Tag: Mac

Like Michael, I like Bare Bones’ replacement for BBEdit Lite, though I also wish it included support for AppleScript. Like Jan, while I like TextWrangler, it doesn’t fit into my work habits, since in addition to normal text editing, I need the HTML tools of BBEdit. Still, if you want a hell of a text editor without the need for AppleScriptability or HTML tools, TextWrangler’s the ticket.
If you still want BBEdit Lite, which to me should have been the name they used for TextWrangler, and just gone to a pay model instead of freeware, Lee notes that you can still snag it from Bare Bones’ FTP servers.

Please don’t shell out ten smackers for MacMaid when Erik gives you an AppleScript that’ll do the same thing for free.

I share Michael’s iChat irritation. One of the things I love about Fire is that I can drag a log file onto BBEdit and have it open up in the text editor. iChat logs have to open in iChat, presumably so you can see the pretty word balloons. The solution, obviously, would be the ability to open my iChat chat log in BBEdit and read it in plain text glory, or open it in iChat and get it with the balloons.
From a UI perspective, I prefer iChat over Fire, since most everyone I know uses AIM. Two friends stubbornly cling to MSN (Hi, Wil!). I have accounts with ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger, but with the aforementioned MSN exceptions, everyone I know on the other services also uses AIM, so iChat it is.

Michael notes Bill Bumgarner’s example on using Mac OS X 10.2.4’s new PDF Workflow feature. I tried out Bill’s example, since it plays into my own web reading habits, and it’s wicked cool. Bill also says:

“But PDF Workflow is even more flexible than that. It isn’t limited to just saving PDF. You can also drop scripts, apps, filters, and other mechanisms into the PDF Services folder. That’d be the Workflow part of the whole thing.”

Ok, I’ve finally used NetNewsWire consistently for a couple of weeks, and now I’m hooked. Like Michael admitted, my vision on NNW’s potential was limited. Like Rands, I’m reading more weblogs, collectively, than any other type of site. Combined with Safari, NetNewsWire is a powerful tool for weblog reading, as well as accessing any other site with an RSS feed, such as ATPM. The two form a potent combo for accessing nearly any info on the web you might need.

Microsoft is going to acquire Connectix’s Virtual PC software. Don’t believe for a minute their claim that they’re not buying the software to kill it. Why else would they? And they don’t even have to outright kill it. Just buy it, sell it to end users, and don’t update it. As the Mac OS moves on, just let it die since it would inevitably become less and less compatible with the latest version of the Mac OS. Whenever a company purchases assets from another company, and publicly announce they plan to not kill off a product they are acquiring, it is a sure sign that they will, in fact, kill it.
As Michael said, it’s a sad, sad day for Mac users.
Update (2:55 pm): Apparently, Microsoft acquired the Virtual PC assets from Connectix so it can strengthen its hold in the enterprise server market. Sure, I can buy that. The Virtual Server product is pretty powerful.
Yet let me remind you: we’re still waiting for a Macintosh version of HALO. You remember HALO, don’t you? The kick-butt 3D successor to the Marathon game saga from Bungie, it was going to be a Mac OS-first release, or at the very least, a Mac version was to be released concurrently with a PC version. Then Microsoft stepped in, bought out Bungie, and instead of getting a $49 Mac game, you now have to spring for a $199 Xbox to play it.
Virtual Server may live on in Windows code, but don’t bet on having a copy of Virtual PC to run on your Mac a couple of years from now. I really hope I’m wrong, but judging from past Microsoft history, I’m afraid I won’t be.

Apparently, everyone’s favorite OS X-flavored Gecko-based browser will be renamed to Camino. What’s sad is that Pinkerton knows it stinks, but apparently nothing else has “made it through legal.” Hyatt doesn’t really like it, either. I found this stuff thanks to John Gruber, who does like the name. Like he says, it’s got style. I like it. Though unlike the automobile image it conjures in Hyatt’s mind, I think of a certain planet in a certain Star Wars movie…
Update (9:12pm): The more I think about it, the more I see it, the more I like the name Camino. Definitely better than Chimera.

Ric is reporting that Microtech International has finally gotten off their duffs and have posted for download drivers for the USB CameraMate and Zio! Compact Flash readers for OS X 10.2. I own both of these products, which work great, but unfortunately, require a driver to do so. Thankfully, I also have a PC Card CF adapter that I’ve been using with my PowerBook G4/500 to get digital photos from my Nikon (it doesn’t have USB). Besides, the whole drivers for hardware thing should be left to the Windoze drones.
If I were to lose PC Card-ability in the future, say with a 12-inch PowerBook G4, I would have to seriously consider an alternative CF reader, like the Dazzle* 6-in-1 USB reader our artists use. Unlike the Microtech products, it is true plug-and-pray, working flawlessly on every OS X-running Mac (4 different models) I’ve tried it on.

I just noticed, after adding a new link in the right-side column, that the latest public beta of Safari now supports the title tag. Make sure you have the Status Bar at the bottom of the browser window; View menu, then click on Status Bar to get a check mark beside it. Or you use the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Backslash.
Now when you hover on a link that contains a title tag, you’ll see the title text in the Status Bar.