Category Archives: Photography

Louche Long

Hall of Shame, Macintosh

Taste and money rarely mix.

Apple has had several justly famous advertising campaigns, from the ‘1984’ ad where an athlete hurls a sledgehammer at a movie screen in a theater filled with automatons, to the ‘Think Different’ series which adulated original thinkers. But maybe the most beloved was the long running ‘I’m a Mac and I’m a PC’ with the comedian John Hodgman as the nerdy and lovable PC-using klutz and, well, Justin Long. Long portrayed the oh! so cool Mac user and his smarmy, condescending, hipster presence did nothing to endear prospects to the Apple brand, for it was Hodgman viewers tuned in to view. One of the best known ads had PC swathed in bandages head to toe, explaining that his multiple crashes were the cause. Another had him on the shrink’s couch relating how unloved he was. Hodgman simply nailed it.


Nerd and hipster.

Before examining the new Intel ads claiming their CPUs are superior to Apple’s new M1 – a CPU which is universally lauded as redefining the realms of possibility in Macs – it bears to relate Apple’s history with CPU makers. The Motorola 68000 family in early Apple ][ computers could not hold it own, Motorola falling behind the performance game, and gave way to the IBM G3/4/5 series. Capable performers, these suffered from high heat output and, when Steve Jobs asked for a cool running successor to the G3 in the fabulous Powerbook notebook, IBM gave him the G4 which did a more than passable imitation of a toaster. It ran that hot. So Steve started the team working on converting the product line to Intel’s CPUs and did so successfully until …. Intel started repeating the errors of Motorola and IBM. Slow development cycles, loss of competitive position, we had seen it all before. But Apple, as always looking down the road, had an answer, having been sub-contracting design and development of its iPhone and iPad CPUs to ARM with whom the company increasingly adopted a tailored approach, not willing to rest on the laurels of a commodity product suitable for all.

This exercise culminated last year in Apple going whole hog and developing its own M1 CPU which not only derived from the state-of-the-art A14 in the iPhone, it also spanked the competition on performance (high) and power use and heat output (low). It was such a success that Apple has started migrating its notebooks and the Mac Mini to the M1 and later this year will do the same for the iMac and Mac Pro.

So Intel, always a day late and an idea short, felt it had to strike back and hired the louche Long, ever willing to prostitute his C-list Hollywood credentials, to talk up the advantages of Intel’s latest (very late) and (not so) greatest CPUs. And they got it so wrong, it’s comical to behold. Not only is Long still smarmy and condescending – characteristics as tied to the actor as the sneer is to Donald Sutherland – it’s really quite unclear what he is going on about.


See what I mean about Long?

For the whole story, capably reported by Apple Insider, click here.

AMD Radeon GPUs

Mac Pro

An element of future proofing.

For an index of all my Mac Pro articles, click here.

Apple simply cannot leave OS X alone. An OS that was perfectly solid with the Snow Leopard iteration back in 2009 continues to see annual ‘upgrades’ which add nothing but useless bells and whistles. And with OS X High Sierra (10.13 – 2017) Apple made the last version of OS X which worked with Nvidia GPUs. Nvidia and Apple had parted company a while back and Nvidia decided that the small user base no longer justified coding of drivers for later versions of OS X despite having some of the best GPUs made. Then Apple insisted on adding its Metal GPU technology meaning that from OS X Mojave (10.14) no Nvidia GPUs would work. A solution looking for, and finding, a problem.

So why care when OS X High Sierra works well? Because increasingly app makers are coding for Metal, and if your app is one of those and is in need of an upgrade, you are stuck with migrating to a recent model GPU from AMD/ATI.

I have not researched this in great depth but the AMD HD7950 is known to work well as are later versions. I bought a used 3gB HD7950 on eBay – it was fraudulently advertised as a later R9 280, so what else is new with eBay – and it works well in High Sierra. Here are the comparisons from HWCompare:


Nvidia GTX980 4gB vs. AMD HD7950 3gB.

My tests on my Mac Pro 2010 confirm that the AMD card – it ran me $220 – is marginally slower than the Nvidia/EVGA GTX980 in use, but as I do not do heavy video processing that does not concern me.


Unigine video tests. The upgrade to a faster CPU is irrelevant here.

Nova returns similar performance comparisons:


The GTX980 returns 2640.

Static power consumption, measured using a Kill-A-Watt meter, is 225 watts, compared with 252 watts for the Nvidia card. That rises to 460 watts with a BENQ 32″ 1080p display while running Unigine Heaven. That is well within the power handling of the Mac Pro and, more importantly, the 200 watt maximum power draw of the AMD GPU is below the 225 watts available to the card via the PCIe slot (75 watts) and the two motherboard cable feeds, one 6 and the other 8 pin. Those provide 75 watts each for a maximum of 225 watts. The AMD card is very quiet and there is no start up whirr, unlike with the Nvidia card. While the seller stated the boot screen works (my MacVidCards modified GTX980 provides a boot screen on its DVI and DP ports, not on the HDMI one) that is not the case. I could not get boot screens on any of the MDP, DVI or HDMI ports. Oh! well ….

