Don't Buy ACDSee Photo Manager Software!

My first blog post in some time is a public recommendation that you DO NOT buy any image management software from ACDSee, such as ACDSee Photo Manager or ACDSee Pro Photo Manager.

I am taking this rather unusual step because the customer service folks at ACDSee International Systems Inc. have left this as my last resort, after leaving me high and dry with software that simply stopped working after just 5 months:



I have been a user of ACDSee Photo Manager for some years, and have invested a substantial amount of time and effort in creating a comprehensive hierarchy of categories (a.k.a. metadata) with which to catalogue my extensive library of digital images.

Last summer, I was attracted by a new feature in ACDSee Pro Photo Manager 2.5 -- the ability to embed my laboriously-created metadata into my image files using Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) technology. This would mean that my metadata was no longer held hostage in ACDSee's proprietary database, and would also provide a useful backup in the event that the database ever became corrupted. So, I ponied up $77 for the software, taking advantage of a special promotion for existing customers.

After installing the software, I ran the procedure to embed XMP metadata into all of my image files (the vast majority of which are JPEG files from Canon PowerShot cameras). However, after it completed, there was no evidence that any metadata had, in fact, been embedded into the image files. I even took files to work and viewed the XMP metadata through the Adobe Photoshop File Info Advanced tab, and was still unable to find any evidence that the categories had been embedded.

Although frustrated by this apparent failure, I was too busy to do anything about it.

Then, just before Christmas, as I was trying to create a holiday photo-montage to send to friends and family, ACDSee Pro 2.5 Photo Manager stopped working altogether. It simply refused to load, giving the following Windows error message:

ACDSee Pro 2.5 Photo Manager has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

I reported the problem to ACDSee Systems Technical Support in January, and over the course of a month was directed through a series of troubleshooting procedures, such as:

• Downloading a tool to remove ACDSee registry entries;


• Removing thumbnails;


• Deleting specific database files;


• Renaming the entire database folder and creating a new database;


• Setting the start up folder to an empty folder;


• Uninstalling and then reinstalling the software;


• Manually deleting ACDSee registry keys;


• Removing Nokia PC Suite;


• Disabling Internet and anti-virus software.

Eventually, after running out of alternatives, the tech support suggested that I download a trial version of ACDSee Pro 3.0 Photo Manager, to see if that would resolve the problem. And it did -- it loaded fine, and successfully imported my Pro 2.5 database. Unfortunately, however, it's limited to a 30-day trial -- which I am now 19 days through.

At this point, I was told that my only option was to pay another $89 to upgrade.

I argued that this was unacceptable, particularly since it was less than 6 months since I had paid $77 to upgrade before. I said that I was unwilling to pay yet more money for software that had so far proven unfit for purpose, and that the company should either:

1. Fix my ACDSee Pro 2.5 Photo Manager
2. Refund my $77, or
3. Give me a free upgrade to version 3.0

They refused on all counts -- hence this blog post.

Anyone up for a class action suit?

Howard Bloom sighting in Park Slope

I just saw whacky-but-allegedly-seminal author, philosopher and thinker Howard Bloom wandering around on Union Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, while I was out for a run.



How did I know it was Howard Bloom?

Firstly, I recognized him because he gave a presentation called "Notes from the Digital Desert -- Saved by Cyber-Research" at the 2002 RLG Annual Meeting while I was working at RLG, and due to a crippling case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that rendered him unable to leave his Brooklyn apartment at the time, his presentation was delivered as a video recording for which I cleaned up the audio.

But primarily I recognized him because he had "Howard Bloom" monogrammed onto his shirt, just as he does in this screen grab from his 2002 RLG video presentation!

He looked somewhat distant, and was wandering around wearing an enormous pair of headphones. Still, it's nice to see that he's able to leave his apartment now!

Fake Steve Jobs on Google's new Chrome OS

I had to repost this very funny post from The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs about the new Google operating system designed for netbooks, Chrome OS:

Let's all take a deep breath and get some perspective

Accountability

Although it's tempting to forget the disastrous policies and illegal actions of the Bush administration over the previous 8 years and consign them to a dark, forgotten corner of our collective memory, it's important to remember just how many laws were broken and lives were lost.

I was a long-time supporter of the movement to impeach George Bush when he was President, and now that he's (thankfully!) no longer in office, I support the movement to indict him and other key members of his administration for war crimes and crimes against the Constitution of the United States:




Click the banner to find out more about the movement to indict George Bush and the other criminals in his administration.

Black Friday

In the United States, Black Friday falls on the last Friday of November, immediately after Thanksgiving. It is considered by many to be the "official" start of the Christmas holiday shopping season, and is typically the busiest shopping day of the year for retailers -- many of whom whip up a frenzy of consumer demand by opening very early and offering deep discounts and loss leaders for just a few hours on aspirational products such as consumer electronics.

This last Friday was a very black day indeed for the family and friends of Jdimytai Damour, the 34 year old employee of a WalMart store in Valley Stream, Long Island, who was trampled to death by a crowd of approximately 2,000 frenzied bargain hunters who, after waiting in line for hours for the store's 5am opening, broke down the doors and stampeded through a human chain of terrified staff into the store.

According to reports, hundreds of people stepped on Jdimytai Damour's body in their rush to buy products such as heavily discounted HDTV's and DVD's. Even more sickening are the reports that some shoppers refused to leave when the staff attempted to clear the store, and simply continued shopping.

What makes people behave like this? Even in the midst of a recession, this insatiable hunger to hunt and "kill" bargains, to consume at all costs, is enough to turn ordinary shoppers into a frenzied mob that will willingly sacrifice a human life for a half-price flat-screen TV. Could it be a genetic hang-over from a prehistoric pack hunting mentality? Are heavily-discounted consumer electronics the woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of contemporary times?

The only possible silver lining to this whole appalling story is that it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the U.S. economy will come out of this recession sooner or later.

Here's the BBC's report on this sad and shocking story, which is nowhere near as graphic as many of the American news networks, but will at least continue to be accessible for the foreseeable future: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7755278.stm

Bike MS NYC

Just over a week ago I took part in Bike MS NYC, a charity bike ride on behalf of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I was talked into it by my old friend Johnny Diamandis, who told me that it would be 60km. However, it turned out that he was a bit confused between kilometers and miles, and the ride ended up being 66 miles!

I didn't do a lot of training for the ride, although I did use it as an excuse to buy a new bike (see blogs passim). However, thanks to the generosity of friends and colleagues, I was able to raise $1,210 in sponsorship.

The day of the ride started very badly -- I had to get up at 5:30am while it was still cold and dark outside, and cycled through a torrential rain storm over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan to meet Johnny at Houston & Lafayette, and then Lee at something like 42nd and 2nd, before heading over to Pier 94 for the start of the ride. I also had a bit of a verbal altercation with an elderly motorist who was honking his horn at us repeatedly for several blocks.

The rain had eased off by the time we arrived and took our places in the starting chutes, but then it got heavier again just before the start at 7:30am.

We set off South down the West Side Highway, went under a tunnel and around the base of Manhattan, and then made our way up FDR Drive on the East Side. The rain was unfortunate, but thankfully the sky started to clear up a bit as we hit Harlem, and before too long we hit the first rest stop at Inwood Hill Park.

Although it had pretty much stopped raining, we were soaked through and cold, and were disappointed to discover that there were no hot drinks on offer -- just water and power bars.

For the next leg us rejoined the West Side Highway again and headed South back towards Pier 94, where the ride ended for the 30 milers, but where the 66 and 100 milers were funneled off and allowed through the Lincoln Tunnel in groups. Going through the tunnel was a lot of fun!



By the time we emerged into New Jersey, the sun was trying to peek out from behind the clouds, and it wasn't long before we reached the next rest stop at Lincoln Harbor for more energy drinks, power bars, fruit and water.

The third leg of the ride was quite tough -- by this time we were riding on roads with regular vehicle traffic, and there was a steep climb up through New Jersey to the Palisades Interstate Park.

Riding in the Palisades was great once we got off the road and into the park, although there were a few more brutal hills to climb. Eventually we made it to the last rest stop for us 66 milers, Kiku Restaurant, around lunchtime.



Finally it was time for the homeward leg back down Route 9W South, over the George Washington Bridge and back down to Pier 94. I was pretty tired by this point -- my knee, neck and shoulders were aching, and I didn't have a lot of energy going up any hills.

However, I made it back to Pier 94 around 1:30pm, met up with Johnny and Lee who had got there a few minutes before me, and after getting a medal, immediately started gorging myself on hot beverages and barbecued food.

I was also entitled to go into the "MVP" area (I never did find out what that is an acronym for) because I'd raised over $1,000, and so had a couple of glasses of wine, dipped some banana pieces in the chocolate fountain, and had a much-needed 20-minute chair massage.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable event despite the inclement weather and fatigue because I had excellent company in the form of Johnny and Lee.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Last weekend I saw a band that I've been listening to in one form or another for almost 25 years -- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds -- at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Gardens.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from the 51-year old Cave, although unlike many of the bands from my teenage years, he's put out a steady stream of quality work in multiple media for the best part of three decades (I also saw Echo & the Bunnymen earlier in the same week, and they only had a couple of songs more recent than the eighties).

