Widgets, mini-applications that exist exclusively in Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger," can be downloaded from apple.com to personalize a user's Dashboard. Although Dashboard comes with 12 default widgets, users now have over 1,300 interest-specific widgets to choose from online. Among these is the recent invention of John Hall '08?a widget that displays Bowdoin's dining service menus.
When Dashboard is opened, the widget lists the menu items for both Thorne and Moulton dining halls. It automatically updates from breakfast to lunch to dinner according to the time of day. At 8:00 p.m., it begins to display the next day's options.
Hall created the Bowdoin-specific widget when working as a paid Web Assistant for Education and Research and Development over the summer for IT. During evenings, Hall served as wait staff for graduation and reunion weekends.
"Since widgets are new, I sort of had to blaze my own trail," Hall said.
With the success of his first widget, Hall is considering new possibilities for web design.
"There's definitely room for widget expansion," Hall said. IT is considering creating widgets that display Bowdoin sports scores or digests.
According to Information Officer Mitch Davis, the newest operating system to be released by Microsoft Windows, Vista, will contain a program similar to Apple's Dashboard.
'The goal will be to find a way to transport this widget to the PC gallery," Davis said.
Hall's widget can be found under "Food" at http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard.