Author: Walt Stoneburner

MobileMe Sync Problems – Resolved

Apple’s MobileMe service stopped syncing for me, claiming there was one conflict, which it wouldn’t let me resolve. Here are the steps and a Python script that fixes it.

Not very long ago, I noticed my iPhone was no longer pushing data up to MobileMe, and further investigation showed that my laptop was also having problems syncing.

The MobileMe icon had an exclamation mark in it, it told me there was 1 conflict, and if I tried to resolve it, nothing happened. If I attempted a sync, it’d attempt it, but I’d get a system log full of errors with no obvious signs of successful data synchronization.

I was seeing ominous system log failures in Console like this repeated many times:

Conflict Resolver[276] [110660] |ISyncRecordGraphNode|Warning| Warning: Failed to look up record with Id: 09000000-0000-0000-1234-430001005678
Conflict Resolver[276] [110660] |ISyncRecordGraphNode|Warning| Warning: Failed to get entityName for record with Id: 09000000-0000-0000-1234-430001005678 (record = (null))
Conflict Resolver[276] [110660] |Conflict Resolver|Error| failed to look up parent relationshipName for entityName: (null) (exception = *** -[NSCFArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object at objects[0])

There were other strange messages like this:

Conflict Resolver[276] [110660] |UI Helper Proxy|Error| failed to look up UIHelper for attributeName: calendar on entityName: (null) (exception = *** -[NSCFArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object at objects[0])

And this (my personal favorite as it has a sense of humor):

Conflict Resolver[276] [110660] |UI Helper Proxy|Warning| No data type returned for property “calendar” on entity “(null)”, displaying on blind faith…

And also this:

Conflict Resolver[276] [110660] |Conflict Resolver|Warning| Conflict Resolver: *** -[NSCFArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object at objects[0]
Conflict Resolver[276] *** -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (-1 (or possibly larger)) beyond bounds (2)

My guess is that MobileMe has some globally unique identifier that represents one of my sync-able objects, and for some reason it’s missing. That in turn throws off some collection count, and when things don’t balance out between what was expected and what was loaded, a software exception happens.

At that point, I was fairly sure I needed to converse with MobileMe support. Apple has free chat-based support services, but it’s buried. Really buried. Really, really, buried.

  1. Go to http://www.apple.com/support/mobileme/
  2. Expand Syncing With MobileMe
  3. Click Troubleshooting MobileMe Sync issues
  4. Click Chat Now at the bottom of the page.

It’s a good idea to have your machine and your MobileMe data backed up. TimeMachine, SuperDuper!, or Carbon Copy Cloner will help you do this.

Unregister and Re-Register the Machine


Bring up Apple / System Preferences… / MobileMe. Go to the Sync tab, and at the bottom click on Advanced…

Then select the computer name in the list, and a Stop Syncing Computer… button will appear. Press it. Confirm with Unregister.

Then press the Register Computer button. Press Done.

Check and set the synchronize with MobileMe to Manually. Leave the preferences panel up, you’ll be back in a second.

Blow Aware the Sync History


You’ll need to reset your sync history which requires the iSync tool and a Python script run at the command line:

  1. In the Finder, choose Applications from the Go menu, then double-click iSync.
  2. Choose Preferences from the iSync menu.
  3. Click the Reset Sync History button.
  4. When the window opens to confirm the reset, click Reset Sync History.
  5. Close the Preferences window.
  6. Quit iSync.
  7. Open the Utilities folder (located inside the Applications folder) and double click the terminal.
  8. Paste this command in the Terminal and press return: “/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full” – without the quote marks. There will be no output.
  9. Quit terminal.

Re-sync


Select the items you want sync’d. Change the Synchronize with MobileMe back to Automatically.

You might get prompted with a request to sync immediately. If you are trying to push everything on your machine to MobileMe, stepping on what’s there, then press cancel and follow the next step. Otherwise confirm and skip the next step.

This next part is optional and you do at your own risk, assuming you have a backup and this is what you intended to do:
Press the Advanced… button. Click Reset Sync Data… and select the direction you want to sync, most likely computer to MobileMe.

At this point, the conflict disappears, but you’re no long able to sync either. Move on to resetting the preferences.

Resetting Preferences for MobileMe


In the MobileMe preferences pane, select the Account Tab, and click Sign Out… Confirm with Sign Out.

