Related link: https://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/02/28/yahoo.html

Yahoo! have launched Web services interfaces to their Web search, images, local, news, and video. And Paul Bausch, author of Amazon Hacks, provides an introduction to the Y!WS and the Yahoo! Developer Network being launched as a resource center for independent developers interested in taking the new Yahoo! platform for a spin. (Paul is also getting rolling as author of the forthcoming Yahoo! Hacks, due out this summer.)

Until recently there were only two methods for effectively automating outdoor lights. The first, replace your existing outlets or switches with X10-controllable versions, is the cleanest, but also the most expensive and labor-intensive approach.

The second method is to throw caution to the wind and use indoor-rated X10 modules with the best weather-proofing that you can manage. This actually works pretty well, and there are lots of approaches to make the modules last longer and remain safe, while exposed to the elements. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a mild climate like California, its said that a sturdy ZipLock bag that’s elevated from the ground (to avoid standing water) will protect a module for a couple of years or more. (See Hack #59 - Use Indoor Modules in the Great Outdoors in Smart Home Hacks for more discussion of this and other ideas.)

But if you aren’t comfortable with either approach, a new home automation kit from Black & Decker provides what looks like an even better solution. Their Freewire Outdoor Light Starter Kit includes two very interesting lamp modules that are molded directly into an extension cord. In other words, the X10 “brains” (if you’ll pardon the expression) are part of an outdoor-rated power cord. What a great idea.

The kit comes with more than just the lamp modules, and you’ll be able to press the extras into service for your inside lights or other project. But the real gems here are the corded modules; use them for any type of light that you need to control, and with the appropriate cautions, appliances such as fountains, radios, and mechanized snowmen.

What sorts of applications do you see for these modules?

Related link: https://www.apple.com/ipod/

Apple updated their iPod lineup today. They added a $249 6GB iPod Mini and reduced the price of the 4GB model to $199. They’ve also dropped the gold color from their line up and made the remaining three colors more vibrant. The “silver” iPod Mini remains unchanged – it still matches the aluminum used in Apple’s other products.

Apple has made efforts to correct the problems with their iPod Photo. They’re offering a new 30GB version that is much slimmer than the outgoing 40GB. It is only six one-hundreths of an inch thicker than the 20GB iPod. This is a huge (or is that small) deal. The old 40GB iPod Photo seemed ridiculously thick in comparison to their normal iPod models. There was a staggering visual difference if you looked at the two lying next to each other in an Apple Store. I’m glad to see Apple working on slimming the Photo models down.

They also reduced prices on their iPod Photos. The new 30GB iPod Photo is now only $50 more than the standard iPod at $349. And the 60GB model gets a $150 price drop to $449. The 40GB iPod Photo has been discontinued along with the 40GB iPod.

Most importantly, the iPod Photo was a disappointment for serious (amateur and professional) digital photographers. Sure, you could display photos on it and use it to display photos on a television. But, the most important feature was the one that wasn’t there. There was no good way to get pictures out of your camera and into the iPod. Today Apple announced a device called the iPod Camera Connector that will connect directly to an iPod Photo (including older models) and to a digital camera. It will allow you to store up to 60GB of photos in the field without adding a lot of bulk to your camera bag. You’ll also now be able to view these photos on the iPod – something you couldn’t do with the expensive, bulky, and slow Belkin devices. This device will also work with older iPod Photo models.

Apple has not yet revealed the transfer rates that can be expected with this device nor whether it will require its own power source. Apple Vice President Greg Joswiak has described the device as being similar in size and appearance to a shrunken dock with cables that connect to the iPod and camera. No photographs of the device are available from Apple at this time.

What do you think of the improved iPods?

Apple today announced a fresh line-up of iPod products, although not the Bluetooth-enabled models some people might have been hoping for.

