Top Links: July 2001

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, July 2001

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.

Webmaster Alert: Don't eat the yellow links, Slashdot, 07.31. Like MS Smart Tags, KzZaA TopLinks may already add unwanted links to your site. Here's how to opt out.
Opinion: The G4 Cube has died, so where are we going?, Tristan Moore, Appleinks, 07.31. "After my experiences with the Cube, I want one so badly I'm going to break my long standing tradition of buying PowerBooks."
Opinion: Dmitri Sklyarov still rotting in a Las Vegas jail while feds dither, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 07.31. "Mr. Sklyarov still languishes in jail, puzzled, no doubt, about how a free society can jail someone for writing code that was legal where written, just because he comes to the United States and gives a report on encryption weaknesses."
Opinion: MacDonald's, John Scheeser, The Mac Mind, 07.31. "What if Apple would franchise the Apple Stores?"
Benchmarks: New G4/867 vs. old G4/733, Bare Feats, 07.31. Of course it's faster, but how much faster is it?
Opinion: Rare, offbeat, and maybe even collectible PowerBooks, Charles W. Moore, Mac Opinion, 07.31.
Opinion: Licensing the Mac OS - again, MacSlash, 07.30. Why not license Aqua or all of OS X to Sun, HP, and IBM for workstations and servers?
Opinion: The best part of waking up, Andy Ihnatko, Macworld. Bluetooth as a complement to AirPort, not a competitor.
Advice: Put that Mac back to work as an MP3 jukebox, Adam C. Engst, Macworld. Recommended hardware and software.
Web: Yahoo testing pop-under advertising, Yahoo/News.com, 07.30 [ Slashdot]. "A report . . . found that the format increases brand awareness, but at the cost of the company's image."
Hmm: Lawless leaps from Xena to X-Files, Yahoo/Variety, 07.30. Hmm, the Xena-Files? ;-)
Low End: My emailing Mac Plus, Jeff Garrison. A Mac Plus, a second floppy, a modem, System 6, Eudora Lite - email on the cheap.
Dark Side: Truce or dare, Michael R. Zimmerman, eWeek, 07.30 [ Slashdot]. Business Software Alliance's campaign having unintended results - many of the threatened are leaving for alternative software, including open source.
Analysis: Total Cost of Ownership: Why the price of the computer means so little, Paul Shields, 07.30. Purchase price is only a small part of the total cost of running a computer.
Opinion: Recommended Web Sites & the further adventures of the little Performa that could, Nancy Gravley, Mac Observer, 07.30. "Understand, this Mac is now about 8 years old and it has never broken down."
Macinschool: Despite raves for iBook, tide still turns against Apple, Chronicle of Higher Education. "College technology officers . . . say most of the big commercial software systems they use for payroll, course scheduling, student record-keeping, and other operations work more reliably on computers that use the Microsoft Windows operating system." More reliably?!?
Tech: The HyperTransport revolution, David K. Every, iGeek, Working Mac, 07.30. "HyperTransport isn't just a new bus implementation that's a little faster than its predecessors. It's a whole new bus architecture, designed to grow over time."
Virus: Government, private officials sound alert over "code red" worm, Fox News, 07.30. Be very grateful if you're not using Microsoft's Internet Information Services.
News: Apple to place full-time employees at CompUSA locations, MacMinute, 07.27. "Apple will be placing full-time employees in 70 to 90 CompUSA locations across the US...."
Opinion: On being a 1st-class citizen: Maybe Apple shouldn't buy DAVE & VirtualPC after all, Rodney O. Lain, Mac Observer, 07.27. "OS X 10.1 will have SMB (Samba) compatibility, which means that it will be able to file share and printer share with any . . . modern Windows network."
Consumer: Week's best PowerBook, iBook deals, PowerBook Central, 07.27.
Consumer: Week's best Power Mac deals, DealZone, 07.27.
