Spiralling Apples and Mice
Published 21 years, 2 months pastMuch to my delight, Containing Floats hit Blogdex, just above a story about Al Franken (when I looked, anyway). It also tied for 29th with the Ars Technica Macintosh browser smackdown, which I was further delighted to see used the complexspiral demo as one of its evaluation criteria. Thus we come spiralling back to where we started.
Congratulations to Jeffrey Zeldman and Doug Bowman on their new project with Apple! Doug explains that they’ll be giving Apple strategic guidance toward better using Web standards, which is wonderful thing for me to hear at this stage—it’s another indication that there is indeed a demand for the kinds of services I’m offering through Complex Spiral. I’ve very little doubt that the demand exists, but reinforcing evidence is never a bad thing.
Speaking of Apple, I like OS X a whole lot better now, but not because I’ve gotten used to it. Instead, I’ve gotten it used to me, with help from Robb Timlin. He wrote the freeware tool Classic Window Management, the installation of which instantly eliminated about 85% of my frustration with OS X. Now the Finder acts the way I think it should: when I click on the desktop, all the Finder windows come to the front instead of staying hidden behind whatever application I was just using. In other words, now OS X acts like a Mac, not a Windows machine. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.
I also recently upgraded my computing experience by finally ditching the Apple hockey-puck mouse in favor of a Logitech MX700 cordless optical mouse. Between the freedom to mouse anywhere on my desk and the application-specific programmable buttons, I’m a happy guy. I also picked up an MX500—same mouse, except with a cord. I was going to use the MX700 on the TiBook so that I could use a mouse on flights and not have to fight with a mouse cord. It was the perfect plan until I realized the plan involved using a radio transmitter on a commercial airliner.
Oops.