Dock envy
This article really made me laugh—-peering over your fellow Mac user’s shoulder to see what he or she has in their Dock—-it’s so me! I even look at the screenshots in MacUser magazine carefully in case I might be missing something. I’m also glad to see that I’m in good company with my right-side pinned Dock. It’s the only place to have it, dontcha know.
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But of course the dock has to be on the right! Anywhere else is heresy.
I thought it was interesting to see what applications people use frequently -- that article introduced me to Transmit, which looks like a good replacement for the Interarchy I have on my dock.----- The Dock should be at the bottom where Apple (and hence God) intended. Everything else is heresy.
by ThoughtBadger @ 01/10/2003 10:11 pm • Permalink •
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It's initial position at the bottom is only a test of your worthiness. The Power-Users who will find favor with God/Apple quickly find the "position on screen" menu and complete It's purpose by selecting "RIGHT".
by PZ Myers @ 01/10/2003 11:10 pm • Permalink •
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Big-endian or little-endian ?
by dave m @ 02/10/2003 2:10 am • Permalink •
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I leave mine on the bottom. And I use FTPeel.
by Erik J. Barzeski @ 02/10/2003 4:10 am • Permalink •
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Transmit's one of my favorite applications. One of the best FTP/SFTP programs on any platform (almost beating out the stock sftp and the lovely ncftp CLI programs.)
Of course, I keep my Dock anchored on the right side of the screen. I vary with magnification -- since I love to show off with my Mac, I keep my Dock full and small, with magnification at it's highest to "Wow!" all of my friends.
But, there's more! I make use of crafty little defaults editing to anchor the Dock to the UPPER right side! So, it's not only in it's proper place, but the icons don't slide all over the place! They expand downward, like any sensible Dock should.
by Nathan Ladd @ 02/10/2003 6:10 am • Permalink •
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Right side? Bah! I don't know if I can go on reading this blog!
Well, wether it's on the right side or the bottom, we can all probably agree: it shouldn't stay its default color.
So, Mrs. BSAG, what do you have on YOUR dock? I'll post mine if you post yours.
by bitweever @ 02/10/2003 3:10 pm • Permalink •
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As I don't have a mouse, and I only use the TrackPad on my PowerBook, I find it easiest to have the Dock on the left. Most of my clicking activity is based around the top-left corner.
My Dock icons are arranged in a beautiful colour-coordinated manner, starting with blue, then blue-yellow, yellow-red, red-brown, brown. (Fortunately, the programs I use most often have blue icons, and so are at the top.)
I've got the Dock itself hidden from view, and with the magnification turned off. One drawback of having it on the left, though, is that Safari always opens indented, which I can only guess is because of the positioning of the Dock, despite it being hidden.
by David (TEFL Smiler) @ 02/10/2003 5:10 pm • Permalink •
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Oh, dear -- another holy war seems to have started.
I'm a big fan of Transmit too (no offence, Erik! I discovered it before FTPeel).
David: Heh. I love the idea of a colour-coordinated Dock! I bet you arranged your felt-tip pens in spectrum order when you were a kid, didn't you?
bitweever: OK then. I can't be bothered to post a picture, but here's the list (right-top pinned, no magnification, no hiding):
Finder (emergency purposes only and not running), Path Finder ( http://www.cocoatech.com - really excellent Finder replacement), Mailsmith, SpamSieve, Safari, NetNewsWire Lite, URLManager Pro, BBEdit, vim (yay!), iCal, AddressBook, LifeBalance ( http://www.llamagraphics.com/ - a very interesting project management type thing), Terminal, System Prefs, SpellCatcher X, LaunchBar (this is always running), Update Radar, Word (yuk, but a necessity for work), Tinderbox, then several applications I'm trying out to slake my insatiable need for note taking type things - NoteBook ( http://www.circusponies.com ) and VoodooPad ( http://flyingmeat.com/index.html ). Make of that lot what you will. I also don't use the Dock for launching, just seeing what's running.
by bsag @ 02/10/2003 6:10 pm • Permalink •
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Nice to see vim on the list.
