For Mac’s OS X, Atomic Bird’s little application called Macaroni takes care of cleaning up often murky Unix databases and provides regular maintenance procedures for the operating system. But an even better small system utility application s Cocktail, which allows one to do all the above plus cutomize and optimize the system, remove crapped-out files, and change network settings.
What’s interesting about these utilities is that a very smart couple of technologists put intuitive, useful interfaces on what are critical, command-line tasks to keep an open system running smoothly; there’s something to be said about button-pushing.
I’m sorry if this is boring.
Monthly Archives: May 2004
App 1. NetNewsWire
By far the most interesting little app that I’ve had the pleasure of working with is Ranchero Software’s NetNewsWire, a handy-dandy and surprisingly powerful RSS reader for OS X. I’ve written about the “lite” version before; the full-on, paid-for ($39.95) version allows you to organize, using three window panes, all the blogs, news feeds, and miscellaneous literary garbage that you want to read.
It even allows one to post to one’s own weblog. Kottke writes about RSS brilliantly but the way I think about RSS is that it’s a way of consolidating what people, companies, communities, and organizations write online without the intermediary. It’s the ultimate act of disintermediation, that poorly scripted term of the late 1990s as captured by folks like Philip Evans and Thomas Wurster in Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transform Strategy. But RSS (or what I also call “browserless surfing”) is to everyone’s (within the information economy) benefit.
Indie Software
There are so many finely developed applications out there right now for OS X, I thought I would dedicate the next 7 posts to writing about 7 of them. These “little” applications, which do everything from finding appropriate news to determing web page colors, are self-developed and published and indicate the breadth and depth of software, interface design, and intellectual expertise out there.
Full disclosure: I download software. I use the downloaded software. If I use the software, I pay for it. As a design-freak, pseudo-artist and a collector, I like to own things and small amounts of money is what it takes to own good, independent software. Most people I know download music, fonts, apps, and other things with impunity and I don’t disparage their belief or habits. I also believe in open source software and the possibility of a free Web, uncontrolled by commercial or Government interests.
Subterfuge
I’ve noticed a trendous amount of political and other subterfuge lately, much thanks to the ongoing secrecy and strangeness of the White House and those surrounding it lately. It reminds me a bit of the time when books like Pranks! were hits, back in the early 90s.
This was interesting: The Yes Men kind of make a mockery of things at a Heritage Foundation conference by nominating Ed Meese for President.
I saw today a woman today on the subway wearing a headscarf with a t-shirt underneath that obviously read “I am a Muslim.”
Leonard Lopate had an American serviceman on his show today who openly but gently criticized the war in Iraq, which is unheard of, literally, during wartime.
A colleague also put together this funny little site on the Bush record.
I can’t say I am in full agreement with any these actions but I can say I’m impressed that the courageous few are standing and speaking and being heard.
Envy of the World
It’s not hard to believe that the new movie, Envy, has received a D+ from critics and a C from visitors on Yahoo! I recall, when living in Poland, that films like these were often very, very popular there because, perhaps, they appeal to an audience that likes to see the futility of modern life without experiencing the full inanity of American life. At the time, Jim Carrey’s useless Głupi i głupszy (Dumb & Dumber) was a huge hit throughout the country.
It’s easy to imagine that Envy, with it’s title translated easily throughout the world, the hit of the summer for movie-goers overseas. In Poland, it’s gonna be “Zawiść.”
Amoral Social Efficiencies
Companies often point to the true efficiencies gained due to their implementation of technologies, their use of new products, or their laying off of workers. There’s no question that all of these can produce more value at lower cost.
But I’ve always wondered about the (even more) true efficiencies of social interaction, at least in our modern capitalist economy. Efficiencies, taken without ethical considerations, are interesting because they work outside of the norms of behavior but are somehow part of them. Here are some examples, and they are Benthamist in bent and general in general:
1. Having people over to share a meal. It is highly likely that, because one is sharing food with others, that one will not poison the others through the serving of breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. The reason is that it is difficult to assign and always be sure of which plate of food contains the ill-gotten goods.
2. Driving one’s car. It’s likely that an accident on the road is just that. People do not, generally, swerve purposely into someone else’s car because it would prevent them from being effective — from getting to the next place.
3. Setting fires. While it’s nice to look at fire often, it does not serve one’s immediate needs to set a fire in one’s neigborhood as there’s a good chance your possessions will be lost in the mix.