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The Low End Mac Link Archive, September
2002
Low End Mac Reader Specials
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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: Apple loses world's
most valuable list, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 09.30. Apple
stands to lose 2 million qualified prospects by closing down
mac.com email accounts.
Education: Macs-imizing
student potential, Joyce Newhouse, Star-Telegram, 09.30.
"...eight teachers . . . spoke at a recent school board meeting to
explain why Mac G4 computers are the best computers for the courses
we are teaching."
Huh?: Apple
pulls all iPods from stores in France, MacNN, 09.30. "Apple has
pulled all iPods from the stores in France in order to bring the
device into compliance with a French law that requries audio
devices to output a maximum of 100 decibels...."
Hardware: Apple
warning on faulty eMacs, Macworld UK, 09.30. "Apple has
admitted that there is a problem with "a small number" of its
eMacs."
Huh?: Blondes are an
endangered species, Fox News, 09.30. German study concludes
blondes will be extinct in 200 years. No, it's not a survival of
the brightest thing.
OS X: MOX
Optimize 2 optimizes Mac OS X parameters, MacNN, 09.30.
Application "can accelerate Mac OS X by allowing users to 'tweak
your system settings and configure many hidden system
options.'"
Review: Lapvantage Dome
laptop stand, O'Grady's PowerPage, 09.30. "This is the ultimate
desk accessory for anyone with a mobile machine as their primary
machine."
News: .mac outage;
reliability issues persist, MacNN, 09.29. "Several MacNN
readers note a complete .Mac outage for about three hours last
night . . . while others note persistent reliability issues with
the service."
OS X: iSync beta
available, Apple, 09.28. Sync your cell phone, Palm, or iPod
with the OS X Address Book. Mac OS X 10.2.1 or later required.
Web:
How to create pop-up windows, Youngpup.net, 09.19. "This is a
demand for my right as a web citizen to be able to click on
hyperlinks without receiving javascript errors."
Analysis:
How much computing power does it really take?, Jay Lyman,
NewsFactor Network, 09.27. "...processors running at 500 MHz to 750
MHz - only a fraction of the newest chip speeds - are sufficient
for running typical applications."
.mac: Apple extends
deadline for .mac sign-up, Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral, 09.27.
Scope of "phenomenal success" apparently hasn't been quite as wide
as Apple was hoping.
.mac:
On .mac user friendliness, Pierre Igot, Apple Peel, Applelust,
09.27. "In truth, the only thing I really need, and would gladly
pay a reasonable fee for, is the mac.com email account
itself."
Tech: The
BSDs: Sophisticated, powerful, and (mostly) free, Brett Glass,
Extreme Tech, 09.27. "The five best known BSDs are FreeBSD, NetBSD,
OpenBSD, BSD/OS, and Darwin (which serves as the foundation for
Apple's Mac OS X)."
Forum:
Stealware: Kazaa et al stealing link commissions, Slashdot,
09.27. "...if you buy a CD from an affiliate of Amazon.com, say
some charity, the software fools Amazon into crediting the
commission to Morpheus, not the charity!"
OS X: Apple's secret "switch"
campaign, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 09.27. "...increasing
numbers of UNIX users are taking notice."
Web: dotmac.info,
dotmac.info, 09.27. New website designed to help Mac users get the
most out of .mac.
Opinion: HTML mail,
Brent Simmons, Brent Simmons' Weblog, 09.26. "I am, like, two
seconds away from filtering all HTML email to the trash."
Huh?: Apple
phone renderings depict fan's imagination, Adam Fendelman,
Prairie, 09.26. "The images seen on the right are in fact
renderings of an imaginary Apple cell phone made by Japanese artist
Isamu Sanada...."
.mac: .Mac
subscription time nears; files to be purged Oct.1, Jim
Dalrymple, MacCentral, 09.26. "Users that don't subscribe by the
September 30 deadline will lose any files, pictures and any other
information stored on their iDisk, but usernames will be available
indefinitely."
Deal: G4/450
Cube: $799.99, Deals on the Web, 09.26. System includes 256 MB
RAM, 20 GB hard drive, DVD-ROM.
Dark Side: Microsoft warns of
FrontPage flaw, Robert Lemos, ZDNet, 09.26. "...a flaw in its
FrontPage extensions could allow an attacker to take control of
their servers or cause the computers to seize up."
OS X:
Flirting with Mac OS X, Hemos, Slashdot, 09.26. "Taco and I are
both strongly considering beginning to use OS X as a primary
laptops - anyone else looking at doing this?"
Analysis:
Windows Maven: "Why Windows has the edge over the Mac", Bryan
Chaffin, The Back Page, Mac Observer, 09.25. "Ms. Komando hosts a
radio talk show on computers, presumes to judge the iMac, and yet
has the audacity to say that it needs a floppy drive?"
Deal: Power
Mac G3/266 Beige: $225, Deals on the Web, 09.25. Beige G3s
include 64 MB RAM, 4 GB hard drive, and CD-ROM.
Analysis:
Second thoughts about Intel in Macs, Charles Haddad, Byte of
the Apple, BusinessWeek, 09.25. "What Apple shouldn't do, many
believe, is release a version of OS X to run on PCs made by other
manufacturers."
OS X: Is it still too
slow?, Gene Steinberg, The Jaguar Report, Mac Night Owl, 09.25.
"...Apple definitely made Jaguar run faster than the version it
replaces...."
Web:
User-centered URL design, Jesse James Garrett, Adaptive Path,
09.24. "The advent of content management systems has been a boon in
many ways, but the readability of URLs is not one of them."
News: ATI offers
details on Radeon 9000, quells AIW rumors, Peter Cohen,
MacCentral, 09.24. Radeon 9000 Mac Edition "tantalizingly close to
release as a retail product," but no All In Wonder "in the near
term."
OS X:
Flirting With Mac OS X, Moshe Bar, Serving With Linux, Byte,
09.23. "I am switching my laptop [from Linux] to Mac
OS X."
OS X:
10.2.1 woes, Philip Machanick, Macintelligence, Mac Opinion,
09.23. "At this stage, I am wondering if I should uninstall it or
build up a longer list of bugs to report to Apple."
Dark Side: Beleaguered
Dell, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 09.23. "...if the article is
true, Dell could be heading for a monetary failure."
Opinion:
Apple's switch ad frightens IT networking guru, Bryan Chaffin,
The Back Page, Mac Observer, 09.23. "...most companies that work on
Macs simply do not have or need a full-time IT person...."
Dark Side: History of Visual
BASIC, David K. Every, iGeek, 09.23. "If Apple didn't drop
MacBASIC immediately, then MS would pull all MS products from the
Mac market for good...."
Benchmarks: Mac OS X 10.2.1:
How fast is it?, Macs Only!, 09.23. "10.2.1 speeds some things
up: startup, login, shutdown and launching."
Review: Norton:
Internet Security v. 2.0.1, Gary Coyne, Applelinks, 09.23.
"...people have been breaking into UNIX boxes for quite some time.
As such, we are more vulnerable now than before OS X."
Review: Ten for X,
Kirk Hiner, Applelinks, 09.22. "At only $49.99, this collection
pays for itself even if you end up using only half."
.mac:
Apple's .mac service is 'slow', Rudy Soetewey, TwinCities.com,
09.22. "I have a cable connection, and uploading a 100-kilobyte
file (yes, KB, not MB) took 5 minutes!"
Rights: Hollywood
vs. the Internet, Mike Godwin, The Age, 09.21. "The Tech
Faction believes people should be able to do whatever they want
with their digital tools...."
Benchmarks: Power Mac 1.25 GHz MP versus
others, Bare Feats, 09.21. "...will the speed difference be
more than the 25% increase in clock speed?"
Mac OS: Making
the case for OS 9, MacSlash, 09.21. Why are you sticking with
Mac OS 9 instead of switching?
Opinion: Komando off target!,
David Lang, CMUG, 09.21. "Although I think Ms. Komando's efforts to
understand the Mac were well-intentioned, she somehow managed to
ignore almost all of the Mac's advantages."
Spam: A bounty
on spammers, Lawrence Lessig, CIO Insight, 09.16. "Lawrence
Lessig has an idea: force spammers who don't label their junk
e-mail to pay $10,000 to the first recipient who finds them."
Review: Sonnet
Harmoni iMac upgrade, Jason Johnston, MacDirectory, 09.20. 500
and 600 MHz G3 upgrades add speed, FireWire to tray-loading iMacs,
performs flawlessly.
OS X: Security
Update 2002-09-20 released, Apple, 09.20. Updates Terminal app
in Jaguar only. We wonder why previous versions don't get (or need)
an update.
