I’ve never shot RAW before and don’t particularly fancy spending over three times the harddrive space unless there are actual benefits to it. So I did a quick test to see if I could spot any differences. To RAW’s credit it does a much better job denoising and smoothing images, even if you do have to zoom right in to see it:

Denoising, RAW right

Smoothing, RAW right

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Changing the exposure settings did nothing to differentiate between the two formats, but I’ll give that another go once I’ve had a chance to snap some more RAW photos.

As has been said before: It’s literally a big iPod Touch. I don’t mean that as an insult, by doing this the iPad becomes a powerhouse of a mobile device with long battery life and software written especially for it instead of the fate that awaits most PC netbooks: Small scrawny computers suffering as they try to run the same desktop software as their bigger brothers. Apple has chosen a fine platform. But the problem is Apple doesn’t seem to have innovated much on the software side. It’s mostly the same apps as the iPhone, with very little innovation thrown in.

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Look, I get it, they claim the iPad is the best Apple browsing device and I believe them. I also agree it’ll be an awesome eBook reader and photo displayer. They have a concept here with value. But to sell it they need to make us want it, and to want it we need to understand the product. Back with the iPhone they certainly delivered on that, from day one the iPhone was a device streamlined to find information on the go and access a subset of features from the desktop world. It offered new solutions wrapped in a shiny friendly interface. But they don’t seem to have the same focus with the iPad. Is the iPad a mobile device just for finding information and consuming media like the iPhone? Or is it a new class of device, with features unique to its form factor?

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All the built-in applications seem very limited in scope: It’s for displaying photos, for playing music and video. And to show off software compatibility with iPhone apps they pull up the Facebook iPhone application. Of all the apps available they chose an app whose entire purpose is granting access to a subset of features from a website, because the actual website doesn’t fit on an iPhone. That’s what they show us on a device specifically engineered to be the ultimate browsing experience? Surely on the iPad you’d just hit up the website itself? Why not choose a more suitable app to show?

And since they play up software compatibility so much does that mean Apple intends the iPad software to fill a similar niche as the iPhone? That its software will be of the same limited scope? It’s fine for a cellphone to be mostly about looking up information and consuming media, because what else am I gonna do on it? Write a document? Sketch a drawing? I don’t think so.

But y’know, the iPad could probably do some of that…

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And that’s the confusing part, it actually does do just that! Apple is making iWork applications available, to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations all from the comfort of your recliner. So it is a content creation device after all! When they present the iWork applications I get the same dizzying feeling I got from the original iPhone presentation: This is something new. The iWork applications look to be great productivity tools without being tied to a full computer. The iPhone can only ever display such information, with the iPad it becomes practical to edit and create it. I bet the iPad applications do 90% of the most common use cases, thus being a perfect fit for most casual users.

Along the same vein they also show a 3rd party app called Brushes that looks really promising. It’s a paint program that handles several different brush types, layers, color picking and much more, and it’s actually already out for the iPhone. But it’s clearly a very ambitious program, all that functionality really struggles under the chains of the small iPhone screen. But on the iPad it comes to life, the big screen offers a gorgeous inviting canvas to draw on, and the menus slide elegantly into view without obstructing the entire area. The iPad’s additional processing power and memory will no doubt further boost Brushes’ usefulness.

These are awesome-sounding applications, taking innovative advantage of the multitouch interface and offering unique non-desktop solutions to being productive.

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But, uh, what part of the marketing do we pay attention to? Will iPad apps mostly focus on iPhone-like mini-apps or will it shift toward something closer to desktop functionality? How will this play out?

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Besides the iWork suite only one other thing stand out as exciting and innovative:
Apple are going to totally change the eBook market. That’s a market so thoroughly run by incompetent publishers incapable of reacting to new emerging technologies, it’s just like looking at the music industry from fifteen years ago. But between the Kindle and this we’re headed for a promised land of finally getting books electronically in an easy and enjoyable manner. I bet they’ll make an iBooks app for the iPhone too, at some point.

All I can hope for now is that the iBooks service will arrive in Europe before the end of the decade. Sigh.