Now provide a bogus username and password like: blah@me.com / blahblahblah

You’ll get a name or password invalid message, but your log will show some interesting stuff.

/Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System Preferences[352] Warning: Removed .Me password
[0x0-0x2c02c].com.apple.systempreferences[352] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-blah@me.com-SharedServices: Already loaded
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[206] (com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-blah@me.com-SharedServices) Throttling respawn: Will start in 6 seconds
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[206] (com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-blah@me.com-SharedServices[470]) Exited with exit code: 1
/System/Library/CoreServices/FileSyncAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/FileSyncAgent[462] PIDFilePath() => ‘/Users/yourname/Library/FileSync/01254cc20d18/.pid’

Sign back in. Once again, go to the Sync tab and set Synchronize with MobileMe to Automatically.

You will get a message that says “A computer named [your machine name] is already registered with MobileMe synchronization server.” If so, press the “Use same name” button.

You may see this in the logs, not to worry:

System Preferences[352] First pass at computer registration failed with error: Error Domain=DotMacProxyErrorDomain Code=-100 UserInfo=0x200e73280 “A computer with this name is already registered with MobileMe.”
System Preferences[352] First pass at computer registration failed with error: Error Domain=DotMacProxyErrorDomain Code=-100 UserInfo=0x200e5fa20 “A computer with this name is already registered with MobileMe.”
System Preferences[352] LightweightMallornLoginSession is registered.

Now check off the items you want sync’d again and press the Sync Now button.

If you are trying to move all of your machine’s data to MobileMe, select the correct replace option when prompted.

And just to be sure that it didn’t do a partial sync, press Sync Now a second time, just incase the automatic setting jumped the gun before you finished selecting all the desired items.

Your syncing woes should be resolved.

But what about me.com?


At this point it’s a good idea to head over the your web account by going to me.com and logging in.

Check to make sure your data is there.

At this point in time there is known issue with me.com in which the calendar and the contact data does not appear. It is a known problem. Apple is aware of it. It is specific to your profile (other MobileMe accounts aren’t affected). And you need to contact support (see above) and open a trouble ticket. Apple only knows this as a “contacts and calendar loading issue” it has no formal title.

The error you see will be this message on a grey screen: MobileMe is unable to load your contacts. MobileMe could not load your information from the server. Try reloading the page. If this problem persists, contact MobileMe Support.

You can try and clear out your Safari cookies and cache, but realistically this won’t work as other browsers, like Firefox, show the same thing.

  1. First click the log out button and close the MobileMe (me.com) window.
  2. Click the safari title (next to the Apple logo) and select “empty cache.”
  3. Next click the safari title and select preferences.
  4. Click the security tab.
  5. Click “show cookies” then hit “remove all”.
  6. Now close the preferences.
  7. After all that open a new browser window and log back into MobileMe.

Apple can fix the problem by escalating to the next level of support, and this is most likely more desirable than closing your MobileMe account and opening another, which will force your MobileMe account name to change.

“Mail: SafetyNet not needed” log messages

New messages about SafetyNet not needed are appearing in my logs from OS X’s Mail. Trying to figure out what they are. Looking for ideas as Google was dry.

Warning this is a geek-related post, if you’re looking for photography and humor, try another entry or browse the comics.

I’ve noticed OS X’s Mail going something a little weird. I’ve got GeekTool pumping messages to my desktop in the background, and I keep seeing this filling the log:

Mail: SafetyNet not needed – wrongState:0
Mail: SafetyNet issues SELECT before CLOSE – wrongState:0

I’m trying to figure out what it means.

I’ve also noticed before that happens, I see this from /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail:

ATS AutoActivation: Query timed out. (elapsed 5.0 seconds. params: queryString = {com_apple_ats_name_postscript == “Helv” && kMDItemContentTypeTree != com.adobe.postscript-lwfn-font}, valueListAttrs = {{type = immutable, count = 1, values = (
0 : {contents = “kMDItemContentType”}
)}}, sortingAttrs = {{type = immutable, count = 1, values = (
0 : {contents = “kMDItemContentModificationDate”}
)}}, scopeList = {{type = immutable, count = 1, values = (
0 : {contents = “kMDQueryScopeComputer”}
)}}.)

