Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

New Books!

As you can imagine, I've been pretty focused on becoming a dad lately, but that doesn't mean it's occupied all of my attention (just most of it).

Just prior to my daughter's birth, I wrapped up Photoshop Elements 6: Visual QuickStart Guide, my book that covers the latest version of Adobe's consumer image organizing and editing software. (You can read an excerpt here.) In addition to providing step-by-step explanations of how to use the program and its new features (including the incredibly cool Photomerge Groups module that lets you combine the best parts of multiple photos with very little work on your part), the book is now full color. For a book that talks about color-correction and photo retouching, full color is really the only way to go.

Due to the timing, the book is all about the Windows version of Photoshop Elements 6; the Mac version (returning to the platform after a several-year hiatus) hadn't yet been released in time to incorporate its details into this edition. However, great news: The Windows and Mac versions of Elements 6 are almost identical. I'd say about 95 percent of the program is indistinguishable on either operating system. The primary difference is that the Windows version uses a related application, the Organizer, to manage your photo library, assign tags, create albums, and the like. On the Mac, the Organizer is replaced by Bridge CS3, the asset-management program used by Adobe Creative Suite 3.

So, if you own the Mac version of the software, you can buy the print book and learn almost everything you need to know. (I'm talking with Peachpit about options for covering the Mac-specific information. Marketing says it can't justify a separate print title, so perhaps we'll put out an electronic version. We'll see what we can work out!)

In related news, Peachpit approached me a few weeks ago about writing a brand new book about Adobe's just-announced Photoshop Express, which gives you the capability to upload and edit your photos via a Web browser. The new service, which is open now as a public beta, is ideal for those who want to share digital photos online with family and friends, and also be able to apply essential adjustments like color correction and minor touchups.

I was able to use Photoshop Express for a week before it was announced, which gave me enough time to write the first chapter of The Photoshop Express Beta Pocket Guide. I'm working on the book now, but you can download that chapter for free from Peachpit's site now as a PDF. As I finish chapters, they'll be made available for downloading via the Rough Cuts program at Safari Books online. When the book is complete, it will also be available as a print edition.

There's more to come (including one book that is just coming off the presses), but I'll stop for now.

Hectic, but Calming

Belly, 37 Weeks
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

Where to begin? My life has been dual-focused lately: either working on getting a book done, or preparing for baby. I want to take a month off from work when the baby arrives, but to do that I need to throw myself into this book project so it's not hanging over my head when I'm dealing with (more) sleep deprivation, diapers, and the Whole Thing.

I've been fortunate in the past that if a project slips behind schedule, it's possible to renegotiate the deadline. (The lesson I've learned over the years: you can work around slippage, but make sure you tell your editor/publisher/boss/whomever early. Communication goes a long way.) With Roo (our temporary name for the baby), the deadline is going to be whenever the baby decides it's time to arrive. Baby's not going to wait just because I need to wrap up a chapter.

We're in the stage where labor could start at any time, so I'm simultaneously freaked-out, waiting on pins and needles, busy as hell, and yet starting to get oddly calm. The notion of being an active father, versus a theoretical father, is seeping through my brain. Am I completely ready? Hell no. But that seems to be the default mode from here on out anyway.

This could be my last blog-surface until I have a chance to report on baby news. Until then, I've got work to do!

Projects Project Projects!

The past few months have been some of the busiest of my professional life, mostly due to a confluence of deadlines that I expected would be spread out over a longer period of time. But since I mostly write about Apple and the Mac, I never know when new products are going to hit. In this case, they hit all at once. Here's what has kept me up until 1 or 2 a.m. most nights over the last three months.

iMovie ’08 & iDVD ’08 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide: When Apple announced iLife ’08 with a completely rewritten version of iMovie, I knew I was in for a lot more work than I expected. I just received my first author copy of the book, and it looks great! I've almost completely rewritten the iMovie section to account for the changes in this version, including a new chapter on managing video (one of iMovie's hidden strengths, with keywording and marking features), and of course tips and tricks for using iMovie to its fullest. Amazon has the book now for just $16.49; if you click the link above, I get a small piece of the purchase, in case you want to help your favorite author (and hopefully that's me).

