The obvious difference between Mac and Windows applications.

It is common knowledge that Apple pays close attention to design of their hardware as well as software. Mac OS X Leopard is by far a better designed OS than Vista ever will be. Apple’s iLife suite has no competition and the Mac desktops and laptops are the best designed in the world. And don’t mistake design to be ‘eye candy’.

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,” Steve Jobs told the Times. “That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Now here’s the thing. The third party applications for the Mac also kick the shit out of their Windows counterparts in design and functionality. Developers of Mac applications generally pay a lot of attention to the design and aesthetics of the application. Whereas in the Windows world, it is features features features. A feature is not a feature until and unless you can use it.

Let’s take a look at some of the best apps in Windows and their mac counterparts. You be the judge (while I go on ranting). Mind you, I have not scourged the net finding the ugliest Windows apps and placed them against the pretty mac ones. I have googled my best to find the ‘best windows apps’ and compared them to what I feel are the best mac equivalents. Also, be sure to visit the respective websites. Mac app developers websites are 10 times cooler than their ugly cousins!

FTP

Windows: SmartFTP
All that I’ve said is clear in this example. Just look at that Windows app. It is so ugly! You can’t figure out where to login, where your files are, what the server is doing. Just blocks of areas placed together.



Mac: Flow
The difference is obvious! On starting up, you are presented with a login screen. Very pleasing colours are used. Everything is clear.

Once logged in, the application interface is so clean. This is the way an FTP app should be. You know where you are, you know what each file is. You press Spacebar and it will instantly Quicklook that file. And look at this gorgeous transfers view!



The guys at ExtendMac software actually added this to Flow’s homepage:
User Interface: We have an obsession with pixels. As a side effect, every pixel in Flow is simply lickable. Go ahead, lick away. Just be sure to clean the screen afterwards.

HTML/CSS Editor

Windows: CoffeeCup HTML
I tried hard to find good apps for Windows, but this one seems to be the most recommended one. I’m pretty sure there has to be something better than this. Look at those countless number of buttons! What do they mean? Is this what ‘features’ means?


Mac: Coda
This is the best application out there. Hands down. Winner of last year’s Apple Design Awards for Best Mac application, this one is a stunner. The design is so streamlined, you can just work with you documents. Those little stickies are shortcuts to your sites. Just hit one and it takes you back to your work, with all the documents previously opened.




Windows: UltraEdit: Here’s one extra for kickers. What the hell are these guys thinking!

Torrent client

Windows: uTorrent
On Windows, this one is the king. I use it myself for downloading purposes. In all respects, it is a very good torrent client and the design is not too bad. Ugly, but functional to say the least.


Mac: Transmission
Suddenly you realise how cluttered uTorrent actually is. Transmission automatically resizes the window to fit your torrents, has a clean interface, and adds your download speed badge on the dock icon! You need more details? Hit the inspector. Need it when its there, not needed when its not. And I have no ‘functionality’ issues with Transmission. It has got all the features I need. And mind you, Transmission is an Open Source app.

Image Effects

Mac: Picturesque
There is no Windows counterpart for this one. This is a batch image resizer, and can add all kinds of smoking hot effects to your images with just a few clicks. And there's lots more of these apps for the Mac.


Here are some more Mac apps that just kick ass:
iBank. Winner of Apple Design Awards 2007. Wow! Banking never looked so good.
NetNewsWire
Times RSS reader
Screenflow

So what do you think? Convinced yet? Or did I somehow miss out on a well designed Windows app?

The upside down world of cricket

Here's something that has shocked the shit out of me. We were watching an IPL match when my brother turns to me as says, "Did you know that when the over is up, the batsmen stay where they are, but the bowler and umpires move to the other side?"

WTF! Its true! I didn't believe him at first, but then on close observation of the pitch, they do in fact move the entire troupe to the other side. I have since shocked a couple of people so I thought I'd share it here as well. In case some of you didn't know. 

Apparently, the reason for this is to keep the wear and tear of the pitch even on both sides. 

A very low tolerance for idiots.

Not idiots in general. Those I don't mind. What I hate is otherwise intelligent people being dumb when it comes to computers. And there are millions of those around.

I've been told I'm a very bad teacher when it comes to showing someone how to do stuff on a computer. My method of teaching is, make the subject try as much as he/she can to do the task, and only if he/she cannot do it, I might offer a small hint. The belief is if you figure out how to do it on your own, you will not need me the next time. And that is exactly where the problem lies. The stupid subjects just sit there not knowing what to do! Which results in me getting a little out of hand with regard to my temper.

Let me give you an example.

Idiot comes. "Will you show me how to burn a DVD?". From where tell the subject, "Pop open Nero, drag your files in there and hit burn". 

