Check it out!
Yours truly was interviewed by Mary Gay Marchese – the Public Relations Director at Markzware, the software company. Over the years, we have purchased a few of their products, most notably Flightcheck. For us, this application is indispensable as we run all our outgoing layout files through it to make sure there are no surprises when it’s time to print a project.
By now, most creative professionals in the digital world have heard about Adobe’s latest iteration of the Creative Suite Franchise. CS5 was unveiled last week and is scheduled to ship within the next four weeks.
As with previous releases of the software, purchasing new copies or upgrading old ones comes at a relatively stiff price. Many design studios are currently evaluating the new version to see if and when it is most prudent to make the jump.
Of course, everyone wants to stay at the cutting edge of the latest in technology and software tools. But in today’s difficult economic times, many companies cannot afford to do that. It may not make financial sense for studios and especially individuals to purchase every major upgrade that Adobe releases.
It can be argued that the last version of Adobe CS, version 4, was not a significant enhancement over the one before, version 3. Yes, there some new and interesting features. But was it worth shelling out several hundred or thousand dollars to bring workstations up to CS4 when CS3 was more than adequate?
In our case, at Intrigue, we did something a little different.
As someone who works with both especially large and numerous files on a daily basis, “storage” is a very important issue. Working in a design studio, you quickly see how important it is to have sufficient storage to hold ALL the “live” files AND for adequate backups.
Although we do archive (to DVDs) and delete older projects periodically, it is quite staggering how many gigs of information we currently have in active use. As the company IT guy at Intrigue, it is my responsibility to make sure we have the storage space that we need and that all critical files are backed up on a regular basis. This is no small task as more files are created than deleted on a regular basis. This means that over time, our storage needs will always continue to increase. That requires a plan of action.
Today, Intrigue is giving a big business presentation. We have a meeting with a potential client that we would really like to work with on an ongoing basis. Actually, we’ve already done a few small projects for this client before, but we’re interested in diversifying and increasing the work we do for them.
The basic premise of the presentation is to show the client what we at Intrigue do, and more importantly, CAN DO. Sometimes, even when a person knows you, it can be very beneficial to prepare a small presentation to package your services and talents. Our client allowed us the opportunity to come in and “show our stuff”. It was a very welcome moment as it would be wonderful to be working with this account on a regular basis.
However, the problem was that we had less than a week to prepare the presentation and a budget of ZERO. Well, ok then! We’re a creative group – this should be straightforward. All we needed was a plan. So the idea was to create a slideshow with some of our best work.
As the “tech support guy” for Intrigue, I do a lot of maintenance on the workstations for the art department. By no means should this imply that we have considerable downtime. Rather it’s mostly proactive or preventative maintenance that is intended to PREVENT downtime.
My philosophy from a system support perspective is to stay on top of things BEFORE molehills turn into mountains. This applies to whatever brand or type of equipment that might be at hand. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Windows box or the latest and greatest Mac. They will all develop issues over time that will need to be addressed and fixed. It’s like normal wear and tear that comes from driving a car. Over time, a car will get nicks, scratches and dings – that’s to be expected if it gets driven on a daily basis. Oil does need to be changed at regular intervals to prevent having the engine fry itself.
Same thing with computers. Just by running them on a daily basis for hours on end, they WILL develop a problem or two (or three) over time.
Just going to vent a little about a minor frustration regarding a feature of the new (to me) Leopard OS on the Mac. What’s bugging me is the fact that finding files is something that should be a “no brainer” for the ubiquitous application “Finder”, right? In the old days of the Macintosh, that was [...]
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