Versions Part 1: Locked Files

I'm starting to not like Lion's whole "Versions" implementation. It's a system that's supposed to simplify file management, but is, in fact, complicating it in certain situations.

Case in point: Locked Files.

Lion now locks files that haven't been edited for a certain period of time. It does this in order to prevent accidental changes to documents opened in applications that support auto-save. But, unfortunately, it can cause its own problems and unforseen changes to documents.

Here's what happens when I try to simply add an action to a locked Automator Workflow.

1. I open the file (note: it's locked, but this is only apparent by looking at the grayed-out text in the document titlebar).

   

2. I attempt to edit the document (in this case, I added an action to my workflow).
3. I get a dialog box regarding how I want to handle the locked file. The dialog is wordy, and if I were a new user I would find it confusing and alarming.

   

4. It seems fairly obvious to me that I want to make changes to the document — that's why I opened it. But the preferred and presumably safest choice, as indicated by the button highlight, is to Duplicate the document, so that's what I do.
5. This produces a copy of the document — indicated by an informative animation — and yet another dialog that now asks how I want to deal with the edits I just made to what I was just told was a locked document. This dialog is even wordier and less clear. Moreover it's unnecessary and makes no sense, because it shouldn't have been possible to edit the locked document in the first place, and presumably you made this decision in the last dialog by choosing to work on a duplicate. Also, the button text is completely unclear: What is the difference between Older Version and Last Opened Version? What happens if I click Cancel? Why do I have the option to unlock the file from this dialog when I just made the decision to not unlock it in the last dialog? Insanely confusing!

   

6. Here, the highlighted safe choice is indicated as "Last Opened Version," so let's just go with that. But wait! Doing so gives me an error that says that the document could not be reverted. Now, the document I just took pains to duplicate and, thus, not edit has in fact been unlocked and edited. Moreover, I now also have a duplicate of the document with the same edits. So now I've got all sorts of file management to contend with.

   

Mind you, all I wanted to do here was add an action to a preexisting Automator Workflow. In the past I'd have opened that document, made the change, and saved the file. Done. Now a simple document edit has become an exercise in frustration and confusion. Mac OS X Lion has actually attempted to prevent me from editing my own file. And then, when failing to prevent me from editing my file, it has failed to clean up after itself and left everything in a state of disarray. Worse, there is now a good chance for data loss here, for a mistaken edit to occur.

And can someone tell me what the point of all this is? What's the payoff? Why is the OS locking my files? It presumes I'm making a mistake by editing a document, implying I'm some kind of careless child who can't be trusted with his own data. And while I get the idea of protecting the user from himself — or just from accidents — this is overkill. There is certainly a better way.

Locked Files in Lion, as it currently stands, is an abomination that's completely contrary to the goals and ideals of the Macintosh experience — in fact, it's contrary to the goals of the file locking system itself. It's inelegant, pointless and potentially dangerous.

There is one bit of good news, however. You can turn it off. Yes, buried in Options section of the Time Machine preferences, of all places, is this little gem:

Here you can set the time limit for Locked Files, and you can also simply disable file locking altogether. Until Apple improves the ridiculous behavior associated with Locked Files, I think I'll disable them. Something tells me I'll be okay without the extra protection.

Buyer's Lament

I'll be honest: I wish I could stay with AT&T.

I just pre-ordered an iPhone 4S. From Verizon. And while I'm excited to get the new phone, and thrilled at the prospect of improved call quality and coverage, I do feel a pang of regret at having to leave AT&T.

I switched to AT&T when the first iPhone first hit the streets. A very big part of that decision was that I was at that time a Sprint customer. And here's the thing about Sprint: I hate them. I truly hate them. I was a Sprint customer for probably ten years, over which I had several problems. Once, for instance, after moving from upstate New York to New York City, Sprint continued to bill me for my upstate land line for three months after I'd cancelled it. Correcting this took numerous calls to customer service, making me really question the competence of the company.

