Month: May 2008

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Pixelmator Goes 1.2

Pixelmator icon

Pixelmator 1.2 is released today. The release notes can be found here: http://www.pixelmator.com/support/updates

Pixelmator is a great alternative to Adobe Photoshop at a low-low-price. Pixelmator is priced at a mere $59 and available as trial. Head to Pixelmator.com for more informations.

Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman (May 12, 2008)
• Rulers, Guides, Grid, and Snap added
• Curves Tool added
• Color Balance Tool added
• Auto Enhance Tool replaced the Auto Levels, Auto Colors, and Auto Contrast tools
• Polygonal Lasso Tool added to Lasso tool (use L shortcut to switch between polygonal and simple lasso)
• Automator actions (except Change Type of Images and Transform Images) have been rewritten from scratch
• Transform tool has been rewritten from scratch for precision and stability
• Free Transform tool now available in Edit menu (or via Command + F keyboard shortcut)
• New Help documentation has been added
• Show Transform Controls option has been added to Move tool in Tool Options palette
• Tool type has been added to Lasso tool in Tool Options palette
• Rulers preferences have been added and include default units for rulers, ability to choose guides color, grid color, grid settings
• Rulers contextual menu (right-click on ruler) includes New Guide…, Show/Hide Guides, Lock/Unlock Guides, Clear Guides, Show/Hide Grid, Snap To, and Ruler Units menu items
• Transform palette now includes width, height, angle, cancel, and OK
• Free Transform menu item added to selection tools contextual menu
• Rectangular Marquee Tool is now precise
• The transparency of palettes has been reduced
• Blur has been added behind palettes
• A bug that sometimes caused a layer to disappear in PXM has been fixed
• A bug that caused layer mask not to sync with layer after file was saved in PXM format has been fixed
• A bug that caused Undo to work incorrectly after duplicating layer has been fixed
• A crash that occurred when launching Photo Browser on some PowerPC-based Macs has been fixed
• A crash that sometimes occurred when deleting selection with Backspace key has been fixed
• A crash that sometimes occurred when inverting selection outside of canvas has been fixed
• A bug that caused application to stay active after Quit command has been fixed
• As a result of Quick Look crash issues, .mat, .yuv and .pdb file extensions were removed from the Quick Look plug-in
• PSD compatibility improved
• It is now possible to click on text near buttons in Welcome screen
• Minor Levels histogram improvements have been added
• Minor user interface improvements have been implemented
• Minor performance improvements have been made

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Dear Disney, What The ASDF Are You Thinking?

Pixar won’t save Disney this time because it has nothing to do with Pixar. Enter “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”, an abomination of a movie.

Apparently Disney has the idea that talking Chihuahua is the next big thing. Wait a minute, Tom Rinks wants his idea back. Is this 1995 all over again? Taco Bell Chihuahua, remember him?

The next time I talk to Carlos Alazraqui, I’d for sure bring this up.

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Final Cut Pro 6: Import Preferences

One little preferences you might want to set in case of “Log and Transfer” problem:

“Remove Advanced Pulldown and Duplicate Frames”

Check it if there’s something wrong with the import (with this option unchecked).

or

Uncheck it if there’s something wrong with the import (with this option checked).

This option might make a difference when importing from Digital HD Camcorder such as Panasonic HDC-SD9.

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Where’s the “OOPS” button on Flickr?

I admit that I am such a fool for deleting the most popular picture I had on Flickr. I still have the original picture, but all the comments are now gone.

Ah well, there’s no reason to beat myself about it.

Now I am waiting if the photos I took would be used for something exciting.

Yeah, this post is a little bit cryptic, but only time will reveal what it means.

http://flickr.com/37prime/

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Rants: Windows Home Server

A few weeks ago, I received the Windows Home Server HP MediaSmart Server EX475 and had the time to use it. It is now actually running in an office as a backup server.

My first impression of Windows Home Server was positive, until I actually get into the system a little bit more. Three things immediately came to mind:

  • How in the world can I rename the Windows Home Server? I can’t find it anywhere.
  • How in the asdf can I assign the workgroup for the home server? There’s no option for this either.
  • Most importantly, there’s no way to configure the RAID. This worries me because it seems to be set at RAID 0. YIKES! Then comes the article from AnandTech about possible data corruptions (http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=413).

Of course, there has been some murmur in Microsoft camp. According to Knowledge Base #946676, data corruption may occur, and Microsoft is taking their sweet time. They expect to release the bug-fix sometimes in June 2008.

I am now backing up the content of the Windows Home Server to another “server” in that office.

Windows Home Server still needs a lot of work.

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