First, Apple must be rich, there's a whole bunch of slashdotters that have *bought* and reviewed Aperture already!!... YAY!
Second, yes, it's a 1.0 Apple App. This means it's a great idea, but not so well done, it WILL improve. It's much like Keynote, a "cute 1.0 buggy app" that replaced powerpoint and that now, on it's 2.0 version, really kicks ass.
Aperture has the incredible potential for any pro or addicted amateur to sort out amongst hundreds or thousands of photos, to compare them, tag them and use very basic tools to improve minor details. And it works with RAW files (though in a buggy way, it seems).
The pro's are known to shoot thousands of photos per day and I can say (not being a pro though) that sorting out 10 great photos out of 500 "snapshots" was, until Aperture, a real pain.
So, the strength of Aperture is not on it's RAW conversion capabilities nor on it's editing tools (allways remember that Aperture is NOT a Photoshop relacement). Aperture strength is in making it easy to sort out and compare thousands of images... fast and easy on a single app. And this is why I say Apple has "done it again", it's expensive, but if you're a pro that must "be done with it" in 2 hours, you'll not what to spend thouse 2 hours sorting, you'll what to spend 5 minutes with Aperture and deliver your photos faster than anyone else.
Give Aperture some time, it's already one heck of an 1.0 app, but it's still as buggy as any new app. Believe me that in a few months Aperture will be THE app for sorting and tagging and that pro photographers will almost forget about photoshop (most of them don't even need to edit their photos if they're good enough, like photojournalists).
Oh, and if all you paying Aperture custumers here in/. have trouble with it, you can allways Provide Aperture Feedback to Apple (under the apple menu) so the guys at Cupertino can improve your app!
"Michael Gartenberg and Jim Allchin of Microsoft give some fair opinions on the current desktop search battle."
Yeah, sure.
Like,
"Allchin rejects the notion that Microsoft is a Tiger copycat, noting that the company demonstrated some of the virtual folder concepts in its Fall 2003 preview of Longhorn. "They just might have copied us," Allchin said." -Of *course*!
Or,
" "Ever since (CEO) Steve (Jobs) has come back to Apple, they've been on my radar screen," Allchin said. "I think it's just good competition." At the same time, he noted that the Mac's growth pales in comparison to the number of Windows users added each year. "Our growth this year in PCs is bigger than the entire Mac install base," Allchin said. And he added that much of the growth Apple has seen has come on the music side. The Mac, he said, "is now a peripheral to the iPod." " -You buy an iPod and get a G5 for free in the bundle?
Ok, get this straight: THEY work for M$, they say marvelous things about M$ (of course), and they spread FUD about Apple. That's not a "fair opinion" IMO.
Eh... in 10 days some of us WILL be using many of Longhorn's yet-to-be-implemented "ideas". And by the time Longhorn arrives (with Duke Nuken Forever instead of the classic minesweeper), Mr. Gartenberg and Mr. Allchin will say M$ did it first and it's "oh-so-innovative-and-everybody-loves-the-new-clip py-3D-thingy"
It's a quite nice experiment, culturing cells and "training" them to do a specific task is quite an achivement! But remember, it's all about electrical circuits, in the case of brain cells, plastic circuits (that can change)... I guess that the next step is to produce a 3D model of the circuits. Because both computers (or any other kind of circuits) and this model are 2D, the real challenge is to bring that to a *real* brain model, a 3D circuit that can change.A real brain.
I say all this because it's the capability of single neuron to establish thousands of connections with other neurons in a 3 dimensional manner what makes brains such powerfull "calculating machines". Not the number of connections, but the manner how they're done.
First of all, I'm a Biochemist and I work in the field of Neurobiology, so my comment will probably be a little bit "biased".
That said, I find this kind of "fantasies" about nanobots and man-machine fusion or immortality quests just that, nice fantasies, because reality is a complete different thing.
#1: We are and will be, for years and years to come, ignorant about the processes and mechanisms that drive our lives. Yes, we know a lot, but there's still a lot more to know, and it seems a paradox, because the more we know or we think we know about someting, the more we figure out that there is more to know that we were unaware of. Simply, the more you know, the more you discover that you don't know. Brain mechanisms are an excellent example, but are just another example.
