Adobe has released the beta version of a program called Lightroom (OS X only), a competitor to Apple's Aperture. Both are pro-level apps for manipulating and organizing digital photos. Here's the story of Lightroom's development from one of its developers. (via df)
A list of iPhoto 5 annoyances. I wish iPhoto were as finished a product as iTunes is. (via df?)
Khoi Vinh reports on computer technology in Vietnam. They're wired for broadband and Windows still dominates.
Adobe is planning on combining Flash Player and Acrobat Reader? As Todd says, "I don't know about you, but I just got an acrid taste in my mouth".
Update: John Dowdell notes that Adobe has clarified their position re: the above combination: "we will continue delivering the Flash Player as a small, efficient runtime for content and applications on the web". (thx, neil)
Shaun Inman's Mint stats package contains a great easter egg. Just key in the Konami cheat code (up up, down down, left right, left right, b, a) and you're greeted with a custom graphic. More old school video game-inspired easter eggs on web sites please.
An excellent John Gruber piece on the life cycle of the independent Mac developer, using for an example Brent and Sheila Simmons, whose company Ranchero was recently sold to NewsGator.
Clive Thompson on Life Hackers in the NY Times. I'd informally heard about the benefit of larger screens on productivity (I feel more productive with a larger screen), but this article describes some study results: "On the bigger screen, people completed the tasks at least 10 percent more quickly - and some as much as 44 percent more quickly."
The Onion: Project Manager Leaves Suicide PowerPoint Presentation. "We all got Ron's message loud and clear when that JPEG of his wife wipe-transitioned to a photo of her tombstone". (via mathowie)
Is PowerPoint responsible for the woes of the Space Shuttle? Well, no, but it's not helping any. "The deeper problem with the PowerPointing of America -- the PowerPointing of the planet, actually -- is that the program tends to flatten the most complex, subtle, even beautiful, ideas into tedious, bullet-pointed bureaucratese."
A timeline of splash screen graphics for Adobe Photoshop. I didn't know that Photoshop was developed outside of Adobe and then licensed later. (thx mark)
Makers of the PulpFiction newsreader for OS X sold to illumineX. Congrats to Erik and the team...sounds like a much needed rest.
Richard Stallman on the absurdity of software patents. Stallman draws a parallel between software patents and hypothetical literature patterns.
A map of Firefox usage in Europe. 30.5% in Finland and almost 25% in Germany.
Keyword Assistant plug-in fixes iPhoto's stupid ass keyword-adding interface. Software developers, say it with me: "auto complete, auto complete, auto complete!"
