November 17, 2003
For Mac users ...
I just installed a very useful piece of OS-X freeware, XShelf. It fixes one of the little annoyances of the Mac OS (I have no idea if this is a problem in the rest of the world). That is, that the huge convenience of being able to drag-and-drop things is marred by by the nuisance of needing to have both the source and the destination in view on the screen. If I drag a file from folder A to folder B, both folders have to be visible at the same time.
XShelf provides a spot to park things until I'm ready to finish moving them. For instance, I frequently drag URL's out of web pages and into my TextEdit blog-post template. Now I can drag them onto the "shelf," (which only appears when you drag something to it) and let them sit there until needed. I just noticed it also works with pictures dragged off of web pages...
I just read den Beste's long post on all the little "itches" and bothers he has in Windows. Well, using a Mac certainly has its own itches and frustrations, but nothing like his list.
And people complain because Apple seems to be coming out with annual updates to OS-X, and charging $129 for each one. But every one of those updates, among other things, gets has eliminated a bunch of small irritations. (And this time only added one—the mysterious disappearance of the Favorites menu...) I think all the OS-X updates have quickly paid for themselves in saved time and frustration.
Andrew deprecates, in the comments, the Apple one-button mouse. It is indeed unsatisfactory, except for awkward beginners, who like the simplicity. But Macs can use other mice happily, and I myself could hardly imagine existence without my Logitech domestic rodent...
Of course, Since Mr. Den Beste complains that WinXP has become too much like the Mac, I am sure that his list of Mac itches would be at least as long as his WinXP list...
I dunno, for me, Mac has one itch that will always trump anything else: it lacks a second mouse button. You may not notice it if you aren’t used to it, but for those of us who are, that is a huge layer of functionality to give up...
Always good to see someone who can 1) acknowledge the wonderful utility and functionality of the MacOS while 2) acknowledging the wonderful utility and functionality of the WinOS and noting that 3) the MacOS could use a 2- or 3-button mouse.
I'm all for seeing beauty and usefulness where they exist, and never have appreciated sniping and fault-finding about some small, 'itchy' aspect of an otherwise perfectly functional tool.
Posted by: SharpShooter at November 21, 2003 08:49 PM
