LEONCAHUN  On my MBP, OS X 10.5.7, the updated Soundflower 1.5.1 kext (Kernel Extension, System Extension), which comes with AHP 2.9.3, did not install successfully; after the first restart the OS claimed that the kext was disabled and had to be de-, or re-installed. I de-installed.

Apparently, there is a compatibility issue with Soundflower 1.5.1 and, at least, 10.5.7.

Earlier versions of Soundflower did not trouble my OS installation. YMMV.  
(Version 2.9.3)

LEONCAHUN  Nice app, "Backtrack on Pause" (skips a couple of seconds backwards before resuming the file/movie/recording, in order to let you check what you have just transcribed) is brillant.

Though it is brutal on the CPU: come on, 80%+ on a 2GHz Core Duo just for playing a movie-file and letting you type (maybe it's the 'animated' counter?)?!!

That's unacceptable. Otherwise very nice.  
(Version 2.011)

LEONCAHUN  VMAATTA, I welcome your concern. Though: the Anchorfree website has links to well respected news sources (WSJ, PC magazine, CNN) recommending the software, saying its ad-supported.

I think one should be concerned when using public hotspots and HS might be an affordable solution.  
(Version 0.942)

LEONCAHUN  Installs an internet plugin called RadioURL without asking for permission, only declaring to have done so afterwards when asking you to restart your browser (Safari) to take effect.

Probably–hopefully–not doing any harm, but still: a good Mac citizen asks BEFORE installing something, providing the user an opt-out.  
(Version 1.1.3)

LEONCAHUN  Sorry to say, but you really miss everything. LB, to me, is by far the most essential utility on the Mac, period. It feels like someone has cut off both of my hands when I am forced to use a Mac (not my own, to be sure) without LB installed.

First of all: LB is not supposed to be a Spotlight replacement; in this regard, you are right: LB does not do full text indexing/search; it's not made to do that. That's Spotlight's job.

LB is, primarily, a launcher: It should launch apps, urls; it should open folders, files -- FAST. And it does. While it is true that Spotlight, insofar as it indexes everything, it indexes titles (of folders, files, etc) as well, it does also find (the names of) apps, folders, files. But it is MUCH slower in doing so than LB (try it on a not totally virginal Mac with a decent amount of stuff its harddrive). And: LB learns. LB adapts (very fast) to your habits, history: the most/last used items show up first -- and they show up FAST.

Really, when it comes to launching, it's all about speed. And in this regard, I think, LB is unmatched. And, in the not so long run, speed is everything that matters here. It's essential. It's the thing.

Your suggestion of launching things 'the standard way', like via Dock, Finder windows, etc: Think about it, this works only if you have very few apps to launch, very few folders to open; or, if you have a VERY large display providing space for a VERY long Dock. No, really, it won't work, or it won't compare.

The thing is, thanks to LB you dont even need to know where a folder, app, file, etc resides on your harddrive: say farewell to the spatial metaphor of file hierarchy! (although LB provides a very handy way to browse your folder hierarchy, directly in LB's bar).

Moreover, there are LOTS of great features in LB beside the mentioned core functionality (search google, wikipedia, amazon, etc directly from LB; calculate there; control iTunes; display phone numbers; the clipboard history, etc).

To sum up: You should REALLY give LB a try. I know of NO ONE who wasnt convinced (convinced like in feeling BLESSED), when she finally had found out how essential to the Mac workflow LB can be.

And, no, I have no affiliation whatsover with the developers.

I know I sounded differently :)  
(Version 5.0rc2)

LEONCAHUN  Still works beautifully under 10.5.2 Intel.

Very moderate CPU load.  
(Version 1.0)

LEONCAHUN  The app's icon makes me shiver, each time -- you know, in that particular kind a way (do you feel the same?).  
(Version 1.0.1)

LEONCAHUN  Yes, pleaaaaaaase!  
(Version 1.2)

LEONCAHUN  Yeah, you're probably right: after a few days of using it, I think it is okay. I still find it a bit odd that LB's bar is now of greater height than OS X's menubar, though.

However, the beauty (the out-of-your-way concept) of LB lies exactly in the fact, that somehting like the size of the bar is not very important.

(It also crossed my mind that smaller/higher resolution displays, e.g. Macbook's, will welcome the larger bar. Me, I'm on MBP, and it still feels kinda large, whatever.)  
(Version 4.3.1)

LEONCAHUN  V. 4.3 seems to be a very fine update (of a must-have tool, period).

However, while I welcome the more modern, Leopard-ish, subdued visuals, I think LB's display grew a tiny little bit too much: it could do better with some pixels less, at the top, at the bottom.

It has the exact same height as Spotlight's fade-in search-field, but it somehow "feels" bigger, visually.

And then I use LB much (MUCH) more often than Spotlight.  
(Version 4.3)

LEONCAHUN  They won the Apple Design Award for Leopard App this June, for version 2.0.

So it's pretty safe to say that v. 2.0 will deliver.

Remember, that Apple postponed Leopard, not some third party developer?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathoov/544033864/  
(Version 1.6.5)

LEONCAHUN  Lame doesnt show up in the Export-options in Quicktime Player (Pro) 7.1.5, OS X 10.4.9.

Even after restart.  
(Version 3.97)

LEONCAHUN  Thanks again for your response.

You guys rock :)

Me, Camino-fanboy.  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  One last point:

Camino ignores styles when copying text to the clipboard.  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  Sorry, that should have been part of the former thread.  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  Thanks for your very kind and informative response.

Regarding search in the context menu: I feel ashamed, I must have been blind (or am I fixated to the string "Google"??). Sorry.

Here are few more observations which, I guess, are targets for future improvement (I know, I should file bugs through Camino's bugtracker, and I will––):

Tabbing: Hitting the tab-key to cycle through address/url field, search field, (inner-page)search/form entry fields doesnt quite work as expected: other than Safari, the cursor doesnt return (cycle back) to the address/url field after hitting tab sufficiently often. Sometimes, for instance on quite a lot of WordPress-themes, I get caught in the WordPress-search field and cannot get back to Camino's URL field but by reaching for the mouse.

Selecting/Opening an URL as text: Camino doesnt recognize (parse) an URL when it is written out as text on a page. Again, Safari does this by way of a context menu item. Very handy.

For the time being one can use the bookmarklet "Open Selected Text URL" (http://www.nadamac.de/camitools/camiutils/).

Shortcuts (command-1, command-2, ...) for bookmarks in the bookmark bar only work while the bookmark bar is displayed – that's confusing (to me, at least, since: what else uses cmd-number as shortcut?!; and it is different from Safari's behaviour).

The cancel-shortcut (command-.), I guess an OS X-standard, doesnt work in some Camino-dialogues (Save, Bookmark Current Page...); it does work in the Print-dialogue, thou.

The (Safari-like) shortcut Command-d for bookmarking the current page is not documented (though welcome for Safari-switchers).

Saving a page: I am not sure if Camino acts overly clever in guessing the title of the page to be saved (what shows up in the Save-dialogue's "Save as"-field): I guess Camino cuts out everything of the URL (of the page to be saved) that comes after the last slash. That's more often than not quite non-descriptive (like: "index.php", or something).

Safari, on the other hand, parses the Title-tag of the HTML-document to be saved. Better. Alas, more often than not, page-authors (for instance, of newspapers) put something rather non-specific between the title-tags. Apparently, most people doesnt save as much stuff as I do.

Again, thanks for bringing Camino to the Mac world – even after Saft's 9.0b (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12402/saft) release, I havent returned to Safari as my default browser yet, and I'm not sure I will. Camino keeps feeling snappy, and the ad-, Flash-blocking runs circles around Safari's.

