Is it just me or is fffound, reddit and digg suddenly filled with the same crap over and over again instead of new content? What is afoot? Are the Corps moving in and rehashing themselves with scripts instead of user generated NEW content?
I think I found a fix!
Macintosh Performance Guide: Configuring Photoshop
Bigger Tiles is criticalThe Bigger Tiles plugin in particular is absolutely critical to performance. Using Photoshop CS4 11.0.1, I measured these bizarre results with and without Bigger Tiles on both a 2.8GHz 2008 Mac Pro and a 2.93GHz 2009 Mac Pro Nehalem. I confirmed with Rob-Art at barefeats.com that same behavior; the culprit seems to be the Smart Sharpen function, which runs far more slowly without Bigger Tiles.
I ran into this page yesterday and since installing these plug ins CS4 has stopped it's constant crashing. Oh man, I spent hours on the phone with Adobe tech support and never got a good answer. I rebuilt this system from the ground up to try and resolve the crashing. So if you have problems with Photoshop CS4 crashing constantly, try installing these little guys.
On a side note, some other things I have recently learned:
Itunes Genius function will crash your itunes on launch if you are not connected to the internet. My ISP went down on Saturday and that meant no music for me since it would not launch. Turn that crap off. Good luck on turning Genius off if you have no internet by the way.
If you highlight a word on the New York Times web site you will get a little question mark that will open a definition of that word. Pretty slick.
Not Paradise by the dashboard lights
Disable Dashboard | Utilities | Mac OS X Hints | Macworld
There may be other reasons you’d rather not have Dashboard available. For instance, if you run a lab of Macs in a school, you may not want the students wasting all their work time on the Asteroids video game widget or watching the (I am not making this up) Goblet of Fire movie release date countdown Widget. If you’d like to disable Dashboard, for either RAM usage or other reasons, here’s how to do it. It requires a trip to the Terminal, in /Applications/Utilities, but it’s not too hard to do.
How to kill the Dashboard once and for all!
In praise of booooze.
' I drink, therefore I can', Prospect Magazine issue 158 May 2009 - Printer Friendly Article
The Colorado study tested the DNA of moderate-to-heavy drinking students to determine whether they had the G-variant gene. They were divided into two groups accordingly, before having alcohol injected directly into the bloodstream (to eliminate differences in absorption rate). Those with the G-variant produced a slightly different version of what is known as the mu-opioid protein, which elicits a stronger response in the brain. As a result they reported stronger feelings of happiness and elation after their shot of alcohol. This initial euphoria is usually followed by a longer state of relaxation, lasting several hours. For those with the G-variant, this period aids the creative process. Perhaps the odd additional tipple might be needed to keep the fire burning, although too much further consumption douses the flames prematurely, inducing lethargy.The effect of alcohol on this group is not the same as an opiate. The euphoria is much less pronounced than, say, heroin, while alcohol still exerts depressive effects. A drink too many and the soporific effect predominates, overwhelming the endorphins and sending even the G-variant drinker to sleep. This may be why Francis Bacon, by his own admission, worked well after a few drinks, but not when drunk.
The creative effect of alcohol, then, seems to involve a delicate counterpoint between stimulation and relaxation. Unlike some side-effects of drink, such as its tendency to make some people morose or violent, this endorphin release is positive and pleasant to behold. People with this gene variant also seem more prone to alcoholism, perhaps engaging in an increasingly vain pursuit of the highs they used to experience after the first drink or two.
There once was a saying uttered among my friends in younger days, "There ain't nothing I do I can't do better drunk."
Now the saying is more along the lines of, "I need a nap."
The moral? Don't get old. Great link though....
Drobo sucks, do not buy, reason #2352643
When I run DiskWarrior, I get a message that says "speed reduced by disk malfunction". What does this mean?Answer
The message "speed reduced by disk malfunction" means there is a problem reading data from the disk due to a disk malfunction.
