Top Links: June 2003

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, June 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.

Software: Casady & Greene to cease operations Thursday, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 06.30. "'With computers coming out loaded with software the way they are, people don't seem to think they need extras,' Bonnie Mitchell of C&G told MacCentral."
Hardware: Apple explains Power Mac G4 mobo switch, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 06.30. New 1.25 GHz G4 models a step back in price - and features.
Education: North Carolina, Tennessee schools to get iBooks, MacMinute, 06.30. Greene County, NC and Oak Ridge, TN embrace the iBook for students.
Dark Side: A safer system for home PC's feels like jail to some critics, John Markoff, New York Times, 06.30. "...by entwining PC software and data in an impenetrable layer of encryption, critics argue, the companies may be destroying the very openness that has been at the heart of computing...."
Tech: AMD ships eight-way 64-bit Opteron, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.30. Opteron 800 Series supports up to 8 CPUs, could provide serious competition for G5 in servers, workstations.
Tech: Madison puts on its floaties but can it swim?, Ashlee Vance, The Register, 06.30. Third generation of Itanium chip to reach 1.5 GHz at over $4,000. Still no significant market share.
OS X: Is Apple now cribbing ideas from Windows?, Gene Steinberg, The Panther Report, Mac Night Owl, 06.30. "When Steve Jobs first displayed Panther's Fast User Switching feature, he had to admit that the idea came from Windows XP."
Humor: Four thousand holes in Power Mac G5, Joy of Tech, 06.30. "And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all."
Advocacy: Apple and developers, Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Network, 06.29. "...successful companies, from Microsoft to Apple, often take more than their fair share of the market, trampling small developers in the process."
OS X: Modem Script Generator, Antonio Flores Aldama, 06.29. Having problems getting fast, reliable modem connections? MSG lets you tweak your own script. Freeware.
Huh?: T-Mobile drives a nail into the Sidekick's coffin, Boing Boing, 06.28. All your data are belong to T-Mobile. Company abandoning games on Sidekick phone, will remotely erase them from customer phones.
Review: Hardware RAID storage: Pricey, reliable, & worth it, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 06.27. "...the strength of hardware RAID is that it requires far less system resources from your Mac to do its job."
Macinschool: PC-Mac war hits Tukwila school - Foster High wins grant for 30 new Apples, but tech plan calls for PC use, Nora Doyle, King County Journal, 06.27. Will school system really turn down $43,000 worth of free Macs and instead pony up $3,000 for 30 of Boeing's "surplus" (read: retired) Windows PCs?
Rights: The RIAA plays whack-a-mole, Stephen O' Grady, The Register, 06.27. "Basically, it's ordinary folks who use Kazaa, Limewire, or other like alternatives who are at risk here."
Rights: RFID chips are here, Scott Granneman, Security Focus, 06.27. "RFID chips are being embedded in everything from jeans to paper money, and your privacy is at stake."
Tech: Well known Mac OS X ports, UCLA Department of Statistics, 06.27. TCP and UDP port numbers commonly used by Macintosh services.
Advocacy: Could an eMac strategy bring more market share to Apple?, Eugenia Loli-Queru, OSNews, 06.26. If Apple could offer a $499 eMac, there would be almost no reason to buy a Windows or Lindows PC in the future.
Rights: RIAA to sue song swappers?, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 06.25. "The Recording Industry Association of America has announced its intention to sue 'the heaviest users of popular "peer to peer" services like Kazaa' for thousands of dollars in damages...."
Rights: Starting vicious rumors over listservs ruled OK, Ken "Caesar" Fisher, ars technica, 06.25. "The US Court of Appeals in the 9th Circuit has ruled that distributing someone's e-mail does not make one liable for the content of that e-mail."
Benchmarks: Apple denies fiddling G5, Xeon tests, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.25. PC systems were tweaked for better results, Linux scores were used (since they were better than Windows), lab tried to make comparison as fair as possible.
Tech: Motorola hurries release of 0.13µ G4, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.25. "The clock speed will max out at 1.3GHz, but the extra cache sizes should improve performance...."
Opinion: G5 reaction, Philip Machanick, Macintelligence, Mac Opinion, 06.24. "Whether you have multiple threads on one processor or a multiprocessor system, memory speed . . . is more of a bottleneck in current designs than raw processor speed."
Opinion: Apple often gets it right, Gene Steinberg, Mac Reality Check, AZ Central, 06.24. The good stuff: Panther, iChat, Power Mac G5....
OS X: Panther sneak preview, Apple, 06.23. The new Finder, Exposé, iChat AV, faster Mail, FileVault, wicked fast Preview, Font Book, built-in faxing, and lots more.
Software: Apple presents new video conferencing solution, Mac Observer, 06.23. "The solution consists of iSight, a new digital video camera, and iChat AV, an upgrade to the company's Instant Messenger client."
Software: WWDC: Apple releases Safari 1.0, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 06.23. "...Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple would make the final version of its Safari Web browser available for download Monday."
Dark Side: P4 3.2 GHz reviews, Slashdot, 06.23. Whopping 6.7% jump in CPU speed at a $200 premium. Hope they don't plan to steal PowerPC 970 thunder with this one.
Humor: WWDC prediction: White-Out can save you money, The Parting Shot, MacEdition, 06.20. "The power of Unix, a better GUI, in a sleek metal case."
Apple: Apple to replay WWDC keynote via QuickTime, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 06.20. Apple won't be streaming the keynote live, but they will make it available afterwards.
News: Apple graphical glitch reveals Power Mac G5 specs, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.20. "Apple inadvertently revealed its hand last night, posting - albeit briefly - specs. for upcoming Power Macs on its online AppleStore."
News: A leak, a mistake, or a hack?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.20. Did Apple accidentally "spill the beans" on the new dual 2 GHz Power Mac G4 - or did someone manage to hack the site?
Opinion: The bet: Apple, faster, better & still a loser, John Kheit, The Devil's Advocate, Mac Observer, 06.20. Apple's constantly declining market share - it's the price, stupid.
Review: Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition: The 500 Most Amazing Power Tips, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 06.20. "...a book that will help the neophyte OS X user become more proficient, and help turn proficient users into power users."
Huh?: USB Forum speeds up USB by renaming it, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 06.20. USB 1.1 can now be called "Full Speed" USB 2 while faster USB 2.0 ports will be called "Hi-Speed" USB 2 ports. Got it?
Opinion: A real Mac to PC switcher ready to dump the Mac, Mac Observer, 06.19. "...Macs are slow and overpriced, and did we mention he isn't going to take it any more?"
Rights: Orrin Hatch: Software pirate?, Leander Kahney, Wired, 06.19. "...if Hatch's terminator system embraced software as well as music, his servers would be targeted for destruction."
Opinion: Microsoft wages war on spam in courts, Todd Bishop, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 06.18. MS "announced 15 lawsuits against alleged spammers, accusing them of collectively sending more than 2 billion deceptive and unsolicited e-mails to users of its . . . Internet services."
Rights: US Senator would destroy MP3 traders' PCs, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 06.18. "...Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah), thinks it would be a fabulous idea if copyright owners could remotely destroy computers that contain pirated material...."
Software: iVCD lets you burn VCDs, Super VCDs, Dennis Sellers, MacCentral, 06.17. Want to burn movies but don't have a SuperDrive? iVCD lets you burn Video CDs using a standard CD burner.
Opinion: Microsoft shows true color: Yellow, Tig Tillinghast, MediaPost, 06.17. Microsoft's reaction to Apple launching its own browser: "Stop development due to imminent defeat."
Apple: Supply snag slows down Mac cloner, Leander Kahney, Wired, 06.17. "John Fraser's one-man Mac clone business has been put on hold after a key parts supplier became the target of Apple Computer's legal team."
Analysis: Apple sometimes gets it wrong, Gene Steinberg, Mac Reality Check, Mac Night Owl, 06.16. "Some of you may not recall how much R&D money Apple squandered over the years developing technologies that never bore fruit."
Rights: Proposed act in Congress would keep Internet access tax away, Vern Seward, Mac Observer, 06.16. "...a group of our elected Congressional Reps are pushing a proposed Act that would make access to the Internet permanently tax-free."
Rights: Why Europe still doesn't get the Internet, Cnet, 06.16. Proposal draft says Internet news sites, individual websites, moderated mailing lists, and even Web logs, must offer a "right of reply" to those who have been criticized.
Rights: Europe to force right of reply on Internet communication, Slashdot, 06.16. Proposal would force all Internet news organizations, moderated mailing lists and even web logs (blogs) to allow a right of response to any person or organization they criticize.
Hardware: Floppy disks may soon be spinning to a halt, The Straits Times, 06.16. Five years after the iMac was announced sans floppy, most PC makers are abandoning it as a standard feature, although some still offer it as an option.
Software: Updates to Microsoft Internet Explorer expected today, MacMinute, 06.16. Swan song for IE on the Mac. Also, "In addition, Internet Explorer 5.1.7 for Mac OS 8/9 will be released later this month."
Opinion: Why I can't finish the upgrade to Mac OS X, Ted Haigh, Mac Night Owl, 06.16. Three programs and one printer prvent the author from going OS X only.
Web: MacServers website, MacServers, 06.16. Thanks to OS X, any modern Mac can be a server using included and free software.
News: Stolen Apples ended up on eBay, Clay Bailey, GoMemphis.com, 06.15. "The equipment was part of the loot taken in a pre-dawn, window-smashing burglary at the Apple computer store in Germantown about seven weeks ago."
Dark Side: R.I.P., Jeffrey Zeldman, The Daily Report, 06.13. "...after spending billions of dollars to defeat all competitors . . . Microsoft as a corporation is no longer interested in web browsers."
News: No Mac drivers from Belkin, Apple AirPort Weblog, 06.13. Belkin has stated that the promised Mac drivers for their 802.11g PC Card will not be produced.
Review: Giga Designs 1.4GHz CPU upgrade, Mike Breeden, Accelerate Your Mac, 06.13. Hands on with the fastest G4 accelerator to date - this one runs at up to 1.467 GHz.
Low End: Using an Apple IIe card in your Macintosh, Vectronic's Apple World, 06.13. You must have a Mac with an LC PDS and be running with 24-bit addressing to use this card.
Review: iListen 1.6 dictation software for OS X, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 06.13. "It's far from perfected yet, and still has rough edges, but so does the competition, and this release has done considerable smoothing."
News: 802.11g standard approved, Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral, 06.12. "The changes to the specification are minor and will affect how 802.11g products interact with older 802.11b (AirPort) products."
Opinion: Mac G5: Too little, too late, James Maguire, osOpinion, 06.12. Up the death knell counter by one - "the company needs to do something besides create cool computers to survive."
Opinion: Who really owns Unix?, Allen Brown, ZDNet, 06.12. The author, a spokesman for The Open Group, doesn't seem to understand the difference between calling something Unix and comparing something to Unix.
Tech: Macs to drive on HyperTransport links, Michael Kanellos, Cnet, 06.12. "Apple Computer plans to discuss how it will incorporate HyperTransport, a rapid chip-to-chip communications technology, into future computers later this month at its developer conference."
Rights: Apple sued over Unix trademark, Slashdot, 06.12. The Open Group suing Apple over "unlicensed use" of the Unix trademark. Apple countersuing to have the Unix trademark declared invalid because term has become generic.
Advice: Laser versus ink jet, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.12. Whether an inkjet or laser printer - or both - might be your best choice.
Opinion: Mac users can't catch a break in a PC world, Vicki Estes, Topeka Capital-Journal, 06.11. "For years, Mac users have been discriminated against simply for wanting a computer that doesn't crash or lock up when the mood hits it."
News: Apple in court dispute over Unix, Ian Fried, Cnet, 06.11. The Open Group sues Apple over use of Unix trademark. Apple countersues, asks judge to declare trademark invalid, Unix a generic term.
Macinschool: Foster High considers turning down free Macs, Nora Doyle, King County Journal, 06.10. "It's silly to turn down the offer of free Macs when the school district has to provide technical support for the Macs already at the high school."
Advice: A compleat buyer's and user's guide to high-end Macintosh laptops, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 06.10. A look at portable Apple options above the $1,000 price point.
News: Core shut down, dealmac, 06.10. Looks like Core is going out of business, and along with it the Core Crib Power Mac clone.
OS X: Apple releases Mac OS X security update for June to address networking issues, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 06.10. Security Update 2003-06-09 addresses potential security issues with AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol).
Opinion: Apple nostalgia: Why we love older Macs, John Ward, Vectronic's Apple World, 06.09. "While most older non-Apple computers eventually hit the landfills, it seems a crime to discard an older Mac."
.mac: .Mac affected by virus?, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 06.09. "... Apple's email servers have been slowed by the Windows-only virus simply because of all the "waste email" being generated across the Internet by BugBear B."
Upgrade: PowerLogix announces 1.4 GHz single and dual Power Mac G4 upgrades, PowerLogix, 06.04. Give your AGP Power Mac the speed of today's top-end model. $599 for single 1.4 GHz and $1099 for dual 1.4 GHz.
