Dumping Grounds

This is by no means means to be an exhaustive review, as a) I have not had that long to play with the products, b) I’m hardly an expert on either one and c) I don’t care to type that much. But from a cursory glance, while Aperture 2.0 has closed the gap with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom… it hasn’t passed its rival, and still lags in certain key areas.

My reasons for this are many, and you can look up a number of comparisons and reviews of each in other places on the web. I’d like to focus on 3 key points:

• While Aperture 2 may be faster, I’m still not impressed by its speed. It seems quick enough when applying effects and filters and the entire photo is showing on the screen. But if you do the same effects with the display at 1:1 mode, Aperture slows significantly. Most effects, even what I would consider to be “complex” ones (sharpening and noise removal) are near real time as you drag the slider in Lightroom.
• Speaking of noise removal (this is a big deal for me, as I enjoy night photography, and I have not yet managed to buy one of the higher end Canon cameras [I'm on an Digital Rebel XT]), maybe it’s just luck, but Lightroom’s tools for noise reduction seem outstanding, and Aperture’s are lackluster, at best. I’ve even tried comparing to a dedicated third party tool (Noise Ninja) and I still thought Lightroom held up quite well.
• I wish I could quanitify why, but I simply get better results with Lightroom… maybe the tools are more clearly labeled, maybe Lightroom is just better suited to the way I think, or maybe there really is a difference in capability. But my tweaked pictures from Lightroom look better than my tweaked pictures from Aperture (1.5 or 2). I can’t explain what I may be doing differently, as I feel like I am following the same workflow, but the results are (even judged by other folks) demonstrably better with Lightroom. I have some examples on my Flickr page.

Keep in mind this is coming from a registered purchaser of Aperture. Version 1.0 of Lightroom didn’t impress me. It’s come a long way to 1.3.

I know that everyone was on the edge of their seat wondering… but no, not all of the Dallas Summer Musicals suck as bad as Wonderful Town did.

Camelot was actually quite enjoyable. Interesting story, cool sets, and I could actually understand what was being said. Michael York is not the strongest singer, but I could hear all the dialogue. Musicals apparently have a requirement to have at least one character who is so completely… over the top… egotistical and non-self aware (and yet people like them anyway). Every one I have seen lately has had the same type. I find this type irritating, but hey, to each their own. It’s the reason I didn’t like Seinfeld.

All in all, an enjoyable evening. Three stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

I understand I have some new readers, who may not properly understand what the title of this post means. So, let this serve as your warning.

I post these when I’m angry. I’m going to curse, a lot. If this sort of thing offends you, please do not click “Continue reading.”

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There’s a line to the valet stand.

At intermission.

You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. There were hundreds of people pouring out of the Fair Park Music Hall last night at about 10pm.

The show “Wonderful Town” probably ended at 11.

I’ve never walked out of a show before, but this was really painful. Maybe I just am not cultured enough to appreciate “art.” But if that’s the case, many others were not appreciating it, either. The performances seemed fine, they just didn’t have much good material to work with. The premise was tired (two sisters move from Ohio to New York), the music was uninspired, and the script was completely unintelligible and disjointed. Several characters were hard to understand (especially “Wreck”, the football player).

The “pretty” sister was clueless. The “smart” sister was cynical and dark (and really wasn’t all that smart).

Apparently, this won Best Musical in 1953. Either they have done something to it, or 1953 was a very weak year for musicals.

I have some other things that I want to write about, but I really thought that I needed to recognize some outstanding customer service I received today.

I walked into an Apple Store with a busted Mag-Safe power connector. No computer, no serial number, no receipt, no appointment.

Walked to the Genius Bar in the back of the store, made my appointment for right then, explained my problem (and gratefully, I was never questioned â??Did you do this?â? â??Did you try that?â? â??Here, let’s test it and see if I can replicate the problemâ?) and received a replacement (which I am currently happily using). They looked up my serial number on line, verified my identity, and gave me the new connector. Total elapsed time? About 12 minutes. Total tally? One replaced connector, zero hassles, and one happy customer.

That’s why Apple is making money.

Television Shows That Are Better Than I Ever Imagined They Would Be

The Dead Zone. Who would have imagined that the dork from Sixteen Candles would grow up to be the coolest psychic on television? And how did this show stay on the air for four and a half years before I caught on that it was really good?

Eureka. What I expected to be fairly shallow, cheesy and nauseating is actually fairly shallow, cheesy and entertaining. Won’t last long, but I’ll enjoy it until they cancel it.

Television Shows That Are Worse Than I Have Been Told They Were

Ghost Whisperer. I’m sure I disliked it precisely because it’s not as good as The Dead Zone. Take TDZ, then sprinkle in a liberal about of CBS family fare mood, some Dawson’s Creek style drama, then douse it in syrup. Gross. Even Jennifer Love Hewitt is not aging well.

Kyle XY. I’ll be fair. I was warned the acting was… uneven. I was not warned that the acting was… middle school play-level. The plot might be cool, but I just could not get past the feeling that everyone. had. memorized. their. lines.

Most Underrated Feeling That I Should Not Have Enjoyed

Running into an ex-girlfriend at the gym. Let’s just say I know where the 20 pounds I have lost have gone. And so did she. Oh, c’mon… keep the hate mail to yourself… can’t I just enjoy a little cruelty? I won’t make it a habit.

There have been several reviews of the MacBook Pro, and they all seem to follow a theme.

1. It’s hot. Really hot.
2. It’s fast in Intel stuff, but it’s really really slow on Rosetta stuff.
3. Battery life blows.
4. The Mag-Safe connector is cool, but it becomes dislodged too easily.
5. The screen is a thing to behold.
6. The selection of ports (ExpressCard, no Firewire 800, no S-Video) is… odd.

If I can, let me hit these points one by one.

It’s hot. Really hot

Guilty as charged. Yes, it’s hot. However, just like the Powerbook G4 before it, it’s a metal notebook. Of course it’s going to be hot. It’s got two processors in there. It’s going to get warm. It is hotter than the G4 (although not by a huge margin), and may be a good deal hotter than the iBooks (which are plastic). Some of the reviews I have read expressed concern for the safety of children around such a hot notebook, or that it could seriously burn your leg were you to actually use it as a �??laptop.�?�

Get a life. It’s not that hot. I used mine on my lap for hours today, and while it may have been a tad uncomfortable had I not been wearing pants… I was, and I didn’t give it a second thought. Don’t use it in a sauna and it’ll be just fine.

It’s fast in Intel stuff, but it’s really really slow on Rosetta stuff

True. But with the exception of Adobe and Microsoft software, the vast majority of what I use is already native. If you happen to be the type of person who compiles some of your own packages (say Ruby) the speed is truly spectacular. On certain types of tasks, Apple’s claim that the MacBook is 4x faster seems to be a bit on the conservative side.

On other tasks, it’s actually not as fast as I expected. It plays World of Warcraft really, really well (but then again, so did my G4). I kind of expected to see constant framerates in the 80-100fps range. I don’t. But it looks and plays terrific.

Battery life blows

This one I just can’t figure out. Battery life on my G4 has always topped out at about 3 hours, with extremely conservative use of the machine, and the screen brightness all the way down.

Under the same circumstances, I got 25% longer battery life on my MacBook. I’m extremely pleased with the battery life I have seen… and when you compare the MacBook to some of the Dell Core Duo notebooks, the difference is really obvious… the Dells are larger, klunkier, and have batteries twice the size. With the same life.

One strange side note, in VERY quick testing… disabling one core in the MacBook does NOT seem to extend battery life. It may even shorten it. Further testing needed.

The Mag-Safe connector is cool, but it becomes dislodged too easily

Isn’t that the point?

I mean, what are these people doing while typing an e-mail? Playing rugby? I tend to sit still while using my computer, even if it’s on my lap, and the Mag-Safe has not become dislodged even once.

And yes, the connector is cool.

The screen is a thing to behold

True.

Looks every bit as good as my Dell external LCD. And so much better than the G4, it’s difficult to compare the two. The G4 is difficult to look at after being on the MacBook for a while.

The selection of ports (ExpressCard, no Firewire 800, no S-Video) is… odd

While I agree, I don’t think it’s too much of a problem. I will admit I was disappointed that the ExpressCard port was not the wider one, so a CompactFlash card would fit inside.

However, the two eliminated ports that are generating the most criticism are:

• The FireWire 800 port. I’d like to have one, but I have to admit, the one on my G4 has never been used. Not even once.
• The S-Video port. Again, I’d like to have one, but the S-Video port on my G4 was used one time, in three years, and that was to show off, �??Hey, look, I can hook it to a TV!�?� Besides, you can add this port for $20 with an adapter.

All in all, I could not be more happy with my MacBook. Well, I could, it could be cooler, have a wider ExpressCard port, and it could have been free. But other that that, it does everything I want a portable computer to do (including booting Windows… I may hate it, but it’s a necessary evil), and it does it very, very quickly.

In my last entry, I bemoaned the fact that a $189 PC I bought at Fry’s this weekend was faster than my 2 year old Powerbook (which cost considerably more than $189).

I may have been hasty.

While it is true that the PC runs my Craps program written in Ruby faster than my Mac… I wasn’t taking into consideration some other items, namely, how long it took to start Ruby in the first place. What looked like a 30% speed advantage for the PC, turns out to be closer to a 50% disadvantage.

When running the WEBrick webserver for testing Rails applications, suddenly the Powerbook is almost 10 TIMES faster. Serving the same application.

This difference is almost assuredly caused by memory (slow hardware, bad OS management, and/or lack of it). Plus the hard drive is slow, and the network interface is probably not the best.

I could fix all those things, but then it wouldn’t be a $189 PC, now would it? (As a matter of fact, I already put 512MB of RAM in it, making it a $228.99 PC) I don’t plan to add anything else to it. Continuing with my stated goal of bashing Windows at every available opportunity… I would like to point out that my 3 year old AMD machine (with LESS memory than the Windows PC) blows it out of the water while running Gentoo Linux. The difference may be a little in the hardware (the AMD was a nice machine 3 years ago, while the new one is CRAP, but current), but I think that most of it is in the operating system it’s running. I have not had a machine running Windows in almost two years… and as far as I can tell, I haven’t been missing anything.

All in all, not a bad showing for a 2 year old portable vs. a current purchase, no matter how cheap.

• Ruby, and more specifically, Ruby on Rails. More on this when I get around to writing it.
• The NHL shootout. I was certain I would hate it, and think it was a bastardization of the game (which it is). But the fact that it eliminated all ties more than makes up for it. And it’s damned fun to watch. It doesn’t hurt that the Stars are the best team in the NHL when it gets to the shootout.
• The $189 PC I picked up at Fry’s. No, it’s not cutting edge. No, it’s not terribly fast, but heck, it was $189. (and I am ashamed to admit, even at $189… it’s faster than my 2 year old Powerbook when running benchmarks in Ruby)
• MythTV. I’ve written about this before, but now I have my own personal PVR that can play back video anyplace in my house, as well as simultaneously rendering versions for my iPod. Which brings me to the next entry…
• Video iPod. I didn’t want one, I didn’t see the point in looking at a 2â?? (and that’s being generous) TV. Until I saw one. The picture is surprisingly good. The convenience of being able to take whatever I want to watch while I work out is truly amazing.
• Bruce Feiler’s book on Abraham: A Journey into the Heart of Three Faiths. A great treatment of one of my pet subjects.

Surprisingly good:

• Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, Alanis Morissette - what should have been a tired, shameless quest to milk a last few dollars out of a stunning debut that was never improved upon (although Under Rug Swept was actually quite good), is a very nice listen. Except for one really forced ad lib in Ironic, it’s really nothing more than re-done arrangements of the original CD. But it’s done very well. there’s a few spots where Alanis sings â??too many notesâ?, but overall, quite good.

• Rock Swings, Paul Anka - when this disk was pitched to some record exec, he had to think it was a joke. Paul Anka singing Nirvana? Van Halen? Well, joke or not, Anka can still sing, and the swing arrangements of popular songs is really interesting, and fun to listen to.

• Little Jr. King, Elvis T. Busboy and the Blues Butchers - OK, it’s not a major release, but I like these guys, so they get an entry. Much more hard core blues than their earlier efforts. To me, that’s a good thing. Less covers of Barry White, more covers of B. B. King and Etta James on this one.

Surprisingly bad:

• X & Y, Coldplay - Can someone call me when these guys do something that does not sound exactly like their first CD?

• Don’t Believe the Truth, Oasis - [yawn] see notes for Colplay, except that these guys weren’t original in the first place, they just sounded like the Beatles. With less talent.