I've also just finished helping another Peachpit Press author update portions of his book, but since I'm not a listed co-author, I'm hesitant to name the title until it's available (which is very soon). In this case, I ended up doing most of the work in an extremely short amount of time due to scheduling issues. Getting 12 hours of sleep over three days while also entertaining visiting family is fun, to a degree, but not something I recommend often.

In addition to book projects, I've recently written several articles, in reverse-chronological order:

• First Look: Final Cut Express 4 (Macworld.com)
• Apple's so hip Part II is a must, some noteworthy features of Mac OS X 10.5 (Seattle Times).
• Apple's latest cool cat, a review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for the Seattle Times.

In the midst of this, I've been preparing to become a father, a big project indeed!

Mac Journalism, or When Emotion Clogs the Brain

Glenn Fleishman and I wrote a review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that appeared in the Seattle Times last week (we both write a bi-weekly column called Practical Mac). Depending on the topic, we get a little email here and there from readers and the occasional request for advice that has nothing to do with the topic. And every once in a while we receive letters from people who are writing based more on their gut assumptions or feelings and very little to do with what was published. This week has seen several of these, and I'm a bit perplexed.

By far the biggest response has come from a section talking about the security improvements in Leopard, which are significant. I'm posting the entire section below as reference.

Beefed-up security. Microsoft received a lot of due credit for some significant changes in Vista's underlying structure that prevent entire categories of viruses and worms.

The Mac has proved more resistant to attacks, partly through a lack of attention by crackers until recently, but the threat is still a possibility. Apple has taken a page from Microsoft's book and added new security features that should improve the odds of deflecting future attacks.

Leopard will now record information about any program you download over the Internet and provide those details to you the first time you run it. This should prevent attacks that rely on ignorance or a program launch that carries out malicious intent before you know what hit you.

Apple also added digital signatures as an option, where encryption is used to verify a program is unchanged since it was produced by its developer.

Apparently, even mentioning Microsoft means we're anti-Mac (as one person wrote). The latest email (which is titled "Do you work for M$?" which is a pretty clear sign that it's not going to be friendly) starts, "After reading your article, 'Apple's latest cool cat,' I was not sure. Your article was very biased towards MS/Windows."

Let me point out that the section quoted above is about one-sixth of the article, which gives our mostly-positive impressions about the major new features in Leopard. If you read through this block, we're essentially saying that Microsoft has had to deal with attacks; Apple has been immune so far but we know that won't always be the case; and Apple has implemented a few technologies that appeared in Vista first.

Going back to the letter, where the author reveals his colors at the end: "The plain truth of the matter is, Apple has made the finest desktop Operating System for over a decade. What they have not been doing is ripping their customers of with predatory pricing, and SW licensing fees." (Incidentally, most of the letters followed a similar pattern: Start with a concern that we've gotten something wrong, maybe with a backhanded "you did make some good points, though" thrown in; make a case that's only tangentially related to what was originally written; and end with a screed that finally gets to the person's longstanding grudge, whether that happens to be "Microsoft is evil" or "Gaming on the Mac sucks because I can't play my favorite game from 1997 on it". I think this is the Mac reader equivalent to "monologuing" from The Incredibles.)

Look, I don't like some of Microsoft's business practices (they did engage in monopolistic behavior after all), but that doesn't make them evil. Microsoft made a huge strategic mistake in not addressing security early or thoroughly enough, and they're paying for it. Apple knows that Mac OS X isn't going to be immune forever (currently hackers are exploiting a security hole in the version of Mac OS X that runs on the iPhone in order to unlock the phone), and frankly, anyone that thinks the Mac is infinitely rock solid is delusional. What keeps the Mac secure is not a BSD Unix foundation; it's Apple being diligent and staying on top of exploits that are discovered.

