TidBITS#816/13-Feb-06
=====================
Ever been frustrated when looking for a power outlet in an
airport? Adam feels your frustration and adds some of his own.
He also looks at TypeTester, a slick Web application for choosing
typefaces. Matt Neuburg returns from an AppleScript-induced
hiatus to tell us about his new AppleScript book (and other
AppleScript-related projects) and to review OmniGraffle 4,
a powerful diagramming tool from The Omni Group. In the news,
Apple lowers prices on the iPod shuffle and introduces a new
iPod nano, and we release "Take Control of .Mac" 1.1 to cover
.Mac's new features and iLife '06.
Topics:
MailBITS/13-Feb-06
Notes From the AppleScript World
TypeTester Compares Web Typefaces
Connect the Dots with OmniGraffle
More Power, Scotty!
Take Control News/13-Feb-06
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/13-Feb-06
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MailBITS/13-Feb-06
------------------
**Apple Locks Up Low End of Music Player Field** -- In a move sure
to stymie competitors' attempts to offer less-expensive MP3
players than the wildly popular iPod line, Apple last week lowered
the prices of its tiny iPod shuffle players and introduced a new,
less-expensive 1 GB model of the sleek iPod nano. The new $150
nano joins the existing 2 GB and 4 GB models, which remain $200
and $250, respectively, and is available immediately in black
or white, worldwide. In the meantime, the 512 MB and 1 GB models
of the iPod shuffle fall to $70 and $100.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/feb/07ipod.html>
<http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/>
Apple also announced that cable TV network Showtime is tossing its
hat in the episodes-for-sale ring. The complete first seasons of
Weeds, Sleeper Cell, and Fat Actress are available now for $2 per
episode, joining a selection of programs from MTV, Comedy Central,
and Nickelodeon that were added late last month, such as South
Park, Jackass, and Dora the Explorer. Television shows on the
iTunes Music Store are available only in the U.S. [MHA]
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/jan/26itms.html>
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/feb/07showtime.html>
**DealBITS Drawing: browseback Winners** -- Congratulations to
Viktor Berry of viktor.com, Perry Prince of mind.net, and Fernando
Rendon of comcast.net, whose entries were chosen randomly in
last week's DealBITS drawing and who each received a copy of
SmileOnMyMac's browseback Web history utility. Even if you didn't
win, you can save $5 off browseback by placing an order using
the third link below; this offer is open to all TidBITS readers
through 20-Feb-06 and drops the price to $24.95. Thanks to the
537 people who entered, and keep an eye out for future DealBITS
drawings! [ACE]
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/browseback/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/browseback/>
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/browseback/dealbits.html>
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Notes From the AppleScript World
--------------------------------
by Matt Neuburg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Possibly you haven't noticed, but during the past several months,
up to just a couple of issues ago, I didn't contribute much to
TidBITS. The reason is that I was extremely busy all that time,
working flat out on some AppleScript-related projects. Those
projects have now come to fruition, so I now have liberty (and
leisure) to tell you about them.
First on the list is the completion of the second edition of my
book, "AppleScript: The Definitive Guide," published by O'Reilly
Media. I overhauled just about every chapter, and rearranged
things and added some new sections, to improve the exposition,
to correct mistakes or earlier gaps in my own understanding,
to respond to reader suggestions, and of course to take account
of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. To top it all off, I compiled my own
index. Owing to the usual time pressures, it has taken a second
edition for this book to become all that I wished it to be,
but now I'm very happy with it. Whether you're a total beginner
who has never programmed before, an experienced scripter in need
of a clear reference, a Perl hacker trying to grok the AppleScript
frame of mind, or a Cocoa programmer starting to add scriptability
to your application, this book is intended as your guide. It's
priced at $40 ($27 at Amazon, but they don't seem to be able to
list the new edition correctly; check the isbn.nu book comparison
service run by TidBITS Contributing Editor Glenn Fleishman for
other retailers).
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/applescpttdg2/>
<http://isbn.nu/0596102119>
Next we have the brand spanking new, insanely fast, startlingly
cool, all-singing, all-dancing, all-Cocoa version 4 of Late
Night Software's Script Debugger. This is the product of master
programmer and magician Mark Alldritt; my role involved consulting
about Cocoa, arguing about interface, writing a few lines of code,
and (most important) writing the online help documentation.
Script Debugger makes it easy to explore scriptable application
dictionaries and objects, provides numerous editing shortcuts,
and lets you understand exactly what your script is doing, line by
line and value by value. It gives you information you can't get in
any other way. For me, it's the AppleScript sine qua non; without
it, I can't do any AppleScript programming at all (and certainly
couldn't have written my book). It's priced as a developer tool
($200, or $100 to upgrade from an earlier version), but it proves
its worth instantly. At the very least, if you write any
AppleScript programs, download and try Script Debugger as a
free 20-day demo; you'll have a blast. Requires Mac OS X 10.3.9
or later.
<http://latenightsw.com/sd4/>
<http://latenightsw.com/sd4/download.html>
Finally, I'm pleased to announce my upcoming participation in the
AppleScript Pro Sessions, to be held this year just outside New
York City in May. I'll be talking about Automator and giving my
usual insanely paced complete introduction to AppleScript Studio.
The AppleScript Pro Sessions are a sequence of in-depth seminars
covering the most widely needed topics in AppleScript, run by
experienced consultants Ray Robertson and Shane Stanley. The
previous Sessions occurred last November in Chicago, and
contributed materially to several key points in my book. I've
been involved with the Sessions for several years now, but I
still always come away amazed at their depth and range: beginning
scripters and hardened programmers alike come away enlightened
and satisfied. The number of valuable tips per minute that Ray
and Shane provide is simply not to be believed.
<http://www.scriptingmatters.com/aspro.php>
AppleScript is a curious language, to say the least. It's a
dinosaur, an almost unchanged survival of code written in 1993
to run on a slow computer with a mere speck of RAM. The language
suffers from peculiarities of architecture and design, from a
dearth of accurate documentation (which my book is intended to
correct), and from the fact that all scriptable applications are
utterly different from one another. Nevertheless, AppleScript
goes on and on, not least because it lies at the core of major
publishing workflows. Attendees at recent AppleScript Pro Sessions
have come not only from newspaper and book publishers, but also
from companies with catalogs of every kind, such as IKEA, Reebok,
and Land's End. And at the same time, AppleScript is present on
every Mac; it comes into play wherever applications communicate
with one another (like when you press the Mail button in iPhoto,
or when iChat knows what iTunes is playing), and you can use it
to automate and customize the behavior of scriptable applications.
AppleScript brings applications together; it also brings humans
together. These last months have been a wonderful and fulfilling
time for me, not least because of the splendid people I've been
privileged to work with - folks like Mark, and Ray and Shane, and
the AppleScript Pro Sessions attendees, and the great people on
the AppleScript team at Apple, and my editors and associates at
O'Reilly, and AppleScript users everywhere who have helped and
encouraged me. My thanks to all of them, and to Adam Engst and
the TidBITS gang for letting me be absent all this time.
So - I'm tired, is it nap time yet?
TypeTester Compares Web Typefaces
---------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
If you're the designing type, perhaps you can visualize what
different typefaces look like without seeing them on screen.
But for people like me, seeing is believing, and whenever I'm
looking at creating something for the Web, the trial-and-error
process of finding a good combination of font settings always
takes longer than I'd like. With the TypeTester, a sleek online
application written by Marko Dugonjic, you can ease and speed up
that process. (Thanks to Anne-Marie Concepcion for tipping me off
to TypeTester in her free DesignGeek newsletter; if you work in
design or layout, you should be reading it.)
<http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/>
In essence, TypeTester is a Web-based font comparison utility.
It provides three columns, each of which can have different
specifications, and each of which displays a paragraph of text
(Lorem Ipsum is the default, but you can enter your own) in a
variety of different styles. Here's how it works. First, choose
a typeface from a pop-up menu that helpfully divides them into
three categories: typefaces that are available by default for
both Mac OS X and Windows, Mac OS X-only defaults, and Windows-
only defaults. You can also specify any other typeface loaded on
your computer. Second, choose from pop-up menus to set the size,
leading, tracking, alignment, word space, decoration, color,
and background color (the color picker is truly amazing). As you
choose each item, TypeTester automatically restyles the associated
column of sample paragraphs using CSS styles. You can then repeat
the exercise with the two remaining columns to compare different
settings. When you're happy with the settings for a column,
there's a link in the Tools tab that provides the related CSS
code in a small pop-up window for you to copy and use in your
site's CSS file.
<http://typetester.maratz.com/>
TypeTester is free, though Marko is happy to receive donations
(check the About tab). I'll definitely be using it next time
I'm trying to figure out what typeface to use on a Web site.
Give it a look!
Connect the Dots with OmniGraffle
---------------------------------
by Matt Neuburg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Given the canonical exchange rate of a picture for a thousand
words, sooner or later you're going to need to draw diagrams.
