Top Links: November 2002

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, November 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.

Rights: Apple turns sour on local telco tyro in logo zone, Luke McIlveen, The Australian, 11.30. Apple Computer forces Apple Communications to change name, pay $100,000 fee.
Opinion: PPC Linux: Becoming a third class citizen, chromatic, O'Reilly Network, 11.29. "After four years of running Linux on my desktop, I'm used to being treated like a second-class citizen. Now that I'm on a different platform, I'm even lower on the ladder."
Rights: Scuttling the pirates, Steven Musil, Cnet, 11.29. ISP imposed bandwidth caps latest tool in fighting file sharing.
Rights: How to win (DMCA) exemptions and influence policy, Seth Finkelstein, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 11.29. "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is extensively known now, being perhaps the most hated Internet law since the Communications Decency Act censorship legislation."
Rights: Danish anti pirates continue to target copyright theft, Tim Richardson, The Register, 11.27. Danish Anti Piracy Group invoicing those who share copyrighted material via Internet.
Deal: Century Global USB flexlight for $6, DealMac, 11.27. Perfect stocking stuffer for iBook, USB PowerBook owners. Add $4 for shipping.
Deal: Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000 USB webcam: $42.77, Deals on the Web, 11.27. 640 x 480 USB webcam works with OS 9. OS X drivers available from IOXperts.
News: Apple posts iMac SuperDrive update for OS 9, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 11.27. Fixes problem where some drives would stop working completely when used with high speed media.
Hardware: Mac Hardware Report: Quieting the wind tunnel, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.27. Power Mac Firmware Update 4.4.8 quiets overly loud DDR Power Mac G4s.
Rights: Piracy and "civil disobedience", Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 11.26. "The usual way for such bad laws to be changed is through a significant proportion of the population exercising civil disobedience."
Education: School district moves to Macs, MacNN, 11.26. Majority of new equipment purchased by Ithaca (NY) schools comes from Apple.
Opinion: More iBook musings: No fork in the river this time, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 11.26. Newest iBooks with faster CPUs, Quartz Extreme support make upgrading a no brainer.
Rights: Ashcroft in '97: "Keep Big Brother's hands off the Internet", John H. Farr, Applelinks, 11.26. In October 1997 article, "the then-senator from Missouri comes across as a vigorous defender of constitutional rights now perhaps forever lost."
Rights: RIAA orders US Navy to surrender, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 11.26. "In a timely reminder of who's really in charge here, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has mounted a daring raid on the US Navy."
Rights: RIAA punishing Navy cadets 'because it can', Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 11.26. Here's why the RIAA targeted the US Navy Academy.
Review: Affordable MP3 players, Dan Costa, PC Magazine, 11.25. A look at seven sub-$200 MP3 players with 64-128 MB of memory.
Analysis: Apple opened 49th & 50th locations this weekend, touts reach to 85 million in US, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 11.26. "The company opened the 49th and 50th locations this weekend in Denver, Colorado and Emeryville, California."
Web: Physics professor's search code nets 48 expulsions, ars technica, 11.26. Software searches for plagiarism. Some UVA students left school, some expelled, and some degrees revoked.
Humor: Switching to Mac: Holiday fun, Will Ferrell, Apple, 11.26. Mr. S. Clause loves his iPod, hates lawyers.
OS X: What you lose when you return to Mac OS 9, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.26. The biggie: You don't have to restart the whole computer when an application crashes in OS X.
Web: Feds break massive identity fraud, John Leyden, The Register, 11.26. Chief suspect "worked for Teledata Communications, which supplies software to link the systems of banks and credit reference agencies."
Rights: Keep Big Brother's hands off the Internet, Senator John Ashcroft, USIA Electronic Journal, 1997.10. "Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?"
Analysis: Don't pass the buck, Mac, Charles Wright, Sydney Morning Herald, 11.25. Apple would rather blame ISPs than let users know the modem problem is Apple's fault.
Humor: Apple dumps OS X, AppleCrap, 11.25. "In a move to shock and confuse the rest of the world, Apple has decided instead to dump OS X."
Dark Side: Is Microsoft truly 'trustworthy'?, Lauren Weinstein, Wired, 11.25. "Microsoft, responsible for more security-bug-ridden software on desktop systems than any other company, says it's now got the security religion...."
Opinion: Review: Hockey puck mouse, AppleCrap, 11.25. What possessed Apple to create the most reviled mouse in computing history?
