Top Links: May 2003

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, May 2003

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, Cnet, 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."
Review: SubRosaSoft DiskGuardian 2.0b9 disk repair, diagnostics & reporting utility, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.30. "...after testing it for the past couple of weeks, I would say that it's more than up to the task of standard-bearer...."
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.
Opinion: Does Netscape deal mean 'game over' for open-source browsers?, Vincent Ryan, osOpinion, 05.30. Will MS-AOL agreement mean the end of open source Mozilla development? And what about independent alternatives?
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."
Opinion: I've bitten the Apple: Steve Jobs keeps rocking my world, Stewart Alsop, Fortune, 05.27. Jobs' greatest hits: Apple II, Macintosh, LaserWriter, Pixar, industrial design, OS X....
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."
OS X: More griping and reflection on OS X's crummy input device support, Charles W. Moore, OS X Odyssey, Applelinks, 05.27. Between USB and OS X, system responsiveness to input devices has never been worse on the Mac.
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."
Tech: Memix launches 128 MB flash drive watch, Tony Smith, The Register, 05.27. Keep the current time and up to 128 MB of data on your wrist.
Spam: Spam legislation likely to pass; will it work?, Grant Gross, MacCentral, 05.26. "...consumer advocacy groups say current proposals are likely to lead to more spam, not less."
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."
Advice: Mac OS X 10.2.6 external FireWire disk boot issue, Macs Only!, 05.26. Four of five external FireWire drives became unbootable after 10.2.6 update. Here's how to fix it.
Advice: Why is my one of my Macs on my peer-to-peer network so slow now?, Damien Barrett, AppleTechs, 05.25. "Is there anything I can change in the Appletalk settings to speed it up?"
Advice: Troubleshooting a connection problem between an Airport Base Station and a cable modem, Damien Barrett, AppleTechs, 05.25. What to try when your cable modem won't work with your AirPort Base Station (or any other router).
Spam: The spam report: Are we going after the wrong targets?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 05.25. "There is only one way to stop the spam. Since you cannot catch the spammers, you have to go after their sponsors."
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."
Review: OWC 180 GB FireWire 800/USB 2.0 hard drive, Accelerate Your Mac!, 05.23. Tests FireWire 800 vs. 400, single drive vs. RAID.
Benchmarks: FireWire 800 shootout - four brands compared, Bare Feats, 05.23. Three of four drives turn in virtually identical performance. Why is the fourth one different?
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."
Rights: Tech worker says agency uses 'non-compete' agreements to bully, intimidate, WashTech, 05.23. "...many high-tech contractors have felt the sting of a non-compete agreement that shuts them out of the job market for an extended period of time."
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."
Opinion: Panther's most important feature: The upgrade price, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 05.21. "...I believe Apple needs to sacrifice some more of its profit margins and go for the jugular."
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: This site may look bad in Internet Explorer 6.0 for Mac OS X, New Damage, 05.19. Internet Explorer 6.0 is available for OS X users - but only if you subscribe to MSN for Macintosh.
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: Dana - Part PDA, part laptop for writers & students, Vern Seward, Mac Observer, 05.19. Very affordable, very portable word processing machine also runs Palm apps, has impressive battery life.
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."
Analysis: Poor Power Mac sales: Does the processor make the difference?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 05.19. The economy, the lack of Quark XPress for OS X, and processor speed are all part of the problem.
Dark Side: Microsoft to license Unix code, Scott Ard, Cnet, 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.
History: Apple has been declared dead 26 times since April 1995, Bryan Chaffin, Apple Death Knell Counter, Mac Observer, 05.14. "Our prized addition today is a Death Knell from Steve Jobs himself."
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."
Advocacy: Memo to Apple: Bring back the Cube and make it cheap, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 05.14. "From my ignorant point of view, the market potential is tremendous."
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.
Review: Hitachi 80 GB notebook drive tests, Acclerate Your Mac!, 05.13. Biggest notebook drive yet is very fast and very quiet.
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."
Opinion: Latest Norton Anti-Virus for Mac leaves others in the dust, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 05.13. "The most significant new feature is the ability to not just detect Mac viruses, but PC viruses as well."
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.
Upgrade: PowerLogix announces first CPU upgrade for slot loading iMacs, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.12. This is the second CPU upgrade for slot-loading iMacs (the iTech DV G4/500 was the first), but at 900 MHz it's the clock speed champion.
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."
Opinion: iPod, now iTunes: Is Apple becoming a Windows developer by stealth?, Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac, 05.10. "The bottom line is that there's serious money to be made in the Windows software market, and Apple hasn't yet tapped into it."
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."
Analysis: Thoughts on eMacs, iMacs, iBooks & education options, Charles Gaba, Mac Observer, 05.09. How do the current consumer and education Macs compare with their Windows competitors?
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."
News: Apple releases OS X 10.2.6, bug fixes, improved printing, OpenGL, USB, more, Mac Observer, 05.06. "The new version fixes a bug that may cause a kernel panic when certain USB hubs are connected, improves printing support, improves GeForce 2 MX and GeForce 4 MX support...."
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."
Opinion: PC virus worries, transformed Mac inspire return of ex-Apple addict, Linda Knapp, Personal Technology, Seattle Times, 05.03. Worried about viruses and back door intruders, technology writer begins a switch back to the Mac.
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."
Review: Mac OS X Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 05.02. "There is plenty of interesting and useful stuff in this book...."
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.
Apple: iTunes Music Service sells 275K tracks in 18 hrs?, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 05.01. Billboard reports the iTunes Music Store sold 275,000 tracks during the first 18 hours of operation.

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and may not reflect the opinion of Cobweb Publishing. Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all.
Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2016 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Low End Mac, LowEndMac, and lowendmac.com are trademarks of Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad, iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, Mac Pro, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it, and we don't share the information we have with others. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
Macgo Blu-ray Player
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, May 2003

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Favorite Sites

Affiliates

Advertise