The Drobo is consumer grade trash. Do not buy it ever.
Drobo, uh oh.
Are you familiar with Drobo? That link gos right to the support page because you are going to need it if you own one. Google "Drobo won't mount, but shows up in Dashboard". Basically, it disconnects and then won't remount but I can see it in the Dashboard app. I can even get it to blink it's lights at me and see it in Disk Utility app. But it won't mount come hell or high water. To fix it I shut down the computer, unplug the firewire cable from the Drobo, wait for it to go to standby mode (one light), then unplug the Drobo power cord. Wait 20 seconds or so and plug the cord back in to power it up. Meanwhile I boot up the compter and launch Dashboard. Once the Drobo is done booting I plug the Firewire cable back in and have 60% chance it will show up. Repeat if it does not. Not exactly fun.
This time after doing this I get some Dashboard red lights saying it's going to take 100 hours to rebuild and data protection is in progress. The tech support person blames the new WD Caviar Green drives. Saying any of them could be bad. So by their logic you are adding more possibilities for failure by having more hard drives in a RAID? Really? Is that not the opposite reason for running a RAID?
I also found out that Drobo uses a proprietary RAID system. So if it does crash, you can't get your data back witout another Drobo bay to plug them into. Not cool. Time to go back to a bank of mirrored hard drives as a back up. One fails I can pull it and still have data. I have been using eSATA Drive Enclosures by Mac Gurus for about 5 years now and have never had a hiccup. Been using Drobo since Sept 08 and have had to call tech support 3-4 times and now I have a serious system crash on my hands that I can't do anything about for 100 hours till it gets done with it's rebuild.
This Drobo does not inspire confidence. If a car keeps breaking down you are not gonna take it cross country on a road trip. The Drobo keeps breaking down, I don't trust it with long term storage needs.
And to people who say RAID is not backup, yeah I know, but it's part of my redundancy here and I use it as my library in Lightroom and iView Media. So shush. The idea of having to rebuild those libraries over the weekend while finding another back up solution to phase out the Drobo is not fun.
Awesome
NOVA | Astrospies | Watch the Program | PBS
ASIF SIDDIQI (Author): You don't want to cause a provocation, and you don't want to be shot down, you know? What's the answer? Well, you go up into space.
Watch it now. Via boingboing.net
A life well wasted
Robert Ashley wonders why he spends his free time playing videogames, asks random people on the street about it, talks to a researcher whose work attempts to harness the brain power wasted on gaming, gets to know an eccentric, forward-thinking game designer who lives sustainably with his family of four on $14,000 a year, and gets a first-hand account of what it’s like to work on terrible games (and what it’s like to get terrible reviews) from an anonymous game developer.
ScribeFire goes to the dark side
ScribeFire, Zemanta, and a hidden tracking image at Simon Scullion
A comment on Brent’s blog explained how to deselect this “option” in the ScribeFire settings, under the ‘Publishing’ tab, look for ‘Automatically insert invisible tracking pixel for statistics gathering’.
So I noticed scribefire adding this shit to my posts recently and a little googling came up with this nice gents site explaining it and how to kill it. The offending gif it loads is "zemanta-pixie-img". Thats just not cool to me. If it plugs this code into all my posts there is nothing stopping them from changing that into a banner ad.
Bad Scribefire, very bad. Now go to your room.
The rise of smart drugs
A Reporter at Large: Brain Gain: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
And yet when enthusiasts share their vision of our neuroenhanced future it can sound dystopian. Zack Lynch, of NeuroInsights, gave me a rationale for smart pills that I found particularly grim. “If you’re a fifty-five-year-old in Boston, you have to compete with a twenty-six-year-old from Mumbai now, and those kinds of pressures are only going to grow,” he began. Countries other than the U.S. might tend to be a little looser with their regulations, and offer approval of new cognitive enhancers first. “And if you’re a company that’s got forty-seven offices worldwide, and all of a sudden your Singapore office is using cognitive enablers, and you’re saying to Congress, ‘I’m moving all my financial operations to Singapore and Taiwan, because it’s legal to use those there,’ you bet that Congress is going to say, ‘Well, O.K.’ It will be a moot question then. It would be like saying, ‘No, you can’t use a cell phone. It might increase productivity!’ ”
From Metafilter.
