Wittiness like this is one reason why I decided to support our Mr. Gruber. (The latter of which won me an iLife '04 book + DVD from Jim Heid! Thanks, John!)

So it seems that just about everyone has weighed in on the Dashboard vs Konfabulator issue. I happen to firmly echo the sentiments of John Gruber, and, like Michael, feel the bigger picture is getting lost in the melee. I have tried Konfabulator and its many widgets. I was initially impressed, but in the end, I feel the widgets are nothing more than extra eye candy that, as Gruber points out, takes up even more memory from my system. I fooled around with Panic's Stattoo, which seeks to provide the same sort of feedback that most of the widgets available for Konfabulator do. Stattoo, however, is an application running different "capsules" within its environment, whereas each Konfabulator widget is running as a separate app, each loading the Konfabulator runtime engine. If I were going to use one over the other, I would go with Panic's offering, based on the types of capsules vs widgets involved. In the end, the point is moot, as neither will find a permanent home on my systems. I just don't see the point. I can tell the time and date because it's already up in the menu bar. I can tell how much battery charge is left on my PowerBook because it's already up in the menu bar. I can tell my iChat status because it's already up in the menu bar. I can tell what the weather is, and what it's going to be, because I already have WeatherPop Advance running--you guessed it--in the menu bar. I keep iTunes minimized, and position the window where I can always tell what song is playing, so I have no need for that particular widget, either. For that matter, I use Synergy as my alternative iTunes controller, because the buttons reside--drumroll, please--in the menu bar. If I have new mail, the bouncing Mailsmith icon in the Dock is sufficient to warn me. I realize there are many other widgets out there for Konfabulator that do other things, but after looking through the gallery, there are some that are cool, but none that I cannot live without. I would rather have my system resources back. Which brings us back to Dashboard, and how it differs from Konfabulator in that regard. Gruber has an excellent summary of this, and I see that the impact on system resources will be less when using Dashboard gadgets than Konfabulator widgets. Like Michael, I personally am more inclined to fool around with building my own Dashboard gadget, because I already know some HTML and CSS, and can build on that knowledge. There is a greater reach toward the hobbyist market with Dashboard, versus Konfabulator. It will be fun to play around in. Of course, the Dashboard gadgets are going to have to evolve beyond the typical widgets and capsules I have already mentioned. I'm not about to go with eye candy that replicates what the system, or another app, is already telling me in another format.

The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Ted's amazing ATPO series continues with a look at the future of outlining, while Ellyn takes a chance with a public appearance, and how the digital lifestyle has made it easy to share such a moment. Yours truly shares some more desktop pictures from Kilauea Volcano National Park, and posts a review of the BOOQ BP3 System. Lee reviews the iTalk, next on my own iPod accessory list, and Eric looks at a shell script book that actually discusses Mac OS X. Other reviews and articles abound. As always, available in three different flavors for your reading pleasure.

Apple publicly acknowledges what Mac users have known all along.

GigaDesigns announced today a 1.5 GHz G4 upgrade for the Power Mac Cube. However, at six hundred smackers, I believe I'd rather put that toward a new G5.

From my days of working on 15-inch LCDs, I have long hidden Mac OS X's Dock. After all, I wanted to maximize my screen real estate. I still do this on my 12-inch PowerBook, for the same reason. On my Cube, however, I have a 19-inch Princeton LCD and my Apple 15-inch Studio Display. Plenty visual expanse, right? Yet old habits die hard, and I have found that I do not miss the Dock at all. I am not one of the many whom have not cared for the Dock since OS X first rolled out. On the contrary, I rather enjoyed having it. But the addition to the operating system of cool switching via Command-Tab, and my usage of--nay, addiction to--LaunchBar, has rendered for me the Dock irrelevant. If the current beta of LaunchBar 4 is any indication, the final release of this new revision is going to ensure my hands stay on the keyboard even more. Finder usage will not be going away any time soon. I still need that for moving files about via drag-and-drop, and I have customized my Finder toolbar with various apps for such drag-and-drop operations. One example would be opening archive files of various denominations by dropping them on Stuffit Expander. I know the command-line junkies will tell me that I can do all of that from the Terminal, thus ensuring my hands stay on the keyboard even more. However, for some operations, such as the example above, I believe I am faster with the mouse than typing in pathnames to drill down to the file I want.

