be invited, if someone (cough cough, me) has invites to give.

Read on to find out more about dropbox, including a video that shows the features (oh, I forgot to mention, the file syncing is just one of MANY features Dropbox has), a chance to get in on the beta, and how I use it.

First, the video:

Impressive, huh?

Here’s a sample of their photo gallery in action. I took my last gallery (girls softball) and posted the images, just the images in my dropbox photos folder, in a folder titled softball. It automatically displays as a gallery, all I have to do is right click on the folder, and ask for a public link, which is

http://www.getdropbox.com/gallery/48323/1/softball?h=cd276c

It’s a simple interface, but I love how easy it was. I just put jpegs in a folder into the Dropbox folder. Right click on the folder to get the link, and done. BTW, that’s a simple lightbox application, you can use the left and right arrows to navigate from image to image.

I can also upload a file to my Public folder, right click to get the public link, and post that for you to download. Useful when your email only supports a 10 or 20MB attachment, but you need to move a 40 plus MB zip file. Here’s the hello world doc I have put in my public folder

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/48323/Hello%20World.docx

That’s not all. Let’s say I accidentally delete a document off my desktop, laptop, etc. At one point it was in Dropbox, but I deleted or moved it off. I now lost every copy of it (d’oh!). Well, you can access the web interface, and undelete files that were previously in your Dropbox. I don’t know how long that lasts, and I doubt you could undelete a file from a year ago, but how bout two weeks ago?

Notice it says revisions. Not only can I restore a file that’s two weeks old, but as changes were made, it saved versions of that file. So, if Pensive Parakeet up there (it’s one of the files Dropbox starts you off with to kick the tires) got Photoshopped, that would be a new version of the same file. It still shows up as one file, but you can restore any version of the file. So if someone butchered our bird, and we need the original, you can restore that original.

Of course, you are backing up all your files anyhow, right? (Right? Ok ok, I’ll do a blog post on that. Adding it to the ever growing to do list).

You can also share folders. Make a new folder, right click and enable sharing, then invite people via an email invite system. Now you can all collaborate in one folder.

Oh, and you can access any files, versions, galleries, etc, online. You can even upload via an online interface (so you don’t have to install Dropbox on a public computer to upload files to your Dropbox account).

So, the sad news is that this is in beta. What does that mean? For one, the system isn’t perfect yet. There is a GREAT forum for the users, and the people behind Dropbox often respond to questions, requests, and general comments. So you’re not in the dark about what’s going on with Dropbox.

Next up: It’s not going to be free forever. It’s 2GB for free right now, but at some point, the Dropbox people want to make a profit (silly, huh), so they will open up a pricing structure. It’s up to each of us to determine if the service is worth the price.

So, how do you get in? Email me or leave a comment. I will go in order of the timestamp until my invites run out. So act fast!

This software was available as a giveaway on June 16, 2008, this giveaway is not available any more. You can download the trial version of this software at http://www.macrium.com.

They have a “free” edition that’s a bit more feature limited. I’ll be looking into alternatives. Thanks!

I found this on Lifehacker, an excellent resource for random tips and tricks that can make life easier. I get at least one time saver a week, if not more, by checking out the site. It’s not a site everyone here will like, but sometimes the Lifehacker world will crossover into photography related subjects. Like today, and today only, Macrium Reflect is offering their full version (not the free version) of their software, totally free, but today only. I’m sure you have to sell your soul (give them your email address, or a kitten), but it is a $40 piece of software.

Personally, on the PC side of things, I used to use Syncback SE. Since the great switch of ’08, I now use Chronosync on the Mac. But if you don’t have the money to afford either application for backups, or just haven’t considered a backup solution, maybe this is a nice entry into that world.

PSA time: Backups are really important. Whether it’s a picture of kitty, your child, Shaq, a graduating senior, a model, etc. you really should have some duplication of your work somewhere else. Every week it seeems, some poor sap is giving us the usual sob story about how their hard drive made the clicking noise of doom. No backup, and so their life’s work is gone. They could pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get a service like DriveSavers to extract the data by breaking the drive apart in a clean room with bunny suits (think spaceman uniform, not Easter time). And no guarantees on saving it all.

Or you could just backup your stuff. And programs like these make it easier, if not automatic, to do so. I’ve already given you links on previous articles where you can find external drives for cheap. Try 1TB for 200 or so dollars. And now we have free backup software.

The rest is up to you.