And I do not know where I stand on this. One side of me wants to throw the towel in and just say the Rat Race is officially past me by and fuck it. Now you have to take drugs to get ahed in the job market? BAH! Then another says, wouldn't it be great to get my brain fired up like it was when I was 16? There is a scary and a fun side to it but knowing human nature I'll go with the scary side prevailing.
New Tattoo gun?!
Traditional electric coil tattoo machines have barely evolved since their invention in the late 1800's. Still in wide use today, these machines are heavy, awkward, loud, temperamental, and, worst of all, they can't be sterilized in medical grade autoclave machines. This significantly increases chances of spreading blood-borne disease.Dissatisfied with traditional coil machines, award-winning tattoo artist and inventor Carson Hill set out to create a completely new kind of tattoo technology--the first air-powered tattoo machine.
Iphone pic test
Testing out the wordpress app for the iPhone. This is a shot from Monday up on mt tabor. Nice bike ride...
Future May Be Brighter, but It's Apocalypse Now
Garfield: 'Chaos Scenario' Has Arrived for Media, Marketing - Advertising Age - News
The post-advertising age is under way.This isn't about the end of commerce or the end of marketing or news or entertainment. All of the above are finding new expressions online, and in time will flourish thanks to the very digital revolution that is now ravaging them. The future is bright. But the present is apocalyptic. Any hope for a seamless transition -- or any transition at all -- from mass media and marketing to micro media and marketing are absurd.
The sky is falling, the frog in the pot has come to a boil and, oh yeah, we are, most of us, exquisitely, irretrievably fucked.
For future thought
It’s probably fair to say that because of CGI, traditional studio photography will begin to fade away in the next couple of years. But to make great ‘photographic’ images, as with retouching, a healthy relationship between the CGI studio and photographer still needs to be a part of the image creation process. The role of the photographer is simply evolving, as is ours from just a retouching studio to a full creative production facility. Whilst we have a strong grasp of photographic technique, it’s preferable in many cases to also have a photographer’s eye looking over an image, as they can often help define the lighting and camera angles and spot errors that the untrained eye can’t always see.
So I am on the fence about this one. I was one of the first to call out the end of Photo Labs back in the 90's, but I don't know if photography will go away. I saud all the labs around will go away and there will be a few custom labs left around to do high end art stuff and thats it. Which is pretty much where we are at.
But this discussion about the death of photography we hear now is based on two fronts:
One, video is killing photography. Everything will be motion based and print is dead.
Two, CGI is killing photography. Why have shoot a product when you can just 3d render it.
Here is my main thought on both of these discussions. MONEY.
It all begins and ends with money. You think a retoucher is expensive and time consuming? Have a 3d model built and see what that runs. You think renting a studio for a still shoot is expensive? Add on all the hot lights and grips you need for a motion shoot. Plus sound and video editing. These are more expensive by factors of two all around. Don't forget that all of this take way more time to produce as well and time is money. You are not walking away from the shoot with a rough edit of the commercial to show the client the next day. That is weeks away. Same with 3d for any kind of decent rendering.
So I do not really see photography going away really. but on higher end shoots I see these other aspects being incorporated in the bag of tricks one uses to achieve a final goal. Video for "Harry Potter Newpaper-esque" loops on websites and 3d for incorporating impossible to achieve effects.
