I’ve been looking for good OS X CD tools for a while, but hadn’t had much luck on my last search. However, I was just looking around and finding some new stuff:

• FireStarter FX – a burning tool that uses the Cdrdao library (allows full sub-channel writing) looks like it supports iso and cue/bin files, as well as overburning. It also includes backup capabilities and apparently allows Paranoia audio-cd ripping. Oh, and it’s GPL’d. Cool!
• NTI Dragon Burn – this program does all the standard CD burning (hybrid, etc.) and looks like a nice alternative to Toast.

The rsync algorithm rocks so hard. Here are some stats for syncing changed ID3 tags. Yay rolling checksums! 🙂

rsync[1869] (sender) heap statistics:
  arena:         758264   (bytes from sbrk)
  ordblks:           11   (chunks not in use)
  smblks:             2
  hblks:              1   (chunks from mmap)
  hblkhd:        266240   (bytes from mmap)
  usmblks:            0
  fsmblks:           80
  uordblks:      690592   (bytes used)
  fordblks:       67672   (bytes free)
  keepcost:         840   (bytes in releasable chunk)
Number of files: 3007
Number of files transferred: 10
Total file size: 14747774318 bytes
Total transferred file size: 49373563 bytes
Literal data: 52963 bytes
Matched data: 49320600 bytes
File list size: 143445
Total bytes written: 150027
Total bytes read: 423414
wrote 150027 bytes  read 423414 bytes  39547.66 bytes/sec
total size is 14747774318  speedup is 25718.03

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness should pick up a digital EOS.

The Lemon: History Of The Internet (for a more serious take, check out ISOC’s Internet Histories or the various timelines and historical resources).

For those interested, I’ve decided to go w/ a Powerbook 12″ (I’ve been lugging around a 1st gen 15″ TiBook for the past year and a half) for my new laptop. I have a PB12″ vs X31 excel spreadsheet outlining listing some of the why-fors. Basically, it comes down to the fact that though the PB12″ gets blown away in the hardware department (it is fast enough to be useful, but barely), OS X’s laptop handling and native *NIX environment makes up for it. The biggest things I miss when I’m on a Mac: TopStyle, Neat Image, WINAMP 2, ACDSee, and Trillian. (dealing w/ CRW files is much more limited on the Mac as well, but the next version of Photoshop will come bundled with Thomas Knoll’s kick ass Adobe RAW plug-in, so I’m not super worried about that)

On the flip-side, useful apps that are Mac only: iLife, AppleScript, Konfabulator, OmniGraffle, Final Cut Pro.

Most of the apps I use all the time: Mozilla, vim, and Photoshop, are on both platforms.

Proving that comic hilarity can continue even after you’re no longer ’embittered’, or ‘hapless’, Ernie’s back online. the 10-sided die of ‘i don’t think so’ – now that’s classic.

Turn-about, fair play, etc.

In severe need of a 50mm prime.

Gaaah. This weekend must be dedicated to getting blogging system up and running. This is interminable.

Interview with Brian Walski on PDN

Maybe I’ll be happy where I end up in a couple of years, but I’ll never look back on it and say it was a good thing. I hurt my reputation and the LA Times’ reputation, and that’s something I feel really bad about. And the Internet thing, that’s hard to deal with. I did a Google search on my name, and it comes up in about 25 languages. Every photographer wants to be known for a picture he’s taken. I’ll be known for this. It’s not something I’m proud of. The photographers who are covering Iraq—I’ve hurt them in a way. If I could apologize…People should be proud of the work they’ve done over there. I take responsibility for what I did.

I really feel bad for Walski. While what he did was wrong, he really got crucified, especially consider how much of the war coverage was made up anyway. Did anyone get fired for all the stuff invented in the press (try the Memory Hole for some examples)? Did anyone get fired for the completely staged statue toppling?

Borrowing a couple of lenses from Jaime right now. Here’s a shot from Day 1 shooting. 1600 looks really good scaled down. I love RAW.

My process needs some work, but the IQ is spectacular: 12-bit linear -> 16-bit sRGB TIFF -> Crop -> White/Blackpoint General Curves -> 8-bit -> Color adjustment with image mask -> scale -> USM