TidBITS#854/06-Nov-06
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/854>
It's hard to believe that it has been three years since the first
Take Control ebook, but our current catalog of 44 titles doesn't
lie. Adam looks at how this grand experiment is going (well!) and
marks the occasion with a 50 percent-off sale. Also in this issue,
Glenn Fleishman details the facts and FUD about a new AirPort Card
security vulnerability. On the software front, Charles Maurer
returns with a look at some alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, and we
note the releases of SpamSieve 2.5, DVD Studio Pro 4.1.1, Final Cut
Express HD 3.5.1, iTunes 7.0.2, Aperture 1.5.1, and an 8 GB version
of the (PRODUCT RED) iPod nano. Finally, we note Windows Secrets,
which Glenn sees as the closest thing to TidBITS for Windows users,
and announce a new DealBITS drawing for PDFpen.
Articles
DealBITS Drawing: Microsoft Office Winners
DealBITS Drawing: PDFpen 3.0
SpamSieve 2.5 Enhances Spam Filtering
Take Control's Third Anniversary (and 50% Off Sale!)
A Bevy of Apple Updates
Another Minor AirPort Vulnerability Exposed
An Independent Windows Mailing List Gets Bigger
Camels and Horses: Alternatives to Photoshop
Take Control News/06-Nov-06
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/06-Nov-06
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DealBITS Drawing: Microsoft Office Winners
------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8732>
Last week's treat from Microsoft of five copies of Microsoft Office
2004 turned out to be extremely popular, with a record 1,959
entrants, more than for any other DealBITS drawing. Congratulations
to Gerry Swislow of certif.com, Anthony Patrinos of gmail.com, Lou
Hosta of mac.com, John Williamson of gmail.com, and Peter Boctor of
boctor.net, whose entries were chosen randomly and who received a
copy of Microsoft Office 2004 Standard Edition, worth $399. For
those who didn't win but are still looking to pick up a copy of
Microsoft Office 2004, Microsoft is currently offering a holiday
rebate coupon worth up to 25 percent off - between $15 and $100 -
for various versions of Office through 16-Jan-07 (it's good on
copies of Office purchased between 31-Oct-06 and 16-Jan-07).
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8726>
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/office2004.aspx>
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/go/promotions/>
DealBITS Drawing: PDFpen 3.0
----------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8733>
I do a lot of work with massaging PDF files these days, and while I
can't escape using Adobe's Acrobat Professional for certain tasks, I
find that I prefer SmileOnMyMac's PDFpen for many activities, such
as moving pages around when preparing print-on-demand versions of
our Take Control ebooks, deleting pages to make Take Control
samples, adding text to pages to make class copies, and so on. (For
those who want to create PDF-based interactive forms, SmileOnMyMac
offers PDFpenPro, which is otherwise identical, though nearly twice
as expensive.) New features in PDFpen 3.0 include support for
replacing text in original PDFs; moving, resizing, copying, and
deleting images; copying and pasting rich text; and selecting and
copying text across columns. If you work with PDF, it's an
absolutely worthwhile tool.
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/>
In this week's DealBITS drawing, you can enter to win one of three
copies of PDFpen 3.0, each worth $49.95. Entrants who aren't among
our lucky winners will receive a discount on purchasing PDFpen or
PDFpenPro, so be sure to enter at the DealBITS page linked below.
All information gathered is covered by our comprehensive privacy
policy. Be careful with your spam filters, since you must be able to
receive email from my address to learn if you've won. Remember too,
that if someone you refer to this drawing wins, you'll receive the
same prize as a reward for spreading the word.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/pdfpen1/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
SpamSieve 2.5 Enhances Spam Filtering
-------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8734>
Michael Tsai has released SpamSieve 2.5, the latest version of his
popular spam-filtering tool for Apple Mail, Emailer, Entourage v.X
and later, Eudora 5.2 and later in Sponsored or Paid mode, GyazMail,
Mailsmith, Outlook Express 5, and PowerMail. Among numerous
enhancements in SpamSieve 2.5 are improved accuracy for the image
spam that had started to slip through, greater performance and
smaller memory usage, and a new software update feature for
simplifying updates. SpamSieve 2.5 is a free update for registered
users; new copies cost $30. A 30-day trial version is available as a
3.6 MB download.
<http://c-command.com/spamsieve/>
<http://c-command.com/blog/2006/10/30/spamsieve-25/>
Take Control's Third Anniversary (and 50% Off Sale!)
----------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8735>
We've now finished our third year of publishing electronic books in
the Take Control series, and to celebrate that fact, we're having a
50 percent-off sale on every one of our ebooks through 13-Nov-06.
Just use this link to visit our catalog and place an order; the
discount will appear once you've added one or more ebooks to your
cart in eSellerate (it doesn't apply to print books purchased
through QOOP or Amazon.com, however). Along with the sale, I wanted
to share some of our accomplishments over the last year and give you
a sense of where we think we're going in the next year.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/catalog.html?14@@!pt=TB854&cp=CPN61101TC3>
**The Year in Numbers** -- All told, we published 35 ebooks in our
third year: 15 new titles, 14 updates, 2 translations, 3 Macworld
Superguides, and the ebook version of my "iPhoto 6: Visual
QuickStart Guide." That's two more new titles than last year, but
five fewer updates. We reduced the number of updates through
improved planning and by making it easier for authors to post new
information on each ebook's Check for Updates Web page. This update
mechanism makes new information available to readers more quickly
than producing a new PDF every time something small changes.
The addition of the Macworld Superguides and the ebook version of my
"iPhoto 6: Visual QuickStart Guide" brings our catalog to a total of
44 ebooks plus 8 translations. Of course, our earliest ebooks about
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther sell only a few copies per month, and the
translations also tend to sell only sporadically. We don't have
enough titles yet to consider these a particularly long tail, but
we're happy that those people who are buying the older ebooks can
still find the assistance they need, something that can be difficult
in the traditional book world where obsolete books are hard to find.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail>
In terms of sales, we saw another increase, with about 34,000 copies
sold, up from 31,000 last year, about a 10 percent increase.
Although we had hoped to do better than that, it proved more
difficult than expected without the additional sales generated by a
major release of Mac OS X, as we had in our first year with Panther
and our second year with Tiger. Our fingers are crossed for 2007's
release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Overall, we've sold about 89,000
ebooks now, which puts us on target to surpass 100,000 sold sometime
next year. I'll write more as we get closer, but we're planning to
do something nice for the person who buys our 100,000th ebook.
From the perspective of individual titles, the best-selling ebook
for our third year was Joe Kissell's "Take Control of Maintaining
Your Mac," with nearly 3,000 copies sold so far. But more
interesting is that Joe's "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups," has
been our steadiest seller over time, working its way up to more than
6,300 copies sold; that puts it second only to his seminal "Take
Control of Upgrading to Panther." It's therefore not surprising that
the "Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups" print book was
performing well in Amazon.com's sales rankings until they ran out of
stock a few days ago.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/maintaining-mac.html?14@@!pt=TB854&cp=CPN61101TC3>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/backup-macosx.html?14@@!pt=TB854&cp=CPN61101TC3>
<http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Mac-Maintenance-Backups/dp/0321492188/tidbitselectro00/>
**Making Printing Easier** -- Our main accomplishment for the year was
establishing our print-on-demand service. A portion of our readers
do print their ebooks, and we wanted to provide a cost-effective way
for readers to have the ebooks professionally printed, so the result
looked like a book, not a pile of printer paper. With
print-on-demand services abounding, it would seem easy to find a
good service, but the options fell like dominos for many months -
some used weird looking paper, many charged too much, and we needed
a service whose financial reporting allowed us to determine how much
to pay each author. What we really wanted was a system that we could
plug in to our existing eSellerate shopping cart, but that proved
impossible.
Eventually, we found a company called QOOP that could offer readers
print-on-demand books as a secondary option for new ebooks as they
came out, via each ebook's Check for Updates button. Readers who buy
a new ebook and want to print can now purchase a nice spiral-bound
copy. With "Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner," we started
offering the option to buy a print book instead, right from our Web
site, for those who want only a print version.
<http://www.qoop.com/>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/thanksgiving.html?14@@!pt=TB854&cp=CPN61101TC3>
Our main challenge now is to standardize and clarify the print
options for all the books, as much as is possible. Currently, close
scrutiny of our catalog page reveals the format (print-on-demand,
traditional book, etc.) in which each title is available, as does a
look at the left side of any individual title's page. Another Web
page about print-on-demand also summarizes the offerings and shows
photos of one of the printed books.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/print-on-demand.html>
Speaking of print, another big accomplishment was publishing two
books with Peachpit Press. Along with Joe's "Real World Mac
Maintenance and Backups," which I mentioned earlier, we also
published Sharon Zardetto Aker's two ebooks about fonts in the form
of "Real World Mac OS X Fonts."
