Sat - June 18, 2005
Bless his black heart
Joel Barriere brings my favourite OS X
Leatherman tool to Tiger.
Onyx is finally available for download.
Posted at 11:54 AM
Sun - May 1, 2005
Pathfinder successor to Windows Explorer
One of the things I miss about Windows XP
is its adaptive file manager.
Windows Explorer gets a lot of bad reviews, but
it is a long way better than Apple's anachronistic Finder
utility.
For one, Explorer makes it far easier to find network shares, organise volumes, and preview documents. It groups items logically, although it still often needs a refresh to find recently updated items.
Pathfinder for OS X seems to go a long way towards fixing Finder's inherent limitations while introducing some fresh features of its own such as a terminal and hex viewer. Hopefully Apple won't pull a Dashboard on the makers of Pathfinder, but offer to buy them out if Finder is upgraded for Lynx.
The emphasis on the pro-user market makes this manager a lot more like Directory Opus in philosophy than Finder or Explorer.
Hard core users may like to look at the XTree Gold clone Extreme for Windows or UnixTree for OS X.
Update: After watching the Apple Tiger webinar, it appears that rather than update Finder, Apple chose to boost its capabilities with Spotlight.
One of the cool features for switxers is the ability to search on a Windows term, such as "Wallpaper", and have this translate to the Mac's "Desktop and Screensaver" analogy. That should make getting down to brass tacks with Tiger's Preferences especially much easier.
This reminds me of the ploys that Microsoft used to lure people to Word when WordPerfect was the dominant word processor. Word would display either its own native interface, or a menu system ripped straight from WordPerfect so users could use all the old key presses with which they were familiar and not have to spend a lot of time retraining. Some cross-grade offers in the early to mid 90s came with shortcut and equivalent keypress cards. This was especially important in the day because most of the users were para-professionals -- legal secretaries, doctors' receptionists, PA's and so on and they were loathe to change platforms once they were trained. IBM's little known WordPro uses this feature today.
Spotlight used this way neatly sidesteps any legal argument that Microsoft could possibly fling at Apple over copyright infringement, while making the transition less painful for users. The USPTO has argued that in general menus are not subject to copyright but may be if the "form of expression on these screens is sufficiently extensive and original that it is subject to copyright, just as a chapter in a book, or even a page of text".
Apple knows a thing or three about "look-and-feel" law suits so certainly understands how to avoid them.
Another useful function is the ability to create smart folders, which organise and update the items they show based on criteria set in Spotlight's search terms. For instance, you may wish to find every Excel spreadsheet that holds information related to a new product, or every generic graphic of telecommunications satellite, or perhaps every item related to The Great Barrier reef whether they be PDFs, Word documents or whatever. Spotlight can even dip into PDFs and pull out the search terms -- very useful for map hounds.
For one, Explorer makes it far easier to find network shares, organise volumes, and preview documents. It groups items logically, although it still often needs a refresh to find recently updated items.
Pathfinder for OS X seems to go a long way towards fixing Finder's inherent limitations while introducing some fresh features of its own such as a terminal and hex viewer. Hopefully Apple won't pull a Dashboard on the makers of Pathfinder, but offer to buy them out if Finder is upgraded for Lynx.
The emphasis on the pro-user market makes this manager a lot more like Directory Opus in philosophy than Finder or Explorer.
Hard core users may like to look at the XTree Gold clone Extreme for Windows or UnixTree for OS X.
Update: After watching the Apple Tiger webinar, it appears that rather than update Finder, Apple chose to boost its capabilities with Spotlight.
One of the cool features for switxers is the ability to search on a Windows term, such as "Wallpaper", and have this translate to the Mac's "Desktop and Screensaver" analogy. That should make getting down to brass tacks with Tiger's Preferences especially much easier.
This reminds me of the ploys that Microsoft used to lure people to Word when WordPerfect was the dominant word processor. Word would display either its own native interface, or a menu system ripped straight from WordPerfect so users could use all the old key presses with which they were familiar and not have to spend a lot of time retraining. Some cross-grade offers in the early to mid 90s came with shortcut and equivalent keypress cards. This was especially important in the day because most of the users were para-professionals -- legal secretaries, doctors' receptionists, PA's and so on and they were loathe to change platforms once they were trained. IBM's little known WordPro uses this feature today.
Spotlight used this way neatly sidesteps any legal argument that Microsoft could possibly fling at Apple over copyright infringement, while making the transition less painful for users. The USPTO has argued that in general menus are not subject to copyright but may be if the "form of expression on these screens is sufficiently extensive and original that it is subject to copyright, just as a chapter in a book, or even a page of text".
Apple knows a thing or three about "look-and-feel" law suits so certainly understands how to avoid them.
Another useful function is the ability to create smart folders, which organise and update the items they show based on criteria set in Spotlight's search terms. For instance, you may wish to find every Excel spreadsheet that holds information related to a new product, or every generic graphic of telecommunications satellite, or perhaps every item related to The Great Barrier reef whether they be PDFs, Word documents or whatever. Spotlight can even dip into PDFs and pull out the search terms -- very useful for map hounds.
Posted at 11:26 AM
Wed - April 27, 2005
Sidetrack
A $15 Powerbook upgrade for
trackpads.
Apple got a fair bit of coverage recently when it
announced its new Powerbooks would include the ability to use
the trackpad to scroll through windows. Yet again, this was a feature that Mac
users have been using for some time with Sidetrack, a $US15 ($A20) shareware utility from
third-party software maker Raging
Menace.
The new trackpad driver installs for every user of your system, each with their own settings, which are changed through Preferences.
Every imaginable setting is defined by the user, including the vertical and horizontal scroll areas, location (left-right, top-bottom) and the speed. Scrolling through a window or options with the driver enabled is as easy as running a finger down the edge of the pad where it meets the chassis of the notebook. The driver can be set to continue scrolling when a finger hits the end of the scroll area on the pad.
A useful function is the ability to set the four corners to perform a specific task, such as automatically double-clicking, a right-button click, or keystroke combination, for instance. The size of the tap area can be set from small to large, just like the size of the scroll area. But be warned if you have whopping big paws this may not be too convenient. Settings can be set globally or just for certain applications -- useful for game players.
In practice, I find the trackpad on the G4 iBook a little tight for space given my fingers, which can lead to unpredictable results if I am not alert. But the bulk of users would find this a very useful utility that speeds their productivity.
The new trackpad driver installs for every user of your system, each with their own settings, which are changed through Preferences.
Every imaginable setting is defined by the user, including the vertical and horizontal scroll areas, location (left-right, top-bottom) and the speed. Scrolling through a window or options with the driver enabled is as easy as running a finger down the edge of the pad where it meets the chassis of the notebook. The driver can be set to continue scrolling when a finger hits the end of the scroll area on the pad.
A useful function is the ability to set the four corners to perform a specific task, such as automatically double-clicking, a right-button click, or keystroke combination, for instance. The size of the tap area can be set from small to large, just like the size of the scroll area. But be warned if you have whopping big paws this may not be too convenient. Settings can be set globally or just for certain applications -- useful for game players.
In practice, I find the trackpad on the G4 iBook a little tight for space given my fingers, which can lead to unpredictable results if I am not alert. But the bulk of users would find this a very useful utility that speeds their productivity.
Posted at 03:58 PM
Mon - April 25, 2005
Opening a fresh page
One of my favourite UI features is
back.
I have severely modified my desktop interface,
yet performance is still
reasonable.
The latest addition is the reintroduction of virtual desktops, whereby virtual screens are devoted to separate tasks. Desktop Manager is the open software tool that allows this marvellous function.
