Assimilated (LaunchBar Theme) Assimilated is a theme for LaunchBar 6. It's meant to make LaunchBar fit in with the redesigned window chrome introduced with macOS 11 Big Sur. It also attempts to capture the spirit of LaunchBar 5's default theme, Small (also known as Vintage in LaunchBar 6). The maximum version of Mac OS X, OS X, or macOS supported by each G3 and later Mac follows. For complete specs on a particular system, click the name of the Mac. For all Macs that are compatible with a specifc maximum supported version of Mac OS X - courtesy of EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Sort - click the OS of interest. The installer is typically downloaded from the Assimilate Support Site as a.zip or.pkg file. In the case of a.zip file, you need to unzip the file before you can begin the installation. The file can be unzipped using a default zip utility. Once the file is unzipped, there is a folder with two files in it. But while my initial usage ratio was 85% Parallels, 15% OS X, over the past six months, that's changed dramatically to 45% Parallels, 55% OS X. Yup, the Orchard does slowly assimilate you.
The second most popular post ever on this blog was my review of Lenovo's Thinkpad W510. I used to really like the IBM Thinkpads. (The number one post is the link to 64-bit versions of Eclipse, and I don't even use Eclipse except for an occassional refactoring or stepwise debug).
I just gave my 15-month old quad-core, high-res, 8GB Thinkpad W510 with a 128GB SSD to one of our grad students after Andrew bought me a shiny new Macbook Air 13″ with 4GB and a 256GB SSD. Apple only just a few weeks ago came out with similar hardware for the Macbook Pro, by the way, and Lenovo's not exactly rushing out of the gate with new CPUs.
Evaluation Period Honeymoon
I thought at the very least, if I hated Mac OS X, I could just install Windows. If the Air was too small, I could just use it for travel.
Within about 24 hours, having watched Apple's converting from Windows to Mac video, I'm a convert. So much so that Mitzi's been getting sick of hearing me tell her how great the new Macs are. We'd both last used them with any frequency when I had a Mac Quadra in the early 1990s.
Among my favorite things is emacs commands in text windows. And I'm not sure how I lived without the gestures for scrolling and navigating the web. It really is a unix machine underneath, though I never had any problems with Cygwin on Windows. I also love the keyboards. That and the weight are what finally soured me on the Thinkpads — their new ones are terrible.
Did I mention the insane battery life?
Or just how nice it feels? It's like moving from a Kodak Brownie to a Leica. Pleximon alpha 1 mac os.
The last time I was this impressed with a piece of hardware was when my grad school department got its first Sun Workstation I way back in 1985 or 1986.
It's not perfect. Does Microsoft own the patent on grabbing windows by their sides to resize them? It's not possible in either Linux or the Mac [I was corrected in the comments; it is possible in Linux, just very trying as a test of hand-eye-mouse coordination]. And why do I have a delete key that's really a backspace and no real delete key? (Yes, I realize fn-delete adds up to a delete.) And what's the function key doing where my control key should be? Does anyone ever use caps lock for anything? Why do computers still have them?
Also, I don't find Macs as blindingly obvious as everyone else says they are. For instance, I had no clue as to what to do with the 'power cord'. I went online. I read the manual. I'd have thought it was the wrong piece, but it was listed in the parts. Turns out you need to take their power supply apart and then it clips in. Huh? It reminds me of getting an iPod many years ago and having no clue how to turn it off.
No Half Measures
Assimilated Mac Os X
Given that the money was turned on at Columbia, I ordered the Macbook Air for home and travel, as well as a 27″ iMac for the office, and an iPad 2. The iMac is very sweet, but somehow not nearly as cool as the Air. I can't wait until the iPad shows up — I'm tired of printing out PDFs. As soon as the iPhone 5 shows up, I'm getting one from Verizon (I don't even have a cellphone now).
Welcome to the New Borg
The old joke used to be that Microsoft was like The Borg, whose tagline was 'you will be assimilated'. Slashdot even uses a Borged-out Bill Gates as an icon.
It turns out that as hard as Google's trying to be the new Borg, the current Borg headgear apparatus rests on Apple's head. After all, they've not just locked down their hardware, they're also trying to take over the music and movie distribution business. That's why I'm so surprised I couldn't find a Steve-Jobs-as-Borg image. C'mon Slashdot, help me out here.
Tip of the Day
When your significant other says he or she thinks you like your new Macbook Air more than him or her, do NOT reply, 'It's so thin!'. Luckily, Mitzi has a sense of humor to go with her yoga-and-running-toned body.
It didn't look like it at the time, but the best move Microsoft ever made on the Mac platform was to develop and release Word 6.
It wasn't that the word processing application was a well-received product. It wasn't. With its memory-gobbling size and Windows-like interface, many Mac users treated Word 6 like a box full of eels. The only thing louder than complaints about the software was the sound of people clicking on 'Uninstall.'
'When we shipped Word 6, we heard about it,' says Irving Kwong, product manager for Microsoft's Mac business unit.
Did they ever. Microsoft set up a page on its Web site to gauge user feedback on Word 6. The flood of comments — most of them far from complimentary — forced the company to close down the forum after a week. That was the moment Microsoft realized that if it was to make a splash on the Mac platform, it would have to do more than jury-rig its Windows products to run on Mac OS.
