The head vs. the gut

Recently, someone did a study that my wife was telling me about, how the "gut instinct" can be trusted, and my immediate reply has been that my gut has been right far more often than my head. Yet, I couldn't explain why that was. I didn't read the article, but I did start some self-examination of why I would think that, and I think I've come to a rudimentary explanation for why the gut feeling turns out to be so spot-on so often. It all has to do with how much information can be processed consciously and subconsciously simultaneously.

It comes back a bit to Merlin Mann's hypothesis (that he's borrowed from multiple other sources) that "multi-tasking" is the most insidious myth of our generation. The brain can only handle one thing at a time. It's the most basic information array, but it's just a.) infinitely LONG and b.) very good at caching. But still, one item in at a time, please, and same going out.

But then you think about the rest of your body, and how much occurs without you thinking about it. The autonomic systems regulating heartbeat, body temperature, iris constriction, etc. are doing an infinite number of processes concurrently and almost outside of our conscious control (well, excluding those who have mastered the art of slowing their own heartbeat, etc., but really, what they do is seal off or dull the autonomic systems from receiving input to which to react).

But your whole body has memory. Your muscles have memory that can be trained to a point where the mind no longer needs to consciously feel through every contraction, say, for playing music. At a certain breakthrough point, it all changes, and your thinking less about the mechanics, and more about the music itself. But your body also retains all of the pain it's been through as well. The nights of painful worry over the where the next paycheck is coming from, the discomfort from trusting someone to follow through and resulting in repeated sleepless nights as you take up their slack, etc.

You MIND can remember one thing at a time, in rapid succession, but the caching usually kicks in, and at best, you can only recall the specifics of a few instances. Then reasoning kicks in to rationalize those instances versus everything else in your mental cache. Unless the instances you consciously recall are particularly vibrant in their pleasure or pain, you can "talk yourself into" just about anything. But your guts remember so much more, all simultaneously. It might not be able to explain the patchwork quilt that contains little bits of evidence through the years, but it's all there, and perhaps should be listened to MORE than what your brain can retrieve from your mental data array.

Anyway, just some thoughts rattling through in my head. And my gut said I should probably share this to the world. ;-)

Rock On with Keynote

If any of you haven't heard me crow in utter admiration and evangelical urging about Apple's iWork component Keynote, you a.) haven't been paying attention or b.) haven't been within 20 feet of me lately. Seriously, Keynote is that perfect storm of an app: highly compatible with file formats coming in AND going out, simple to use, stable, powerful, starts off with a sense of taste and style that cuts your work in half out of the gate, and is cheap.*

But I recently ran into an issue just last night. I've promoted Keynote as the simplest way to throw together a Flash animation for the design-inclined. Seriously, anyone who defends Flash as being a design tool anymore should be forced to do anything good without ActionScript. Designers in the house, raise your hands and tell me how many of you have time to learn a programming language like ActionScript? How many of you even THINK in script? Yep, that's what I thought. Sure, there are some of you. You're probably also earning 2-3 times more than me right now. ;-)

Problem is, however, I tried setting the slide size of Keynote to a banner-like 120 pixels tall, and 500 wide (that's your first trick, by the way... you can set the slide size in Keynote in the inspector palette by using the "Other" option in the Slide Size drop down menu).

What's odd is that it wouldn't let you make a slide SMALLER than 200 pixels in any direction. This seemed totally bizarre to me. If Keynote would let you set a slide size to some arbitrary amount like 234x1782, then why would it decide to draw the line at 200 pixels? At first, I thought maybe since each theme comes with elements on the slides (like text boxes), there was a downward limit to how small the slide could be. So I decided to eliminate all elements, and all master slides except "Blank." Tried adjusting the size, and still no dice.

Onto the internet, and interestingly, even in the Apple discussion threads, it seemed like a lost cause. Even someone who's a regular on those Keynote threads said it wasn't possible, and everyone in the thread gave up. Then I though, well, since Keynote takes many cues from Motion, maybe that would export to Flash and let me do a canvas size of anything I wished. You'd figure for the price, it could do that.

And you, like me, would be oh so wrong.

But this just did not make any sense. The slide size is just a set of variables, right? Why would the limit be there, at 200 square? There has got to be a backdoor -- a way to force feed the dimensions to Keynote and make it take them, without me having to be come a programmer to do so.

Wait, what did I just say? I want to make an application do something that it doesn't want to through its UI, but seems possible, and is, let us not forget, an Apple application? And then it dawned on me...

Automator -- that little app with so much power (like Applescript) and a quirky interface. Wouldn't it have some, say, Automator actions inside it? A quick peek, and there are, including "Create new presentation" where you can ENTER DIMENSIONS BY HAND.

Oh yes folks, from what I can tell, I am the first person on the interweb to discover that you can shove dimensions like 128x128 down Keynote's throat via an Automator action and make it stick.

