Disco for burning apes
October 23, 2006
A new mac cd/dvd burning revolution for mac users is on the rise and came to show up before my almost blind apes eyes: Disco. A new competitor to the everlasting Roxio Toast.
The beta is out for first users and I couldn’t test it yet, but the screenshots and small videos, they’re promoting the app with, seem quite burning (not just literally…)
Hope to get a beta tester soon… until then, I’m taking lessons here: http://discoapp.com/blog/?p=25
Free Software for Monkey Business
October 23, 2006
Every monkey loves free software, even if he’s got to spit somewehere to get it…
If you’re leaving your vote over at http://mydreamapp.com/ you’ll get a copy of some fine stuff (e.g. Overflow 2.0 (normally worth $14,95) or PhotoPresenter (normally worth $ 
for this round), and perhaps you help to built some cool software which really is needed (even if my favourites are allready out…Sorry Jeff, for not getting iGTD through…).
But you’ll have to hurry: It’s already the final round, winners will be announced on Wedneday!
Flickrfree video
October 21, 2006
When your’re inserting graphics or images with thin lines or structures in a video when editing in pal or ntsc formats, these often start to flicker when viewed on a normal tv screen.
This happens due to the fact that pal and ntsc broadcasts are transmitted in an interlaced way. This means that not 25/29.97 full progressive frames per second are transmitted, but instead 50/60 interlaced images per second are sent. Through this broadcast images are split up in two images which contain just every second line of the image (1 image upper frame first, 1 image lower frame first). When using images with thin lines or structures, the lines or structures get split up for the two images. This often produces flickered images when viewd on a tv screen.
To get rid of these flickered images, there’s an effect in Apple’s Final Cut Pro called Flicker Effect which blends and blurs the frames slightly, but kills the strange looking effect. Voilá.
Monkey Book Pro: PMU Reset
October 21, 2006
I experienced problems with my MacBook Pro not going to sleep properly after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.8. When closing the lid, the screen went black, but the Mac didn’t go to sleep itself and worked along happily.
What helped to solve this issue for me was a PMU Reset (PMU is the Power Management Unit/ according to Apple: “The Power Manager is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is on the logic board of the MacBook or MacBook Pro. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, somecharging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relatesto the computer sleeping.” ).
PMU reset for a MacBook/MacBook Pro:
- If the computer is on, turn it off.
- Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer’s battery.
- Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
- Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
- Press the Power button to restart the computer.
By the way: Apple tells you to first try to restart your mac normally to solve the issue 
After some discussion with friends & apple service technicians, we recommend to hold down the power button for at least 10 seconds.
Flock - My new darling.
October 5, 2006
Blogging with wordpress/drupal/typepad/blogger right out of the browser, Flickr browsing and direct uploads, I love flock and my often used Safari seems quite unused for the last weeks and months… and personally I don’t ike firefox on the mac - not quite sure why, perhaps a mac thing…
I’m not quite sure about Flocks future with all the rumors going round (e.g. featured in the Top 10 Web 2.0 Losers list), but personally I love it.
Blogged with Flock
