MacPro

Apples core professional community has always consisted of artists. By that I mean folks that take pixels and make something amazing out of them on a daily bases. This might be photos, editing or simulations in Houdini or compositing in Nuke. Apple has always served the artist. In the nineties SGI was the king of doing this. Image compute speed and disk I/O at all costs. Matador and Cineon are some of the fastest image processors I have ever seen. The interactivity was great. These only run on IRIX boxes. The Foundry wishes its paint is as fast and interactive as Matadors was.

In 1997 SGI released the Octane. This machine was built for speed more importantly graphics speed. There was no 5.25 inch disk bay( they were all the rage). No CD-ROM drive. There were 2 full length PCI slots and 1 half length one. You didn't check Facebook on a Octane. There was a reason Sony Imageworks had stations for artists to use the internet. These machines were fast and even faster for drawing images.

In 2013 Apple released a new MacPro. This machine had SGI written all over it. Small, the GPU is fast. Fast disk I/O. The MacPro is pretty, but behind the design is a cooler core that can run faster longer. This means more power for a longer time from the CPU. Get what ever is in your head out on the screen no waiting. The Octanes GPU was a designated card from SGI. Sound familiar, it should the GPUs in the MacPro are also designated by Apple. They will also need the software developers to support OpenCL. From what I have read OpenCL is the the next step but it's happening slowly. Even Nvidia now supports OpenCL. No Optical drive is also similar. ThunderBolt is the new PCI slots and the internal drives bays.

The amazing thing about the new MacPro unlike like the Octanes is it can also email clients, make Quicktimes for clients, word processing and web browsing as well. A far step from the Octane. Sure you could check websites and send email on an Octane but nothing like how the new MacPro handles those tasks.

This isn't a machine for people who just want the fastest Mac for no other reason than being the fastest Mac. This is about solving image related problems and getting them done as fast and as precise as possible. The new MacPro isn't about text or fonts, it's not about Retina or your iPhone. It's not even about playing games. The new MacPro is about image compute speed which is really important to Apples core community.

OpenCL →

Dave Girard:

The lackluster support of OpenCL is likely the biggest thing standing in the way of software transitioning from CUDA to OpenCL on OS X. Apple needs to stop just talking big about OpenCL and offer the aggressive support it needs to actually compete with CUDA. It’s a sad irony that Apple invented OpenCL only to see it better supported on competing platforms and that dealing with Apple to resolve problems is “unpleasant” because the company is so opaque. It is safe to say that the breakneck pace with which Final Cut Pro X 10.1 got its excellent dual GPU support wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t an Apple product with two teams in shouting distance of each other. Next time you read that some software isn’t optimized for the new Mac Pro or OpenCL on OS X, think twice before sticking the pitchfork in the developer—it might be Apple slowing it down.

I have been reading thru all the MacPro reviews and wondering where the The Foundry are with OpenCL. They where mentioned in by Apple in the WWDC keynote. But that doesn't mean they are getting help from Apple. I hear that an OpenCL version of Nuke is coming but how long and how good will it be. Having a GPU just for Nuke would be great but only if it works. In this same review a developer asks Apple to make Mac OS X versions of OpenCL comparable to the Linux and Windows versions.

The OS X version Mari is said to be pretty good, I hope it is going well with the Nuke code.

UI

Complaints or not iCloud has been good to me. Nothing has changed. Calendars still sync. My wife and I have the same calendars and that works fine. Contacts/Address Book keep all my contacts up to date. With reminders app I can share reminders with my wife as well as dates and grocery lists or multiple stores. For the most part things are great.

The thing that I find frustrating is the syncing. I have no idea that it's happening or is it going well. That's what Apple wants?

Dropbox works so well my dad doesn't get it. You do what? It does what automatically? Strangely dropbox has a Apple like UI element that Apple can't use. MobileMe used the spinning dashes. But Dropbox doesn't so much better. It's a feel it not see it element. It's really good.

Backwards

I recently took off 3 weeks of work. It was a great time. [Look here] [1] for all the images you will ever need.

Right before I took time off I had upgraded my MacbookPro to Lion.

Most of the reason why i did this upgrade had everything to do with iOS 5 and iCloud. Not because I wanted versioning or reversed scrolling. That in itself is strange.

When I came back to work my MacPro is running Snow Leopard. Such a contrast previous versions of Mac OS X.

Nuke with reversed scrolling turned on? Navigating the DAG takes thought again. Up for out and down for in.

Apple, please do not forget about your pro users. We love our software. But only
When it gets work done.

[1]: http://mbfx.me/photoblog/month/november-2011 "Photos For Nov."

Swipe Left

Recently I came across this problem.

I had downloaded some podcasts on the iPhone. At work when I have no
Podcasts to listen to I grab some thru the iTunes app on the phone. Before iOS 5 the podcasts were treated like any other podcast that had come from a iTunes sync. But now those podcasts seem to have made a home on my iPhone and would not be deleted. Listen to or not.

Answer swipe left. delete

Gestures do solve some ui problems. Just not all of them. If you don't know it there you can't use them. It's not a new flaw it's a old one. If a command is buried in a menu and you don't know about it, you can't use it.

Photoshop is guilty of this. Content aware fill is a great tool. It's not a 100% fix but workable. I recently used it for a clean plate. Got me close and I painted the the rest of it. This tool fills in areas with content from surrounding areas. Sounds cool, huh! It is, but it's in a menu. My dad might use this a lot but I had to show him that it was there. Gestures adds a layer we didn't have before. Going from on the road with my laptop to my office is a change. My MacbookPro is plugged into a external monitor. As a result I no longer have a track pad. And now with the change to more of a iOS interface in Mac OS X a track pad is almost a must.

Michael

Should Lists Have Notifications

I share 4 lists with my wife. When she or I add a item should we have the option to be notified when an item is added.

Since notifications have got so much better with iOS 5 shouldn't a subscriber of that list be notified when things change. I guess the calendar doesn't tell me when she adds a new calendar event. I feel like that is different. When Rikki adds milk to the list I would like to know. She is counting on having milk. I'm forced to look at the calendar when making a entry. With the groceries list I'm not. Siri adds a item. I don't engage that list til I'm at the store. Maybe setup a reminder to look at the groceries list when I leave work. Siri adds a whole different problem. Processing data that really should have to be read from a list.

I'll keep mulling this over.

Michael