Ming

Ming is a SWF output library with PHP/Python/Perl mappings... roll your own Flash... unfortunately getting it compiled on OS X isn't exactly straight forward. A possible patch is here

Could be cool to draw GPS maps with this... could have the trails draw themselves...
(11:57) [/Computers/OSX/Programming] #

iCovers

Very cool... ACME MADE - iCover

(06:14) [/Computers/OSX] #

Two steps forward, one step back

Well, I still like 10.3 but have found a couple little problems with 3rd party apps:

• Emacs starup problems. Something in my .emacs is causing emacs to seg fault. Haven't figured out what yet (just tried moving the .emacs out of the way on a whim)... but I did install a new version of emacs for OS X in the process.
• Adobe's SVG plugin has stopped working. And the plugin installer errors out on launch with error code -2856. Go figure.
• iPhoto seems to be adding an extra "PM" to photo dates. The internal EXIF date format is in 24-hour time, so this seems to be an iPhoto problem. Not sure if this was happening pre 10.3 tho...

But overall, I'm still pretty pleased with Panther...
(13:10) [/Computers/OSX] #

Taking the plunge

Installing OS X 10.3... crossing fingers...

Update: Panther install went fine (Archive w/ settings)... Initial impressions are very favorable... Expose, fantastic. Mail.app with threading, super cool... Haven't tried too many 3rd party apps yet, but have run into 2 that failed: Carbon Emacs and Mail Pictures (which was an un-authorized hack on Mail.app so it's not that surprising).

Anyway, me like 10.3...
(09:59) [/Computers/OSX] #

uptime

So I just was thinking that I couldn't remember the last time I actually turned my Powerbook off...

[mking@dhcp180 mking]$ uptime
 5:19PM  up 34 days, 51 mins, 4 users, load averages: 1.00, 0.82, 0.58

Man, it's been a while... I love my Mac...
(14:22) [/Computers/OSX] #

Lorem accumsan vero nulla vero enim

I was looking for this a while back. Now I've foundn it...

MacLorem generates random filler text for artists, graphic designers, typesetters and others who need to generate mock-ups or spec art for clients, publishers or employers

link
(13:33) [/Computers/OSX/Apps] #

Konfabulator: An open widget-controller

Konfabulator is a pretty slick little widget engine. Where widgets are resources and JavaScript functions wrapped up in an XML description that controls layout, configuration and display. Oodles of hackable possibilities for new widgets...

Link
(12:32) [/Computers/OSX/Apps] #

Magic fairy-dust to keep an application out of the Dock

    <key>LSUIElement</key>
    <string>1</string>

With this in the Info.plist, the application will launch without a entry in the Dock (nor regular menu items). This leaves you with regular windows and the StatusBar...
(17:29) [/Computers/OSX/Programming] #

MailPictures

Installed myself a copy of MailPictures yesterday. It's an add-on bundle to Mail.app that adds a X-Image-Url header to outgoing email that can be used to fetch an image and display when reading mail.

Interestingly the ability to display an image has always been in Mail.app, but just isn't advertised by Apple. (I wonder what other goodies may be lurking in there). MailPictures just intercepts the method that looks up the image and checks to see if the X-Image-Url header is present. If so, it downloads the image and stores it in the cache (~/Library/Caches/com.apple.addressservices/Photos on Jaguar, ~/Library/Images/People on 10.1.x)

Even more curiously, Mail.app doesn't use images you may have stored in your AddressBook. (this seems like an oversight)

So, I modified the source to MailPictures to check the AddressBook for an image if one hasn't been found by either of the other two techniques. The author of MailPictures says he'll put this in the next version, but for now you can download it from me if you want (send an email if you want the source too):
    MailPictures-2.0.AB.dmg (208 kb)

(10:09) [/Computers/OSX/Apps] #

Current Homeland Security Threat Level App

That's right, Homeland Alert will display a little color-coded ball in the menu bar indicating the current threat level:

Unfortunately, the government has not set up any kind of automated way of checking this information. After I had installed the app I started poking around to see where the info came from and found that there was a difference between the "yellow" I was getting from the app, and the "orange" being reported by the White House Homeland Security site.

I emailed the author of Homeland Alert, who responded that the Attny General just announced a lowered threat level and he has updated the app accordingly. (it just checks a little CGI on the exittoshell.com site)

So, this raises a few issues... first, it'd be nice if they could update the whitehouse.gov site to reflect the current status. It still hasn't been updated (as of around 1:15p), although it does say that it was last updated Sept. 24th (today).

And, how hard would it be for them to have a page that just says "yellow", not to mention a SOAP or XML-RPC interface? How many billions are they pumping into homeland defense and they can't even pay a college intern $20 to set it up?

OK, even though this whole threat level scheme is essentially useless and was probably only designed for the PR uses... I still think it's a fun app...
(10:32) [/Computers/OSX/Apps] #