iPhoto and Image Capture suddenly stopped importing from my digital camera. Same problem using the camera as a reader or my little thumbdrive adaptor. Plugging in my Fuji F10 would immediately crash the Mass Storage component of the Image Capture thingie. I was also having all kinds of trouble sharing my iPhoto library and movies downloaded from the camera would play until the last frame, which was inexplicably all white and would crash QuickTime player. Before figuring out the following I was afraid my camera was broken or the xD card was defective.

It took me a bit of sleuthing to determine that Flip4Mac was causing this. First, I confirmed it wasn’t hardware; the camera worked fine on Michelle’s nearly identical PowerBook.

To try and figure out what was preventing the camera connection from working, I opened Activity Monitor, made sure “All Processes” was selected at the top (I always have that option selected) then sorted the list by Process ID descending. Because Process IDs count up, whatever launched next would appear at the top of the list.

Plugged the camera in and watched. MassStorage popped up, then disappeared, followed by CrashReporter. Fine, now I knew what was crashing. Off to the Console.

In the main console.log, I saw the following lines:Jan 22 22:57:52 joemaller-powerbook crashdump[295]: MassStorage crashed
Jan 22 22:57:53 joemaller-powerbook crashdump[295]: crash report written to: /Users/joe/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MassStorage.crash.log

These confirm that MassStorage had crashed and show the location of the log file. Use that path to navigate through the log listings in Console.

Crash Reports are 90% meaningless unless you wrote the application. However, they are full of clues. Scroll up from the bottom until you see a line of asterisks, these are the beginning of the last crash report. Below that are some details about the application and a thread-dump of the crash. Below the listing of threads are the components active at the time of the crash.

There were several third party binaries near the top of my list. I unloaded them in order, restarted then plugged the camera in again to see if it was still crashing.

• iGlasses – fine. (very cool video iChat gadget, fun and useful)
• DivX: fine, but I use VLC anyway. Deleted, not reinstalling.
• Flip4Mac WMV Import: Bingo!

Flip4Mac was installed in “/Library/QuickTime/”, with a bunch of other codecs. Removing it solved all the problems I listed above. Later I noticed they included an Uninstaller, here’s yours.

Flip4Mac is a recommended replacement for Microsoft’s discontinued Windows Media Player. There’s a tired old joke in there somewhere. In the meantime, tons of people are complaining about various problems related to this. One posting somewhere claimed the problem was related to DivX being installed, but I still had issues after removing DivX. Something to remember for future troubleshooting; bizarre problems, check for Flip4Mac.

Integrating Windows Media files as Quicktime Components is long overdue. Microsoft deserves some credit for recognizing how good Telestream’s product is and for spending the money to support their work. WMVs have never played as well on my machine before this. However I am worried this instability might be a precursor of things to come, and I hope Flip4Mac won’t break in strange new ways with each subsequent QuickTime point relase.

Telestream has released a v2.0.1 update which claims to fix these issues. After making sure everything was working without Flip4Mac, I installed the update and immedately checked my camera connections. Happy to report it’s all working.

Update: Spoke too soon, movies from my camera ended with white frames again. Uninstalled Flip4Mac and they play fine. 2.0.2 anyone?

I just posted updated versions of my iPhoto Date Manipulation AppleScripts which now work with iPhoto 6.

This is definitely the best version of iPhoto yet, but the biggest positive change regarding scripting is that dates are now read/write properties. Before dates were read-only strings whose format would sometimes vary. Because dates can now be set as AppleScript date objects my long nightmare of UI scripting can finally come to a end. No more need to internationalize ambiguous dates, no more counting interface splitter groups to figure out what was visible, no more “keystroke”, and no more appallingly slow performance.

Another good part is that all my date logic was abstracted using proper date objects, so that all translated perfectly. Once I noticed that dates were finally writable, it took very little time to update the specific routines to work with the new version.

Now I feel like it would actually be worth my time to create Automator actions, the absurdly delicate nature of UI scripting would have previously made that a nightmare.

On my previous MacBook Pro post, Ted asked, “Will the new intel Apple computers allow us to load our current version of Final Cut Pro 5?”

Probably not, but I ordered one anyway.

Jobs said in the keynote that all Apple’s pro apps would be universal binaries in March. Also on Apple’s MacBook Pro Core Duo page they list an FCP benchmark with an footnote indicating they tested with beta apps.

Apple will be offering a $49 crossgrade for pro apps.

Universal applications are designed to run flawlessly on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers. Universal versions of Final Cut Studio, Logic Pro, Logic Express, and Aperture will be available by March 31, 2006.

