Larry Jordan on why FCP X is ready for Proffesional Use

finalcutpro

Larry Jordan has an article on my Final Cut Pro X is ready and in fact being used for Professional work.

Now I did try and use FCP X right from the start with lessons, and I don’t think it is a professional program at all. Yes it might be faster to teach to someone with no previous editing knowledge as Larry says, but that is because it forces you to edit in a very specific way, and for me not a way that I find faster or better at all. And yes I am biased by all the horridness of Apple’s launch of FCP X and killing of the Final Cut Pro 7 suite, and that may bias me, but I also think that Larry making his living doing Final Cut Pro lessons may bias him.

And I hate how no one ever talks about the things that Final Cut Pro 7 is not setup to do, like working in a multi-user environment on an X-Serve or Edit Share. He does mention it is not that good at going to Pro Tools, which is a deal breaker, but also the inability to organize tracks makes for a mess of a timeline when I often use 15-20 tracks on a commercial, all for different elements or graphics to keep it organized, and to have that all haphazardly put randomly into the timeline is insane and a mess, and not at all professional!

Now I do love the ability to mark clips by keywords and make it all easily searchable, but that could have easily been ported into a Final Cut Pro 8 and made it a really powerful 64 bit editing system instead of a mixture of 64 bit tech with iMovie conventions.

Even with all the additions I still see Final Cut Pro X as a mess and not-professional. It has too much wrong with it, and has so many weird bugs (see previous posts on Red Giant software and FCP X), and I just don’t see the magnetic timeline as being professional in a commercial environment or any graphics heavy environment where timeline organization is more important that clip organization, which I am perfectly capable of organizing myself.

StudioDaily on Dells over MacPros

StudioDaily has an article on editors picking Dell Computers over MacPro’s for editing, which may in fact be true (though the article is written by someone working for Dell), as the MacPro has basically stagnated for years now, but I also hate how they never bother upgrading a MacPro with more modern technology for speed tests. Like putting in a PC NVIDIA Geforce 675 GTX with 4GB of RAM. That will make a huge difference in speed, especially with CUDA compliant software like Premiere Pro or Black Magic’s DaVinci Resolve! It may not be a TESLA, but it also doesn’t come with the price, which could set you back well over $6000 for a QUADRO and a TESLA, vs under $500 for a GTX 675 which works with the Mac’s current power supply and can really upgrade your existing MacPro.

Now of course their is still the question of what Apple’s next MacPro will be like and if it will be a worthy and powerful successor to the current MacPro, but we won’t know till it comes out, hopefully at this years WWDC.

Logitech wants to sell it’s Harmony Remotes Division

Electronic House is reporting on this disturbing news. I personally use a Harmony One and love it, though it could use more programability and functionality that it will likely never get now.

My biggest complaint is it is set up to control multiple devices at one, but since it doesn’t get feedback it doesn’t know the states of each device unless you only use those simple button controls to do everything. Well personally I like to control individual components (and can never figure out why they randomly move on the touch screen) and do things differently at different times. Sometimes through the stereo, sometimes through the TV, plus I have a TIVO, an Apple TV, a ROKU, a PS3 an XBOX 360 and more HDMI devices than HDMI ports on my receiver.

It would be awesome to have a universal remote that I have full control over, instead of being forced to do it how a company forces me to, and I hate how things are moving to touchscreen only as you can’t do that easily in the dark. I like to be able to control everything with buttons that my hands can always find, and have a fully programable touchscreen as well for the functions that I want and use, but don’t need in the dark, and it looks like that may be a thing of the past soon.

Lets hope someone steps up.

FCP.co on new MacPro’s

FCP.Co has 2 articles from 3D designer Peter Zigich on possible, though pretty out there designs for a new MacPro which Tim Cook has promised we will get this year (hopefully at WWDC).

The first is on a modular tower, and the second a smaller design using low powered AMD chips (wouldn’t that require a new OS and apps?).

Interesting ideas, though I doubt either will happen. I am hoping for something really powerful, and better would be the ability to use PC videos cards without Mac supplies firmware as long as you have drivers, and releasing the 2 GB of video ram limit, NVIDIA TESLA support would be great too, as well as many hard drives as you can stuff in there!

8 Hour Diet Update, Lost a Pound a Half Yesterday

Well modifying to a 6 hour diet seems to have worked for me for the time being. I lost a pound and a half yesterday. Pretty impressive, but then I lost 10 pounds in 7 days to start and then gained 5 and a half pounds back doing the same diet and the same exercise. Still haven’t gotten down quite to where I was, though I am pretty close at this point (another pound). Still want to lose about 73 more pounds here!

And I am doubting that the weight loss will last, as I have already had to cut down from 8 to 6 hours, and now I am so damn hungry in that period! I certainly ate more than I normally would. One salad with chicken, one without, an apple, some berries, 2 servings of beef stew with rice, a mango, and a thing of Carbmaster Dairy product (can’t call it yogurt as it has less than 3 grams of sugar and 60 callories and has the consistency more of pudding, but is OK with some berries) as well as a handful of walnuts and a handfull of almonds. And 25 minutes on the treadmill and some kettle bell.

Pretty impressive that I still lost a pound and a half eating all that, so something in the intermittent fasting does certainly work, just think my body gets used to it really damn fast! I am betting I stop losing weight again within in a week (though I hope I am wrong). And I am not sure I can do a 5 hour, or even a 4 consistently. And 6 is only doable right now as I am working so close to my house! Otherwise, I would probably need to shift to 3 to 8, as I usually don’t get home till around 7 PM or later (currently getting home by 5:30 PM as I start at 7 AM).

And I am going through way too much sugar free gum in the time in between eating, as well as Coke zero! I could see doing quick workouts for some of those times if I wasn’t doing 10 hour work days.