The trailer where they flung the Buscemi character into near the end was the same trailer that had the Big Bug City beneath it in A Bug's Life, which is where the Pizza Planet Delivery guy from Toy Story lives (the pickup with the rocket on top is parked out side). Yes, I am a Pixar nerd.
I guess. My 14 month old Yikes G4 is still the the perfect Photoshop deployment environment. The price drop should have happened six months ago however.
According to the majority of the posters on this topic, if it's not representational, then it's not art. How sad. It's as if the twentieth century never happened for its proponents. It reminds me of Kandinsky's notion that if music were held to the same incredibly rigid strictures of the visual art of his (and, sadly, this) time period, people would be insisting on having
"real" sounds like breaking dishes and barking dogs and whatnot in musical compositions. Otherwise, the musician would be "limiting" the audience to the noises that say, a guitar makes.
Why not make drawings that focus on form and mark making? Or sculptures that describe flowing shapes? Or paintings about the love of painting materials?
Hasn't anyone here ever marveled at the delicate, weightless shape of a cloud? Or enjoyed the texture of a rock?
There seems to be a distinct lack of the usual flame sessions that have become synonymous with Slashdot in this interviews responses. It's like a visit from the cool uncle who all the kids love, with all the siblings and cousins curtailing their usual ugly, bratty fighting as a result of the laid back, fun-loving attitude he brings to every situation. When's Uncle Woz gonna come back for another visit Rob? Huh? Huh?
Too many users feel this need to be loyal to one platform or the other, without even bothering to look elsewhere to comparison shop. Unless you've seen firsthand, I suggest you not slam any platform - if you haven't considered, you don't REALLY know what you can get for that price in the x86 market, DO YOU?
Actually, I have used with both platforms for graphics development, and was underwhelmed by the performance of the WinTel offerings. I terms of rendering speeds, reliability and stability, my G4 is easily the machine for greater productivity.
I also agree with Adobe CEO John Warnock's assertion that the G4 is the greatest Photoshop machine ever built.
Check out this Barefeats article for a nice price performance comparison of the G4 vs. WinTel offerings.
The Mac isn't the best at everything (PC's have many more high end 3D offerings for example) but it's the best at the tasks I use it for. That's reason enough for me to stick with Apple.
I bought a G4 Power Mac a couple months ago, and did not consider buying a different computer. Why? Photoshop, mainly. Sure, you can get Photoshop for Windows, but the Mac totally smokes Intel machines costing twice as much with this app. You'd have to be some kind of nut to buy anything BUT a Mac if you use Photoshop more than 20 hours a week.
As for Linux, I've tried the GIMP, and it's nice and all, but it falls far short of Photoshop in too many ways to even consider switching. Additionally, there is no FireWorks, no Flash, no GoLive, no After Effects, no Illustrator or Painter or equivalents on Linux.
Those are my pragmatic reason for choosing the Mac. The main reason I don't use Windows or Linux is that they are UGLY. Chrysler K Car ugly. The Mac is just gorgeous, like a Maserati Bora. Call me a snob for making aesthetics a deciding factor in my purchase if you like, the Mac OS simply the most refined visual user experience in computing today. This doesn't mean just pretty icons and desktop patterns; consistent metaphors, economy of form, effective communication, and careful proportion and layout make the Mac a delight to use, particularly if one's livelyhood concerns itself with these same issues, i.e. image making.
Choosing to interact with our computers in a visual environment rather than a textual one doesn't mean we are uninformed or brainwashed, just (sorry, but it's really appropriate) different.
Comics and Cartoons are as valid a communications medium as any other. Anyone dismissing them strictly as kids media is culturally illiterate as far as I'm concerned. The fact that the vast majority of comics suck is merely Sturgeons Law (90% of everything is crap) in action. For every Citizen Kane, there are 100 Runaway Brides. Are we to conclude that Film is a lousy medium because of this? Of course not. Go read Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, it will lead you into a larger world.
As for Suck... User Frindly is so painfully weak it's embarassing. After Y2K has funny stories, but the art quality is pretty lackluster. Suck, on the other hand has Terry Colon, the finest cartoonist on the web today, bar none! There have been many attemps to meld the sequential art traditions of the printed comics with a computer based delivery, and Suck has taken a damn good crack at it, so give them their due. The writers, while relentlessly snide, are overall a pretty bright group, even if they do run into the occasional blind alley.
at the outpouring of heartless indifference so common in the Slashdot community. Anyone critical of your fun is a PETA nut or meddling do gooder, it would seem.
At this website, the symbol of the penguin represents not Linux, but rather what a cold bunch you are. Sadly, the only warmth found at Slashdot is generated by the myraid, pointless flamewars.
I'm not buying the notion of Apple being sold (yet). But Apple is sitting on close to three billion (that's billion with a 'b') dollars, which they will want to use at some point. There ARE rumors of a major Apple purchase of some sort in the works, probably in the form of a stock buy-back, rather than an aquisition. Apple just got their own house in order, why gum up the works by having to absorb a new company?
It would be cool if they'd lisence the groovy new Cassiopea E-100 Palm PC from Casio. It drives me nuts that Apple hasn't come up with a full color, QuickTime supported replacement for my trusty Newton 2000. Steeeeeve, where is it?
The traditional news media's market share is being clobbered by the personal computer and the internet. They are desperate to hold on to their ratings to keep the advertisers happy, so they are using their still considerable reach to go after all the things they feel threatened by. They are, in one fell swoop, going after all the weirdos: Goths, computer geeks, net nerds, and other assorted outcasts who don't fit profiles compiled by the ad men.
I wouldn't be surprised if they next went after Apple for promoting non-conformity with their "Think Different" Campaign ("Here's to the crazy ones...the misfits; the rebels; the troublemakers; the round pegs in the square holes...").
It seems that rapidly growing access to Broadband technology like cable modems would make the whole file size argument moot, wouldn't it? At that speed, who cares if the file is 1.2 Meg vs. 3 or 4 Meg for MP3?
Besides, if QuickTime streaming is everything it's cracked up to be, most of us will be recieving streaming MP3 files within the month anyway.
Color support no other OS can touch. Plug and Play that works. Trouble shooting takes minutes not hours. It's gorgeous. Easiest transition from analog to digital media for studio artists. Vast majority of design studios and service bureaus use Macs. Said businesses employ unbelievably beautiful women. 24 bit icons w/8 bit alpha channels.
Steve Jobs. While many consider him to be the devil incarnate, there's no denying that every thing he's been associated with just oozes impeccable design and taste. The Mac. The NeXT Cube. OpenStep. Pixar. The iMac. The PowerBook G3 Series. Someone in computing has to represent the spirit of the Constructivists, The Bauhaus and the FlatIron Building. It wont be Bill Gates, and it sure as hell wont be Linus Torvalds.
The little BSD devil is a very nice illustration, that should prove attractive to us Mac users. Some of the Penguin art I've seen is a little...ehhh... kinda weak. Artie the Gimp rules though, he could easily carry his own comic strip.
The Mac OS brings to the table the Mac system smileys, and the QuickTime Penguin.
While attending art school in Boston, my peers were churning out papers on post-painterly abstraction and reading Art Forum. I was devouring as many (good) comic books as I could and reading The Comics Journal. And cartooning. Lots and lots of cartooning. I couldn't have known at the time that with it's emphasis on clarity, shared experience, and the elimination of redundant information within the image, the discipline of cartooning was preparing me for a career in interface design and instructional media. Will Eisner, Robert Crumb and Jack Kirby made for an outstanding cirriculum, albiet one which barred me from recieving a bachelors degree. No matter. Choosing the unlettered path has afforded me me a stimulating, well paying career, free from required reading lists, save those of my own design. Perhaps more importantly, by keeping me out of graduate school, my ability to be surprised and delighted remains intact.
This will be especially relevant if QT 4's streaming will include MP3 files. Some Tums, Mr. Glaser?
Regarding the look of the player, as well as the similarly clothed Final Cut video editing app, one might wonder if a new, painterly look for the Mac OS is at hand. We'll be seeing many more subtle gradients and relief brought in to play if the OpenStep UI is any indicator. The trend of the shape shifting look and feel of the host OS via Enlightenment, Kaleidoscope, MP3 player Skins and (ugh) MetaCreation's entire product line would seem to support this.
