Top Links: February 2002

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, February 2002

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.

Analysis: The pamphlet and the 6 myths, Jeff Lewis, Mac Skeptic, Mac Opinion, 02.28. Sometimes marketing hype borders on lies.
Analysis: Family feud, Rachel Konrad, Dawn Kawamoto, Scott Ard, News.com, 02.28. A post mortem for Excite@Home.
Bug: Mac OS auto-execution vulnerability, Slashdot, 02.28. As we've been warning Mac users for years - never enable CD-ROM AutoPlay in the QuickTime control panel.
Opinion: Making the switch: the tale of a "non-early adopter," Mark Newhouse, Mac Edition, 02.27. "OS X is truly a consumer OS. It's big, bright and beautiful."
Opinion: iBook: The revised edition, Annie McCallum, Times-Dispatch. "We, as students in the public school arena, should not be sheltered from the thoughts of others on the Web, nor barricaded from our own ideas."
Rights: Digital security fomenting a feud, Declan McCullagh, Wired News, 02.27. Intellectual property protection vs. your right to copy in the digital age.
Opinion: The Web is for serving, not surfing, David F. Carlson, osOpinion, 02.27. "The three central tenets of the Internet are peer-to-peer, distributed control and free speech."
Web: 2nd annual selling subscriptions to Internet content summit, Marketing Sherpa. American Greetings: 1.1 million online subscribers. Consumer Reports, 800,000.
Web: Legacy versions of Netscape, Netscape.com. Whether you want 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6, or 4.7, they're all linked on one convenient page now.
Rights: Chilling effects clearinghouse. The EFF, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and University of San Francisco law school clinics team up to deal with cease & desist letters.
Low-end: PC makers soon may be forced to recycle, USA Today, 02.25. Our advice - keep reusing those old Macs and PCs until they drop from exhaustion, then recycle.
Web: The Register comes to the USA, The Register, 02.25. New edition of The Register for U.S. and Canadian will focus less on UK issues, more on North American topics.
Opinion: To laywers who love Macs and WordPerfect: Get over it, Mark Voorhees, National Law Journal, 02.25. A Mac user's thoughts on familiarity, standards, and change.
Tech: IBM unveils "fastest" IC at 110 GHz, The Register, 02.25. Moore's law predicts CPUs will hit this mark in 7-8 years - followed by Motorola a couple years later.
Opinion: Try a Mac? Why it won't hurt as much as you think, David Coursey, ZDNet, 02.25. "I think Macs are, for the average user, much easier to use and manage than Windows machines."
Tech: As Apple develops new Power Macs, DDR may be an issue, Think Secret, 02.25. Motorola appears to have good yield on 1.5 GHz G4, but that really cries out for a faster system bus and faster memory.
Customac: Check out Kevin Poole's silver & black G4. Very nice!
Tech: 1 GHz dual G4 overclocked to 1.2 GHz, Marc Schrier. 20% faster, but proceed at your own risk, as this will void warranty.
Consumer: Understanding the digital home video controversy on commercial content (copy) protection, Brian Weatherhead, Home Theater Hi Fi [ /.]. "...the new encryption schemes mean that if you have purchased a display device before the fall of 2002, there is a 90% chance that you will not be able to watch digital HDTV media on your display."
Opinion: Console madness, Michelle Klein-Häss, Geek Speak, Low End PC, 02.25. How I became a Dreamcast junkie despite how badly I do at games.
OS X: Maximizing battery life under OS X, Mac Net Journal. Too bad the OS X Energy Saver still doesn't allow separate settings for AC vs. battery use.
Hmm: Creating surround sound on the Macintosh, Apple. If Macs are so good at creating it, how come they don't support surround sound playback?
OS X: How to get Radeon 7000 to work in a beige G3 with OS X, Accelerate Your Mac, 02.24. You'll need to log in as root and do some rooting around in the Library.
Taxes: Drivers face road charge by satellite, Guardian Unlimited, 02.24 [ /.]. Proposal would tax Brits up to 45p a mile - and track car usage by satellite. Maybe they will figure out how to tax the air we breathe.
Rights: Fine e-print, big headaches, Post-Gazette.com, 02.24. A look at shrink-wrap licenses and online terms of service.
Web: Libel, slander, cease & desist orders and more!, PowerBook Zone, 02.23. J. C. Morris & Company not an authorized Apple dealer - and their lawyers don't know libel from slander.
News: Senators propose recycling fee on new PCs, Jonathan Skillings, ZDNet, 02.22 [ /.]. California may impose a recycling tax on new computers.
Analysis: Cult of the Mac - Why so many Mac fanatics?, Robyn Weisman, NewsFactor, 02.22. "The PC was the machine you had to have, while the Mac was the one you wanted."
Tech: The roots of Mac OS X, Gary Rogers, OS News, 02.22. "Something important had changed though since Steve Jobs tried to market NeXT in the late eighties, UNIX had gotten hip, thanks to a computer science student in Finland, Linus Torvalds."
Editorial: Converting a PC users to the Mac platform has gotten too easy, Kyle Hanks, MacNet2, 02.22. "Month after month, year after year, Microsoft was constantly getting caught violating the trust of its customers."
News: MacFixIt reports a bad batch of Apple DVD media, Apple repair center infected with SevenDust virus, and G4 iMac may scratch furniture.
Advice: VCD & Toast: Digital video for the rest of us, Vern Seward, Mac Observer, 02.22. "VCD [Video CD], in my estimation at least, is ideal for the movie-making consumer...." I want iVCD. Until then, thank goodness for Toast.
Advocacy: Good news sampler, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 02.22. Good news on dual 1 GHz G4 performance and flat panel iMac sales projections.
OS X: Force quitting a classic app no longer crashes Classic mode in OS X 10.1.3 according to a report on Macs Only, 02.22.
Tech: Apple and large hard drives: Cupertino, we have a problem!, PenguinPPP.org. Oops, UltraATA/66 in current Macs doesn't support drives larger than 128 GB.
Humor: The Macintosh numbers game, Scott Kelby, Mac Design. "5: Average number of four-letter words used by consumers during an install of Microsoft Windows XP."
Hmm: Check out the OS-free PCs at WalMart.com, Drew Cullen, The Register, 02.22. "Naked" 1 GHz Duron and Celeron models for $399 - just add FreeDOS, Linux, OS/2, etc.
OS X: Performance tuning for G3 Macs, Mac OS X Hints, 02.21. Lots of little things (and a few big ones) to boost OS X performance - and they'll all work on G4s, too.
Web: Getting it wrong, Doc Searls, Linux Journal, 02.21. No, Google doesn't allow ad income to influence search rankings.
Obituary: Mac community mourns loss of Sam Sharp of Mac Soldiers, Brave New Mac, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 02.21.
Benchmarks: Dual 1 GHz G4 Power Mac takes on other G4s, Bare Feats, 02.21. Any surprise it won all tests? But does it offer the best value as well as the best performance?
Web: MacSpeedZone faces lawsuit from Mac Publishing LLC, Dave Engstrom, MacReviewZone, 02.21. Sometimes it's simply better to switch than fight. (Been there. Done that.)
Analysis: Apple's retail stores, John Mazione, MacNETv2, 02.20. "Who I was dealing with here were Mac enthusiasts who cared more about being around the product then selling it."
Analysis: A great future in store for Apple, Charles Haddad, BusinessWeek, 02.20. "Every nook of the store buzzed, except one: the checkout counter."
Web: Lessons for small business owners. Why the Mac Web is struggling so much, Paul Shields, Business Mac, 02.20. "...how much analysis went into the idea that a web site could survive solely on advertising revenue?"
Opinion: OS X: Usability, Philip Machanick, Mac Opinion, 02.20. "I ask you with tears in my voice: how is the average non-geek user to make sense of such a setup?"
Web: apple.slashdot.org, Slashdot, 02.20. Slashdot's new subdomain launches with discussion of OS X 10.1.3 - and an Aqua-like appearance.
Consumer: 80 gig drive, $99.99, see Deals on the Web for details, 02.20.
OS X: OS 10.1.3 breaks DVD support on b&w G3, Accelerate Your Mac, 02.20. Those with blue & white G3s who watch DVDs might want to skip this upgrade.
OS X: Mac OS 10.1.3 feedback, Mac Observer. Several readers reporting much better Web performance.
OS X: Mac OS 10.1.3 reader reports, MacInTouch, 02.20.
Tech: Sony develops affordable 6 million-pixel CCD, Digit, 02.20. Nice - and about the same size as a 35mm frame. This has real potential.
News: Be Inc. sues Microsoft, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 02.20. Microsoft Windows license prevented manufacturers from giving away BeOS with new computers.
Web: Google lets sites bid for rankings, Excite, 02.19. Google now selling keyword ads for as little as 5¢ per click.
Web: Mac fiends who live for updates, Leander Kahney, Wired, 02.19. "VersionTracker is so popular, it is the most visited Macintosh-related site on the Web, aside from Apple's."
Dark side: Microsoft unveils wireless strategies, Cnet, 02.19. Windows Phone Edition - who wants the first blue phone of death?
Software: Default Folder updated for OS X, MacCentral, 02.18. Indispensible Mac utility now available for the next generation OS.
Cool: Aquatint, Stickman Software. Shareware app makes it easy to create graphics with Aqua-like appearance.
Spam: Spam and web-visible email addresses, DSL Reports.com [ /.]. Within 8 hours of being posted on a single obscure page, a new email address begins to receive spam.
News: GOP/Enron satire site threatened, The Register, 02.18. Texas Republicans have a cow over EnronOwnsTheGOP.com parody.
News: PayPal's first day pop, The Register, 02.18. Online banned-in-Louisiana, "not quite a bank" payment service sees stock value climb over 50% in first day of trading.
Web: PCs are incorrect on TV, Wired, 02.16. Bad guys used to wear black hats; now they use Windows. The good guys usually use Macs.
Opinion: Mac OS X wins war of statistics on Slashdot, Dirk Pilat, Everything Mac, 02.13. Slashdot has featured 21 Apple stories since 1/1/02.
Low-end: Novice techie revives aging Macs, Register-Guard, 02.15 [MyAppleMenu]. Lorraine Kerwood fixes up old Macs and give 'em away.
Opinion: Are spam blacklists unreasonable, Slashdot, 02.15. Sometimes the solution is worse than the problem.
Analysis: Flaws in Mac OS X and Office v. X: Are Apple and Microsoft listening?, Pierre Igot, Applelust, 02.15. "I don't want to go from elation to frustration and back 100 times a day."
Dark Side: Comments on United States v. Microsoft, Department of Justice. DoJ post 47 "major" comments regarding the proposed the settlement.
Advice: An important note about LCD iMac memory, Amy Hoy, Daily Mac, 02.15.
Opinion: Apple, don't flub it again, Charles Cooper, Cnet, 02.15. "The problem is a wishful belief that millions of PC users will switch to the Macintosh simply because it's the better platform for hosting digital media and music."
News: Everything is easier on a Mac, Apple's new slogan replaces Think Different.
Freeware: TechTool Lite 3.0.2 available, MicroMat.
Opinion: Apple bidding to regain speed throne, Ben Wilson, osOpinion, 02.15. "Apple is looking to rekindle the flame that 'toasted' Pentiums in 1998...."
Review: Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 02.15. "It is a marvel how much useful, well-organized and easy to access information David Pogue has succeeded in packing into this relatively compact volume...."
Consumer: Cubes for $995, Deals on the Web, 02.15. 450 MHz G4, DVD-ROM drive, and that impressive Cube design.
OS X: See how much RAM your software is using, Bob LeVitus, Dr. Mac's OS X Tip of the Day, 02.15. "Freeware Friday" points to MemoryStick as the app for the job.
News: Government cracks down on Miss Cleo, Fox News, 02.15. "A fool and his money are soon parted."
Opinion: A Mac OS X odyssey, Marc Zeedar, Mac Opinion, 02.14. It's not perfect yet, but OS X has definitely arrived.
Advocacy: Should our schools have Macs or PCs, John Droz. The best single source of information for supporting the Mac vs. the Wintel platform has been updated.
Advocacy: Repair statistics, Lumpkin County (GA) School System. Real time "failure rate" statistics for Macs vs. PCs in a school setting.
Advice: Choosing a 19" monitor to fit your needs and budget, Joel Hruska, Van's Hardware, 02.14. Comparison of the top-end and budget monitor.
Virus: Microsoft Instant Messenger Worm sweeps Net, Slashdot, 02.13. Some Web pages contain malicious code that hijacks your "buddy" list and sends instant messages.
Virus: Warhol worms: The potential for very fast Internet plagues, Nicholas C. Weaver. "...it is possible to construct hyper-virulent active worms, capable of infecting all vulnerable hosts in approximately 15 minutes to an hour."
Opinion: Why OS X suits some better than others, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 02.13. "However, I would also argue that a is not just familiarity."
Web: Flat Pack Macs, Mark Benson's new site dedicated to the LCs.
QuickTime: Licensing fee takes a bite out of Apple, SF Gate, 02.13. QuickTime 6, QuickTime Broadcaster delayed due to MPEG-4 licensing fees.
