Friday, August 31, 2007
Making Life Simpler
As has long been noted computers promised to make life simpler but they have moved crab-wise to be a parallel universe with their own complexity. Looking for a 11n Airport Express base station takes you into the land of WiFi networking — an entirely separate world. You have to figure out if your phone is broadcasting 2.4 or 5.8 — so it won't degrade your signal. You have to figure out how to take advantage of the greater speed on older machines. If you don't remember the specs of a device, you have to figure out where the information lies.
Jason Snell at MacWorld just recommended a great program — his enthusiasm got me interested: Launchbar. It is a variant of Butler or the popular Quicksilver. Less geeky than QS, it has enormous power to access files and launch, search for stuff and spin dry clothes. At least I think the latter was in the included feature list.
But to learn Launchbar requires a learning curve. So recently, Launchbar, and programs I use all the time, Lightroom, Photoshop, Indesign — all have been updated with fantastic new features. Each is a world unto itself, like Wifi. If you don't work with the programs everyday there is a refresh delay as you try and remember all the time saving stuff you had on autopilot. It's fantastic, but it isn't simpler.