Is Sherlock Dead?

[tjwett]

I wonder if Apple will ever update Sherlock again, especially now that the Dashboard is so popular. Sherlock really never took off, it's been 5 years and there is only something like 30 channels in existence. Kinda lame. Meanwhile there are over 1000 Dashboard widgets in a few months. Think Sherlock will even be part of Leopard? I'm beginning to doubt it myself.

 

[mad jew]

It's a bit of a waste of space IMO. I find Dashboard is much easier, both for the developer and the end user. I'm pretty indifferent as to whether they'll ever include it in later OSXs, doesn't phase me in the slightest.

 

[asif786]

i never really got into the habit of using it..because most of the channels were US based.

tbh, i just noticed it was in my apps folder. looks like i can trash it now..

 

[comic book guy]

If i remember right it was the first thing i removed from the dock ( i believe it used to be in the dock ).

And now i wasnt really aware that it is still in the apps folder, so i think i wont miss it.

 

[garybUK]

The translater in Sherlock is loads better & easier to use IMO than the spotlight one. I also use the shopping channels in sherlock oh and the flight tracker.

 

[Makosuke]

Sherlock's auto-translator always was and still is its best feature, and is quite a bit more powerful and useful than the Dashboard widget for anything more than a short sentence or two. Ironically, I also opened it up just last night to get a second opinion from its dictionary (it uses the online AHED, the widget uses a built-in OAED), although it turned out since it doesn't give pronunciation guides like the widget it was useless for what I was checking.

I also use the movie info finder periodically, but other than thost two features Widgets have completely replaced it and I can't say I'd weep to see Sherlock go in 10.5.

(Unrelated question: the Dictionary claims that cock and caulk are pronounced with an "ah" and "aw" sound, respectively, though I can't personally hear the difference... is this just me?)

 

[strider42]

(Unrelated question: the Dictionary claims that cock and caulk are pronounced with an "ah" and "aw" sound, respectively, though I can't personally hear the difference... is this just me?)

Probably has more to dow ith where you are located and the prunuciations there and that you use. There is a definite difference in pronunciation the way I say them, which agrees with the dictionary in the way you stated.

 

[Hemingray]

Sherlock...? Oh yeaahhhhh! Now I remember that!

Seriously, I haven't used the program in years. The only thing I ever used to do on there was get movie show times.

Sorta like Automator, it's good to have around I guess, but I never use it.

 

[Gwendolyn]

Since I don't have Tiger, I occasionally used the Phone Book and the Movies channels. I also used to use the AccuWeather channel, before it died. There's another thread floating around here somewhere about how they are starting to phase out the Phone Book and other channels on Sherlock. If I did have Tiger, I probably wouldn't miss it as much since I would be likely to use Dashboard instead, but I have found it to be a convenient utility in Panther.

(Unrelated question: the Dictionary claims that cock and caulk are pronounced with an "ah" and "aw" sound, respectively, though I can't personally hear the difference... is this just me?)

Upon reading your post, I realized that I actually pronounce the "l" in "caulk" ["call" + "k"], so that it doesn't rhyme with "chalk". But for me, "chalk" rhymes with "cock". Other places that some speakers hear the difference reported in the Dictionary are with "caught" and "cot", or with "stalk" and "stock". You may also hear this difference in "awesome" and "blossom", if these words don't rhyme for you. However, not all speakers differentiate these two sounds (so it's not just you, and it does tend to be regional)--for me and for many of my western Massachusetts students, these sets of words rhyme, and we don't hear or pronounce the difference. My husband's from eastern Michigan, and for him, they certainly don't rhyme. And thanks for the new pair of examples--my students in intro linguistics generally appreciate different sets of words to help them see if there are environments where they differentiate the sounds. The only problem now is whether hearing all the snickers in class will be worth it, since my students are college undergrads. [And sorry if my response was longer than you wanted... you found my area of interest!]

 

[Makosuke]

Oh, dear, I'm guilty of semi-hijacking a thread...

Upon reading your post, I realized that I actually pronounce the "l" in "caulk" ["call" + "k"], so that it doesn't rhyme with "chalk". But for me, "chalk" rhymes with "cock". [...] [And sorry if my response was longer than you wanted... you found my area of interest!]