News: Feds launch "spam" email crackdown, Andy Sullivan, Yahoo/Reuters, 02.12. FTC targets chain letter, pyramid schemes, deceptive return addresses, failure to remove email addresses, etc.
News: Apple cuts jobs, discloses store revenue, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 02.12. Apple expects to lose money on retail stores through 2002.
Opinion: 'Book value, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 02.12. How to get the most iBook or PowerBook for the money.
Web: Mac Net Journal. Rob McNair-Huff's blog has become a daily read at LEM.
Tech: Foveon's revolutionary X3 sensor, Digital Photography Review, 02.11. "This could be the single most significant leap forward for digital imaging since the original CCD."
Dark Side: Check the fine print, Ed Foster, The Gripe Line, InfoWorld, 02.11. Microsoft - newly security conscious - retains the right to access your computer and modify their product.
News: New G4 roadmap promises Apple harvest, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 02.11. 266 MHz system bus, 4 MB L3 cache support, 1.5 GHz - we'll believe it when it ships.
Opinion: Networking success at last, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 02.11. More in the ongoing attempted migration to Mac OS X.
Advocacy: How schools are tricked into using PCs - when Macs are better, Bob Shier, ZDNet, 02.11. "The total amount of staff time required just to keep these machines functional is an order of magnitude higher than what we experienced with the Macs."
Opinion: Microsoft Office v.X's lame anti-piracy..., Bob LeVitus, Dr. Mac's OS X Tip-of-the-Day, 02.11. Explains the "updater from Hell" and lays into MS for "lame-brained, invasive, and 1984-ish network anti-piracy mechanism" and an update installer that doesn't play well with other processes.
Rights: China accused of torture, killings in crackdown on unregistered Christians, Fox News, 02.11. Christians, Falun Gong, and Buddhists among religious groups targeted by Chinese government.
Resource: Mac OS Error Codes, USC.
Opinion: The tin cup syndrome, Steve Wood, Busman's Holiday, 02.11. "I doubt that the ad-free subscription model will do those sites any longterm good."
Benchmarks: How much slower is the "end" of your hard drive?, Bare Feats, 02.09. Some parts of your hard drive are slower than others.
Opinion: Is Andrew (Orlowski) right?, Marc Zeedar, Mac Opinion, 02.08. "The long and the short is that I work differently under Mac OS X than under Mac OS 9."
Tech: USB 2.0 and FireWire - Killing some myths with tests, Jeff Lewis, Mac Opinion, 02.08. Real world testing shows performance is comparable - but which is faster?
Advice: Clean your internal CD-ROM drive, Macinstruct. Disassemble at your own risk.
Opinion: Not quite ready for prime time yet, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 02.08. "I shall not be switching to 0S X for production this weekend, or likely in the near-term future."
News: Dell discontinues Itanium workstation, Ken Popovich, Extreme Tech, 02.07. Chip sinks on maiden voyage. We first labelled it the "Itanic" chip in October 1999.
Oops: Apple spams users with virus, Silicon.com, 02.07. Apple's Swedish headquarters sent an infected screen saver to several hundred users.
News: NY challenges McAfee covenants, Yahoo/AP, 02.07. State contends restrictions on product reviews restrict free speech.
Humor: Protest march of Felines Against Flat Panel Monitors, Joy of Tech.
Advocacy: Tired of viruses and bugs? Ditch Microsoft, Mac Net Journal, 02.07. "I have found the best antidote to Internet viruses and computer security concerns is to avoid Microsoft products like the plague."
Consumer: New Vermont "opt-in" privacy law faces legal challenge, Computerworld, 02.07. Law requires customer consent before a business can share their data.
Rights: Bigger not better with copyrighted Web photos, Law.com, 02.07. Thumbnails considered fair use, but larger images harm the owner's market.
Advice: An almost unbelievable utility, Bob LeVitus, Dr. Mac's OS X Tip of the Day, 02.07. The addictive LaunchBar program (shareware).
Lite: PCs don't go gently into Macworld, Leander Kahney, Wired News, 02.07. What happened when a Mac Web publisher has to used a borrowed Windows laptop at Macworld.
News: Feds release Microsoft comments, D. Ian Hopper, Yahoo/AP, 02.07. 15,000 opposed proposed settlement, 7,500 approved, 7,000 were irrelevant, and some were spam.
Opinion: OS themes are only skin deep, Kelly McNeill, osOpinion, 02.07. "What advocates of 'theme' or 'skinning' software fail to realize is that OS consistency is only truly realized when an entire platform is universally similar."
