All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For
price quotes and advertising information, please contact
at BackBeat Media
(646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.
Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer
5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We
recommend Firefox
for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more
secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox
than any other browser.
The Low End Mac Link Archive, May 2002
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.
Advice: Turn your LPs or
cassettes into CDs, Jonathan Seff, Macworld, 05.31. You can
even reduce or eliminate tip hiss and other unwanted noise.
Web: MacSlash
back as a dot-org, RandomMaccess, 05.31. Did Apple's aggressive
spam filtering prevent MacSlash from receiving their domain renewal
notice? (MacSlash may not be accessible in all areas until later
this weekend.)
Dark Side: Military
research lab tosses Macs, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 05.30.
Researchers forced to use Dells, tech support spends most of its
time installing Windows patches. Your tax dollars hardly
working.
Digicams: Nikon Coolpix 4500,
Digigraphica, 05.30. Slightly smaller successor to Coolpix 995
created 4 megapixel images.
Digicams: Nikon Coolpix 5700,
Digigraphica, 05.30. Nikon's first consumer digicam with SLR
styling creates 5 megapixel images, has impressive 8x optical
zoom.
Web:
MacSlash domain stolen, Slashdot, 05.30. MacSlash is
registering macslash.net and trying to find out how their domain
was stolen yesterday by Vicente Peiro Crespo of
Valencia, Spain.
Rights: Cries
in the wilderness, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion,
05.30. Now they want to make the iPod and other MP3 players
illegal....
Digicams: Fujifilm FinePix F401
Zoom, Digigraphica, 05.30. A 3x zoom, improved low light
sensitivity, and 4 megapixel images - coming in August at
US$499.
Web: MacRaffle is illegal,
Damien Barrett, mrbarrett.com, 05.29. It's illegal, but suckers
continue to buy tickets.
Tech:
Intel's Itanium 2 performance twice that of Itanium,
Yahoo/Reuters, 05.29. Of course, the 64-bit Itanic was a pretty huge flop to begin
with, and they will have to contend with the MHz Myth when trying
to market a 1 GHz CPU as powerful....
Benchmarks: PowerBook G4s compared,
Bare Feats, 05.28. See how new and old G4/667 compare, among
others.
Opinion:
Useful translucency, Philip Machanick, Macintelligence, Mac
Opinion, 05.28. Translucency in OS X isn't very useful, reduces
performance, and decreases usability.
Opinion:
Are the new iBooks a worthwhile upgrade?, Charles W. Moore,
Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 05.28. A better value than ever and a
real alternative to the TiBook.
Advocacy: Why
Macintosh? Think TCO, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.28. Why
the Mac wins when looking at the total cost of ownership.
Macinschool: Why Macintosh?,
Terri Schoone, Urbana School District. "The time and money spent on
repairs of our Macintosh is only a fraction of what is spent on the
PCs...."
Tech: MHz or
GHz: What does MHz mean?, David K. Every, iGeek. What MHz is,
and why it isn't a direct indicator of computer performance.
Wares: SmoothType
v2.3, Greg's Shareware. One of LEM's favorite 'wares, new version
adds subpixel smoothing for LCDs. Try it - we think you'll like
it.
Rights:
Ventura signs Minnesota Online Privacy and Anti-Spam Law, Vin
Crosbie, E-Media Tidbits, 05.26. Spam must begin subject with ADV,
include valid return address, have valid opt-out email info or
toll-free phone number. $10-25 fine per email.
Tech: Bus
speed and frequency, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 05.24. To avoid
bottlenecks, bus speed needs to improve along with CPU speed.
Opinion:
OS X: Some good usability, Philip Machanick, Macintelligence,
Mac Opinion, 05.24. "The ability to select multiple files in an
open file dialog is a huge improvement over the old Mac OS
standard."
Analysis: New rules
for the new advertising economy, Chris Anderson, Wired, 05.24.
"The new equation for success in online advertising is simple:
Effective advertising must be intrusive."
Macinschool: One
school's cost of going Wintel, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral,
05.24. School system has had "nothing but grief" since the switch
- viruses included.
Rights: Spammers threaten
UK Net user, Tim Richardson, The Register, 05.24. "A British
man has been threatened by a gang of spammers after reporting its
activity to his ISP."
Macinschool: iBooks for
Backwash Elementary, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom,
05.23. Support from adminstration helped teachers choose their own
platform.
Macinschool: My
classroom "cast of characters," Steve Wood, View From the
Classroom, 05.23. A look at classroom machines and student
take-home units.
Opinion:
PowerBook 1400 adventures, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac
Opinion, 05.21. "So how do I like the 1400? I love it! It's a honey
of a little computer."
Web: MacNews.com
launched, "a new Mac-dedicated website built to bring you
quality news content for the Macintosh Community."
Analysis: Apple preps iBooks
for "Jaguar," Ben Wilson, osOpinion, 05.20. Faster CPU, bigger
L2 cache, faster graphics, and more video memory will all
help.
Tech:
PowerPC 750FX, IBM. This appears to be the "brains" of the new
iBook.
Opinion: Someone
finally got it!, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 05.20. Analyst first
to recognize Apple's special place in the PC market.
News: UBS
Warburg raises Apple 2002 estimates, Yahoo/Reuters, 05.20.
"...we see the platform becoming a premium PC capturing selective
PC demand. We reiterate our strong buy rating."
Opinion: Potent
laptops shove desktops aside, Fred Langan, Christian Science
Monitor, 05.20. "These are laptops that never see a lap and might
never head out on the road."
Humor: Why I
love pop-up ads, Madhu "MadMan" Menon's Weblog, 05.18. "If Web
sites want to shock their readers and intrude upon their user
experience, it should be their right to do so."