Another recent example of how emotion clogs the brain was a short news piece we ran at TidBITS a couple of weeks ago. It involved an Apple board member whose high-profile usage of Macintosh technology aided in a huge amount of media coverage. Of course, I'm talking about the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace to a number of researchers including Al Gore. Mark Anbinder wrote the piece, I edited it, and we both actively focused on what was news: Apple board member receives international recognition.

Here's the entire two-paragraph article:

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, whose documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award (or "Oscar") and who himself won an Emmy Award for his Current TV channel, last week added the ultimate award to his resume. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize would be shared between Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Such announcements are normally outside what we cover in TidBITS, but both Gore and his film are deeply connected to Apple and the Mac industry.

In fact, while we were hoping for other news from Apple's PR machine (see "Leopard Slated for October 26th?," 2007-10-04), they instead spent the day touting Gore's achievement, customizing Apple's home page and linking to multiple news reports on the Hot News page. The one-time politician, named to Apple's board of directors in early 2003, has frequently been linked to the company's products. He has for years been an avid user of Apple's Final Cut Pro software, and he used Keynote to assemble the material presented in "An Inconvenient Truth."

We specifically noted that this isn't the type of thing we cover in TidBITS, but the connection between Apple and Gore are significant in the Mac industry. (We even correctly wrote that the film An Inconvenient Truth earned the Academy Award; Gore himself did not receive the award, as he was not one of the filmmakers, only the film's subject.)

And yet, we were treated to several vitriolic emails and TidBITS Talk posts about how terrible Al Gore is. The words "Al" and "Gore" seem to make some people froth at the mouth no matter what context. A sample: "Come now. A 'one-time politician'? Gore hasn't stopped being a politician for 50 years, and can't stop. If Apple wants to use its time PRing a politician/board member, let them do it. But TidBits [sic] time is too valuable to use even mentioning a politician (any politician) in its pages. Please save that for the news channels."

I understand that people have strong views, and I want to encourage freedom of expression. But ranting for the sake of ranting is just a waste of our (your and my) time. I understand why mainstream journalists who don't cover the Mac get defensive and start throwing out words like "Mac zealots" and "cultists" when they cover Apple; they no doubt get much, much more volume of this type of email and don't know how to handle it.

To try to encourage better communication here are a few suggestions for people who feel compelled to write:

• Ask yourself, "Am I writing to correct a factual error or to provide constructive information?" If so, send it along! If not, then assume you're ranting.
• If you're ranting, ask yourself, "Does my rant directly deal with what was written, or am I just pissed?" If you're just pissed and writing a response helps get that out of your system, do it but don't send it. (Or, look at it tomorrow after you've slept on it and then decide whether to send it.)
• Threatening or insulting the person you're writing to doesn't help your case. In fact, it's a sure bet that I'll just toss it out. If you're compelled to make a statement about how well portions of my anatomy are operating, I won't pay any attention to whatever else you might say, even if it's legitimate. As Glenn wrote to one person, "You can't start nasty and expect a dialog."
• If you're writing because you think I'm somehow in bed with Microsoft or anti-Apple (or fervently pro-Apple) or that I'm getting some back-room kickback, know that I'm not. Glenn and I are freelance writers expressing our opinions. No one is pressuring us, no one is paying us (aside from the publication for whom we're writing for), no one has set up some cushy retirement fund that we get to tap into if we write X or Y.
• And if you legitimately have a concern with something we've written, and you can express it in a civil way, let us know and we can talk about it. (However, if you're just looking for random tech support, we don't have time to troubleshoot everyone's issues; Google search is your friend.)

Emotion doesn't have to clog the brain, and the best part is that even when it does (and I know it does), it's not a permanent affliction. A little bit of consideration will ensure that your time and mine aren't wasted.

My Leopard Review at The Seattle Times

My colleague Glenn Fleishman and I wrote the Seattle Times review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which is now available online: Apple's latest cool cat. In addition to talking about Time Machine, Leopard's signature built-in backup feature, we hit on a few things that I haven't seen given a lot of coverage so far, such as what Apple has done for improving security. Of course, Leopard is a big cat - our article was longer than assigned and still we only scratched the surface. So expect to see more about Leopard features in upcoming Practical Mac columns.

