In the last 24 hours, I’ve upgraded my private and public worlds. Thankfully, both upgrades went off without a hitch. This PowerBook is now happily running Tiger and my company web site is now being hosted by TextDrive. The end result is that I now have more options for automation across the board.

On the global front, TextDrive has all the tools I need to get things done on the web. It’s nothing short of a geek’s paradise, and the support has been superb.

Locally, Tiger has all the fixings for an automation feast: Automator, Dashboard, and even the latest version of Ruby. Automator and Dashboard have been primarily focused at the consumer market, but both have a lot of potential for project automation. Imagine a Dashboard widget that shows, at a glance, the health of your build or production application. As well, Automator is at your service to help simplify repetitive or time-consuming project chores. Imagine a consistent, repeatable workflow that takes your source code and, through a series of visually-assembled actions, transforms it into a packaged release.

Here are just a few resources to whet your appetite:

• Working with Automator: An overview of Automator and primer for writing Automator actions (Apple Developer Connection)
• Delegating the grunt work: An introduction to Automator (MacWorld)
• Automator World: A clearinghouse for Automator workflows, actions, news, etc.
• Automator Actions: Apple’s site of Automator actions, ready for the taking
• Automator Programming Guide
• Developing Dashboard Widgets: A jump-start to writing your first Dashboard widget (Apple Developer Connnection)
• Discovering the Dashboard : An introduction to Dashboard (MacWorld)
• Dashboard Programming Guide

I’m looking forward to building a few Automator actions and Dashboard widgets myself. Moreover, I’m excited to see the killer applications that emerge from what promises to be a groundswell of activity around these tools. So please dig in, and share what you find!