Web: Secondhand Mac, online classifieds for used Macs and Mac-related gear. Some attractive items listed [Mac Observer].
Analysis: The great Cnet spam-off, Matt Lake, Cnet, 07.26 [ Slashdot]. Where do spammers get your email address? Read this report and find out.
AAPL: Morning losses yield to 12¢ afternoon gain for Apple, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 07.26.
Analysis: There is a gap in Apple's product line..., Paul Shields, Business Mac, 07.26. No, they don't need a PDA.
Humor: Spammers need help, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 07.26. "If there isn't a support group for stressed-out spammers somewhere, perhaps we should start one."
Opinion: Would you want to download a 650 MB Mac OS X upgrade file?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 07.26. Imagine those with 56k modems spending days downloading the file....
Opinion: How to pirate music and video without a computer, Wes, osOpinion, 07.26. You don't need Napster or an Internet connection.
Hardware: An in-depth look at what's new in the new Power Macs, Alex Summersby, MacUnlimited, 07.25.
Opinion: Megahertz madness, Del Miller, Difference Engine, Mac Opinion, 07.25. "Multiprocessing is a completely legitimate and time honored architecture for computing systems. Nobody ever claimed that Cray made a slouchy computer...."
Opinion: Return to grace, part 2, Joel Davies, 07.25. 1998 - "I've been fairly annoyed a these advertisements claiming how slow my Pentium II computer is compared to these new fangled G3s."
Advice: Upon launching, Netscape crashes with Type 3 error, Damien, AppleTechs, 07.25. Here's how to make it work again.
Ouch: PC sales drop in Canada, Montreal Gazette, 07.25 [Applelinks]. Apple sales dropped 21.4% - I wonder if purchases from US sources were included.
AAPL: Great expectations, Wes George, AAPL Shares, WorkingMac, 07.25. Best analysis of Apple's business and value I've ever seen.
Hardware: Formac announces 24x FireWire CD-RW, Insanely Great Mac, 07.25. Gee, and I just moved up to 12x....
News: Macworld Expo attendance a record, Macworld UK, 07.25. Biggest tech expo in New York, outperforming PC Expo and Internet World.
Virus: Spread of the Code-Red worm, David Moore, CAIDA [ Slashdot]. "On July 19, 2001 more than 359,000 computers were infected with the Code-Red (CRv2) worm in less than 14 hours."
Web: Cnet reports Q2 loss, sets layoffs, Yahoo/Reuters, 07.24. Lost $218 million in quarter, but remains confident in the power of Internet advertising.
AAPL: Apple sheds another 45 cents, down 24% since July 17, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 07.24. Ouch.
Rights: Protesters prepare to lay siege to Adobe, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 07.23. Cryptographer arrested for demonstrating weakeness of eBook "security." Yes, in America.
Rights: Hacker' fury at Adobe's FBI snitch, Macworld UK, 07.23. "Hackers angry about the FBI's arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have spawned a campaign against Adobe...."
Dark Side: Microsoft still says kids' charity acting "illegally," Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac, 07.23. Not only that, but low-end PCs "really not providing kids with the tools they need for the digital age."
Dark Side: There's no getting away from Microsoft Windows - even on our ATMs, Richard Hoffman, Network Computing, 07.23. "I swear, it's almost as if they're running Windows.... Of course, nobody would actually be that stupid."
Advocacy: The Megahertz Myth, Apple Computer.
Advice: Illustated Power Mac 7500 tear down, Steve Wood, Busman's Holiday, 07.23. The ins and outs of the 7200, 7300, 7500, and 7600 case.
Hmm: Cyber-games make children brighter, Jonathan Leake, The Sunday Times, 07.22 [ Slashdot]. Study shows "playing computer games regularly greatly improves mental agility."
Trivia: A brief history of @, The Industry Standard. Where the @ symbol came from and what it's called around the world.
Dark Side: Never use caps in a Hotmail email, The Register, 07.20. Email with all caps subjects dumped as spam (hooray); URLs within email redirected through MS server (boo).