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Conclusion

Y’know, I’m not complaining about missing pie-in-the-sky features, and I’m not bemoaning the core concept of iPad. I just want to know where it’s headed, and I don’t feel Apple has done a clean job of telling us that yet. Imagine a graph that has full OSX desktop functionality on one side and the iPhone on the other, where do you feel Apple is positioning the iPad at?

I have a feeling that by the next hardware revision they’ll have added a lot of needed functionality and polish to this product and it’ll be much more obvious why we’d want to purchase one.

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Well, yeah, that’s a safe bet when it comes to Apple hardware, but in this case it’ll be especially true.

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It sorta makes sense I suppose, the functionality is called Application Windows, not Application Windows Within Current Space. But I use Spaces to specifically separate my workflows! If I turn to Exposé it’s to find another window within the same workflow context, I don’t need to be confused by other windows open elsewhere.

Macworld.com to the rescue! In this article they explain how to change this behavior. It’s really quite simple:

Open Terminal in Applications -> Utilities, and enter this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-show-windows-in-other-spaces -bool FALSE

Press Return to execute the command, which won’t show any output. To make this change take effect, you need to restart the Dock. In Terminal type:

killall Dock

After the Dock restarts, which it will do automatically, activate Application Windows mode in Exposé, and you’ll only see windows that reside in the current space.
If you decide you prefer the default Snow Leopard behavior, open Terminal again and enter this command:

defaults delete com.apple.dock wvous-show-windows-in-other-spaces

Restart the Dock as before and Exposé will once again show all windows in all Spaces in Application Windows mode.

Thanks Macworld!

Finally I can see Maya commands in Komodo

My Python editor of choice is Komodo, but I’ve long been annoyed by its lack of code completion of one the modules I use all the time: PyMel.

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I finally sat down and sorted through what’s required. It was a game of trial and error without much help from google, I guess this isn’t an issue many people are having.

In Komodo I went to Edit -> Preferences ->Languages -> Python and added the following four folders to the “Additional Python Import Directories” list:

...\python

...\python\site-packages

...\python\site-packages\pymel

...\python\site-packages\pymel\api

Your folder structure is probably different, but the idea here is to start with the \api folder and work your way drivewards until completion kicks in. I don’t actually know why these folders are required, if you can pierce this mysterious veil do inform the rest of us!

And now back to the coding.

UPDATE:
It seems to work only when the directory order has the api folder at the bottom, my original post did not reflect this. After the rush of getting this working wore off I realize now that the actual quality of the calltips aren’t so hot, because most PyMel functions are just wrappers around Maya commands and so they don’t do much in and of themselves. Unless the developers were to document how the actual Maya commands work, but that’s just crazy talk.

This is how I'll remember New York: Busy, charming, delightfully full of ads

Day 26 – The last day! How did this happen?? Why aren’t we staying in this country for another three weeks? At least our flight doesn’t leave until evening so we have the whole day to explore. But there’ll be no more motels, no more long drives, no more seeing fantastic new landscapes every other day. The guys want to go back to the American Museum of Natural History, because we missed so much of it yesterday. Despite also wanting to see the museum I’m going to strike out on my own today though, because there’s a few places I still crave to see. So we’re going to split up for the day and meet back at our hotel in the evening.

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My mecca!

My first stop is silly but I have to see it: The NYC Apple Store. I do so enjoy my Mac and iPhone, of course I’d visit this mecca of Apple. The store occupies one of the most exclusive addresses in New York: Fifth Avenue. From the outside it’s a fancy glass structure with an Apple logo floating in the middle, but down the stairs lie a large store full of Apple merchandise. All the employees are friendly and the atmosphere is charmingly casual. I didn’t stay long but it’s a fun little place to see.
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Half an hour (and a new laptop bag) later I moved on.

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MoMA

Yup, that's modern art alright

The MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, is nearby and that’s my next stop. MoMA is home of a huge collection of, well, modern art obviously. Not all museums catch my interest, but this one I wanted to see because it promised a diversity of various kinds of art not just limited to paintings. And it certainly delivered: The place has an awesome vibe, with lots of connected smallish rooms to go through. I walked through 50 years of everyday items, a lot of stuff!, other rooms had various music that could be listened to and small art movies ran continuously.