If competence had been the only issue, I might've stayed. But then, years later, I continued to have problems, once when upgrading to a new phone, and then later with billing. At one point Sprint charged me several hundred dollars for a few hours worth of data use that occurred in the wee hours of the morning, when I can assure you I was quite asleep. I managed to have that charge removed, but it took over an hour on the phone — much of it on hold — during which I was, at one point, berated by a Sprint technician for using the phone improperly.

That was when I vowed my revenge.

That day I vowed to leave Sprint at my earliest convenience. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of my life. And when the iPhone hit, I knew it was my chance. That was the day Sprint lost my business forever.

I've been pretty happy to see where Sprint's landed in the ensuing years. They're currently the #3 carrier, and they've only just gotten the iPhone. Ha! Serves you right, Sprint. You guys suck!

I do not have such feelings of ill will toward AT&T, however. In fact, all my personal experiences with AT&T — be they over the phone with customer service, or just using AT&T's customer website — have been quite pleasant. Their customer service folks have always been courteous and quick, and I've never spent more than a minute on hold with them in the handful of times I've ever even need to call them. Their customer billing site is also quite good, with clear, user-friendly graphics and explanations of my bill that always make perfect sense. Overall I've been pretty happy with AT&T.

There is one area, however, in which AT&T has not fared so well. It will likely come as no surprise to readers of this site that AT&T's cellular reception, particularly in large urban areas — particularly New York City, where I spend the vast majority of my time — is less than stellar. Reception at my workplace is especially bad. There are areas where I often need to be in which I simply get no signal whatsoever. But coworkers with Verizon iPhones have no problems anywhere in the building I work in. This more than anything is the reason for my switch; it's purely technical. It's not everyday I need phone service at work, but when I do it's usually pretty urgent, and having to use the land line while I'm troubleshooting a server or a projector with a colleague over the phone is incredibly frustrating. It just plain slows me down, and when time is of the essence, that's a real problem.

So I've made the switch. I don't feel completely good about it — I like to think I'm as loyal to good service as I am damning of bad service. But there is it. It's done. Sorry AT&T. I wish I could stay.

But, Verizon, consider yourself on notice: treat me like you don't want my business, and you will most certainly lose it.

Goodbye, Steve Jobs

It's kind of amazing when the passing of a person you never knew affects you. So it is with Steve Jobs.

I was a bit shocked to hear of his death. I mean, it wasn't surprising per se. When he finally bowed out of Apple, it was pretty obvious to me that he was dying. I think only imminent death could force him out of Apple a second time. He loved that company. Truly loved it, I believe.

But still, to have such a powerful presence in the world one minute, and then, suddenly, to not. That was shocking. And sad.

Like I said, I never knew Mr. Jobs. But a great deal of my life is tied up in things he made happen. A great deal of my life is the way it is because of him. And I think it's important to remember that, and to pay some respect when someone who's influenced so much and so many leaves us.

Whatever you might think of Steve Jobs as a person, there's no denying that he was, if nothing else, interesting. He did interesting things with his life, and he did them in grand fashion. There was no one quite like him, and there probably won't be again in my lifetime.

Even to many who never knew him, he will be missed.

John Stewart best summed up my feelings:

The Daily Show

It's Oh So Quiet

Not long ago I posted about my plan to aggressively filter bacn — messages that aren't quite spam, but that I don't actually want to read — out of my Inbox.

So for three or four days, I let the bacn accumulate, and then I created a couple choice filters from that collection of mail. After putting these filter into action, it's been very, very quiet on the email front.

It's actually a little shocking how seldom I receive email now. That's how much useless email I was getting. So much, that once the signal-to-noise ratio is leveled, it actually feels like I rarely get email at all. maybe a few times a day do I actually receive anything of real, genuine interest.

