John Nack

In the words of Photoshop PM John Nack, "We swear because we care." If we weren't using Photoshop everyday, reveling in its amazing almost magical powers, we wouldn't notice all those little annoying things that make our work just a teeny bit irritating. Or a lot irritating if we have to repeat certain activities often. Regular loungers know that Deke and I even have a recurring segment of Martini Hour dedicated to our "pet peeves," in which we discuss those behaviors that just seem inexplicable or unneccesarily arduous to us. Well, it looks like we may have a little less fodder for that particular segment in the future.

In this week's show, we have a delightful time with our old (younger than us) friends from Adobe, John Nack and Bryan O'Neill Hughes, who share with us the "Just Do It" list of everyday requests from users that they're working on for potential future (code: next) versions of Photoshop. The idea here is that while they're making sure Photoshop keeps up with cutting edge software possibilities, they also take some time to go back and fix smallish if long-standing irritations and work on suggestions that come from experienced users of the product. 

Here are some of the JDI improvements you may see in the not-so-distant Photohsop future:  Read more » 

You know, it seems like only yesterday, our favorite little pixel-wrangler was just learning how to grasp things with its tiny little hand tool. And today a grown-up Photoshop turns 20---as sophisticated, complex, and worldly a piece of software as there ever was. It's also the one-year anniversary of the day Deke and I lost our heads and decided to record the goings-on in the dekeLounge, so we could share with our martini-quaffing, computer graphics-loving friends everywhere. We celebrate these two happy occasions on the Martini Hour this week, by sipping champagne out of martini glasses and chatting with our good friends Adobe Product Managers John Nack and Bryan O'Neil Hughes. 

And forward-thinkers that we four are, rather than wax sentimentally about the last 20 years of Photoshop, we decided to look ahead to what might inform the next 20 years: Read more » 

You know, it occurs to me now that somewhere along the way I lost control of this show. Perhaps it was the 43:00 mark of this particular episode. But if losing control means having Deke, along with Adobe's John Nack and Russell Brown, go into a free-for-all discussion of Photoshop layers, well then control is overrated. Bring on the (subltly layered) chaos.

Yes, the theme this week is layers. And since I couldn't come up with a layered gin-based drink (do olives count as a layer?), I asked Deke to model this week's logo after the classic layered dessert Jello 1-2-3. Listen as the knowledge of our Photoshop experts separate itself into the foamy, bubbly, and jellowy (strawberry-flavored) layers of goodness.

Read more » 

Roundtable madness. A bridge too far. Dogs and cats living together....

For those of you who enjoyed our previous guests Russell Brown (Episode 007) and John Nack (Episode 009), independently and on their own, I've invited total chaos into the lounge by inviting them both at once. And to discuss, of all things, Adobe Bridge—or "the Bridge" as Deke insists on calling it. But once we settle the ever-controversial definite article question, we jump right in and talk about how darn nifty this oft-ignored application is. It spans the applications, like this:

(This "the bridge" artwork might give you a sense for the general whereabouts of the top-secret dekeLounge. Hint: It's not St. Louis.) Read more »