Arranged Delirium

Apple came out with a new AppleTV device last week. I’ve had my own AppleTV for a couple years now. I’ve found it extremely convenient for streaming iTunes content; and I have bought a few television series on it. I use Netflix for any movies I want, and I’ve ever been watching a number of series via Netflix streaming as well - which works wonderfully.

The new AppleTV is probably a fine device for new adopters. For me though, there’s really no reason to get it. I stream Netflix via my Blu-ray player and I can use the existing AppleTV to stream iTunes content.

But for anyone looking to unplug from the cable and satellite companies - I can say there’s no good reason to throw so much money at them. You can get all the content you need from Netflix and if you add in the AppleTV ($99) you can rip and stream all your pre-existing discs. I find that I spend much less on television by buying an occasional series on iTunes or on disc than I would spend with a cable or satellite subscription. And now of course, you can rent programming for .99 cents instead of buying it at twice that cost.

Here are some links with additional info if you’d like to know more:

TechCrunch: Why This New Apple TV Makes Sense
ArsTechnica: Apple’s Trouble with TV

For myself, I’m still interested in seeing what Google comes up with when it extends GoogleTV later this year…

Over the past few months, I’ve become a regular user of my Apple Tablet Device. I find it useful for virtually everything I do, outside of writing and development. I often recognize that I’m not the typical user though, so I try to keep aware of what others think of the device when forming my own opinions. I’ve found 100 Days with the iPad series (here’s part two) form PC Magazine to be useful in getting ideas regarding others’ use of the device. I may not work similarly, but its important to realize the broad utility of the device…

OK. The new photo galleries are up. You can access them through the link of the left, or through my web site. If you like them, you may want to check them occasionally as I intend to cull the collection and add some new imagery as I work on items this fall. Thus far, the material is almost exclusively the Southwest US - I’ll be adding images form Europe and the Middle East in a few weeks.

I didn’t bother setting up comments, but I’m always interested in people’s thoughts and impressions. So, feel free to comment to this post…

As classes start back up, I am reminded of some of the particular content organization challenges that college web sites face; and I’m reminded of this comic from xkcd:

There seems to be some consensus regarding the disconnect between the messages being sent and the information requested. I wonder if there is some kind of data - perhaps we could call them “analytics” - that could tell us which pages are accessed, and with what frequency, and for how long? It might do wonders for helping us generate web content that serves identifiable and actual needs.

And I’m not talking about the W&J web designer here either - who actually does have analytical data. It still comes down to the folks who make decisions about content and whether those decisions are based on data or other inexplicable intuitions. Intuition can actually be valuable in terms of design - but content creation should be based upon data.

I’ve posted previously about my love for the new content-aware fill and healing brush features in Photoshop CS5. I’ve had some time now to work with them, and I have a bit more knowledge about what works well and what doesn’t. Of course, there are many tutorials online that have great examples; but what if you want to do something a bit more challenging?

I’ve had an image I’ve wanted to improve for years now - since 2004. It’s a photo of Shiprock on the Navajo rez in NW New Mexico. Here it is:

If you look closely, you’ll see the image is marred by a fencepost as well as a series of high-capacity power lines. (I admit, they are harder to see at this smaller resolution - but they are there if you look for them.)

Anyway, I increased the resolution of the image and used the content-aware fill feature to address the power lines. I also did a bit of work on the fencing, but addressed that primarily through cropping and re-compositioning the image. Here’s the end result:

The content-aware fill feature works remarkably well in some environments, but not necessarily with the dramatic gradations of these storm clouds. I was able to make it work though by selecting and filling smaller sections, and then using the healing brush tool to blend the modifications. In the end - and at a screen resolution - I think it works well. And, I think the content-aware feature is still amazing. But it doesn’t magically fix any photo as some Web content would have you believe : )

I’ll add this image to my gallery collection which is now active and accessibly via my web site and this blog.