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The Low End Mac Link Archive, May 2003
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.
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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.
Dark Side:
Microsoft to abandon standalone IE, c|net, 05.31. No more free
Internet Explorer for you, at least on the Windows side. No mention
of the Mac version.
Analysis: SCO
& UNIX: A comedy of errors, Mark F. Radcliffe, AlwaysOn,
05.30. "As an intellectual property lawyer, I would have expected
them to lead with their strongest claims; patent and copyright
infringement, claims that were notably absent in the law
suit."
Benchmarks: FireWire 800 optimized,
Bare Feats, 05.30. "...to squeeze out the most speed, it's better
to connect each cable to the PCI card instead of daisy chaining
them...."
Opinion: Why
the transition to OS X is so slow - another perspective,
Charles W. Moore, OS X Odyssey, Applelinks, 05.30. "...there must
be a special level of hell reserved for Apple executives who think
the only thing the NeXT operating system needed to succeed was a
larger group of people forced to use it."
Advice: Two
dandy OS X apps & some beginner OS X hints, Nancy Carroll
Gravley, Computing With Bifocals, Mac Observer, 05.30. Mac
FlipAlbum, Colibricks (think Brickles for OS X), and adjusting your
Macs sound volume and icon size.
Analysis: RealNetworks drops
MusicNet for Listen.com, Tony Smith, The Register, 05.29.
"Apple's charges for downloads, but RealOne Rhapsody's [additional
79¢] fee is simply for burning tracks users have already
downloaded under through their $9.95 subscription to the
service."
Opinion: The stuff dreams
are made of, Roger Born, My Mac, 05.28. "...since there is more
to life than the Macintosh, what is it that is so important about
the Mac?"
Analysis: RAM problems
revisited, Gene Steinberg, Mac Hardware Report, Mac Night Owl,
05.28. "Alas, most RAM problems do not reveal gross symptoms."
Software: Carbon Copy Cloner
v2.2, Bombich Software, 05.27. Clone your OS X boot volume.
Improved documentation, several minor issues addressed, improved
handling of "Prepare for Apple Software Restore."
Advice:
Sorting out iBook confusion, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior,
Mac Opinion, 05.27. "The clock speed numbers are your best shot,
but are far from precisely definitive."
Rights: iTunes
update disables Internet playlist sharing, Peter Cohen,
MacCentral, 05.27. "iTunes 4.0.1 gains performance and network
enhancements, according to Apple, but one feature has been
disabled: Internet-based playlist sharing."
Deal: Ritek
256 MB Compact Flash, $59, Deals on the Web, 05.27. Not only a
great price, but also a fast memory card (20x write speed, 33x
read).
Opinion: The conspiracy to
make you switch to Mac OS X, Gene Steinberg, The Jaguar Report,
Mac Night Owl, 05.27. "A conspiracy? No, just the way things are
done in the personal computing industry."
History:
The Miracle at Dunkirk, Andrew T. Smith, Van's Hardware, 04.18.
"Just as dawn broke, we heard the roar of planes overhead. The
enemy planes had found us. Bombs began falling and exploding all
around."
Spam:
California
senate passes antispam bill, Carly Suppa, MacCentral, 05.24.
"...the California State Senate passed a bill Thursday that would
turn spam from a misdemeanor to a felony offense and cost spammers
an estimated US$500 per unsolicited e-mail sent."
Spam:
US
lawmakers lose patience over spam, The Register, 05.24. "US
lawmakers finally appear to be losing their patience over spam,
with unsolicited e-mail now costing American business billions of
dollars every year."
Opinion: Are some
current Apples really lemons?, John Ward, Vectronic's Apple
World, 05.23. "I am alarmed at some of the emails send to us
concerning hardware failures, shoddy Apple Care support, and
serious OS update issues."
Spam: The spam report:
Are you ready for a challenge-response?, Gene Steinberg, Mac
Night Owl, 05.23. "...there has to be a better way to combat this
problem without forcing people to prove they are really entitled to
send you a message."
Review: Mac OS X Power
Tools, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.22. "For folks who are
already proficient in OS X, you will be a lot more proficient after
reading this book."
Advice:
What's the best Mac OS version for your 'Book?, Charles W.
Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 05.20. "There is no all-purpose
boilerplate answer. The appropriate system to use depends on
variables like the speed of your machine...."
Tech: Wristwatch USB drive,
Laks, 05.20. Analog wristwatch includes USB plug and 32-128 MB of
flash memory for 42-93 Euros.
Analysis: Apple
must change to survive, Kris Hookerman, Vectronic's Apple
World, 05.20. "...a company that doesn't grow must either become a
producer of niche products for the rich or go out of
business."
Opinion: Why I ditched Mac OS
X for Linux, Jon Atkinson, OSNews, 05.20. "...for me as a
power-user, OS X just isn't good enough for doing the things I need
to do."
Review: DiskWarrior 3.0,
Dana Baggett, Macs Only!, 05.20. "I'm delighted that I now have a
version that runs native on Mac OS X."
