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The Low End Mac Link Archive, April 2001
Low End Mac Reader Specials
Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.
LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.
External news links are listed below by the date of publication
with the most recent articles listed at the top, older ones below
them. Other monthly archive indexes are linked on the right. Links
were correct when originally posted. However, we cannot guarantee
that these links are still active.
Opinion: DVD-ROM/CD-RW for all, Robert Aldridge, The iMac.com, 04.30.
"Apple, please replace all DVD and CD-RW drives with one of the
good DVD-ROM/CD-RW drives."
Opinion: This is not
an Apple tech-support call from hell, Rodney O. Lain,
MacSpirit, Applelinks, 04.30. "Recently, Apple was awarded for
excellence in customer service. If my experience is any indication,
this award is well deserved."
Macinschool: Apple
education: I'm not dead (yet), Steve Wood, View From the
Classroom, 04.30. "...our elementary Mac lab, which is now
populated with dreary Duron equipped computers and Windows
98."
Macinschool: Mac versus PC battle
reaches Carteret, Carteret News Times. Residents fight
"academically flawed and economically harmful decision" to abandon
Macs.
Low End: Gary's Classic
Macs, Gary Singleton. Another PC guy gets hooked on Macs.
Macinschool:
Group fights computer switch, Jacksonville Daily News, 04.29.
"This computer decision will make their already demanding jobs
unnecessarily more difficult."
Opinion:
The joy of X, Pierre Igot, Applelust, 04.26. "...in the
migration from the classic Mac OS to Mac OS X, Apple has
managed to preserve the potentiality of its product."
News: Cobalt: There
will be no Apple Cube lawsuit, ZDNet UK, 04.25. "The Cube
trademark associated with computers has changed hands several times
in the past decade. It was first registered by NeXT
Computer...."
Advice: Mystery
crashes solved, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion, 04.25.
"Odd that power problems never occurred to me as the reason for the
crashes - I just assumed the ancient PowerMac was behaving
irascibly...."
Web: BeNews, all the BeOS
news fit to put on the Web.
Opinion:
Fool me twice, John Holmes, To the Contrary, Applelust, 04.25.
"...once Apple altered my Mac with their firmware, whether I was a
willing participant or not, Apple becomes responsible."
Opinion:
The best I can say, Ceolaf, MacinThoughts, Applelust, 04.24.
Mac OS X better than Linux, but not nearly as good as Mac
OS 9.
Opinion: Balancing
profits with marketshare, Paul Shields, Business Mac, 04.24.
"At some point Apple will have to decide that the focus of the
business strategy should be on increasing sales/unit volume and
that short-term margins may suffer."
Analysis: Evolution of the
Mac OS X user interface, David Miller, osOpinion, 04.24.
"...if Apple, a company whose reputation is synonymous with good
design, cannot make an OS that conforms to the industry's
specifications for a proper user interface, who will?"
Review: EasiExpansion
T35, John F. Braun, Mac Observer, 04.23. Add 2 PCI slots, 2 USB
ports, and 5 drive bays to your Mac.
Opinion: I'm
furious at Apple, Michael Coyle, ResExcellence, 04.23. "Apple
has stopped your ability to customize the interface of Mac
OS X with themes...."
Review: Netflix, Marc
Zeedar, Digital-Views.com, 04.23. A DVD rental alternative to
Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.
Deals:
Newer Tech blowout, Other World Computing. OWC has acquired
Newer's inventory and has some impressive deals.
Web: Mac
Show is the apple, Peter Wilson, Mac Chat, Vancouver Sun,
04.19. The history and success of The Mac Show Live.
Web: Viewable
with any browser, anybrowser.org. Best viewed with Netscape or
Internet Explorer? No, best viewed with the browser of your
choice.
Advice: Upgrading an
iBook hard drive, Go2Mac.com, 04.19. "This is not a
straightforward task. The iBook is not meant for the average
consumer to get into."
Opinion: Apple lawyers
attack MacOS 8.x skinning code, Tony Smith, The Register,
04.18. What the Mac OS makes possible with themes, Apple Legal
wants to keep out of user's hands.
OS: Operating
system firm Be looks for another chance, Dan Gillmor,
SiliconValley.com, 04.17. "Be missed its best long-term opportunity
when, for reasons that remain somewhat murky, the company wasn't
able to sell itself to Apple Computer in late 1996."
