ConjureBunny Blog

Conjure and Space

2009-11-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

Hi!

I just wrapped up a major simulator demo for Frassanito and Associates. Conjure was used extensively to bring this to the point it's at now. In the coming days, I'll post some videos showing awesome behind the scenes action, and how Conjure made this possible in short order.

http://www.frassanito.com/RoverSIM/

-Chilton

(And that next Conjure beta is on the way as well)

2009-09-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

Everything is nearly right in the world again...

(good news for us Tablet Mac believers)

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/apple-rehires-newton-and-nike-marketing-whiz/?src=twt&twt=nytimesbits

Wednesday is the Monday I meant to have on Tuesday

2009-09-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

The new site is up. Fixing the help file, then it's all live!

-Chilton

Just window dressings?

2009-09-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hi!

The new website and new videos are taking awhile to get online. The new version of Conjure (4.1) is done, I'm just not going to release it until I finish the website and the new videos. There's a lot of new stuff in 4.1, and there's a lot that just makes more sense if you can see it in use.

Since I've slacked off during the launch of Conjure too many times in the past, I want to see if I can get it right this time. If I launch it now, Tuesday at 5:20PM, it will be picked up by exactly none of the major Mac news sites.

It's like cleaning a headlight on your car. Once you clean it, the rest of your hood looks dirty by comparison. So you clean the hood. Pretty soon you end up having to wash the whole car! Well, that's how fixing the Conjure website is. I have a new site, new look, and it's fantastic. So now I need to redo some of the videos to match. Then I need to fix my help files to redirect to the new videos as well, because they're coming out looking really good.

So Wednesday will be the Monday I meant to have today.

-Chilton

Find Out

2009-09-11T15:09:00.001-07:00

Hi!

Over the weekend, I'm putting the finishing touches on 4.1. This feature is really close to being done now. What does it mean? Well, email me and I'll put you on the beta list for the weekend!

You'll need a MacBook or MacBook Pro, or a Mac with a USB or Firewire webcam.

http://www.conjurebunny.com/FindOut.mov

(and remember: 4.1 is a free upgrade for all 4.0 users!)

-Chilton

When is a private API okay to use?

2009-09-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

So far, I've been hesitant to even touch the private APIs for Mac OS X. But another Mac developer pointed out that as of today, I have a ton of outstanding (developer related) Mac OS X bugs that Apple hasn't fixed, some dating back to 2005. So the likelihood that Apple is about to *change* some of these super-awesome under the hood APIs, when there are still things broken that haven't been addressed since 2005, is slim to none.

So Conjure 4.1 will probably use some private APIs. If Apple changes them, I will gladly release a fixed version after that.

Follow Me To Bunny Land

2009-08-31T21:44:00.001-07:00

Every so often, I accidentally create something that ends up being a ginormous time suck. This is one of those things.

Follow this Link To BunnyLand to see what I mean...

-Chilton

Three Cool Things

2009-08-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

These are three cool features suggested by our users. We put them in, and it turns out they're indispensable. These let you focus on only one app at a time, hide desktop objects when Conjure is in the background, and sink Conjure to the desktop level.

You can watch it on YouTube now, or you can watch it on Blogger via the movie below...

-Chilton

Conjure 4.0.8: Special Edition for Teachers

2009-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

Conjure 4.0.8 for Teachers is live!

Special Offer:

http://www.conjurebunny.com/Teachers.html

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tOHHkTzShs

Forums:

http://forums.conjurebunny.com/

Thanks!

-Chilton

Conjure 4.0.8 for Teachers Redux

2009-08-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

Alright, it took forever to get the YouTube video online, so officially, this kicks off on the 18th. That's tomorrow.

http://www.conjurebunny.com/ConjureBunny/Teachers.html

-Chilton

Conjure 4.0.8 for Teachers

2009-08-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm still testing the major update (4.1), which includes AWESOME support for Spaces. I think everyone will love it. It's the first time that I can ever recall actually being able to tolerate Spaces for more than a few minutes. The best part is, it now also handles multiple monitors in a way that I don't think anyone has ever done before. Two giant birds, one... bunny? Anyway, it's on the way. But, 4.0.8 will make it out the gate first. Why? Because it has some features that a few friends of mine (teachers) have asked for, and they need it NOW. So it's going out today.

Speaking of which, I'll be starting a half off promo for teachers and educators tomorrow. I'm working on a video that shows how you'd use it, as well. More news on that to follow...

-Chilton

Using Clusters To Think More Betterrer

2009-08-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I just posted a new video showing how to use Conjure to create mental maps, and how to use Clusters to help organize your thoughts.

http://www.youtube.com/conjurebunny

Enjoy!

-Chilton

Conjure 4.0.7 is Done!

2009-08-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I finished the major bug hunt release. This effectively squashes all known bugs in Conjure 4.

Here's the list of things that are new or different:

Added shiny new Help system!

The Leopard PPC G5 crash bug that happened when the help system loaded was fixed in the process.

Double-click text box will deselect prior selections.
Clusters now 'float to the top' when objects above them (in the stacking order) are added to them.
Lines now collapse in Clusters. It's not as nice as I'd like it to be yet, but at least it does it now.
Fix for duplication bug. Duplicating an image with option+drag could create a corrupted object under some circumstances. These are all fixed now.
Copying and Pasting some types of objects that were created in Conjure could corrupt other objects, under some circumstances. These are all fixed now.
Added support for bundle folder types, like Pages' documents. These should launch properly now on double-click.
Fixed Duplication of Link bug, where objects duplicated by option+dragging a link could cause bad links. In this version and going forward, links cannot be duplicated.
Inspector is now hidden when entering the overview mode. Before, it would stay open, allowing you to change data you couldn't see.
All file extensions are now hidden. Who needs 'em anyway? They're still visible in the info window.

Thanks to everyone who sent in bugs!

-Chilton

Why is Cluster an object, and not an action?

2009-08-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was asked today why there's a Cluster object in Conjure, and not just a 'Cluster' or 'Group' command.

So here's my question for you.

Do people actually think in nouns or verbs?

Way back in the olden days of the computing world, there were actually debates about this kind of thing.

See, the computer software developers wanted to make something that would mirror the normal human way of thinking, because that would lead to 'intuitiveness'. Right? Well, we all thought so back then.

Although I'm sure it did spill over into the real world, this debate didn't happen in person, it was done by software releases. The Unix folk, and their PC (commandline) brethren, were all of the opinion that software 'does a thing', and that it does this 'on things'.

The renegade Mac platform (and a few others, mind you) had 'things' that you 'did things to'.

So the PC world would have CHDIR command (change directory), followed by the directory to change to.

On the Mac, you'd click on a folder object, and go to the file menu, then select 'open'. Or double-click the folder.

In Conjure, I'm trying to stick to this noun based approach.

Objects are the most important thing, then you do something with them.

That's why it was important to me to have a 'cluster' object, and not just a 'cluster' command.

Hope that answers that.

-Chilton

Conjure for Writers

2009-08-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I've been asked how Conjure helps me write. So I posted a video showing how I used Conjure to write the previous blog entry. Enjoy!

-Chilton

Why a Tablet Mac will Absolutely, Positively, Succeed.

2009-08-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

Apple's Tablet Mac is a brilliant product, and will absolutely succeed, almost regardless of how it's implemented. Bold statement? Nope. I can prove it...

Every person's view of the world is shaped by the things they do every day. If you write every day, it's hard to imagine a world where a tablet makes sense. Your own occupation will likely color what you think other people do with their time. Many bloggers and especially many in the mainstream media are writers. Naturally, they would think this would fail. Because they might not use it.

When the iPod came out, a number of us artsy folk didn't think it would do well AT ALL. We were WRONG. Because to us, music is just not that important. So obviously, the iPod would fail, because who would spend that much on a musical device? Again, we didn't understand the target demographic.

So let's look at a few of the occupations or interests of different people out there, and how they would be affected by a Tablet Mac. After all, it's difficult to understand the target demographic when you're not the target demographic.

Let's start with the easy ones. People who will not use a Tablet Mac.

Hardcore Gamers

What can I say? Gamers will always prefer a joystick over a touch tablet interface. That's not to say there won't be a plethora of games for a Tablet Mac. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to make a first person shooter on a tablet. Why? Well, when you get frustrated and throw your controller on the ground, that'll cost you more than an extra (virtual) life.

Programmers

Programmers, like writers, tend to be text oriented people. Well, some of them at least. But the growing number of fans of Quartz Composer show that there are people out there who prefer graphically oriented software design software products over their textually oriented parents.

Nevertheless, if programmers see a new platform emerge, they'll embrace it. This is going to happen at some point for the visually oriented demographic.

Writers

Writers will probably NOT use a Tablet Mac, at least not for writing. Certainly not as much as someone would whose field requires that they create something other than text.

