Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Checking out my RDF file in
NetNewsWire, it’s clear that Movable Type isn’t preserving any of the HTML tags. Why?
Ken Bereskin claims that Jaguar makes everyone happy by supporting old-style Get Info windows as well as NeXT-style Get Info inspectors. Let’s see: if I select two files and type Command-I without holding down Option, do I get one info window for each? Nope, I get a single window with info for “2 items.” Oops.
Trying to make everyone happy never seems to work. We have hidden filename extensions with complicated rules, a hybrid Finder that refuses to stick to spatial mode, and the option to trade fuzzy text for poorly spaced text. In each of these cases, Apple gives the appearance of catering to the “classic” Mac users without really giving them what they want.
I try not to be too critical of Apple, but (to paraphrase Alan Kay) they have the only OS worth critiquing.
Alan Kay Finder Mac Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
Julian Missig posted some thoughts about
iChat’s interface. Brushed metal aside, I think iChat is pretty good. I love sending files over Rendezvous. Now if only it didn’t crash every time I try to use it…
Steven Frank writes about the
dangers of VersionTracker user reviews. I’m not sure what the solution is. It’s true that many comments are uninformed, but if you sort through them there is some useful information. I think a little moderation is all that’s needed to bring the comments up to Amazon quality, and increase the difference between VersionTracker and its competitors. If they won’t do that—it’s a lot of work, as
Lee Bennett will tell you—then perhaps it would be better to remove the comments all together.
Providing support for users is also a lot of work. Since releasing
SpamSieve, I feel like I’m spending more time writing e-mails than coding. So I have a lot of respect for companies like Frank’s that pay attention to their customers.
SpamSieve
