blacktree.com –

Quicksilver build 5300 doesn’t play well with Leopard. The icon stays in the dock and in the tabbed-through-apps list. Also the auto update doesn’t work. And quicksilver.blacktree.com is down. Sooooo…. if you’re having trouble with Quicksilver in Leopard go to the blacktree homepage and download the latest version right from there, and replace your old version.

On a similar note, Spotlight and Finder are definately much faster, but after about 5 minutes I knew there was no way Spotlight could replace Quicksilver. There are too many “learned” shortcuts and custom key commands.

Austin Heller’s Interview with Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software and MarsEdit – the desktop blogging software that is blowing Ecto out of the water. There are some fantastic questions from Austin. Conducting a good interview over email is a lot harder than it may seem.

Glenn Wolsey on Supporting Developers (Namely the Iconfactory Developers) –

I don’t have a problem paying for an application to support the developers, regardless of if it was originally released freely or not.

I remember when I switched to Mac. It was primarily for professional reasons: I was getting into graphic design and audio production. I realized that freeware often just doesn’t cut it in the professional world. Programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Ableton Live and Pro-Tools are worth the money.

And developers that offer programs like Twitteriffic which help you avoid what you’re supposed to be doing on those expensive programs are worthy of being supported.

The Superest

Kevin and Matthew continually one-upping each-other with new super heros. A fantastic website. It’s best to start with the first post and progress through from there.

I’ll be first in line once T-shirts are available.

Magic Shop

A short article by Alex Frankel, who’s book Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee, will be published in late October.

He compares the jobs he worked at Starbucks, Gap, and Apple:

Apple employees help sell $4,000 worth of product per square foot per month. When employees become sharers of information, instead of sellers of products, customers respond. […] Gap started employee orientation on the wrong foot by showing us a video about the perils of employee theft. Starbucks handed out Orwellian handbooks telling us to “Be Authentic.” Such approaches produce cynicism and engender a fake sense of belonging, if any at all. Apple treated us like adults.

I had to link this because it’s a rare day when you find something worth reading on Digg.

Ben Gray got a personal phone call from the office of Steve Jobs

I was so pumped when Ben finally made the switch. But after three faulty iMacs in a row, that just sucks. He wrote an email to Steve Jobs, got a phone call from Steve’s office and was assigned his own personal contact from Apple to help make sure everything worked out. And they gave him a free iPod for all the trouble.

Mint: Year Two in Review

Shaun Inman’s smash hit product, Mint, is two years old and has nearly 8,000 users.

I thought Rob Goodlatte summed it up perfectly in the comments –

It’s one thing to have a lot of customers, but it’s an amazing accomplishment to have so many customers who are rabid fans of the product — like everyone I know who uses Mint.

I don’t know about you, but I love seeing “http://someoneswebsite.com/mint” in my referrers list. It’s like a secret handshake.

I thought for sure they would be sold out by now. But no. You can still buy a 4GB iPhone for $299.

UPDATE: Sold out.

Curious if the price drop actually slowed sales of the 4GB model. People that were budgeting $499 for a new 4GB iPhone (or $399 for a refurbbed) can now get a new 8GB model for $399, and it looks like they are. (Or else Apple had boatloads of the 4GB model and it’s taking a while to unload them.)

Daredevil –

Mugger in Germany foiled by blind judo expert

[via “Cous”]

Jason Kottke and his 68 cents –

Meg shrugs and says, “you should post that to your blog.”

I get that comment all the time from friends, family, and sometimes even people I don’t know.

For some reason it bugs me just a little bit. Are they suggesting that I blog something because they want to read about it later, because they think it would be interesting to the general public, or because they wish they had their own blog, but they don’t and so they are trying to live through mine?

Also, have you ever noticed that it’s a little awkward when that comment is made in the presence of folks that don’t know about your blog? “Oh, you have a blog? That’s cool. What is it?”

Art is Worthless Without Admirers

Cameron Hunt –

I hate Internet Explorer with a burning passion just as much the next web designer, but I think discriminating users based on browser choice is downright rude. Who am I to question them? They’re spending irreplaceable time viewing my art, accommodating users should be my first priority.

I know some guys that just don’t have the time to tweak their site for every version of IE, and others that don’t even have a reason to.

So although Cameron makes a great point I think there is an even deeper issue he is alluding to: Humility.

Acting like a high and lofty blogger, designer, whatever will not get you very far even if you are talented. It is vital to have an attitude of esteeming others. Especially within the design community where we are in need of one another for inspiration and motivation.

Perfect Preview with MarsEdit

One of the most time-saving features of MarsEdit is its Preview window, which uses the power of Safari’s WebKit to render a browser-perfect version of your post before you send it to the blog. This is fantastic because you can spot formatting errors and typos before publishing the item.