Long Hours

Midnight Pavoni Rendezvous
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

On Saturday, I planned on going to bed at the same time as Kim and get a good night's rest. We spent the day with family, watching my 2 year old niece for a few hours and then having dinner at my sister's house. She lives in Bremerton, a little over an hour away (either by ferry or by driving around Puget Sound), so as a result we didn't get home until about 11:30. Still, that was the earliest I'd been to bed all week by about 3 hours.

I'm spending most of my time updating my iMovie/iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide (the new edition isn't yet listed at Amazon), which is more work this time around because iMovie '08 is a completely new video-editing program. I'm starting to warm up to the changes Apple made, and realizing that this version is deeper than I expected it to be (which means more work for me to suss out those depths).

I'm also helping to update a colleague's book in roughly the same timeframe. And since Adobe just released Photoshop Elements 6, the update to the Elements Visual QuickStart Guide is in the mix, too. Sprinkle a few article assignments in there as well.

But why should work occupy all of my attention? Why not do something really out of the ordinary, like have hardwood floors installed in our house (finally)? Heck, I might as well start a family while I'm at it.

This explains why my trusty La Pavoni espresso maker pictured here has become a reliable friend late at night and early every morning. I'm not complaining (much), because I did say yes to all of these projects. It's fun in that overwhelming sort of way. I just don't know where September and October went.

iMac Review at Hot News

My latest Seattle Times column on Apple’s new iMac appeared on Saturday, and today a friend pointed out that Apple is featuring it on their Hot News page:

“The very model of a modern Macintosh”

iMac, “the very model of a modern Macintosh,” may have evolved over the years into “this new aluminum fighter-jet of a personal computer, but the same idea is retained: You can put everything you need in a computer into an all-in-one design that actually looks good on a desk,” reports Jeff Carlson (Seattle Times). [Aug 21, 2007]

As a writer who covers the Mac, there are times when I wonder if I can come up with something clever enough that would prompt Apple to feature it in their marketing, the way Pogue and Mossberg get big slides during Steve Jobs's keynotes. At the same time, of course, I'm not trying to come up with glorious things to say just to get quoted (journalistic ethics and all that).

The funny thing about this review was that I was completely and utterly blocked for how to open the column in an interesting way. Then, I spied the old iMac we own on the floor in my office, which hasn't been functional for months (maybe even more than a year). The rest of the column came pretty quickly after that. I needed to get it done and turned in to my editor, who had given me an extension because the machine didn't arrive until what would normally be my deadline. So the rest of the article was just banged out and sent.

(Oh, and I may have unconsciously stolen the "very model" line from my friend Andrew, who wrote in a review of the Xserve, "Apple's Xserve is the very model of a modern Intel-based 1U server, with a few caveats." However, I get alliteration points over his version.)

Do I ever have my work cut out for me

Last week, Apple dropped a bomb I knew was going to arrive at the most inconvenient time: the release of iLife '08. For the last few years, the peak event for my professional life has been Macworld Expo in January, where Apple typically announces new hardware and software. One of my major book projects has been my iMovie & iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide, and in general Apple has revved the software each year.

But not this time around. Apple threw all of its focus onto the iPhone last January, without a peep about iLife. I was still plenty busy with projects, but suddenly my iMovie/iDVD book became a moving target. Months passed, and I heard rumors that perhaps iLife contained features that were specific to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but then Leopard was delayed until October. A few weeks ago, a rumor site named August 7 as the introduction of new iMacs and iLife, which incredibly turned out to be true.

