The Lonesome Road

I’m pretty sure that a certain person who reads this series (i.e the PC v/s Mac) is smiling away. He’s thinking somewhere “I told you so..”. Anyway, all that aside, let’s talk about today’s little software gem that I found.

So, the last time I saw the Mac, there was a nice launcher software that basically had a list of all the applications that were installed on the system. When you started typing the application name, it simply started eliminating and presented you with the application you need to run. Pretty neat huh? For those of you using the Mac and who have not heard of the launchers - do not fret. Here are two of the most popular ones : Quicksilver and Launchbar. I’ve seen Quicksilver in action, whereas about Launchbar I only know what they say on the site.

That covers the Mac aspect of things. And the title says Mac and Windows. Chill and do not fret. The Windows equivalent is a program called AppRocket. It looks very similar to Launchbar and there is a site which pretty much accuses it of being a rip/port of the software to a windows platform without permission from Objective Development (though the news is a little old). Coming to the software itself, the overall design is pretty well done. Settings can be done depending on the amount of memory that you want to give the software. I personally found that removing all the eye candy reduces the amount of memory the program uses (appx 13 Mb). Approcket scans certain folders automatically using a “smart search” algorithm. Folders can also be added to it’s scanning list at any time and the file(s) are dynamically updated in the program. A shortcut key can also be set to bring the program into the foreground and focus on the bar. The default is Alt + Space, but I would recommend - especially for those who use the keyboard to maximize and minimize - to change this combination. I am using a Alt + z combination at the moment.

The software detection is well done and there is no real slowdown when the program is searrching/launching applications. Be warned though, if you indiscriminately add folders and keep including sub-folder searching in all of them, there will be a system slowdown. Also, the .NET framework is required for the program to run - it checks for the framework after setup and auto-installs it if required. Overall, it’s a good program that has helped me get rid of my Quick Launch bar. Recommended.

In other news, some digital cameras and camcorders are having CCD problems when exposed to high temperature/humidity levels. The complete details can be found on here [vnunet.com] which also provides links to the official sites where a list of affected devices are given.

Well, that’s all from me for now. Catch ya all later!