Flash ahead six years to this week's release of Office 2001 for the Mac. Microsoft says it set out to make the applications suite easier to use and more Mac-like. That's not just a bunch of hot wind; from the bevy of Mac-only features to the software's streamlined, more elegant look, Office couldn't be more Mac-like if it had been designed in Cupertino. Even the new rounded plastic case Office ships in looks like it sprang from the outer reaches of Steve Jobs's brain.
'We worked very closely with Apple to make sure we understood what the Mac is about,' Kevin Browne, general manager of Mircosoft's Mac business unit, told the assembled masses at Wednesday's Office 2001 for the Mac rollout in San Francisco.
That's clear as soon as you look at the finished product. The interface is cleaner. The Office applications work together better than before. And even the most fervid sworn enemies of Redmond will have to come to terms with an increasingly apparent situation: Microsoft may well be the leading Mac developer when it comes to understanding and embracing the platform.
We will now pause as our Macworld.com server crashes under the weight of all the hate mail you're busy sending my way. While we wait, let me just offer a rebuttal or two to the well-thought-out and carefully constructed arguments that are no doubt appearing in the reader forum below.
The second most popular post ever on this blog was my review of Lenovo's Thinkpad W510. I used to really like the IBM Thinkpads. (The number one post is the link to 64-bit versions of Eclipse, and I don't even use Eclipse except for an occassional refactoring or stepwise debug).
I just gave my 15-month old quad-core, high-res, 8GB Thinkpad W510 with a 128GB SSD to one of our grad students after Andrew bought me a shiny new Macbook Air 13″ with 4GB and a 256GB SSD. Apple only just a few weeks ago came out with similar hardware for the Macbook Pro, by the way, and Lenovo's not exactly rushing out of the gate with new CPUs.
Evaluation Period Honeymoon
I thought at the very least, if I hated Mac OS X, I could just install Windows. If the Air was too small, I could just use it for travel.
Within about 24 hours, having watched Apple's converting from Windows to Mac video, I'm a convert. So much so that Mitzi's been getting sick of hearing me tell her how great the new Macs are. We'd both last used them with any frequency when I had a Mac Quadra in the early 1990s.
Among my favorite things is emacs commands in text windows. And I'm not sure how I lived without the gestures for scrolling and navigating the web. It really is a unix machine underneath, though I never had any problems with Cygwin on Windows. I also love the keyboards. That and the weight are what finally soured me on the Thinkpads — their new ones are terrible.
Did I mention the insane battery life?
Or just how nice it feels? It's like moving from a Kodak Brownie to a Leica. Pleximon alpha 1 mac os.
The last time I was this impressed with a piece of hardware was when my grad school department got its first Sun Workstation I way back in 1985 or 1986.
It's not perfect. Does Microsoft own the patent on grabbing windows by their sides to resize them? It's not possible in either Linux or the Mac [I was corrected in the comments; it is possible in Linux, just very trying as a test of hand-eye-mouse coordination]. And why do I have a delete key that's really a backspace and no real delete key? (Yes, I realize fn-delete adds up to a delete.) And what's the function key doing where my control key should be? Does anyone ever use caps lock for anything? Why do computers still have them?
Also, I don't find Macs as blindingly obvious as everyone else says they are. For instance, I had no clue as to what to do with the 'power cord'. I went online. I read the manual. I'd have thought it was the wrong piece, but it was listed in the parts. Turns out you need to take their power supply apart and then it clips in. Huh? It reminds me of getting an iPod many years ago and having no clue how to turn it off.
No Half Measures
Assimilated Mac Os X
Given that the money was turned on at Columbia, I ordered the Macbook Air for home and travel, as well as a 27″ iMac for the office, and an iPad 2. The iMac is very sweet, but somehow not nearly as cool as the Air. I can't wait until the iPad shows up — I'm tired of printing out PDFs. As soon as the iPhone 5 shows up, I'm getting one from Verizon (I don't even have a cellphone now).
Welcome to the New Borg
The old joke used to be that Microsoft was like The Borg, whose tagline was 'you will be assimilated'. Slashdot even uses a Borged-out Bill Gates as an icon.
It turns out that as hard as Google's trying to be the new Borg, the current Borg headgear apparatus rests on Apple's head. After all, they've not just locked down their hardware, they're also trying to take over the music and movie distribution business. That's why I'm so surprised I couldn't find a Steve-Jobs-as-Borg image. C'mon Slashdot, help me out here.
Tip of the Day
When your significant other says he or she thinks you like your new Macbook Air more than him or her, do NOT reply, 'It's so thin!'. Luckily, Mitzi has a sense of humor to go with her yoga-and-running-toned body.
It didn't look like it at the time, but the best move Microsoft ever made on the Mac platform was to develop and release Word 6.
It wasn't that the word processing application was a well-received product. It wasn't. With its memory-gobbling size and Windows-like interface, many Mac users treated Word 6 like a box full of eels. The only thing louder than complaints about the software was the sound of people clicking on 'Uninstall.'
