Top Links: March2004

Mac News Today

The Low End Mac Link Archive, March 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.

Analysis: Numbers don't tell Mac's story, Al Fasoldt, The Post-Standard, 03.31. "...my own rough calculations indicate that 8 percent of the personal computers used today in homes - leaving out all the computers used in offices and businesses - are Apple Macintoshes."
Rights: File sharers not guilty of copyright infringement - Canadian judge, Tony Smith, The Register, 03.31. "...just putting files in a computer directory that other people can access is insufficient an action to constitute illegal distribution - at least under Canadian law."
Advice: Fast Internet access without broadband, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.31. Yes, Web acceleration does work, is readily available for Mac users, but gives "a noticeable deterioration in the quality of Web graphics" unless you adjust settings.
Opinion: Is the Pismo the most elegant, desirable PowerBook ever?, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 03.30. "The Pismo, on the other hand, epitimizes that je ne sais quoi quality we refer to as the PowerBook Mystique."
Opinion: BuyMusic.comedown: First iTunes competitor becomes first to give up, Bill Palmer, 03.30. "...while BuyMusic hasn't quite officially shut down just yet, it's clear now that it will in fact be the first music download service to do so."
Advice: Hotrodding the Pismo phase two: Faster hard drive, Charles Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 03.30. "...it is probably the hotrod upgrade that will give you the greatest performance increase per dollar spent."
Review: The majestic Alps and the king of keyboards, Adam C. Engst, TidBITS, 03.29. "...if you consider yourself a keyboard aficionado, or if you've been bothered by the slide in quality for Apple's keyboards, you owe it to yourself to give the Tactile Pro Keyboard a try."
OS X: Just how spoiled have we Mac users become?, Bill Palmer, 03.29. "Remember having your entire computer freeze up on you?"
Opinion: iChat status report, Adam C. Engst, TidBITS, 03.29. "In both Away and Available states, you can customize the message people see; in the Idle state, iChat reports only how long you've been idle."
Opinion: All right, so everything Apple does is wrong, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.29. "...as you read the commentaries in print and online, you wonder if Steve Jobs and crew can do anything right."
Hardware: Beige G3 owner reports on TV tuners, Accelerate Your Mac, 03.26. Solutions for watching television and capturing video on OS X and the classic Mac OS.
Huh?: U.S. online-gambling ban violates international trade laws, WTO rules, Matt Richtel, SeattlePI.com, 03.26. "Antigua and Barbuda argued that U.S. trade policy does not prohibit cross-border gambling operations...."
Analysis: Is Bluetooth better on the Mac?, Rebecca Freed, Mac Skeptic, PC World, 03.26. "When it comes down to it, there are still too many seams showing in Bluetooth on Windows."
Opinion: Apple's history: Survival of the fittest or just dumb luck?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.26. "By all accounts, any company that made this many blunders through the years should have failed on life support years ago."
Opinion: And a voice said, 'Get a Mac', George Heuston, OregonLive.com, 03.25. "So I dutifullybought and upgraded home PC's, worshiped constantly in the Temple of the Anti-Virus,' tithed heavily, and watched thousands of attackers hammer away at my system's defenses."
AAPL: Investors cheer Apple gaffe, Paul Shread, internetnews.com, 03.25. "The reason? The company vastly underestimated U.S. demand for the product, which the company says has 'far exceed[ed] the total planned supply through the end of June.'"
Opinion: Why the next decade of Macintosh will be golden, Bill Palmer, 03.24. "...as the Mac enters its third decade, forces seem to be aligning in its favor. In no particular order, here are a whole slew of reasons why the platform is poised to break on through...."
Advocacy: Digital Music: Apple shouldn't sing solo, Alex Sakover, Byte of the Apple, BusinessWeek, 03.24. "If Apple really wants to boost AAC, it would allow other device and software makers to license Apple's own FairPlay digital-rights-management (DRM) system."
OS X: Mac.Ars takes on three years of OS X, Eric Bangeman, ars technica, 03.24. Three major revisions have taken us a long ways from OS X 10.0.
Review: The wireless keyboard and mouse maniac: Another choice for Mac users, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.24. Hands on with the Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo.
Opinion: HyperCard: 1987-2004, Kevin Altis' Weblog, 03.23. "Well it finally happened, Apple removed the HyperCard sub-directory from the main Apple site and you can no longer buy HyperCard from the Apple store."
Upgrade: Lombard renaissance, Charles Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 03.23. "Both Newer Technology and PowerLogix made G3 upgrades for the Lombard for a time, but they apparently didn't sell especially well...."
Opinion: Is Longhorn Microsoft's Copland?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.19. "Even if present predictions of a release in 2006 or 2007 don't come to pass, it doesn't mean it'll never happen."
Rights: File sharing increases CD sales, Slashdot, 03.19. "ARIA have released figures that show for 2003, album sales have reached an all time high."
Opinion: Apple Death Knell #39: iPod won't save Apple, Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer, 03.18. "The reality is, in my never humble opinion, those very products, such as the iPod, are exactly what saved Apple...."
Opinion: The browser wars: Still going strong, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.18. "...Safari is still one of many, and if you want more features, you should seriously consider looking elsewhere...."
Review: Checking out Check Preference Files and OS 10.3.3 Combo Updater posted, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 03.18. Freeware utility scans for damaged preferences, tries to repair them, makes it easy to delete those that can't be fixed.
Opinion: MPMC...um...the cat did it, Damien Barrett, mrbarrett.com, 03.18. "Why would I want to view media clips on a 2 inch screen when I can view them on my 17" monitor?"
Opinion: Apple's Spoken Interface: Computer read to me, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.17. "Today, the speech interface on your Mac is, well, very clumsy, so if you want text read back to you, it can become downright disturbing after a few seconds."
Opinion: Should Apple revive the Mac Portable?, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 03.16. "I think it would be great if Apple came out with a big laptop in this general vein, more a portable true desktop substitute than a road-warrioring machine."
OS X: The pleasures of the Mac OS X 10.3.3 update, Gene Steinberg, The Panther Report, Mac Night Owl, 03.16. "Although some imply that 10.3.3 is a yawner, there are actually some very significant changes in this release...."
Upgrade: Daystar 433 MHz MAChSpeed G4 Lombard PowerBook Upgrade Announced, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 03.16. First PowerBook with USB, last with SCSI, oldest fully supported by Panther - can now be upgraded with a G4 processor.
Opinion: The new Newton: Could a revival work?, Apostolos Koutropoulos, New Mobile Computing, 03.16. "All things considered, Apple will have an interesting experience should they decide to come forth into the PDA market again."
Hardware: Plextor sports a 12x Serial ATA DVD+R writer, ars technica, 03.15. If you thought 4x SuperDrives were fast, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Huh?: City considers banning water, Fox News, 03.15. "It looks like city officials in Aliso Viejo, Calif., need to brush up on their chemistry after they considered banning foam cups because they were produced with dihydrogen monoxide."
History: Ten years old: Apple's Power Mac line, Tony Smith, The Register, 03.15. "...Apple's clever move of integrating 680x0 emulation software to retain backwards compatibility with older Mac apps proved a signal success that few other IT companies have achieved."
History: Happy 10th birthday, Power Mac!, Simon Jary, Macworld UK, 03.15. "The hero of the day was a brilliant software engineer called Gary Davidian, who . . . developed [Mac OS 7.1.2] in such a way that older Mac software could run in emulation on the new chip."
History: Lots of Mac history, 1 million Macs, "wicked fast," tell-all book, Darwin, O Linzmayer, B Chaffin, Mac Observer, 03.15. Millionth Mac in 1986, "wicked fast" Mac IIfx in 1990, first Power Macs in 1994, and more.
Software: GraphicConverter 5.0 released, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 03.15. Popular shareware program receives a major update.
News: Apple claims 50 million iTunes downloads, will miss one year goal, Brad Gibson, Mac Observer, 03.15. "At the current download rate, Apple predicted subscribers will download 130 million songs this year...."
Virus: Bagle the 13th spread defies belief, John Leyden, The Register, 03.15. "To nobody's great surprise, another Windows-infecting mass mailing worm began spreading over the Net last weekend."
OS X: Does it still crash too much?, Gene Steinberg, The Panther Report, Mac Night Owl, 03.11. "The arrival of Mac OS X was supposed to change all that, ushering in a new era of Mac stability."
Opinion: Can you believe what you read in the Mac press?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.10. "What's the solution, except to ignore the wrongheaded advice, of course?"
Opinion: What if Apple made an XP box?, Bryan Chaffin, The Back Page, Mac Observer, 03.09. "In Mr. Enderle's limited mindset, making Windows boxes is the only business there is, period, and please don't confuse him with the facts."
Review: Laptop Laidback revisited, Charles Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 03.09. "The Laptop Laidback has been a godsend in that it allows me to use a PowerBook comfortably while reclining on a bed or sofa."
Opinion: One year and counting with my 12-inch PowerBook G4, Rob McNair-Huff, Mac Net Journal, 03.08. Small, light, rugged, and one of the best PowerBook keyboards ever.