Analysis: Taking a breath at Macworld Expo, Stephen Beale, WorkingMac, 07.19. "...Apple is doing pretty well at a time when the PC industry as a whole is mired in a serious downturn."
Analysis: Special report for education, Steve Wood, Educators' News, 07.18. Apple retains 400 MHz iMac, 533 MHz Power Mac for education market.
Opinion: The more things change, the more iMacs look the same, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 07.18. "This marks the second rev of the iMac line where the lowest priced model has actually gone up by US$100."
Survey: Internet use holding steady, Cnet, 07.17. More than half surveyed report same level of Internet use.
AAPL: Apple is back in the black, posts $61 million profit, Mac Observer, 07.17.
OS: Macs Only! has an interesting comparison of Mac OS X vs. Windows XP. You don't want to hear how the Celeron 633 beat the dual processor G4/533 - but you should.
Low End: SE/30 grayscale screenshots, Gamba, 07.16. Homemade clone of Xceed card provides 8-bit internal video.
News: Apple Stores to stream Jobs' Expo keynote, MacCentral, 07.16. Another clever way to use the space for more than just retailing.
Web: MacGamez is back.
MWNY: Fujitu expands magneto-optical line, MacCentral, 07.16. New drive mechanism can write 2.3 GB to $30 3.5" magneto-optical disk - and it's fast.
Opinion: Microsoft's .NET: Bill's gate to the cyber toll bridge, Noah F. San Tsorbutz, osOpinion, 07.16. "There will be cyber-tollgates built right into .NET, and just like the Golden Gate Bridge, unless you pay, no San Francisco."
Benchmarks: OS X vs. 9.1 FireWire performance, Accelerate Your Mac, 07.15. Some wins for each OS.
Low end: New Color Classic 640 x 480 screen mod, Chris Lawson, 07.13. Modification requires 520, 550, or 575 motherboard.
Dark Side: MS chases Windows license fee from kids charity, Kieren McCarthy, The Register, 07.13. MS wants Au$200 for each second-hand computer PCs for Kids gives away.
Benchmarks: How fast is IBM's 48 GB Travelstar 2.5" drive in an Oxford 911 FireWire case?, Bare Feats, 07.12. Fast and quiet, but 3.5" drives still outperform it.
Advice: Should you always buy the latest and greatest?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 07.13. "It doesn't matter if its just off the production lines, or a closeout deal, so long as the price is right."
Humor: Put through the (rumor) mill, MacToolbox.com, 07.13. "By working with the rumor sites, that also means we don't have to think for ourselves so much anymore...."
Consumer: Week's best PowerBook, iBook deals, PowerBook Central, 07.13.
AAPL: Market rally helps boost Apple 8%, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 07.12.
Tech: Hitting the wall at 150 GB/in2, John William Toigo, Enterprise Systems. Hard drives expected to hit capacity ceiling in 3-5 years. Still, that could get us into the half-terabyte range for a 3.5" hard drive.
AAPL: Apple's stock shoots up another 6.9% in morning trading, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer.
News: "Cold" Cube suddenly a hot item, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 07.11. "If you discontinue it, they will come."
Opinion: The marketshare expo, Del Miller, Difference Engine, Mac Opinion, 07.11. "The most important message from Macworld New York will be Apple's all-out attack on marketshare."
Opinion: Return to grace: Seduction to the dark side, Joel Davies, Applelust, 07.11. "I grew up with Apple computers in my household, but in college I was slowly converted to the Wintel world."
Analysis: Dell denies new stats showing Apple education lead, Kelly McNeill, osOpinion, 07.11. "We believe Dell is extremely well positioned to retain our No. 1 position in the education market."
Opinion: Great classroom computer buys: When the worst can turn out to be the best, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom, 07.11. "...there are some truly incredible deals out there on used Power Macs."
