I took OrchidWiz to judging on Monday 11/21. I showed it to several of
the judges and we all came away wondering why the AOS is bothering to
create an awards CD of their own. This thing kicks ass and its already
here. Why don't they just buy him out?

At first I only saw the use of this program in terms of researching AOS
awards. It really does a mind blowing job of providing data for
comparing awards. It'll list a flower's awards from 1932 to the most
recent AQ in a table, and you can click on the heading in each column to
re-sort the data according to that criterion. So if you want to compare
according to petal width you can. If you want to compare to dorsal sepal
width, you can. If you want to compare to natural spread, you can.
Click of a button. Very cool

Even cooler is you can compare the offspring's awards (if there are any)
to the stats for the parents' awards. It will give you the size range
and where this flower falls withing that range.

No award photos but it does have photos from contributors and open
source drawings, like from Lindliana. So the parent trees show thumbnail
pictures if he has them. And not only one picture but whatever he has.
So click on C mossiae will bring up a variety of color forms and
drawings. Click on the thumbnail and the image enlarges. Very cool.
Now, its not like he has a ton of photos. Far from it. But the feature
will evolve, I hope, as people send in pictures.

But aside from AOS awards, I mean, the list of what this disk does goes
on and on. When I looked at the web page it sorta was - I dunno - I was
mystified as to what was so great about the product that I'd dump
Wildcatt for this, or plunk down additional money for this. There
wasn't really anything on the webpage that made me want to buy this.
But I took a leap of faith. I think the web page is so vague because you
*can't* list everything this program does. Its like trying to describe
the taste of an apple. I'm sure as the word gets out people will bring
it to meetings and you'll be able to check it out for yourselves.

Sheesh, it even has culture guides, LOL!! Based of parental species
makeup - and yes he cautions you that there's no guarantee of genetic
make up in a complex hybrid.

If you never needed Wildcatt you won't want to buy this either. You can
use the RHS database and you'll be OK. If you already have Wildcatt and
rarely use it, you won't need this either. Why bother? For you its
redundant. If you need to research parentage, breeding lines, or awards
this is the program to get.

I'm not connected with OrchidWiz, or anything. Heck I can't even recall
the name of the fellow who created the CD.

K Barrett

Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.

--
Cheers Wendy

Remove PETERPAN for email reply

K Barrett wrote:
I took OrchidWiz to judging on Monday 11/21. I showed it to several
of the judges and we all came away wondering why the AOS is bothering
to create an awards CD of their own. This thing kicks ass and its
already here. Why don't they just buy him out?

At first I only saw the use of this program in terms of researching
AOS awards. It really does a mind blowing job of providing data for
comparing awards. It'll list a flower's awards from 1932 to the most
recent AQ in a table, and you can click on the heading in each column
to re-sort the data according to that criterion. So if you want to
compare according to petal width you can. If you want to compare to
dorsal sepal width, you can. If you want to compare to natural
spread, you can. Click of a button. Very cool

Even cooler is you can compare the offspring's awards (if there are
any) to the stats for the parents' awards. It will give you the size
range and where this flower falls withing that range.

No award photos but it does have photos from contributors and open
source drawings, like from Lindliana. So the parent trees show
thumbnail pictures if he has them. And not only one picture but
whatever he has. So click on C mossiae will bring up a variety of
color forms and drawings. Click on the thumbnail and the image
enlarges. Very cool. Now, its not like he has a ton of photos. Far
from it. But the feature will evolve, I hope, as people send in
pictures.
But aside from AOS awards, I mean, the list of what this disk does
goes on and on. When I looked at the web page it sorta was - I dunno
- I was mystified as to what was so great about the product that I'd
dump Wildcatt for this, or plunk down additional money for this. There
wasn't really anything on the webpage that made me want to buy
this. But I took a leap of faith. I think the web page is so vague
because you *can't* list everything this program does. Its like
trying to describe the taste of an apple. I'm sure as the word gets
out people will bring it to meetings and you'll be able to check it
out for yourselves.
Sheesh, it even has culture guides, LOL!! Based of parental species
makeup - and yes he cautions you that there's no guarantee of genetic
make up in a complex hybrid.

If you never needed Wildcatt you won't want to buy this either. You
can use the RHS database and you'll be OK. If you already have
Wildcatt and rarely use it, you won't need this either. Why bother?
For you its redundant. If you need to research parentage, breeding
lines, or awards this is the program to get.

I'm not connected with OrchidWiz, or anything. Heck I can't even
recall the name of the fellow who created the CD.

K Barrett

wendy7 wrote:
Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.




I was thinking of you when I wrote it. Ask for it for Christmas, *G*.

But let's say you *did* want to clean up your tags.(let's be frank, your
tags are a mess, LOL!! and we've known each other long enough that I can
say that and not hurt your feelings)

1) You could ask me.

2) You could search the RHS database. (The RHS database is a pain in the
neck because one has to spell out the genus, and I can never rememeber
if its sophrolaeliocattleya or sophrolaeliacattleya. I never know
whether there really *are* no results or if I misspelled the genus...)

3) You could use Wildcatt or OrchidWiz.

OrchidWiz allows you just to put in a name and every orchid with those
keystrokes anywhere in the name shows up. So for example we put in
'Winston Churchill' and came up with Paph Winston Churchill and we were
all amazed to find out there was a Lc Sir Winston Churchill. In
Wildcatt you'd never have found the cattleya cross because it only
searches in one section, like 'paphs', or 'dendrobiums'. Also in
OrchidWiz if there's a plant whose name has changed - like diacrum for
caulaurton (or however you spell it) that shows as a synomym. I have to
look to see if it lists all the changes the RHS has made to Oncidium.
Like Colmanara Wildcat is something else now. (Yes, it does! And shows
a cute little picture that you can enlarge to viewing size.)

Let's say you only remember the clonal name of an orchid. In Wildcatt if
you only knew the clonal name of an orchid you'd go to 'AQ search', in
'clonal' you'd type in 2 dots, the clonal name and 2 dots, click
'search' and see what comes up. I mean, why do you have to put 2 dots in
front and behind a clonal name in order to search? Here you click on
'search', a drop down menu offers a search on orchid, genus, cultivar
(Ray), or image. Or exhibitors only. You can check all of Wilford
Neptune's CCMs, *G*. (shows 100 awards.) What's interesting about
Wilford is sometimes he's Wilford, "MD" or "Dr." Wilford. In Wildcatt
you have to know which one you are searching for. Here you just type in
'Wilford' and all the Wilfords show.

So, I didn't mean to talk you out of it. Does this pique your interest
more?

K

In article DB%hf.9907$dv.7456@fed1read02,
says...
Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.


Well, I bought it and it came two days ago, but for some reason, it does
not like me and is refusing to start. Alex, poor guy, is on his
Thanksgiving vacation and trying to help me in spite of it! We'll get it
fixed once he gets back to his office.
The screen saver is nice, though.
--
--
Reka

This is LIFE! It's not a rehearsal. Don't miss it!
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html

Reka wrote:
In article DB%hf.9907$dv.7456@fed1read02,
says...

Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.



Well, I bought it and it came two days ago, but for some reason, it does
not like me and is refusing to start. Alex, poor guy, is on his
Thanksgiving vacation and trying to help me in spite of it! We'll get it
fixed once he gets back to his office.
The screen saver is nice, though.

Alex had to save me too. Loaded right up on my desktop, hated my
laptop. He sent another CD, no worries. I haven't tried the
screensaver. What's it do?

K Barrett

Thanks for the information, Kathy. This sounds like something we ought to
have for when the judges come calling to our show.

Diana

K - In case you do need to go to the RHS site in future (e.g, for things
too new to be in your latest update of Orchidwiz) -- just leave the genus
field blank. Much easier that way, although it will sometimes get you some
"extraneous" hits. I'd rather get extra than miss the right one, and it's
usually easy to sort them out [the exception being when the same grex name
has been to, say, a C. and a Blc. or Lc. -- a practice that I don't think
should be permitted, but apparently it is]. Kenni

2) You could search the RHS database. (The RHS database is a pain in the
neck because one has to spell out the genus, and I can never rememeber if
its sophrolaeliocattleya or sophrolaeliacattleya. I never know whether
there really *are* no results or if I misspelled the genus...)

