The MacDeskBlog

MacDesktops is 10 years old today. In 1998, I bought a new 20″ monitor. It was huge. It had a massive 1280×1024 resolution. I searched the web high and low for desktop pictures to fit it, but nobody provided pictures that huge. So, I generated a few desktops and shared them. I was pleasantly surprised that the site generated a couple thousand hits that month, and a few more in May. By June though, interest was trailing off. So, I decided to start posting new pictures weekly. Eventually, weekly became daily. MacDesktops joined MacNN for a couple of years. MacNN’s servers crashed and MacDesktops went offline for a few months. I unhitched from MacNN and relaunched the site independently where it has stayed ever since and weathered two more extended downtimes due to server outages.

In 1998, you’ll notice several Power Computing desktops, as Apple was ending its clone phase. Apple was fighting for survival with market share dwindling below 3%. MacDesktops’ pro-Mac pictures helped bolster the confidence of Mac users under siege. Apple’s combative advertising compared Intel processors to snails and lit the Intel “Bunny Suits” on fire. Apple encouraged everyone to Think Different by buying a Mac. Then came the iPod and iMac, each of which increased Apple’s standing and decreased pressure on Mac users everywhere. Apple had some great advertising campaigns when they returned to Chiat-Day, and they have produced some terrific products since 1998. When the two have converged, MacDesktops has benefitted from the excitement and buzz with tremendous submissions of Apple product desktops.

In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq under false pretenses and I took a subtle stance here. This pissed off some people and encouraged others. When I posted Movie picture #146, I pissed off some more people. Such is life. I put a lot of effort into building this little soap box and there are times when I must stand on it and speak rationally to whomever will pause and listen.

During these past ten years, my own interest in the site has waxed and waned several times. Sometimes generating and posting pictures is a joy. At other times, it is a burden. I felt bad for contributors when the submission queue was 8-12 months long. And I feel worried now when it is less than 2 months. I rely more and more upon consistent contributors to fill up the queue when I would like to provide a wider variety of content. My huge 1280×1024 monitor from 1998 is now tiny. Creating original artwork for 30″ Cinema Displays takes more effort than making something for a 15″ monitor. In 1998, digital cameras were expensive while capturing low resolution images. Today, most of the desktops come from inexpensive, high resolution digital cameras.

How has your Mac experience changed over these past ten years?

By request, I upgraded Television, and University and College Campuses from searchable keywords to categories. Of course, the real intent of the request was for more submissions in those categories, as well as more Family Guy, more Cars/Autos, more Logos, more Music, more Humor, and more Multiple Monitor Sets.

Be general. Be specific. Be public. Reply in the blog with your requests. Perhaps you will inspire someone to send in your heart’s desire.

The picture queue is down to two months now. That may sound like a lot, but it’s really quite small. Please keep sending in your beautiful compositions. Photographs are great, and original artwork, product compositions, portraits, movie, animation (all of those non-Flora, non-Landscape categories) are even better. If you send in something which will be less poignant in two months, please remember to add “Time Sensitive” to the subject line.

Sorry folks. It has been a crazy week, and I fell behind a bit this week. My wife had her ACL reconstructed last Friday. Her recovery is going extremely well. I’ve been home all week to help her, which includes trips to the doctor, trips to the pharmacy, trips to the DMV, i.e. driving around. And I did manage to get over to MacWorld for about two hours yesterday evening. In hindsight, I should have been one of those hours putting up pictures for today and this weekend, but it slipped my mind. Plus, I’m still working full time, albeit from home. Anyway, I’m not complaining. This has been a very fulfilling week in which generating and posting pictures required more time and effort than I was about to allocate. My little stumble with Chris Bassett’s picture on Tuesday was a precursor to today’s gap in service.

