Well, we have reached the point I am more or less satisfied with Labels X 1.1 and Xounds updates.

After some optimizations, Xounds performs drastically better now - starting the playback of one appearance sound before took around 700 to 800 ms of time (on my Mac, at least); now it only take 20-30 ms -- feel the difference! I've also made Cocoa windows emit the window drag sound just like they should (when you just touch the title bar, like on Carbon), also volume insert/eject sounds are back. Lots of smaller bugs has been squashed, so this upcoming release looks Real Good Now. If any of you wish to beta test it, we'd appreciate your help, as we definitely don't want to release an undertested product (again). Email me at slava.unsanity.com if you wish to give it a try.

Labels X 1.1 works under Mac OS X 10.1 now (wish I could test it more, most of our testers have moved to Jaguar already), as well as fixes numerous miscoloring glitches, and gives better localization support (read: you can name individual labels as you want, including Japanese, Russian, etc.).

So these two will be out as soon as they are tested sufficiently and I finish a new version of Unsanity Installer (ui/3). We have decided to streamline the interface a bit (those tabs in the current one are waaay too confusing), as well as integrate the APE installer into ui instead of individual preference panes as we have now - it will be far more logical, right?

I have also found the bug with application triangles not coloring with ClearDock, when the Dock is in the left or right position. I have partially fixed it, but it requires some more work, which I will do whenever I get some spare time.

We are also working on a new haxie which is near completion, but more info on it will follow as soon as it enters the beta stage (2 to 3 weeks from now, I guess, but what do I know about the release dates... ;).

I have also worked together with Jason Harris to make an update to his free iChat Enhancer APE module -- I've added a feature to prevent iChat from eating Returns from your IMs. Unfortunately, there are some issues with Rendezvous messaging now, so when they get fixed, we'll release an update.

Silk release dates, don't ask us yet - it is still in alpha development as Rosyna seeks the most effective ways to achieve what Silk has to do. It'll be out when it's ready and tested - thanks for your patience. ;)

So this has been a somewhat long status update on our current developments to compensate the lack of the postings in the past weeks. I promise to catch up.

I had a dream the other day that I was showing Phil Schiller the new Silk 1.5 and he was so impressed he offered me a job on the Finder team. All I could say was, "Thanks, but I'm not ready for that kind of step in my life right now." Odd dream. At least he wasn't in a thong bikini. If you don't know who Phil Schiller is, be very happy after my last comment.

So, Application Enhancer 1.2, Metallifizer 1.1 and ClearDock 1.2.2 are all out, and we're all busy again with finishing up the Labels X 1.1 update - it's been semi-ready for over a month now, yet I just got time to get back to it. Version 1.1 will fix most of the issues our users were having with the miscolored icons, and will also show labels in the Finder's Apple menu and the Dock. Mac OS X 10.1 compatibility is still in the works (read: I haven't touched it yet), but this is my top priority once I finish axing the remaining entries in our bugs/tasks database. I'll keep doing these boring development diary blog entries so you know what happens over here.

On the other hand, the Silk updates Rosyna has been hinting about look promising. Still plenty of work there, too!

Slava has been hinting about it and showing screenshots for a week or two. We released APE 1.2 along with ClearDock 1.2.2 and Metallifizer 1.1 today. APE Manager is our initial effort at providing a clean way to manage Application Enhancers (our own or 3rd party modules). We have plenty of things still in the oven and of course a whole list of things that we haven't even nailed down the exact ingredients yet...but which should be tasty someday. :)

Check it out at unsanity.com/haxies/ and let us know what you think.

Application Enhancer 1.2, as well as Metallifizer 1.1, went GM today. If everything will be fine, we'll be releasing them early next week. Wee!

Update 11/23/02: This entry will be updated as I take new screenshots.

I've been working on a new version of Silk lately, this version will have a new "Font Substitution" feature. This feature was primarily vengeance against Arial and other icky Microsoft fonts based on other real fonts from real foundries. These images are kind of big and IE may have a problem displaying them. If it does, hold down the option key and click the link.

Font Substitution... TO THE MAX!
Do not ever set the minimum font size to 25
Silk and FruitMenu make a cute couple (really big, 300+k)
IE versus OmniWeb
Explorer Menu
Finder stuff. How is it drawing?
More Finder windows, not sure how the menu title or the names are drawn.
The Finder has violated me for the last time! Do not try this at home kids.
The Connect to Server box.
The finder and the System Preferences (Silk)
System Preferences for the new Silk Font Substitution tab.
New System Preferences for the new Silk Font Substitution tab. Looks horrible. Suggestions?
New Showing the fonts. Wacky. Anyone know how to fix this?
New Word. Word. Word. I hate Word.

By the way, the font you see in the font settings in Word is Lucida Grande Handwriting. It's the font I use (2019) to test to see if a call I am going to "patch" actually does anything. I use this font because it's changes are very noticeable.

You can drag any item from the right to the left. If you drag it over an item on the left, it will place it in the replace column. You can also drag a text clipping from any application to the Silk preference pane and the same rules apply. I plan to make a movie to show all of this when it gets ready for release.

The work on Application Enhancer 1.2 continues - this includes polishing up APE Manager, as well as writing plenty of supplementary code to simplify various common tasks such as include/exclude lists or per-application settings for APE module developers.

Individual APE modules can have their own settings embedded right into the APE Manager - and Metallifizer 1.1 takes full advantage of that ability. You can now choose exactly which applications you want it to affect, and choose whether it should metallifize or demetallifize each particular application.

In the screenshot below, I chose Address Book to have no metal, and metallifized Can Combine Icons:

An update to Application Enhancer is coming along nicely. There are no new bugs to fix since version 1.1, so we're focusing on polishing and adding features to it. New version will add a much needed tool to manage installed APE Modules. It will allow you to enable/disable modules, change include or exclude lists, view the applications currently affected by a particular APE module, and to manage settings for smaller APE modules (like Dock Detox and ClearDock). And of course, third-party developers will be able to take advantage of services provided by APE Manager.

A development screenshot for you:

UPDATE: And I didn't make it clear enough, APE Manager is a preference pane. ;)

The Application Enhancer is slowly getting adopted by third-party developers, and we welcome a new addition to the APE-using tools a new cool tool from Infinity-to-the-Power-of-Infinity - Skin a Dock.

That little tool will do what it says - it will skin your Dock, so your icons are lying underwater or are scattered around the grass. Nifty visual eye candy and a way to impress your friends as well!

Even though this is just a beta, I suggest giving it a try and give feedback to its author. ;)

UPDATE 11/05: for the unfortunate souls having problems, here's a tip how to fully uninstall Skin a Dock beta:

• Remove ~/Library/PreferencePanes/Skin a Dock.prefPane
  
• Remove ~/Library/Application Enhancers/Skin a Dock.ape
  
• Remove /Library/Caches/com.apple.dock.iconcache.<your user name>
  
• Log out
  

Skin a Dock, like any other APE module, does not changes anything on disk, so once you remove all its components, everything should be back to normal (com.apple.dock.iconcache.joeuser file isn't a part of Skin a Dock, but it contains cached Dock icons). A star minus to David of ITTPOI for not providing clean uninstall instructions. ;)