Today I recieved an email from someone asking why I'd dropped the name Slipstream for WindowFlow and I thought it was worth blogging it:
- Doing a US trademark search turned up too many other technology related uses of the term Slipstream.
- There's already a software product out there with the name Slipstream and the .com domain is in use by it.
- In the MS Windows world, Slipstream is a technique used to update a Windows install disk with more recent patches and most web searches for Slipstream refer to this technique. Given how wide spread this is I thought it would be difficult to penetrate these search results.
- When I asked on the super helpful Mac Small Business mailing list the consensus was that it wasn't worth risking using the name and having to change it later. Here's a recent example of 37Signals having to drop their Haystack name for Sortfolio.
It was a tough decision to make, I was very attached to Slipstream, but with WindowFlow I've got the .com domain and it gives a stronger indication of being able to control and move windows in a flow, so I'm happy to settle on it.
With the latest release of WindowFlow I had a bit of a dilemma: I'd previously added a feature which allowed you to remove WindowFlow from the Dock and hide it's menu bar; this is actually a pretty common feature for this kind of app and turning it on makes WindowFlow feel like it's much more integrated into the O.S. But the problem is that with the menu bar hidden there's no easy way to quit the app, access help or any of the other things that are listed in the menu.
The normal solution to this is to make these menu items accessible from somewhere else within the application, here you can see Google's Quick Search Box, clicking on the arrow opens up the menu where I can access preferences and quit the app. Google have compromised here though: there's no 'Send Feedback' option which can otherwise be accessed via the menu bar.
With WindowFlow I really didn't want to ruin the clean layout by adding an arrow or toolbox icon. There is a menu which the user can access by right clicking on a window name, but that menu is context sensitive and is intended for the user to indicate that WindowFlow should ignore a window or application, cluttering this up with quit, help and feedback items didn't seem obvious or right.
So I've removed the feature: the option to hide WindowFlow's dock icon and menu bar is no longer present. I'll re-add it when I've got an appropriate solution.
The other negative side effect of this is that you are now stuck with the icon, at least until the new design is finalised, which is a current work in progress.
It's been a very tough choice to make but I knew I had to let go of the name Slipstream because of legal concerns...
And so, after many weeks of browsing the thesaurus and looking for a unique name which descripes the utility of the application I've settled on WindowFlow with the website at windowflow.com
The process of coming up with the name was an interesting one: I had a pad in the kitchen where I wrote out all the names that came to me, I'd then check the names in Google to see if there was a software product using the name, this was the most disheartening step as so 95% of the names I liked were already in use. I'd then browse the thesaurus usualy looking at groups of verbs and how they could combine with the words screen or window, which are the nouns appropriate for my application. Then I'd be back at the pad writing out my ideas.
It grew to be quite compulsive, I'd wake up in the morning with words bouncing around in my head waiting to be connected. The runner up names were ScreenCore and WinGuru.
I'm really happy with the name, it's a big shift from Slipstream, which is a cool name but doesn't say anything about what it does. WindowFlow is also unique in the search engines and there's no single coherent group of search results for window flow (with separate words - Bing wants to autocomplete the search to "Window Flower Boxes") either. It also fits in with my broader plans for the application: beyond providing controls to switch between windows and resize windows I'm working towards making it as intuitive as possible, fitting with the idea of keeping you in a state of Flow.
The next job is to get the icon sorted. The current icon is something I put together as a temporary solution and I was happy using it in development as it hints at the idea of a slipstream but now it seems quite out of place. Watch this space!
After months of work, Slipstream is in commercial beta and the product website is live at slipstreamapp.com
The app has evolved and includes lots of great new functionality including
- Window tiling, which is a really easy way to rearrange a group of windows to fill your screen space.
- Much smoother and smarter window resizing and moving.
- Preferences, Help and Quick Start Guide.
I've also added a screencast on the web site where I run through the basics of Slipstream.
The Mac Developer Network has continued to be a great resource to test and provide feedback.
I'm very impressed with the time energy people put in to give constructive feedback and that's been a huge help in getting Slipstream to where it is at now. There's
still more to do but I see this product as evolving over the coming months
with continual improvements, refinements and enhancements.
It's very exciting to have it all coming together so well. The website resources are hosted on Amazon's CloudFront which is their content delivery network, this means that my site is duplicated across Amazon's own hosting locations around the world ensuring visitors get it delivered to their browser as quickly as possible. This is important for slipstreamApp.com as it's quite heavy on the images and so could be slow to load for visitors with slow connections. Anyway in the geekiest of ways it's extremely cool that I can so easily take advantage of Amazon's network resources to support my own work.
So if you haven't already download and try Slipstream and, of course, if you like it, buy it.
In this post I give an overview of the steps involved in creating a new Mango Blog theme.
I run this site on the excellent ColdFusion blogging platform Mango Blog and I wanted something different than the standard themes provided. However, user interface design is not one of my strengths (I'm better working behind the scenes on the code) so I went on the hunt for a theme to suit my needs, and if you are reading this on my website you should see the new theme in action. It's adapted from a WordPress theme called Vigilance by Jestro who describes it as:
A lean and clean theme featuring friendly SEO optimized code.
If you are running Mango Blog and would like to use this theme on your own site you can download it here.
When I released Slipstream for testing I registered the application with MacDeveloper.net, a service which cleverly connects developers with testers. It works like this: I setup a profile for my application and offer a discount on the final price to testers. In the first 24 hours I received 30 pieces of feedback which were largely concise, accurate comments and it gave me a lot to think about. This is really useful as there's no way I can test on all the different possible configurations and paying for professional testing isn't an option for a project like this. So if you're building a Cocoa application and looking for testers, then MacDeveloper.net is a great option.
Based on all this feedback I've updated Slipstream with a wide range of changes, the latest version is available for download here.
Here's a Mac application I've had on the back-burner for a while. SlipStream is task switcher with a unique way of showing you your open application windows: it provides a preview of the window and it's location on the desktop. It also gives you keyboard control over the size and position of your windows.
This is really handy if you are a developer who uses large or multiple displays and prefer to keep your hands on the keyboard, which is why I built it.
Download Slipstream.zip here (614 KB) OS X 10.5+
To use
- First you'll need to go to your System Preferences, open Universal Access and check the box "Enable access for assistive devices."
- Launch SlipStream by double clicking on the icon.
- option-tab to cycle between windows, shift-option-tab to reverse cycle.
- control-option & arrow keys to move window against screen edges.
- control-option-shift & arrow keys to resize window.
It's currently in an 'alpha' state with a couple of key features missing (such as preferences to change the keyboard commands), but I'm putting it out there to see if there's any interest and then I'll decide where to take it.
The options, as I see it, are:
- Commericalise: Once complete I'm thinking I'd charge $15 for it.
- Open source: I'd take this route if there were other Cocoa developers interested in working on the code with me.
So try it out and give me some feedback: Does it work for you? What would you pay for it? What features do you need? Or are you a cocoa developer interested in helping out?
In a previous post I mentioned ColdFusion as my web application programming language of choice and it's never been been a better time to be a ColdFusion developer: there are good tools, mature frameworks and there's a great community who are very generous in sharing their knowledge.
So it's my time to pay a little back. Here I describe the steps I've recently taken to setup my own Virtual Private Server (VPS) to host client sites and develop my own projects. This goes right from the first step of selecting a VPS host, operating system, installing the needed packages and adding log analysis and server monitoring.
I'm currently half way through reading Jane Eyre for the first time and, wow! This book is so beautiful, I'm in awe. It's the first book I can truly say I've cherished.
I initially borrowed it from the library but after the first two chapters I knew this was a book I had to own and I happened to be in a queue at the post office when there it was, in the Popular Penguin style inviting me to buy it for only $10. Owning it allows me to enjoy it at a much more leisurely pace, I'm steadily absorbing its richness. In some way reading acts as barometer of my state being. If I'm tired or weary then the words just seem to wash over me and I don't really appreciate the beauty of it and I know I'm loosing the opportunity to enjoy this great work, so I stop, I wait and I rest until I've more energy to enjoy it.
Whilst I like the old style of the book cover I don't think I'd want a whole bookshelf full of them. But then I've never really been attached to the idea of building up my own library of books, as a friend (who does have a sizeable book collection) says, "they're just expensive wallpaper". Having relocated myself significant distances a couple of times over the last few year I've been very comfortable with letting go of most books. Don't get me wrong, there are some books that I do hold on to and Jane Eyre has joined that collection. Invariably I'm also happy to give my books away (although don't come knocking on my door for them), I feel it's nicer both to give and receive a book that's been read before. If I'm giving a book to someone it's creating a connection, in some way we are sharing in the world of the book that's been given. That's often my gauge of enjoyment of a work of fiction: by how much do I feel like I'm inhabiting the world in my own imagination and memory, even when I'm away from it. I think the first book that caught me up in it was Stranger in a Strange Land as a teenager and now Jane Eyre has me. I'm half way through and it's wonderful, it's nourishing, so I read it slowly and savour it.
As an aside, in looking to source an image of the book cover I visited the Popular Penguin Australia website and I thought I'd mention it here because I really like it. It's singular in it's focus, cleanly designed with a nice use of Javascript animations when you highlight and select a book. It's also nice to see that it's a ColdFusion site, my web application programming language of choice.
The second piece of media that I've come across lately and I've said to myself 'This is Gold!' is WNYC's Radio Lab. I listened to the "Where Am I" podcast whilst driving down to Brisbane to pick up my mother from the airport, here's the summary from their site:
This hour: stories of people whose brains and bodies have lost each other. We ask how does your brain keep track of your body? We’ll examine the bond between brain and body and look at what happens when it breaks. We begin with a century-old mystery: why do many amputees still feel their missing limbs? We speak with a neuroscientist who solved the problem with a magician’s trick: an optical illusion. We continue with the story of a butcher who suddenly lost his entire sense of touch. And we hear from pilots who lose consciousness and suffer out-of-body experiences while flying fighter jets.
This is a really smart, funny, compelling broadcast. Listen to it.
I look forward to getting into more of their podcasts. Here's the iTunes link to their whole series.
Ok, I'm going to go off on a tangent here, but stick with me:
So I'm writing this blog post and to reference Radio Lab I do a web search to get the address and before I know it I'm off, distracted, in internet land: I suddenly remember that I wanted to subscribe to the Radio Lab blog, oh and the Meditaion Oasis blog, oh and didn't they mention they've got a twitter account now, so I check that out too, scrolling through the tweets to the last one listed which mentions a "visual meditation on the present moment."
I pause.
I realise I'm freewheeling now, heading for procrastination and I'm not going to get this blog post finished tonight... but hey, what's the harm, it's just one more link, so I click and here's what I get, a presentation by Radio Lab. I'm coming full circle now:
What's going on there?
I don't know but it doesn't stop: I see on Youtube that the video was inspired by the book Sum by David Eaglemen, so I jumped on the library website and placed a reserved it.
Now you might call this unfocussed meanderings, but for me, this is exploring. And there's so much exploring to do: Can you believe I've just discovered Leonard Cohen, can you believe it? This world is filled with such variety and richness and I feel like I'm just scraping the surface and I'm happy.
