A rant...

Ok so... i got CS5 Design Premium
the box arrives... they send Window's version... I have a Mac.
I have to pay the shipping and handling of the Mac version after paying the shipping and handling of the windows first version... but they tell me to just trash the Windows version because they don't accept the returns.
Fine. done.
I got the Mac version today... SUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPER beyond excited.
I install. Takes 1 hour.
I open up PS all giddy like some kid with a new toy. I go to set my workspace up... crash.
WTF?
I close down all other programs I'm running thinking well maybe one of them is interfering. I open up PS all excited again, set up my workspace.... crash.
It only seems to happen when i use the "character" tool palette... which DUH you KINDA need when you're doing any graphic/web work!
Try it a few more times. WTF
I go online, get the Adobe phone number for support. Spend a half hour trying to explain to some GUY in bloody India what my issue is when he has never used the damn program.
He goes... oh. you need to talk to "blah blah blah blah" and puts me on hold and transfers me.
I speak with a woman by the name of Somona Gupta who doesn't know a backward slash from a forward slash and spend 10 minutes arguing about which one is which, just so that she can take over my computer and watch photoshop crash about 50 times.  I ask her if reinstalling the creative suite would be a good idea, and she says they only do that as a last resort.
I'm put on hold for 2-3 minutes, about 20 times.
we're now 1.5 hrs into the call.
Ma'am, you need to uninstall and reinstall the full creative suite.  here is your reference number and please call back if there are any further problems.
uninstall.
reinstall - 1 hour later.
rebooting photoshop, crossing every single body part and having the rest of my family cross all limbs and eyes as well.
crash.
heart sinks.
pick up the phone. call the 1800 number. we are currently closed for the evening, please call again tomorrow.
ps i do have a case number and I WILL be calling.

sweetdreamscj wrote:
ps i do have a case number and I WILL be calling.
You know this is a user to user forum right/ I mean nobody here is in charge of screwing you over, right? If you want help, ask...fact is you've prolly found a font bug in Snow Leopard that can be worked around...also, not sure if you know it but CS5 has been updated to 12.0.1...suggest you get the update. If you do, get back with some very basic troubleshooting data like what OS, what version what Mac...you know, the basic info...

Similar Messages

  • A rant about C with a question at the end. :P

    C is okay. It's just really hard to understand.
    So this is my rant about it. It starts out by listing where I've been in terms of programming and then lists my difficulties with C itself.
    I discovered C many years ago. I'm not too sure how. All I know is that for many years I've wanted to know what this C thing was all about, but had no way or knowledge of how to. I didn't really know anybody before I got the 'net last year, so asking someone else was out of the question. Plus, I wouldnt've known what question(s) to ask.
    As I became more proficient with the whole technology thing, I began to go to the local libraries nearby and use their free internet access to look stuff up. But I didn't get the idea to do any research about C, most likely because I didn't have the mental capacity to plan well and my access was once or twice weekly at best. Plus, the only computer I had at home was 66MHz and ran DOS, and I only knew BASIC around that time which I was comfortable and content with, so wasn't looking for a new language. I think I knew about assembly language but didn't pursue it if I did.
    A couple of computer upgrades later, I finally got the 'net at home and began to see the convenience of being able to spontaneously look something up when I wanted to as good, rather than weird. Ideas gradually began to pop into my head that I'd run off and look up, and one day C became one of them. So I did some research on C and finally began to learn what it was: an incomprehensible mess of manually managed memory and low-level trickery. Since I knew a fair bit about assembly language now I decided C was worse than asm (and I had no chance of learning asm back then), and left it at that.
    Being the BASIC coder I was (pun intended), I found the syntax and concepts over my head by several miles. But the fascination never died, and kept poking at me again and again. And I just had to keep forgetting about it.
    I moved on from QuickBASIC, which I'd been using for just about everything, to FreeBASIC, which was in such a beta state when I tried it, I disliked it enough to move on and discovered PHP.
    PHP has been called the BASIC of the 21st century, and I can understand why. There are typically at least 10 ways to do something whether in principle or method, multiple functions do the same or an equivalent task, and overall it just doesn't look like a good language. But beyond all that, PHP made sense to me. As I went along many of the things I expected to perform in a given way performed in said way, which was a huge confidence boost. The model it followed might have been convoluted, but something inside my head "clicked" when I saw PHP, so I liked it, since I could understand it easily.
    But recently, I found myself hitting too many walls. I wanted to get into graphical software development, and none of the graphical extensions PHP had available would work for me. PHP-GTK did work but prevented PHP from outputting anything as an Apache module, without throwing a single error anywhere. PHP-QT wouldn't compile on my system. PHP-TK did compile, but both segfaulted when any tk_* function was called and also exhibited the Apache module issue.
    So I decided then and there that I needed to switch languages.
    The problem was, my current machine happens to be so slow that a GIMP operation that executes in 6 seconds on the lowest generation AMD CPU from 4-5 years ago will execute in 38 seconds on mine. I have no idea why; the machine is, after all, 2.66GHz.
    Although PHP is pretty snappy on my system, I don't know how other languages would fare and don't really want to risk the experiment; I want to switch to a language I know will be as fast as, or faster than, PHP. So I decided that a compiled language would have to be it, since I regarded PHP as the fastest language I knew. I was probably wrong, but whatever.
    So I set my mind to understanding C. I'd asked around online before, and someone took pity on me and explained the basics of C and I did my best to understand them. This was great for a couple of days, but didn't last all that long unfortunately. So I asked around again, dreading their responses, and with good reason too: most of the tutorials I read often left me boggled and flew over my head at one point or another, which didn't help.
    But I got some dreaded tutorial links, and did my best to read them. It took me a couple of weeks to finally convince my brain to understand the point of a language that utilizes variables that doesn't contain any data, but instead references to other variables. I eventually grasped the why, but am still having quite a hard time understanding the how.
    So then, after that initial hurdle, I moved onto other topics. Or rather tried to. I quickly discovered that C interconnects some of its issues so deeply that it's hard to learn one thing at a time, move on and learn the next thing - how I best learn. I don't create paths very well by reading information; I create those paths by staying away from information and letting it slowly process in my mind. But to actually remember it in the first place, it needs to make sense, and C doesn't make sense because things are so interconnected and... we come full circle.
    To be honest, after about a fortnight of trying to understand pointers, I still don't understand them. I've read what is probably the best the web has to offer about pointers. Has it helped? Not really.
    Either the documentation:
    - is too terse and I have to slow down, risking losing interest in what I'm reading
    - skips over vital points or assumes I know Pascal or some other language
    - is hard to understand or is poorly written
    - puts segments in the wrong order, so I don't understand everything something might depend on before I reach that something
    ...and in general I either give up on reading the documentation, give up on C or just cry. I've done the 3rd a few times, the 2nd quite a few times and the 1st pretty much as many times as I've read documentation.
    So what are my issues with C?
    Let me address the two I can think of right now:
    Pointers aren't addressed "simply"; if I declare a pointer to int named x I have to use *x to access what x points to, rather than use *x to get x's location, like one does with non-pointer variables where & is used to get an address. It'd be nice if we used &x to get x's value if x wasn't a pointer and *x to get x's value if x was a pointer, rather than use this convoluted scheme.
    Also, I've heard that it's a common misconception that C handles arrays natively. Elsewhere, I've heard that strings are merely arrays of char. I can understand the 2nd, but what do I do with the 1st?
    I do understand that if I say printf("%d\n", x[1]) I'm effectively saying x++; printf("%d\n", x), but I don't understand how this fully works. For example, let us consider the following code:
    char *filename = "<insert file here>";
    int i;
    struct stat filebuffer;
    int status;
    FILE *handle;
    handle = fopen(filename, "r");
    status = stat(filename, &filebuffer);
    char *buffer = malloc(filebuffer.st_size);
    for (i = 0; i < filebuffer.st_size; i++) buffer[i] = fgetc(handle);
    printf("%s\n", buffer);
    You'll of course notice the array notation. Do I understand why if I replace said notation with something to the effect of...
    buffer++
    buffer = fgetc(handle);
    ...the program segfaults? No. Likewise, I don't understand why the...
    buffer++
    *buffer = fgetc(handle);
    ...in the loop does work, printf("%s"...); causes segfaults and printf("%d"...); does not.
    Another thing I found is that declaring a char *, filling it with data, and then using memcpy on said char *, the program works fine, but if I declare for example char x[1] = "hi"; the compiler will shout at me for not allocating enough arrays. Only while writing this did I realize that the 2nd element is for the null byte.
    Suffice to say that C confuses me. To bits. Although I have written a 500 line program in it (579 to be exact). All said program does is display a message on the screen via Xlib, but I managed to figure out how to make a word wrapping engine using strsep and how to use XDrawPoint XDrawLine to not only create a nice UI but also let me define various UI "styles" which can be loaded at startup.
    Said program uses a very big helping of "if it doesn't work stab it until it does", so not only do I not understand how a lot of it works, it probably wouldn't compile under anything except gcc. Which is from a theory perspective quite a problem, IMHO. Almost every 2nd variable is typecast to this or that type.
    So put simply, every tutorial or introduction to C hasn't made a lot of sense to me. Maybe I learn slowly; I'm hoping it's that, because I can't see anything besides assembly language which would be faster than C. I plan to learn asm after I've mastered the very basics of C, but I may end up having to learn the other way around if I expect to get anywhere.
    Like I said in the title, I have one actual question in this post. So here it is:
    Are there any fun, easy reading tutorials out there that don't visually look like they came out of 1992 and read like http://poignantguide.net/ or http://learnyouahaskell.com/?
    -dav7