The only other interesting behavior is that sometimes when I close the laptop lid and it goes into calmshell sleep, when I open the lid, I soon find that Mail is locked up to the point that it needs a Force Quit to exit, as Quit is unresponsive. Activity Monitor as well as Mail’s own activity status shows nothing going.

Anyone else seeing this behavior or know what it means?

Babylon 5: Walkabout – What’s That Song?

There’s a song in Babylon 5 (“Walkabout” – Season III, Episode 18) that starts with the lyrics “Do you remember…” but the song isn’t credited in the end titles, and neither is the singer. If you’re looking for who sings it, the title, the lyrics, and where to buy it, here’s the answer.

Recently I’ve been watching Babylon 5 marathon, and it rekindled something I had wanted to research. In an episode called Walkabout (1996, Season 3, Episode 18, DVD Disc 5 @15:30-17:50), Dr. Franklin falls in love with a singer named Cailyn. In the scene he walks into a bar on the space station and she’s seductively singing a song.

That song is some of the most well performed smooth singing, and upon looking in the show’s broadcast credits, I was unable to find the actress or the name of the song. Many people want to what the song is and who sings it.

Babylon 5 - Walkabout SoundtrackThe song is called Goodbye, sung by Erica F. Gimpel, though some may spell it as Erica Gimple. She has a minor WIkipedia entry, pictures on Google, and a website about her.

Bootleg copies appear on YouTube and sometimes title it as “Do You Remember,” but the lists this as “Goodbye” by Erica Gimpel. The site beemp3.com, found with Google, offers a download of the MP3 (duration 02:44) by filling out a simple captcha.

Lyrics: Goodbye, sung by Erica Gimpel in Babylon 5: Walkabout.


Do you remember,
when you,
told me you love me?

Do you remember,
when you,
told me you cared?

Now, I,
Standing on the edge,
Forever.

And for the first time,
I confess,
I’m scared.

Cause it’s our last night.
Our last kiss.
So turn down the lights, and hold me.

Oh lie to me,
Until I believe,
I will be here in your arms, for eternity.

I remember,
The first time,
You touched me.

I remember,
The first time,
I cried.

Oh, I,
remember,
every minute, ever hour
and I remember,
The first time you lied.

Cause it’s our last night
Of our last kiss.
So turn down the lights,
And hold me.

Oh, lie to me,
Until I believe,
I will be here in your arms,
for eternity.

But I know you, baby,
And I hear you.

I understand you,
Completely.
It’s over for you.

Ohhh ohh oooh,
I love you baby,
But I will say goodbye…

Know you baby,
And I hear you,
I understand you, completely,
It’s over for you.

I love you baby,
But I will say goodbye.

Good-bye….

Turns out she also does the end credit song for that episode as well. I have not been able to find the title to this song. But here are those lyrics as well.

Lyrics: Walkabout End of Episode and Credits, sung by Erica Gimpel in Babylon 5: Walkabout.


I think about the things we lost,
And I think about the things we had,
It’s funny, but as long as I have you,
Then, I guess, it wasn’t so bad.

Now, we’re running out of time,
And dancing all the while,
The engine sure went empty,
And I think I’m smelling fire.

I gave ya love, ya gave me fire.
I took ya in, ya took me higher.
If I wasn’t what you wanted,
then tell me what it was…

I gave you all that I believed.
Now I’m standing here, without a clue.
Can’t ya tell me what it is ya need?

I gave ya love, ya gave me fire.
I took ya in, ya took me higher.
But, if I wasn’t what you wanted,
then tell, me what it was….

Seeing in Black and White

I just had an interesting thing happen: I saw in black and white. That’s what my brian actually saw with the unaided eye. Here’s the cool part, I tell you how I reproduced it. It was like nothing I’d experienced before. It was beautiful.

A few moments ago, I just had a very interesting and unique experience. I saw in black’n’white. I’d never had this happen before in my life. First I’ll describe the experience, then how I did it, which, curiously enough was repeatable.

“It was clearly not imagination… It was a greyscale world that I physically saw, like a black and white movie, but a zillion times sharper, far more dynamic range, and in 3D.”
With the totally unaided eye, my brain saw my surroundings, in broad daylight, in black and white. The only exception was that objects which were normally bright red had an ever slight red hue to them, but it was only brilliant red objects that did this.

The effect lasted about 7-10 seconds in duration before the color faded back in, almost as if the saturation was being brought up from near nothing to normal.