Opinion:
Why Windows has the edge over the Mac, Kim Komando, MSN
bCentral, 09.20. "The iMac should have a floppy drive." Did you
really expect MSN to give the iMac a fair shake?
Huh? Here comes
Hubzilla!, Charismac. Billed as the coolest FireWire hub on the
planet, you have to see it to believe it. And even then you may
doubt.
Humor: Here's
to dot-Mac, Joy of Tech, 09.20. Yep, it's quite the
party....
Review: Apple's
dual-1.25 G4, Jonathan Seff, Macworld, 09.20. Outperforms dual
1 GHz model by up to 19%.
Analysis: Is
Bill Gates a genius?, David K. Every, iGeek, 09.20. "...the
ethics were a little shaky, but then ethics never got in the way of
Microsoft's business."
Opinion:
The Mac user: Loyalty über alles, David Zeiler,
SunSpot.net, 09.19. "Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Mac
Web, however, is the vehemence that can greet developments in the
Mac universe...."
Dark Side: Microsoft
baits the trap, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 09.19. "...the
manufacturer of the least secure software in the world has opened a
$25 million showpiece 'Innovation & Technology Conference
Center' in Reston, Virginia."
OS X: Why
I haven't upgraded to Jaguar (yet), Charles W. Moore, OS X
Odyssey, Applelinks, 09.18. "Most journalists are not technical
experts on the topics they write about, and are reporting in many
cases the experience of others...."
Opinion: Where's a
good Mac virus when you need it?, Daniel Miller, Mac Observer,
09.18. "The Macintosh community is way too arrogant, especially
when it comes to the dangers that viruses pose."
Humor: Dell
Rumors, Joy of Tech, 09.18. Where are the Wintel rumor
sites?
OS X: I never said it was
perfect, Gene Steinberg, The Jaguar Report, Mac Night Owl,
09.18. "It's not a contradiction to say you like something and see
a need for improvement."
Macinschool:
Apple, the saddest school dropout, Charles Haddad, Byte of the
Apple, BusinessWeek, 09.18. "The handwriting is on the chalkboard.
Apple is losing its long-held dominance in schools."
Analysis: .mac draws only
100,000 subscribers so far, Macs Only!, 09.18. That's just 4%
of 2.5 million iTools users, and are they counting subscriptions or
email addresses?
Opinion: Free
features: Choice isn't always good, David K. Every, iGeek,
09.17. "Every feature added increases complexity, documentation
costs, potential bugs, support costs, testing time, training time
and so on."
Opinion: I hate Windows; I am
afraid of Linux, Robert Gering, OSNews, 09.17. Author has lost
time and work to Windows, finds Linux an endless stream of updates.
Try a Mac?
Analysis: Shattering the
five percent myth, Jack Campbell, SpyMac, 09.17. Estimate is
240 million Windows PCs and 32 million Macs, giving Macs 11-12% of
installed base.
Review:
Lapvantage Dome Deluxe Stand, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior,
Mac Opinion, 09.17. "...the Dome Deluxe stand swivels 360 degrees
on its circular base, something an iMac doesn't do."
Rights: Thinking
about deep linking, Steve Outing, E-Media Tidbits, 09.17. "My
position: if a publisher doesn't want others to link to its
'inside' content, it should use technical &emdash; not legal
&emdash; means to prevent it."
Analysis:
Computers fail the test, Greg Thom, Herald Sun, 09.17. Apple
has most reliable desktop computers in survey.
News: .mac
membership swells to more than 100,000, Peter Cohen,
MacCentral, 09.17. "Apple announced today that more than 100,000
Mac users have already subscribed to its .Mac service."
Dark Side: WinXP ruins useful file
sharing, Mark Lim, Thinking From the Box, Low End PC, 09.16.
Windows XP Home and Pro take a huge step backwards on the network,
losing the ability to control file sharing for different
users.
Virus: Linux worm
hits the network, Michelle Delio, Wired, 09.16. "A worm that
attacks Linux servers is being used to create a peer-to-peer
network of infected computers...."
Opinion:
What Apple could learn from MS about mice, Stephan Somogyi,
ZDNet, 09.16. "Redmond is making better mice than stylish Apple.
What's more, those MS mice work great with Macs."
