John Nack on Adobe: Aperture vs. Lightroom: What do the pros use? John has some dispiriting statistics for Aperture users, we’re in the 5.5% of users bracket. ouch! I can’t say I’m too surprised. To understand the derision in the photog community over these two apps, check out the comments. whoa. [via DF]
The Apple Aperture community is abuzz. After watching Leopard hit the street, we’re all biting our fingers hoping Apple is not too far off from releasing Aperture 2.0. It’s been over two years since the initial release of the product and to say that we could use an update, well, I’d drag out the desert/water metaphor but I’m so tired of waiting I’m just too lazy to put the whole sentence together.
O’Reilly’s Inside Aperture blog chimes in with two musings on post-Leopard Aperture goings-ons. The first, gave rowdy Aperture users a chance to sound-off on the features they’re looking forward to and the features they want (or else). The second, a roundup of useful Aperture community resource links that includes several ways to give your feedback directly to Apple (Tim O’Reilly is appreciative, but even he doesn’t have a direct line to His Steveness). There have been no concrete answers on when Aperture 2.0 will hit the streets with nary a peep from Apple (as usual). I have a laundry list a mile long of features I’d like to see in the new version, I gave my 2 cents in the first article above, you can click on over to read my abbreviated list.
In the second article, a commenter suggests that we, Aperture faithfuls, huff it on over to Apple’s Final Cut Studio site to see what the new version (6.0) has to offer, the reasoning is that some of the technologies found in FCS could possibly make it into Aperture 2.0. I took the advice and checked out a bunch of the ‘new feature’ videos. I was absolutely amazed by what I saw. My biggest curiosity was with FCS’s new bundled color adjustment application, quaintly called Color. If only half of the underlying technology and features of Color made it into Aperture 2.0, I’d be a happy camper. It’s gorgeous, innovative and intuitive. Here are just a few of the features* of Color that I’m hoping will have some shared DNA with those of Aperture 2.0:
I’m sure there are a million others, but this list is pretty impressive. The more I look at Color, the more I think that Apple should just do away with the Adjustments HUD concept all together. It works for a handful of limited-functionality filters, but what I’m seeing in Color is on a whole other level of image manipulation. I can’t see how the Adjustments HUD in its current configuration can possibly contain as much functionality as Color provides. I could be wrong.
One thing I gotta say though, is that even after two years of heavy usage, I still love the Aperture user interface. Looking at Final Cut Studio’s and even Color’s, they don’t quite match the polish and shine of Aperture. I’m assuming at some point FCS will inherit that particular part of Aperture’s DNA, as Logic Studio just has.
After seeing Color at work, two things strike me the heaviest: A. Color is so advanced it makes Aperture 1.0’s image adjustment capabilities look almost archaic. B. I have never been this excited and enthusiastic to see what the Aperture team brings to the table and I can only hope that they are sharing technologies with the team that worked on Color.
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* I’ve changed the features slightly to make more sense with regards to how they may be applied to Aperture 2.0
I’m currently diggin’ on the music of Ida Maria. She’s got some punchy norwegian post-punk action going on with a killer, versatile voice and drunk-pixy-with-a-crush-on-Charles-Bukowski lyrics. I’d throw in a list of people who she sounds like, but that’d be a little redundant, go check her out. My Old Kentucky Blog has some mp3s. Stand-out tracks: “Oh My God”, “Louie, I’m always drunk”, “You Look Better When You’re Naked” and “We’re all Going to Hell”. you get the idea.
These hand-painted signs appear all over our corner of Mexico. They mostly advertise traveling Banda bands (think polka with heavy latin brass and rhythm sections) that are coming to the area. These signs change monthly and sometimes weekly. Palenques (cock fights) are also advertised as well. They’re always colorful, sometimes well done, other times totally sloppy and rough (those must be the monday morning ones). I’m beginning a series on these signs and since I started the project I’ve been religiously vigilant for news ones, new styles and old favorites.
Mexico is an endless landscape of hand-painted folk typography, I’m really gonna miss it in 10 years when everything is hastily designed and printed on cheap vinyl.
Fellow surfing/architecture enthusiast Tim Rosa has been hanging in Sayulita for a few days and last night we connected for some fine asian-fusion action courtesy of San Pancho’s Cafe del Mar. I had a killer red snapper with a Huitlecoche sauce, excellent. We made plans to catch some knee-high sayulita log jammies the next day and today I awoke to a very flat Bucerias beach. Flat as in dead flat. pancakes. with no syrup. As a consolation prize I went down to the local municipio to pick up the building permit for our super-secret Sayulita project. I didn’t quite get the permit, as I should have known that I needed a cashier’s check. Oh well, back to ‘valle’ tomorrow, with check in hand, and one license to build should be ours. Now I need to go over our recently received executive architecture plans to make sure all is well and then we’re off to get construction bids. It feels good to have something happening on the work front. Now it’d be nice to get something happening on the swell front.
LA transplanted homies Isaiah + Jess wish everyone a Happy Dia de los Muertos. mad creativity abounding.
I’ve been stumbling across some really nice surf blogs lately, thought i’d link them up: Frequent Rip Currents, Wine and Woodsmoke, Daily Bread (killer in-water photography), J Dub singles, Surfblog1000, The Central Shaft, Estaban Bojorquez (surf-related art), Scott Raymond Henry (shaper blog), Nereus Kinesis, HeadHighGlassy and Six Foot & Perfect. oh and Mollusk opened a surf shop in Venice? We just happen to be going back to LA in late November, if I have my way I’ll be picking up one those sweet little Michel Junod joints pictured above (I am the sound of Ed’s quickly draining bank account).
Current’s Kaj Larsen gets waterboarded, the controversial interrogation practice allegedly used by the U.S. government. Survey says? Torture. And relatedly: Rumsfeld gets the fuck outta dodge, when in Paris, human rights groups file a criminal complaint against him that international law stipulates the French authorities must open an investigation. ha!
Ars Techinica has a huge copy of the Mac OS X Leopard intro video. nice. Is this the work of Logan? me not so sure.
Dwell has a blog. Good to see Dwell embracing the blog format. The writers are putting out some great posts with lots of big yummy imagery, definitely a worthy online sibling to the venerable print mag. Though the rss feed is summaries-only (with no images). Question: why not just put ads into the full text rss feed? People will still come back to the site to make comments. just a thought. oh and the site doesn’t have trackbacks.
This is an update on an earlier post. The surf magazines have finally been analyzed, dissected and filed away into neat little yellow envelopes for later perusal. 20 or so mags pared down to a handful of interesting articles and about an issue’s worth of photos that might make it on to the office/guestroom wall (if the wife allows such a teenagerly thing). This was a personal lesson in letting go and trimming my collected life away. Hoarding less crap is a virtue, even when it comes to surfing mags.
Here’s the rundown: It turns out that 95% of the issues were ads or parts I didn’t even feel the slightest need to keep. Most of the complete articles that I did keep were from features on traveling. Articles on The Maldives, Indonesia, South Africa, The Philippines, Mexico, California, Guatemala etc… It turns out that I basically only care about the earth-roaming parts of surf mags and the occasional special features written by the old schoolers like Herbie Fletcher. There are some killer articles in my pile and I definitely overlooked a few the first time around. Interestingly enough, most of the photos that I wanted to clip, all seemed to belong to those same ‘travel report’ articles. You know the ones I’m talking about, photos of empty waves, abstract, environmental, relaxed and lush. All the gnarly wave-lip destroying action? in to the garbage.
One universal truth: surf mags do not cover longboarding enough.
I feel pretty liberated by this experience and I totally recommend it to anyone wanting to feel a little ‘lighter’ in this world. Next up? When I get them out of storage, I’m gonna attack my nearly complete, meticulously kept sets of Emigre and Raygun as well as large swathes of Eye, Print and Communication Arts. just kidding.
Ok, so I’m totally going bat-shit over the new Canon Powershot G9, it’s my next favoritist tech-lust-object after Leopard (of course). The G9 is definitely chromosomatically related to the 5D. It shoots 12 megapixel raw images. This past summer’s violent heat and humidity have killed both my previous Canon Powershot and my Pentax Optio WP (can you please tell me how humidity can kill a camera made to work underwater?). The G9 is slightly larger then the 800 series, so I’m not sure if it’s pocket-sized, but 12mp raw images are worth the extra cms. Throw in a waterproof case, and I’m all good.
Another video of Chris Ward riding his MR Retro 80’s Twin Fin and MR 1979 Retro Single Fin on impossibly large, hollow, barrel, beach breaks, somewhere in Mexico (which probably means Oaxaca). [via that same Niceness thread]
Unless you’ve actually got a life or have been living under a rock, you know that the webosphere is abuzz with news of Apple’s impending delivery of their next operating system Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Everyone’s giving their 5 cents on the best and worst features of the new system. All in agreement that Leopard is packed with great new features and Apple once again has raised the bar on powerful, useful features packed into deceptively easy-to-use interfaces.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to Leopard. Time Machine alone is worth the upgrade price. Quick look and Stacks are gonna be super cool and Spaces will pretty much do away with the need for a second monitor (I think this will most likely be a consumer favorite). But for me, personally, my money is on iChat and screen sharing. Let me explain.
I go for Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field marketing gimmicks just like everyone else. The mac is easier to use, your IT department will need to look for new jobs, things just work, etc… etc…
This just isn’t reality. Sure Macs need 10x less tech support then PCs running Windows/Vista and when something software-related goes fubar on the latter, you don’t need tech support, you need a new computer. Apple has made the OS so simple that someone with a pretty good knowledge of the OS can solve 99% of the trouble-shooting questions your average user has*. This means that if you’re a recent switcher, a mac novice or a technophobe and your friend is a savvy mac user, chances are s/he can fix any little problems you have. For most of the mac-centric people in my little corner of Mexico, I’m that person (the nearest Mac Genius is 3000 miles away). In addition to the people close to me, I have several friends in far away places that hit me up on a near daily basis over iChat/email to get quick help with some of Mac OS X’s “undocumented features” (read: idiosyncrasies). And in turn, I have a friend or two who I rely on when I get stumped.
At home I use Apple Remote Desktop, which is a heavy-duty version of the screen sharing capabilities that are built into iChat and the Finder in Leopard. I troubleshoot my wife’s computer almost daily, usually having something to do with MS Word/Excel. We have a mac mini that acts as our “entertainment hub”. I administrate both using Remote Desktop, over our home network, the screen controlling features are insanely useful and once you try it, you’ll never understand how you did without it.
Years ago, my good friend Steve showed me a new feature of Windows (back when he was confused and walking the desert alone), where you could share and control the screens of your friends’ computers, over the internet. I nearly shat my pants. If I’m not mistaken, this feature has since been removed from Windows because it was a security nightmare. Well, this feature has finally come to the Mac (albeit with a better security implementation). iChat and the new Finder now have built-in screen sharing capabilities and I think this is one of the “creeper” features of Leopard. Once I’ve had my fill of the glossy, marquee features, this is the one that’s gonna be the most life-changing.
The screen sharing capabilities of iChat will allow me to dip into a friend’s computer 2 blocks away or 5000 miles away to fix problems, show someone how to properly use and dispose of dmg installers or just to set my grand dad’s desktop to change images randomly every once in a while. I’ll have the ability to help a friend in San Francisco with a kerning problem in Adobe InDesign or a friend in New York City with organizational problems in Apple Aperture. This kind of screen sharing will be commonplace inside of 6 months. Your computer will no longer be an isolated piece of machinery, connected by text/audio/video chat and email. You can now share your computer with friends. Troubleshooting and asking for advice/help will no longer happen over a text chat or lugging your iMac to a friend’s house or the nearest Apple store. I’m really super excited about this feature. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take a fiber connection to work properly.