But text is the domain of the writer. Much more so than the domain of the artist.

While writers do create art, it is so as much visually oriented as it is conceptually oriented. That is, the user has to see what is on the screen, digest it, and decide based on its worth based on what they see, to decide if it's good.

Paragraphs become paintings, scribbles, and such. The thing is, the keyboard is a better avenue for this than the finger or a stylus on its own.

The only parallel to typing found in the 'real world' is writing with a pen or pencil, and that becomes horribly inefficient when you can type much faster.

But that's what writers think the tablet will mean. A return to the cramped hands of yesteryear, or that artsy people will dictate how they have to type.

Every person's view of the world is shaped by the things they do every day. If you write every day, it's hard to imagine a world where a tablet makes sense.

But to many people, a Tablet Mac WOULD make sense.

So here's a list of People who will use a Tablet Mac

Artists will absolutely love a tablet Mac. This is because most of them are visually oriented people. The keyboard and mouse is a crappy replacement for a real brush. That's why things like the Cintiq exist. But we'll call this the no-brainer crowd, and not just because people think we're flighty. No, it's because almost every artist I know of would KILL for a Tablet Mac.

Teachers

Well here's an easy one. The thing is, the software will conform to the platforms. How many teachers would LOVE to be able to use a touch sensitive screen instead of an entire computer? Ever watch a teacher try to fiddle with the disconnect of keyboard->display->overhead? Well, apps like Conjure are designed to help with that, but they can only do so much. In this case, I suspect teachers, especially those that routinely use an overhead to explain things, would find it far easier to use a Tablet than a keyboard based system, because of the shorter disconnect.

Coaches

Every coach I know either has or wants a tablet computer of some sort. Why? Because you can't type when you're out on the damned field. For some reason, despite that millions of Americans watch football, basketball, and baseball games every year, we seem to forget that there's a HUGE number of people out there who actually PLAY those games. And their coaches can take advantage of new playbook software like AnimatedPlaybook to help with the coaching. A Tablet Mac would be PERFECT for this crowd.

One more thing here. What part of a school (at least in the US) tends to have the most money? Sports.

Students

If your teacher uses a Tablet Mac, you're going to be inclined to, as well. Especially if it has a camera, and especially if your teacher will share their class notes with you. I used to print out my class notes and take them with me, so I wouldn't have to sit and look at them on my PowerBook. Yes, that dates me. So does your mom. But the problem I had with my PowerBook was that it just wasn't comfortable for READING. It was great when I had to do DATA ENTRY. But not for actually processing things that were already done.

When you're studying, that keyboard just gets in the way. A Tablet Mac would solve this easily.

Musicians

Now, musicians are one target demographic that so far have been left far out of the loop. Keyboards don't talk to them. Nor do iPods. But a touch sensitive screen would let you do things like create a type of virtual piano keyboard unseen in modern times.

Look at the number of unique iPhone musical instruments! Who knows what opportunities are out there, on Tablet computers, for musicians?

Scientists

For the most part, you'd think that scientists were primarily text oriented people. That's generally true, for publishing papers. But it's not true for the rest of what they do. If you've ever been in a modern science lab, the computer, with its keyboard, often creates a roadblock. It's hard to type when you have thick rubber gloves on. Granted, it would be hard to use a Tablet computer based on capacitance as well, but maybe pressure sensitive tablet wouldn't be such a bad idea here.

The thing is, the computer is often off on its own, sitting in some unobtrusive part of the room. Why? because it takes up a lot of space. A Tablet computer would take up only as much space as the screen, which would make it a perfect companion for most science equipment.

Sci-Fi junkies

Duh. No one uses a keyboard in the future. Haven't you ever seen a movie?

Casual Gamers

The iPod and iPhone have revealed a massive untapped market. There are people out there who find an actual game platform, like a Nintendo DS or PSP to be awkward for the types of games they like to play. These often tend to be visually oriented people. And kids. Don't forget the kids. They love this stuff. The casual game market for a Tablet Mac would be unbelievable.

Business People

Yes, business people will use a Tablet Mac. Why? Because with the exception of accounting software, most software tailored to businesses these days rely heavily on the visual aspects of computing. Go take a look at some of the chart apps on SalesForce. It's unreal. Well, a tablet interface would beat the snot out of a screen+keyboard+trackpad any day, for wiring up things in those apps.

And business people bring me to another point...

People who have to fly

I just flew back from Cleveland. Granted, I'm a big guy, but I had to prop my MacBook Pro up in a 'V' shape, so I could drape my hands over the side. Then I had to hunch over it and view my screen at a fairly sharp angle. My MacBook Pro is sexy, but I couldn't help but feel like I was trying to see down her shirt.

If I'd had a Tablet Mac, I could have easily fit the whole screen and everything on that stupid plastic flappy seat table thing. I would have been perfectly happy to grumble occasionally over having to type on a touch sensitive screen, rather than a real one, if it meant I could at least have some comfortable part of my body.

Target Demographics

I'm getting to my point now. Just hang around a few paragraphs more.

See, the target demographics for Mac users are (I hate this term) the 'creatives'. They're the artists, the musicians, people who are visually oriented to begin with. To many of them, the keyboard is already a hindrance.

Well, that's exactly the target demographic the Tablet Mac would appeal to.

The Average Person

So. Where does the 'average person' fit in here? Well, again we come back to my original premise. The concept of the 'average person' is often reflected by who you are. And most writers, or at least most of the people who have been saying the Tablet Mac will fail, are writers. Where do they fit in? The people who will not be using a Tablet Mac. Or at least until they have to write something on an airplane.

Conjure 4

2009-08-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Conjure 4 is launched.

So why did I go from Conjure 3.0.1 to Conjure 4? Isn't that cheating?

No. Here's why.

Conjure 3 was based on some underlying technologies that frankly weren't designed to do the rather mundane things I thought it could. Core Animation is great at moving objects around a screen, but it kills editable text, and renders the OSX spell checker useless. It appears my bugs related to this are unlikely to be fixed in Leopard or Snow Leopard, so I have instead gone back to the 2.0 codebase, and added everything in 3.0 (and more!) to that. In the process, I redesigned the core engine to be more expandable and scalable going forward.

As a result, we have a substantially better version now. Far more stable. I think you'll like it. But it's an almost complete rewrite, so we bumped the version number. However, I also feel like my existing users didn't get the experience I wanted in 3.0, so I'm again extending the free upgrade path for all 3.x users. So if you have 3.x, just re-enter your serial number, and it should work just fine. And the same goes for MUPromo users, even though I think earlier I said it would be a paid upgrade. No charge.

That said, it creates a new database file for 4.0, so your existing 2.0 and 3.0 versions will continue to operate properly. Sometime in the future I'll add a feature to use existing databases, but that's not in this version.

So Enjoy!

-Chilton

Conjure 4

2009-08-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hey hey. Didn't think I'd ever get around to saying this...

Thursday, August 6th, 2009, Conjure 4 will be unveiled.

I'm extending the free upgrade offer to all existing 3.x users, mainly because I'm really, really sorry for how Conjure 3 was released. Basically, there are a few minor bugs in Core Animation that Apple has chosen not to fix at this time, or for Snow Leopard. That's why text fields are inherently screwed up in Conjure 3.

Additionally, I'm spinning Clothesline and the Audio note taker off into their own products, so I removed them from the Clothesline arsenal. They didn't really make sense there, as no one used the audio note taker for what it was intended, and Clothesline would be a better as a separate app, in something like a Finder replacement.

But going forward, it will be really, really easy to update Conjure 4 now, so I think this will be an exciting year. I'm going to be updating it in tiny updates rather than huge rewrites, like versions 2-3 and 3-4.

Alright, off to tinker with the forums, and to make sure the launch goes smoothly!

-Chilton

This kind of change adds up to whole dollars

2008-03-13T19:35:00.001-07:00

I have reached critical mass. I have enough users now that I think I know what type of people, doing what type of things, really get something from Conjure. And that gives me great clarity.

Here's what I mean...

Lots of people don't need Conjure.

Lots of people probably need it, but wouldn't use it.

Some people download Conjure, find it distasteful, and leave. That's okay with me. I don't want these people as customers. Frankly, I'd prefer it if these people were my competitor's customers.

Some people try Conjure, find it intriguing, but find that it generally is not as good as what they came up with, and send me pictures of what they came up with. I like these people well enough, and I do take all suggestions to heart, it's just that they tend to show me pictures of something *I* wouldn't use.

Then there are a few people who buy it. They saw it, looked past the (various) website(s), past the explanation, past the movies, and saw into the soul of the machine. Something was there. It connected with them. These are the people I made Conjure for, and they're the ones I'll be building it for, going forward.

