Recently I’ve been working on getting WebShot to produce high quality GIF images. GDI+ 1.0 uses a halftone palette. I’ve implemented color quantization which produces a better palette. You can compare the difference in the two images below. If you click on the images you can see the whole website in each of the palettes. I’ve also noticed a 20% reduction in the GIF file size, which most likely has to do with the way GDI+ saves images when converting from 24bbp to 8bpp versus native 8bpp.

GDI+ 1.0 (Halftone)

Custom (Color Quantization with Octree)

I tried today to get WebShot working with the Mozilla ActiveX control. Unfortunately the ActiveX control is not a viable option for taking screenshots of web pages.

• Querying IHTMLBodyElement for IHTMLElementRender does not work
• Calling OleDraw does not work because the supported interface IViewObject is not implemented
• Copying the Window’s device context does not work properly and sometimes it copies portions of the desktop

The Mozilla ActiveX control would be great if it were actively maintained and updated.

It feels like a lot has been happening.

I have been recieving a lot of support requests and it has been taking up a lot of my time. Just today I coded a VB.NET example on how to use the WebShot DLL for one of its users. Not only that but I decided to go the extra length and code up a C# example. I have like 50 functions that I export via C and it is a pain to convert my C header to C# and VB.NET dll imports. I hate when bugs are found in my code. It makes me look bad and costs me in time to fix and rerelease it. I really try to have a commitment to help users and try and solve their problem. If anybody emails me, I get back to them most of the time in the self same hour. I plan on adding a forum to the site where people who use WebShot can post things, that way it makes it easier to support since there is a way users can search if others have had similar issues.

As for ExtractNow, I’ve been wanting to get a release out, but just haven’t had time.

Today, I went to the dentist to accept the Invisalign treatment. It will take a total of 3.5 months. My bottom teeth have been crowded ever since I had my braces removed when I was like fourteenish. At that time, I had such a mean orthodontist that I was afraid to tell him that I accidently dislodged two of the brace holders while biting on a pencil. Ever since I had my braces removed and noticed the problem, I’ve wanted to get it fixed. On July 30th, I should have my first clear plastic tray to wear. To be able to being teatment, the dentist will have to shave 0.02mm of both sides of two of my teeth so that the teeth have room to move. In all I’ll have 7 trays, one every two weeks. Then I’ll have a retainer that I will have to wear for a long while so that the teeth don’t move back to where they were. It ain’t cheap folks. The final price will be a little less than, $2600. That is the price of a new computer and then some. Dang. I plan on paying it off as I go cause I am not rich. I only average about $32K per year from my day job as a software programmer at AXT. Still, I would like to think that getting my teeth fixed is a good investment and that I’ll be happy once it is done. Recently, in the past few months I have been trying to keep excellent care of my teeth. I am getting older and realize that my teeth need to last a lot longer than I had previously anticipated. I don’t want my teeth to fall out because after my teeth fall out there is only one other important milestone left in life…

The way of life: You are born. You grow teeth. You get old. Your teeth fall out. You die.

Speaking of which.. In the resurrection of the quick and the dead, I hope I get a whole new body because according to my plans by the time I die my skin will be so wrinkly.

So in other news, I found out that the certification tests that I took that my company will reimbuse me for all of them. Nice. I like, very much. And furthermore they will pay for future tests if I plan on getting my MCSD or MCPD.

Today I finished redesigning the site for WebShot and also ExtractNow. It has been a long time in coming. Hopefully this redesign will last me for the next year or two. It now looks a lot cleaner and more professional. As for the MySpace Massive Friend Adder page, I have taken it down and just added a download link from my Projects page.

There is an excellent review of WebShot by Michael Bergman on his site AI3. He takes a look at alternative services and helps you understand why WebShot stands out from the rest. You can check it out here.

For the most part WebShot is a freeware program. In the WebShot package there are two programs, one is a graphical user interface program and the other is a command line program. The sole purpose of both programs is to take screenshots of websites and convert them into usable images.

