Comments on: Ten Free Ideas http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas Mac & Technology Writings by Daniel Jalkut Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:50:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: sjk http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-17934 sjk Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:26:16 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-17934 ZFS for OS X seems much more likely than XFS. ZFS for OS X seems much more likely than XFS.

]]> By: Sea_Dragons http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-17272 Sea_Dragons Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:18:48 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-17272 Snapshots: Implement XFS on MacOS X. Also, this will solve some enterprise storage issues Apple will be bumping into as its customers try to handle more numbers of increasingly larger multimedia projects and data stores. Snapshots:

Implement XFS on MacOS X. Also, this will solve some enterprise storage issues Apple will be bumping into as its customers try to handle more numbers of increasingly larger multimedia projects and data stores.

]]> By: Peter http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16950 Peter Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:26:02 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16950 For generated graphics and logos, see MetaFont and MetaPost for ideas. Then there's Asymptote (a vector graphics language), which I haven't looked at yet. http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/ One of the nice things about these programs is that they're really fully capable programming languages with declarative syntax for equations. This means you don't need to find the exact places to end and begin your lines, paths, &c. but just to describe the necessary relations among them. If you need to find the half-way point of a path, just tell the program to do it. For generated graphics and logos, see MetaFont and MetaPost for ideas. Then there’s Asymptote (a vector graphics language), which I haven’t looked at yet.

http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/

One of the nice things about these programs is that they’re really fully capable programming languages with declarative syntax for equations. This means you don’t need to find the exact places to end and begin your lines, paths, &c. but just to describe the necessary relations among them. If you need to find the half-way point of a path, just tell the program to do it.

]]> By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16945 Daniel Jalkut Sun, 01 Oct 2006 03:27:21 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16945 bhauth: I don't necessarily exclude open source projects from my list of ideas. I think the security idea, especially as a wrapper on Tor, would make a great open source project. Which is why I suggested Vidalia as a starting point. I'm proud of you for coming up with creative ways of shooting almost every idea down ... but some of your alternatives are kind of a stretch. In my opinion, something doesn't have to "improve on Photoshop" to be a useful product. You might want to look to iPhoto for realignment in your world view. bhauth: I don’t necessarily exclude open source projects from my list of ideas. I think the security idea, especially as a wrapper on Tor, would make a great open source project. Which is why I suggested Vidalia as a starting point.

I’m proud of you for coming up with creative ways of shooting almost every idea down … but some of your alternatives are kind of a stretch. In my opinion, something doesn’t have to “improve on Photoshop” to be a useful product. You might want to look to iPhoto for realignment in your world view.

]]> By: bhauth http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16935 bhauth Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:31:21 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16935 1. Too obvious, unlikely to improve things enough to be used much, and likely to be preempted by something open source. 2. Basically what sort by date modified is for, also what Bill said. 3. A UI design for a PDF reader that doesn't seem to add anything useful. 4. Copy to textedit and apple-T. 5. Possibly useful rarely although a new, limited account does most of that. 6. Can't see how it improves on photoshop. 7. Good, if I knew anyone that wanted lots of unique signatures on PDFs, which I don't. 8. Photoshop again, or Microsoft Word Art. =( 9. OS X, at least, does this well enough by itself. 1. Too obvious, unlikely to improve things enough to be used much, and likely to be preempted by something open source.

2. Basically what sort by date modified is for, also what Bill said.

3. A UI design for a PDF reader that doesn’t seem to add anything useful.

4. Copy to textedit and apple-T.

5. Possibly useful rarely although a new, limited account does most of that.

6. Can’t see how it improves on photoshop.

7. Good, if I knew anyone that wanted lots of unique signatures on PDFs, which I don’t.

8. Photoshop again, or Microsoft Word Art. =(

9. OS X, at least, does this well enough by itself.

]]> By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16652 Daniel Jalkut Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:35:39 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16652 Chris: NodeBox is the closest thing I've got to Figure Bot (I used it for the proof of concept image above). In fact, I think some hacking on NodeBox *could* produce something of a mutation that would serve well for the purpose. In case you're curious, I used NodeBox to <a href="http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/146/blog-redesign" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">design this blog's banner</a>. Chris: NodeBox is the closest thing I’ve got to Figure Bot (I used it for the proof of concept image above). In fact, I think some hacking on NodeBox *could* produce something of a mutation that would serve well for the purpose.

In case you’re curious, I used NodeBox to design this blog’s banner.

]]> By: Chris http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16624 Chris Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:24:54 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16624 How close is Nodebox (http://nodebox.net/) to Figure Bot? About tripwire, aide and all those tools: yes, they fail on MacOS X binaries, BUT: 1st) the binaries are changed when they are changed, so, you will notice a change anyways, though it can be a false positive 2nd) I started a Mach-O fingerprinting tool that is half-done (it works...), then I found ctool. (should have finished my project earlier...) How close is Nodebox (http://nodebox.net/) to Figure Bot?

About tripwire, aide and all those tools: yes, they fail on MacOS X binaries, BUT:
1st) the binaries are changed when they are changed, so, you will notice a change anyways, though it can be a false positive
2nd) I started a Mach-O fingerprinting tool that is half-done (it works…), then I found ctool. (should have finished my project earlier…)

]]> By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16540 Daniel Jalkut Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:38:58 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16540 Geoff: I agree it's brilliant marketing. I know my position probably comes off as pretty negative about the contest, but I do think it's an interesting idea and generally well executed. I'm standing by my skepticism that it will work out well for the developers. I mean, if they end up getting stuck with a GTD app, Desktop Wars, and a Cookbook. Well, those are both huge undertakings and not particularly unique (yes, even the Desktop Wars idea is already <a href="http://www.gwabs.com/" rel="nofollow">being undertaken</a>, by another crowdsourced software initiative, <a href="http://www.cambrianhouse.com/" rel="nofollow">Cambrian House</a>, one that doesn't allow the crowd to inflict projects on pre-selected developers.) Geoff: I agree it’s brilliant marketing. I know my position probably comes off as pretty negative about the contest, but I do think it’s an interesting idea and generally well executed.

I’m standing by my skepticism that it will work out well for the developers. I mean, if they end up getting stuck with a GTD app, Desktop Wars, and a Cookbook. Well, those are both huge undertakings and not particularly unique (yes, even the Desktop Wars idea is already being undertaken, by another crowdsourced software initiative, Cambrian House, one that doesn’t allow the crowd to inflict projects on pre-selected developers.)

]]> By: Geoff http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16528 Geoff Wed, 27 Sep 2006 20:19:46 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16528 While I agree with you that ideas are easy to come by, I think the "My Dream App" contest also proves that. What, they had 2700 entries? However, I think this misses the point. My Dream App is absolutely great marketing. I don't think they've posted stats, but I bet they get a ton of pageviews, and I'm sure they've received lots of votes. That helps the developers, judges, etc. How many websites and Mac publications have linked to their page? If this gets people enthused about Mac software and maybe gets some of those entries to try developing their ideas, isn't that a good thing? Who knows, maybe even a good app or two will come out of the process. While I agree with you that ideas are easy to come by, I think the “My Dream App” contest also proves that. What, they had 2700 entries?

However, I think this misses the point.

My Dream App is absolutely great marketing.

I don’t think they’ve posted stats, but I bet they get a ton of pageviews, and I’m sure they’ve received lots of votes. That helps the developers, judges, etc. How many websites and Mac publications have linked to their page?

If this gets people enthused about Mac software and maybe gets some of those entries to try developing their ideas, isn’t that a good thing?

Who knows, maybe even a good app or two will come out of the process.

]]> By: William F. Adams http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas/comment-page-1#comment-16345 William F. Adams Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:41:35 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/192/ten-free-ideas#comment-16345 Even better than #8 would be a re-creation of Glenn Reid's nifty NeXTstep app TouchType.app --- unfortunately Adobe owns it now and they seem to've lost the source code. There're lots of PhotoShop actions for accomplishing that sort of thing, but the closest thing to TouchType is an XTension for Quark. Page on it here: http://members.aol.com/willadams/gnustep/apps/type/touchtype.html This could also be combined w/ #6, say as a plug-in for InDesign or Illustrator (or FreeHand). FWIW, things like that are usually handled as Library elements (create a custom library of repeated elements and drag in instances as necessary) --- most graphic designers are visual people to whom scripting more than a PhotoShop batch action is pretty foreign. William Even better than #8 would be a re-creation of Glenn Reid’s nifty NeXTstep app TouchType.app — unfortunately Adobe owns it now and they seem to’ve lost the source code. There’re lots of PhotoShop actions for accomplishing that sort of thing, but the closest thing to TouchType is an XTension for Quark. Page on it here:

http://members.aol.com/willadams/gnustep/apps/type/touchtype.html

This could also be combined w/ #6, say as a plug-in for InDesign or Illustrator (or FreeHand). FWIW, things like that are usually handled as Library elements (create a custom library of repeated elements and drag in instances as necessary) — most graphic designers are visual people to whom scripting more than a PhotoShop batch action is pretty foreign.

William

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