I could try to make this change the world. I could spend years analyzing and reanalyzing my users' habits, non-users' habits, and general Conjure concepts. But I think I'd come up empty. What I want to do with it is very different than what it is now, and after talking to some of my most ardent supporters, I think it's time to change things up a bit more.

So version 2.5 will no longer refer to Conjure as an alternate Desktop environment. And I really don't want to call it a personal organizer, or a project manager. I don't know what to call it yet, but I think these concepts suck.

There's a better explanation out there.

-Chilton

2008-03-13T11:13:00.002-07:00

This is an awesome insight into how big companies like Apple pull off their awesome design. From a presentation at SXSW...

I want a pony!

-Chilton

Neat idea. Now go over there with it.

2008-03-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

There are few phrases that frighten me more than, "I'm an idea person...".

Really? An idea person? Well hell, I gotta hang around your type more often! Do tell, what idea do you have for me today? Oh, it's only part of the idea? Not so much an idea as it is a vague description? That's okay, I'm sure the details don't matter.

The thing is, it's all details. That's the trick. All those high level concepts add up to zilch pretty quick.

I did a little research on People on the Desktop. Know what I found? It turns out, people have tried this before! A LOT of people! And they all categorically failed. Oh, but the press was so impressed. They went on and on about how this or that was a game changer. Everything was about to change, and you'd never use your computer the same way again. Your desktop was about to change, and you'd never figure out how things would work again. Your friends would change, and you just wouldn't recognize them anymore.

Well it turns out, they came up with more of the same. As you can probably see from the videos (and just using the app), I am trying to mix things up a little. So I have a few new concepts I'll be throwing into Conjure pretty soon. Feel free to let me know your thoughts...

1) Minions - Many years ago, a screenshot of Copland made me so excited, I actually wrote a piece of software to try to mimic it, knowing very well that at any moment, OS8 would ship, and make my little app useless. Of course, Copland never shipped, and it turned out I had *read that article wrong*. Meanwhile, my implementation sucked. And after I wrote it, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how it should have worked. I think I have that figured out now. Or rather, now-ish. So I'll be adding 'Minions' to Conjure in a big way.

2) Super-Get-Info-Boxen - Why is it so hard to get a full path to a file in Leopard? And what if I want to copy the modified date of a file? Well, Conjure's about to get a 'Super' info window, complete with a giant text field of info about the file. One where you can copy everything you normally can't copy, straight out of the window. It's gonna be sweet.

3) Classrooms - We have teh interwebs. We have powerful computers. We have powerful search engines. So why is it that every time I want to learn something, I have to hit twenty pages on a search engine, comb through every result, and slowly (and manually) piece together notes on the topic? Conjure will introduce a new concept, the 'Classroom'. You tell it what you want to learn, and it does all the research for you. Then, it compacts the research into a single web page, and sticks that right on the page for you, along with all the links to relevant other material, including any applications and other miscellaneous files you might need.

4) Intelligence, Newton-style - If you haven't used a Newton, you need to. I highly recommend the 2100. Now, the Newton had a lot of things I'm not going to touch. But one of them is simply brilliant, and that's the little Newton symbol. Click it while some text is highlighted, and the Newton does something. Cool stuff. So yeah, something like that is going in there.

5) Return to iPod Island - Early versions of Conjure could store their notes internally, making the app entirely self-contained. The problem with this was that my users kept wiping all their data out by 'upgrading' to new versions, and overwriting the old one with the new one. Ouch. But it was a good idea. So I've got some new thoughts on how to do that, and we'll see how it works.

6) Super-Enhanced PDF support. Hey, why not? Why not let the user read PDFs like a book, with flippy-pages? It's not rocket science. Sure, it may be eye-candy, but it's tasty, and frankly makes some sense.

7) Web pages as objects, not just links. Again, why not? Why not be able to change a URL directly into an actual viewable, scrollable, resizable web view, right on the desktop? And yeah, I know Active Desktop already did this, and that you can slice up a web page and put it directly in Dashboard. But why not put it on your desktop instead? That way, it's there when you need it, per project.

People on the Desktop

2008-03-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

Conjure supports People now, something I've wanted for a long time. But now that it's in there, I have to decide how it should work going forward. Right now, a person is a link to an entry in your Address Book. And, it's a 'thing that does something'. If you double-click it, it will launch your email client and create a new email addressed to that person. It's not much, but it's a start, and that's farther along than any of the major OS vendors. But I plan to add Skype and iChat / Adium support soon. So if your contact has an iChat name, and you double-click their head in Conjure, what should that do? What if they have a website? What if they have *two* websites? What if they're listed in iChat, ICQ, Gmail, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, Dot Mac, Skype, AND they have six email addresses? Well... now that smarmy bastard does a heck of a lot. So what should Conjure do?