Best, Leon  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  For me, Safari 3.0b works as advertised, and feels fast (a bit faster than 2.x, but pretty much on par with Camino 1.5). No stability-issues so far (all old input managers, etc. disabled, thou).

However, I think it is a shame that there is no built-in adblocker in 3.0b; especially since the Flash-plugin for OS X is _not_ 'optimized', to put it mildly.

Saft 9.0b (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12402/saft)

certainly helps, but it is much more of a hassle to configure it, compared to how Camino 1.5 works out of the box (to me, Camino offers the perfect Flash-blocking, to be quickly turned off on a case-by-case basis).  
(Version 3.0b)

LEONCAHUN  Sorry, me again, hope nobody minds my extensive commentary, just switched full-time to Camino from Safari (at least until Saft gets updated), because of being underwhelmed by Safari 3b.

Not so good in Camino 1.5:

- contextual menu: no "GoogleInternet Search", no "Spotlight Search" when control-click on some selected word.

- Still no Dictionary-support: _really_ annoying.

- URL autocompletion only based on history, not on bookmarks.

Good:

- URL autocompletion shows description next to the URL, who is more often than not totally cryptic.

- Speed remains good, memory-usage as well.  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  Another thing I dont like: you cannot differenciate between tabs and windows when it comes to opening a new one in foreground, or in background, respectively.

Safari lets you open new tabs (like by "open link in new tab") in the "background" (meaning, without switching to the newly created tab in the frontmost window), but does open a newly created window (by "open link in new window") frontmost, ie. above the one in which you clicked "open link in new window".

I find this behaviour more natural.  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  Very nice browser, especially since 1.5. Text-display is not quite on par with Safari, Safari's interface is a tick more polished (I _love_ that Safari doesnt need no "Go"-button or Return-key), but still: fast and clean.

Particularly nice is Camino's ad-blocking, especially regarding Flash (blocking Flash, indicating it by icon which can be clicked on a case-by-case basis, no all-over activation for Flash when you just want to see that one YouTube-video -- as with Safari's Saft-plugin, for instance: there, you always have to go to the Safari-Menu to unblock Flash etc., which causes _all_ Flash-instances in _all_ open windows/tabs to activate: very annoying, quite time-consuming, superfluous).

Ok, said that, there are a couple of gripes I have with Camino 1.5:

- no support for Dictionary in the context menu; not even for the control-command-D shortcut.

- no direct option-click (or by context menu item) download to your download-directory of files which get otherwise opened in a browser-window (like mp3's) -- Safari does this by way of option-click/cm item.

- Bookmark manager: while vastly better than Safari's (which is ridiculous: no ordering etc.), I would wish to have something like a column-view. Moreover, search works not as expected, since when you search "All", it searchs only in the collection selected in the right-hand panel (and, no, you cannot command-select more than one collection at once). What about search _all_ (collections)??!

What is nice though is, that Camino doesnt seem to slow down over time, even in the course of extensive sessions (I'm looking in your direction, Safari). I still have an eye on memory-consumption (again, Safari can be a very bad boy).

Thanks for reading my overly long comment.  
(Version 1.5)

LEONCAHUN  You might want to check this hint regarding restoring Auto Gain Control and Echo Cancellation:

http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2007/04/skype_hack_for_.html

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=57766  
(Version 2.6.0.140)

LEONCAHUN  A universal binary would be welcomed (2.6.1 is noticeable slow on fast Core Duo's, e.g. when invoking the Statistics-service).  
(Version 2.6.1)

LEONCAHUN  Let me help you out: what I tried to get across--obviously in kind of a hyberbolic (do you know that word, too?) way--is that Songbird literally let the difference disappear between your own local library and a "library" somewhere "out there"--simply because the music "out there" gets, gui-wise, displayed in basically the very same way as your local library. Let alone that you can add (by drag'n'drop) the remote music to your local library much more easily and in much more an intuitive way than in iTunes, where you still have to literally "download" the music or "subscribe" to a podcast.