To convey the effect, this is much like the image I saw:

Seeing in Black and White

When I moved my eyes to look at other parts of the scene, the effect diminished, but if I kept focusing on one spot, like a child’s staring contest, the effect would hold longer. This was very much the inverse of the behavior of an after-image, where if you stay still it fades, but if you rapidly blink, it returns.

The black and white effect composed of the entire field of view. And as it gently faded back to normal, it affected more of the center of the field of view first:

Seeing in Black and White

It only took 2-3 seconds for normal color to return. There was no pain or any form of discomfort before, during, or after. I’m in very good health.

It was as if the signals from the cones were being ignored by the brain, but the signals from the rods were fine. I remember that the detail was astounding, and that the tone of the grass was very similar to the sky, though I’ve been unable to represent that as closely as I’d like in my photographic simulation.

I’m certain you’ve personally woken up in the morning and upon your eyes adjusting to the light have seen the image fade in, not focus, but as your brian assembles bits of the information into meaningful images, like it’s adapting to light after not being exposed to it for a long while.

Here’s how I did it.


I’m going to err on the side of giving too much information, some that might not be relevant, primarily because I don’t know what actually caused it. However, I was able to recreated it, on demand, several minutes later by experimentation; the effect lasted even longer. It was wondrous.

Being inside for the better part of the morning, I figured I’d go outside an lay in the sun for a few minutes. So, I lay down on my back on our driveway which has a slight incline. It was about thirty minutes past noon, and the sun was slightly overhead just off center to my right, enough that it was still bright enough that just closing my eyes was uncomfortable, so I criss-crossed my arms over them to put them in shadow, though I could still tell it was very bright out with my eyes closed. The weather was 89°F, I was in direct light, and there were few clouds in the sky.

I rested this way for about 10 minutes, and I did so just to the point where my eyes were fully relaxed and no longer concerned about the brightness of the light though my eyelids. Also, I wasn’t quite drifting off, but relaxed as you might be just taking in warmth of a nice day at the beach.

What led to the discovery was that I heard a car drive by and so I sat up quickly, opening my eyes. Two things stood out. One, this gave me a slight head-rush, though I’d describe it weak at best. Two, my eyes had not adjusted to the light fully. And, although while bright, it wasn’t uncomfortable, there was no blinding whitewash, no pain, and no caused for squinting required — I was looking away from direct light.

That’s when I noticed the scene seemed extremely washed out and monochromatic; it looked like a black and white photograph.

Thinking my mind or eyes were playing tricks on me, I moved my eyes, but the effect lasted longer than a second, though faded as I looked at more “new” material in my field of attention.

The reds came rushing back in first, with greens right after. It wasn’t one color than another, it was overlapped. I became visually more aware of reds, as that happened, greens started replacing the grey tones as well, and by the time greens were normal, the other colors like purples and blues from the nearby flowers in our garden were already present.

This part will be hard to describe because there’s no English equivalent for it, but it wasn’t like I was seeing in black and white, but rather the absence of color.

I know that sounds identical from a logic standpoint, but the perception was an absence of something, not the presence of something. Intellectually, I knew there had to be color, I just wasn’t seeing it.

It was a greyscale world that I physically saw, like a black and white movie, but a zillion times sharper, far more dynamic range, and in 3D.

It was clearly not imagination, nor dream, it was very real and perceptible.

That’s what made me want to try and repeat it.


Though this time around, if I could get it to work, I’d plan a more scientific excursion. So I selected an area of our yard with brilliant colors, our flower garden, which would be my baseline.

First, I waited about 5 minutes and looked at the area, taking in all the things I should be expecting to see. The area was already in normal color after the effect had faded long ago, but I wanted to be sure.

Seeing in Black and White

So, I laid back down with the intention of trying to get the head rush. I shielded my eyes in shadow, and waited for them to relax and get comfortable, and then waiting a moment, quickly sat up and stared at the area I knew had colorful flowers, a bright red car, and tons of green grass. I made sure I would focus only in one area, trying to stare out to infinity, much as you’d do for those 3D posters, though I was more trying to keep my eyes in a relaxed state because I wanted them in focus.

The preparation this time around took merely a minute or two. The head-rush was again weak from sitting up quickly. I turned in the direction I had planned and opened my eyes.

It’d worked.

