Now that Windows XP is finally going to be put to rest, no more support, after April 7, I have to upgrade to Windows 7. On top of this, I have been looking through old CDs of images (a big no no, storing images on CD, bad idea) with the hopes I would be able to locate some of my old images of sold small paintings from 2004 through 2008 mainly through a couple auction sites, back when the US exchange rate made it worth listing artwork that often ended up selling for a steal (to the buyer) because I'd get 1.50 or so for every 1.00 it was won for. I usually started small pieces around 180.00 US so I'd end up at least making 340.00 or so Canadian. The paintings I did and offered via eBay were often 4-8 hr paintings, realistic yet small, 6x8 up to about 12x16. Well, those days are long gone, as is really the heyday of eBay, where I sold many pieces. eBay is a buyers' market now and the abuse on there I was beginning to experience near the end by non paying bidders, too low prices, high listing fees, etc. just made it no longer worth selling on their. I'll leave the eBay rant alone however, since it'd take all night to write all the intricacies of the negatives lol!
Needless to say, a few years ago I had my website redone (when I had one and took on commissions) and the person who designed it put all my old hosted images from Yahoo onto a CD. One day, in 2010, I could no longer locate said CD. I tore the house apart, to no avail. There were many many painting images on there that I had no where else. Alas, I will never see images of those paintings again. Many I loved a lot. recently, I went through some image CDs (which I know one day will deteriorate so should be put on a hard drive), and I realized that many images on them are what is known as a .mix file. This image file was exclusive to saving an image in Microsoft Picture It. So, I have always kept it on my comp although I don't work in it anymore. It was an amazing program, very user friendly. Well, those images cannot be viewed in any other program. Since we won't be loading Picture It on after upgrading to Windows 7 I would have no way of looking at those images I have saved in that format. There are hundreds of them.
We found a solution. There is an old program that once you had to buy, but it is quite old so now it is free to download. It is called Polyview. It is a program that converts .mix image files to .jpg image files. You can convert more than one image at a time as well. It also allows viewing of many different file types and conversion, not just Picture It files. We downloaded it and I will be able to run and convert my .mix files as I have time (yeah right lol!) or as needed at least. Sometimes I have to go back into those images to find something for the kids, myself, etc.
POLYVIEW - here is a link to the site
A quick note on Picture It. It was a very awesome program. It is no longer offered or supported through Microsoft. It was bought by Microsoft as far as I know, not designed by them. One of the main people who developed Picture It went on to establish Pixar, which tells you the talent that was behind Picture It. I loved that program.
Needless to say, a few years ago I had my website redone (when I had one and took on commissions) and the person who designed it put all my old hosted images from Yahoo onto a CD. One day, in 2010, I could no longer locate said CD. I tore the house apart, to no avail. There were many many painting images on there that I had no where else. Alas, I will never see images of those paintings again. Many I loved a lot. recently, I went through some image CDs (which I know one day will deteriorate so should be put on a hard drive), and I realized that many images on them are what is known as a .mix file. This image file was exclusive to saving an image in Microsoft Picture It. So, I have always kept it on my comp although I don't work in it anymore. It was an amazing program, very user friendly. Well, those images cannot be viewed in any other program. Since we won't be loading Picture It on after upgrading to Windows 7 I would have no way of looking at those images I have saved in that format. There are hundreds of them.
We found a solution. There is an old program that once you had to buy, but it is quite old so now it is free to download. It is called Polyview. It is a program that converts .mix image files to .jpg image files. You can convert more than one image at a time as well. It also allows viewing of many different file types and conversion, not just Picture It files. We downloaded it and I will be able to run and convert my .mix files as I have time (yeah right lol!) or as needed at least. Sometimes I have to go back into those images to find something for the kids, myself, etc.
POLYVIEW - here is a link to the site
A quick note on Picture It. It was a very awesome program. It is no longer offered or supported through Microsoft. It was bought by Microsoft as far as I know, not designed by them. One of the main people who developed Picture It went on to establish Pixar, which tells you the talent that was behind Picture It. I loved that program.
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