    dav7 wrote:Pointers aren't addressed "simply"; if I declare a pointer to int named x I have to use *x to access what x points to, rather than use *x to get x's location, like one does with non-pointer variables where & is used to get an address. It'd be nice if we used &x to get x's value if x wasn't a pointer and *x to get x's value if x was a pointer, rather than use this convoluted scheme.
    Pointer syntax is extremely unfortunate. The best part:
    char *a; // It's a pointer.
    *a; // It's a character. Good move, guys.
    Also, I've heard that it's a common misconception that C handles arrays natively. Elsewhere, I've heard that strings are merely arrays of char. I can understand the 2nd, but what do I do with the 1st?
    Insofar as C has arrays, C strings are character arrays. C arrays are just a promise that the system won't mess within a certain set of memory addresses. Array syntax is a concise way to calculate and dereference a specific location in memory, relative to an address that you hope is the beginning of some memory you reserved. array[n] = *(array + n), right? Personally, I would have left out the subscript notation entirely. Regardless, any time you choose to use brackets, you can mentally substitute in an explicit addition and dereference there. You're saying, "Give me the number stored at the memory address I have just calculated, which I know by my science holds something I put there intentionally, and not garbage at all."
    One more clarification with regard to pointer arithmetic is necessary: when you add 2 to an int*, the resulting address is actually 2*sizeof(int) bytes after your base address. Same for a double*: 2*sizeof(double).
    I do understand that if I say printf("%d\n", x[1]) I'm effectively saying x++; printf("%d\n", x), but I don't understand how this fully works.
    It's not the same! First of all, in example #2, you're passing a pointer to an int. In example #1, you're passing an integer, since [] dereferences pointers for you. Any time you use those brackets, it's as if you had typed an asterisk yourself. Second, in example #1 you're not messing with x. In example #2 you're incrementing x by four bytes (the likely size of one integer). Doesn't make a difference in this short example, but if x ever gets used again it will be very significant.
    Another thing I found is that declaring a char *, filling it with data, and then using memcpy on said char *, the program works fine, but if I declare for example char x[1] = "hi"; the compiler will shout at me for not allocating enough arrays. Only while writing this did I realize that the 2nd element is for the null byte.
    Looks like a counting problem. Arrays are indexed from 0, but sizes are specified from 1 on up. Your "char x[1]" has only index [0]. To hold a two-character string, you'll need at least size three (char x[3]), so that x[0]='h', x[1]='i', x[2]='\0', the null terminator.
    Suffice to say that C confuses me. To bits.
    Any time you get confused by pointers or arrays (which are the same thing), take a step back and think about what's happening in terms of memory addresses. Draw it out on paper if you think you're making a mistake. In some languages you can ignore low-level details like that and write perfectly fine programs, even though you won't be able to optimize them without knowing how your code maps onto the machine. But in C, everything that looks like a high-level feature is just shorthand for setting a few bytes to different numbers, and the abstraction is so leaky that you can't get by without understanding it. Types are just a way for the compiler to catch dumb mistakes (some people believe this is helpful) and to automate some math, like the pointer arithmetic above. In a running program there are no types, so when you're trying to figure out what a program is actually doing, you need to consider what the types are shorthand for.
    If you're having trouble "thinking like a programmer", by which I mean sanity-checking your use of syntax and stepping through a program so you know what it does, you might want to get up to speed in a different language, or by working through a book on algorithms.
    Last edited by pauldonnelly (2008-11-03 22:54:12)

  • This is not a rant, but it's close.

    I will be careful not to rant, but I must summon the strength.
    Instead, I want to continue to share my ongoing nightmare difficulties with Verizon HSI, Verizon customer service, and Tech Support.
    For the previous two years, I was blissfully using Verizon HSI at the 7mb tier with no problems.  I won't go into how it had a messy start (wrong pricing, web offer hand doesn't know what the phone offer hand is doing, etc). 
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    Little did I know that my move to a house one block away would start me on a path of frustration and despair.
    If you are so inclined, you can read about the initial move debacle here.
    To summarize, I needed to move my service to a different home in the same subdivision, but was forced to go through the entire application process for the new home, as if I was a new customer.  After spending more than an hour on the phone the first try, all I (unknowingly) ended up with was a disconnect order for the old service.  I called back a second time and finally got an install order, but the install was to be several days after the promised date from the first (failed) call.  Customer reps on this forum were not able to expedite the second install order, though I appreciated the attempt.
    This background info is important for a couple reasons.  First and foremost, I gave my credit card info over the phone to Verizon reps for both install attempts.  I gave them a credit card I rarely use.  Coincidentally(?), within a couple days, the card was being used for fraudulent purchases at Itunes and Walmart.com.  Luckily, the card company was able to recognize the fraud early, and cut it off.  Now, I know that is a serious accusation to make, but I stand by it.  That card was tucked safely away for years, with no problems.  Then, within a couple days of giving the number to two Verizon reps over the phone, it starts being used fraudulently.  Not cool, obviously.  I'll let the reader decide if I'm being paranoid.
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    So....two days ago, it went down hard, and would not come back up.  Remember, the DSL connection is solid, it's the internet that is gone. 
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    Anyway, he ended up promising to transfer me, but just kept me on hold, indefinitely, until I hung up.
    So, I walked back to my house, borrowed the neighbor's cell phone (with a different carrier that has coverage in my house), and dialed back.  His cell is  a prepaid phone, that I ended up using an hour's worth of time on hold, and pushing through the worthless steps that proved what I already told them.
    Finally, I was transferred to stateside support, where they transferred me to an actual technician.  He quickly realized I knew what I was talking about, so quickly asked if he could work it from his end and called me back.  Much can be said for sharing a culture with your tech rep.  Things are more easily understood through nuance.  I happily agreed to wait for a call, and had to hold my neighbor's cell hostage for a while longer.
    He called back to state that while troubleshooting, he found that I was the victim of a router outage, and he was just learning that others were affected.  He said techs should have it up and running in four hours.  By now, this is almost the whole day, with no internet, a week after installation, in addition to the frequent intermittent outages.  He apologized, but I was relieved that my complaint was validated, and seemed to be on the road to correction.
    The connection did come up within a few hours, and everything seemed fine.  Then, the next afternoon (yesterday), it went down hard again.  DSL connection was still solid.   I grabbed the neighbor's cell, and received an automated message stating my complaint was ongoing.  I opted to speak to a Philippines rep, anyway.  He told me  (for the first time) that a tech was scheduled to see me the next day (which is now today, Saturday).   It was an "all day" appointment, which meant I have to be here all day.  I was dumbfounded.  How can a bad router at Verizon's Central Office require a visit to my home?  I hung up confused, but relieved my ticket was still open.
    This morning, the internet is back, though I don't know for how long.  I've been copying and pasting this complaint to wordpad as I go, so it's not lost, if my internet drops.
    I have a very different IP than I've ever had before, so I suspect I won't see a tech at my door anytime soon.  No doubt it was a router that HOPEFULLY has been replaced.
    I am really spent.  I have dim hopes this long winded story can do some good, because I know big companies can be way too clumsy to make positive changes quickly.
    I hope my internet connection stays up.  One more debacle, and I'll just have to switch to Comcast.  I mean, how much does one customer have to put up with?
    It's not supposed to be this difficult.

    Thank you for the reply.
    I realize Comcast is far from perfect, and I'm going for the lesser of evils, here.
    The lesser evil is the one I can actually rely on.
    I would not agree that I've been treated with respect.  Oh, they're polite alright, (except for the one who put me on terminal hold).  However, beneath the illusion of politeness, the geographically and culturally-removed call center people are simply whacking moles.   I realize they are answering phones for hours, and are doing the best they can under the circumstances.  That is why I do my best to not use them as a target of my frustration.  At the same time, I want to convey how fed up I am with the system.
    In the old days, you called in a problem, and you'd eventually get a tech to come out and talk to you, face to face.  He would explain what actions were being taken, and the customer was reassured that ACTUAL work was being done to correct the problem.  You'd at least get feedback over the phone that made you feel like real people are taking real action.  I'm tired of the scripted "I'm sorry to hear that..."  
    I am half tempted to sully the copper pair connection at the terminal, to get a real tech at the door.
    The feeing I get talking to the call center is a surreal sense of paralyzation.  I'm trying to move my arm, but it won't budge.  I start vocally telling the arm to move, and it replies "Expect a result within 48 hours."     Seriously, it's like I might as well be calling AT&T to report this problem about my Verizon DSL.    It is that effective!
    My internet was down again, last night, from 4:30pm to 6:00 am, EST. (This is my window of opportunity to check this forum and research Comcast's offerings).
    This is after repeated assurances that "everything has been fixed."
    Calling in another trouble ticket gets me the "it will be addressed within 48 hours" line.  Well, hey, I've been waiting a lot longer than that, already.  The only concession I got for my frustration is a credit for one month of service.  At least I have that.
    The struggle for reliable internet continues...

  • One More Rant as to Fios features and "improvements"

    What kind of marketers does fios have that force their programmers to do such a horrid job?
    my wife and i got up this morning. beautiful sunny morning, warm for the first time. we turned on the tv, and saw a show we wanted, so i hit record... as she was getting ready for the day, i saw one that we could watch with breakfast. so i paused the movie, and we went to make breakfast... made it, came back, went to watch the movie, fast forward to its start.
    my wife then aks for the description of the movie... so you hit play, the menu comes up.. .
    it goes away too fast and so she asked me to display it again.
    i hit it, and now, for some screwed up reason, it throws me to on demand
    i dont want on demand. on demand cant pause, the play back is bad, when its bad you cant restart and move to where you were, you cant skip, and the list goes on on how horrible its implemented.
    but you dont have a choice.. your watching a movie from the beginig with full features, and now fios things you want to go to on demand to watch what your watching with reduced features... screwed up
    but, when we get back to the channel to see the movie... its now fast forwarded to current time, and fios has deleted the lead time so you cant go back
    in fact, fios does this alot... unlike directv, which says, if you save some movie time, dont delete it.
    fios says, if you save some movie time too bad, we know better, we will delete it, and peeve you off, then force you to a free on demand of the same movie wiht fewer features.
    but now... you go to the movie on demand, click the hd like you had and go to try to watch and what do you get? a completely unwatchable scrambled mess that cant play no matter how many times you try.
    so isnt that great... we have a wonderful morning.  save a bit of time to cook a great breakfast, sit down happy to watch, and voila... the fios programming is so horrid it ruins your morning...  you dont get to watch what you want, you lose what you have, your now **bleep** off at the DVR and you know that as long as your stuck on crap city dvr programming, your going to hae to deal with this oer and over
    the new feature to go watch what your already watching is insanely stupid and horrid..
    why does fios think that you want to stop what you are watching with longer pause time, ability to go back wards and forwards.. .which is critical to be able to get rid of the audio artifacts that constantly come up and scramble the voice.
    this is one reason my wife and i try to avoid watchnig on demand. it not only wont let you back up to get rid of the audio crud, but will lose your location... want to really have fun? watch a movie for an hour and a half be on the last 15 minutes, get audio artifacts scrambling the sound, and now you have to watch 1 and a half hours with commercials to get back to what you were just watching.. 
    oh joy
    not to mention another issue is that you pay for 75megs... and then fios takes the time to slowly move your speed down farther and farter unless you watch it and call and spend an hour getting what you paid for.... ie, their norm is to cheat you from what you pay for, to some lower rate and pocket the money.
    right now, i pay for 75, i get 50, and sometimes it drops to 30...
    why pay for 75, if you only get 50..
    why have to keep calling to stop them from cheating you? i earn money when not calling fios.. .
    and i know its a cheat as they never make a mistake in your favor.
    you never ever subscribe to 50 and accidently get 75.
    what a freaking mess..
    my wife and i are disussion paying more to get away from this horrid thing.
    and its been horrid this way for two years of our subscription
    the idea that the DVR delete time you have saved sucks big time.
    the fact your disk drive is too small to record everything so this doesnt happen sucks
    the fact that they replace commercials with stuff that is connected to google and facebook really sucks
    [i went online looked up some stuff and for months had to see the same commercial over and over for some scam options trading book i dont want, never wanted, was never interested in, etc... but i could not shut it off to see other commercials. even worse, they will do this after you buy the product in other cases. i was at work, needed to search for something, now that something my company purchased is unundating me with ads for something i already purchased!!!!]
    the idea that fios changes the operation of the DVR then blames you for not knowing the changes, or being used to how it is and you been using it for years...  
    all that stuff is completely annoying... as is having to get a pin number to log in every time as passwords dont work right. i had to create a diferent forum id, as the system would not let me log in with the one i have... so i have to reregeister to post most times...
    they would be the best company in the world if it wasnt for the idea that they leverage the great tech to mistreat their customers, give bad service, program the dvr with substandard choices of operation, cheat them out of bandwidth stealing time from their lives they wont get back to tell them to up it again..  (sorry, i am a programmer in researxh computing, its not hard to know how much bandwitth your delivering and compare that with the contract rate.  if i didnt pay my bill, you would harm my credit, my family, and future... but you get to cheat the customer out of bandwith they pay for, and what happens? nothing...
    of ourse this rant will go nowhere...   why should it?
    its not like they will refud me the money for bandwidth they didnt deliver (as i dont have the time to have some person who can barely program tell me to reboot hundred times and waste an hour before saying, its on our side. etc).
    its not like they will change dvr programming to presere what you want, and not dump it cause they want to
    the way i see it, the only reason for them to dump what your watching to see what your watching is so that they can fluff up the numbers on the on demand services when reporting growth to shareholders... ie. scamming the investors.
    there is no other real reason to have that other than scamming or incompetence. and neither are good... are they?
    dumping what people are watching for the same thing with less features cant be spun into a postive.. can it?
    thats it for now...
    rather than watch a movie this morning and being happy, we did not get to have that
    in fact, we are thinking why bother with a service that constistently changes a good day into a bad day as a NORMALcourse of business?
    [i have been a customer since their bell atlantic days... their tech is great, but this stuff really stinks and with their money and so forth, they could do a lot better... switching back to directv may be the only way to go as that dvr does not do the stupid horrid stuff that fios does, it preserves your shows, and overall, the software is much better, without any artifacts or scrambling all the time...
    i suspect that i will lose this online name again... why not?  they lost the other one and locked me out of that...

    There are settings you can change or disable for some of the issues you mention. you should go into the menu's settings and explore. Turn off promotions, etc..

