Any Photoshop users out there will remember this like it was last year, which it was.
Back in the days of CS2, it was actually faster to run Photoshop on an old PowerPC machine than it was to run on an intel machine, because Adobe was late to the whole Intel party. Because the program was built in Carbon, they didn't have the option of clicking on that fancy button to build an app that would run natively in Cocoa on both PPC and Intel chips.
But, for CS3, they scraped and coded and pushed and prodded and beat it into shape so that Photoshop actually ran quite well on Intel Macs.
Well, yesterday, it came out via John Nack's blog that Carbon has bit them in the bottom once again, and by extension, all Photoshop users.
At last year's WWDC, says Nack, Apple announced that it was dropping it's efforts to create a 64-bit version of Carbon, which meant that Adobe had to drop plans for a 64 bit version of Photoshop for Mac, at least for CS4.
How important is 64 bit? In my life, not very. Not until I start seeing what it can do. Yes, they say it has the musclepower to open big files faster, and it will allow Photoshop to be bigger, stronger, faster. But how much bigger? How much better? How much faster? I guess we see when the next version of the software comes out what sort of gulf there is between the Windows and Mac version. Nack's blog seems to imply that it will be 8-12% faster.
I suspect in my life what it'll mean is not that I find a Windows box to use photoshop on, but at worst, I'll just skip a cycle of Photoshop. Heck, I skipped CS2, not that this'd be any different.
And, since Adobe is well aware of the problems and issues, I suspect that the Mac version will be optimized for what it can be. Will it be covered in 64 bit shiny goodness? Nope. But it will still rock.
I hope.
In the meantime, get ready for a couple years of name calling, flag waving, and yelling back and forth from users. Apple vs. Adobe. Mac vs PC. WoW players vs. Star Wars Galaxy fanboys....
Update:
Read all about the history of Apple and Adobe (and carbon and cocoa, and 32 bit and 64 bit) over at Ars. Gruber has his thoughts on the matter, too.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Getting on Macbreak, part Duh.
Ah.
Another idea.
Since I share first names with a well known tech-savvy musician, I will just let it be known out there that "Trent is interested in appearing on Macbreak Weekly." Considering how many times NIN has been mentioned on a TWIT network podcast, I'm sure that would get someone's attention. And, since everybody knows everybody on the internet....
It worked for Eddie Murphy in The Distinguished Gentleman, why can't it work for me?
So, start spreading the word. Trent wants to appear on Macbreak Weekly.
Six degrees of separation, don't fail me now....
Another idea.
Since I share first names with a well known tech-savvy musician, I will just let it be known out there that "Trent is interested in appearing on Macbreak Weekly." Considering how many times NIN has been mentioned on a TWIT network podcast, I'm sure that would get someone's attention. And, since everybody knows everybody on the internet....
It worked for Eddie Murphy in The Distinguished Gentleman, why can't it work for me?
So, start spreading the word. Trent wants to appear on Macbreak Weekly.
Six degrees of separation, don't fail me now....
Change of Plans: Getting on Macbreak
It is my stated goal in my profile to get on Macbreak Weekly. I've changed plans after listening to last week's Macbreak.
As some of you may know, I am in a band. And, like Patrick Wilson, I play drums.
So here's my three step rise to podcasting stardom:
1) Become a famous musician
2) Call Leo
3) Be on Macbreak....
As some of you may know, I am in a band. And, like Patrick Wilson, I play drums.
So here's my three step rise to podcasting stardom:
1) Become a famous musician
2) Call Leo
3) Be on Macbreak....
Lightroom 2.0
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/
I am so stoked. I am so hoping this isn't an April Fools joke. I am so downloading this right now.
I am so stoked. I am so hoping this isn't an April Fools joke. I am so downloading this right now.
Tip Tuesday: Safari and RSS
If you don't use RSS, you really need to. Rather than wasting your time going to your favourite sites to see if they've updated yet, RSS allows you to subscribe to the feed for your favourite sites,. When something new is added, a little number will pop up saying "there's a new article at one of your favourite sites".
