Macintosh

Latest update on
January 9, 2000

Feedback: [email protected]

Advocacy
Info on the best personal computer available; dislike of most things Microsoft		 Archives
Detailing a history of Macintosh greatness and advocacy.		 Mac FAQ
Free advice on Mac hardware and software. 		Mac Links
A wide variety of URLs for the Mac link connoisseur.

Previous
1999
July-December

December 15, 1999
The Portland Macintosh Users Group (PMUG) swap meet will be held January 10 at 6:30 PM at the Northwest Cultural Center on Everett. Those interested in carpooling should email me, because I'm definitely going. Last time around I spent $67 and picked up hundreds of dollars worth of software and hardware.

December 2, 1999
Oh baby, look at that stock price go! Apple closed at 110 today, a record high. Those of us who said "buy!" at 30 are pretty self-congratulatory right now. (And I'd be rich too, if I'd have had any money to invest at the time. At least my dad and his clients reaped the benefits.)

Why the big stock run-up? Apple gave us another example today by refreshing its Power Mac G4 line while retaining the same pricing. Indeed, the low-end machine, a G4/350 priced at $1599, is now so compelling that I would advise anyone considering a Mac purchase to look long and hard at it. Not only does it now come with a DVD-ROM drive (instead of CD-ROM, though it will still play CDs), but all the internals are the same as the other G4 machines. Previously, the low-end G4 was a G3 machine with a G4 card in it.

In addition, Apple has upgraded all G4 machines with the ATI Rage 128 Pro video card, a product which should boost video display speeds by up to 40 percent. Very impressive stuff!

November 30, 1999
Quick question: If your hard drive irretrievably crashed right now, the loss of which files would give you the "oh-man-it-sucks-to-be-me" feeling? Now have you given any thought recently to backing up those puppies? How about backing them up off-site?

I dreamed a few days ago that my computer, Zeke, had been stolen, and in my dream—nightmare, really—oh, man it sucked to be me when I realized that my XP-80 music files, my Quicken data file, my QuickBook company data file, and my Claris Organizer contact file were all history. Fortunately, it was a dream....

But here's an idea that I've been kicking around for a year or two that I finally implemented today as a result. I created a folder with all the aforementioned files, made a StuffIt-compressed archive out the folder, PGP-encrypted the folder, and uploaded the resulting file to my web server. I also remembered to upload my Public and Private PGP Keys to the server, without which I won't be able to decrypt everything. I plan on backing up everything like this every 2-3 months, because, as the saying goes, it's not really a backup if it's not off-site.

What do you need in order to back up your crucial files in this manner? First, web space. Most ISPs give you a few megabytes worth, so if you haven't already, you'll want to find out about this. Second, you'll need StuffIt to compress the files, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) to encrypt them, and an FTP client like Fetch (available for free!) to upload them. That's it. Don't wait until you're sorry.

The incredibly cool little web browser iCab went to preview version 1.8 today. The new release adds an excellent Print Preview feature and a host of bug fixes. The Print Preview is so much better than the "blind" printing out of Netscape that I doubt I will ever use Navigator to print a web page again. Still to come on the iCab development list: JavaScript, Plug-in support, and Cascading Style Sheets. After that, it's the perfect web browser, and frankly, it's already very close to replacing Navigator as my "browser of choice." Check it out. (And see my July 1, 1999 Macintosh entry if you're unconvinced.)

November 23, 1999
Looks like Apple's iBook was the top seller among portable computers for the month of October, a feat made all the more impressive since the iBook didn't ship in full quantities for the month. The revised iMac was also the number one selling desktop computer. On top of this, I believe those sales figures exclude direct sales from the Apple Store, so the results are even more impressive.

November 10, 1999
David K. Every at MacKiDo has a brilliant take on user interface design in his new article, Copy. Check it out.

It's utterly stunning to me how many people are siding with Microsoft in the current Department of Justice v. Microsft trial. I've seen some polls suggesting that more than half of the public at large is in Microsoft's corner. (Of course I've seen other polls which suggest it may only be about 33 percent.) If this isn't a testament to the inability of the American public to grasp the fundamental issues of capitalism, I don't know what is. Hint to world: Competition is good for the consumer, monopolies are bad.

Microsoft's plaintive "innovation" defense completely ignores the companies who would have innovated if not for Microsoft's illegal anticompetitive behavior. Furthermore, it's not like Microsoft didn't rip-off most of the "innovations" which they claim. Heck, Apple Computer itself provided a lot of them.

