Steve's Tips
Great tools at unbeatable prices
Some tools are indispensable. Others are just plain fun. And many are surprisingly affordable – by which I mean FREE! (Okay, some request donations – and I strongly encourage their support.) Here are a couple of my favorites:
Virtual Dub (available from virtualdub.org) Virtual Dub is capable of doing simple video editing, but its real strength is as a video processor. If you’ve got a video file your video editing program can’t open or has trouble dealing with, chances are that Virtual Dub can handle it – and it can convert it into a more universal DV-AVI with a simple Save As. This is one of those truly amazing applications that the author developed solely because he saw a need.
Audacity (available at audacity.sourceforge.net) Certainly there are more powerful audio editors out there, but this open source application is easy to use and surprisingly effective. Great for cleaning up and sweetening your audio files.
The Gimp (available from gimp.org) Looking for an alternative to Paint Shop Pro of the Photoshop line? This open source graphics and photo clean-up tool may be free but it doesn’t skimp on the features.
Winmorph (available at debugmode.com/winmorph) Remember when morphing one image into another was state of the art and required expensive software and powerful processors? Well, now you can do it on your desktop – for free! The author even claims it works as a plug-in for Adobe Premiere.
Utilities
Remember, a healthy computer is a happy computer.
AVG (grisoft.com) While I’m sure we’re all running anti-virus software, you can’t beat Grisoft’s AVG for price or function. The company offers both a very effective free version (You might have to dig around on the site to find it) and a full-featured version for about $30. Both are excellent, with none of the liabilities of some of the more popular, and more aggressive brands.
EasyCleaner (personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane) This app is better at cleaning the dust bunnies out of your registry than any other I’ve found – and did I mention it’s free!
Ad-Aware (lavasoft.com) The best spyware cleaner available and essential tool in your computer maintenance. I update mine and run it at least once a week.
Spybot Search & Destroy ( www.safer-networking.org/en/download) A great companion to Ad-Aware, this program can even “immunize” your computer against a lot of malware floating around the internet. Another one to update and run regularly.
Microsoft AntiSpyware (www.microsoft.com) Though technically still a beta program, this one runs quietly in the background, updates itself and does a surprisingly effective job of keeping the malware at bay. A great, free utility from our old friends in Redmond.
October 2005
About Steve
Steve Grisetti earned a master's degree in writing for television and film from Ohio University. He has instructed college-level courses in television and video production, and has taught adult education classes on Photoshop and principles of design.
Steve spent nearly 10 years in the Los Angeles-based entertainment industry, working on the sets and in the production offices of several large television and film companies. Currently, he is employed as a graphic designer in the Marketing & Communications Department of a Milwaukee-based investment firm.
He also serves as host on Adobe's official Premiere Elements Support Forum and is author, with Chuck Engels, of "Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 In a Snap," from Sams Publishing, Pearson Education.