Normally, I'd be happy (and I am, really - when you're a freelance writer, having work is good). The timing isn't so great in terms of other projects I'm working on now, but okay. It wasn't until I was following along with online coverage of Apple's special media event last Tuesday that I started hyperventilating.

iMovie '08 is a completely new application. Not just we've-cleaned-up-the-code new. No, the old iMovie HD has been shelved in favor of this new version, which sports a completely different interface, a few completely different ways of working (some good, some bad), and lots of features missing from its predecessor. I wrote about it in TidBITS last week (see "New iLife '08 Revealed, .Mac Upgraded," 2007-08-13), and also wrote the First Look article for Macworld, which starts out:

Take what you know about iMovie, put it into an imaginary box, and store that box in a corner of your brain for now. When Steve Jobs unveiled iLife ’08 (Best Current Price: $69.98) and mentioned that Apple is “completely replacing one of the key apps with something that takes it to a whole new level,” he wasn’t exaggerating. iMovie ’08 is a completely new video editing program that just happens to have inherited the iMovie name.

I've also written the First Look for iDVD '08, which was posted today:

If you watch Apple’s webcast of its August 7 product announcements for news of iDVD ’08, it may take you longer to jump ahead to that point in Steve Jobs’ presentation (the 54-minute mark or so) than the 33 seconds Jobs spends on the DVD-authoring component of iLife ’08 (Best Current Price: $69.98). That gives you a clue to how important DVD creation has become at Apple.

What all this means is that I need to basically rewrite a huge chunk of my iMovie book (it also affects a couple of the other projects on my plate). I was scheduled to write the full review of iMovie '08 for Macworld, but had to beg off when I realized that the laws of time and space wouldn't provide enough time to do it.

Now that I've stopped hyperventilating, I'm not really complaining (much), because this also represents a good challenge to create new material. That's exciting. But it also means that me and 2 a.m. get to become close friends again for the next month or two.

Seattle Times Column and Safari 3.0.2

My Seattle Times Practical Mac column today talks about Safari 3, which is a beta for Mac but also for Windows: "Trekking through Apple's new Safari". In addition to talking about improvements over Safari 2, I noted Apple's initial hiccup with Windows security:

Safari also offers better security, especially compared with Internet Explorer, which is often used as a gateway to deploy malicious software. However, Safari stuttered at the starting line in this respect as several security flaws were discovered shortly after the software was made available. Apple quickly released Safari 3.0.1 for Windows to plug those vulnerabilities. Although Safari 3 is beta software, Apple will need to work hard to ensure that it's not permanently tagged as being insecure.

Sure enough, today I see that Apple has released Safari 3.0.2 for both Mac and Windows. Nice timing, Apple! My column gets turned in earlier in the week, so of course there's no way this could have made it into the article. But still.

Voicemail QuickStart Guide

  Apple TV Pr0n 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

My wonderful copyeditor on my current book project made a funny side comment in email asking if I could explain her cell phone company some day in the same way that I describe how to do things in my books (embarrassingly, that page hasn't been updated in a while). Of course, she wasn't expecting an answer, and of course I provided one:

1. Push Voicemail button on teeny screen.
2. Listen as annoying female voice tells you that an old message is going to be deleted, and then plays it for you.
3. Resist urge to throw phone.
4. Press 7 to delete the damn email that I didn't keep in the first place.
5. Resist urge to throw phone.
6. Listen as annoying female voice tells you that you have a new message, tells you the time it was recorded, and asks if you want to listen to it.
7. Resist urge to throw phone.
8. Press 1 to listen to the message you dialed up Voicemail to hear in the first place.
9. Recognize that the message is a wrong number, a missed connection, or someone you know you don't need to hear.
10. Press 7 to delete message.
11. Resist urge to throw phone when annoying female voice scolds, "That is not a valid option."
12. Listen to same message, again, FROM THE BEGINNING.
13. Annoying female voice asks if you want to delete the message. Say "Yes!" even though you know she can't hear you (but maybe the government can).
14. Press 7 to delete.
15. Give in to the urge. Throw phone.

Yes, I've run into this (almost verbatim) recently. Can you tell?

Back Up Data to Digital Camera

I contributed to a Macworld article that's now available online: "Three for the road: Expert tricks for getting more from your Mac laptop." My section talks about how to use the memory card in your digital camera (which these days are likely to be 1 GB or more) as an easy backup solution while you're on the road.