<http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Mac-OS-Fonts/dp/0321474015/takecontroleb-20/>
**Reflections and Ponderings** -- One thing Tonya and I learned this
year is that it's difficult and not necessarily desirable to keep
pumping out new titles. The problem appears to be the attention to
detail we find ourselves insisting on, which can slow down editing
and which has made it difficult to delegate production tasks. As a
result, publishing a new book or a significant update takes large
amounts of time for us, time that we would like to spend on
big-picture tasks that would benefit all the ebooks equally. For
instance, the promotion we did with Apple to offer .Mac users an
excerpt of "Take Control of .Mac" along with a discount required a
lot of work and coordination, but proved quite successful across the
board. Also, I have a number of ideas that require me to write code
for our system, something I've been unable to find sufficient time
to finish so far.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/dot-mac.html?14@@!pt=TB854&cp=CPN61101TC3>
Another lesson for the year is that we have a lot to learn when it
comes to expanding outside the technical world, and we'll be taking
this more slowly in the future. Although Sam Seller's "Take Control
of Booking a Cheap Airline Ticket," might seem non-technical, it's
really about how to use the Internet for a particular purpose, and
it has performed entirely reasonably. More challenging has been
Joe's "Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner," which has required us
to learn how to market to a rather different audience, given that it
has little intersection with the technical world. (For instance,
note that we're donating $1 per copy of that ebook sold in the month
of November to the San Francisco Food Bank, where Joe has
volunteered, and which has plans to put him and the book on TV as
part of an upcoming promotion. Exciting stuff!) Our goal here isn't
to become a cookbook publisher, but to expose the Take Control
series to a wider audience and to encourage more people to try an
ebook.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/airline-ticket.html?14@@!pt=TB854&cp=CPN61101TC3>
Unfortunately, the the task of producing good PDFs remains fussy.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - without Apago's PDF
Enhancer 3.1 and PDFpenPro 3.0 from SmileOnMyMac, I'd go mad trying
to bend Acrobat Professional to my needs. PDF Enhancer works magic
in compressing our PDFs to reasonable sizes (often reducing them by
80 to 90 percent), performing a variety of scaling and image
manipulations for our print-on-demand versions, and generally fixing
problems deep in our PDF files. PDFpenPro is also helpful for
re-arranging pages for the print-on-demand versions, deleting pages
for samples, and stamping sample and class copies, all things that
are much clumsier in Acrobat Professional.
Too many things in Microsoft Word are also fussy - for instance,
internal links must be created in Word's Hyperlink dialog, which
hasn't been updated since before the mouse scroll wheel appeared and
which lacks type-to-select for selecting headings. (Word's built-in
internal reference feature has proven too buggy to be relied upon.)
Even with automation via iKey, Word's Hyperlink feature is
time-consuming, unpredictable, and at times uncooperative. Further,
those internal links can be brought to life only through a
PDF-generation pass that must take place in the Windows versions of
Word and Acrobat. At least we can now run those on Tonya's new
MacBook Pro via Parallels Desktop. Here's hoping the next version of
Microsoft Word for the Mac provides better tools for generating
fully linked and bookmarked PDFs.
<http://www.apagoinc.com/prod_home.php?prod_id=2>
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/>
**Thank You!** From our perspective, Take Control has been extremely
successful - we are thrilled at how many people own a dozen or more
of our ebooks, and we love reading success stories from readers who
write in to tell us how an ebook made a difference in their lives.
We also truly enjoy experimenting in the world of electronic books.
Our primary thanks for that must go to the many thousands of people
who have purchased our ebooks. Although we certainly had high hopes
back in October 2003 when we published our first ebook, we had no
idea that Take Control would become a central part of our lives,
that it would stretch us in so many ways, or that it would introduce
us to so many interesting people. Thanks also to our talented crop
of authors and editors, without whom none of this would be possible:
Joe Kissell, Glenn Fleishman, Matt Neuburg, Kirk McElhearn, Tom
Negrino, Jeff Tolbert, Caroline Rose, Larry Chen, Scott Knaster,
Steve Sande, Brian Tanaka, Clark Humphrey, Lea Galanter, Andy
Affleck, Sharon Zardetto Aker, Sam Sellers, Arnie Keller, Dan
Frakes, Michael Cohen, Don Sellers, Jeff Carlson, and Karen
Anderson. And from me personally, a special thanks to Tonya, who
does way more than many people realize.
A Bevy of Apple Updates
-----------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8736>
Apple has posted a number of maintenance updates over the last
couple of weeks, providing few details about some of them (as we've
come to expect, unfortunately). The updates are available via
Software Update or as stand-alone downloads.
DVD Studio Pro 4.1.1 (a 2.3 MB download) fixes an issue with DDP
(Disc Description Protocol) and CMF (Cutting Master Format) files on
Intel-based Macs. Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1 (a 14.5 MB download)
simply "addresses compatibility on specific hardware." And iTunes
7.0.2 (a 25 MB download) addresses bugs and adds support for the
Second Generation iPod shuffle, which began shipping last week.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/dvdstudiopro411.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/finalcutexpresshd351.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes702.html>
<http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/>
For photographers, Apple released Digital Camera RAW Support Update,
which improves compatibility with the Canon Digital Rebel
XTi/400D/Kiss X Digital, the Nikon D80, and Pentax *ist DS cameras.
