Modding CoverSutra Themes, The Sophiesticated Way
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
CoverSutra is an iTunes controller for Mac OS X. It’s been around a while now. Back in the days when iTunes controllers were all the rage. Yet it stood its ground and has become quite robust—becoming a lean, mean, controlling machine—and a solid edition to any modders desktop. Moreover, it provides users with three nicely designed themes. But sadly, it’s not very modder friendly, if, you know, you aren’t into the default themes. However, there are always ways around things, and modders are notorious for dissecting and deconstructing programs.
This guide will take a lot of the legwork out of modding CoverSutra. So let’s begin. First, open up the contents of the program (right click on the app in Finder) and navigate to the PlugIn folder, found inside of the Contents folder. There, you’ll see the three default themes. Choose the theme you find most disposable (I’ve chosen JewelBoxing—the modern CD box displayed on the left Album Cover dialog screen in the Preferences Pane).
New Implications for Happiness, Depression
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
“When will I learn? The answer to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle, they’re on TV!” —Homer Simpson
Happiness: That often elusive, no doubt illustrious, and definitely coveted human concept some spend their entire lives chasing has long been studied by the social sciences. Ironically, the sciences have looked at why people are downright miserable (clinical depression) rather than why some are obscenely happy. But before we discuss this topic further, let me introduce you to a new movement in the field of psychology: Positive Psychology (+P), a subfield almost solely responsible for the information that will be presented in this article.
The Mag+ Project: One Tablet to Rule Them All
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
The only thing remotely ridiculous about this project is the name, unless you count how ridiculously good the concept, presentation, and underlying thought behind this revolutionary way of viewing your articles and magazines, um, is.
The project, an amalgamate of Berg and Bonnier (who publishes Popular Science), is truly awe-inspiring and aims to take the current paradigm of hyperlinks and images to a whole new level. So much so that I had to blog it, being the techno-freak that I am. I would love to see a world that payed this much attention to detail. The Mag+ is downright elegant and just flat out beautiful. Gorgeous even—in both the design and delivery. It is a concept derived from people that no doubt have spent countless hours thinking about a thoroughbred way of bringing magazines into the 21st century. Hopefully companies that care about their readers will organize some elaborate meeting with the possibility of Thai food and drink.
Enough with the praise, I’ll let the video speak for itself. There is a drool warning attached to the clip, so slide those keyboards away from under your chin.
Read more about the Mag+ Project over at the Berg Blog.
Taking MacRabbit’s Espresso Web Development Program for a Spin
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
MacRabbit (of CSSEdit fame) has loosed another version of their “vapourware turned legitimate program,” Espresso, unto the suspecting public. Version 1.1 expands on the “skeleton-like shell” of former iterations by adding several new features, a lot of polish, and some general refinements to the interface and operational program behaviour. Admittedly, I have given little time to this program in the past (yet I’ve always strangely wanted to like it, despite its many failings), as it proved to be quite buggy, and just too eclectic for my taste. However, this new iteration seems to tie a lot of loose ends together and is getting to be an attractive alternative to the already popular Coda. It generally feels a lot snappier and much more refined than previous versions. There are still some rough spots, but it’s certainly starting to come into its own. So I decided to give it a good, solid evening of testing.
So without further ado, let’s run through some of the most prolific components that grabbed my attention, for better or for worse.
Snow Leopard Woes: The Service Battery Notice
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
Some Snow Leopard adopters have noticed a strange warning in their status bars: “Service Battery.” I’ve personally had the “Service Battery” warning for some time now under Snow Leopard. Leopard, incidentally did not yield this bulletin, and neither did the early test builds of SL, suggesting that Apple made some last minute changes before the final release.
I have not taken my MacBook Pro in to see an Apple technician because nothing has changed, save it takes nearly a full minute for my battery to begin charging (SL notifies me that my battery is “Not Charging” when AC is initially connected; however, the charging does occur after a short delay), and my battery life is severely crippled (standard use gives me just shy of 2 hours). This notice has simply led me to assume my 1.5 year old battery had come to the end of its life. However, recently rumblings in the Apple forums are suggesting that that may not be the case, or rather their may exist an underlying problem of some kind with either Apple batteries (something that is not entirely new) or with Snow Leopard itself.
