Linked List: October 31, 2007

Wednesday, 31 October 2007

Image Is Everything: Comparing DrawIt, Acorn, and Pixelmator 

Jon Whipple’s comprehensive comparison of DrawIt, Acorn, and Pixelmator. This is one of the best “let’s compare and contrast a few apps in the same category” reviews I’ve seen in a long time.

Python on Leopard 

Christopher Lenz: “As I haven’t seen anyone writing much about the state of Python development on Mac OS X Leopard, here’s a quick rundown.” (Via Simon Willison.)

Java 5 on Leopard 

Adrian Sutton:

The rumors of Java 5 being horribly broken beyond all usability on Leopard are, quite frankly, bullshit. It’s faster, has better integration with the OS, the Aqua L&F is significantly improved, it has full support for 64 bit and a huge raft of bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements.

Make My Logo Bigger Cream 

From the book of “It’s Only Funny Because It’s True”.

Tog on Keyboard Shortcuts vs. Using the Mouse 

Bruce Tognazzini, back in 1989:

We’ve done a cool $50 million of R&D on the Apple Human Interface. We discovered, among other things, two pertinent facts:

  • Test subjects consistently report that keyboarding is faster than mousing.
  • The stopwatch consistently proves mousing is faster than keyboarding.

This contradiction between user-experience and reality apparently forms the basis for many user/developers’ belief that the keyboard is faster. […]

It takes two seconds to decide upon which special-function key to press. Deciding among abstract symbols is a high-level cognitive function. Not only is this decision not boring, the user actually experiences amnesia! Real amnesia! The time-slice spent making the decision simply ceases to exist.

I read this long ago in Tognazzini’s Tog on Interface, and have been looking for a URL to it for years. Found it via the aforelinked article by Scott Stevenson.

Satisfying UI Design Is Often Illogical 

Scott Stevenson:

If Leopard shipped and it looked essentially the same as Tiger, I think most non-programmers would pass it by. At first glance in screenshots and the back of the box, potential buyers would not see any signs of change, and therefore would not see any hope of new experiences which justify the cost. This would do a great disservice to the mountain of improvements in the underlying system.

Intego Security: New Mac OS X Trojan Horse on Porno Sites 

Intego Security on a Trojan hosted on porno sites, that tricks users into thinking they’re installing a QuickTime video codec that will allow them to watch free videos:

This Trojan horse, a form of DNSChanger, uses a sophisticated method, via the scutil command, to change the Mac’s DNS server (the server that is used to look up the correspondences between domain names and IP addresses for web sites and other Internet services). When this new, malicious, DNS server is active, it hijacks some web requests, leading users to phishing web sites (for sites such as Ebay, PayPal and some banks), or simply to web pages displaying ads for other pornographic web sites.

(Via Macworld.)

Leopard, Java, and Open Source 

Good post by Ted Leung on Java 6 and Leopard.

BBEdit 8.7.1 

Bug-fix update to Bare Bones’s flagship text editor.

Eye-Fi Card: 2 GB SD Memory Card With Built-In Wi-Fi 

Science fiction comes to life: $99 2 GB SD memory card with built-in Wi-Fi. Can be configured to upload photos automatically to your computer and to web sites like Flickr.

How to Force a Time Machine Backup to Start 

AppleScript one-liner to tell Time Machine to begin a backup.

Update: Via Twitter, Chuck La Tournous point out that Time Machine’s Dock icon contextual menu has a “Back Up Now” command.

Leopard Server License Allows for Virtualization 

Client license still doesn’t allow for it, though.

A Roundup of Leopard Security Features 

Wonderful report by Thomas Ptacek on the security-related changes and additions in Leopard; must-read if you’re at all interested in Mac OS X security.

Mac OS X Java Definitive Timeline 

Great timeline compiled by Eric Burke:

It is perfectly clear that Apple releases major JDK updates on, or shortly after, major OS updates. I believe we will see Java SE 6 on Leopard within days or weeks.

And:

Anyone wanting a faster JDK release cycle on OS X will have to look to someone other than Apple to give it to them.

More From Gosling Regarding Java and Apple 

James Gosling:

Lots of folks ask “why doesn’t sun just do the JDK for Mac?”. The real answer is “because Apple wanted to do it”. They’ve wanted to do all sorts of customization and integration that only they could do — because they own the OS.