In short, the new products are:

• Second generation iPod mini, now in new colors. Available with 4GB or 6GB disks. 18 hour battery life. USB power recharging.
• Slimmer iPod photo models at 30GB and 60GB. Both suitable for use with the forthcoming iPod Camera Connector (see below)
• iPod Camera Connector announced — not available until March. This cheap (19 UK pounds — about 30 US dollars) gadget allows digital photographers to archive full-size images to their iPods while on the move, for transfer to computer later.

The 40GB iPod and the yellow iPod mini have disappeared.

The new color iPod minis now have matching icons on the clickwheel and a matching armband, iPod shuffle style.

Of all of today’s announcements, the Camera Connector sounds like the most interesting — certainly a dream come true for a lot of photographers, professional and amateur.

Anyone who bought an iPod mini in the last couple of weeks, rant here

Related link: https://www.apple.com/

The much discussed Bluetooth capability is missing but the good news is you get more for less.

The iPod mini is now available in a 6GB size for the same price as the (now) old 4GB model, $249. And for $199 you can pick up the 4GB model. The only other change appears to be the dropping of the gold iPod mini.

The other changes appear in the iPod Photo line. Apple is pricing these models much more aggressively, at $349 for the 30GB model. The 60GB model has dropped down to $449, $150 less than the price yesterday which is quite a significant drop.

The most interesting new item to appear is a cable (available in late-March) that will allow users to connect their digital cameras directly to the iPod Photo to transfer images. Belkin must be unhappy, but this is good news for digital photographers.

Are you going to get the new iPods?

For some years now, I’ve been using the Gallery webapp to store my digital photos online, and share them with friends and random web surfers.

When I was on a puny dial-up connection all the time, I found this to be more than a chore. For a while, I gave up on Gallery altogether, preferring to make web galleries with the built-in controls in Photoshop Elements and upload them all in one go; it seemed less hassle to do it that way.

But once I got myself a wireless broadband connection, everything changed. Now adding photos to Gallery could be much swifter.

But even the web interface is a pain when uploading dozens of images. Having seen and experienced the wonders of Flickr, almost all other photo-related webapps start to look shabby, as though they’re lagging behind.

Not exactly eye-candy: Gallery Remote

Thank goodness a friend reminded me of Gallery Remote, an app designed to do all the preparation for Gallery albums on your client machine; once you’ve chosen your images, captioned them and edited them to your liking, GR does the fiddly work of creating a new album and uploading everything into it.

The great thing about this is that it really does make using Gallery easy and much swifter than before; I end up with decent albums of images for much less effort.

While it does the job for managing the pictures, Gallery Remote itself is not what you’d call eye-candy; it’s a cross-platform Java application, and frankly looks horrible compared to a lot of other OS X apps. But once your eyes have adjusted and you’ve got used to the creaky interface, it’s a good way of working with a Gallery installation.

From what I can make out, version 2.0 of Gallery is not far off and will hopefully bring some improvements to the app. Flickr has changed the scenery for presentation of photos online, and set new standards for the other webapps to reach. Let’s hope Gallery isn’t too far behind.

Where would you like to see Gallery go next?

In yesterday’s report, I sang the praises of the 4-megapixel Kodak EasyShare-one and a handful of other interesting finds at the PMA 2005 show in Orlando. Today, I have more treasure to share.

Casio’s EX-P505 is the first offering from the digital photography pioneer that’s caused my blood to stir in a while. Despite its compact size, it feels great in the hands — very comfortable. It has a 5-megapixel sensor, 5X optical zoom, great macro capability, pop-up flash, long battery life, and excellent responsiveness.

But what truly thrills me is its outstanding MPEG-4 capability. The 640×480 at 30fps playback is gorgeous and very natural looking. Casio has incorporated lots of innovative movie features into this camera to make it equally adept at video recording as it is for taking still pictures. The website says that movie playback is not supported on a Mac, but iPhoto 5 should be able to grab the video and QuickTime should be able to play it. (Apple, please look at this camera now and make sure iPhoto/QT is compatible with it — it’s a winner!) Even before you upload the data, the swivel-out 2″ LCD is beautiful and an enjoyable way to watch your movies. You can also plug the camera into a TV, VCR, or digital camcorder. Casio says that the EX-P505 will be out in March for around $400.