Analysis: Apple Death Knell #38: "The Mac market is ending", Bryan Chaffin, The Back Page, Mac Observer, 03.08. "Apple is healthy, of course, and Mac developers seem to be healthy as well."
Opinon: Study finds upgrades better for environment, Gizmodo, 03.08. "The lesson from all this? Sometimes spending a little more on something that will last is worth the extra money."
Advice: Fixing Virtual PC's speed in Panther, Macs Only!, 03.08. "...rebooting our Macs and launching Virtual PC before launching any other application cured our problem of extremely slow running of VPC under Panther...."
Opinion: Please Apple, just make it dependable, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.08. "...the Mac sucks less, but is it as good as it can be? I don't think so."
Review: Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard, Kirk Hiner, Applelinks, 03.07. The Tactile Pro's key caps are clearly labeled with the international characters, accents, punctuation, and currency symbols that are available by holding down the Option or Shift+Option keys.
Opinion: Should the iBook go widescreen?, Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac, 03.05. HP, Acer, and Sony will be adopting a new widescreen 14.1" LCD. Should Apple follow suit with a widescreen iBook?
AAPL: Apple stock rallies to highest price since '02, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 03.05. Apple's stock price has rallied to its highest price in two years, on dramatically higher volume than usual.
Opinion: Why did Apple throw cold water on the headless iMac?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 03.05. "... there's a genuine perception that Apple's products are just too expensive compared to the competition, even if you can demonstrate by in exact comparisons that it isn't necessarily so."
History: Spam's tenth birthday today, Glyn Moody, Netcraft, 03.05. "On 5 March 1994, a message was posted to some Usenet newsgroups by a law firm called Canter and Siegel, advertising their services...."
Advice: SCSI connector and SCSI cable information, RAM Electronics, 03.05. A visual guide to all those different SCSI connectors used over the years.
* 12. Opinion: Things I don't like about being a Mac user, Rubaiyat Haque, OSNews, 03.04. "To the zealot, Apple and Steve Jobs can do no wrong and any criticism of their Messiah is tantamount to blasphemy."
OS X: Are annual upgrades too much, too soon?, Gene Steinberg, The Panther Report, Mac Night Owl, 03.04. "There's nothing really wrong with an 18-month development cycle if it breeds an operating system that has even more compelling features, but runs more stably in the bargain."
Review: Results of AAC at 128kbps v2 public listening test, Roberto Amorim, 03.04. Apple's iTunes AAC codec rated best at 128k sample rate.
News: Willow Design to stay open a bit longer, Peter Cohen, MacCentral, 03.04. Lots of Willow customers are stocking up at the last chance, going out of business sale.
Opinion: The sky is falling! Again!, Damien Barrett, mrbarrett.com, 03.03. "I think it's a mistake to confuse the 'Mac web' with the Macintosh community. They are not the same thing."
Advice: Replacing the hinge of titanium PowerBooks, Michael C Jaeger, 03.03. It's tricky, but it beats spending US$1,000 for the repair.
OS X: The perils of the clean install, Gene Steinberg, The Panther Report, Mac Night Owl, 03.02. "The installation should have, in theory, retained those preference files without damage. In practice it just didn't work that way."
Humor: Top ten Apple headlines you don't want to read, Bill Palmer, 03.02. "Inspired by success of iPod mini, new PowerMac G5 to come in Pink"
Review: CoolMac flexible, waterproof USB keyboard, Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 03.02. "So what is the CoolMac like to type on? Well, different from what you're used to."
Benchmarks: Final Cut Pro 4: G5 versus G4 and single CPU versus dual CPU, Bare Feats, 03.01. With Final Cut Pro 4, a second CPU makes things about 45% faster.
Advice: Add a custom icon to your site, Web Page Design for Designers, 03.01. How to create a custom icon for your website.
Opinion: Vote for me if you want a headless iMac, Vern Seward, Just a Thought, Mac Observer, 03.01. "I will personally hold Steve Jobs accountable for ignoring the cries of thousands, nay, millions of Mac users begging for a headless iMac."
Huh?: Xbox 2 heading for Macs, Macworld UK, 03.01. Microsoft's next Xbox will us an IBM PowerPC processor, and developers are receiving Power Mac G5s running a custom version of Windows NT.
Opinion: Reply and critique to "My last two hours enduring Mac OS 9", Charles Moore, Applelinks, 03.01. "Personally, OS X's multi-user anal retentiveness drives me nuts. I'm the only user of my production computers."
Advice: Moore's free POP3 email services roundup - 2004, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 03.01. "With POP3, you can do all your email work offline except for actual sending and downloading of messages, which cuts down immensely on online time used...."

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