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The Low End Mac Link Archive, March 2004
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.
LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.
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.
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."
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.
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:
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."
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...."
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...."
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."
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."
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:
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."
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...."
* 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."
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."
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."
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."
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.
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...."
Rights:
Huh?:
Rights: