I received an email from a happy client today. Steve lives in Palm Springs and saw my landscape images online after spotting my website.
After some discussion he ordered a print and had it delivered with the intention of getting a custom frame.
Good to see it framed and up on the wall.
Thanks for the email Steve, it’s nice to know the work is appreciated.
Phil,
It has been a long time since I bought this picture from you and you had asked me to send you a photo when I finally got it hung. Well here it is! My camera isn’t that good but I wanted to send it to you anyway. It hangs across from my dining table in a place were all visitors see it. It has been admired by several friends and they all think I spent thousands on it! I spent almost $400us on the frame which is gold with hints of red and looks absolutely amazing and brings out the colors of the picture. I truly love the picture and all your work.
Apple Inc.’s presence at the National Association of Broadcasters conference this week includes a mind-boggling on-site server demonstration comprised of 130 Xserve components and over 3 miles of fiber optic cable.
Very impressive but it does beg the question, what should the average Mac user have as Network storage for the ever increasing files created by bigger and better digital cameras, web design work, artwork files or even audio files created in the numerous small home based recording studios?
Big Trousers is currently assessing the various methods of Network attached storage as a way of providing large data storage and backup. We believe that from around $1400- $2500 a 1.0 to 2.0 Terrabyte NAS either as RAID or a simple storage volume is the way to go for most of us. This method is a lot less of a hassle than server based systems with attached RAID, and the access speed is perfectly suited to this task.
The Ethernet Disk RAID comes with Gigabit Ethernet interface plus robust data protection, four hot-swappable drives, and RAID 0, 1, 5, 5+spare, and 10 support. This essential network storage solution meets small business needs perfectly as a file-sharing server and central backup storage for multiple PCs. As a DHCP server with a second Ethernet port, it enables you to create your own local Gigabit network. User and group level authentication allows for securing data shares. With two USB 2.0 expansion ports, you can easily attach extra storage for expanding available capacity. The convenient email notification reports system errors, and it comes with an easy-to-use setup Wizard and Windows® Client Backup and Recovery software.
The pic above shows the LaCie 1.0 TB RAID that we can supply at $2000 and would be the perfect solution in a 1 - 4 person media office providing both storage and backup over gigabit connection. It will also provide a small Gigabit network but most will need a Gigabit switch, all PowerMacs from around 2002 have Gigabit cards as standard as do iMacs from 2005.
I got my beta invitation to Joost today and for those not aware Joost is an internet TV service that works a little like free cable TV for your computer.
The content and channel selection is interesting and predictably of a standard inferior to “free to air” traditional TV. Having said that my 9 year old son loved the extreme sports stuff. The big problem though is the image quality. With video that is fairly static the compression does a reasonable job but when things jump around a lot the image breaks up to an almost unwatchable extent. The editing effects on extreme sports videos like skate board pipe competitions is a little hard to watch in HD but impossible on Joost.
I think it will get watched and the image quality may be improved over time. Certainly the program options will improve even further given that it is quite reasonable now. The advertising placement is a little mechanical at times but not too painful.
I will watch as much of the show Fifth Gear as often as I can and for me Joost is worth it just for that.
My big concern is that there is a better system for delivery in existence. That system being iTunes for free content like Video Podcast. The Merlin show is an example of HD delivered as a free subscribable download, not streamed and over compressed. With the addition of Apple TV you can watch this show on your HD Plasma or LCD. All that needs to happen is for content creators to add to this mix and I will be happy.
Having read about the details regarding Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and looking at some of the video online I have to say it was a surprise that this suite has moved so quickly to embrace new controls and new formats.
The impressive videos including the Cohen brothers talk about “Color” shows the new color matching tools that looks to me to combine well with FCP and Motion to give total freedom in a color sense to any filmmaker.
Most surprising was the format for 4K, REDCODE by new camera manufacturer Red. Described in a piece online, Red provides a digital format for film makers that is definitely not video, much higher res than HD and much more flexible than high end film. The future is in this format and has been adopted as the standard for the future. Even though I have yet to see a “Red” camera working, the tools to edit are now in Final Cut Pro.
During todays part of the ongoing renovation of Big Trousers headquarters, a slight disconnection of the gas main was created. They cut through the pipe.
The emergency gas crew were called an within an hour they had two more trucks and were digging up bitumen. Something we were trying to avoid when removing existing concrete in the first place.
This all part of the rear access crossings and driveway work being completed.
Jen Hawley of Siren music rang the other day after having inadvertently deleted a piece recored through Logic Pro on her MacBook. It was a classical piano piece recorded some weeks ago and when it was not found on the Firewire back up she wondered if it was still on the local drive. It turned out it was deleted with out going to the storage drive for back up.
A disaster in the making as it would be a little embarrassing to have to re-record that session.
The answer turned out to be Data Rescue for OS X by ProSoft Engineering.This software does a number of things including restoring files that have been deleted.
To retrieve files lost the application can be loaded on another computer and the MacBook booted in Firewire mode and connected. The MacBook is kept as is, and retrieved files are transfered to the second machines’ hard drive.
After a few hours it was apparent that there was around 15 GIG of audio files that could be retrieved and sent to an external drive. That process took a further hour or so but now we are waiting for Jen to go through all that audio to see if the aiff file she wants is there.
After many years as the token Windows geek in a medium sized firm of Electrical component manufacturers my brother has taken delivery of a new MacBook. For very good reasons Relay Monitoring Systems has run on a network of PC’s kept in secure harmony under the gaze of my little brother. AutoCad and advanced networking and backup procedures have dictated geekness in the Redmond direction but after some playing around with various Linux installations at home it was time for the bold experiment.
I think geekness runs in the family genetics but until now I have been the lone OS X nerd.
As a fair and balanced individual I look forward to the response of the now multi platformed house of Greenwood. He will also be trying the new Apple Airport Extreme basestation, presumably to have access to his local network while in bed with the wife.
So you may notice my little Twitter window in the sidebar and wonder what all that is about.
I will attempt to explain.
In the current climate of SMS messaging and IM using AIM or MSN, Twitter has emerged as an addictive web based SMS style mini blog tool. You can subscribe to other peoples’ Twitterings and get their thoughts sent to your phone. Or just view them in your Twitter home page. Some stuff is so humorous and up to the second you can get veeery addicted.
The best way to explain is with a few examples.
The first thing I thought when hearing of the release of the new MacPro was that the cursed one “Leo Laporte” who apparently is well known for purchasing Macs just prior to new Apple releases, had taken Scott Bourne to an Apple store yesterday to buy a new MacPro and two cinema displays. This was part of the MacBreak Weekly podcast last night.
Merlin Mans’ Twitter this morning tied everything together and no doubt Scott will be amused.
Also in discussion with Helen at HMC to encourage her to get on board.
She did, and these are the pics I sent to her of the subsequent message.
So it looks like there are 4 processor options now. Dual quad core “Clovertown” Xeon, Quad 2.0 GHz, Quad 2.66 GHz, Quad 3.0 GHz all “Woodcrest” Xeon.
Standard feature is the 2.66 GHz Quad, the 8 core adds a whopping $2400 to the price and the 3.0 GHz Quad adds $1300.
Start adding multiple 750 GIG drives and RAM and you could blow a big hole in the budget.
No Quad 3.0 GHz “Clovertown” Xeon is available. Not sure why that is apart from there being a significant pent up demand for the new workstation Macs with the imminent availability of Adobe CS3 Intel binary software. There could also be some significant stocks of “Woodcrest” Xeon chips at Apple that are being shifted before going with “Clovertown” across the range. The Clovertown being the latest and fastest Xeon chip from Intel.
Cinema display prices have been reduced too which is good news.
Below is the “standard” MacPro configuration.
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors
1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1
16x double-layer SuperDrive
We have RAM at around $280 per GIG for this machine and SATA drives are more affordable than the Apple supplied options.
Perhaps the 3.0GHz MacPro will be my preferred option, I want to see CS3 running and Aperture.
When there is a box to check online for this puppy it will have my name on it.
They are currently online in Australia but not in the online store.
Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown†processors running at 3.0GHz. Or choose a quad-core Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest†processors and decide how fast they fly: 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz or 3.0GHz. At 3.0GHz, the quad-core Mac Pro runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad.
Turns out the deal includes a higher price download free of DRM but at twice the quality encoding (265 kbs AAC). Also Apple will offer all albums at this new quality but offer both the new and the old for single downloads.
I think that EMI are assuming that the higher quality and subsequent larger files will make filesharing a little less palatable given the extra time needed to both seed and download. John Gruber makes the point that independent labels and artists will also be offered the new deal by Apple and that sales will improve as a result.
I think the big news is the offer to upgrade your existing library of purchased music to the new non DRM high quality files for 30c US per song. Now this will keep the Apple servers busy for sure. As some have found after a few hardware upgrades, your 5 machine license can be worn a little thin and this upgrade ensures that this problem is eliminated. I can see people doing an upgrade of their entire library of songs. Assuming say 5oo songs from iTunes in an average library, that would be $150 and a day of downloading the upgraded songs. I assume your old library would be overwritten but I am unclear on that detail.
This is also great news for those looking at the Apple TV device. Now all purchases from iTunes should be the same quality as a CD through your stereo or home theater system.
It looks like EMI have come to the conclusion that Digital Rights management is getting in the way of their long term profitability. About time too I say.
From the Wall Street Journal
In a major break with the music industry’s longstanding antipiracy strategy, EMI Group PLC is set to announce today that it plans to sell significant amounts of its catalog without anticopying software, according to people familiar with the matter.
The London music company is to make its announcement at a London news conference featuring Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs. EMI is to sell songs without the software — known as digital rights management — through Apple’s iTunes Store and possibly through other online outlets.
This article from Daniel Eran on the capability of Apple TV in relation to 5.1 audio is lengthy and concise.
Thanks to Merlin Mann who has a vested interest in the technology working properly now and who is in opposition to the Scott Bourne’s of the podcast world.
I think Merlin or Ze Frank could be the stuff that makes the Apple TV type device a real winner. Just as Dire Straits helped make the CD a standard for audio by being one of the pioneers of digital recording.
When “Brothers in Arms” was released most CD’s were produced by recording on analogue equipment then mastering as digital. The quality of that CD made me look for material that was recorded digital. It makes sense that as more people have HD screens and AppleTV they will look for 720p content online. At present the podcast is the best bet to find it.
