So, Linda and I are both just having a hard time with iLife ‘08, mainly beacause of the ‘Events’ paradigm it introduces, and the kind of random shuffle of all the existing tools and interfaces. The introduction of ‘events’ makes iLife 08 a kind of modal package: what it does depends on what mode you’re in – ‘events,’ photos or albums. Most software long ago went away from modes – which old, limited, console apps needed to function at all – because they are confusing and hard to deal with.
Good husband promised to spend the afternoon with the iLife tutorials and docs and try to figure it all out, preparatory to giving the spouse lessons. So I think I’ve worked through much of it, and can give LInda the ‘breadcrumb trail’ to import her photos, crop and tone, and send off to her blog (which is mostly what she does with photos). Along the way I will probably have to archive all our old photos and start a new database. I was able to find and edit the Jimmy Smits photo above, that was in a much smaller iPhoto database running on my photo-processing machine.
One big problem is that iPhoto ‘08 attempts to organize your existing photos into events: some bug or other issue has rendered our 30,0000+ photo iPhoto archive useless – all the albums (there are dozens and dozens) show up as ‘empty’ even though thumbnails will flash in and out of existence if you move the thumbnail slider, and the folder itsel reports the number of photos it once contained. We have lost a lot of organizing work, including things like John and Julie’s wedding. Not happy, Apple.
A real drag is that iLife attempts to organize your existing albums into events, basically by date, and for bloggers, who shoot different stuff every day, this is basically a disaster that will require hours with the ’split events’ tool to fix. This is classic ‘we know better than you do’ behavior by a developer… and Apple’s particularly bad at this IMHO….
We spent about a half-hour in Dotcom Garden this morning, first harvesting tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and herbs, then watering, then sitting and drinking fresh, hot, Peet’s coffee from a mini-thermos. Pretty good morning.
Cassie patrolled the paths between the planters while I went about my chores. I’m amazed the planter boxes, made of 2×12 redwood planks and sporting a few repairs here and there, are still usable after 17 years.
The tomato plants are heavy with green tomatoes, and a wilting disease I’ve battled in previous years has just shown up: it’ll be a race to see if the tomatoes ripen before the plants die.
This morning’s harvest was quickly chopped, mixed with the herbs, salt and pepper and deposited in a sauteuse where they simmered with a cup of water while Linda jogged her Big Dish run. When she arrived home, chopped chicken apple sausage went into the mix, along with eggs (after we cooked the mix down to a bit dryer cosistency) for an organic scramble that had the very fresh light tomato taste that seemed to be all the rage when we were in Paris 2 months ago. No oil or other added fat… and I used Omega 3 eggs… we’re reasonably serious about a healthy diet around here…
Serious geekery – from Wired’s Threat Level blog:
“Mark Snesrud and Bob Mayo took on the public art challenge, leading them to W.A.S.T.E. cash on some fancy radios, find hidden XML files, use computer programs to generate a 4,142 page equation that explained the signals but signified nothing, and finally crack the code to find the building is continually broadcasting the text of Thomas Pynchon’s ‘The Crying of Lot 49.’”
The pair offer an 18-page-explanation of how they cracked artist Ben Rubin’s San Jose Semaphore. The Semaphore web site offers this overview of the project and the embedded puzzle:
“Located within the top floors of Adobe’s Almaden Tower headquarters in San Jose, California, San Jose Semaphore is a multi-sensory kinetic artwork that illuminates the San Jose skyline with the transmission of a coded message. The content of the San Jose Semaphore’s message is a mystery; cracking the encryption technique and deciphering the message is posed as a challenge for the public. To the first person or group to successfully crack the code, Adobe will award bragging rights and acknowledgment on both the Adobe website (www.adobe.com) and the San Jose Semaphore website.” So, now we know…