It also addresses issues with handling large Canon RAW files,
addresses DNG compatibility on Intel-based Macs, and fixes a problem
with exporting from Aperture. The update is available for PowerPC
Macs (a 1.4 MB download) or in universal format (a 2.4 MB download).
(I suspect that Apple means "Intel-only" on the latter, since
universal implies that it would work on PowerPC or Intel-based Macs;
however, the universal version would not install on my PowerPC-based
machines.)
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/digitalcamerarawsupportupdate10ppc.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/digitalcamerarawsupportupdate10universal.html>
A more significant update is Aperture 1.5.1 (a 125 MB download),
which tackles more than 100 issues related to reliability and
performance. Examples include improved keyword support, Loupe
behavior, and preview responsiveness, among other changes.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/aperture151update.html>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304549>
Apple also released a free Aperture 1.5 trial, a fully functional
version that works for 30 days. The 132 MB download does not include
the sample images and tutorials found in the retail version.
<http://www.apple.com/aperture/trial/>
Finally, although it's not a software update, Apple began offering
an 8 GB version of its (PRODUCT RED) iPod nano (see "New iPod nano
sees (RED)," 16-Oct-06). The bright red music player sells for the
same price as the black 8 GB iPod nano, $250, but Apple contributes
$10 of each sale to the (RED) movement to help fight AIDS in Africa.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8706>
<http://www.joinred.com/>
Another Minor AirPort Vulnerability Exposed
-------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8737>
Mac OS X may be at risk via the original AirPort Card because of an
attack methodology published last week as part of the Month of
Kernel Bugs. The attack can corrupt some "internal kernel
structures," and causes a kernel panic - a crash. The developer of
the attack believes that he may be able to modify this with some
effort into a root exploit in which control of the machine could be
seized.
<http://projects.info-pull.com/mokb/MOKB-01-11-2006.html>
<http://projects.info-pull.com/mokb/index.html>
The approach as published works only with the AirPort Card, the
internal 802.11b Wi-Fi adapter for Macs introduced in 1999, and used
in all Mac models introduced until late 2002. Apple stopped selling
the AirPort Card some time ago - much to the dismay of people whose
adapter died on an otherwise usable computer. All Mac models
introduced in 2003 and later sport a slot for AirPort Extreme
(802.11g) networking; the AirPort Extreme Card slot is not
compatible with the original AirPort Card.
Further, the developer of the attack notes that the exploit works
best when a Mac has been placed into active scanning mode, which
requires a command-line tool included with Mac OS X or the KisMAC
utility. In a brief interview with Brian Krebs of The Washington
Post's Security Fix blog, the exploit developer told Krebs that he
found some vectors for breaking Macs with AirPort Cards that were in
an idle, non-associated state, but hasn't produced results he wanted
to discuss yet.
<http://kismac.de/>
<http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/HDQA.html>
The exploit was published as a recipe for reproduction, more or
less, so it's not embedded in a prefabricated application designed
simply to crash computers, but it will be incorporated into the
open-source Metasploit framework, which is a system to stress-test
software and operating systems in an automated fashion using
malformed packages of data and other techniques. (At this writing,
the developers say it's part of Metasploit, but I don't see an item
representing it in the list of modules.)
<http://www.metasploit.com/projects/Framework/>
The Month of Kernel Bugs (MoKB) uses a small set of standard tools
that stress test operating system kernels by generating massive
amounts of arbitrary input - fuzzing - which can be associated with
resulting errors on the attacked computer to figure out what input
caused which exploitable errors or crashes. The project says they
have five more Apple kernel bugs that will appear over the next 30
days. (No additional Apple bugs have appeared as of this writing.)
In a fairly irresponsible move, the MoKB coordinator said there will
be no advance notice to the makers of affected systems in any
systematic way prior to release of the exploit. Exploits that are
released on the day the vulnerability is identified are called
"zero-day exploits." In the security world, this is considered bad
form, somewhere between taking a dump in a swimming pool and selling
drugs to children. There's little reason to not provide advance
information to affected parties unless you're trying to be clever,
instead of smart.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_day>
The justification by the MoKB coordinator, identified only as LMH,
is the tired old "Apple doesn't listen to security flaws and
pretends it doesn't have any" argument. The industry soap opera that
began in August, "To the Maynor Born: Cache and Crash," apparently
has led many hobbyist and professional security researchers to
decide that Apple systematically denies security flaws when they
exist. In the case of that saga, it's fairly clear that only a
handful of people have actually seen what was alleged to have been
given to Apple, which means that relying on that case as an example
of Apple ignoring security issues or misusing security researchers
requires second- or even third-hand knowledge. (Apple told Krebs
that they are investigating this latest AirPort flaw, which they
learned about "recently.")
