The Essence of Daedalus Rimes - Two Minds are Better than One

When I was asked by H.W. Lewis get the
permission for S.t.i.l.l.i.f.e. resurrection
piece as a Cover for his second book, I had no clue what its all about.

(half plaster sculpture and photomanipulation, special credits to suzi9mm)

But since he is the Author and not an Agent (whose job it is to hunt for images) I found out and felt honored that Howard is a fan of my work. Publishing a book as independent Author is a very difficult task and every step needs to be contemplated and considered carefully, I´m glad we came together to realize this project, and hopefully there will be more sculptures that find a way onto the book-shelves.

He was so nice to send me a copy of his first book to get me an account of his story, or rather the story of "Daedalus Rimes".

At this point I have to say that I am not a big reader at all, and this is just a personal review (for making book covers a short briefing is usually the only bit of information's I get about a project)  additionally my mother tongue is German and therefore I had to get into the foreign language of the book first, which is a more demanding task than just reading or writing "everyday- comments or mails"

After I got past the first pages I had the impression of a blockbuster going on in my head, very visually and emotionally communicated! I can say the first book is not only a refreshing change to typical sci-fi, or what you expect from it, its a wonderful and great debut!
And once you think you´d know a bit more about the protagonist T.e.e.l.a. this Character captivates the reader in a way that cannot be compared to anything, at least to what I´ve seen or read, I can only say so much: two minds are better than one

Without a doubt the book will raise thoughts about our life on earth from a point of view that makes you think really different about the human race *a shiver runs down my spine*.

However, I´m a fan of technology, especially alien technology and crossings of humans with ..whatever... which I always explore in my personal, artistic experiments, (like my trans genetic metahumans reflect quite good:) So if you, in a slightest way, share this fascination, this book is for you.

What most fascinated me is the way Howard describes the characters and specifies habits or circumstances in a familiar manner, without wasting precious space or interrupting the tension, both books are page-turners that will satisfy.

There are some comments about the first book at AMAZON here and after I read them, I can only relate and second every comment about the book, my only addition is that I wish Roland Emmerich would make a movie out of this book, and Independence day would turn pale.

I had a hard time deciding whether I should write about the story here, but this blog is not about reviews of books, thats the job or hobby of others, occasionally when I´m moved by something (especially when my work is involved) its possible that it will find an outlet here.

I will not post spoilers here, simply to avoid cut and dried opinions.

Build your own opinions and discuss!

10 Reasons why working on a Mac Sucks for Creatives (Bigtime)

MAC vs. PC, this discussion will never end, but the times have changed: when Apple/Macintosh started out about 30 years ago, their main focus were creative, nowadays the graphic designers and illustrators are served by Adobe, and Apple can focus on the mainstream -end user.

Why should I bother? Lets say I had an experience the last couple of weeks and need to share it:
Recently my 4 year old PC left me with a dead main board, and I thought its time for a new one,
The big question arises always then: Mac or PC, but after working on finishing some commissions on a 2009  Macbook Pro from my spouse with the GeForce 9500M card and an external Monitor, I got to know what a royal pain in the *** is;-)

(I end up building a custom i7 920, compared to my 2 Ghz macbook the picture above describes the differences very well:) I link this image here in the thinking of fair use and I don´t know from whom it originally is, let me know and I´ll credit!


Statement:
My observations and OS-comparisons grew over the years and its time for me to share this, but please respect that this is only my view, I write about the OSX here as WORKING -platform for mainly graphical design and digital imaging.
In no case I´ll offend someone, if you will, you can call this my public wishlist to Steve Jobs in the hope that the products and especially the OS will get better someday;-)

If you are a proud Mac user you should avoid reading this, it could cause anger and frustration, I will not be responsible for any thrown away Mac´s


Reason 1:

The task bar contains all menu options

OK, for Mac natives on a 13" display and use of single monitor work, its saving space,
but dual -monitor -work is a pain, because of the next reason:

Reason 2:

The task bar cannot be moved to another monitor

If you are used to WINDOWS, its naturally that you want to drag and drop the taskbar wherever you want it to save space, especially if you have Photoshop opened on the big-screen and have to search menu-options on the other smaller screen... fail! @ceoSteve_Jobs

Reason 3:

No database import, no files

I don´t know if this is because of the underlying MACH Architecture of OSX, this essential function is missing and apple sells this missing function with an extra program that is needed in order to get your images listed, tagged and whatsoever through libraries. In fact; whatever you want to use, itunes, iphoto, iweb, it all depends on libraries -want to connect a huge external device and search a file instantly? No way, it needs to be imported to your favorite software to be found in iweb for example or you have the big fun in Finder...

Reason 4:

The Finder sucks

No customization options like tabs or viewing pane plugins..., no essential database and indicating options, nothing useful in this tool.  If you want open a file from within Photoshop for example, browsing to your folder of choice (if its not a recently used one) is a royal pain.
Someone like me who knows what the explorer is capable of appreciates the speed the new i7 processors browse and search with ease through folders with 1000 of images without a lag and database need (!) regardless if on the local folder or external storage.