Hold your horses: I know that technically mp3's (or whatever) have to be downloaded to your local machine to "be part" of your "local" computer (like in "to be carried away", "to be burned on a disc", etc)--but, the point is that songbird's gui makes that very difference irrelevant, deprecated. Hence, the whole pragmatics of dealing with music, locally and remotely, gets changed.

That's what seems to me the "2.0"-ness of Songbird. (And, yes, it has already dawned over me that iTunes is somewhere in the 7.x-region. But then again, check back with what "2.0" means these days.)

(And I'm not arguing that, as of now, iTunes is in a lot of respects more polished. I'm talking about the concept behind iTunes v/ SB.)

Now, I'm sure you feel a bit more enlighted. Thanks for standing, and excuse my verbosity.  
(Version 0.2.5)

LEONCAHUN  2% cpu is only true when you use it _very_ carefully, like just letting drop in chat-messages, etc.

But: whenif you scroll in populated windows, when you change themes, etc. cpu-drawing jumps up very high (like 100% on a Core Duo), leaving the app temporarily unresponsive, therefore unusable, at least warming up your Intel-Mac.

It's a pity since otherwise this app could be _the_ OS X IRC-app.

But please fix ressource-management first. Thx.  
(Version 2.1(3590))

LEONCAHUN  Finally, iTunes 2.0 . . .

Yes, it's still buggy, but there is something in the coming --

local v/ remote never felt so deprecated.

iTunes, do you feel the heat??  
(Version 0.2.1)

LEONCAHUN  One word: please make it universal!!

Great utility.  
(Version 2.0.1)

LEONCAHUN  That's good – unfortunately, in workflows that comprise a certain number of people it is practically impossible to force everybody to save as rtf, even if it would be possible without any restrictions in content, formatting, etc.

I'm talking specifically about academic contexts in the humanities (in natural sciences much more people use LaTeX) – it's just like that: some people will send you .doc-files, so in the end everybody settles on .doc-files. You cant help. It's stupid, but yet it is a fact of life.

Still, I recommend people to give Mellel a try, compatibility-issues aside.  
(Version 2.1.3)

LEONCAHUN  The app is nice, though it should be easier to switch views (tab-based view, drawer-based view, etc).

However, what is a problem is the amount of cpu-cycles this puppy draws. In Activity Monitor it jumps up and down, crossing the 65% level (on a 2GHz Core Duo)! Come on, that's an IRC app (and I am talking about being connected to _one_ server, and _four_ channels at a time; not like 20 servers, and 80 channels).

Bottom line: this app warms up my Macbook Pro more than Safari under heavy use; comparable to Aperture preparing some slideshow-previews, or stuff. I dont think that's acceptable.  
(Version 2.1)

LEONCAHUN  Great app. Please make it universal!  
(Version 1.1)

LEONCAHUN  This app is wonderful – I wish it was universal . . .

Anything comparable on Intel?  
(Version 2.1.1)

LEONCAHUN  Indeed, an awesome tool. Really brillant, fast, handy.

Just two little quirks:

There is still something wrong (not totally perfect) about the crop-tool in v.3: I'm not quite sure, but the procedure of cropping gets confused from time to time – I mean, why not have a simple, straight-forward handling: select the crop-tool, then click in the image, and the modification-handles show up immediately? As it is now, it is a tricky game of (automatic full) selection-shade, bringing up the handles, and not loosing focus. Sorry, hard to explain, but I'm sure it should be even easier, more robust (cropping v.2 was much more robust, though not as elegant).

I would like to have the modifications-handles on the crop-margin to be a bit more subtle, not these rather large, screamy yellow dots.

Another point: I think, IW doesnt accept "/", slashes in filenames, though OS X, the Finder do.

Dont get me wrong: this tool rocks!  
(Version 3.0b8)

LEONCAHUN  I am sorry to say this, honestly: but when I try to open a .doc-file with M$ Word generated endnotes in it, Mellel cannot handle the endnotes, ie. it just forgets about the numbering while displaying the endnotes (at the end of document) just as unnumbered lines of text.