  • Pages jumps to beginning of document... and rant...

    Pages keeps jumping to the beginning of the document whenever I try to edit text in a table. And my tables keep moving around whenever I try to click on a cell. And since saving is automatic, if I forget to hit undo, the table ends up halfway off the document.
    I'm finding iWork for iPad almost unusably buggy and counterintuitive. Where does the Pages formatting bar go in landscape mode? It wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that there's no keyboard shortcut to underline or use italics, so you have to physically rotate the device to get the button to underline titles (after painstakingly selecting the title with the little bars and dots). And keynote NEEDS "start on click" for movies. Is that so difficult? Presenter notes would also be swell, especially since the iPad is already displaying something different than the projector.
    Perhaps worst of all, I can't find any kind of "feature request" email link to rant directly at Apple about these (relatively minor) issues. Instead Apple forces users to talk to each other in this forum, where instead of giving feedback to make these products usable we end up debating ad nauseum whether or not the iPad is crap. Or have I missed something?

    I have similar problems. When using Pages in iCloud, the document keeps drifting back to the top or beginning of the document. I'm wondering, this can't be an intentional attribute, can it? I looked around for some sort of "anti-drift" or lock setting to stop the drfting, but could not find anything. Pages for iCloud will never catch up with Google docs or Word in OneDrive (formerly Skydrive) for stability and functionality. I will remind myself never to come back to iCloud Pages again. Its a waste of time and an exercise in frustration!

  • ITunes won't sync (after "upgrading" to Lion because my four year old macBook can't use Mtn. Lion) With a little ranting sprinkled in.

    I hope someone out there has the expertise to tell me what I am doing wrong. I expect a learning curve from a new Mac operating system, but I don't expect weeks of problem solving and glitches. Lion...well, they won't let me use that word. 
    Since I "upgraded" to Lion, when I hit "sync" in iTunes on the computer, I get one of three things:  1. Nothing happens, or:  2. A message appears that there is not sufficient room on the Nano for the changes, which is not true, or:  3. It syncs down to next to nothing on the Nano and I have to hit revert.
    Sometimes I'm confronted with a screen that wants me to check or uncheck each and every album (but not songs) that I want synced. I have already kept up to date a more specific and complete list of the same sort elsewhere in iTunes: the "Music" list in my itunes "Library." Today I unchecked some songs and checked some others expecting to easily have the corresponding changes made on my iPod, as I have for years.  This is the list that I have refined over the years based on new music acquired, my changing tastes, and room left on the iPod.  Am I really expected to duplicate this process on another list only to end up with no options for individual songs I do, or do not, want synced? What is the purpose of this exercise?
    I finally got it to upgrade to iTunes 10.6.3.  I was repeatedly getting a message in iTunes that there was an upgrade available. I would hit upgrade within that mesage in iTunes.  It would go through the process of checking for new software and then tell me my software was up to date. (I was running iTunes 10.6 (40).) Software update also told me my software was up to date. I had to go to the Apple site to find and download and install iTunes 10.6.3. The change made no difference to the above problem. I'm not used to screw-ups like this from Apple.
    I can't think of a single change in Lion that I like. Not one. I hate the new calendar. I hate the new Safari, and I hate the new Mail. I hate the combination of Google search and the address bar.  I hate the way hiting a hot link in Mail opens a new tab in Safari instead of a new window. And the number of hassles and fixes and problems to be solved in the move from Snow Leopard to Lion has been like nothing I have experienced before on a Mac.
    An iMac and a laptop are not iOS devices. And iPads and iPhones are not laptops or desktops. To try to merge the operating systems is a major error in my opinion. Thanks for putting up with my rant. I never expected to be so frustrated by a Mac "upgrade."  And I've been using Macs a log time. Any advise would be apreaciated.
    "Shinwell Johnson"

    In lieu of relaxing on Sunday, I've been working on this. 
    I tried launching Thunderbird (TB) in TB's "Safe Mode".  This launches TB like it's being used for the first time - and it didn't crash, which got me hopeful.
    So I deleted the TB profile folder and the TB preference file from the ~/Library folder.  Then I manually copied them over from my old Mac to my new Mac - figuring that maybe something got damaged by Migration Assistant.  After I installed all of the TB files and folders into the right places in my ~/Library folder, I rebooted the Mac (just to be safe) and tried to launch TB - and it crashed upon launching, with essentially the same crash log as shown above.
    So it looks like there is something in my TB Profile that Lion doesn't like (but that Snow Leopard was fine with). 
    Any suggestions for how to find and fix/remove the offending item?  Is there something I could search for in the crash log that would point me to the offending item?

  • Several issues on my Classic. Contacts, BB Link and Battery Monitor. Help + rant

    Hello everyone,
    Initially I wanted to make this post specific to my most recent problem (BB Link) but maybe I can get some help with all of my problems in one post.
    1. Contacts display and Caller ID - my biggest problem.
    I used gmail to sync my contacts when I switched from iPhone to Android and now on BlackBerry. I had no problems with the iPhone and the Nexus 5, but Contacts on BlackBerry is bad. Very bad. I thought that switching to BlackBerry I'd have 0 problems with calling people because it's a "serious" business phone, and business people really need the call function to work 100%. I have only 250 contacts and they are fully synced (2weeks now). I don't have duplicates.
    I suspect that the culprit is "smart dialing". The "feature" I can't turn off. Maybe someone can set up smart dialing better than I can.
    - I live in Romania so our Country Code is +40 .
    - The rest of the number is xxx xxx xxx.  (9 characters)
    - so, a Romanian number is +40 xxx xxx xxx when dialing from abroad.
    When dialing normally (national calls), we have to add the 0 from the country code in front of the phone number. That makes our phone numbers 0xxx xxx xxx. Due to this format, I've set the "National Number Length" to 10. (Same problem with 9). And we don't have an area code.
    Just now I received a call from someone and it showed his caller ID. On the next call (same person), it didn't show the caller ID. In the Call Log, I could only see the number. I pressed info and it showed the name. Then I pressed back and the name was associated with the number again in the Call Log. (10 minutes after writing this i check my call log and I notice that there are some numbers that called but are missing right now from the log. its the 2nd time this happened. they will probably show up in the next few hours).
    I also cleaned all my numbers and they all have the same format now. It is CLEARLY a blackberry problem. I had NO problems with caller IDs on iPhone or Android even though the format wasnt consistent through all contacts.
    And why can't I just copy the numbers locally? I tried selecting all contacts and "Copy" to local but I just can't. Apparently because they are linked contacts. It shouldn't be this hard.
    Also, why do I see linkedin contacts when I chose '"hide" in its menu?
    2. BlackBerry Link - (and why isn't it integrated with blend anyway?).
    - couldn't back-up over wi-fi. iPhone and android backup over wifi on their servers. I think i connected both of those devices fewer than 10 times total to my computer. Everything was done over wifi. Now i have to connect my blackberry weekly so it can backup? I don't mind that BB doesn't make a full backup on their server, but it should be at least possible to do so over wifi on my network. (or maybe I don't know how to do it?)
    - photos. Instead of building its own library, or making it possible to sync directly with folders in my computer, BlackBerry Link uses the iPhoto Library (on my Mac) - which I DONT USE. So I set Iphoto properly, but Link doesnt detect the new updates to the library, I still can't find my specific folder in BlackBerry Link.
    3. Battery. The battery monitor is completely useless. Once, after a full charge it showed me that I had 70% battery for 4 hours until it dropped under 70%.  It is almost funny what I see in the battery monitor on a daily basis.
    The battery life is ok, but I rely mostly on luck. Sometimes it would drop 10% in 10 minutes and then hold a 40% charge for several hours. I don't really know how much battery I have but it generally holds for 1 day  so I'm not that worried. 
    The rant:
    I  wanted to have a BB for a long time. My gf had a 9900 and even though the camera stopped working randomly, it was very reliable. I used the Q10 shortly after it launched and I noticed at that time that I need more apps than BB World can offer flipboard, banking and just a few others, so I didn't make the switch then. Now with the classic, which has  android runtime and the toolbelt (which i really liked on the 9900) I thought it's time to make the switch. But I find it surprisingly annoying exactly where I expected to see its strenght - reliability.
    I don't mind the blackberry link part so much, or that android apps work a bit laggy. I expected that. But I DO expect to see who is calling me and to have a reliable battery monitor.
    Other issues:
    - it doesn't completely lock the buttons when in holster. why do I have to be careful how I position my phone in my pocket so I don't accidentally turn it off? Also the holster rubs against the volume down button when inserted (original BB holster).
    - weird noises when I change the volume during a song or youtube video
    - due to a bug in a webpage or in the browser, it used 600 mb in about 10 minutes while running as an active frame.
    Apparently I blew off some steam. I really want to like this device. Hope future updates will make it better.
    Edit: After a reboot the call log returned to normal....

