This afternoon, we gave our pool a clean bill of health with a free checkup at Leslie’s Swimming Pool Supplies. After going for a 30 minute run, Rae and I jumped into the pool for a refreshing swim before Amy and Jeremy’s wedding in Pescadero. The weather in the Bay Area has finally gotten nice after months of rain. I’m looking forward to exercising and relaxing in the pool. It’s a complete body workout, and my body needs the workout after a long winter of hibernation!

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I have noticed that certain operations on my Quad PowerMac with Aperture 1.1 seem slower than they did with Aperture 1.0 or 1.0.1. I think I’ve found the culprit, the Nvida GeForce 6600 video card. I’ve found several threads on Apple’s discussion forums:

• Thread #1
• Thread #2
• Thread #3
• Thread #4

Apparently, Aperture performance is significantly better with a 7800GT or Quattro video card. The 6600 card has been removed from Aperture’s system requirements in the Apple Store. I would have gone for the 7800GT BTO option, but they weren’t available when I ordered my Quad.

I’m a little disappointed that we can’t buy any third-party video cards for the latest PowerMacs. Sadly, Apple’s video card upgrades are for new systems only. There is the possibility of getting a reflashed 7800GT from eBay or from this store, but the idea of paying an extra $750 isn’t all that appealing.

I read today on ThinkSecret that Apple has axed or transferred much of the team behind Aperture. I had heard rumors, but this is the first time I’ve seen it published on a Mac news site. I don’t see this as a problem for the future of Aperture. Software engineering teams come and go these days. I doubt many large-scale software products have their original team members around.

Update: Some interesting posts in this Slashdot thread.

Anyhow, I’ve been using Aperture 1.1 to process photos from Facing East’s Family Style performance in San Francisco two weeks ago and their performance at Wright State University this past weekend in Ohio. It’s still not the complete end to end solution that I want, but it’s getting better. I still have to perform some extra Noise Ninja work on the final Aperture output, but I have to do that with Capture One and Digitial Photo Professional too.

I’ll have a fuller recap of the dance performances soon. I keep saying that, but work and life lately has been busy! For now, enjoy some of these photos from Family Style!

I’m back from Ohio, where Facing East performed at Wright State University’s Asian Culture Night. I’ll be posting photos from the event soon!

Every morning and night, I check the garage for more of my brown and black friends. By clearing out more stuff from there on Sunday, they have become easier to see on the floor.

This one was walking around near the front of the garage. After giving him a nice boric acid bath, I gave him the keys to check into his very own motel! His antennae fluttered around the outside of the box; no warning signs sounded in his primitive roach brain. Within a minute, he walked up and settled down into his new home. This cockroach won’t be checking out.

Got this email from Ed. I attended the meeting where they demoed CS2. If you want food, get there earlier than 6:30 pm! Adobe users are hungry folk!

The next users group meeting will be on Tuesday, April 18. Our guest speaker will be Julieanne Kost, from Adobe Systems. She’ll be covering a range of topics, including Photoshop tips and tricks as well as a Lightroom review.

We’ll have pizza and drinks at 6:30, and the meeting will start at 7:00. The meeting will be in the Park Conference Room, so come to the lobby at Adobe Systems’ East Tower, 321 Park Avenue, San Jose,. To park underneath the Adobe building, use the Almaden Avenue entrance, under the East Tower. If the security guard at the parking entrance asks for an Adobe contact, use John Nack’s name.

I’m looking to clone myself at Sharpcast. We have an open rec for a contractor that will be focused on Web 2.0 goodness. Check it out:

Sharpcast is looking for a Web 2.0 guru with a sharp eye for detail and a great sense of design. Have you got the skills and a history of creating great web-based user experiences? If so, we are looking for you! You will be become a key technical contributor to our web engineering team, in charge of the creation of our web application UI and infrastructure.

Senior Front-End Engineer

Position Type:

Full-time, Contract

Qualifications

• Passion for developing and pushing the limits of internet technologies and user expectations
• Superb HTML/JavaScript/DOM/CSS/AJAX skills
• Expert cross-browser CSS/JavaScript knowledge
• Deep understanding of designing modular and object-oriented applications with server-side web frameworks, such as JSP
• 3-5 years of related development experience building graphical user interfaces and web applications
• Proven track record in delivering great products

If you are interested in this position, please send your resume to jobs@sharpcast.com. Please include links and descriptions to websites and applications you’ve produced in the past.

I was at Rob Galbraith’s site this morning and I looked forever for the Forums link that used to be in the left-hand navigation bar. Now, I know why it wasn’t there anymore. Due to new opportunities causing time restrictions, Rob and Mike are selling off the forums.

It’s a shame, since their forums was one of the best. In the past, I used to visit DPReview until the signal to noise ratio declined dramatically. I definitely understand what Rob and Mike are going through. Since beginning my full-time gig, I’ve had less time to devote to my outside photography projects. With Aperture 1.1 released, I have to get out an update to Annoture. There’s also another Mac OS X product that has been sitting around for almost a year. Hopefully, I’ll have some time soon to get those out.

Apple released Aperture 1.1 today. Some surprising things aside from the expected bug fixes and feature improvements:

• They lowered the price from $499 to $299
• They are offering $200 voucher for the Apple Store to early adopters of Aperture

The second item really threw me for a loop! If anything, it’s an admission on Apple’s part that they are serious about the pro photo marketplace and are apologizing for the deficiencies in the 1.0 product.

I’ll be installing 1.1 this weekend and putting it through its paces. I’ll be photographing Rae’s dance performance tonight during their tech rehearsal. Should be a good for testing Aperture’s new noise reduction algorithms.

All this wet weather has apparently made our house haven to all sorts of vile critters. A week ago, I was opening the door to the garage from the office/den when I spotted a cockroach scurrying about. I killed it, thinking it was a sole roach that had lost its way. Wishful thinking — where there’s one roach, there almost certainly are dozens more!

We bought some Roach Motels, and two more checked in. A couple of days ago, I spied a roach inside the office! They had breached our defenses and were inside the house! This meant war, so I purchased a box of Hot Shot MaxAttrax Nest Destroyer Roach Bait and a tube of Boric Acid. Rae, Randy, and I positioned the baits and sprinkled the boric acid in strategic locations throughout the garage.

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