Analysis:
Inbox: Apple vs. Gateway, TwinCities.com, 09.16. "...to get
some of the desired results, Gateway may have run the iMacs in
Classic mode...."
Advice: Build your
own G4, tester, MacOpz, 09.16. How to build your own $800 G4
using a gigabit motherboard and standard ATX case.
Education: Apple in education:
Is anybody out there?, Mark Marcantonio, MyMac, 09.16. "The
education division must understand that this is a war, and wars are
won on the front lines not the cubicles in Cupertino."
Oops: Blueyonder trashes
25,000 email accounts, Tim Richardson, The Register, 09.16.
"Telewest has apologised to thousands of its customers of its
blueyonder Internet service after major disk failure trashed 25,000
email accounts."
OS X: What's
wrong with the "out-of-the-box" experience?, Gene Steinberg,
Mac Night Owl, 09.14. "...there's something wrong with selling you
a computer that is designed to get you on the Internet in 15
minutes [and] forcing you to endure a new operating system
installation first."
Review: iCal
1.0, Mike Grueter, Stepwise, 09.14. "...iCal is a great
product, and it has replaced Palm Desktop as my calendar of
choice."
Opinion: OS X
Jaguar: What is missing?, David K. Every, iGeek, 09.13. "...I
must admit, I can't go to it as my primary OS yet."
Opinion: OS X
Jaguar: What's cool?, David K. Every, iGeek, 09.13. "I really
like that I'm seeing continual evolution and progress: Apple is
challenging themselves to be better."
News: Mac evangelist
released from jail, Leander Kahney, Wired, 09.13. "Shane
Anderson, the 'list dad' of the Mac Evangelist, has been released
from jail after striking a plea bargain...."
Opinion: Macintosh
overpriced and overhyped, Alastair Otter, Sunday Times, 09.12.
"With prices like this [in South Africa], I'm almost prepared to
compromise and consider doing DTP on a Windows or Linux
machine."
History: The first
smiley :-), Mike Jones, Microsoft Research, 09.13. Smiley first
used by Scott E Fahlman on September 19, 1982 - almost 20 years
ago.
Opinion: What do you mean
your Mac can't run System 6?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl,
09.13. "...as we face a new era where Macs released in 2003 will be
unable to boot from anything other than Mac OS X, some Mac users
are concerned that Apple is too quick to leave the past
behind."
Tech: Report
looks at dual processor benefits, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral,
09.12. "Multiprocessing can increase productivity significantly,
especially when running several tasks in parallel."
OS X: DeLocalizer, Mike
Bombich, Bombich Software, 09.12. Freeware application removes
unneeded localization files on OS X 10.1.2-10.1.5, frees some drive
space.
Opinion:
Mac and PC: Ne'er the twain will meet, Charles Haddad,
BusinessWeek, 09.11. "Abandoning the PowerPC chip is an idea that
may look smart on paper - but trust me, it would be a disaster if
carried out."
Low End: Be proud of the
Mac legacy, Claude Filimenti, MacEdition, 09.10. "A Mac is not
a silly pop tune to be replaced next week by the latest teen fancy
to appear on a magazine cover."
Advice:
The best value Apple 'Books, Charles W. Moore, Mac Opinion,
09.10. "...my picks for the best value 'Books in several price
ranges and for different sorts of use."
Advocacy: Hiawatha
Bray asks "Why switch? Do you hate your PC that much?", Bryan
Chaffin, Mac Observer, 09.10. "...the sentence 'Do you hate your PC
that much?' is sure to resonate with many people, because they
do... hate... their... PCs... that... much."
Analysis: Copland and NeXT,
David K. Every, iGeek, 09.10. "...if you can't build it, then buy
it. It is also a decision that usually destroys businesses."
Software: Apple
announces availability of iCal, Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral,
09.10. Could be a compelling reason to go OS X - and it
requires Jaguar.
Opinion: On
Xserve: Is Jobs nuts or what?, Vern Seward, Mac Observer,
09.10. "IT managers, like everyone else, are looking for that Holy
Grail of computing; the simple to use server."
OS X: Mac OS X
only booting in 2003, Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral, 09.10.
"...Macintosh computers [will] lose the ability to boot in the
older Mac OS 9 operating system in 2003."
Hardware: USB cell phone
cables found, Chris G, O'Grady's PowerPage, 09.09. Finally, a
resource for USB-to-phone cables - so hard to find.
