May 29, 2005

Building a Blogging Widget in Tiger

But first, I needed to build the posting functionality behind the widget. So I took a quick side trip off to AppleScript land to do a proof of concept script. AppleScript supports XML-RPC and SOAP calls, so it's a nice tool for throwing together a simple piece of RPC functionality.
Publish | | Archive Link | | Script Snippets
(* May 28, 2005, 1:09 am *)

Dashboard 1 versus Konfabulator 2

John: "I installed Tiger with everything on it. I donÕt particularly like Dashboard, but then again, I donÕt particularly dislike it, either. I had a license of Konfabulator from earlier days and with Konfabulator 2 being released just a week ago, I thought it would be nice to see of the two environments live together."
Mac OS X Tips | | Archive Link | | Konfabulator Page
(* May 26, 2005, 11:59 am *)

Opinion: Apple's captivating Tiger

Bill Van Etten: "The fifth major release of AppleÕs server operating system, Mac OS X Server version 10.4 (Tiger) has many new features like 64-bit memory addressing, built-in VPN, Software Update and Jabber server, as well as very cool and useful new technologies like spotlight (whole disk and document searching tool) and Automator (graphical data analysis pipelining tool)."
Macworld | | Archive Link
(* May 26, 2005, 11:22 am *)

Dashboard is a metaphor for what's right and wrong at Apple

David K. Every: "First, let me say Dashboard is cool, itÕs sexy, itÕs got neat transitions, and it is the number one selling feature of Tiger. I will use it, others will use it and I could never imagine something this cool coming out for Windows or one of the other UNIX, at least not first. Now that Apple has it, they'll rip off the idea, poorly. So this isn't a 'Bash Apple/Dashboard' article. However all those positives doesnÕt change whatÕs on the other side of this coin.
MyMac.com: publishing since 1995 | | Archive Link | | Konfabulator Page
(* May 24, 2005, 9:21 am *)

Widgets are wonders in little windows

Mike Wendland: "Widgets -- little self-contained programs that automatically open in a window whenever you want with updates and information like news headlines, weather reports and stock tickers -- are sweeping the Net. They typically appear as little text boxes or colored little notepads on your desktop whenever you call them up."
Detroit Free Press | | Archive Link | | Konfabulator Page
(* May 24, 2005, 9:19 am *)

Mac OS X Technology Overview: SQLite

Introduced in Mac OS X version 10.4, the SQLite library lets you embed a SQL database engine into your applications. Programs that link with the SQLite library can access SQL databases without running a separate RDBMS process. You can create local database files and manage the tables and records in those files. The library is designed for general purpose use but is still optimized to provide fast access to database records.
ADC | | Archive Link
(* May 24, 2005, 9:15 am *)

Framed and Exposed: Better Living Through Automator

Many people have called Automator as a "visual AppleScript," and it certainly does put AppleScript control into the hands of many people not comfortable writing scripts. Others have pigeonholed Automator as a macro program similar to CE Soft's QuicKeys. Since it's built on AppleScript, Automator is far more powerful than macro programs because it can so easily span multiple applications.
creativepro.com | | Archive Link | | Script Snippets
(* May 23, 2005, 12:12 pm *)

I'll be dashed

Dan Miller: "I was thinking about this because I realized the other day that, after an initial flurry of downloading and installing widgets, IÕm not using Dashboard at all."
Macworld: Editors' Notes | | Archive Link | | Konfabulator Page
(* May 21, 2005, 1:19 pm *)

Schedule Scripts and Apps with iCal

Want to schedule a script or an application to launch at a predetermined time? Using an iCal alarm is a simple way to achieve this.
Mac Tips and Tricks | | Archive Link | | Script Snippets
(* May 20, 2005, 11:11 am *)

A script to refresh daily audio feeds in iTunes

ribailey: "I was annoyed that the streaming MP3 URL for Democracy Now (hosted on archive.org) includes the date of the show, which makes it impossible to have a static link in iTunes for the most recent program. Without having to visit the site each morning to get the current program's URL, I wanted a way to automate the process so I would only have to click on an unchanging track name in iTunes to hear the show of the day. So I wrote this AppleScript, which, of course, could be modified for other programs and URLs."
macosxhints | | Archive Link | | Script Snippets
(* May 17, 2005, 11:41 am *)

Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, 2nd Edition

set theLinks to {"News", "Archive","Downloads", "Scripts", "Articles", "Konfabulator", "Links", "Contact"}

on shoppingStudioStore(AppleScript, Cocoa Books and Macintosh Products)