November 17th, 2007
So I was discovering (again) just how much less of a hassle OmniGraffle is to work with compared to Microsoft Visio (2003, anyway), and ranting about it to Denis.
His response?
-------------------- / \\ omnigraffle | | | | visio | | | \\____________________/OmniGraffle is running circles around Visio.
November 9th, 2007
Dear Lazyweb,
because they often fire when I’d rather they don’t, I’d like to disable the following two keyboard shortcuts:
ctrl-esc),ctrl key), to invoke the context menu (which I can and prefer to use two-finger trackpad tapping for).(In particular, those events are often fired when I actually mean to switch between apps while using Windows virtualized through Parallels Desktop, or remotely through VNC or RDP.)
There’s a well-published way of disabling the Windows logo key altogether, but I don’t want that. I use Win-F, Win-E and Win-R quite frequently, and occasionally a few others as well.
TweakUI offers to disable some shortcuts as well, as does editing the Group Policy, but I don’t believe these two are among them.
This article discussing disabling individual shortcuts appears to be closer to my needs; however, writing a library using Visual Studio 6 doesn’t really strike me as a fun solution.
So, does anyone have actual experience with this endeavour?
October 27th, 2007
A strange kind of joke has made it to the final build of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Some call it an “easter egg”, but for it to qualify as such, I find it a bit too easy too spot and too frequent for a typical user to run into. Easter eggs, in contrast, tend to be deliberately hidden.
I’m talking about the default icon for computers accessible through SMB/CIFS, as displayed in the new Finder. As CIFS is primarily used by Windows computers, the Finder assumes that’s what they are, and represents them in a rather stereotypical fashion. The three striking features (the CRT screen, the beige hardware, the Blue Screen of Death) all represent a clear message: Windows computers crash often and, both inside and out, are generally technology from the last century.
When I first saw it months ago in screenshots of a pre-release seed, I admit I chuckled; it was a cute joke of the “look just how much detail you can put in a 512×512 icon” sort (the poem in the new TextEdit icon easily beats it on that count, though). But to leave it in the final build, and in such a frequently-used place at that?
I don’t object to teasing, but this seems a fairly cheap shot. Why not something more recent? The average Windows computer hasn’t been beige since around 2000, for a few years now, it’s been hard to find CRTs at regular stores even at budget prices, and as for BSoDs (the one depicted, by the way, being a Windows 9x one – not one you could get in 2000, XP or Vista), they only happen with junk hardware and/or equally low-quality drivers. Of course, you get what you pay for: to avoid BSoDs, you effectively pay very similar prices as for Macs. Once you do, though, BSoDs aren’t any more or less common than kernel panics on Mac OS X: they rarely ever happen.
It’s easy to come up with a more fitting prod that rings true to recent sources of aggravation. Why not have a screenshot of an anti-spyware tool? Or an Allow/Deny message from Windows Vista’s UAC? (Or even Windows Update installing something you never wanted due to human error, blown out of proportion by means of mass hysteria?)
Leopard is another driving factor of Mac sales (I believe this even though, right before Leopard release, they’re already at an all-time high), and with Mac OS X as a whole being a big part of a Windows convert’s first experience, and the Finder being one of its core applications to work with, it plays a big role; it can make or break a “switch”. Clichés that haven’t been true for over half a decade, and aren’t really something ex-Windows users would laugh about (why get reminded of the pain?) aren’t a great encouragement.
I don’t believe “you were a fool to have ever used Windows to begin with” is the right message to send to could-be switchers.
October 6th, 2007
I haven’t heard about Monaco in over a year. Perhaps it wasn’t to be a GarageBand competitor, perhaps it didn’t really exist at all (or only as a concept), and perhaps Microsoft is merely being unusually quiet about its development.
Alternatives to GarageBand – which hasn’t really seen any interesting developments in a while – would be welcome, though, and so I’m looking forward to see how Steinberg’s Sequel turns out. Monaco likely would have been Windows-only anyway, whereas Sequel is out for both Mac OS X and Windows. The website (which its creators apparently decided wouldn’t be complete without an obnoxious intro music video) has a free trial.
(Steinberg, by the way, was bought by Pinnacle in ‘03, only to be sold to Yamaha in ‘04, and then Avid bought Pinnacle – without Steinberg – in ‘05. Confused yet?)
Looking at a brief review, however, I am left with the impression that the user interface is far too cluttered for a consumer application, particularly one designed from scratch. It’s also $99 just for this one app, whereas GarageBand ships as part of iLife for $79. Granted, it’s hard to compete against Apple’s aggressive software pricing (presumably largely subsidized through their hardware sales), but combined with all Macs shipping with an up-to-date GarageBand, Steinberg will have a hard time tapping into that market.
Perhaps Sequel is too ambitious? I would wager to say that it could be a far better value at $49 with half the features (and therefore a far cleaner interface).
October 5th, 2007
Via reddit: “Internet Explorer 7 Update”
Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously,
(Are we running out of buzzwords yet? Every manager at Microsoft who uses the term “ecosystem” ever again ought to be fired on the spot.)
we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users.
That is a brilliant concept! Guess competitors haven’t thought of that. Wait a minute.
With today’s “Installation and Availability Update,” Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users.
Yay!
No, seriously: yay. That really is a step in the right direction. But wouldn’t it have been even more beneficial, in light of things like Storm, to get rid of WGA when it comes to any Windows security update? Being denied a browser update is one thing (particularly when there’s competition); no access to security updates that are otherwise significantly more difficult (if even legal) to obtain, on the other hand, causes tons of needless collateral damage.
To avoid a misunderstanding, I actually disagree with Schneier’s assertion that “Redesigning the Microsoft Windows operating system would work”. There are certainly things in Windows that can be improved on the matter of security, just like there are in most other operating systems (mainstream or otherwise), but the biggest problem by a wide margin is, as is often the case, the user. However, Microsoft (and any other OS vendor) ought to assist the user as much as possible in this regard, and that’s where WGA really hurts and gets in the way, not seldom even for legitimate customers.
If you are already running IE7, you will not be offered IE7 again by Automatic Updates.
You don’t say.
Additionally, we’ve made minor changes to IE7 for Windows XP based on customer feedback:
The menu bar is now visible by default.
Double-yay! Common sense has prevailed, users have voted, this new invention of pull-down menus is really taking o…
Okay, so the two noteworthy changes in this update are steps back. What does that tell you? Things aren’t looking good for this browser.
Meanwhile, guess what browser has the highest growth rate, and which one has been losing the most.
