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The Low End Mac Link Archive, November 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: 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, c|net, 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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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?"
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.
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."
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: 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.
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."
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...."
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, c|net, 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."
Rights: 
Rights: 
Rights: