Moof! Apple has released Tiger and all is right with the Mac-loving world. Yeah, I still have to upgrade most of EchoDitto's computers, but at least some of us are living the future. New features abound, from Spotlight desktop searching to Automator to help you do repetitive tasks (as the literature says, "it's like your own personal robot inside of your computer!" -- could we please get a little more meta?).
Just as the Dock was the showroom floor demo to get customers oohing and aahing when Mac OS X came out a few years ago, this time around the Dashboard is where the eye candy is at. With the flick of a keystroke or mouse, a dashboard of widgets swoops into view and gives you instant access to whatever information your heart desires (or developers create). The nice thing about widgets is that they are about as simple to create as web pages, so the bar is lowered for techie-minded folks to get in on the action and start making applications.
On my dashboard I've got a clock for both DC and Amsterdam, my computer's uptime, the weather at the office and home (see my previous blogs for why those might differ more than most of my co-workers'), a quick Flickr uploader, a calculator, some sticky notes, and a framed picture of my fiancée (awwwwww) along with a countdown clock to the next major date I need to not forget about. Pretty useful, all in all.
These widgets are so easy to write, I figured I'd take a crack and see what I could come up with. In hardly any time, I was able to put together some HTML, CSS, PNG images, and Javascript and create an automatically-refeshing view of Michael's favorite map. Our Fight Hunger: Walk the World site was recently launched for the United Nations World Food Programme and the map has been a popular destination for people who want to see just where the next event will be organized.
So, if you're running Tiger and you'd like to see this map on your dashboard, feel free to download it and let me know what you think. I'll be tweaking it as time goes on and I'm open to suggestions.
EchoDitto's Walk the World widget
Now, get to the site and make a walk of your own!
