Geek is not Dork

From Tom Hogarty, Senior Product Manager Lightroom and Camera RAW’s blog.

quoting a snippet here ;

There are tax rules that need to be accounted for in every region and pricing considerations based on our relationship with retail partners. –TH

OK, So there are local taxes and local retailers. I assume that local retailers in the US also need to make a profit, so surely the same margin can be enjoyed by international retailers ?

And another one ;

[Reimo, price differentials are not based strictly on the cost of localizing a product into a different language. Each price point is determined by local market factors and obviously affected by exchange rates. -TH]

Ooooh the conspiracy theorists will see this as actually saying that because the US dollar is so weak that Adobe is trying to recoup some profit from their international customers.

Apologies if these quotes are too cheekily taken out of context, but I’m seeking for good story from Adobe and feeling frustrated that I can’t find one.

Further to my recent rant about Adobe taking the piss on their international pricing – it seems that their international pricing scheme is consistent. Consistently exorbitant that is. Users from all over the world are not happy.

Unhappy Users here ;

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/07/lightroom_2_is_here.html#comments

and here ;

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2008/07/lightroom_2_now_available.html#comments

and here ;

http://www.flickr.com/groups/adobe_lightroom/discuss/72157606449250284/

and here ;

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51047

and here ;

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=72&catid=678&threadid=1381708

Still no word from Lightroom product management (Frederick Van, Product Manager Lightroom) and Tom Hogarty, Senior Product Manager Lightroom and Camera RAW. (http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/)

OK Tom has indeed said

Each release cycle we evaluate a number of pricing factors then make a decision. There's nothing in that decision process that says, "Let's favor North American customers because we're on Team USA!" Sorry, this is a heated topic but I hope it's ok to add a little levity. -TH]

Not to put words in his mouth, but that doesn''t sound like they are thinking of changing the pricing.

Tom is doing a pretty good job of answering queries on the Lightroom journal, so it is a good sign that the Senior Product Manager for Lightroom is at least engaging the user community.

What's the rationale for the 30% difference in upgrade pricing between the US & International stores?

[Dan, I'm looking into this and hope to get you answers shortly. -TH]

I'm not sure why users are complaining so loudly at the upgrade pricing for LR2.0. The disparity for International Users has always been an issue across the industry. I know that when I see that I can do an internet download to do the upgrade, and I have to pay 40% extra for seemingly no good reason it sure irks.

Got my Windows Home Server up and running. My PCs are now being automatically backed up. It is a cute little box and so far works just like a bought one.

As you can see we have 177GB of backups already and 48GB of shared media files. The shared folders are `software raided’ across my 2 500GB disks. I can see that I’m going to have to try much harder to fill this baby. With 2 drive bays free it will be quite a task.

WOW B&H Photo rock. I waited until the next Credit Card month started and placed my order online on Wednesday last week.

The order shipped Thursday from New York and arrived on my doorstep on Monday morning. Wow. If only Amazon knew how to ship like that. Most businesses in Sydney would similarly struggle to match that.

Double Thumbs Up to B & H Foto -  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

OK, the shipping was $115.40, but it was for a PC, and we all know that by the time any PC makes it to Australia they basically double the price in dollars. That being despite the Australian dollar approaching parity with the US clam shell.

Adobe just added support for previewing pictures in DNG format to Windows Vista Explorer and Windows Live Photogallery.

This is neat, when looking at which files are backed up etc. you sometimes like to see the real files themselves, not just where Lightroom tells you they are.

I wonder if we will see DNG as the future format for digital photos ? Hopefully camera manufacturers will start including DNG as an output option straight from the camera !

Keeping the XML info inside the DNG makes a much neater solution. I'd recommend it to anyone shooting RAW and using Lightroom or Aperture.

Windows Vista, 4GB RAM, AMD X2 Dual Core 4600, Dell 24'' Ultrasharp monitor.

