To say Marc Perton is a download junkie is putting it mildly. Marc mainlines software, filling up drive after drive with the latest utilities, themes, tweaks and widgets. Marc has a special affinity for productivity apps, UI customization tools and emulators, and will almost always choose a free/shareware or open source app over mainstream programs if given the opportunity (and he always registers his shareware!). Marc also has something of an addiction to gadgets (you need something to run all that software on, right?), which is why you'll also find him blogging regularly on DownloadSquad's sister site Engadget.
Marc Perton - http://
To say Marc Perton is a download junkie is putting it mildly. Marc mainlines software, filling up drive after drive with the latest utilities, themes, tweaks and widgets. Marc has a special affinity for productivity apps, UI customization tools and emulators, and will almost always choose a free/shareware or open source app over mainstream programs if given the opportunity (and he always registers his shareware!). Marc also has something of an addiction to gadgets (you need something to run all that software on, right?), which is why you'll also find him blogging regularly on DownloadSquad's sister site Engadget.
If you're a Mac user but find that the
Finder just doesn't do it for you, check out Path Finder, a great replacement for the file manager, which has just been
updated to Version 4. This is a major upgrade, with a raft of new features, including full integration with OSX 10.4
features such as Spotlight and 256x256 icons, along with lots of features you won't find in the Finder. These include a
built-in search engine (in case you really don't like spotlight), tabbed windows, and tons of modules, including a file
previewer, text editor, PDF viewer, and terminal tool. Path Finder is $34.95; if you purchased Path Finder 3 after
September 29, 2004, you're eligible for a free upgrade.
Along with all of the new
hardware announced at Macworld, Apple managed to release a raft of software upgrades as well, including updated
versions of the OSX operating system, productivity suite iWork, and the iLife media bundle. ILife '06 includes upgrades
to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, along with a new app, iWeb, which provides tools for web site creation, podcasting and
blogging, along with one-click publishing to Apple's .Mac service. Unlike the default mode of most other blogging tools,
such as Typepad, Wordpress and Blogger, iWeb is designed to be used offline, with posts uploaded to .Mac after they're
created in the desktop application. Other updates to iLife include podcast-editing tools in Garage Band and the ability
to create RSS feeds for iPhoto libraries. ILife '06 comes bundled with all new Macs, or is available from Apple for $79.
As usual, there's no upgrade discount for owners of previous versions of the software. Improvements to iWork include new
3D charting modes and new image editing tools. IWork '06 is also available for $79. OSX 10.4.4 is an incremental
upgrade, and includes several new Dashboard Widgets, including a Google widget and an improved calendar widget. Oh, and
this one's free for users of OSX 10.4. Woo hoo.
If you've been counting on being able to run Windows on those new Intel-based Macs, Apple's not about to make it easy
for you -- despite Apple's new
agreement with Microsoft not to block Windows on the new computers. According to Apple SVP Phil Schiller, the new
Macs announced yesterday (those being the Intel iMac and MacBook Pro) may not be able to run current versions of
Windows due to the fact that the computers will boot using the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), rather than a
traditional BIOS (current Power PC Macs use Open Firmware). EFI was developed by Intel and allows a number of advanced
features, including the ability to connect to the Internet from a command shell before the OS is loaded. Since EFI was
developed after Windows XP, it's not supported by the current or earlier version of Windows (it is, however, supported
by 64-bit versions, but the new Macs are 32-bit, so it's back to square one). However, all is not lost: Windows Vista
will support EFI. So, if you're a Vista beta tester and have ordered a new iMac or MacBookPro, get those install CDs
out; the rest of you will have to wait for the official Vista release, or find a way to hack XP to boot using EFI.
Fifteen years ago, while most other
people were probably unwrapping presents, Tim Berners-Lee was giving one to the world: On Christmas Day, 1990, he put
the finishing touches on WorldWideWeb, the first web browser. The browser ran on a NeXT computer, and included a
built-in HTML editor as well. Of course, there wasn't a whole lot to browse, given that Berners-Lee had launched the
first web site just a month earlier. But the birth of WorldWideWeb, and its companion line-mode browser, was a major
step toward the creation of the web as we know it today, and was a huge Christmas present from Berners-Lee to the rest
of the computing world. So, thanks, Sir Tim, and happy anniversary!
The final word, from Firefox wunderkind Blake Ross: "Amidst mounting speculation of an all-out bidding
war between Microsoft, Google and the Korean bakery down on 3rd, Opera Software announced today that it inadvertently
purchased itself in a $0 million recursive merger set to complete on Monday."
Are
all of those open windows taking up a little too much space on your desktop? Want to make them disappear without having
to minimize them? Give today's free file, WinRoll, a try. It can make
your windows "roll up" into the title bar (a trick familiar to users of Mac OS9), and can also let you make
your windows transparent at will (a trick familiar to users of Windows Vista). A handy utility that does just a couple
of things and does them very well.
There's an interesting series of posts over at the
blog of John Flowers, about how he believes his small search
company has suffered at the hands of Google. According to Flowers, Google recently banned his company's spiders, after
initially shmoozing with him about a possible deal. Flowers posted a few weeks ago about how, after conducting talks
with Google, the company suddenly stopped responding to his calls, though it did continue to access Kozoru's private
interface. Then, apparently without warning, not only did Google stop taking Kozoru's calls, but stopped taking its
traffic as well. Flowers speculates that Kozoru — which created a meta-search engine designed to pull more
intelligible results from Google searches — was banned after Google "couldn't decide how or if [Kozoru's]
results were able to be monetized -- after all, less results means less space for ads and so forth." Sounds like
Google's playing a bit of hardball here, which the company has every right to do. But it does sort of fly in the face
of Goog's whole "don't be evil" thing. Of
course, I doubt Google's shareholders see this as evil; the company is protecting shareholder value, and if Kozoru gets
in the way of that, hey, that's life in the big time. Still, it does seem like the whole "don't be evil" thing
is getting a little old. Goog's a big company now, and is acting like one. It's time for it to stop pretending
otherwise.
Forget those Intel-based Macs (well, not really, but humor me for a minute here). According to TUAW, the real news at
Macworld this January may be the first public preview of the next version of OSX, version 10.5, aka Leopard. Right now
it's just speculation, but TUAW makes a reasonable case for the idea that Stevie J. may use his annual shindig to show
off more than just some shiny new laptops and iPods.
With rumors swirling that Microsoft was about to acquire the company - and some sites
even claiming that the deal was done - Opera Software has issued a firm denial, saying that
the company has "not been bought, and we have not received any offers." So, there you have it. Though, I
somehow suspect that Opera would be more than happy to accept an offer (though I don't think one will be forthcoming
from Microsoft; the company has invested a little too much in IE7 to abandon it at this stage).
Admit it. It's getting down to the
wire, and you haven't picked out gifts for everyone, or even sent out all of your cards yet. One popular last-minute
solution is to send out e-cards, and here's one way to make those cards a little more interesting. Instead of just
using the canned cards available on countless sites, design your own. Don't have the time or Photoshop chops? No
problem. Just use a canned template and plug in your own images, words and whatever else you need to make the card
work. One good source is the scrapbook community, where designers have a wealth of templates available at prices as low
as $3.00, most of which can be used both for e-cards and for printed ones — though, unless you're going to spring
for FedEx or deliver your cards by hand, the latter isn't a likely scenario this year.
If you're looking for another desktop search tool to add to your arsenal, check out Watson, a contextual search bar
that can generate realtime results based on the content of whatever you're working on in another window, such as a
browser session, Outlook message or Word document. That could get a little annoying, but could also come in handy now
and then, if you need to quickly get a piece of info that will help you fill out a document you're working on. It can
also use the indexes compiled by Google Desktop or Windows Desktop Search, which saves you from having to re-index your
whole hard drive if you want to use it as a desktop search tool. And, yes, it's free (though, of course, there's a Pro
version available, at prices of up to $199 for a lifetime subscription).
If you're into heavy-duty blogging, there's one piece of advice that may stand above all others (well, other than the
old tip to avoid blogging about your job if you want to stay employed): work offline. There's nothing more frustrating
than spilling your guts in an entry only to have it fall victim to a sudden Firefox hiccup. And, while there are quite
a few decent offline editors, ecto is, without a doubt, one of the best. It's cross-platform, works with most popular
blogging platforms including Blogger, Movable Type and WordPress, and it's now available for 20% off (from Friday
through Monday only). That's $14.36, instead of the usual (and eminently reasonable) $17.95. At that price, you can't
afford not to work offline.
You might recall that just a few months ago,
invites for the WordPress.com blogging service began showing up on eBay,
something that WordPress developer Matt Mullenweg greeted with thinly disguised glee. At the time, I opined that there
was something a little unseemly about a developer gloating that his attempts to create buzz and limit usage during a
beta period had resulted in an inflated secondary market for his products. I still think that's the case, but it looks
like I'm in the minority, since it turns out that the Windows Live Messenger team over at Microsoft is pleased as punch
that their invites have begun showing up on the 'Bay. Gloating on their blog, they declare: "If you must get an invite and you don't
mind spending some money on it check out the auctions here. The Messenger team has a pool going to guess what the
highest selling point will be." Great, guys. Remind me to start a pool to guess how much people are willing to pay
for bootleg copies of XP and Office, also widely available on eBay.
What do you get for the geek who has
everything? How about some software company swag? Software companies large and small offer everything from the Google Goo pictured above, to Mozilla's plush firefox dolls, to logo-pimping t-shirts. Some of my favorites
include the non-logo t-shirts from Mac developer Panic Software (they include
one featuring the Mac "spinner" and one that boasts "i make macintosh software"). If you really want
to impress, you can hunt down collector-level swag on eBay, including old Apple lapel pins and Microsoft bobble-head
dolls.
It's just one line in a press release about Google's $1 billion
investment in AOL, but it's a good one for anyone who has gotten frustrated with having to run multiple IM clients,
kludge a link to Google Talk via Jabber, or just skip running Google Talk in favor of the dozen or so other IM clients
out there. According to Google, one ramification of the investment will be to allow "Google Talk and AIM instant
messaging users to communicate with each other, provided certain conditions are met." At this point, I have no
idea whether those conditions are technical, financial or both, but it makes perfect sense for the two to combine their
efforts — after all, AOL already has AIM and ICQ under its umbrella and interoperating. There's no reason not to
do the same with Google Talk (and, chances are, it'll make selling ads into the client a little easier as well).
If you've been counting on being able to run Windows on those new Intel-based Macs, Apple's not about to make it easy
for you -- despite Apple's 
The final word, 
Forget those Intel-based Macs (well, not really, but humor me for a minute here). According to TUAW, the real news at
Macworld this January may be the first public preview of the next version of OSX, version 10.5, aka Leopard. Right now
it's just speculation, but TUAW makes a reasonable case for the idea that Stevie J. may use his annual shindig to show
off more than just some shiny new laptops and iPods.
If you're looking for another desktop search tool to add to your arsenal, check out Watson, a contextual search bar
that can generate realtime results based on the content of whatever you're working on in another window, such as a
browser session, Outlook message or Word document. That could get a little annoying, but could also come in handy now
and then, if you need to quickly get a piece of info that will help you fill out a document you're working on. It can
also use the indexes compiled by Google Desktop or Windows Desktop Search, which saves you from having to re-index your
whole hard drive if you want to use it as a desktop search tool. And, yes, it's free (though, of course, there's a Pro
version available, at prices of up to $199 for a lifetime subscription). 
If you're into heavy-duty blogging, there's one piece of advice that may stand above all others (well, other than the
old tip to avoid blogging about your job if you want to stay employed): work offline. There's nothing more frustrating
than spilling your guts in an entry only to have it fall victim to a sudden Firefox hiccup. And, while there are quite
a few decent offline editors, ecto is, without a doubt, one of the best. It's cross-platform, works with most popular
blogging platforms including Blogger, Movable Type and WordPress, and it's now available for 20% off (from Friday
through Monday only). That's $14.36, instead of the usual (and eminently reasonable) $17.95. At that price, you can't
afford not to work offline.
It's just one line in 
