Quicksilver's gone!
1...
From: Pepe Barbe
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 21:53:51 -0600
Subject: Quicksilver/Blacktree website is downHey DB,
Recently I noticed that the Quicksilver/Blacktree sites are down. I've been looking around for some info about this, and since you are the only Macelebrity ;-) that is reachable (sort of) I was wondering if you knew anything about this.
Thanks!
Pepe
2...
From: Dean Mayers
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 17:17:04 +0000
Subject: Quicksilver's Gone!The Blacktree website is down and Quicksilver is reporting an error when trying to update. It seems to have disappeared.
I was wondering since your tight with the dev, you could let us know what's happening.
Cheers.
When it hit three, and he'd been offline for awhile and it was going into its second day, I picked up the phone...
...and realized I didn't actually have a number for him. Oh, I thought I did and he thought I did, but I didn't really. I checked from back at Evening at Adler, and nope, couldn't for the life of me find a number. We had hooked up the day after EAA, but this was more of a "I'll be at the corner of xyz at noon" type of thing. When we ran into each other at MacWorld, on the first day he'd forgotten his cell at home, and on the third day it'd been shipped to California but was sitting on his ex-roommate's porch.
However, I did have his ex-roomie's number, which I'd been avoiding using because I'd developed an insta-crush on her within 3 minutes of meeting. This (rightly) didn't amuse Nicholas one bit, and while there's an amusement factor to Nicholas tweaking, propriety stated I needed a suitable excuse to call and it was nice of him to give me one.
Long story short, everything is fine and it'll be resolved soon. He's quiet about his private life for his own valid reasons, but I'm sure it's fine to say he's exceedingly busy juggling a ton of things. They'd been hitting the SQL hard, as forums and such have a way of doing, and the hosting provider yanked the site, as hosting providers have a way of doing when they've oversold their services. Give it a few days, and all should be well.
Posted by drunkenbatmanFebruary 02, 2006, at 09:44 PM
Comments (38)
Posted by: moribund_happenstance at February 2, 2006 10:10 PM
Aaahhhh thanks! I wondered why the forums were down and I couldn't get my fix. If Alcor reads this, thank you for QS and your hard work on it.
Posted by: Mindflayer at February 3, 2006 01:17 AM
DB - let the guy know if he needs somewhere to throw the site, I will have my new server up within the month. Bandwidth won't be a problem.
Posted by: cheesetoe at February 3, 2006 01:43 AM
Thanks for the update. I wondered/worried about what was going on.
Posted by: Macnerd at February 3, 2006 03:55 AM
I've used QS a number of times and still can't see what the fuss is about. *Puts his flame suit on*. Maybe I'm just too set in my ways to adapt to something new. Looks like it has a lot of effort lavished upon it and it's certainly something I wouldn't want to see go away, as the legions of people who swear by it can't all be wrong.
Posted by: Oliver at February 3, 2006 04:07 AM
re: Quicksilver. I've been a LaunchBar user since 2002 or thereabouts. I tried QS and Butler in the past (sometimes for as long as a week) but always went back to LB.
But since the upgrade to Tiger I've taken stock and realised that I use LB less and less. It's still great for launching apps or finding contact details, but that's about all I use it for now (and it does a lot more).
So I've been thinking this past week about trying QS again. Good to see it's still alive.
Posted by: xrissley at February 3, 2006 11:08 AM
Indeed, noticed that... Actually, only the quicksilver subdomain of balcktree.com (the actual domain name) was down.
Which was a pain, because I was re-installing 2 machines, and that is the domain from which the plug-ins come down from!
It started to be unreachable intermittently on Tuesday if I recall correctly, before goign totally dark on Wednesday.
I didn't worry, that kind of things happen, and we just have to hope that the provider isn't asking for an arm and a leg for the hosting, because we'll need to hit the "donate" button hard, then.
Posted by: at February 3, 2006 02:25 PM
So when is Apple going to employ this dude and take ownership of what is an outstanding product.
Posted by: bonaldi at February 3, 2006 02:45 PM
Good work! Now if you could find out where As The Apple Turns has gone...
Posted by: Jake at February 3, 2006 03:33 PM
To "Macnerd,"
If you don't see a use for QS, that's fine. Maybe you're more of a mouse gal/guy. For those of us who like to keep our hands on the keyboard, it's a godsend.
I used it for over a year as simply an app launcher/switcher and loved it. Now that I'm sending short emails from it, grabbing files out of folders and manipulating them with it, I'm starting to feel the real power...and save TONS more time and aggravation.
But there's nothing wrong with people who don't need it, and I hardly see you as flaming us! We'll enjoy it *for* you. =]
Posted by: Peter da Silva at February 3, 2006 03:41 PM
Bah, REAL keyboard guys don't have anything on the screen but a web browser and four Terminal windows. Who needs Quicksilver?
Posted by: James Emerton at February 3, 2006 05:33 PM
You mean your browser isn't running inside one of those terminals? Who needs a GUI? =)
Posted by: cameron aka desk003 at February 4, 2006 12:43 AM
Oh, so now I understand your away message!
Posted by: Kevin Ballard at February 4, 2006 03:50 AM
Hey DB, when we (Nick and I) ran into you at MacWorld and he didn't have his phone, I gave you my number, remember? But of course I don't have his number either, since he didn't have his phone ;)
Posted by: Abhi Beckert at February 6, 2006 04:15 AM
Ages ago I tried both QS and LB, and ended up buying LB v3. Then when LB v4 came out (and I was up for an upgrade fee), I tried QS again and decided it was better.
The other day I tried LB once again and payed the upgrade minutes later, the latest LB is wicked fast and super polished. While QS has been adding feature after feature LB has been focusing on improving what it already has.
