This is so well done.

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Here are just two three big beefs with Photoshop CS5.1 vs CS4 under OS 10.7:

• You can’t change the document window size from all edges and corners anymore
• Every time the cursor transforms into a spinner it disrupts my train of thought because it’s just wrong to do that. No other app does that. Stop reinventing the wheel just because you think you can make the wheel look cooler, Adobe.
• Collapsing palettes requires a double click when it used to be a single click

UPDATE: Wednesday, December 7, 2011

I forgot out this one:

There is no reason for Photoshop to be using this external disk. None. But if I’ve got it plugged in and Photoshop is running, I can’t dismount it. How long has Photoshop CS5.1 been out? Over a year? And there are still bugs like this? And if you are going to blame it on Lion, it’s not like Lion was developed in secret without developer releases intended to find bugs before the real product hit the market. Adobe acts like it had never even heard of OS 10.7 when it was released and many Adobe apps broke in various ways.

UPDATE: Thursday, December 8, 2011

From time to time, Photoshop gets goofy and loses focus when I invoke Launchbar. Photoshop then gets hidden behind whatever app I was using right before Photoshop. Maddening!

And I can’t tell you how many times I create a selection or adjust a crop area to a precise size, say 56 pixels tall, and when I release the mouse to finishing making or adjusting the selection, it jumps to 57 or 55 pixels. Over and over again. Unpredictably. Forcing me to make the same selection six times before it’s finally correct. I’ve been using Photoshop since 1996 and this has never been an issue until CS5.1. Thanks for cutting my productivity in half and pissing me off in the process, assholes.

UPDATE: Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Sometimes masks stop appearing in the Layer’s palette. The masks still work, but they are totally blank in the palette.

“Save For Web…” also can’t decide when it should warn me that I’m saving over an existing file. Sometimes it warns me, sometimes it blows away the original file without letting me know it’s going it.

UPDATE: Thursday, December 15, 2011

Photoshop doesn’t play well with Exposé. Or even command-tab app switching. Often times when I command-tab from Photoshop to another app, a bunch of Photoshop docs will be sitting on top of windows/docs of the app I just switched to.

That issue I mentioned where marquee selections get adjusted a little when I release the mouse actually pertains to anything that involves dragging to make adjustments. Such as sliders. Get the slider perfect, then release the mouse, and the slider changed by a pixel. This is something that was never a problem in fifteen years of Photoshop use. Now it happens consistently. And it didn’t even happen with CS4 under Lion. How did Adobe fuck this up so badly?

“You don’t know that if they looked inside of your brain or mine right now what they would find.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman explaining that the evidence showing dead hockey players suffered brain damage, specifically chronic traumatic encephalopathy, from fighting, is inconclusive.

via The New York Times

I think what he meant to say is “You don’t know if they looked inside my head right now if they’d find a brain.”

Tim McCarver wins Hall of Fame’s Ford Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting | MLB.com: News.

The dude can’t even pronounce players’ names correctly and he’s being honored for his ability to talk. There’s a reason the FakeTimMcCarver Twitter account exists. I’m 99% sure some of those tweets are real quotes from the Hall of Fame broadcaster.

Back in my mid 20s, my career goal was to have a job that allowed me to wear whatever footwear I chose.

Done.

Today I have a new career goal: Get to a point where I no longer have to use software written by Adobe. Trying to get CS 5.5 to work like CS 4, finding areas where CS 5.5 is, beyond any doubt, worse than CS 4, and having spent nearly $500 (and this was with a 30% deal) for the privilege has raised my hatred of Adobe to eleven.

We’ve all been there at one time or another. I’m grateful that I’m not there right now.

Justin Vernon’s version of this song is great. And you can buy the song, and video, on iTunes.

You might not think so, but this is what a 1996 Volvo 960 station wagon looks like after it’s been totalled.

This post isn’t about being grateful that no one was hurt in this accident. Although I am. What I’m mostly grateful for is the fact that we live in an area and our lifestyle is such that losing this car will not seriously affect our lives. In fact, we’ll probably come out ahead.

There are many, many people, I’d guess the overwhelming majority of Americans, who absolutely depend on their car. Without a car they would not be able to get to their jobs. They would not be able to get to a grocery store to buy food. Or, at the very least, doing those things without a car would add a huge burden to an already stressful life.

For most people, if they were in our situation, they’d have to take the little bit of money from the insurance company and put it towards a new car. Which means replacing an old but very reliable car with either an expensive new car or a used car that may or may not be reliable. Stress and financial burden on top of stress and financial burden. Their lives could be seriously impacted because some kid was driving his parents’ Lexus recklessly and crashed into their parked car. How fair is that for the owner of the parked car?

We are the lucky ones. Keli has been enjoying walking to and from work (two miles each way) since she started her job a few weeks ago. I work from home. We’ll still use a car a few times a week, to go to Trader Joe’s, to go to our favorite restaurant, and for odd needs here and there. But for that we’ve got ZipCar. And there are plenty of ZipCars within walking distance from our apartment. Even though the old Volvo was paid off long before Keli took it on as her own car, it still costs us close to $150 per month for insurance and gas. And that’s with using it very rarely. $150/month pays for a whole lot of ZipCar. More than we’ll really need.

So, yes, I’m very happy that Keli wasn’t in the car when it hit. But I’m also very happy to live a life that allows us to get by from day to day without owning a car. I’m grateful we can walk to many places for food. We can take the bus to places that are beyond walking distance. And we can quickly and easily get a shared car when that’s what we need. I’m gratefully to be so lucky in that regard.

I just got wind of the November Gratitude Project and I’ve got enough time to make my first entry before the first day has ended.

Let’s just start with the obvious. And that would be my girlfriend. Or, I should say, fiancée. Pronounced in the most obnoxious, over-the-top manner possible, because I think that word is at least slightly ridiculous.

But. There it is. How could I start the Gratitude Project with something other than my girlfriend?

This is the photo I took of us shortly after I asked her to marry me. Less than ten days ago. Fortunately we are getting some real pictures taken tomorrow. I can’t wait to get my hands on those.

Richard Grefé, AIGA executive director, urging the Obama Administration to cancel the Art Works poster contest:

This demonstrated lack of respect for the value of creative endeavors is exacerbated by the stipulation that ownership of all the creative property submitted, whether or not selected, is transferred to the campaign. And it is particularly contemptuous to ask the creative community to donate their services in support of a jobs program for other American workers.

What an embarrassment. Do work. Give up all rights to said work. Do it FOR FREE. And do it in the name of creating jobs. Holy WTF.

Last night I lost my iPhone. Somehow. In my small apartment.

After making a few rounds, continually checking the same places over and over again, I realized I could use the Find My iPhone feature to make it beep at me. So I fired up the app on my iPad to do just that. But no such luck because the app was telling me that location services for my iPhone were turned off. What?!

I eventually found my phone (my girlfriend had laid down on the couch, on top of my phone, and fallen asleep). So I was able to confirm that, indeed, the Find My iPhone feature was turned on. But it wasn’t working. I had to toggle the setting, turning it off and back on again, to make it work. Had to do the same drill with my iPad.

It might have to do with the fact that, since iOS 5 came out, I started using a Apple ID for the iCloud features. So, previous to iOS 5, I’d used my MobileMe account for all the syncing features and the Find My Phone feature. Now I’m using the same Apple ID I’ve used for iTunes purchases since 2003. Perhaps something in that transition caused the Find My iPhone feature to stop working.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve updated to iOS 5, and you want to use the Find My iPhone feature (why wouldn’t you?) please confirm that the feature is actually working for you before you lose the phone and need to use the feature.