Crowd sourced design - is it a good thing for the creative industry?

The largest crowd-sourced design website - 99designs.com is heading back to it's roots in Australia.

Started in Melbourne in 2008, the website hosts "design contests".
Companies create the contests and specify the price and often the concept. Designers then submit designs hoping to win the contest.
If you are young designer starting out, it might be a fast way to gain some exposure and credibility.
For established designers, is it valuable service that you should participate in, or is it another way for the "web" to under value a market.

Print brokers essentially did the same thing to printing 15 years ago - got a stable of printers to outbid each other for work. The end results was a headlong rush to the cheapest price!
Similar thing happened to photography with the explosion of stock photo websites.

Post a comment or contact us and let us know your thoughts - good, bad, indifferent.

final holiday notice

I am now on holidays - a week in (hopefully) sunny Fiji.

Whilst I will be able to schedule some remote support, in my absence, I have 2 trusted colleagues to take care of any emergencies.

If you have Apple related issues in need of urgent attention,
please call Geoff Johnson - 0411 523 166

If you have any Windows or Exchange issues in need of urgent attention,
please call David Mews - 0404 067 111

Anything non-urgent, please either email david@drevolution.com.au or leave a message with my voice receptionist who will email and SMS me.

Netgear updates ReadyNAS for Lion

After jumping the gun in late June with a Lion compatible firmware (which was later withdrawn) Netgear have a new Lion compatible firmware.
I will be testing it soon - contact us if you have a ReadyNAS and need Lion workstations to connect...
Older ReadyNAS users with NV, NV+ and other Sparc system will have to wait a little longer.

Thecus released an update last week, still waiting on Synology to release a final version.

AppleCare - is it worth it?

The high cost of out of warranty repairs

Should you buy AppleCare? In years gone by, the answer was a resounding NO!
It was always pushed heavily by resellers as it increased their "attach rate". A higher attach rate meant a cheaper buy price for the reseller.
Previously, I was alway cynical of this approach but I have changed my tune over the last few years.

From when Apple released the Mac MIni Server and AppleCare also covered you for OS X Server support, to the new iMacs and MacBook Pros with sealed components, it now makes sense to take out AppleCare.

Issue with a hard disk in a iMac that is 13 months old?
You need to take it to a service centre to swap the drive - cost - approx $165 plus disk.

Motherboard needs replacing in an i7 iMac due to heat damage?
Another trip to the service centre - cost - approx $750.

Apart from the MacPro (which is due for a refresh any day now) the rest of the Apple range now have sealed components ranging from batteries for MacBook Pros to disks for iMacs and Mac Minis.

Whilst Apple agree to stock parts for every machine released for 7 years, they set the price of the parts when the machine is released.
This means if you have a 6 year G5 PowerMac, a replacement Superdrive is hundreds of dollars!

Considering the lifespan for a production machine in a creative environment is 3 years just like AppleCare - it is a no brainer.
These days, it is too expensive to NOT have AppleCare.

Holiday Notice and a little geekdom

Bula - D Revolution is taking a short holiday!

After a year of being "overworked and undercaffeinated", "burning the midnight oil", "burning the candle from both ends", insert witty saying here - D Revolution is taking a short holiday.

From Thursday 15 September to Friday 23 September I will be sunning it up at Malolo Island - Fiji.
An 8 day holiday is the longest holiday I have had since September 2000 when I was married in Fiji!

Within reason I will still be answering emails and returning phone calls - but will be unavailable for onsite visits of course.
Being a geek, I will be able to offer remote support via a range of software.

If you have a VPN setup by D Revolution, I will be able to directly take control and fix most problems.
This will be done whilst sipping a piña colada next to the pool using an iPad.

The iPad will be running LogMeIn Ignition. This will let me remote control the D Revolution Server which is connected by VPN to a majority of my clients. Apple machines will be controlled using Apple Remote Desktop, windows machines will be controlled using Remote Desktop Connection.

If you don't have a VPN, you will need to install LogMeIn Free.
NOTE: It does require the creation of a free account first.

If you have any planned IT work - contact us to arrange a time.