Thursday, November 20, 2008

OK. I’m Sold.

I’d been riding the fence on Photoshop 4 throughout the announcements and even the early shipping of the product. 3D support? Eh. New interface improvements? Eh.

But I’ve finally realized that there probably are enough reasons to upgrade and for us to install it all over campus. My favorite new features - specifically for new and intermediate users - are the improved tools for working with layer masks, embedded Kuler for making smart color decisions, and the ability to rotate the canvas itself.

There are numerous reviews and op/ed pieces throughout the web on CS4, but I thought the article from Mac|Life was particularly good if you only have a passing knowledge of photoshop. This piece also discusses all the issues I mention above…

Monday, November 17, 2008

More iPhone App Love

Here’s another list of iPhone apps that might be worth having a look at. Have I mentioned that I truly love my iPod Touch? Want to know that the computer of tomorrow is going to look like? Take a Tablet PC, and the iPod Touch and squash them together. OK, I’m being a little playful here - but you can see where future development is heading.

Before you try to get all 100 of these: step back, take a deep breath, and ask yourself which ones you’ll really use. Then download all 80 of them. Are you single? I recommend Fake Calls to get you out of any of those embarrassing or painful first meetings. You know what I’m talking about!

Friday, November 14, 2008

My Mobile Lifestyle

Despite appearances, the lifestyle of a productive academic is quite hectic. And, given the flexibility we enjoy, we end of conducting work in many places: office, home, classrooms, labs, and frequently from other cities states, and countries. As a result, I need to access data from all over and keeping track of all that and keeping it synced so that I don’t have multiple versions of it everywhere has been a real chore. Nonetheless, the amount of communal data that I need to reference from different locations is rather limited: email, calendar, contacts, course materials, and select important documents. So, it seems that I should be able to solve this conundrum.

For years I’ve been using the .Mac service and its performed admirably. But they recently renamed it MobileMe (really - how’d that one get through) and changed the domain to me.com which sent us down a path of problems regarding email spam and phishing schemes. But, even though the implementation sucked and they gave me three free months of service to make up for it, I started wondering “why am I even paying for this at all?” I’d also lost some of my contact to file corruption through the service, so I’ve started looking elsewhere.

Of course, I’ve got Gmail for email and I like their calendar solution also (which integrates well with iCal via iPhone synch). BTW, there’s a recent article here that provides some nice detail on alternatives to MobileMe (I really just can’t get over how bad that name is).

So, what I really need to resole is how to store files and make sure everything is synched. I think the synching is going to be the problematic issue - we’ll see. Anyway, I’ve been testing Mozy and Box.net and I like both services, but I don’t know that anything is going to get me the comprehensive solution that I’d like. In the end, I’d like a version of .Mac that works, and that is considerably cheaper. 

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Change to Believe In

The Other Dr. Fee sends us an article by David Brooks which along with Peggy Noonan is one of the Conservative journalists I respect. While I don’t agree with his support for No Child Left Behind, I do agree with most of his other commentary here. Specifically, I would draw your attention to the idea that this was an election where the middle asserted itself and not a vast move to the left. Simply put - despite my personal pleasure with the results - this election was a mandate to establish competency in government and not an election of ideology. 

Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Here’s your Halloween image this year, courtesy of some work in ITL 361 this term:

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Apps for iPhone and iPod Touch

Here’s a link to an article listing a number of really good apps for Apple’s handheld devices. More and more I’m finding value in these devices - for the first time in preference over my computer or laptop. I’m really impressed with the functionality of my iPod Touch which I use as a media transport device, a storage unit, and a text reader, in addition to its more tradition services like calendaring, email, etc. In fact, I’m using the device with regularity that I never implemented with my other PDAs. So, I think I’ve found a PDA that actually works for me, now…

Monday, October 27, 2008

Jobs Report

Speaking of checking your sources, Bloomberg has an article relating the recent fiasco surrounding Steve Jobs’ health and a related precipitous drop in stock price (not related to the actual recent drop in the market). Essentially, a CNN site reported that Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer, had a heart attack and the share price of Apple stock dropped. It turns out there was no truth to the report, which had been posted as coming from a reliable source.

Apparently the entire event is calling into question the value of “citizen journalism” and whether it is a worthwhile endeavor. I could argue that point, but it seem to me that a mere distinction resolves the issue: journalism is a job, not a hobby. It seems that if the field would simply hold itself to those higher standards the situation would resolve itself. There seems to be some notion that the most important element is to be the first with the story. That might have been the case when newspapers ruled the day. But I would argue that with the advent of the Internet and the fundamental change in medium, this concept is fundamentally flawed. The issue now should not necessarily be speed - anyone can get the story quickly - the issue should require reliability. That means verifying stories and checking sources rather than publishing hearsay.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Check Your Sources!

One item that has left me so disappointed with the political process in the US is the negative tone of the invective thrown around by extremists on both sides. Perhaps its simply the reality of a two-party system, or maybe its just human nature; but the problem is exacerbated when such extreme partisanship spreads misinformation. I’ve been particularly disappointed in some of the libel spreading about Obama. Let’s consider excerpts from this chain email that’s been floating around:

email: “keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.”
fact - This is simply not true (see below). While it is easy enough to manipulate imagery, this photo has been verified through several news sources and clearly shows Obama being sworn in on the Bible:

email: Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches. ed: The email typically includes the following image:

fact - This image comes from an event during the singing of the national anthem, not the Pledge of Allegiance. For proof of Obama’s ability to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, watch this video, or this one.

The emails that are floating around with such misinformation are frustrating because many people lack the wherewithal to evaluate the source in one way or another. This leads folks to build upon some very bad information and even perpetuates the nonsense. In fact the chain email states: “We checked this out on “snopes.com”. It is factual. Check for yourself.” Well, I did. And almost all of it is wrong - and the rest is certainly not factual. I guess the authors assumed most people would just believe them without checking. Unfortunately, they were right. (For more craziness see the snopes.com representation of misguided Kenyan missionaries.)

I’m sure we’ve all experienced frustrating and emotional political conversations where you simply have to stop the discourse because its not based upon any true and observable reality, but instead on mere hearsay and false information. What makes me so very sad is the good people will base their votes on such.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Case Against Sarah Palin

I was going to write a lengthy diatribe regarding the difficulties surrounding the Palin candidacy. But then time passed, and the circumstances made the situation clear…