Advice: 3 more startup
speed up tricks for OS 9, MacHome, 05.19. Turn off the memory
test at startup, launch less apps automatically, and limit the
number of remote volumes you automount.
Dark Side:
Suit alleges scam by Microsoft, Best Buy, Yahoo/AP, 05.19. "The
suit seeks to represent California consumers who had MSN accounts
established for them through the scanning of a a Best Buy trial CD
since May 6, 1999."
Review: Test-driving
the Mozilla Firebird 0.6 XUL-based browser for OS X, Charles W.
Moore, OS X Odyssey, Applelinks, 05.19. "My first impression upon
trying Firebird was that this thing is wicked fast, certainly not
taking a back seat to Safari or Camino."
Dark Side: Microsoft to license
Unix code, Scott Ard, c|net, 05.18. Looks like a CYA move by
Microsoft as SCO sues IBM for allowing Unix IP to make its way into
Linux.
Low End: The Mac that
Lego built, BBC News, 05.17. "Daniele Procida could not bear to
see a dead Mac thrown away - so he reconstructed it using Lego
bricks pinched from his sons."
Benchmarks: FireWire 800 RAID versus
FW400, ATA, SCSI, Bare Feats, 05.16. Putting each FireWire 800
drive on its own PCI card leads to stunning performance, especially
with four drives and four data channels.
Advocacy:
Mouse improvements for today's Mac, John Kheit, Mac Observer,
05.16. "As it stands now, Apple is generating a sale for a
five-button Microsoft mouse for almost every Macintosh sold."
Opinion: But can they make it
faster?, Gene Steinberg, The Panther Report, Mac Night Owl,
05.16. "It's an axiom of the PC industry that, as software becomes
more feature-laden, it also becomes less efficient."
OS X: Apple
updates Safari beta, Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral, 05.15. "Apple
recommends the update for all Safari users as it improves how
Safari validates the authenticity of websites that use SSL
certificates."
Upgrade:
iMac G3/233 clear cube case conversion, Luca Fornari,
Accelerate Your Mac!, 05.14. All the insides of an iMac (except for
the CRT) fit comfortably in a clear 10" cube.
Spam:
Buffalo
spammer arrested, Drew Cullen, The Register, 05.14. "Simply
put, spammers who brazenly disregard the law will wind up in
jail."
News: Apple sells 2
million songs via iTunes, MacNN, 05.14. Store has added more
titles, including some exclusives, and generated $2 million in
income for Apple.
Tech: Inside the
PowerPC 970, part II, Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, ars technica,
05.14. "...a close examination of IBM's PowerPC 970 reveals that it
was made with Apple in mind as the primary customer."
Dark Side: Crashed computer
traps Thai politician, Daily Aardvark, 05.14. Thailand's
Finance Minister had to be rescued from inside his expensive BMW
limousine after the onboard computer (running Windows CE) crashed,
leaving the vehicle immobilized.
Opinion:
Hotrod Pismo, new iBook, or used TiBook?, Charles W. Moore,
Road Warrior, Mac Observer, 05.13. "The G3 chip is in many ways
more satisfactory for portable computer service than the G4."
Huh?: When
copy protection backfires, Sam Varghese, The Age, 05.13. Unable
to play his new CD on a Mac or Windows PC, user is forced to make a
copy - then he can listen.
Opinion: TidBITS policy on
challenge-response, Adam C. Engst, TidBITS, 05.12.
"Challenge-response puts an additional burden on senders [and]
tends to engender ill will among normal people who feel as though
you're asking them to jump through hoops (which you are)."
Spam:
SEC sues spammer for alleged Web fraud, Judith Burns,
Information Week, 05.12. "Regulators filed fraud charges Monday
against a 20-year-old Kentucky man who allegedly scammed money from
would-be investors by creating a Web site for a fictitious federal
agency."
Analysis: Modem
misadventures, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.12. Current
iBooks use something called a "software modem." What it is, why
they're used, and why aren't as good as hardware modems.
History: A/UX:
The Unix for the rest of us?, AppleFritter, 05.12. Looking at
the first Mac Unix from Apple - produced over a decade ago for 68K
Macs.
Tech: The NoCat
night light, Rob Flickenger, O'Reilly Network, 05.10. Combine a
wireless access point, powerline ethernet, a socket, and a light
bulb - this is what you get. Clever.
Huh?:
Qapla'! Hospital seeks Klingon speaker, CNN, 05.10. "There are
some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was
all they would speak."
Rights: Cops seize dorm PCs
in college raid, Ashlee Vance, The Register, 05.10. Swappers
beware. "Ohio State cops have made the latest raid on techie
college students, seizing computer equipment from three freshman
and one sophomore."
Dark Side: The never-ending
OS update, Larry Blasko, MSNBC, 05.09. "Since Sept. 19, 2000,
the computer that this is being written on updated its operating
system [WinXP] 113 times."
Opinion: The
spirit of Unix, Tom Yager, InfoWorld, 05.09. "Unix vendors
should have fashioned their efforts on the practices of Linux, BSD,
and GNU instead of veering away from them."
Opinion: Can the eMac
fill the classic iMac's shoes?, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks,
05.09. "...if you want a tailor-made sub-$1,000 desktop Macintosh,
the eMac is it, and at those prices, there's little to complain
about...."
Huh?: SpyMac Music,
SpyMac, 05.09. Service lets iTunes 4 users share their music. I
guess someone didn't learn a thing from the four students who were
just fined by the RIAA....
News: California
Senate OKs Internet tax bill, Laura Kurtzman,
SiliconValley.com, 05.09. California state Senate to require
out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax on Calif.
customers - even if they have no physical presence in Calif.
Opinion: Carving
up Apple, Joshua Jaffee, The Deal, 05.09. "...if Apple's
software and hardware divisions were separated from one another,
the software division would be free to sell its operating system
and software to other PC makers."
News: IBM preps 1
GHz-plus PowerPC 750GX 'Gobi', Tony Smith, The Register, 05.09.
Replacement for PowerPC 750FX (a.k.a. G3) expected to support 1 GHz
to 1.4 GHz speeds.
Spam: Help debug these OS
X Mail rules, Mike Wendland, Mac-Mike.com, 05.09. Using rules
to supplement failing of Apple's "intelligent" spam filtering.
Opinion: Can quality boost
Apple's market share?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 05.09.
"...it seems Apple has two important advantages . . . reliability
and the quality of its technical support."
Opinion:
Apple's OS 9 overstays its welcome, David Zeiler, Baltimore
Sun, 05.08. Three of four Mac users not yet using OS X, but Apple's
"OS X only" policy for iTunes, iPhoto, and other iApps should bring
most over eventually.
Dark Side: Best Buy
& Microsoft named in scam lawsuit, Vern Seward, Mac
Observer, 05.08. Store employee scans "free" MSN disk at checkout.
Customer gets billed for MSN service he never signed up for.
Analysis: The startup that
saved ATI, Rick Merritt, EE Times, 04.21. How the acquisition
of ArtX turned ATI from a has been into serious competition for
nVidia.
Opinion: iYear,
Tim Bray, 05.07. "It was about a year ago that, after a decade or
so of Windows on my client and Unix/Linux on my servers, I bought a
TiBook and got into OS X."
Spam:
Government to
crack down on spam, BBC News, 05.06. "From October, a European
Union directive will make unsolicited e-mails illegal across member
states."
News: New Apple
keyboard, mouse debut, MacMinute, 05.06. "Along with the new
eMacs that were rolled out today, Apple also quietly introduced a
new keyboard and mouse that will ship with the new desktops."
Opinion: Plenty
of software for the Mac!, John Ward, Vectronic's Apple World,
05.05. "I get free virus software with my .Mac account but I get
bored trying to use it. It really is pointless."
Apple: Apple
sells a million songs, Applelinks, 05.05. "Apple today
announced that its revolutionary iTunes Music Store sold over one
million songs during its first week."
Rights:
Record labels back software to stem piracy, Yahoo/Reuters,
05.04. "The industry's big five labels . . . have all backed the
development of counterpiracy programs" that can lock up, crash, or
slow down computers of suspected pirates.
Opinion: Windows
doesn't live here anymore, Tom Yager, Ahead of the Curve,
InfoWorld, 05.04. "No fooling. I'm busted. I'm going to quit
pretending I have much use for Windows client machines except for
research. Nobody believes me anymore."
Upgrade: Sonnet reduces
PowerMac, iMac upgrade pricing, Insanely Great Mac, 05.02.
$70-100 drop on 800 MHz to 1.2 GHz G4 upgrades, $50 slashed from
Harmoni iMac upgrade. New Tempo 2.0 supports FireWire and USB
2.0.
Opinion:
iTunes Music Store not always what it seems, Stephen Banks,
O'Grady's PowerPage, 05.02. "In my extensive perusal over this last
week, I have found that many 'top singles' can not be bought
without buying the entire CD."
Opinion:
Interface details: iTunes vs. Safari, John Gruber, Daring
Fireball, 05.01. "iTunes 4 gets a bunch of little interface details
right, details that Safari gets wrong."
Rights:
U.S. says Canada cares too much about liberties, Jim Bronskill,
Ottawa Citizen, 05.01. U.S. State Department report suggests Canada
"doesn't spend enough on policing and places too much emphasis on
civil liberties."
Opinion: Sugared water Apple
censors Miles Davis, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 05.01.
California must be rubbing off on Apple - they're "modifying" some
song titles that might not be considered politically correct.
Rights: RIAA cashes in on
file-swapping students, Ashlee Vance, The Register, 05.01. Help
others find MP3s on your school's network, get sued just as if you
were providing the files yourself.
Tech:
Spam:
Rights: