Linktoberfest

Apples vs. Oranges

Users shouldn’t care about the tools developers use to create software. And normally, they don’t. But a vocal subset of under-informed Mac OS X users relentlessly argue that Cocoa is good, and Carbon is bad. Unsanity’s twisted genius Slava Karpenko, a programmer who works with both Cocoa and Carbon — and thus actually knows what he’s talking about — has written an illuminating essay that should put an end to such arguments.

Danger

Gadget hounds, beware: Panic’s Steven Frank reviews the just-released Danger Hiptop, and it looks like a winner.

Update, May 2014: The old URL no longer works, but the review has moved here.

Feed Me Redux

Regarding my complaint that neither Zeldman nor VersionTracker offer RSS feeds, which in turn causes severe irritation to my NetNewsWire-addicted brain, James Huston helpfully points out:

I have made a few feeds for feedless sites, including VersionTracker and Zeldman, they can be located here: http://www.them.ws/feeds/

Since they are Reg-Ex scrapers they may not always work, but until sites get smart it’ll have to do.

Regarding my statement that there is nothing else like NetNewsWire for Mac OS X, I did not intend to imply that there exist no other RSS news aggregators for the Mac. There are in fact several, notably AmphetaDesk and Radio UserLand. But while they do the same thing as NetNewsWire, they do it very differently. It’s not just the what that makes NetNewsWire appealing; it’s also the how.