Advice:
Hotrodding the PowerBook 3400, Charles W. Moore, MacOpinion,
04.17. "The first element of any 3400 hotrodding project should be
to upgrade the RAM...."
Humor:
Care and feeding of your graphic artist/designer, Joel Davies,
iMaculate Conception, Applelust, 04.16. "Tell your IT department to
get over themselves, and learn to live with the presence of Fruit
in your network."
Analysis: PowerBook G4
Titanium vs. Wintel, Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac, 04.13.
Except for the missing expansion bay, the PowerBook G4 is a far
better, more integrated machine.
Opinion:
OS X install (not) travails, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior,
MacOpinion, 04.10. "It still puzzles me as to why drive formatting
would have any bearing on the computer being able to boot from the
OS X installer CD."
Tech: The
myth of megahertz, Dennis Seller, MacCentral, 04.09. "The
PowerPC reasoning is to do as much in as few computer cycles as
possible."
Analysis: Apple
users, market share underestimated?, Dennis Sellers,
MacCentral, 04.09. "...if the industry estimate of 270 million PCs
were correct, that would make the Mac installed base closer to 8
percent than 6 percent."
Opinion: OS X: Leveraging
the success of Unix, Kevin Ledgister, osOpinion, 04.06. "...for
Apple to truly grow in new markets such as the business,
engineering and scientific areas, it must convince or inspire
software developers to create or port major applications for the
platform."
Interview: Bob "Dr.
Macintosh" Levitus, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 04.06. Levitus
is the author of 36 Mac-related books and a genuine Macintosh
guru.
Opinion: Linux
creator: Mac OS X is "crap," MacCentral, 04.06. OS X is a real
commercial Unix, not a non-profit Unix workalike, and could stop
Linux's growth.
OS X: 20 bugs in Mac
OS X 10.0, Derek Currie, InsideX, Insanely Great Mac, 04.05.
Compare 47 bugs to the 63,000 known bugs in Windows2000.
Low End:
The Macintosh TV, Terminal34, 04.05. "Less that 10,000 are
figured to have been produced - in fact, less than the "rare"
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (by about 1500 units)."
Interview:
High priest of the PC, Garry Barker, The Age, 04.04. "More than
almost any other man, Jobs may claim to have changed forever the
way the world works, lives and plays. Now 46, he is unchallenged
after nearly 30 years at the leading edge of technological
innovation."
News: DIMMcheck tests RAM
against Apple specs, Macs Only!, 04.04. Stuffed file downloads
as EIMSCheck.sit. Thank goodness, the RAM in my TiBook passed; it
now has firware 4.1.8f5.
Finally! Apple
responds to disabled RAM dilemma, MacCentral, 04.03. "...it's
going to be up to users and resellers to fix memory-related
problems associated with Apple's recent firmware updates." :-(
Review: AirPort alternative:
Linksys BEFW11S4, iBook Zone, 04.03. Unit combines functions of
AirPort base station, router, and 10/100 ethernet switch for about
US$300.
Advice: What about
backing up to FireWire hard disks?, Adam C. Engst, TidBITS,
04.03. "...I became convinced that hard disks can be used in a
coherent backup strategy, thanks to the rise of cheap, large,
FireWire hard disks."
Opinion:
Why TiBook is not the supreme ultimate PowerBook, Charles W.
Moore, Road Warrior, 04.03. "Don't get me wrong. The best is the
enemy of the good, and Lombard, Pismo, and TiBook are all really
good computers."
Review:
Mac OS X 10.0, John Siracusa, Ars Techica, 04.03. "As far as I
know, [iTools mail] is the first (relatively) spam-free free email
service that provides its own authenticated SMTP server for
outgoing mail, and an IMAP server for incoming mail."
Opinion: Mac OS X bridges
the gap, Sean R., osOpinion, 04.03. "In short, Mac OS X is Unix
for the masses."
AAPL: Cash, new OS
underpin Apple, CNBC, 04.03. "...OS X and a $4 billion cash
stockpile have helped put a floor under Apple Computer's battered
stock...."
Review:
Very fine PowerBook design, eWeek, 04.02. "Apple's
titanium-clad laptop will turn heads; 500MHz machine also outruns
600MHz Pentium III."
News: