The big news on the Mac app front is that I've renamed the Pro edition of WindowFlow to Optimal Layout and taken it to version 1.0.
After a preposterous amount of work this is big news: Optimal Layout is stable, has a solid set of features and good user interface.
Along with the new name there's a new icon and website to match the new identity, check it out all out at http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/
So now I've got 2 distinct products: WindowFlow, the window switcher, and Optimal Layout, which is a more comprehensive solution for organising application windows.
I've setup a blog at http://blog.most-advantageous.com so if you'd like to keep up to date on the latest news for these apps subscribe to it there. I've also got a twitter feed for the Optimal Layout at @optimallayout or if you'd like to follow my personal tweets that's @benlowndes.
From the look of this blog you could think that there wasn't much going on with WindowFlow but there's been a hive of activity behind the scenes:
- The new UI has been released for the Pro version along with some updates for stability and bug fixes.
- I'm exploring a new icon, which you can see to the right, and new website, which you can see here.
- I've been getting loads of great feedback and have lots more improvements in the works.
The standard edition isn't being left behind either: I'm just finalizing the new interface before rolling it out to that edition.
I'm taking a short break with the family to Melbourne, I'll have the ipad but wont be online so much, so if you're looking for support, please be patient.
The latest WindowFlow Pro update adds some much requested new features:
- You can now choose how windows move around the screen: they can either move freely, snapping into alignment with other windows (as it always has) or it can jump directly to the screen edges filling half or quarter of the screen. Switching between these two different moving styles is as easy as using the option-command-/ shortcut, then using the usual keys to move the window around - by default this is option-command and an arrow key.
- In the same way, windows can either be resized freely or they can push other windows as they hit up against them; I described this in the last blog post - watch the screencast if you haven't already, it's very cool.
- Pressing the maximize shortcut repeatedly will cause a window to maximize and then return to it's previous size.
- Activating WindowFlow and then pressing the shift key twice will stop WindowFlow from dismissing itself when the keys are released. This allows you to start typing the window name to select it and use the return key to activate it.
I'm currently re-imagining WindowFlow's user interface; here's an early preview, I'll leave it to your imagination what the buttons along the bottom do:
The latest release of WindowFlow Pro includes a unique new feature called dynamic resizing; this stops neighbouring windows from overlapping when they are resized. This dramatically improves the flexilbility of tiling; you may need to see this to really 'get it', so watch this short screencast.
Over the last week WindowFlow has seen many improvements with better performance, smoother moving & resizing, and better tiling on irregular display arragements. So make sure you are running the latest version by choosing the "Check for updates" menu item, or downloading it from here.
WindowFlow Standard hasn't missed out either: the latest release adds the option to hide WindowFlow from the dock and show it in the menu instead.
Stay tuned for more updates soon; I've got lots of great features in development and at this stage I'm releasing a new version every week or so.
WindowFlow is now up to version 0.9.4 and as well as a bunch of behind the scenes improvements you can see it's got a shiney new icon.
The contents of the window uses the Advanced Glow Effects method demonstrated by Collis. Thank you Collis!
Also big thanks to Shaun from Panga Produductions for helping implement the design. He also produced an awesome animated version, check it out:
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. - Douglas Adams
I recently picked up Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything again and each night I'm enjoying dipping in to it and being wow'd for a little while before I fall asleep. Bryson does a great job of using language to convey the immensity of the universe, as did Douglas Adams in his own way. It is almost impossible to really grasp the scale of the universe, or indeed, anything that's really big (can you guess what a trillion dollars looks like?), so it's fascinating to see how it is depicted to us.
This image from Hubble has been described as the most important photograph ever produced. It's astonishing because it was taken whilst the telescope was focussed on a seemingly empty speck of space.
It reminds me of the old saying that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth. Thinking this might just be one of those things people say I did a quick search and found that the consensus is that this is true: Australian astronomers reported that there are 10 times more stars in the visible universe than all the grains of sand on the world's beaches and deserts. It's fun to see people justifying the claim with back of the envelope calculations. I'm not doubting it but it seems we really want this to be true, in some way it's re-assuring to be a something small in something so overwhelmingly massive.
There are loads more great shots from Hubble here, well worth checking out, as are the photos of the Hubble's final servicing mission, the tools might not be Star Trek but they really strike a chord with my inner geek.
This is a full scale model of Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JSWT, is scheduled for launch in 2014.
I know nothing about astronomy and the technology behind all this, but damn if its looking a lot more sci-fi than it's predecessor and it's exciting to wonder what kind of images it's going to give us.
The know universe by the American Museum of Natural History (AMHN) takes the viewer on a journey out from Earth, view it in high definition on YouTube for the best experience.
These kind of videos are pretty common here's another, this one has a commentary, but I think the AMHN version captures it better, you don't really need a commentary filling your ears to be wondrous at it, just a little spacey music.
The original video exploring the relative scale of the universe must be the Powers of 10 by Charles and Ray Eames from 1977. Even the Simpsons has satirized it in the opening sequence of a show.
But if we are looking at fictionalized interpretations then the opening of the film Contact does a great job of creating that Wow! experience, cleverly using silence to create space to feel that, err, space. Just watch it:
The Universcale is a very slick interactive visualization created by Nikon. It's a Flash application and you can sit and watch it slowly move in, or you can accelerate it by clicking the numbers near the bottom, start at the far right and click back one by one from 27. Take your time with this one, and click on the item in the grid to see a nice reference on it, or just go crazy and jump straight to the low numbers.
I don't know the origins of this one, it got really nice zooming motion to it that makes it feel more like a game and, hey, who knew earthworms grew to be so big?
Perhaps we enjoy looking at all this is because it helps put our lives in perspective: being something so young and small in amongst something so old and big could have the effect of overwhelming us, but as it's all so non-negotiable there's nothing to do but accept it and be humbled by it. Helping any temporal problems we've got seems slightly less dominating.
The history of the Universe has been summed up thusly: 'Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people.'
John P. Wiley Jr., quoting Edward R. Harrison (a cosmologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst) Smithsonian Magazine, December, 1995.
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.
