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January 29, 2006
Another day at the Zoo
It was a mild morning this Sunday, so we trooped off to Zoo Atlanta for a bit of exercise. Of course, the tele lens and camera were in tow. Apparently due to some rain this morning, the place was nearly deserted. We were literally alone with the docent in the Panda exhibit. One was asleep, but the other was splayed out eating some of the thirty pounds of bamboo she scarfs on a daily basis. Sam really enjoyed the up close look.
The photo safari continues after the link...
technorati tags: zoo, sam, amy, gallery
Posted by jetrotz at 08:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
So Maybe There Is a Resemblance...
So my brother Jerry dug up this photo of me circa age 1 give or take. Compare and contrast with the second photo below of Sam - there certainly seems to be more of a resemblance than I'd realized....
Photo of yours truly at about 1 year, circa summer 1967.
Sam's photo below, at about ten months, December 2005.
technorati tags: sam, joey, baby photos
Posted by jetrotz at 08:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2006
Buh-bye!
Just a quick note. In one of his cutest moments to-date, Sam waved goodbye to me as I was leaving for work this morning. For those readers without kids, I'm sure you're like 'so what' - but let me tell you, it really tugs at the ol' heartstrings. He's such a cutie!
technorati tags: sam, baby, wave, goodbye
Posted by jetrotz at 10:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
iPhoto '06
Forget about Aperture's 'beta release' - it's all about iLife '06! I installed the yearly update late last week, and good lord does it rock. The improvements to iPhoto alone are worth the price of admission.
My iPhoto'05 library was over 28k images. So I was surprised to hear various reports that the '06 installment increased capacity from 25k to 250k. Hmmm - perhaps that's why my old install was so sluggish - but never any errors or warnings about the size of ye olde library. Anyway, the new version is blazingly fast - like WOW!
It also upgrades handling of RAW images. In iPhoto5, your edits to RAW images were to a JPEG version. You could also edit in an external editor, but you were still working with the JPEG version. 2006's version enhances this by letting you open the actual RAW file in the external editor. It doesn't automagically import the RAW edits back to iPhoto (though I wish it would), but you can fairly easily re-import the edited RAW version.
technorati tags: ilife, iphoto, photography, mac, apple
Full screen editing has also made the leap from Aperture to the consumer photo app. You can select multiple images, hit the 'full-screen' icon, and voila! A very nice full-screen view of your images. You can also mouse among these to lock your selection, then thumb through other images in that 'slot' with your arrow keys. And it's about 5x faster than freaking Aperture is on my dual 2.5G5. The full screen mode includes an ability to rate images, zoom in, fit to screen etc. Looks sweeeeet on the old 24" monitor ;-).
I'm also digging the integration with iWeb and the Photocasts. If I want a slightly prettier presentation of images I want to post I might use the iWeb feature; and Photocasts will be a nice way to make sure friends and family get the latests photos of Sam.
There are some comments about how Photocasting breaks some RSS standards - but if you dig deep, there are not so many standards around photo syndication, so Apple had to break some new ground here. Whatever - it just 'works' to a large degree.
I'll also let folks discuss how some of these features - Photocasts, iWeb to some degree, etc. require a dotMac subscription - that does suck. But it's probably worth spending the cash to enable all that integration. Maybe .Mac will again be free one day soon....
technorati tags: ilife, iphoto, photography, mac, apple
Posted by jetrotz at 07:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2006
Such Low Heights
In an interesting case of 'who had the rights,' it's been widely reported on the web that Apple's first video ad campaign promoting the new 'Intel Inside' Macs is a blatant rip off of one of my favorite bands music videos. Here is an excellent sie-by-side comparison created on the 'Cult of Mac' site. The Postal Service is one of many side projects of Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, and their video for 'Such Great Heights' is a frame-by-frame match to the Apple spot, showing bunny-suited lab techs in a clean room, carefully lifting out some precious silicon, etc. It turns out that the same director created both the Apple Intel ad and the Postal Service video. Unclear if he had rights to essentially duplicate a product for a commercial service without the band or label's blessing, though. Ben chimes in on the controversy with a note on the band's website saying that "We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties." The band's label could, conceivably, have approved reuse of the video which one would think they might own.
Long story short - I love the Postal Service, and can't wait to get my hands on a MacBook Pro (at least when the 12" is available). But like the controversy over the recent 'orange' Eminem iPod ads which bore their own uncanny resemblance to a Lugz campaign, this is fishy. I hope Apple comes out and clears this up soon.
technorati tags: apple, mac, intel, the postal service, advertising, cult of mac
Posted by jetrotz at 05:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2006
SURPRISE!
Lisa is such a sneaky devil. She organized a fabulous 40th brithday surprise party last weekend for my childhood friend Jan. The weekend before, a small group of us had gathered for an outing at her fave Atlanta restaurant - Savage Pizza (margherita on whole wheat, 'natch) - as an excellent decoy to the *real* big event. While Jan may have been slightly suspicious with all the cleaning going on in the house, she was blown away by the assembled crowd of 40+ friends and family when she walked in. Enjoy the gallery here. But no, I have not posted the photo of Jan and I at our senior prom. Putting that on the web just doesn't seem like a good idea....
technorati tags: birthday, 40th, jan, surprise
Posted by jetrotz at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sam Starts Off the New Year with a Bang!
It has been far too long since the blog's been updated. The past several weeks have been awfully busy for everybody, so the blog has been neglected. Sam has been moving ahead by leaps and bounds. He had a great visit with his Uncle Jerry and Grandma Rita in Savannah a few weeks ago. He has also given his parents a wonderful present for the New Year - he is now sleeping through the night!!! (Most of the time, anyway). He wakes up on occasion, but now soothes himself back to a slumber. (Most of the time, anyway). He has also begun to table walk with a fervor - yesterday, he went round and round and round the coffee table in the living room. He also loves to push his baby walker around the house - or any other object he can lean on! Amy swears he's said the word 'YES' several times - but he doesn't have any idea he's said it.
It looks like we are entering the dreaded Teething Phase II (TPII). Looks like ol' snaggletooth will have a pair of pearly whites on top to match his bottom ones. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the whining, clinging and generally demanding waking phases give way once this teething is over. Of course, Mom and Dad just whine right back - which usually elicits one of Sam's trademark smiles.
Here's a photo update for those who need a Sam fix.
technorati tags: sam, baby, savannah
Posted by jetrotz at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 01, 2006
Workin' Through New Years
Instead of spending New Year's with my family to welcome in 2006, I've joined my other extended family in the Time Warner Center in NYC as we launch CNN.com on our very own ad server, DoubleClick's Dart Enterprise system. We've been busting our butts on this for several months, and today's efforts have gone amazingly smoothly, with teams in both Atlanta and here in NYC making everything work out. Follow this link to the gallery.
technorati tags: new years, nyc, doubleclick, advertising, adops
Posted by jetrotz at 03:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack