Keeping up with updates

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the task of keeping all applications on my computer up to date. While a few applications makes it really easy to stay current with the latest version (I'm talking about you, Adium), others require me to visit their websites to find out if there are newer versions available. That's way too much work!

I have just tried out a Dashboard widget called App Update that really simplifies staying up to date. It looks at your installed applications and compares with information from Apple, MacUpdate and VersionTracker and shows you a list of applications that have newer versions. Sweet!

Now, go get up to date! Working through that list also makes a good opportunity to uninstall all that software you installed to try out but ended up never using.

Steve in 60 seconds

Curious about the new stuff Steve Jobs presented during yesterdays MacWorld keynote, but not enough to spend 90 minutes watching the whole thing?

You can have the important stuff in just 60 seconds.

Story of Stuff

Apart from telling an important story about consumerism, the Story of Stuff is an example of how to make a great online presentation.

It's a Mac. No, it's a PC.

Well it actually is a Mac with MacOS running as the fundamental operating system and Windows running inside a virtual environment using VMWare Fusion (currently in beta).



If you mistrust beta software, there is a similar feature in the newest release of Parallels.

Deliberate writing: Email

We consume loads of information these days. Producers of information who want to get their message through should therefore strive to carry as much as possible of the intended consumers' burden. This applies to a lot of different contexts, but let us begin with email.

Apparently, some people still believe that text written in email do not have to be grammatically correct or spelled correctly. That the email medium does not even require you to be coherent. That is fine when it comes to mail with artsy dadaist poetry from friends who just want to keep in touch. But if your message is intended to provide me with information or making me take some kind of action, then I would like to ask you this:

If what ever you are trying to communicate to me is not important enough to justify decent spelling, grammar and interpunctuation, then why should I spend more time deciphering your text than you spent composing it?

When writing email, of which most of us receive a lot every day, put some extra effort in making the text comprehensible to the recipient. As a minimum, just read through your text once before you send it and fix the most obvious errors in spelling, grammar and interpunctuation. You also might want to check if that automated spell checker you probably have gives you any good advice.

As the sender, it should be in your greatest interest to get the message through to the reciever, loud and clear. Make the significant part of your message stand out. Please do this for me and I promise to return the favor.

Airport Security

Airport security annoys me.

Or rather, the randomness of it annoys me. I will get back to this subject in coming posts, that I promise you. For now I just want to share this Saturday Night Live rant on the subject.

Saturday Night Live amuses me.

Veckans spaning

Vi har sett Apples iPhone med dess multitouch-gränsnitt.

Vi ser nu Microsofts Surface i form av framtidens kaffebord.

Vi ser mjukvara som Photosynth demonstrera ett smart användargränssnitt i kombination med nya sätt att använda bilder.

Pusselbitar börjar nu falla på plats som möjliggör ett enormt språng i utvecklingen av användargränssnitt. Idéerna är inte nya och inte heller tekniken är helt ny, men har hittills bara setts i prototyper i labbmiljö. De kommer mycket snart att dyka upp i de apparater och program vi använder dagligen.

Det börjar nu.