Put all your web browsing on one desktop and blogging on another while another desktop is left for coding or drawing -- you choose to suit your needs. It greatly unclutters your individual workspace, allowing you to concentrate on just the task in front of you. Moving windows between virtual desktops is a snap with the popup window. Switching desktops is accomplished either with a combination key press, or clicking on the pager -- a thumbnail representation of your screens -- on the desktop or in the menu bar.
I first encountered multiple virtual desktops with PC Tools on Windows and then with Unix and later on NeXTSTEP. It's amazing that it wasn't included in OS X, given this OS's heritage. I assume the desire to keep the OS interface as clean as possible was the over-riding reason for its exclusion.
But beyond being hugely useful as a way to get more screen real estate -- especially on a limited 12-inch screen -- Desktop Manager is awesome eye-candy. Using the power of OpenGL graphics, DM offers nine Hollywood transition effects between desktops such as slide, warp, zoom, and the OS X Cube. But my favourite is the Swap Over.
There is an XP Power Toy from Microsoft that does much the same thing for Windows, but without the benefit of OpenGL is not as glitzy.
The latest addition is the reintroduction of virtual desktops, whereby virtual screens are devoted to separate tasks. Desktop Manager is the open software tool that allows this marvellous function.
Put all your web browsing on one desktop and blogging on another while another desktop is left for coding or drawing -- you choose to suit your needs. It greatly unclutters your individual workspace, allowing you to concentrate on just the task in front of you. Moving windows between virtual desktops is a snap with the popup window. Switching desktops is accomplished either with a combination key press, or clicking on the pager -- a thumbnail representation of your screens -- on the desktop or in the menu bar.
I first encountered multiple virtual desktops with PC Tools on Windows and then with Unix and later on NeXTSTEP. It's amazing that it wasn't included in OS X, given this OS's heritage. I assume the desire to keep the OS interface as clean as possible was the over-riding reason for its exclusion.
But beyond being hugely useful as a way to get more screen real estate -- especially on a limited 12-inch screen -- Desktop Manager is awesome eye-candy. Using the power of OpenGL graphics, DM offers nine Hollywood transition effects between desktops such as slide, warp, zoom, and the OS X Cube. But my favourite is the Swap Over.
There is an XP Power Toy from Microsoft that does much the same thing for Windows, but without the benefit of OpenGL is not as glitzy.
Posted at 01:20 AM
Sun - April 24, 2005
iStumbler
Power up and sniff out all the wireless
networks within coo-ee.
Troubleshooting wireless networks is made easy
with the Netstumbler-inspired iStumbler.
The latest v.0.93 includes support for wi-fi, Bluetooth and Apple's new Bonjour multicast DNS (mDNS) technology. If you have a suitable GPS unit you can track the location of networks.
Just within a few meters of my house there are as many as five networks -- that's a lot of device channels that can stumble over each other. But iStumbler makes finding free channels a breeze. There is very little to configure -- just fire it up and scan away.
Using this tool I was able to identify that my neighbour was running an insecure network -- Telstra Bigpond technicians had installed it without switching on wireless security. He was not too impressed when I told him.
A nice function is the ability to launch a separate translucent monitoring window that sits on top of all other windows so you can continue to monitor a link while going about other work -- such as entering a blog entry like this.
The stumbler software that underpins wardriving has received a lot of undeserved negative publicity for being a hacker tool like a port scanner. But just like port scanners, stumblers are merely tools to diagnose networks. In this case, wireless networks that operate on the open, unregulated by government, short-range international scientific and medical (ISM) band at 2.4GHz.
An article from the faculty of law at the University of Colorado in Boulder argues that wardriving is not a crime and is "quite innocuous, legal, and can even be quite beneficial to society".
The latest v.0.93 includes support for wi-fi, Bluetooth and Apple's new Bonjour multicast DNS (mDNS) technology. If you have a suitable GPS unit you can track the location of networks.
Just within a few meters of my house there are as many as five networks -- that's a lot of device channels that can stumble over each other. But iStumbler makes finding free channels a breeze. There is very little to configure -- just fire it up and scan away.
