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 This site is the online companion to my book/DVD, "The Macintosh iLife '05", published by Peachpit Press and Avondale Media. If you like this site, you'll love the book and its nearly three-hour DVD-Video disc. Learn more. Have news, tips, comments, or links? Send them along! How to contact me. Get an iLife. Get your own copy of "The Macintosh iLife '05". Patronize your local bookstore or buy from Amazon for just $23.09 (34 percent off). Learn more about the book and DVD. Find out what all the buzz is about: view samples of this beautiful book and watch QuickTime excerpts from the DVD. Upcoming Appearances June 21. Apple Store, San Francisco, 6 pm June 25. Northeast Ohio Apple Corps, 9 am July 23. iLife seminar, Santa Rosa, CA Photo gallery. I love the Flickr photo sharing service; here are some recent shots. (Newsreader users: To subscribe to my photostream, drag this link into your newsreader.)  
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Thursday, January 22, 2004
Posted 9:19 AM
Not-So-Smart Albums in iPhoto 4
I've been loving the speed and new features of iPhoto 4, but I've run into a couple of limitations of the smart albums feature, which lets you tell iPhoto to build an album according to search criteria that you specify.
My complaints deal with the way iPhoto 4 handles dates.
You can't omit the year. I may be missing it, but I can't figure out how to easily create a smart album containing photos from a given date, but from any year. In other words, say I want to create a Smart Album of every photo I've taken on Christmas day, regardless of the year. The smart album dialog box doesn't let you say "Date starts with..." -- you must specify an entire year. So creating a "Christmas Day" smart album means adding multiple criteria -- one for each year whose photos you want to include in your album. That means a lot of extra work.
Two-digit years don't cut it. iPhoto appears to store date information using a two-digit number for the year -- for example, 1/22/04 instead of 1/22/2004.
Didn't we have a big brouhaha about this a few years ago? I thought so.
The problem with iPhoto's two-digit scheme arises when you add an old scanned image to iPhoto and change its date to reflect the year in which it was taken -- for example, "45" for a photo taken in 1945. Or "05" for a photo taken in 1905. I discussed this very use of iPhoto in one of my Digital Hub columns in Macworld.
Worse, iPhoto 4's smart albums feature doesn't appear to be able to find photos that have, for lack of a better term, "unusual" dates. I changed a photo's year to "45," but the smart album feature can't find it.
iPhoto 4 is a terrific upgrade, but it would be just that much more terrific if it handled dates just a bit better.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Posted 12:02 PM
GarageBand On the Radio Tonight
I don't mention it here often enough, but I co-host a computer radio show called Point & Click Radio on our local public radio station here in the spectacular boonies of California's Mendocino County.
On any Wednesday when my schedule permits, I drive 25 minutes through gorgeous redwood groves and past world-class wineries to downtown Philo, California (population: about 400). There, I join my good friend Bob Laughton, who has been heroically hosting Point & Click Radio for over seven years.
Mendocino County has been thinking different for a lot longer than Apple has been selling computers, and it's decidedly Mac country. I don't have statistics, but I'd bet a PowerBook that there are more Macs here than there are Windows computers. Given that and the fact that Bob and I are both Mac lovers, Point & Click often has a strong Mac focus.
Tonight will be no exception. Tonight we'll be demonstrating Apple's hot new GarageBand software. We'll walk listeners through the process of creating a GarageBand song from scratch.
It should be a fun show, and if you aren't fortunate enough to live within KZYX listening range, you can listen live on the Internet using the RealOne player. Our show airs at 7:00 pm Pacific time. You'll find a link to the live stream on the Point & Click Radio home page.
See you on the radio!
04/20/2003 - 04/26/2003
04/27/2003 - 05/03/2003
05/04/2003 - 05/10/2003
05/11/2003 - 05/17/2003
05/18/2003 - 05/24/2003
05/25/2003 - 05/31/2003
06/01/2003 - 06/07/2003
06/08/2003 - 06/14/2003
06/15/2003 - 06/21/2003
06/22/2003 - 06/28/2003
07/06/2003 - 07/12/2003
07/13/2003 - 07/19/2003
07/20/2003 - 07/26/2003
08/03/2003 - 08/09/2003
10/05/2003 - 10/11/2003
10/12/2003 - 10/18/2003
10/19/2003 - 10/25/2003
11/02/2003 - 11/08/2003
11/30/2003 - 12/06/2003
12/07/2003 - 12/13/2003
12/21/2003 - 12/27/2003
12/28/2003 - 01/03/2004
01/04/2004 - 01/10/2004
01/18/2004 - 01/24/2004
01/25/2004 - 01/31/2004
02/01/2004 - 02/07/2004
03/07/2004 - 03/13/2004
03/21/2004 - 03/27/2004
04/11/2004 - 04/17/2004
04/18/2004 - 04/24/2004
04/25/2004 - 05/01/2004
05/02/2004 - 05/08/2004
05/09/2004 - 05/15/2004
05/16/2004 - 05/22/2004
05/23/2004 - 05/29/2004
05/30/2004 - 06/05/2004
06/06/2004 - 06/12/2004
06/13/2004 - 06/19/2004
06/20/2004 - 06/26/2004
06/27/2004 - 07/03/2004
07/11/2004 - 07/17/2004
07/18/2004 - 07/24/2004
07/25/2004 - 07/31/2004
08/01/2004 - 08/07/2004
08/08/2004 - 08/14/2004
08/22/2004 - 08/28/2004
08/29/2004 - 09/04/2004
09/05/2004 - 09/11/2004
09/12/2004 - 09/18/2004
09/19/2004 - 09/25/2004
09/26/2004 - 10/02/2004
10/03/2004 - 10/09/2004
10/24/2004 - 10/30/2004
10/31/2004 - 11/06/2004
11/07/2004 - 11/13/2004
11/14/2004 - 11/20/2004
11/28/2004 - 12/04/2004
12/05/2004 - 12/11/2004
12/12/2004 - 12/18/2004
12/19/2004 - 12/25/2004
01/09/2005 - 01/15/2005
01/16/2005 - 01/22/2005
01/23/2005 - 01/29/2005
01/30/2005 - 02/05/2005
02/06/2005 - 02/12/2005
02/13/2005 - 02/19/2005
02/27/2005 - 03/05/2005
03/06/2005 - 03/12/2005
03/27/2005 - 04/02/2005
04/03/2005 - 04/09/2005
04/10/2005 - 04/16/2005
04/17/2005 - 04/23/2005
04/24/2005 - 04/30/2005
05/01/2005 - 05/07/2005
05/08/2005 - 05/14/2005
05/15/2005 - 05/21/2005
05/22/2005 - 05/28/2005
05/29/2005 - 06/04/2005
06/05/2005 - 06/11/2005
06/12/2005 - 06/18/2005
Really old stuff (before February 2003)