Software, toys, gadgets and computers
I met Adam Tow only once, briefly at the Apple Store Palo Alto opening in 2001. He was on the roof next door taking photos of it.
From what little I know about him, he has three obsessions: Macs, mobile devices and photography. That gives him a special star in my book. So it should come as no surprise that he announced Annoture which allows round-tripping between Aperture and iView Media Pro.Continue reading
In a NYT editorial concerning America’s use of not-so-clever redefining the word “torture” to deny that America uses “extraordinary rendition†and similar tactics to cause de-facto torture:
But that doesn’t make it any less disturbing that the United States government seems to have lost its ability to distinguish between acts that may occur sub rosa in some exceptional, critical situations and the basic rules of proper international behavior.
Sub rosa means “pledged to secrecy†and is a Latin phrase (literally “under the roseâ€) which is a Middle Age practice that referenced a Greek myth I had not heard of.1
I first looked up the word when I wondered why SubRosaSoft, a Mac software company, got their name.
In any case, it’s a cool word. Also notice that the title of the editorial: “Secretary Rice’s Rendition†is a play on the double-meaning of the word rendition. I wasn’t aware of the legal meaning until this year—I can only guess as to how that word managed the tortuous path from its dramatic origin to the strange meaning today.
I couldn’t resist the call of the Jobs and went and purchased Aperture!
I did a computation at work today and decided that Aperture must have hit the shelves today and a quick call to Apple Store proved me correct. Apple Store Palo Alto had already run out, but there were a number of copies available at the Mini Apple Store in Stanford Mall. (Yes, living in the Bay Area does have its advantages…)
I never purchased at a Mini Apple Store before. They don’t even have a cash register there, just a hole in the wall with a bunch of drawers. They actually took my credit card using a Symbol PDA and e-mailed me my receipt (because they had my name and dotMac account on record in the central computer).
Since we were in Palo Alto, I had to make the required stop for Caitlin for dinner at Patxi’s. We opened the box there while waiting 40 minutes for our pizza to cook. Someone from the 14-person long table came up to Caitlin, who was reading the box, and said, “Excuse me, I want to thank you—half the Apple Aperture team is sitting over there.” We turned around and got an ovation as their first real-live customer.
I should carry my camera around more often.
Caitlin noticed this today:
I’m so excited about the release of this product that I started a Flickr group just for the hell of it which is strange for someone who is going to have to live a little vicariously—I’m probably skipping this release and buying the 2.0 like I did with Apple Keynote.
My second D70 FlipUp LCD cap broke.
Hoodman started by making clever hoods for LCD displays. The most ubiquitous use of a Hoodman is when you see NFL referees peering under them during an instant replay review. In a recent DVD produced by Nikon, I saw Life photographer Joe McNally peering under one for instant outdoor 17″-diagnol image reviews. After the initial, “Gee, I wish I had a six-pack of SB-800s controlled by a Nikon D2X tethered via USB 2.0 to my Powerbook,” I thought, “neat stuff.”
I first heard about Hoodman when they made cloth and velcro shades in the early days of pocket digital photography. LCDs were really the suck back then—they make the Canon 5D’s LCD look exceedingly bright by comparison. People like me were often caught holding our hands up against the screen to review shots. The Hoodman was a great idea, sometimes it even came with a magnifier to make the small LCDs review much bigger.
It was only natural that when the FlipUp cap came out, I bought one:
I had almost forgotten that Microsoft was supposed to launch their iTunes Music Store killer this year, perhaps even their own player (but more likely to be co-launched with some hungry electronics conglomerate). What ever happened to that?
Now we know.
Reuters reports that Microsoft has stopped licensing talks with the big 4 music labels.
The most informative note in the article was this one:
According to several people briefed on the matter, the labels separately were seeking royalty payments of $6 to $8 per user, per month. People close to the labels say that is in line with what existing subscription-music services pay, the Journal reported.
The AIM Beta a.k.a. “Triton” has been out for a while and one thing I’ve noticed that bugs me is that the default AIM message is unreadable in iChat.
Dell is about to introduce the long-awaited (I’m sure) DJ Ditty (purchase).
An eyesore and an eight month turnaround to copy a device consisting of generic components. Is this what “player-hater”, Robert Enderle, meant when he said, “Historically staid companies like Gateway, HP, Acer, and even Dell are much more aggressive on design today, often surpassing Apple, which was preeminent in this area in the 90s.” Enderle singing a dirge for Apple: Seventh time’s the charm Rob!
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This Wired article is a wonderful example about how unpractical our country’s basic math education is.
The reporter wastes the first page on his idiot attempt to find a truly random playlist. A little knowledge is a highly dangerous thing. After learning that computer generated random numbers are not truly random, he assumes that this is why he sometimes gets his Rolling Stones songs clumped together.
The limitations of pseudorandomness is a serious issue in statistical physics (Monte Carlo simulations) and theoretical physics (modeling). In some cases, poor psuedorandom number generators have allowed people break encryption algorithms.
But even the most primitive random number generator causing a problem with your iPod playlist? C’mon!
One difficult issue when looking at maps of the large scale structure of the universe is that our eyes detect spurious filaments (chains of galactic structures) that aren’t there, even though such things have been found to exist.
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