But it's been great. I'm now spending zero time managing mail I don't care about. I never look at my Inbox now unless there's something worth reading. Email, on the whole, just takes far, far less of my time and brain power, and those are two things I can always use more of.

As a New Yorker, I've both come to accept and to truly hate excessive noise of any kind. Bacn management gives me a rare opportunity to squelch some of that noise, at least of the virtual kind, and the resulting quiet has been truly blissful.

If you're not already filtering your bacn, I highly recommend you take a bit of time and do it. You won't be sorry.

Updating Final Cut Pro X: More Mac App Store Woes

Apple has released Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1, a small point release with some important new — or maybe I should say "returned" — features. Most important among these is XML import/export which should allow users of FCPX to open their legacy FCP projects.

But here's the grind: I'm not sure how you're supposed to get the update.

My first attempt was via Software Update, but SU tells me I'm all up to date.

Next I tried the Mac App Store, where I met with what is becoming an all-too-frequently frustrating experience. Under the Purchased tab I see Final Cut Pro, and I'm given an option to Install.

But hitting Install gives me an error message telling me to use Software Update, which I already know doesn't work.

After some option-click finagling I get App Store to allow me to attempt to install the update from the Final Cut Pro X product page, which currently lists the version as 10.0.1, the new version. But when I attempt to do so I get this message:

This is maybe the worst error message I've seen yet in the Mac App Store, because it shouldn't even be possible. If I didn't buy FCP from the Mac App Store, then where, pray tell did I buy it from? Are you accusing me of stealing it? Really? Because you should know better, shouldn't you?

Isn't this just the sort of licensing crap the App Store was supposed to do away with? Doesn't the Mac App Store know exactly what I've bought and where? Seems to me like, once I've made the purchase, I should be able to reinstall FCP any time I want, and any version, even if I already have it. I don't get why the App Store forbids re-installs.

Ultimately I was able to get the update. I did so by deleting the Final Cut Pro application from my Applications folder, then reinstalling it from the Mac App Store. Which, I say again, is just the sort of ridiculous user experience the App Store was supposed to prevent.

So far the Mac App Store user experience has been pretty terrible, particularly when installing Apple apps. This is in large part because, contrary to what they allow every other developer to do, Apple uses the App Store for large, complex application installs. Ironically, the most complex install yet, Mac OS X Lion, was their biggest success. But Xcode and now Final Cut Pro have been terrible. Just terrible.

Moreover, the App Store UI really needs and overhaul. It's ugly, unbearably slow, cluttered and lacks features common to most browsers around today — features that would really aid the buying process, where their lack certainly hinders it. Features like tabs and bookmarks, for starters, would be really useful for comparison shopping. A shopping cart would be good for buying multiple items. Instead we're stuck with this crap.

The Mac App Store is the single least Apple-like Apple product I've ever used. It's kludgy and feels cheap. It's just terrible. And it's now been out for some time and is presumably mature as it's now baked into the OS, so there's no excuse for this. Unfortunately, for some products, it's unavoidable, which is a real shame.

More and more I'm bothered by Apple's tendency to force their vision on their customers. It was fine when they did so with wonderful products. but when the products suck, it becomes time to start looking for alternatives.

UPDATE:

I almost forgot! There are additional updates which bring additional inconsistencies to this update process. Compressor has also gotten an update, and this one can be had in the normal way, by simply hitting the Update button in the Updates section of the App Store (I presume the Motion update works similarly, but I don't own it, so can't say for sure).

But there are also CODEC updates, and these must be gotten via a webpage:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1396

So there are actually four different updates to the FCP suite, and three different ways to obtain the various components. None of which are Software Update, so none of which make the updates apparent to anyone who isn't reading the trades. If you didn't read Apple news sites, I'm not sure how you'd even find out about these updates.

The Software Update mechanism is a very good way to deliver updates — and vastly superior to the Mac App Store — but it's been completely abandoned for the Final Cut Suite updates.