Opinion: Jaguar/iBook input device woes, and another switcher's odyssey, Charles W. Moore, OS X Odyssey, Applelinks, 06.09. "...even though the iBook is faster than the Pismo, these USB-related issues are slowing me down overall."
Rights: RIAA wrath hits teen, Lindsay Martell, ABC News, 06.09. Student creates search engine for university network. RIAA sues, settles for life savings of $12,000.
Huh?: Pink Gateway laptop planned, MacMinute, 06.09. "Gateway PCs will show up in several summer movies, including a color-coordinated role in the upcoming movie 'Legally Blonde 2.'"
News: 64-bit Macs may outpace 'Panther', N Ciarelli, M Rothenberg, eWeek, 06.09. "Apple Computer Inc. is nearing the release of desktop systems featuring IBM's 64-bit PowerPC 970 chip, sources report - but a 64-bit version of Mac OS X may lag behind by a month or two."
Rights: Netizens, prepare to pay more, Declan McCullagh, Cnet, 06.09. "The FCC is considering levying an additional tax of up to 9.1 percent on the revenue of cable modem providers."
Forum: Cable modem tax proposed by FCC, Slashdot, 06.09. "...the FCC is considering a new tax of up to 9.1% on the revenue of cable modem providers. This is an expansion of the existing universal service fund...."
Deal: Maxtor 30GB IDE hard drive: $29.99 A/R, Deals on the Web, 06.09. 7200 rpm drive has 2 MB buffer. Cost is $59.99 before $30 mail in rebate. Expires 06.14.
Deal: Maxtor 120GB IDE hard drive: $79.99 A/R, Deals on the Web, 06.09. 7200 rpm drive has 8 MB buffer. Cost is $129.99 before $50 mail in rebate. Expires 06.14.
Analysis: Motorola looking to sell PowerPC producer - report, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.09. "...if Motorola sells its semiconductor operation, how committed will the operation's new owner be to providing Apple with processors?"
Opinion: Cell number portability, Damien Barrett, MrBarrett.com, 06.07. "With true number portability, many many people will begin shopping in earnest for the best carrier, for the best deal."
Advice: PowerBook G4 12" hard drive swap, Stefan Horn, Accelerate Your Mac, 06.06. "Note: You should use a 2.5in hard drive with a max height of 9.5mm."
Benchmarks: Ultra320 15,000 RPM SCSI drives compared, Bare Feats, 06.06. "No matter which of the three drives you choose, it would be faster than the fastest Ultra ATA-100/133 drive and the fastest FireWire 800 drive kit."
Tech: GNUstep, Mac OS X compatible on Intel hardware, John Kheit, The Devil's Advocate, Mac Observer, 06.06. "This means that a lot of people are going to be able to run Cocoa OS X programs, not only on Intel machines, but on various operating systems."
Review: New OmniWeb beta improves on original, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.06. "Although not quite finished, OmniWeb 4.5b1, released to the public on Thursday, comes across as extremely stable and polished."
Dark Side: How to buy WinXP for $50, Michael Robertson, Tech Zone, 06.05. TigerDirect " talked to us about e-mails and phone calls from Microsoft attempting to bribe them to stop selling LindowsOS computers."
Virus: Bugbear sequel spells fresh misery for Windows users, John Leyden, The Register, 06.05. "Anti-virus vendors today warned of the rapid spread of yet another mass mailing virus." Macs are immune, of course.
Opinion: The learning curve revisited, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.05. "Some say it's easier for novices to master than previous versions of the Mac OS. Others say it's just not so...."
Tech: Motorola starts to talk up PowerPC 7457, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.04. Motorola expects to achieve a 40% speed boost (2 GHz tops). New chip will double size of L2 cache to 512 KB, support 4 MB L3 cache.
Tech: New system could speed up Internet downloads, Yahoo/Reuters, 06.04. Newly developed Fast TCP protocol uses existing Internet, moves data hundreds of times faster.
Dark Side: Microsoft plans an overhaul for patch system, Slashdot, 06.04. "How is a user supposed to trust a patch being issued by a company that is known to release vulnerable software in the first place?"
News: Palm to buy Handspring, Gillian Law, MacCentral, 06.04. "After they spin-off of PalmSource, Palm Solutions Group will merge with Handspring to create a new company, to be renamed later in the year, Palm said in a statement."
