Watson Status

    dan wood is a real class act. i've always loved watson. it was prolly the first app that really defined the difference between os 9 and os x for me. it's sad to see it go. i tried using sherlock the other day, but it just felt wrong. so here's to hoping that someone clones it. maybe they'll call it Moriarty. oh yeh, i'm mirroring the .dmg of watson 1.7.5 here. as far as i know, it's the last version he released. other people should mirror it, too, to share the load.

    UPDATE: dan has since put a free .dmg of watson up on the karelia site.

    So ... as of today, Watson (bumps and bruises and all, but still in decent shape) is now freely available. But the catch is, we can't make a new version that doesn't require entering a registration code; we don't have the source to Watson anymore. But we can give out a registration code that anybody is welcome to use.

    So here's the deal. Get a copy of Watson from a friend, or look for it somewhere on the Internet, as Karelia can't provide it directly. (The latest version, for instance, is available on the Yahoo! Watson Users Group, but if somebody wants to host a mirror of it, I'll post the URL here.) Then launch it and choose "Register Watson..." under the "Watson" menu.

    * Enter your name and (optionally) your organization.

    * In the E-mail address field, enter:

    nobody@karelia.com

    * And in the Registration field, enter:

    BNVQTTW 4P3SMC7 R7L8S3V 1XGKGG7A

    (Or, select the text of this message and drag into the registration window.) And that's it! Remember, this is unsupported software.

    class act.

    Project: Open Software Update

    • one app to find them all, and in the darkness bind them.
      • open to anyone. dependent on no one.
      • like mac os x's Software Update
      • extensible
    • simple plugin interface
      • format
                        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
                <application>
                <name>Delicious Library</name>
                <host>delicious-monster.com</host>
                <updateInfoURI>http://delicious-monster.com/softwareUpdate/update.xml</updateInfoURI>
                </application>
      • optional nodes
                        <updateFrequency>daily</updateFrequency>
                <updateFrequency>weekly</updateFrequency>
                <updateFrequency>monthly</updateFrequency>

                <requiredMinimumVersion>2.0</requiredMinimumVersion>
                <requiredMinimumUpdated>20040118</requiredMinimumUpdated>
      • plugins by users or developers (partying together)
    • server side : update.xml
      • single app
                      <host name="delicious-monster.com">
              <application>
              <name>Delicious Library</name>
              <updated>20041118</updated>
              <version>1.0.5</version>
              <updateURI>http://delicious-monster.com/downloads/DeliciousLibrary.dmg</updateURI>
              </application>
              </host>
      • multiple apps
                      <host name="ranchero.com.com">
              <application>
              <name> NetNewsWire</name>
              <updated>20041022</updated>
              <version>2.0b6</version>
              <updateURI>http://ranchero.com/downloads/NetNewsWire2.0b6.dmg.gz</updateURI>
              </application>
              <application>
              <name>MarsEdit</name>
              <updated>20041116</updated>
              <version>1.0b12</version>
              <updateURI> http://ranchero.com/downloads/MarsEdit1.0b12.dmg.gz </updateURI>
              </application>
              </host>
      • optional nodes
                      <updateFrequency>daily</updateFrequency>
              <updateFrequency>weekly</updateFrequency>
              <updateFrequency>monthly</updateFrequency>

              <requiredMinimumVersion>2.0</requiredMinimumVersion>
              <requiredMinimumUpdated>20040118</requiredMinimumUpdated>

              <endOfLife>true</endOfLife>
              <endOfLife>false</endOfLife>
    • download prefs
      • respect server side unless overwritten client side by user
      • update frequency : all items
        • daily
        • weekly
        • monthly
        • manually
      • enable / disable : item specific
      • auto download : item specific
      • auto download : item specific
      • admin password : save in keychain (BOOL)
    • auto open files
      • resolve decompression
        • if zip, gz, tar, et al : decompress internally
        • if sit, sitx : farm out to stuffitexpander
      • replace old version
      • backup older version pref (BOOL)
      • keep originals pref (BOOL)
    • issues to work out
      • initial lastUpdated date for each app
        • from the app's 'date modified' data?
        • sounds like good enough to me
      • xml namespaces
        • are namespaces necessary?
        • beneficial?
    • benefits
      • for users
      • for developers
        • can easily migrate existing check for update systems
        • inexpensive deployment
        • inexpensive maintenance
        • inexpensive bandwidth
        • keeps user base up to date

    new software in the mix

    i have an sickness. it's called LGS or in technical terms: "latest greatest syndrome." i'll admit it. because of this ailment of LGS, i'm always on the lookout for little apps that can make my computing life better, more efficient, more productive, prettier, et al.

