Crap-o

Before Plaxo I had way too much free time.

Thanks to Plaxo now I have plenty to do. Maybe if I let it synch again I'll have even more spurious appointments to delete! Can't wait to see what it's done to my address book.

LOL Colophon

For those who are interested I've published a colophon page for this site here, including a complete list of the plug-ins I am using.

Content Aware Image Resizing

It starts slow, but stick with it. A really interesting technique.

Unparalleled

The new version of Parallels just came out (build 3186). If you want to run Windows on your Intel Mac, this is definitely the way to go, but you need a minimum of 2GB RAM - maybe more - for adequate performance. Check the MenuMeters in the Mac menu bar and you'll note that the CPUs are not maxed by any means. In coherence mode (as shown) both Windows and Mac programs run side by side - Windows isn't stuck inside the Parallels window any more - and the dock and Windows menu are both available. Very slick.

So Long Suckah

My last reason for using Windows might just have been eliminated.

I use Adobe Audition for all my netcast recording and editing. It's a Windows program but there's no Mac version. Paul Figgiani just tipped me that Adobe has announced a new audio editing program for Windows and... ta da OS X. (Intel Macs only, though - that's the first Intel only program for OS X I've seen and that doesn't bode well for PowerPC owners.)

Adobe Soundbooth

The free beta of Soundbooth is available now. Soundbooth has the familiar Audition interface, but it looks like they're positioning it as the "easy to use" Audition. One key feature missing from the beta is multitrack recording and mixing. I really need that, but there are many folks who don't. The "remove a sound" feature pictured above is a simple interface to Audition's powerful spectral analysis tool. You'll find simplified versions of other sound tools like reverb and compression, too. I'd guess this is really "Audition Elements" by another name, but it will probably be a good choice for quick editing and single track recording. The kind of thing most podcasters need. If Adobe can price it under $100 it will do very well indeed.Of course I knew this would happen because I just spent $1000 on Bias Peak Pro a couple of weeks ago.