Interfaces: PC and MAC and the screenGamma property...

[Jim Carwardine]

Just a side bar comment on standards that is slightly off-topic.  What Apple
knows and what Apple does has unfortunately cost them many opportunities.
For proof, visit this little web site...

<http://aurejac.dyndns.org/>

Seventeen years is very nearly half the entire epoch of commercial
computing.

Jim

on 1/3/04 6:11 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote:

> Alex Rice wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Jan 3, 2004, at 3:56 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>> 
>>> Which raises the obvious question:  When will Apple play nice and
>>> adopt the predominant standard?
>> 
>> For graphics, print and video production Macs *are* the standard.
> 
> Except, ironiclly, at Pixar, where they have more Linux machines than Macs.
> 
> <http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/28/pixarosx/index.php?redirect=
> 1073135312000>
> 
>> FWIW SGIs also used a similar gamma- and they were used in graphics
>> and video a lot. TV and Video production is just different than PC
>> computer graphics I guess.
>> 
>> I'm not sure, but from what I've read, it's not as simple as twiddling
>> a decimal number for the gamma somewhere in the system defaults.
>> 
>> <http://www.poynton.com/notes/colour_and_gamma/GammaFAQ.html>
>> <http://www.poynton.com/PDFs/Mac_gamma.pdf>
> 
> Good info, thanks.
> 
>> Now AFAIK quickdraw is obsoleted and now the graphics API is
>> Quartz+CoreGraphics, which does not use QuickDraw at all.
>> Maybe the gamma model is the same?
> 
> We can hope.  Interoperability is critical for wide adoption across any
> large organization, whether corporate or academic.  Everything that helps
> move that goal along helps all of us, esp. Apple.
> 
>>> I hear they're finally considering a two-button mouse; is a universal
>>> gamma setting so unthinkable?
>> 
>> Hating Macs today, Richard? Actually I use a 3 button scrollwheel mouse
>> on all my Macs. But
>> 
>> Control-click == Right click
>> 
>> if you are ever using a 1 button mouse.
> 
> Control-Click = two hands
> 
> "Hating Macs"?  On the contrary.   In fact, I'm writing this on a Mac, as I
> have since 1987.
> 
> The difference between me and a fair number of other Apple loyalists is
> recognizing that status quo is deadly in an environment of radical dynamic
> change like computing.  As with living organisms, the only organizations
> that aren't moving are dead.
> 
> So I ask questions, and once in a while some feel these may appear to be
> "anti-Apple" sentiments, but that's not the case at all.  I'm just trying to
> think beyond Steve's last keynote.
> 
> When the iMac shipped with no means of backing up data without a network
> server or a third-party device, seeing that most of these were going into
> homes and relatively few into the enterprise I called it a mistake.  Some of
> my friends mistook that for being "anti-Apple", but later Steve Jobs himself
> publicly called it a mistake and Apple became the last major manufacturer to
> offer CD burners as standard equipment.  Same story with the "hockey puck"
> mouse.
> 
> No human is perfect, not even Steve Jobs.  ;)  And an organization is just a
> collection of imperfect individuals.
> 
> Individuals improve their effectiveness through a lifelong process of
> tempering their internal vision of how the world works by incorporating the
> needs and wants of their social context, hopefully moving us day by day
> toward Maslow's "self-actualization".
> 
> As a collection of individuals, organizations can learn similarly, refining
> their internal understanding of their place in the world through
> constructive engagement with others.
> 
> When customers call here for support, the ones who complain are often taken
> aback by how excited I am to hear from them.  But the fact is that while
> flattery feels good, it's not nearly as instructive as criticism; I already
> know the decisions I've made, but I need guidance to determine the next
> decisions I will make.  Everyone has blind spots.  The older I get the more
> willing I am to throw code and designs away when confronted with a
> compelling argument for a new way of doing things.  These days I focus less
> on the software that I make and more on its evolutionary process. Everything
> made by humans can be made even better.
> 
> So while I applauded Apple's decision to maintain the single-button mouse
> for years, in the modern context the decision has outlived its usefulness.
> Computers are no longer a novelty, with a market penetration rivalling VCRs.
> If folks can find their way around the many poorly-designed remote controls
> for VCRs they can certainly learn to appreciate the advantages a two-button
> mouse. :)
> 
> I've heard rumors that Apple is already leaning that way, and when Steve
> gives it the official blessing it will no longer seem a radical suggestion,
> but will instead be described as "brilliant", even if half a decade behind
> the curve.
> 
> Much of the Apple customer base is like that, so accustomed to defending
> their choice against stupid "Apple is doomed" FUD that they've become
> defensive toward anything that hasn't already been blessed by Steve.  I know
> it well, I was one of those for many years until I started working with
> multiple operating systems and seeing how the other 98% of the world works.
> 
> My suggestion about gamma settings was in earnest:  the two-button mouse is
> coming sooner or later (I'd be surprised if Apple closes 2004 without it),
> and that's a healthy change for everyone.  Perhaps one day we'll see a
> standardized gamma across all OSes, and that will be a healthy change too.
> 
> Any difference between platforms not supported by solid usability research
> or objective technical advantage just wastes time and resources for
> everyone, but is most costly for the ones with the minority marketshare.
> 
> There's the old joke:
> 
> Q: How many Apple employees does it take to change a lightbulb?
> 
> A: Three - one engineeer to design a better but slightly
>    non-standard lightbulb, another engineer to design a
>    better but slightly non-standard socket for it, and
>    a marketing exec to kill the program when it fails
>    to meet sales projections.
> 
> I'd like to live in a world where you can tell that joke at a developer
> conference and everyone in the room just gets a blank look instead of the
> knowing grin it gets today.  I think it's possible, if we Apple loyalists
> think different.
> 
> Worth the read:  <http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/78/jobs.html>
> 
> The one-button mouse is (soon) dead! Long live Apple!

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