Automator does something useful? iPhoto browser

macosxhints - 10.4: System-wide iPhoto browser

Mail.app imap disaster - retracted?

This was transiently scary.

My wife's email is setup on two computers. Both use IMAP.

On the iBook, running OS X 10.3.9, her Mac OS X - Mail (Mail.app) IMAP account is set to view messages and delete permanently when deleted on the iBook. Since 'store sent on server' and 'store draft on server' don't work with our ISP's IMAP implementation, every message she sends defaults cc to herself. BTW, if you drag a message from a local store to the inbox it vanishes forever. God knows where it goes.

On the iMac, running 10.4.6, her Mail.app IMAP account is similary configured. The idea is she drags messages from her inbox when she's done with them to a local folder on the iMac. The messages are thus removed from the IMAP server.

She can thus work her email from two machines, but archives it at one machine.

Except today, after doing some IMAP work, every archival message on the iMac displayed the same error message -- basically saying that only the header was stored locally, the message itself was on the IMAP server and I needed to reconnect. Except, of course, it wasn't.

I quit Mail.app and went for a walk. When I returned I tried again. All of the messages were back again.

Weird.

PS. I've never done much with Mail.app. Today, when configuring my wife's email, I started using Smart Folders. The ability to create and chain these Boolean queries (iTunes can chain queries, Mail.app can chain queries, iPhoto cannot) is very impressive. Thanks to Spotlight they update instantly. I'm setting up her email to work rather like Gmail, but Mail.app is missing Gmail's ability to attach tags to messages. On the other hand Mail.app has a far superior query language and powerful rules, which can include AppleScript extensions. Mail. app may not be rock solid, but it is certainly very powerful.

My RAW image workflow

Once I decided to keep wait for Aperture 1.11 or later, I decided to see what I could do with iPhoto's 6.02's RAW capability (OS 10.4.6).

Actually, pretty well. I'm pleased. Not only that, but my new workflow is more efficient than my old one. Background details are in this post. Here's what I do:

1. All images are shot RAW. I set white balance to auto and ignore it. With those CR2 RAW files (12 bits of color) I can fix the color balance later.

2. I import all images into my 'intake' iPhoto Library. (I use iPhoto Library Manager to switch libraries, but if you option-click launch iPhoto it will ask for the Library location.)

3. Edit in iPhoto, cropping, adjust color balance, sharpness, etc. (I plan to buy Noise Ninja, that will change my workflow, more later).

4. Export as JPG (this drops color bits to 8, so it's important that the white balance has been fixed.

5. Rename using a A Better Finder Rename (this is not necessary for most.)

6. Import into my main Library, add comments, etc.

7. Put Intake Library images in the trash. Next time I use it I'll empty the trash.

I get significantly better results than I've been getting with in-camera JPG, and this workflow is really quick.

Update 5/3/06: Alas, I've come across a very annoying bug. I set iPhoto to save edited raw as TIFF 16bit/channel. When I did this and exported JPG the metadata was missing. GRRRRRRRRRR. I've turned off the 'save edited RAW as TIFF' option.

USB speakers review

Playlist's review of USB speakers is well done. I ended up liking the description of the Creative TravelSound Notebook 500, but the price is over $80. For that much I'd like to see them first. I like using iPod speakers powered by the USB cord -- less to carry!

(Note these are not USB speakers, they are USB powered! I need them for my iPod, so I don't want to waste money on an unused D/A converter.)

Worst OS X bug: Public and Shared folders

I like OS X, but there are some bad bugs. This one is the worst I know of in 10.4.6 -- because it's not even recognized and it disables major functionality (Caveat - maybe something's broken in my system):

Shared Folders and Public Folders

Use Shared folders and Public folders to share information with other users of your computer.

The Shared folder is located in the Users folder (where your home folder is located). The Shared folder is set up with read and write permissions so that all users can open files in and copy files to this folder.

The Public folder is located in your home folder. It is set up with read only permissions that allow others to see and copy its contents. The Public folder also contains a Drop Box folder where other users can copy files but cannot see the Drop Box folder contents.

Frequently, if not always, when I drag folders into my Shared Folder or Public Folder they retain the permissions they had on my desktop. That means others can't read or write them. These folders should have a 'rewrite on drop' behavior that would set permissions. On my system they don't. I have to set them by hand.

I run as a non-admin user. It's the only way to go, running as admin is asking for bad trouble. I wonder if admin users don't see this bug.

Nisus Writer Express: My Review

After much consideration, I bought Nisus Writer Express, now on version 2.6.1. Here's how a review of a much earlier version concluded:

ATPM 10.11 - Review: Nisus Writer Express 2.0:

Nisus Writer Express isn’t—yet—the power user’s word processor its namesake was. But it shows a high attention to detail in what really matters: the act of writing. And, more than any of the alternatives—Mellel, Mariner Write, Microsoft Word itself—it has a high quality of “Mac-ness.” Express just feels right in a way that no Mac word processor has to me since the venerable WriteNow. If you’re looking for a writer’s word processor from a responsive company, definitely take a look at Nisus Writer Express.

