TaoSpace

My predictions

With the keynote only hours away, here are my predictions, if only to see if I can get any of them right.

1. Updated iLife and iWorks. iWorks will get a simple spreadsheet added to Pages and Keynote. "Numbers"? iWeb as part of iLife was already spotted, so that's a given. Both products are named for the year they are released in, so their updates are a given, if under-reported. Update: Check! (apart from the spreadsheet...seems this is integrated in Pages to some extent)
2. Integrated Plasma TV/Mac mini. This makes perfect sense. The iMac is already very close to being a TV, it just lacks a TV input. Nobody else has even attempted this (that I know of), so it makes perfect sense for Apple to try it. Besides, they really do need something besides the iPod. Oh and they will be Intel based. Update: Maybe some other time
3. The Mac Mini will still be available as a stand-alone product with the same functionality and will be upgraded accordingly. Update: Ditto.
4. Vingle has been revealed to be "Video-Single". Steve will mention them, but possibly only in passing. I do not expect any new distribution method to be revealed, but certainly more content distribution deals for video. Possibly including movies. This of course to go with the Plasma screens. Update: Check!
5. Not sure about further iPod stuff. Apple really doesn't need to update anything hardware-wise there right now. Update: Check!
6. Intel iBooks...well...I really want them to release those. Powerbooks too. Something tells me though that we may have to wait a bit longer...Update: Looks like a check! (Damn!) No its not! The MacBook is here (and I'm getting one!) 
7. Leopard. Just as before with Tiger, Steve will show a brief glimpse of the new features for Mac OS X 10.5. It will possibly include a completely new finder, to upstage Vista. Based heavily on Spotlight, which in turn will see a major update. Update: Too bad. This was a no show.

OK, it'll be fun to see how wrong I was. Update: Wrong: 3, Right: 4.

More about Lightroom

Tons of reviews and previews of Lightroom around. Most seem quite positive about it. One thing I don't understand though: it is obvious what Adobe is trying to do, namely steal some of Apple's thunder by releasing it as a beta. Fine so far. However, by releasing it in this way it really should be judged on its merits, not on what it might be in the future. Just as I don't quite agree with a lot of the negativity around Aperture, I don't quite agree with a lot of the positivity about Lightroom. Perhaps it is just that it is "free" for now.

Lightroom

Adobe, not wanting to be outdone by Aperture, has revealed its new Lightroom product. Well, a free beta anyway. MacOS X only for now.

Just like Aperture, it is targetted at photographers primarily shooting in RAW. That is however where the similarities end. Lightroom, in its current state, is a much less ambitious product than Aperture. Some notes:

Flickr Update!

Finally cleaned out my Flickr stream and injected it with a large amount of "new" photos. Basically, I deleted everything and started all over again.

Up until now I have never bothered to upload more then a few photos since I started and most of those were horribly out of date.

The photos represent a selection of my work, from the two years that I've now been seriously persuing photography. Hope you'll like them and comment a lot!

2006, the year of the browser (again)!

There seems to be a flurry of activity going on around the browser as a platform again.
For the longest time it seems the ideas behind the web and the browser were set in stone, but then things changed dramatically.

First we had the AJAX hype. This is basically about using the current browser concept to the maximum. I've written before that AJAX in itself isn't much of an innovation. It is simply a recognition of what can be done in a browser if you really put your mind to it.

Relic Reborn?

"People should know when they are conquered."

-Quintus in Gladiator

Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, has just posted a preview of the next version of this ancient behemoth. It will be done in 2009! Hurrah! It should also be easier teach and learn! Hurrah! He even gives an example! Hurrah!

template<class T> using Vec = vector<T,My_alloc<T>>;
Vec<double> v = { 2.3, 1.2, 6.7, 4.5  };
sort(v);
for(auto p = v.begin(); p!=v.end(); ++p)
    cout << *p << endl;

Hurr....Huh?!

Responses like "Too little too late", "Who gives a shit?" and "Where is my Ruby?" are entirely justified in my book.