The demands placed on the hardware and software by such geegaws could be considered another case of bloat designed to prompt the next upgrade cycle. Of course, as long as the user can turn this stuff off, it's not such a big deal. In the case of MetaCreations, this means the underlying look and feel is tossed out in favor of drop shadows, transparencies, 3D rendered controls and, of course, Kai Krause's utterly cryptic metaphors, none of which can be turned off. Compound this with the fact that there is ZERO consistency between the various apps in the product line, and it becomes clear why Adobe is cleaning their clock.
Adobe apps all look the same, act the same, and play nice together. This means leverage, and less duplication of effort in learning a new app. Hovering unobtrusive in the background, like a good butler, the design doesn't draw any unnecessary attention to itself. Adobe "gets" it, obviously.
Let's hope Jobs hasn't forgotten when to say when concerning all this chrome plating in user interface design.
My uncle bought one when it came out and he loves it. He is one of the prime target demographics for the iMac: retired, first time computer buyer. He uses it to surf the web, get email, and learn a new skill. He doesn't care about all the technical mumbo-jumbo that is the meat and potatoes of many a/.er.
I'm still a bit puzzled how a company so frequently characterized as insignificant and lame generates so much controversy here and elsewere; if Apple is so doomed (as they have been since around 1978 or so), why can't every body stop talking about them?
This stuff looks pretty nice, but the build your own approach appeals to me personally from a pricing and education standpoint. I want to build a PC running Linux/Windows,(I know, I know, but I like Half-Life) to play with Gimp and Blender, as well as aquiring *nix skills. Would anyone be kind enough to point me to some favorite vendors for parts/components/boxes? Best web sites with tutorials for such an endeavor? Thanks,/.ers.
Slashdot Mirror
The trailer where they flung the Buscemi character into near the end was the same trailer that had the Big Bug City beneath it in A Bug's Life, which is where the Pizza Planet Delivery guy from Toy Story lives (the pickup with the rocket on top is parked out side). Yes, I am a Pixar nerd.
I seem to recall the EP I trailer was shown exlusively before A Bug's Life (Pixar/Jobs), and then on the Web exlusively in QuickTime (Apple/Jobs).
Hmmm....
I guess. My 14 month old Yikes G4 is still the the perfect Photoshop deployment environment. The price drop should have happened six months ago however.
According to the majority of the posters on this topic, if it's not representational, then it's not art. How sad. It's as if the twentieth century never happened for its proponents. It reminds me of Kandinsky's notion that if music were held to the same incredibly rigid strictures of the visual art of his (and, sadly, this) time period, people would be insisting on having "real" sounds like breaking dishes and barking dogs and whatnot in musical compositions. Otherwise, the musician would be "limiting" the audience to the noises that say, a guitar makes.
Why not make drawings that focus on form and mark making? Or sculptures that describe flowing shapes? Or paintings about the love of painting materials?
Hasn't anyone here ever marveled at the delicate, weightless shape of a cloud? Or enjoyed the texture of a rock?
QuickTime was invented by Apple's Advanced Technology Group.
There seems to be a distinct lack of the usual flame sessions that have become synonymous with Slashdot in this interviews responses. It's like a visit from the cool uncle who all the kids love, with all the siblings and cousins curtailing their usual ugly, bratty fighting as a result of the laid back, fun-loving attitude he brings to every situation. When's Uncle Woz gonna come back for another visit Rob? Huh? Huh?
Too many users feel this need to be loyal to one platform or the other, without even bothering to look elsewhere to comparison shop. Unless you've seen firsthand, I suggest you not slam any platform - if you haven't considered, you don't REALLY know what you can get for that price in the x86 market, DO YOU?
Actually, I have used with both platforms for graphics development, and was underwhelmed by the performance of the WinTel offerings. I terms of rendering speeds, reliability and stability, my G4 is easily the machine for greater productivity.
I also agree with Adobe CEO John Warnock's assertion that the G4 is the greatest Photoshop machine ever built.
Check out this Barefeats article for a nice price performance comparison of the G4 vs. WinTel offerings.
The Mac isn't the best at everything (PC's have many more high end 3D offerings for example) but it's the best at the tasks I use it for. That's reason enough for me to stick with Apple.