OmniGraffle, from The Omni Group (the same folks who brought
you OmniWeb, Adam's favorite Web browser), is a wonderful
application that draws diagrams with easy grace.
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07775>
OmniGraffle has a venerable history. Conceptually, it's modeled on
a NeXT-based application called Diagram! (a product of Lighthouse
Design, a company later swallowed and, in typical fashion,
subsequently scuttled by Sun), which goes back to the early 1990s
and used to cost $500. The price has come down a lot since then;
in fact, for many users, OmniGraffle is free, because for the
past four-odd years it has come bundled with certain higher-end
Macs. Meanwhile, OmniGraffle has had lots of time to evolve;
and that evolution, as a result of the generous, thoughtful,
and innovative programming practices at The Omni Group, has
yielded stunning results.
A diagram is like a drawing, but it consists primarily of shapes
and smart connectors. A shape is just that: a shape. It could be
a geometric shape, it could be drawn freehand, it could have an
image inside it, it could have color and a shadow and so forth.
A smart connector is basically a line. It could have an arrow on
one or both ends, it could have thickness, it could have a label.
But the important thing is that it should be possible to connect
two shapes with a smart connector and have the connector "stick"
to both shapes even when, in the course of developing the drawing,
the shapes are repositioned.
So a diagramming program is a kind of drawing program. And there
is a certain protocol for how drawing programs should work;
a program that strayed from the accepted conventions would be
difficult to use, and you'd think there would be little room for
improvement. Nevertheless, OmniGraffle isn't just an acceptable
drawing program, or even a good drawing program; it's a fantastic
drawing program. I would be unable to convey in words how simple
and clear it is to work in OmniGraffle. Everything about it is
easy and delightful: the way a shape highlights as you approach
it with one end of a smart connector, the way grouping of shapes
is indicated, the way you switch between tools, the way the
inspector windows are organized. Drawing a diagram with
OmniGraffle is as easy as breathing; everything just works
the way it should.
I'll just give a couple of examples of some nice touches that
I particularly appreciate. A diagram isn't just any kind of
drawing; it needs a certain uniformity. So, as you drag a shape,
little indicators appear, telling you when the shape is aligned
with another shape or when it's the same distance from shape B
as shape B is from shape A. There are also numerous ways of making
one shape look like another: not only can you copy and paste
formatting, but a style summary inspector lets you drag just the
desired attributes of a shape (such as its color or its stroke)
to another shape. Furthermore, you can easily select just shapes
that have certain attributes in common, so it is easy to (say)
make every orange shape green.
Another remarkable aspect of OmniGraffle is how flexible it is.
All sorts of things that you wouldn't have thought of as diagrams
can be opened as OmniGraffle documents. OmniOutliner outlines,
for example, opens with an intelligent initial layout, the
hierarchy being represented by connection lines. (Indeed, an
OmniGraffle document has an outline view, which can be a good
place to work sometimes, as when creating or rearranging a big
structure.) An Xcode project opens as a chart of its classes
and methods. And OmniGraffle is heavily scriptable, so in theory
all sorts of custom automated diagram import and export should
be possible.
On the downside, OmniGraffle's online help is infuriating: it's
a Help Viewer document consisting of numerous pages, but there's
no navigation assistance (a page has no links telling your where
you are or letting you move about the hierarchy of pages), and
hyperlinks all lead, not to the relevant page, but to a search
page. It also isn't difficult to think of missing features in
OmniGraffle. For example, it has no true named styles (such that
I might change the color of "MyStyle" from red to blue and have
all shapes with that style change from red to blue automatically -
only the increasingly moribund AppleWorks implements this
correctly).
Also, in OmniGraffle, the "intelligence" of objects is not all
that it might be: for example, connection lines do nothing to
avoid overlapping with shapes, and labels on connection lines
do nothing to modify their orientation as the line moves.
Contrast this with the obscure but very powerful programmable
"intelligence" of objects in ConceptDraw, which I reviewed
several years ago in TidBITS. If you don't need that sort of
power feature, however, OmniGraffle is probably a better choice
than ConceptDraw: OmniGraffle is cheaper, it feels like pure
Cocoa (not a Windows port), it's fun and easy to use, and it
does exactly what it's supposed to do.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06179>
OmniGraffle costs $80, or $150 for a Pro version that adds
features such as tables (matrixes) of shapes, Visio import/export,
shape notes, and multi-page documents. A temporary trial license
is available. OmniGraffle requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and
is a universal binary for you early Intel Mac adopters.
