TPN::MacHelp from Maui » Arts

MacHelp from Maui #90 The 10.4.9 Update - Viruses & Jawaiian Reggae

Scott — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:47:07 +0000

Viruses & what’s in the Mac OS X.4.9 Update.
Sahra Indio plays Sweet Reggae Music From Hawaii

Changing the iPhoto External Editor

Scott — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:30:07 +0000

On Mar 8, 2007, at 12:22 AM, (lady in distress) wrote:

I am taking a Photoshop Elements class and bought the software
for Elements 4.0. Now when I open iphoto, and right click to open in
external editor, I want it to open in 4.0 but it still opens in 2.o.
Shouldn’t it have automatically transfered whatever was in 2.0 over to
4.o? What to do?

Automatically? hahaha! You kid me. Actually that WOULD happen if you deleted the old version, (which you should do anyway) then carefully put the new one in the same place with the same folder and application name. Then iPhoto wouldn’t even notice the difference

Instead, go into the iPhoto Preferences, and where it says: “Double Click Photo” set “Opens photo with” to the new external application. Best of both worlds.

Leaving it this way will actually be a hassle because you won’t be able to use iPhoto’s wonderful editing features.

So now close Preferences but then immediately reopen it and change it to “Edit View. Now you can select the new program by right-clicking or control-clicking on the picture and then selecting “Edit in external editor” but iPhoto’s editor will still come up when you simply double-click on a photo.

I know this seems arcane, but some of iPhoto’s effects and tools are better and easier to use then Photoshop, so you don’t want to miss out on them.

MacHelp from Maui #88 Iliili!

Scott — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 07:32:27 +0000

A little history - with no time left for the music of which we speak.
Our guest/victim this time is David Kapralik, a dear friend and inspiration who takes us back in time, then forward into our future.

MacHelp from Maui #87 Podcasting HowTo

Scott — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:05:34 +0000

Podcasting from end to end
Care and feeding of RRS Feeds
How to explain it to your friends
Flowers and Birds
Pekelo live on the old radio

Officer - someone cleaned my house!

Scott — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 07:28:38 +0000

Now why didn’t I think of this:

Man calls police after phantom visitor cleans and paints flat

Frankfurt (eCanadaNow) - A mystified 45-year-old German called police after he returned to his apartment to discover that the walls had changed colour and someone unknown had cleaned out the refrigerator and polished the mirrors, but left all his valuables untouched.

Wary Frankfurt police wondered Thursday evening if elves had slapped a coat of white paint over the previous yellow, but then discovered a painter’s job ticket lying on the kitchen table … to renovate the next-door apartment.

The landlord had given the wrong key to the painter, who did not notice either that he was in the wrong flat, police said Friday.

Too bad it was an accident and that they found the culprit - this would be an incredible prank. In America the painter would probably be arrested.

Imagine phantom house-cleaning becoming a trend. Covert gangs of no-doubt gay miscreants sneaking into your house to clean the bathroom and make change your towels. Or someone mysteriously mows your lawn and takes out the trash.

Back in Art School days we used to cash the checks from our summer job, drive into town and throw large amounts of cash at panhandlers, people waiting in lines and anyone who looked like they could either use a handout or needed to lighten up. It was hilarious. Even the most decorous crowd would dissolve into chaos under the influence of a hand full of dimes.

But we never thought of sneaking into someone’s house to organize their closet or sort their records by artist. That my dear, is ART!

LINK

Megapixels are bullshit

Scott — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:25:05 +0000

At nearly every party, inquisition or casual chat, after the “which Mac should I get” question, I’m often asked “which digital camera should I buy?”

My answer is simple: Get one made by a real camera company that has a good lens and uses normal batteries. The victim then responds with a string of Japanese company names and numbers which includes the word “megapixels” and something a friend said.

To which I reply, as my wife cringes and heads back to the punch bowl: “Magapixels are bullshit.”

If you’re not a professional photographer shooting REALLY big pictures, there are more important things to be concerned with than the number of dots on your thingy. Learn to take good pictures with a cheaper, easier to use camera and you will get better photos. Being able to replace the battery in Peru is more important than the quantity of bits in your box. Falling for more is more better will just cost you more - for something that’s usually not any better.

So now, famous David famous Pogue of the NYT puts his quarter on the rail - once again demonstrating how some of the people are fooled all of the time.

Breaking the Myth of Megapixels
By DAVID POGUE

For an industry that’s built on science, the technology world sure has its share of myths. Thousands of people believe that forwarding a certain e-mail message to 50 friends will bring great riches, that the gigahertz rating of a computer is a good comparative speed score, or that Bill Gates once said “640K of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.”

But one myth is so deeply ingrained, millions of people waste money on it every year. I’m referring, of course, to the Megapixel Myth.

It goes like this: “The more megapixels a camera has, the better the pictures.”

It’s a big fat lie. The camera companies and camera stores all know it, but they continue to exploit our misunderstanding. Advertisements declare a camera’s megapixel rating as though it’s a letter grade, implying that a 7-megapixel model is necessarily better than a 5-megapixel model.

Oh, there’s more: LINK

MacHelp from Maui #84 Makena Interview

Scott — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:28:34 +0000

Da Cute!
The Makena Interview - Siena & Toast tell how they did everything on their iBook.
Then we hear them play “Waikiki Hula”
Keola reappears with a great Hawaiian Technology word of the fortnight.

Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half Century Online!

Scott — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 23:41:48 +0000

One of the greats of western art!

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) John Lennon

Scott — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:36:20 +0000

The Most Important Picture Ever Taken

Scott — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:33:40 +0000

The Hubble Deep Field Image
This is not about Macs or Hawaii or even gatorfeed from Florida. It is a video about that one picture taken by the Hubble Observatory, the one that grabs me by the heart every time I see it. “This is a picture of how many galaxies are in nothing…”

I found it at YouTube and it has made up for Monday.

MacHelp Maui Interview

Scott — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:45:24 +0000

MacHelp Maui Interview Dick
Nelson is one of Hawaii’s greatest painters and teachers. In the first
MacHelp interview Dick talks about the influence of the Mac on art and
how well the technology mirrors the world of paints and pigments.

We’ve also got some local bagpipe music and another wonderful song from Steven Espaniola.

Scott promises not to mess up the Hawaiian language any more than necessary.

Jake Shimabukuro “While My Ukulele Gently Weeps”

Scott — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 17:59:47 +0000

On this week’s podcast Carmen got all farm and wuzzy about Jake Shimabukuro, Hawaii’s young ukulele master. I looked him up on YouTube, and found this video of him playing George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Then I crawled back into my chair, it was apparent that she is justified in her worship - this guy has the chops, the touch and the dedication that mark a real artist He’s also inspiring a whole new generation of kids to take the ukulele seriously.

Grab your seat and give this a listen.

Are these faces real?

Scott — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:20:28 +0000

Go see if you can tell.

As a professional portrait artist, even I was almost fooled - this is pretty cool tech and one more step on the road to artificial people on the web and TV. Perhaps now they can come up with a more convicing artificial President - the one they’re using now shouldn’t fool anyone.

Here are my tricks:
1. The earlobes shouldn’t match, or be even. Same with the eyes.
2. Hold a small piece of paper vertically over each half the face. The two sides of a real face will appear to have different expressions.

But the lighting on the skin and the hair are remarkable!

LINK