Last.fm [1]
After a four-month hiatus, I’ve started up last.fm (neé Audioscrobbler) again. If you don’t know last.fm, imagine a musical del.icio.us.
{ Monthly archives }
August 2005
FTFF already [2]
If you’re interested in a weird successor to the Mac OS Finder and the Mac OS X “Finder” / Next File Viewer (going well beyond such “alternatives” as Path Finder, Xfile, or running Nautilus under X11), here you go.
A blogger has built an intriguing mockup of Desk — a modal, full-screen sequel to the Finder. Desk fits well with the recent OS X trend of modal displays — Dashboard, picture slideshows, etc. — and makes good use of all that space (although it’d probably look best on a 12″ iBook, and ridiculous on a 30″ display).
Below are some initial reactions.
The good
I like the potential for muscle memory via the sidebar on the left and the Windows XP-style task pane on the right.
Dock integration, again similar to Dashboard.
It has a shelf (here cleverly renamed “clipboard”). Fans of Quicksilver’s shelf will agree, this is a good thing to have built-in.
Desk takes advantage of the larger amount of screen real estate granted by the full-screen aspect. While the Finder’s grid seems huge and wasteful; Desk’s — even though it’s as big, if not larger — seems appropriate.
Spatial or browser-style: pick one. Even if Desk’s browser-style approach is not your favorite, at least it’s internally consistent.
The bad
The combined menu bar and application window — separation of the two is one of the only really consistent aspects of the OS X interface, I’d be sorry to see it go. Even a visual separator (like a line) would help.
It looks finicky. Paraphrasing Jamie Zawinski, “Desk is complicated because your needs are complicated.” But this doesn’t fit in with the austere halfway-elegance of OS X. Can you imagine Steve Jobs searching for “soccer” during a keynote speech with this interface? That’s the real test for Apple UIs at this point in history.
Where did column view go?
Finally
I haven’t written much about the Finder because, well, the labyrinth is thoroughly known. See:
- Daring Fireball (1, 2, 3)
- John Siracusa at Ars Technica (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- etc.
That doesn’t mean, though, that I’m not interested! As I come across related links, I’ll file them at del.icio.us/tag/ftff.
2005-08-29
San Francisco update, III
Back in Ann Arbor. Here’s the third and final trip update:
Food
- Harvest Urban Market
- Indian Oven — aloo gobi
Places
2005-08-25
San Francisco update, II
Update two of perhaps three:
Food
- Golden Era — sweet and sour soy ‘chicken,’ best meal so far
- Rainbow Grocery — fabulous huge food co-op, we just got picnic kit (Liana says, “we can move here, now we know they have bulk tofu”)
- Wild Awakenings — coffee shop, no wifi
- Beach Burrito — chile relleno burrito
- Maggie Mudd vegan ice cream alternative
Fun stuff
- Lots of trips around town, sightseeing, etc.
- Anchor Porter
Places
- Assorted parks
- San Francisco Public Library (also: Plazes)
- Hyde Street Pier — tourist trap stuff
- Musee Mecanique
- Japantown, incl. Kinokuniya Bookstore (also: Plazes A, B)
- Apple Store — gotta love those stairs
- Hall of Justice / Courthouse — car got towed
2005-08-23
San Francisco update
Eric and Melissa and this town are taking really good care of us. Here’s some of what we’ve done:
Food
- Juicey Lucy’s — sandwich: tofu, beets, sprouts, vinegar
- Herbivore — baked tofu sandwich, garlic fries, cake, great coffee
- Real Foods — stuff for picnic lunch (bbq tofu)
- Papalote — salsa++, guacamole++, soy chorizo alternative++
Fun stuff
- Ride the MUNI
- Hang out with Eric’s roommates, most of The New Up
- Hang out with Ash and Charlie
Places visited
- Misc. trips and excursions, ongoing
- Civic Center
- Mount Tamalpais — nice view
- Muir Woods
- Sausalito Fire Department
2005-08-22
Warning: awesome [1]
See Pleix Films. “Simone,” “Sometimes,” and “Netlag” are my favorites.
