I recently made the switch back to Mac. My last Mac was a 1600 (aka the Pizza Box) running OS 9. I am now working in a mix environment. I still use my "old" PC for 3D Studio Max, but my primary development platform is Mac OS X Leopard, on a shinny Mac Pro. A few things I have notice in the 2 weeks I have been working with OS X is the fact that Photoshop seems much more snappy. Even though this machine has only 2 GIG of RAM (compared to the the 4 GIG on my XP machine) all the things I do in Photoshop seem faster. The system as a whole seems more responsive. When I try to do several things really fast OS X never seems to try to catch up to me. Often on Windows XP the system would slow down as it tried to process several things at once. Another big difference is just how fast Photoshop launches. I swear it takes 1/2 the time on Mac compared to the PC. Now keep in mind these are exactly the same copies of Photoshop (CS3 Extended).
If anyone knows of any benchmark tests comparing equal Mac hardware against PC hardware I would love to see them. So far I have yet to find a shoot out online that compares apples to oranges (no pun intended!)
| May 2nd, 2008
Recently I purchased at Wacom Cintiq LCD Pen Table (12WX). I have broken my review down into 5 points, but basically I think the Cintiq is the best thing since sliced bread. I must tell you that I am in no way affiliated with Wacom, nor have I been paid to write this review. I think this is such a great product I think other designers can benefit from it.
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| January 24th, 2008
Apparently there is much need of good Flash content management systems. My article on Flash CMS is in the top search strings at Google, and it is one of the most comment threads on this site. I hope in the future to do a review of some of these Flash CMS products. I have heard rumors that Adobe Contribute will soon be able to update Flash sites. This would be the perfect solution for small Flash sites needing content updates. I'll keep you posted.
| January 24th, 2008
According to ComputerWorld Mac market share broke 8% in 2007. I imagine that in 2008 it will reach over 10% which will make it a serious platform for companies to consider as they develop software. One of the largest problems facing software vendors in regards to the Mac is the lack of install base. This shouldn't be as much of an issue going forward. I know for my self I plan to switch back to the Mac in 2008. My next computer hardware upgrade will probably be a MacPro, and I know many other designers / developers who will be doing the same in 2008. Basically Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with Vista. Why would I "upgrade" to an OS that runs 20% slower than XP. Although on the down side with more market share will come more security concerns. I bet dollars-to-donuts that we will see more Mac viruses due to this increase in market share.
| January 2nd, 2008
Not since I purchased my PowerMac 6100 (lovely called the pizza box due to it's form factor) have I been this excited about a piece of hardware. I am of course talking about the recent order of the Wacom Cintiq LCD Pen Tablet (12WX), now keep in mind this is NOT a review since I have yet to receive this bad boy (that is sometime late in January for us Canadians!) No, I am excited because of all the amazing video's I have scene like the review over at Gizmodo. I watched this video on YouTube, and I ordered the unit the same day.
The 411
Forget about the specs (and for a moment that the small one costs like $1200 bones CAD.) What is amazing about this product is the fact that that it gives the artist direct contact with his/her artwork in the digital world. As things progress you will see more and more products like this that connect the organic world with the digital world. As an artist I have always found the mouse, keyboard and even my old school Wacom tablet to be very limiting in terms of the gestures I can produce when I'm designing something. And while I enjoying sketching in my handy notebook, scanning in pages is soooo slow and time consuming. Regardless if you are an illustrator, retoucher, or even a 3D artist this product can enhance your work flow. I am particularly excited to try this tablet out with Pixelologic's ZBrush. (an organic 3D modeler) I can't imagine how much fun this will bring back to my work in PhotoShop. I truly think this product will improve artist creativity, it will enable us to flow more between human gesture and the digital world. Check back in late January, I will post photos and reviews of the tablet when it arrives.
| December 30th, 2007
It is with a heavy heart that I report that our beloved Pixelsurgeon is dead. We have setup a online memorial for all you who need a little time to grieve. Pixelsurgeon was a buddy, a friend , an d even an online portal sometimes. We shall miss you. Here is my tribute. You can also find some fun mementos in the form of a desktop image there too! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)
| November 20th, 2007
Picnik sets the standard for how all online applications both Flash and AJAX should function. The online photo editing service is an excellent example of how to get things right when building a web service. The site features an extremely easy to use user interface designed for "joe-home-user". Interface elements are clean and very obvious. What I particularly love about the site is the effective use of liquid layout. If you have a big screen you can make full use of it in this application. Seeing that 800×600 is almost dead, its nice to see more and more online applications taking advantage of the new big screen. This site also features a great business model as well. One small fee for the year and you have access to this wonderfully easy to user service. You can watch for this little puppy to get bought up in one of Microsoft's buying binges. Also it has the classic green Dotcom vibe to it and the funny Web 2.0 logo… so it's a sure-fire seller.
| October 25th, 2007
The Tiltviewer is a cleaver 3D Flickr viewer built using Papervision 3D. Ever since Papervision 3D came on the scene it has become the darling of the Flash community. There have been a great number of excellent applications built using it. The problem with 3D is just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should".. the Titltviewer is a good example of this. While the interface is well done, viewing 2D photos on a slight slant doesn't really enhance the viewing experience - in fact I think it makes alot of the photos hard to view. I once worked with a programmer who told me this: "As interface designers we know we have done our job if the end users don't notice us at all." And he is right, any interface that gets between the user and their content is a bad interface. Using 3D has it's place, but viewing slanted photos from Flickr probably isn't the place. No slag to the folks who build this app though, it's well done and an excellent proof of concept.
| October 1st, 2007
I recently took an extended “Lunch Hour” to watch the new Michael Bay film Transformers. All and all it is a good movie. One of the things that will strike many people about the movie is the in-your-face product placement for General Motors. The Chevrolet “Bowtie” and the big bad red “GMC” logo are tagged everywhere.
Continue Reading | | July 10th, 2007
Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s Flash Player. Now keep in mind I haven’t played with this yet (or the tools such as Expression that are used to created it) but my thinking is that this will probably be another tool much like FrontPage. Microsoft has never had much luck getting the professional web design community to use it’s tools. Maybe it’s because their image with in this community is so poor. Lets take IE 7 for instance, they had the opportunity to make it “standards compliant” … but no, they still had to throw in their own mix of proprietary rendering. And FrontPage… even though they have laid that dead-dog to rest long ago, many developers can still remember cleaning the code from that evil HTML editor.
Continue Reading | | April 19th, 2007
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