"How to do that?".

Oh common! Is it that difficult launching an application? What is that start button for, which you so willingly click when launching MS Word or Internet Explorer?

By now shit scared, the subject clicks on the start button and looks around. MS Word is there in the list but Nero isn't. "Its not there! What do do?"

"Teri maa ki. Can't you see that "All Programs" button there? What else could it stand for? Porn? (though sometimes it could, you never know these days where porn is hidden)."

So finally he finds and launches Nero. After a few questions followed by angry stares from me, he figures out that okay, he needs to burn a Data DVD. But even after filling up the list with all the files, he doesn't hit the "Next" button. "WTF are you waiting for, idiot!"

Finally, the burn is completed and the subject swears he will never come to me again for help (though he/she does in the end do just that). 

This is just one example. There are millions of other examples I could that are equally painful. Why is it that people can't understand Operating systems? They have become so simple and easy to use these days, that it just boggles the mind. When I first used the Mac OS X, I knew that to get to the files, I need to hit the only icon that was sitting on the desktop, "Macintosh HD". Idiots don't realise this for some reason. When I see a magnifying glass icon somewhere, I know it means search. 

In honour of this post, I will mention the biggest of such idiots. My beloved brother, Rahul.

He was burning a Disc on the Mac using Toast Titanium (Windows was screwed up on the PC), when he actually called me from the balcony to ask me, "How do I burn my files now?". He had already dragged his files into the window and and the mouse was hovering over the big red button with a small pop up saying "Record Disc". Yet he couldn't figure out that the big red button meant burning the disc.

And my brother is one of the smartest people I know. 

The ultimate trek.

It was awesome!

What was? The trek. The plan was spontaneous. I decided I wanted to go on a long trek, and Jan (pronounced 'yaan') the dutch is ever ready to do stupid and crazy things. Ediz joined in. The plan was to leave the place early evening and trek all the way to Morjim beach (15kms) and camp the night there.

So we set out from the house at 5:30 p.m., and walked. Just walked. And stopped. Stopped where? At EVERY BAR. Well almost every bar. The plan was to hit every bar, swig down a quarter of Urrack + Limca (locally known as Jungle juice) and be on our way. We also carried a bottle of Urrack and Limca for those hilly roads where there are no bars. Weird thing was that we just didn't get high. I'm pretty sure we must have downed at least 3 litres of urrack through the trek but it didn't affect us at all. Awesome!

At 11 p.m. we reached the Morjim beach. Completely dark. No human beings in sight. We just dumped the backpacks and ran into the waves. (Ticked off night swimming from things I must do before I turn 25). The morjim beach is flat due to the river that goes by. So it is shallow for a long stretch and safe. It was pretty amazing. 

After that we set up a camp fire on the beach. The shacks were just about removed cause it is the end of tourist season and the left overs made for perfect firewood. And there was lots of it. Finally we did get really high and apparently I just about took my last bite of the tandoori chicken where I just fell off the bench into my deep sleep. Yes I was very very high by that time. 

On waking up in the morning, we find the shack owners had apparently come to collect those remains of the shacks. Which we had burnt. Ediz overheard one guy telling another "Bastards burnt up all our stuff!". That was a pretty hilarious scene. That wood was top quality and we had just wasted it on a stupid fire!

Not being able to walk or take the bus back, we did call up Rahul in the end who picked us up and off we went back to where we came from. For another 2-3 days I will surely feel like I will never touch alcohol again, but I should be fine after that. The hangover must have been caused by the stupid mistake of having Rum and coke when the urrack ran out. All in all, an awesome trip. Can't wait to take it to the next level - Goa: north to south!

Goobi's Flickr stream

Fuck you Vodafone!

Story goes that Vodafone didn't take permission from the AWBI for making the dog run after the bus. So there was a petition filed against the ad. They stopped showing the dog running after the bus. 

However, the boys did win the case as they claimed the footage was shot abroad so the AWBI rules don't apply. Now that scene is back. Oh well, I'll be big about it. 

Neptune the freaky guy (youtube video production)

Here's a little video from the house of goobimama (literally). Let me first give some background info.

I met Neptune (a dude) at the Film Festival, mainly due to me using a Mac there and he being a Mac fan himself. He is a Unicyclist and was performing there. Anyway, we kept in touch, a few visits here and there. Turns out he is quite talented. He does leather works, Kerala traditional painting, and some other weird shit I can't remember. Just when I thought I had him figured, he brings along this small instrument (and I'm not using metaphors here) and creates this awesomely weird sound with it. The kind you hear in trance music.

So I fired up quicktime, and just hit the record button (no complications here, it's Mac OS X after all!). And here's what came out of it.