Photoshop CS4 Window Glitch

This happens to me all the time, using the shipping non-pirated version of Adobe Photoshop CS4:

photoshop window junk.png

What you’re seeing is a Finder window (full of yellow-labelled files) which has split a Photoshop window in two: the Photoshop window’s titlebar is behind the Finder window, while the Photoshop document’s contents are in front of the Finder window.

This persists if you move either window, creating the illusion that the Finder window is slicing the Photoshop document apart.

Weird.

Does it do this under Windows XP or Vista, or is this a Mac OS X-only “feature”?

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Individuals have rights, not religions

U.N. body adopts resolution on religious defamation —Reuters

“It is individuals who have rights, not religions,” Ottawa’s representative told the [U.N. Human Rights Council]. “Canada believes that to extend (the notion of) defamation beyond its proper scope would jeopardize the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects.”

It’s nice to see Canada’s on the right side of this issue.

April 3 update:

The meaning of freedom: Why freedom of speech must include the right to “defame” religions —The Economist

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Here and Back Again — A Basecamp Tale

In February, 2008, I wrote about leaving Basecamp, 37signals’ web-based project-management software.

At the time, I was frustrated by features that were — and, I believe, remain — missing:

  1. There’s no way to see an overview of all Milestones across projects
  2. There’s no way for a project manager to see all to-dos assigned to everyone across projects

While these limitations were frustrating, other solutions seemed to offer a way around them, imperfect though they seemed even at the beginning…

Read the rest of this entry »

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Things About Adobe Software that Bugged me Today, pt II

Updated to include screencast of glitch.

Today, I haven’t been working much in Adobe products, so the list is short. Today’s entry should have been added to yesterday’s list, but there were many, and it slipped my mind:

  • Cannot rename layers in the Adobe Flash CS4 timeline by double-clicking the name. First time this has happened. It highlights the text field for an instant, then reverts to being a label. I can only change the names by choosing Modify > Timeline > Layer Properties... or by right-clicking on the layer name and choosing Properties...

What kills me is that I used to like Adobe software even more than Apple’s software. Microsoft makes better Mac software these days.

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Things About Adobe Software that Bugged Me Today

This isn’t an exhaustive list; just the ones that bugged me today:

  • Double-clicking two JPEG files at the Finder launched Photoshop CS4. But it never opened the files. I had to go back, find them again, and double-click them again. Thanks, Adobe.
  • Flash CS4 should not have been released. It crashed nearly a dozen times today, usually in response to something like
    • opening an existing file (under 1 MB)
    • selecting all on the stage
    • pasting a text box from another file
  • Flash CS4 won’t let you delete an object on the stage. Not right away, at least: select it, hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Watch the object stubbornly refuse to cease existing. See the Edit menu highlight in acknowledgment that your keyboard is working. Notice the layer is unlocked (double-check that the item is, in fact, highlighted. It is.). Try this three or four times then, inexplicably, it will work. Curse Adobe for wasting more of your precious time.
  • The Flash Library palette is an abomination that only looks like a standard palette: despite saving a workspace, it will always open wherever it damn well pleases.

Thanks, Adobe. I wasn’t busy trying to get any work done today.

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So Jesus was Canadian??

calgary.jpg

Apple’s Canadian iTunes store has this show, Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years. Haven’t seen it, don’t want to. I’m sure it’s great. Really.

But the description of the first episode helpfully points out that “Jesus died at Calgary“. I’m a little rusty on my Canadian history, I’ll admit, but this could be huge for Alberta tourism.

Nice to see someone making the extra effort and going beyond the traditional typo, in which Jesus dies at Cavalry…

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Troubleshooting Adobe Contribute connection problems

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iPhone/iPod touch make strong showing on mobile web

Report: Apple Dominates the Mobile Web - ReadWriteWeb

Apple now dominates the mobile web in the U.S. with a 48% market share

I’m not sure why this surprised me. I think the key is that they point out how Apple has made devices that people want to surf on. I certainly would never have bothered with my previous Motorola pos. It was barely possible to make a phone call with that thing…

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Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs: “So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.”

Good news for Jobs, for Apple, and for everyone tired of the morbid speculation surrounding the Macworld keynote.

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Remove “Show all Menu Items” From Photoshop CS4 at Chris Koerner

Despite using Photoshop CS3 since it came out, I’d never noticed this astonishingly-annoying “feature”, which has driven me mad since installing CS4 (apparently it was in CS3, too): it hides many of its menu commands, under the delusion that users are too stupid to be allowed convenient access to them.

They must’ve changed what menu items are hidden by default, because I would’ve noticed if the Revert command or the View/Proof Setup commands were gone under CS3. They’re certainly not available until you choose “Show All Menu Items” from the bottom of the File and View menus, respectively.

Some warning would’ve been nice. Or a universal preference (’Would you like idiot Photoshop or regular Photoshop?). Despite going over the Preferences dialog carefully — and it hasn’t changed radically since Photoshop 3 (no, I don’t mean CS3, I mean Photoshop 3.0), I could find no such setting.

At any rate, here’s the solution, if you don’t fancy re-enabling them all by hand:

Like Koerner, I find myself wondering why this wasn’t done properly:

  • Application-wide preference?
  • Question during installation or first-run?
  • Take a peek at CS3’s prefs file to see if I’ve used “advanced” settings?
  • Take note of the fact that I’ve purchased Photoshop, not “fingerpainting for dummies”?
  • Notice that I’ve selected “Show All Menu Items” five times — in the last three minutes?

This is not shit that shareware authors get wrong very often; they’d have a mutiny on their hands.

For what it’s worth, I’m not even among those who hated the CS4 installers (on individual workstations, mind you). No, they don’t follow either platform’s standards, but they actually installed everything the first time, and they weren’t that hard to figure out. I do fully appreciate and endorse John Welch’s position on everything Adobe, though: Adobe’s software used to be a sheer pleasure to use. Now I merely tolerate it. And that’s when it’s working reasonably well.

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