<http://db.tidbits.com/series/1268>
<http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/11/exploit_released_for_unpatched_1.html>
In comments to a post about this on LMH's Kernel Fun blog, he or she
writes, "It's actually a matter of time to demonstrate that all the
pro-Mac paranoia is just plain useless. Apple does good stuff
indeed, but they obviously do [make] mistakes as everyone does."
It's hilarious that anybody credible thinks that vocal Mac zealots
represent the interests of the entire Mac community. A more
realistic view by an experienced Mac user can be found as the second
comment (by Dave Schroeder) on Ryan Russell's blog entry on this
exploit.
<http://kernelfun.blogspot.com/2006/11/mokb-starts-mokb-01-11-2006-apple.html>
<http://ryanlrussell.blogspot.com/2006/11/you-want-mac-wireless-bugs.html>
May I state for the record as a regular reporter on Macintosh
matters that I don't reflexively believe that Mac OS X is
invulnerable? In fact, I have written regularly about flaws that are
reported, and about the risk that we face as a community of users
that lack immunity. While Apple has built its operating system on a
strong foundation, that in no way precludes exploits that use
vectors that weren't considered.
Your high-level takeaway? No Mac model that shipped beginning in
2003 nor older Macs without active scanning enabled are known to be
vulnerable. The vulnerability requires a nearby user, too, or one
with a high-gain antenna who can reach your computer. I'm guessing
Apple patches this relatively quickly for Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4
users, and that they'll be working overtime to stay on top of other
MoKB announcements.
An Independent Windows Mailing List Gets Bigger
-----------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8738>
We at TidBITS are sometimes queried, "Your list is great, but is
there a version for Windows as well?" I've always told those people
to sign up for fellow Seattlite Brian Livingston's Windows Secrets
newsletter. Brian is the kind of incorruptible journalist with a
deserved reputation for exhaustive research that Windows users need.
He was long a columnist for InfoWorld and has written several
mammoth Windows Secrets books, starting with Windows 95. He has
grown his list's expertise through mergers with other mailing lists
in the past, and he now has a staff of niche experts.
<http://windowssecrets.com/>
Windows Secrets is about to become bigger and better, with their
merger with LangaList, which has specialized in tips and tricks for
Windows users. The combined list will reach a non-overlapped total
of over 272,000 subscribers. Fred Langa, a former Byte
editor-in-chief, will be part of the combined publication - named
Windows Secrets and LangaList during a brief transition - as well as
Fred Dunn, a long-time PC World contributing editor.
Brian's list comes in two forms: free and paid. The paid list
includes ebooks, tips, archive access, and in-depth Windows patch
analysis. But here's Brian's clever rub: There's no minimum fee you
have to pay for the newsletter. You can pay $1 or $1,000. By
requiring at least a nominal payment for the extra features, the
process makes people reflect on the value they're getting,
especially at renewal. While the upgrades page for the list displays
$15, $25, and $50 as radio-button choices, you can enter any other
amount manually. Brian said that while he and his colleagues neither
release their total revenue figures nor the number of subscribers
who pay any amount for the additional content, he would comment that
most paid subscribers pay between $10 and $100 per year.
We can only drool at the reach that Brian and Fred have - we reach
not quite 20 percent of that audience, well above the ratio of Apple
to Windows market share - but we don't begrudge them their success,
nor the ever-greater number of Windows users gaining access to
valuable information. Hey - obligatory joke at Windows users'
expense - they need the help.
Camels and Horses: Alternatives to Photoshop
--------------------------------------------
by Charles Maurer
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8739>
Adobe Photoshop reminds me of a camel: a horse designed by a
committee. It is ungainly and awkward to control. It is remarkably
useful - no other photo editor will do so much - but it is not an
easy beast to ride.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/>
I personally find Photoshop indispensable, not so much because of
what it can do itself as because it is necessary to run some
plug-ins by Asiva, particularly Shift+Gain. Unfortunately, Asiva
have shut up shop. Their plug-ins work well with today's versions of
Photoshop but will not be recompiled for Intel-based Macs. For this
reason, I have been keeping my eye out for a horse. I have not yet
found one that I want to buy - Shift+Gain is difficult to replace -
but I have found a couple that look interesting.
I have also found a cheaper camel, PhotoLine. This is the poor man's
Photoshop CS2. It is comparable to Photoshop CS2 in its powers to
create and confuse, but it is priced like Adobe Photoshop Elements.
It is not quite so fast and stable as CS2, but its speed and
stability appear to be respectable. Unfortunately, its documentation
is so meagre that for many people, its advanced functions are likely
to be inaccessible.