Using this tool I was able to identify that my neighbour was running an insecure network -- Telstra Bigpond technicians had installed it without switching on wireless security. He was not too impressed when I told him.
A nice function is the ability to launch a separate translucent monitoring window that sits on top of all other windows so you can continue to monitor a link while going about other work -- such as entering a blog entry like this.
The stumbler software that underpins wardriving has received a lot of undeserved negative publicity for being a hacker tool like a port scanner. But just like port scanners, stumblers are merely tools to diagnose networks. In this case, wireless networks that operate on the open, unregulated by government, short-range international scientific and medical (ISM) band at 2.4GHz.
An article from the faculty of law at the University of Colorado in Boulder argues that wardriving is not a crime and is "quite innocuous, legal, and can even be quite beneficial to society".
Posted at 11:13 PM
Screen Spanning Doctor
Possibly the coolest hack for any
platform, ever.
You are responsible
for the use of any information gained from this blog. Nothing here constitutes
advice and is provided for educational purposes only. I am not responsible for
any action you undertake that may damage your
computer.
One of my pet peeves is technology that is crippled purely for marketing purposes.
A capability is present, but the manufacturer hides it from the customer.
So I rejoice when a clever hacker uncovers the capability and reveals it, especially when it is done as elegantly as Screen Spanning Doctor.
Apple uses the screen-spanning feature to upsell customers to its more expensive models. But the iBook, eMac and iMac already have the ability to drive more than one display at a time -- Apple just hid it from us.
Screen spanning, also called "double-heading", is a very effective way to increase your real screen resolution. Run a browser on one screen while you have a word processor on another. Use one screen as a scratch-pad while coding or drawing on the other. Edit video on one screen, display rendered vision on the other. Join two 4:3 ratio screens for a HD-widescreen experience.
Two screens are a practical benefit when presenting -- the operator shares the PowerPoint, for instance, on an external display such as a projector or plasma while managing proceedings on the notebook's LCD.
My favourite daily activity is to play videos through the TV while the iBook's LCD shows the controller. I just wish there was a way to blank the LCD while still driving the external display, then waking the LCD on an input event such as a mouse click.
There are caveats, and a warning that some models with the Rage chip may be killed by this hack.
But even with these limitations, it is still a mighty fine hack; one of the best I have seen.
Screen spanning on an iBook -- impossible, but there it is.
One of my pet peeves is technology that is crippled purely for marketing purposes.
A capability is present, but the manufacturer hides it from the customer.
So I rejoice when a clever hacker uncovers the capability and reveals it, especially when it is done as elegantly as Screen Spanning Doctor.
Apple uses the screen-spanning feature to upsell customers to its more expensive models. But the iBook, eMac and iMac already have the ability to drive more than one display at a time -- Apple just hid it from us.
Screen spanning, also called "double-heading", is a very effective way to increase your real screen resolution. Run a browser on one screen while you have a word processor on another. Use one screen as a scratch-pad while coding or drawing on the other. Edit video on one screen, display rendered vision on the other. Join two 4:3 ratio screens for a HD-widescreen experience.
Two screens are a practical benefit when presenting -- the operator shares the PowerPoint, for instance, on an external display such as a projector or plasma while managing proceedings on the notebook's LCD.
My favourite daily activity is to play videos through the TV while the iBook's LCD shows the controller. I just wish there was a way to blank the LCD while still driving the external display, then waking the LCD on an input event such as a mouse click.
There are caveats, and a warning that some models with the Rage chip may be killed by this hack.
But even with these limitations, it is still a mighty fine hack; one of the best I have seen.
Screen spanning on an iBook -- impossible, but there it is.
Posted at 04:52 PM
MenuMeters
A tiny tool is a big
help.
When I got the ADSL link, I hunted for a tidy app
that would tell me how much I had transferred so I wouldn't go over my monthly
limit.
That quest still continues.
But in the meantime I found MenuMeters from Raging Menace. This tidy little app monitors network, CPU, disk and memory activity unobtrusively from the menu bar at the top of the screen. That area is running out of real estate, so I usually just leave the network details active, which is handy for monitoring the status of the wifi link and transfer speeds across the network while I go about other business.
That quest still continues.
But in the meantime I found MenuMeters from Raging Menace. This tidy little app monitors network, CPU, disk and memory activity unobtrusively from the menu bar at the top of the screen. That area is running out of real estate, so I usually just leave the network details active, which is handy for monitoring the status of the wifi link and transfer speeds across the network while I go about other business.
Posted at 04:19 PM
XResourceGraph
Give your desktop the Secret Squirrel
treatment with Gaucho Software's system
monitor.
Every now and again you encounter an app that is
serious eye-candy. Sometimes, as is the case with XResourceGraph, that app is also
useful.
From the developer's website:
XRG is an open source system monitor for Mac OS X. XRG allows you to monitor CPU activity, memory usage, battery status, machine temperature, network activity, disk I/O, current weather, and stock market data.
A very useful way to troubleshoot network performance issues (am I really still downloading from the NAS?), gauge the efficiency of the iBook, and pre-empt possible crash scenarios (what do you mean 100% CPU activity?).
From the developer's website:
XRG is an open source system monitor for Mac OS X. XRG allows you to monitor CPU activity, memory usage, battery status, machine temperature, network activity, disk I/O, current weather, and stock market data.
A very useful way to troubleshoot network performance issues (am I really still downloading from the NAS?), gauge the efficiency of the iBook, and pre-empt possible crash scenarios (what do you mean 100% CPU activity?).
Posted at 03:09 PM
Thu - April 21, 2005
Applications: The undiscovered country
Finding the answer to a question you didn't know
you were asking is one of the joys of a switx.
There is something about a new platform that
forces you to reconsider what you know about
computing.
Platforms attract different tribes with their own views of the world. These communities or user groups follow the lead of those that came before. These cultures tend to solidify within a couple of generations of software iterations. I have witnessed this on the many platforms I have used intimately since 1983.
One of the joys of OS X is it held the Apple Classic community loyal even while it attracted Unix gurus. The modern OS X tribe is richer for the immigration from other faiths, and to my mind most closely resembles the Amiga community c. 1990, which was innovative and just a little off-beat and creative.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the Mac community as it absorbs Windows asylum seekers lured by the iPod and Mac Mini and the prospect of stronger security.
As a "switxer" (someone who switched their personal information duties from Windows to Mac OS X) there are a lot of "aaah" moments, where a solution neatly falls into place.
Sometimes this is screamingly obvious -- such as with iLife -- and other times it is more subtle.
One of those latter moments came with the use of this blogging software, iBlog.
I designed my first website in 1994, just after the first HTML spec was finalised. At the time I was the first journalist in Australia to run a website, a fact my local newspaper reported at the time. In those days, everything had to be sent to the server using Unix Z-modem commands. Quickly, I switched to FTP. Working in a command line environment offered a lot of control, but it was time consuming. And even small changes to code on the server were frustrating to correct if you had to resort to a text editor such as vi or pico.
Then, a couple of years ago, I turned to Blogger. The web-based entry systems were much easier to use, but Blogger was quixotic and after half a year I lost my patience with its constant problems and outages when the service switched servers and deleted my website.
So to iBlog.
Why hasn't Steve Jobs bought this little company? Don't just go knocking your loyal third-party developers on the head and stealing their market, but invest in their good ideas, Steve. It is not hard to see how this natty software captured an O'Reilly Innovation Award.
From download to publishing the first item took less than ten minutes. No hitches or hidden gotchas -- it really was WYSIWYG. It wasn't until I entered my second entry that I had the "wow" moment -- that one where you realise that computers really can make your life easier or extend your capabilities in new and exciting directions. It was a quiet wow, one of the many I have experienced in the last year.
iBlog is a missing piece in the iLife jigsaw puzzle. After having been dismayed by the horror stories others have told me of their experience with content management systems, and having had a few of my own, along comes iBlog and it works just as a Mac should. My admittedly limited experience with this desktop blogging software -- this is just the third entry -- shows that it does what it says it will do.
