DrunkenBlog: Christopher Forsythe, of Growl for Mac OS X

DrunkenBlog: Christopher Forsythe, of Growl for Mac OS X:
Christopher Forsythe, of Growl for Mac OS X
Growl is open source, with two parts: The Growl app, which the user downloads and installs and runs in the background and controls via the System Preferences, and the code a 3rd party app builds in to give it Growl support. You can also send messages through it yourself via the CLI, AppleScript, etc.
Part of the problem with describing Growl is that it's like RSS: if you read enough on the web, and are willing to adjust how you do it slightly, you'll get a massive productivity boost. If someone only reads a few websites, it's easy to wonder what all the fuss is about.
And if you use your computer for less than four hours in a day, very soon you might be wondering what all the fuss is around Growl. Growl isn't huge yet, but it will be, as like RSS it allows you to shape how information is funneled to you, but for the simplest of things: alerts and notifications.
One of the problems with a multi-tasking, internet-connected operating system is that you're bombarded with information, but then have to physically do things in order to get what you really want. And like death from a thousand cuts it slows you way down.
iChat is an especially egregious example of this: when you get a new message, iChat throws up a little bubble letting you know you have a new message and from whom. This is good, as there are times when you don't want to stop what you're doing to chat with a random person. But iChat, in it's own passive-aggressive way, insists that you deal with it, because that bubble doesn't go away. It just stays there, taunting, only a slight step above the usual horrid bouncing dock icons.