But seriously, if you use either of these it's worth trying the other every now and then. They're both full of "must have" features that are missing in the other app.
Posted by: Peter da Silva at February 6, 2006 11:42 AM
James: Have you ever tried to read "Dilbert" in a text window?
Posted by: JB at February 8, 2006 06:03 PM
And I thought that Apple had hired him to work on the Finder replacement ...
I'm a bit anal on having a manual, specially for apps that diverge from mainstream so I DONT USE QS ... But reverse parsers are cool, (Syboot ...)
I manage with Spotlight and bash though I'm looking for some time to learn the scripting facilities in OS X (automator included) ...
Speaking of Finder :
IS THERE A BUG IN 10.4.4'S FINDER ? : WHEN I EXPAND SOME ARCHIVES FINDER SHOWS THE CREATED SUBDIR EMPTY ... I HAVE TO CREATE A FOLDER OR SOMETHING INSIDE AND EVERYTHING BECOMES VISIBLE ...
Posted by: eff at February 9, 2006 01:59 AM
THAT'S BECAUSE YOU ARE TRYING TO ACCESS CLASSIFIED FILES, THE CONTENTS OF WHICH ARE ON A STRICT "NEED-TO-SEE" BASIS. THERE ARE THREE POSSIBLE REASONS FOR WHY YOU CAN NOT SEE THE CONTENTS OF A FOLDER:
A) YOU DO NOT POSSESS THE REQUIRED SECURITY CLEARANCE
B) THE FOLDER IS EMPTY
C) YOU NEED TO VISIT YOUR LOCAL LENSCRAFTERS STORE
Seriously though - why are you yelling? Try trashing the file "com.apple.bomarchivehelper.plist" inside your ~/Library/Preferences folder and see if that does the trick.
=)
Posted by: joh at February 16, 2006 07:05 AM
I think it's a very bad attitude to disable forums and bugtracker after a downtime without any comment or explanation on the static pages. I already had the feeling that someone managed to crack the forum scripts (most of them are unsafe anyway) and smuggled in altered packages to download. In such setups (forums/blogs/whatever in the same tree as the download area) this danger is for real.
Posted by: Drunken RatMan at February 16, 2006 03:40 PM
Some binge. You still alive?
Posted by: Skorp at February 18, 2006 07:01 AM
DrunkenBatman is gone... :-(
Posted by: z at February 19, 2006 05:40 AM
we hardly knew you
Posted by: El Pappa Del Aqua at February 21, 2006 06:07 PM
This just in, according to official sources "...blog addicts all over the world are decrying the absence of the drunkenbat !" Wow. Let's speculate...
Could he be off learning Cocoa in a secret Siberian underground lair ?
Could he have found just the right sinorita who, upon dissuading him from blogging, made him retire to a small island off the cayman coast where both of them are now living on fresh fish and a small pension of google ad savings ?
Maybe there never was a "DrunkenBatman" and we are just pawns of a massive conspiracy involving Apple. In fact, close analysis of the so called "Adler Video" shows numerous hints that the whole thing was a staged event...
Hmmm...
Posted by: jxl at February 21, 2006 07:15 PM
The great blog is over
"No More Mac News. No More Cocktails. No More Rambling. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 22 Feburary. That is 20 days past 2 Feb. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun—for anybody. 20. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax—This won't hurt."
Triple the points for whoever finds the real quote :)
Posted by: ralphhogaboom at February 21, 2006 07:22 PM
Man, I'm getting nervous. Where you at? Time to do an obituaries search?
Posted by: SamR at February 21, 2006 08:15 PM
Maybe there never was a "DrunkenBatman" and we are just pawns of a massive conspiracy involving Apple.
El Pappa Del Aqua: I'm with you. I think drunkenblog was some enormously elaborate viral marketing campaign instigated by Apple's marketing team.
Perhaps the 'new, fun product' due on the 28th is the Apple iWhiteRussian? With a U2 version in black.
Posted by: at February 22, 2006 01:17 AM
"No More Mac News. No More Cocktails. No More Rambling. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 22 Feburary. That is 20 days past 2 Feb. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun—for anybody. 20. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax—This won't hurt."
where is that from? i'm lost
Posted by: Stephen at February 22, 2006 10:06 AM
Seriously, are you dead?
Posted by: DrunkenHatPan at February 22, 2006 05:04 PM
this is a serious binge for sure...perhaps drunkenbatman has discovered the dark, dark world of smack
Posted by: at February 22, 2006 05:14 PM
I head he was hit by a bus
Posted by: say it ain't so at February 22, 2006 11:04 PM
I heard he was busy rehearsing the new finder with Steve for Tuesday. (It's taking a lot of his time).
Posted by: jxl at February 23, 2006 11:31 AM
For anyone interested in the quote it's an adaptation of "famous" last written words, ( according to Rolling Stone)
Posted by: Skorp at February 23, 2006 11:34 AM
Maybe he got fired from his day-job, and is now looking for food. Maybe he's homeless.
Posted by: Daniel Axelrod at February 23, 2006 01:35 PM
I was able to get ahold of drunkenbatman briefly by IM. He said "i'm good, just having to take care of some real life stuff." So don't worry about him having fallen off the face of the earth.
Posted by: Michael May at February 24, 2006 11:56 AM
But this *is* his life...
Posted by: Skorp at February 24, 2006 06:30 PM
Yep. Out of a job, living in a cardboard tent downtown. Or, rather, living in a van down by the river.
Posted by: Cris 'atariboy' Pearson at February 26, 2006 04:04 AM
I heard he was a she!!!!1
Posted by: Niels at February 27, 2006 05:23 PM
I thought my RSS reader was broken. I noticed that I had not read anything from the man in weeks. I hope all is well and look forward to some new information!
But more importantly, did you get to chat with the ex-roomie?