The World of Scott Mindeaux

Macworld Day 3

I had a weird night last night so getting up this morning was a bit hard. I’m not going to get into it.

First let me get this off my chest. To the guy eating his late lunch in the session, please don’t choose to eat FISH in the class. It smells in here. You obviously didn’t buy your lunch here at the conference. To the guy to the right of me…stop fiddling with your bag of chips, it makes alot of noise. You’re trying to be discreet that you can’t open your bag, so stop trying. Oh good, you got it. Now, stop playing with your empty bag, its distracting. Ugh.

Today was the following classes:

• Administering Macs in Exchange 2003/2007 and 2010
• Demystifying Digital Asset Managment
• Adobe CS Administration

In addition, the expo show floor opened. I was pleasantly surprised to find lines of people lined up for their badges to get into the show. What was disappointing was the show floor unfortunately. Now the show flow was crowded, but it was because everyone was squeezed in. This year only the North Hall was sused and even the entire hall wasn’t used. The aisles were full of people looking at new software, but not seeing the big hitters like Apple, Quark and Adobe it seemed to be sparse. I walked the floor and had to get out. I started to feel anxious and trapped and had to get out in the open. It was weird.

Fellow blogger, Rebel Price, aka Jeff Tabaco was at the show at the same time and we had missed each other by feet it seems. He has posted pics on Facebook and I saw that and saw that we missed each other on the floor.

Tomorrow I will be in classes all day. Happy Friday.

p.s. to everyone out there…it is Macworld, not MacWorld or Mac-World or Mac World. It’s amazing how many don’t spell it right on their materials. Amazing.

Macworld Day 1 and 2

So after the last two days of Intro to Final Cut Studio, I’m convinced that Final Cut Pro Engineers make way more money than me. I had alot of fun in this class. Now for those following my Facebook page know that initially I said I took the wrong class. This was Intro to Final Cut Studio, the class I SHOULD have taken was Final Cut Pro In-Depth. The key word here was Studio vs. Pro.  The class I ended up in focused on the other apps that are part of the Final Cut Studio: Motion, Soundtrack Pro, LiveType and DVD Studio.

Mark Spencer an authority on Final Cut focused mainly on Motion and Soundtrack Pro. Our users like to use After Effects and Cinema 4D for alot of graphics, but now I see the advantages of doing it in MOtion instead. Mark recently told us that he met wiht a bunch of animators at ABC 7 in Los Angeles and many of the animation sequences for opening of shows was done in After Effects, now its all done in Motion. The integration with Final Cut was the key.

One of the kewlest thing I learned was how to take a Photoshop file with layers and turn it into a “video” and give this flat file a 3D look. Think the Bravo commercials on TV where they show the website and then the camera dollies thru it and the items on the page  are in 3D and you fly past them.

The rest of week will be in the MacIT track and will also be attending a 1 day seminar on the Symiystification of Social Media and Web 2.0.

The expo part of the conference starts tomorrow as well and that will be in the North Hall. According to a press release, they have attendance levels that surpass 2009’s attendance. Hmmm…not sure…

More on the iPad…

The slinging that has been going on between Apple and Adobe has been interesting to say the least. However, not having Flash on my iPhone has not in any way made me what to get rid of my phone. The iPad and it’s lack of Flash isn’t the end of anything. It will be apps developed specifically for the iPad that will bring forth what potential this device will have.

Flash aside, the ability to watch movies, check email, browse “most” of the web already makes this something I want to use. Is this something I’m going to carry around on my body – hell no, this is a device that will reside in my bag or at my apartment. I’d much rather be holding that in my lap than my MacBook Pro for watching a movie or for just doing research on the web. The potential for such a device in the medical arena are HUGE and can’t wait to see what the developers have in store for us. We have already seen the explosion of apps on the iPhone and I suspect we will see a similar surge with iPad developed apps.??There are TONS of great apps out there that are outstanding and it is unfortunate that some of those technologies may be left out in the wind on the iPad. But I think that these rivalries that exist between Apple and Adobe will have to be broken eventually. I for one would luv to be able to have a full rich experience on the web.