Rights: Apple and the Pirate Everyman, PlasticBag.org, 11.25. Apple is one hundred percent ahead of the game here - so far ahead, in fact - that it's completely unable to say it loud and clear.
Humor: Federal penitentiaries remove hard wooden benches; Apple sets them up in their stores, Phil Shapiro, 11.25. "I've also heard that hard wooden benches were banned in Europe several years ago."
Analysis: Apple's quirky ads evoke parodies of themselves, John Schwartz, New York Times, 11.25. Imitations and parodies of Apple's "Switch" ads are popping up all over the Web.
Rights: When good computers do bad things, John H. Farr, Grack!, Applelinks, 11.25. "The only other ray of hope I see is that all the Big Brother apps will run on Windows."
Rights: No 'switch' ads in Europe; Apple thwarted by 'regulatory environment', MacDailyNews, 11.25. In much of Europe, it's illegal to compare your product with the competition in an ad. Really.
Spam: The Spam Report: Throwing out the baby with the bath water, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.25. 40% of email is spam, filters catch a lot of it - but also zap over 10% of legitimate email.
Spam: Where the heck is all this spam coming from?, The Register, 11.25. "...the percentage of email that is spam could be 20%, 33%, or even up to 50%, compared to less than 10% a year ago."
News: DayStar Technology returns, DayStar Technology, 11.23. Once revered, once defunct, DayStar name rises from the ashes to support XLR8 and DayStar products.
Rights: Right and wrong, John Bloom, National Review, 11.22. "In the name of Mickey Mouse and other American icons, we have gradually lengthened that 14-year limit on copyrights."
Hardware: Western Digital 10 GB hard drive, AppleCrap, 11.22. For one business, these have at least a 15% failure rate. Ouch.
Education: PowerSchool discontinues projects, abandons enterprise market, Nick dePlume, Think Secret, 11.22. PowerSchool cancels version for large school districts, giving Apple one less advantage there.
Rights: Toledo uncappers getting shafted, Slashdot, 11.22. "...those who were indicted were violating their service contracts, but having their posessions siezed by FBI agents is overkill."
Rights: Nailed to the wall, Karl Bode, Broadband Reports, 11.21. Uncap your cable modem in Toledo, watch cops confiscate all your computers - and maybe even your VCR.
Opinion: AppleCrap hardware review: Performa 5200, Rick, AppleCrap, 11.21. It was the worst of Macs; it was . . . the worst of Macs. 'Nuff said.
Analysis: The fruit of Apple's labour, Azeem Azhar, Guardian Unlimited, 11.21. "Relevance isn't something that appears on a balance sheet."
Analysis: Good Idea Bad Idea looks at disk format confusion, Dan Knight, Good Idea Bad Idea, Low End PC, 11.21. Good idea: increased capacity for removable media. Bad idea: too many formats to pick from.
Rights: Pentagon to track American consumer purchases, Fox News, 11.21. Dept. of Homeland Security will have access to all your credit card transactions.
Dark Side: Another new "critical" flaw found in pre-XP Windows, Vern Seward, Mac Observer, 11.21. "A new vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser has been found, and it's technically being described as a 'doozy.'"
Dark Side: MS paper touts Unix in Hotmail's Win2k switch, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 11.21. Internal Microsoft documents praise Unix, but conclude MS "should eat its own dogfood" and use Windows for Hotmail.
History: IBM's choice: Why did IBM choose Microsoft DOS?, David K. Every, iGeek, 11.21. Why in the world did IBM even consider an OS from a company with no OS experience?
.mac: .mac saves the day, Rob McNair-Huff, MacNetJournal, 11.20. Screw up a file, recover the old version from backup - thanks to .mac.
Rights: Sony to add download function to music CDs, Kuriko Miyake, MacCentral, 11.20. Interesting idea, but it requires an Internet connection and a Windows PC....
Humor: Bill Gates dies and goes to heaven, iGeek, 11.20. "Your job will be to supervise Heaven's new data processing center. We're building the largest computing facility in creation."
Benchmarks: New Apple 867 MHz PowerBook G4s really are fast, Macs Only!, 11.20. Reader reports indicate PB G4/867 does outperform G4/800 after all.
Rights: Educating schools about life with asthma, Laurie Tarkan, New York Times, 11.20. Zero-tolerance drug policies prevent asthmatic students from carrying inhalers on one-third of schools, sometimes leading to death.
Opinion: I made the switch, Shoshana Berger, Business 2.0, 11.19. Death of a Windows laptop, new 'Books from Apple, and Move2Mac software made it easy.
Opinion: The PowerBook mystique, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 11.19. "...within an hour or two of taking little unit of its box, I knew that the desktop wasn't going to get a lot of use anymore."
Rights: The evil that is the DMCA, Adam C. Engst, TidBITS, 11.19. "...the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the DMCA chills free expression and scientific research, jeopardizes fair use, and impedes competition and innovation."
OS X: Carbon Copy Cloner 2.0 available, Mike Bombich, Bombich Software, 11.19. Indispensible utility for moving OS X from one drive to another is updated.
OS X: Is the 10.2.2 update a disaster?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.18. "...if you depend on your Mac for your livelihood, it doesn't hurt to be a little cautious and not accept the Software Update message on the very first day."
Humor: Lake Michigan whale watching, Geocities, 11.18. Here's the hilarious article that Studies Weekly thought was legitimate. One born every minute.
Huh?: Teaching aid has whale of a mistake, Newsday, 11.17. Whales and dolphins in the Great Lakes? We've been laughing about this all weekend.
Opinion: Switching by choice, Tom Yager, InfoWorld, 11.15. "Without realizing it, I had switched. Maybe Apple's campaign isn't so ludicrous after all."
Analysis: Hacking the Xserve, Robyn Weisman, osOpinion, 11.15. "...Apple appears to have set up its flagship server to be as dummy-proof as possible."
Opinion: Good Idea Bad Idea gets on the bus, Good Idea Bad Idea, Low End PC, 11.15. Good idea: an industry standard bus. Bad idea: a bus nobody else uses.
Rights: US gov's 'ultimate database' run by a felon, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 11.14. Yep, a law breaker will be in charge of tracking your email, charge card transactions, etc.
Perspective: Toward a public ethic: Law and morality, Dan Knight, Reformed Reflections, Christian Perspectives, 11.13. Why a diverse, tolerant society needs a public ethic not rooted in a single religious tradition.
Opinion: The best value Apple portables ever, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 11.13. The new iBooks and PowerBooks offer Apple's best value yet.
Rights: How the U.S. can stop Internet censorship, Robert Vamosi, ZDNet, 11.13. "The United States has challenged nations that prevent their people from getting full access to the Internet--and rightly so. But we must also review our own policies."
Dark Side: Gates gives $100m to fight HIV, $421m to fight Linux, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 11.13. $100m over 10 years to fight AIDS in India; $421m over three to fight Linux. Priorities.
Opinion: Sherlock 3 versus Watson, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.13. "...is there really reason to pay $29 for Watson when Apple is delivering a similar application free with Jaguar?"
Tech: WirelessUSB - better, faster and cheaper than Bluetooth?, Scott McCollum, WorldTechTribune, 11.12. A less costly alternative to Bluetooth, but will it catch on?
Software: Watson 1.6 posted, Macworld UK, 11.12. Upgrade "introduces a number of improvements, including integration with iCal and Address Book, alongside support for EyeTV."
Benchmarks: New 800 MHz iBook: How fast Is It?, Macs Only!, 11.12. New 800 MHz iBook benchmarked vs. 700 MHz iBook, 800 MHz PowerBook G4.
Advice: Enable a journaling file system on OS X 10.2.2 Client, Mac OS X Hints, 11.12. How to use the journaling file system Apple just added to Mac OS ßX 10.2.2.
OS X: Mac OS X 10.2.2 Update, Apple, 11.12. Second update to Jaguar available for download and installation.
Virus: Are Macs virus-proof?, Robyn Weisman, osOpinion, 11.11. "While Unix underpinnings have made Apple's OS more powerful and stable, they also have made it more susceptible to viruses and worms."
Rights: Euro thought police criminalize impure speech on line, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 11.11. Europe preparing to ban all hate speech - except for religious hate speech. Huh?
Advice: The Mac OS 9 report: Too much fragmentation, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.11. A nearly full drive with severe disk fragmentation can cause all sorts of problems.
Review: Review: EyeTV, Kirk Hiner, Applelinks, 11.10. EyeTV lets you watch - and even record - TV on a USB equipped Mac.
Rights: Europeans outlaw Net hate speech, Julia Scheeres, Wired, 11.10. For Council of Europe, political correctness trumps free speech.
