Expandrive 3.5.2 Crashing and not connecting with any Service in MacOS Sierra

I have quickly grown to love and be very dependent on ExpanDrive on both Mac and Windows, but the latest update to 3.5.2 on Mac does not work at all for me, though 3.5.1 seems to work just fine. Luckily it is possible to download old versions at ExpanDrive’s site.

I have contacted support and sent my crash reports and diagnostic reports, but have not heard back as of yet.

For those who don’t know, ExpanDrive lets you mount cloud drives as Network drives without keeping the files local, especially important on Laptops with limited hard drive space! Plus it is just one application instead of having to run and app for each of your cloud drives!

Apple Watch and Notification Issues

So I have had my Apple Watch Series 2 for a few months now, and overall I really love it, except in it’s handling of notifications.

My first smart watch was the original Pebble, and I really liked it, and liked how it gave notifications, and that was basically all that I used it for, and it worked well, but I found myself not using as much, because I really didn’t need constant notifications.

I have also been a FitBit user for years, but found I didn’t like the wrist ones with notifications as well as I liked just the normal FitBit One that I would throw into my pocket (until I washed it).

Jump to now and my Apple Watch, and overall notifications seem less important to me that the functions of the watch. In fact much of the time I don’t even notice them, or ignore them.

The one time that Notifications seem to show up all the time is when I am actually using and interacting with the watch, and this is the time when I don’t want to see any notifications.

Literally every time I am using Walkmeter to record my walks, I get notificaitions when I am attempting to interact with it, which slows me down, and just annoys me. The same when I am trying to use the Workout App, and I am trying to see how I am doing, and instead I get full screen notifications constantly! And it takes me out of my workout to dismiss the damn notifications when I want to be seeing the info on my workouts!

This to me seems like the opposite behavior of what it should be. When I am interacting with the watch or using a workout app, I only want to see something like the red dot and a specific vibration to notify me that there are notifications, but not to go full screen, because these are times when I am trying to use the watch itself! I would like a do not disturb feature from within workout apps!

Apple needs to do better at this! It annoys me literally every day.

My MacPro 4,1 is having nasty crashes, and I don’t know why

So my MacPro 4,1, which has been firmware updated to a 5,1 so it is running OS X Sierra is having some nasty crashes, where I get this crazy video noise and the machine is basically locked up. I have to do a hard shutdown.

The system has 32GB of RAM and it’s system is running of an OWC SSD in the a PCI Slot. It also has a USB 3 card, a Black Magic Intensity Pro and a PC NVIDIA GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM.

It started crashing in Premiere Pro, and DaVinci resolve so I thought it was video card related, but lately has been crashing at any time.

First I ran Cocktail and it’s full suite of Automation. Then I restarted and ran Diskwarrior 5.0 from it’s USB, but that didn’t fix much if anything. And I upgraded to Tech Tool Pro 9 and ran it’s full suite, and everything passed, including the video card (and I ran it’s test a few more times). Strangely it ran longer while in the E-Drive than it has lately on it’s own, which makes me think something with the system, and yet this looks like a very hardware centric crash.

And the system install is very recent, in the last 6 months it was a totally clean install.

Here is video of the crash:

I am just wondering if anyone else has seen anything like this? I am hoping it isn’t hardware. Be it Video Card, motherboard or power supply, but it is getting so I can’t do anything without a crash.

EDIT:

I have posted on the Apple Forums, and have one response.

I have looked at the console log and the files at ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and have not seen anything that would be causing this.

I do see that Expandrive is crashing all the time, which I know.

OXFAM “I Hear You” Campaign that I onlined and localized!

So I already posted the Vanity Fair link, which has 6 of the videos, but the rest of the videos are up.

This campaign is about interviews with Syrian Refugees, with Celebrities reading their stories.

First off here is an article on Julie Ann Robinson and the I Hear You, Kelly’s boss who created the campaign over at Oxfam.

And you can view the other 9 videos at OXFAM America’s YouTube Channel.




An amazing campaign and I am really glad that I got to be a part of it.

OXFAM/Vanity Fair “I Hear You” Campaign for Syrian Refugees that I Onlined

Check out the OXFAM and Vanity Fair “I Hear You” Campaign that I Onlined and Localized in my home Editing Bay. This Campaign was done by wife’s boss Julie Anne Robinson, and is pretty amazing. Really worth checking out.

There are actually more videos than this for OXFAM USA, and then subtitled versions for various OXFAM’s around the world!

Adobe needs to bring back send to SpeedGrade in Premiere Pro

I have made a lot of posts about Adobe needing to upgrade SpeedGrade, but I had been using it with premiere Pro 2014. And with Direct link to Adobe SpeedGrade you could send your sequence and do a full grade in SpeedGrade, then send it back to Premiere and it showed up as a Lumetri Grade Filter on the clips. It was awesome!

