Photoshop Express – It’s about time
27
Mar2
Mar2
After graduating from college and losing my cheap student software licensing privileges Photoshop fell out of favor with me. I tried GIMP for a while (GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is essentially a Photoshop clone, but the controls are slightly awkward. I also have found for the most part both Photoshop CS2 and GIMP 2.4 to be very feature rich and far to complicated for basic photo editing and processing.
Photoshop finally announced their online Photo Editing suite called Photoshop Express. The answer to the layman’s photo editing needs. While the online factor is cool – I think the most important thing is you can get your photos back when you are done with them. Photoshop Express could have just as easily been a desktop install, but that is not the way of the software world these days.
Photoshop Express is still in Beta, but it is available to everybody and you should definitely try it out and see if it is right for you.
First thing I noticed was the 2GBs of free storage, not bad – but with 7 megapixel cameras being the norm this will fill up fast if you use the service regularly.
However, the 2GBs free is probably just a way to bait you into purchasing a larger ‘digital locker’ to keep all your photos in. A not half bad idea considering then your photos are safe (or safer anyway) from a hardware catastrophe at a reputable location.
Another interesting features – it allows you to login into other Web 2.0 worlds where you may have pictures stored and edit them directly. Currently you can edit pictures from Facebook, Picasa and Photobucket – so you can essentially grow your storage capacity by using external sites that integrate with Photoshop Express.
All the photo editing options are extremely easy to understand and show you 7 ranges for each effect and allow you preview each interval within that range in real time. Good enough! Some of the coolest editing features are the ‘Pop Color’, which allows you to create a grayscale image except for one color you isolate and the ‘Exposure’ which lets you quickly fine tune the exposure of your photograph.
There are also some standard Social Networking elements that all web 2.0 sites require. In this case you can share and browse Galleries. Essentially albums you have uploaded and selected as public. Hopefully – if you don’t select them to be public they are in fact private. (Facebook I’m looking in your general direction….).
The biggest advantage I see is all the processing is on their end, as long as you have a high-speed Internet connection, the age of your computer shouldn’t really affect performance, unlike installing the full blown Photoshop.
For now, I think it is a pretty good tool and so far it is free. I will continue to use it until I forget about it, which always seems to happen.
Amazon Unbox – Not Super Fantastic.. just barely fantastic.
26
Mar3
Mar3
Last week I wrote up a blathering chronicle of how Amazon Unbox was the digital media king and had made Blu-Ray and DVDs obsolete with its DRM free (sort of) downloads of all the latest movies and TV. While parts of my story were true, but I have to digress a little- I take back a big part of what I said. The downloads are not portable! Not in the least bit, which is extremely deceiving considering they play in Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center and look like good old fashion Windows Media Files. Not even with the Zune, it is partly Microsoft’s fault for creating a walled garden for the Zune.
And definitely Amazon’s fault for creating another proprietary format wrapped in some ugly DRM(!!!) to keep them from being portable, unless of course you have one of the 8 obscure MP3 players that actually will support them. Basically these players have a mini version of Amazon’s player – which is the opposite of portable and not user-friendly. Aaaargghh. While Amazon does specify the players it supports (in fine print) I think they should have definitely made this more clear in the Amazon player, when you are prompted to download a portable version of your recently purchased movies or TV shows.
Plus, 12 of the 20 players supported are old and not even for sale anymore, not even on Amazon. So, unless you own the Archos 404 from 2006, you are pretty much out of luck.
Stupid Amazon, and Stupid Movies. Figure it out already and make it easy for us.
Amazon Unbox – Ruler of the Digital Media Empire
14
Mar4
Mar4
I have found myself frequenting the “Browse Instant” feature on Netflix and purchasing a lot of movie downloads the Amazon Unbox. (sidenote: if you don’t use Amazon mp3, to get DRM free music downloads, you should.)
Both services have a large and constantly growing catalog of titles that include both Movies and TV shows. Both work about the same, but vary in rules and restrictions.
To use Amazon Unbox – you first have to install the “Amazon Unbox Video” player. This application managers your downloads and allows you to view your purchases full screen on you computer.
In addition, you can setup up multiple download ’sites’ and link them to your Amazon account. This lets you download a movie to your computer at home, while sitting at your desk at work. Pretty cool.
Unbox definitely wins the crown for movie/Tv show choices. 
It has a lot more New Releases being added on a regular basis, but they aren’t free or free with a membership like Netflix’s Browse Instant. Even though they aren’t free, you can rent movies from Unbox for rates competitive with video stores or choose to purchase them outright for a cost usually much lower than a DVD.
The biggest quirk with Unbox is the restriction that once you start watching a rental it has to be watched within 24 hours. Why? What if I get interrupted? You can keep them for 30 days as long as you don’t start watching them, but after you start the movie, say good bye to it. This is a strange restriction that I expect will change since it is just confusing and complicated.