Should you ‘upgrade’ to an AMD card? Well, if your latest apps insist on Metal and you want/have to install OS X Mojave (10.14) or Catalina (10.15), you have no choice. Only AMD GPUs will work. Does the AMD card work with the latest OS X, Big Sur (10.16)? It’s too early to say.

Adding 4K to the movie Mac Pro:

My motivation was different. Having added a big screen LG OLED TV a couple of years ago to the home theater, I wanted to deliver 4K video to the display which is mostly driven from a single CPU 2009 Mac Pro which is a robust and reliable file server as well as offering internet access to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. But the HDMI card in that Mac Pro is an ancient GTX520, limited to 1080p. Thus I have been using an Apple TV4K to deliver 4K streams, but that’s not an especially elegant solution as you have to switch between sources. That machine is running OS X Yosemite (10.10 – 2014) and has no need of Metal technology. So it occurred to me I could both future proof my 2010 Mac Pro by installing an AMD card and at the same time switch the GTX980 over to the 2009 movie Mac Pro where it will happily deliver 4K definition (3840 x 2160 in the 16:9 aspect ratio, compared with 1920 x 1080 in 1080p). That would allow sale of the AppleTV4K as all movies would be streamed through the Mac Pro and no input switching would be required. The home screen looks like this:


The Mac Pro movie server home screen – all icon driven. DVDPedia – at top left – catalogs movies on the server.

I use a small app named Img2Icns to generate icons from images found on the web.

HiDPI

When Apple migrated its screens to the Retina Display icons shrank to a quarter of their original size, making them very hard to see and click. Most external monitors, like a 4K TV, do not recognize the HiDPI tech built into the displays on Macs, so HiDPI has to be enabled to show icons in a decent size while not affecting 4K definition in 4K movies. HiDPI scaling can be enabled by starting Terminal (in Applications->Utilities) and typing the following (works with OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later):

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

Hit enter, type your password, hit enter again and reboot. HiDPI is now enabled. Go to System Preferences->Displays, click on ‘Scaled’ (you may have to hold down the Alt key on your keyboard) and HiDPI options will now be shown. Click on 3840 x 2160 (HiDPI) and your icons will revert to regular size. You can verify that you’re getting the right resolution by clicking the Apple Menu in the top-left, selecting “About This Mac”, then the “System Report” button, then clicking “Graphics/Displays” in the list on the left. You will see something like this:

Displays:

AV Receiver:
Resolution: 3840×2160 (2160p 4K UHD – Ultra High Definition)
UI Looks like: 1920×1080 (1080p FHD – Full High Definition)

If you decide you want to revert the change above, just use this terminal command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool false

SwitchResX:

If you struggle with getting the right definition and frame rate in System Preferences->Displays, install SwitchResX, a small, inexpensive utility which allows you to set both. I find 24fps is inadequate for some movies and with HDMI on a Mac Pro (which supports HDMI 1.4, not the faster 2.0) you can increase the framing rated from 24fps to 30fps, which works well. I have it set at 3840×2160 which is 4K and 30fps.

Conclusion:

So if you need to add Metal/Mojave et al compatibility to your Mac Pro a late model AMD card works well and needs no special drivers. An older Nvidia card (GTX680 or later, but no later than GTX980) can be used to stream movies in 4K definition, a definition also supported by the AMD card. However, the Nvidia card is limited to OS X High Sierra (10.13) or earlier.

No more identity theft

Hall of Shame, iPad, iPhone, Ramblings

Hasta la vista, Zuck.


No more theft.

iOS 14.5 for the iPhone and iPad will be released shortly. Unlike previous versions of the operating system, apps which would require the user to opt-out of tracking their activity now will require the user to consciously agree to be tracked. The opt-in screen appears above.

Why is this a big deal?

Let me flashback to to my son’s 6th grade year in California. That was in 2014. As we were walking home I noticed that all the kids in the playground were busy staring at their smartphone screens.

“What are they doing, Winnie?” I asked in all innocence.

“Facebook, Dad”.

This set me off on a process of discovery and disclosed what has to be the greatest evil of our time. Not only was Facebook absorbing and wasting huge amounts of time for these fertile young brains, it transpired that it was tracking everything these kids did even if they were not on Facebook. And unless you have been in a nuclear blast-proof bunker the last few weeks with no access to any sort of connectivity, you will also know that Facebook extended its evil ways as an organizing vehicles for traitors, seditionists and insurrectionists. Censorship of hate speech be damned, thanks to Mr. Zuckerberg. The people who stormed the Capitol on their Pig’s orders on January 6, 2021 had organized their meetings on Facebook and, to a lesser extent, on Twitter.

