A new name, Photoshop and my fucking mouse..
Regular visitors (stop sniggering, they exist) may have noticed that I changed this weblog’s (or blog’s, for the cool kidz) name from my own to something a bit more fitting. It is now called Media Bitch or Media B*tch.
I have also done some minor tweaking and removed the ‘Sporadic Creativity’ page because I’m putting myself out there as it is and don’t want to overdo it. So. I’m going to talk about two geeky things today.
1> I got my first real chance to play around with my ‘trial copy’ 
of Adobe’s brilliant new Photoshop version for the Mac platform. CS4.
I’ve always thought of Photoshop as a huge resource hog of an app that takes ages to launch and for small jobs is a bit like unholstering a Colt to kill a fly but I must say I’ve been pleasantly surprised with this new version. It’s screaming fast, light and for the first time ever it’s features are easy to get to and use even if you aren’t some Photoshop Uber-Geek with mad skillz. The speed difference must be because this is the first version of Photoshop that is actually GPU accelerated. On a mid level system like mine (2.4 Ghz Merom Core2duo, 3 Gb DDR2 and a 256MB Nvidia 8600M GT) that seems to make an immense difference. The usability is much better too, for me at least. So I spent a few hours and threw together the logo at the top of this page and ventured the courage to edit the CSS style sheets for this site to get WordPress to display the art work.
So. Two thumbs up for Adobe Photoshop CS4 for the Mac then. Interestingly if you search ‘Teh Google’ for ‘CS4 Mac’ it displays PirateBay’s link first and then Amazon’s link. LOL. Tells you a lot doesn’t it? I’m sure that gets on the Adobe people’s tits like nothing else!
2> My Apple Mighty Mouse Wireless. I am gonna throw this white piece of shit against the fucking wall one of these days.
When I first bought it, Christmas before last, things were all groovy, I loved the 360 degree scroll, the typical ease with which it paired up with my MacBook Pro and the fact that its top surface was smooth and joint free, less chance for gunk and hair from my two large dogs to clog it up. But the damn scroll ball on this thing is a vector for dirt and keeps getting clogged up. Alcohol, cotton buds, rubbing the little ball upside down, I’ve tried every way of cleaning the damn thing. Now the ball has gotten stuck and since there are no physical buttons on the device I’m reduced to a single button mouse and having to Ctrl-Click to get a right click. I feel like I’m using a Macintosh from the fucking nineties.
So. Mighty Mouse Wireless. Avoid,
Yes, I agree about the mouse. In fact, I’ve never liked any of the Apple mice, right from the silly “puck” that came with the original iMac to the latest Mighty Mouse. I like the Mac, and OS X, but everytime I use one for a longish while, I invariably plug in a MS Mouse. Say what you want about MS, they do make some nice hardware (remember the Sidewinder joysticks?)
CS 4 now, it’s interesting your mentioning the pirate link. I’ve been using CS 4 for a while now, and I noticed the activation mechanism. I’ve got a legit version, so it worked with no problems, but I was curious to see how it works. Long story short, you can activate one key on two machines at the same time. The idea being that the user can use it on his desktop and his laptop, but the EULA makes it clear that it has to be the *same* user. No buying one copy and giving the key to your pal to use on his machine. There’s nothing they can do to stop that, but legally, you’re not permitted.
Now, what happens if your machine crashes(and you have to buy a new one), or your laptop gets stolen? Therein lies the rub. You cannot use the key again, unless you deactivate a prior install. So, the software, that you paid a lot of money for, suddenly becomes worthless. Yes, Adobe claims that you can call customer service, but plenty of people seem to have had trouble convincing Adobe that they are not HAXOR PIRETES.
And the funniest thing? The PirateBay version comes with a tiny crack that completely bypasses all the activation crap, by over-writing a couple of .dll files. So the guys who are pirating it happily use it, while their actual customers run into issues.
Yes, admittedly, it does stop casual piracy.
Anyway, I seem to have written a comment longer than your post, apologies.
Just for a change try Microsoft basic optical mouse. it Costs around 400 bucks, looks not that bad, works superb and if it gets clogged Ms replaces it. if u still not convinced put a large apple sticker on it , if u r left with one.(Remember Pavan?)
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=009
Sometimes basic things work better than fancy stuff(read mighty mouse)!
@Kar
Thanks for the tip. This is why I love you man. Coz you’re always full of good advice