Integration with iPhoto is seamless -- dump your pics into iPhoto and then choose where in the edited text you want them to appear and, voila, they pop into place.
Although I haven't tried a movie yet, I see the little icon at the top of my editing window for this entry and I assume the same is true for importing from iMovie.
The included cascading style sheets are extremely basic, but they are easy enough to change.
And the code renders XML RSS out of the box. Click "publish" and the whole show uploads to the iDisk on my .Mac account, although there is support for Webdav and FTP as well.
I have barely begun to stretch the capability of iBlog and at some stage in the future it may falter. But as a hassle free way to get into blogging, I haven't seen anything to beat it on any platform.
Platforms attract different tribes with their own views of the world. These communities or user groups follow the lead of those that came before. These cultures tend to solidify within a couple of generations of software iterations. I have witnessed this on the many platforms I have used intimately since 1983.
One of the joys of OS X is it held the Apple Classic community loyal even while it attracted Unix gurus. The modern OS X tribe is richer for the immigration from other faiths, and to my mind most closely resembles the Amiga community c. 1990, which was innovative and just a little off-beat and creative.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the Mac community as it absorbs Windows asylum seekers lured by the iPod and Mac Mini and the prospect of stronger security.
As a "switxer" (someone who switched their personal information duties from Windows to Mac OS X) there are a lot of "aaah" moments, where a solution neatly falls into place.
Sometimes this is screamingly obvious -- such as with iLife -- and other times it is more subtle.
One of those latter moments came with the use of this blogging software, iBlog.
I designed my first website in 1994, just after the first HTML spec was finalised. At the time I was the first journalist in Australia to run a website, a fact my local newspaper reported at the time. In those days, everything had to be sent to the server using Unix Z-modem commands. Quickly, I switched to FTP. Working in a command line environment offered a lot of control, but it was time consuming. And even small changes to code on the server were frustrating to correct if you had to resort to a text editor such as vi or pico.
Then, a couple of years ago, I turned to Blogger. The web-based entry systems were much easier to use, but Blogger was quixotic and after half a year I lost my patience with its constant problems and outages when the service switched servers and deleted my website.
So to iBlog.
Why hasn't Steve Jobs bought this little company? Don't just go knocking your loyal third-party developers on the head and stealing their market, but invest in their good ideas, Steve. It is not hard to see how this natty software captured an O'Reilly Innovation Award.
From download to publishing the first item took less than ten minutes. No hitches or hidden gotchas -- it really was WYSIWYG. It wasn't until I entered my second entry that I had the "wow" moment -- that one where you realise that computers really can make your life easier or extend your capabilities in new and exciting directions. It was a quiet wow, one of the many I have experienced in the last year.
iBlog is a missing piece in the iLife jigsaw puzzle. After having been dismayed by the horror stories others have told me of their experience with content management systems, and having had a few of my own, along comes iBlog and it works just as a Mac should. My admittedly limited experience with this desktop blogging software -- this is just the third entry -- shows that it does what it says it will do.
Integration with iPhoto is seamless -- dump your pics into iPhoto and then choose where in the edited text you want them to appear and, voila, they pop into place.
Although I haven't tried a movie yet, I see the little icon at the top of my editing window for this entry and I assume the same is true for importing from iMovie.
The included cascading style sheets are extremely basic, but they are easy enough to change.
And the code renders XML RSS out of the box. Click "publish" and the whole show uploads to the iDisk on my .Mac account, although there is support for Webdav and FTP as well.
I have barely begun to stretch the capability of iBlog and at some stage in the future it may falter. But as a hassle free way to get into blogging, I haven't seen anything to beat it on any platform.
Posted at 08:23 PM
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Published On: Jun 18, 2005 11:54 AM
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Published On: Jun 18, 2005 11:54 AM