Reason 5:

iWeb produces too much useless code

I know, every WYSIWYG-editor produces a waste of code, but from a list of ten I bet Iweb is near place one, I use it because its ease of use and because its built in and integrates nice with the OS, but buying dreamweaver instead the Macbook would have been the less expensive choice. Also: iweb ftp functions still not properly working in ilife 09

I know there are possibly some useful updates, but the one i waited for in ilife 09 was the alternative to directly publish to an ftp, especially because Apple promised this feature would work, now, a year later it still doesn´t work= fail!

Reason 6:
Mac is more stable than a Windows -PC 
Every Windows user had experienced it, a crash, a bluescreen, a blackscreen, and every Windows user thinks, the Mac users do have it better, no crashes, perfect designed hardware that fits all  qualification for a long, stable Mac-life...wrong!
I experienced both, and since Windows XP and Windows 7 the OS on a PC hardware are extremely stable today, sure malware is an issue, but google this for MAC and you be sure to find updates that Mac´s aren´t that safe as they were in the nineties with only a handful of viruses, malware can also affect Mac-users, welcome to reality;-)
I also have a Macbook and sometimes use the Macbook Pro from my spouse and its safe to say, the Mac hangs as often as a PC, if not even more, freeing up resources would might help to avoid this, but Apple rather choose to complain about FLASH than to reduce resource waste on their machines, that would allow problem-free watching of youtube videos for example.

Reason 7:
Too much distraction from colorful icons and a dock that can´t be disabled
Its true, until OSX 10 the OS was capable of working without being distracted, the main surface was grey beneath a greyer grey, when Apple discovered the colors it has to become clear to every creative that their intention and market has changed.
When everyone moaned that Windows was too full of blingbling in the early 2000, now its OSX 10.5/6
As a special point here I wanted to show the problem of disabling the dock, there is no function to disable this feature, why do I need a zooming Icon that pops up if I want to run a program or open a folder? - Big fail!

Reason 8: 

Fully Photoshop power only under 64bit OSX Snow-Leopard?

Yes its true, even if CS 4 is not based under Rosetta anymore, its a shame all CS- versions before were all setup on a virtualization kernel, that allowed the user to wait 40 % longer for any process to run. Now the 64bit capability of OSX 10.6 and the new Photoshop CS5 allows full range support of the 64bit that Apple offers, the downside, it starts to be fun above 4 GB RAM, so if you are on a Macbook, Macbook Pro, or iMac, you´ll probably not enjoy the benefits of 64bit Operating systems, invest some 3-4000 bucks on a MacPro and you can have some fun with at least 8-12 GB RAM;-)

Reason 9:
The Mac always runs on half the power it has in order to run silent
This is also true and can be easily tested on your device in hot summerdays with above 30° in your room. The "all-in-one" built MAC´s are designed to work silently, to work silently the processor should not get hot, to not get hot it needs to NOT operate with high usage, the solution to this is design the machines with full hardware and let the user feel that its better to not use the full power if they won´t hear the sound of a raging fan! This is also a good shopping advice: if you want to work in photoshop for example, buy a macbook pro, with 3,3 quadcore, 8GB RAM and an SSD-drive and at least a GeForce GTX260+ to have fun and silence...Ah wait that doesn´t exist? OH, the irony...

Reason 10:

Clicking on the desktop hides your current program

I know there is a workaround for this and gladly in Photoshop there is an option for this in "View", but when you are used to open files from the desktop and drag them into an opened Photoshop window on another screen, its nice if that program doesn´t hide at the moment you click on the desktop, isnt´it?

There is for sure plenty of more reasons, but for now and "just" a blog-post should help to make me feel better when I share this experience, and eventually make others aware that not everything is gold that shines.

I surely will turn some "Stockholm Syndrome Apple Users" away who will not accept these facts, but having this experience for nearly 2 and a half year now, its safe to say I will never switch completely to a Mac.
If you are in the process of buying a Mac or want some insights, here is also a nice site that makes you aware of the usual apple defects.

There are also other Mac´s that don´t deserve to switch on if you have to "get work done"
(since I mostly complain about the OS in the list:)

The iMac lacks modular hardware update operability, for everything hardware related you need to call the techy, and work is not getting done in this time, except you have another machine = expensive.

The Mac Pro is still too expensive, the Xeon Processors are competing with the i7 in one high-end -league on Passmarks benchmark page, so with all the warranty extensions you want to save your expensive baby, in 3 years its old and needs to be updated (or apple wants you to replace it with a shiny new one) I have calculated that even with 3 years warranty and on location parts exchange service  I can buy 3 High-end up to date PC´s to fill a working range of 9 years, way to go Apple...

The iPad is still missing the essentials: USB- and pressure sensitive stylus support.