Walking through the contents of the MacOS X’s “Services” menu, one finds all sorts of interesting tools and utilities. My problem is, though, that there are just too many services there. I feel dizzy when I look at that menu! I understand that basically any application can expose services through this framework, but I wish there were some way that the user could override, or manage, the visibility of the services which are finally shown to the user.
2004
09
Aug 04
Aug 04
FinFlow
Let’s say you’re thinking about buying an apartment as an investment, to rent. You make a down payment, take out a mortgage, and purchase the property. You rent the property for three years, at the same time making mortgage payments. At the end of three years, you sell the property (it has increased in value each year, as real estate often does), and pay off your mortgage.
What is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of this investment? In other words, what rate of interest would the bank need to give you to make a savings account an equally attractive investment?
These kinds of questions (and more) can be answered with the neat MacOS utility, FinFlow. (And a reasonable understanding of the economic principles of Time Value of Money.) In a nutshell, FinFlow is a utility that allows you to model cash flows.
23
Jul 04
Jul 04
Roger Ebert on Columbine
Elephant
I came across this anecdote from Roger Ebert: Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program…. (Rating: 85/100)
[kottke.org]
23
Jul 04
Jul 04
32 days, 19 hours
32 days, 19 hours — that’s the present “uptime” reading on my Apple Macintosh OS X computer. I guess the next time this machine will get restarted will be the next time it gets an OS update. It’s great that “stability” is no longer an issue in our use of computers. I remember the years before OS X — the daily crashes, Conflict Catcher, PRAM resetting, weekly re-installation of the OS…
22
Jul 04
Jul 04
On-the-Fly Emailing
My wish for Apple Mail 2.0 would be a mechanism for shooting off a quick email without leaving the present application. I would like to hit a key combination, have a window pop-up (similar to the QuickSilver interface), with only the basic controls — subject, body, addressing, signature, account selecting, and send.
18
Jul 04
Jul 04
New Honda Lead Scooter
Automobiles can be downright inconvenient in your average-sized Spanish town. Traffic on the narrow streets can come to a crawl when a big truck decides to unload, or even just when some driver happens to see his neighbor and stops in the middle of the road to chat about the weekend. And parking — oh parking — especially in the summer months, can be simply impossible.
So, in terms of getting around, my life has taken a giant leap forward with the purchase of a Brand New Scooter — the 100cc Honda Lead. Stuck in traffic? Hop onto the sidewalk and keep going. Parking at dinner? Drive straight up to the door.
But, of course, this wouldn’t be Spain without some sort of attempted rip-off. The Honda dealer charged me 1.750 Euro, when, in fact, the price of the scooter is 1.600 Euro. Will be visiting him for a refund next week…
08
Jul 04
Jul 04
Live365, example of poor user interface design.
This, in my opinion, is an example of quite poor user interface design. The image on the right (click the image for a larger version) is a screenshot from Live365.com’s web page that users evaluating their Radio365 product are taken to when they click the “purchase” button. Notice that the only element that appears “clickable” is a button to “Try VIP for Five Days Free.”
Amazingly, there’s no “purchase now” link! (Turns out that you have to click the image of the credit card to be taken to the purchase screen. )
This kind of problem appears frequently these days (possibly in some of our sites as well, though I hope not). Links are being assigned to practically any visible element on the screen, leaving the poor user to explore the screen space waiting to see their mouse change shape (indicating that something’s clickable). What’s worse in this particular screen, is that a precedence is established through the presence of a button, that embossed elements are what the user should interpret as clickable — implying indirectly that non-embossed elements should not be clickable.
07
Jul 04
Jul 04
Backing Up with Rsync
Note to self: Excellent tutorial for using rsync in a backup strategy.
30
Jun 04
Jun 04
Dashboard and a new generation of developers.
John Gruber writes in his (to be expected) excellent review of the Dashboard/Konfabulator situation:
In terms of attracting hobbyist-level developers, Dashboard is going to be an order of magnitude more approachable than Cocoa application development. If you know HTML and CSS, you can design a gadget layout. If you know JavaScript, you can program a gadget.
I can’t think of any possible way that gadget development could be based on something that would enable more Mac nerds to get up and running writing their own gadgets.
Oh boy, there goes the barrier to entry. Every HTML/CSS/JS hacker wanna-be suddenly becomes an OS X gadget developer. Get ready VersionTracker.
