Published on January 24, 2008
Ars Technica is reporting on (what I think is) a pretty exciting event for OS X software development. Apple has provided software developers with access to the Calendar Store, the system that manages the database of events, todos, and alarms in OS X. This type of access has been possible for the Address Book since 10.2. For instance, you can associate a screen name in Adium with an Address Book entry, and information is populated automatically. Now that same type of interaction can happen between third-party applications and the Calendar database.
I am going to guess that this is going to have an immediately HUGE effect on GTD type applications. The Mac has already seen this market of software grow very quickly. Now these systems will be able to tie into the same database, a database that is also integrated into first-party Apple apps like iCal and Mail.
The area I’m very excited about is calendar synchronization. There are a few tools out already that synchronize online calendars with iCal. Spanning Sync and Plaxo will both sync Google Calendar to iCal, however these require periodic updates and dealing with duplicates can get messy and scary if you make the wrong move in resolving a conflict. Now, I hope we will see instant two-way synchronization that works completely behind the scenes. The Calendar Store access allows applications listen for changes in the Calendar database, and act on them immediately, so I believe that duplicates and other issues related to periodic syncing can be minimized, or in an app to app situation, completely eliminated.
One of the primary reasons I switched my day-to-day computer from Windows to Mac was for the cleanly integrated PIM applications, and I’m ecstatic to see continued and increasing support to make things work together even better.
Via: Ars Technica
Published on November 7, 2007
One of my most used and favorite 3D modeling programs, Rhino, has been a Windows only deal, so I run a Windows machine next to my iMac, or have to use Bootcamp or Parallels.
Today Ashley showed me (thanks!) that Rhino is under development for Mac OS X! It is currently in private beta, and will become a public beta at some point in the next year. The retail release is over a year away. I’m excited to have such a powerful and widely-used 2D/3D CAD package become native on the Mac. You can get much more information, as well as sign up for the beta, at www.irhino3d.com.
I really try not to be a ‘fanboy’. I use many operating systems and appreciate each for what they do well… but the more work I can do on a single platform, the happier I am.
Published on October 30, 2007
As you may know, Leopard ships with a controversial icon for Windows Machines on the network, it’s a beige monitor with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). While this was pretty funny in the developer builds of Leopard, I think it’s a little tasteless for the retail release. I use a Windows machine right alongside my Macs every day, and I didn’t want to stare at this icon when I was networking between them. I was reading how to replace the BSOD Windows Network Machine icon from Leopard with a generic Mac monitor icon at Engadget. I wanted to replace it, and I thought this might be a good time to find out how icon creation works on the Mac. This was my first icon (on any system really) and is really just a modification of the existing BSOD icon and the Bootcamp icon.
If you want to use this icon yourself, you can grab the icns icon file here.
Here are the instructions on how to install it, modified from Engadget’s article.
- In Finder, go to /System/Library/CoreServices/ and find CoreTypes.bundle. Right click and choose “show package contents”
- Now go to Contents/Resources/ and you will see a bunch of icons.
- Drag the wincomp.icns file into this folder. It will prompt you to authenticate and enter your admin password to make changes to this folder.
- Open up Terminal and type the following 3 commands:
- cd /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/
- sudo mv public.generic-pc.icns public.generic-pc_lame.icns
[enter your admin password]
- sudo cp wincomp.icns public.generic-pc.icns
Now log out and log back in and things should be swapped. This is my first icon, ever, so I know it’s not pretty… hopefully I’ll take another shot at it once I know Illustrator better and I can make some nice vector art. Above, you can see my Windows icon next to my 12″ Powerbook on my network.
Published on October 29, 2007
[Update: My problems have been solved with SynergyKM]
I’ve switched both of my machines (12″ Powerbook and Intel iMac) to Leopard now, and I’ve run into my first major application loss. QuickSynergy no longer works for me.
My workstation setup is a 20″ iMac on the right, with a Windows machine hooked up to a 20″ LCD directly to the left. I use the Windows machine for 3D modeling and rendering. Having both machines on the desk lets me use both systems without having to reboot my iMac or run a virtualization program. I use Synergy to control both computers with one keyboard and mouse. If you haven’t heard of Synergy, and you use more than one computer at a desk, check it out immediately. It’s nearly life changing.
QuickSynergy is a great GUI for using Synergy on the Mac or Linux. Before QuickSynergy came along, everything was command line. Well, QuickSynergy doesn’t seem to play nicely with Leopard. My Windows machine won’t connect to my iMac as a Synergy server, and when I try to quit QuickSynergy I get an error mentioning something about Applescript.
I’m going to try using the command line Synergy setup, but if that doesn’t work it looks like I’ll be rockin’ out old-school with two keyboards and two mouses (mice? mii?) on my desk.
If anyone has run into this and knows a solution, please enlighten us in the comments!
Published on October 29, 2007
The new Leopard GUI versus the old Tiger GUI in regards to titlebars. (Tiger on the top, Leopard on the bottom) I felt like the corners Leopard had a smaller radius on them than Tiger did, so I checked, and they do.
Small detail, doesn’t really matter. I feel like a pretty big geek for noticing without seeing them side-by-side.
