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The Low End Mac Link Archive, May 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.
Tech: Anatomy of a DoS
attack, Steve Gibson, Gibson Research, 05.31. More than you
might ever want to know about denial of service attacks - and how
to fight back.
Opinion: Cocoa
dreams, Del Miller, Difference Engine, Mac Opinion, 05.31. The
future of the Mac, OS X, and software development.
Hands on:
A good Apple with plenty to love, John P Mello Jr, Boston
Globe, 05.31. "With all the thought to durability that Apple seems
to have given the iceBook, it could have paid a little more
attention to the unit's keyboard."
Opinion: Mac OS X
Server can meet all your business needs, Paul Shields, Business
Mac, 05.31. "OS X server has enough functionality and features to
easily supplant Windows 2000 and Linux in most situations...."
Opinion: A quiz
designed to give you fitts, Ask Tog, 1999:02. Some
thought-provoking questions and some instances of Mac
superiority.
Review: Hands
on with the Titanium PowerBook, Dennis Sellers, MacCental,
05.31. It's hard to find fault with "Apple's crowning achievement
(so far) in the laptop market."
Resource: Web
design tips, Danny Yee. Lots of good links & info for the
Web designer.
Dark Side:
Mail from the Microsoft munchkins, Dan Gillmor,
SiliconValley.com, 05.30. Microsoft behind flood of "poison-pen"
letters to Microsoft critic.
Opinion: Microsoft-free
reaffirmation, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 05.30. "In our
involuntary dive into the depths of Word's unspeakably complicated
and humongously over-capable options, we were continuously amazed
at the less-than-elegant organization, the illogical hierarchy of
tools and functions, and the utter impossibility of obtaining any
assistance from the ironically-named Help application."
AAPL: Apple
drops 7.8%, closes below 20, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer,
05.30. It was a bad day on Wall Street, especially for the tech
sector.
Opinion: Why
click?, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion, 05.30. "...the
reality of the dot com bust is that it effects a lot more than just
a few silly investors."
Opinion:
The depreciation game, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac
Opinion, 05.22. "One of the baneful things about computers is that
they depreciate on a curve whose trajectory resembles that of a
falling rock - even worse than cars."
Virus: New MS-Word
macro warning, Thomas C. Greene, The Register, 05.22. "...a wee
little oversight . . . makes it possible for an RTF
document opened by Word to execute a macro automatically if it's
embedded in a template."
Macinschool: Laptops
open global doors for Piscataquis pupils, Diana Bowley, Bangor
Daily News, 05.22. "...they have been called shining examples of
what pupils can learn and accomplish, if equipped with the latest
technological tools."
Opinion: Microsoft's
dominance may just be beginning, Dan Gillmor,
SiliconValley.com, 05.21. "Microsoft is more firmly in control of
its market than ever. It absolutely rules the personal-computer
business."
Tech:
RAM basics, Philip Machanick, Macintelligence, Mac Opinion,
05.21. Static RAM, dynamic RAM, caches, misses, and more.
Opinion: The
iBook seductress, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.18.
"...relative to all other Mac portables in history, the new iMac is
a rip-roaring bargain."
Humor:
Talking with an Apple genius, David Schultz, Applelust.com,
05.18. Metaquestions, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and
relativity at the Genius Bar.
Review: Have
PowerBook? Will do PCI!, Chris Rogers, Mac Observer, 05.17. Add
PCI slots to your PowerBook with Magma expansion chassis.
Review:
iBook looks less different, Henry Norr, SF Gate, 05.17. "...the
iBook offers all the capabilities of its forebears - and more than
most of its competitors."
Review:
Use AirPort with older PowerBooks, Stephen Hildreth, PowerBook
Central, 05.16. A look at Farallon and Orinoco IEEE 802.11b PC
Cards.
TV: Lone
Gunmen get the axe from Fox, Slashdot, 05.17. A lot of us
(but not enough for Fox) will miss the ironic techno-humor that
made each episode a treat.
Opinion: Unix
is complex, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion, 05.16. "I
am very concerned with how Apple has integrated (perhaps I should
say not integrated) a Mac-like interface into UNIX."
Technology: "Cheese worm"
fixes broken Linux systems?, Slashdot, 05.16. "...Cheese worm
attempts to fix backdoors added by other worms, removing malicious
code and user accounts and scanning for other infected systems on
the network." Clever!
Opinion: A
steep hill to climb, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.16.
Apple's best chance of success may be Microsoft's mistakes.
Benchmarks: Multiple processor G4s
compared, Bare Feats, 05.16. Apple's dual G4s vs. upgrades from
XLR8 and Sonnet.
Opinion: Sorry,
Steve: Here's why apple Stores won't work, Cliff Edwards,
BusinessWeek. "...rather than taking on the retailers who ought to
be its partners, Apple would do better improving how it works with
them."
Opinion:
At Tysons, Apple takes first bite of retail pie, Alec Klein,
Washington Post, 05.16. "...Apple to personally connect to
customers in a way that it has not by selling computers on the Web
or through resellers and big-box electronics retailers."
Opinion: What
about iMacs?, Amy Hoy, Daily Mac, 05.15. If Apple is phasing
out CRT monitors, what about the iMac? Includes photos.
