What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the phrase Grand Central? If you're from New York City, chances are it's either Grand Central Terminal, or the subway station that adjoins it. Wikipedia has a disambiguation page for "Grand Central" that's been updated this week to include a reference to a new usage, but so far the article pointed to is just a stub, containing a one sentence description: "Grand Central is a technology developed by Apple to optimize multicore application support in Mac OS X 10.6."
In a press release, Apple says this: "Snow Leopard delivers unrivaled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named “Grand Central,” making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs."
But why name it Grand Central, unless there's metaphoric value in stirring up an association with big, busy transportation hubs? (I'd rather not get more specific than that, as I suspect it would be easy to attribute too much significance to the detailed design and operation of one particular hub, looking for clues that aren't there.)
In a transportation hub, conveyances of one sort or another enter, let off and board passengers, and exit, and people enter and board a conveyance, transfer between conveyances, or get off and exit. A computer runs processes, which may themselves be divided into threads, and which are commonly separated between system space and user space. It has various resources which processes/threads make use of. Managing these processes/threads and resources is a much more complicated task than managing the trains and other conveyances passing through a transportation hub (busy airports possibly excepted), although it seems likely that a system software component vaguely analogous to such a hub might help to simplify the problem, and to judge by the sparse information already publicly available that would seem to be a major part of what Apple has created.
Just as conveyances interact with the infrastructure they depend on (sensors, traffic signals, drivers who obey them, ...), processes/thread which are designed to cooperate with the management system can play a role in making things run smoothly, and it seems Apple has also created tools to facilitate writing software that plays nicely with the system.
Whether this interpretation is on the right track, and what the details might be, remain to be seen. We should know in about a year, if not sooner.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Sunday, June 08, 2008
good whistlers make better kissers
I mean, is this obvious or what? If you can't wrap your lips around a tune what chance do you stand with another pair of lips?
But I've never seen or heard it said before, so there it is.
But I've never seen or heard it said before, so there it is.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
using Stacks to keep many apps on Leopard's Dock without crowding
For as long as I've been using Mac OS X, which is since the non-beta version of 10.0 was released, I've wished for a way of grouping applications on the Dock, and, as I acquired more apps, I've also begun to wish for a way of shoehorning more icons onto the Dock than it could comfortably accommodate.
Those in the know may immediately point to you to third-party software like QuickSilver or DragThing, or to scripting solutions. Not having tried any of these, I can't comment on them.
My approach is utterly simple, involving nothing more complicated than setting up a group of folders, creating aliases to applications or other folders (Command-L), moving them to the appropriate folder, and dragging the folder icons from a Finder window to the Dock, where they become stacks. The way I've set it up, these folders all live within a folder named Stacks, which is just inside my home folder. They are each named for a category, like "Media" or "Programming" which describes their contents.
Here's the list of stack folders I currently have, in the order they appear on the Dock left to right, and the contents of each (note that the actual filenames of the contents all end in ".alias" or ".app.alias").
The last two items under Programming are folders. In some cases I have altered the names in order to control the alphabetical sort order, and thereby control which icons appear on top of the stacks on the Dock. Doing this has no effect on the application or folder to which an alias points.
Note that a few items appear in more than one stack. Pages, for instance, is both a writing tool and part of iWork, and Bento is both a database program and an application that's useful in getting things done.
Those in the know may immediately point to you to third-party software like QuickSilver or DragThing, or to scripting solutions. Not having tried any of these, I can't comment on them.
My approach is utterly simple, involving nothing more complicated than setting up a group of folders, creating aliases to applications or other folders (Command-L), moving them to the appropriate folder, and dragging the folder icons from a Finder window to the Dock, where they become stacks. The way I've set it up, these folders all live within a folder named Stacks, which is just inside my home folder. They are each named for a category, like "Media" or "Programming" which describes their contents.
Here's the list of stack folders I currently have, in the order they appear on the Dock left to right, and the contents of each (note that the actual filenames of the contents all end in ".alias" or ".app.alias").
