Aperture: the critical flaw - and 1 GB on a Mac Pro

I'm at the Apple store playing with a woefully under-resourced Mac Pro Xeon "quad" (two dual core really). The floor model has 1 GB of RAM, and Aperture is sluggish.

So I decide to look at how date metadata changes are made in Aperture. Which is when I realize I can't edit the date field. So I try the help file, but Aperture doesn't have a proper Apple help file. It only has a PDF. Nothing there.

So I google. I find this comment in an O'Reilly blog about what's missing from 1.1:

MacDevCenter.com -- Aperture 1.1--Apple Listens

5. The ability to change date metadata. Our office uses many scanned images and the dates used in Aperture are the dates of the scans, we want to change them to the date of the image was actually taken.

Oooookaaay. So Aperture can't edit date metadata. Wow. Speechless I am.

Apple, wake me up when Aperture can edit date metadata. More interestingly, where are all the computer reviewers? This should have been item one in Aperture reviews.

PS. The kb on this MacBook is awful. I hope it's an old store model they didn't replace. Apple, please send help to your Mall of America store ...

Update: There is a peculiar way to revise the date of an image in Aperture. Export to iPhoto. Change the date in iPhoto. Import to Aperture. Aperture respects iPhoto's date metadata!

Leopard: It does include remote control software

What's wrong with the geek coverage of the Leopard announcements? There are some very pleasant surprises hidden away that are getting little discussion. iChat is particularly interesting. Leopard's iChat is said to include the ability to share static images -- a feature that would be incredibly useful for corporate communication.

... Use new iChat Theater to present photos from iPhoto, slides from Keynote, or content from any iChat-enabled application with any iChat or AOL AIM buddy. And do it in style — full-screen, accompanied by a video feed of you playing host. iChat’s virtual presentation room makes a big impact...

Much to my pleasant surprise, it also includes the first real move towards useful bunded remote control software:

Apple - Apple - Mac OS X - Leopard Sneak Peek - iChat

... Share and share alike

Remote control takes on a whole new meaning with iChat in Leopard. Thanks to iChat Screen Sharing, you and your buddy can observe and control a single desktop via iChat, making it a cinch to collaborate with colleagues, browse the Web with a friend, or pick the perfect plane seats with your spouse. Share your own desktop or share your buddy’s — you both have complete control at all times. And when you start a Screen Sharing session, iChat automatically initiates an audio chat so you can talk things through while you’re at it...

This is something I've been moaning about for years. My one wish for Leapard was remote control that worked and performed well, something analogous to Microsoft Remote Desktop. This seems like a big step in that direction, and it's more than I'd expected. True, it's only ONE desktop (no true thin client multiuser support) and it probably won't work with fast user switching, and it may be hard to hack to allow remote initiation of session control ... but hey, it's a start.

It will, at the very least, make it possible to manage my mother's machine -- which means I can justify buying her a Mac Mini!

Between the static image sharing and remote control in iChat, and the innovative backup approach, if Leopard performs as well or better than 10.4 on legacy hardware I'll be a very happy customer. Now if Apple would only add antiviral/antiworm services ...

Google Related Links

This isn't new, but I'd missed it. Google provides HTML code to insert in you web page. When viewed it shows any combination of related pages, search, video, and news. I'll try adding it to some of my more popular pages.

NAV fails - responses to a worm infection

Gordon's Notes: The day the software died - my worm and the end of the second golden age of the PC is mostly editorial, but it also outlines the steps I'm taking after a recent worm infection.

The MacBook Pro heat problem - is it the CPU or the GPU

I know two people who bought an early MacBook Pro. 100% of the machines died, both have been rebuilt under warranty.

Macintouch's quality survey indicated a high mortality rate on the early MacBook Pro (the 17" has done well though). Apple tried to launch with the original PowerBook enclosure and they evidently failed. Lots of pain for the early adopters, but Apple people are used to that.

The usual suspect is the Intel CPU. Did it fail to live up to the MIPS/watt hype? I wonder about the GPU though. How much of the MacBook Pro's heat problems are from the Intel CPU vs. the GPU? Does thermal efficiency favor integrated GPU/CPU solutions or not?

I'd like to see a discussion on this. I'm looking.

Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 - personal impressions

[See Update. As of 8/9/06 this is NOT ready for use.]

