MacUser has a good run through of ComputerWorld’s “15 Things Apple Should Change in Mac OS X”. The only one I really have an issue with is #7: Inconsistent User Interface. Thats where UNO comes into play. This great little utility changes all your windows to the “unified” look, which IMHO makes everything look much… awesomer.
I always thought brushed metal was kind of cheesy.
Apple makes history not by leapfrogging everyone in terms of functionality and bells and whistles, they do it through elegance, simplification, clarity, and practicality.
Apple has a nice little promo piece on 37 Signals, the creators of Backpack and Basecamp, as well as, and some would say most importantly, Ruby on Rails. I’ve been using these guys’ products for a short while now and I’m impressed. Take a peek.
Some really nice artwork here. My mother has a couple pieces of hers and really digs her work. I think they must have bonded over their Jamaica connection.
From her extremely sparse blog:
I am an artist living in the East Village of New York City. I am a computer graphics designer by day and a fine artist by night.
Today Apple released upgrades to its line of iMac computers, and unveiled a new member of the fam’, the 24” iMac. The entire line now sports the Core 2 Duo processors as well. Very nice. I hope my cute little 20” can’t tell I’ve been coveting other rigs.
The fastest iMac ever, the 24-inch iMac provides professional performance along with the convenience of an all-in-one design. Like its 17-inch and 20-inch siblings, it features the new 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processor with speeds ranging from 1.83GHz to 2.33GHz. The new processor delivers up to 50% more performance than the previous 20-inch iMac. It also doubles the amount of L2 cache, the twin cores sharing 4MB between them.
Go get one. [update: Impulsive Highlighters Unite! has a nice analysis of these new machines.]
Apple has sent out invites to a press event, September 12 – just one short week away. The invite not so subtly evokes images of a movie premiere. I think full-length movies at the iTMS is a shoe-in, but I am rooting for a video streaming device. I think it is likely that the AirPort Express gets an upgrade, which would include video capability.
Even being the huge geek that I am, I can’t imagine watching an entire movie in front of my computer, no less hunched over my iPod. But I can imagine purchasing a movie online and streaming it to my home theatre. And considering that I haven’t returned a movie rental on time in my entire life, 15 bucks would be a screaming deal.
Ask Dave Taylor has a very simple technique for getting your widgets out of Dashboard and onto your desktop. This is a cool little trick, but not terribly useful as the widgets float on top of all your windows. If they behaved like other windows, or just sat directly on the desktop, I would get much more use out of them.
Regardless, I think my little orange calculator has found a new home.
Thats right. The man behind Delicious Library is giving away an Intel CPU for which he has no use.
>The CPU is is supposed to be worth, like, $1,000, and it’s still sealed in its original box with a giant heat-sink and everything, and I’ve decided to give it away to some lucky blog reader.
Rather than have you perform some menial task, I’ve decided to combine my loves (attention-whore and the environment) and give the CPU to the greenest, gamingest reader out there.
WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text.
This is a great little program. I love seeing people make things simpler, instead of constantly getting more complex.
In a valiant attempt to suddenly become organized in regards to my time, and by extension my life, I have just set up, synchronized, updated, and published my future online. I know I’m a huge geek, but I really do think this could help me. As long as I don’t spend more time fiddling with different tools, feeds, protocols etc., than I do actually using the god-damn thing then I should be fine. Really, I just set up three tools to talk to each other:
I use iCal to post all my personal events, Basecamp to keep track of work, and Google to access it all from anywhere. The only drawback to this set-up is that I can’t edit my iCal events from within Google Calendar (i.e. when I’m at work). I am publishing my iCal calendars to .Mac, but the web inteface for .Mac is horrible, only allowing you to view one calendar at a time without editing. Maybe eventually I will move my personal calendars to Google Calendar, but for now I like how iCal feels.
It seems like there should be a way to have all of my calendars in one central place, such as a folder on this webserver, which I could then link to from any calendar tool, whether it was an application, a web page, or a cell phone. The current situation only lets you “subscribe” to calendars, which means you can’t edit or save events in the central repository. We need two-way communication between all these different services.
Any ideas out there?
From MacUser.com:
Before Halo, Marathon was the hot game Bungie Studios made. It was even for Mac! The series was naturally very popular in our little community. I fondly remember the afternoons I spent playing it. Rubicon X is a completely new game, downloadable for free.
This is really cool. There are all new levels, etc., and the whole thing runs on the Aleph 1 engine which is open source, so… you know… nerd points. I remember getting a demo of Marathon at Macworld Expo Boston in ’94. It definitely seemed ahead of its time, and it was great that it was for Mac.
Then Microsoft swallowed Bungie, and the rest is history.
Anyways, it’s free, so go get it.
This is the first computer I ever had. The Mac Plus. What a sweet little machine. No hard drive. 1 MB of RAM. 8 Mhz processor. 512 x 342 pixels. Totally awesome. I’m going home in a couple of weeks and I’m going to fish this thing out of my mom’s attic. My girlfriend is going to give me that look, like “Are you fucking serious?” Absolutely.
Update: PC World magazine just named the Mac Plus the 4th greatest computer of all time.
A while a go I asked whether there was any utility to keep you updated on your current IP address, if you are stuck with a static IP. Well it seems there are actually a few tools (mostly free) out there that do just that and more. If you are in this predicament check out www.no-ip.com or DynDNS.
Well, that was a pain in the ass. My IP address changed, but all the links in WordPress were set up using the old address. So getting back to the admin page was tricky… but do-able. I think the moral of the story is twofold – A: I need to break down and pay for hosting until I can afford to set up my own server and do it right. B: localhost, localhost, localhost. Until I get my shit in gear this set up is strictly for development purposes only.
Thanks, and goodnight.
Oh and by the way, tomorrow is the start of a long birthday weekend for myself.
I found this at the The 9rules Network.
I found this at the The 9rules Network.