So have fun, tell your friends, give me credit, and, more importantly, send work my way. Um, paying work, preferably. ;-)

*It is one app of three comprising the $80 iWork suite of apps... how much of that $80 you say that Keynote actually 'costs' will depend upon your use of the other two apps, Pages and Numbers. I'm not much of a spreadsheet guy, but the latest version of Pages has made me forget almost entirely about Word and its ilk, so I'm going to call Keynote an even $40. Your mileage may vary.

Want Adobe Bridge for free?

Dirty little secret #4,512: Adobe wants you to have Bridge. In fact, they want you to have it so much, they are giving it away. They just forget to tell you.

First, a little backstory: before Macworld, I needed Dreamweaver CS3 installed on our family MacBook Pro for the two-day Power Tools Training Session (can't wait for it to be posted on MacworldEncore.com, for free. Yes, there's some sarcasm there). Rather than hunting down my install disks for CS3, which I had used to install the CS3 suite on my dual-G4, and grabbed the DW CS3 30-trial from Adobe's web site to get me by through the show.

Well, Abode doesn't just install Dreamweaver CS3 on your machine. They install Device Central CS3 (basically, cell-phone mockup windows to see how your web page layouts will work on (read as: be mangled by) mobile devices), and Adobe Bridge CS3, because, well, EVERY Adobe app installs it.

So today, I'm working on the laptop, and decide to check on Dreamweaver. As I guessed, I am now out of the 30-day radius of activation, so I get the "pay to play" serial entry screen, and subsequently turn it off. However, just for kicks, I decide to launch Bridge CS3, and, lo and behold, it starts up without issue. I can view files (including full-res previews of my CS2 and CS documents, which is why you should care about this post, especially if you haven't made the CS3 jump), add metadata, basic batch-functionality, etc. It's like the "free gift" for bothering to run the demo, but they forget to let you know ahead of time.

I have to assume this is intentional, because ever since absorbing Macromedia, and their onerous phone-home activation scheme to piss off, well, casual piracy, Adobe has never, ever let you use their apps without running the gauntlet. But they want everyone using Bridge (in fact, it's a major part of nearly every Adobe app training session these days). But it boggles my mind that they don't advertise this, if it truly is a "get Bridge on every machine possible" strategy.

Well, either way, there you go. Install a demo (probably ANY demo will do it), and get Bridge CS3 for free.

Enjoy!

MacworldEncore: blessing or curse

Okay, I was cruising the RSS feeds earlier today, and noticed that Merlin Mann had just posted a new video to 43folders.com... of his Macworld session.

Now normally, I'd be happy to just watch away, gleaning any free knowledge he decided to bestow, and I figured this must be some supplement to what he actually said at the session. You know, a "value-added feature," as the kids (who dream of being used car salespeople) would say. But no, it's the actual full talk, verbatim, plus the overhead presentation. The only thing it truly lacked was a video of Merlin walking around and making eye contact with the crowd. I should know, because I was there, because I PAID to be there.

Now, I can hardly complain about making knowledge freely available out there on the grand frontier of this here interweb, but here's the part that rubs me wrongly: why in the world did IDGExpo not tell anyone at the time of registration that these would all be available FOR FREE after the fact, before we registered? I might have been able to save the $200+ for the Users Conference, had I known that I'd my choice of ALL the sessions afterwards. Sure, "being there" holds the benefit of being able to pose direct questions, but it's really hard to ask more than one or two without monopolizing everyone else's time. Plus, um, Merlin has groupies. Lots of groupies. It's REALLY difficult to ask him anything and still get him out of there before he passes out from hunger.

Ah, I think I just answered my own question, didn't I? If they told us the sessions would be available afterwards, we WOULDN'T HAVE PAID for all of the stuff we registered for.

I keep trying to give IDG the benefit of the doubt in my mind, but time and again, something like this rears its head where it's a living, breathing example of Grey's Law: "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." I guess I should have seen this coming: from the registration that offered no auto-reply to let me know they had taken my money (I had to call their International line, which actually was incorrect for Canadian callers, because, um, hell I don't know...), to the registration page that looked straight out of 1998 HTML (nice table there, guys), to no way to see all session at once to determine best value, to no published iCal calendars (until Yours Truly made them, and then got picked up "on the wire"), to our Power Tools speaker telling us int he session that there would be a separate line for us for the keynote, when, in fact, that was reserved solely for Platinum Pass members, which only applied to some of us, so I trusted him, and his second-hand hearsay and got to the line WAY too late to be worthwhile, etc., etc., etc. Groan.

Now this all makes it sound like a terrible experience. It wasn't. Do I regret going? No, in fact, the experience as a whole (including the trip to San Francisco) was wonderful, but to know that I could have gotten an equivaent or better experience (it was WAY stressful to run from one session to the next, for fear of losing value... did I mention this was all on my own tab, out-of-pocket?), via the cheapest possible pass (say, a MacLab session, where a hands-on class with the app of your choice is offered, which is still difficult to make available online) that still gives access to the keynote, and a free Exhibit Hall pass (via free online codes). Well, I feel like I bear the "sucker" brand across my forehead for thinking that I was somehow privy to a once-in-a-lifetime seminar experience. I don't mind taking responsibility for when I'm told all the options, but I wasn't. Neither were a lot of people, I'd wager.

I've told IDGExpo to contact me, because I want to hear their side of it, but I am doubtful of a satisfactory explanation beyond "Oops. Our bad." I'd still advise Mac users to attend the event, even trying to get into the keynote room (though be ready to be in line BY 4 a.m.... yes, that's a five-hour lead time, and yes, you'll need it), but I now know to tell them to otherwise save their money and take in the wonderful Exhibit Hall and take in all of the free demos/training/seminars/hands-on that will never be posted.

Quick post

The Macworld wrap-up keeps, um, wrapping, and today boasts a crazy schedule where I have something occupying my time and/or attention every minute. But suffice it to say, it's coming.

I'm not dead yet

Okay, for the record, I am planning to post my full Macworld wrap-up in the coming day or two, but for the uninitiated, I've been caught in the grip of a nasty bug picked up somewhere in California. At first, I assumed it was the dreaded annual Macworld plague, but in the past few days, as my wife has shown no symptoms, we are beginning to think she picked up the bug while sightseeing in San Fran, and then transferred it to me while staying a couple nights in Santa Cruz (she had a mild fever, and scratchy throat). I've also seen two other, utterly non-related instances of fever/flu attacks from people I follow after having visited California or Nevada the past few weeks, so I guess it's just par for the course this time of year there.

Tomorrow marks a week since it started with a high fever, chills and hacking cough, yet I still made the road-trip, as a groaning, delirious passenger for about 22 hrs. from North Carolina to Ottawa at the end of last week (N.B. the trip usually lasts a mere 18 hrs., but Robin had to do most of the driving).

Luckily, I was right-as-rain for most of the conference and the plane flight back, so I got some of my first impressions down before they got wiped out in my current medicated stupor. Lesson learned for next Macworld: get the flu shot before you go. Hell, get two.

Another day winds down

Well, almost. And I am suddenly late for a session. Gotta scoot.

p.s. Macbook Air is THE blogger's/conventioneer's best friend. Period. Or, well, it will be.

p.p.s. Got my picture taken with both Merlin Mann AND Cabel Sasser. Rock. On..

Another break, another post...

Today's sessions have an energy that wasn't present in the Power Tools Sessions. Methinks it's just a poor size-of-room-to-group ratio. When the rooms are packed tight, the emotions and response from the crowd come out quicker, tighter and louder, and encourage participation through flat-out crowd anonymity (see also: any internet forum).

Just got out of the Presentation Magic seminar, which ran long, but was so good, I'd say 95% of the crowd stayed until the end. Hats off.

Looking forward to seeing Merlin Mann for his Living With Data seminar. I expect a packed room. Next Macworld, though, I have got to avoid overbooking myself like I have this time.

Oh, and special props to the H&R Block/Tango "Blog Spot" as my Favourite Blogging Spot at Macworld Where No One Tries to Sell You Something or Require Sign-up Before Entry But Lacks the Comfy Seating (as you might expect, this is a very specialized category). If you're looking for a good posting set-up without hauling you laptop out of its bag, Tango is set up just inside the West Hall. Of course, after this post, I expect the lineup to stretch for miles.

Time to go nab many pictures in the breaktime.

Quick post from the Macworld floor

Currently resting on my tired, tired laurels in South Moscone, set up in the Microsoft Blogger lounge. One the good side, it's a beautiful modern living room set-up, complete with AC power (YES!). On the downside, you must give them a blog URL upon entry or else they release the monkeys. Probably should hunt down some food soon, then onto the Users Conference sessions. Plenty of photos int he early morning walkthrough, but odds are, nothing you haven't seen elsewhere on the 'net.

And so it goes

Hey folks, been a while, but I've been busy working out my Macworld virginity, and let's just say I've learned a few lessons for the next Macworld. Having been to a few conferences, and been a security guard for a convention center ages ago (late teens), I can attribute most blame to an IDGExpo and Moscone staff that had NO idea what to do with a.) an enormous crowd over last year and b.) a totally new set-up in Moscone West, which overlapped with the registration lineups. That meant the whole lot of us got to stick it out in the cold waiting to get inside, instead of being able to queue up mostly inside the warmer building (which would have massively improved my mood when I got to sit down).