If you own a current PowerPC version of one of these products, you’re eligible for a low-cost “crossgrade” to the Universal version when it becomes available.

“Not supported” doesn’t mean “doesn’t work”, but for $49 (yes, another $49) the apps should be good to go. Based on past history, whatever new thing is announced at NAB will be another paid upgrade (there are already FCP6 rumors). So if you’re not going to be immediately updating your hardware to Intel, it would probably be wise to wait until April to see what’s next for FCP. That $49 could be put towards the next upgrade.

I’m guessing March is when we’ll see the pro towers refreshed. I’m also expecting to see new 17 and 12 inch MacBooks sometime in February, maybe just after the MacBook Pros start shipping, much like the iPod Video was announced on October 12th, only 5 weeks after releasing the iPod Nano on September 7th. My longshot prediction has the end of the iBook brand as well, with iBooks becoming sans-pro MacBooks based on single-core Intel chips. Too bad, I liked the name iBook much more than MacBook.

Here’s the page: MacBook Pro

First thoughts:

• The top of the screen looks thicker in some photos, kind of out of balance with the sides. The little extra bit of material up there makes the whole machine appear a little bit squat, despite being almost identical to my current machine’s dimensions.
• FireWire 800 is gone. Expected that, but not quite so soon.
• Express Card 34 (for 34mm width) is the successor to PCMCIA cards. It’s much smaller and apparently related to PCI-Express. I didn’t even know these were on the horizon. Oh well, my 6-in-1 PCMCIA memory card adaptor just crapped out anyway. ExpressCard is significantly faster than the PCMCIA interface, hopefully we’ll see some SATA interfaces soon.
• Love the new power connector. I’ve seen so many power jacks break, probably more than any other part on a PowerBook. This plug probably costs 10x more than the previous one, but Apple’s going to save a fortune in AppleCare power-jack repairs.
• These are Fast. I’m currently using a 1.25ghz PowerBook, which was already bettered by the grey-bar 1.67 G4 Apple’s new numbers are trouncing. I’m probably looking at something like an 8x speed boost come February. Glad I waited, also glad I didn’t steer everyone wrong by advising them to wait on purchases.
• The name feels a little goofy, especially the “pro” caboose. It’s going to take a while to get used to how that one feels in the ears.
• This release begs the question about the rest of the intel portables. Is the iBook going away? When, if ever, are 17″ MacBooks going to be released? What about twelves? Six Powerbook models have been sort-of replaced (they’re still for sale?) with two models. iBooks just went from near-parity with PowerBooks to remarkable suckiness.

Other thoughts:
John Gruber agrees that the name is sort of goofy, though less charitably:

[The MacBook Pro] name is terrible I mean just horrible, like some crappy Mac accounting software from 1987″

Cabel Sasser’s already posted MacBook Pro Pics

Engadget, “We think we’re in love”

Michael Tsai: “I can’t think of an Apple product name that’s worse than ‘MacBook Pro.'”

Via MacRumors IRC (irc.macrumorslive.com#macrumors):

10:48 Apple Store just loaded.

10:42 Show’s over, time to go reload the Apple Store site a few hundred times.

10:38 My Amex just wriggled free from my wallet and lept up onto my desk all on it’s own, it looks tired and dispirited, much like a salmon. Apple store is still down.

10:35 MacBook Pro: Fastest notebook ever. Thinner than 17″ PowerBook, 15.4″LCD, bright as a cinema display, IR sensor (returns!) with Apple Remote. 5.6lbs. $1999 1.67 Core Duo; $2499 1.83GHz. Shipping in February!

10:32 4 to 5x faster!! two processors (meaning dual core or 2x dual core?) I’m such a nerd. A happy nerd, but a serious nerd.

10:31 AHHHHHH!!!! No more powerbook! MacBook Pro (see my prediction below!)

10:30 LAPTOPS!

10:26 I’m hoping there’s a one more thing and that thing is portables, but it’s starting to seem unlikely at this point.

10:20 Quark (bleh) has a universal binary beta shipping today. Adobe?

Microsoft is claiming everything works with Rosetta, no date on universal binaries yet. Now saying updates in March.

What’s up with March? Apple’s pro apps and Office in March, I guess that’s when towers will get intel chips.

10:14 Intel iMac? 2 to 3 times faster than the previous G5 iMac! Holy crap. It’s using the Core Duo. Two cores, each core faster than the G5 They do know how bad this makes PowerBooks look, they have to. IOP’s G5 iMacs absolutely smoke my PowerBook.

10.4.4 is entirely native on Intel! iLife and iWork are all universal binaries, totally expected that.