29
Jun 04
Jun 04
Borrowed Innovation
There’s been a lot of negative talk about the fact that Apple are introducing technologies like Dashboard, Spotlight and Safari RSS into the forthcoming OS X 10.4 (Tiger) — since they are effectively incorporating the innovative ideas of independent developers, like those of (respectively) Konfabulator, LaunchBar and a variety of RSS readers. The main argument seems to be that Apple are killing their independent developers, which is a bad thing.
I believe it can be argued that it *does* make sense for Apple to take these kinds of actions, even if at the unfortunate cost to the small independent developer. I think the key issues are market penetration, ease of use/understanding, and a view to bettering the platform.
Tools like Konfabulator and LaunchBar are *very* innovative and add a *lot* of unique value to the OS X user experience. But due (probably) to the limited marketing resources, and other factors, such tools don’t end up making their way into the hands of the majority of OS X users. While I visit VersionTracker on a daily basis, and follow the RSS feeds of several Mac sites, my mother, on the other hand, is quite likely never to even hear about these utilities. She knows about Sherlock, but never heard of Watson. RSS readers? She’s not really even aware that she uses two different browsers, Safari or Internet Explorer. And I’ll bet there’s a lot more Mac users like my mom, than users like me.
Secondly, Apple have a way of making technology truly accessible to the average user. It seems to me that the developers of Konfabulator and LaunchBar target their software more to the advanced user. I’ll bet that Spotlight will likely require no user configuration, and will *not* come preconfigured to include the Apple Developer documention in search results. I’ll bet that Dashboard use and setup will be *much* easier to understand than Konfabulator. And I’ll bet that Safari RSS will finally bring an understanding of RSS to the masses. When Tiger is released, I’m quite confident that Dashboard and Spotlight will find their way seamlessly into my mother’s daily experience.
So Apple bringing innovation, even if not their own, to the masses is most likely a good thing for the OS X platform. And I would suppose — and this is just a guess — that it will not be *that* detrimental to the real market for advanced utilities like LaunchBar, Konfabulator and RSS readers (like PulpFiction or NetNewsWire.)
26
Jun 04
Jun 04
ToyViewer
ToyViewer, a general graphics viewer/manipulator for MacOS X, now sits in a hallowed spot in my Finder toolbar. It’s a nice little replacement for the venerable Graphics Converter, which, for me, has become too much of a good thing.
24
Jun 04
Jun 04
How Not to Get Hired
Kimbly writes about what not to do when applying for a job:
First, don’t say you’re looking forward to working at a leading pharmaceutical firm, when the company you’re applying to is actually a small software startup.
Second, put your name in the subject of the email you send (after all, you are the subject). It will help your interviewer pick out your resume from the sea of other resumes all titled “Summer Internship”.
Third, if you receive a response from the company, and they say they’d like to speak to you any time except for Thursday from noon to 2pm, don’t suggest Thursday at noon as being a good time for you.
Fourth, if they say they’d like to speak to you on the phone, don’t reply asking where you should meet them. And especially don’t suggest that they meet you near your house.
Fifth, if you schedule a time for a phone screen, don’t let your phone run out of batteries, and don’t wander into an area where you don’t get reception.
Sixth, show up within ten minutes of your scheduled interview time, preferably on the early side. If you happen to arrive a whole hour early, just wait quietly in your car for 50 minutes, or go get some coffee and come back.
Seventh, if you’re late, pretend it was because the place was hard to find.
Eighth, don’t ask your interviewer if the company has somewhere that you’ll be able to stay, because you’ve been living in a dorm the entire year. In the corporate world, it’s customary for employees to make their own housing arrangements.
Ninth, don’t use your communication skills merely to communicate your belief that you possess communication skills. Instead, communicate something useful, like what particular things you could do that you think might be useful to the company.
I would add:
Don’t send an application email that contains no other text than, “See attached resume/CV.”
Don’t use a CV/cover-letter template from a book. (You have to realize we get hundreds of these identical things.) A personalized, well written CV stands out.
24
Jun 04
Jun 04
MT-Blacklist Upgrade
Just updated to MT-Blacklist 1.64. Hope it will help control this atrocious comment-spam problem.
22
Jun 04
Jun 04
Website Localization
Olivier writes:
I ordered my Daring Fireball T-Shirt through PayPal today. I was first asked to specify my country. As soon as I selected Switzerland, the whole site turned into German, without any means of changing it to French or reverting to English, except by ein anderes Land auszuwählen. Nicht guuuuuuuut!