I will try to catch up (which means get ahead) tonight and over the weekend. I could use some help in the form of some MacBook Air, Time Capsule, iPod Touch, iPhone, Mac Pro, and Apple Logo submissions. High resolution product photos are provided by Apple PR. I didn’t get any good pictures from the show yesterday, but if you got something desktop-worthy, please send it in. Remember to add “Time Sensitive” to the subject line of your product and MacWorld desktops.

Mac OS X 10.5 aka Leopard is just around the corner. As a couple of people have pointed out to me, Leopard sports a translucent menu bar. This means that you will be able see not only your desktop picture behind your menus, but also the credit tags which appear at the top of every picture from MacDesktops.

I have not yet seen Leopard in action as I fell out of the ADC program a few years ago and haven’t pestered my connected friends for a copy. With that caveat, I will say that I am taking it on faith that Apple has implemented this feature in a way which will not render this entire archive useless. Looking at the screenshots on Apple’s site does not lead me to any conclusion. It could be a close call.

I think that one of three scenarios is likely. The first scenario is that the translucency will be mild enough, i.e. will obscure the background image well enough, that the text tag behind the text menus will not be overly distracting. The second scenario is that we will be able to adjust the translucency via the Terminal using ‘Defaults Write <yadda yadda yadda>’. The third scenario is that we will be able to adjust the translucency in System Preferences, either on a sliding scale or simply on/off.

While I am hoping for option three, I am more inclined to expect option one at launch with someone quickly figuring out that Apple actually gave us option two. If using the Terminal with Defaults Write does indeed provide necessary, I will post instructions here in the blog as well is in the FAQ/Instructions.

If one of you who happens to be running 10.5 in beta (and I know you are out there) right now would care to share a bit of enlightenment on this topic, I’d be thrilled to share it.

One thing which I have been asked is if I will change the way I tag pictures in response to this new functionality. Not at this time. Currently, I am anticipating that no change will be necessary. If I prove to be incorrect on this, then I will probably adjust the tagging only to the extent of reducing its contrast against the backgrounds rather than moving or eliminating it.

So far, I’ve sidestepped giving any opinion on this new interface change. My first pass at this post a couple of months ago was entirely flame. I didn’t limit my flame to the translucent menu bar. My kerosene splashed heavily on the Stacks and streamed down onto the 3-D Dock. Obviously, I never actually posted that one, and in a brazen fit of lucidity, I finally deleted it outright, never to be seen by the world. Instead, I’ll share this little parable.

One day many years ago, a young man discovered that through the magic of the Terminal he could make his Terminal windows utterly transparent. And he did so. And life was good. Except that he soon discovered that he could not read what was in his Terminal windows because parts of what lay behind his Terminal windows were black. And so he employed the magic of the Terminal again and made his Terminal windows less Transparent. And life was good. Alas, he soon discovered that those his friends were wowed by his partially transparent Terminal windows, he still could not read them effectively. And back to the Terminal he went again. And this time, he set his transparency such that he could just make out vaguely what lay behind his windows, such that he could tell where his other windows lay yet was not distracted by them. And life was good. A few years later, this transparency adjustment found itself directly within the Preferences of Terminal. And life was grand.

I could also convey The Tale of Super-Slo-Mo-Genie Effect at this point, but suffice it to say that the Genie’s escapes from the bottle all occurred within a few mere months and numbered less than a score.

MacDesktops finds itself with an unusually short submission queue right now. I am currently processing the last of the August submissions, and scheduling them to run in December. While digital photographs of landscapes, flowers, sunsets, etc continue to come in steadily, other categories have seen a significant decline. In particular, Apple logos and Mac-themed desktops have been sparse, as have Movies, Music, Portraits, Animation, Illustration, Games.

So, if you’ve been thinking about putting together some desktop pictures, or have some which you’ve already made and would like to share, this is a great time to send them in.

Historically, the submission queue has run as long as 10-12 months. I think the last time the queue was only 4 months was back in 1999 or so.

