mercredi 13 août 2003

Fine outsiders moving in: OS X apps and Icelandic music "iCab 3.0 will be the next release and will have CSS 2 support (lack of CSS 2 support is usually the only reason why some web pages don't look correct at the moment). The new CSS 2 support is already implemented in large parts but it is not yet active in the iCab 2.9.5 release." Softly, softly, and apparently heading straight down the home track, this browser gets better and better. I wasn't expecting another release with big changes before iCab 3, but Alex Clauss has bowed. C'est la mode de l'année: almost everyone wants tabs (iCab's own screenshots), while the Safari-style search engine doesn't limit you to Google. It's a 2.3 MB light download and a fast and powerful 6.8 MB application. I've really liked other features of this baby for so long that I got a licence long ago, but when the final release comes out, Alexander will be asking 29 euros (29 dollars is his rate) for it. Worth trying now. With an admirable Omniweb 4.5 also out of beta less than a week ago, we're getting spoilt for choice on the Mac OS X browser front. Still with the Omnigroup, the cheerful lass's Powerbook came, I noticed, with OmniGraffle installed: their application to "draw beautiful diagrams, family trees, flow charts, org charts, layouts, and other directed or non-directed graphs." I didn't get a chance to see whether it was bundled for free, but this by 'joulesverne', among several other rave reviews on its VersionTracker page, says it isn't: "I just discovered this software laying in wait on OSX... I can't believe what a great package this is sitting without a whole lot of advertising... Just upgraded to pro because folks that write software like this actually deserve some money... It's way nicer than Visio and it doesn't come with windows....:>)" I took my iCab shot with SnapNDrag, which saw version 1.2.2 released today and, simple but nifty, allows you to choose the format (JPG, TIFF and PNG) and to drag your picture to another application, including e-mail. Its Yellow Mug makers have joined my growing list of developers' sites to watch. zzz Marianne, exploring OS X, is listening to that amazing Icelandic music again. If you can stomach passing talk of eating whale meat, check out the Sigur Ros 'dazed and confused' article. Their site also has offers mp3 downloads and long movies (Real Player, Windows Media and QuickTime, but sadly not the latter for all of them). Each time I hear them, the more I get into what they do, which occasionally reminds me of what I would have liked to hear Pink Floyd doing had they spaced out some tracks even further. zzz Setting up the lass's machine gave me further thoughts of sorting out a mess of my own. Last week, Giles Turnbull wrote 'Outboard Brains for Mac OS X' for those splendid O'Reilly people. It's a comparison of data-filing applications for the busy. "Consider the likely usage of a secondary brain: most people will want to throw things into it quickly, probably while doing another task elsewhere. Multiple clicks is a no-no, as is having to open new windows or begin new database fields. It should be as simple as cut and paste or drag and drop." Precisely. Prices range from free to a whopping 145 dollars (129 euros) when Giles looks at six options, from simple Stickies to Tinderbox. His request for more brought a host of ideas, which included two I'm keen on. I've long been using Dan Schimpf's MacJournal. It's donation-ware (though he doesn't trumpet his request), does a very great deal and won him an Apple Design award in May 2002. You can also lock it easily. This sophisticated notepad won't be disappearing from my Mac now that I've tried and liked DEVONthink, which includes an "auto-classify" feature, and is well worth $35 (31 euros) particularly if you add outboard Devon Technologies freebies, which do even more useful things to your "services" menu. The German company is in beta with DEVONagent, which promises to add some very useful tools for getting detailed stuff off the Net. It looks like a journalist's dream, potentially even better than Copernic, whose makers regrettably -- and with genuine regret -- had to drop the Mac platform to concentrate on Windows. 11:26:01 PM  link   your views? [] An hour in the blogosphere (1) "In order to run in California's recall race for governor, you just needed 65 signatures and $3500. But to vote in this election, you'll need the patience of a saint." And this is just what the rest of us needed: 'The California (thumbnail) Candidates Guide' (BBSpot). No less. Not much more... zzz Some may think Marianne was spoiled rotten with her new PowerBook. She doesn't. One guess what she's telling all her friends with her chatware. It's enough to get her beaten up. This gave me more pause for thought: "Research by marketing consultancy reveals that one in nine five to nine-year-olds has a mobile. "It predicts that this will rise to one in five by 2006, making this the fastest expanding group of mobile phone users (BBC tech). zzz "Gates said that 5 percent of Windows machines crash, on average, twice daily (...) I think that when we put all the numbers together, we can estimate that there are a minimum of 30 billion Windows system crashes a year" (John Dvorak, via LinkMachineGo.) zzz "RSS is the content carrier wave of the future. And everyone with a weblog can or is already creating a compatible broadcast channel" (Adam Curry; here's his essay). zzz It's cooled down today to something pleasant. But I'd told her about the states of undress in visible apartments. And about the neighbour who told me that she liked to lie in bed at night in her ground-floor flat and look across right up four storeys into mine, often the only one with lights on. "Ah," said the wildcat. "Just think: you give so much pleasure at so little cost!" For that she gets a flower. And I'll leave those lights on because that neighbour is about the only person who bothers to keep the whole garden alive. The wild geranium: constancy. Availability... And guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of the Hungarian florist downstairs. Ah! Those thoughts of home... zzz "So fair, so balanced, you'll be sued into agreement." No, not the wildcat. On the 'blog for Creative Commons, Derek Slater links to more on a big bad Fox. zzz "So José Bové©®™ is out of the joint in exchange for a ficticious job and he's already acting up (...) violent and dangerous like many pacifists..." (Merde in France). 1:54:15 PM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.