NSLog();

There comes a point, very early on in every Cocoa project (especially), when you've gotta make a binary decision: is my application document-based or not? Web browser? Document-based (content = web pages). Word Processor? Document-based. iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD? Not document-based. Things get blurry, though, when you venture into other realms. Are applications like Mail, iChat, iTunes, and so on. They have one main window and then a bunch of document-like windows. In Mail's case, those spawned windows are little documents in their own right. In iChat not so much - they can just be single windows in a .nib replicating themselves as necessary.

I mention this because we hit a similar point - albeit in retrospect - in PulpFiction's development today. In our case, we did the equivalent of making Mail's main viewer a document window (you'll note that in Mail you can create multiple windows all over the place with cmd-opt-n). We chose correctly, but don't underestimate how potentially "big" the "to be (a document-based app) or not to be (a document-based app)" decision can be.

PulpFiction has seen more than its fair share of icons. The coffee/orange juice thing wasn't working for us, so we switched gears and moved to another idea: actual pulp fiction. Pulp fiction is a bunch of old comic strips printed on pulpy (cheap) paper. They contained headlines like "RUN!" and "ALIENS ATTACK!" Think of the poster for the "Mars Attacks" movie - very similar.

We like this new icon. It may be a bit plain, but it scales well because of that. You can see the 128, 48, and 32 pixel sizes at right. We think we'll change the letters - instead of "RUN" we have another TLA in mind, and "ORANGE" at the top is in need of a change.

What do you think? I realize you don't know what the app does, but, that's ok. We'll filter out the feedback we get that doesn't match up. 🙂

John Siracusa reviews OmniWeb 5.0b1 at arstechnica. I don't have a whole lot to say other than to throw out another of my "OW Dislikes":

Ahem. Anyway, you can see the small "show/hide drawer" widget and the little spinny status indicator in the OmniWeb toolbar screenshot above. These are two items that are not necessary in Safari's toolbar since there is no drawer and page loading progress is indicated by essentially turning the address field into a big progress bar. Safari's progress indicator is definitely weird, but I do appreciate the compactness of the approach.

In addition to occupying a spot on the toolbar, the status indicator in OmniWeb 5 only conveys one message: "busy." I'd also like some information about the progress. How much is left to do? Has the browser done anything at all in the past few seconds? Progress bars in web browsers are notoriously unreliable (I'm looking at you, Windows IE), but I still think a best-effort should be made. I frequently use Safari's progress bar to decide whether a page is "stuck" while loading or if it's just very large, but downloading steadily.

As damn confusing as Safari is sometimes with the progress indicator, at least it's big. OmniWeb's current progress indicator is way too small and subtle. The answer to the question "Is it going?" should be loud and clear, not small and subtle.

Here's an idea: "badge" a big freakin' spinning gear progress indicator over the whole page while it's loading. Why not? You can still let people scroll, click, select, and other things, but I can't think of anything "louder" or "clearer" while still maintaining usability.

Of course, that does nothing to address the issue of progress. Why then not a red line that fills up "underneath" the location field. I'm thinking of iMovie here and the red line it uses when rendering effects, transitions, etc.

Two good ideas, and Omni Group is currently using one that, well, sucks.

Question: How many cigarettes have you smoked?

My Answer: I "smoked" about two at my senior party if "holding them in your hand and occasionally faking a puff" counts as smoking.

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

GEORGE W. BUSH RÉSUMÉ

I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol.

I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days.

My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.

MILITARY:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL.

I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use.

By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

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While it's true that any CEO, at his core, needs your money to survive, it always strikes me that this is Michael Dell's only concern any time he gives an interview. Read this interview. Read it twice. Count how many times a price is mentioned. Count how many times market share is mentioned. Count how many times specifications are mentioned.

Now go read an interview with Steve Jobs. Count those same things.

People wonder why Apple has a mystique, and people wonder why Dell is doing such a bang-up business selling crappy boring ol' assembly-line mass market blah blah products. It's in the CEOs. Who in the world could possibly be excited about Dell other than Michael Dell? (Yet, if you read the interview, I'm not even sure Michael Dell is excited about Dell).

Question: Who cares about Janet Jackson's boob?

My Answer: Not me.

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

Every month (since February 2003) I post my site's referral search terms (not what people search for on my site). It's an interesting peek that illustrates "how people are finding me." Here's January's…

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You know, I'm not against themes, but it seems I'll never install something like ShapeShifter on my Mac. After all, what would be the point? Just LOOK at the choices I'd have! These are improvements?

Does anyone have any comments on OmniWeb 5.0? I am going to reserve judgment and simply post comments to this entry as items pop up.

For some reason, the whole MT back-end, which normally looks quite good, looks horrible in OW5. Images aren't loading, the CSS sheet didn't load at all, and so on. It loaded on CocoaDevCentral, but not here. I quit, I expunged, I reloaded. Anyway, I'll go add some comments now…

Rock Star Build 12 was posted awhile ago, and now b13 is here.

If you want to test build 13 (or 14), IM me or email me. This build contains the party mode, so we're not going to be releasing it "into the wild."

What's New In Build 13

• Implemented high scores.
• Fixed a bug that was causing caps-lock pausing to behave irrationally.
• Fixed a serious show-stopping bug that was causing app crashes.
• Implemented party games:
  • 2 teams: 25 questions each
  • 3 teams: 20 questions each
  • 4 teams: 15 questions each
  • 5 teams: 10 questions each
• Created a register screen

Please note that some changes are in store for the presentation of party mode data. Non-playing teams won't show in the list, the final score and intermediate scoring will be easier to read, etc.

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Question: What email client do you use?

My Answer: Entourage. I've considered Mail several times, and I've considered Mailsmith several times, but neither fit me as well as Entourage. About the only thing I dislike in Entourage is some text editing things (that Mailsmith and Mail "do right"), but the other two seem to be missing sooooo much more.

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

José and I went to Vero Beach today for some fishing. Several areas on the Top Spot map said "Z R* S*." Z = Snook, R = Redfish, and S = Speckled Trout. The "*" means "excellent month." I caught a snook, two jack crevalle, and about eight ladyfish. José caught a ladyfish, all but one on black/silver/orange small SS Minnow.

The whole area looks awesome for redfish, but the weather didn't cooperate. I was surprised to find a snook - they're very sensitive to the temperature - and the sun didn't come out much until late in the day.

I'm exhausted. José showed up at 2am and we slept through the alarm, getting a late start at 7am. The first ladyfish was a three-minute battle - he ran off tens of yards on two long runs. The last ladyfish was caught on my last cast of the day with a clear/gold speckle/red-eye DOA TerrorEyez.

Question: Which was better: the Super Bowl or the commercials?

My Answer: I didn't watch either.

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

Question: If you could ask me one question, what would it be?

My Answer: I'll answer them too so long as they're halfway serious.

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