Ok, I have to admit that I am hooked by the geo-tagging possibilities of EXIF. With the inclusion of geographical capabilities in iPhoto, I have gone into somewhat of a Geotagging craze. I have been looking at GPS loggers, and I also started using this handy program HoudahGeo which can do Geotaging of iPhoto images from a GPS logger file or, as is my case right now, Google Earth. And, it seems I am not the onl one geotagging like crazy right now.. There are now compact cameras, DSLR cameras (like Nikon D90 or similar products) and mobile phones with a GPS chip in it, storing the location of the camera in the image EXIF file. Amazing data!
Ok, but does this really a Mac user 2.0 phenomenon? From my perspective, I would say that it is. I see soooo many possibilities when it comes to extracting all these wonderful data and organizing my photo album (regardless of software package used) using the EXIF data. I used to have a Perl script that would rename all my images by date and time when they were taken, so that it would be very unlikelly that I would later overwrite the image with another image with a different contents. Of course, you would potentially have a problem when importing a friends pictures, if you were out taking pictures together. If you are both on the same spot, you probably see something nice to take pictures of at the same time. When snapping away at this gorgeous statue from different angles, it is very likelly that eventually you would both take a picture in the same second. So, now you will overwrite your picture with your friend's picture when importing it to your database. Not something that I think most peope would like. But, this is easilly solvable by adding GPS coodrdinates to the file name. The likellyhood that you would be standing on the same spot when taking the pictures is not very likelly. Also, it makes finding files on the hard drive taken at around a certain place not very difficult. I like databases a lot, but transparent file naming always helps! :-)
I guess the Mac user 1.0 enjoys the possibilities of geo-tagging too. But, I guess that they are not seeing the possibilities beyond what the things Apple already thought of. I like what I see in iPhoto too, and I will probably get iLife just because of this great update to iPhoto, but for me it goes slightly beyond that. I see that possibly I will not always want to be confined to what iPhoto or the great people in the Apple developer team can think of, but rather have the ability of using the data outside of their applications too. I like the fancy stuff, but it is no enough! :-)
So, I guess this is a Mac user 1.5 phenomenon - satisfying almost all of the things a the 2.0 user whants, but more than what the 1.0 user sees as something useful.
A bit like Applescript, I guess. :-)
lördag 28 februari 2009
torsdag 19 februari 2009
Finding the lost Gigaflops
2.0 Mac users want Gigaflops. They need Gigaflops. Mostly they do not knwo exactly what they need it for, but like Linux users who go to Gentoo just in order to compile everything with as much optimization as possible for your computer (and not the general i586 and later processors), the need for extra power is not something you can debate. It is a truism. An axiom. Beyond debate.
1.0 Mac users could not care less. If Safari starts up just before they get bored and runs smootly with a couple of simultaneous processes, they are fine with wat they've got. Word needs to work too, and if they find that the newest version of Word is too slow, they either 1) upgrade the computer (since it is obviously too old if it does not run the most important program in the world - the glorified typewriter - Word), or 2) they settle for the older version of Word.
Me, I am more picky. I know that bad programming makes a difference, and stupid programming most certainly makes a difference. Also, I want everything to be as efficient as possible, which is why I am very excited about the comming event: OpenCL and increased ease in parallell computing through Grand Central. Wonderful! So, not only can anyone create applications that potentially use unused CPU cycles in other Macs on the network (XGrid), there could come a time when all of your cores and your GPU are working together in computations! Fantastic!
"Hmmm.. but would it really make a difference?" Well, who knows! Starting up Microsoft Word will maybe not benefit that much, but I am using my Mac for statistical data analysis (in R) and signal processing stuff. Imagine what R could become in a well defined, stable multi-core, parallell computing environment! I am salivating just by the thought of it... :-)
(Ok, I guess it could be good for decoding media too :-) , if someone would be interestd in doing stuff like that, ha ha )
1.0 Mac users could not care less. If Safari starts up just before they get bored and runs smootly with a couple of simultaneous processes, they are fine with wat they've got. Word needs to work too, and if they find that the newest version of Word is too slow, they either 1) upgrade the computer (since it is obviously too old if it does not run the most important program in the world - the glorified typewriter - Word), or 2) they settle for the older version of Word.
Me, I am more picky. I know that bad programming makes a difference, and stupid programming most certainly makes a difference. Also, I want everything to be as efficient as possible, which is why I am very excited about the comming event: OpenCL and increased ease in parallell computing through Grand Central. Wonderful! So, not only can anyone create applications that potentially use unused CPU cycles in other Macs on the network (XGrid), there could come a time when all of your cores and your GPU are working together in computations! Fantastic!
"Hmmm.. but would it really make a difference?" Well, who knows! Starting up Microsoft Word will maybe not benefit that much, but I am using my Mac for statistical data analysis (in R) and signal processing stuff. Imagine what R could become in a well defined, stable multi-core, parallell computing environment! I am salivating just by the thought of it... :-)
(Ok, I guess it could be good for decoding media too :-) , if someone would be interestd in doing stuff like that, ha ha )
onsdag 18 februari 2009
The new breed of Mac users... a challenge for Apple?
There are now two types of Mac users: the old style Mac users and the new breed. The 2.0 of Mac users.
I came into the Mac world, it was because I needed a new computer for work. I previously was using a laptop with Gentoo on it, and at home the only computer I had was a Gentoo installation with MythTV on it.. so I considered myself pretty much a "hard core Linux follower". But then, the "event" happened... the hard disc on the HP laptop died! Ok, I had lots of backups (all thanks to the wonderful faubackup Perl script!) but still, I just had NOOO time to do the kind of research if would take to find a laptop that worked as well as the HP one I had with Linux. If you then also add the installation time, well... I was not looking forward to doing it while doing also all the thing I needed to do for getting payed.
My boss was, and is, a Mac user. A Mac user of the old school. So, she gently pointed out that actually, Mac OS X is actually more UNIX than Linux, and that some people are also able to use the terminal for quite productive things also on a Mac. Hmm... Made me think about this a bit, play around on a Mac a bit.. and it all seemed surprisingly good and.. usable. :-) Leopard was also going to have something they called "Spaces" (which we all know are just a fancy, accessible way of saying that there is a possibility to have multiple desktops) so this is what was ordered for me...
And now I LOVE it!!! And, I found that other people with similar backround to me also made the move and have the same feeling. Hmm..
However, there is a striking difference between me and the old Mac users I saw before. In case, I quite often see that it is the things that I like that they hate. And, the things they like, I care very little for. I love the console and all the scripting tools available. The 1.0 users seem to often be scared of the console. They love the drag and drop. I could not care less about the drag and drop feature and would never use it to copy a file. So, how come two very different types of computer use personalities can coexist under one platform? How come "If you create a system that any idiot can use, then only idiots will find it useful." (Link) possibly does not hold anymore?
Hmm.. I don't know, but in this blog I will try to provide information on how and why I, as a Linux addict, find the Mac design and usage soo seductive. Maybe it will get some poor trapped Microsoft Windows user to realise that the Mac is not longer only for people forced to use a computer (1.0 users) but is actually a system that seems to be far more productive and well designed than what they are currently using. Well... just maybe. ;-)
I came into the Mac world, it was because I needed a new computer for work. I previously was using a laptop with Gentoo on it, and at home the only computer I had was a Gentoo installation with MythTV on it.. so I considered myself pretty much a "hard core Linux follower". But then, the "event" happened... the hard disc on the HP laptop died! Ok, I had lots of backups (all thanks to the wonderful faubackup Perl script!) but still, I just had NOOO time to do the kind of research if would take to find a laptop that worked as well as the HP one I had with Linux. If you then also add the installation time, well... I was not looking forward to doing it while doing also all the thing I needed to do for getting payed.
My boss was, and is, a Mac user. A Mac user of the old school. So, she gently pointed out that actually, Mac OS X is actually more UNIX than Linux, and that some people are also able to use the terminal for quite productive things also on a Mac. Hmm... Made me think about this a bit, play around on a Mac a bit.. and it all seemed surprisingly good and.. usable. :-) Leopard was also going to have something they called "Spaces" (which we all know are just a fancy, accessible way of saying that there is a possibility to have multiple desktops) so this is what was ordered for me...
And now I LOVE it!!! And, I found that other people with similar backround to me also made the move and have the same feeling. Hmm..
However, there is a striking difference between me and the old Mac users I saw before. In case, I quite often see that it is the things that I like that they hate. And, the things they like, I care very little for. I love the console and all the scripting tools available. The 1.0 users seem to often be scared of the console. They love the drag and drop. I could not care less about the drag and drop feature and would never use it to copy a file. So, how come two very different types of computer use personalities can coexist under one platform? How come "If you create a system that any idiot can use, then only idiots will find it useful." (Link) possibly does not hold anymore?
Hmm.. I don't know, but in this blog I will try to provide information on how and why I, as a Linux addict, find the Mac design and usage soo seductive. Maybe it will get some poor trapped Microsoft Windows user to realise that the Mac is not longer only for people forced to use a computer (1.0 users) but is actually a system that seems to be far more productive and well designed than what they are currently using. Well... just maybe. ;-)
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