That's the kind of dealbreaker which forces me to use Word occasionally (in general I am a very happy LaTeX-boy) when working in .doc-workflows.

It would be great if Mellel or something else could _really_ replace Word, but for now Mellel or anything else seems just not to be there. I mean, why bother when in the first document tried the endnotes get screwed?!

I guess M$ just plays its monopolistic cards to keep the .doc-specs tight enough to not really allow for true competition. It's sad and bad. M$ sucks as ever.  
(Version 2.1.2)

LEONCAHUN  Actually I feel kind of sorry to hear this. I used to use Eudora 6.x up until Tiger came with Apple Mail 2.x, the first usable version of Mail in my opinion. I finally switched because Eudora's text-display was sub par for years, at least according to OS X-standards. And meanwhile Mail's feature-set had become quite okay, though not more.

But, ever so often while using Mail and while encountering its many quirks and bugs I was thinking: oh yeah, one day, there will be a Cocoa-based Eudora with beautiful text-rendering, Spotlight-support (or even without, search was always very good in Eudora) and everything else that Eudora offered for years (super-stability, speed, logic, consistency, etc.), and I will switch back, but –– alas, not in this life!

Dont know, maybe even a Thunderbird-Eudora-hybrid will turn out great and I'm looking forward to it, and open-source is a great concept anyway -- but Eudora is so damn solid and well thought in many ways, and so many of its bugs were squashed back in the days of yore that I have doubts there will be anything comparable soon.

Really a pity Qualcomm couldnt pull Eudora Cocoa.  
(Version 6.2.4)

LEONCAHUN  VC 1.1.2 crashed my Mac (10.4.7, Quicktime 7.1.2, G3 400MHz) hard(!) two times in a row; I had to restart -- are there any requirements regarding performance (VC basically came to a halt before freezing my Mac)?? At least, there are no requirements mentioned here, or on the website.

To be clear: my Mac didnt freeze for months (meaning, basically, I cannot remember when it did freeze the last time), so I consider my system in pretty good, ie. normal OS X-shape, etc.

I did can record my voice with VC, but the crashs happened when I tried to switch effects.  
(Version 1.1.2)

LEONCAHUN  Oh, right, that's a pity: the old strawberry was much more juicy!!

Make sure to copy the berry-icon before trashing the old version.  
(Version 2.1)

LEONCAHUN  Has anyone asked for standard tabs yet?? :)

(PLEASE, at least as an option)  
(Version 5.5b3)

LEONCAHUN  This app is just awesome: so Mac, so perfect. Thank you!  
(Version 0.4.3)

LEONCAHUN  come on, guys: let's treat it, in the words of John Gruber, gentlemanly!

The dev did just some experiments with DF's css-file, and has since corrected and apologized.

I dont think anyone in Macworld can "rip off" John Gruber's DF-layout: that's how signature it is.

I can easily imagine how someone setting up a webpage lets it play, just for the fun one of it, DF for half a day.

So, please, no bad feelings.

Everything is good on our nerdy planet.

(and, no, I;m not affiliated with the dev, or somehting; although I'm an avid reader of DF and like it a lot.)

Except: I'm wondering if the widget couldnt draw the results of the games and display them?! Would be great.  
(Version 1.1)

LEONCAHUN  "all the OS bugs"

- sure ...  
(Version 0.05)

LEONCAHUN  This actually is particularly crucial if you are writing german, since there you have initial capitals all over (any noun etc.; in case you wondered).

Another little thing: in rare cases you do want to type two initial characters - should there be an option to have a modifier-key to not invoke Textpander in such cases? Or would I just have to resort to call-Textpander-by-trigger-mode (and in these cases just not trigger it)?

Thanks, and sorry if I'm totally blind and asking the obvious. Still, I dont find anything in the docs and neither via Google.  
(Version 1.2.2)

LEONCAHUN  I was wondering: can I make Textpander fix _any_ two initial capitals of _any_ word (like Word does, or at least Word offers this as an option) into, obviously, only the first letter as capital, the second lowercase?

The point is: I dont want to add a _very_ long list of rules for each word I tend to type with two initial capitals (basically: all words of all languages mankind came up with, ever ;), but I want _one_ rule for any such case.

I just cant see any hint in the documentation.  
(Version 1.2.2)

LEONCAHUN  I'm a bit confused: shouldn't a Quicktime Component for Ogg provide an option to export to Ogg from within Quicktime Player (Pro)?

I installed Xiph QT Component 0.1.3 on Tiger 10.4.5, QT 7.0.4 (Pro) and, yes, I (QT Player, iTunes 6.0.4) can play ogg-files, but there is no ogg-entry in the export-menu of QT Player.

Also, the Info-panel in iTunes classifies the ogg-files as "Quicktime movie file".  
(Version 0.1.3)

LEONCAHUN  A universal binary of LAME 3.97b2 is available at rarewares.org.  
(Version 3.96.1)

LEONCAHUN  You can use it together with the "LAME Quicktime MP3 Encoder Component" (there is another site which doesnt seem to be up to date, though) to export to LAME-encoded mp3's right out of Quicktime Player. Pretty nifty.

Place LAME.framework in ~/Library/Frameworks/ (or in /Library/Frameworks/ for all users; create the folder, if it doesnt yet exist), place LAMEEncoder.component in ~/Library/Quicktime/ (or in /Library/Quicktime/ for all users; again, create it, if it doesnt yet exist), and you're done. Re-open Quicktime Player and check your Export-options.

(NB.: Why there is no entry for LAME Quicktime MP3 Encoder Component on Macupdate.com??)

But there is also Max.

LAME is regarded to provide a much higher encoding quality (especially with the option "insane" ;) than, for instance, iTunes, Quicktime (see also mp3dev.org).  
(Version 3.97b2)

LEONCAHUN  After a while (some restarts), or so it seems, the problem disappears, ie. DownloadComment is still able to place the URL in downloaded-by-Safari-while-passing-thru-its-Save-dialogue files' Spotlight Comment-field (was that clear?).

From time to time, a URL slips through. Dont know why this very rarley happens; still investigating.

Bottom line: DFX2.5 seems to play nice with DownloadComment.  
(Version 2.5b3)

LEONCAHUN  There seems to be a conflict with DFX' new Spotlight Comment-field and DownloadComment -- i.e. DFX overwrites the URL in the comment-field, even if you do not file a new Spotlight comment when saving via the DFX-enhanced Save-dialogue.  
(Version 2.5b3)

LEONCAHUN  Same hunger here: 2.5b3: 21,21 MB --

has anybody numbers for v.2.0.x for comparison?  
(Version 2.5b3)

LEONCAHUN  I understand that it seems confusing someone is charging $30 for the proverbial "yet another player". Let me therefore just share my experience with Chroma: this app ROCKS.

And that's because Chroma is the _only_ player able to play a lot of movies on my (I admit) aging G3-Powerbook, where other players (notably Quicktime Player Pro 7.x, but also VLC, MPlayer, etc.) give up, ie. drop frames to a degree, where watching is going pathetic.

So maybe Chroma seems to perform so admirable just because the other players perform so poorly – it's true: Chroma does nothing special: but this nothing-special it does unbelievably good.

Bottom line: if the other, free players work for you there is probably no reason to try (and buy) Chroma.

If, on the other hand, you're desperately looking for a player that just plays those movies which your G3 refuses to play since you updated to Tiger (and QT 7), then Chroma comes to you like your very own saviour.

And, no: no affiliation of whatever kind with Mirailabs.

Just an user, that is amazed what is good ol' Pismo can do the right software provided.  
(Version 2006.2)