- Browsers
- Camino
- Safari
- Network Apps
- Adium
- iChat
- Transmit
- Databases
- AddressBook
- Bento
- Data Guardian
- iCal
- Getting Things Done
- Bento
- iCal
- OmniFocus
- Writing Tools
- MarsEdit
- OmniOutliner Professional
- Pages
- Scrivener
- TextEdit
- iWork & Pro Apps
- Keynote
- Numbers
- OmniGraffle Professional
- Pages
- Web & Widget Design
- BBEdit
- Dashcode
- iWeb
- Media
- GarageBand
- GraphicConverter
- iDVD
- Image Capture
- iMovie
- iPhoto
- iTunes
- Photo Booth
- Preview
- QuickTime Player
- Programming
- Automator
- Xcode
- /Developer
- /Developer/Applications
The last two items under Programming are folders. In some cases I have altered the names in order to control the alphabetical sort order, and thereby control which icons appear on top of the stacks on the Dock. Doing this has no effect on the application or folder to which an alias points.
Note that a few items appear in more than one stack. Pages, for instance, is both a writing tool and part of iWork, and Bento is both a database program and an application that's useful in getting things done.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
harvest ho!
Harvest season for winter wheat should already be underway in Texas. (Winter wheat is planted in late summer or early autumn, grows green like the grass it is, then goes dormant through the winter, reviving and producing tiny flowers in the spring, followed by seed which first swells then dries hard.)
Harvesters will, in recent weeks, have been assembling and preparing equipment and crews, firming up agreements with farmers and attempting to fill any large gaps in their schedules.
They'll be moving north with the tide of ripening wheat, clipping seed heads from stalks and threshing them in a single operation, in field after field, working first for one farmer, then another, then another, each one generally located further north than the last.
On highways you'll frequently see their large combine harvesters go by on trailers, with their headers (the wide cross-piece that mounts on the front of the machine) either nestled in the backs of the trucks they'll use to haul the grain to shipping/storage facilities (elevators) or towed separately.
It happens every year, beginning about this time, a great parade, hundreds of miles wide, passing from south to north over a period of two or three months and lasting about two weeks as it passes by any point along the way. With it comes the smell and fine airborne grit of pulverized wheat stalks, the sound of engines, and a general bustle, partly owing to the harvest activity itself and partly to the temporarily swollen populations of otherwise sedate rural communities.
Rain, particularly a storm which brings several days of drizzle over a large area, can slow harvest activity to a halt, both because the combines easily bog down in wet fields and because the grain must be dry (around 14% moisture content) when it goes into storage. Rain means downtime, which some may use to make a quick run to a home hundreds of miles away, while others will stay close, to be ready for a break in the weather. Rain means new faces in what few bars there are and a subdued party atmosphere, kept in check partly by the knowledge that crew bosses have little patience for hangover-induced imprecision in handling harvest equipment, which can cause extra time in a field, cleaning up bits that were missed on the first pass or unnecessary downtime to clear a header of dirt scooped from a terrace, or worse.
Sometimes particular fields won't have dried out sufficiently by the time the harvesters have moved on, and farmers who own their own combines may end up spending another couple of weeks cutting these.
Occasionally a field never does dry out, and the crop sprouts on the stalk, or rots before it can be harvested. Savvy farmers replant such fields to something other than wheat.
Harvesters will, in recent weeks, have been assembling and preparing equipment and crews, firming up agreements with farmers and attempting to fill any large gaps in their schedules.
They'll be moving north with the tide of ripening wheat, clipping seed heads from stalks and threshing them in a single operation, in field after field, working first for one farmer, then another, then another, each one generally located further north than the last.
On highways you'll frequently see their large combine harvesters go by on trailers, with their headers (the wide cross-piece that mounts on the front of the machine) either nestled in the backs of the trucks they'll use to haul the grain to shipping/storage facilities (elevators) or towed separately.
It happens every year, beginning about this time, a great parade, hundreds of miles wide, passing from south to north over a period of two or three months and lasting about two weeks as it passes by any point along the way. With it comes the smell and fine airborne grit of pulverized wheat stalks, the sound of engines, and a general bustle, partly owing to the harvest activity itself and partly to the temporarily swollen populations of otherwise sedate rural communities.
Rain, particularly a storm which brings several days of drizzle over a large area, can slow harvest activity to a halt, both because the combines easily bog down in wet fields and because the grain must be dry (around 14% moisture content) when it goes into storage. Rain means downtime, which some may use to make a quick run to a home hundreds of miles away, while others will stay close, to be ready for a break in the weather. Rain means new faces in what few bars there are and a subdued party atmosphere, kept in check partly by the knowledge that crew bosses have little patience for hangover-induced imprecision in handling harvest equipment, which can cause extra time in a field, cleaning up bits that were missed on the first pass or unnecessary downtime to clear a header of dirt scooped from a terrace, or worse.
