The Canon EOS M Mirrorless Camera

Canon has officially announced the EOS M Mirrorless Camera, and DP Review has an excellent Hands on Review.And with an Adapter it can use any EOS EF or EF-S lens with it's APS-C sized sensor, and includes full video capabilities, though it doesn't look to have as many controls as their normal DSLRs. Sill for small and fast and compatibility this is awesome. I TOTALLY WANT ONE!It's stats stand like this:New EF-M lens mount (optimized for APS-C sensor size)18MP APS-C 'Hybrid CMOS' sensorContinuous autofocus in movie mode with subject tracking14-bit DIGIC5 processorISO 100-12800 standard, 25600 expanded4.3 fps continuous shooting, 3 fps with autofocus tracking1080p30 video recording, stereo sound (with 25p or 24p options)External microphone socket and adjustable sound recording level1040k dot 3:2 touch-sensitive ClearView II LCD (capacitative type, multi-touch support)Standard EOS hot-shoe for external flash (no built-in flash)'Creative Filters' image-processing controls, previewed live on-screenThis is an exciting camera, though it sure took Canon a while to get it out (well it comes out in October) as every other manufacturer has one, but the adapter to Canon Lenses makes this so much more versatile! It is $799 with a 22mm, though you will want to spend a little more for EF Lens Adapter!

Surgery Update, Insurance Hell, though really it is the hospital that is the problem!

Can I just say that not only is insurance totally messed up, but honestly it is the hospital billing that is even worse.Basically we had to pay for the surgery before the surgery or they would not give me surgery. We paid what we thought was the rest of the of the out of pocket maximum (though it seems we are off by about $80).And now we are getting bill after bill from the hospital. It seems that UCLA Billing has not bothered to talk to the insurance or figure out how the insurance is relegating the money. They just put our payment wherever they pleased, and didn't tell the insurance that we had made they payment. And they are billing us for all the bills where we pay 60% and the insurance pays 40% instead of talking to insurance and seeing that after another $80 payment from us, we have hit our out of pocket maximum and the rest of covered by the insurance. And we are talking thousands of dollars in additional bills they are trying to get us to pay.No AETNA is being helpful and is even trying to talk to UCLA to try to get it cleared up, but meanwhile we are getting robocalls from UCLA saying they are going to take action unless we pay these bills! WTF! It is there mistake.They have applied the money incorrectly, and are trying to get more money out of us because of it.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 is unofficially supported in MacPro

Tej's Tech Blog has a post on installed an NVIDIA GTX 570 PC card into a MacPro and it seems to work except for EFI (so it goes straight to desktop or login screen, you don't see the spinning ball at the start. Guess you can't do safe mode or boot to another drive then from startup, though not positive on that).You will have to do some Terminal tricks to get the Adobe suite to see it as compatible as the card is not listed for Mac, but it can be done.This is great news. Wonder if NVIDIA is going towards one driver for all their cards, or if it means that Apple is planning to include NVIDIA if and when it ever updates the MacPro?No matter what, more NVIDIA support for Macs is a good thing. And it is great that the new MacBook Pro and the MacBook Pro Retina are run by NVIDIA cards, as more CUDA support means more realtime with the Adobe Suite.

Surgery Update, another Pimple in the scar

Yuch, that is pretty nasty. The bottom part of the main incisision, the small circular hole also seems to have developed a pimple, that keeps popping and I clean it, and it fills again. It doesn't seem infected, seems like a pimple, so I am going to assume it is probably another ingrown hair, right on the wound.Rather nasty if I do say so myself.Looks a little better once I squeeze it out.Main incision is overall looking pretty good though. With the top part pretty flat and healed, the bump at the top as gone as I think it will be, and above the top wound the skin is starting to look good.And the chest tube wounds are looking pretty good. No longer any scab, just divots and very red skin. No longer have to keep them dry in the shower, which is wonderful.Still having to use a pillow when I drive though. We bought a small travel pillow to make it easier. And while it does help, since the scar doesn't like things rubbing on it, especially a seatbelt (and really not even a shirt). And it has actually gotten a lot more sore. Mainly I think because all the nerves were severed, but they have grown back. Went and got a soft travel pillow and it works pretty well.Of course it doesn't help how incredibly hot is of late in Los Angeles! Driving with a pillow on your chest when it is close to 100 degrees outside certainly could be more pleasant!Still doing pretty well, and just about ready to get back to work. Need to start making some money!

Petepixel on the Wacom Cintiq

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Petapixel has the news on the Wacom Cintiw 24HD Touch. Always wanted one of these, and love the balancing arm, but not the $3699 price. There is of course a new lower model the 22HD for $1999, but still a bit out of my price range for the time being.Still would be amazing to be able to work on a screen and see the results!

CNET Reviews NEXT ISSUE, Netflix for Magazines

CNET has a review of this new App for iPad and Andriod called Next Issue. Basically for $180 a year you get access to the nearly 40 titles they have and every issue of each. So it is great for Magazine junkies, and they get back issues. You can also do a lesser subscription for $120 a year that doesn't include weeklies like Time, Entertainment Weekly, and a couple of others.Seems like a good idea, except not being able to pass it on except to other ipads that share your account. Still interesting, especially as they add more magazines.Actually my biggest question is if it can be used by multiple users on the same iTunes account, or is it one user per account. As it would be great if my Mom and Wife who share my iTunes account could use all the magazines. That would make it really useful, and a possible money saver.

StudioDaily on AVID

I realized I hadn't linked to this Studio Daily Article on the reductions at AVID.By the third quarter AVID will be down to about 1500 after losing more than 350 more employees, and hasn't said which facilities it will be closing.I still say if AVID doesn't really push there opportunity here they are fools. Look at what Autodesk has done with Smoke. I think it should be cheaper than $4000 ($3500 and $500 a year for upgrades and support), but it has moved into Media Composer Range, and it can do all Media Composer can and much more.

What I think AVID should have done

Personally I think AVID should have bit the bullet and pulled the price of Media Composer to $1000 to fight Premiere Pro (I don't think they need to fight FCP X) and gain market share back. The $1000 that Apple charged for FCP 7 was really a sweat spot and other apps have gone bellow that).And have made the cross grade even $500 from FInal Cut Pro, and make symphony a plug in that costs another $300-$500 (Or really just roll it in to Media Composer completely to have a unified product line). Now there sales for this year might be down (though they might have gone up do to the amount of sales they would have made), and there customer bass would have grown back to what it used to be, and they would make a ton of money in the future.They need to focus on less products and make them less expensive. They have already been making Media Composer so much better, so they don't have to worry about that, but it is there business decisions that seem iffy.

Doddle News on Five Ways Avid Could Stay Alive

An interesting article at Doddle news on how the foundering AVID (which just sold it's consumer division including M-Audio, Pinacle and even the new iPad app) and cut another 20% of it's work force after previously losing 10% not too long ago.Some interesting ideas, though other than doubling down on protools and moving to the cloud like Adobe CS6, I don't see them trying any of them.