Well, it's midnight now. That means it's officially November 4th here on the west coast of the USA. And that means it's now been five years to the day since macosxhints.com launched. I really can't believe it's been that long; it still feels new and fresh to me, which is a tribute to the members of the community. Through all the years, all the growth in the scope of the site, and all the various versions of OS X, this community has remained friendly, intelligent, and willing to share their knowledge with fellow Mac users around the globe. And it's the quality of this community that keeps me coming back, day after day, to do my small part to keep the tips flowing. So thanks to each and every one of you who has helped make the site what it is today -- this really is a fanastic group of people to have the pleasure to "be virtually around" day in and day out.
Much has changed in five years, of course. When I look back at some of the posts from 2000 and 2001, it's obvious that many of us were struggling with the OS X transition, as well as with finding ways to work around all the 'missing pieces' from the Public Beta, 10.0, and 10.1 days. People occasionally ask me why I don't clear out the old "out of date" hints, and I always tell them that I enjoy having them around -- the hints and associated comments usually tell an interesting story, and it's sometimes just fun to go back and skim the subjects on some of the older hints. In some ways, macosxhints.com is both a collection of current, useful tips, and a museum for a trip back through the OS X time machine. I like that about the site, hence, I keep the old hints around. Besides, some of the old tips are still relevant, and figuring out which ones to delete would be quite time consuming...
As another measure of how far we've come, I spent a few hours playing with Motion, Garage Band, and iMovie HD (apps that weren't even around five years ago) to put together a little 'thank you' video for the community, in recognition of this fifth anniversary. There are two versions -- a 'big' 1.5MB 720x480 version and a 'small' 720KB 360x240 version. Both require QuickTime 7, as they're encoded with H.264. I've also had a couple reports that they may not play right in some browsers, though they worked for me on two different machines here. Feel free to download and view directly in QuickTime Player if you prefer.
Please keep in mind that I am not a video person by training; I just enjoy the power that these Apple tools give to even a 'non-pro' like myself. Sure, the result is amatuerish, but just the fact that I was able to cobble something together in only a few hours is a great testament to the power and (relative) ease of use of these apps. If I had more time, I'd probably do nothing but play with Motion all day; it's really a fun to use and impressively powerful program.
In any event, thanks again to the community for making the site everything that it's become, and enjoy your weekend -- and don't worry, the usual selection of hints will be coming a bit later this morning. I need to get some sleep first, though!
-rob.

