Apple apparently keeps stumbling it’s way to success, somehow ????..

[Herb Sevush]

Our difference seems to be that you see Apple as monolithic and I don’t. The iphone/ipad success did not stop the Mac division from releasing the Trash Can, a failure that Apple has acknowledged. I like my Ipad, I don’t like their workstation offerings. As an editor the latter is much more important to me than the former. I don’t think that success in one sphere means success in all.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “The iphone/ipad success did not stop the Mac division from releasing the Trash Can, a failure that Apple has acknowledged.”

Perhaps we just see “failure” differently.

I see the trash can as a stage in the evolution of Apples offerings. It served – and continues to serve – many of those who own them. Yes, in hindsight, it had insurmountable issues effecting both performance and longevity, and never performed as perfectly as I’m sure Apple intended – yet in hindsight, when I look at, for example, the standalone eGPU unit just released by BlackMagic, it’s hard to argue that there wasn’t more than a bit of form factor influence from that much maligned unit.

I note often that the landscape of the entire computer industry has largely switched from design-perfect-ship – to design – ship – iterate. This follows from the connected “now” when it’s common to push a software or firmware updates that correct issues that might have been in place on initial delivery. (Call it the Hubble Space Telescope effect?)

I suspect it’s what we’ll be seeing for the future. The hardware configuration goes out the door with the best design and performance compromises that can be figured out at that time’s price point – and then as data comes back in – things are expected to improved. That’s kinda what the “overclockers” started. Take what you get initially, and if you want to risk it – modify for improvement.

Personally, I see computers as no kind of long term solution for much of anything anymore – but as an evolving base under my work. When the base gets too old, to dinged up, or simply out of date to be acceptable. The base gets changed. Sometimes, it miraculously happens while I’m sleeping via software update. Other times, I have to take action and pull out a credit card. But the only thing I know for sure is that living through THIS pace of change – whatever is sitting on my desk today – will seem awfully old and cranky all too soon. So I just accept that as how it works.

All the tape decks, turntables, and mixing boards I’ve ever owned are roach fodder now. Including all the ones I struggled MIGHTLY to figure out how to initially afford.

I’m not sure why I should see my computer any differently. Evolve or die. That’s the new normal for people AND gear, IMO.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Oliver Peters]

[Bill Davis] “Perhaps we just see “failure” differently.
I see the trash can as a stage in the evolution of Apples offerings. It served – and continues to serve – many of those who own them.”

Sheesh! It’s right up there with the Apple Mac Cube. It’s a great computer for audio. Not so much for video, thanks to improper thermal distribution and load distribution across the two GPUs used in its design. That started day one and never got better.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Bill Davis]

[Bernard Newnham] “What’s in it for you Bill, and all those other Apple cheerleaders here?
“

I explained it on another board not long ago.

When X was released, (scratch that: When X was PREVIEWED, long before anyone had touched it IRL, everyone showed up hating it. That hate continued for the 2 months before ANYONE had touched it.

I thought that was fascinating. A bit like Witch Trials in that it was lots of folks saying I can’t possibly know the truth yet, but I accuse and CONDEM you anyway!

The day it was released, I was as confused as anyone, but in the weeks following, I kept seeing idea after idea that was fresh and fascinating. The database reminded me of Filemaker Pro a bit. Keywords looked AMAZING. The Magnetic timeline, which like most editors with a decade of chair time behind me, totally weirded me out at first, started then slowly making all kinds of sense.

Yet for the next TWO YEARS – that initial crap understanding of what was happening continued.

My position was “WAIT – there’s some kind of amazing stuff happening here – and many of you are missing a great new forest because you’re standing with your nose pressed against a temporary sign that some largely clueless person slapped up before the building was even finished.

So in that environ, I started posting about X.

But to understand HOW I was posting you have to add a Part 2 to that Part 1.

I described it to someone who asked me this same question elsewhere, like this.

Put Good and Bad on a Spectrum. Color one end Yellow (X=horrible) and one end Blue (X wonderful)

What’s in the middle? Green, right?

I saw so much YELLOW poured out on the webs for so long about this tool – yellow that I thought was simply wong in an extremely shortsighted way, that it was annoying. I could see real value in all the new stuff in X, but the loudest voices would allow for NO VALUE \ whatsoever for many, many months. It was a lonely time, for those of us who thought this might actually be an interesting road to follow.

So here’s the thing. Let’s say the truth is allways Green. X was never as Bad at legions were saying, but also never as all good as I was implying (wink).

Thing is, if I simply started a modest racket implying AQUAMARINE is the Truth – I’d be hobbling my own purpose – which was to pull the overall debate back into the green middle as efficiently as I could.

The only things being said in defense of X, were couched in moderation so as not to offend the bright yellow legions. But here’s the thing. What happens if you add GREEN to Yellow? You don’t really get more Green – you get Chartruse. And that’s NOT where I felt the debate should ACTUALLY be. I saw way too much value in the concepts behind X to allow for chartreuse to win the day. The only way to get to green is to add pure Blue to the pure Yellow being argued so loudly.

And so that’s what I did. Took on all comers with pure BLUE arguments.

And in time, (totally NOT just because of me, because the Blue Army grew and grew rapidly) I started to slowly see the overall on-line opinions start to shift.

There are still ALL YELLOW folks out there stuck in a 2011 mindset – and when I see one, I’m delighted to roll out the ALL BLUE arguments. That’s just fun. But this simple strategy that was largely instinctive and only half planned at first, turned out to be super effective in ways I never imagined.

