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Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

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Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#181
post #167
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On slashdot, someone proposed the theory that this is a good question to ask if you have rational worldview, and know this kind of thing should be possible, but aren't sure if you're dealing with a scam artist who will tell you what you want to hear.

Yes, I've used that principle before; ask a question you know should be "no" and see what happens. Can that car tow this (way too heavy) thing? Will my dishwasher clean my dishes even though my water is full of sulpher? Will this (integrated graphics) computer play $LATEST_GAME at full settings? Will this plastic thing last ten years of solid use outdoors? In my personal experience, I actually don't get the full-thro…

Indeed. In buying a new car some years back, I found a reliable way to translate answers. When the dealer answered, "Yes" it was generally truthful. But when they answered, "I think so", the actual answer was definitively "No".

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#182
post #144

rule 1 of hollywood tech support: Always take what the editor says with a massive pinch of salt. I spent ten years in the movie industry, and the people that were the most forthright, and almost universally wrong about technical things were editors. "The monitor is out of grade" No, you've set the background lights to red. "The sound is out of sync" No, you've turned off the amp and somehow managed to get the crappy…

With the exception of the OSX update, most of these sound like technical issues they're just not bothered to fix themselves. My understanding is that editors don't usually set up their own workstations so why would they troubleshoot them?

mostly its down to them fiddling.

editors _fiddle_ but then don't take responsibility for what they've done.

The monitor issue its a two-for-one. The editor was doing a technical edit, that is matching some shots up to someone else's spec. They were proxies(as in small previews to make the machine run faster) and were not graded.

What they had done is fiddle with the room lights, because they wanted to make the room feel better. Obviously this made the monitor look more blue.

My college (who is a junior, in a junior department) gets an angry phone call because the workstation isn't up to par.

Its a lot of dick waving for no real gain.

Another fun one was in about 2009 an editor decided for a quick preview edit that it would be quicker and easier to laser out a digital shot to film, cut and splice by hand on a stienbeck, and then re-scan it in.

We had all the shots loaded on the workstation.

Not all editors are like this. but there are enough to give them a bad name.

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They threw the kitchen sink at the problem but just ended up buying cheese graters!

Apple Cheese Grater CNC and performance testing on Pecorino: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s29YZqe9Cso

This is exactly what I was looking for in this thread. Of course it exists.

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They meant "thinks-they're-technical", which might clear things up. Putting dashes between a bunch of words isn't really a correct way to do this, but it's a way to smash a bunch of words together and pretend it's one word. In this case an adjective describing the users.

What? Hyphenated compound adjectives have been a standard feature of English for centuries: https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/hyphens.asp

[deleted]

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#186
post #64

Whats with this kneejerk advice? Honestly who turns off their macs? Are they talking about sleep mode?

Don't you have to still reboot Macs to apply certain updates?

It used to be you almost always had to reboot to update the Safari web browser, but interestingly this week's version 13, at least on macOS Mojave, did not require a restart.

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, it's not just Avid. Some audio production software such as ReFX Nexus still uses a USB dongle. There is no way to use the software without it plugged in. It also has a policy where if you damage the dongle, you have to buy again and get a 10% discount off the FULL price of the VST. In the age of people gigging on laptops, I'm not entirely sure how they think they are gonna sell any more of them. I fancy it myself…

To add to that, it's not just media production. In the medical field, almost all software for performing and analyzing EKGs, X-rays, MRIs etc. comes by default with some sort of dongle-based protection. Apparently, it's not enough that you need the biggest dongle in the world (i.e. the machine itself!) to use the software. Some vendors do offer alternatives if you fight them hard enough but the default still is a tri…

> In the medical field, almost all software for performing and analyzing EKGs, X-rays, MRIs etc. comes by default with some sort of dongle-based protection. Apparently, it's not enough that you need the biggest dongle in the world (i.e. the machine itself!) to use the software.

Actually, it's not.

Some idiot will get the idea that they can just "transfer the hard drive immediately" because they didn't pay enough money on their support contract to get 4 hour response rather than 48 hour response. The dongle prevents that.

Medical devices are certified for the entire device--that includes the specific PC and the specific version of operating system running on it.

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, it's not just Avid. Some audio production software such as ReFX Nexus still uses a USB dongle. There is no way to use the software without it plugged in. It also has a policy where if you damage the dongle, you have to buy again and get a 10% discount off the FULL price of the VST. In the age of people gigging on laptops, I'm not entirely sure how they think they are gonna sell any more of them. I fancy it myself…

> There is no way to use the software without it plugged in. This is only true if the software hasn’t been crack?

Thing is, the majority of iLok protected software has never been cracked, or if it has been cracked, only very old versions that aren't exactly relevant anymore.

Re: Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no way to use the software without it plugged in. This is only true if the software hasn’t been crack?

Thing is, the majority of iLok protected software has never been cracked, or if it has been cracked, only very old versions that aren't exactly relevant anymore.

Ah, right, fair enough :)
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