Top Links: February 2004

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, February 2004

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.

OS X: File sharing vulnerability discovered in Mac OS X, Daniel Drew Turner, eWeek, 02.27. "This problem allows you to trick it into sending the unencrypted password to you instead of the intended server."
Opinion: My last two hours enduring Mac OS 9, Apple-X, 02.27. "...Mac OS 9 was full of more usability problems than the current version of Mac OS X."
Advice: Moore's guide to Mac email clients and free POP3 email services - 2004 edition, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 02.27. Mac users have plenty of email options.
Rights: US porn typosquatter banged up, John Leyden, The Register, 02.27. "A Florida man who directed children to pornographic websites by registering misspellings of domains likely to be popular with kids was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years yesterday."
Opinion: Black History Month &endash; Rodney O. Lain, Steve Harris, The Mac Mind, 02.27. "In a bunch of Lain's articles he ties the Mac community together with the black community, being it that they both are minorities in their respective areas."
Review: Hoo neads a speeling chicker?, Bob Levitus, Dr. Mac: Rants & Raves, Mac Observer, 02.27. "I'm addicted to Spell Catcher X from Rainmaker Research."
Advice: Startup time in Panther 10.3.2, Into the Shining Sun, 01.02. Speed up 10.3.2 startups with this hack.
Opinion: Mac Word 6.0, Rick Schaut, Buggin' My Life Away, 02.26. Why Microsoft Word 6.0 for the Mac was a "crappy product" - and what Microsoft learned from the experience.
News: IBM debuts pocket-sized PC, Tony Smith, The Register, 02.25. Clever portable, dockable drive is about the size of a Newton when coupled with an LCD touch screen.
Opinion: The 20 Mac games that mattered most, Inside Mac Games, 02.24. "We at IMG would like to thank the game-makers who have provided 20 years of expanding imaginations and just plain fun."
Hardware: The iBook logic board fiasco; still not over, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 02.24. "I've heard from readers with iBooks both earlier and later than the privileged serial number range specified in the repair program who have suffered the all-too-familiar issues...."
Hardware: Key components ready for PowerBook G5, MacMinute, 02.24. "All of the key components for Apple to produce a PowerBook G5 appear to be ready, and Mac users should expect to see the new laptop no later than this summer...."
Opinion: What's on your PowerBook? - and another 550 MHz G4 Pismo upgrade, Charles Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 02.24. "The WOYP? ads were very effective in an era when there were still lots of people who wondered whether there was a compelling reason to buy a computer at all, let alone . . . [a] PowerBook."
Web: Pop-up "suicide" can kill your brand, Tim Richardson, The Register, 02.24. "Bunnyfoot's research found that pop-ups were the 'single biggest turn-off among users' with users deleting the ads on average just 2.5 seconds after they appear."
News: Motorola chip launch paves way for 1.5GHz PowerBook G4, Tony Smith, The Register, 02.23. "Motorola's chip division . . . today updated its G4-class PowerPC processor, the MPC7447, taking the part to 1.5GHz and paving the way for one more PowerBook G4 update...."
Opinion: When Windows won't work, it's time for a Mac, David Coursey, AnchorDesk, ZDNet, 02.23. "In my computing life, there's one constant: The Macs don't crash and the Windows machines do."
Spam: Microsoft and Sendmail launch "email caller ID", Internet Magazine, 02.23. "Email technology provider Sendmail is launching a sender authentication plug-in which is hoped will combat email fraud and spam."
News: Apple releases Security Update 2004-02-23, MacCentral, 02.23. "Apple on Monday offered Security Update 2004-02-23, the latest update to Mac OS X v10.3 'Panther.'" Also for 10.2.8.
Opinion: Panther .zip Archives or Stuffit .sitx; which is best?, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 02.23. "Stuffit still has a substantial advantage in compression efficiency."
Advice: Breathing new life into an old PowerBook, Noah Kravitz, PowerBook Central, 02.22. A big, fast hard drive can make a world of difference.
Review: DiscBlaze v3.02, Mike Swope, Applelinks, 02.22. Disk burning utility offers most of what Toast does, a little extra, at a US$19.95 price tag.
Opinion: Beyond Luxo Jr : The next flat panel iMac, Daniel Eran, Roughly Drafted, 02.20. "Just slap an Xserve or PowerBook logic board on the back, with a full size hard drive and an optical drive that ejects the CD out the side of the display."
Rights: FBI shutters Web host, Rich Miller, CarrierHotels, 02.19. "...the FBI determined that it was more efficient (from their point of view) to remove all of our servers and transport them to the FBI local laboratories for inspection."
Analysis: Smiles fade at Napster, Dawn C. Chmielewski, SiliconValley.com, 02.19. HP/Apple deal and competitors keep Napster a fraction the size of Apple's iTunes Music Store.
Opinion: It's the standard, stupid, Christopher Breen, Mac 911, Macworld, 02.19. Why Apple needs to evangelize the AAC format to companies that make portable music players.
Rights: RIAA sued under gang laws, John Borland, Cnet, 02.18. "A New Jersey woman . . . as countersued the big record labels, charging them with extortion and violations of the federal antiracketeering act."
Virus: Macs and viruses - are we as safe as we think?, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 02.18. Although the experts . . . admit that to date, they're unaware of any Mac OS X-specific virus or worm, one thing they all agree on is Mac OS X not immune to a potential hacker attack."
Web: The pop-up ad is dead (nearly), Jan Libbenga, The Register, 02.18. "...a NFO Trendbox survey which shows that 91 per cent of (Dutch) Net users dislike these intrusive ads." And a lot of us simply block them.
Advice: Printer consumables: Do third party solutions make sense?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 02.18. "...the printer makers really don't want you to use someone else's consumables for obvious reasons."
Advice: Why, and how, not to use HTML in e-mail, Dan Gillmor, SiliconValley.com, 02.17. "You'll be safer from viruses and worms, and you'll have more privacy in your online world."
Apple: iPod mini hits Apple Stores this Friday, 100K on order, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 02.17. "...the company also confirmed that more than 100,000 pre-orders have been made for the credit card-sized MP3 player."
Analysis: Why Windows breaks, David Frith, The Barrow, Australian IT, 02.17. "...one really hates to crow over others' misfortunes, but there are times when we're doubly pleased our office (and home) runs on Apple Macs, not Windows computers."
Hardware: The Road Warrior Review - Contour NoteRiser, Charles Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 02.17. "...the engineering ingenuity of the NoteRisers' designers will impress you."
Opinion: My first 48 hours enduring Mac OS X, Matthew Thomas, 02.16. A longtime Mac user moves to Panther and finds it inconsistent and confusing.
Rights: AT&T trips up SCO, Frank Hayes, Computerworld, 02.16. SCO's claims against Linux (and potentially the BSD at the core of OS X) may be undone thanks to a 1985 article from AT&T, the originator of Unix.
OS X: State of the Odyssey, Charles Moore, OS X Odyssey, Applelinks, 02.16. "Two months with Panther: way cool but with some aggravations."
Advice: Seven deadly words that need to disappear from the Macintosh vocabulary, BillPalmer.net, 02.16. "...suggesting the Mac now would likely only evoke the same misunderstood, largely meaningless vocabulary words on his part."
History: This week in Apple history: Flower power, dalmations & the supreme court, O Linzmayer, B Chaffin, Mac Observer, 02.16. "2001: Apple introduces the ill-fated Dalmation and Flower Power iMac models in Japan."
Review: iBreeze PowerBook stand, Macs Only!, 02.16. "In summary, the iBreeze is a great little PowerBook cooling stand."
Opinion: Experience with Apple refurbs, MacSlash, 02.14. Overall, users seem very happy with the quality of refurbished Apple hardware.
OS X: Panther: Room for improvement, Justin Williams, MacZealots, 02.13. "Even in all of its glory, however, there is always room for improvement."
Review: AlchemyTV, Kirk Hiner, Applelinks, 02.13. "The picture quality is exceptionally sharp at low- to mid-sized monitor resolutions, and passable at high resolutions."
News: IBM fabs 90nm G5 using strained silicon, Tony Smith, The Register, 02.13. "IBM's first 90nm chip, the G5-class PowerPC 970FX, incorporates a key technique used by Intel to improve processor performance...."
Analysis: Mac OS security: The obscurity myth has legs, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 02.13. "A lot of so-called experts don't really want to admit that perhaps Mac OS X is simply a more secure operating system because it was designed to be that way."
Opinion: The iMac needs to lose its head, Alex Salkever, Byte of the Apple, BusinessWeek, 02.13. "...the major weakness in the iMac line: It's an all-in-one machine, which the market has moved away from."
Web: Make websites linkable in stories, Hypergene, 02.12. "Despite having at least 12 sites mentioned, not one is an actual URL you can click."
News: Big Blue gives 90-nano boost to PowerPCs, Michael Kanellos, Cnet, 02.12. "Big Blue is expected to describe a 2.5GHz version of the chip made on the 90-nanometer process at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco next week."
Review: Daystar MACHSpeed G4 Pismo upgrade review, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 02.10. "While the economics of processor upgrading can be dubious in some cases, with the G3 Series PowerBooks it substantially less so."
Advice: When should you upgrade your operating system?, Charles Moore, Mac Basics, Applelinks, 02.04. "In my estimation, one would have to be a bit of a masochist to be running any OS X version prior to 10.2 Jaguar these days...."
Advice: First you need to add memory, Gene Steinberg, Mac Hardware Report, Mac Night Owl, 02.04. "If the Mac comes with 128 MB of RAM, get another 512 MB."
Opinion: Create a hoax, earn damnation, Leander Kahney, Wired, 02.04. "The Overclockers.com website published a barely believable hoax last week detailing the gutting of a brand new and very expensive Power Mac G5."
Opinion: Safe to buy an iBook again!, Charles Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 02.03. "...based on Apple's quarterly sales reports, the number of computers eligible for this program could be in excess of 800,000."
Opinion: FBI agent: "If you want to frustrate law enforcement, use a Mac", Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 02.02. "That's a ringing endorsement, if we ever heard one. If only the buyers in the rest of the government would buy a ticket on the same clue train."
History: It sure is great to get out of that bag!, Folklore, 02.02. Did you know that Apple "cheated" when they introduced the Macintosh? They had to use a prototype 512K to run all the software.

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