Miscellaneous Ramblings
Low End Mac is pleased to publish Miscellaneous Ramblings by Charles Moore . Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1986, began writing for Mac websites in mid 1997, and has been writing for Low End Mac since September 1999. He oversees our weekly news reviews, and also writes the 'Book Value column and Charles Moore's Mailbag. His Road Warrior column was a regular feature on MacOpinion, he writes The 'Book Mystique for PB Central, is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com, and also writes for The Apple Blog.
Moore lives and works in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, on the shore of Indian Harbour Lake and in sight of the Atlantic Ocean, where he accesses the Internet using dial-up. His newspaper columns are syndicated across Canada, and he writes regularly for several magazines, as well as doing Mac website journalism. Moore has also contributed to MacToday magazine.
His current stable of Macs includes a Mac Plus, an LC 520, a PowerBook 1400, a PowerBook 5300, and a 233 MHz PowerBook G3 Series II (a.k.a. WallStreet, currently on loan to his daughter), two PowerBook G3 (Pismo) machines, both with G4 upgrades, a 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4, and a 2.0 GHz Unibody MacBook, as well as a Umax SuperMac S900.
- More Power Blackout Adventures, 2011.12.14. Another power outage in rural Nova Scotia provides one more reminder of the importance of dial-up Internet.
- Thoughts on Using Older Macs as Work Machines, 2011.12.07. Old Macs never lose their capabilities, but the Internet makes some older Macs far less useful than others.
- Upgrade to IOS 5 Neither Smooth nor Elegant, 2011.10.17. iOS 5 improves the way you switch between apps, but the upgrade process is slow and tedious.
- Steven Paul Jobs, Requiescat in Pace, 2011.10.06. Steve Jobs was a visionary who genuinely changed the world in a meaningful and paradigm-altering way.
- Is Bing Good Enough to Replace Google Search?, 2011.09.27. Microsoft's Bing search engine does a great job finding relevant links and has some features that Google doesn't.
- Lion Compatibility for Some Favorite Legacy Apps: Mostly Good News, 2011.08.30. A Lion-compatible verion Tex-Edit Plus is in beta, Color It! is being rewritten, Eudora OSE is already compatible, but Mail Beacon is history.
- Lack of USB Modem Support Could Be a Lion Deal Breaker, 2011.08.08. OS X 10.7 Lion drops support for Apple's USB Modem, which some users will find impossible to deal with. What about third-party modems?
- Pentax Optio E90 Well Built, Takes Great Photos, and a Real Bargain, 2011.07.28. The Optio E90 is a great little snapshot camera with some very cool features - and it takes AA batteries, which you can always find.
- Looking Back at the Power Mac G4 Cube Ten Years On, 2011.07.05. After almost a year of disappointing sales, Apple discontinued the Power Mac G4 on July 3, 2001. Moore takes a look at its legacy.
- How Long Should Apple Support New Devices on Legacy Hardware and Operating Systems?, 2011.06.02. If you're still using OS X 10.4, you can't run iTunes 10, which means you can't use an iPhone 4 or some of the latest iPods.
- 'Logical Punctuation' vs. Traditional Rules of Style, 2011.06.02. Looking at the differences in the way Americans and other English speakers use quotation marks around punctuation.
- Fiat 500: Enough Style to Be an iCar?, 2011.05.23. Still no sign of the oft-rumored iCar, but the new Fiat 500 has a lot of things an iCar should.
- Preview's Photo Editing Tools Could Be All You Need, 2011.05.11. When Apple introduced OS X 10.5 Leopard, it made some big improvements in Preview's image editing capabilities.
- Free OmmWriter Dana Creates a Tranquil, Non-Distracting Writing Environment, 2011.04.12. If you just want to focus on writing without the many distractions your Mac provides, OmmWriter Dana could be the tool for you.
- TenFourFox: The Best Browser for PowerPC Macs Running Tiger?, 2011.04.05. TenFourFox is out of beta, stable, and fast. It could be the best overall browser for Mac OS X 10.5 on G3, G4, and G5 Macs.
- Safari 4.1.3 for Tiger Revisited and Redeemed, 2011.03.22. The drive noise issue noted last week eventually went away, and Moore is now working with Safari as the default browser on his Pismo PowerBooks.
- Safari 4.1.3 for Tiger: Fast, but Not Perfect, 2011.03.15. With the update, Tiger becomes perhaps the fastest OS X 10.4 brower, but it is not without some drawbacks.
- Bulli: Volkswagen Microbus Reincarnated with an iPad Twist, 2011.03.08. VW is showing a concept electric minivan with 185 mile range, microbus inspiration, and iPad integration.
- Contour RollerMouse Free2 Even Better than the Original, 2011.02.28. Contour's RollerMouse is a great alternative to mice and trackballs for those suffering from mousing pain.
- Dragon Dictate 2.0.2 'a New High Water Mark in Mac Speech Recognition', 2011.02.09. "On the one hand, it's the closest to perfection in Mac dictation software anyone has yet achieved. On the other hand, there is still plenty of room for improvement...."
- Old and New Macs: Nostalgia vs. Realistic Pragmatism, 2011.02.03. Readers weigh in on their favorite Macs past and present, including one over 20 years old that's still in use.
- Alltime Favorite Macs: Nostalgia Confronts Realistic Pragmatism, 2011.01.24. While there were some wonderful Macs made over the years, in terms of real world productivity, modern Macs have it all over the golden oldies.
- The Future of Tex-Edit Plus on the Mac, 2011.01.17. Tex-Edit Plus provides a unique integration of word processing, text editing, and HTML authoring plus powerful AppleScript control.
