LaunchBar & 10.3.9

I just posted this over at FA:OSX:

After upgrading to 10.3.9 over the weekend, my LaunchBar installation stopped working. Specifically, it couldn't complete the "Indexing Applications" step of its startup process. I emailed Objective Development and got this in response:

Mac OS X 10.3.9 seems to introduce a new problem affecting LaunchBar's ability to scan for all installed applications. In most cases it seems to help to rebuild the LaunchServices database of Mac OS X. Delete this file:

/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.6B.csstore

and restart your computer. Please let me know if this helps to resolve the problem.

Worked perfectly.

Wired 0.0

Did you know that the first-ever, prototype issue of Wired was a mashup?

"The issue opened with three double spreads, from Apple, Sony and Infiniti. Then there were eight uninterrupted pages of digital collage, including images of a young man and his father in front of a wall-sized television screen; a robot family, and a computer model of the earth. Next came a series of well-written stories that showed the proposed magazine's range, including a profile of the Chairman of the FCC, a report from one of Silicon Valley's most famous research labs, and a call by former Attorney General Eliot Richardson for an investigation of the suspicious death of an American computer journalist. Shorter articles mixed technology previews with travel tips and book reviews. The cover was a black-and-white collage of a man plummeting from an immense height, the city streets beneath him surreal in their networked clarity. At the top, in red capitals, it said WIRED."

"None of the articles or photographs were original, and none of the advertisements were real. They were cribbed from every type of publication that touched on parts of the story Louis and Jane were trying to tell: The Wall Street Journal, SF Weekly, Scientific American, Outside, MacWEEK, Microtimes, Bay Area Computer Currents, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Nature, Business Week, Details. But the borrowed stories seemed bolder here than they had in their original publications. Bound together, they radiated a sense of fanatical self-assurance, as if united in expectation of technological wonders and tremendous social changes. The fact that the stories were taken from mainstream sources strengthened rather than softened the effect, for the credits page offered evidence that the revolution Louis believed he was chronicling had already been widely noted; only the context was new."

— Gary Wolf, Wired - A Romance

Not-so-targetted

Heh:

Re: Friedman

Rafe Colburn:

"Check out this post at Making Light for an explanation of why Thomas Friedman annoys the hell out of me."

Me too.

Also see: CoverLG.jpg

Tiger!

Apple's got a page up listing 200 new Tiger features. These have me stoked:

• Dashboard: Access mini-applications called Widgets with just the touch of a key — everything from a calculator and stock tracker to weather report and address book.
• Dashboard Widget: Enjoy instant access to any contact in your Address Book directly from Dashboard.
• Calculator Widget: Perform basic calculations right from the Dashboard with the Calculator Widget.
• Enhanced Dock Menu: Quickly set an application or document to open automatically when you login to your Mac — straight from the Dock.
• Stock Widget: Track your favorite international and domestic stocks and mutual funds, featuring current prices, charts and more.
• Translation Widget: Translate words and phrases instantly between 11 different languages right from your Dashboard.
• World Clock Widget: Check local time anywhere in the world or open multiple World Clock widgets for different time zones.
• DVD Player Bookmarks: Bookmark favorite moments of a DVD for quick access later on.
• Finder Slideshow: Quickly create full-screen slideshow of any selected images directly from the Finder.
• iCal Events and System Menu Clock: View upcoming appointments directly from the date and time system menu.
• Birthday Calendar: Always know the birthdays of everyone in your Address Book with this automatic calendar in iCal.
• iChat / Jabber Support: Access friends and colleagues in the Jabber IM network from iChat AV.
• iChat / Switch to: Quickly switch to different iChat accounts (AIM or Jabber) with just a few clicks.
• Wireless Image Capture: Wirelessly import images from camera-equipped cellphones via Bluetooth or next-generation digital cameras via WiFi.
• Mobile Home Directories: Centrally manage the home directories of your portable Mac clients and yet allow each user online and offline access from the office and the road.
• Secure WebDAV: Get support for the Kerberos and https protocol when accessing WebDAV volumes.
• VPN On Demand: Automatically establish a VPN connection when a firewall protected service is used for specific domains.
• Image Keywords: Add, remove and modify keywords for images in Preview.
• Archive a Web Page: Save the HTML and images for the current web page on your hard drive with just a few clicks. (a few weeks ago, Tantek and I were chatting about IE5/Mac's 5-year anniversary, and how this feature was still missing from modern browsers...)
• Inline PDF Viewing: View PDF documents directly in a Safari browser window — no other application required.
• .Mac Keychain Sync: Keep your keychain fully in sync across your different Macs using your .Mac account.
• Integrated Sync Services: Get more from the improved Sync: faster performance, a simpler interface, and an extensible architecture that lets other developers tap into the Sync engine.
• iTunes Album Art Screen Saver: Display album art from your iTunes music collection as a fun, ever-changing mosaic screen saver.

Stuff for which I'm not so stoked:

• Spotlight Find: Search all of your documents, images, emails and applications and view the results literally as fast as you can type in search words. (pretty much everything I do is server/web-based...)
• Buy Printing Supplies: Easily purchase supplies for your printer right from Mac OS X Tiger. (Printing? What's that?)
• Safari RSS View: View RSS news feeds for your favorite websites directly in Safari — no external news reader required. (IMHO, client-side aggregators need web-based counterparts, or at the very least sync)
• Mail (I stopped using this a year ago...)

Stuff I still want to see:

• Tabs in iChat, like Adium

A Break from IM

Having spent ~5 days offline last week, I've got a heaping pile of stuff to do, both for work and otherwise. In order to Get Stuff Done, I'm gonna take a break from IM. If you need me for anything, email's the way...

Thanks!
-E

Back in a few

I'm heading to CVC today, and will be offline until Sunday; my sister is sitting her first 10-day course and I'll be serving the first half of it. I'm really looking forward to doing some full-on Vipassana again — it's been a while...

Passing It On

[sylloge]