06 Jun 2009, 16:56
Hey there -- hope all well.
This is not a version announcement - just a heads-up on why there has been so little happening on the FinderPop front over the last couple of months. Aside from sheer laziness on my part, of course.
The main excuse is that I am still recovering after an accident a month ago -- I somehow managed to walk into the path of a bus in Paseig de Gracia here in Barcelona. It was at 6:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon so I can't even blame the beer :-)
Looks like the timing of the collision was just right in that the bus's mirror hit my head and the upper left part of my body while its front wheel ran over my right foot. I still don't understand how I didn't hear it or see it. I ended up with a broken collarbone (clavicle), a couple of cracked ribs, a fracture in my skull next to my left eye, a fractured cheekbone below my left eye, a badly-bruised left leg and 4 broken metatarsals on my right foot. My left arm is in a special sling to immobilise my left shoulder and my right leg is in a plaster cast up to my knee. The blow also did something nasty to my left eye - I can no longer read normal-sized text with it and have double vision depending on the angle at which I look at things. Also I have reduced feeling in my left cheek and upper left row of teeth, looks like a nerve or two have been chopped.
The good news is that most of my ailments (and especially my eye) are slowly improving, and of course that it could have been much worse ... I'm a very lucky lad, all things considered. Anyway, I hope you will understand that there is not going to be a 10.6-compatible version of FinderPop for a while - but there will be, eventually..! (10.6 will require a considerable rewrite as there's no 64-bit Carbon... FinderPop rewrite number 3-and-a-half!)
In a couple of months time, I'll be able to look back on this episode and laugh. Might be a bit hollow, though :)
Edit 2009-08-28: It's a couple of months later, and while I'm not looking back and laughing just yet, I'm a heck of a lot better now. To look at me, the only way you'd know something was amiss is because I still limp a little and one shoulder is about an inch shorter than the other. The left eye has improved dramatically but is still a bit blurry... but I'm at the age where I'd probably need glasses anyway so I'm not complaining. Indeed, meeting some of the other accident victims in my physiotherapy sessions made me realise just how lucky I am...
Edit 2009-11-16: It's a couple of more months later, and it turns out my clavicle never really healed properly, so nearly three weeks ago I had an operation to insert a titanium plate joining the two halves of the clavicle together. Some live bone was also needed for the mix, and apparently my hip volunteered :) So now I have a very impressive scar on my left shoulder and a less impressive one on my right hip. (Oddly enough, the hip hurts more than the shoulder.) I had to wear a sling for the first 2-and-a-bit weeks which meant typing one-handedly. Thankfully at this stage I can dispense with the sling at home, but still have to wear it out-of-doors for the next two weeks. At which point I will probably commence some physio sessions. Hopefully will be back in good working order by Christmas!
06 Jun 2009, 21:28
I wondered where you were. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Take your time to get well.
09 Jun 2009, 20:13
Get well!
10 Jul 2009, 01:08
I hope this month of silence means you're busy getting your life and self back together. I'm rooting for you, sure that the bus took unfair advantage. A mirror! D**n that hurts, the Barcelona busses must have some evil heavy mirrors.
Here's a measure of my fondness for FinderPop, which replaced fruitmenu years ago (I never looked back): As a developer using the Snow Leopard betas, I found I was crippled without FinderPop, aimlessly wandering through Finder windows, entirely unable to work without my good right hand button man. I relegated Snow Leopard to a build-and-test-only machine, and thankfully returned to 2.2 and 10.5.
So I have a huge ulterior motive for wishing you well and just now sent along a few pints in appreciation. But no pressure mate, just want you recovering, resting on your laurels.
Be well,
Taryn
"...By accident or subconscious design, we destroyed the pattern of our lives, reduced our species to tiny pockets of survival and engendered a world whose very fabric responded to our thoughts....We all of us looked at the turmoil around and were afraid, and instead of going out to meet it and sniff it like good mammals, good primates, we got cold feet and fell back upon our cold blood; like lizards on a cloudy day, we wished ourselves back in the comfort of our holes; we wanted our finite horizons of predictable problems and predictable joys...."
--- The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway, 2008 ---
"Don't abstract a standard abstraction"
-- -E. Texley to TVW ~12/28/06
27 Aug 2009, 09:02
I'm so sorry to hear about this. I hope you're mending well Turly!
