sunday, february 26, 2006
Chickens are for viewing
Do you use Chicken of the VNC? Of course you do! It’s a great VNC (remote computer access) client. The only problem is that the icon isn’t very Aqualike. It’s cute, but doesn’t look nice with the other icons in my dock. So I replaced it with a chicken I found in my horrifically huge (~70 mb) collection of pretty icons. Now it looks like this:
I can’t remember where I got this icon, though. It was part of some excellent collection of random icons that is now distributed throughout my obsessively organized icon subdirectories. So, until I figure out where to send you to download the collection, here’s the chicken icon. You can use Candybar to change the application icon, or just copy-and-paste the icon using the relevant Get Info windows.
Update 2/26/06 12:38: It’s from Pixel Pop v3 at widgetwidget. They’re charging for it now, though, so I probably shouldn’t give this one away.
comments (1)
wednesday, february 08, 2006
This is geeky enough for you
At one point, I wondered whether the introduction of Dashboard widgets to OS X would make menubar items obsolete. But I imagine Apple made sure that the two places for accessories are different enough to allow both kinds to thrive. Widgets are just another opportunity to collect shiny things! In other news, I recently updated super OS X menubar items with a bunch of new items and fixed links.
Some menubar items are cramped inside 25x22 pixels, so widgets take their place on my computer; the weather forecast and system statistics both live in the Dashboard now. But a little calendar and new email notifier both still live on the menubar — even though there are widgets that do the same things — because I like to see them all the time. So the distinction between menubar item and widget has to do with how often I want to see the item’s information, how much information it has, and maybe whether the item looks better in black and white (the only true menubar colors) or glossy black and cool colors (my weird Dashboard color scheme).
These are items that are available both as menubar items and Dashboard widgets, and this is where I think they belong. Unlinked items are included in OS X.
| thing | should be on menubar? | should be on Dashboard? |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar | yes | no |
| Countdown clock | no | yes |
| Email notifier | yes | no |
| iTunes control | yes | no |
| Moon phase | no | yes |
| Google search | no | no |
| System monitors | no | yes |
| Uptime display | no | yes |
| Weather forecast | no | yes |
I’d like iScrobbler (the Last.fm plugin) to be a widget instead of a menubar item. It doesn’t do anything useful on my menubar except distract me with green flashes. An iScrobbler widget could display some statistics when I felt like looking at it while hiding away and doing its own thing most of the time.
comments (0)
friday, october 14, 2005
What better way to spend $81?
Today I was a good citizen and registered my shareware. I don’t like spending money, but I sort of had to do it sometime. This is what I think is worth purchasing:
Mighty Mouse - $10 - because I like having a radioactive spinning cursor.
Transmit - $30 - since I’ve used it every day for years.
GraphicConverter - $31 - same.
PithHelmet - $10 - because life without ads is nice.
I also use Saft and Candybar, but it’s not like I couldn’t live without them.
comments (4)
tuesday, june 28, 2005
An iTunes 4.9 question
How do you get rid of the “Podcasts” item in iTunes’ sourcelist/sidebar? I have no interest in listening to podcasts. I like to keep a clean sourcelist. Google is no help. Arrr.
comments (8)
wednesday, march 09, 2005
Calculated menu items
One of my secret subdomains (tm) just got popular — super OS X menubar items, a big list of menu extras. I’m still working on it, though.
I have a theory: any page with something vaguely new involving OS X, freeware, web design, and/or color gets up to the Delicious popular list sooner or later. Low threshold for “useful” things + a big old percolating cluster = profit! (sort of)
Things that super OS X menubar items will include when I can figure out how to code or include them:
- A short explanation of how to use and get rid of menubar items
- Category pages
- Groups of interesting items: the colorful ones, the iTunes ones, the all-text ones, etc.
- The list of rejected items (with reasons)
- A form for submitting suggestions
- Filtering by cost, openness, icon style, quality, maybe publisher
- Maybe: A separate list of the ones included with OS X
Also, I have like fifty new items to try out and possibly add.