- Apple's Business Orientation, 10.6 CPU Temperature, HFS+ File Compression in Snow Leopard, and More, 2010.12.07. Also two more options for installing Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger from an install DVD to a Mac without a DVD-capable drive.
- Old Cars and Old Macs Revisited, 2010.11.11. Reflections on classic cars and old Macs.
- Google's Self-Driving Cars? Real Auto Enthusiasts Want Manual Control, 2010.10.13. Google's fleet of self-driving cars is an impressive use of technology, but wouldn't driving be even safer if we paid more attention to what we were doing?
- Car and Driver and Chrysler Launch Free Txt U L8r App, 2010.10.11. Car and Driver has teamed up with iSpeech and Chrysler to release a free smartphone app that autoreplies to texts and speaks them aloud.
- Texting While Driving: A Deadly Epidemic, 2010.09.27. Drunk driving is universally reviled, phoning while driving is just as dangerous, and texting far more dangerous than that.
- Opera Issues Resolved, at Least for Intel Macs, 2010.09.24. Good news: Clearing out some old support files got Opera 10.62 working nicely. Bad news: The 10.6 branch is the end of the line for Opera on PowerPC Macs.
- Opera 10.62 for Mac: Fast, but Some Bugs Remain, 2010.09.21. Opera is the last major browser still supporting Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, but the latest release has some issues with Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard on Moore's 'Books.
- Of Hurricanes and Lightning Storms and Dial-up Internet and Laptops, 2010.09.13. Hurricane Earl meant 48 hours without power or broadband Internet, and 20 hours without phone service meant dial-up wasn't an option either.
- MailForge 2: Modern Email Client Designed to Replace Classic Eudora, 2010.08.23. MaiForge has been built from the ground up to work just like the classic version of Eudora, and the latest version is big step toward filling that ambitious goal.
- Fraise Text Editor Steps into Smultron's Shoes, 2010.08.10. Smultron was an excellent, free text editor with some database features, but it's no longer being updated. Fraise is based on Smultron, but it's designed for Snow Leopard.
- Is the Mac Facing a 'Walled Garden' Future?, 2010.07.19. Apple is doing well, Mac sales are at the best levels ever, yet many are concerned that Apple may turn the Mac into a 'walled garden' like it's done with iOS devices.
- Bog-slow: A Return Visit to Dialup Internet, 2010.06.08. With wireless broadband going down when it rains, Charles Moore has no option but to try getting by with dialup access until the problem is resolved.
- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Increasingly Left Behind by Browser Updates, 2010.05.25. Opera has grown troublesome since version 10.52, and several recent browser versions don't have any PowerPC support at all.
- Going Back to Leopard Due to Snow Leopard Bugs, 2010.05.19. Although OS X 10.6 is fast and required by a few apps, several keyboard lockups a day make it impractical. Back to 10.5.
- 2 Weeks with Snow Leopard: Still a Bumpy Ride, 2010.05.04. Charles Moore hasn't reverted to Mac OS X 10.5, but he is experiencing some problems with 10.6.3.
- Why Do Aliens Ignore Us? Because They May Not Exist, 2010.04.27. A recent poll finds that 70% believe in extraterrestrial life, but after 50 years of searching, SETI hasn't found any sign of it.
- Charles Moore Finally Installs Snow Leopard, 2010.04.19. Installing, updating, and migrating to Mac OS X 10.6 took hours, and Snow Leopard introduced problems not seen in Leopard.
- How Ad Blocking Hurts Your Favorite Websites, 2010.03.18. Ad income keeps the Web free. Blocking online ads hurts your favorite websites.
- Shiira Browser Is Lightning Fast, 2010.03.08. "...I'm finding myself not in any hurry to stop using Shiira 2.3 and go back to Safari 4 as my WebKit browser pick."
- Handshoe Mouse a Good Ergonomic Option, 2010.03.02. "If you suffer from mousing pain, they should prove well worth the price."
- Personality Predicts Your Place Along the Mac-PC Divide, 2010.02.23. There is a fair bit of truth behind the caricatures of Mac and PC users, although there are exceptions as well.
- diNovo Mac Edition a Top Quality Keyboard, 2010.02.15. Logitech's diNovo cordless keyboard offers a standard Macintosh layout in a premium package.
- Do We Really Need Another Mac Email Client?, 2010.02.08. Mac users have a host of free and low-cost email clients to choose from. Does Brent Simmons' 'Letters' project make any sense at all?
- Waiting for WindowShade X before Going Snow Leopard, 2010.02.01. For anyone used to windowshading, nothing else will do. Unsanity is working on WindowShade X for Mac OS X 10.6.
- Free Glide OS: Computing in the Cloud, 2010.01.25. Hands on with Glide OS, a free cloud-based operating system and apps that you access from your browser.
- Linux, Freedom, and Frontiers, 2010.01.19. Personal freedoms are under attack in the real world and online, and Linux will help save the world.
- 10 Reasons Macs Don't Suck, 2010.01.11. A longtime Mac user's response to a "sophomoric anti-Mac diatribe" recently published by collegetimes.us.
- In Defense of 'Obsolete' Technologies, 2010.01.05. Some technologists are too quick to label stable, proven, functional technologies obsolete before their time.
- Opera 10.5 Preview Better and Faster than Ever, 2010.01.04. Opera 10.1 is already a wonderful browser, but version 10.5 for Mac (Intel only) is now written in Cocoa and the JavaScript engine is the fastest yet.
More in the Miscellaneous Ramblings archives: 1999-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Also see the Best of Miscellaneous Ramblings.
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