    i recently did a clean wipe and rebuild of my mac. in doing so i always wipe away all the apps i've installed, tried, never used again. and i also try to migrate to the apps that i've been meaning to but was trepidacious for some reason or another. so here's the rundown of what's changed and what i like about said changes.

    ok, the rundown.

    delicious monster
    delicious monster is sweet. everything i expected it to be. they updated, almost right away, to 1.0.5. just bug fixes. but important ones.
    Delicious Monster Icon

    subethaedit udpated
    subethaedit was awesome to begin with. the collaboration mechanism is awesome. local network. over internet. whatever. solo mode [ non collaborating ] is awesome, too. syntax coloring is generally pretty good. it flakes out on closing tags sometimes. i think its pretty fast. some people complain about its speed in rendering text as compared to, say, bbedit or something. because subetha uses NSTextView. i've tried bbedit, smultron, textmate and others. but none of them really do anything for me. and it plays well with others.
    Subethaedit

    ecto
    i blogged about this earlier. and then again.

    ecto icon

    candybar
    candybar is made by panic software, the same folks that make the best ftp client ever. basically, candybar allows you to easily customize icons systemwide. meaning you don't have to do a Get Info (CMD - I) on every icon you wanna change. plus, it will cascade down to new instances of the same kind, eg, dvds, new folder, textclippings, etc. in early version you HAD to drag in each icon into its spot in candybar. now you can import one file: a candybar iContainer. and the iconfactory has bunch of iContainers already to go.
    candybar icon

    quicksilver in, launcbar out
    i have been using launchbar for quite awhile. i really like it. i rarely used my dock or applications folder or recent items menu to launch apps anymore. it was all CMD - SPACE, launchbar would pop down then i'd hit a couple letter abbreviation and off it went. lauchBar 4
    i kept hearing about quicksilver. i knew i'd prolly like it based on what i had heard and from whom i heard it. but still, i had vested a lot of time and energy and emotion in launchbar and didn't wanna jump ship. and why break what isn't broken, right? well, i finally gave it the ol' 1-2 try [i'm not real sure what i mean by that]. immediately, i was blown away by how much faster it was than launchbar. so much more responsive. and honestly, it's a LOT prettier.

    QS launcher

    i liked the preference options. everything's really customizable. good stuff. right now it's primarily a launcher [above], but they seem to have plans to make it much much more than that, noting that they don't call it a 'launcher' on their website. they call it this : "An evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data." it offers learning training to you.

    QS learning

    it does a little 'what this new song playing in iTunes is' kind of stuff.

    QS now playing in iTunes

    but one of the coolest, most exciting and interesting things for me is the commands you can do in it. like this example: grab this file (preview.jpg), perform this action (open with), this app (preview). there's a lot of power here to be harnessed. this is but a very simple example. more info at the blacktree site.

    QS commands

    process in, omnioutliner out
    omniOutliner was good. and still is. it just hasn't bee updated in a long time. and process is a lot better. in a lot of ways. just look at the screenshots of each. most notably, its a lot better for serving my podcasting needs. i talk about that a bit in my upcoming podcast so i'm not gonna blog about it here.

    omniOutliner Screenshot



    process Icon



    process Screenshot

    finally, the safari extenstions[?] i'm using
    safariSource colors the source of a page when doing a 'view source.' helpful for debugging.
    PithHelmet blocks ads (and other media, if you want it to) which is so fucking sweet.

    PithHelmet

    sogudi allows for faster and more flexible searching from the address bar. for example: wiki gender identity in the address bar would run a search on the wikipedia site and ultimately land you here. a catch me if you can searches amazon for 'catch me if you can'. and so on. comes with a bunch of built in defaults but can VERY EASILY add your own.

    jesus, fucking, jesus. this was a long goddamned post. sorry.