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/pro/>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/download/>
More Power, Scotty!
-------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Okay, I'm annoyed. Why is that airports, even relatively modern
ones, have so few power outlets accessible to the public?
I discovered this during a layover in Chicago's O'Hare Airport,
waiting for a connection en route to San Francisco for Macworld
Expo. Although I have two batteries for my PowerBook, Tonya has
only one for her iBook, and even my two batteries wouldn't last
for both flights plus the long layover in Chicago. So we set out
to find a power outlet, preferably one that wouldn't expose us
to being trod upon by passersby and that would keep us away from
the incessantly piercing beeps from the carts for folks who can't
walk from gate to gate.
At least in O'Hare's C concourse, it seemed that there was
an average of one power outlet for every three or four gates,
and such scarcity ensured that those outlets were always fully
occupied. After a good 10 minutes of peering at walls, support
columns, and various airport accouterments that themselves
required power, we finally found an eating area in which several
tables along a wall were near power outlets, and the turnover
was high enough that we were able to snag one relatively quickly.
If we traveled more, I might consider buying a high-capacity
external battery, which can provide up to 10 hours of usage.
However, at between $300 and $500 (depending upon capacity),
they're not cheap, and they would add extra weight to my
travel bag.
<http://www.batteryvalues.com/Apple-powerbook_g4_15_aluminum-laptop-
batteries-product-b5760m.aspx>
<http://www.batteryvalues.com/Apple-powerbook_g4_15_aluminum-laptop-
batteries-product-b5755m.aspx>
On the face of it, the paucity of power outlets is ridiculous.
It's not as though airports pay any attention at all to power
consumption (as evidenced by the massive number of lights and
other machines), and the devices that travelers want to plug
in sip the tiniest of wattages. Our laptops, for instance,
theoretically drink only about as much power as a 45 watt light
bulb; now that I'm home, I'm using a much-appreciated Christmas
present from Tonya - a Watts-Up power meter - to determine exactly
how much power my laptop uses in different situations (15 to 30
watts in normal usage and when charging, about 1 watt when fully
charged, and nothing when the laptop isn't plugged in, unlike some
power adapters). And airports provide plenty of free amenities,
ranging from the televisions feeding news and football addicts
to the janitorial services that keep the restrooms clean, so it's
not like the people managing airports are philosophically adverse
to making the airport experience less unpleasant.
<http://www.doubleed.com/>
A recent discussion in TidBITS Talk, spurred by Travis Butler's
review of third-party power adapters, lamented this sorry
situation. As a number of people pointed out, finding a power
outlet is only the first step - finding a working power outlet
is entirely another matter, and Matt Neuburg said that the last
time he tried to plug into an outlet in LAX in Los Angeles, his
power adapter fell right out of what turned out to be a non-
standard outlet. But it could be worse. Some years ago I once
plugged my PowerBook G3 into a seemingly dead outlet in the Denver
airport, only to discover the next day (by virtue of the PowerBook
running its battery dry in the night while plugged into a working
power outlet at home), that the airport outlet had in some way
destroyed my power adapter. And Matt mentioned having seen a story
about a computer user in Germany who was charged with "theft of
services" for plugging into a power outlet.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2802>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08312>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08315>
Could electrical power be becoming an upsell item? In Syracuse,
New York, we noticed a cell-phone charging pedestal that charged
$3 for 30 minutes of battery-boosting power (the claim was
that you could bring a dead cell phone battery up to 25 percent
capacity in 15 minutes and 50 percent in 30 minutes). It came
with plugs for most types of cell phones and was operated by
SmarteCarte, the same company that rents luggage carts in many
airports. Needless to say, this pedestal of power was plugged
into the wall, and I had a mischievous vision of someone
unplugging it to hijack its power outlet for a cell phone
wall wart, though when I checked it more carefully on our
return trip, its outlet was locked up tight.
Power provision doesn't have to be so crass. Even in upstate New
York, where our power costs about 12 cents for a kilowatt-hour,
charging a cell phone for 30 minutes wouldn't cost even a penny -
in fact, some quick tests with the Watts-Up showed that it would
barely cost a penny per day to leave my cell phone charging all
day long. Sure, SmartCarte's power pedestal is also selling the
convenience of being able to charge a cell phone if you forgot
your power adapter, but on a pure cost per kilowatt-hour basis,
SmartCarte is printing money. Assuming anyone uses the device,
of course. Seems like a pay phone would be a more cost-effective
method of calling home, and airports are the one place where pay
phones still exist.
Hmm. Maybe I should start traveling with a power strip purely so
I can use - and then share with my fellow power-hungry travelers -
any outlet I can find. If I'm arrested for theft of services,
promise you'll all send me cookies in prison.
Take Control News/13-Feb-06
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**"Take Control of .Mac" Updated to Cover iLife '06** -- Joe
Kissell has been hard at work ever since Macworld Expo, adding
22 pages to his comprehensive "Take Control of .Mac" to cover the
changes Apple unveiled in Steve Jobs's keynote. Most notable is
the information Joe added to cover the ways you can use .Mac
with the iLife '06 applications, including instructions on how to
create Web sites and blogs with iWeb, photocasting with iPhoto 6,
and publishing podcasts and video podcasts with GarageBand 3 and
iMovie HD 6. Other new details include instructions for accessing
your iDisk using the new browser-based interface, information
about Apple's optional upgrade to 4 GB of iDisk storage and 250 GB
per month of data transfer, and the increased flexibility in
dividing space between iDisk and messages. Joe also updated his
discussion of .Mac Groups with information about group slideshows,
browser-based access to the group's iDisk, using iWeb to publish
group Web pages, more-flexible storage space allocation, and
recent interface changes. If you're using .Mac, you won't find
a better or more up-to-date source of documentation on how to use
it, particularly in conjunction with the just-released iLife '06
applications. But, as much as we'd love it if you'd purchase a
copy right away, we'd be remiss if we didn't tell you to go check
out your .Mac Member Benefit for February first - it will be worth
your while to do so!
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/dot-mac.html?14!pt=TRK-0030-TB816-TCNEWS>
<http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Tools.woa?destination=memberBenefit>
**Joe Kissell Discusses New .Mac Features on MacVoices** -- Just
in time for the release of the significant 1.1 update to his ebook
"Take Control of .Mac," Joe Kissell spoke with MacVoices about the
new features that Apple recently added to the .Mac online service.
If you'd like to know more about what's new in .Mac, or get a
better idea of whether joining .Mac is right for you, tune into
this podcast, which you can find at:
<http://www.macvoices.com/archives/2006/636.html>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/13-Feb-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The first link for each thread description points to the
traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points to
the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which provides
a different look and which may be faster.
**Sony to do for books what iTunes did for music?** Sony is
about to introduce a new ebook reader that comes closer to the
experience of reading text on paper, but even more intriguing is
an online ebook store fashioned like Apple's iTunes Music Store.
The question is: can Sony pull it off, or will the efforts be
crippled by DRM or proprietary technologies? (28 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2876>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/714/>
**Yojimbo comments** -- Readers take note of Bare Bones Software's
program for storing important bits of information, branching off
into a side discussion of whether application uninstallers would
be helpful on the Mac. (24 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2877>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/715/>
**Searching for a small microphone** -- Since the PowerBook's
internal microphone picks up the sound of typing notes so easily,
a reader solicits advice on buying an external microphone for
recording interviews. (9 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2878>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/716/>
**Awkward aspects of the Intel transition** -- Now that the Intel
iMac is on the market, what practical issues have arisen in the
switch away from the PowerPC architecture? (11 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2879>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/717/>
**Path Finder 4 comments** -- Matt Neuburg's article on the Finder
replacement Path Finder 4 generates opinions on what the program
does right and what it still needs to work on. (13 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2880>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/718/>
**PocketMac comments** -- BlackBerry owners relate their
experiences with the PocketMac synchronization software
that Patrick Dennis recently reviewed. (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2881>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/719/>
**Do people like Treos or not?** Patrick's article on the
BlackBerry and PocketMac also prompted one reader to wonder
about the differing opinions of Palm's smartphone. (12 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2886>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/723/>
**iTMS open for any musician** -- The iTunes Music Store isn't
available just to the big music producers - though that helps.
At least two companies can help post and sell your work on the
iTMS, but there are several limitations. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2883>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/720/>
**Charging for email?** AOL and Yahoo have proposed a scheme
whereby companies would pay to have their "good" email delivered.
Is it destined to fail, or does a glimmer of a good idea reside
there? (8 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2884>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/721/>
**Photo storage while traveling** -- What's the best way to secure
your digital photos on the road so that you don't lose them
en route? (10 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2885>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/722/>
**Angle brackets and URLs** -- How many publications' readers
would debate the proper formatting of URLs in email? At least
one! (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2887>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/724/>
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