The news of the day seems to be heavily focused on Apple’s upcoming Tiger 10.4. At first glance it’s amazing at all the new features it holds but while looking over all those features I started recognizing some of them. Tools that have been developed by other people and companies other than Apple.
For example, Apple’s new Spotlight looks like a break-through in locating information on your computer. However, Object Development (an Austria - Europe based company) created LaunchBar a couple years ago, which is basically the same thing.
Apple’s new Dashboard is a great way to access nifty new mini-applications called Widgets. That again was developed a few years ago by Konfabulator which also defines its little tools as Widgets as well.
Safari’s RSS reader is a long awaited dream come true but it’s too bad that tools like Shrook never really got a fighting chance. It will be interesting how Safari deals with RSS though. From the movie it seems pretty well thought out (as most Apple products are) but one thing I couldn’t get from the short clip was how it worked with RSS summaries. I know of a lot of sites that don’t offer full RSS posts and when I click to view the full article from my newsreader, it pops up in a background Safari tab. Sometimes I’ll just go down my list of RSS articles and click on the ones I want to read and allow them to open in the background to read later. I hope this simple feature is available.
One thing I’m really excited about with Tiger 10.4 is new iChat. For those of you on a PC - it’s just like AIM but a hell of a lot cooler. iChat introduces a new kind of interface for video conferencing. In its three-dimensional view, your buddies seem more like they’re in the room with you, making it easier to follow the conversation. On top of that, you can participate in audio conferences with up to 10 people.
Overall, I’m really excited about all the new features and will more than likely slap down my credit card to reserve a copy for myself. I just hope that Apple is playing nice with all the developers out there that have help improve it’s already cool OS.
posted on June 28, 2004| 7:57 PM EST
I just got done putting together a baby section for information and updates just about the baby and what’s going on with the pregnancy.
Jodi will be updating this section for the most part. She’s been wanting me to put this section together for a couple weeks now - I finally got around to doing it tonight.
A couple exciting things about this section are (1) Jodi will be posting to a website. She’s been reading sites like dooce.com for quite a some time and has really been itching to have her own little place on the web. It will be great for her to answer questions and post her own thoughts and fears about the whole process.
Second of all, the baby section was created rather quickly with the help of 2 simple tools - Moveable Type (MT) and CSS. MT is a great system and if you aren’t already using it for things like this then you’re a sucker for wasting your time.
The more exciting tool though it CSS. I set up all my templates in MT and knew that I wanted to have the same layout but just a little bit different of a design.
Continue reading "Paragon Baby" (579 Words)
posted on June 15, 2004| 10:52 PM EST
I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile but haven’t really found a good group of people to invite to this. So I thought I would at least ask if anyone out there would be interested.
The idea is filled with sub-ideas but the main focus would be “Brainstorming”. A group of us would get together every couple of months and brainstorm on what makes a website good. We would discuss color theory, accessibility, semantics, usability and the interactability of humans on the web.
This group would probably not be any larger than 5-7 people max and would be pretty intense in learning and research.
Like I said above, we would only get together a every couple month (every 3 months??) but would really focus on certain subjects. We would probably get together at my house to start out and then other try out other places as time goes on.
I’m guessing that most of our time would be spent in front of a marker board and just thowing out ideas, thoughts, and information from the research that will be going on.
Again - this is an idea I’ve been thinking about for awhile and would love to have a intelligent group of people to brainstorm with. If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of - let me know right away.
Do note that this is a different and seperate group of people than the g33ks group. This new group doesn’t require you to be a g33k. In fact - if you’re a g33k, this group will probably not be the place for you.
Disclaimer
I reserves the right to reject any request for any reason at any time. I reserve the right to decide not to invite anyone for any reason at any time, ever, based on the phase of the moon, the amount of coffee remaining in my cup, the number of socks in my drawer, etc.
posted on June 13, 2004| 1:41 PM EST
Over the past week-an-a-half, there has been quite a bit of stuff going on and now that it’s finally the weekend I’m able to catch up with all my reading.
“That isn’t that big of a deal.” - you say. “You just have a book that you’re reading and you want to read the rest of the book, Who doesn’t have that?”
ME - that’s who. I wish it were only that easy. However, I tend to read quite a bit and have to keep up with quite a bit. When you’re job is to know computers and the workings of the Internet, it’s important to make sure you’re up-to-date with everything you possibly can.
It’s a endless task and for those who are in the same line of work - you understand what I mean.
For starters, I read about 42 different websites daily. Each of those websites update anywhere from a once or twice a day to every hour. I do my best to keep up with it all. On top of reading those sites - they talk about other websites and companies. I’ll then go off and read those sites as well.
On top of that I have my normal reading life of Magazines and Books. I have 3 magazines that I read monthly and usually 2-5 books that I’m reading at a time.
To add more to the list - I try to keep up with current research on various subjects. Most importantly on Brands, Semantics, Usability and Accessibility. I’m also apart of various (a/b 3 right now) Mailing Lists that talk about many different subjects. Each list has about 300+ messages a day and although that sounds like a lot, I’ve got ways of dealing with the amount of Mailing List emails.
Of course I don’t always get to keep up with everything during the busy week so my weekends are filled with catching up and doing my own research and studies.
Now if I didn’t love doing this I would stop but I can’t get enough information. I love learning new things and how to improve on old methods. Even though I’ll never reach a peak in which I can’t learn anymore - it’s great to try.
posted on June 12, 2004| 10:12 AM EST
The Holland Sentinel wrote an article today about the “g33ks” group that I started up a couple months ago.
We’ve been picking up some steam lately and people are starting to find out about the group. Already there are 23 people signed up and more will hop on the band wagon as they find out.
So if you’re interested in seeing what it’s all about - stop by for a visit.
Article Correction:
I should note that the we are not meeting every Tuesday as the article expressed. We are meeting the FIRST Tuesday of every month and have just started meeting the THIRD Thursday of every month to adapt to people’s schedules.
I’ll leave the all the grammatical and spelling errors for the Sentinel to correct.
posted on June 6, 2004| 2:18 PM EST
