Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

CS5: mixed feelings

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I never did get around to writing about Adobe Photoshop’s 20th anniversary back in February. We, as in my company, were not on board from the very start. But the first version we used was 2.0, and we have been using it continuously ever since. Along the way, it evolved from an infrequently used semi-novelty to a critical piece of software that is absolutely essential to the continued existence, let alone the success, of our business. It’s also been an increasingly essential part of my personal computer toolbox (and by that, I mean a legally obtained, paid-in-full personal copy) for about five years now. My particular prepress production area of expertise is typography and page layout, so my Photoshop skills are clumsy at best, but I still love me some Photoshop even for the very basic work I do with it.

Even as a longtime mostly happy user of Adobe products, I still have mixed feelings about the upcoming release of a new version, CS5. This version will no longer work on PowerPC (non-Intel) Macs. Since our small shop still uses quite a few final generation PowerPCs, the upgrade will have a significant financial impact upon us. In this still-shaky economic climate, I am not looking forward to that part at all. Our upgrade timing will be closely tied to that of our clients. Some are small design shops whose financial concerns will be similar to ours. Others are corporations: now that could go either way. Some will not want to do an upgrade over hundreds of machines, and others will have a budget to burn. Guess what I’m hoping for, at least to buy us some time.

I do have to say, though… my feelings for this one new Photoshop feature are not mixed at all. Even though I upgraded from CS2 to CS4 only a year ago, and spent more money than I cared to at the time to do so, I’d consider upgrading to CS5 for content-aware fill alone:

That just blew me away.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 25 of 31)

LED burnout

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I guess I’m the one burning out, more so than the LEDs. I generally spend a good amount of time on the computer for hobbies and volunteer tasks, but I am dreading being sucked into that glowing screen this weekend.

The last part of the work week was spent on a rather large and very ergonomically unfriendly project. I’ve often wondered why I don’t have carpal tunnel syndrome or some other type of repetitive strain injury since my entire working life has involved at least half a day at a keyboard. I still don’t have carpal tunnel syndrome, but my right shoulder and wrist really aren’t feeling so wonderful.

I have website updates, magazine editing and page layout, and at least token appearances to make at all of my online places. Let’s see how much of that actually gets done and how much succumbs to that burnt-out feeling.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 5 of 31)

HP love:hate

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That would be HP as in Hewlett-Packard, and as in the printers, not the computers.

Let me start off by saying that I am a long-time user of Hewlett-Packard printers. I have been hugely satisfied with most of the LaserJets and that’s since the Series II era (except of course the craptastic 5L, and that’s really my fault for going cheap). At the office, an ancient 8000N still handles a large part of the day-to-day work and isn’t sucking out our lives with repair or maintenance; it’s still surprisingly trouble-free.

The multifunction printers in my home and my friends’ homes are another story. When they are working, they do perform their multifunctions pretty well. But the problems that crop up in conjunction with new operating systems are a giant pain if you are not technically inclined, and still a pain if you are. I am not one of those people who think that any company should have to support obsolete hardware or software forever. I do think that the time frame of obsolescence as defined by HP is obscenely short.

I was glad to be spared the problems faced by the earliest adopters of Windows 7. The most recent update for full feature software and drivers seems to have worked to fix the problem of a Vista to Windows 7 upgrade that no longer recognized the PhotoSmart C7250 printer. While the upgrade process identified a number of drivers or applications that would need removal or upgrading, the HP drivers were not listed. Why not?

The worst part is that this is a repeat of the same kinds of problems faced by early adopters of Vista. HP drivers didn’t catch up with the problems until well after Vista’s original release date. I also can’t get on board with the idea of no support for a functioning printer that is slightly aging but not yet ancient, and being forced to buy a new one, just to move to a new operating system. If any company’s tech support tells me I have to buy a new printer to replace one that is less than five years old, you can bet it is not going to be a printer from that company.

