this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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I think the proprietary version MS distributes does send telemetry data to them but I personally just use VSCodium, which is based on the open source VS Code version.
Probably. I have no doubt that Lens (the aforementioned tool I used to use) does. In the career I had, I had to give up the telemetry, because I had to use Lens. There is literally no practical alternative. Sometimes, you just have to pay that cost. Heck, I'd have bought a telemetry-free alternative from someone else if it worked as well, and if anyone offered one. Which they don't.
I'm beating that dead horse because it baffles me everytime I think about it that, in a veritable app ocean of calculator, chat, and everything else, Lens is apparently unique.
Is Lens just an app to scan documents using only your phone camera or does it something else that makes it so useful? I sometimes need to scan stuff like that too but haven't find something good that's open source.
Lens is, among other things, a camera app that recognizes whiteboards, auto-crops to the whiteboard, and auto-corrects the perspective. It can also clean the image, removing smudges and dry-erase dirt, and do basic color adjustment and B/W conversion. It's designed specifically for whiteboards, but works on documents. And then, when the image is cleaned, it makes sharing via email directly from the app particularly easy - sure, it only removes 2 or 3 clicks, but it does streamline the process.
It's pretty amazing at what it does. When you're in a tight space and have to take a picture of a whiteboard at some absurdly acute angle, it works miracles. I've never had it not impress a coworker who's never seen it do its thing.
I don't know who MS acquired to get it, but it's simply a fantastic program with no competition.
I don't like using proprietary software but this does sound really useful. In school I take my notes on a laptop but oftentimes I need to take pictures of sheets or the whiteboard to put it in my notes, which always looks really bad. I might check this out for that purpose. I tried to find something open source that could do this but haven't found anything either.
Believe me, I've tried many times over the years to find an alternative; no dice. However, if you do find something, please try to remember me!