#2: Nanobots are not "miracle" little gadjets than can do everything. In the future they might rdo something, but right now, there is a loooong road ahead before they are of any pratical use. Academically incredible and fascinating, yes, but in reality useless right now (or in the next decades).
#3: Body enhancements, as I said in the first point, we know nothing, but we think we know. For example, nowdays we find electroshock therapies or frontal lobe lobotomies to be totally useless (in most cases) and dangerous (allways) forms of psiquiatric therapies, but 100 years ago they were the most advanced, safe and correct forms to treat almost any brain desorders. Now... Just imagine what will be said about our "safe", "advanced" and "correct" therapies in 100 years, or for that matter, about our fantasies of body enhancements.
#4: Immortality, the Quest. A nice title for a hollywood Blockbust, but in reality is the oldest form of denial known to our species. We've allways wanted to live forever, be here forever, live longer, etc. Why? We are afraid to die, to notexist anymore. Yes, it's natural that an animal like us tries to preserve itself, but... We will all die. It's a fact. Being alive means that we will die. 5, 10, 30, 60, 90 years? Whatever, we'll die. It might be hard for some to accept it, but it will happen. Living longer and better is a great heathy purpose, but... on 250 supplement pills? This guy does not only live on a fantasy world of "magical" nanobots, but's also a complete idiot. He's just killing himself in an expensive way. Pills have 2 kinds of components, the active principles, and a thing called exipients, that make the pill. More, all that comes into us, will eventually be excreted somehow. In case of pills, either by the feces, or urine. 250 pills of crap on a day-to-day basis for a few years == a huge increase in the probability of having a serious kidney problem, as well as other problems related to the abuse of those supplements or the crap that comes with the excipients. The secret to live longer? Simple. Some things help, like having good genes, taking care of those genes, a balanced diet, a balanced amount of exercice during lifetime and avoiding accidents. What is *really* important?... LUCK.
Was the monkey name Spank, like Spank, the monkey? Or "l33t |-|4xx0R 5P4|\|"?!
When pressing the touchpad I guess his trainer must have said something like: NO! Bad monkey, BAD monkey, BAD MONKEY!!!! NO!!!!!....... ARGH! Dam Hackers!
I'm european, you know... in this side of the Atlantic we mark a piece of paper with an X on who we vote. And yes, a monkey can also do it, but at least we don't spend billions in tech just to keep all the monkeys voting...
I've ran them both, iPhoto is indeed a little bit faster and it renders the thumbnails in a different way. But... it took me about 15 min. to update my 2000+ photo lib!! As for iChat, it seems like the beta version, but final. I can't wait to try the video tomorrow with a friend... She coulden't make it work the last time with aim 5.5 beta, so I gess I'll have to go to her house and do the aim config myself:-) It would be great to have a good PC-Mac compatible video chat... Now, if only MSN Messenger for mac would be *close* to the PC version I would not have to try to convince 99% of my friends to change to AIM in order to get vid... BTW, I must thank the people of the aMSN sf.net project, for giving me a reason to continue to use MSN... Keep it up!!! (and pleeeeeeeeeeease, gimme some more use for my iSight, if M$ doesn't!;-) )
I can't say how happy I am for this. My iBook has a UV316... S# and might be afflicted by the same problem in the future (knocks on wood)... Until now I was kind of scared of being presented to the iBook's now famous "screen of death" and specially sacared of having to pay for this failure. Knowing that for the next 2 years (and a few months) I'll be covered by warranty, if this happens, is a huge, huge releif.
It's thigs like this that will make me use mac's for as log as I can, and that take the reason to all those stupid anti-apple comments. Apple DOES listen to their custumers and helds responsability for their producs, and the errors that they might have... What more can you ask?
Although I agree with the conclusions taken, I thik that the real review is always made by the users. And I, as a user, find that Panther is, by far, the best OS X version of them all to date. And yes, I'm happy that the OS has evolved so well. Personally, I still haven't really understood how connecting to servers now works and I don't really like the fact that some apps got quite unstable with the transition, but that's ok, somethings need time... I find this OS to be more usable than jaguar, with expose being, sometimes, a life-savior from the evil million windows from hell that insist in populate my desktop... Multi-user switch is also great, and I'm even getting used to the brushed metal look if the finder (that makes it quite odd, compared to any other OSX vers. but that also happened with the transition from OS9 to X, i guess)... Yet, the best and greatest thing is that the OS is now FAST, I mean, finally it's FAST AND SNAPPY, even on older hardware (400MHz iMac DV w/384M RAM), when compared to any other OSX version or even OS9 (with VM on, of course) and I can say that this thing alone makes the upgrade totally worth.
So, I like it, a LOT... oh and as an apple user, I don't really give a dam about having the fastest hardware on earth if I can't be PRODUCTIVE with it (sometime SOME people DO try to produce *WORK* using computers, it's not all games, code, pr0n, or hacking your system! hehehe). What I want in a computer is that it works for me and does the thing I want easily and without any crashers or "bad moods". Mac's work for me and Panther is a very enjoyable OS, what more would I want from a computer?
Ok.. Count to 10 and take it easy...
This forums are not for geneticists, they are for everyone. Of course that some of the ppl that have posted messages on this particular forum are ignorant, arrogant and idiotic, but since it's a democratic system they can express them selfs and say what they want, even if it's stupid. Modesty and pacience are two important virtues for a scientist, work on them.
BTW: "I've been conducting genomics and proteomics-related research since before those terms and the genome sequencing projects existed". wow! 20-30 years? That's a lot of time...
Slashdot Mirror
The future of IM:
- Hey look at what I'm sending you!
- ARGH! MY EYES!!!
Seriously, are these lasers safe?
First, Apple must be rich, there's a whole bunch of slashdotters that have *bought* and reviewed Aperture already!!... YAY!
/. have trouble with it, you can allways Provide Aperture Feedback to Apple (under the apple menu) so the guys at Cupertino can improve your app!
Second, yes, it's a 1.0 Apple App. This means it's a great idea, but not so well done, it WILL improve. It's much like Keynote, a "cute 1.0 buggy app" that replaced powerpoint and that now, on it's 2.0 version, really kicks ass.
Aperture has the incredible potential for any pro or addicted amateur to sort out amongst hundreds or thousands of photos, to compare them, tag them and use very basic tools to improve minor details. And it works with RAW files (though in a buggy way, it seems).
The pro's are known to shoot thousands of photos per day and I can say (not being a pro though) that sorting out 10 great photos out of 500 "snapshots" was, until Aperture, a real pain.
So, the strength of Aperture is not on it's RAW conversion capabilities nor on it's editing tools (allways remember that Aperture is NOT a Photoshop relacement). Aperture strength is in making it easy to sort out and compare thousands of images... fast and easy on a single app. And this is why I say Apple has "done it again", it's expensive, but if you're a pro that must "be done with it" in 2 hours, you'll not what to spend thouse 2 hours sorting, you'll what to spend 5 minutes with Aperture and deliver your photos faster than anyone else.
Give Aperture some time, it's already one heck of an 1.0 app, but it's still as buggy as any new app. Believe me that in a few months Aperture will be THE app for sorting and tagging and that pro photographers will almost forget about photoshop (most of them don't even need to edit their photos if they're good enough, like photojournalists).
Oh, and if all you paying Aperture custumers here in
"Michael Gartenberg and Jim Allchin of Microsoft give some fair opinions on the current desktop search battle."
p py-3D-thingy"
Yeah, sure.
Like,
"Allchin rejects the notion that Microsoft is a Tiger copycat, noting that the company demonstrated some of the virtual folder concepts in its Fall 2003 preview of Longhorn.
"They just might have copied us," Allchin said." -Of *course*!
Or,
" "Ever since (CEO) Steve (Jobs) has come back to Apple, they've been on my radar screen," Allchin said. "I think it's just good competition."