Also in the article, my officemate Glenn Fleishman tells you how to use voice over IP (VoIP) services to avoid the egregious phone fees that most hotels charge; and, TidBITS contributor and virtual friend Derek K. Miller takes advantage of fast networking via FireWire.

My Apple TV Review at Seattle Times

Instead of a regular Practical Mac column this week, I reviewed the Apple TV: Computer, television learning to get along.

Despite my few reservations, the Apple TV is compelling because Apple has done the living room right. The quality of the experience stands out the most, supported by the overall polish and attention to detail ranging from the easy navigation to the drifting photo screensaver that kicks into gear to prevent screen burn-in on plasma displays.

New: Photoshop Elements 5 VQS!

Okay, this is a bit belated, but I've been busy. My last big deadline in January was a bit of a departure for me: a book about a Windows program. Toward the end of last year, my editor at Peachpit Press asked if I'd be interested in updating an existing book. The original author wasn't able to do the update due to other commitments, and since I didn't have a big project on my plate at the time, I said yes.

The result is Photoshop Elements 5: Visual QuickStart Guide, now on sale at Amazon.com for just $14.95. From the blurb:

Newly updated to cover Photoshop Elements 5, it details the hottest new features: new advanced color and lighting controls, new customizable layouts, Flash-based web photo galleries, the new Flipbook feature, which lets you string together a series of still photos to create an eye-catching and fun flipbook, and the ability to download and edit photos directly from your mobile phone or handheld device. Both beginning and advanced users will find what they need here--in straightforward language and with readily accessible examples.

I credit Craig Hoeschen for making my job much easier. In addition to performing an update polish of everything throughout, my main contributions were to rearrange the material to better match Adobe's new focus in Elements toward being a photo organizer and less as "Photoshop Lite" (though they didn't rip out any of the features).

At the End of a Big Project

  The Promise of Escape 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

Sleep-deprived, outrunning post-Macworld Expo colds, and with lots to do before a book deadline on Wednesday. But getting out of the car in Fremont this morning revealed this bright sight.

Truth and Meaning in WSJ Article

My friend Glenn made a PDF of the Wall Street Journal article in which I appear ("Now on DVD: Holiday Cards"), so I was able to read it even though I'm not a WSJ subscriber. It's an amusing overview of people who are sending DVDs with a bit of information on how to do it.

What I find interesting is how the writer, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, took some factual information and spun it in a way that isn't quite true. When I was driving downtown this morning and my wife was reading the article out loud (I had only printed it out), we both got a chuckle from the second paragraph (emphasis mine):

Jeff Carlson, 36, a freelance graphic designer in Seattle, burned his own holiday DVD two years ago. "We wanted to do something really snazzy and different that would let whoever's receiving it spend a little bit more time with what we sent, rather than skimming a letter and throwing it away," he explains.

But he estimates that he spent five hours picking photos and shooting fresh video footage, another 20 hours editing the videos, and about six hours burning the 20 discs he sent to family and friends. All for a five-minute DVD, which cost him $100 to produce. He hasn't made another holiday DVD since.

Although technically correct, that last sentence makes it sound like the experience put me off from ever making a holiday DVD again. The truth is that last year we were out of the country at the end of the year, and this year I've been swamped with work. And, also, because we took a big vacation last year, we haven't done much this year that would be interesting enough to put into a DVD.

I'm not upset about the wording. One of the things I wanted to convey was that it isn't a quick and easy project (although I thought it would be; see the TidBITS article I wrote about the experience). But in one sentence Tan neatly summarized that idea while also implying motives that aren't accurate.

The moral of the story? I'm in the freakin' Wall Street Journal!

I'm in the Wall Street Journal

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan interviewed me for the Wall Street Journal about creating a holiday DVD (versus a holiday letter), and the article has now appeared on the WSJ Web site: "Now on DVD: Holiday Cards." However, because I'm not a subscriber, I can't read it (damn subscription crap). Anyone able to send me the text?

Kim and I created a holiday DVD a couple of years ago; here's my article in TidBITS about the experience. We had just returned from South Africa last year, so there wasn't time to create one, and, frankly, we didn't do very much of interest this year to warrant a DVD. I think Cheryl was a little disappointed that we weren't making one this year, but I also just haven't had the time. If you read the TidBITS article, you'll see that the process took more time than I expected.