    First thing I would do is to switch the following off:
    Contacts > Settings
    Automatically Merge Contacts = Off
    Unmerge Existing Contacts = On
    Just to clarify, do you have all the contacts phone numbers in the format
    +40 xxx xxx xxx ?
    This would be ideal.
    Blackberry Engineering in Switzerland - Dexion Services AG

  • Ovi Store - Major major Rant to Nokia - you may wa...

    Another classic fail on Nokia's part!
    Nokia has announced closure dates for Mosh and Widsets through e-mails and news releases along with the eventual replacement of these services by the new Ovi Store.
    However, the smarts at Nokia have not included anything about when the Ovi Store is actually going to launch. Everywhere I read, it says the store is set to launch in May - but what's the date mate!??
    A quick search of the Nokia website only adds to the ineptitude: http://europe.nokia.com/A41447096?qt=ovi+store+lau​nch+date&x=19&y=8
    In my opinion, the only thing going for Nokia is the fact that S60 has multi-tasking and some of their phones support US 3G (AT&T).
    Nokia, you are really trying hard to **bleep** me off:
    Customers are screaming what they want to see in the phones - but the honchos are too busy squandering their riches from the past (Programs which work in Silos like Nokia contacts, Friendview, etc).
    Specific rants:
    1. Ditch the cheap plastic cases - seriously! They are obvious and cheesy - N85 is a big fail because of it.
    2. Use capacitive touch - I don't care what the hell your engineers say. Spend one hour with the iPhone and you will see how effortless capacitive is versus resistive.
    3. Promote a standardized look and feel for apps through your SDK. Maintain customer expectation/experience and quality across all apps - created by Nokia or by a third-party developer. Does it even occur to you that’s one primary reason the iphone is so popular?
    4. E71 - the camera is a joke compared to N73 which is three years older. This is not the precedent you want to set. News to you - technology should move forward - not backwards. The iPhone with a 2MP camera without flash takes phenomenally better pictures in daylight – after 3 E71 firmware updates. Get it? Fire the e71 camera division. It’s even worse when Nokia does not even accept they screwed up. And you wonder why Nokia has no market share in the US (hint the 5800 launch fiasco).
    5. Firmware updates across the board!? E61 – just 3 years old – is a business phone. The browser sucks. It crashes all the time or runs out of memory. It’s an older version. UPDATE it! I paid $450 for that. You can’t leave it in the dirt after two years of half-hearted support. Why are your firmware updates 6 months apart? It’s unacceptable. The market and internet is evolving too fast for you to sit on your butt; either reduce the number of devices per service line (that’s another story) if you can’t handle them or hire more/smarter people.
    6. EMEA, NAM, etc f/w update versions. Based on the updates you shoot out every 3-6 months, your QA guys are probably smoking crack. Even obvious fails slip through them. I can understand that hardware may differ over region-specific phones but it doesn’t warrant 3 month gaps between the region specific updates. Learn from your competitors – because these things will eat you. The end of your domination is already here – accept it to change things around. The 5800 alone will not save you and based on your price-range to specs for N97, I won’t count on it either (LED instead of Xenon for a $700 phone?).
    7. Widgets. Do you remember 2 years ago at an announcement – you mentioned that there will be widgets which will let users input their flight details and the widget will alert then about its arrival or departure delays, airport conditions, etc? The services to offer this information are already here –  e.g. FlightStats.com. But I don’t see the widgets anywhere?! What happened? Good idea/selling point but sounds like someone fell asleep. This should have been afocus of multitasking capability in a phone.
    8. E-series. Aah… the award-winning phone that no credible reviewer had the balls to take a pock shot at. Instead, reviewers sounded like they were done a favor by getting to play with review handsets by justifing the poor camera, ‘oh it’s a business phone; its primary function is not to take pictures.’ If that’s the case, then why the hell does it pack a **bleep** e-mail client for 4 years even on its newest iteration? And why does the phone not recognize calendar invites!? Even gmail has worked that **bleep** out. Inexcusable! Do you guys use your own devices in a non-Nokia centric environment at all? I didn’t think so. BTW, Nokia email is a paid for app eventually, it is not a replacement for the inbuilt messaging client. A client and service are two different entities and should be maintained so if you want people to use your devices anywhere. For e.g. your browser doesn’t just work with your servers now, does it?
    9. RAM. Why do your phones even today have miniscule amounts of RAM – usually just enough to get by - even though the prices have dropped exponentially?
    10. Call log – how did you manage to screw this up even more? Call log used to work fine on the E61. But with the FP1 / E71, every incoming call is shown as a ‘cell phone icon’ even if the number is associated with a land line. Also why are you not using different icons for work, home, cell phones? Is that rocket science? BTW, what’s QA been up to – at this point you might want to call a narcotics raid on them. Don’t get me wrong, you had it working right a few years back. I know you’re new to it but repeat after me: technology should move forward - not backwards – with time.
    11. Call log 2 – Where does all the information related to the call log get hidden? Because when I used synble, I noticed that ir was able to extract a hell of a lot more information from the call log than the phone's client. This is just sick. Winmo phones allow you to store THIRTY days worth of information. Not only that, I can go into a contact, and view my call history for that contact including durations for every call as long as it was all within the 30-day limit. Obviously synble has managed to pull a lot of it out from my E71. But shouldn't this have been part of your phone? So tell me, do you use any phones from your competitor at all? It might be wise to make a few purchases now. Plus if you want to learn from your competitior, you have to use it as your primary phone for 30 days and then go back to a Nokia and see what you can improve. This is the EASIEST way to improve/add features without investing into any 'smart' people for R&D and probably should have been your first step.
    12. Call log 3 – You know how right after you’ve called a contact or received a call, you want to try to call that contact again but at another number from the contact profile? Well guess what – you have to go through the address book to look at the other numbers. Yes, you can’t open the contact profile or alternate calling numbers from the call log itself. **bleep**? Talk about basic UI workflow/routing design. At this point, I’m beginning to think you have someone on the design/QA team with a mild narcolepsy problem.
    13. Contacts – Have you ever noticed how ‘easy’ it is to ‘delete’ a contact but hard to undo? I would think by the 5th iteration of S60 you would have got that down to a pat. I can hit the ‘back’ key and get a prompt to hit delete a contact. Nice. But if it’s a mistake, then what? I’m outta luck until the next time I sync. Plus, if my phone is set to sync automatically, then I will lose the information from my PC as well if it comes in range with my computer (I use Bluetooth and sutosync) or if I forget about restoring the information before I re-sync. Did it EVER #$%# occur to you that if you want to make deletion easy you have to make recovery just as easy, huh? Didn't think so. I am now beginning to think, Nokia folks secretly don't use their own phones.
    14. Contacts 2: While we’re at it. If you begin to edit a contact and mid-way you decide to ‘cancel’ or discard all changes made to the contact (you haven’t saved yet). There is no way to do that. Seriously. I am sure many of you have noticed that by now – on FP1 at least – which is not that old and has seen tens of updates. From Nokia’s perspective, you probably want to ‘save’ all information on-the-fly as a user is typing to prevent accidental loss; which is a good thing. But would it kill ya' to also add a function to ‘discard’ all changes and revert back to previously saved version of the contact on the phone. It’s not rocket science again. UAT (User Acceptance Testing) – That should have caught this. You might want to schedule a talk with the department head.
    15. Standard bookmarks in the browser that can’t be deleted. You asked for the hacking of your firmware. Because those bookmarks are useless and have never offered anything REMOTELY useful. They should have been removed from the browser by the second iteration 4 years ago. Or you should have built a team to develop content that's not discontenting. Besides, what’s wrong with allowing people rearrange those bookmarks? Plus the morons had to go right ahead and build a SEPARATE bookmark item for each link instead of putting them all in one folder called ‘Nokia’s junk’? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Instead of glorifying what you've accomplishe, how about spending some time over the failures? Because it looks like they are being carried over iteration after iteration.
    I can go on forever, but I am gonna stop here – cause as usual – you are probably not listening. But for your sake I hope you do!
    Times have changed; it’s not just about the hardware anymore – but more about the software. Also, if you can’t make your software to interact with non-nokia phones over the internet then you’re wasting your time (Nokia Friendview, etc). There are many platforms to compute - the internet has always been social and your time as a leader has already been squandered.
    This vent was written in 10 minutes – so please excuse typos.
    PS What's the ovi launch date?