This is one of my bigger pet peeves — web sites that go too far in their attempt to be international, and force you into a localized version of their site, simply because your IP address originates in that locality. Please, give people a choice by all means — but make it just that, a choice.
On another topic, I, like Olivier, also just ordered my Daring Fireball T-Shirt.
22
Jun 04
Jun 04
Marbella Submission Fighters
For those living on the Costa del Sol (Spain) — especially in the Marbella, Puerto Banus and/or San Pedro areas — and interested in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Wrestling, Vale Tudo and Mixed Martial Arts, we are proud to announce the opening of Marbella Submission Fighters.
Opening Thursday, July 1, at the Apolo Gym in San Pedro de Alcantara, we’ll be training Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights from 21:00 (9:00 pm) to 22:15 (10:15 pm). If you’re interested, drop me a line via email or in the comments below.
PS: (Shameless Business Plug) Like that poster design? We’ve got some excellent design staff in our company, who, depending on our internal load, can be made available for your design project. Drop me an email if you’re interested.
22
Jun 04
Jun 04
What’s on your Logitech?
On my Logitech mouse, I’ve got an Open Programs MaxMenu item associated to the click of the scroll button, Close Window and Hide Application assigned to the buttons above and below the scroller, A custom MaxMenu associated to the lower button, and Exposé functions associated to the side buttons.
So, what’s on your Logitech?
Update: As commented by Olivier, the Logitech software delivered on the Mac OS X platform, is, shall we say, … poop. If you’re using a USB device on the Mac, you need to be using the excellent USB Overdrive software.
22
Jun 04
Jun 04
Volume Logic for iTunes
This looks quite interesting. Volume Logic, from Octiv, appears to be a real-time digital processor for iTunes. I’ve been playing around with it for about five minutes, and so far I like it.
21
Jun 04
Jun 04
Productivity
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about productivity, especially in the context of our business environment. General questions and issues such as:
+ How important is the role of tools (such as task managers) in the achievement of productivity?
+ How important is the role of techniques and methodologies in the achievement of productivity?
+ How detrimental is the inevitable mix of personal– and professional contexts in the desktop computing environment to productivity?
+ How detrimental is persistent network connectivity (web browsers, instant messaging, email, etc.) to productivity? (Can it be thought of, to any degree, as trying to work with a telephone permanently against one’s ear?)
+ How detrimental is today’s flood of email to productivity?
+ How dominant is the role of personal characteristics, and to what extent can such characteristics reasonably be conditioned or changed to achieve better productivity? (For example, in certain sports, such as cycling, if you don’t have the genetics, there really is only so far you can go…)
I certainly don’t have answers to these questions, and this post is really more a note-to-self placeholder for later thought/writing. If you have any comments, though, please feel free to express your thoughts/opinions.
19
Jun 04
Jun 04
palmOne Zire 72
So I’ve sold my Palm Tungsten C, and have purchased a Palm Zire 72. (I know, they are officially now palmOne, but to me, they will forever be Palm.)
Me and the C didn’t really get along. Wirelessly surfing the web from a Palm didn’t turn out to be quite the life enhancing experience I thought it would be, and was actually more like trying to observe the world through a peephole. Furthermore, I missed being able to make quick to-self voice recordings. I missed stereo headphone output. I missed bluetooth. And I really hated the thumb-board.
So I’m getting to know a new Zire 72, and it looks like we’ll have a much better relationship. I’m happy to have everything back that I missed in the C (voice recordings, stereo headphones, bluetooth). It’s snappy, has a great screen, feels good in my hand. And it has a little camera for those times when you forgot, well, your camera.
The only thing I don’t like is the case it came with. How could Palm think anybody would want something that big? As an early adopter, I guess I’ll have to wait a while for something slimmer from a third-party to come out. (Please leave any suggestions in the comments!)
I took a new approach to migrating – I started from scratch, thereby shedding the crud I think I’ve been passing on from generation to generation since around the Palm III. I really only use a handful of applications on the Palm, so fresh-installing just what I use only took about an hour.
Aside: A Note About URLs
Apple Computer pays attention to details. If you want to know about iTunes, what URL would you guess? How about:
http://apple.com/itunes
For info about the Zire 72, do you think this works:
http://palmone.com/zire72
Nope. :-(
Zire 72 information is found at the logical address of:http://www.palmone.com/us/products/handhelds/zire72/
