Hearing Adam Curry raving about OmniOutliner Pro lately reminds me that my business is almost entirely run using that app. Every feature of each release of my applications, past, present and future can be found in an outline, along with time estimates, notes, link to specifications, etc.

OmniOutliner is perfect for this, not only because you can check each feature off once it’s done and drag them around as necessary, but also because it can show calculated summaries of project-plan style durations (such as 1d, 2h) without having to fiddle with dependancies, dates, etc.

I’ve also used the dynamic HTML export feature to put Feeder’s release notes online when there are so many changes that a collapsable outline makes sense. I also use it to hammer out testing errors, make lists of things that need doing, and sometimes just to organize the scattered thoughts in my brain. I don’t tend to use the new fancy features all that much but it’s good to know they’re there.

The only things I don’t like about OmniOutliner 3 are the application and document icons, but those are easily fixed. I’ve yet to decide whether I like, or can even understand, the latest version of another one of my favourite applications, OmniGraffle, not that I use it much these days.

Feeder 1.2.1 is released today and about time too as far as I’m concerned, not that anyone has complained. I don’t normally add new functionality to x.x.x releases, but with the previous release (v1.2) I tried to get the iTunes functionality out there as soon as it was ready, to quell the endless emails of desperation. That meant postponing some of the things I originally wanted to include such as file publishing and AppleScript.

File publishing appears in 1.2.1 but I still haven’t got the AppleScript support in there. I did start it, but it was taking much longer than I expected so I thought it better to get the release with my tweaks and fixes out there now. AppleScript support is not high on the request list but it is something I think is sorely lacking right now. It’s also been good to let the iTunes stuff settle and I’ve added and improved on apsects of that functionality based on feedback and my own judgement.

The rest of the originally planned 1.2 release will go into a 1.3 release due towards the end of this year, along with some more cool new features that should make their first public appearance at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California this coming November. 😀

In other Feeder news, it was great to hear This Week in Tech‘s Leo Laporte sing Feeder’s praises in his interview with Adam Christianson on a special edition of the MacCast – thanks again to Adam, he is also a big Feeder fan and I’ve had a ton of hits from his site over the last month or so. You can find that episode here.

Finally, Feeder appears in the September issue of SVM Mac in France and a PDF version of the article is available here. This is the first appearance of Feeder 1.2 in the press. Vive la France!

#4243867 – Safari’s RSS viewer uses GUID as Read More link when isPermaLink is false.

I’ve joined in the fun with Report-an-Apple-Bug Friday, the gist of mine being that Safari’s RSS viewer will use the value of an item’s GUID when its isPermaLink attribute is “false”. Only when isPermaLink is true or the isPermaLink attribute is omitted should the value of the guid tag be considered a URL according to the RSS spec.

I had a couple of reports from Feeder users that this was happening to their feeds in Safari. By default, Feeder generates GUIDs to help newsreaders uniquely identify items in a feed. This can be disabled (in the Feed Settings drawer) but won’t solve the problem for existing items; a better workaround is to give each item in a feed an Article Link, even if it’s just to your home page.

You can see other reported bugs on the applebugfriday tag on del.icio.us.

Podcast Solutions by Dan Klass (The Bitterest Pill) and Michael Goeghegan (Reel Reviews, Grape Radio) is released today, August 22nd.

Feeder appears in the book and on the accompanying CD – although thanks to deadlines it’s version 1.1 on the CD, not 1.2 with the iTunes functionality. I know that the authors managed to include information about iTunes 4.9 podcasting features and, as far as Feeder is concerned, it checks for new versions by default on the first launch.

Anyway, good luck to Dan and Michael with the book and if you are interested in podcasting, check it out.

I’ve got a trip planned to California later this year and booked the flights last week. I’ve made quite a few trips to the US in the past and usually fly with British Airways (for [not so] frequent flyer miles and all that) but with the recent wildcat strikes at Heathrow where BA’s baggage handlers walked out to support the 600 employees sacked at the former BA catering arm, Gate Gourmet, I’ve felt less than sure, particularly as the issues still seem to be rumbling on.

I’ve actually been in the US during one of these wildcat strikes a previous year – they usually happen at the peak of every summer season – wondering if I would be able to get home. While I had the luxury of staying with people I knew back then, I still had a job to go back to and the car in a long-stay car park. It’s not about the money (got insurance for that sort of thing) but the hassle of sorting it all out. I also don’t think I’ve really forgiven BA for retiring Concorde – why is the world slowing down?

So this time, I’m flying with Virgin Atlantic for the very first time. I’ve heard good things about them, so we’ll see how they compare to their arch-rival. Virgin were also £5 cheaper (wow!).