If color management of your pictures has been driving you crazy, you might like the solutions from Xrite, especially their MonacoOPTIX colorimeter and the MonacoEZcolor software for printer profiles. This system works on both Mac and Windows, CRT and LCD monitors. For about $500 you can easily calibrate and match color among devices, without having to be a color scientist to do so.

I discovered one of my favorite gizmos of the day at the LensPen booth. I was already familiar with their handy cleaning pens for digital camera and camera phone optics and LCDs. But their new product, the Panamatic, is a low-cost solution for creating 360-degree VRs or panoramas with a digital camera. You simply mount the Panamatic on the tripod, attach the camera, use the bubble level to get things straight, then take a picture and rotate your camera one click-stop on the Panamatic. The result is a series of pictures with very little difference in height alignment — perfect for stitching things together later on the computer. And the best part? You can buy it right there on their website for $25.

Now, if I only had that Casio EX-P505 to mount on the Panamatic…

Anyone who has read some of my previous scribblings may remember that I have something of an interest in text editing software. If anything, that’s an understatement. I’m fascinated by tools for writers, as well as the whole process of finding and using different tools for different writing tasks.

Earlier this week, simply because it was something that had got buried in a darkened part of my todo.txt file some time ago, I got round to installing and trying out the writing and organizing tool DEVONnote, and found myself surprised and impressed by what I saw.

Why? Because, like the TAO outliner I mentioned back in October last year, it turns out to be a very impressive environment for writing in.

Here’s DEVONnote at work, with the file browser to the left and an open text file in the workspace

There are several features that give it the edge.

1. A live word, paragraph and character count above every text document, always in sight and always up-to-date. It’s invaluable.
   
2. It works like an outliner, so if your list of things to do equates to a list of things to write, you can get yourself organized very quickly by creating a series of nested folders.
3. It’s fast. One of the most disappointing things about any editor or word processor is when, after using it for a few hours, you discover that it can’t keep up with normal typing speed; you notice the software is a few characters, or in worst cases, words behind you. DEVONnote does not suffer this problem at all.
4. It’s clever. Although I don’t anticipate using them much, DEVONnote’s searching and collating features are amazing. I imported four years’ worth of articles relating to a regular internet column I write for the Press Association. DEVONnote sucked them all in within seconds, and instantly offered me the chance to search through them as a group. I was able to find out, quickly and easily, how many times I’ve written about Firefox, for example. And yes, I know I could do this with plain text files and grep, but then I’d have to think. DEVONnote takes the thinking bit away from me and lets me concentrate on the writing.

I like the way DEVONnote lets me use standard plain text files (you can use rtf files if you like), so in the event that I should decide to stop using the app, I can move everything out of it and into another editor with ease.

What I came to realize, while lying in bed turning these thoughts over in my head, was that DEVONnote is very nearly the BBoutliner I talked about before. You can, if you wish, ignore all the search-based extras and use it as a plain text outliner; and since it’s a fast and capable editor, you won’t feel like you’re abandoning the blissful simplicity of a Proper Editor.

I say “very nearly” because of course, DEVONnote isn’t quite everything I need. One of my main requirements is to write articles in HTML, and frankly nothing touches BBEdit or TextWrangler on that score.

But I am tempted to put DEVONnote to work as a drafting environment; an app I can use just to churn out words (in the right amounts, thanks to the live word count) before pasting them into BBEdit for final conversion to HTML, or (in the case of my personal site, saving directly to a server via SFTP.

If I do that, will I miss the simplicity of my trusty plain text file in which I currently do (almost) everything? (Current size of said file: 1532 lines.) The only way to find out is to try it.

Have you tried DEVONnote or its big brother, DEVONthink? What do you, um, devonthink of them?