But it gets even worse. 4 years ago a very close US presidential election awarded that same Pig the Oval Office thanks to the Russkies’ massive campaign of disinformation on …. yup, you guessed it, Facebook. And every time those seditionists clicked on the site of their local guns and ammo supplier, Facebook was there making money off their clicks. Zuckerberg was, simply stated, being paid by the makers of deadly weapons.

Now Zuckerberg is up in arms about Tim Cook’s privacy decision. He argues that the requirement to opt-in to being tracked will make your “….advertising experience worse.” Excuse me? Is there something like a good advertising experience?

Come to think of it, while you are at it, you might as well install an ad blocker on all your devices to cut the noise and disruption ads cause in the reading experience.

So when iOS 14.5 is announced, I advise all iOS users to upgrade immediately and refuse to opt-in to tracking of their activity. If you prefer to be watched, sold, tracked, filed and numbered while enhancing Mr. Zuckerberg’s bloated net worth, then stick with your Samsung cell phone. iOS 14.5 works on iPhone 6S or later.

As for my son, he gave up Facebook shortly after the experience explained above, and has never been happier or more productive.

Seiko PADI solar

Ramblings

A fine and inexpensive timepiece.


The Seiko PADI Solar Model SNE435P1

A friend is an expert on watches and helped me with the decision to buy an inexpensive yet robust timepiece. I have got tired of inflicting damage on costly Swiss timepieces and the related maintenance agonies which last seemingly forever. Last time my Patek Philippe Nautilus was in for replacement of a broken bracelet clasp the service took – wait for it – 9 months.

The Seiko PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) diver’s watch uses a quartz movement, charging its battery through solar cells embedded in the dial. These are so skillfully hidden as to be invisible to the naked eye, and will recharge from any light source. Once fully charged the watch will run for 10 months, according to the manufacturer.

The watch’s appearance is a rip off of the Rolex Submariner with two differences. It’s quartz, not automatic, so far more accurate. And the rotating bezel is screen printed like earlier Submariners. Later ones are enameled for greater longevity.

This is an excellent watch for the rider of a classic motorcycle which has no clock installed. Like my 1975 BMW R90/6 air cooled twin. That’s because the visibility of the hands is very high, requiring only a quick glance at speed and meaning that you do not have to angle your wrist this way and that for a reading.

After many days of checking – you can freeze the seconds hand when setting the watch against a know accurate time source like Apple – the watch is dead accurate, having neither gained or lost as much as one second. The only time you are going to be adjusting the time is at the end of short months when the crown is rotated to advance the date. By contrast the Rolex is guaranteed to +/- 2 seconds a day, or up to one minute a month, which is disappointing on so costly a timepiece.

The Lumibrite fluorescence of the hands is excellent though it rather fades after 3-4 hours. The outer diameter of the dial is 43.5mm suitable for medium and larger wrists. I has to remove one link for a good fit, as well as setting the clasp on its shortest of four positions.

The bracelet is not, however, Rolex quality, using a mix of stainless stampings and castings. The pin and collar mechanism used to connect links is a horror story necessitating that a small 2mm collar is installed one side as the pin is pushed in from the other after removal of link(s). Chances are your jeweler is clueless and will lose the collar, meaning the bracelet will eventually fall apart. Check out online videos, splash out $5 on a pusher tool and do it yourself. The bracelet rattles off the wrist but is fine once in place. The deployment mechanism uses both a clasp and a push button release as a failsafe. While aftermarket bracelets are available for many Seikos, none has yet been made for this model. They tend to be better quality and use screws, not pins, to connect the links. Typically priced around the $100 mark you can buy ten before approaching the cost of the repair on my Nautilus.

Price is incredibly low for what you get. I paid $300 at Amazon. That’s less than the round trip shipping of your Rolex to Geneva when it breaks down, and it will. The happy Seiko owner simply recycles his PADI and buys a new one. He is also $15,000 richer, money which can be spent on scuba gear and lessons.

Fans of automatic movements can spend $50-100 more for the Automatic Turtle (SRPA21J1) or the Automatic PADI (SRPA21) which will get you less accuracy and a short 41 hour power reserve. Replacement aftermarket bracelets for those models are readily available. All are guaranteed leakproof down to 200 meters (660 feet).

The Solar has a date only display with a cyclops magnifier for better visibility. The Automatic PADI and Turtle have day and date displays, unmagnified. Accuracy of the automatic watches is specified by Seiko (4R36 movement) as +45/-35 seconds a day which is, frankly, awful, but can probably be tuned for better performance. None of these qualifies as a ‘dress’ watch, but as I gave away all my suits and ties years ago, ask me if I care.

Highly recommended.

Update after one month of use:

The Seiko gained just 3 seconds. Given that the date has to be advanced mostly every other month, I’ll simply ‘hack’ it at that time to lose the 3 seconds or so it has gained.