Sometimes particular fields won't have dried out sufficiently by the time the harvesters have moved on, and farmers who own their own combines may end up spending another couple of weeks cutting these.
Occasionally a field never does dry out, and the crop sprouts on the stalk, or rots before it can be harvested. Savvy farmers replant such fields to something other than wheat.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
RIAA in The Briar Patch
While imagining itself in the role of Br'er Fox, in a just world the RIAA would more properly be compared with Br'er Rabbit; every time it strkes out, it would become more deeply embroiled in counterlitigation. Every weapon it used would come back broken.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
convergence, interoperability, and a door to the future
As a buzz-word, "convergence" referred to the coming together of the Internet, electronic media, and telephony. Except for the fact that both both wired and wireless, non-IP telephone networks remain healthy and show no sign of succumbing to obsolescence soon, that process is now well along, by virtue of the appearance of devices that incorporate functionality from all three realms.
While Apple has become a heavy-hitter in the convergence game, they're really more about interoperability, first and foremost among their own products. This is why you'll see one of the most reliable Apple-centric rumor websites suggesting that release of the next Mac OS X update is being coordinated with v2.0 of the iPhone software.
Actually, this might be the case even without interoperability issues, since the iPhone operating system shares a great deal of code with Mac OS X, and changes to one frequently imply changes to the other, to keep them as unified as is practical. The need for interoperability, with each playing a role in functionality which spans devices, for instance synchronized calendars and contact lists, just makes such coordination that much more inevitable.
In a sense, the discipline required to pull this off is something of a bottleneck, because everything related Apple does must be drawn through it, but that bottleneck is also a door leading to a future in which all of our gadgets (or at least all of them bearing Apple's logo) really do work together, seamlessly if not effortlessly.
While Apple has become a heavy-hitter in the convergence game, they're really more about interoperability, first and foremost among their own products. This is why you'll see one of the most reliable Apple-centric rumor websites suggesting that release of the next Mac OS X update is being coordinated with v2.0 of the iPhone software.
Actually, this might be the case even without interoperability issues, since the iPhone operating system shares a great deal of code with Mac OS X, and changes to one frequently imply changes to the other, to keep them as unified as is practical. The need for interoperability, with each playing a role in functionality which spans devices, for instance synchronized calendars and contact lists, just makes such coordination that much more inevitable.
In a sense, the discipline required to pull this off is something of a bottleneck, because everything related Apple does must be drawn through it, but that bottleneck is also a door leading to a future in which all of our gadgets (or at least all of them bearing Apple's logo) really do work together, seamlessly if not effortlessly.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
hunch: still more brewing in Appleland
If you've been paying any attention to display technology, you'll have heard of OLED displays. It's the technology most likely to replace LCDs in common use, and large OLED displays are already beginning to arrive on the market.
Now, if you search the front page of Apple's online store, you'll find that their Cinema Displays have gone missing. You can still find refurbished Cinema Displays on the Refurbished Mac page, linked under Special Deals (left column, near bottom of page), but new ones are nowhere to be seen.
Connect the dots...
Update: Hmmm, maybe I'm hoping for too much too soon.
Now, if you search the front page of Apple's online store, you'll find that their Cinema Displays have gone missing. You can still find refurbished Cinema Displays on the Refurbished Mac page, linked under Special Deals (left column, near bottom of page), but new ones are nowhere to be seen.
Connect the dots...
Update: Hmmm, maybe I'm hoping for too much too soon.
Monday, May 12, 2008
something BIG brewing in Appleland
G2 iPhones, almost certainly with 3G connectivity, perhaps this week, OS X iPhone 2.0 and the SDK (both currently in beta), rumors of another portable device at WWDC, rumors of a major makeover for .Mac, rumors of a new gaming initiative.
Any one of these by itself would be interesting, but there's more than an outside chance that we'll see ALL of themwithin the next month by the end of June.
Steve Jobs' keynote at this year's WWDC should be one not to miss!
Any one of these by itself would be interesting, but there's more than an outside chance that we'll see ALL of them
Steve Jobs' keynote at this year's WWDC should be one not to miss!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
suing stockholders for suing the company
Has it occurred to anyone that, in some cases, suits brought against companies and their executives might do more damage to the companies (and therefore to stockholders) than did the decisions which are the basis of the suits. That being the case, could stockholders sue each other for bringing suit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)