FinalCutPro 4.02 is out. Hit the software updater and go get it. Especially if you’re a DV or DVCPro50 user. Apparently it fixes a problem with doubled frames when editing to tape.

I just received a memo from the management of our building (where this server is hosted) stating that the power will be cut on Sunday from 8:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon. Fun. Something tells me my UPS won’t hold the router and my server up that long.

Argh. On the last possible day to ship the Dual G5 Powermacs so as to hit the “by the end of August” promise, the rumors on the net this AM are that Apple has pushed back ship dates by a month. Seeing as I haven’t ordered one yet, it’ll be January 2004 before I can get one. At that rate, the 2.5Ghz and 3Ghz machines will be announced. Ugh.

So, at a company lunch today, Lance announced to the rest of the company what I’ve been up to and what I’m going to be working on. Now that it’s been made public, with the cat out of the bag so to speak, I can talk about it on the blog.

I am going to be involved in researching and pursuing new business opportunities for WorkFlow, especially centered around two passions of mine: ministry technology and A/V.

First, I want to investigate ways to bring technology expertise to ministry efforts. There are a multitude of churches and ministry organizations out there that have the desire to utilize technology to further their mission work, but don’t have the vast sums of money or internal expertise to do so. I’m not talking about the Fellowship’s, Willow Creek’s, Saddleback’s, and Prestonwood’s out there. There are thousands of smaller churches and organizations that need consulting help from an organization that understands what they need and aren’t out there just to sell them some product.

In addition, there are many ministry organizations that have technology components to their mission, but don’t desire or need to have technology as a core competency. One such ministry is NetAccountability, who has contracted with me to help manage and plan their technology plans, from development to infrastructure. We’ll be working on future versions of the tools that support their ministry, as well as helping them evaluate how to proceed with their technical assets and strategy.

Other opportunities I want to explore with WorkFlow are centered around multimedia and Audio/Video technologies. As an avid FinalCutPro user (no pun intended!), I’ve been exploring this area for a while, and there are indeed some possibilities for bringing an out of the box technology approach to old processes in the post-production and broadcast realms.

There are wide-open gaps in the post-production workflow, especially where tracking media from content acquisition through post all the way to broadcast is concerned. There are standards popping up (AAF, MOS, etc.) that are supported by the standard products in the newsroom, but few solutions that tie these pieces together, especially economically. The interesting thing to this market is that if you don’t charge what Sony charges, you’re not seen as a credible player. But the technology is coming on so strong that the capability exists to string together a full and complete solution without bowing to Sony or Panasonic. We’re talking potential orders of magnitude reduction in price. And if you can get a single customer to bite on that and have success, it’ll spread like wildfire. That’s what I’m aiming for.

Originally my thinking was that I’d branch out and explore these opportunities separate from WorkFlow. But as I discussed things with Lance, we decided that it might make sense (for both WorkFlow and myself) to do this under the umbrella of the existing organization. I was flattered for Lance to consider that as a possible approach, as it gives me a lot of flexibility and stability to step out and pursue this. Quite honestly, it actually may be the thing that allows it to succeed. If so, we both benefit. I will still be available to WorkFlow for Sales Engineering and Architecture engagements, so I feel my skills/talents/etc. will be utilized more appropriately than in the past.

I’m excited! More as the days go on…

Speaking of KungTunes, I wish it was smart enough to realize when I’ve paused a song, and when I’ve restarted it. The double posting each time I start/stop a song is annoying. Of course, being free, I can’t complain too much, unless I’m willing to write something better. Which I might.

OK, call me slow, but I just ran across a very nifty little iTunes companion product called Synergy. Synergy is a tiny little application that puts VCR style controls for iTunes in the menu bar, as well as provides a number of other neat little features. Like a transparent floater with the album cover art and song/artist name when iTunes changes to a new track. And access to just about every other iTunes feature from a menu. All this for 5 bucks. I’ll be registering. That’s the kind of slick innovation I can support monetarily.

Now if the functionality of KungTunes could be integrated so I wouldn’t have to run a separate app for that…

Interesting article on the making of the Pods Unite spot from Apple and Volkswagen. I’m a little surprised that Apple didn’t insist that Shake was used to do the composite instead of Flame. I’m curious what the budget was for the 30 second spot… probably pretty substantial after looking at what they did to achieve the effect.

So I went and demo’d the 1.8Ghz G5 at the Apple Store last night. I’m rather disappointed to say that I was a little underwhelmed. Of course, the machine was not tripped out, with only the base RAM and low-end video card. It did perform adequately, but was not significantly faster (and in some cases seemed a little slower) than a dual 1.42Ghz G4.

I did throw a 7 layer Final Cut Pro composite with effects and motion at it and it did manage to render it in realtime. Layer 8 caused it to finally drop frames. I can’t help but think that was a RAM issue… put a Gig and a half or so on it and it probably wouldn’t have had issues.

I did manage to get FCP to crash once, and although it was running 4.01, it may have something to do with Smeagol (OS X 10.2.7), which is specifically to support the G5.

Compressor was satisfactory, LiveType behaved itself pretty well, and Soundtrack seemed to run fine, although I didn’t push it much.

What I really want to test out is a dual 2Ghz box with a Radeon 9800 and a couple Gigs of RAM or so.

In related news, Microsoft confirmed that VirtualPC 6.1 won’t run on a G5. Apparently they’re using a special mode available only to the G3 and G4 line that the PPC970 doesn’t have and will have to rewrite portions of the code to support it. As much as I hate to, I occasionally have to fire up VPC, so that’s a potential show stopper for me. I wouldn’t think it’d take too long to correct the situation, but one site is reporting that it’ll be well into 2004 before it’ll be fixed. Bummer. I was hoping to finally be PC free with my next machine, but I guess I’ll have to hang onto the boat anchor notebook I’ve got a little longer.

I discovered last night, when Cynthia couldn’t get a Word document to print to the printer upstairs, that the ethernet port on the kids’ Grape iMac was fried. Not sure what caused it, but it won’t sense media. I reset the hub, cables, etc. No dice. I moved the cable over to my PowerBook and it worked fine (the Airport served up a DHCP IP address, I could ping out, no problems). Moved it back to the iMac and nothing.

Interestingly, when opening Apple System Profiler, the system sees the ethernet adapter, but doesn’t name it. It only reports the specifications (10/100mpbs, full-duplex, etc.). When I click on the disclosure triangle next to network it dutifully closes. Another click expands, but then Apple System Profiler crashes. Looks like it’s having a hard time talking to the card.

Nothing in the log files about problems. Guess I’ll have to see about an after-market fix or buy an airport card for it.

Word has it the Apple Store just received their demo 1.8Ghz G5. I’ll be off to take a test drive in an hour or so and will report back how it handles.

It’s interesting that they’re receiving a 1.8 and not a 1.6 like most other stores are getting. Although they don’t publicize it much, there’s significant architectural differences between the 1.6 and the rest of the line. Namely, the motherboard is similar in design to the G4, especially in the case of expansion (no PCI-X) and memory (slower bus). Refer to the specs for what I’m talking about.

Personally, though, I’m angling for a dual 2Ghz. I keep inventingcoming across reasons that I truly need one. No, really. I’m not kidding. I need one for work.

Hey, wipe that smirk off your face.