Skip to main content

Mac OS X Dashboard - Haven't I seen This Before?

I'll give Apple heavy kudos on this - they have managed to take something that other OS's have done and turn it into a very "cool" looking demo. The Dashboard is a "home to widgets", tools that let you perform common tasks and provide fast access to information.

Ummm....yes, Microsoft had something called the Digital Dashboard
but that was more about data.

Apple's demo of the Dashboard actually reminds me more of the "Active Desktop" (now, come on - be serious - how many of you still use the Active Desktop? - when I search for Active Desktop on the the MS web site, it takes me to a "The page you are looking for has been removed" but here's a link to a recent (well semi-recent) article. The description from Microsoft:

The Active Desktop interface lets you put "active content" from Web pages onto your desktop. For example, you could put a constantly updating stock ticker in a handy place on your desktop or make your favorite online newspaper your desktop wallpaper. You can make your desktop truly your own space by adding the active items you need to refer to on a regular basis: news, weather, sports, stock prices, or whatever you want to have at hand. Your desktop can now reflect you--your preferences and your style.

Kind of sounds the same? Wonder if the fate will be the same. I recall when it first came out, many end users turned it on only to have their IT people run around turning it off because it confused them so much. Hopefully Apple users will have a better experience (they typically do)

Yes, the Apple demo really does look very cool but as Ars Technico notes : You can probably guess that those special effects won't work on every Mac out there.

Apple - Mac OS X - Theater - Dashboard

Comments

Ted Roche said…
IIRC, there are some innovations here over what was possible with MS' Active Desktop, but Apple's widgets are disturbingly similar to a 3rd party product - see http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboard_vs_konfabulator. There is a contingent within the Apple community that protests that anything they do - Sherlock vs. Watson, Spotlight vs. Google Desktop Seach, etc. are all rip-offs. Hard to tell. We don't, after all, want anyone to be able to patent an idea and lock it away from the rest of us.

A wise man (or was he a wise guy?) once said that there are only 23 problems in computing. And we keep solving them over and over...
April 12, 2005 at 7:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elevating Project Specifications with Three Insightful ChatGPT Prompts

For developers and testers, ChatGPT, the freely accessible tool from OpenAI, is game-changing. If you want to learn a new programming language, ask for samples or have it convert your existing code. This can be done in Visual Studio Code (using GitHub CoPilot) or directly in the ChatGPT app or web site.  If you’re a tester, ChatGPT can write a test spec or actual test code (if you use Jest or Cypress) based on existing code, copied and pasted into the input area. But ChatGPT can be of huge value for analysts (whether system or business) who need to validate their needs. There’s often a disconnect between developers and analysts. Analysts complain that developers don’t build what they asked for or ask too many questions. Developers complain that analysts haven’t thought of obvious things. In these situations, ChatGPT can be a great intermediary. At its worst, it forces you to think about and then discount obvious issues. At best, it clarifies the needs into documented requirements. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Respect

Respect is something humans give to each other through personal connection. It’s the bond that forms when we recognize something—or someone—as significant, relatable, or worthy of care. This connection doesn’t have to be limited to people. There was an  article  recently that described the differing attitudes towards AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini (formerly Bard). Some people treat them like a standard search while others form a sort of personal relationship — being courteous, saying “please” and “thank you”. Occasionally, people share extra details unrelated to their question, like, ‘I’m going to a wedding. What flower goes well with a tuxedo?’ Does an AI “care” how you respond to it? Of course not — it reflects the patterns it’s trained on. Yet our interaction shapes how these tools evolve, and that influence is something we should take seriously. Most of us have all expressed frustration when an AI “hallucinates”. Real or not, the larger issue is that we have hi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Friend vs Therapist vs LLM: Shades of Grey

The conversations with AI series brings up a single point and then compares it between different LLM engines. These types of conversations were one of the many contributing factors to my writing of " Towards Consciousness " that explores the benefits and issues of creating a conscious AI. In this scenario, I was interested in seeing how an LLM might differ from a friend or therapist on issues that may have nuanced responses or contexts. In doing so, I came up with an interesting discussion on shades of grey. My Premise: Is it a bit strange to be using an LLM as a sober second thought? Every time I walk down this path of “why use an LLM to do certain things”, I come back to the alternatives that people like to say. “Why not bring it up with a friend?” A friend typically has your back or will say whatever to support their own agenda. “A therapist?” That’s someone who is “trained” to be impartial. But a computer? A computer is impartial based on two logical outcomes. If you say ...
Post a Comment
Read more