    l have a nokia 700. My problem ovi store,mailbox can't open. Please help me.

  • HVX-200 and P2 rant

    It's really becoming a pain for me to work with Premiere and After Effects CS4 so I gotta vent a little.
    I'm doing Post FX and Color Correction in After Effects. I edited the movie in Premiere CS4 (started a bit in CS3 but movied over).
    Ok I shoot 24pa (with is basically 24 progressive frames captured though 60i). In CS 2,3 Premiere and After Effects both removed the extra frames automatically.
    Now since Late last year, I have to remember 'interpret footage' and check the box in Premiere. OK so I can lasso a bunch of files at once and do it in one shot. But all the time I bring in new clips and sometime I forget to 'check the box'
    Or worse, MEDIA BROWSER makes searching through P2 clips a breeze. Hell I can even pick in and out's with dragging the clip in. Except, I have to remember to 'Interpret footage' for each one I pull in.
    Ok I'm whining..but it gets worse!!!
    There's that great 'replace with After Effects' feature. Being able to fix a shot in AE makes editing so much easier for me.
    Except you have to do the 'INTERPRET FOOTAGE' DANCE AGAIN!!!!!!! Even if you did it in Premiere already. And this time it's not so easy, more clicks. But I'm, only doing one or two shots at a time in Premiere so it's not that annoying.
    So the cut's done (locked), let's finish the color correction in AE where I have much more powerful tools available and 32 bit float.
    Before I knew what I'm about to tell you I had 45 shots in a 10 minute reel as separate AE files.
    WTF When I 'import Premiere pro project' in AE. Every single AE file in the project is MISSING. I have to manually tell it where each file is located.
    That was 8 months ago. I still use AE to finish almost everything I do but I'm disappointed in Premiere. I'm actually thick enough to hope 4.1 gets something right, I'm afraid there to worried about RED.
    Rant's over for now.

    First and foremost, watch this tutorial:
    P2 Workflow Tutorial
    1. They stay the same size. All that happens is that a quicktime wrapper is wrapped around them, and audio and video are combined. No loss is quality occurs.
    2. A SATA RAID will do you fine, but honestly I have been editing this and Varicam footage using 2 G-Raid firewire 800 drives. You need at least a firewire 800 drive, but I'd recommend a SATA Raid. Sonnet, Weibetech, Firmtek and Burly boxes...all work well.
    3. Copy the P2 cards to field drives. Bring them in and transfer to firewire drives. These drives are your TAPE MASTERS. Do not erase these, do not lose these. Store these as your would field masters. I myself use internal SATA drives in a single firewire case that I swap out the drives. Cheaper than multiple enclosed drives. From there you import to your Media drives...your SATA Raid.
    4. No need to offline. DVCPRO HD really doesn't take up that much space...roughly twice what DV takes. Oh...you are going 1080 24p. That takes 42.12 GB/hour DV takes about 13GB/hour.
    5. Editing at full resolution is fine and easy. But you will not be able to get away with firewire 400 drives. As I said, FW800 or greater. 1080i might require more, thus the need for the SATA Raid.
    I believe that you need at least a Dua 1Ghz machine for DVCPRO HD, and you have that...and you have enough RAM...so you are good. The only choking point you will have is render times. Especially when compressing for DVD. 90 min show took me 14 hours...oof.
    And read my Blog about working with the HVX...click on Underdog to get there.
    Shane

  • Sorry, a serious error has occurred... Rant and a solution

    Warning. Much of this post is frankly a rant against a poorly written program and the so-called experts who offer up solutions here. If you are one of these experts and you have a thin-skin, don't read this post.
    If you just want a solution to the problem skip to the bottom of the post.
    INTRODUCTION
    Adobe, I want my money back! I rarely buy Adobe products and always wind up regretting it when I do. This product was no exception.
    I tried the trial version. Bought the product along with Photoshop Elements as part of a promotion.
    Produced a couple of videos with it, no problems. Then, inexplicably, it stopped working for me and I would get the infamous "Sorry, a serious error has occurred..." message while trying to start or open a project. This would happen almost immediately, as it was drawing its intial screen layout.
    MY FIRST BIG COMPLAINT... USELESS ERROR MESSAGE
    This has to be the most useless error message I've ever read. The few times I've had programs crash on me, the error message that results usually gives me enough clues to find and fix the root problem.
    ONWARD...
    Uninstalled it with Revo Uninstaller, re-installed it.
    Deleted all old project files.
    Tried to re-start by clicking 'New Project' button.
    Prompts me for a location for the project. I accepted the default.
    Immediately gives me the "Sorry, a serious error has occurred..." message and shuts down when I press okay.
    MY SECOND BIG COMPLAINT... INCOMPLETE UNINSTALL
    I did observe that when I went to use the Organizer after the re-installs, the thumbnails of previous videos were still there. Clearly some cache wasn't removed during the uninstall.
    If a cache wasn't removed, perhaps other remnants of the the program were still lying about on my machine. If they were the problem, then no amount of uninstalling/ re-installing would solve the problem.
    CONTINUING...
    At this point, I came to the forums for help and my worst fears were confirmed. This error message is a common problem. The suggestions to solve it were all over the place. The sheer depth and width of this faultfinding indicated to me that this is a seriously buggy piece of software.
    With one or two exceptions it seems that nobody ever resolves this problem.
    MY THIRD COMPLAINT... WELL-MEANING BUT UNHELPFUL 'SOLUTIONS'
    These are some of the typical solutions I read on these forums:
    - Your computer is probably underpowered. Give us a list of all your specs.
    - Your computer doesn't have enough hard drive space. Give us a list of all your specs.
    - Your computer doesn't have enough RAM. Give us a list of all your specs.
    - Something on your computer has 'changed'. Give us a list of all your specs.
    - Your hard drive is dying. Back it up quick!
    - It's probably your anti-virus software. Turn it off.
    - Some of your drivers are probably out of date. Update them all. Give us a list of all your specs.
    - That's a different issue... start a new thread. (Lame...)
    Most of that advice is... well, lame. It's pretty obvious that these people are just winging it, i.e. throw everything up there and hope something works. Sorta like that tech guy on the support line who always ends up telling you to 're-install the program' because he really has no clue what the problem is and just wants you off the line.
    As someone who has used video editing programs for years, I'm here to tell you that the problem is rarely the computer specs. The specs listed by Adobe for this program aren't that onerous and my three-year-old Dell 1525 laptop with less than 20 megs of space on its 136 HD and 2 megs of RAM was able to produce videos with no problem.
    Most computers sold within the last three or four years are pretty robust and should have no problem with consumer level video editing.
    Sending people off on a quest to 'fix' their computer and research a lot of computer specs is a time-waster. That should be the LAST thing you recommend after first eliminating the program as a problem.
    ONLINE SUPPORT
    This is worthy of its own post, but I won't bore you here. Suffice it to say that Adobe tech support deserves some sort of industry recognition for its ineptitude.
    MY SOLUTION
    First, let me reinterate. The problem is probably the buggy program and not your computer, assuming your computer is relatively new and mid-range or better.
    In my case, the clue was in the fact that not all of the program is uninstalled when you try to do a uninstall / re-install. The program likely had some sort of corrupted cache that stopped the program and that remained after an uninstall.
    I unstalled it again, but after some research I came across this tool:
    Adobe Creative Suite Cleaner Tool at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/829/cpsid_82947.html
    and this reference:
    http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/859/cpsid_85966.html
    The reference above applies to Photoshop, but the Organizer elements applies to Premiere unintalls as well.
    After applying these two solutions and then re-installing, my Premiere Elements is working once again.
    Had I followed the typical advice I would have spent days updating drivers, installing RAM, de-fragging and cleaning up my hard drive, listing specs to post here, etc. And none of it would have mattered a wit.
    The program is still buggy though and my original problem may re-occur, I admit. I will certainly never buy another version of this POS program again, but, in the meantime, I hope I can save someone here some time in looking for a fix for their own message.

