There is one little insidious change. Upgrades can only be done from the previous point version. So you can’t jump from CS4 to CS6 for example.

Why is this an insidious change? Well, what if CS6 doesn’t have any worth-while updates?For years I got away with skipping the odd-numbered upgrades to Adobe’s various products. There was only rarely enough features in any given point version to warrant to the investment. By waiting every other version I felt like my money was being well spent, I’d get two full versions worth of new tools. Now I can’t do that, I have to buy every version to stay inside the upgrade window. It’s good business for Adobe, but it isn’t any good for the end user. Adobe no longer has any market pressure to make each version a compelling upgrade. Users have to update, why blow it out? That’s why it’s insidious.

Thank fully for me it’s really a matter of principle and not a practical concern, I’ve had to stay current with Adobe for years now because I have to stay out front of the tools and trends. But if I were still a baby-artist, this would be a real bummer. Not cool Adobe. Not cool.

What I’m really looking forward to is the trial download, that will make my mind up one way or the other.

Gregory The Third had his first Halloween and seemed to like it. He’s only six weeks old so he pretty much didn’t know what was going on but he helped me give out candy anyway. We had a mini-photo-shoot in the front yard and got a few smiles out of him.

His “night owl” costume was more of a themed sleeping bag and matching had, but in my entirely-non-biased opinion, he was super cute.

It’s a very cool piece of kit, I’d pay good money for some time inside, but I can’t help but feel they missed a few key opportunities.

For one thing, the player holds a weapon in his hands, so why is there another weapon on the screens? And since the screen is so large it’s like a giant three foot tall weapon is flying around in front of you.

My other gripe is how they handled turning. The weapon controls the point of view (POV). With games like ArmA 2 and a cool little doo-dad called a TrackIR (which I have, love, and cannot speak highly enough of) you can separate the POV from the aim of the weapon. That’s what they should have done here. Control the POV with a TrackIR and track the weapon separately.

These two little tweaks would have elevated this from super-immersive way to interface with a game to true simulation.

Still, if they charged $20 a round for access to this thing as is they’d do serious damage to my checking account.

To start, HDRI is starting to be de regur. I’m sure hardware that shoots HDRI natively is just around the bend. In fact, in a limited way, the iPhone already does just that. This means we’ll be dealing with exposure after the fact as a matter of course. We’ll be able to shoot in any light level and get the image we had in our mind when we pushed the shutter release.

Now a company called Lytro is introducing a new type of camera that somehow captures images that can be focused after the fact. Let me reiterate that, you snap a pic, then you pick the focal point. It’s pretty killer. You can check it out over at their site. They have several images that you can refocus in real time.

Add to all of that the new technology demoed by Adobe at this years MAX Conference that let’s you take the blur introduced by a moving camera out of a shot and you have a future where you can snap a pic without any thought at all. Get the general direction right and you’re set. You’ll be able to set the focus and exposure in post and if you didn’t even bother to hold the camera still you can fix that too.

These and other emerging technologies point toward a future of photography that is really amazing. I’m looking forward to it.

Six months ago I entered my most recent screenplay into the prestigious UCLA Screenwriting Competition. I didn’t expect anything to come of it but a few months later I was thrilled to hear I had made the top ten.

Then, another few months later, I was elated to be told I’d made the top three. As a finalist I was given the privilege of working with a professional screenwriter. The writer I was paired with was Steve Mazur who is probably best know for writing the Jim Carry film “Liar, Liar”. Steve offered a lot of great insight into the strengths and weakness of the draft that I entered. I hunkered down an hammered out a complete rewrite in just six weeks.

Well, it turns out the effort was worth it! I just learned that Erin’s Voice has won first place. This is a huge honor and I couldn’t be happier with the news. There are some great prizes that come with the win but none of them compare to the exposure I’m hoping to get. Stay tuned for updates!