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Measuring the Universe

I particularly liked Measuring the Universe, by artist Roman Ondák. It’s a large white room with what at first glance appears to be black scribbles drawn at head height. But each scribble is actually a name and a date. People are invited to have their height measured and their name recorded onto the wall. Over time it’s transformed the walls into this dense mass, with a few individuals of uncommon height sticking out above and below.

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Lots of other stuff was on display as well, from intricate paintings to comics to architectural models. Functional art as well, from lamps all the way up to a jeep. Hell, there’s even a helicopter hanging from the roof.

Black square. Or is it?

I’m often drawn to dramatically simple art, one of which simply consisting of four pieces of pastel-colored rectangles. Mm. There’s also one that’s just one big black sheet, except it’s not quite black. The corners are actually ever so slightly red, but so subtle you can’t really tell if you’re seeing it or if your mind is playing tricks.

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The glorious, if a bit old, UN headquarters building

A couple hours later it was time to move on. I really wanted to see the UN building though I can’t quite explain why. Maybe it’s because it’s such a classic motif in many movies, or maybe it’s because the UN represents an attempt at something good and positive in the world. Interestingly the UN building is considered international territory so they have their own police force and everything. After getting through security my first thought was actually how old the place looks and feels. Feels like it could use a new layer of paint. Everything just feels slightly off color: The whites are a little too yellow, the wood a little too faded, the lamps quaintly out of style.

On display in the middle of the main lobby was a very powerful, very touching exhibition on the results of nuclear testing, with pictures and descriptions of the horrible legacy they’ve caused in certain areas. And a bomb-torn flag hangs on a wall, the flag that used to hang from the Canal Hotel in Baghdad before it was torn to pieces by a suicide bomber.

The pointy Chrysler Building

Touching stuff.

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Going home

The last stop for the day will have to be the Chrysler building. I’m running out of time, but thankfully I’ve managed to see the places I wanted to see. Chrysler was actually surprisingly difficult to photograph! The base of the building is massive it essentially occludes the tower itself if you get too close. Alas the building was closed so I couldn’t get in, so I quickly moved on.

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Not that I came far, there’s just so much that grabs your interest in this city. I came across Grand Central Terminal, the worlds largest train station. Obviously I went in, even if I couldn’t stay long. The main room is positively huge, with lots of little ornate art deco decorations and huge impressive lamps hanging from the ceilings.

Enjoying the lawn in Bryant Park

I resisted exploring the place and got back out, only to walk right past the New York Library and Bryant Park. I knew I was in a hurry by now, but dammit these are fantastic buildings and places and I was not about to ignore them. So I kicked back in the park for a little bit, enjoying the big lawn and cozy atmosphere.

Ultimately I made it back to our hotel with perfect timing, arriving simultaneously with the other guys. They’d had a great day too, so everyone was happy.

One quick cab ride later we’re suddenly standing at the airport, ready to start our trip back home. Aw man, what a journey. Farewell America! Hope to see you again.

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Empire State by Night

Destination: Empire State Building! One would think it visible from a distance, but from the streets it’s really only visible in glimpses because all the other buildings are high-rises in their own right. Standing at the base it was a dramatic view to look up though with the top floors illuminating the surrounding clouds.

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Impressive workplace

Right from the entrance everything is designed with strong bold lines and ornate art deco details. There weren’t any queues when we got there so that was nice, there’s a lot of stories of having to wait for hours just to go up. In hindsight it’s obvious why there were no people but when we arrived it was nothing but glee that we got to skip through any waiting. So why were there so few people? Well, remember I mentioned the top floors illuminating the clouds? From the moment we stepped foot in the building we were warned by every employee we met along the way that there was ZERO VISIBILITY up top. Clouds were low tonight and they said we wouldn’t be able to see a damn thing.

So what to do? This is our last day in New York, it’s not like we can just come back tomorrow… So we went for it. We’d go up, clouds be damned, that way at least we can say we’ve visited the Empire State Building!

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Riding the elevator is a little mini-experience all to itself. It’s a peculiar feeling seeing floor-numbers skip ten stores per tick because the elevator is traveling so fast. In contrast to Willis Tower in Chicago here you get to walk outside in the fresh air, so we stepped outside as soon as we reached the top floor. And, yeah, no visibility. Plenty of rain though…

But actually it wasn’t so bad walking around outside, small holes of visibility would form every couple minutes and we had the whole place almost to ourselves. It was great fun seeing the city revealed beneath us every so often, shimmering in light all around. We spent quite some time chasing these holes and enjoying the view.