Do we actually think for a second that the only reason Flash isn’t on the iPhone is because Steve simply doesn’t want it? Even I don’t think he has THAT much power. If both sides are holding back and it is possible, then just let it be and let everyone choose how they want to see their data.??Not having Flash will not kill the iPad and the iPad will NOT kill Flash. Technology is an evolution of ideas. Just as animation in flash is lightyears ahead of text based browsers, something will come along and replace Flash as the next best thing. For now, our lively hood relies on these current technologies. We will adapt as HTML5 comes to fruition…or doesn’t.

Today I was reading an article about using the iPad for remote access or as a thin-client. I think that’s brilliant! There are already several VNC clients available and I would luv to see Apple develop an iPad specific version of Apple Desktop Remote. I think using it for remote access would be awesome!

It’s funny reading the responses to all the hoopla about the iPad…boy there are alot of haters out there! Geeez…. why are all of you such negative thinkers? Lighten up. If you don’t care for a product then don’t buy it. Simple as that. I for one will be buying one.

The OyePad

Today Apple, one of my favorite tech companies out there, announced the iPad. I actually was dead asleep this morning and missed the entire announcement, but once I woke up and realized that today was the big day, I pounced on the internet. Did it have a camera, was it running a full version of OS X, more importantly, would I want one.

After reading all about it and debating…I’m still not sure.

First off, just out of the park, it’s an oversized iPod Touch right? Physically and first impression, yes. But after thinking about it I determined the following:

1. It’s $240 more than a Kindle, almost 2x the cost, but 100x better.

2. As soon as more developers come on board, there will be better more USEFUL apps out there to take advantage of.

3. It runs everything an iPhone/iPod Touch can

4. Full web-browsing (yes…I know…the Flash thing….) but essentially…

5. iBooks – i think this is much richer experience than reading a book on a Kindle, for essentially the same price per book title.

6. It has Multi-touch

7. I think it shows off the next generation Mail app from Apple as well as the next version of iPhoto

8. Same goes for Contacts and Calendar – can’t wait to see it live!

Am I going to rush out and buy one on the first day, maybe not, but will I own one soon,  you bet!

AT&T Visual Voicemail Sucks!

So for the last two months I thought it was interesting that I haven’t had any voicemails. But, it actually was there, but wasn’t showing up in Visual Voicemail. I have never manually entered my voicemail box other than thru my iPhone.

So…I kept getting messages via sms or email that my voicemail box is full. So I would hit the voicemail button on my iPhone and it is empty. No messages, right?

WRONG!

So technical support at AT&T had no clue how to help me. They kept trying to reset my voicemail box, but couldn’t. Ugh.

So I decided to call myself and hit *. OMG, there were like 40 voicemails in there since October.  What the hell?!?

The Mac Turns 25!

It was 25 years ago today, that Apple Computer introduced the first Macintosh. Who knew that this little box with a built in screen, keyboard, mouse, MacPaint and MacWrite would change the world forever??

My first “Apple” was actually an Apple IIe, then we moved up to a IIc, a Frankin (IIc clone), then a IIgs. My first Mac was a 512k, then a Mac Plus, the SE, SE30, LC, LCII, Quadra 800, Performa, G3, G4, MacBook, MacBook Pro and finally a MacPro.

Whew! My entire professional career was built around that little machine. Today I’m a Macintosh Technologist supporting Creative IT systems for a large marketing and advertising agency. I’ve worked with Macs selling them at Wabash Computers and OnLine Computers here in the OC. I’ve sold Macintosh SCSI External hard drives for CMS. I sold printer adapters and MS-DOS co-processor cards for the Mac with Orange Micro. Later I would work for a Defense contractor and got to work with Macs at the Pentagon. During that time I was also a local Apple Rep for Apple for CompUSA and Sears. Next I would be making a social/political statement and working as one of the first IT Directors in the gay and lesbian movement working for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. After that I would also work with other organizations like GLAAD, LLEGO, PFLAG and HRC. Next I became a toymaker (well…sort of). I worked in IT for Mattel supporting the toy and packaging designers in El Segundo. After Mattel I took a sabbatical and ran a cooking school for a few years. I worked on a Windows machine, but I did all the artwork and most of my analysis work on my personal Mac! I returned to IT and worked for a PC Consulting firm as a Project engineer and their primary Mac support guy. This now brings me to my current job!

Thank You Apple! I look forward to another 25 years!