'We remove Vista'

Couldn't resist this one...

A computer shop's sales pitch: 'We remove Vista': "After reading today's story about Windows Vista's first year, reader Bruce Finlayson of Seattle sent along this photo that he snapped in October outside a computer store in Milford, N.H. ..."

(Via Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog.)

Application UI consistency with Tiger/Leopard

(author note: I don't write reviews often (why bother!) and certainly don't expect this to be read by anyone except, perhaps, by the unfortunate person who accidently stumbles over this inane blog. I'm mostly jotting this down to warm up for some other writing I have to do.)

Like most Macintosh owners, I use iTunes and iPhoto a lot. In addition, however, there are two additional applications I use (or recently started to use) that follow the same general user interface as iTunes or iPhoto. Both are powerful applications in their own right. And for my money what makes them better is due in large part to the common look and feel. These UI designs include the configurable menu on top, the list of critical information and folders on the left hand in a panel that is light gray/blue, list of stored items in the default top pane below the menu bar, and a bottom pane that displays items specific for what the application is designed to show. Double clicking on an item then removes the top pane, filling the entire window with the item. I suspect this is due to common developer's tools and programming libraries provided by Apple and takes advantage of specific GUI components (Cocoa, Carbon, whatever, it works). Whatever it is, I like it. These applications are Papers from mekentosj.com and NetNewsWire now free from NewsGator.

Papers

Papers is an application written by a couple of young scientists (Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis) in the Netherlands while they were post docs in a cell biology lab. It's main purpose is for creating a library of PDF files, complete with important metadata and complete citations, and is primarily designed for use by scientists as a repository of journal articles. Citations can be imported from several on line resources including PubMed, the Web of Science, Google Scholar, and several others. A variety of documents can be imported, although the predominant use is for PDF file storage. Once imported, complete citation data can be automatically 'matched' to the PDF file by either using the DOI number, or via a variety of built in on line searches, such as an author search of PubMed. Journal articles can in turn be matched to existing citations through a built-in Google search function, which more often than not finds the appropriate PDF, usually on the publisher's web site. The entire library including the PDFs are searchable via a subset of Spotlight indexng, with built-in filters, such as title, author, journal, keyword, etc. PDFs can be read in a window, or a click of a button will open the PDF in full screen mode, like iPhoto. One can organize papers in a variety of collections. Articles can be added to collections manually or by the use of smart folders, which collect appropriate papers based on keyword AND/OR filters, much like smart folders in iTunes. Finally, it can import from or export to EndNote citations via XML files. Papers was an instant hit in my laboratory.

It's a powerful application and is Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard) only.

NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire is an RSS News aggregator originally authored by Brent Simmons and now owned by NewsGator. I had tried using this when it was still a 1.x release but then had little use for it. Lately I've been using iGoogle as my RSS aggregator, but since NNW is now free, I thought I'd give it a new look. First, second, and third impressions have been favorable. It's fast, can synch subscriptions and articles between more than one computer (via .Mac or through a free NewsGator account), and uses the Safari web rendering toolkit to display complete web pages within the news window. Articles or snippets of articles can be selected and automatically sent to a blog editor (such as MarsEdit), complete with appropriate link and citation. While I'll still use iGoogle as my browser home page, since most of my web reading are news sites I see myself using this more and more.

OK, there's a couple more I should mention. MarsEdit (orignally written by Brent Simmons and then further developed by Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software) which I'm writing this with and mentioned above), and the Leopard Finder window also follow these guidelines. All in all, I truly appreciate the consistency. In fact I may just have to buy MarsEdit once my 30 day evaluation period expires.

options

In the next week, I'm submitting a job application to another government science agency. It's for a research director position at a mid-sized lab on the east coast. I've been informally recruited, and it's intriguing enough to at least apply and maybe get an interview. I'm not sure I'd take it if offered, as this would be a tremendous change in terms of where we live, much different than the move contemplated last year. But as I said, intriguing. As a research leader I would be administratively responsible for the entire lab including ~10 principal investigators with about ~25 projects and a total staff of ~35, but also responsible to maintain an active research program. The center is more than adequately funded, and the leader is also supplied enough funding (and space) to bring in post docs and technicians to do so. I've visited the place (a few years ago) and it's a great, relatively new lab, that is well-equipped and designed right. There's designated administrative and IT support, including the all important bioinformatics support.

What's not to like? Well distance from family (almost the other coast), including our kids who are at the age where they won't want to move there (one will be graduating from college, and the other will be just starting college, somewhere in the northwest. Getting ahead of myself here though, as usual.

yet another weight update

A little weight update. Keeping it off, still 164. Running has been pretty consistent except for a little down time due to ITB syndrome (ilial tibial band). Pesky hamstring strains, that I usually try to run through. I've had several physical therapy sessions, some with ultrasound treatments. At my age I just have to be careful about stretching. I have lots of them to do according to the PT.

warranties?

This post on TidBits is a bit alarming and good to file away for future reference. I too replaced my MacBook Pro with a 200 Gb Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 hard drive purchased from OWC.

When is a Warranty Not a Warranty?: "I've discovered this in the worst manner possible, by finding out that Hitachi's standard operating procedure for warranty replacement is, literally, a 'slow boat from Asia' approach. A replacement hard drive had to make its way from Singapore to California, taking an estimated 7-10 'business days' (in December, that's extended thanks to the holidays), after which it could be sent across the United States to me in Ithaca."

(Via TidBITS.)