Shoot now, AfterShot later

Hi, my name is Joao Bettencourt and I am a semi tech geek who does Quality Assurance for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.

I got involved with photography many, many moons ago as a way to meet girls (yep, that worked very well…). My first camera was a beaming AGFA 720c, less than one megapixel, which I recently found in the hands of my 2 year old nephew. I then went from that, through another AGFA, 2 Sonys, both digital, one Canon, and finally my second Canon, a 5D Mk II, aka “my other wife”. We’ve been inseparable ever since. I take her with me everywhere I go.

Soon enough it became a matter of “Hey, you have a camera, can you take a picture of…?” And all of a sudden I was being invited to all kinds of events; me, myself and the other wife. There was this one time that I was invited to a baptism that didn’t start until I got there 30 minutes late. And there I was thinking I was a guest. That’s when the light bulb turned on and my pupils went $$.

The Corel World # 8: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth

This past weekend the smell of both spring and nerd was in the air here in Ottawa (incidentally, it turns out that nerd smells a lot like B.O, Cheetos and unwashed Storm Trooper armor). The reason, of course, was the first annual Ottawa ComicCon, which hit the nation’s capital like an angry, proton torpedo-riding wookie.

As a self-professed geek and lover of comic books, video games and Stars (of both the “Trek” and “Wars” variety), myself – and a few of my fellow Corel employees – decided to make the visit to check out the insanity. As the very first ComicCon here in Ottawa, the event sold out weeks in advance, with a crowd of over 15,000 people making the pilgrimage over the two-day event. It’s not too surprising given that some of the biggest names in geekdom were also there, including Star Trek alumni such as John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Brent Spiner (Commander Data), Marina Sirtis (Counsellor Deanna Troi) and of course, the guest of honor, everyone’s favorite paunchy, overacting starship captain, William “Don’t Call Me T.J. Hooker” Shatner. Additional celebrity guests included Lou Ferrigno (a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk), Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly), Jamie Bamber (Apollo from Battlestar Galactica), Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a. Elvira Mistress of the Dark) and Jeremy Bulloch (who played Boba Fett in Star Wars).

Spring clean your old photos with PaintShop Pro

Three years ago a terrible thing happened. I dropped my portable hard drive and lost a bunch of my photos. I was devastated because I hadn’t gotten around to backing them up and learned a very painful lesson about the importance of duplicating your digital pics. I hunted thru every email attachment, Facebook post and Flickr upload to salvage what I could, but most of those photos are now just faded memories.

During a recent spring cleaning session, I dug out a box of old photos I hadn’t seen in ages. I don’t have many pictures of my mom when I was little because a basement flood destroyed many of our photo albums. I knew “backing up” what I had left was critical, so I made it my mission to scan, repair and share my photos with my family. Years of sitting in a box or being stuck in one of those old yellowing photo albums meant a little TLC was needed to clean them up.

If you have the same need to “back up” your original photo prints, here are a few photo editing tips that helped me.

The Corel World # 7: Viva la eBook Revolution!

A long time ago, in the dark days when MC Hammer pants were still considered fashionable, cellphones were the size of cinder blocks and Steve Urkel ruled the Earth with an iron fist, people did this really insane thing: they read books… made of paper.

I know, “Impossible!” you say. “A book? Made of paper? What kind of uncivilized hillbilly bumpkins existed in this horrible age?! Surely you jest!” Trust me. It’s all true.

Around that very same time, I was working as a lowly editor in the publishing industry and attended a conference held by a large Canadian printer. One of the panelists mentioned that he’d been speaking with several companies in the U.S. about the possibility of creating… digital books. He added that maybe someday the printed book might even become *gasp* obsolete!

Needless to say it caused quite an uproar. Fancy words were shouted, complimentary cheese pastries were hurled, papercuts were inflicted. People couldn’t quite wrap their heads around the fact that digital books might be a reality. It would never take off!

Welcome to WordPerfect Office X6

It gives me great pleasure to introduce WordPerfect Office X6 to you. I’m convinced that as soon as you’ve read this post, you’ll head over to www.corel.com/wordperfect to download the trial and try out the powerful new tools and capabilities.