    Your post count is 2 (as I write this) beginning July 17 - which indicates to me that you never asked for help in this forum (or you did so under another name)
    As Steve said (and which you may not have known) this is not Adobe support, this is a place provided by Adobe for users to try and help each other
    Yes... Adobe has less than good telephone support... a year or so ago that was even admitted to by the Adobe CEO, with discussion of that over in http://forums.adobe.com/community/general/forum_comments or maybe it was http://forums.adobe.com/community/general/forum_comments (been long enough ago that I don't really remember)
    If you do have future questions... come back and ask and someone will try to help
    Just as advance notice... don't come in saying "my file won't work... why?" without providing details... such as
    This is not pointed at you, at least right now... this is just for the future
    More information needed for someone to help http://forums.adobe.com/thread/416679
    Some specific information that is needed...
    Brand/Model Computer (or Brand/Model Motherboard if self-built)
    Build a Configuration file http://forums.adobe.com/thread/877653?tstart=0
    How much system memory you have installed, such as 2Gig or ???
    Operating System version, such as Win7 64bit Pro... or whatevevr
    -including your security settings, such as are YOU the Administrator
    -and have you tried to RIGHT click the program Icon and then select
    -the Run as Administrator option (for Windows, not sure about Mac)
    Your Firewall settings and brand of anti-virus are you running
    Brand/Model graphics card, sush as ATI "xxxx" or nVidia "xxxx"
    -or the brand/model graphics chip if on the motherboard
    -and the exact driver version for the above graphics card/chip
    -and how much video memory you have on your graphics card
    Brand/Model sound card, or sound "chip" name on Motherboard
    -and the exact driver version for the above sound card/chip
    Size(s) and configuration of your hard drive(s)... example below
    -and how much FREE space is available on each drive (in Windows
    -you RIGHT click the drive letter while using Windows Explorer
    -and then select the Properties option to see used/free space)
    Windows Indexing is BAD http://forums.adobe.com/thread/676303
    While in Properties, be sure you have drive indexing set OFF
    -for the drive, and for all directories, to improve performance
    Some/Much of the above are available by going to the Windows
    Control Panel and then the Hardware option (Win7 option name)
    OR Control Panel--System--Hardware Tab--Device Manager for WinXP
    And the EXACT type and size of file that is causing you problems
    -for pictures, that includes the camera used and the pixel dimensions
    Plus Video-Specific Information http://forums.adobe.com/thread/459220?tstart=0
    Read Bill Hunt on a file type as WRAPPER http://forums.adobe.com/thread/440037?tstart=0
    What is a CODEC... a Primer http://forums.adobe.com/thread/546811?tstart=0
    What CODEC is INSIDE that file? http://forums.adobe.com/thread/440037?tstart=0
    Report back with the codec details of your file, use the programs below
    For PC http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ or http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en
    For Mac http://mediainfo.massanti.com/

  • RANT: Please post with a meaningful subject line

    This is an SQL and PL/SQL forum. Almost all posts will be people needing help with a query, or in a PL/SQL procedure, so subject lines like
    Stored Procedure
    Please share your valuable experience
    Need help on the below query
    error while running PL/SQL
    Query
    Help need in this query
    PL/SQL
    Query - Help
    Help
    are essentially meaningless (those just in the last few hours).
    If you're getting an error, put the error in the subject line.
    If your query is slow, first read When your query takes too long ... and if that doesn't help then post with something in the subject line to indicate it's a performance related question.
    If it's a "how to" question, use that e.g "how to calculate a rolling average".
    Oh, and if your question is how to find the second highest salary in the department, don't bother posting at all.
    Just a pet peeve brought to a head by this morning's threads.

    Agree and disagree with your comments APC.
    Yes, the clueless and unwashed will not even bother reading this posting - just as they will not be bothered by using a totally meaningless subject for their posting.
    But, I do not think we should simply 'let it be' (only John/Paul made that work and in a song). The forum is what we, the members, make from it.
    I think my continual rants on using "urgent" for a subject header have made a difference and many "got the point". So I do not see Dave's rant as pointless - simply addressed at the wrong audience. He should instead post a small rant to an applicable posting and "spread the message" that way.
    As for what we choose to read and not read.. some of us are here because we want to help. And a poster with a meaningless subject has a lessor change of getting his/her posting read by those who want to help.. as it is simply a nameless problem amongst other nameless problems.

  • FCP forum - a bit of a rant

    - pass by if you don't hang out here or want to support helpful people. (no humor - only grumpyness...)
    One of the great problems with the LAST forum set-up was that if you spent your time helping "new to the forum" users, you often received little if any recognition in the points system. No great insight is required to tell someone to turn on their camera before launching FCP in order to capture, but since each person discovers the forum (and it is only REAL when THEY arrive) this class of response needs to be repeated over and over. As these new users were often totally ignorant of the points system and, since they often only showed up for their one issue then disappeared, they had no incentive to say thank you to those who took the time to help. In their minds, this is all part of the great APPLE machine - why say thank you? However, people who hung around WERE appreciative of things like: humor, community, grumpyness, brilliance etc and recognized the work that was being done.
    Now, in the new forum, we have a situation where the ONLY points available are from people - often the new users who are unaware of the format of the forum - who have absolutely no incentive to give feedback. Since these users are either unaware or do not care about the protocols of the forum, no votes for helpfulness/competence are given and the only way a reputation will be built is simply by post count. This seems very wrong to me.
    Additionally, I'm noticing fewer of the usual group around here. Perhaps it is me but I am concerned. No one is paid to be here and the only recognition was the points system. Now that seems to be gone or at least seriously compromised ...
    So, to new users, if someone has helped you, give them the points. If someone has answered the question, not only mark it answered, give the poster the points. Support the people who help you as they are trying to support you..
    rant over. flamesuit on. All responses written on the back of $50 bills will immediately attended to!
    cheers.
    x
    powerbooks to the left/ jokers to the right/ stuck in the middle ...   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   been there, haven't done this.

    I remember the "Helper" system, which relied on Apple granting the status to a community member. The forums seemed to have more direction back then, a tighter focus if you will.
    Of course, even then there were irreverent ones, who shall remain nameless ... with seemingly no ambition to be classified a "Helper" as such, but posted for the communities sake. Many still active.
    Not sure at all about the whole points thing which seems to have had a filter applied to it.
    And speaking of filters - I had a grip drop his tousers the other day and wiggle his but at the camera. So capture everything b/c there was audio involved, applied Broadcast Safe - and he's still there .. wiggling. I mean that's gotta be a bug, right ?