'When we shipped Word 6, we heard about it,' says Irving Kwong, product manager for Microsoft's Mac business unit.
Did they ever. Microsoft set up a page on its Web site to gauge user feedback on Word 6. The flood of comments — most of them far from complimentary — forced the company to close down the forum after a week. That was the moment Microsoft realized that if it was to make a splash on the Mac platform, it would have to do more than jury-rig its Windows products to run on Mac OS.
Flash ahead six years to this week's release of Office 2001 for the Mac. Microsoft says it set out to make the applications suite easier to use and more Mac-like. That's not just a bunch of hot wind; from the bevy of Mac-only features to the software's streamlined, more elegant look, Office couldn't be more Mac-like if it had been designed in Cupertino. Even the new rounded plastic case Office ships in looks like it sprang from the outer reaches of Steve Jobs's brain.
'We worked very closely with Apple to make sure we understood what the Mac is about,' Kevin Browne, general manager of Mircosoft's Mac business unit, told the assembled masses at Wednesday's Office 2001 for the Mac rollout in San Francisco.
That's clear as soon as you look at the finished product. The interface is cleaner. The Office applications work together better than before. And even the most fervid sworn enemies of Redmond will have to come to terms with an increasingly apparent situation: Microsoft may well be the leading Mac developer when it comes to understanding and embracing the platform.
We will now pause as our Macworld.com server crashes under the weight of all the hate mail you're busy sending my way. While we wait, let me just offer a rebuttal or two to the well-thought-out and carefully constructed arguments that are no doubt appearing in the reader forum below.
There. Got it out of your system? Good. Let's continue.
This is not to say that Microsoft is the best developer or has the best products. What I am saying is that the company seems to understand and emulate what drives people to buy a Mac in the first place — it makes complex tasks simple and simple ones effortless. And I'm saying that the people who automatically denounce Microsoft for age-old wounds increasingly come off like cranks who won't eat at Benihana because of that spot of unpleasantness with Japan back in the 1940s.
After Word 6, Kwong says, 'we took a look at the (software's) fundamental architecture and ripped out a lot of the code assumptions we were making about the Mac OS.' The Office programmers rewrote the code to Apple's specs. The result, Kwong says, is a program that won't break.
'There's a legion of people who are into Word 5.1 because it's very, very native,' Kwong says. 'Office 2001 is even more native now than Word 5.1 was then.'
Assimilated Mac Os X
And consider Mac-like attributes such as:
A Better Look and FeelThe bulky, multiple tool bars at the top of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are gone; now, there's just a single tool bar at the top of each application and a context-sensitive formatting palette to handle things like font size, type style, and alignment.
'With Mac users, there are certain expectations of having products that are very refined,' Kwong says. 'We took that to heart.'
A Faster Way to Get StartedIf you wanted to use a template in previous versions of Office, you had to launch the right application; Word, Excel, and PowerPoint didn't share templates. 'We used to make assumptions that people knew which applications to use,' Kwong says.
Assimilated Mac Os Update
That's where Project Gallery comes in. Anytime you launch Office, this beefed-up dialog box appears, letting you choose from templates to create documents in any application. The result? More seamless interaction between the Office programs.
An Easier Way to Do ThingsOffice now features a FileMaker Pro Import Wizard that simplifies the task of importing a FileMaker Pro database onto your Excel spreadsheet. After the List Wizard helps you create a spreadsheet-based list, the new List Manager tool lets you sort data to show information however you want. PowerPoint presentations can be livened up by saving the file as a QuickTime movie. Kwong recalls one beta tester who took photos from a family reunion, put them in a PowerPoint file, and used the QuickTime feature to add transitions and create a slide show that anyone could watch on a QT Player.
'You make it what you want it to be because the feature is open-ended,' Kwong says.
Features That Do the Things You Want Without any FussAssimilated Mac Os Catalina
That may sound familiar, says Apple vice president of worldwide developer relations Clent Richardson, because that's how Apple made its bones with the Mac.
Mac Os Versions
'This is a celebration of incredible craftsmanship in software design,' Richardson says. And other Mac developers would do well to follow Microsoft's lead.
That's not to say Microsoft can do no wrong. Flaws will inevitably crop up in Office 2001. Users will justifiably balk at the $499 ($299 upgrade) price tag. And if you want a Carbonized version of Office for OS X, you'll have to wait.
Microsoft wanted to finish work on this version before putting together a Carbon-ready one. All Browne could say Wednesday was that Microsoft was committed to OS X and a Carbonized Office probably wouldn't be ready immediately after a final version of the operating system ships. That's not ideal, but it's not any reason to burn Bill Gates in effigy, either.
A month ago, Microsoft was the only developer to share the stage with Steve Jobs during the Apple CEO's keynote speech in Paris. Parisians, apparently sharing America's charming disdain for all things emanating from Redmond, booed lustily.
That brought a reprimand from Jobs. 'We've got to help these guys,' Jobs said of Microsoft's Mac business unit, which probably doesn't get a lot of congratulatory handshakes from its Windows-crazed colleagues. 'Isn't it great that the Mac is going to have the best version of Office?'
Well, yeah.
