Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Dine-O-Matic (and the Dashboard widgets we love)
Merlin Mann | Sep 6 2006
Dine-O-Matic - Dashboard - Food I've never quite taken to Dashboard the way a lot of folks have. Like that completely baffling Spotlight results "window," it seems to just kind of live off in its own little neighborhood -- one that's just far enough away to discourage frequent visits. “Jeez, Merlin, how lazy can you get about hitting Annnnnnyhow, I finally found a "business case" for Dashboard today with the discovery of the perfectly-delightful Dine-O-Matic, a beautiful and free (as in beer) little widget from the graphical savants over at Iconfactory. This does precisely one thing: it chooses a random restaurant for you to eat at. That's it. No more whiny rounds of "'What do you want?' and 'No, what do you want?'" Because we now have comely robots to make these decisions for us. The dining-out singularity is near! You just pop in the names and cuisine-types of all your local haunts, and then hit the big blue plate. The widget flashes and churns like a slot machine, then picks out the place you and your party will dine. Awesome. Yay, Dashboard.
We haven't talked too much about Dashboard around here, but I'd love to hear from you guys: Which widgets have made you love Dashboard? Has Dashboard become an integrated part of your overall workflow? Or is it just a pretty amusement park? (not that this is bad) 53 Comments
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 Uhh, Merlin, you do know...Submitted by Grant (not verified) on September 6, 2006 - 9:18am.
Uhh, Merlin, you do know that you can set Dashboard (as well as Expose) to activate when you move the mouse pointer to (your choice) a corner of the screen? You don't need to reach up and hit F12...in fact, I can't remember ever using the key commands for Dashboard or Expose. For me, Dashboard comes up when I cursor to the lower right corner of the screen. Fast and easy. As to favorite widgets, I use a stock tracker from Quotes.com; Gold Price; iCal Events; Unit Converter; Vela Clock. However, the hands-down all-time best widget (IMNSHO, of course) is Easy Envelopes - it prints formatted envelopes with your return address. It can take the addressee information directly from Address Book, or you can enter that information manually. For me it is a great time saver. » POSTED IN:
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