I'm looking forward to seeing the WSJ article. But I'm not willing to subscribe just to read it.

Create Time-Lapse Movie

Macworld has published online an article I wrote: Create a Time-Lapse Movie.

Although you can’t fast-forward life (caffeine notwithstanding), you can speed up time in your movies with time-lapse photography. This video technique compresses hours of action into mere seconds—clouds roll overhead, the sun races toward the horizon, and flowers bloom before your eyes. Best of all, creating time-lapse movies is easy. Once you set up your camera, your Mac does most of the work for you.

As you can see from the photo that accompanies the article, you don't need a fancy setup to do it. That's a corner of my basement.

My Picture (and Article) in the Seattle Times

Jeff and Prints
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

Here's another first for me: If you read Saturday's Seattle Times, you might have caught my picture in the Business section. Not my headshot that sometimes accompanies my Practical Mac column (which appears online), but an actual photo of me. It goes along with an article I wrote, "How to get big prints out of digital images," which looks at ways to print digital photos larger than a standard 8 by 10.

When talking to my editor about artwork to accompany the article, he suggested that we get a shot of me with the prints I had made while writing the article. On Wednesday, Times photographer Ken Lambert came to my office and we improvised a little session that resulted in the image that appeared. I sort of look like I'm posing with a prize-winning ham at a county fair, but oh well.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

At the urging of a photographer friend, I entered a few of my digital photos in a juried competition, the 2006 Environmental Photography Invitational (www.epinvitational.com). To my pleasure — and surprise — one picture of mine was chosen as part of this year's winners.

But that presented a problem.

How would I transform my digital image into a physical print that would stand up not only to gallery lighting but the discriminating eyes of pro photographers? Although it's easy to make snapshot-sized prints these days, whether using a kiosk at the drugstore or ordering them online, outputting high-quality, large-format photos can be trickier. If you've considered making a large print of one of your favorite photos to hang (or sell), several options are available.

Back up Photos on the Road

Traveling for the holidays? Or just travel in general? Digital cameras let you shoot lots of pictures, but where will you store them? Glenn Fleishman and I co-wrote an article for Macworld about how to deal with an abundance of digital photos, with an eye toward traveling without a laptop in tow. It's now available online: Back up photos on the road.

When I traveled to Africa last year, I did bring my laptop, but I didn't haul it around everywhere. I found that a combination of having a few memory cards (which even now are much less expensive than when I bought some 12 months ago) and a $30 Apple iPod Camera Connector worked well. I brought back more than 2,000 pictures intact.

Recent Writings

I've been doing a fair bit of article writing lately (with five assignments I'm working on currently, and at least two articles that are written but haven't been published yet), so I want to point out a few pieces that might interest you.

• My latest Practical Mac column was the 9th most read article at the Seattle Times last week. "Best computer for school? MacBook," as you can probably guess, makes the argument for which computer to take back to school. (For another back-to-school article, check out Dan Pourhadi's "Mac to School 2006: The $2000 Challenge" in this week's TidBITS.)
• Other recent Practical Mac columns written by me include "Navigating without a mouse," which talks about some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts, and "Keep your Mac cool this summer," which looks at ways to beat laptop heat.
• This month's issue of HOW magazine (the 10/2006 edition) includes a long article aimed at designers on how to back up your data. The impetus for this one came from editing Joe Kissell's Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, an invaluable ebook. (Unfortunately, the article is not online.)
  
  My friend Karen pointed out, after reading the article, that I should have included the application SuperDuper! in favor of Carbon Copy Cloner because "it took CCC forever to support Tiger and still doesn't do Intel machines. Plus, SuperDuper! has one of the best UIs around." Thanks, Karen!

