articles/Computers/bc3hassomelittlebrothers-page1
by Mike McNamee Published 01/10/2008
Computers are like Goldilocks' porridge. Some are too big, some are too small and some are just right. We wrote extensively on computer design in the June-July issue of Professional Imagemaker. Since that time we have had various failures and issues, computer refurbishments, Vista disasters and of course a lot more experience running BC3. We thought it was time to bring you up to date. Along the way we collected a bunch of LCD monitors and so they are reported as well.
Two things have been exceptionally poor, Vista and the older, highly compact PCs. Without going off on a 10-page rant about Vista (we could!), experience has not alleviate dour loathing for the operating system. The current list of shortcomings includes:
1. An inability to address the 16GB of RAM with Corel Painter, which actually stops the program altogether.
2. Start-up remains dog-slow although it has not slowed further and remains twice as slow as XP.
3. Most of our spectrophotometers don't work and even if they did the colour management and profile handling is a dog's dinner that we cannot yet get our heads around.
4. The operating system has corrupted so that the 'place' command causes an error code report and locks out the facility.
5. The thumbnails in the Photoshop 'open' dialogue are all upside down, quaint but not easy to use. In addition there is a corrupting grey bar that prevents you from seeing all the way to the bottom of the list. Any file names beginning with 'w' onwards - forget it!
6. When you try to save from Photoshop you cannot change the target folder. Doing so causes an error. The only workaround is to save the file into the folder that happens to come up, and then go into Explorer and move it manually - very convenient!
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