Mac OSX Virtual Desktop Managers

CodeTek has been pretty unresponsive to my emails requesting status about the problems with Firefox and their VirtualDesktop program. Their site hasn’t been updated in many months, I wonder if the company still exists? I and many others have been stuck at Firefox 0.8 for many months now. It’s very frustrating. (See bugzilla bugid 254463)

The only other real contender for an OSX desktop pager has been DesktopManager (aka ‘wsmanager’). It seemed mostly fine, but had one glaring omission that made it unusable for me: a purely linear row of desktops instead of the 2D rows-n-columns that us Unix kids have been using for over a decade. Sure, DesktopManager could display the desktops in a 2D grid, but all the movement between desktops was purely 1D.

I started poking around into adding true 2D support to DesktopManager, but low and behold, someone already did it. And this generous soul, one Robin Summer, posted the diff for 2D use for all to use.

Thanks Robin!

(and yes, there is Virtue, which looks interesting, uses some of DesktopManager’s code, and totally throws away the standard ‘pager’ concept which I dearly enjoy. I don’t think I’ll try it)

Update: okay, after a day of trying DesktopManager w/patch, I’m kinda sick of it. And I’m liking Virtue the more I use it. Sigh. Why can’t Apple just make this a standard feature of their window manager?

permalink January 26th, 2005 | Category: macosx | One comment

Connectivity Tribes: In the future, we’ll live in Hexagons

When I first learned electronics, I thought like most that “wired” was the way to go. Need another DC-to-10 GHz spectrum? Run another coax. Viz. the 80′s/early-90′s with Wired magazine, ethernet, cyberpunk and it’s stereotypical “jacking in”. No one thought wireless was going to be that useful because everyone was stuck in the old model of “transmit as far and as wide as possible” and “we only have one wireless spectrum, we have to conserve and regulate it!”

No longer. We’re discovering how to really use the air spectrum. We’re truly becoming “wireless”. In this new mode, wireless is connectivity, but social, bound to a geographic region. Wired will alwasy be about the highest,best bandwidth connection, but requires planning and routing. Wireless isn’t about the best connectivity, but about the pervasive one, the one near you. Wireless is “social connectivity”. It is “geo-networking”. Or “local networking”, if the term wasn’t already loaded beyond repair.

Cell towers with 120º sectors makes hexagons. Access points with omni antennaes optimally pack into hexagons. These transceivers are low-power and everyone shares the spectrum, transmitting only as powerful as they need, and using clever frequency hopping techniques to avoid “talk-over”. Regulation becomes less of a concern, just agreement upon basic wireless ethics: no CW, frequency hop, milliwatt transceivers. We’re being bound by social constructs, not technological.

Air bandwidth is finite, but 1/r2 drop-off, spread spectrum, and ethical use makes for “connectivity tribes”. Today we define our locale by zipcode, tomorrow by cell tower ID and WiFi SSID.

permalink January 18th, 2005 | Category: ramblings | Leave a comment

DSL woes, but fixed!

Rains attack. Tod defends. Communication lines are compromised. Safe mode is engaged and Tod belatedly pounces on the demarc with cutters and splices.

Continue reading DSL woes, but fixed!

permalink January 17th, 2005 | Category: ramblings | Leave a comment

pb-n-fun: bomberman

Not quite finished, but pretty close.

todbot – bomberman.mp3

…and then everything crashed.

permalink January 13th, 2005 | Category: music | Leave a comment

Replaced Powerbook Hard Drive

Replacing a hard drive on a 15″ Aluminum Powerbook isn’t that hard. Really.

Continue reading Replaced Powerbook Hard Drive

permalink January 13th, 2005 | Category: macosx | 2 comments

To do: Visit all Funiculars

Here’s something to get done before you die. Visit all known funiculars: Funiculars of the world

permalink January 7th, 2005 | Category: ideas | One comment

pb-n-fun: happy gravel

Lately I’ve been attempting to make music exclusively on my laptop, using Live, Reason and a few plugins. No I didn’t warez them. Or really, I ‘demo’d the software enough to know their worth and that it’s easier and cheaper for me and I’m assured of updates if I just buy the stuff. (But I will not use or buy software that uses one of those hardware dongles, I hate those)

And so, a first attempt:

todbot – happy gravel.mp3

Thus begins a new era. Let’s see how long it will last.

(oh, and also remember about older stuff. Gotta figure out what I’m going to do with that page, vs. posting to here. And what about getting all those songs off the Motif?)

permalink January 4th, 2005 | Category: music | Leave a comment