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On our trip back down we happened across the last showing of the “New York Skyride”, a motion simulator movie that presents the Empire State Building and its surroundings in fun and educational manner. Well that’s what the ad claimed, in reality its, uh, not very good. It’s just a crummy little theater and the movie is way cheesy. At least we got in for cheap because it was so late, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone going to see it. Ever. Under any circumstances.

It was great seeing the Empire State Building though! I’m not even sure the low visibility was a bad thing, because it meant there were only a handful of guests walking around. I’d hate to be up there with a huge crowd and waiting in long queues.

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A neon-lit police station doesn't seem out of place

It was slightly past midnight when we got back on the ground and we still hadn’t eaten dinner. Time to eat! But where? We reached Times Square and looked around and suddenly noticed a big glowing Planet Hollywood sign. Of course!, can you think of a more American place to finish this tour? We ate, we drank, and toasted to the best trip ever.

Tomorrow is our final day, with just a couple hours to spend before the plane takes off and we head back home. Sad panda.

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Ugh, rain

Day 25 – Rain. Not every day in NY is a blue sky, especially not at this time of the year.

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In memory of John Lennon

After some quick breakfast we grabbed a tourist bus heading uptown. We jumped off at Central Park so we could walk around in this famous area. The park is absolutely huge, at 800 meters wide and over 4 km long it covers quite a bit of terrain! We started our walk at Strawberry Fields, an area dedicated to John Lennon, and then continued deeper into the park along little curvy paths. It’s full of streams and lakes, with bridges connecting everything together. It’s an amazingly quiet place, easy to forget you’re in the middle of a gigantic city.

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The famous Guggenheim

We soon headed for the Guggenheim museum, situated on the east side of the park. After walking through the park we emerged onto the street to see this beautiful classic piece of architecture. It’s really the museum itself I’m interested in, how can you not love a building shaped as bold as this? But luck was not with us, turns out Guggenheim is semi-closed due to installing new art. Argh! Yeah we could get in and see the back rooms, but we wouldn’t get to walk along the primary spiral. Meh, that wouldn’t do at all, so we went looking for another museum to visit.

Our map showed a big planetarium nearby so we decided to head in that direction.

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Lots of great wildlife dioramas

For whatever reason we focused exclusively on getting to that planetarium from our map, but we couldn’t actually find it. There was just a huge building in its place. We almost walked away until we reluctantly chose to cast a quick glance into the building just to see what was up. Looking inside what’s the first thing to see? A huge friggin’ Barosaurus skeleton posed as if fighting off an Allosaurus! And a whole series of beautiful exhibitions depicting various animals in very lifelike poses and settings. Most impressive, and to think we almost missed this!

Going upstairs we came across terrific skeletons of various dinosaurs, including an absolutely enormous Apatosaurus taking up the length of the room. Holy moly this is a great museum! We got there late though so after just 45 minutes it was closing and we had to leave. Stepping outside we finally looked at where we were: This was the American Museum of Natural History! One of the largest museums in the world, and we almost didn’t go in because we were stuck trying to find that planetarium. Unbelievable.

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By now it’s getting to be evening time, so we’re planning what to do next. Currently we’re driving back to our hotel to freshen up then afterward we’ll head out to see the Empire State building! I can’t believe this is our last day of our trip though…

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New York skyline

Day 24 – 1.6 million people squeezed onto an island just 60 km². That’s crazy, and it shows. Manhattan is a dizzyingly vertical cirty, with huge skyscrapers vying for attention and every road an impossibly straight trench between imposingly high buildings. With just two-and-a-half day in New York we have to work efficiently to see it proper, so what we’ve done is purchase tickets for the tourist city buses that drive around to various landmarks.

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9/11 memorial...

On our first day we’ve focused on the north side of Manhattan, so we’ve seen the Empire State building, the triangular Flatiron building, the Chrysler tower and many more. We also walked around ground zero, the site where the World Trade Center once stood. There are several very powerful memorials in the area with many touching stories telling tales of survivors seeking shelter in the church of St. Paul and the Bell of Hope that is only rung to honor lives lost to terrorist attacks. The whole site of the towers are under heavy construction as they’re busy building a huge new tower that’s also a park/memorial.