Low-end: Early Mac 400KB drive repeating click of death (and its solution), A. Daniel King. How to fix a 400K floppy drive gone bad.
Analysis: Survey: Apple to regain top spot in education, Cnet, 07.10. Sorry, Michael Dell, but even IDC now says Apple is picking up education sales.
Dark Side: Microsoft to schools: Give us your lunch money!, Damien Cave, Salon, 07.10 [ Slashdot]. Microsoft loves schools - as a great source of corporate revenue.
AAPL: Tech rally sends Apple higher by 67¢, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 07.09.
Advice: Build an MP3 jukebox, Pat St. Arnold, Applelust, 07.09. Turning an old Power Mac into a music machine.
Dark Side: Messaging woes cloud Microsoft's .NET strategy, Daniel F. DeLong, osOpinion, 07.09. If they can't keep MSN Messenger running, how dependable will .NET be?
News: Apple number one in education market, MacCentral, 07.09. Quality Education Data says Apple, not Dell, has the top spot in the education market, both the installed base and new purchases.
OS X: At least 256 MB for OS X, Bill Fox, Macs Only!, 07.09. Testing finds OS X really benefits from at least 256 MB RAM, especially if running Classic mode.
Dark Side: "MS antipiracy" hoax triggers paranoia attacks, John Lettice, The Register, 07.09. "Practically everybody in the world thinks that Microsoft will get up to this kind of thing one day...."
Opinion: Anywhere but Bethlehem, I hope, John H. Farr, Grack!, Applelinks, 07.09. "The company has been labeled guilty, not exonerated, and yet they continue to ratchet up the pressure on all fronts, something I find akin to donning a Nazi uniform and soliciting donations from synagogues!"
Recall: Apple recalls 570,000 G3 PowerBook AC adapters, PowerBook Zone, 07.06. Seems to be just WallStreet and Lombard models. More on Apple's site.
Opinion: Here's why you should not buy a G4 Cube, Rodney O. Lain, iBrotha, Mac Observer, 07.06. "After all, not everyone is worthy of such things."
Consumer: Week's best iBook, PowerBook deals, PowerBook Central, 07.06.
Consumer: "Pop-under" ads click off Web surfers, Fox News, 07.06. Includes a link for banishing the X-10 ad from your computer for 30 days!
Dark Side: Microsoft struggles to fix instant message glitch, Yahoo/Reuters, 07.06. "Up to a third of Microsoft's 30 million worldwide MSN Messenger users were unable to access the service" since Wednesday. I wonder if the crashed server ran some version of Windows?
Web: PowerBook Source has a nice new look.
Digicams: Memory speed matters, Dan Knight, Digigraphica, 07.06. Yes, faster CompactFlash cards really can make a difference.
Opinion: Journalistic objectivity or journalistic discretion?, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 07.06. "I try to be fair, and reasonably evenhanded, but ultimately, my biases, interests, and enthusiasms will play a significant role in determining what appears...."
Dark Side: Win2K becomes a spam relay, Thomas C. Greene, The Register, 07.06. "A flaw in the Win-2K SMTP authentication scheme allows unauthorized users to access the system using bogus credentials and bounce spam and death threats off unwitting users' machines with impunity." Microsoft has already released a patch for the problem - it's somehow dated July 9, 2001. That's right, next Monday, although you can download it now. Go figure.
News: Free service proves to be short lived, Winnipeg Free Press, 07.03 [ Slashdot]. Last October, Canada Post offered "free Internet for life" with a $10 CD. It appears all users have died....
Dark Side: Iowa family chained to MSN...., John H. Farr, Applelinks, 07.05. Family unable to cancel MSN after 12 months required by rebate.
Advice: Reclaiming disk space under Mac OS X, AppleTechs, 07.05. OS X plus 9.1 eats up a lot of drive space; here's how to get some of it back.
