NSLog();

Every time I see a bunch of links to pictures I want to check out, I find myself doing one unusual thing: firing up Internet Explorer and using its sidebar "Page Holder" feature. Is there anything easier than clicking a series of links to flip through a series of pictures? The Page Holder gets rid of the "click, go back, click, go back, click, go back" nonsense and laughs in the face of "cmd-click, cmd-click, cmd-click" horseplay (which fails at keeping a history).

Why can't this feature be brought to Safari? If OmniWeb had it, I'd buy it today! Oh, Page Holder, how I still adore thee.

Question: What Dashboard apps do you want?

My Answer: I wrote several months ago in an article called "Konfabuseless:

Konfabulator's list of widgets is full of Airport signal monitors, battery monitors, to-do lists, and more. Says the description of one widget, "Useless, but fun!" Guess what? I've already got things that do these things. The menu bar (Airport, Volume, etc.) and dock (CPU Monitor, etc.) all handle these tasks. They're always available unlike Konfabulator's windows, which can easily be obscured by other apps' windows.

I admit to not having seriously looked at Konfabulator since. However, as I ponder Dashboard, and the usefuleness it adds by simply staying out of my way by default, I wonder about the Dashboard apps I might use. A package tracker would be nice - I wouldn't have to launch my desktop package-tracking software. The address book quickie seemed nice - it avoids having to launch Address Book. The calculator is nice. So is the stock tracker. Calendar. Stickies. The world clock, and many of the others. Those widgets could all replace tens of little apps I find myself launching several times a day.

In other words, Dashboard may be more of a competitor to LaunchBar than Spotlight! All of my "quickie apps" (iCal, Stickies, WorldClock, Calculator, Address Book, Stock Magic, etc.) may move to Dashboard and away from LaunchBar's "cmd-space, A, B, enter" (for Address Book).

From JDD:

Interest is very high. The session on Dashboard this morning was SRO and they stopped letting people in. So they scheduled a follow up repeat session after the rest of the sessions of the day. It was almost full as well. Interest is high. Repeat high.

I think we'll get to see a lot of these quickie applications, too. My only concern then becomes one of organization: how many widgets are too many widgets? Screen space and presence in the Dashboard "dock" are going to become a precious commodity, are they not?

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Well, I've improved since the first time I went shooting. José and I went to the Palm Beach Shooting Center (don't go there unless you wish to see a really bad site). We took two to three hours and each fired through 100 rounds, José with his rented Beretta and I with my CZ 75 B.

15 rounds were fired at each target. The first 15 were a warmup and the last five were fired with the other person's gun: José's Targets and Erik's Targets.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 337); »

Question: How do you behave when you're sleepy?

My Answer: I begin dreaming very early. My thoughts jump rapidly and in no meaningful order from one thing to another. I'll say out loud (if I'm having a conversation) "no, don't put that there" referring to a game of chess, and then ten seconds later say "she's just pregnant, that's all" referring to something entirely different. This, of course, in addition to the slow movements, closed eyes, and so on. 🙂

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

PulpFiction just won the runner-up Apple Design Award for "Best Mac OS X Technology Adoption." Details to follow tomorrow. Also rumors about Travolta and "squoze" jokes to follow, undoubtedly.

Brad and Scott are at WWDC, and developers are encouraged to check out the WWDC Weblog run by Cocoa Dev Central at http://cocoadevcentral.com/wwdc2004/. We encourage you to stop Brad or Scott to say hi. Brad was a big help on PulpFiction and is responsible for much of the speed boosts seen in 1.0.1 (as are bindings, of all things). Scott was one of our better beta testers (among other things).

To celebrate the rich history of Mac development, Codepoet and I worked together to create a BeOS-style template for PulpFiction. Grab it from the PF Resources page (screenshot). All of the resources are now styled in the 1.0.1 ".html" format.

Question: What's the number one rule of design?

My Answer: Don't be afraid to let your own personality flow into the work.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I've never been "outromanced" by anyone, but Carey has a pretty darn good lead on me. 🙂

It's a nice thing, this "being in love" thing.

Go figure.

Many people IMed me shortly after Safari RSS was announced. "What about PulpFiction?" or "Guess this means the end of PulpFiction?" The answer is rather simple: this is a good thing for PulpFiction.

Safari RSS^* will get people interested in syndication. Those users will graduate to a higher level and look for a more advanced reader. PulpFiction Lite aims to do the same things, though clearly not with the same reach as Apple is capable of providing.

I've long said that Apple is not really "squashing" us "poor" third-party developers so long as they stick to the low end of the markets they choose to enter. iPhoto has sold more copies of Photoshop Elements than you could ever imagine. Rock Star relies on the popularity of iTunes. PulpFiction offers so many more features over Safari RSS today that we can't help but be pleased. Where will PulpFiction be in a year when Tiger actually ships? Even better.

Brent echoes many of the same thoughts on his own blog.

^* I hope "Safari RSS" is not the final name. Also, why call it that when it supports Atom as well?

Question: What do you think is the nicest new feature in Tiger?

My Answer: XCode 2.0 or Automator look to be the nicest from my perspective. I'll talk more about the other stuff in the coming hours, days, and weeks, but that's my concise answer for now.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: Do you listen to CDs anymore?

My Answer: No. I buy them, but I just put them in, rip them, and put them away.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: What do you see as the single biggest difference between the Democratic and Republican parties?

My Answer: One's led by an idiot and one is led by a scary, scary looking man? I don't know. In the past few years, I've seen what separates the two parties collapse, rebuild, and muddle around. In other words, I haven't got a clue what really separates them. I side with Republicans on some issues, I side with Democrats on others, and on others still I disagree with everyone.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I went with Arion last night to see Fahrenheit 9/11. I've previously seen only Bowling for Columbine and read some background information on both BfC and F911.

One thing is now clear: Michael Moore does not produce documentaries. He produces a movie, granted, but calling either of these movies documentaries - and awarding him an Emmy Oscar in that category - is ridiculous. These aren't documentaries: they're 2-hour infomercials. F911 seemed to follow the same formula as BfC:

1. Start with an interesting little vignette.
2. Segue into fast-fact mode where lots of facts are intercut with out-of-place footage of "the bad guys" looking stupid.
3. Show random scenes of violence without any documentation as to the date, time, place, or participants.
4. While doing the former, do nothing to advance the point, instead simply being content with boring the audience for an hour or so while showing violence.
5. End the movie.

Unfortunately, F911 lacked the cute cartoon found in BfC. It's a pity: I really could have used something entertaining in the second hour.

The information in the beginning of the movie was fine. I knew most of it. I knew about the flights on September 12 and 13th. I knew about the Halliburton bullshit, I knew about almost everything. I don't care for Bush, and so I really wanted Michael Moore to create an airtight case based on these facts, but he clearly couldn't fill a two-hour movie building such a case. I wanted a solid body of sound reporting and undeniable fact. He failed completely.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 676); »

Question: Are you going to see Fahrenheit 9/11?

My Answer: I'm sitting in the theater right now blogging from my phone, so yes.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.