I haven’t moved to Windows 7 or Mac Snow Leopard yet, and probably won’t unless I’m replacing hardware. We’ll see whether my own HP PhotoSmart C7280 printer is considered obsolete by then. If so, I’m thinking my next printer will probably be an Epson Artisan. Hey, it might suck, too, but at least I’ll be able to print directly on CDs and DVDs with it.

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 21 of 28)

Puppy Tweets

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Yes, that’s right, I said Tweets, not treats. Did I lose your interest? Of course I did, you are Rottweilers, so of course you would be way more interested in treats than Tweets.

Mattel’s Puppy Tweets, set to come out this fall, is kind of a cute idea. It consists of a USB receiver for your (or your dog’s) computer and a tag for your dog to wear. You need to load software for the receiver onto the computer and set up a Twitter account for your dog. Or maybe your dog is technically inclined and can do it himself (or herself). When the dog barks or moves, the tag sends a signal to the receiver, and one of 500 canned Tweets is sent out via the dog’s account. Kind of cute, huh?

But at $29.99, I doubt I’ll be doing it. The tag looks a bit too easy for a Rottweiler to destroy, and to leave one of the laptops on all day to get only faux communication with the dogs seems a little silly to me.

Besides. If Freya and Axel wanted to be on Twitter, they already would be. Or maybe they are, and just don’t want me to know. Look up there at the header. That’s Freya at age nine weeks, taking over my laptop when I got up to get a drink. She is six years old now. I am sure she has learned a lot since then. She is probably already managing multiple Twitter accounts with TweetDeck and cannot imagine how humans could be dumb enough to think that she needs something like Puppy Tweets.

I have not received compensation for this preview, and I have no connection to Mattel.

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 13 of 28)

Gadget time: Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Printer

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My husband is great at gifting me with cool gadgets that I didn’t even realize I wanted until I was happily playing with them. His latest pick for me is Polaroid’s ultraportable PoGo Instant Digital Printer. This one is going to be a lot of fun!

This printer is extremely portable. Small and light, it’s not much larger than my smartphone. Standard color is black; red and pink are available for an extra charge. The extra charge for the pink one supports breast cancer research. The extra charge for the red one just goes to make me happy. You all know how much I like the color red for my personal electronics.

There is a nice neoprene case available with a pocket for extra photo paper or a spare battery.

The photo paper is 2″ x 3″ with a peel and stick back. It uses ZINK Imaging’s Zero Ink technology. Heat from the printer activates dye crystals embedded in the paper. The print emerges dry to the touch and is supposedly waterproof and smudgeproof. The printer holds a 10-pack of photo paper and must be empty before you can load another pack.

The photo on the top is from my BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone and the photo on the bottom is from my Nikon Coolpix S50 digital camera. Since these are photos of photos, you won’t really be able to get a good idea of photo quality, which is acceptable for prints of this size.

Getting set up to print via Bluetooth from the BlackBerry was very easy, using the BlackBerry’s Bluetooth settings menu to discover and pair with the PoGo. Then it was a matter of selecting a photo, selecting “Send Using Bluetooth,” and selecting the printer.

Printing from the Coolpix camera was even easier, but a little more cumbersome since it uses the USB cable supplied with the camera. Once the two devices were connected, the PictBridge print option was automatically displayed along with on-screen prompts to help select and print a picture.

Sizing of the photo to best fit the 2″ x 3″ print area is automatic. You can print from any device that has Bluetooth transfer capability or that is PictBridge enabled. There is a compatibility guide on the Polaroid website. Sorry, iPhone users: even though you have Bluetooth, you do not have the transfer capability needed to print.

So far, I’ve really had some fun with this printer. Since the print size is so small, it does not replace a desktop photo printer. Unless you use an outside service for all of your photo printing, you’ll still want to have a desktop printer. But the PoGo’s extreme portability makes it a natural to accompany you anywhere. There’s something about having a paper print in hand, and this will be fun to have at parties and other gatherings, just like it was always fun to have a Polaroid camera around back in the old days when all cameras shot film.

I have not received compensation for this review, and I have no connection to Polaroid. The printer was purchased by my husband as a gift for me.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 21 of 31)