|
 Wednesday, August 14, 2002
|
Make Freedom Fast
Watch this presentation by Larry Lessig on the battle over creativity and copyright -- which we're currently losing badly.
http://creativecommons.org/freeculture/
(The first link on the page is to a Flash adaptation of a PowerPoint presentation, synced up with the audio from his talk. It's about 35 minutes. It's more than worth your time.)
Get mad.
Write a check to the EFF or otherwise DO SOMETHING to help.
Forward.
This is one of the big battles our our times, and nobody could give a rats ass. Let's turn that around.
2:55:39 PM () 
|
|
|
Another great new feature in 10.2 is a fast, integrated Find feature in the Finder. (Makes sense, no?) Unfortunately, if you upgrade from from 10.1 (and you've messed with your toolbar layout in the Finder), the new Find text field won't show up. So make sure to go to Finder/View/Customize Toolbar... and add it in. 12:04:14 PM ()
|
|
Shameless corporate shilling: I upgraded my TiBook (and my wife's iBook)
to 10.2 today. I know there's been grumbling about the $129 price tag, but
I'm here to say it's totally worth it. I don't have any personal stake in
shilling this stuff -- even though I do work for Apple, I didn't do any of
the engineering behind the stuff you'll get in the 10.2/Jaguar box. But as
a satisfied end user, I can state unequivocally that I'd be thrilled to plunk
down the bucks just for the extra functionality. Stuff that blows my mind
in Jaguar, in no particular order:
- The app integration is excellent. The Address Book has been beefed
up substantially. It's also well integrated into iChat and Mail. Through
this integration, Mail & iChat are also tied together. For example:
- If you edit the personal data in the iChat buddy list (full name,
e-mail address, AIM address), that data is echoed back into the Address Book.
Alternately, you can take someone from your buddy list and associate them
with an already existing address card.
- Once you've made that association, iChat will show you the full
name of your buddy instead of just the AIM screen name.
- Also, once you've associated e-mail and AIM via the Address Book,
the Mail app will show you if the person who sent you e-mail is online. You
can respond as easily by IM as you can by sending a mail message.
- (Confidential to Userland: shouldn't you be integrating into
this space? Why can't I respond by weblog?)
- Other little details also work well: for example, the user's IM
icon will show up as their address book picture, if you don't already have
one for them.
- The zero configuration networking ("Rendezvous") rocks:
- iChat can find other iChat users on your local network. This makes
it really easy for me to IM back and forth with Carrie, even though she doesn't
like running her AIM public face all the time.
- Finally, printer sharing that just works. I brought my laptop back
into the office and plugged in the printer. Carrie selected "print" on her
iBook. The printer on my PowerBook just showed up (and, since it was the only
one, was selected by default) in her list. Boom. Print. Done.
- I can't wait for the iTunes, iSync, and iCal stuff to get released,
which will just extend all this great integration event more.
- Quartz Extreme is also delicious. This is the OpenGL accelerated window
server stuff. If you've been griping about how translucency and minimization
effects are "eating up your CPU to look pretty," gripe no more -- all this
stuff is effectively free when it's done on the video card. It's fast, pretty,
and has all kinds of great possibilities for integrating 3D content right
into the desktop. One of the neat obvious uses is for a fast, smooth zoom
mode for visual accessibility.
There's plenty of other stuff that I've been enjoying, but that should give
you a flavor. I'm a very happy user today :).
12:11:50 AM ()
|
|
|
|
|