The Photo Marketing Association is throwing its annual bash, PMA 2005 in Orlando, Florida. Within the confines of the spacious West Concourse of the Orange Convention Center, hundreds of photography-related manufacturers and suppliers are displaying their wares.

This is not a tradefloor that I can comprehend in a single day. It’s too big and designed too much like a labyrinth for me to digest on first pass. But in my daze, a few exhibitors still managed to turn my head. Here’s what stuck.

The Kodak EasyShare-one brings true WiFi connectivity to a quality consumer digicam. I haven’t written much about Kodak cameras, but there’s plenty to say about this beautiful 4-megapixel compact that sports a Schneider C-Variogon 3X Optical Lens, 3″ rotating touch screen LCD monitor, stylish aluminum body, and 802.11 wireless connectivity. The networking isn’t only for image transfer to your computer, but also for connecting to online to photo services, most notably Kodak’s own EasyShare (the photo service formerly known as Ofoto). After holding this camera, taking pictures with it, viewing the images on the gorgeous screen, and transferring them wirelessly to a computer, I can tell you this is one of Kodak’s best efforts. It debuts in the U.S. this June in the $500 range.

Tamrac’s new line of digital camera straps aren’t on their website yet, but will be soon. Go over there and check out the N-5055 Neoprene Shock Absorber model with two neoprene memory card holders at each end of the strap. Why didn’t someone think of this before? No more fumbling around for media cards in coat pockets or at the bottom of camera bags. Plus the neoprene provides excellent padding so you don’t have to worry about your cards getting banged up. Nice strap overall, great idea with the card holders. Available soon for about $30.

I held the Epson R-D1 and immediately wished I had a few Leica M lenses lying around the house. (OK, well to be honest, I lusted for the Leica lenses long before the Epson body, but now I really want them.) Epson has put a 6.1 megapixel sensor in a beautiful rangefinder body reminiscent of the classic Leica M6. If you have Leica glass, you can now mount it on this handsome body and shoot digital. You do have to contend with a 1.5 magnification factor, but you might not care because the R-D1 feels so good in the hands. Available for less than $3,000 (body only).

If today’s high tech digicams leave you yearning for the twin lens reflex cameras of yesteryear, and if you have $350 burning a hole in your camera vest with nothing better to spend it on, then take a look at the RolleiFlex MiniDigi. This palm-sized replica of the magnificent Rolleiflex TLR captures 2-megapixel images and operates much like the traditional twin lens. You can check out images captured with the Rollei here and judge for yourself. Would I like one hanging around my neck at the next party I go to? You bet! Would I pay $350 for one? No way.

I’m saving my pennies for the Kodak EasyShare-one…

I’ve been writing about fonts and OS X for a long time. Here is the problem; working with fonts in OS X still sucks. Badly.

Remember OS 9? You could get this application called ATM Deluxe or Extensis Suitcase. If you wanted to turn on a font you just clicked on it. Or, if in a pinch you wanted to install a font yourself you simply dragged it over the System Folder icon and all was good.

Fast forward to OS X. You have a product like Font Reserve or Suitcase. In theory everything should be simple. Except it isn’t. Clicking on a font doesn’t all work. There are a multiple places a font can go in OS X and each font, because it is a file, is subject to the often confusing world of OS X’s permissions. There is a point when the power of OS X should be kept hidden from users, and fonts are a perfect case. I don’t care about permissions for Futura Bold! I just want it to show up in my menu when I want it.

Apple’s Font Book is a lame attempt to fix all this. If you have a large collection of fonts it chokes, and it isn’t capable of auto-activating fonts.

I fear that there may be no solution to font issues and OS X. A lot of it has to do with the underlying Unix structure of the OS. However, I’m not ready to give up. Given that a large portion of the Mac audience are designers you would think Apple would invest some significant resources to not only fix the issues, but be innovative in how the OS deals with fonts.

What about you, what are your experience with fonts and OS X?