I bought a G4 Power Mac a couple months ago, and did not consider buying a different computer. Why? Photoshop, mainly. Sure, you can get Photoshop for Windows, but the Mac totally smokes Intel machines costing twice as much with this app. You'd have to be some kind of nut to buy anything BUT a Mac if you use Photoshop more than 20 hours a week.
As for Linux, I've tried the GIMP, and it's nice and all, but it falls far short of Photoshop in too many ways to even consider switching. Additionally, there is no FireWorks, no Flash, no GoLive, no After Effects, no Illustrator or Painter or equivalents on Linux.
Those are my pragmatic reason for choosing the Mac. The main reason I don't use Windows or Linux is that they are UGLY. Chrysler K Car ugly. The Mac is just gorgeous, like a Maserati Bora. Call me a snob for making aesthetics a deciding factor in my purchase if you like, the Mac OS simply the most refined visual user experience in computing today. This doesn't mean just pretty icons and desktop patterns; consistent metaphors, economy of form, effective communication, and careful proportion and layout make the Mac a delight to use, particularly if one's livelyhood concerns itself with these same issues, i.e. image making.
Choosing to interact with our computers in a visual environment rather than a textual one doesn't mean we are uninformed or brainwashed, just (sorry, but it's really appropriate) different.
Comics and Cartoons are as valid a communications medium as any other. Anyone dismissing them strictly as kids media is culturally illiterate as far as I'm concerned. The fact that the vast majority of comics suck is merely Sturgeons Law (90% of everything is crap) in action. For every Citizen Kane, there are 100 Runaway Brides. Are we to conclude that Film is a lousy medium because of this? Of course not. Go read Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, it will lead you into a larger world.
As for Suck... User Frindly is so painfully weak it's embarassing. After Y2K has funny stories, but the art quality is pretty lackluster. Suck, on the other hand has Terry Colon, the finest cartoonist on the web today, bar none! There have been many attemps to meld the sequential art traditions of the printed comics with a computer based delivery, and Suck has taken a damn good crack at it, so give them their due. The writers, while relentlessly snide, are overall a pretty bright group, even if they do run into the occasional blind alley.
My $.02
at the outpouring of heartless indifference so common in the Slashdot community. Anyone critical of your fun is a PETA nut or meddling do gooder, it would seem.
At this website, the symbol of the penguin represents not Linux, but rather what a cold bunch you are. Sadly, the only warmth found at Slashdot is generated by the myraid, pointless flamewars.
I'm not buying the notion of Apple being sold (yet). But Apple is sitting on close to three billion (that's billion with a 'b') dollars, which they will want to use at some point. There ARE rumors of a major Apple purchase of some sort in the works, probably in the form of a stock buy-back, rather than an aquisition. Apple just got their own house in order, why gum up the works by having to absorb a new company?
It would be cool if they'd lisence the groovy new Cassiopea E-100 Palm PC from Casio. It drives me nuts that Apple hasn't come up with a full color, QuickTime supported replacement for my trusty Newton 2000. Steeeeeve, where is it?
But I'll settle for Anonymous Coward :0)
ALL music videos are commercials.
Is there anything sadder than a toy that never get's played with? A beat up toy with paint flaking off is a toy was some kid's friend.
Come to think of it, I think the plot for TS 2 involves Woody getting kidnapped by an evil collector.
I've seen I-ROCs fitting this description.
As far as your aversion to smooth, flowing curves is concerned, perhaps you're the one who isn't (ahem) "getting it".
The traditional news media's market share is being clobbered by the personal computer and the internet. They are desperate to hold on to their ratings to keep the advertisers happy, so they are using their still considerable reach to go after all the things they feel threatened by. They are, in one fell swoop, going after all the weirdos: Goths, computer geeks, net nerds, and other assorted outcasts who don't fit profiles compiled by the ad men.
I wouldn't be surprised if they next went after Apple for promoting non-conformity with their "Think Different" Campaign ("Here's to the crazy ones...the misfits; the rebels; the troublemakers; the round pegs in the square holes...").
It seems that rapidly growing access to Broadband technology like cable modems would make the whole file size argument moot, wouldn't it? At that speed, who cares if the file is 1.2 Meg vs. 3 or 4 Meg for MP3?
Besides, if QuickTime streaming is everything it's cracked up to be, most of us will be recieving streaming MP3 files within the month anyway.