Our users are very loyal and extremely passionate. Every time I talk to them, their enthusiasm and love for WordPerfect is hugely evident. After many interactions (formal and informal) with our users, we created WPO X6 with these 3 themes in mind:

Who makes your software – Part 2

One of the things I really like about our company blog is that you get to know more about the people behind the brand. This time I’d like you to meet some of the people and personalities behind PaintShop Pro.

Let’s save bad movies!

A few years ago, I left my professional career to bravely try my hand at writing fiction. Thus began the legendary “lean years”… I drank way too much coffee, spent way too much time playing video games, and impressed way too many people with the lofty (and ultimately empty) promise of finishing The Great Canadian Novel.

To make ends meet (and to stay out of trouble), I also applied for a job at the local independent video store. The result? Instead of writing amazing prose and becoming a productive member of literary society, I spent all of my free time watching movies and eating too much candy.

On the plus side, I also met a lot of film enthusiasts! You have to understand that watching millions of movies is a rather isolating hobby that doesn’t lend itself well to socializing. The store where I worked was the perfect solution, providing a place where movie geeks could actually meet in person-to hang out, to share notes, and talk about what they all loved: cinema. Sitting behind the counter, I was fortunate enough to get to know a wide range of passionate film collectors, aspiring screen writers, and homegrown filmmakers from all walks of life.

Wham, Bam, Instagram – A Look at Facebook’s Billion Dollar Buyout

For those of you haven’t heard (or been on Twitter in the last week), Instagram has been purchased by Facebook for 1 billion dollars. Mark Zuckerberg himself posted about the acquisition on his Timeline, shocking industry analysts, critics, and users the world over. Facebook normally does talent acquisitions like FriendFeed, Sofa, and Hot Potato – so why buy a mobile app like Instagram?

They Let Me Out of My Cave!!!!

Hey there. I’m Steve Allen and I’m the video guy here at Corel’s Ottawa headquarters. I animate and edit many of the launch videos for Corel products. A few weeks back I was asked if I would like to attend and participate with the Corel team at Playlist Live in Orlando. Considering I work in a small cluttered “storage” room (my choosing) I jumped at the chance. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to escape the glow of my monitors and meet the public.

Corel recently acquired Roxio and one of their products is Roxio Game Capture. This allows a gamer to capture their gameplay from an Xbox or PlayStation 3. Considering I have four boys, I’ve seen a lot of gaming in my house, so let’s just say I have a lot of background knowledge on the subject. My role at Playlist was to demo Game Capture and answer any questions regarding capturing and editing video game footage.

I was at the show with a few great Corel veterans, Evelyn Watts, Greg Wood and Sara Chesiuk. It was a crazy and hectic show but they were able to keep it running smoothly for me. It was a fairly steady crowd and in fact there was very little down time on the first day. I experienced the show from the perspective of the booth for most of the two days and it was great meeting people. I was really amazed at the wide range of users we had. There were young kids looking to start their own channel, established YouTubers with well-known channels that have been using VideoStudio forever and parents who saw how their kids flock to YouTube and want to be able to “channel” their children’s focus….(see what I just did there?)

Northern Exposure: My Canadian Trip with CorelDRAW

I absolutely love talking about all things design, and when I’m talking about my love for design it’s only natural for me to also talk about my love for CorelDRAW. That is why I enjoyed doing my webinar earlier this year. Shortly after it was finished, I touched base with Cecile Brosius who has become my main contact and is the worldwide product marketing manager at Corel. If you happened to catch my webinar she’s the one with the wonderful French accent. Anyway, after we finished the webinar, she began talking about the upcoming release for the much anticipated CorelDRAW X6. She then invited me up to Ottawa, Ontario to visit the Corel Head Quarters during the X6 Release Party. Since everyone knows that the people of Canada are so polite, how could I refuse, eh?

So a few months pass by and with passport and tickets in hand, I boarded the plane for Ottawa. I was half expecting that even though the news said it would be somewhat warm, I would still need to whip out my winter jacket. “Warm” for Canadians is a bit different than “warm” for me. Fortunately I must have brought the warm weather with me. It felt like a warm summer’s day the entire time I was there, and everyone appeared to be in good spirits because of it. Everyone except customs that is…