Because of it – because I uncompromisingly argued for a thing I felt I was seeing that the larger market was missing, I got noticed. I thought it was just by folks on newsgroups like this – but I was GOBSMAKED when I realized that a MUCH wider world was watching.

There were literally moments when I was backstage somewhere and I went up to introduce myself to someone notable that I’d never met, I’d stick out my hand and say Hi, I’m Bill Davis” – and the response was “I know. Nice to finally meet you in person.”

So what started as a tiny personal crusade in an internet backwater, kinda came to have unexpected, lasting, and incredibly positive side effects for me.

I know way more cool people now, quite by accident, because I fought a clearly blue fight for so long.

And it was easy, because when I look at X, not only did I actually see a lot of blue, but because the blue in it was making my work easier and easier, faster and faster in the real world – it was super easy to keep ignoring the small flashes of yellow that legitimately did make their way into the discussions.

People think I can’t “see” the yellow. And I get why. But I’m not (generally) an idiot and I can see it well enough. But nothing yellow about X has ever really caused me much of a problem – so there’s no real value in worrying about becoming more yellow about things. There are still plenty of those folks around.

So while it’s easy to just box it under “fanboisim” – (and while I’m sure some of this is EXACTLY that, as it’s generally understood, the implication of being a fan boy is that you suspend your critical thinking in order to do so.

Thing is, what if there are ACTUAL legitimate and positive reasons for appearing like someone who stays on one side, even if you “get” the other side.

Worth thinking about that, perhaps.

That a good enough explanation? ????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bernard Newnham]

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find myself lost for words.

Bernie

[Oliver Peters]

[Bernard Newnham] “I don’t know about anyone else, but I find myself lost for words.”

Maybe Michael Cioni explained it best. ☺

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i117f6RUKos

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “Perhaps we just see “failure” differently. “

Probably only when it comes to Apple products.

[Bill Davis] “I see the trash can as a stage in the evolution of Apples offerings. “

Sure, it’s the missing link between the Newton and the G4 Cube.

[Bill Davis] ” Yes, in hindsight, it had insurmountable issues effecting both performance and longevity, and never performed as perfectly as I’m sure Apple intended – yet in hindsight, when I look at, for example, the standalone eGPU unit just released by BlackMagic, it’s hard to argue that there wasn’t more than a bit of form factor influence from that much maligned unit.”

I agree. As a computer it was a failure but as a design concept it was pretty cool. Unfortunately I was in the market for a computer.

[Bill Davis] ” But the only thing I know for sure is that living through THIS pace of change – whatever is sitting on my desk today – will seem awfully old and cranky all too soon.”

But how soon is “all too soon?” The Trash can was old and cranky the day it was brought out. For me that is definitely “all too soon.”

[Bill Davis] “The hardware configuration goes out the door with the best design and performance compromises that can be figured out at that time’s price point – and then as data comes back in – things are expected to improved. That’s kinda what the “overclockers” started. Take what you get initially, and if you want to risk it – modify for improvement.”

Which is precisely what the nMac Pro was designed to prevent. That paradigm was bring unfinished design to market and then make it impossible to modify. Brilliant. But it did have a cool looking case.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “Because of it – because I uncompromisingly argued for a thing I felt I was seeing that the larger market was missing, I got noticed. I thought it was just by folks on newsgroups like this – but I was GOBSMAKED when I realized that a MUCH wider world was watching.

There were literally moments when I was backstage somewhere and I went up to introduce myself to someone notable that I’d never met, I’d stick out my hand and say Hi, I’m Bill Davis” – and the response was “I know. Nice to finally meet you in person.”

So what started as a tiny personal crusade in an internet backwater, kinda came to have unexpected, lasting, and incredibly positive side effects for me.

I know way more cool people now, quite by accident, because I fought a clearly blue fight for so long.”

Bill, I’m glad you’ve gotten to know so many cool people, but for the folks on this forum do you think you could put up some kind of banner or notice when you’re actually arguing for what you believe as opposed to arguing to change the color values of the NLE multiverse. I know it would make my life much simpler.

Thanks.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “Bill, I’m glad you’ve gotten to know so many cool people, but for the folks on this forum do you think you could put up some kind of banner or notice when you’re actually arguing for what you believe as opposed to arguing to change the color values of the NLE multiverse. I know it would make my life much simpler.”

Uh, NO.

First off, who says I don’t believe every word I’ve posted?

You can be solid blue because that’s what you believe is the correct position. God knows the solid yellow folk believed they were correct.

That fact that I elected not to bend over backwards to appear “balanced” – in the face of guys like Aindreas (who didn’t give a jot about any such balancing) – is prima facia evidence for my case.

IF the X haters were rarely asked to compromise their positions. Why should I? The result is a skewed chartreuse world. (And that’s objectively ugly!)

Here we are. Closer than ever to Green.

And that’s a good thing, IMO.

Also, the same shrinking level of privacy is afforded to everyone on the interwebs, so nobody gets to have an advanced clue as to why anyone writes anything. As we now know, I might not actually exist. This whole 7 year long argument could all just have been Russian hacker led miss-direction aimed at sowing chaos in the American NLE industry!

Be vigilant!

????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “Which is precisely what the nMac Pro was designed to prevent. That paradigm was bring unfinished design to market and then make it impossible to modify. Brilliant. But it did have a cool looking case.”

Yep, Apple kept right on failing their way to the top.

Maddening, isn’t it?

Hey, what if each failure actually taught them something they needed to know?

Wouldn’t that be weird?

????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.