BACKUP – automatically to the Cloud

BACKUP!!!

So, you guys know I’m very neurotic about backing up my files, and I found this service that gives you unlimited space for automatic backups – IN THE CLOUD!

I have dual hard drive backups in my home office, PLUS a separate backup for my startup drive. But living in SoCal, with earthquakes, I’ve always been concerned about earthquake damage hurting my backups, leaving me with nothing.

Recently, I discovered BackBlaze.com. for $50/year, they offer unlimited space for backups, allow the backup of external drives, retain backups for 30 days, and will back up almost everything (system files and Applications won’t get backed up). I have 4 internal drives and several externals. All of my media (photos, videos, and even the files created as temporary files for my video editing), all of my office work files, personal files – and it’s safe and encrypted. All offsite, and all for $50! There isn’t a limit on file size, either – so my largest multi-gig files can be uploaded. It’s not exceptionally speedy, but I can even control the speed of the backups.

I highly recommend checking them out at BackBlaze.com.

1Password – is it going the way of all the other corporations?

Those of you who follow my posts on my page, or on Facebook know I’ve been a HEAVY supporter of 1Password, recommending it to my clients and students on both the Mac and Windows Platforms.

Well, I’m requesting data from the company as regards their newest upgrade – and it’s possible that I may be writing back with some news that may cause me to retract my support. Please keep watch.

https://agilebits.com/onepassword

Creative Cloud Backlash

SO many people are responding negatively to Adobe’s recent announcement of their sole offering of a cloud based Creative Cloud subscription that I’m seeing dozens of posts on the subject. The article below offers some links to follow the discussion (read: Rebellion), and a link to a petition to sign, if you find a life-long payment plan is not for you!

http://creativebits.org/photoshop/creative_suite_6_forever

FINALLY! Premiere’s gettin’ it’s Props!

When Final Cut Pro X came out, these guys did the MOST amusing job of dissin it, EVER! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxKYuF9pENQ ) and rightfully so, if you’re a professional editor!

Well, these same guys have finally come around to see that Premiere Pro IS actually a PRO program! Check out their video at the link below – and don’t forget to contact me, if you need any Premiere Pro training!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeVLg31MKRs&feature=share

Fumy 2.0 – a cool little graphics program

Cigarette and Smoke

Demo image made in 4 minutes with Fumy and Photoshop

Here’s a little program I love! I bought a program named Smoke some time ago, at a discounted price. I thought it looked like a cool, fun toy of a program, but it’s so much more! Smoke underwent a name change. It’s new name is Fumy, and the newly released version is  Fumy 2.0.

Painting in Fumy is like painting with smoke, or waves, or patterns or light. Version 1, with all it’s point updates was very cool – choose a style and some colors and then paint. You could place the end results into Photoshop documents (or simply create a stand-alone graphic). The only “real” limitation was that the end-result image was opaque. You could use any color background, but you created an opaque image for which you might have to use Blending Modes in Photoshop to influence the result.

Now, with version 2.0, we have layers! This means that not only can we create images with transparent backgrounds, but we also have some limited blending modes inside the program, and we also have the ability to export individual layers of our image.

The names of the controls present a bit of a learning curve: names like “Flow”, “Range”, “Intensity”, “Density”, “Fluency”, “Gravity”, and “Quality” may not make immediate sense, but that’s part of the idea of working in this Fumy. It’s all about experimentation (you all know that’s a BIG teaching point of mine anyway, right?)

Version 2.0 just came out a few days ago, so there’re still a few “issues” to resolve. For example, the tooltip names don’t align and so you have to trust the icon more than the name of the tool. Also, there seems to be a bit of a problem with the function of exporting individual layers, but you should also be aware that the developer is extremely responsive. I’ve had a few questions over the past couple of versions, and I received response emails the same day!

On top of all this coolness and fun, here’s the real kicker – I’d originally bought this program for $6 via Maczot.com. It was also included in a software bundle I’d purchased at MacLegion.com. But I never needed the new version. Every update has been free – and the recent UPGRADE was ALSO FREE! Any developer with such a cool product, who is so responsive, and has such generous upgrade policies should be commended! I encounter so many programs with ridiculous and draconian upgrade costs, I’m especially impressed by this (see Adobe’s new upgrade policies, for example!)

Despite the few bugs in this new version, I highly recommend it – and the developer. If the regular $19.99 seems a bit much, wait… you’ll see it in a bundle, I’m sure. Also, Neatberry (the developer) seems to have a slew of other cool programs. I’m looking forward to checking them out.

Oh, and the image you see in this post  was done using a stock image from stock.xchng, and a quick image from Fumy 2.0, created and composited in about 4 minutes using Photoshop.

Check out Fumy 2.0. Let me know what you think!

About the New Mac-Mini

Okay, I’ve actually been a fan of the Mac Mini, for a great many of my clients. It’s small, you can attach any monitor, it had good processor speed, and could handle a decent amount of RAM – and it was cheap for a Mac.

They’ve announced the new Mini – with NO OPTICAL DRIVE! Sounds like they may be touting it for an Apple TV replacement with more features? Bad idea, Apple…  🙁

Here’s a quick review:
http://dealmac.com/features/Dear-Steve-Jobs-The-Mac-mini-Is-Crap/482596.html 

Adobe Premiere’s Now a very Viable Alternative to FCPX

Another CreativeCow.com article – well-written. I’ve been saying for a while that Premiere is no longer the “red-headed stepchild” of editing software, and I’ve been teaching it for a while now. I’m finding quite a few people switching, and this article, by a long-time user of Final Cut Studio for some time, will help explain why.

Yeah – it’s not perfect – but with no access to FCP Studio 3 anymore – and having this come with the Adobe CS5.5 Suite – it sure can work! This also compares Premiere (in part) to Avid.

http://library.creativecow.net/kobler_helmut/FCP-vs-Premiere-Pro/1 

Adobe Announces Version CS5.5 – A Paid Upgrade

Today Adobe Announces Version CS5.5. One year after opening sales on CS5, Adobe has announced a new paid version of their Adobe Creative Suite products. Version 5.5 includes upgrades to Acrobat (an upgrade which was announced earlier in the year, and for which many people have already paid separately), InDesign, Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Premiere, After Effects, Audition, Device Central and Media Encoder.

This paid upgrade offers many enhancements in it’s upgraded programs, and is focused on creation and delivery of media for the variety of devices (iPad, iPhone, etc) that are currently on the market.

As part of the Adobe Certified Community, Adobe has asked that I promote this upgrade, enthusiastically. And, for what it is, I do feel that it’s a very fine set of products, and for those of you who haven’t yet upgraded to CS5, this is an excellent upgrade. However, it is my opinion that those of us who have already forked out the cash for the CS5 upgrade, with no prior warning of Adobe changing their upgrade schedule or upgrade path, this is a hardship for private clients, small business clients, and corporate clients, and I can not give this the hearty endorsement Adobe requests. Please watch this space for additional editorial comments on this subject in the upcoming weeks and months.

For those of us who purchased Version CS5, there are no actual price breaks – this is being treated as a completely new version of the Creative Suite products, with pricing as listed for any new release, although a great many of the applications included are no further upgrade than the original CS5 versions (untouched versions include Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Contribute, Encore, and Bridge).

Adobe still offers regular purchase pricing, and upgrade pricing, but they’ve also instituted a “CS Subscriptions Pay As You Go” monthly subscription update plan. Prices for these plans range from $65/month to $195/month, depending on your CS package, and whether you commit on a per month, or annual basis.

For more information, please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.html