By far the biggest advantage that Unbox has over any other service, including Netflix is the intergration with Windows Media Center and Windows Media Center Extenders. If I download a Movie to my PC from Unbox, I can watch my movies through my Xbox 360 Media Center, which is where I watch TV and DVDs, so it makes sense. I am not restricted to just the proprietary player provided by Amazon. While I don’t own a TIVO – Unbox is available as an add on that works with your set top TIVO as well.
Lastly, you can choose to download a Handheld (iPod or Zune) friendly format in addition to the original download so you can take your Unbox purchases with you on the go!
Even though Unbox is very heavy in features and friendliness, I do like Netflix “Browse Instant” for a few reason too. Netflix “Browse Instant” integrates with your Netflix Queue so you can quickly see what is available in your queue to watch instantly and Netflix also makes suggestions for you based on your ratings. The Netflix Instant catalog seems a lot slimmer and slower growing then Unbox, but still has a lot of decent movies to watch.
The “Browse Instant” feature is based on an hourly quota per month, depending on your membership plan – but is good for at least a few movies a month and is available at no extra cost if you have a membership.
Besides the slight complication in how many movies you can watch per month, the only real drawback is portability. You have to use the Netflix player right now. You don’t have the option to use your TIVO or Windows Media Center, which is where most people would like to watch them.
On a positive note, I received a survey from Netflix about this very topic which makes me hopeful that someday in the near-distant future I will be able to browse my Netflix Queue from Windows Media Center and just click “Watch Now”. No more mailers no more browsers, just my movies where I want them when I want them.
Until then – I will continue using both services, but as of today I would vote for Unbox every time to be the best more online rentals.
Revisiting a recurring Facebook Photo Exploit
10
Mar2
Mar2
A while back – actually about 8 months ago, I wrote a post about what I think is a major privacy hole in Facebook’s Photo service. It never seemed to pick up any traction, but maybe people didn’t quite get what I was saying. I still think this is a major problem and a major flaw in the Facebook Photo Service, so I decided to revisit the topic once again.
PROBLEM: I can see FULL photo albums of people I am not friends with on Facebook.
ILLUSTRATION:The photo, from You, Me and Dupree which illustrates the classic third wheel scenario, is a perfect definition of the problem that exists in Facebook’s Photo service.
The illustration is meant to serve as guide to your understanding of why this is a major problem in Facebook.
SCENARIO -
- Dupree and ‘You’ (Matt Dillon) are long time friends from college and beyond. Both have Faecbook profiles to keep in touch with old friends.
- Now, ‘You’ and his girlfriend, ‘Me’ (Kate Hudson) are also friends and have Facebook profiles.
- Important: Dupree and ‘Me’(Kate Hudson) are NOT friends on Facebook.
- Now, here is the problem – Dupree is cycling through old photos on his computer and finds some hilarious pictures of ‘You’ doing really stupid things that you know find embarrasing. Dupree decides to create an album called “‘You’ doing stupid things”.
- Dupree is smart, so he sets his privacy settings on the album preventing other people from seeing these photos.
- However, here is the problem, ‘You’ (again, Matt Dillon) sees these pictures have been uploaded in his ‘Mini-Feed’ next time he logs in. He is rehashing the old memories and on one of the photos decides to comment. “Man how dumb was I? Hilarious!”. Comment posted.
- Now, ‘Me’(Kate Hudson) logs in. On here ‘mini-feed’ she can see the picture that her boyfried ‘You’(Matt Dillon) has commented on. Not a big deal, he commented on it, so now it is visible to people he knows.
- PROBLEM!!! – If ‘Me’(Kate Hudson) clicks on the image, she can now cycle through every picture in the album – an album by somebody she is not friends with and could never view their profile or pictures otherwise. This is a huge problem and a flaw. There is absolutely no enforcement of the privacy settings if a person ‘twice-removed’ from the owner of the photos enters the album this way.
If the metaphor is confusing – try it out yourself and see what I mean:
If the metaphor I provided here is hard to follow, I decided to post step by step instructions of how your privacy is being invaded on a daily basis.
- Log in to facebook.
- Find a friend of yours.. A friend who has recently commented on someone else’s photo. The important thing here is ’someone’ means someone you aren’t friends with, and you also don’t belong to the same network. (i.e. you can’t view their profile).
- In your friend’s news feed, click the thumbnail of the photo they commented on. It will take you to that photo. (In my opinion, this is already breaking the privacy rules).
- Once you are done laughing at the no doubt hilarious, mischievous or embarrassing photo your friend commented on, click the photo. It will take you to the next photo in that album. Click again and again, until you have been through the entire album.
