This Apple Expo week's final entry about matters Mac -- unless I get to unpacking the new iPod and find novel things to say -- mainly concerns design, arising from chat over crêpes in Odessa Street with Mr B.
The man gave us two useful contributions to Mac OS X, X-Ray (one of the best of the improvements to the 'Get Info' function at the generous shareware price of 10 bucks) and Zingg (a free must for people like me who pack their "contextual menus" with all kinds of shortcut extras).
Rainer first came to my notice through enthusiasm about his work at TS, notably from Marcel, whose site in Belgium is ever growing.
I hope my friend (about RB) from the mountain city of Belo Horizonte will forgive me for reporting that even such gifted geeks as himself suffer sometimes from what he bluntly described as "writer's block".
There's a subject the Wildcat might be interested in: an equally gifted Wildcat, in her own way, to whom I owe an apology for yesterday's filthy mood, provoked in part by a total misunderstanding of something she was saying before my 'phone battery went dead.
Rainer is now inspired anew with Panther on the horizon. What I won't do is reveal what the clever chap has in mind, which is a great idea, but his own to divulge.
What I will do is give him, as requested, and others the name of the remarkable tool that has made my life with reclassifying large batches of photos so much easier. Though mentioned before, maybe I'd forgotten because Renamer4Mac, by Werner Freytag, was too obvious!
Design, I said.
Rainer came to Paris with pals from Macmania magazine (Portuguese), where he serves on the editorial board and sometimes writes.
Any Mac mag that sometimes puts pretty women on its cover is, of course, bound to catch my eye (and nearly all of those models are happy to do this for free, given the attention it gives them and their portfolios).
The contents are a joy to read. Read them I can, to my surprise. My bizarre brain seems to have picked up some grasp of Portuguese through past encounters, though I can't understand it all and wouldn't dare try to speak it.
I've scanned some pages from the back issues Rainer brought me because I agree with the scores of "gurus" he enjoyed a Geek Cruise with in May-June last year. This, Macmania was proud to announce, is "the way all Mac magazines should be!"
Judge for yourselves.
An eye-catching typeface. Pictures everywhere. Clear, concise text. And that's the start of an article on shareware mainly for news-reading of the kind I use a lot! With one or two which are new to me.
Rainer's report on the Geek Cruise -- I shall have to stop being cheeky about them now, since spending days on a boat with nearly 200 other maniacs, many of whom Mac addicts know only by name, drove him neither insane nor incomprehensible to ordinary mortals -- was given a more sober presentation.
That's Rainer on the right in the picture of "the Battle of the (OS X) Permission Diddlers" (and it's a good job the roll-mouse-over captions I give 'blog pics don't show up in all browsers):
"Text! Look at it, so much text, text, text," was RB's reproach for the copy of a French Mac mag I had in my bag. And on the whole, he's right, it makes them hard to digest, though the two main ones have improved in their latest issues.
I forgot, though, to speak up in defence of 'AvosMac!', which he's probably never seen and is the nearest thing we have to 'Macmania' -- with puns aplenty and fun writing. Here's a typical page from this home-grown monthly (their own brand of very un-PC female body flaunting is scarcely visible in this scan, bottom left):
Finally, like the good French mags but not the English-language ones I've slammed for thin content and irritating ads as intrusive as they are on too much US telly, 'Macmania' packages the necessary advertising in sensible batches that don't interrupt the read.
Every month, moreover, it publishes a good idea I've not seen much of elsewhere, a page on Macs in the media (and yes, there have been male models too):
You know what I suspect? Maybe it mostly takes a Mediterranean mindset, or at least a regular acquaintance with the sun, the heat, a riot of colour and a certain joie de vivre to come up with such a fiesta of a publication.
What's more, like 'AvosMac!', the Brazilian mag is on the ball in its reviews, shining a torch into good developers' corners to write up software many wider-circulation Apple publications often omit to shed light on.
I half-heartedly prompted RB for a word or two on the secret workings of a developer's mind, but didn't push it. The fellow was tired and even had he lifted the veil, I'm not sure I would have understood the mystery.
I can scarcely wait to take the Wildcat, and maybe the Kid if she wants to come, to Brazil. Once I've paid off the still unopened iPod, we have a treatment for the Condition, and the cash reserves are restored.
For a long time I've wanted to visit that country. Rainer's trip here has pushed that dream much higher up the agenda.
1:26:18 PM link 
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But specially for Sam -- and by way of saying thanks for the free lunch -- here's a stirring if scarcely Net-exclusive glimpse over a fine piece of architecture.
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