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Brooklyn offers a timeout from the busy inner city

Later in the afternoon we hailed a cab to take us across Brooklyn bridge, where we found ourselves some food. Then, timed perfectly so the sun was just starting to set, we walked back across the bridge. Walking back is important because it lets you take in the dramatic NYC skyline. It was quite a sight. Afterward we went to Times Square to hang out for a while. It’s truly an amazing city, there’s so much to see and so many people everywhere.

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Wonderfully classic row of NY houses

A funny thing about NYC is how full of contrast it seems. We’d go through a street full of classic 1930’s buildings and around the corner we’d be looking at huge modern office buildings wrought from glass and steel. Sometimes old and new would even be squeezed in right next to each other, seemingly without regard to any aesthetics. In many cities I think this would look confusing and out of place, but for NYC it’s strangely attractive. It creates this chaotic sense of unstoppable progress which I suppose is befitting of the city.

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We ended up celebrating our journey at a couple bars, and despite having important plans for tomorrow we stayed up until half past three. Tomorrow really is going to be exciting though, we’ll see the other half of the city which is supposed to be more posh and contain some amazing museums.

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Garden of Yale

Day 23 – Today we’re scheduled to reach NYC! But instead of driving straight in we first want to take a small detour and make a stop at New Haven, home of Yale University.

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We thought it’d be interesting to see what such a famous school looks like up close. The area really is quite soaked in history, with great classic buildings everywhere and some nice museums to walk through. The place goes back as far as 1701 and it clearly shows. And then the people on campus are just your average standard-issue students so the whole thing ends up being a curious blend of old and new.

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Farewell to our car

We didn’t stay in New Haven too long though, we moved onward a couple hours later and drove the last bit to New York. But first things first: Before heading into town we had to return our car at Newark Airport. Wow what a weird feeling getting out of the car for the last time, we’ve spent so much time in it and now suddenly there are no more days ahead of us where we’ll get up in the morning to drive toward new horizons. Sigh.

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After the car we made quick haste for Manhattan though! Got into a cab and set the course straight for our hotel. It’s a really cheap little hotel but it’s located in the middle of everything right next to Times Square so it’s pretty perfect for us.

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Right now we’re just unpacking a bit and preparing to go out to meet the city. We’ve arrived a bit lateish but nothing we didn’t plan for. We’ll go out in a bit to find some dinner and celebrate our arrival, and then spent tomorrow seeing the city proper. It is exciting as all hell to finally be here, in arguably the most famous of all cities and as the culmination of this fantastic voyage we’ve had across the country. It’s also a bit of a bitter-sweet feeling, I mean this is the end of our journey…

But enough blogging! I’m leaving the camera home tonight, there’ll be plenty of photo opportunities in the coming days and right now I just want to freely enjoy myself. See ya!

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Everyone's relaxing

Back on land we turned our focus on our broken car. We called for the repairman and me and Mikael went back to our motel to meet him. After hanging around at the pool for a while the guy shows up in this big truck with an attached replacement car in case he can’t fix ours. He jumps out, greets us, leans into our car to see what the problem is and…

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…he starts the car.

He turns the key and the car just goddamn starts.

We had our entire morning in shambles, spent all that time calling people and arranging for help, we’d just spent an hour waiting for this guy to show up… and now the car just starts???

On the other hand: Our car works!

But would it die on us again? This was getting kinda shady, but then again we only had one more day of driving to do so we decided to chance it and just hope for the best. The car was clearly troubled though; over the next 24 hours whenever we shut the engine off it would take a solid four seconds of holding the ignition before reluctantly starting back up — Nerve-wracking to say the least.

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Beautiful night in Newport

We had a good drive ahead of us, and so when it became evening we’d made our way to Newport, a small city known for its huge mansions and a cozy harbor area with lots of good restaurants. I didn’t see many mansions though, they’re mostly hidden behind tall walls and gardens, but the food we did find. We dined at a fancy restaurant called The Black Pearl and then walked around a bit to soak up the atmosphere. We haven’t stayed up too late though, tomorrow we’re due to arrive at New York City and we’re all anxiously looking forward to that!

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