The effect returned just as before, but lasted this time about 20 seconds and the effect was just as strong until I couldn’t help myself and look at the astounding detail in scene around me, which caused the effect to fade.

Since I had more time to study the scene, this is when I actually noticed the reds within the black’n’white image in my head. The B/W effect seemed more pronounced when I didn’t move my eyes, relaxing them.

When I turned to look at other things, color would seep in, and if I held my eyes relaxed in the same spot, the color would fade back out partly, much the same way as you can make objects in your blind spot vanish by holding your vision still long enough. That same kind of fading away was what I saw, but with color.

I suspect the effect is caused less by the head rush and more by the eyes being exposed and conditioned to bright light (even with the eyes closed, or maybe the red light through the eyelids saturates the cones like a red filter, though I did not see a green after image). When the eyes are opened, there’s a whole rush of visual information, and I suspect the brain is compensating for the overload by taking in shapes, detail, and tone and then overlaying color after the signal settles. I wasn’t aware that visual processing of color was an independent process.

This led me to two very interesting side thoughts.

One, I’ve always wondered if while under hypnosis people really saw things but said they didn’t, or whether their honestly perceived it. I now know it’s possible to perceive things differently than the visual input as actually providing.

Two, the black and white image was astonishingly detailed in greyscale, much like an Ansel Adams image. Being able to produce this effect on demand to view how a scene might be photographed in black and white is a fantastic tool to have in one’s photographic arsenal.

I hope science doesn’t declare this is bad for you, because I’m going to do it again!

[UPDATE: I can’t get it to happen inside, seems bright sunlight is required.]

ModRewrite Woes (Solved!)

Problems with ModRewrite, relative URLs, base paths, things executing without extensions being specified, and using MultiViews — read on.

While working on a project, I stumbled into some of the weirdest Apache2 mod_rewrite problems that I’d ever seen.

The goal was to make a URL like http//www.nowhere.com/item/1234 turn into http://www.nowhere.com/item.php?id=1234. Trivial, and I’ve done it all the time.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^item/(.+)$ item.php?id=$1 [L]

This time it wasn’t working the way I expected. When I used the human-readable version, my page got delivered by I had no images, no css, no javascript. Yet, if I used the computer-friendly long form with parameters, it worked just fine.

A little examination with Safari’s activity window showed me that in the initial case the browsers were looking at all relative URLs as if they were prefixed with /item/. This make sense, because the URL redirect knows how to play rewrite games with the rules to get to my page, but the relative links on those pages, to css, graphics, and js, had no clue this was a fake base url.

Many thanks to richardk who pointed out multiple solutions back in 2005.

  • Don’t use /, and there isn’t a problem.
  • Use absolute paths, though you have to edit all the links on your page; if using PHP, consider a variable for the base path.
  • Use a RewriteRule to hack off the offensive directory that doesn’t exist.
  • Or, use the <BASE …> tag.

Well, that rendered the page prettier, but I realized my argument wasn’t being passed in. Yet, the re-write rule was correct.

So I tried http//www.nowhere.com/item, which should not have matched and should not have brought up a page. Yet it did.

A little experimentation showed that any page that had a known extension was getting delivered.

What this meant was that the moment the browser saw /item it found the item.php page and delivered it without ever going through Apache’s rewrite module, and hence no parameters.

Luckily, I’ve encountered this symptom before in a different context. The offender: MultiViews. This is the bugger that deals with multiple language support; you know, where you have a zillion internationalized instances based on filename extensions….

Turning that off instantly solved the problem of delivering a file without an extension:
# Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

That also meant that the mod-rewrite rules worked. And that meant the parameters were passed correctly. And that meant I was was happy, because the code was working.

iPhone 3GS Compass

So, if your game uses the compass and it’s being played in a moving vehicle, what happens….

The new iPhone 3GS has a compass in it, and most certainly it’s going to be used for precision game play at some point.

Then it dawned on me, one of the number one applications of the iPhone is to act as babysitter. You fire up a game and hand it to the kids in the back seat as you’re driving somewhere.

I’m wondering how this is gonna work as people try to play compass-enabled games while moving, say a car, bus, or train.

My first gut instinct is that initial QAing of games will happen seated, but their real use will be in an environment where there’s motion, and at that point this potential problem may start to get noticed. It may surface as bugs, where ‘the game’ did something unexpected.

