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Six Apart has provided a fix for a potential Spam vulnerability in MovableType's "Email this to a friend" feature. You can read about the fix, and download it, here.
If you haven't already installed Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist anti-comment spam plug-in, go here and install it at the same time as the MovableType fix.
I'm looking for free or cheap (under $100.00) bibliographic database software. I'd like something that uses MySQL, Perl, and/or PHP and that includes a GUI, or that one could fairly easily create a browser-based or AppleScript/AppleStudio GUI. Yes, I know, there are academic bibliographic products like EndNote or ProCite, but they cost an arm and a leg, are proprietary, and have horrible interfaces. I'm fine with paying for good software, but those applications really don't work for me. In fact, almost no one I know, whether graduate students or faculty, uses them because they're so poorly designed that they're almost impossible to use.
I don't need an application that interfaces with a word processor (though I won't kick and scream if someone offers the feature!) but I need to be able to create entries for journal articles, essays in essay collections, and books. I need to be able to include a fairly long summary or annotation for each item—at least 1,000 words. I need to be able to search for strings based on fields (author, title, keyword). And I need to run it either on a Mac running OS X 10.3 or on a Unix server. Right now I'm still using a HyperCard stack I made, and while it's fabulous (she says modestly) I know that it has a fairly limited lifespan, and it uses XCMDS that I can't rewrite to use with Revolution. In other words, I'm really looking for a good bibliorgraphic database, before I give up and roll my own.
I've done the obvious thing— looked at VersionTracker, SourceForge and other collections, but so far, I've not found anything. If you have any suggestions, please use the Comment link below.
Whilst waiting for my iBook to be restored via AppleCare, I've been using an original Bondi iMac running OS 9.2.2. I still like OS 9 Just Fine, though I really really really missed Safari, the Schubert it PDF Browser Plug-In and NetNewsWire. But I appreciated using what I still think is the Best E-Mail Client Ever, Emailer, from Claris by way of FogCity Software. Emailer is exceedingly AppleScriptable, easy to write in, handles multiple accounts (including AOL) and doesn't do anything I don't want it to do. Emailer is elegant, and courteous, and was End of Life'd years ago. I also appreciated using the Best Word Processor Ever, MacWrite Pro. Also End of Life'd. Also from Claris. (Notic a theme?) Both of those still work under Classic, by the way, and I do still use them sometimes, (though not as often as HyperCard) (also from Claris). I also used MarinerWrite for files I knew I'd be working on when my iBook was returned.
But the experience, particularly the ease of use of these applications, got me thinking about the many applications that try to do everything and that are designed to make decisions so the user doesn't have to (and isn't allowed to). I hate that. It's one of many reasons I don't use Microsoft Word or Outlook unless there's payment involved.
There is a place, still, and an active eager user base for "elegant" applications, and they do exist for Mac OS X. I very much like Mariner Write. I'm enthusiastic about Nisus Writer Express, and will write more about it soon. Mellel has real promise as a word processor (more about that later, too). Apple's Mail is getting better all the time (and Eudora is getting worse). Apple's iLife applications and Keynote meet my criteria (though there are some improvements to be made). I'd be interested in other Mac (or Unix) applications people think are well-designed, and easy to use, elegant, efficient and intelligently creative. What do you like ?
To be strictly accurate, I'm not so much waiting for Panther, as I am waiting for my iBook
Waiting to install means I'm avoiding the common malady of pioneers everywhere (you can spot pioneers by the arrows in their backs. Or their dead FireWire drives.) and doing a lot of reading. Oh yeah, and writing (yes, the dissertation lives).
According to Chuq von Rospach, it's because of this. Though I grant that his is a persuasive example, I think think he needs to generalize his argument to the ultimate purpose for graduate students.