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August 31, 2008
Dear Adobe
While Adobe publishes some of the most useful software around, applications such as Lightroom, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat (especially Acrobat) can be a real pain to use. Whether it's high foreign pricing, slow loading times or endless update reminders, it seems Adobe's users have a lot to gripe about.
Dear Adobe is a site where users can vent their frustration at Adobe's shortcomings. It allows people to nominate things they dislike about Adobe and its software and then vote on the things that annoy them them most. At the time of writing, the top three complaints were:
1. Why does the Acrobat Reader take two minutes to launch, and require updates twice a month, just to display PDF pages?
2. Stop creating new features and make your software fast, stable and straightforward.
3. Please cut out the DRM crap, and price your products reasonably.
Dear Adobe was put together by two self-proclaimed 'design nerds' who wanted to create a forum where people like themselves could complain about applications like Photoshop. Aside from being a good way to 'let it all out', Adobe employees have been known to read the site. On their blog, the site's creators write, "The site hadn’t been up for 48 hours when staff from Adobe first contacted us and the response has been very positive. We’re currently in touch with a couple of people at Adobe and working with them to craft all the gripes here into something they can use and hopefully take to heart."
So who knows? Perhaps Dear Adobe will result in better products and happier customers.
Posted by Marcus at 2:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Potsdam Redux
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August 29, 2008
I'm a model, you know what I mean?
Anyone who has browsed the back pages of Tokyo's English language magazine Metropolis will be familiar with its mix of mundane classifieds and salacious personal ads. But if you are like me you might also have noticed that there has been a big increase in the number of 'Models Wanted' ads in recent months. It's seems more and more photographers are turning to the magazine's back pages to find suitable people to photograph.
Not surprisingly there are going to be models and photographers who feel uncomfortable advertising their services alongside 'Single Japanese female seeks tall handsome American businessman for relationship leading to marriage'. Thankfully, there's now an alternative to posting modeling ads alongside the anguished cries of the desperate and dateless.
TokyoModeling.com bills itself as "Japan’s premier bilingual community for the modeling industry." The idea is simple enough: photographers, models and others with an interest in the process upload their portfolio to the site. Once completed, registered members are able to browse user profiles and contact those people the are interested in.
The site is easy to use, helped by a clean design and 'image first' philosophy straight out of the Flickr playbook. There's also a search engine which allows agents and photographers to search for models based on hair color, eye color, etc. as well as exhibition listings.
Naturally, like any social networking site there's a danger here that personal information may fall into the hands of unscrupulous types. I for one, however, think the benefits of this kind of internet-based networking far outweigh the risks. Anyone who has a problem uploading headshots and contact details should think twice about signing up. In fact, models who have a problem sending out this kind of information are probably in the wrong business...
Posted by Marcus at 2:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Look mom... video!
Pity the poor people over at Canon. No sooner do they announce the new 50D than Nikon responds with the groundbreaking D90
Not only does the latest Nikon release have the same high ISO/low noise technology found in the Nikon D300, D3 and D700 cameras, but it is the first DSLR to shoot video.
From Nikon's site:
A new idea for D-SLRs, the D90 offers a movie function, allowing you to shoot movies in three different motion JPEG formats: 320 x 216 pixels, 640 x 424 pixels and 1,280 x 720 pixels. Now you can capture life’s moving moments with added drama by using many of Nikon’s NIKKOR lenses, including the AF DX Fisheye 10.5mm f/2.8G ED and the Micro-NIKKOR lenses.
You'll find Chase Jarvis' sample videos here.
The inclusion of video on what is essentially a camera designed for the serious amateur is significant for a variety of reasons. First, while point and shoot cameras such as Canon's popular IXY have long captured video, this is the first time that a DSLR has included such a feature. This means still photographers will now be able to use different lenses to capture a moving image, blurring backgrounds or showing the whole of a scene with a super-wide lens. While camcorders can sometimes be fitted to use lens adapters, Nikon has made the process much simpler.
There can be no doubt the worlds of video and still photography are merging. The use of video is becoming increasingly popular on the web and even the photo sharing site Flickr recently introduced a video feature. Video cameras such as those made by Sony, meanwhile, now include the ability to take stills.
Nikon has thrown down the gauntlet to its larger rival Canon and it will be interesting to see how and when they will respond. Consumers meanwhile continue to benefit from the rivalry between the two dominant DSLR manufacturers.
Posted by Marcus at 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2008
Excuses, excuses!
Remember those computer gremlins I mentioned back in May? Well thinking that the problems were virus related, I reinstalled Windows and enjoyed a trouble free few weeks before my computer started crashing again. After a lot of frustration, I finally came to realize that the endless error messages and dreaded blue screens were in fact signs the hard drive was in it's death throes. I replaced the drive, and I'm pleased to say that so far everything seems to be back to the way should be.
Naturally, all these tech issues have meant that this blog hasn't been updated for far too long. Don't worry-I fully intend to get back on the horse and start posting a lot more often.
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August 9, 2008
Thank you for coming
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August 3, 2008
Maiko
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