- Next, wonder why on earth you could see a strangers photos.
- Last, be concerned that people all over the place are seeing things, that Facebook tells people ‘only your friends’ will see this.
The reason, I know this is an exploit, security hole, bug, or what have you is that while in that album – try to click “Back to Album” – it won’t take you to the album, it will take you the ‘you two aren’t friends’ view of that person. Also, the link to go back to the album and person’s profile normally in the lower right-hand side disappears. So there is definitely some strange behavior going on here.
Will Facebook fix this as fast as they did the ‘Advanced Search’ issue? Let’s hope. Is this old news I just missed the boat on? I don’t think so.
In the meantime, you may want to think about what you are uploading to Facebook – because your friends might not like it if they knew, regardless of what Facebook tells them, that total strangers, potential employers, or even their parole officers may be able to see it.
Leave me a comment if you try this out. Let me know if it worked or not.
The dirty tricks of food photographers ||| Photocritic blog
9
Mar0
Mar0
Photocritic.org has a fantastic overview of just how c0mplicated and bizarre the world of Food Photography really is. From the obvious use of a blow torch for caramelizing and creating a seared effect to the more bizarre Motor oil used in place of syrup or this technical definition of the use of cardboard.
Sturdy cardboard squares, used to make little raw (except for the blow-torched edges) ground beef-patty-platforms (with the help of the toothpicks) to keep the fatty patties from mooshing the frilly lettuce.
For the full story check out:
The dirty tricks of food photographers ||| Photocritic blog
In the meantime be sure to keep the motor oil out of the fridge, just in case.
Fresh New Look
9
Mar0
Mar0
To beat the Minnesota Extend-o Winter Funk that is this March… I decided to do a little spring cleaning on the ol’ blog. I have simplified the layout hoping it makes things for you, the reader, a little more enjoyable. If not, I guess that is your problem….
Oh yeah – and most likely I will keep tweaking the layout – since it never seems to be just what I planned.
60 grams of fat for breakfast!!! Hello Diabetes…
15
Oct0
Oct0
First, the grand opening of a new McDonald’s down the street from my house drew inexplicable crowds and caused a traffic jam – the food is still the same crap! And now this?!!
All I can say is what the F*CK is wrong with people. I love food and I love gorging myself on food, especially a good breakfast. Don’t get me wrong. The real issue here is this not good and it is not even really food. It is sodium and non-descript varieties of fat wrapped in a sub-par tortilla. If you want to eat 1000 calories of eggs, bacon and cheese, etc all wrapped up in a tortilla… Get up an hour earlier and start cooking!! At least that way you know what you are eating and it will actually taste good.
If you can explain to me why you need a portable “Big Country Breakfast” then move over Al Gore – there is a new Nobel Peace prize candidate in town. Just a bit annoyed by this, if you can’t tell.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Don’t be afraid: Unlocking Apple’s superphone is legal, ethical, and just plain fun
5
Oct0
Oct0
Interesting article on the controversial topic of unlocking your iPhone (if for some reason you felt compelled to buy one).
Apple wants you to believe you can’t legally go somewhere other than AT&T. – the government knows you can. Just like GM automobiles can’t require you to buy your gas from Exxon. Think about it – or at least read the article.
http://www.slate.com/id/2175304/pagenum/1/
It feels a little like Apple isn’t getting their way – so they are being playground bullies about it.
Don’t forget the firmware updates that (most likely intentional) broke an estimated 150,000 iPhones. Not people doing illegal things (most of them), just customers of Apple who shelled out 400 – 700 dollars for the stupid thing in the first place. That is first-rate customer service!!
Powered by ScribeFire.
Chicken Scratch
25
Jul0
Jul0
Currently Enjoying:
- Dunn Bros – Upgraded cubicle
- Top Chef – I am pretty sure my brother Brian’s long-lost twin is a contestant. The picture might not do justice – watch the show and you will see what I mean.
- Rob & Big – They have a mini horse named mini horse.
- Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Orange – Bellbottoms – enough said.
- The library – Did you know its full of books and they are free?
- A Cook’s Tour – Anthony Bourdain – So far, so good. As expected.
- Vacation starts Saturday – Haven’t had more than a day off in months. Not to mention the brats, beer, a plethora of grilled meats and good times with the whole gang.
- ScribeFire – Increased interest in blogging by 9%
Currently Not Enjoying
- Tally not going to the bathroom in a timely manner – 35 minutes in yard to get it done.
- The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan – it is a real snoozer – interesting topic – but dull as a marble.
- Not being on vacation already – Saturday can’t come soon enough.
- Mighty Bites – The once delicous breakfast cereal is now bland and inedible due to over-consumption.
10 Gallon Gallery