Opinion: Major improvements needed for Mac OS X's Mail application, Pierre Igot, Applelust, 11.08. "...I already consider Mail a perfectly usable tool. It is just that certain things do not work the way they should, as well as they should...."
Web: Gator Corporation bites back, Andrew McLindon, electricnews.net, 11.08. Gator counter-sues Extended Stay America over popup ads. Who should control the end user experience?
Opinion: The end of Mac OS 9 booting: Should you buy a new Mac now?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.08. "The real issue is whether the loss of the ability to restart under Mac OS 9 will really hurt."
Opinion: TiVo is to TV as slicing was to bread, Tim Goodman , SFGate.com, 11.07. Digital video recording should be the biggest thing since the VCR.
Opinion: Brain log, Marc Zeedar, Less Tangible, Mac Opinion, 11.07. How switching to Mac OS X makes for a better workflow.
Forum: Is Mac OS X slow?, Slashdot, 11.07. "...have you noticed operations that seemed slower using Mac OS X compared to similar operations on other operating systems?"
Opinion: Should small business go Mac?, Teri Robinson, osOpinion, 11.07. "...Apple is known for producing systems that require very little support and that are intuitive enough for even novice users to maintain."
Perspective: The reform Islam needs, James Q. Wilson, City Journal, 11.07. "Religious toleration undergirds Western freedom. Islam is centuries behind in developing it."
Opinion: Mac product reviews: Where's the trust?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.07. "Since I do write some product reviews myself, I can tell you the process is highly subjective."
News: Amiga rises from the ashes, AmigaOne, 11.07. AmigaOne uses G3 and G4 CPUs, runs AmigaOS 4, available now, and prices seem reasonable.
AAPL: Apple's new portables, fed rate cut help boost AAPL to $17.22, a 16-week high, Bryan Chaffin, Apple Stock Watch, Mac Observer, 11.06. "...the first time since July 16th of this year that AAPL has closed above the US$17 mark...."
Opinion: Why Apple keeps clicking, Charles Haddad, Byte of the Apple, BusinessWeek, 11.06. "...the buzz says its end is nigh. Too bad Jobs & Co. is too busy satisfying consumers to go along with the doomsayers."
Rights: 'No more music CDs without copy protection,' claims BMG unit, John Lettice, The Register, 11.06. If you can't play the protected CD, BMG will blame your hardware, not their copy protection.
Web: System 7.1 Heaven, 11.06. New website for low-end Mac fans of the fast, small footprint Mac OS that even supports Open Transport.
Rights: Anonymous no more on AOL, Forbes, 11.05. "Warning to anonymous critics on Internet chat boards trying to sink stocks: We may soon know who you are."
Opinion: A year with Pismo, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 11.05. "...if it continues its solid, reliable, workhorse ways, I think it will displace my recently deceased WallStreet as my pick for the best computer I've ever owned."
Opinion: What happened to the G5?, David K. Every, iGeek, 11.05. "...the G5 could easily end up being 80% the chip that the 970 is...."
OS X: Does it make sense to do unsupported installations?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 11.05. XPostFacto lets you install OS X on unsupported hardware, but is it really worth doing?
Dark Side: Microsoft takes on PDF, Slashdot, 11.05. Typical - "Linux Format reports on a new Microsoft PDF-killer technology to be included in Office 11, called XDocs."
Opinion: Doing three people's work with one Mac, Derek K. Miller, TidBITS, 11.05. How one Mac user writes, edits, photographs, designs, and publishes same-day newsletters.
Virus: Braid virus winds its way through e-mail, Robert Lemos, Cnet, 11.04. New viruse "can spread to PCs running any version of Microsoft Windows. People who use Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 and 5.5 may find that their computers automatically become infected...."
Rights: The FBI has bugged our public libraries, Bill Olds, CTnow.com, 11.03. "Members of the public who use the library have not been informed that the government is watching their activities."
Rights: The worst coders in Washington, AOTC, 11.03. "Laws like the DMCA, the Hollings Bill, and the CDA threaten to put the American technology juggernaut up on blocks."
Advocacy: All aboard! (but no PCs allowed), Leander Kahney, Wired, 11.02. Company "moved . . . entire staff to Macs because it was too expensive keeping a fleet of Windows machines shipshape."
Dark Side: Microsoft: Freedom to dominate, Dan Gillmor, SiliconValley.com, 11.01. Courts give Microsoft "all the room it needed to stick to tried-and-true anticompetitive tricks."

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