As for me, I can’t wait to see how a few malicious sharp terms and exit ramps will affect future game play.

Policy Backfires

Ever wonder how a well-intentioned policy turns into a horrible nightmare for the very people it was designed to serve? I found the perfect example at Apple’s WWDC where going to the restroom isn’t permitted for adults.

Ever wonder how a well-intentioned policy turns into a horrible nightmare for the very people it was designed to serve? I found the perfect example.

Let’s take the case of Apple’s technical WWDC ’09 conference in San Francisco. Brilliant talks. Amazing speakers. Fantastic audio and video. It’s good stuff.

Now Apple is a company that is on the forefront of user experience, they pioneer usability and design, and their big presentation this year is on efficient resource and queue management. You’d think this innovative thinking would hold over into how they actual manage crowd control, but you’d be wrong. Apple has totally missed the mark. I know, it seems impossible.

There’s an absolutely stupid policy that’s being enforced, and while the best of intentions are there, the policy isn’t helping anyone. It actually makes things worse. Follow this.

You’ve figured out your course tracks for the day, bunkered down to do some work on your laptop, and are watching a series of presentations being held in that room with your development buddy. It finishes, and so you tell him “Can you watch my stuff, I’m going to hit the restroom before the next presentation.” He says ‘sure’ and you leave. After all, being a convention center, the restrooms leave little to be desired in terms of personal space.

On the way out, you’d tell the Apple guy at the door “be right back” and empty handed you walk across the hall to the restroom, return in minute, and reclaim your equipment-occupied seat. At least that was how it was at the start of the conference. All was fine. Things ran like clockwork.

Mid-conference someone revised the policy. Instead, if you leave, you now have to go wait in line to return.

Why did Apple do this? I asked. Two reasons.

First, by only letting people out and not back in, this is supposed to make things easier for the presenters to set up.

Second, it’s supposed to establish an order of fairness for those people coming into line.

On the surface it appears to make sense, but what this policy really does is prevent grown adults from being able to go to the restroom. Instead, you’re standing there with a full bladder and Apple’s staff is literally telling you that you’ve got three options:
a) Hold it until the session starts.
b) Abandon your equipment (as you might not have a buddy to watch it), and then wait in line to see if it’s there when you get back.
c) Go get your equipment and hold it while you do your business, and potentially miss the session (although you already had a seat).

Let’s examine this.

1) Does the policy improve seating fairness?
No. There’s equipment, and most likely a person, reserving the seat until you return. No one standing in line is going to benefit whether you reclaim it now or later. And, realistically, every talk that has been “filled to capacity and people were turned away” had plenty of chairs mid-row, plus people are willing to stand.

2) Does this improve the line?
No. It actually makes them longer, meaning Apple has more to manage. And, as the lines wrap all over the halls, it makes them more cramped, confusing, and uncomfortable.

3) Does it make conference attendees happier?
No. It’s annoying, bordering on rude, telling someone they have to return to their seat and wait for the presentation to start in order to relieve themselves. It’s a frequent conversation topic to overhear, Apple is putting a lot of people off.

4) Does it make Apple look corporately smart?
No. In fact, even its own employees are mocking the policy behind Apple’s back, all the while blindly enforcing it (most of the time), at the door. Even their own realize how ludicrous it is. This makes Apple look bad in a very self-aware Dilbert way. Of course there’s an insulting double set of standards, as the guy managing the gate preventing people from using the restroom calls on his buddy to take his place while he goes to take a piss.

5) Does it make the presentations go smoother for the presenters?
No. In fact, worse. Now one has to wait for the presentation to start, interrupting the speaker, and by going in and out letting more light in the room. It causes distractions. Plus I’ve seen one attendee fall over a chair during a presentation, and two people trip during a presentation, all trying to temporarily exit.

6) Does it make viewing the presentation go smoother for the attendees?
No. Being seated in the middle, one now has to navigate over other people who are trying to watch the presentation. I’ve had my equipment kicked as well as my foot stepped on by someone telling me “whew, now I can go.”

7) Is it safer?
No. There is now less room to get out, where before the row was empty. Plus, there are power cords, laptops, cases, drinks and other obstacles to navigate, crush, and trip on.

8) Does it provide accurate metrics for seating?
No. In re-entering you get counted a second time. This messes up Apple’s counts and artificially makes room seem more full, turning away people who could be viewing.

