One of my favorite OS X apps was finally updated for 10.3 today… DeskShade Plus. The fact that it’s only a very simple app has nothing to do with its value, and the fact that I use only a fraction of its actual functionality has even less to do with my liking it; for me, it’s a rug for things to be swept under.
Generally speaking, I’m a tidy guy. You wouldn’t guess it if you were to look at my bedroom floor right now, but I like to be organized. Of course, there are times where I just need a temporary dumping ground, somewhere to throw a pile of crap before it’s sorted into something/somewhere more appropriate… on my computer that place is the desktop. DeskShade Plus is the rug that covers the crap until the crap finds a new home, and it does it admirably. The update for Panther (that is, version 1.2) isn’t so different from its predecessor, but it plays nicely with Exposé… and that’s important.
Posted by Chris Clark on November 10, 2003 at 4:38 PM
Every few months I read complaints from the US telecommunications industry over the number portability issue, and I’m yet to comprehend what the problem is. Every telecom seems to be paranoid that they’ll lose their customer base as soon as it comes into play… as if they know how shitty their service is, and it serves them right. But number portability has been available for several years here in Australia and I didn’t hear a peep out of our telcos until it was actually in place. Some people still don’t know they can “take their number with them” when they’re switching carriers; it just comes as a pleasant surprise when they switch (which, no doubt, they were planning to do anyway).
Telstra (the mobile carrier with whom I am currently under contract) offered $100 call credit to my phone bill and one month unlimited data just for switching. It’s incentive. I used to be on Vodafone’s ‘No Plans’ (which is awesome) but I wanted a new phone. ‘No Plans’ requires that you already own a phone, and they don’t offer contract–purchases, so I switched to Telstra for the T68i. No big deal. It was only a couple of years earlier that I switched from Telstra to Vodafone to take advantage of ‘No Plans’. People will play the field, and they do it already despite the fears and problems generated by a change of phone number; in that regard, number portability won’t change a thing.
If it does have a massive impact in the US, it’ll be simple Darwinian succession. I don’t know a great deal about the US telecommunications market (read: I don’t know whether it’s crowded or relatively sparse. We only have five or six telcos to choose from here in AU), but it’s safe to assume that shitty telecoms will either go out of business or realize that they will go out of business if they don’t get off their asses and become competitive again. Number portability is a wake–up call, whether consumers know about it or not.
Posted by Chris Clark on November 10, 2003 at 5:19 PM