It saves time, and it allows you to not miss an update at your favourite sites.
With 10.5, RSS has come to Mail.app, but with Safari 3.1, RSS is handled much more elegantly.
Easy Peasy. Open up your favourite site in Safari. If the page has an RSS feed, there will be a little blue RSS in the right hand corner of your address box.
Click on that. The page will suddenly roll over, and you'll see a white page with text and maybe some images on, but it doesn't look like the website at all. Don't worry. This is the feed, which pushes out the content of the page, not the design. You will see a shortened version of all the articles on the page, followed by a "read more." If you click on read more, or on the title of the story, you will be taken to the actual page of the actual website, where you can read the full story.
Now over on the right hand side of the page, you will see some options.
Search Articles: Allows you to search articles for key words. Like iPhone, or Classic.
Article Length: Allows you to determine how much or little of the feed you will display, ranging from just the headline to the full article.
Sort by: Allows you to determine how you sort the articles. I like to sort by New, so that new articles show up at the top.
Recent Articles: Allows you to determine how long you are going to look back for new articles, and how long they articles are going to remain in your RSS reader. I usually choose seven days.
Source: Where is this feed coming from. Clicking on the link allows you to go back to the main page for your favourite site.
Actions: Allows you to do things with the feed. Default is Mail Link to this page, which is pretty useless. Click on it to open up a mail message with a list of feeds.
Okay. But what good does this do you? You're looking at a graphically poor version of the page that you were just looking at.
Well, here's how it works. Take and drag the little grey box beside the feed URL down into your bookmark bar. Type a name for the bookmark. Now, any time your favourite site adds a new article, a number will appear in brackets beside the name you put in the bookmark bar.
But what if you're like me and have a hundred different places you have feeds from? Again. Easy enough. Simply right click in the bookmark bar and select new folder. Give the folder a name, like "feeds". Now, instead of dragging new articles down into the bar itself, drag them into the folder. This creates what is known as a feed aggregate, which is simply a collection of feeds organized into one place. To view them, you can left click or right click on the folder. I prefer to right click, as "View All RSS articles" is the first option, whereas if you left click, it is the second to last option.
If that is too course an aggregation for you, you can do what I do: I create multiple folders. News goes into one folder, photography related news into another. A third holds all my mac news, a fourth, design, a fifth personal.
Here is the actual tip, though. Open up Safari:Preferences RSS, and you can set a variety of options here. Default RSS Reader, Automatically update articles in: Check for Updates, Remove articles, and the new one: Color New Articles. This is new to Safari 3 or 3.1, and it allows you to color all the new articles since you last checked. This means that if you have a feed like digg, which has 100 new articles a day, you can see where the new ones end, and the old ones begin.
You will note that this page right here has one of those fancy RSS feed icons in the corner. Go ahead. Give it a try. And let me know how it works.
Have any questions? Suggestions for a Tuesday Tip? Leave a comment.
It saves time, and it allows you to not miss an update at your favourite sites.
With 10.5, RSS has come to Mail.app, but with Safari 3.1, RSS is handled much more elegantly.
How to use RSS.
Easy Peasy. Open up your favourite site in Safari. If the page has an RSS feed, there will be a little blue RSS in the right hand corner of your address box.
Click on that. The page will suddenly roll over, and you'll see a white page with text and maybe some images on, but it doesn't look like the website at all. Don't worry. This is the feed, which pushes out the content of the page, not the design. You will see a shortened version of all the articles on the page, followed by a "read more." If you click on read more, or on the title of the story, you will be taken to the actual page of the actual website, where you can read the full story.
Now over on the right hand side of the page, you will see some options.
Search Articles: Allows you to search articles for key words. Like iPhone, or Classic.
Article Length: Allows you to determine how much or little of the feed you will display, ranging from just the headline to the full article.
Sort by: Allows you to determine how you sort the articles. I like to sort by New, so that new articles show up at the top.
Recent Articles: Allows you to determine how long you are going to look back for new articles, and how long they articles are going to remain in your RSS reader. I usually choose seven days.