Call me a stubborn old traditionalist, but I use Graphic Converter to manage and edit my photographs and I still love it after years of use.

You’re quite right to point out that it lacks the editing oomph of Photoshop or even Photoshop Elements, and that the UI is far from the restrained simplicity and user-friendliness found in something like iPhoto.

But what Graphic Converter has got, which few of these others have, is speed. It opens in seconds, compared to Elements which grinds away for half a minute or more before being ready for use. The editing features it does offer are all that I need for tweaking pictures and slapping them on the web - a bit of contrast control here, a bit of colour control there. Everything I need at my fingertips, and much sooner than other apps would supply it.

That said, the latest changes in the latest version of GC are more than welcome. Plenty of new tweaks and useful little widgets; the simplicity of the Graphic Converter belies the huge number of features inside. You only get a true idea of all the things it can do when you download the PDF manual, and start exploring it - all 200-odd pages of it.

One thing that bothers me with almost every photo-editing app I’ve tried is this: why does editing photos have to be so dependent on using the mouse? To put it another way - please can we have more keyboard shortcuts?

What I’d like is simple key commands for simple editing tasks, such as Command+B to increase brightness, and Command+Shift+B to decrease it. These would take effect immediately, without recourse to a preview window. I can always Undo if I don’t like what I see. Most apps let me call up edit dialog boxes quickly enough but then I still have to use the mouse to slide some sliders. I’m a text editor freak, I’m used to doing everything with the keyboard; I’d like the same swift, simple control in a photo editor.

Enough ranting; back to Graphic Converter. Like the human brain, most people only use a fraction of the computing power available. I’m one of them. I only use GC to edit my digital photos and prepare them for the web; I hardly ever use the industrial-strength conversion feature, or the batch processing, or most of the other gazillion little features tucked away in the menus and sub-menus.

At $30 for a license, GC continues to be one of the best bargains around.

Graphic Converter fans, now’s your chance

Related link: https://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/cobb/0205/10laptop.html

You would think that as a typical Mac zealot, I’d be happy

There, on the front page of my newspaper this morning, a picture of an iBook, accompanying a story that my school district plans to buy $70 million worth of iBooks over the next few years for middle schoolers, in a plan similar to the famous one launched in Maine a few years ago.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s another quality win for Apple. And, if you’re going to do this, the more secure, reliable and easier-to-use Macs are going to keep maintenance costs down.

And obviously, I’m not partial to that ridiculous argument that “kids should be taught what they’re going to use in the real world.” These are middle schoolers, ten years away from their college graduations and the “real world”. Retroactively apply that logic to 1995 and you might be teaching kids DOS, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Harvard Graphics. How many of those even exist today?

The problem is, I really don’t like the idea of computers in schools at all.

I re-read the article a few times and while there are details about the gradual roll-out of the computers, parental deposits and liability, and the software to be included… I cannot find anything indicating what the point of this venture is. Is it to teach programming? (don’t laugh - that’s what computers were for in my early 80’s high school… you actually got in trouble for using them for word processing) Is it to teach basic computer skills? Are there going to be e-texts available so the kids don’t have to lug 40 pounds worth of textbooks around?

I think for $70 million, there at least ought to be a specific, attainable goal for this program.

I came around to this line of thinking years ago, when I read of high schools that were closing down their band programs so they could afford the support costs on their computer labs. That’s a damned outrage.

“The kinds of things the students will be using out in the work force today, they’ll be using in our schools,” says a Deputy Superintendant. Maybe that’s so, but you know what else they’ll be using? Words. Sentences. Abstract thoughts and critical arguments. Math. Philosophy. Science. A functioning sense of right and wrong. An awareness of history and the lessons learned from it.

All of which we will now have $70 million less for. But we’ll have iTunes.

You see, there are a few other things you need to know about this case in particular, as opposed to other big-time educational computer buyers like Maine and Michigan. Those places haven’t ranked dead freaking last on the SAT year after year like Georgia has. Oh wait! We were 49th last year! Yay us. Gainsayers will claim that it’s an unfair comparison, because in some states, only the college-bound take the SAT, while all Georgia students take it, meaning that their lousy students don’t show up in the numbers and ours do. Great, maybe that’ll almost get us out of the bottom quartile? Maybe, maybe not.

The fact is, our schools stink, and many people here with the money to do so put their children in private schools. Granted that’s true everywhere (I grew up outside Detroit and went to a private school), but here the whole “send your kids to private school if you can” idea is not a personal choice so much as it is a commonly accepted cultural norm.

And one other thing you should know about us. If the term “Cobb County” seems familiar, it should. This is the same school board that tried to put anti-evolution stickers in science textbooks that read:

This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.

It’s so wrong in so many ways it’s funny - I don’t know whether to hope for similar warnings about theories like gravity, supply-and-demand, and Goedel’s Incompleteness Theorem, or to hope every religion with a creation myth to get to pitch it as science (”OK, kids, book report on Dianetics due Friday, and don’t forget your turn in your Astrological charts”). Or maybe the idea of state schools preaching critical thinking is even funnier (”Be critical just about this, but otherwise, buy lots of products, don’t cause trouble for the state, and shut the hell up.”)

Oh, and as Steve Jobs always says, one more thing…

Right next to the story on the iBooks was a story there’s a fraud investigation underway involving the Atlanta Public Schools and its use of E-Rate technology grants. This is a federally funded program that’s supposed to support educational technology, paid for with a telephone surcharge. The Atlanta Journal Constitution series found that the Atlanta Public Schools wildly overpaid for an over-elaborate network, much of which it doesn’t need, and went on such a spending spree that they are now warehousing stacks and stacks of network gear that they don’t need and can’t find a use for, and which grows more out-of-date every day. $73 million involved in this scandal so far…

So, if I thought this were a fertile garden of the mind in full bloom down here, maybe iBooks would be the ideal tool to foster collaboration, expression, and learning. Since it’s not, I can’t help but see this as a very flashy way of spending my money for little or no gain. Thanks, but no thanks.

Computers in schools… good or bad? Let’s have it!

Related link: https://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~tigoe/pcomp/stamp/index.shtml

After meeting Joe Grand, I became really interested in the Basic Stamp , made by Parallax. It’s a microcontroller that you can program using BASIC. The robotics applications for it look fantastic (check out this Toddler Robot.) I’d love to hear from anyone who has been using Basic Stamp and would like to write a story about it for MAKE.

Have you used Basic Stamp? Let’s hear about it!

So I keep getting these e-mails from AppleID@apple.com that tell me I have only 3 hours to follow a link to reset my password (at iforgot.apple.com).
So am I being phished? Is someone trying to break into my account? Or does Apple automatically send these things without request?
I call up Apple. The first droid tries to sell me a purchase protection plan. After a few frustrating minutes, I finally break down and say: “I’m sorry, I don’t think that you actually understand what I’m asking about. Could you connect me to a supervisor?” She doesn’t have a supervisor. “A manager?” They don’t have managers. “Can I talk to *anyone* else?” She presses a button and I connect to another agent.
This one is much better. She puts me on hold and talks to the payment processing team. According to them, these “How to Reset Your Apple Password” messages are sent only when someone fails to log into their account. She says there’s not much I can do, but the team told her I can change my AppleID account name if I want to. I decline for now.
“If you have any more questions, you can always call Apple Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775.”
I thank her.
It’s always nice to talk to someone competent.

Has this happened to you?

Related link: https://www.wrightthisway.com/Articles/000154.html

Whilst standing in line to pick up my iPod Shuffle at the Apple store down the road from MacWorld SF, I quipped that they really should have built a USB slot into the top of the Shuffle, allowing for Shuffle towers. Well, wouldn’t you know it… someone’s gone ahead and built an iPod Shuffle RAID array. Employing a USB 2.0 hub as device chain, the 3.9 gig striped RAID set is an impressive bit of hackery–and arranged in a pretty flower pattern to boot.

