Loading Bars

"I know Windows is awful. Everyone knows Windows is awful. Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's grim, it's slow, everything's badly designed and nothing works properly: using Windows is like living in a communist bloc nation circa 1981. And I wouldn't change it for the world, because I'm an abject bloody idiot and I hate myself, and this is what I deserve: to be sentenced to Windows for life."

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Apple to Nvidia: Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out

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Noticed something about the new loading bar in Safari 4.
 
Well, first of all, it's has a different look from the one presented in Safari 4 public beta. In the beta it's just a rotating set of bars at the edge of the address bar. In the final version it's a rotating set of bars on a button near the end of the address bar.
 
In Safari 3, to let you know that a page is being loaded, the address bar gets filled up with an incremental blue bar that tells you how much of the page has been loaded. For me this was helpful in situations when my connection is flaky and I need to know roughly whether it has stalled or not or how much to go.
 
For whatever reason, the Safari team at Apple thinks this blue bar is junk and decided to do away with it, replacing it with a button that shows a different shade of gray depending on what is loading. Looks like I'll have to hit the webkit blogs to find out if they explain it there.

Update: I remember reading a response on Twitter from Maciej Stachowiak, WebKit Developer, regarding the removal of the blue bar from Safari some time ago so I went to search for it and found it. He said, "The big blue progress bar led to users waiting for mostly-loaded and usable pages. Removing it makes browsing effectively faster." I'm not entirely sure how he came to that conclusion, most of the times when the blue bar hasn't finished loading the page remains blank. Mobile Safari, even on iPhone OS 3.0 still uses that blue bar.

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One of the reasons why I love Tweetie as my Twitter client on both the Mac and iPhone is that both have a bookmarklet that makes sharing websites to Twitter that much easier.

Since the beginning, Atebits have made Tweetie bookmarklet available from the website. Drag that bookmarklet to your browser's bookmarks bar and you're all set. Clicking on it will bring up a new tweet window with the site's address already in it and you can shorten it with the URL shortener service of your choice.

Here's the code for the original bookmarklet:

javascript:window.location='tweetie:'+window.location

However, for certain purposes, this alone is not practical enough. The address provides little to no context so you'll have to enter some text of your own. I've been using a bookmarklet that takes out that extra step for the most part. It was put together by @devongovett not long after Tweetie Mac was released though unfortunately it was on his dropbox and it's been since removed and you can find it at his dropbox. At least one variation of this have popped up elsewhere on the web.

Devon’s bookmarklet will add the page title of the site alongside the address:

javascript:window.location='tweetie:'+document.title+':%20'+window.location

In my search for the origin of the second bookmarklet, I came across a few more that serve different purposes.

TechSutra and PaulStoneDesign came up with versions that lets you post a selection of text from the site along with the address.

This last one though is quite interesting. Some sites have their own url shorteners and for good reason. URL shortener services are not permanent. Just like every other internet services out there, they can come and go. The only certainty that a shortened link will remain alive, that is, linked to the actual address, is if it was provided directly by the site. Alternatively Twitter could come up with their own.

Right now it's not so much of an issue but a number of people have had the foresight to anticipate this and make their own shortener services. To respect those individuals and push this issue forward, here's one Tweetie bookmarklet that picks up the site's own custom short address.

Who knew Tweetie’s bookmarklet can be so popular that people are coming up with their own versions? 

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Mac users can update their software via several methods. The most common of which is through Software Update which can be accessed from the Apple Menu on the top left hand corner oft the screen (see that Apple logo on the corner?). Through this piece of mechanism, Apple expects its customers to keep their Macs up to date.

Software Update

On the face of it, Software Update lets you choose which updates you want to install by clicking the check boxes and subsequently clicking the Install button at the bottom. But did you know you can also choose to only download the updates without installing them? Apple has yet to make this obvious but it's dead simple. All you have to do is select the updates you want to download and then click on the Update menu on the menu bar. 

While the menu bar has always been an active part of an  application, the user interface of Software Update makes this fact almost invisible, just like with the menu bar during Mac OS X installation or set up, which is the subject of next week's Mac tips.

When you download an update package, you'll find it in the Downloads folder. Double click that to install. If you have multiple Macs to update and have difficulties in going online, this should save you the trouble. However, keep note that some updates may be specific to a particular system, so they may not work on different Macs, namely the Mac OS X System Updates which does vary from system to system when downloaded via Software Update.

Support Downloads

A way to avoid this is to do it the old fashion way which is to go to Apple's Support Downloads site and download the updates manually. While this is not ideal, it saves the uncertainty and is the only way to get the Mac OS X Combo Update which will update your system to the latest version regardless which version you have.

A combo update is one that can be used to update a system directly from an early version to the latest as opposed to the Delta or standard update which has to be from a version immediately prior to the current. 

Here's an example to make it easier to understand. If you have a Mac OS X 10.5.0 and want to go to 10.5.6 in one swoop, you need the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Combo Updater downloaded from Support Downloads. If you go via Software Update route, you'll have to download each update from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 to 10.5.3, etc. If your system is already on one version prior to the latest, this method is not necessary but you’re still welcomed to do it.

If you have Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier and want to use 10.5.6 for example, you will have to buy 10.5 first from the stores or from Apple Online Store. This is call

Downside of the Combo Updater is it's massive. The 10.5.6 update will fill up an entire CD whereas the standard update takes up only half a CD. Personally, I always go for the Combo Update route because it also lets me use the updater on my colleagues' Macs and it's only one download. Standard updates mean you have to download each update one by one, impractical.

Avalanche of Updates

While Combo Updater is in my opinion a fantastic option from Apple, I can’t help but wonder why this is not an option for all their other apps. When I was a Mac instructor and makeshift admin at my previous job, I dread the days I see Macs with iLife and iWork that are yet to be updated or when I have to do a reinstall.

That’s because I have to install each update for each app one by one from my external HD. I’m not savvy enough to use Automator (Yes, it’s meant to be easy but I still have no idea how make it do what I need to do) so it’s all manual. I have to install the first batch of iLife app updates, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, and same goes with iWork. You cannot miss one update or it just won’t let you update to the latest version. Sometimes I had to do this for multiple Macs at the same time.

I’ll treat you lunch if you have a solution that works. My choice.

   

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