<http://www.pl32.com/>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/>
**Photo Editor Requirements** -- Before I talk any more about specific
products, it would be sensible to describe my expectations of a
photo editor. Here, in no particular order, is a list of what I want
one to do.
CORRECT OPTICAL PROBLEMS
* Remove colour fringing. Some colour fringing is caused by lenses'
magnifying different wavelengths different amounts - chromatic
aberration. This kind of fringing can be removed with a chromatic
aberration control that enlarges colours differentially.
Unfortunately, most of the colour fringing I encounter has other
causes and is too irregular to remove this way. I usually need to
convert the fringes to grey.
* Sharpen either the entire picture or selected parts of it. There are
many ways to sharpen a picture. The usual method exaggerates the
contrast at edges, but it is often preferable to sharpen the image
optically. To sharpen edges the computer first determines what is an
edge - it usually does this by looking for differences, pixel by
pixel, between the original image and a slightly blurred copy, an
"unsharp mask" - and then alongside each edge it darkens dark pixels
and lightens light ones. To sharpen optically is to reverse blur.
Blur is the spread of a point of light into a disc. A computer can
partially reverse this by transferring to each pixel some of the
response of every pixel surrounding it.
* Correct the barrel or pincushion distortion that is inevitable with
zoom lenses. Sometimes I also use this facility to compensate for my
having the wrong lens on the camera, to create a conventional
perspective from a fish-eye lens.
* Squeeze a picture anamorphically - more at the edges - to correct
the distorted magnification that a wide-angle lens creates toward
the edges of the frame.
* Correct vignetting.
* Blur selected areas to create the effect of selective focus.
CORRECT PROBLEMS WITH HOW THE CAMERA WAS HELD
* Make converging lines parallel.
* Rotate the photo so that vertical lines are plumb.
* Remove the blur caused by a moving camera. To do this requires
optical sharpening in a single direction.
TONAL ADJUSTMENTS
* Adjust the overall distribution of tones from dark to light.
* Enhance or reduce the contrast of adjacent tones, both throughout
the picture and in selected areas. I often want to control not just
the contrast of brightness but also the contrast of hue and
saturation. (See "Reality and Digital Pictures," 12-Dec-05.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/08365>
* Enhance the contrast of fine detail.
* Remove colour casts differentially according to their location, to
compensate for different sources of light in different parts of the
picture, and according to their brightness, to compensate for the
blue shadows of a sunny day.
CHANGES TO THE SUBJECT
* Remove blemishes.
* Replace one colour with another (e.g., change the red reflection in
red-eye to white, change a necktie from yellow to dark blue).
* Remove/add motion blur from/to selected parts of the photo, either
to sharpen something that was moving or to create the appearance of
movement.
* Replace parts of a photo (e.g., insert a more attractive sky).
* Add an image of the sun with naturalistic flare. If you take a
picture with the sun in it, the flare and reflections it causes are
uncontrollable. When possible I prefer to frame the picture with the
sun just out of view or with something in front of it, then add it
in the computer.
MECHANICAL NECESSITIES
* Remove digital noise.
* Remove dust.
* Enlarge the image by interpolating pixels, or shrink it.
* Crop the image.
* Edit the IPTC data fields attached to images.
* Handle 16-bit colour.
* Display colour using ICC colour profiles.
* Read and write files in TIFF, PNG, and JPEG formats. (I have given
up on JPEG 2000. Although it is preferable to JPEG, it has not
become adopted widely enough to be useful.)
**Photoshop and Friends** -- By various sets of hooks and crooks,
Photoshop CS2 can do all of these things. Photoshop Elements 5
cannot squeeze pictures anamorphically but it can do everything
else, although it's currently available only for Windows. Photoshop
Elements 3 and 4 are also unable to handle optical sharpening and
removal of motion blur. In general, Photoshop CS2 offers greater
control and complexity than Photoshop Elements, but for some complex
jobs it is simpler. However, some of these tasks can be done even
better and/or more easily using third-party products. I routinely
supplement Photoshop CS2 with Photomatix to control contrast (see
"Photomatix: A Virtual Magic Wand," 16-Oct-06), Noise Ninja to
reduce noise and enhance fine detail, Asiva Shift+Gain to manipulate
colours and remove fringing, and PhotoZoom Pro to make enlargements.
(For more details on these last two products, see "Editing
Photographs for the Perfectionist," 27-Sep-04.)
<http://www.hdrsoft.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8711>
<http://www.picturecode.com/>
<http://www.benvista.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/7832>
**PhotoRetouch** -- PhotoRetouch Digicam is the hobbled, amateur
version of PhotoRetouch Pro. I was unable to try the Pro version, so
my comments are inferences and not based on direct experience.