Here's a brief overview of the issues I face on this. Your input is obviously welcome.

Bruce Tognazzini, founder of the Human Interface Group at Apple, has this to say on his site...

"People should also be first-class objects in a modern interface. I should be able to drag a document onto an icon-sized photo of a colleague and have it automatically sent to the default address. (Of course, I could option drag a document to it to reveal all addresses, or I could just double click it to do the same.)"

Obviously, I agree. But this is about all I've seen with regard to this concept, so a lot of the design of this metaphor in Conjure is happening as a result of emails from helpful users, and my own mad thinking. On a modern computer, there are at least four basic metaphors. I know these are obvious to you, but bear with me for a minute...

1) Application (aka Program) - When you double-click this, it always behaves in a similar manner. Its contents can change, but its overall structure and design remains consistent. Also, it's not 'yours' in that they never really change too much, as a result of using them. Applications are what you use to create and alter your stuff.

2) Documents (aka Files) - When you double-click this, it behaves exactly the same way it did when you did that last time. If you drag it to a different program, its behavior is largely unpredictable. For example, if I drag a JPEG to a web browser icon, it will likely show that picture. If I drag it to a file compression app, its on-screen behavior will be very different. It's a 'thing' you use by dragging around. Also, it's YOUR thing, and you can change it, very radically, via programs.

3) Containers (aka folders, volumes, drives, etc.) - When you double-click this, it shows its contents. That's all. It's very unlikely you're expecting any other behavior. You can drag both applications and documents onto a container, but ultimately that doesn't change the contents. Most of the time, you don't drag containers onto programs, though you can obviously drag containers onto other containers.

4) Links (aka Aliases) - When you double-click this, it launches the original thing, whatever that is. If you drag a file onto it, it will pass the file along to the original. A link itself does not contain its own contents.

Should People be Applications, Documents, Containers, or Links? Or something more?

I can say with some certainty that a Person is a thing that you should be able to double-click on. And I think it should be on the same level as an Application, in that it could be a drag destination for a document. But it won't alter a document dragged onto it, nor really do anything to the document other than reroute it. Furthermore, it should not represent any form of storage by itself, but should be able to act as a conduit through which documents could travel. So a Person is kinda like a 'smart alias' in that regard. It should also contain its own contents. A Person could contain birthdays, names of friends, addresses, phone numbers, and lots of other kinds of information. So it's like a document in that regard. And to be honest, if you double-click it, it should either have a default behavior, or provide you with a list of potential behaviors. And that's kinda like an application.

Drag Behavior

If you drag a file onto a person, you probably want to give it to them somehow. There are a lot of ways to give someone a document. Do you want to email it, ftp, Skype, iChat peer-to-peer, or something else? We'll probably look at the services that person has listed as accessible, and decide on that person's capabilities there. And since you might not be interested in all of those capabilities all of the time, we'll give you some method for turning on or off different features. A 'Person' might then have multiple views, or a single larger view that contains multiple drop destinations, for the different capabilities. But if we did this, a single person could get cumbersome, from a visual standpoint.

So if you drag a file onto a person, it will then give you a popup menu of the possible actions you can take with it, along with an icon for each. For example, it might show Email, Adium, and Skype options if that user has those capabilities.

Double-Click and Default behaviors

As stated before, a person should probably have a default behavior, which should be settable via its Get Info window. Double-clicking them would invoke that behavior. And when you drag things onto them, that behavior would be listed as the pre-chosen, first option. In fact, I might go so far as to allow you to turn off all behaviors except one, if you want. Visually, I imagine Conjure should also brand the icon with a much smaller icon indicating what action you wish to take, or a question mark if there is no capabilities associated with the user. This way, you could have three links to the same person, each with different behaviors. For example, if your assistant artist has an FTP site, an email account, and an iChat account, and you want to send him something, you could have three different links to him on one page, each behaving differently to dragged files.

And if they're online, and iChat is the default behavior for them, we might even brand the icon with their iChat status.

But what if you drag one contact onto another contact? And what if you drag a person onto a program?

I am curious, as always, what you think. And please feel free elaborate ;-)