Disinformation: EEMBC publishes benchmark scores for Motorola PowerPC processor, EEMBC, 02.06. "MPC7455 sets new records" - but they don't seem to have ever tested Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon processors!
Oops: Malformed network request can cause Office v. X for Mac to fail, Microsoft Security Bulletin, 02.06. Vulnerability could let one user close down another's Office apps, losing any unsaved data.
Archive: Quality, quantity, benchmarks and reality, Jeff Lewis, Mac Skeptic, Mac Opinion, 1999.09.09. Some very clear thinking on benchmarks.
Web: Will the real G4 PowerBook review please stand up?, Philip Ferreira, Reviewboard. Horribly misinformed review pulled, replaced with much more accurate, positive one.
Advice: Mac backup alternatives to Dantz Retrospect, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 02.06.
OS X: Swap Cop lets you change your swap volume, J. Schrier. By using a separate partition, you can avoid slowdowns due to fragmentation on your main drive.
Review: Travelstar 60 GB PowerBook hard drive, John Manzione, MacNETv2, 02.06. A big, fast hard drive - the last, best PowerBook upgrade.
OS X: Does Broadband Optimizer actually improve your throughput?, Bob LeVitus, Dr. Mac's OS X Tip of the Day, OS X FAQ, 02.06. Yes, it does, according to LeVitus.
Opinion: The laptop vs. desktop dialectic, Charles W. Moore, Mac Opinion, 02.05. "...once you begin using a laptop it's highly likely that you will be ruined for desktops forever."
Opinion: More on the state of the Mac Web, Scott McCarty, Graphic Power, 02.05.
Opinion: ZDNet's David Coursey - Apple shill, Rodney O. Lain, Mac Observer, 02.05. "The nerve of him, praising the iMac. Next thing you know, he will even buy one."
Benchmarks: How fast is the new G4 iMac?, Bare Feats, 02.05. Performance compared with Power Mac G4/733 and Dual G4/800.
Opinion: If we bill them, will they come?, Dean Browell, Applelust, 02.04. The case against charging for Web content.
Web: Go2Mac.com is now O'Grady's PowerPage (again), 02.04.
Analysis: Mac OS X font rendering, Nicholas Riley's Weblog, 02.04. Why fonts may be fine in some cases, ugly in others in OS X.
Opinion: State of the Mac Web, Scott McCarty, Graphic Power, 02.04. Thoughts on site income (and the lack thereof) on the Mac Web.
Benchmarks: Radeon 7500 vs. GeForce 4MX, Accelerate Your Mac, 02.03. Both AGP cards available with Quicksilver (2002) Power Mac G4 compared. Neither will disappoint.
News: Rogers mulls new fees to curtail "bandwidth hogs," Globe & Mail, 02.02. Rogers proposing three-tiered plan for light, moderate, and heavy users.
Opinion: Why I'm glad I made the switch to OS X, Dan Shafer, 02.01. It's smooth, stable, gorgeous....
Opinion: How Apple could have made the OS X switch easier, Dan Shafer, 02.01. "I wonder why Steve Jobs & Co. didn't include some basic things in OS X that would have made the transition for long-time OS 9 users much easier."
Opinion: Mac OS X for the masses, Matthew Peterson, osOpinion, 02.01. "...the Aqua UI masks enough of OS X's Unix underbelly to make it an ideal operating system for even the most inexperienced home computer user."
Web: Salon makes a go of premium service, Lisa Schneider, Media Life Magazine, 01.28. Salon claims 35,000 paying subscribers, about 1% of total visitors. "Hurley claims people are more than happy to pay . . . to avoid advertisements."
Review: Radeon Mac Edition, Joel Hruska, Van's Hardware, 02.01. "That two or three year old computer has hope of staying 'cutting edge' with the help of a video card upgrade."
Opinion: Mac OS 9 move to OS X: Hardly trouble-free, but worth it, I think, Dan Schafer, 02.01. "The switch was much more difficult and frustrating than I had anticipated."
Poll: How often do you replace your Mac?, MacMerc, 02.01. I'm averaging four years per computer.
Opinion: Cox Communications Internet conversion catastrophe, Kelly McNeill, osOpinion, 02.01. A simple connection upgrade? Not for those using Mac OS X.
Opinion: The plain truth about software piracy, fprefect, Ambrosia Software, 02.01. Thoughts on shareware, product registration, and pirated registration codes.
Opinion: Apple should "thing different" inside, too, Stephan Somogyi, ZDNet, 02.01. "Apple's hardware . . . should also bring with it a greater commitment to quality and reliability."

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