So why did I opt for NWE?

My requirements were:

1. It had to use an open file format. Practically that means RTF, RTFD or OpenOffice. I cannot abide yet another file format that will strand my data. That ruled out Mellel and, sadly, AbiWord. I don't care if it's the second coming of WordPerfect, it has a stupid proprietary file format. That also rules out Pages and AppleWorks.

2. It had to be a reasonably decent wordprocessor. That ruled out TextEdit. I thought TE might do, but I eventually realized it's a toy.

3. I wanted it to run on my old iBook well. That ruled out Pages.

4. I hate Word, despite being a certified Word guru. That ruled out Word. I have an XP version if I need it.

5. It had to be something my wife would be very comfortable using. That ruled out Word and Pages and OpenOffice and various GUI front ends on TeX engines.

6. It had to be able to save to an SMB share. That rules out TextEdit and a number of other OS X apps bitten by the SMB save bugs.

7. I really wanted a Cocoa app that would play well with OS X and support services. That ruled out OpenOffice, AbiWord, etc.

8. It had to be fast and reliable. That ruled out OpenOffice, AbiWord and a few others. I'm not sure NWE really qualifies but I'll find out.

9. It had to be able to open most Word documents so they can at least be read, and it should be able to save as a Word file tolerably well.

10. I would have loved lots of other wordprocessor features, things I remember from the Golden Age. I'd have liked outlining and hypertext and table of contents and more. Alas, this is not the Golden Age. So this is the least of my demands.

There was only one Mac wordprocessor left standing after I'd made my list -- Nisus Writer Express. So, even though I had qualms about their rigorous license enforcement and price, I bought it.

How's it stack up? I'll add comments here as I learn about them.

1. I encountered my first bug within 10 seconds of installation. If you are a non-admin user, you can't enter a license for the entire computer. The app gives an error message and continues, but the license isn't installed.

2. It does save to an SMB share. Many Mac apps have trouble with this. Stupid Apple bug, good work Nisus.

3. I have a family license. I installed on my iBook for all users. I had two user sessions run NWE. It didn't complain. So I seem to have a license for simultaneous use on 3 machines, and by a number of simultaneous users on each machine. In practice, it's very unlikely we'll have 3 simultaneous users so we're well within the official licensing rules.

4. It does outline style lists. True, they don't collapse (it's' not an outliner), but really I didn't expect that much. It would be marvelous if this turned out to be good WP, but they key test will be reliability.

5. It launches very quickly and is very responsive on my old G3 iBook.

6. It has styles! Unlike the butchered "styles" in Word they may even work.

7. It supports LinkBack, as does OmniGraffle (but, not OmniOutlinter - yet). So OG drawings can be embedded in NWE and edited. Interesting! I was one of the few people who liked Publish and Subscribe. BTW, OLE embedding in Word is worse than you could imagine.

"... In addition to these Services, Nisus Writer Express enables you to include content from other applications and then edit that content again with just a double-click (Classic users will remember Publish and Subscribe as well as Embedded Graphic Objects.)

The LinkBack Framework is an open framework that brings editable objects to Mac OS X. Using LinkBack-enabled applications, you can paste content created in other applications into a Nisus Writer Express document and later edit or update the content from the original application. When activated, content can be updated automatically by the provider application or the provider application can display the content for the user to edit. Any changes automatically replace the original embedded content."

8. This dictionary tip works in NWE! Very cool, if a bit weird. Mouse over a word, hit Cmd-Ctrl-D, a definition window appears. It don't think it works in every Cocoa app, but it does in NWE. (Maybe 10.4 required?)

9. I couldn't find out what file formats NWE imports. I thought for a while that the list was very short, but this web page has a longer list. So, really not too awful. Nisus does need to document this better, I couldn't find it in the help files or PDF documentation.

... Much more to come ...

Update 5/24/06

10. The Word import can't handle Word's change tracking feature. So if a Word document has had changes tracked, and the owner hasn't told Word to "accept all changes", it will be badly mangled when viewed in Nisus Writer Express. This is a tough test for Word document import; Nisus doesn't pass.

Update 1/7/07

11. The HTML export is text only. It's really inadequate and shouldn't be on the export list.
12. It can't auto-generate a table of contents based on the styles. A feature of WordPerfect (and Word) which I do miss.

Blogger success: Safari is a better client than Firefox

Blogger has reached a new level today. Safari is a better client that Firefox! How did they do that? They so bunged up the Firefox rich text editor that it's safer to edit raw html in Safari.

I swear the Blogger team must work for Microsoft.