Not my practice blog, by Scott Knaster

Apple WWDC day 2

The session on creating modules for Dashboard was full to overflowing. Are they widgets or gadgets? The name is "in transition". Personally, I think "widget" is too general and already overused. How about chotchkas? ;-) Dashboard looks fun although the controlling UI is still a little rough around the edges. Widgets carry a lot of the lightweight feel of desk accessories, updated with groovy OS X animation effects.

XCode is evolving, and CodeWarrior was nowhere in sight. Have they withdrawn? Did Apple drive them out?

Stump the Experts was one of the strangest ever. The audience was cranky and decided to challenge Mark and Fred's authority and even snuck up on stage to mess with the score. I think it's George Bush's fault.

The social aspect of WWDC is wonderful, as always, as I saw dozens of old friends and colleagues.

Apple WWDC day 1

Steve Jobs showed some cool new features in Tiger, the next version of Mac OS X, which will ship "first half 2005". Looks like there's going to be some very useful system-wide searching stuff, Apple style. It's called Spotlight. I know that Microsoft has been farting around with search in Longhorn for years, but it looks like Apple will ship first.

The new displays are very pretty, but I'm in love with laptop computers, which I can take anywhere in the house (or out), so I'm not likely to buy one.

RSS in Safari is a great idea. I'm glad I suggested it to them last year ;-) .

Dashboard is interesting. It looks like a complete ripoff of Konfabulator, right down to the word "widgets". Shame, Apple. At least buy the guy's technology.

Four-person video chat in iChat looks very cool, as does Automator, opening up sync and .Mac, and Core Image.

The Microsoft-baiting banners (e.g. "Introducing Longhorn", "Redmond, start your photocopiers") are silly. Microsoft isn't shipping these features, but neither is Apple, until next year. So I guess it's "Our vaporware is less vaporous than your vaporware".

Best fun, as always: seeing old friends.

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference

No time for a real post -- I'm heading to the WWDC keynote to bask in the warm glow of reality distortion. I'll be there all week. Look me up if you want to get together!

Civility

Vice President Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to "Fuck off" (or perhaps "Go fuck yourself") earlier this week. The incident happened on the floor of the United States Senate during a photo session.

English happens

Attention, ladies and gentlemen: ridonculous is a word.

Language map

Check out this incredible map if you have a burning need to find out how many Yiddish speakers there are in Cullman County, Alabama (for example).

Deadwood

Fans of HBO's excellent Deadwood will note that the meatspace town of Deadwood, South Dakota, is feeling the love. The town's web site has gone from 30,000 hits a month to 6 million. The charming foul language on the show is practically a character in itself, and it's mentioned often in this article about Deadwood and Deadwood.

See this also.

Zefram Cochrane, phone home

SpaceShipOne launch is on CNN now. More soon. Good luck to them!

Mongolian surnames

In the 1920s, the Mongolian Communists tried to make everybody there more equal by outlawing family names. Since then, Mongolians have gone by first names only. Now that the country is modernizing, there's a law that requires Mongolians to take surnames. One problem is that most people are taking the name Borjigin, the tribal name of Genghis Khan. But Serjee Besud, director of Mongolia's state library, has written a helpful book, Advice on Mongolian Surnames, to help people rediscover more appropriate names.

Once they get surnames, they can have iPods and obesity.

The Bone

Oakland A's third baseman Eric Chavez broke his right hand a couple of weeks ago and is not playing now. Chavez is eager to return soon, but team trainer Larry Davis reminds us that Chavez and other humans really have no power in this situation:

"It's up to the bone," Davis said. "We have a schedule, the bone has a schedule."