9) Does it make it easier for the presenters to set up?
No. The presenters are up on stage, a good distance from the audience. No one is trying to interact with the presenters before the talk.

Got more reasons it’s a bad idea? Let’s hear them.

So, what starts as a “good idea” ends up impacting far more people than it should. Compare this to a simple first-come first-serve policy, which would allow everyone to get settled before a talk begins. If seats are full, stand; if you don’t want to stand, sit; if you don’t want to sit, find another session; if you don’t want that to happen, get there on time or before, just like everyone else does. It’s acceptable to leave a session during Q&A in order to find a good seat at the next session.

Unfortunately, as with most failed policies, the solution usually is to add more policies (rather than correcting the root problem). Kudos to Apple for not going this extra step. The slippery slope would be to kick everyone out in order to have them stand in line again; that however would be truly idiotic, especially given the equipment people carry and set up to attend these things.

Skipping Out on TFP

Photographers make note that a good number of models don’t take TFP arrangement seriously, often ending in a no-show or abrupt cancellations. This can make a photographer hesitant about offering them in the first place. But, as a model, should you accept a TFP? Should accepting them as work be in your written profile? Will it get you paid gigs too? And does the ‘F’ in TFP stand for “free?” If so, what do TFP arrangement gain you? Well, here are the answers and some things you didn’t know.

Photographers make note that a good number of models don’t take TFP arrangement seriously, often ending in a no-show or abrupt cancellations. This can make a photographer hesitant about offering them in the first place. But, as a model, should you accept a TFP? Should accepting them as work be in your written profile? Will it get you paid gigs too? And does the ‘F’ in TFP stand for “free?” If so, what do TFP arrangement gain you? Well, here are the answers and some things you didn’t know.

A photographer’s unwritten rule is that if a model is a no-show without an advanced cancellation, never use her again, much less extend a TFP deal to her or her friends, and warn my fellow colleagues that there’s a high element of risk to consider if they think about using her.

Conversely, models that are amazing to work with and are professional, I personally cut steep discounts for, retouch more photos for, provide actual prints to, use as often as I can, bend my schedule for, extend projects to first, and share news of them with everyone I can find.

Obviously, many models are looking for paid work, and many also have a greater sense of their worth than their experience, looks, or willingness commands. Luckily, a model’s portfolio tells a great deal about her than just her looks. If she’s got a lot of photos from a number of different photographers, she’s most likely reliable. If she has a variety of poses, she’s most likely willing to try new things. If she looks great universally, she most likely has actual experience.

I suspect the starting out model doesn’t know her worth and sees it as just standing in front of the camera will turn on the cash spigot. But she also knows that if she can’t demonstrate experience, a photographer will pass her over during casting.

So, to combat this, she tries to cheat the system by indicating she’s willing to work for TFP, when in fact she’s not necessarily fully committed to the idea. An inexperienced model thinks that TFP means “free photos” and doesn’t realize that the photographer is paying her with his time, which often dollar-for-dollar can be very much in a new-model’s favor.

By assigning no “value” to the TFP, she feels it’s something she can walk out on without consequence because it must also be of no value to the photographer, too. Wrong. A number of photographers hold multiple jobs, and if he takes off a day to do a photo shoot and goes through the trouble of setting up the equipment or renting space, the photographer takes it in the shorts not once, but twice. No wonder he may become embittered.

As such the model thinks that she’ll get TFP deals and paid deals, and then elect to only accept the paid ones. Conversely, she might tell herself that she’ll do a TFP deal, but only if it’s a famous, rockin’ photographer. What she doesn’t get (we’re talking new, inexperienced models here still) is that she’s killing her chance to build a portfolio, by extension get a paid gig, or be sought by Mr. Super-Shutter.

Not having anything pan out quickly fuels that impression that there is something wrong with the industry, clearly not her or her attitude, and after one or two cycles of this, the model fades away — being very put off with photographers in an unfair over-generalization.

Photographers: one solution I’ve found that has worked well is to offer TFP deals to scouted new discoveries. Because they aren’t seeking to be models, they are very appreciative and are willing to follow directions. When the reward of fantastic photos pops out the other end of the workflow, they do more word-of-mouth advertising than I could ever afford to purchase for other outlets. The trade-off is that you have to be able to work with inexperienced models and be very, very patient with them. I personally find it rewarding to be there first-hand as someone learns a new, marketable skill. Many valuable friendships follow.

