The aforementioned machine.
Computer
Sharing my thoughts on stories
I realize I am very late to this game, but if you are reading on my website you may have noticed that I added my “shared” items that I am reading via Google reader. (I use NewsRack on the iPad and iPhone which connects and syncs with Google Reader.) When I am reading stories via the web I use the Note in Reader » [drag the preceding text up onto your browser's toolbar to use it] feature to link, share, and add my own notations to a story or website I find interesting.
Today I was reading a story about the legality of using your iPhone to record a conversation without notifying the other parties. I added a few comments along with the link and it occurred to me that no one may read them, stuck over in the sidebar. So here is how it appears on my Shared Google Reader page:
Court OKs Covert iPhone Audio Recording | Threat Level | Wired.com
via www.wired.com on 8/19/10
Targuman:
Very interesting ruling. With the iPad note apps capable of recording I have wondered how to legally and ethically use this in lectures and meetings. (Lectures are considered “public” so fair game, but departmental meetings, for example?) Using an iPhone to secretly record a conversation is not a violation of the Wiretap Act if done for legitimate purposes, a federal appeals court has
So please feel free to check the sidebar, go directly to my Shared Google Reader page, or comment here about the items you see there.
Accordance on the iPad
In order to make sure I have access to my files and programs on the road I set up VNC on my office MacPro. This is all built in to the MacOS (and Win XP and 7 I believe) but not into the iPad. After much deliberation I purchased iTeleport for $24.99. Wow! Very cool. It takes a bit of getting used to because your finger is working like a mouse rather than as in the iOS, but once I got the hang of it I was happily checking out Ruth on Accordance. UPDATE: There is a preference for touch mode, so clearly I have a lot more playing to do!
Believe it or not, that is Accordance on an iPad!
(I was using it in landscape mode, hence the sideways screenshot.)
Review: HDRtist – excellent software at great price, free!
My brother and Tony have been talking up HDR, the process by which one can achieve “High Dynamic Range” images that compensate for lighting difficulties and differences. A search of flickr for “hdr” reveals some pretty dramatic results. There are lots of software solutions out there (including Photoshop) but me, I’m cheap. So I was thrilled to find HDRtist, a free solution for the Mac. It is simple, elegant, and produces some stunning images. You can see one of my more serious attempts from my recent trip to Finland here and at right. These rocks were shot with my Sony alpha and I intentionally bracketed with three separate shots. I used the extreme setting in HDRtist to show how far you can take the HDR effect in HDRtist.
Below is an example of what it can do with some fairly mediocre images. These two images were taken with my iPhone 3GS and nothing but my big ‘ol body to stabilize the camera. You can see how in the first screen shot the images are slightly off. HDRtist aligns the images (this takes a few minutes and in my case required cropping out the non-overlapping bits). Then you simply use the slider below to get the level of effect you are looking for. The result here is not great because the starting images were not very good. But when you compare the result with the sources, wow! Now I have a reasonable image worthy of being placed on flickr. (OK, not really, but I put it up anyway to illustrate this post.)
Verdict: For free you often get what you pay for, in this case free gets you an excellent and easy to use app that does what it advertises. For a hack who is not interested (right now) in serious HDR manipulation, it is darn near perfect.
Do we need anything more in a desktop OS?
The following story from TUAW produced an exchange between me and my brother about what we really need in an OS.
We’ve seen the Magic Trackpad name before, and we’ve even gotten a glimpse of what the device might be — a larger, Bluetooth-enabled multitouch surface designed to bring all of the gestural and multitouch capability found on the iDevices and MacBooks to the desktop itself. Now, Engadget notes that it appears the FCC has approved testing of such a device for Apple — a “Bluetooth trackpad” that’s reportedly set for production. The testing was actually done in October of last year, but FCC filings have risen into public view, which means that Apple could finally unveil the device as soon as later this week.
Not much is known about the actual device (with the model number A1339), but presumably it would be used as a larger touch surface for Bluetooth-enabled computers. Does that mean Apps on the Mac, or, at the very least, actual multitouch testing for iPhone development? We’ll have to wait and see.
TUAWApple’s Magic Trackpad approved by FCC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The discussion went like this: I suggested that this might be how Apple would bring the iOS (or at least touch interface) to the desktop machines. To me this would make more sense than a touch interface screen, who wants to reach UP to the screen to move around, etc. (In fact, using my iPad in the dock is a little annoying for maneuvering since I have to move my hand from the keyboard area up to the screen.)
My brother asked, do we really want iOS, very limited and closed, for a desktop OS? Fair point, I thought. I certainly need more from my desktop than my iDevice.
Which led me to ask, what more do we (non-research folks, i.e., not NASA) need in a desktop OS? The most recent episode of MacBreak Weekly (#203) had a discussion about whether or not Apple would continue to develop the Mac OS. Alex Lindsay said that he thought they would not, with a convergence to the iOS or even dropping desktops all together. Andy Ihnatko disagreed and felt confident that Apple was still working on the next progression of OSX (or even OS XI).
But really, what more do we need in a desktop OS, whether it be Mac OS, Windows, Linux, whathaveyou?