Sure DaVinci Resolve is more powerful, but mainly because it has been consistently upgraded. There are still some things that I like better in SpeedGrade, like not only overall grading controls, but the same controls in light, medium and dark. I love just being able to increase contrast and saturation in just the mids! And the best features was Direct Link because the grade came back to Premiere, instead of being a rendered export from Resolve, making itinerant version changes much easier in commercials so much easier!

What I hadn’t realized because I was using SpeedGrade with an earlier  Creative Cloud, was that not only have try not upgraded SpeedGrade, but in Premiere Pro 2015.3 they removed Direct Link to SpeedGrade!?!?!? So it is obviously gone in 2017.

Sure they have put some Lumetri controls in Premiere, but nothing like SpeedGrade. You can do color corrects, but the controls are very dumbed down, and not nearly as powerful! With most of the masking controls gone, and such simple controls, it is no replacement for SpeedGrade! And while DaVinci Resolve stills works great, the loss of Direct Link is a huge minus! There is of course a thread about it at Adobe Forums, but I doubt adobe is listening!

Honestly this move is so very Apple like. Exactly like Apple buying Shake, making it affordable, then gutting it for the smallest technology out of it. Or Apps buying FinalTouch, turning it into color and killing it. Or killing Final Cut Pro 7 for iMovie Pro, oops, I mean Final Cut Pro X.

And the best part is that while SpeedGrade could use some upgrades, even without them it is still so much more powerful than Lumetri controls in Premiere Pro!

Adobe has made a huge mistake in losing it’s powerful color correction tool. It is a huge sore point missing in Creative Cloud now.

Simon Wyndham on RedShark News on him considering leaving the Mac for Windows Editing

Simon Wyndham at RedShark News has a good read on why he is considering moving back to PC after the lackluster Pro Laptops and the lack of a real Pro Mac.

Now I have been saying this for years now. I don’t want to leave Mac, as I like it much better than Windows, but Windows has really become superior for Professional Computer work. There is not the choice with Mac, and the fact that the MacPro is from 2013 and itself has no upgrade ability really limits the Mac. Sure I could go Hackintosh, but working on a Quo at work I have seen the issues with upgrading, and don’t really want to deal with it.

Apple has given up on the creative professional, and Microsoft has stepped up. Look at the next Windows Update for Creatives, and the Suface, Surface Book, and Surface Studio are really for creatives!

I think Apple is making a huge mistake by not making machines for the market that kept them afloat through all the bad years, but Tim Cook doesn’t seem to agree, and Apple will suffer for it.

No one is talking about the fact that Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 runs on Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra on Mac

So Adobe released it’s latest update to it Creative Cloud Suite yesterday, and no one is talking about one of the biggest things for Mac OS X users! The last version 2015, only ran on El Capitan, which was an issue for many (especially Hackintosh Users), not running on any earlier OS. Well with 2017 it seems things have changed!

Just check out the Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 System Requirements on Adobe’s site, and you will see what I mean!

Mac OS X  v10.10, v10.11 or v10.12

Yes, that means it now runs on Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra! Who releases a new version that works on earlier software? A company that listens! Wow! Awesome!

And I can finally upgrade to Sierra on my home machine!

Adobe releases Photoshop Creative Cloud 2017

Adobe has released the new version of Photoshop Creative Cloud 2017, here are the new features.

You can now chose templates to start a project from Adobe Stock.

There is now a Comprehensive Search, across UI elements, documents, Help and learning, and Stock assets.

There is now support for OpenType SVG fonts which include multiple colors and gradients in a single character glyph. And support for Emojis which can combine to change colors or create country flags.

The Polygonal Lasso has been added to the Selelct and Mask Workspace. And have high quality refined previews on mousedown.

Face-Aware Liquify now allows the eyes to be done independently or symmetrically.

Creative Cloud Libraries can now be archived and restored. And you can find stock assets similar to library assets with visual search, and you can drag and drop Adobe Stock elements into Creative Cloud Libraries. And you can share your libraries and Library Assets, which will update across Creative Cloud apps.

There are Property Panels Improvements. It is now part of the Essentials Workspace, and there are additional properties for type layers and stuff can be modified here. It also displays document properties when nothing is selected.

Adobe Camera Raw 9.7 has new been updated. There is now Pressure Sensative Support as well as new cameras and lenses.

And it now works with Adobe Experience Design CC, as SVG’s can be copied and pasted.

Other features include, Match Font Improvments, Click outside of a text box to commit text, open PSD files in your Creative Cloud files from the Start Screen, Layer Count is more accurate and includes Group Content, Improved Marquee Selection, Select Highlight Color, Minimum Radius threshold with Smart Radiu, Surface Blu is 10x for 16 bit images, improved contrast in interface, new Preview checkbox in Liquifiy, ability to hide widgets in Face aware liquify, use Apple MEtal with AMD processors in Mac with Oil Paint Filter, Gpano Metadata is preserved in Export As.