First Impressions of Snow Leopard

Well, I installed and did some basic test on Apple's Snow Leopard this weekend.  I have not had a chance to thouroghly test the Adobe Creative Suites on Snow Leopard Yet.  I hope to have it done by the end of the week.  Life has been very busy I remember a time when I had time to install and test a new operating system when it first came out but these days time is short and life is busy, so I have a limited look at leopard for you.


First thing I did was a clean install I did a full backup of my files and it took 20 Minutes on a 3.0 Ghz MacPro Tower with 16 GB of Ram, 2TB RAID 0 Hard Drive configuration (4 x 7200 RPM 500GB HD).  I am pleased to report that my Silicon Image ST3132 PCI Express X 1 E-SATA card works flawlessly. The card is a mere 34.00 from B-Com computers just follow the link  ST LAB SATA II PCI-E 2 PORT RAID CARD A-341 ($34.00) and get the latest driver from the Silicon Graphics Website. Silicon Image ST3132 Driver.  Also things seemed much snappier and faster under Snow Leopard; but as I said this is just a preliminary report there will be more to come.

Trevor

The importance of being Organized

Well I did it to myself; I left it to the last minute and now I'm scrambling.  I didn't order my business cards in time for a big event that is being hosted by one of my web clients http://www.samesamebutdifferent.org.  This brings me to my point never put off till tomorrow what you are going to do till it's do.  It's a bad habit and I know lots of people are guilty of it.  So When I get home after getting Snow Leopard I will be printing out about 20 cards, then I will have to run down to the event and run home.  So I never do this again I will be ordering 250 - 500 Cards from Vista Print http://www.vistaprint.ca/.  I like their web service and sample.  I am planning ahead and preparing for the future.  Now the next time this happens I will be ordering anything I need at least 2 week in advance of the event.  This will make sure that I have enough time to do everything I need to do.  Also by better organizing myself with my Google Calander and syncing it with my BlackBerry Curve and iPod Touch I should be in pretty good shape.  As for the rest of it.  I need to step it up and do what I preach.  Plan a head, stay focused, stay on track and always have a backup plan.  In this case I just wen to the backup plan.

Trevor

Snow Leopard and Adobe Creative Suite Compatibility (Updated)

Wow, today has been a very busy day. Getting ready for Snow Leopard is not as easy as it appears.  I've been corresponding back and forth with David Howe (http://www.twitter.com/dhowe) from Adobe and he assures me that Adobe Photoshop CS3 WORKS in Snow Leopard (10.6).

David Responded to a post I put on my Twitter, after testing with an older version of  10.6 Build that CS3 was crashing.  I was being perhaps too pragmatic with posting that CS3 didn't work in 10.6 but it is better to be safe then spend allot of time reinstalling 10.5.  The Adobe FAQ release didn't give any real light on the subject but implied that CS3 Would not work in 10.6 (But it does).  Please read the twitter correspondence below.

DH: "Which CS3 product is crashing on SL for you? And what build of Snow Leopard are you using?"

TT: " Snow Leopard 10A261"

DH: " Photoshop CS3 works based on the testing we've done. And we worked with Apple to fix any issues we did find."

 TT: "Based on your twitter post I can take it everything will work golden? On some of the last builds I did have a few crashes."

TT: "The CS3 Crashes were working with files over 1 GB in size running blur and sharpen filters. (large format print stuff)"

DH: "There were many builds of Snow Leopard after 10A261. There were issues with earlier ones that have been since been resolved."


 TT: "I am going to test CS3 this weekend once it comes out to make sure so people don't upgrade prematurely, I'll let you know if I have any issues"

DH: "If this still happens with the GM build of Snow Leopard, let me know." 

So there you have it "Adobe" themselves may not have said anything and the FAQ may have left allot of people thinking CS3 was not going to work but Quoting David Howe: 

"Photoshop CS3 works based on the testing we've done. And we worked with Apple to fix any issues we did find."

So go ahead and upgrade to Snow Leopard.  David says it will work and until I get my own testing done; that's good enough for me.  I have to also say it is really good of David to come out and let us know what is really going on.  After all Adobe should have just come out and said it works it shouldn't have come from David, who was good enough to tell us.


Thanks David.


Trevor Tye

UPDATE
List of software supported by Snow Leopard

http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/

Adobe CS3 & Snow Leopard

UPDATED Please See August 27th Post!

Well with only 2 days to go Mac users everywhere are freaking out! They are really excited for the new snow leopard operating system and they want their old software to work! We have to keep in mind Snow Leopard is what Leopard should have been in the first place; it is a re-write on pretty much everything Apple has done until this point. When Adobe was asked about older Adobe Software (CS3 in particular) here was their response



"Q. Will older versions of Adobe creative software—such as Adobe Creative Suite 3 or Macromedia® Studio 8 software—support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?"

"A. Older versions of Adobe creative software were not included in our testing efforts. While older Adobe and Macromedia applications may install and run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), they were designed, tested, and released to the public several years before this new operating system became available. You may therefore experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)."

Adobe-SnowLeopard_FAQ.pdf



This is a very unfortunate situation for all computer users. If we have to start shelling out thousands of Dollars for upgrading our software, (I think CS3 to CS4 is around $899.00) then piracy will go up make no mistake about it. If Apple and Adobe want consumers to be continuously purchasing their software they need to make it worth our wild. Make the CS4 Master upgrade $499.00. Make it affordable so people will want to buy it. I understand Adobe needs to make a profit but the money they say they are losing to piracy would be compensated by the number of people willing to shell out $500 for the latest software bundle. Taking this approach will be easier for Adobe and the consumers in the future. If upgrade prices are affordable for everyone not just companies and businesses then everyone wins. No one pirates, no loses their job because of lost revenues. Maybe some guy upstairs doesn't get that new ivory back scratcher but he still gets to drive his BMW.

There is going to be a major issue within the next couple years and it is going to hit the web hard if we don't nip this in the butt right now. If people are going to be forced to re-buy all their software that they have all ready purchased then they may stay with the older operating systems and browsers. This is very bad. There needs to be a cost effective balance between running old software and buying new hardware. If that means that Operating Systems have to come with seamless virtual machines (ie. parallels in coherence mode) then Apple and Microsoft have to integrate it. You can't expect people to rebuy all their software because their computer died, or they upgraded their operating system. Consumers need a fix and they need one now, so who is big enough to step up to the plate? Microsoft? Apple? Adobe? More then likely it will be some poor open source guy that just wants it to work.

Trevor

The Apple Tablet Rumors

On twitter today there is a bunch of talk about the Apple Tablet; which I am starting to find very annoying. Would everyone like an Apple Tablet? - Yes probably. Is Apple going to sell it for $400 - $500 dollars? No probably not your probably looking at Mac Mini Pricing on the "Apple Tablet". Everyone and their dog has been a buzz about this since the netbooks have first come out but there is one thing that everyone is forgetting. Since Steve Jobs came back Apple will not ship a bad product. If a product is not great it is worked on until it is. We have seen this with the iPhone, the iPod, and Mac OS X. Let's face it Mac OS X.3 and X.4 were great updates to the Mac OS, they were fast and stable. Leopard was more hit and miss in my opinion. My point is that Apple's products seem finished. There is none of this Microsoft Vista, shipping before it's ready garbage. If Apple came out with a product before it was ready and it worked like a piece of garbage that would hurt the company more then anything else.

Everyone is forgetting one thing. Apple has a reputation for creating great products; so everyone wants one. If they had a reputation for creating mediocre products there would be none of this "Buzz". I know Apple has a tablet cooking. I have my own opinion about what it is going to look like and how it will perform. I will even write a post about it later. Apple will come out with a Tablet style computer when it is good and ready, we all know they have them they are just getting the bugs out; I for one am willing to wait until Apple gets it right. As for now if you want a netbook either get an iPod Touch/iPhone or get a netbook and load Linux on it. For right now that is as close as your going to come to a Apple Netbook. For now...

Trevor

The importance of Backups

Well, it has finally happened. I have had a flash drive that has failed on me. Everyone says how dependable SSD drives and Flash Drives are but you know they are just as prone to failure as regular hard drives. My brother had a 120GB SSD die on him, another had a 8GB flash drive and I've had my 16GB OCZ Rally Drive die on me. I know it's just the luck of the draw but it still ticks you off. I had some data on the flash drive that I hadn't backed up yet I usually back it up when the drive is almost full. So what is one to do? If I still lose data and most people consider me to overly cautious for backups what are other people suppose to do when they maybe backup every year or so. I myself am running very low on hard drive space I only have 8 TB of hard drive space with backups on other hard drives and optical disks. My best solution for tech savvy people would be to suck it up and get a Drobo. (read my review of the Drobo). As for everyone else have 3 copies of everything. One on your computer that you use, One on a backup External Hard Drive and One on removable media such as DVD's or a flash drive. Maybe if your very lucky you will never have to use them but if anything ever happens at least you have your data. With hard copies (prints) of pictures, movies being digital, mp3's from itunes it is only a matter of time before consumers demand having a hard copy of their software, data, and other items they buy from the internet.

Trevor

The Future of News and Analysis

As I get older I realize not only how hard it is to try keep on top with the latest technology but the latest programming languages, techniques, hardware, software, the list just goes on and on. So I've been keeping up to most things via podcasts and twitter. I also read .Net Magazine (see image on the left) and Maximum PC (sometimes).

I get most of my news and information from twitter and by verifying it. I use several sources to verify something that I heard or read. Now is this the future of news? Yes I believe it is. Making money though online advertising and sponsorship. Yes I know I said the dirty word "sponsorship" but you know what if the future of news is to be in this kind of "instant" format you have to make money to survive and people will want it free because it has always been free. Investors like Rupert Murdoch say you will Read Mashable Article. I disagree. I think you will have more magazine type targeted advertising. It is the closest thing to keyword advertising for the print market; you know exactly what the content is for the people who are buying it. For example a few years ago .netmag use to have a cover of a sexy girl with a laptop. My wife use to hate me buying the magazine because of the cover; but I was buying it for the content. Now they have some neat cover designs with no girl and I still buy the magazine because the content is

1) still good and

2) still relevant to what I do

when this stops I will stop buying the magazine.

I know they have the magazine online but I want the print version because it is easier to read and if there are any examples in it that I want to follow along with; it is easier to follow along in a book or magazine then on a webpage.

So where does that leave the future of news? Well if you are getting it instantly via twitter and/or other sources then what people might be interested in is a balanced opinion. So you will have analysis magazines or "papers" (this sounds like a news paper!) that people will pay maybe 2-3 dollars instead of the $1.00 that it is now. You are paying for the analyzed information from a reputable source not just some blog or webpage (ironically enough the writer for the paper might have their own blog). I do buy a news paper every Saturday; it's for the articles. I don't buy it everyday I get that online but if I can sit down for 10 - 15 minutes on Saturday and read an opinion while drinking a coffee, people will do that.

The future of people getting their news is Twitter. The issue that News papers have is it's not business as usual reporting yesterday's news. It is the Analysis of the week maybe month and charging 3 bucks a paper for it.

Trevor

A New Direction

I have been very busy building ads for kijiji and Craigslist. I can't say who I'm building the ads for but it is my idea for marketing on the free classifieds postings. The companies cost is just takes my time (I'm on payroll), so I am hoping to develop a way to make and post the ads more efficiently so I don't get board of posting them. This is a new direction for the company, they are use to spending tones of money on print advertising, and even though print is not dead (yet) it will be very close to dead soon; especially with all the problems the major news papers are having with cash flow (apparently). Make no mistake I think this is going to work out very well. With a reduction in costs and the increasingly large number of people going to the Internet for research, pricing, etc; I can see sales even increasing for them.

Some people may say it's too early to get out of print and to them I say, with the amount of time, and money wasted to meet deadlines, copy corrections, wording issues, the tiny little space you get, the web is a much better format for advertising. Your target audience is much more precise, you can change it when ever you want, post what ever you want any time you want and you won't have to look at a mistake for the next year because of a damn typo.

Now don't get me wrong print will never go way you will always need signage, banners, fliers, but print advertising as we know it is far to expensive to maintain compared to internet advertising and most people are online now. So as technology evolves and changes to be more and more digital all the analogue technology will disappear into the abyss, leaving options for advertising. Imagine a 2'x6' LCD panel that is malleable for easy handling. Using that for your trade show display or a holographic 3D display, the technology is advancing so fast we don't know what is going to happen.

This New York Times article http://bit.ly/2iKqfH about HP could be a the canary for the print industry. Who know what the future will bring for all I know MS Bing could become the #1 search engine over Google (not in my opinion) but hey stranger things have happened. After all in the late 90's before Steve Job's return to Apple we though we would all be running windows and the Mac would be a distant memory.

Trevor

trevortye@optionkey.ca

Revamp of my personal blog

When I originally decided to keep my blogspot blog my thinking was that I would put my tech articles on my website and on my blogspot blog. I have decided that is to redundant and since I have so much research to do before I post a tech news post I think that I will make this a personal opinion / rant blog.

So a few things, first of which last Saturday August 15th we had a family tragedy, my Grandfather died at the age of 75 without warning. This was very difficult because he was a man who loved his family very much and loved life. He was the kind of man who would give without giving a second thought and did not need a reason to. He is survived by this 3 daughters, 1 son and 12 grandchildren.

I have finished a new website for a non profit organization, which I think has turned out pretty good. Down below is a thumbnail of the website and here is a the link to the live site http://www.samesamebutdifferent.org



On top of that I need to finish setting up and configuring the computer for Decor Tile Company along as their website. I am really excited to show them the website I have for them I think they will like it allot, I will post a link up as soon as I finish debugging it.

Life has been crazy with doing quotes and other proposals I don't know where I find the time. A major reason I am able to continue doing this is because of my fantastic wife, without her I don't know how I would get by and personable. She has taught me allot about time management. I had no idea how lousy I was at it before.

If you have any tech questions, comments or suggestions please send me an email trevortye@optionkey.ca Don't forget you can also follow me on twitter @trevortye