So are they fit for purpose?
Page 2
The Fit PC is soundly made, compact and low energy. It performs well enough
for many of the tasks that might be asked of it and is certainly more
discrete (and less attractive to thieves) than a laptop. The Acer Revo is a
strong competitor especially on cost; the differences in power consumption
would probably never reach the payback point. It is, however, quite a bit
larger than the Fit PC. The Mac Minis are more expensive but they are more
functionally akin to a real personal computer and they do get you away from
the dreaded Windows operating systems. Note, by the way, that the cost of
the operating systems are not included in the table on the previous page. We
tested the Fit PC on Windows XP, Ubuntu Linux and OpenSolaris operating
systems, the average photographer might need some help using the latter two
but they are both free!
And now something that does work! Every so often when you use computers you
stumble on something that works! The fact that it was freeware in this case
only made the experience more pleasurable. Paul McMullin was editing his
shots from a recent shoot in Singapore and the architects has asked for each
shot to be GPS tagged so that they could get to work with their 3-D CGI
packages and 'build' the new project in a virtual environment. Photoshop
allows you to get at the GPS data but in a very limited, textonly way,
requiring a lot of manual data entry. Geosetter, a piece of freeware (www.geosetter.de)
came to the rescue. This took less than five minutes to download and install
and voilą! – when you click on a file in the browser, Google Maps pops up
and shows exactly where you were and how high off the ground you were (in
this case 165m high and just off Raffles Avenue, Singapore – cool address!).
Once again the enthusiast community are out-running the commercial sector.
Our thanks are due to Better Digital Camera, the Australian magazine whose
timely article on the subject led us to this little gem – some days
everything just comes together!
Mac Monkeys on the Rampage
Well, the honeymoon did not last long! We have been taken to task a number
of times for ranting about Vista. For balance, let's have a go at Apple for
a change. Snow Leopard is now the operating system of choice (and delivery)
when you order a new Mac. However, at the time of writing, Snow Leopard does
not correctly interface the Epson 4800, along with a bunch of other printers
(we have heard both Canon and HP mentioned). It almost works, a print comes
out, it's just that it is not colour managed and you have no option to set
either the media or the resolution of the printing. In a nutshell it does
not work. Bearing in mind that the 4800 is one of the prime proofing
devices, this is a serious shortcoming. We might just forgive them if they
had come clean but the Mac Pro tower in question was supplied in the
knowledge that it was going into a graphics environment, including an Epson
4800. This is core Mac territory (graphics and proofing), they seem to be
picking up bad habits from the Microsoft monkeys. After we had failed to get
either a reference grade LCD monitor to calibrate, or a decent print out of
a 4800 we limped home injured. We have yet to face the issue of getting the
film and flatbed scanners working. All Mac Monkeys who have championed the
cause in the switching battle may write to HQ to receive a complimentary
sample of our humble pie. The advertising monkeys need to be reminded of
their vulnerability – their stap line 'It just works' should be replaced by
'It just doesn't work'!
It Gets Worse
Talking of operating systems, Windows 7 has been launched; we hope you all
held 'welcome to Windows 7' parties, as urged by the TV advertising.
Honestly, whatever next! It's an operating system for goodness sake – it's a
bit like holding a party to celebrate the triumphant return of Eddie the
Eagle – patently hopeless, but well done for trying! Save the booze, you are
probably going to need it before you get much deeper into the joys of
Windows 7. Presently the base of XP users in Europe and the US stands at 79%
with just 9% on Vista (a mere 3% more than Windows 2000 users!). According
to the same report 61% of the IT decision-makers questioned said that they
intended to skip Vista and go straight to Windows 7 in between 12 and 18
months' time when they had ironed out any compatibility issues.
This leaves the solo-operating photographers in a quandary. They need a new
laptop today, the old one just fell out of the back of the SUV onto the
drive – what should they buy? Presently they have a choice of XP, Vista or
Windows 7, but XP will soon be left as a destitute, unloved orphan. So, do
you risk Windows 7 or go for a Mac? You might be tempted by the touch screen
capabilities of Windows 7; you can sit there, operating CS5 looking like a
checkout girl in an M6 Moto (is that a skinny latte, ham and eggs with a
side order of fries?).
Regardless of what you do it seems that you are faced with pain – we hope
you saved that booze from the Windows 7 party that never happened.
Rant Over.