In article ,
says...
Reka wrote:
In article DB%hf.9907$dv.7456@fed1read02,
says...

Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.



Well, I bought it and it came two days ago, but for some reason, it does
not like me and is refusing to start. Alex, poor guy, is on his
Thanksgiving vacation and trying to help me in spite of it! We'll get it
fixed once he gets back to his office.
The screen saver is nice, though.

Alex had to save me too. Loaded right up on my desktop, hated my
laptop. He sent another CD, no worries. I haven't tried the
screensaver. What's it do?

K Barrett

It cycles grex pics along with their parents. Gets me drooling to get
the program going.

Why didn't it like your laptop? My PC says "Cannot start your
application. The workgroup information file is missing or opened
exclusively by another user." I have tried just about everything I can
think of.

--
Reka

This is LIFE! It's not a rehearsal. Don't miss it!
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html

Yes Kathy & Frank knows how bad my tags are. You can't hurt my feelings,
I am thick skinned but very shy.....remember.
Yes you've got me going again. Sounds like the database was built
using Microsoft Access.
Will have to put it on my list for Santa.
--
Cheers Wendy

Remove PETERPAN for email reply
"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
wendy7 wrote:
Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.




I was thinking of you when I wrote it. Ask for it for Christmas, *G*.

But let's say you *did* want to clean up your tags.(let's be frank, your
tags are a mess, LOL!! and we've known each other long enough that I can
say that and not hurt your feelings)

1) You could ask me.

2) You could search the RHS database. (The RHS database is a pain in the
neck because one has to spell out the genus, and I can never rememeber if
its sophrolaeliocattleya or sophrolaeliacattleya. I never know whether
there really *are* no results or if I misspelled the genus...)

3) You could use Wildcatt or OrchidWiz.

OrchidWiz allows you just to put in a name and every orchid with those
keystrokes anywhere in the name shows up. So for example we put in
'Winston Churchill' and came up with Paph Winston Churchill and we were
all amazed to find out there was a Lc Sir Winston Churchill. In Wildcatt
you'd never have found the cattleya cross because it only searches in one
section, like 'paphs', or 'dendrobiums'. Also in OrchidWiz if there's a
plant whose name has changed - like diacrum for caulaurton (or however you
spell it) that shows as a synomym. I have to look to see if it lists all
the changes the RHS has made to Oncidium. Like Colmanara Wildcat is
something else now. (Yes, it does! And shows a cute little picture that
you can enlarge to viewing size.)

Let's say you only remember the clonal name of an orchid. In Wildcatt if
you only knew the clonal name of an orchid you'd go to 'AQ search', in
'clonal' you'd type in 2 dots, the clonal name and 2 dots, click 'search'
and see what comes up. I mean, why do you have to put 2 dots in front and
behind a clonal name in order to search? Here you click on 'search', a
drop down menu offers a search on orchid, genus, cultivar (Ray), or image.
Or exhibitors only. You can check all of Wilford Neptune's CCMs, *G*.
(shows 100 awards.) What's interesting about Wilford is sometimes he's
Wilford, "MD" or "Dr." Wilford. In Wildcatt you have to know which one you
are searching for. Here you just type in 'Wilford' and all the Wilfords
show.

So, I didn't mean to talk you out of it. Does this pique your interest
more?

K

Reka wrote:
In article ,
says...

Reka wrote:

In article DB%hf.9907$dv.7456@fed1read02,
says...


Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.



Well, I bought it and it came two days ago, but for some reason, it does
not like me and is refusing to start. Alex, poor guy, is on his
Thanksgiving vacation and trying to help me in spite of it! We'll get it
fixed once he gets back to his office.
The screen saver is nice, though.

Alex had to save me too. Loaded right up on my desktop, hated my
laptop. He sent another CD, no worries. I haven't tried the
screensaver. What's it do?

K Barrett


It cycles grex pics along with their parents. Gets me drooling to get
the program going.

