How to Fix Sticky Spaces
I use my function keys for application switching via Quicksilver. Because I’ve assigned most of my major applications to their own virtual desktops using Spaces, switching between them involves both bringing their frontmost window forward and navigating to the virtual desktop (space) that holds that frontmost window.
Every so often I’ll be annoyed to find that Spaces has “fallen behind” my application switching. Pressing a function key will bring the corresponding application to the front—evidenced by that application’s title appearing in my menubar—but Spaces won’t figure out I’ve toggled that application, and so will not switch to its virtual desktop. The result is that I don’t see the application’s windows and have to manually switch to its space to use it.
I’m not sure whether this behavior can be replicated using command-tab or why exactly it occurs, but I’ve recently figured out how to fix it. Spaces is a child of the Dock process, which seems to be responsible for more elements of the OS X UI with every major release. Restarting Dock is a good bet for solving most UI glitches, and my sticky spaces problem is no exception.
Since Dock will automatically reopen after being force-quitted, you can effectively restart it by running the following simple command:
killall Dock
I only have to do this every once in a while, and it’s far less trouble than enduring sticky spaces. Has anyone else observed this bug or found a way to prevent it altogether?
The Combined RSS Feed
About a month and a half ago I promised not to mess around with the RSS feed anymore, having dedicated to FeedBurner. I’m sticking to that promise in the sense that the FeedBurner feed (and all other existing feeds for jwdunn.com) will remain intact indefinitely, and you are certainly welcome to subscribe to them.
What’s changing is that the “main” RSS feed for jwdunn.com is now here, and it will syndicate both articles and linklist items as I post them. You’ll be able to tell the difference because linklist items are preceded by a “→”.
I decided that having a single feed for all of the content on this site would be pretty convenient, and I hope you agree. For clarity, here is a complete list of all available feeds for jwdunn.com:
- Main feed — contains articles and linklist items.
- Article feed — contains only articles.
- Linklist feed — contains only linklist items.
In other site news, I’ve been lazy about posting here over my winter break and for that I apologize. I’ve got several articles on the horizon, including a bit about my visit to January’s Macworld conference in San Francisco (which I am pretty stoked about). Happy 2008 to all!