<http://www.binuscan.com/us/prp/infos_digicam.html>
<http://www.binuscan.com/prp_multilangues/us/infos_prp.html>
Both applications are designed specifically and exclusively for
editing photos. Compared to Photoshop, they offer a limited set of
manipulations - they will not do for laying out an ad or brochure -
but for editing photos, the manipulations available seem well
thought out. To apply a manipulation, you either paint it on with an
air-brush tool or apply it to the whole image and then erase it
where you do not want it. You never get involved with selecting,
layering and masking. This makes PhotoRetouch less flexible than
Photoshop but more efficient and straightforward.
On my list of requisites, PhotoRetouch can do everything with
reasonable ease and competence except squeeze frames anamorphically,
straighten curved lines, enhance the contrast of fine detail, remove
or create motion blur, replace parts of an image, add a sun, and
handle PNG files. It does not seem to do optical sharpening, but it
provides a "smart sharpening" algorithm that is more sophisticated
than a simple unsharp mask. The Digicam version is restricted to
8-bit colour.
I suspect that the Digicam version will fill the needs of almost
anyone who does not use an SLR - i.e., anyone who uses a camera with
an 8-bit image sensor. The Pro version will handle most advanced
amateurs' and professionals' needs as well, and do so more handily
than Photoshop, but any pro is likely to find Photoshop necessary
some of the time, and I myself would supplement PhotoRetouch, as I
do Photoshop, with Photomatix, Noise Ninja and PhotoZoom Pro.
Although PhotoRetouch has fewer controls than Photoshop, the
controls' labels can be comparably confusing. For example, "color
change" is deemed different from "color modify" and "quantifier"
removes colour casts. Also, although PhotoRetouch is simpler than
Photoshop, it still requires a significant investment of time to
learn, and the Digicam version includes no help files or manual,
just a pointer to some QuickTime tutorials on the Web. I downloaded
the Pro version's manual and ignored the parts that are obviously
inapplicable.
The Digicam version generally worked well for me, but I did find a
built-in booby trap worth noting. Saving a 16-bit image overwrites
it as 8 bits without any warning.
Binuscan sell the Digicam version over the Web with pricing and
terms that are neither obvious nor straightforward. The PhotoRetouch
Digicam Web page states that the program is free and has a Buy
button that opens another page saying it costs 49 euros (~$60-$65),
but that it can be purchased only from within the application. If
you download the application thinking it to be free, after you try
to save a file, a window pops up to inform you that you are using a
demo limited to 30 saves. That window displays a Buy button.
Clicking the button brings up a Web page stating prominently that
the product costs 49 euros today but will cost 149 euros
(~$180-$190) once 3,000 copies are sold. The clear implication is
"soon." In addition, fine print at the bottom of the page says, "We
recommend reading our General Sales Conditions before confirming
your order.... Downloaded software cannot be returned." If you click
on the link to those conditions, and if you bother to read what
appears to be a typical license agreement and to decipher the
legalese, then you learn that the agreement is not a normal one. You
are purchasing the right to use the product on one computer only -
not any one computer but the one you installed it on initially. An
activation scheme prevents it from being moved. If your computer is
stolen or breaks and needs to be replaced, then if you document
this, Binuscan will permit you to activate it on another machine,
but only once and only within the first year. Thus, Binuscan expect
you to pay 49 euros now plus an additional 149 euros the next time
you upgrade your computer.
<http://www.binuscan.com/photoretouch/purchase_fr_us.php?lang=us&os=mac&id=4DE89C7F-F37F-E8FB-1F9B-AC3400218B38>
Binuscan are even more opaque selling the Pro version. They do not
advertise any price for it anywhere on their site. Neither do they
reveal the terms of the license they are selling nor mention a
guarantee. I queried them about price and licensing, but they did
not answer. I then had some friends query them as putative
customers. Binuscan quoted $950 plus $30 to $40 shipping. In answer
to a specific question, they told one of them that the Pro version
can be installed on any number of computers but requires a USB key
to work. They did not answer his query about a guarantee, nor did
Binuscan supply the copy of the license agreement that the other
fellow asked for.
Considering these products on their own, I would recommend them
highly, but the business practices of their developer give me pause.
Also, I should note that the Digicam version holds a trap for the
unwary. Learning to use a photo editor efficiently and effectively
takes so much time that few people will willingly switch from one to
another. In practice, people do not buy a photo editor, they
purchase a license and then they marry the developer and support his
future issue. If you own a point-and-shoot or "prosumer" camera,
PhotoRetouch Digicam may be perfect for you now, but if you ever buy
an SLR, then at least some of the time you will want to be able to
work with 16-bit colour. To do this you will need the Pro version.