Dark Side: Microsoft patents interactive entertainment, Slashdot, 06.04. Exactly what has Microsoft patented - video on demand or just a selection system?
Dark Side: Microsoft granted US patent for "interactive entertainment", Alexander Wolfe, EmbeddedWatch.com, 05.31. Believe it or not, it looks like Microsoft just got a patent on video-on-demand.
Dark Side: Microsoft fixes up patch system, Martin LaMonica, ZDNet, 06.04. "Eventually, Microsoft will consolidate its patch management into a single tool that can work across all the company's products, Charney said." Sounds like Apple's Software Update....
Tech: Motorola adds dual-core G4 to PowerPC roadmap, Tony Smith, The Register, 06.04. "It will also contain its own memory controller, capable of connecting to DDR and DDR 2 SDRAM, according to documents seen by The Register." Map also calls for speeds to 2 GHz.
Opinion: So what's the truth about Apple's market share?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.04. "The key here is that Apple may not be selling all that many new computers, but Mac users continue to hang onto their old ones regardless."
Humor: Tivo debuts Get-A-Life feature, BBSpot, 06.03. "...some of our users are watching too much TV. The TivoGAL feature aims to stop that, and really make a difference in these people's lives."
Analysis: 10% of computer users run Apple, Mac-Mike.com, 06.03. Although market share is much lower, Mac users hold onto their computers much longer.
Analysis: The MP3 economy: How labels and artists divvy up your MP3 dollar, Nancy Einhart, Business 2.0, 06.03. The average artist or band gets 12% for every tune downloaded legally, the publisher 30%, and the seller (e.g., Apple) 40%.
Opinion: Wake up Apple, you're losing the war, Stefano Scalia, The Mac Mind, 06.03. "We're enshrined in our little cocoons of high priced computers and world-class design and innovation, but we forget there's another world out there."
Advice: Some fast advice for selecting and using ink jet printers, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.03. "...there are potential landmines, which is why I've assembled a few suggestions and comments on buying and using your next printer."
Software: QuickTime 6.3 adds 3GPP, improves iApp support, more, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 06.03. QuickTime 6.3 adds support for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project standard, bridging a connection to passing multimedia content over wireless networks on devices like cell phones and PDAs.
Review: OWC Mercury Extreme 1.33 GHz, Giga Designs G4/800, 1 GHz CPU upgrades, Mike Breeden, Accelerate Your Mac, 06.03. Which upgrade provides the most bang for the buck?
Advice: The Compleat Buyer's and User's Guide to Low-end Macintosh Laptops, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 06.03. A look at "portable workhorses" selling for under US$1,000.
Humor: The 3rd annual Nigerian email conference, Just Buzzin', 06.02. Have email scams become Nigeria's leading export?
Opinion: The switching to OS X discussion continues, Charles W. Moore, OS X Odyssey, Applelinks, 06.02. "Another batch of excellent letters about why people are or are not switching to OS X...."
Opinion: Lower your blood pressure, Sandy McMurray, Globe and Mail, 06.02. "It's not that there's anything wrong with the PC. It's just that I find my blood pressure goes down when it's turned off."
News: Formac introduces new FireWire TV recording solution, MacMinute, 06.02. Second-generation FireWire TV and Digital Video Recording solution for the Mac digitizes video, records TV like TiVo.
Tech: Motorola: 20% faster, 2 GHz PowerPC G4s using 0.18 micron process, Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac, 06.02. New process should yield 20% speed gain in the short term. Power Mac G4 dual 1.75 GHz anyone? And when?
Apple: Apple drops 12, 15-inch PowerBook prices up to $300, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 06.02. Apple trims $200 from 12" PowerBook, $200-300 from 15" PowerBook.
Rights: Tiscali boots off heavy users, Tim Richardson, The Register, 06.02. Those who consistently use their "AnyTime" dialup service beyond 150 hours per month will have their accounts terminated.
Analysis: How much do you love tabbed browsing really?, CodeBitch, MacEdition, 06.02. Transformation of OS X "browser wars" from IE vs. Omiweb to Safari vs. Camino and IE.
Opinion: Migration conspiracies revisited, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 06.02. "The NeXT people didn't respect the way things were done by Apple, and feel they can do it better."
Analysis: Xserves power iTunes Music Store, 'America 24/7', Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral, 06.02. Xserve, Xserve RAID, Mac OS X Server, and Web Objects power Apple's iTunes Music Store.

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