Monthly Archives: October 2013

I spent some time thinking about updating to Adobe Creative Cloud. They want $20/month forever. I have some regrets that I didn’t buy CS6 Web Premium when I had a chance at the local bookstore. I was hoping that I could continue to use CS4 but I found out it has bugs in Mac OS X 10.8.5. The two CS4 programs I use– Photoshop , and Dreamweaver, both at launch ask for Java 6. Java 6 seems to freeze my system now and then. I am reading that both Photoshop and Dreamweaver actually don’t use Java. I don’t know what to think. I’ve been searching for answers on the Internet.

But back to Creative Cloud. $20/month doesn’t sound too expensive but it is deceptive. If CS4 Web Premium was $399 then it would take 20 months to equal the price. But CS6 costs $600. Ouch. That would be equaled in a few years. Really the only program I want is Photoshop CS6 and Dreamweaver CS6. I’m looking at ebay and they seem to be all selling at a high price. The nice thing about CC is that you will be on the update path provided Adobe doesn’t come out with something post-CC. Little business can’t really afford CC. Regular price is $49/month. CC gives you many but not all of the Adobe products which is nice. But you don’t have a perpetual license but rather a subscription.

I wonder why our local bookstore could sell CS6 Web Premium for $399 but Adobe sells the same thing now for $599.

Maybe I can get CS4 to work…It would save a boat load of money.

UPDATE: I am able to get CS4 working on OSX 10.8.5. I am a happy camper. Now I can wait to the end of time to upgrade to CC.

Drawing 1996, ink and paper, 3″ x 5″ Artist Collection

I work as a media developer in the field of continuing education or distance education. Some of the things I do is setup classrooms for recording, train faculty and student staff to run the recordings, edit the recordings, and publish the recordings for the web. It is a job that is constantly changing. Maybe not so fast that you can see the change in one semester, but over a year there is usually change.  There are constant updates. Back in the early days of computers you made a program and you had one shot at it. It was burned to a CD and that was it. Today, we have updates and new versions. What were we thinking back then? Of course you worked harder to get your program to work right. Now programs automatically check if there is an update and ask you if you want to install the update. That is the norm. I understood this at one point but people weren’t ready for a change. They thought that a program had to work right the first time and had no patience for updates. Now that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I think it is good as bugs are detected and fixed, new features are added. But at one point it was all or nothing. I don’t cherish those days as the stress was enormous.

Now if I miss an edit. I just make the edit and re-post. That doesn’t even rarely happen. More likely faculty decide some part of their lecture doesn’t work after all and they want it out. It is an easy fix. This occurs before the video is released to the public.

What is stressful now is the number of platforms. There is android, iOS, OSX, 7 flavors of Windows. There isn’t one platform to publish in to, there are several. And tools and standards are constantly changing. Flash was the technology, html 5 is the future. Companies are coming out of nowhere, old giants are disappearing. And there are new versions of all the creative tools every 18 months. And, a real stress is that the model for software is changing. No longer is the perpetual licenses the norm. Now you have to pay a subscription every month for Adobe or Microsoft tools. This means more money to these companies plain and simple. Some developers are revolting and looking for new players in the development tools market. We shall see. I am not ready to go to a subscription for Adobe CC. But when my job requires it, that new tools have an advantage, I guess that will be the time to move. So, I stay with an older version of MS Office and older version of Adobe Web Premium. They really aren’t adding features they just want more money.

So I am looking at the market, at the little guys that aren’t well known. They may only provide some of the tools I need but together with other little players I can get the job done.