I guess I won't be upgrading to Snow Leopard for a while then.
28 Aug 2009, 11:11
Thanks muchly for the expressions of support, etc! I've just edited the first post with my current status which is thankfully much better.
Anyway, I hope to start work on a Snow-Leopard compatible version of FinderPop next week sometime
... but be warned, there is much to do :-/
29 Aug 2009, 00:55
It's a wonderful product, turly, but take care of yourself, first. Prioritize.
Regards and best wishes,
Mark
29 Aug 2009, 02:25
I know that station, having used it on a number of occasions to get from Barcelona to Girona. Had you stuck to the train instead of the bus - but then again who wants to get hit by a train (
). Seriously, I hope you get better soon!29 Aug 2009, 09:39
I have to echo offline's comments - while I'm keen to upgrade to Snow Leopard, you have to focus on getting better first Turly. I mean, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have the most essential Mac utility at all, would we? And for free!
The initial lack of FinderPop was one reason it took me so long to upgrade to OS X, and I won't be upgrading to any future OS versions it doesn't run on unless I absolutely have to (or somebody else replicates FinderPop's functionality).
02 Sep 2009, 19:52
> somebody else replicates FinderPop's functionality
tish! away with you, man.
I love much more about FinderPop than merely its "functionality". (what a soulless word!)
it's not just what it does; it's how it makes you feel that matters.
my trips into FinderPop's UI are few and far between, because it just works — and as a multi-decade software industry insider, I'm a wee bit jaded; but every time I hit that panel, it makes me
in delight!it's a mighty thing indeed that yer man here tickles that same reaction every time.
let's simply declare: there's no other software author like Turly!
03 Sep 2009, 14:56
Here's hoping for your continued recovery! I've been a fan and user of FinderPop since OS9 (at least), and it's served me well for over a decade. The only piece of software I've used for longer has been BBEdit. Keep up the great work, dude!
21 Sep 2009, 15:11
turly.....
I LOVE Finderpop!!!! I was going to write and tell you how I installed Snow Leopard, and, with a little biit of help from me (I deleted some files in Library!) it completely screwed up my Mac Pro!
There was something called FP-injector in Activity monitor using 99%+ of my CPU all the time. My fans were going berserk. After 3 calls to Applecare they eventually explained and helped me to uninstall FP (if I'd realised what FP-injector was I could have done that myself!
Anyway, after resetting the SMC and PMU and the contortions of restting PRAM I am up and running normally again. But I do so miss FP!!!!!!
NOW.......
All of the above pales into complete insignificance when I read about your accident. Are you sure it wasn't the Beer?
) Just get completely well again as soon as possible - speaking as an ex GP it will take longer than you think - and when you are completely well you can begin to thinking about helping all of we deprived souls who miss our almost continouous use of FP! posting.php?mode=reply&f=3&t=17#
21 Sep 2009, 21:34
Thanks mrpwick!
I'm sorry to hear that FP was causing problems on Snow Leopard. You must have been running an old version of FinderPop, I fixed that "100% CPU" bug in v 2.2 back in January (actually in 2.1.3b9 in June 2008.)
Anyway, I hope to release a properly-compatible version for Snow-Leopard in the not-too-distant future... working on it!
Cheers!
23 Sep 2009, 19:03
Jeez Turly, talk about a cosmic dope-slap
Although I admit that lack of FP is the only thing keeping me from running SL full time I'd much rather you focused on healing; your call OC.
It's good to hear you're up and at 'em,
m
28 Sep 2009, 20:15
I just upgraded to Snow Leopard. Rebooted. Right clicked to get the FP-menu. Cried. Remembered how I felt going from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X without FP.
I thought "What could be worse than running a Mac without FP"? Apparently getting hit by the bus...
When FP 3.0. is out I'll send another pint your way.
Best wishes,
16 Nov 2009, 06:23
I have only just stumbled onto a MacWorld review of FinderPop, so I was looking to try it out. When I read about your incident in Barcelona, my heart really went out to you. That was a very unfortunate event and even without ever meeting you, reading your post about the incident was especially touching in its lightheartedness. I'm really glad that you are doing better!