News: Apple Retail
Stores, Apple, 05.15. Apple opening retail stores this Saturday
to increase market share.
Opinion: OS X: They're
baack!, Matt Johnston, osOpinion, 05.15. "I never thought
. . . a single platform . . . would service
both the needs of the seasoned code monkey as well as the needs of
my techno-phobic parents. I've seen that platform now, and its name
is Mac OS X."
Dark Side:
Microsoft acknowledges secret code in software, Yahoo, 05.14.
"...engineers planted a secret password in its software that could
be used to gain illegitimate access to hundreds of thousands of
Internet sites worldwide."
Opinion: Our take on Apple
in education, Macs Only!, 05.14. Specification writing can be
used to favor one vendor - or block another.
News:
Parents blame suspension, Karen Ayres, New Jersey Online, 05.13
[Slashdot].
13-year-old commits suicide after being suspended from school for
hacking.
Opinion: Mixed
marks on giving laptops to students, Char Simons, The Nation,
05.09. "Many advocates say laptops in schools is a promising way to
end the digital divide between the races."
News: Technology
exposes cheating at U-Va, Amy Argetsinger, Washington Post,
05.09. Simple program helps spot plagiarism in student's
electronically submitted papers.
Macinschool:
Reeducating school boards about Macs, Charles Haddad,
BusinessWeek, 05.09. "The larger issue is that school
administrators have bought into the ridiculous notion that kids
will fail later on in life if they don't know how to operate a
Windows PC."
OS: Mac
OS X Mailing Lists. The Macintosh Guy now offers seven OS X
lists, each with a different focus.
Opinion: Linux,
the modern OS for the rest of us?, Charles W. Moore,
Applelinks, 05.08. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about Linux
lately, especially after my unsuccessful attempt at getting OS X to
install on my WallStreet PowerBook...."
News: Beleaguered
Dell, Go2Mac.com, 05.08. Flaming batteries, recalls, withdrawn
hires, and 4,000 layoffs - it almost makes a Mac user want to
gloat. ;-)
Opinion: The
great LCD vs. CRT monitor debate, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks,
05.08. "Yes, the LCD costs more, but if up front cost was the only
object, we would all be using cheap-o PC boxes."
Dark Side: Microsoft
seen changing licensing terms, Scott Hill, Upside.com, 05.07.
New contracts specify right to use software expires when license
expires.
Analysis:
Unlike Dell, Jobs takes the high road, David Schultz,
Applelust.com, 05.07. "Michael Dell has said some disparaging
things . . . we're not gonna engage in that sort of
thing."
Macinschool: Never mind.
Apple Education probably is dead, Steve Wood, View From the
Classroom, 05.04. "The new $1199 educational iBook pricing isn't
even close to what it will take to seriously impact the education
market."
Analysis: Just how
small is the new iBook?, Mac Observer, 05.03. In terms of
volume, the iceBook is Apple's second smallest ever. (The PB 100 takes third place.)
Benchmarks: FireWire "flames out" on
PowerBooks, Bare Feats, 05.03. "The sustained data transfer
speed on the PowerBook and iBook is much lower than any desktop
model of Macintosh including iMacs and older Power Macs."
Opinion: "Think
Diferent" soundbites not enought, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible,
Mac Opinion, 05.03. "...it never occurs to them to buy a Mac
because they think they must be compatible with Windows."
Opinion: iBook 2001.
Japanese reaction, Go2Mac.com, 05.02. "It's just what a lot of
users in Japan was waiting for."
Opinion: iBook no longer
a niche product, Bob Snow, Go2Mac.com, 05.02. "The G4 Titanium
laptop is a dream machine at a great price, but cutting that price
in half targets a massive number of customers."
Opinion:
Getting it right, Philip Machanick, Macintelligence, Mac
Opinion, 05.02. "OS X is an operating system designed for
multiple processors . . . and a relatively cheap
multiprocessor design would give the Mac a speed edge it hasn't had
since the early days of the G3."
Analysis: New iBook vs. Wintel
competitors, Paul Cesarini, PowerBook Zone, 05.01. "...it looks
like the new iBook may give Windows-based subnotebooks a serious
run for the money."
Opinion: Technological
revolution doesn't happen every day, Michael Munger, On the
Flip Side, Mac Observer, 05.01. "Revolution is an overexploited
word. People use it too often for just about anything."
Web: MacAddict
Network to disband, Jeremy Gefler, Right On Mac, 05.01. "The
dissolution of the network means only that MacAddict will no longer
sell ad inventory on behalf of its member sites."
Opinion: Operating system
yes, religion no, Luke A. Kanies, osOpinion, 05.01. "No, my OS
is not a 'religion.' It's a decision based on technical merits,
aesthetics, performance, price, experience, capabilities, software,
ease of use - and a thousand other things."
Opinion:
iBook: Looking ahead and behind, Charles W. Moore, Road
Warrior, Mac Opinion, 05.01. "If there is to be a new computer
system announcement on May Day, the iBook is the logical
candidate...."
OS X:
For Mac users, the end of innocence, Alex Salkever, Business
Week, 05.01. "Thanks to OS X, Macs have become easier to penetrate
with standard hacking tools...."
