Apple

I’ve been a Mac user since 1991, so it’s inevitable that I’d have this as a category.

Thoughts on EspressoBlog

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I’ve mentioned a couple times that I’ve been using EspressoBlog to make posts. In the process, I’ve come up with a few issues and ideas, and figured a post here (and TrackBack ping to Phil, since it works in EB now!) would work…

  • Issue: TrackBack gets turned off.

    I keep the ‘allow pings’ option in Movable Type turned on for every post — it may not get utilized much, but hey, why not? However, posting from EB seems to set the TB flag to ‘off’, requiring me to go back into my post through the usual MT interface and turn it back on.

  • Issue: the ‘HTML Tags & Blog List’ drawer and the ‘TrackBack’ drawer cover each other.

    This had me confused at first — I had the ‘…Blog List’ drawer open after logging into my blog, and then opened the ‘TrackBack’ drawer. Since they both slide out the right hand side of the window, and the ‘TrackBack’ drawer isn’t as wide as the ‘…Blog List’ drawer, at first I didn’t think the ‘TrackBack’ button had done anything. I clicked it again, and then I noticed the extra shadow effect that was appearing underneath the ‘…Blog List’ drawer. Oh! Closed the ‘…Blog List’ drawer, and viola, there was the ‘TrackBack’ drawer. Possible solutions: either put the ‘TrackBack’ drawer on the left side of the window (as that’s the side the button is on anyway), or see if there’s some way for one drawer to toggle the other — if one is open, then opening the other will close the first.

  • Issue: ‘Post (Don’t Publish!)’ seems to be broken.

    At least, it didn’t work for this entry! I’m assuming it’s supposed to act as a ‘save as draft’ option, but after posting this entry and hitting my site, there was the entry, definitely not in draft status. Not a biggie in this instance, but possibly could be in other instances.

  • Idea: could EB automatically log into a specific blog (or at least a server)?

    If I leave EB running this isn’t an issue, but if I quit and then re-launch it (for instance, due to logging out of my account on my ‘puter), then before I can post anything, I need to re-connect to my MT installation, then choose a specific blog. Since most people probably only ever need to connect to one server (and many probably only need to connect to one blog), could there be a ‘default server/default blog’ option(s) setting so that EB would automatically set up the connection upon startup?

I think that’s it for now…more as I think of them. Now, to post this, then hit the web-based log in to turn on TrackBack! ;)

Who says the Mac doesn’t have any software?

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One of the constant things I get from Wintel people is that “there isn’t any software for the Mac” — in fact, I heard this just the other day, talking with someone at work. I got to thinking about this this morning after…

  • Creating two .eps files with Adobe Illustrator 10 (Mac OS X native)…
  • Importing those .eps files into Adobe InDesign 2.0 (Mac OS X native)…
  • Exporting the file to a .pdf readable by Adobe Acrobat reader (Mac OS X native)…
  • Browsed the headlines from 46 different websites with NetNewsWire Lite 1.0 (Mac OS X only RSS reader)…
  • Read further on a few of the stories with Chimera (Mac OS X only Gecko-based web browser)…
  • And made a few posts to The Long Letter using EspressoBlog (Mac OS X only application for posting to MovableType or Blogger powered weblogs).

Anyway, that’s it. Just amused me.

Nobody’s going to understand this one…

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…but every time I see one of the recent tech weblog posts about “RDF in RSS” (which, to be honest, I barely understand myself), I keep thinking that RDF stands for Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field:

reality-distortion field n.

An expression used to describe the persuasive ability of managers like Steve Jobs (the term originated at Apple in the 1980s to describe his peculiar charisma). Those close to these managers become passionately committed to possibly insane projects, without regard to the practicality of their implementation or competitive forces in the marketpace.

No matter how many times I see it, it always takes a slight moment for my brain to switch tracks after that.

The funniest thing is how some of these posts read if you use the incorrect definition. You don’t need to understand the technobabble — I often don’t — just reading RDF as ‘Reality Distortion Field’ lends a whole different feel to some of the suggestions.

They say the [Reality Distortion Field] in RSS 1.0 will let people do cool things. They say the [Reality Distortion Field] in RSS 1.0 will allow for unexpected connections.

— Phil Ringnalda

I’m not trying to downplay other’s concerns or existing work or effort, and I realize that I have a better understanding of [Reality Distortion Field(s)] than most of you (not bragging, but give me this as an accepted for discussion purposes at this moment) and that this gives me an edge when working with [Reality Distortion Field(s)].

— BurningBird

Keeps me amused, at least.

iCal questions

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It’s been out for a couple days now, but I just donwloaded iCal, Apple’s new calendar/scheduling application. I haven’t even got it installed yet, and I’m coming up with curiosities.

  • Why use a .pkg installer?

    One of the great things about having a Mac is how easy most programs are to install — just drag them over to your Applications folder. Apple even touts this in an article aimed at Windows programmers moving to developing for the Mac:

    The commonly used “Setup” application, along with Install Wizards, are discouraged on Mac OS X. Use a drag install instead, which is simpler and preferred by Mac users.

    So why is it that Apple’s own programs (such as iCal’s, .mac‘s Backup, and so on) are distributed using .pkg files, requiring the use of the Apple Installer program?

  • Why does it need my password?

    Tied into using the Installer, why is Administrator access needed to install iCal? Is it really that tied into the system itself? Just seems odd.

Maybe these questions will be answered as I go along…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Good kitty…nice kitty…

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Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)Long story short — after two weeks of waiting, and a good few hours of ‘puter work, I’ve just upgraded my main mac (and webserver) to the newest version of Mac OS X, ‘Jaguar’ (v10.2).

What does this mean for you, the end-user? Um…nothing.

For me, though, it’s definitely a good thing. Even on my rapidly aging 350 MHz G3, the system is noticeably faster than prior versions of OS X were. Man, do I wish I could afford a newer machine that can actually take advantage of some of the optimizations built into this! Ah, well. Someday.

(Also, many thanks to two articles that helped me make sure I had everything up and running correctly under the new system: Apache Web Serving with Mac OS X and Setting up a site server with Jaguar, both from the MacDevCenter.)

It just works

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Nathan Torkington, one of the staff over at O’Reilly is documenting his experiences as he moves from a Windows-based PC to an Apple iBook. Gotta love articles that state:

I plugged in the digital video camera (editing be damned!) and it Just Worked. I built wget and it Just Worked. I downloaded VM and it Just Worked. I plugged in a three-button mouse and it Just Worked. I came to realize something: I’d been with Microsoft for so long, who are complacent and hoard their customers, that I’d forgotten what it’s like to use an operating system built by people who want it to cooperate with the rest of the world. It’s good.

(via Daypop)

Well, I’m not surprised

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Those who surf the Web using a Mac tend to be better educated and make more money than their PC-using counterparts, …tend to be more Web savvy, with more than half having been online for at least five years…are 58 percent more likely than the overall online population to build their own Web page and also slightly more likely to buy goods online, according to the report.

(via MetaFilter)

Beck’s iPod

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Cool ad from Apple on “…the back page of the Sunday NYT Magazine, which had an ASCII-art sillhouette of Beck’s head made up of the names of all the songs on Beck’s iPod, with some marketing copy explaining that Beck has a ginormous library of MP3s from which he loads 5GB at random onto his iPod every day. Then I opened up Kottke.org and there was a link to a PDF of the ad (minus the marketing copy), which is indeed cool.” The PDF file is here, the quoted text is courtesy of Boing Boing.