Microsoft's latest hardware product is now available at Best Buy. I don't know if you get it anywhere else, Amazon still has it on wait list. I've taken it out of the box and run through some basic paces. Historically these products have been popular in unseemly markets, so I feel obliged to say that I bought it to transmit hand sketches and whiteboard work from my office to a remote office.

I tried this years ago with a Logitech USB 1 webcam and the results were almost good enough. I coul d see then that USB 2 and twice the resolution would suffice, though I thought in-device MP4 compression would be required for high frame video. Happily I don't care about frame rate -- 1 frame per second would do. I care about edge discrimination, contrast, noise and resolution.

First of all, I can recommend this review: Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 - Review. Excellent job. Good comment on the wide-angle lens choice -- it's a waste for face-to-face viewing in typical settings. Additional impressions:

1. This is almost pre-release. You can't download the installer software yet, and the included disk is version 1.0. That's pretty raw. Parts of the software don't work. The button that's supposed to post to the Windows Live Blog does nothing - no error message, no action, con configuration files. Actually, this is pre-release.

2. The install of the basic webcam software takes a long time. The executable file only holds 40MB, but the CD has about 150MB in the lifecam folder (compressed). My guess is that this software was designed for Vista and it installs a lot of baggage, including some Vista video libraries, when run on XP.

3. Microsoft should have included a lens cap. It would have cost a dime.

4. The hi-res video is not supported by Microsoft's chat software. It's probably only useful right now for local video storage.

5. Don't try this with a slow machine. The software moves like molasses (another hint that it's Vista style software) on my XP box. True it's a few years old, but this is the first thing that's made it seem slow. (Note: I don't do games.)

6. It doesn't work on a Mac. Not recognized.

7. If the lens is focused you can read size 14 point letters on a sheet of paper held about 1-2 feet from the lens. That's impressive. It would be interesting to compare it to Apple's iSight.

8. The lens/software combination is better in low light and better at adapting to light levels than I'd expected.

More later ...

Update 8/7: Beware shareware webcam products. After installing, testing, and deleting two of them, I discovered a worm infection.

Update 8/9/06: It installed well on my home machine. On my pure, clean, office laptop however, it produced the XP Blue Screen of Death (STOP error) on launch. I don't remember ever seeing the XP BSOD. I think it's produced by an 'inner ring' memory error, something that only device drivers can do. There's something odd about the device driver approach for LifeCam, I'm suspicious that it's a Vista approach that Microsoft has hacked to sell this device into the XP base.

This is what one sees in white on blue text:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer ...

STOP: VX6000xp.sys
kmixer.sys

Happens every time on launch of LifeCam (is it doing some kind of dynamic device driver hack?). When you get these errors, btw, you get to file a special bug report with Microsoft on system restart.

I restored the system to health per Microsoft troubleshooting recommendations:

System restore: restored to the point set by the LifeCam install.
sfc /scanonce: ran sfc.exe to verify core XP files were intact. See xp resource kit, system file tools

I'll try again in September when Microsoft says they'll put the installer files online.

Update 7/22/2008: This never worked satisfactorily in XP, though I did finally find some device drivers that sort of worked with Office Communicator 2003. I suspect Microsoft abandoned XP support for this device. A crummy Microsoft experience all around.

Praise Be! Google ads saved locations to maps

Overdue!

Official Google Blog: Saved locations on Google Maps

To get started, click on the 'Saved Locations' link in the upper right corner of the site and sign in to your Google Account. If you're already signed in, this link will take you to your saved locations list -- Google Maps will automatically save every location you search for. You can also go to the Saved Locations list to disable auto-saving of locations or to add, modify, or delete previously-saved locations.

From here, you can also add a label (your choice of an easy-to-remember name, e.g.'home') to any of your saved locations. The next time you start entering an address or a label into Google Maps, we'll offer to auto-complete it for you if it's in your saved locations. Auto-completion is also available when you're searching for businesses. If you've labeled the address '1600 Amphitheatre Pky, Mountain View, CA' as 'work' (as some Googlers would), when you start typing [pizza near work], we'll offer to auto-complete it as [pizza near 1600 Amphitheatre Pky, Mountain View, CA].

Here’s a tip: When a list of auto-completions is offered, you can hit the Tab key to select the first one.

It's late, but they did do a terrific job. The default is to save every location, which you can then go back and tag. Another brick in the wall ...