The MacSale Bundle is available until August 18th ‘09

The MacSale Bundle is available until August 18th:

http://themacsale.com/

For $49.99 (USD), The Mac Sale presents 10 superb apps:

* REALBasic Personal – A rapid development tool for newcomers to programming and old hands alike.

* Iris – An image manipulation program with a killer UI and superb capability.

* Interarchy – The grandaddy of FTP on the Mac, solid, reliable and embracing new systems such as Amazon S3.

* Flux – “This is like Dreamweaver on steroids.” – downloadsquad.com.

* Scribbles – A fun sketching program with a remarkable and innovative interface.

* TaskPaper – Task Manager which focuses on getting things done and not fiddling with options.

* WriteRoom – The minimalist word processor loved by writers.

* Stuf – Clipboard manager that lets you share items over your network.

* Mariner Calc – Quick and solid spreadsheet which won’t bog down your Mac.

* HoudahSpot – All the features Spotlight should have.

I like the WriteRoom for editing in a clean retro 70s terminal look, and the program Interarchy for my FTP transfers.

I didn’t have any serial number problems with this bundle that I had with the MacBundleBox. I received all of my serial numbers almost immediately and an email with links to the application websites. All of the apps were downloadable as upgradable trials.

Erika Eick

Canon Rebel XT vs D50

I’ve just started using a Canon digital SLR- and older 2005 model known as the Rebel XT. I normally use my Nikon D50 and that’s a very good camera. But the Rebel is great camera as well, with images very sharp & good color throughout. The viewfinder is not as bright as my Nikon’s but still very usable. The autofocus is fast but quite a bit different than Nikon’s, I had a little trouble with the vertical composition shots. I guess I’m still learning about Canons. The build quality is definitely of a lesser grade than my Nikon. But it’s not so bad really, not enough to keep me from using it. I like that the Rebel has a depth of field preview, and will work all Canon EF & EF-S lenses. You can use older Nikkor lenses with more expensive Nikons, and with the D50, but most newer consumer models don’t have the focus connection.

One nice feature about the Canon DSLR is the software included. You get an image browser, stitching application, wireless file utility, a computer utility that can control the camera, and best of all a RAW processing program to edit the RAW files. The Nikon equivalent is Capture NX, but it’s an additional purchase.

Erika

My Apple Rave

In my previous post I talked about the iMac as a toy. Well the new models are nice toys- just a ‘bit’ overpriced. I still have my 2002 indigo iMac and it’s still a fine little Mac. But is also has a limited upgrade path, and today’s iMac should have a better one than mine. I mean of course that with landfills full of old computers, having more options to upgrade helps thwart the dumping. My older Macs had PDS & processor slots to allow at least some way to keep running more current Mac OS and applications. Even the Mac SE/30 had a way to do this. I loved mine! I loved my PowerMac 7300 too, it had PCI slots as well, I still use it on occasion. But why not fix that on the iMac today?

My G4 tower is upgradeable today, but as I mentioned in a previous post it’s just too pricey to do so right now and probably will always be so.

Now Apple is very good about nicely formatted documentation, even when electronic. I love the computer, iPod and application manuals that Apple puts out. Keep up the good work Apple!

I use OSX Tiger (I can’t run Leopard) and it is a beautiful operating system. It beats the other UNIX like systems I’ve used, like Linux, Solaris, SCO, in desktop ease of use and looks. That’s why I use it for my creative stuff. I have used my PC for some of the same work, especially when that was the only platform my community college had. Errrrg! Not quite as nice as OSX…

Erika

My Apple Rant

I  belong to to a great Macintosh user group & on occasion I browse the group’s forum. One member who happened to be a PC pro & a professor I had in college posted a rant about how Apple doesn’t get the business market. He said the iMac was a toy for the home user. I agreed and posted:

“I used to work in IT, doing support, upgrades, research, and evaluation of products. I also did Mac support in the same categories, and it was always difficult, from the hardware standpoint and in dealing with management. 

The iMac is a toy- a nice toy designed to promote Apple’s margins in a short term stock market driven product cycle. Easy upgrades and hardware maintenance is key in business and for home enthusiasts. Remember the G5? Before Jobs returned to Apple I could buy a Mac at Sears, get in-home setup & service. Jobs torpedoed the well liked printer lines. And charging for OSX ‘upgrades’ as Apple has done would not last long in the business market. 