At the same time, he noted that the Mac's growth pales in comparison to the number of Windows users added each year. "Our growth this year in PCs is bigger than the entire Mac install base," Allchin said. And he added that much of the growth Apple has seen has come on the music side. The Mac, he said, "is now a peripheral to the iPod." " -You buy an iPod and get a G5 for free in the bundle?
Ok, get this straight: THEY work for M$, they say marvelous things about M$ (of course), and they spread FUD about Apple. That's not a "fair opinion" IMO.
Eh... in 10 days some of us WILL be using many of Longhorn's yet-to-be-implemented "ideas". And by the time Longhorn arrives (with Duke Nuken Forever instead of the classic minesweeper), Mr. Gartenberg and Mr. Allchin will say M$ did it first and it's "oh-so-innovative-and-everybody-loves-the-new-cli
If it was a Matrix Case Mod I'd say somebody had really fucked up ./ BIGTIME!
And also... what a crappy admin... I mean 1 month to correct the glitch?!? DAAM!
It's a quite nice experiment, culturing cells and "training" them to do a specific task is quite an achivement!
But remember, it's all about electrical circuits, in the case of brain cells, plastic circuits (that can change)... I guess that the next step is to produce a 3D model of the circuits. Because both computers (or any other kind of circuits) and this model are 2D, the real challenge is to bring that to a *real* brain model, a 3D circuit that can change.A real brain.
I say all this because it's the capability of single neuron to establish thousands of connections with other neurons in a 3 dimensional manner what makes brains such powerfull "calculating machines". Not the number of connections, but the manner how they're done.
First of all, I'm a Biochemist and I work in the field of Neurobiology, so my comment will probably be a little bit "biased".
That said, I find this kind of "fantasies" about nanobots and man-machine fusion or immortality quests just that, nice fantasies, because reality is a complete different thing.
#1: We are and will be, for years and years to come, ignorant about the processes and mechanisms that drive our lives. Yes, we know a lot, but there's still a lot more to know, and it seems a paradox, because the more we know or we think we know about someting, the more we figure out that there is more to know that we were unaware of. Simply, the more you know, the more you discover that you don't know. Brain mechanisms are an excellent example, but are just another example.
#2: Nanobots are not "miracle" little gadjets than can do everything. In the future they might rdo something, but right now, there is a loooong road ahead before they are of any pratical use. Academically incredible and fascinating, yes, but in reality useless right now (or in the next decades).
#3: Body enhancements, as I said in the first point, we know nothing, but we think we know. For example, nowdays we find electroshock therapies or frontal lobe lobotomies to be totally useless (in most cases) and dangerous (allways) forms of psiquiatric therapies, but 100 years ago they were the most advanced, safe and correct forms to treat almost any brain desorders. Now... Just imagine what will be said about our "safe", "advanced" and "correct" therapies in 100 years, or for that matter, about our fantasies of body enhancements.
#4: Immortality, the Quest. A nice title for a hollywood Blockbust, but in reality is the oldest form of denial known to our species. We've allways wanted to live forever, be here forever, live longer, etc. Why? We are afraid to die, to notexist anymore. Yes, it's natural that an animal like us tries to preserve itself, but... We will all die. It's a fact. Being alive means that we will die. 5, 10, 30, 60, 90 years? Whatever, we'll die. It might be hard for some to accept it, but it will happen.
Living longer and better is a great heathy purpose, but... on 250 supplement pills? This guy does not only live on a fantasy world of "magical" nanobots, but's also a complete idiot. He's just killing himself in an expensive way.
Pills have 2 kinds of components, the active principles, and a thing called exipients, that make the pill. More, all that comes into us, will eventually be excreted somehow. In case of pills, either by the feces, or urine. 250 pills of crap on a day-to-day basis for a few years == a huge increase in the probability of having a serious kidney problem, as well as other problems related to the abuse of those supplements or the crap that comes with the excipients.
The secret to live longer? Simple. Some things help, like having good genes, taking care of those genes, a balanced diet, a balanced amount of exercice during lifetime and avoiding accidents. What is *really* important?... LUCK.