If you have learned PhotoRetouch well, then you will have the choice
of losing your investment in time - few of your skills will transfer
to Photoshop - or shelling out a thousand dollars to upgrade.
**LightZone** -- LightZone is a new horse in the race, a yearling with
real promise. It is somewhat unusual under the hood and has a unique
user interface, an interface that is simultaneously simple and
sophisticated. LightZone permits novices to do things that require
advanced techniques in Photoshop.
<http://www.lightcrafts.com/>
Instead of painting pixels like Photoshop and PhotoRetouch,
LightZone manipulates images by piling up layers of calculations -
in computer jargon, by stacking vectors. You pull tools down into a
windowpane and see their manipulations applied to the image. You can
apply a tool to a limited area by drawing a region with a spline
tool or bezier tool or polygon tool, and you can feather the edge of
the region with the drawing tool. If you dislike the effect of a
tool, you can change or reorder the tools.
Of course other photo editors stack vectors too - Aperture and
Imaginator, for instance. The differences between LightZone and
other products lie in a dearth of confusing gimmickry and a set of
unusually versatile tools. For example, LightZone's noise tool
doesn't just remove granular noise, it can remove thin colour
fringing as well.
Working with LightZone is radically different from working with
Photoshop. Instead of deciding which of many tools to apply once,
you decide how to apply a few tools several times in different ways.
For example, to control contrast Photoshop offers seven dialog boxes
accessible directly from menus, plus, for advanced users, contrast
masking. In lieu of these LightZone offers only a ZoneMapper and a
ToneMapper. The former is a more intuitive equivalent of Photoshop's
Curves tool; the latter is unique. Imagine your photo is hammered in
relief on a sheet of copper. You want to modify the depths of the
relief to make it clearer. To do this you (1) choose the size of
your hammer, (2) control the strength of your blows, (3) decide
whether to spread your blows over broad areas or aim them at spots
where the contours change, and (4) decide whether to adjust all
parts of the relief similarly or to adjust them differentially, in
proportion to their depth. That's how Lightzone's ToneMapper
controls contrast. Sliders control the first three parameters and a
pop-up menu controls the fourth. You can hammer the entire picture
with it, or any portion of the picture, as many times in as many
ways as you like. (The hammer is a combination of two esoteric
manipulations applied to luminance: the application of a contrast
mask plus the application of a mask defined by an arcane, non-linear
mathematical device called a bilateral filter.)
LightZone will do some remarkably complex manipulations with a small
number of simple tools but it is also missing a few basic
capabilities. Two lacunae are particularly limiting: LightZone will
not correct converging lines and it provides no way to deal with
colours selectively - to brighten only yellows, for example, or to
desaturate red fringing that is too broad for the noise tool to
remove. The developers are planning to add those features soon. When
they do, you can expect a lengthy review. This is a product worth
watching.
Although LightZone looks as though it uses Core Image, it is
actually programmed in Java. This means that it runs under Windows
and Linux as well as Mac OS X. Version 1 costs $150 and includes a
free update to version 2, which purportedly will cost $250. A demo
of version 1 is free for the downloading, as are a public beta of
version 2 and the complete package for Linux.
<http://www.lightcrafts.com/products/lightzone/download/>
PayBITS: If Charles's recommendations for Photoshop alternatives
were helpful, he asks that you make a donation to Doctors Without
Borders: <http://www.doctorswithoutborders-usa.org/donate/>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
Take Control News/06-Nov-06
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8740>
**Feed the Hungry While Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner** -- Thanksgiving
is all about family and food, and to help those who may not have
either, we'll be donating $1 from the sale of each copy of Joe
Kissell's "Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner" during the month of
November to the San Francisco Food Bank, a non-profit organization
(where Joe has volunteered) whose mission is to end hunger in San
Francisco.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/thanksgiving.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0044-TB854-TCNEWS&cp=CPN61101TC3>
<http://www.sffoodbank.org/>
If you've read one of Joe's books, you know he's great at helping
you successfully work through complex computer tasks like installing
Mac OS X or creating a solid backup scheme. He also did an amazing
job with writing about the entire process of planning and preparing
a Thanksgiving dinner, and honestly, given all the editing, testing,
and internal linking, we think "Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner"
is one of our best titles ever. You can buy the book in our usual
electronic format for only $5 this week, during our 50 percent-off
anniversary sale, but if you think you'll need a printed copy in the
kitchen, you can buy it that way too for $19.99.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/06-Nov-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8741>
**MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo hard drive options** -- Apple's new pro
laptops offer three hard drive configurations. How do they stack up
to what can be bought from third-party vendors? Plus, we revisit how
much actual disk capacity you get from a hard drive, versus its
advertised capacity. (16 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1001/>
$$
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