Pix4D Cloud vs Local Processing

Pix4D is a photogrammetry application which can take sets of photographs and turn them into point clouds and 3D meshes, to make digital versions of real-world objects or locations. It supports both local processing on a workstation as well as uploading images to be processed in the cloud – but which is faster, and what advantages does each have?

Microsoft Office Holdout

My name is Brett, and I am a Microsoft Office holdout.

In fact, I am writing this blog in Word. Last week, I decided to write directly into our blogging system, but flew too close to the sun and lost an hour of work.

The Only 5 Chrome Extensions I Install

Over the years, I’ve used Google Chrome as my default browser more than any competitor. A couple of times I ran into issues with a build and switched to Firefox, but that didn’t last more than a few months.

ANSYS Mechanical – Balancing Performance and Licensing Costs

We test a lot of software here at Puget Systems, and in most cases what we are looking for is what hardware lets a given program run the fastest – or in some cases, what is the most cost effective. If you can get 95% of the best possible performance for half the price that it would cost to get a full 100%, for example, that is often a compelling way to go. However, ANSYS Mechanical (and FLUENT) present a different challenge: how can you get the best performance within the limitations of the ANSYS licensing model?

The First Five

There’s nothing quite like a fresh install of Windows.

It takes time. It takes patience. And, at least once during the process, I want to strangle someone at Microsoft.

Once I’ve updated all my device drivers and let Windows Update do its thing, I launch into a fresh, unadulterated Windows desktop. it’s the equivalent to that new car smell. You know it’s not going to last more than a week or two, but you might as well enjoy it while it lasts!

In Search of the Best Slideshow Software

I didn’t realize what I’d got myself into when I volunteered to put a slideshow together for my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. I asked my father to send me some of his earliest pictures so I could scan them. A few days later two large manilla envelopes full of old Polaroids arrived. When I asked if he could send a few recent pictures, he sent a USB stick that contained over 10,000 pictures.

Windows 7: The End is Nigh

Windows 7 updates are being limited by Microsoft on the latest processor platforms, and in combination with the other issues we’ve seen lately when installing Windows 7 we are now only listing it as an option on well-supported configurations… until we run out of licenses, then it’s over.

Bring On The New Year

The start to a new year is a good time to review your PC. Last weekend I pulled out my desktop PC and performed the following:

My 5 Favorite Products of 2016

With 2016 coming to end, I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of my favorite products of the last year.

I prefer products that seamlessly blend into my life. That means they shouldn’t require a lot of updates or ask me to change my behavior very much in order to enjoy them.

With that in mind, here are five of my favorite products of 2016:

Update Woes!

I had a client who recently contacted me over the weekend in a bit of a panic because he had just upgraded to the latest Adobe Premiere CC 2017 and that caused him some grief.