For an example of iChat screen sharing, check out Apple’s Leopard guided tour video. What I’m referring to starts at the 24 minute mark. This video is like crack for mac nerds. As I watched it, I was hooting, hollering at the screen in giddy anticipation. Reality distortion field, you are my friend.
For an added bonus, totally awol from the 300+ features page is the .Mac feature called “Back To My Mac”. This feature is gonna be killer. It allows you access and control your home computer (or other computers), over the internet, through .Mac. For instance, if you’re traveling and a client needs a tweak to a certain file. Instead of having to jibe a workmate into doing the change, you can access and control your work computer, make the change and send it off, viola. This feature gets super interesting when you think about how it could be integrated with iPhone or what happens when someone stupidly steals your macbook and tries to use it. Again, not even on the 300+ features list. but why? Right about now, I’m glad I renewed my .Mac membership.
So, what’s your favorite feature?
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* hardware is another thing. Apple’s hardware quality control system is in the crapper and most tech savvy mac heads know it. As a tech support for friends, in the past year I’ve helped people deal with faulty screens, fried power bricks and internal hard drives, multiple cases of dead fans and one case of I don’t even tell what was wrong with the thing. Almost everyone of my friends has had a hardware based problem with their mac, that’s not a good percentage. Do you know what it’s like dealing with hardware issues in Mexico? holy crapola.
Holy crap! Condi Rice gets ‘Operation Pink’ed “The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands”. super bold.
Absolutely gorgeous photos from the combo swell that just hit California in the middle of the wildfires. The images are impressive and sometimes eery. The swell will be legendary. the photo captions are great too. [via 70%]
Steven Boone loves Cabiria. I have to admit, so do I. Marcia got all sour when I told her she looked like Cabiria at a friend’s wedding recently. I’m talking about Cabiria Ceccarelli, the hooker with a heart of gold, from Federico Fellini’s 1957 film Nights of Cabiria. if you ain’t seen it, netflix it pronto. also one of the best movie posters of all time. [via Spout]
Visionary director/illusionist/artist Michel Gondry solves the Rubik’s cube with his feet. And this other guy debunks the video. Gondry does a brilliant job tricking us and the debunker does an equally brilliant job dissecting the ‘trick’. [via The Playlist]
Vallarta, Sayulita, Punta Mita and Yelapa get the Travel + Leisure treatment in this recent article: La Nueva Riviera - Mexico. The lion’s share of the article is about Sayulita. The author definitely did his homework and for hipster vacationers seeking “bedraggled” streets with heavy bohemian flourishes Sayulita is the jammy jam for sure. But one thing I take exception with, in the article, is that somehow Sayulita is representational of your average pacific coast mexican fishing village. It is most certainly not that. Your average mexican fishing village is quiet, dilapidated and un-charismatically charming. Sayulita is some magical hybrid gypsy vortex, packed with frenetic slightly schizophrenic energy. Americans come for fish tacos, yoga and easy access to the surf break just off the beach (the perfect setup if you’ve got a wife and kids) and bohemian mexicans come for the neo-new school, tribal, hippy vibe. Calling it a typical mexican village is kinda misleading, Sayulita is so much more, for better or for worse.
Here’s a link to the accompanying photo gallery by Anne Menke. great photos. Menke’s portfolio, lady doesn’t take a bad picture.
vi.sualize.us is another social-bookmarking for images site kinda like ffffound but not in private beta mode and with an annoying use of a Lightbox variation. A lot of the images seem to be pilfered from ffffound which I’m assuming is a direct competitor, so that seems kinda in-poor-taste. what the dilly with that? a move to send a message to the ffffound ffffolks to open up their registration? but i’m loving the image above (of-course neither service has image attribution - tsk tsk).