And God spare us from any more articles about what a terrific guy Bill Gates is for giving to charity a very small portion of his excessively massive ill-gotten gains. His company has illegally run roughshod over the computer industry for years, and he would have billions less if it weren't for that.

November 6, 1999
For my money, yesterday was one of the great days in American jurisprudence. Microsoft lost on virtually every point in Judge Jackson's stage 1 finding of facts, and this is crucial because not only does it signal that Microsoft is destined to most likely lose the overall case very badly, but the facts as determined by the presiding judge are what is usually used by the appeals courts should the case move to that realm. For now, we can simply celebrate that Microsoft is legally considered a monopoly (like we did know that already!) and that the overthrow of the Evil Empire has begun.

October 21, 1999
We're now two days away from the formal release of MacOS 9, but early beta test and developer comments are highly favorable. There are guaranteed to be some glitches, of course, since no software product this big could be produced without them, but I have high hopes that OS 9 will be a spectacular operating system.

Initially, I didn't plan on upgrading for a few months, but there are several features which are highly tempting, including the new Sherlock 2 search engine. For whatever reason, Sherlock does not run under MacOS 8.6 for me, and because it was my main search engine when I ran MacOS 8.5, I've really missed that functionality.

Another temptation is price. Because Erin can get the educational pricing, total cost including shipping is $49. That's really hard to pass up, no matter how many house and car fix-it projects we've got going.

October 5, 1999
Apple announces MacOS 9 and three iMac models, the lowest priced of which retails for $999. That blueberry-only iMac has a 350-MHz G3 processor, 6-GB hard drive, 100-MHz system bus, 64 MB of RAM, and a 24x slot-loading CD-ROM. The higher end (DV) models also feature:

All iMacs will have 56.6k modems, 10/100 BaseT ethernet build-in, 2 dual channel USB ports and video powered by ATi Rage 128 video cards (zoom!). They're also setup for wireless networking with the additional of the $99 Airport card (and a base station, of course). Harman Kardon designed the audio system for the iMacs, and there's even a $99 iMac subwoofer available if you really want to go to town. They all ship with the standard software compliment of Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Quicken Deluxe, Bugdom, AppleWorks, etc., but the DV models also include iMovie, a digital video editing program.

This means Apple has renewed its entire product line in less than 5 months. That's impressive!

Even more impressive, potentially, is that the $999 blueberry-only iMac will be available at CompUSA for $599 if the buyer is willing to sign up for CompuServe Internet service for 3 years. Worth it? Depends on the monthly price and depends on whether or not there's a reasonably priced option to move to a CompuServe DSL service. Using a 56.6k connection (or slower) in three years will be like riding a tricycle on an interstate highway, and that won't be fun no matter how low-priced the iMac is.

September 21, 1999
Apple's fiscal fourth quarter profit is going to be lower than anticipated because they can't get all the G4 chips they need from Motorola. Apple will still be looking at $75-$80 million in profit, so it's not that big a tragedy, but Wall Street has responded by dropping Apple's stock by about 12 points. Great buying opportunity, because this is a temporary problem. With 150,000 pre-orders for G4 machines and 160,000 pre-orders for iBooks, Apple's fiscal first quarter 2000 revenue should be outstanding.

I've been playing around with a font management utility called Font Reserve. I'm using version 2.03, and it's an impressive replacement for Suitcase 8 or Adobe Type Manager Deluxe. A demo is available, and if you're a font monger like I am (I must have well over 500 fonts), it's definitely worth checking out.

September 7, 1999
The EvangeList, a Mac-based email list for swapping ideas, stories, and so on, has returned from the dead (and Guy Kawaski's departure to run Garage.com). Although the list membership is currently small (2500) versus when Kawaski ended it last year (at 40,000), the new list is growing by leaps and bounds. You can sign up at http://www.sempermac.com/evangelist and I highly recommend the digest version unless you want to be flooded by email.

August 31, 1999—Seybold SF Publishing Expo
There's a whole lot to say about Seybold this go-'round, but nothing tops Apple's announcement introducing the Power Macintosh G4. The demos were astounding. In test after side-by-side test, the G4 consistently beat a 600-MHz Pentium III by huge margins. These were not pseudoscientific "BYTEMark" tests which have limited real-world application. These were programs like Adobe Photoshop, Mathematica, QuickTime, etc. Apple says the G4 is, on average, 2.94 times faster than the fastest Pentium III you can buy. Not in the tests I saw. In the tests I saw, the G4 was a lot faster than that.