Vista is prettier than XP and as I got it on a new machine, it feels plenty fast enough. In almost 1 year of use I have had just 1 lockup due to software. She has become my workhorse - she just works.

The system scores 4.2 on the Windows Experience Index - held back by the graphics card which I don't need for gaming anyway.

Canon EOS 300D

This is my Digital SLR. The original Digital Rebel. It is getting a bit long in the tooth, but is still perfectly functional. I can't see me updating the body for a couple of years. My photographic prowess is not being held back by my camera body, sadly. I still like to search online for the latest and greatest though

My 2 main lenses are the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 and the Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. Great lenses. The 50mm is fabulous value for money.

Adobe Lightroom

Lightroom is the hub of my digital photos now. I shoot in RAW mode as it gives me a lot more room to play with the exposure, white balance, tones etc. I convert the images into DNG format in import so that I don't have any XML sidecar files to lose track of. I try to keyword shots so that I can find stuff as my library continues to grow.

Lightroom allows export plugins to put files directly on flickr and SmugMug.

I export my keepers to JPG format ready for Picasa to see.

Picasa

Picasa is great because it is fast. Its slideshows are quick and easy to start with just 2 clicks. Its ability to resize and attach email images is its best feature. It can resize and open a new email with attachments ready - for your default email application, or for gmail. A `one-click to email' interface - such simplicity and speed. Picasaweb is ok I 'spose, it is free and convenient so I have some galleries there too.

I use use Picasa and gmail to send pictures to family overseas.

Gmail

Gmail is fast and has heaps of storage capacity. Its integration with Picasa is great. I don't even need to think about disk space for email anymore, just fire off a picture and in a flash it is gone.

SmugMug

http://digital-davo.smugmug.com/

Even thought SmugMug is a paid service I much prefer it over flickr. The galleries are just gorgeous. It just has a more professional feel compared to flickr. I miss having access to lots of people to comment on my photos though.

Flickr

http://flickr.com/photos/pascoedj/

I used to use flickr and even paid for a pro membership. Flickr now feels a bit too big and stagnant. They see to have stopped innovating and the site is looking old.

I still use flickr to enter photos in competitions that need you to put a photo in a flickr group. eg ; the following for This Week in Photography "The Colour Red" competition. (please click on this link so I appear in their referrer logs and might win something).

Windows Live Writer

This is the best piece of free software I have seen from Microsoft. It make blogging such a pleasure. You get good WYSIWYG, support for the major blogging platforms, online and offline drafts, support for pages and posts on wordpress, nice image scaling and attaching features.

The main blogs I post to are Elliot Pascoe's Blog, Rosacea Support Group, Geek is not Dork

Amazon S3

In the absence of a proper backup scheme I'm putting my photos, web files and documents up on Amazon S3. I have over 47GB up there. This costs about $7 to $9 a month which is far cheaper than running a server and maintaining it. As many ISPs in Australia are counting uploads I'm not sure if I'll persist with this in the future, but it is a very cheap off-site option.

Super Flexible File Synchronizer

Super Flexible File Synchronzer is a geek's paradise tool. It allows you to sync files between your PCs. I use it to put my photos on the laptop from the desktop as well as backup to Amazon S3. It can run as a windows service to backup automatically, but I haven't configured that bit. The Amazon S3 backend works quite well, but naturally it is slow compared to a local server.

Coming soon Windows Home Server

Later this year I plan to deploy WHS to have a better backup scheme and to more easily share files around the house. HP is very slow in selling the HP MediaSmart Server in Australia, sadly. WHS is being praised for its simplicity and ease of use. I'm hoping that it will mean I end up with a proper backup scheme. Would be nice to see their bug when edited across the network fixed soon though.

Wow I didn't realise that I have so much stuff in my digital workflow. I don't even shoot video (yet) !

This is what happens when a nytimes.com article links to your site.