Eh, this is just my biased opinion anyway...
Live long and prosper! (and die happy)
Was the monkey name Spank, like Spank, the monkey? Or "l33t |-|4xx0R 5P4|\|"?!
When pressing the touchpad I guess his trainer must have said something like:
NO! Bad monkey, BAD monkey, BAD MONKEY!!!! NO!!!!!....... ARGH! Dam Hackers!
I'm european, you know... in this side of the Atlantic we mark a piece of paper with an X on who we vote. And yes, a monkey can also do it, but at least we don't spend billions in tech just to keep all the monkeys voting...
I've ran them both, iPhoto is indeed a little bit faster and it renders the thumbnails in a different way. But... it took me about 15 min. to update my 2000+ photo lib!! :-) It would be great to have a good PC-Mac compatible video chat... ;-) )
As for iChat, it seems like the beta version, but final. I can't wait to try the video tomorrow with a friend... She coulden't make it work the last time with aim 5.5 beta, so I gess I'll have to go to her house and do the aim config myself
Now, if only MSN Messenger for mac would be *close* to the PC version I would not have to try to convince 99% of my friends to change to AIM in order to get vid...
BTW, I must thank the people of the aMSN sf.net project, for giving me a reason to continue to use MSN... Keep it up!!! (and pleeeeeeeeeeease, gimme some more use for my iSight, if M$ doesn't!
I can't say how happy I am for this. My iBook has a UV316... S# and might be afflicted by the same problem in the future (knocks on wood)... Until now I was kind of scared of being presented to the iBook's now famous "screen of death" and specially sacared of having to pay for this failure. Knowing that for the next 2 years (and a few months) I'll be covered by warranty, if this happens, is a huge, huge releif.
It's thigs like this that will make me use mac's for as log as I can, and that take the reason to all those stupid anti-apple comments. Apple DOES listen to their custumers and helds responsability for their producs, and the errors that they might have... What more can you ask?
Although I agree with the conclusions taken, I thik that the real review is always made by the users. And I, as a user, find that Panther is, by far, the best OS X version of them all to date. And yes, I'm happy that the OS has evolved so well.
Personally, I still haven't really understood how connecting to servers now works and I don't really like the fact that some apps got quite unstable with the transition, but that's ok, somethings need time... I find this OS to be more usable than jaguar, with expose being, sometimes, a life-savior from the evil million windows from hell that insist in populate my desktop...
Multi-user switch is also great, and I'm even getting used to the brushed metal look if the finder (that makes it quite odd, compared to any other OSX vers. but that also happened with the transition from OS9 to X, i guess)...
Yet, the best and greatest thing is that the OS is now FAST, I mean, finally it's FAST AND SNAPPY, even on older hardware (400MHz iMac DV w/384M RAM), when compared to any other OSX version or even OS9 (with VM on, of course) and I can say that this thing alone makes the upgrade totally worth.
So, I like it, a LOT... oh and as an apple user, I don't really give a dam about having the fastest hardware on earth if I can't be PRODUCTIVE with it (sometime SOME people DO try to produce *WORK* using computers, it's not all games, code, pr0n, or hacking your system! hehehe).
What I want in a computer is that it works for me and does the thing I want easily and without any crashers or "bad moods". Mac's work for me and Panther is a very enjoyable OS, what more would I want from a computer?
I would bet between 24-48 hours, before apple releases their hounds of war: the Apple lawyers.
:)
Yet, I would by one of those Cubes, if I had the money...
I'll keep dreaming on a G5
Ok.. Count to 10 and take it easy... This forums are not for geneticists, they are for everyone. Of course that some of the ppl that have posted messages on this particular forum are ignorant, arrogant and idiotic, but since it's a democratic system they can express them selfs and say what they want, even if it's stupid. Modesty and pacience are two important virtues for a scientist, work on them. BTW: "I've been conducting genomics and proteomics-related research since before those terms and the genome sequencing projects existed". wow! 20-30 years? That's a lot of time...