It turns out this kind gesture can open doors for people: other modeling offers, and in one case a small part in a movie that’s coming out soon.

TFP/CD deals are gold mines for models, which explains how some smart models always seem to have that really rich, diverse portfolio with a competitive edge.

For models just starting out

If you scan through many modeling websites, you’ll see there’s a common question asked by new comers who want to be models: “What do I need to do to become a model?” Ironically, that question often goes unanswered, even on professional sites. Maybe it’s that the answer is a little more complex than a quick answer. However, as a photographer, I decided to take a shot at answering the question.

If you scan through many modeling websites, you’ll see there’s a common question asked by new comers who want to be models: “What do I need to do to become a model?”

Usually members skip that question. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s that the answer is a little more complex than a quick answer. Perhaps it’s that a good portion has to deal with genetics. It could even be experienced models don’t want the new competition entering the field.

I decided to take a shot, however, at answering the question.

What can I do to become a modelQ: What can I do to become a model?

A: To a writer, the advice is read as much as you can. To a model, I’d say look at as much as you can — in particular other photos of models.

Analytically, try to figure out what it is about the models you like. Is it their pose, is it their facial expression, do they look into the camera? Try to emulate that pose in the mirror.

Study books on posing. And if you’re really clever, study books on photographic composition. If you can deliver what the photographer is trying to capture, you’ll make life so easy he’ll be raving about you.

Another thought is to find pictures of models that look like you. There are some web sites where you can beam up a picture of yourself and it will give you celebrity matches. Perhaps hair styles, makeup, and clothes that work for them will also work for your looks and body type.

Take care of your body; keep your skin clean and healthy. Apart from good diet, steer clear of all the things you know you should. Modeling is based upon looks, and you have it in your control to keep them.

Know your body, be comfortable with it, and find make up that works for you. Photographers often go for the natural look, so keep that in mind the next time you want a sprawling tattoo or obvious body piercing. These won’t necessary stop you from being a model, but it can raise unnecessary barriers to entry. Imagine a bank looking to fill a teller position, which candidate has the higher probability of landing the job: someone dressed in punk with a lip ring and colored spiked hair, or, the candidate in an pressed shirt, tie, and jacket. Both might be equally capable and friendly, but one will have a harder time than the other.

Work on building a decent portfolio. The best way to do this is to find local photographers you trust and negotiate a Time for Prints/CD shoot. It costs you nothing but some time, and in return you get some great pictures.

Ideally, you want more photos that you know what to do with. Cull them down to the best of the best, you don’t need to show every photo you have. Make sure you get a variety of looks. You want to show you’re versatile. Demonstrate that you’re adaptable.

Post your portfolio where photographers can see you, and let them know about your availability, interest, and boundaries. You may get more TFP offers, you may get fixed rate sessions, you may get a set hourly rate. Take only the jobs you feel comfortable with.

Seek opportunities where the photography is going to get exposure, even if you have to do it at a reduced rate. The more exposure you get, the more you’ll be able to command later.

It’s important not to let things get to your head. When a model without serious experience wants to be compensated as someone who’s done it as a career, opportunities can start to dry up. Photographers just want to take the picture, not deal with a diva. Think of it much like a job interview; you wouldn’t hire someone to be your doctor if they simply wanted to be a doctor all their life and took a class in first aid. Experience is important. And you can get all you want with TFP/CD.

Be professional, be on time, and know when to say no. Consider setting up a website, something which doesn’t say “I got a MySpace account.” Show your styles and answer the who/what/when/where/why about yourself; let people know how to contact you, and get back with them promptly. Sometimes photographers are working under horrific deadlines, and reaching a viable model is all that’s needed. A quick response can give you the edge.

You might want to forge a relationship with a makeup artist and/or a favorite photographer. If you have a solid relationship with good communication and trust, the photo sessions will go seamlessly and productively. They in turn will become part of a mini-network and potentially bring opportunities to your door that you’d otherwise not have known about.

Eventually, demand may increase, and if it does you may want to get an agent. Usually it’s a while before one gets that far. You might not even need one.

Modeling is a competitive field, with new and younger models entering all the time. Switch your mental role about how you’d market yourself and you’ll see what you need to do to become that. You’re selling an image: yours.