I have a stash of cases and boxes that I rummage through whenever I have a new digital device that needs protection from the world. Most of the time, when I say to myself, “I wonder if this will fit into that?”, it doesn’t. Not only doesn’t it fit, it’s usually too big by the slimmest of margins. Ack!

So you can imagine my surprise when a new iPod shuffle, earbuds, lanyard, and instruction card fit snugly into a metal Altoids box. I put the instruction card in the bottom to serve as dual-purpose liner, and everything else goes on top. It’s slick!

Aside from being well-protected, the shuffle is less likely to get heisted… that is, unless the would-be thief had an overdose of garlic for lunch.

I’ve been involved in the launch of a new web project during the last couple of weeks. Since it relied on heavy use of the Movable Type online publishing system, I thought it would be worth trying out one of the desktop weblogging applications that are floating around these days.

I’ve used MT before, but never heavily enough to justify use of an app like this. I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

I plumped for MarsEdit because I already have NetNewsWire installed, and the generous license terms mean I can use MarsEdit for free.

After a week or so of fiddling around, I’m very pleased that I did. Mars works quickly and reliably with the MT installation. It really is very easy to use and makes drafting entries while offline much more convenient.

The built-in preview is very handy, and the ability to upload new images - and add them directly into posts - is fantastic. I haven’t even started to explore the scripting options.

I can think of a few more things I’d like to see in it, but that’s no criticism. I’ll happily wait for future releases to see what changes.

I’d encourage anyone else who has to make frequent posts to an MT blog (or indeed a Bloxsom, Word Press, Manila, Radio, or Conversant blog) to download and try it out.

Have you found a good weblog editor?

I still remember the first time I loaded the public beta of OS X on my iMac. User account? What the *#$(*@ is that! But I was patient. Until I got to the finder. Opening windows was like surfing through molasses.

But because it was a beta I was cool with the slowness in the finder. They’ll work it out at Apple right?

Well, yes and no.

I still remember lining up for 10.1. And I’m pretty certain that most of the people lining up were there because they were excited about the improved speed of the finder. Unfortunately they, and I, would have to wait until Panther to really have a usable finder. Panther is definitely workable. But here is the rub. Go to a machine that can boot up OS 9 and open up a bunch of windows. Start scrolling down a list, copy stuff, etc. It’s faster. The finder in OS 9 is still snappier.

I realize at this point the speed in Panther is acceptable for most tasks. And I understand that the multitasking capabilities of OS X enable me to do many more things at once. But still. I want a snappy interface. More than Dashboard. More than searchlight. More than anything. Apple has historically done a good job of speeding up the finder with each major realize of OS X. I look forward to seeing the results in Tiger. Quickly.

What are you looking forward to in Tiger?

iPhoto 5 users have a patch waiting for them via Software Update. I ran through my checklist of desired fixes, including some of those from readers that were discussed at the end of my A RAW Look at iPhoto 5 article. Here’s a brief summary of what’s changed and what hasn’t.

• It’s now much easier to drag albums into folders.
• My test .mp4 movie that would not import before, now uploads smoothly into iPhoto 5.0.1
• I experienced fewer bumps in the road exporting slideshows to iDVD.
• Performance in general seems more snappy (but it’s always hard to tell if this is wishful thinking or reality).
• Apple says that iPhoto 5.0.1 does a better job of importing iPhoto 4 albums. I can’t verify this. I was lucky and didn’t have any problems before.
• I still cannot import .wav files created by my digital camera, often referred to as “sound annotations.”
• Movie and RAW metadata (in the Photo Info panel) is still sparse.

I’m happy to see such a quick update to both iPhoto 5 and iMovie HD. Let me know how iPhoto 5.0.1 works for you.

Have you heard? September may finally be over. October 1st has finally arrived. Some have their doubts as new technologies emerge, but others remain hopeful. (Hat tip to Mike Hoye.)

In other news, how to defend yourself while losing a technical argument. (Hat tip to GeekPress)

What do you think? Is it October yet?

Every now and then I peruse the .Mac home page to see what’s going on. I found myself there yesterday to download the very cool Freefall - Satellite Simulator & Screen Saver. Members can get the screen saver for free.

I noticed another story on the home page reminding us that we can reallocate our 250MBs of disc space included with our .Mac account. The default setting is 125MBs for mail and 125MBs for back up, web pages, and storage. Since I use other accounts for my email, I was wasting valuable disc space by forgetting to make the adjustment.

I use my .Mac site for work and play, and more MBs are always welcome. So I went to my Accounts Settings page and changed my disc space allocation from 125 email/125 web, to 15 email/235 web. I now have an additional 110MBs to play with on my web site and for back up.

If this is a task you haven’t remembered to take care of since renewal, you might want to log on to your account and reallocate. More disc space is always a good thing.

1. I finally got around to upgrading from Python 2.3.x to 2.4. I wondered if Zope might break but it didn’t. However, I found that COREBlog 1.0 (a Zope blogging product) didn’t like that little move. The good news is that COREBlog’s author was way ahead of me and released COREBlog 1.1 on January 31 that seems to take care of the issue nicely
(I think it has to do with the rotor module that was removed in Python 2.4 (see
What’s New in Python 2.4).

2. I upgraded from MySQL 4.0.x to 4.1.x a while back. However, I’ve been using it with PHP since then and only tried it with Zope this evening.
It looks like the combination of upgrading MySQL and Python caused a bit of an issue the MySQL-Python module used by the Zope ZMySQLDA product that lets Zope work with MySQL
(possibly due to changes in mysql_shutdown() and other MySQL functions that changed between MySQL 4.0 and 4.1).
Fortunately again (for me), a test release of MySQL-Python 1.1.10
was also released on January 31.
Note that this is labeled as a test release and probably shouldn’t be used in a production environment.

Any other Zope product upgrade hints?

1. Gapless audio

Quick, what’s one thing a ten dollar cd player can do that a six hundred dollar iPod can’t? That’s right, play gapless audio. Don’t get me wrong, I love my photo iPod. Showing pictures is cool and all and the album cover integration is sweet. Still, more than seeing the cover of Kind of Blue, I’d love to be able to listen to it in the original way it was intended. It is outrageous that a $600 iPod can’t do this.

2. An Equalizer

Another item that medium level walkmans have had for eons is an equalizer. The iPods’s current equalizer is limited to presets; you are stuck with generic settings like jazz, rock, etc. Apple needs to integrate a fully adjustable equalizer.

3. An adjustable UI.

The current iPod interface is renowned for its ease of use. But it is too simple for us power users. There needs to be an additional layer or way to navigate through the iPod. My friend [url=”https://www.bzzagent.com”]Dave[/url] brought up one great example: let’s say you are enjoying a randomly playing song and decide you want to listen to the next song on the album. The only thing you can do is navigate back to the setting menu, turn off shuffle, then navigate back to the album and pick the song. Ugh. There are countless other examples of where the UI falls short.

3. A sports iPod.

Remember those wonderful bright yellow sony wallkmans. They kept the elements out, and could survive the slings and arrows of portable music player misfortune with aplomb. Apple should come out with a sports iPod. Assuming it is a HD based device it would be able to absorb the shocks of a mountain bike excursion and the sand from a beach. A sports iPod would also have the benefit of being marvelously retro.

4. A Radio

This is another item that can be found in even the cheapest of walkmans and even in iTunes. But not in an iPod. This fall, on my bus ride home I didn’t want to listen to my iTunes Music Store purchases: I wanted to listen to the Red Sox cream St. Louis (sorry, Chris).

What would you like to see included in the new iPod?