Tech: Pentium 4 and G4e: An architectural comparison, Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, Ars Technica, 07.05. "...the successor to the most successful x86 microarchitecture of all time is a machine built from the ground up for stratospheric clock speed."
Opinion: In the beginning was the command line, Neal Stephenson, ArtLung [MrBarrett.com]. Fascinating discourse on computers, operating systems, sports cars, HTML, the big difference between Macs and Windows PCs, Unix, Linux, and much more. (Yes, it's also long.)
Dark Side: It's 1984, so happy new year, Mr. Gates, Mike Banks Valentine, osOpinion, 07.05. .NET is remarkably similar to Orwell's 1984.
Web: How MacMonkey survived the advertising recession, David Egger, 07.05. "If the website provides a service so valuable to people that they are willing to donate money to keep it alive, then why not?"
Analysis: Nutty processors, David Fanning, Macworld UK. Apple needs to find more demanding applications to drive the market for faster computers.
Dark Side: Itanic prices emerge, Tony Smith, The Register, 07.05. "The cheapest Itanium, a 733MHz with 2MB of L2, costs $1177 in batches of 1000." (Be sure to read Itanium or Itanic? for our take on Intel's new CPU.)
Opinion: Apple's iPicture/iPhoto is "number-one" wish, Macworld UK, 07.05. Could a free photo editor be Adobe's reason for abandoning Macworld Expo?
Dark Side: Magistr continues three month reign as top virus, The Register, 07.04. I'm still getting "Snow White" emails from the "hybris" virus (#5 on the list) first launched last September.
Web: Canadian Tire loses fight to call itself "crap," The Register, 07.04. Shoot, we've been calling 'em "crappy tire" since at least the 1970s....
Rights: Lawyers: Keep Barneyô pure, Wired, 07.04 [ Slashdot]. Better not parody/satire the purplesaurus, let alone post anti-Blarney content - the lawyers are busy.
Speculation: Can Apple, Adobe take it to the bridge?, Matthew Rothenberg, ZDNet, 07.03. Thoughts on Adobe's decision to skip Macworld Expo.
Rights: Copyrights and copywrongs, Siva Vaidhyanathan, MSNBC, 07.04 [ Slashdot]. "Copyright was created as a policy that balanced the interests of authors, publishers, and readers."
News: Women take over as top Internet surfers, Yahoo/Reuters, 07.04. 52% of Internet users in U.S. are women; 51% in Canada.
Opinion: Comment on Apple's termination of the Cube, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 07.04. A great little computer, poorly marketed, suspended "indefinitely."
Opinion: Switching teams, Phonezilla.com [Applesurf]. "If you told me just one year ago - heck, even just six months ago! - that I'd be totally geeking over a Mac, I would have laughed you out of the state."
Consumer: Apple puts Power Mac G4 Cube on ice, Apple, 07.03. "Cube owners love their Cubes, but most customers decided to buy our powerful Power Mac G4 minitowers instead."
Advice: Dealing with the PowerBook G3 Series display hinge failure defect, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 07.03.
Virus: Hackers may profit from spam, ZDNet, 07.03. "Spamming trojan" sounds like another Windows/Outlook only problem, but with a new twist.
Opinion: HTML: The "M" is for memo, CodeBitch, MacEdition, 07.02. "As a Web author who cares about standards, few things irritate me more than seeing PDF documents where HTML would be more appropriate."
Opinion: Cube diary, weekend edition, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 07.02. "This is the first day that I'm using my new Cube as a production machine, after spending much of the weekend getting it set up."
Advice: Making a Power Mac 5200 useful, saintlupus. "The 5200, one of the worst machines Apple ever put out, can actually be useful when outfitted correctly for a particular purpose."
Digicams: Profiles of Nikon Coolpix cameras posted, Digigraphica, 07.02.
Opinion: Mac philosophy, part 01. Steve Jobs' philosophical background, David Schultz, Applelust, 07.02. "I think Jobs has a philosophy of life he brings to the Mac and Apple."

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