I am greatly looking forward to playing with a Macbook Air before any of my friends back home, though. :-)

To Mr. and Mrs. Macworld, and all the ships at sea...

That title's gonna make more sense to those who grew up on old-timey/fun-timey movies and Looney Tunes, like I did. Anyway...

Just wanted ot let you all know that, thanks to Greg Keene, I have fixed the iCal calendars below to reflect Pacific Time (rather than the Eastern Standard they were entered under). This will shift all events earlier by three hours, so when you arrive in San Fran, make sure to adjust your time zone settings accordingly in iCal, your operating System, as well as any devices you have synced to these calendars (I had to change the time zone of my video iPod as a result). Then all should be fine with the world.

By the way, extra helpings of thanks to MacworldExpo.com and Shawn King of the podcast Your Mac Life for taking notice of my toiling away and linking to this web site. If I had a more sales-y persona, I'd likely find a way to make some cash off the exposure, but for now, I'll just ride the wave of good tidings. ;-)

As for me, I'm currently spending a bit of belated holiday family time in North Carolina before flying out West for the conference. I'm not sure if it's my personal involvement in it, but it FEELS like big things are afoot this year. Perhaps we're all still caught in the aftershocks of the iPhone announcemet at MWSF'07, and expect equivalent greatness this year.

For those who are about to Mac... I salute you!

I've resorted to using Firefox to post this update, since it'll give me a few more browser in-line tools for this very special post.

Since I'm finally making a long-overdue pilgrimage to Macworld San Francisco this January, and also since the IDG Event crew has managed to make one of the more inflexible large event websites I have ever tried to use, I set about the thankless, unenviable task of copy/pasting ALL of the Macworld Conference Expo programs, AND all of their descriptions (typos and all, courtesy of macworldexpo.com) into subscribable iCal calendars. I was also driving myself insane trying to determine which package was the best value to me, because many sessions conflict, so unless you can physically be in two places at once, you NEED to know what is happening when and where.

I've never really pushed iCal this far, but you get to see some of the really cool power available when you take an event of this size and really break it down into manageable, visual chunks. An especially nice side-bonus that I found is that, as I entered speakers into the attendees field, you can search within iCal for "Andy Ihnatko" and find every session at which he is scheduled to be (that is, if I didn't miss one, mind you. I am merely one guy... with, yes, a lot of time on his hands).

In an effort not to make one huge honkin' calendar (the entirety of which you might not care completely), each "track" and "session" is broken out into its own group. So if you didn't pay, for, say, the Users Conference, you don't actually have to view it in iCal if you subscribe.

Direct subscription links to iCal calendars (i.e. webcal)

MWSF 2008 Specialty Programs
MWSF 2008 Users Conference
MWSF 2008 MacIT
MWSF 2008 MacLabs
MWSF 2008 General Admission (including Exhibit Hall)*
MWSF 2008 Market Symposiums
MWSF 2008 Power Tools Series 1
MWSF 2008 Power Tools Series 2

.Mac web browser URLs

MWSF 2008 Specialty Programs
MWSF 2008 Users Conference
MWSF 2008 MacIT
MWSF 2008 MacLabs
MWSF 2008 General Admission (including Exhibit Hall)*
MWSF 2008 Market Symposiums
MWSF 2008 Power Tools Series 1
MWSF 2008 Power Tools Series 2

*Also, added Easter Egg bonus! I decided (and now regret it, but I'll keep plugging away at it) to add EVERY LISTED EXHIBITOR to the To-Do list of the Exhibitor Hall calendar, under "General Admission" (Well, okay... Most of them. Alright, fine, I'm done through "D." Happy?)

Anyway, so make sure to subscribe to the To-Do's of that calendar! Why? Well, not only do you get their write-ups from macworldexpo.com, and URLs to their respective websites, but you can also, search through just To-Do's for anything with the text "W-" in iCal's "Search" field, and voila! find EVERY EXHIBITOR in the Moscone West Hall auto-magically. The main Exhibitor Hall calendar also contains two URLs linking directly to the Macworld floorplans for the halls.

I'm really hoping this makes a lot of people's lives MUCH easier at the show, and leverages some of the way-cool power available from within iCal, and maybe even handy for the lucky those of us (not me... sigh) who own iPhones and can make some use of these calendars as well. Not having one (double sigh), I can't really see how well it works.

My only requests are that:

a.) you pass along this blog's main URL (http://www.pixelography.com) to anyone who may benefit from subscribing to it, as opposed to just linking straight through to the iCal's

b.) you keep an eye on the schedules, regularly, and be patient. A lot is going up there, but it's not 100% complete (but it's 85% more than what exists now via IDG). I am updating them by hand, so if there's something missing, it's probably coming up soon. Plus, some sessions which had no descriptions when I started this project are beginning to get them, as well as scheduled speakers, etc. As I notice them, I'll add them.

Enjoy!