 

A nice little spike in traffic. Maybe I was expecting a bit more even. hmmm. So far 447 people have clicked through from In a Perfect World, Rosacea Remains a Problem to rosacea-support.org. This puts them as traffic source number 11 for the month of April.

I have had a quick play with Adobe Lightroom 2 beta. It has the ability to make localised adjustments. In version 1 if you play with fill light, exposure, clarity etc. you make adjustments to the whole image (or to that part of the histogram but across the whole image).

Here is my 10 minute attempt to use localised adjustments to that shadow under Elliot's hat. It was just a few strokes with a brush without caring for the edge - the auto masking means you can brush almost without care. Once the region is defined you can play with the amount of adjustment to apply. I tried to increase the exposure to bring out some more detail.

You can see I'm no pro, and the really hard edge of the shadow along the cheek probably means it was a bad example to start with - but here we go anyway.

The original

A big bump in exposure

a small bump in exposure, probably the most pleasing ?

What I do like is that I can do this sort of thing without needing to go to Photoshop. No need to understand masks, layers, fill etc. etc. etc. woo hoo !

Back in 2003 I ordered a copy of "The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea". I was looking to read what was available on the topic of rosacea and this book was listed on amazon.com. The book confused me ; it was so bad.

Little did I know, the book was written by a computer. The author, Philip N. Parker has some patents related to automatically generating books. Apparently he is responsible for over 200,00 books, and in fact you can see him listed as the author of 85,000+ books on amazon.com.

I was contacted last week by Noam Cohen of the New York Times to get a reaction to being told that this book which I loathed, was in fact written by a computer algorithm. It was a surprise to me.

From the NYT article He Wrote 200,000 Books (but Computers Did Some of the Work):

While nothing announces that Mr. Parker’s books are computer generated, one reader, David Pascoe, seemed close to figuring it out himself, based on his comments to Amazon in 2004. Reviewing a guide to rosacea, a skin disorder, Mr. Pascoe, who is from Perth, Australia, complained: “The book is more of a template for ‘generic health researching’ than anything specific to rosacea. The information is of such a generic level that a sourcebook on the next medical topic is just a search and replace away.”

When told via e-mail that his suspicion was correct, Mr. Pascoe wrote back, “I guess it makes sense now as to why the book was so awful and frustrating.” Mr. Parker was willing to concede much of what Mr. Pascoe argued. “If you are good at the Internet, this book is useless,” he said, adding that Mr. Pascoe simply should not have bought it. But, Mr. Parker said, there are people who aren’t Internet savvy who have found these guides useful.

Sorry for quoting the bit that mentions me, but feels good to finally find out why the book was so awful.

This is a sad development. It is hard enough to find good printed information about rosacea. What we don't need is robots trying to make a living for their owners !

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by Daniel Lyons.

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody

  I really wanted to enjoy this book. Daniel Lyons, who works for Forbes, was unmasked as the voice of Fake Steve Jobs. Lyons created a storm with his parody blog. His rise to fame as FSJ was based on his insightful industry commentary and ability to voice a character we thought we recognised.

I saw a video interview with him where he discussed the rise and rise of his blog. He referred to the huge traffic he was getting and the total lack of income from Google Ads. Welcome to writing for geeks who are morally and intellectually above clicking ads ! Also you need content about saleable items before you get good ad inventory. But I digress.

I decided to read the book that the blog inspired, hoping for some keen insight into, well something.

What a crock. The book is really just written to say one thing - Jobs is vain, conceited, self centered and 10 steps above reality. I persisted and read the whole thing, hoping that my first impression was wrong. Alas it is just a lesson in puerility - both in writing style from the author and in how to behave so by the characters portrayed there.

I am not that adventurous when I chose outside my normal reading genre. I don't like taking risks because I feel ripped off when I invest my reading time and it is wasted. This book has reinforced my conservative reading approach. There really is a lot of crap out there.

Seriously, don't bother.