Probably not as much as people are fearing. Basically, Spotlight is a front end to Tiger's database file system which allows for files to have metadata tags. It's very similar to the file system used in BeOS. Quoting from that article:
For the everyday user, though, BFS has much more tangible advantages. Any file or file type on a BFS volume can have arrays of metadata associated with it, in the form of "attributes." There is no limit to the amount, size, or type of attributes, and attributes can be displayed and edited, sifted, sorted, and queried for directly in the Tracker (Be's equivalent of the Finder). Because most attributes are indexed, search results are nearly instantaneous, regardless the size of the volume or the number of files being searched through. By default, BeOS ships with reasonable sets of attributes for common file types, but users are allowed to extend and customize these, and to create entirely new file types with entirely new arrays of attributes. In other words, the Be File System doubles as a database.
Users can use built-in filetypes with existing attributes, or create entirely new filetypes with custom collections of attributes. These files were used to deliver a dynamic web site out of the BFS database without using 3rd-party database software.
It is difficult to describe to users of other operating systems just how advantageous an operating system built on top of a virtual database can be. Only other BeOS users really seem to understand the power and flexibility of the database-like file system, and it is the single feature I miss the most from BeOS.
Copy your MP3 files' ID3 tags to Artist, Title, Year, Genre attributes. Sift and sort through your collection in the Tracker in almost anyway imaginable, or build playlists from MP3 attribute queries with far more flexibility than you get in other OSes.
BeMail messages store Subject, From, To, CC:, Date, etc. in attributes. Create virtual mailboxes based on live, instantaneous query results. This lets you obtain views of your email store that are irrespective of the actual folder locations of BeMail messages on disk.
Years ago, I created a custom file type based on text, with attributes for author, title, email, URL, etc. Then I wrote a CGI script in perl to extract and dish up these attributes over the web. In other words, I was serving up a database-backed web site without having to install or learn any database software whatsoever. That site now runs on LAMP, but you can see how the site was created here.
The OS-level metatags in BeOS was really really cool and I can't wait to see how it's implemented in Tiger.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT, Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Curious George Finds the Ether Bottle (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:41 (nineteen years ago) link
xpost
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm intrigued by the legal difference between Johnston and Gill Sans. Transport For London still claims ownership of Johnston and, especially, New Johnston - does the Strategic Rail Authority have any rights over Gill Sans?
― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 17 March 2005 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Allyzay Dallas Multi-Pass (allyzay), Friday, 18 March 2005 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Definately Original Johnston. I believe on Johnston the copyright has lapsed, Johnston himself having died more than 70 years ago but I don't know if a font can be trademarked as an entity in itself or whether it is is just the usage (Roundel, signage, map styles etc.) that is trademarked. I believe that New Johnston is under copyright and the move to new johnston was as much about having an important part of the coporate identity under copyright as improving clarity.
I shall persuade Ambrose to ask his Dad who knows about thses things.
As for Gill Sans, it's not been used on the railways for years. I'm not sure what is the type face is nowadays but it's not proper Gill Sans nowadays.
― Ed (dali), Friday, 18 March 2005 09:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Friday, 18 March 2005 09:19 (nineteen years ago) link
(*somewhere* I have a 1970-something issue of Modern Railways magazine with a "Ten years of the Design Panel" article)
* this may not have been what it was actually called - I'm sure it was Corporate Something, though.
― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 18 March 2005 10:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― mei (mei), Friday, 18 March 2005 12:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Allyzay Dallas Multi-Pass (allyzay), Friday, 18 March 2005 13:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:36 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm pretty happy w/the ST1040/TOS box I use for midi sequencing, heh.
standard font on my SUSE box = Black Chancery.
I was thinking about getting one of those mac minis, loading it up w/a 8x8 midi interface, a MOTU firewire 8x8 audio interface and using it as a replacement for my atari/hdr setup. Maybe I'm not so sure now. Ally + tombot on this thread are great!!
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:09 (nineteen years ago) link
Arial is good for small font sizes on non-anti-aliased screens. If you don't have ClearType turned on and you're reading a small sidebar, Arial is what you want. Otherwise it's pretty ugly.
― sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT, Friday, 18 March 2005 18:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:20 (nineteen years ago) link
If you could push a feature request, or perhaps a bug on yourwish-list to the top of Apples' radar for OSX, what would itbe?Kill Finder X. It's really that bad. But don't justresuscitate Finder 9 -- do better. Finder 9 always needed atoolbar, for example. Finder 9 needed a plugin architecture.Finder X does trounce Finder 9 in terms of built-in search,though.There are people out there who know what the next Finder lookslike. Apple needs to get out of their way and let them deliverit.You seem like a guy who prefers to refactor rather thanrewrite, so I'm going to assume you wouldn't say that lightly,and we'll just proceed on the assumption that Finder X is acomplete clusterfuck. How does a company known for itsinnovation, craftsmanship and software skills let somethinglike Finder X out the door?Finder X is the compromise between the Mac OS folks and theNeXT folks. Neither won, everybody lost.Oh my god, the entire bastardized notion of switching frommetal to aqua and hiding the sidebar when clicking on thetoolbar chiclet in the upper right-hand corner.Bonus: notice how if you click on the extreme right of thechiclet and try to switch back, you fail -- the window themeswitch moved the chiclet slightly to the left and now you'vegot to follow it. Gag. Folks, this type of stuff makes Gnomelook good.I don't know how Finder X shipped. Someone high enough mustbe in love with it that the normal human interface vetting+feedback process didn't/couldn't take place.
Kill Finder X. It's really that bad. But don't justresuscitate Finder 9 -- do better. Finder 9 always needed atoolbar, for example. Finder 9 needed a plugin architecture.Finder X does trounce Finder 9 in terms of built-in search,though.
There are people out there who know what the next Finder lookslike. Apple needs to get out of their way and let them deliverit.
You seem like a guy who prefers to refactor rather thanrewrite, so I'm going to assume you wouldn't say that lightly,and we'll just proceed on the assumption that Finder X is acomplete clusterfuck. How does a company known for itsinnovation, craftsmanship and software skills let somethinglike Finder X out the door?
Finder X is the compromise between the Mac OS folks and theNeXT folks. Neither won, everybody lost.
Oh my god, the entire bastardized notion of switching frommetal to aqua and hiding the sidebar when clicking on thetoolbar chiclet in the upper right-hand corner.
Bonus: notice how if you click on the extreme right of thechiclet and try to switch back, you fail -- the window themeswitch moved the chiclet slightly to the left and now you'vegot to follow it. Gag. Folks, this type of stuff makes Gnomelook good.
I don't know how Finder X shipped. Someone high enough mustbe in love with it that the normal human interface vetting+feedback process didn't/couldn't take place.
― TOMBOT, Monday, 28 March 2005 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Monday, 28 March 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 28 March 2005 22:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 28 March 2005 22:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 28 March 2005 22:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:00 (nineteen years ago) link
the thing in the upper right
― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:02 (nineteen years ago) link
Anyway, Tog says: http://www.asktog.com/columns/060MonsterMac.html
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
People need to stop being such cranks. Iterative improvments are going to come along.
― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT, Monday, 28 March 2005 23:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Um. So I'm not saying there couldn't be a better Finder, but... is that really all the guy can find to complain about?
― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Nobody In Particular, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 01:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 01:45 (nineteen years ago) link
(maybe it's a joke)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 01:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 23 June 2005 04:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― a real bear behind the microphone (nordicskilla), Thursday, 23 June 2005 04:26 (eighteen years ago) link
I would say applecare is important for laptops, less so for desktops.
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 23 June 2005 04:34 (eighteen years ago) link
AppleCare is pretty essential for laptops. They're expensive, they get beat up, and if the screen fails you're already way ahead of the game in overall cost.
I've actually had to use it once and it saved plenty of time being able to leap-frog ahead to the front of the support line. To be fair though, if I don't have my laptop I'm not able to work at all - making that "does it pay for itself" question pretty easy to answer.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 23 June 2005 04:44 (eighteen years ago) link
(they seem to run xp happily enough 8)
― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 23 June 2005 12:51 (eighteen years ago) link