According to My Top 10 Flickr Hacks on Epic Edits, I’m a terrible Flickr friend. Great advice on nurturing the Flickr soul. [via PV]
Excuse my french but Glenn Beck is a big douche bag. CNN’s Glenn Beck: “people who hate America” losing homes in So CA wildfires. Fuck that guy.
Fascinating and horrifying article on a continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean. Twice the size of Texas, too large to clean up without an international multibillion dollar effort. Bills to legislate plastic reduction in california, in direct response to this huge trash island, were defeated by plastics industry lobbyists. [via BB]
Taken on the way back to the car after a fruitless session, the day after Tropical Storm Kiko, somewhere between punta mita and la cruz. photo by Elizabeth Lloyd
Tropical Storm Kiko passed by us yesterday, some 200 miles west, throwing solid 6 footers our way with most of the action concentrated inside the bay east of Punta Mita. My internal surfer’s alarm clock woke me at the stroke of 7:00 and by 7:45 I was in the water. The hardest question facing me, this day, was which spot to pick.
Session One: El Paredon. 4 1/2 hours. heavy rollers. shacks. consistent. 5 people in the lineup. steep and fast. glassy glass. dropping tide. got one half-second crouched tube ride to bail into full-on mixing bowl. lots of nice steep, fast drop-ins and cuts and some spectacular late take-off over-the-falls face plants. one negative though: almost got into a fight with a gringo after he snaked me twice and so I dropped in on him close enough to make him give me the whole “don’t mess up the vibe in the water” routine. he didn’t even get that I was making a point. and it did end up fucking the vibe up, so I won’t do that again. my bad. but he was way too inside to make that particular wave and well, it wasn’t the first time i’ve had that problem with this particular gabacho.
Mid-day Break: Chilequiles, fresh OJ and coffee at La Manzana Roja overlooking Bucerias Point. lines stacking up 10 deep. hollow 4 footers breaking in 3 feet of water, rocky bottom. Resting weary muscles, watching Reign Over Me. pretty great flick. the sound of bombs hitting the beach half a block away. another sesh? alright…
Session Two: 3 hours, late afternoon. same spot. slightly choppy but still no wind. rising tide. but still glassy. 7 people in the lineup. less consistent with longer waits in between sets. slightly larger 8 foot outside creeper sets. nice steep, heavy slightly open barrels. better vibe and shared enthusiasm. everyone tired. 3 consecutive almost-to-the-beach rides and an awesome end to an awesome day.
Today?: still sounds like bombs. do a little “work” and head out to check the action. nursing some heavy pit rashes.
Edit: 2:00pm seshin. same spot. sunny. heavy on-shore winds. blown out. choppy. one foot mush. 2 little mush hoppers and we’re outta here. kiko is officially over. but the water is absolutely the perfect temperature and it’s nice to see the sun after a few days of tropical storm related cloud cover.
My mom has just returned from a summer long jaunt up in Woodstock, NY (photos from my pops). She’s coming back to a just finished house that she spent the last year designing and building. It’s in the ‘Alta Vista’ colonia (neighborhood) high above old-town Puerto Vallarta. She’s got a sick view with a gorgeous pool, on the other side of that edge, a 40 foot drop to the walkway below. The house is super tight and I’m putting the finishing touches on a start to finish photoset. It’s good to have moms back in the general vicinity, but the downside is that she will no longer be living a half a block away, rather a 40 minute drive to the south side of Vallarta. I have a feeling my spanish is about to get a whole lot more polished.
Hi, my name is Ed Fladung, I'm a recovering web-designer who moved to Mexico about 4 years ago. Learned to surf, got married and bought a nice camera. This is my weblog/photoblog. It covers broad subjects like becoming an ex-pat, surfing, photography, graphic design, music, art, architecture, living in mexico, all things Apple and WordPress related, etc... You can find more about me here. I hope you enjoy.