  • ImageIO, Timers, Transparency and a Rant

    Hi all,
    <BEGIN RANT>
    After years of writing games and programming next-gen consoles, I foolishly decided to write a few online java games. Like many, I chose Java because it is very similar to c++ and accessible cross-platform on web pages by the masses with no extra downloads required (btw, I'm not using j3d for this reason). Instead I've found it to be nothing but a burden.
    Today's gripes are below. If I sound like I'm having a rant, well, adter fighting it all this week, I am!. Any help/suggestions/discussions are most appreciated. I'm currently using j2sdk 1.4.1_02.
    1) why can't I enable hardware accleration (currently transparency sucks on the framerate) without requiring permissions? What exactly am I going to do with it to make it a security risk?
    2) Why doesn't Java (without j3d or any other extensions) support the high-resolution timer? Such a basic issue that has been plaguing these forums for years. It seems i can't even do a work around as using JNI requires permissions and an external module on the users machine so I can't do this from an APPLET without signing and installing something. Sure, I could just about use 15ms on w2k and make win98 users suffer 20fps with the 50ms res timer. I tried (and succeeded) using my own timers but that means I can't sleep (as sleep>0 will sleep for at least the timer resolution) so my cpu usage is on 99%. And it destroyed my win98 machine :-)
    3) Has anyone had problems with ImageIO.read in an applet? I find that occasionally when reading an image from my web server, it reads it twice (I guess it found an error and re-requests it) and corrupts the image. At first I thought it was my php corrupting the image, but it does it on direct accesses as well. Toolkit.createImage does not seem to have this problem (but then I have to wait for it to load (currently i construct a cursor with the image which seems to sort it) and then paste it to BufferedImage rather than the inaccessible image type returned by toolkit). Toolkit does however have the advantage that I can use extensionless image files and prevent caching though which ImageIO.read seems unable to handle (it usually loses the palette of gifs etc without the extension hint). My web server is apache 2.0.45 on Win2K btw.
    These issues concern APPLETS. If i wanted to write an application, I would use C++ and OpenGL with very little extra work required for each specific platform (I'd only support PC, Mac and x86 based linux anyway). The point is that i want it embedded on a web page, and I don't want the user to have to install anything other than the Java VM.
    What about the rest of you?
    What are your experiences with Java? Good? Bad?
    Do you guys think there is any future for it?
    Does Java 1.5 have anything to offer?
    IF it comes down to it, and I NEED to sign my code and INSTALL code then I will just abandon Java altogether and just stick to windoze users (It will take a fraction of the development time and be far less painful for me to use ActiveX or .net).
    Oh, and if you're just going to reply and say something like "I think Java's the bestest thing ever, it's so much better and cooler than C++ and all my friends think so too. Cos my teacher says so" then don't waste my time.
    If you have games experience and know what you're on about then I'd love to hear your views.
    <END RANT>
    Cheers
    -Simon

    Hi Paul,
    Thanks for your views.
    Badly because it provides the security protections it
    says it does?No, I mostly appreciate the security but some things seem a little too secure. For example, I want to use hardware acceleration for my translucencies but Java won't let me....
    You can always ask users to change the permissions
    your applet runs under, I guess, assuming the browser
    support it. But at that point, why not just write
    your game in C++ and tell people to download it and
    run it normally?
    If you're trying to write a Quake clone in java and
    distribute it as an applet...don't bother.The point is that I don't want to do this. I want ppl to have to visit the web site to play the game without having to grant permissions or install anything or agree to run signed code (not just for advertising purposes but also as some of the games will be multiplayer). This is why I'm using Java and not activeX or .net.
    I am perfectly capable of writing any genre of game to be cross platform in C++ (if I use OpenGL then I only need a thin platform-specific wrapper and I just compile it for my required targets - PC, Mac, x86 Linux), and I really don't see the point in attempting it as a Java application. The games I'm currently doing for my website in Java are simple 2d games suitable as applets. The main problem I'm having is that I need to sleep to free up the cpu, but the low-res timer resolution means that I can only run at 20fps on win98 when sleeping. Yes it runs ok, but by no means as smooth as I'd like.
    I think java may be used in action gaming once it's
    embedded into an environment that really supports it
    (e.g., as a well-supported programming environment for
    PlayStation 2) (and somehow I doubt that OpenGL
    bindings for java will work as a gaming environment,
    although that's just a hunch), and it's fine for
    non-action games.Yes it can do the job, but the fact is that Java is and always will be slower than code compiled directly for the target CPU so this means my entire audience need to have higher spec machines to run it than I'd like. I would not write anything that is too CPU intensive in Java as there are also still a lot of low spec machines out there running win98 which I (unlike most ppl on these forums) am still willing to support.
    Cheers
    -Si

  • Just a happy rant

    Hi all,
    No question here, just a very happy rant. Last week my faithful but old ALPB finally decided to throw in the towel and call it a day after almost 7 years of service. Sad, but also a great excuse to finally upgrade. Being that I'm poor, I couldn't afford new, but I was lucky enough to stumble across a 15" MBP early '08 model still under AppleCare until next year, so I jumped. The machine arrived today, and in anticipation of it's arrival I purchased an upgrade copy of Snow Leopard yesterday. The installation went smoothly, and once I was up and running I was shocked. I was obviously expecting the new machine to be faster than my old PB, but HOLY CRAP!!!!! Completely flabbergasted wouldn't even do justice! In just the fast few hours I've found dozens of things my old PB wouldn't even have tried to do! The speed and ease of which it does tasks that my PB used to struggle with is an amazing delight! It's been 7 years since I've been this thrilled about a Mac, and a long 7 years it's been!
    Anywho, I just had to vent my excitement somewhere, and this seemed an appropriate place. I have no Mac using friends, so none would understand my excitement. Any comments or suggestions for someone that just jumped a 7 year gap in Mac technology would be welcome. I've found myself on an unexpected learning curve just from large list of abilities my old PB just couldn't, or wouldn't, perform.
    Thanks for listening!

    a brody wrote:
    You may want to check http://www.apple.com/usergroups/ for possible Mac using friends nearby.
    We used to have a MUG here in Traverse City, but I believe that they've stopped meeting as of January due to lack of interest. The group has been reduced to a webpage and online forum.

  • Adobe support rant

    Adding to my post below, and this is a rant about customer support.
    As I type I've been on hold for 2 hours and 11 minutes, online chat tells me that there's "someone waiting to help you" but the chat window says "We apologize for the wait due to high traffic to our website.  All representatives are currently busy and it is taking longer to help customers currently in queue.  Your estimated wait time is 14 minute(s) and 3 second(s) or longer as there are 16 customer(s) in line ahead of you.  You might want to try us again later to avoid the longer wait. Thank you for your patience."
    The billable hourly rate of Designers and Adobe suite users in the US and Europe can be in the region of $200 per hour. If I wasn't multitasking doing email etc,I'd be heamorraging cash.
    This is appalling.

    David, Nick just called up and I have been dealing with him from a past few days, It looks like its an older post to me.
    This is his case number# 183946822
    If I am not wrong, Nick would like to post up here something now.

  • Creative suite 5 and windows 7 64bit + a rant

    Our company has several licenses of Creative Suite 5 Premium Pro  that we use on Windows 7, 64 bit, 12GB ram, xeon quad core 2.93GHz processor, with 2GB nvidia quadro video cards.
    Premiere Pro crashes anytime you try to edit a film.
    Big file or small, it doesnt matter, it just stops working and crashes to the desktop.  I am a support desk tech for my company and not familar with how premiere works, just when the operator loads the movie, and tries to edit it, it crashes.
    Also, Premiere Pro doesnt open on the first or the second attempt to open, but on the third it finally opens.  Clicking on it from the start, then all programs, then adobe creative suite, then finally premiere pro. It just ignores the first two attempts to open it.
    Thats the gyst of the tech problem.
    begin rant-
    The first time i called Adobe for Creative Suite support, they told us our licenses were registered to a non-corporate account despite them being corporate volume licenses.  Had to get transferred to customer support and fight with them for 2 days to get it sorted.
    Now, about 1 month later, same thing is happening again, our corporate volume licenses are registered to some home @live.com mail address and we cannot get support without losing another 2 days arguing with customer support.
    Our previous problem was with indesign crashing indisciminately.
    Who has time to sit on the phone with Adobe "customer support" all day for multiple days trying to resolve something that shouldnt have been changed in the first place.
    Does anyone else see this type of thing happening with licenses changing possession and any tips for running premiere without crashes?
    thanks.

    Please repost in the Premiere Forum.

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