I have 4 PC towers, 1 Toshiba laptop, 1 g3 iMac & 1 G4 tower. I can buy the nVidia Quadro series cards, at various prices and fit them in my PCs. Not so on the Macs, except the high end. If you do serious CAD, 3D CGI, medical research, engineering work on your computer you will need a Pro card at some point. nVidia has price points for entry level workstations )FX-370 and the FX-570 which are G80-class GPU cards. They will fit in lower spec PCs, but only top drawer Macs. What’s the point of an entry level card in a high end Mac you probably don’t need? 

I don’t think most Mac users understand this. Hollywood has embraced Macs for video editing & some compositing work, but a large majority of 3D CGI & composting work is still done on PC workstations. Mac render farms I don’t know much of either. Few movie projects or game design projects are done strictly on one platform- you need a variety of tools and people and the platforms they are familiar with. 

3dsMax is one of the premier apps in 3D and it does NOT run native on OSX. If you want to get hired, knowing this app helps. Maya is on both Mac & PC but targets a different area of 3D and I still see more job specs ask for 3dsMax. 

What I need is a sub $1000 Mac tower with access to PCI slots, PCIe slots, upgradeable power supply ability, and support for the FULL range of nVidia Quadro series cards. Not for gaming, but for the range of 3D apps I mentioned before. Then Apple will have a winner… ”

—-

Now I AM a Mac fan, I’m not knocking Mac users, just Apple for not going after the business and enthusiast market.

 

Erika

Old Mac Upgrades Too Pricey

I was just looking at upgrades for my old G4 tower. It’s still too pricey! I saw an AGP ATI 9800 new for $200, that’s crazy, especially on such an old card a few generations back in technology. On my PC it wouldn’t make any sense to buy- my AGP GeForce 7600 is light years past a 9800 in capabilities and only cost me about 100 USD. I’ll stick to my GeForce 2mx for now. It cost me $30 new and replaced the pokey ATI Rage128 that came with my Mac.

I saw a few used Macs like Quicksilver & Mirror Drive Door models. They’re not that much of a jump over my G4 except in CPU speed. And going for 400-600 USD. Jeez! What are the sellers smokin’? I wouldn’t spend that much for a used 500Mhz-1Ghz Pentium 3 or 4. I paid around $450 for G4 4 years ago!

I thought about the new Intel based models. Problem is my software is for PowerPC, including Adobe CS1 & Final Cut (AGP Mac only), and all my other little apps. I know what emulation is like from the move to PPC after 68xxx processors. Not so hot! So the newer Intel macs really aren’t for me. After all- on our retirement budget a large computer purchase is out, so I keep using my old Mac.

My dad picked up a new AMD dual processor cheapo PC for me for around $500 US last year- it works great, even with Vista Home Premium. I did some tweaking, added a little more memory and got it working the way I like it. It has PCIe slots for video & expansion, something the much pricier iMac doesn’t even have. Nearest Mac wise would be a lower tier MacPro tower at prices I don’t even want know about.

That said, my G4 does OK with Tiger, and for a bit of writing, emailing, & surfing I do on it all is well here

Erika

Another excitin’ day

Hi all!

I’m just a housewife, no rugrats-no pain. My hubby just had a bypass operation last week & is finally home again. I needed something to keep me busy, so I figured why not do some blogging.

I love macs, and have an oldy G4 tower(Gigbit enet circa 2000) with a GeForce 2MX that still runs my olde copy of Adobe Creative Suite 1, Studio MX 1_1, and my new Mariner apps. I also use PCs for flightsim & dabblin in 3d stuff. I started using macs at a job with a publishing company around 1990. Things have certainly changed in MacLand since that time! Of course my G4 is barely up to the iMac models of today, but it’s paid for and still works fine, even with OSX Tiger.

I just bought Mariner Write and boxed versions of StoryMill & MacJournal. I really don’t use Word enough on my PC to justify buying a new copy for my Mac, it’s overkill. So Mariner Write seems to fit my needs. AppleWorks is sort of dead now, and Pages is little too like InDesign which I already have and probably runs best on newer Macs.

-Erika