10:08 iWork ’06, just go try it? lol. HARDWARE!…

10:06 One hour and no mention of Intel? If they end this without new hardware, the stock’s gonna get hammered. Intel’s stock started tanking about 12:30pm, currently down $0.32 (1.2%).

9:55 here comes iWeb, (tried SandVox yet?). AAPL just topped $80. Based on MacRumors IRC, iWeb seems very .Mac focused. Good, smart niche and doesn’t yank the rug out from under Dan Wood again.

9:30 Apple’s stock is up $3.60, 4.75% already.

iLife updated, major overhaul to iPhoto. THANK YOU. iPhoto 5 was a dog. Really wish I could see screens, iLife site not updated yet (no surprise).

9:27 10.4.4 today! nice. hope it reduces the number of beachballs I’m still seeing.

My predictions:
Lots of new hardware, more than was rumored. I’m convinced that new PowerBooks will be released alongside new iBooks. Unless the lines are merged into a two-tiered ‘book. The primary distinction will be Core Duo in PowerBooks and Core (single) in iBooks. There will be no updates to towers until later in the year, probably around NAB and the next FCP update.

Don’t care much about iPod stuff, though I think Bruce is right to point out the biggest coming market is sending digital entertainment around the house. Viiv addresses some of this, but people are soon going demand that their stuff plays wherever they want.

Several large software companies will be onstage to announce universal binaries available today (or when the new comps ship).

The biggest question for me is whether or not Final Cut Pro will be updated to universal binary now, or will wait until NAB in April. I’m figuring it won’t be updated, the larger user base isn’t on PowerBooks. Much as I want a new machine, I might wait a bit to see it all plays out if FCP isn’t done yet.

I’ve been watching TextMate since late 2004. My first reaction was similar to Michael Tsai’s observations around the same time; “not quite right.”

That’s all changed.

I love BBEdit. I bought my first copy at MacWorld Boston in 1994 or 1995, from Rich Siegel’s own hands. I still have the “BBEdit: It Doesn’t Suck” t-shirt that came with it. Having used that tool day in and day out for over a decade, it holds a very real personal attachment.

The latest thing that got me to try TextMate again (at least the fourth time I’ve done so), was Giles Turnbull’s MacDevCenter post. Nothing specific, just a reminder that it was still there, still being actively improved and that I was still lusting after section folding. Giles summed it up well:

BBEdit, which I’ve been using for the same task for some years now, has done nothing to annoy or frustrate me. There’s nothing about it that I particularly dislike.

But TextMate offers everything I like in BBEdit and plenty more.

One key thing BBEdit offered was a simple interface for mapping languages. I created a “codeless language module” for FXScript which has been working well for the past year. While on vacation, under the guise of intentionally avoiding work related stuff, I started fussing with and deconstructing TextMate’s language bundles. After about an hour, I had the guts of an FXScript Bundle working. The depth of what’s possible with TextMate is astonishing. Not only was I able to map FXScript completely, I could also do silly things like color-code class syntax for RGB color variables, ie someColor.r. Functions mapped correctly without hacks, even when smashed onto one line, and they fold! (I’m going to test the FXScript bundle out for a bit before making it public)

Creating bundles in TextMate had a steep initial learning curve, despite my being pretty good with regular expressions (I learned regexes because of BBEdit). The most damning thing however was figuring out how to save them. Bundles don’t offer a save dialog or any sort of modified indicator, and they seem to only write out changes when TextMate quits. I learned the hard way to quit and restart the application frequently, bad language rules would cause crashes and I’d lose whatever I had gotten working since the last application launch.

What TextMate appears to lack in AppleScript support it more than makes up for with internal macros and shell commands. I’ve been moving the Joe’s Filters documentation from semi-static PHP files into WordPress. Manually, each page took 10-15 minutes. Using AppleScript and BBedit, that was down to 2-3 minutes, most of which was cursoring around. However with a few macros in TextMate and one dozen-line AppleScript, I was able to convert 30+ files in less than 30 minutes.

I still have a few custom AppleScripts I need to translate from BBEdit to TextMate, but seeing as how those are mostly wrappered shell commands, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

I got an email today asking if I knew anything about slowdowns in iPhoto due to bloating of the Library.iPhoto index file. I hadn’t heard of it before, but Eric Lindsay, J Kevin Wolfe and the MacInTouch iLife reports have a lot of good background information.

My iPhoto is slow, but not too bad compared to some of these reports. However it does make using it not particularly enjoyable. My Library.iPhoto file is only 35mb (264,395 lines for 10,000 images), iPhoto takes about 15-20 seconds to show photos after launching. Most of my photos came from Sony cameras.

Maybe some of this will be addressed by the new 10.4.3 update.