My personal theories about why submissions have declined are: the larger resolution requirements (currently 1600×1200 or larger) inhibit some artists; the server problems this year and last year had an impact on performance and may have discouraged submissions; I neglected MacDesktops over the past couple of years while life and work required more attention. Though the resolution requirements will only continue to rise, I think the other two issues are much improved now.

As all of the regular or semi-regular patrons have noticed, I run a lot of picture series on MacDesktops.com. People who have frequented MacDesktops for years, probably remember that a new TAZL picture graced the page every Wednesday. Beto Chavez has provided various series over the years. Tim Fielding, Laurent Lachiver, Jiho, and many others have provided themed desktops for periods of time.

There are a few series on the site right now. Frank J Sinkavich provides a steady stream of flowers, sunrises, sunsets, insects which are featured on Fridays for the foreseeable future. Edward N Urbanek‘s works include architecture, still life, and flower pictures, and are featured on Mondays. Aaron Kraus is taking us on a journey through Europe on Sundays. Stan Peyton landscapes adorn the site on Thursdays. I periodically feature my own photographs on Wednesdays, and am doing so at the moment (though I think I am about to run out again soon). I started up a NASA series in March, which runs on Saturdays at least into July. I just recently started an Anime series, running Mondays for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, I am trying to get back to my tradition of running Apple and/or Macintosh themed pictures on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays. This tradition is easier to keep going when Apple announces new products (like now) or new advertising campaigns (like now), and a bit harder in the periods between. Mondays have been for Movie pictures (therefore the new Anime series on Mondays).

As always, feel free to send in your pictures, whether they are just a few or form a long series, or send in a single one you wish to share. While I don’t publish all of the submissions which I receive, I do post many of them and am dependent upon them to keep the site going. And also, please send your comments on pictures you like to the artists who submitted them; the artist’s name under each picture is an email link. Comments about the site are welcome via e-mail or here in the blog.

I hope you’re enjoying the current series, and those which will come in the future.

I’m sitting at Willie Mays Field (two days after he turned 75 and who knows how long until the field actually gets named that) with an hour to go before first pitch. My usual pre-game ballpark dining haunt, Primo Patio Cafe, is closed due to a gas leak, so I just had garlic fries and called it dinner.

I’m not of the habit to bring my PowerBook to the ballpark, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. And tonight, it turned out to be a good thing. I realized as I waited for the train to bring me up here that I needed to queue a few more pictures for this week. So, I whipped it out, hopped onto the free wireless network here, and took care of it.

I’m waiting for my friend John from college to join me. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years since he moved to L.A. for a writing job. He just moved back to San Francisco last month. Tonight, we get to catch up.

Batting practice is finishing up now. The Giants just finished up a horrid road trip. And Barry is not expected to play tonight. Lowry is off of the DL and starting tonight. The sky is clear and blue, and the temperature is nice.

Life is good.

Eight years ago today, the Macintosh Desktop Picture Archive was born with a dozen pictures available in up to five sizes each. Several hundred people visited the site each day, which prompted me to start generating and posting two new pictures weekly. I picked up the MacDesktops.com domain several months later.

I had just recently picked up a magnificently huge 17″ display, and couldn’t find any desktop pictures which looked good on the monstrously large 1280×1024 screen. Things have changed a bit in the past eight years. I’m not quite sure, but I think that I was running a PowerMac 6100/60 back then, powering Photoshop 3.0. I had a wicked fast 128K ISDN line, which really sped posting of pictures.

These days, my screen has shrunk to 15.2″ physically and to 1280×854 logically. My processor has sped up from a 60MHz PowerPC 601 to a 1.5GHz PowerPC G4, running Photoshop 7.0 (I haven’t upgraded in a while). And MacDesktops has grown to 4877 pictures (and counting) in 15 sizes (not counting the portrait sizes which I no longer generate), consuming 23GB of disk space which are accessed by about 15 thousand unique visitors each day.