OS Integration in Firefox 3

They have moved from a standard look to better OS integration. See the screenshots to get an idea.

http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2008/05/14/firefox-3-themes/

4D OS X Interface Guidelines Summary Chart

From http://www.synergyfarmsolutions.com/Code/code.html

4D OS X Interface Guidelines Summary Chart
This summary chart makes it easier to design consistent looking forms in 4D for OS X. It shows the fonts, font sizes, buttons sizes, etc. needed for common situations that match Apple's human interface guidelines. It hasn't been updated yet to include some of the new button types available in 4D 2004, although it does point you to the proper pages in the official human interface guidelines document so you can find it easily enough for now.

You can download the summary chart here.

Archy - A radical look at the HCI

Has anyone seen this? This a ZUI 'Zoom-User Interface'.

http://rchi.raskincenter.org/

Wikipedia entry provides a quick overview:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy

This seems too radical, although coming from Jef Raskin, part of original Macintosh team and human-computer interface expert, this looks promising.

Read below for understanding why Jef Raskin pushed for this:

http://jef.raskincenter.org/humane_interface/summary_of_thi.html

NTFS Support on Mac OSX

Most of you may have heard of the revolution brought by NTFS-3G in supporting NTFS on non-Windows operating systems. Thanks to Szabolcs Szakacsits, NTFS-3G provides a stable read/write driver for NTFS-formatted drives.

Starting from Mac OSX 10.4.1, a read only driver for NTFS comes built-in with operating system, so NTFS drives can be easily mounted in read only mode in Mac OSX. However, read/write can also be enabled for NTFS drives by using the NTFS-3G driver coupled with FUSE. Here is what you require:

1. Download and install MacFUSE.

2. Download and install stable version of NTFS-3G driver Mac OSX DMG package.

3. Restart your system.

Staring with NTFS-3G version 1.1120, this is all you need. Now whenever you plug-in your external NTFS drive, it will be automatically mounted in read/write mode.

If you want to revert to Apple's NTFS driver, you can use a script that comes with NTFS-3G dmg package. You can then use 'mount' command in Terminal to manually enable read/write on a particular drive, the details can be found in this article.

As a side note, FUSE is a really great idea and ever since it has been ported to Mac OSX, a number of interesting application have been built based on it. Take for example, GrabFS, which is a screenshot file system!

4D Tech Note on Printing Barcodes

Apparently, this approach uses a plug-into create barcodes and not barcode fonts.

http://www.4d.com/knowledgebase?CaseID=36279

Printing Barcodes

Bar codes are widely used for automatic identification on products, shipment papers, etc. This technical note describes a 4D component (source code included) allowing to print a set of different bar codes with a single command.

What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Know ...

This is a must-read book for entrepreneurs, executives and businessmen. And also for managers who are working on launching a new product or service. What makes this book so crucial is that it allows you to evaluate whether your venture will fly before you put in your time, effort and money? Will your opportunity attract customers and money? Will the fish bite? Will your business be sustainable?

The lessons learnt are not specific to software or computer industry and are applicable to wide range of businesses. The book builds a seven domain analysis, focusing on your industry, market and team, to analyze the opportunity.

The first chapter is freely available.

The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan

by John Mullins

Website: http://www.pearson-books.com/roadtest

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Business-Road-Test-Entrepreneurs/dp/0273708058

The New Business Road Test helps entrepreneurs and business professionals avoid impending disaster. It shows them how to enhance their chances of winning customers and capital and actually achieve their entrepreneurial dreams!

Chapter 1 is a 'must read' as it provides a framework for assessing the seven domains that characterise attractive opportunities. Downloadable from:

http://faculty.london.edu/jmullins/assets/documents/chapter_1_for_website.pdf

Creating Video Documentation

There has been a recent thread on 4D iNUG regarding creating Video Documentation like a movie of screenshots. Here is the link:

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.inug-4d.tech/69209

Some good applications discussed in the thread are listed below, they all also support Mac:

http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html
http://www.jingproject.com/ (Flash movies, Free for now!)
http://www.synium.de/products/screenium/index.html
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

And another tool for Windows is:
http://www.video-capture.info/

I hope it helps.