My favorite utility, Quicksilver.
By Matt@Smalldog.com
I’m the kind of computer user who tries to use the mouse as
little as possible. I know all the keyboard shortcuts and I know how to use them. Up until about a year ago, I still had to use the mouse to launch applications and open documents, and had a very full dock with very tiny icons and a super-cluttered desktop.
Everything changed when I found Quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com). I believe this program is the most significant advance in computing interfaces since the GUI itself. It’s accurately described on its home page as “A unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.” On the surface, it is an application launcher. You specify a key combo to invoke Quicksilver, which runs in the background taking up almost none of the CPU or RAM, and type a few letters of the application you want to launch. Looking to bring up Terminal? Type “ter” or “tml” or “term”. Quicksilver will instantly scan its catalog and Terminal’s icon shows up. Press return and Terminal opens. Or, type “t” and a list of possible matches comes up. Select Terminal from the list, and next time you invoke Quicksilver and type “t”, Terminal is selected.
Quicksilver allows you to do much more with plugins, which can be downloaded at the website. You can, for example, search for a document, attach it to an email message, type a message, and zap it off, all from within Quicksilver. Upload photos to Flickr, add events to iCal or Google Calendar…there are so many possibilities, none of which involve use of the mouse. Then there are “triggers,” but hopefully I have your attention and you’ll go to their site to find out more.
I still love and use Spotlight for its ability to search within files. It’s great. But as an application launcher it falls short. Consider Quicksilver, if only as an keyboard-based application launcher. I guarantee you’ll add it to your login items, and, after a while, you too will empty your dock and clear your desktop.
By Matt@Smalldog.com
I think Mr. Gates is referring to the Month of Apple Bugs project, which found a bug every day through January. They did not, as he suggested, all allow total machine take over. But many did allow what the project called “arbitrary code execution.”
http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/
I saw Gates’s quote and was surprised: He is smarter than that. Even if his allegation were accurate, what’s the point? All systems are vulnerable (so far) and as you suggested, the Mac community has no reported incidents, not something the Windows community can claim. And Gates’s dare (“I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine”) is staggeringly foolish. Someone will probably take him up on it, though I almost hope not since the world does not need more vandalism. Does he really think that Vista is invulnerable? If so, I have a war in Iraq I would like to sell him.
Gates also has been making snarky comments on the “I’m a Mac” ads. Let’s just say that Mr. Gates is not marketer or he would understand that leaders should not acknowledge the existence of the underdogs. I hope he keeps up the verbal attacks, as it benefits the Mac market.
By the way, I want to say that I am not criticizing MOAB. I believe their intent is to be a service to the Mac community and help guide us toward a better platform.
Finally, I do want to object to the use of the pie in the face picture of Bill Gates. That incident was an
assaultand there is no glee to be taken from it, regardless of how any of us feel about Mr. Gates. Parody is fine but I think lacks grace to glorify that 1998 act of personal disrespect.Pie him!