I needn't have worried -- the band's performance in the full-to-capacity venue was electric, and Cave ran around the stage with a manic yet darkly comedic energy.



My only complaint about the gig was that the sound was so loud when it peaked that it hurt and sometimes sounded distorted to my middle aged ears!

I've also been listening to Grinderman a lot recently, another Nick Cave project which Paul Facer tipped me off too. I highly recommend it.

Introduction to Metadata, 3rd edition

Introduction to Metadata, Online Edition, version 3 is finally available on the Getty's website.

It contains essays by Tony Gill, Anne J. Gilliland, Maureen Whalen, and Mary S. Woodley, and was expertly edited by Murtha Baca.

I'm glad this has finally come out, because I completely rewrote my essay, Metadata and the Web, back in 2006, with another update in 2007 -- but this field moves so fast, I was worried that the whole essay would become out of date before it was even published!

The paperback version (somewhat confusingly referred to as the Second Edition, as there was an online-only update in between print updates) has been available for a few months now, and can be ordered from the Getty's website for $30.

New Bike

I bought myself a new bicycle this weekend: A 2008 model Scott SUB 20, for $650 plus tax. I shopped around for it for quite a while, which meant visiting several bike shops: You can't really buy a bike online unless you already know exactly what you're looking for, because even slight changes in frame geometry or componentry can completely change the feel of the bike, so you really have to ride them first.

So far, I'm very happy with my purchase; It's pretty much exactly what I was looking for, and I covered 28 miles on it straight after picking it up from the bike shop on Sunday with no problems whatsoever.

SUB stands for "Speed Utility Bicycle," because this is a hybrid bike -- a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike -- that's designed for the urban environment. It has a lightweight aluminium frame, low-resistance 700c road bike wheels with fairly slick tyres and a just-above-entry-level 27-speed Shimano drivetrain. But it also has flat handlebars, and it doesn't have any quick-release components (using a bike in the city, quick-release equals quick goodbye!).



It occurs to me that this is the first new bicycle I've ever bought, and the first new one I've had since I was a child (a select few people will still remember my old 5-speed Raleigh Arena, followed by the 10-speed Falcon Black Diamond). It replaces an old cruiser mountain bike that I bought used in Berkeley, CA, about 8 years ago, to take to Burning Man.

That old mountain bike was heavy and clunky and had pretty basic components, but it was the perfect city cruiser -- in 8 years, all I changed were two brake blocks, and it was always exactly where I left it, no matter where it was locked up. I advertised it for $50 on Craig's List last night, and was amazed how quickly it sold!

I've been meaning to get a better bike for a while now, but have had some extra motivation recently: My friend Johnny persuaded me to sign up for the Bike MS New York City ride in October, a charity 60km ride in aid of multiple sclerosis.

This means that I'm looking for sponsors! If you'd like to sponsor me for any amount, no matter how small, please go to my sponsorship homepage at:

http://msnyc.kintera.org/bikems/tonygill

Crash!

I just saw a really dramatic car crash on Court Street in downtown Brooklyn, and feel compelled to write my first blog post in 3 months about it.

I was walking south on Court street between Sackett and Degraw when I first heard and then saw a black BMW 540 accelerating hard across the junction, presumably trying to beat the lights.

The car made it across the intersection, but the roads were slick from the rain that'd been falling on and off all afternoon, and the thing about Beemers is that they're all rear-wheel drive... Pretty soon the BMW began fish-tailing wildly all over the road before spinning out of control and slamming into at least two other cars -- a parked, unoccupied Mercedes C230, and a mid-sized Ford SUV (an Explorer, maybe) with a single driver aboard.

Incredibly, no-one was injured. The driver of the BMW (which had Carolina plates) got out and started walking around to survey the scene. He looked pretty calm, although was probably in mild shock. I spoke to the driver of the Ford -- an elderly local guy -- and gave him my details after confirming he was OK in case he needed a witness.

I was struck by how easily there could have been a cyclist or a pedestrian in the middle of this demolition derby; without the protection of a steel safety cage around them, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

Birthday Party

I have a big milestone birthday coming up next month, so I'm throwing a party with my girlfriend Lori Ann (who is also having a big birthday next month) to celebrate.

We haven't found a venue yet, but the date's fixed -- Saturday 17th May 2008.