Free Chapter of iMovie/iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide

I'm excited to announce that the entire first chapter of my latest book is now available as a free downloadable PDF file. "iMovie HD 6 & iDVD 6 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide," in addition to having an absurdly long title, is the best-selling guide for getting up and running with the latest versions of Apple's digital video tools. The book now features full-color illustrations and screenshots, which really make the examples pop and enable me to demonstrate color-specific aspects such as a camcorder's color temperature settings.

Chapter 1, "The Digital Camcorder," contains valuable information on buying a camcorder, including which features to look for (and avoid). You'll learn about different video recording formats such as standard-definition (SD) and high-definition video (HDV), image interlacing, and more.

The PDF is, naturally, full color and weighs in at about 700K.

For more information, see my iMovie & iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide blog.

About the book:
Best-selling author and iLife expert Jeff Carlson uses crystal-clear instructions, full-color illustrations, and friendly prose to introduce you to Apple's video tools--iMovie HD 6 and iDVD 6. The book's visual format and step-by-step, task-based instructions will have you up and running quickly on everything from using themes, tools, and effects to timeline editing to video podcasts and blogs. You'll also learn about the newest features in iMovie HD 6 and iDVD 6, including motion-graphics themes, real-time effects, audio enhancements, sharing options, and more!

iMovie 6/iDVD 6 Book Is Out!

Finally, today, I see that Amazon has iMovie HD 6 & iDVD 6 Visual QuickStart Guide in stock and shipping. Hooray! I'm still waiting to see a copy myself, in all of its full color goodness. And it's still available for 37% off: c'mon, a full-color, information-packed guide for $16? That's a great deal.

++ Caffeine - Sleep = Deadline

  Espresso at Cugini Cafe 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

I'm working frantically on the last stretch of my iMovie Visual QuickStart Guide, which means I'm going to bed no earlier than 1 am and drinking an absurd amount of coffee. But it's good coffee. And there's a certain satisfaction about being in the middle of a project, eyeball-deep, with a deadline looming. Maybe I'm masochistic.

Maybe I just need another espresso.

"When I'm running out of steam,
I pray to you St. Caffeine."
–John Gorka, "St. Caffeine"

I'm Quoted in the Wall Street Journal

Reporter Jim Carlton interviewed me and several other writers and laptop users for his article Secrets of the Tech-Savvy Traveler.

Nothing can ruin a trip like losing all the files in a laptop or digital camera from a hard-drive crash. That's why Mr. Carlson, the free-lance writer, took no chances on a recent safari to Africa. He brought two iPods: one to listen to music and the other to hold a copy of his laptop's hard drive, in case it crashed.

Crea un film con iMovie HD e iDVD!

Today's mail brought a wonderful surprise: two copies of my Making a Movie in iMovie HD and iDVD 5 in Italian! The book shares the same layout as the original, but sports different dimensions: 5 1/2 by 7 3/8 inches, which feels like a good reference-book size. It's priced at 12 euros.

One reason I'm excited is that I usually don't know if a book of mine will be translated into another language until a few copies arrive in the mail. But this is also my first Italian translation, following editions of this book and my original iMovie 2 VQS in French, plus Japanese and Spanish translations of the Web Design Graphics series I co-wrote for Rockport Publishers. These aren't big money-makers for me (I'll see some percentage of the sale of the international translation rights), but that's okay, because I still get a thrill out of seeing my work in other languages.

Grazi to the editor (and translator?) Arnoldo Mondadori, and to the folks at Peachpit's international edition department.

My Final Cut Express HD review at Macworld.com

Macworld.com has just published my review of Final Cut Express HD. It's a good revision, though less compelling for people who already use Final Cut Express and don't plan on working in HDV. But I was happy to see that the iMovie support has improved:

Final Cut Express HD also features improved iMovie project import, which grabs transitions properly instead of stripping them out. However, it’s still a good idea to remove titles and effects from an iMovie HD project before opening it in Final Cut Express HD if you want to edit their settings - they import as normal clips with the text or effect rendered to the footage, not as separate editable elements.

My Seattle Times column on Apple-Intel

My Practical Mac column in the Seattle Times today takes an overview look at Apple's decision to shift to Intel processors: What's in store for Macs with Intel processor inside.