Mountain Lion Upgrade Tips

Before I give my basic impression, you should know I have not only been using the Macintosh for about 18 years but I have worked as a tech support manager for over 17 years with a Macintosh based software company.

First, BACKUP your computer before you upgrade. It is always smart. Yes I work for a backup software company, but I want to keep the blog objective, so I won't mention the company name.

Overall I think Mountain Lion is a nice upgrade from Lion, but a couple of changes in the system may be confusing to users or make you unhappy overall.

1) Safari no longer supports RSS feeds. If you are like me, I check RSS feeds for about 100 websites every single day, multiple times per day. Seeing the RSS feeds stop working suddenly was a shock. I had a little bit of a panic attach because it would totally change my web browsing experience.

I have come up with my own workaround, that seems to be doing a decent job.

• Setup a Google Reader account
• Copy all of your RSS feeds into the Google Reader account
• Download a program like "Caffeinated" from the OS X App store. You can search on "google reader" to find free and paid RSS feed programs. Caffeinated seems to be working really well for me
• Login to your Google Reader account within your RSS Reader and all of your feeds will show up.

2) Gatekeeper: Apple has added a new security feature that blocks programs that do not have an official Digital Signature for Mountain Lion.

If you have a program downloaded from someplace other then the App Store, that program may not launch until you make a System Preference change. In my case, non of my Safari Extensions would work.

• Security & Privacy inside System Preferences and change your settings to match this screenshot:

The above change will allow all programs to run, like they did before the upgrade. All developers will eventually release updates with a correct signature to avoid this issue.

3) Messages. If you want to see your buddy lists, so you know who is online, you must use "command-1" on the keyboard to display the list of online users.

4) The Google search field in Safari is now gone. It has been combined with the address bar.  Many of us are not happy about this, but you will get used to the change.

5) Safari started opening all Windows in a new tab and not a new Window. I prefer new windows.  You can go to the Safari Preferences>Tabs and change the drop down menu to "never" as a fix.

For me, these were the biggest issues I experienced on 3 different computers. I hope it helps you.

The Club!

Got a chance to attend the first meeting of the Delta Digital Camera Club.  Really a great group of people of all skill level. Very much looking forward to learning how to be a better photographer from the wealth of knowledge the group has to offer.

If you are in the area, come join the fun.

Taking a photo at the mall is against the rules....

On July 4th around 8am I was walking through the outdoor mall in my city with my Nikon D5100 when I was stopped by the shopping mall facilities manager who informed me that taking photos in the outdoor shopping center was not allowed. At the time I was stopped, I had the camera around my neck with the lens cap on. My LowePro camera bag was around my shoulder.  No photos were being taken at that moment.

That same day would be a parade and other holiday activities.  My plan was to take a few photos before the event and return later in the day to take more photos. Clearly this was not a welcome activity.

Below is an edited version of my email to the mall property manager and the reply they sent me regarding the photography policy. I removed the city name and the name of the shopping center:

I wanted to follow-up and find out if you are able to provide me with any more specific details about your photography policy. The shopping center has developed into a social hub within the City, almost like a 2nd downtown within the city. While I do understand the shopping center is private property, I would hope that the outdoor "community" spaces would be open to the same rules as you might find in any city center.

I had been a city home owner for over 10 years. I am not a professional photographer and I have never sold a photo but I do consider myself an advanced amateur photographer. I would hope noncommercial photography that highlights some of the park features or even the fountain would be encouraged and not discouraged. What better advertising can you have then members of the community wanting to share photos of your shopping center with friends or even other photographers? What I do is not much different from someone taking a photo with a camera phone and posting the picture to Facebook or Flickr.

My original plan on the 4th was to take photos of the play structures and maybe some of the "setup" for the big event and then return for the parade and take photos of the event itself. I was pretty disappointed that taking photos was against policy and decided not to return later in the day. 

If you can shed some light on what is allowed and not allowed, I would appreciate it. I would like to return again with my camera for future Shopping Mall community events, but not without a better understanding of your facility rules.

The official response:

John is correct telling you that we have a policy regarding photography on property without prior approval from Mall Management.  This is private property and we just ask people to let us know when they want to take pictures and for what purpose.  We typically never deny anyone but we just like to know in advance.

I am a little jaded over the entire thing, mostly because I was singled out at a time I wasn't even taking a photo. I was simply walking through the facility at the time I was stopped.

Going forward, I will be keeping my camera at home next time they hold a big BBQ contest or parade at the shopping center.

Sure I can get permission to take a photo before the event, but I am sure lots of people will show up with cameras phones and be left alone.

I suppose the right thing to do is always get a signed property release document, but honestly I wasn't planning to take photos I would post on anything outside of flickr.

What type of things have you experienced in situations like this?

Preston Castle

I went on a visit to Preston Castle in Lion CA today.  I went on the guided tour which lasted about an hour, leaving not much time to compose photos in this 40,000 SQ foot building.

Below are some of my favorite shots.

These fire hose wheels can be found all over the castle.

Not really sure about the royal history

I believe this is an old X-Ray machine

A lot of texture in one place

Showers

Basement

Need some new places to shoot

I feel like I have pretty much exhausted all of the interesting buildings and landscapes in my area (that don't involve really long hikes).  You can only take photos of so many barns and store fronts before you run out of local options.  Although the recent suggestion to visit Fremont was pretty good.

I posted a few photos to 500px this week from my archive and didn't feel very confident with the quality, and just deleted the post.

To help keep my camera busy, I am working to photographing each of the 65 parks in my town. Some of them have some pretty interesting play equipment and some are just very basic and don't excite me.

On Saturday I am taking a road trip to Ione California to visit a haunted house that is supposed to be pretty camera friendly. I will be on the tour. I am hoping it is "self guided" so I can take my time. Otherwise I think the town itself will have a lot of interesting buildings and landscapes.

As a side note, I have started going on walks every day to get myself back into shape. A 3 mile hike used to be no big deal to me, but these days a mile is far from easy.

I also went to the eye doctor today for a checkup. Good news, the eye I use to look through my camera is in good shape for long distances. On the downside I need reading glasses.