New Job

I've been doing my new job as Global Library Science Specialist for a new (and as-yet unnamed) advertising agency for almost two weeks now, and so far, it's been a lot of fun.

Because the agency -- which will be unveiling its name at the end of the month -- is new, there is a definite start-up buzz, but the fact that it's part of a large existing marketing communications group means that there's a good amount of basic infrastructure in place already.

Earlier this week I went out to Austin, Texas, to visit the client (a large computer manufacturer) to talk about digital asset management, and I'm going back again next week too.

Goodbye, Center for Jewish History!

Friday 14th March 2008 was my last day as Director of the Gruss Lipper Digital Lab at the Center for Jewish History in New York.

I like to think that I accomplished a great deal since I took the newly-created position in April 2005, just under 3 years ago. When I started, the "Digital Lab" was just an empty, gray-walled room in the basement of the Center for Jewish History on 16th Street in Manhattan, and a chunk of grant money from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation. Today, the Digital Lab is a fully-operational in-house digitization service, with all the policies, procedures, standards, technology and staff required to sustain a high-quality digital collection building program.

In addition to setting up the Lab, I was also responsible for implementing a trusted digital repository in which to securely store all the digital assets created by the Center community, and a vehicle by which to make most of them freely available to researchers and the public:

CJH Digital Collections

I am proud of what we built at the Center for Jewish History (I use "we" because of course such an endeavour can only succeed as a team effort), and am happy that I have left the Lab in very good hands -- Andrea Buchner, who I hired last year as the Lab's Quality Assurance & Metadata Librarian, took over as Acting Director upon my departure.

Finally, many thanks to all my team members past and present, and my boss, Bob Sink, for helping to make the Digital Lab both a success, and an enjoyable and rewarding place to work for the last 3 years. I'll miss you all!



Some of the Digital Lab's staff, past and present, at my leaving party at the Belmont Lounge on Friday. From left to right: Gloria Machnowski; Stan Pejsa; Tony Gill; Amit Primor; Hyla Skopitz; Andrea Buchner.

Writing on the Wall

When I was back in the UK recently visiting friends and family for Christmas and New Year, I came across an original work by Banksy, the celebrated anonymous British graffiti artist, on a wall on the Portobello Road.

I like Banksy's work a lot (although this isn't one of my favourite examples), so I asked my friend Chris to take a picture of me standing beside the painting:



Today, I read a BBC News article saying that the same work of art has just been sold on eBay by the owner of the wall for £208,100!

Love Will Tear Us Apart

I just watched Control, a new British-made biopic about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, who committed suicide in 1980.

I was a big fan of Joy Division when I was an angst-ridden goth teenager growing up in Sheffield in the early eighties. I still have the original Factory Records vinyl releases of the first three LP's (Unknown Pleasures, Closer and Still -- which my father always complained sounded like "funeral dirges"), and recently recovered my old Unknown Pleasures and Closer posters when I finally emptied my storage lock-up in London last year (they're now framed and on the walls of my apartment in Brooklyn).

I even found a ratty old T-shirt in my lock-up, with the arms hacked off and sized for the skinny teenager that I was then, with the classic Peter Saville Unknown Pleasures design (above). It's extremely embarrassing to admit now, but in the throes of some teenage angst, I even wrote Curtis a posthumous letter about three years after he died.

Unfortunately I never got to see Joy Division play live; Curtis had been dead for two years before my family moved to Sheffield and I first heard "Love Will Tear Us Apart," at 14 years old, on a compilation cassette given to me by a friend. I did see New Order, the band that the remaining members of Joy Division formed after Curtis' death, at Sheffield University's Octagon Centre in about 1986; they were a bit shite, to be honest.

Anyway, Anton Corbijn's Control was excellent; the dialogue was convincing, the casting and acting was great, the black & white cinematography was beautiful (as you'd expect from a successful rock photographer), and both the soundtrack and sound design were expertly handled. And although the overall tone of the movie was unavoidably a bit grim and dour, there was enough comic relief -- particularly from the foul-mouthed Rob Gretton manager character -- to keep it enjoyable throughout. My only complaint is that the movie was about 20-30 minutes too long (although this perception may have been caused by my increasingly full bladder).

Anyway, here's the trailer -- highly recommended.

Sated

Recently I discovered a piece of classical piano music that I had been trying to find for almost 30 years -- Gnossienne No. 1 by Erik Satie.

I first heard the piece when it was used for the soundtrack of James Burke's excellent 1978 BBC documentary series, Connections, and I've been trying to track it down ever since. Although I've heard it on several occasions in the 29 years that have elapsed since the show aired, I wasn't able to discover its identity until Lori Ann played it to me recently. I'd never even heard of Erik Satie until then.

Buying the CD on Amazon, however, proved more difficult than I'd anticipated. There were many different Erik Satie CD's, all with slightly different combinations of essentially the same pieces, and all by different pianists. I spent a long time reading the reviews, which tended to consist of strong but widely-divergent views on which were the best interpretations.

In the end, I bought one of the more expensive CD's with one of the cheesiest titles -- After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie, performed by Pascal Roge -- because the reviews seemed to suggest that it contained only Satie's better, more atmospheric and melancholy works, that Roge's performance was among the best, and that the recording was of a high quality.

Anyway, I like it very much, particularly the first part of the disc, and have played it quite often over the last couple of months. Check out the preview of Gnossienne No. 1:



And thanks to Lori Ann for ending my 29-year search!

The Sweeney

I just finished watching the first season of a Brit TV cop show called The Sweeney, that I used to watch years ago with my Dad when I was a kid. It's available on DVD from Netflix.

The name of the show derives from Cockney rhyming slang; "Sweeney" is a contraction of "Sweeney Todd," which was Cockney rhyming slang for the Flying Squad, an armed rapid-response division of London's Metropolitan Police set up to combat the upsurge of violent armed crime in London during the seventies.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that, in addition to providing a greater than expected nostalgia hit, the show had actually aged very well; although the acting from some of the supporting characters (especially some of the villains) was often a bit dodgy, the scripts and production are generally solid, and the acting of the three main characters -- John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan, Dennis Waterman as Sergeant George Carter and Garfield Morgan as Detective Chief Inspector Frank Haskins -- is excellent.

The original titles (the first opening and closing titles in this compilation video) are still for me some of the most memorable TV cop show titles ever; I still love the way that the opening titles are exciting and action-packed, whereas the closing titles are slower and more moody:



Another reason that I loved The Sweeney as a kid was the tyre-squealing car chases -- the bad guys would invariably drive an old Jag, whereas The Sweeney always drove a Ford Granada. This had extra resonance for me as a child, because my Dad had several Ford Granada company cars at the same time the show was airing.

Here's another video of an archetypical Sweeney car chase from the first series (from an episode called Stoppo Driver):



"Shut it!"

Wedding Pictures

I've uploaded lots of wedding pictures to my Flickr account (I've been temporarily upgraded to Flickr Pro, as compensation for the demise of Yahoo! Photos).

Here are links to the three sets:

• Jonas & Melissa's Wedding, San Francisco, 29 September 2007


• Vicki & Steve's Wedding, Sheffield, 4 October 2007


• Stuart & Becky's Wedding, London, 6 October 2007

Here's a sample image from each wedding:


This is me with Jonas & Melissa on the night before their wedding in San Francisco.


This is my little sister Vicki and her husband Steve in Sheffield.


Stuart & Becky at the Queen's Chapel in Savoy Hill, London

Wedding Frenzy!

I'm in the midst of a wedding frenzy at the moment... Last weekend, I flew to San Francisco for a couple of nights for Melissa & Jonas' wedding, which was a lot of fun -- plus it was great to see most of my SF friends again.

Tonight I'm flying to the UK overnight, less than two days after getting back from SF, for two MORE weddings! My little sister Vicki is marrying her partner Steve on Thursday in Sheffield, and then I'm back down to London for Stuart & Becky's wedding next Saturday.

That's 3 weddings in 8 days, and about 13,500 air miles in total!

I hate TicketMaster!

I've ranted about TicketMaster's price gouging in the past (see blog passim), but my blood is boiling once more from a fresh outrage, so I need to vent once again...

I'm trying to buy myself a ticket for An Evening with P J Harvey at the Beacon Theatre on 10 October, and the cheapest tickets at this all-seater theatre are $35. That seems pretty reasonable to me, since that money pays both the venue, all the road crew and an artist who I've wanted to see for some years.

However, the only way to buy a ticket without physically going to the box office is through TicketGouger -- and they will add on an additional $9.60 "convenience fee," and then on top of that, another "just because we can" $3.15 "order processing fee"! This amounts to $12.75 -- 36.5% of the ticket's cover value!

How can these fuckers justify this breathtaking level of extortion? If both the theatre and the artist can make money from $35 for actually doing something worthwhile (and probably quite costly to put on), how much profit are TicketGouger raking in for running a ticket ordering website, mailing tickets out and generally treating their customers with absolute contempt?

This time, I'm not going to be held to ransom -- I'm going to buy my tickets at the box office on principle.