Digg takes a stand, and 86 people aren’t happy about it

September 19, 2008 · Filed Under Recent News · Comment 

Reports are bubbling up that Digg has permanently banned over 80 users for running scripts that help them automatically perform certain tasks on the site. This is called “cheating” in many circles, but on Digg it had become accepted practice. 

The mostly lengthy account has been published on the Get Smart Blog under the title The Grim Reaper has visited Digg. The post lists 86 usernames that were banned from the site without warning. The tone of the author and the comments, all apparently mostly ex-Digg users themselves, is rather grim and melodramatic: “So many brave and valiant Diggers…it is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions to see such wasted talent.” You’d think a team of dedicated scientists curing cancer were suddenly shut out of their labs and kicked into the street.

Among those banned was a user named Diggboss who developed and used a ‘GreaseMonkey’ script for checking up on friends to see whether they’ve dugg the items that you’ve submitted or shouted. The script used Digg’s own APIs and did not automatically digg stories, yet Digg’s rather vague terms of service prohibits “automated means to access the Site” and any “organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of Digg’s services.” I’m not sure this tool qualifies, but there you have it.

In an official message on their blog from last week, Jen Burton from Digg suggested that scripts were primarily forbidden because they “place additional load on Digg servers (slowing things down for everyone)”. It’s quite clear, however, that the real reasons is that Digg is concerned with using the system and abusing it by recruiting their friends. The Diggboss script may not have automatically submitted stories, but it did help users pursue a strategy of offering favors for homepage hits, something Digg has to prevent to keep the system running and worth the value of the service it offers. This perspective has merit, but try telling that to the displaced users.

Many users are defiant that Digg should dismiss long-time contributors on the grounds that they had run scripts. Like ’seniority’ allows them to violate the rules willy-nilly and be able to do what they want. Some may say, hey, it works on EBay (where, let’s face it, the larger Powersellers violate the spirit of EBay’s rules every day and get away with it).

IMHO, Digg did what they had to do: enforce the rules. Perhaps a stricter definition of what violates their rules might be in order, however, to keep the uprising from creating a user backlash and ultimately hurting the site in the long term.

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Comparison between Aperture and Lightroom

March 21, 2008 · Filed Under Product Reviews · Comment 

I love photography - and have changed workflow tools pretty often over the years.

Adobe photoshop is a stapel for nearly every photographer - although Gimp is free for professional use it just doesn’t stack up.

With the advent of Digital Raw format a third set of workflow tools have risen to ‘develop’ these digital images.

Aperture and Lightroom (now Adobe - after they purchased Pixmantec) are the two top titles in the arena. 

Personally I have been a Lightroom user for a few years (Pixmantec originally).   I’ve tried some of the other choices and just have felt comfortable with the workflow and processes in Lightroom.

A professional photographer knows the merits of masterful editing, and in this knowledge comes the rivalry between Aperture and Lightroom, presently two of the best photography software programs to  hit the market.

The positive thing about this is that photographers and artists are now given sufficient choice on which software to purchase.

Therefore, which of the two really gives back your money’s worth? Which software actually gives the greater benefits, and the lesser downside?

Well, making this decision is never painless, and your decision is  compounded by the fact that once you choose one, there’s virtually no turning back. Ultimately, your chosen software will become the deep well of your creative ministrations and masterful editing, where you can store the many details and subtleties of your edited pictures.

A brief comparison on the attributes of Aperture and Lightroom is presented below:

Well, there’s the smart difference in the price tags, with Apple’s Aperture 2.0 at $200 definitely cheaper than Adobe’s Lightroom at $300.

However, there are a few observations that can be made between the two. Lightroom has a more extensive range of interface panel choices- four of them, than Aperture.

But the fact that Aperture has lesser options makes for a smooth transition between different activities, like assigning captions or tags and editing for example, and this could be largely favorable for most. I found this quite helpful especially when multi-tasking.

Moreover, Aperture offers the easy searching interface feature that allows you to sort out and search for edited and tagged files. Lightroom nevertheless shines when it came to its ability of transmitting colors. Up to five colors can be conveyed to each photo with Lightroom, Adobe’s software is also by far the more refined and advanced when it came to actual editing, with its revolutionary TAT, or targeted adjustment tool.

You can manipulate the tone, diffusion of the color, and brightness by simply targeting a specific section of the image, and use your mouse cursor to direct the course of action.

Vignetting is also one advantage of Aperture over Lightroom, as it is able to provide the so-called darkening corners effect to an entire image and a cropped equivalent, unlike Lightroom which can only do so to a full photo image.

Nontheless, Lightroom offers more correction options with lens complexities, especially when a photo has too much contrast in it, and this is what Aperture is found lacking. With editing options, you certainly will appreciate Lightroom’s capabilities, although when it comes to exporting and printing activities, Apple has it made.

Finally, what makes Lightroom an easy choice for a greater percentage of the market is that it can be run on Windows. Apple certainly cannot be trifled with when it comes to its latest offerings on touch phones and its revolutionary music and video players, but Adobe has earned its name in the photography and images soft wares in the first place.

Be the judge, join the poll, and make your verdict.

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