Advice: How
to send an email, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion,
05.17. How to create functional, attractive email that anyone can
read.
OS X:
Another thing wrong - usability, Philip Machanick, Mac Opinion,
05.17. "One of the key ideas in the old Mac interface was
consistency...."
Review: 800 MHz
Titanium PowerBook G4, Rick LePage, Macworld, 05.17. 8x8x8x24x
mechanism expected to be announced "in about a week" for 400, 500
MHz TiBooks.
Review: Yellow Dog
Linux for PPC 2.2, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.17. "Linux
will support a whole passel of older Macs that aren't officially
supported by OS X."
Web: The
comments that just won't die, Rob McNair-Huff, Mac Net Journal,
05.16. "...it struck me how long it took an online publication to
follow up on a controversial topic that had appeared a week
before...."
Advice: Basilisk II: Solving the
printer problem, David G. Bell, Low End PC, 05.15. While
Basilisk II emulates a Mac, it doesn't include drivers that work
with your PC's printer.
Digicams: Olympus Camedia
C-720, Digigraphica. 3 megapixel digicam with an impressive 8x
zoom.
Apple: mac.com homepage
bandwidth restrictions, MacInTouch Reader Report. Apple will
block pages receiving too many visitors, may even remove files
iTools users have posted.
Tech: IBM goes own way
with PowerPC, Ben Wilson, NewsFactor, 05.13. IBM has pushed the
G3 to 1 GHz and future chips could become CPUs of choice for
Apple, *nix hardware.
Opinion: Why Windows is hard
and why Macs are shunned, Bob McCormick, MyMac.com, 05.13.
"Computers are supposed to be difficult and only a few of us
actually know how to make them work."
Opinion:
Jaguar: Getting ready to roar?, Pierre Igot, Applelust, 05.10.
"...performance is still a major issue - if not the major issue -
in Mac OS X in its current incarnation."
Dark Side: Impressions from ACPe
2002, Kevin Stiles, SEUL [
/.]. "Needless to say the relationship between these schools
and Microsoft had been changed in a fundamental way."
Opinion: Europeans, atheists,
socialists, and anti-Semites, Jason Walsh, Reformed.Net, 05.10.
"For US journalists to label Europeans as racists and anti-Semites
is a total misrepresentation of Europe, its media, its politicians,
and its people."
Opinion: OS 9:
Buried alive!, Jeremy Gefler, Right On Mac, 05.09. "...the
venerable Mac operating system has never been more alive on my
Mac."
News: Macs' last
stand on Capitol Hill, Mark Baard, Wired, 05.09. "Macs are not
welcome on Capitol Hill." US government actively supports Microsoft
monopoly.
Opinion: The best
Mac sites, Stephen Beals, ComputorEdge. He missed LEM and lists
one of the ugliest Mac sites, but otherwise makes some excellent
choices. ;-)
Analysis:
PDA evolution: Newton to now, Jay Stanton, Anywhere You Go,
05.08. "...nobody wanted to carry around a 1-pound brick...."
Digicams: Olympus Camedia
cameras, Digigraphica. Some of the most innovative digicams on
the market.
AAPL: AAPL
soars in broad market rally, Robert Paul Leitao, Mac Observer,
05.08. "Apple (AAPL) ended Wednesday trading up $1.90 at
$24.37."
Opinion: Spam
solutions, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion, 05.08.
There is no perfect solution - spammers can reach you even if you
never use your email account.
Opinion:
New "Ivory" TiBook, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac
Opinion, 05.08. "...the Ivory TiBook is a PowerBook I would really
like to own - the first Ti that I've felt that way about."
Dark Side: Compulsory
Windows for Macs and people without PCs?, John Lettice, The
Register, 05.07. Microsoft now want schools to pay a license fee
for all personal computers - even Macs and Linux machines.
Digicams: Minolta Dimage
X, Digigraphica. The world's smallest 2 megapixel digicam is
only 0.8" thick.
Review: Radeon
7000 Mac Edition, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 05.06. Very nice
performance on a beige G3 under OS 9, but issues with "old
world" Macs running OS X.
OS: Jobs
puts Mac OS 9 to rest, Ian Fried, ZDNet, 05.06. Is OS 9.2.2
really the end of the road for the classic Mac OS?
Web: Archaic
Apples covers Apple IIs, Lisas, Newtons, early Macs, NeXT, and
more.
Opinion: The dangers of
monoculture, Mike McCune, osOpinion, 05.06. "Like the Irish
potato crops, computer systems are more vulnerable to Trojan horses
and viruses if all of them are the same."
Opinion: OtT
Permanent Entry, Thomas Vanderwal, Off the Top, 05.05. "Why
have I bought my last Windows-based computer?"
Tech: What is
anit-aliasing, David K. Every, iGeek. A layman's introduction
to anti-aliasing.
Opinion:
Another thing wrong - upgrades, Philip Machanick,
Macintelligence, Mac Opinion, 05.03. "In attempting to implement
features like net-based upgrades, Apple is trying to be net-savvy,
but in a stupid way."
Consumer: Macs Only! has
info on low cost, high speed, 9.5 mm thin drives - 20 GB for $159,
40 for $239.
Opinion: What
you should know about "deep linking," John H. Farr, Applelinks,
05.02. "...would you believe that certain Web sites have been
trying to prevent others from linking to internal
pages?"
Opinion: Apple
software elegant, useful, Dawn Chmielewski, BayArea.com, 05.02.
"The Mac OS X operating system is the most elegant interpretation
of Unix I've ever seen."
Rights: