Jobs’ Return
Amazing how old this article is (in terms of Apple’s developments). Looking back from where we are now, it doesn’t seem too bad with Jobs, does it?
In other words, we love Apple the way it is now! Jobs was the turning point in the personal computer revolution, and still is now in 2004, in my opinion.
Of course, I say this with hindsight, and it was fun to read an article of this sort! Wonderful!
—Parimal S.
About This Particular Outliner
This column and John Siracusa’s are the best examples of computer journalism I’ve ever seen. My failure to comment in the past is largely due to a perceived inability to add very much. I just do my best to understand what you’re saying and find the time to try out some of the software, and adopt whatever seems to work best.
One aspect which I think could be developed in the future is looking at software from the point of view of workflows: in other words, what do we want to do, which products are likely to fill those needs most aptly, and, most crucially, how do we string the products together efficiently. For example, I use DEVONthink to gather lots of information, VoodooPad to store my own writing and selected pieces of information that I want to link to it, and Bookends to store bibliographic references. DEVONthink has now slowed to a crawl because there’s so much in it, while I’ve never really worked out a good way to integrate bibliographic information with other information. This is part of a general problem of inter-application communication (though VoodooPad is making some progress in enabling this), i.e. a technical problem, but just as much it’s a failure of imagination or knowledge as to how to choose the right tools and how to use them.
I don’t know how you could write a good article about this that wasn’t addressed at a very narrow range of people, but I think there is a genuine need to go beyond reviews.
—Rick
MailFactory 1.4 Review
Excellent, useful, and very readable review.
—Ed Williams
FrogPad Review
FrogPad is not for the masses yet. It is the opportunity to be fully functional in a portable environment for one who must be mobile and whose demands require that one leave the laptop behind. And considering that it normally takes a semester to learn 40 wpm, you actually did quite well in a week and a half.
The Command key, which is most critical to Mac users, is now one simple keystroke on the Bluetooth iFrog. The Web-based tutorial will soon be offered for both Mac and PC users.
FrogPad is a one-handed keyboard and cannot easily be compared to the two-handed methodology of Dvorak, yet we honor Dvorak by using his strategy of diagraphs in the letter layout. I thank you for your comments and I too am looking forward to reducing the price. Although we have only been shipping for one year, we have six years of R&D under our belt, and we are finding that, with the demand, our prices are coming down quickly.
—Linda (linda@frogpad.com)
iTrip Static Problems
I had all the iTrip static problems mentioned above. I live in Toronto and there are no ‘free’ stations without overlap. Here’s what you do.
- Download the iTrip 2.0 software.
- Find the 87.7.mp3 file in the folder “iTrip Stations.”
- Drag that file alone into the iTrip Playlist in iTunes.
- Update your iPod and make sure you select the iTrip Playlist for update using the wee icon at the bottom left of the iTunes window.
- Select 87.7 on your radio (most have it) and keep your iPod volume high and your radio volume low.
- And, for whatever it’s worth, lowering my antenna made things worse, not better.
It works acceptably now—not static free, but usable.
—Mark
StuffIt Deluxe Review
—Mike Thall
Sony DSC-P10
I also own a Sony DSC-P10, and at times, I’m very confused. I’ve been trying to take Christmas pictures of my daughter, for greeting cards, sitting by our lit Christmas tree…and using no flash, I find that the pictures are coming out very grainy and sometimes blurry. Should I be manually setting the exposure higher? And possibly using a tripod for camera shake? Sometimes it’s very difficult to get a two-year-old to sit still for more than a few seconds, never mind minutes…
—Elizabeth
You are attempting an extremely tricky exposure that’s very difficult to pull off even with a professional camera. Absolutely, put it on a tripod. As for exposure, your camera is seeing the lights on the tree and exposing for that, causing everything else to be dark, so manually setting a lighter exposure will help, although the tree lights will begin to look blown out and extremely bright. The graininess is caused by the camera using the digital equivalent of a higher ASA for low light.
I haven’t ever used a CyberShot camera, so what I’m telling you is generic advice for any digital camera. On my Olympus or my Nikon, I can manually lock the ASA to something like 400 if I wanted to reduce grain. What you may also try is turning off your tree lights, turning on a lamp or some sort of light source to illuminate your daughter’s face, letting the camera get an exposure for that and lock it, then turn the tree lights back on and take the picture.
Even better would be if you can control the intensity of the flash, though I couldn’t say whether the P10 has this feature. On my flash, I can dial down its intensity so that it only fills in a little bit instead of blasting out the entire tree. It also has a setting to use the flash, but also leave the shutter open as if you were exposing without the flash. I’ve managed some very interesting results doing that kind of thing before, such as this photo. I took another shot like this one with only a full flash and totally lost the color of the room lights. And taking it without any flash would have made the singer’s face almost unrecognizable. But as you see, the lower power flash exposed the singer very well, yet the longer shutter speed brought in the color of the room. You can even see some blur of the longer exposure in the singer’s arm playing the guitar and in the cymbal.
As far as getting your daughter to sit still, there’s no magic trick for that. You’re on your own to convince her. However, there shouldn’t be need to make her sit like a statue for a couple seconds. With the proper illumination, you should be able to expose the picture for less than one second. —Lee Bennett
Copyright © 2005 the ATPM Staff,
editor@atpm.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts about our publication. We always welcome your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and praise. Or, if you have an opinion or announcement about the Macintosh platform in general, that’s OK too. Send your e-mail to editor@atpm.com. All mail becomes the property of ATPM.
Reader Comments (0)
Add A Comment