I just downloaded Path Finder the other day. Seems curious. LaunchBar is a necessity, but doesn't take up space on my Dock -- I've disabled the icon so as to conserve space; I never use it (using Cmd-Esc instead.)
But the real reason for this extra post: Yay! Finally, someone else that uses LifeBalance! I discovered them on the Palm, and they were one of the products that made me switch (this was before they released the Windows version.)
by Nathan Ladd @ 02/10/2003 8:10 pm • Permalink •
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But, but but... the Apple menu is on the left hand side! And the application menu starts on the left hand side!
Surely the one true location of the Dock is on the left hand side of the screen!
by Dan Hon @ 02/10/2003 8:11 pm • Permalink •
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It is with some distaste that I reenter this debate that is obviously populated with heretics who ignore The One True Way, but I am prepared to forgive you all if you will agree that LaunchBar is The Biz.
by ThoughtBadger @ 02/10/2003 9:10 pm • Permalink •
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You sussed me in one, Mrs Bsag!
by David (TEFL Smiler) @ 03/10/2003 2:10 am • Permalink •
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The RIGHT?? I agree with Dan Hon, the dock belongs on left.
Actually both the left and right are better than the bottom, but my preference for the lefthand sign is because the dock stays firmly out of the way unless needed. Applications zoom open to the right of it, accidental opens are far less in this position. My argument for the left is the opposite of the one that tends to want advertisers to place ads on the right. Accidently clicks, hits, and distraction occur for your most right-handers. Even left handers often experience issues, since they were so often forced to adopt habits of right-handers.
Transmit is cool, and I use it when transfering lots of data, but tend to use NetFinder more often. I find its integration with BBEdit is essential to my web work habits.
What's on my dock? HHmmm? What's on my desktop is probably a better question. My dock has my most frequently used applications, and folders. I use FruitMenu's to modify the Apple Menu, and F10 Launch for non-frequent applications. My greatest joy is Konfabulator--I use it for news feeds, tracking my water intake, watching the weather, to getting lyrics for songs in iTunes (LyricScraper ROCKS!!), and quick searches of IMDb, Amzon, CNet, and MapQuest. I like my desktop fairly clean so, I use the Peanuts gang for quick filing for items on my desktop. Mostly downloads that need to be filed, items to read, and things I'm writing. BuddyPop is my other favorite tool. Instant access to the AddressBook.
I love looking at other peoples dock, and finding out what things they use to make their life easier. In the spirit of share, my desktop http://www.nonprofit-tech.org/alnisa/MyDesktop.gif
by allgood2 @ 03/10/2003 2:10 am • Permalink •
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LaunchBar just isn't The Biz. It owns me.
by Nathan Ladd @ 03/10/2003 2:11 am • Permalink •
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I've tried having my Dock on the left but never really cared for it. After this thread, I tried it on the left AND hidden. I've converted.
My Dock contains: Finder, Safari, Mail, iCal, AddressBook, LifeBalance, iTunes, Terminal, TextEdit, KungLog, and Proteus. I have a script that runs iCal on startup and every night at 12:05am if it's not already running, so the date is always correct.
I use my Desktop as I would my real desktop. Things that need to be sorted go in one corner. Applications that need to be tested go in another. Documentation that I'm actively work on is spread throughout the middle (in clumps, according to project.) For some reason, I never developed this habit until switching to the Mac. In Windows, I prefered my desktop to be blank, devoid of all content.
Now, for something new: my menu bar. From right to left: Clock (analog), Battery (just the symbol), Airport, Volume, iChat, a monitor (CPU: sys and user, page activity, memory: used and free, disk activity: read and write), Synergy. LaunchBar's there, of course, but I turned off the icon (as I do the Dock icon.) Needless waste of space. Everything up there should be rich with information.
by Nathan Ladd @ 03/10/2003 5:10 am • Permalink •
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