Rights: Judge rules PayPal
unfair, Tim Richardson, The Register, 09.09. "...here are
approx. 100,000 complaints outstanding at PayPal."
Analysis: 4-year PC upgrade
cycle "well entrenched", ComputerWire, The Register, 09.09.
"...vendors have been looking for a bonus from pent-up demand as
pre-Y2K purchases come to the end of their useful life...."
Analysis: PC sales to
disappoint (even more) in 2002, electricnews.net, The Register,
09.09. "IDC has cut its growth projections for PC sales in 2002
from 4.7 percent down to 1.1 percent...."
Rights:
Microsoft, allies gear to reshape copyright debate, Elinor
Mills Abreu, Yahoo/Reuters, 09.07. "...technologies are part of an
industry power-play that would end the freewheeling culture of
information-sharing that now exists over the Internet."
OS X: Mac-on-Linux
supports Mac OS X (including Jaguar), Peter Cohen, MacCentral,
09.07. Mac-on-Linux (MOL) now supports Mac OS X 10.1-10.2 natively
on Macs running PowerPC Linux while still working with Linux.
Opinion:
Why Windows makes mobility so hard, Larry Seltzer, ZDNet,
09.06. "...the number of settings on a Windows notebook that might
be different for two different locations is huge."
Advice: Turning
off stuff you don't need with Extensions Manager, Charles W.
Moore, Applelinks, 09.06. One of the simplest things you can do
enhance performance of the classic Mac OS, increase stability, and
reduce startup time is turn off on uneeded Control Panels and
Extensions.
Opinion: Why OmniWeb is
my browser of choice, George M. Gunderson, thinkAAPL, 09.06.
"Carefully designed from the inside-out is my opinion of OmniWeb
and why it is my browser of choice."
Web: Mac vs PC
Web site sees changes, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 09.06.
Should Our Schools Have Macs or PCs? website has left mac.com for
its own domain.
Education: Apple's
education market share half of Dell's, Jim Dalrymple,
MacCentral, 09.06. "Apple's market share fell from 20.2 percent in
the first quarter of 2000 to 15.2 percent in the most recent
quarter...."
Rights:
Digital divide, Drew Clark, Bara Vaid, National Journal, 09.06.
Lengthy discusson of your right to copy vs. online piracy,
technology vs. copyright, Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley.
OS X: The Jaguar report: The
good, the bad, and . . ., Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 09.06.
"...on the whole I'm extremely pleased with the new release, but
there are things that need to be addressed."
Review:
Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, John Siracusa, ars technica, 09.05. "It's
no secret that I find fault with many aspects of the OS X GUI, so
it should come as no surprise that I run several third party
applications that enhance the GUI."
Web: Design
vanities don't deserve a bonfire, Jay Small, Small Initiatives,
09.04. Thoughts on good Web design. "Are you sure you want it to
look like that?"
Review:
Grading Jaguar, Rob McNair-Huff, Mac Net Journal, 09.04. "After
10 days or so of using Jaguar non-stop, I think I can offer a
little insight...."
OS X: Hey, it's only an
operating system, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 09.04. "...the
real beauty of Mac OS X is that you don't have to pay much
attention to it, once you learn the basics."
Web:
Paid content, an author at a time, Steve Outing, E-Media
Tidbits, 09.03. TidBITS new PayBITS scheme, where readers pay
writers, is taking off.
Review: Mac OS X 10.2 - New
apps, Macs Only!, 09.03. A look at iChat, Inkwell, and
Rendezvous after using them for a week.
Analysis: The new Power
Macintosh G4: Myth and reality, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl,
09.03. OS 9 is included (on a restore CD), the reset button is
gone, and analog audio input is back.
Analysis:
Windows facing a challenge, Barbara Gengler, Australian IT,
09.03. "Enthusiasm for alternatives to Windows is at its highest
level in more than a decade...."
Rights: CAA mulls ban
on laptops which don't exist, John Leyden, The Register, 09.02.
"Laptop PCs may be banned from planes amid concern that the latest
wireless technologies interfere with aircraft safety systems."
Dark Side: Walmart.com flogs
$199 Linux OS PCs, Drew Cullen, The Register, 09.02. Microtel
PC includes Lindows, uses underperforming VIA C3 CPU, and is very,
very cheap.
Huh?: 
Oops: