Sam’s random musings

BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com is cutting the rate on SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys:

BlogZOT! uses the power of blogs to create value for all Mac users. In today’s example: Each qualified blog entry reduces the price of SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys from $30.00 to $0.00 by $0.05 per entry. For each entry, that’s $166+ given back to the Mac community.

So these guys together “MacZOT and TheCodingMonkeys will award $105,000 in Mac software”. That’s crazy talk, this is great software if only for the collaborative editing of code, i use it all the time with friends who are learning to code, they paste a question to a page I leave open and I give hints and guidence on it as they work on a problem. And for taking notes on a conference call it’s the bees knees, it’s practically a reason to buy a mac

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

How to report bugs effectively:

PhpNut just posted the link http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html in the IRC. It is an essay about reporting bugs. It is worth reading before you open a ticket at https://trac.cakephp.org/.

It’s worth reading before you post a bug to ANYONE. this is one thing that almost everyone is BAD at, myself included. Man the reports I have gotten in general are 95% useless. Another great read on this is from Brent S. of NetNewsWire and MarsEdit Fame in essence is:

1. What I did. This should include as much detail as possible.
2. What I expected.
3. What actually happened.

I also like Joel S.’s take. Very similar to Brent’s but using his very fine FogBUGZ tracking system as an example.

I use a mix of Mantis and Trac for my bug tracking needs. Why do I use two you may ask… Well that is a topic for another time…..

(Via cake baker.)

Mac Geekery - Self-Updating Programs, For Free:

This marvel is called Sparkle and was written by Andy Matuschak (who is one of the authors of Pixen, a graphics editor for Mac OS X designed for pixel artists). Sparkle can be dropped into your program, instanced in your NIB, hooked up to a menu, and then forever after provides complete self-updatability to your application including: * Checking for updates * Showing release notes * Downloading the update * Installing the update * Restarting the program

(Via .)

Disk Inventory X 1.0:

Tjark Derlien’s excellent freeware Disk Inventory X is now at version 1.0:

Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called “treemaps”.

If you’ve ever wondered were all your disk space has gone, Disk Inventory X will help you to answer this question.

Highly recommended.

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This is cool, useful maybe, but for visual data display, cool

(Via Daring Fireball Linked List.)

Aperture 1.0: the Ars review : Page 1:

Apple has cojones. Let’s not pretend otherwise. Jumping headfirst into the fully mature digital imaging market requires the shameless bravado of a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest or any number of contestants on So You Think You Can Dance? What’s at risk is not only cold, hard cash, but more importantly, their reputation as a software innovator. With Aperture, Apple is clearly hoping to have the same success it has had with Final Cut Pro. Plus, becoming a household name in imaging can’t hurt the bottom line for hardware sales.

Check out page 8, image degradation is not a good thing in a Pro app, lots of good cold experience in here. I really can’t wait to see 1.1

(Via .)

Report: Aperture:

a positive experience using Aperture with wedding pictures plus more experiences and details about hardware compatibility and RAW files

At least one good report. Somehow it doesn’t really seem like this was ready for primetime

(Via MacInTouch.)

Adobe announces new bundles:

Following the news that Adobe completed the acquisition of Macromedia (3 December 2005), the company has now announced three new product bundles for design, video and web solutions. The Adobe Design Bundle includes Creative Suite 2 Premium with Flash Professional 8 software; the Adobe Web Bundle brings together CS 2 Premium and Studio 8; and the Adobe Video Bundle offers video solutions coupled with Flash Professional 8. The Adobe Design Bundle and Web Bundle are available now priced UKP 1381 and…

Humm if one needed to upgrade this might be the time…

(Via Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com).)

Ecamm announces DockStar for Apple Mail:

Ecamm has announced the release of DockStar, an add-on for Mail.app that adds up to five new-mail indicators to the dock icon…

Kind of a fun thing to add more information to the mail.app dock icon, you can counts for up to 5 folders (or accounts)

(Via MacMinute.)