Rik Myslewski's Comments:
Dan Lundmark
So, the more you use an app, the better the plant will grow? What if you use Word to write a long series of mash notes to Paris Hilton? Use Entourage to send anti-gay emails to hrc@hrc.org? Use Photoshop to digitally airbrush your collection of kiddie porn? The time spent doing those useless or skanky tasks would invigorate you virtual plant? I hope not. Time spent working does not equal quality of work. With such a flawed basic premise, this app’s elaboration of growth stats is useless.
Richard Whitelock
As an ex-pro musician and (failed) music grad student, and as someone who still dabbles in composition, I find this idea absolutely killer — but not just for its welcome versatility in input and output, its way-cool “sing-along” fun, or even its great collaborative capabilities. What I like best about it is its “draft mode,” “brainstorming,” “note-taking” capabilities. I would love to be able to sing or whistle melodies to my Mac, experimenting with different variations, and not have to worry about notating anything. This app would save me tons-o-time, and encapsulate my musical musings. Build it, and I will come!
Russell Heistuman
I’ve seen tons of these attempts at integrating everything — everything, that is, that’s already pretty well integrated if you already know how to control Mac OS X. Why, for example, would you ever need the iChat module when it does little (if anything) that iChat already does? What does it do other than integrate Dock functions and the functions of running multiple apps? Very little. Pass.
Michael Yuan
I write this as a guy whose hobby is gourmet cooking — well, at my level of competence, maybe “edible cooking” would be more honest — so take my opinions with (cf. heh, heh, heh, above) a grain of salt: a) almost no one has a Mac in their kitchen — nor should they, as that would be a waste of money, b) the Web is a wonderful, wonderful source of a wide variety of recipes, c) no chef — or even cook — would ever “plan out meals months in advance,” since effective, delicious, affordable meals are planned on a daily basis, based upon what are the most fresh, attractive, and affordable items at your grocer, butcher, or fish monger should guide what you cook that evening.
Andrew Wilson
This is so wonderfully ludicrous that I (a non-gamer) might even waste precious productivity time interacting with it. I love the idea of using desktop icons as shields. One quibble: The description says that “Units can NOT be directly controlled and manipulated,” but it’d be great if you could, at minimum, command a “squad leader.” One wacky idea: Make it possible for the warring elements to delete files (or at least toss them into the Trash) — might make the stakes a bit higher, as it would remove icon barriers, and make it possible for the inattentive loser to to — heh, heh, heh — lose an important file. Okay, so I’m a sadist (who backs up regularly).
Rik Myslewski
MacAddictEditor in Chief of MacAddict Magazine.