At first, both WebShot programs worked on Windows 2000, XP, and 2003. Although, due to the abuse of WebShot by certain web developers I restricted access so that the command line program does not work under Windows 2000 and 2003. Now you have to pay for the command line version for Windows 2000 and 2003. Originally I thought I could keep it free and have users go through a screening process to make sure that they did not abuse it, but because I no longer want to deal with people and their rude comments I decided to just charge for it and make things easier for me.

Anyways here is the set emails that went back and forth that made me decide that I did not want to screen people.

To: Nathan
From: John Ricci

Hi
requesting webshot to work on windows 2000 and 2003
Thanks, great program!!!
John

From: Nathan
To: John Ricci

What do you plan on using WebShot for and how did you hear about it?
Nathan

To: Nathan
From: John Ricci

Found out about it searching Google, read about it at
nathanm.com/daily/! Will be using it for a Restaurant Directory, to
make screens of menus, wine lists!

John

From: Nathan
To: John Ricci (jbricci@gmail.com)

If I may ask, what is the url of the restaurant directory going to be?
Nathan

To: Nathan
From: John Ricci (jbricci@gmail.com)

There isn’t any yet it’s in development! I’ll just use the version you released without all your childish questions. Sorry if that offends you, but it does seems sort of funny that you release a XP version without asking all these questions. What is difference that makes you believe you need to control people who use your application under Windows 2000 or other OS types other than lame Windows XP!

Like I said before, nice app, but you are a very silly developer…

John

From: Nathan
To: John Ricci (jbricci@gmail.com)

I’ve had people take my program and claim the screenshot generation process as their own and then try and profit off of it. Because I charge nothing for the software, I can do whatever the fuck I want with it and that means limiting access to Windows XP only. This cuts down on the amount of people who will be using the program on servers to harvest screenshots without my knowledge. It also helps weed out bastards like you who can’t answer a few simple questions. I took several months to make the software and feel that I have the right to know what it is being used for.

You were one step away from receiving what you asked for. It is too bad you felt so inconvenienced that you could not even answer a few simple questions.

Nathan

To: Nathan
From: John Ricci (jbricci@gmail.com)

Ok little boy!

I do understand your feelings, and I feel for you as anyone who works hard on something deserves credit for it. But this world is far from perfect, and you have proved that by the way you type, did I swear at you, I don’t think so. It just shows how much of a child you are. Other than that I do agree with you that you have a right to ask questions, which I did try to answer, but i to wanted you to explain why you added that silly version check to restrict your application to Windows XP, which is easy to bypass if you want to know.

I myself am a old man, so I wouldn’t waste my time on trying to resell or take credit for a plain ie, screen capture program, or any application that I didn’t create. If others are doing that, then you need to go after them, don’t attack people that appreciative of your work. Anyway I have removed your software from my system and will not
use it again.

Have a good life…

John

In closing..

He said that the operating system version check is easy to bypass and then he says he uninstalled the program. Why would you uninstall the program if you could bypass the version check? Because he couldn’t and he lied. Because people are so evil and because I don’t want to hassle with people like this I’ve decided to just simply charge for it and it has been working well so far. Several people have already paid for it. I cannot believe he called me a silly developer. I am sure somebody close to him in his life probably rediculed him and called him a child and said he did silly things. That is the only reason why he resorted to that language, the language he knew and had been raised with. Honestly I do not have to explain anything I do with my software because it is free and I can do with it as I wish. Is it too much to ask for that people answer two simple questions? Oh well, I don’t have to worry about it anymore, I just make everybody pay hommage.

I was going over the statistics from the WebShot website and noticed somebody typed in “utility shows thumbnail website in explorer” as a search engine request. A great use for WebShot would be as an explorer shell extension that took screenshots of shortcuts that link to websites and displayed them as thumbnails for the shortcut files.