Source: Where is this feed coming from. Clicking on the link allows you to go back to the main page for your favourite site.
Actions: Allows you to do things with the feed. Default is Mail Link to this page, which is pretty useless. Click on it to open up a mail message with a list of feeds.
Okay. But what good does this do you? You're looking at a graphically poor version of the page that you were just looking at.
Well, here's how it works. Take and drag the little grey box beside the feed URL down into your bookmark bar. Type a name for the bookmark. Now, any time your favourite site adds a new article, a number will appear in brackets beside the name you put in the bookmark bar.
But what if you're like me and have a hundred different places you have feeds from? Again. Easy enough. Simply right click in the bookmark bar and select new folder. Give the folder a name, like "feeds". Now, instead of dragging new articles down into the bar itself, drag them into the folder. This creates what is known as a feed aggregate, which is simply a collection of feeds organized into one place. To view them, you can left click or right click on the folder. I prefer to right click, as "View All RSS articles" is the first option, whereas if you left click, it is the second to last option.
If that is too course an aggregation for you, you can do what I do: I create multiple folders. News goes into one folder, photography related news into another. A third holds all my mac news, a fourth, design, a fifth personal.
Here is the actual tip, though. Open up Safari:Preferences RSS, and you can set a variety of options here. Default RSS Reader, Automatically update articles in: Check for Updates, Remove articles, and the new one: Color New Articles. This is new to Safari 3 or 3.1, and it allows you to color all the new articles since you last checked. This means that if you have a feed like digg, which has 100 new articles a day, you can see where the new ones end, and the old ones begin.
You will note that this page right here has one of those fancy RSS feed icons in the corner. Go ahead. Give it a try. And let me know how it works.
Have any questions? Suggestions for a Tuesday Tip? Leave a comment.
Well, that is a bit of a shock....
I tend to view any news that comes out on this day of duplicity, but CBC wouldn't pull anything on us, would they?
In a recent story, they dropped two bombshells:
Paul Allen is backing Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc's proposal
and
Niagara Networks has dropped out of the race.
Niagara, if you remember, is the company that everyone suspected might be backed by AT&T or T-Mobile. They had the largest bid in, and were poised to take on the role of fourth major carrier.
What does this all mean?
It means that when bidding starts on May 27, things will be interesting, but not as interesting as it might have been. The largest bidder still left in the auction (after Rogers) is a numbered company: 1380057 Alberta Ltd., with a $400 million deposit.
The company is 100% owned by Shaw Cable, who have already warned us not to get too excited, as they might not be bidding on the spectrum to set up cellular service. Instead, they might sit on the spectrum or partner up with another company (can you say Rogers?).
Of course, they could turn around and partner with a T-Mobile, allowing the latter to do the heavy lifting of building the network, but my money is on them sitting on the bandwidth for at least a few years. Meaning that we'll see nothing happen.
There are still some major bidders in the auction (Quebecor, MTS Allstream), so here's hoping....
In a recent story, they dropped two bombshells:
Paul Allen is backing Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc's proposal
and
Niagara Networks has dropped out of the race.
Niagara, if you remember, is the company that everyone suspected might be backed by AT&T or T-Mobile. They had the largest bid in, and were poised to take on the role of fourth major carrier.
What does this all mean?
It means that when bidding starts on May 27, things will be interesting, but not as interesting as it might have been. The largest bidder still left in the auction (after Rogers) is a numbered company: 1380057 Alberta Ltd., with a $400 million deposit.
The company is 100% owned by Shaw Cable, who have already warned us not to get too excited, as they might not be bidding on the spectrum to set up cellular service. Instead, they might sit on the spectrum or partner up with another company (can you say Rogers?).
Of course, they could turn around and partner with a T-Mobile, allowing the latter to do the heavy lifting of building the network, but my money is on them sitting on the bandwidth for at least a few years. Meaning that we'll see nothing happen.
There are still some major bidders in the auction (Quebecor, MTS Allstream), so here's hoping....
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