A Dollar 28 Cents - Serial

Disassembled Household Appliances

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:54:45 -0800

Apple's Prettiness Improves Productivity

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:28:20 -0800

Emotional Design... presents scientific evidence that attractive thing work better. Since being happy broadens our thought processes and facilitates creative thinking, attractive products that make us happy can improve our ability to use them. In effect, they work better because we work better.

--Ambient Findability (p. 56)

Apple Rumors

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:38:20 -0800

I wonder if the folks at Apple monitor the press that they get in the days leading up to a new product announcement to find ways to reduce the information leakage. There are always rumors, but they seem to be increasingly accurate as of late. I can't imagine that Apple takes kindly to having their grand announcements spoiled, so I wonder if they debrief after an event and make plans to be more secretive next time.

Tab Switching Followup

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:35:12 -0800

Firefox, Safari, Camino, Adium, iChat, TextMate, Coda: ⌘{ and ⌘}

Dreamweaver CS4 beta: ⌘` (which is still wrong, that's the shortcut for switching windows not tabs)

Ah, the joy of extensibility.

Coda wishes

Sat, 31 May 2008 14:26:38 -0800

The new Dreamweaver beta convinces me even more than ever before that I should switch full-time to Coda. There are just a few tiny little things I still wish Coda could do.

Site-wide find and replace
Along the same lines as site-wide find and replace, warn me when I delete or move a file that is linked, and offer to update links
⌘-D to open links
Auto-complete character entities

Alton

Thu, 29 May 2008 17:39:29 -0800

When I grow up, I want to be the Alton Brown of web design. He always has something clever to say. And he knows just about everything about food.

I ♥ 

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:57:40 -0800

I visited an Apple Store Friday night for the inevitable purchase. I knew I liked Apple and their products, and everything about the experience has confirmed that. The only bad thing is that the purchasing experience is so laid back, and I'm so shy that it is hard to make the first step and approach a salesperson. Once I did, I loved the tiny little box that Rory came in. It was heavier than I expected. I love that I didn't need a shopping bag; the salesman put a Thank You sticker on the box so the folks at the door knew I had paid. The thing fit in my pocket. I didn't have to carry a receipt home with me, it was in my inbox waiting for me.

The unboxing ceremony was equally pleasure filled. Just a few tiny pieces in the box, very little waste, very little wasted space, and very little box. The device itself has everything I've always asked for and complained baout my previous devices: Nice large screen, no physical keyboard, no softkeys, no stylus. Only the good stuff; only what matters.

Tab Switching

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:16:09 -0800

Firefox: Control+Page Up, Control+Page Down

Safari: ⌘{ and ⌘}

Camino: ⌘⌥← and ⌘⌥→

Adium: ⌘← and ⌘→ by default, ⌘[ and ⌘]

iChat: ⌘{ and ⌘}

TextMate: ⌘⌥← and ⌘⌥→

Dreamweaver: ⌘` (which is wrong, that is for switching windows)

I don't know what the appropriate response is: Argh, groan, or sigh.

Dismal History

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:39:35 -0800

In honor of New Year, I was going to write about my top five or ten favorite somethings. I choose music, so I launched iTunes and created a quick smart playlist to see what I'd bought in 2007. I was disappointed to count only nine albums and an assortment of individual tracks, two CDs of which are Christmas music. So it would seem 2007 was a dismal year for music. I know some of what I purchased last year was older music, and now I see that it was because there wasn't anything new that I was interested in.

Here's to a better year for music in 2008.

Classic Links

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:12:15 -0800

I saw a couple old links today and they made me laugh again. And so I post them here for you to laugh too. Well, if you are a geek or you know me, maybe you'll laugh.

May The Source be with you
Mark Cuban on Wearing a Suit

How Many HTML Elements Can You Name in 5 Minutes?

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:15:19 -0800

Are there more than just bugs in Leopard?

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:15:36 -0800

My list of changes in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has turned into a list of bugs I have encountered. There are many new features as well, and those are what I intended to document. But it seems most of them have already been revealed. Since this is a relatively new software release, it is to be expected that there are bugs. Oh, well. I guess I'll just keep adding to my list.

Leopard Changes

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:32:54 -0800

In all my reading about Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, I've not seen mention of some changes that I've noticed since installing.

Using Shift+Command+4 to take a screenshot now shows a cursor with coordinates.
The Print dialog has been updated. It now has a disclosure triangle like Open and Save.
Software Update (at least the first one) now works more like Automatic Updates in Windows. The first window is the same as Tiger, but after you click install, your computer begins to restart and shows a progress bar while installing, locking you out from using the computer. As I mentioned, the first update behaves this way, which may be because it updated the OS; I'll have to wait and see.
Shift+Command+O opens a new window in slow motion. Control+Command+O does what Shift+Command+O used to do. (Added 2007-11-19 12:00)
The screen no longer turns blue on shutdown, it stays on the desktop picture for the last logged in user. Especially noticable when your computer is attached to a projector when you shut down. (Added 2007-11-25 22:55)
Using Shift+Command+4+Space to take a screenshots of a windows includes the shadow. (Added 2007-11-27 20:38)
In the Finder, when Getting Info on multiple items or when some Get Info windows are already open, the windows sometimes pile up instead of titling. This is probably a bug. (Added 2007-11-27 20:38)
When you begin playing a playlist in iTunes, then switch to another playlist while still playing the first, the pause button changes to stop. When you switch to another app, the stop changes to pause again. This is certainally a bug and may appear in other OSs. (Added 2007-11-28 18:06)
Command+Tab does not always switch apps. At first it looked like this was just a Firfox problem, but it has happened involving other apps as well. I think it has included switching to or from Finder everytime, so that may be the cause. Finder may in fact be the source of that functionality. (Added 2007-12-02 19:19)
Some file icons are incorrect or generic. For example, a .tmpl file from Movable Type shows as a Unix binary, many CandyBar .icontainer files have generic icons. (Added 2007-12-02 19:21)

Pitch Illustrations

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:44:40 -0800

At last, some explanation! See the pictures

Leopard Complaints

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:52:20 -0800

I watched the guided tour and I have some complaints about Apple's new OS already. Minor annoyances, to be sure, but I expect Apple to pay attention to such details.

The look and feel is closer, but still not completely consistent: Preview and Mail don't have the same kind of toolbar buttons as Address Book, Safari, and Finder.
Some windows (the opening progress bar, time machine hard drive insert dialog box) don't have a unified sunken interface. I guess I'll be keeping UNO around after all.
Some windows show toolbar names and icons, while others only show icons. That's still an application preference, not a global one.
Scroll bars look like candy and haven't been updated to the iTunes 7, which would be more appropriate.
Cover Flow scroll bars don't conform to the system scroll bar preference.

Update: Walt has delivered his verdict: “Not revolutionary, but it beats Vista.” (via PC World)