The June issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Matt Coates discusses online offers and gives us a glimpse of his personal network. Andrew Kator has a wicked cool tutorial on combining the power of Blender with Xgrid. Paul Fatula reviews Mariner Write 3.6; I last reviewed version 2.0.5 in January 1999. The second part of Lee's desktop pictures from Puerto Rico are available. Other columns and reviews fill out the issue, and as usual, it is available in different formats for your reading pleasure.

No, Apple hasn't made any new product announcements, but Peter Kellner resurrected an old iMac in new clothing. (via MacInTouch)

This handy chart of Mac OS version builds that shipped with various systems since 1998 is incredibly valuable. (via MacInTouch)

Thanks to the newly-introduced PowerBooks, and getting back some of our hard-earned dough from Uncle Sam, there is a new phischbook in the house. I was able to score a now-previous generation PowerBook G4 12-inch 1 GHz system, with a SuperDrive, from my local Apple Store for a song. It was one of their demo units, refurb'ed by one of the in-store techs, most of whom I know from my previous employer, and trust to be thorough. I carefully inspected it before finalizing the purchase, and it appears immaculate. Along with the three-year AppleCare, a must-have with portables, and an Airport Extreme card I purchased, it was still less than a brand-new PowerBook in the same part of the line-up. A 512 MB SO-DIMM purchase from the fine folks at Other World Computing brings it up to 768 MB of RAM. This purchase settled three wishes I've had since being laid off this past October: (1) a PowerBook; (2) a faster Mac in general (my Cube is still at the original 450 MHz); and (3) a way to burn DVDs. I love the ultra-portability of the smallest PowerBook!

The May issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Ellyn makes a wonderful observation on social contacts on the Internet, which I know has been positive for me. I have a local friend whom I met online first, and like Ellyn and one of her friends, I have doubts on whether we would have become friends if we had met in meatspace first. I know Lee, Michael, Raena, and Eric through our meetings online. Granted, all are part of the ATPM staff, but our friendships have developed beyond this commonality. These are people who have come to me for advice or my opinion, and I have sought the same from them. (And likely the latter moreso than the former!) Eric is the only one I have met (twice!) in the physical world, meeting at the New York Macworld Expos in 2001 and 2002. My various web sites wouldn't be where they are, design-wise, without Raena's expertise. Michael's SpamSieve, for which I was an original beta tester, has made my online life immeasurably better. I'm assisting Eric as a tester with a kick-butt product he is developing, and I get to tease him when the Rangers sweep his beloved Red Sox, as happened this past weekend. Thinking of all the people I know solely from my online journeys, I would have to say that Lee is my best friend in cyberspace. Ellyn's point is well taken with yours truly. Wes has yet another extensive round-up of the latest Mac blogosphere happenings, Paul always finds something that makes me laugh, and Sylvester discusses the latest in the cloning front. Lee's friend Andy McConnell has a report from this year's National Association of Broadcasters Convention, and Ted takes NoteTaker and Notebook head-to-head in an eagerly anticipated match-up. Lee contributes desktop pictures from his very recent vacation to Puerto Rico, the latest Cortland and iTrolls toons are accounted for, and we have a plethora of great reviews. Available in the usual fruity flavors.

My eyes! My eyes! Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should do something. (via Kahney)

Maury McCown of RAILhead Design has released a massive, 146-icon collection of NASA space flight patches. The patches range from the Freedom 7 flight in 1961 through 2003's ill-fated Columbia mission. Maury obviously put in a lot of work on this icon set, and it is a must-have for NASA/space fans. Sorry, Windows users, for Macintosh only.

The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Yours truly contributed desktop pictures for this month's issue. Of note is Evan's Soundsticks review, Ted's announcement of a new outliner, and would someone please send Wes some feedback so he'll stop whining? Geez, you'd think Tom was writing again...

The March issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available, in leaded, unleaded, and diesel flavors.

ATPM staffer Chris Lawson informs us that the the former OS X maintainer, Derk-Jan Hartman, has stepped down from the VideoLAN Client project. So far, no OS X developer has stepped up to take his place. So if you're a Mac OS X developer looking to contribute to a worthy open source project, give VLC a look.