Geek Software of the Week: Pixelformer

PixelformerHow about a free “next generation” icon editor/creation tool? If you write programs, or, if you just want to enhance your current programs with cool icons, this is a neat tool!

Pixelformer Web Site

“Pixelformer is an advanced icon editor which is designed to give you full control over every pixel of your images. With its predictability and subpixel precision you can easily create professional quality icons and bitmaps.

The main features of Pixelformer are:

– no restrictive limits for image dimensions
– support for different color depths up to 32-bit RGB with alpha channel
– lossless target color depth switching
– semi-transparent colors
– free-form masking
– multiple layer support
– in-place supersampling
– dynamic palette generation
– multiple file format support
– plugin extensible architecture
– icon extraction capability
– PNG size optimization
– Vista icon optimization
– alpha premultiplication
– deep undo buffer

Release of Windows XP, Service Pack 3 Still Not Clear

It will just be an amalgamation of fixes released since SP2, but it will be nice not to have to go through all of those when doing a new build… so I am looking forward to it!

Official XP SP3 release date still up in the air

“A Microsoft spokesperson declined this afternoon to confirm reports circulating on technology blogs today citing purportedly leaked documents as saying the online release date for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be April 29. ‘We expect Windows XP SP3 to be available in 1H 2008, provided it meets our quality bar for release,’ stated the spokesperson, in response to BetaNews’ question about the specific date. The blog story appeared to indicate a large lag time between SP3’s release through the Microsoft Update service and the release through Automatic Updates, purportedly in June. Those dates would indicate a long period of time for initial installers to make sure drivers are in working order, similar to what ended up being required for Windows Vista SP1.”