Me want
New Derringer Motorized Bicycles
Derringer is the neo-classical interpretation of a 1920's era board track racing motorcycle, but that's not all.This revolutionary moto-hybrid was conceived as an exciting new option in highly-efficient transportation. Derringers can be pedaled as a traditional bicycle, propelled via engine power, or pedaled with the assistance of engine power. While under power, the pedals can also remain stationary, allowing you to operate in the style of a traditional motorcycle. Capable of fuel economy ratings that can exceed 150 mpg, Derringers are the first product to take the compromise out of environmentalism, clearly evidenced by the number of customers who purchase a Derringer along with an in-home display stand.
Derringers were specially designed to conform with the legal classification of a motorized bicycle and, in their standard configuration, do not require the motorcycle license endorsement that is necessary to operate scooters and mopeds in most states. As long as the rider is over 16 years of age, no drivers license is required.*
Man, one of these would be cool as hell.
Font maker?
Font Generator - Make Your Own Handwriting Font With Your Fonts
# Your own handwriting turned into your very own font for free # Optionally include your signature and digitally sign your contracts # You'll have your very own font within 15 minutes # Make as many fonts as you like # Use your fonts on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux # Personalize your digital scrapbook pages and invitations # Make your own "family handwriting history" # Use your fonts in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and every program that you own
So this is interesting. Blogging it here to come back and test so I don't lose the link. I'll let you know how the results come out.
New Wacoms.
Working Under PressureWith 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, Intuos4 gives you the creative power to dynamically adjust exposure, brush size, line weight, opacity and more. The Keys To Success
Work smarter not harder. Set-up the Intuos4 ExpressKeys™ to activate your own unique, time-saving shortcuts and modifiers in each of your applications. With Intuos4, remembering your shortcut settings is now as easy as casting a quick glance at the tablet. Each ExpressKey is now equipped with an accompanying illuminated display providing a constant reminder of the key's application-specific function.*
Interesting....
I wonder how this effects the Cintiq line?
A good idea.
How to Test RAM Under Mac OS X | Command-Tab
Memtest Usage To run memtest on a new memory module, first shut down your computer and install the new chip. (Some helpful guides for doing this can be found at iFixit, if you’re unsure of the exact steps.) Ensure the chip is firmly in place, close up your machine (or don’t, if you’re a pessimist), and power it on while holding down the Command and S keys to force Mac OS X to boot into Single User Mode. Once you see a black screen with white text, you can release the key combination. After all the system logging is done scrolling past, type memtest all 2 to test ‘all’ memory ‘2′ times. Two passes should be enough to detect any blatant problems, but I wouldn’t hesitate to let it run for hours on end if I suspected an intermittent memory problem (memtest all). When complete, you should be greeted with “All tests passed” if your new RAM is in good condition. If your system locks up or freezes indefinitely during the test, you may have a bad memory module on your hands.
addicted to information
"And I do believe we are becoming addicted to information. You only need to look at those people who have hard drives filled with songs that they have never even listened to. They are not even collecting music. They are collecting information. And the more people become addicted to information and the faster they can obtain that information, the less they will be able to contemplate that information, and it is the contemplation of the information which makes it art."An argument I've heard advanced is that there's been a general devaluing of music in recent years - not merely in economic terms and expectations, but as a more central role or defining marker of what makes a person and who they are. What would be your take on this assertion?
BC: "I do believe that music is generally being devalued because of this addiction to information that I was speaking of. I like to compare it to a drive through the countryside. If you are driving at a comfortable pace then you are able to enjoy the sights of the countryside for yourself; the trees and the color of the sky and the sad-eyed cows, etc. If you are driving 100 miles per hour, there is no way you will be able to enjoy what the countryside has to offer. You will be too busy reacting to contemplate; the potholes, the corners, the lone farmer's truck.
Oh, I know the pain....
Me moaning about shoddy UI inconsistencies and mistakes in Adobe products and how they get shittier with every release.
For the record I can not use CS4 with my comp for unknown reasons. I have been on support calls with Adobe and they say I have a unique case after going through hell and back.