Macintouch index of Tiger updates to common Mac software

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Compatibility Updates

RAW data in digital cameras and the fight against standards -- and especially Adobe DNG

RAW storm in a teacup? Dave Coffin interviewed: Digital Photography Review

As in cameras, so in every domain.

9. Is there a place for a standard 'Open' RAW format or does that raise too many issues to do with the sharing of proprietary image processing between competitive manufacturers?

Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) is a great format -- I totally redesigned dcraw for maximum DNG compatibility. But you won't see much enthusiasm from the camera makers. This Joel essay explains why:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html

Photoshop and digital cameras are complements. Adobe wants to commoditize the digital camera, and the camera makers want to stop them.

Camera vendors want to lockin customers to their cameras and their software. If they could do it they would ensure that photographers pay a regular fee to retain access to their images -- forever.

The only way this will stop is if people start buying cameras based on their support for Adobe's (public) DNG format. I know it would weigh heavily in any buying decision I would make -- but I'm hardly a typical consumer. (BTW, Adobe is no more noble than the camera vendors, it's just that in this case Adobe's interests are aligned with consumer interests.)

Do not update OS X systems to 10.3.9

Apple - Discussions - 10.3.9 problem with multiple users

This is a nasty one. Systems start having login problems - non-admin accounts can't login. On my 10.3.9 system I haven't had this problem, but I've discovered folders in ./Library/ that have a non-admin owner and the admin group has read-only privileges. This doesn't make sense.

Repair permissins doesn't fix the problem. I suspect it has something to do with the 'floating ownership' behavior in OS X -- that may have been broken in 10.3.9.

Based on the desccriptions of this problem in the Apple discussion forums, and the lack of a fix for over a week, I'd recommend NOT updating to 10.3.9 until this is fixed.

The ultimate Tiger/Unix/MacOS review and tutorial

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger : Page 8

I'm a geek, but I am not in this league.

This is extraordinary. It's sort of a review, sort of an OS tutorial, sort of a UNIX tutorial, and basically a display of geek versimilitude. The UNIX file permissions and ACL tutorials are among the best I've seen anywhere, and they're only one "chapter" in this book.

The ACL description makes me think the old problems with repairing permissions may finally go away -- someday. It's not really a part of 10.4.0 standard (server only).

Meanwhile, it looks like there will be some pretty significant speedups with 10.4.1

There's one final barrier to hardware-accelerated bliss. Quartz 2D Extreme is disabled by default in Mac OS X 10.4.0. That's right, the whiz-bang new technology you just read all about is not actually used in Tiger unless it's explicitly enabled using the Quartz Debug application. Even then, it only applies to applications that are launched after it was turned on. It also appears that Q2DE is re-disabled when you quit the Quartz Debug application.

Why develop something as impressive as Quartz 2D Extreme and then leave it turned off by default? My inquiries to Apple have gone unanswered, so I can only speculate about the reasoning behind this decision. My best guess is that all of the bugs could not be excised from Q2DE in time for Tiger's launch date, and that it will be enabled by default in a subsequent update—perhaps as early as version 10.4.1.

For most of us very happy with Panther, 10.4.1 will be the real Tiger, and this is what our ace reviewer recommends:

If you're still running Jaguar or earlier, you really owe it to yourself to upgrade to Tiger. It'll be the best $129 you've ever spent on an operating system. If you're happy with Panther, I strongly recommend going to an Apple store and checking out Tiger in person. Chances are good that there'll be at least one or two features that you'll decide you need, if not right way, then soon. As with any new release, it won't hurt to wait for version 10.4.1 or later.

Overall, Tiger is impressive. If this is what Apple can do with 18 months of development time instead of 12, I tremble to think what they could do with a full two years—let alone the length of time it took for Mac OS X 10.0 to first ship. The productivity of Apple's Mac OS X development team has increased tremendously since 10.0; they're now firing on all cylinders. While I dearly wish someone would steer them in the direction of the eternally neglected Finder, I can't help but be proud of the little OS team that could.

Mac OS X started its life as the most ambitious consumer operating system ever produced. Apple abandoned its existing, 16-year-old code base for something entirely new. Out of the gate, Mac OS X was a technical curiosity with few applications, and a performance dog. A scant four years later, Tiger is a powerhouse that combines the best Unix has to offer with a feature-rich, user-friendly interface. The increasingly capable bundled applications are just icing on the cake. We've come a long way, baby.

Lastly, as I read about the various advanced functions of the OS that Adobe won't touch (needs to stay cross-platform) I keep thinking "iPhoto Pro", "iPhoto Pro", "iPhoto Pro" ....

Take my money Steve, even if you are getting weirder and more manic.

Text to speech to iPod

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): Terminal tips - say

Picture Arena: OS X photo management software imprts iPhoto images

Producttour > Import // Picture Arena - next generation digital picture management for MacOS X // IOSPIRIT GmbH - for creative minds ..

Dynamic iPhoto™ album import

On startup, Picture Arena is dynamically importing your existing iPhoto™ albums, including comments and thumbnail data. As this import is dynamic and happens at each startup of Picture Arena, they are always up-to-date and you don't have to delete and reimport them each time you have made a change to them or added new albums. If you want, you can permanently convert your iPhoto™ albums into Picture Arena albums, though, and benefit from all of Picture Arena's features for these images, too. The extensive support for iPhoto™ albums in Picture Arena gives you the best out of two worlds and the flexibility to use Picture Arena as either an extension, a replacement or in combination.

Brave words -- interoperating with iPhoto seems brisky. They have a free download. I doubt the import routine will import original images (vs. current) or keywords. BTW, this is a German company, so the sometimes awkward English is no reflection on the quality of the product.

Problems with my hard drive backup -- Vantec cartridge incompatible with Seagate Barracuda 200GB drives.

I outgrew my 80GB backup drives in my Vantec EZ-SWAP cartridge (see Backing up a mixed OS X and Windows 2000 Home Network) and confidently ordered two 200 GB Barracude ATA drives. I was sure it would be a half hours work (max) to swap out the 80 from the Vantec and put in the 200. Wrong. The 200 GB Barracudas don't work in the Vantec cartridge, though they work fine as regular drives.

The BIOS recognizes the Seagate perfectly during initial startup. The hang occurs after the POST is complete, when Windows starts up. The yellow and green lights on the front of the drive light up and the system waits about 20 seconds. Then the system continues and the Windows splash screen appears with its progress bar. The progress bar continues to move, but the system never gets past this point.

I hear a 'zuttt' sound every 20-30 seconds when these drivers are powered up in the Vantec.

I've tried many tricks, including configuring the Seagate as a 32GB drive using the jumpers. I've tested with two identical Seagate drives, two different IDE cables, two different controllers (Paradise and MB IDE). I've tried Master and cable-select configurations. I've confirmed that the Vantec EZ-Swap continues to work very well with my 80GB drives. I've confirmed that the drives work fine outside of the EZ-Swap cartridge.

In short, the 200GB Seagate Barracuda ATA ST3200822A appears to be completely incompatible with the Vantec EZ-Swap.

The Vantec support people actually answered an email, but they've had no ideas. My guess is that the Seagate can't tolerate the minor signal degradation created by the IDE cable splices to the cartridge.