tech ronin

Studio Manager 8 Product is Out

Whew! This is hard work. Rock and roll. We got the product out. We love it! We expect great things to come out of this new UI. I'm going down to the Mill Valley Depot for breakfast to celebrate. Anything goes! See more about Studio Manager 8 on Studio Manager Bulletin and all the details and a free demo at Studio-Manager.com.

I'm Enjoying BBEdit 8.5

I have owned BBEdit for years but other options have come up so I didn't upgrade when 8.5 came out. I read a really positive review of 8.5 the other day. On impulse, I upgraded.

I was updating my web pages from Studio Manager 7.7 to Studio Manager 8. There were lots of things I wanted to replace. I was able to change the names and add references to new images (the new logo!) in multiple web pages at once.

Powerful search and replace on multiple documents has been possible for years. And I've used the feature before. But, I got more into the product and have done some other things since then which involved search and replace. It was more fun to use.

The UI is more enjoyable. The icon is better, the screen you work on is really nice. The feel is smooth as silk and light. Easy. I bet they've sped it up or maybe working on my MacBook helps a lot.

I'm thinking competition is at work here. Just like I feel competition in my field and try stay current and get ahead of the pack when I can. Bare Bones seems to have done the same thing.

I've been working really hard on the UI of Studio Manager 8 and I really appreciate what the Bare Bones team has accomplished with 8.5.

I can't find the review now, darn. Here is an over the top review that I agree with and then there is Michael Tsai's review from a programmer's point of view.

Released Studio Manager 8 Demo

We are pushing Studio Manager 8 out the door over the next few days. First out is the demo, the demo user manual and all the screenshots at the Studio Manager website. I have a brief blog post on my Studio Manager Bulletin page.

Takes advantage of and requires FileMaker Pro 8.5.

The full product should be out by Monday.

[Book] The Perfect Thing - Great Read

This new book about the iPod by a favorite tech writer, Steven Levy, is a great read. I've previously read and adored Steven's Hackers in 1984. Much later, I liked his book about Macintosh, Insanely Great. I regularly take pleasure in reading Levy's The Technologist column in Newsweek.

The new book is entitled The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Culture, Commerce and Coolness. I love it. It is packed with stories and insider information that only a long-time, highly-respected technology journalist could provide. Steven knows his subject well and was able to dig up all sorts of fresh and interesting stories about the iPod.

We get to learn exactly how and by whom the iPod was created. Hint, it wasn't just Jonathan Ive. He was a key player for sure, but lots of other talented people were involved before Jony came in to make the iPod the extraordinary product it was on launch day in 2001. We hear from key players in their own words.

That's only one chapter that I especially enjoyed, but there are many more interesting subjects like the Pod People phenomenon which Levy links to its origins in portable cocooning with the walkman. I found Levy's in depth discussion of cool really well done. You've heard little smatterings about cool, and the iPod phenomenon over and over in the press. But, here you get taken deeper into these subjects by a really good writer. For me, this is a page-turner. Honestly. I bought the book last night and I'm 121 pages into it's 284 pages already.

If you are a Mac and iPod fan, make sure to check out this book. Apple is selling the book for $25.99 even though the list price is $25. I got it at Borders for $20 with my Rewards card. I would normally wait and buy at Amazon where it is selling for $16.50 but I started reading in the store and couldn't put it down.

A nice warm up for this book might be Steven Levy's interview with Steve Jobs at Newsweek Online. If you are anything like me, you'll want to read it.

I should warn you that my iPod technolust was markedly increased by reading this book. The just released [project] red 8 gig Nano and the 80 gig iPod 5G are both tugging at me right now. It's a good thing I already have a wonderful 30 gig black iPod 5G in an amazing red and black Vaja leather case already. That gorgeous, expensive leather is the one thing standing between me and those new iPods. I think I will fall over the edge if Apple releases a [red] 5G iPod though (and there's a rumor...).

If you've had a love affair with Mac and the iPod, you will find all the reasons why in this book. I've owned all 5 generations of the iPod. I'm a heavy-user, you could say. This book helped me understand my experience - my passionate fascination - better than any other iPod book to date.

Using my iPod: Fall 06 Update

I've got my hundreds of CDs in a storage locker, but recently brought out a box to update my digital versions. Here's what I'm doing with my music, iTunes and my iPod.

My latest thing is to encode my whole collection in two formats. I'm recording my master database of music in the Apple Lossless format. That should hold me for a while and I'm putting all that music on my 200 gig internal hard drive on my PowerMac G5. That gives me plenty of room. If need be, I can always relocate the iTunes Music folder to my even bigger external drives (500 gb and 320gb).

Now that we are living in a world where music is best played digitally for the convenience if nothing else, it makes sense to copy all my CDs to digital in the highest possible quality and then file away my CDs in a dry storage locker somewhere for future reference.

I've got one of my three big boxes of CDs in my home office right now. That's where my PowerMac resides and that is where I can listen to music with 4 Klipsch speakers surrounding me and a subwoofer at my feet under the desk. Apple Lossless encoding is as fast as lower quality encoding and that is fast on a G5 2ghz machine. When I first encoded my CDs about 6 years ago, I encoded them at a bit rate of 160 or 192 so I could fit a lot of music on a small MP3 player.

I'm not quite ready to go Apple Lossless on my iPod. My current in-ear headphones are fairly basic Sony's (the cost about $50) so I doubt I could detect much difference between lossless and 256 AAC. On my iPod, I'm dialing in AAC at a 256 bit rate with VBR (variable bit-rate). That's almost twice the size of the 128 AAC format. And that's OK. I've got a 30 gig iPod and it can handle that. And, I'm not trying to put every single song I own on my iPod. I am looking to eventually upgrade to an 80 gig iPod one of these days but I really like the slim 30 gig and it's only about half full right now.

That said, I want to have the highest possible quality on my iPod and on my hard drives. My iPod music collection resides on my MacBook which has a 120 gig drive. I upgraded from the 80 just recently and now have room for both my work and the best albums from my music collection.

Unlike some people, I like to record albums in their entirety. Even if I only like 2 or 3 songs. It's partly because it is an archive. It's the original context. And, you never know, someone I know might refer me to one or more of the cuts I never took to and they'll be there when I need them. A lot of really good music takes several listens to really appreciate and sometimes, I quit early on an album and only discover the most accessible tracks. Some of the less accessible gems are still awaiting my discovery in my music collection.

I had no idea that encoding with Apple Lossless would feel so great. I certainly love my music enough to want it in the best condition possible. So I guess that's it. I'm re-appreciating my music while I'm re-encoding it. There are some good songs. Like Still the Same by Bob Seger, for example. I'm going to be whiling away some time with my collection and I'll be enjoying it. Re-encoding is an excuse to hang out and listen to my collection.

One last thing before I go. Even though I like the instant gratification of the iTunes music store, I often choose to buy a CD. I like knowing that I've got a really high quality recording that isn't copy-protected. I can share it with my friend if I want. And I can encode it at a VERY high quality. After encoding with Lossless, the 128 AAC quality I get from the iTunes store seems OK but not great. Instant gratification, but not as satisfying in the long run.

If only the record companies and artists could get what they need without the user having to be so limited in the quality of recordings that are available digitally. I would love for an iTunes download to have full album cover art, liner notes and lyrics. Meanwhile, I'll compromise and take the CDs and burn them. I'm glad iTunes 7 has the two new formats and displays bigger cover art. That really works for me.

OK. Back to work (play). I've got two more big boxes of CDs to go...