Why didn't it like your laptop? My PC says "Cannot start your
application. The workgroup information file is missing or opened
exclusively by another user." I have tried just about everything I can
think of.



We figured the 1st CD didn't like the laptop's picky CD drive. It kept
installing halfway, them a variety of errors would come up: file not
found, Please confirm access. I'd click on retry and pfft. nada. Alex
sent a new CD and voila, no troubles.

K

Thanks Kenni! One of these days I'll tell you the story about tracking
down parentage for Odm. Rawdon Jester. Turns out another fellow and I
were both using the RHS database & getting completely different results.
We also both complained to Julian Shaw about it (unbeknownst to each
other.) Shaw must have thought we were crazy.

K

Kenni Judd wrote:
K - In case you do need to go to the RHS site in future (e.g, for things
too new to be in your latest update of Orchidwiz) -- just leave the genus
field blank. Much easier that way, although it will sometimes get you some
"extraneous" hits. I'd rather get extra than miss the right one, and it's
usually easy to sort them out [the exception being when the same grex name
has been to, say, a C. and a Blc. or Lc. -- a practice that I don't think
should be permitted, but apparently it is]. Kenni


2) You could search the RHS database. (The RHS database is a pain in the
neck because one has to spell out the genus, and I can never rememeber if
its sophrolaeliocattleya or sophrolaeliacattleya. I never know whether
there really *are* no results or if I misspelled the genus...)

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
Reka wrote:
In article ,
says...

Reka wrote:

In article DB%hf.9907$dv.7456@fed1read02,
says...


Good review writeup Kathy, I was going to buy it but now I will just
ask you! *G*
I will just stick to growing the plants etc.



Well, I bought it and it came two days ago, but for some reason, it
does
not like me and is refusing to start. Alex, poor guy, is on his
Thanksgiving vacation and trying to help me in spite of it! We'll get
it
fixed once he gets back to his office.
The screen saver is nice, though.

Alex had to save me too. Loaded right up on my desktop, hated my
laptop. He sent another CD, no worries. I haven't tried the
screensaver. What's it do?

K Barrett


It cycles grex pics along with their parents. Gets me drooling to get
the program going.

Why didn't it like your laptop? My PC says "Cannot start your
application. The workgroup information file is missing or opened
exclusively by another user." I have tried just about everything I can
think of.



We figured the 1st CD didn't like the laptop's picky CD drive. It kept
installing halfway, them a variety of errors would come up: file not
found, Please confirm access. I'd click on retry and pfft. nada. Alex
sent a new CD and voila, no troubles.

K

Sounds like a few bugs need to be fixed with the software.
Keith

Hi All, I have had Orchidwiz for a while-- didn't have any problem
installing it on Windows XP but I'm sure you will find Alex very
helpful if you do have a problem. The screensaver (that come free) is
fascinating. It shows a hybrid & it's parents & keeps changing. I can't
get passed Cattleyas but I'm sure there is more (seems to be endless) I
have noticed several people have added disclaimers saying they are not
in any way part of the company. I am not either. As a matter of fact I
had no clue who Alex was tho I go to the West Palm Judging a lot (he's
a student judge) I did introduce myself to him last judging. BUT I
probably sound like a salesman I'm so happy with this program. In a
previous post on this thread someone said "It kicks ass" Perfectly
stated !!! This program is an Orchid Wiz !! I'm sure it will be better
w/more photos but it has plenty now. Good Growing, Bill

In article , keith.kent3
@REMOVETHISntlworld.com says...
Sounds like a few bugs need to be fixed with the software.
Keith


No, Alex assumes my problem was a mistake on his part when burning the
CD. He is sending me a new one.
--
Reka

This is LIFE! It's not a rehearsal. Don't miss it!
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html

"Reka" wrote in message
.. .
In article , keith.kent3
@REMOVETHISntlworld.com says...
Sounds like a few bugs need to be fixed with the software.
Keith


No, Alex assumes my problem was a mistake on his part when burning the
CD. He is sending me a new one.
--
Reka

This is LIFE! It's not a rehearsal. Don't miss it!
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html

A bug with the software provider then.
Keith