Geez, that old chestnut? Very well,
Color support no other OS can touch.
Plug and Play that works.
Trouble shooting takes minutes not hours.
It's gorgeous.
Easiest transition from analog to digital media for studio artists.
Vast majority of design studios and service bureaus use Macs. Said businesses employ unbelievably beautiful women.
24 bit icons w/8 bit alpha channels.
Steve Jobs. While many consider him to be the devil incarnate, there's no denying that every thing he's been associated with just oozes impeccable design and taste. The Mac. The NeXT Cube. OpenStep. Pixar. The iMac. The PowerBook G3 Series. Someone in computing has to represent the spirit of the Constructivists, The Bauhaus and the FlatIron Building. It wont be Bill Gates, and it sure as hell wont be Linus Torvalds.
...on the virge of something that could finally be considered success, didn't want a listful of raving lunatic advocates scaring everyone away?
Gee, I'm glad Slashdot never descends to that level.
The little BSD devil is a very nice illustration, that should prove attractive to us Mac users. Some of the Penguin art I've seen is a little...ehhh... kinda weak. Artie the Gimp rules though, he could easily carry his own comic strip.
The Mac OS brings to the table the Mac system smileys, and the QuickTime Penguin.
Any other OS Character Mascots out there?>
Here's what I wrote to the Salon people. YMMV...
While attending art school in Boston, my peers were churning out papers on post-painterly abstraction and reading Art Forum. I was devouring as many (good) comic books as I could and reading The Comics Journal. And cartooning. Lots and lots of cartooning. I couldn't have known at the time that with it's emphasis on clarity, shared experience, and the elimination of redundant information within the image, the discipline of cartooning was preparing me for a career in interface design and instructional media. Will Eisner, Robert Crumb and Jack Kirby made for an outstanding cirriculum, albiet one which barred me from recieving a bachelors degree. No matter. Choosing the unlettered path has afforded me me a stimulating, well paying career, free from required reading lists, save those of my own design. Perhaps more importantly, by keeping me out of graduate school, my ability to be surprised and delighted remains intact.
This will be especially relevant if QT 4's streaming will include MP3 files. Some Tums, Mr. Glaser?
Regarding the look of the player, as well as the similarly clothed Final Cut video editing app, one might wonder if a new, painterly look for the Mac OS is at hand. We'll be seeing many more subtle gradients and relief brought in to play if the OpenStep UI is any indicator. The trend of the shape shifting look and feel of the host OS via Enlightenment, Kaleidoscope, MP3 player Skins and (ugh) MetaCreation's entire product line would seem to support this.
The demands placed on the hardware and software by such geegaws could be considered another case of bloat designed to prompt the next upgrade cycle. Of course, as long as the user can turn this stuff off, it's not such a big deal. In the case of MetaCreations, this means the underlying look and feel is tossed out in favor of drop shadows, transparencies, 3D rendered controls and, of course, Kai Krause's utterly cryptic metaphors, none of which can be turned off. Compound this with the fact that there is ZERO consistency between the various apps in the product line, and it becomes clear why Adobe is cleaning their clock.
Adobe apps all look the same, act the same, and play nice together. This means leverage, and less duplication of effort in learning a new app. Hovering unobtrusive in the background, like a good butler, the design doesn't draw any unnecessary attention to itself. Adobe "gets" it, obviously.
Let's hope Jobs hasn't forgotten when to say when concerning all this chrome plating in user interface design.
My uncle bought one when it came out and he loves it. He is one of the prime target demographics for the iMac: retired, first time computer buyer. He uses it to surf the web, get email, and learn a new skill. He doesn't care about all the technical mumbo-jumbo that is the meat and potatoes of many a /.er.
I'm still a bit puzzled how a company so frequently characterized as insignificant and lame generates so much controversy here and elsewere; if Apple is so doomed (as they have been since around 1978 or so), why can't every body stop talking about them?
This stuff looks pretty nice, but the build your own approach appeals to me personally from a pricing and education standpoint. I want to build a PC running Linux/Windows,(I know, I know, but I like Half-Life) to play with Gimp and Blender, as well as aquiring *nix skills. Would anyone be kind enough to point me to some favorite vendors for parts/components/boxes? Best web sites with tutorials for such an endeavor? Thanks, /.ers.