Speaking as someone who, despite not having clue-one about linguistics, spent a good half hour arguing with three friends last night about the mythical "L" in caulk, I can't complain about long answers. He and his (jokingly) homophobic tendancies insist that you pronounce the L, but according to everybody else I've ever heard and both the OED (go, Dashboard!) and AHED, whether cock and caulk are pronounced differently or not you don't pronounce the L unless you're british. Caulk, more or less, rhymes with wok, not balk, that is.

The dictionary "proof" of course lead him to insist that the slightly differing cock and caulk pronunciations indicated an "implicit L sound", which I and the bystanders took as an "implicit admission of defeat" since you still don't pronounce his fantasy L. It also lead us to insist that he start calling trucks lorries if he was to continue pronouncing caulk that way.

Then we went on to explore the definitions of nut versus fruit and bean for another half hour, which didn't help with the deluge of innuendo at all.

 

[tjwett]

it's true, the Sherlock Translator is great. And I do use the Movie lookup from time to time. It might be neat to see the Translator built right into an updated multi-language version of the Dictionary app. For example, highlight some text and right-click gives additional options like "Translate to Japanese" or something. That would be cool.

 

[3badjacksfan]

Oh, dear, I'm guilty of semi-hijacking a thread...
Speaking as someone who, despite not having clue-one about linguistics, spent a good half hour arguing with three friends last night about the mythical "L" in caulk, I can't complain about long answers. He and his (jokingly) homophobic tendancies insist that you pronounce the L, but according to everybody else I've ever heard and both the OED (go, Dashboard!) and AHED, whether cock and caulk are pronounced differently or not you don't pronounce the L unless you're british. Caulk, more or less, rhymes with wok, not balk, that is.

I'm not British, I did grow up in southwestern Michigan (see Gwendolyn's reply), and I do pronounce the "L" in "caulk". What'da ya think that means? To me, "cock" and "caulk", "caught" and "cot", "stalk" and "stock" ALL DO NOT RHYME.
But to me, "awesome" and "blossom" DOES RHYME.

Sorry tjwett, you can have your thread back...
Personally, I miss the Sherlock pictures section, I still use the movies section, and Sherlock is still in my dock, although for how much longer, I don't know...

 

[greatdevourer]

Has anyone noticed that all the channels are dissapearing? Last time I checked, translator didn't work

 

[Makosuke]

Last time I checked, translator didn't work

Hmm... works just fine for me. In fact, it uses the same engine as the widget, just without the length restriction, so I'd be surprised if it breaks any time soon (don't quote me on that, though).

 

[Soulstorm]

Since I live in Greece, I find that the only thing I use sherlock for is for translation and for applecare.

 

[spaceballl]

Yeah you can tell sherlock is being slowly phased out w/ widgets replacing it. God i hate widgets...

 

[iMeowbot]

It looks like they've turned off the translation channel now. Instead of the generic "coming back" message it was grayed out and then vaporized before my eyes.

The buggy little translation widget is not a substitute

 

[AmigoMac]

It's working fine here! I just use it for translator and dictionary (I'm in 10.3.9)

 

[mcarnes]

The movie finder in Sherlock is hard to beat. Lots of info at a glance and you also get a trailer, poster, etc.

 

[iMeowbot]

It's working fine here! I just use it for translator and dictionary (I'm in 10.3.9)

This is creepy. I just hunted down and trashed all the Sherlock prefs and caches, restarted it and waited for all the channels and icons to be reloaded. The translation channel was back again, but sure enough it faded away as soon as I tried to use it!

Tried Sherlock on another Mac, and the same thing happened, translation went away.

Repeated the trashing routine on the first Mac, and now translation is back and working there

 

[mand0lin]

Is Sherlock Dead?

Caulk, more or less, rhymes with wok, not balk, that is.

It really depends. Overall, I think that "Caulk" and "Calk" or "Cock" are not pronounced the same, and the the "L" is truly not mythical. Caulk is the last name of my best friend and is pronounced "C-ALL-CK". He gets pretty frustrated when it is pronounced "Cock", considering that not many actually say "Caulk" with the "L".

 

[joemama2413]

The translater in Sherlock is loads better & easier to use IMO than the spotlight one. I also use the shopping channels in sherlock oh and the flight tracker.

completely true, the translator couldnt be beat, and ebay was pretty cool too.