What's even better (what received the most sustained applause) is that the G4s are coming in at the superb price points of $1599, $2499, and $3499. Note that unlike the G3s, there is a big difference between the low-end model and the two higher end models. The low-end G4 is essentially a G3 with a G4 card stuck in it. The other models are based on a new motherboard architecture called "Sawtooth," and it will require some research to determine if Sawtooth is worth the additional money.

There were tons of Macs this year compared to last. Apple was clearly dominant at this Seybold, and unlike last year when there seemed to be a 50/50 split, Macs clearly ruled the roost this time around. And pity the poor vendors who got stuck with Intel in Moscone Center North. Not only was all the excitement centered around Apple's large area in Moscone South, so were all the people. (I'd estimate by a margin of at least 3 to 1.) I walked through Moscone North and its Intel-anchored areas, and you could've shot a cannon ball through some of those aisles and not hit any attendees.

The Apple area in the South was lined with G4s hooked to $4000 22" LCD Cinema Displays. Some were running Quake 3 (and I even noticed a couple of my online Quake opponents on the LAN, though I obvious couldn't identify who they were in person). I realize almost no one is going to be able to afford the Cinema Display (including me), so it might be pointless to say that it was the best monitor I've ever seen, but there you go.

IBM's ViaVoice dictation system is very impressive. Steve Jobs invited a couple IBM guys up to do a demo during the keynote and it appears even in beta to work well. I later cornered an Apple rep who demoed the software for me, and it looks to live up to the hype even upon closer inspection. There should be a "personal" version of the software available for around $100, according to the rep.

Another couple Apple reps say that the new Airport wireless networking technology—bitchin' stuff if ever there was—will be available for Macs besides the iBook and the upper G4s. Apparently Lucent Technologies, Apple's partner in creating Airport, will be delivering a product for other Macs (and I would guess PCs, too) shortly.

I talked with an Adobe rep who informed me that there's a GoLive 4.01 update due out in a couple weeks. Apparently this will fix the Mac OS 8.6 and PDF problem.

Macromedia continues to push Flash as "the" vector graphics standard for the web. It's not nearly as ubiquitous as Macromedia would lead people to believe, but ultimately, I think they've achieved critical mass, and within the next year most sites will probably have some Flash component to them (including this one).

Apple's Mac OS 9 got a little demo during the keynote also. In sum, there are plenty of good reasons to buy this for $99 when it becomes available in October. Sherlock II looks great; multiple user log-in should be wonderful for families and workgroups, and the voice print password log-in continues to capture the imagination of Star Trek fans and computer geeks worldwide.

Apple is now hitting on all cylinders, and there has never been a better time to be a Mac-using creative content professional.

August 27, 1999
Mac rumor sites are rife with speculation about what will be released at next week's Seybold Expo in San Francisco. New iMacs? G4s? Who knows? (Well, Steve Jobs, that's who.) My best guess is that we'll see G4s introduced, iBooks re-introduced, and some additional features of Mac OS 9 hyped.

I'll be heading down there for the show, and you can expect a full report upon my return.

August 10, 1999
I installed my recently purchased QuickBooks Pro 4.0 for Macintosh yesterday, and the results were pretty amazing. First, Intuit will be shipping me a free updater CD-ROM since the program is otherwise not Y2K compliant. Second, I used Virtual PC to compare the PC version of QuickBooks Pro 6 to version 4.0 for the Mac. They are virtually identical. Indeed, for my purposes (keeping the books for SiteRev.com), I can now run QuickBooks on the Mac side of things and dispense with Virtual PC entirely. This, as you might expect, makes me very happy.

August 7, 1999
The self-wrought embarrassment of Microsoft continues. The Windows 2000 beta server cracking contest, thus far, isn't even close. Microsoft's server has been crashed repeatedly over the course of the last three days. Although MS claims that initial crashes were due to electrical storms in the Seattle area, computer logs show nine separate reboots unrelated to the weather.

A simultaneous contest featuring a Macintosh 9500 running Linux has resulted in zero crashes, and late last night, the Linux sponsor even gave away the root password to the system. The ABQ Journal has the latest in "N.M. Tech Student's Work Aces Microsoft."

August 5, 1999
The latest from the Microsoft front is yet another embarrassing misstep on the part of the computer software giant. This time, MS invited hackers to crack into the new Windows 2000 server (formerly NT 5). The idea, as I understand it, was provide a real-world test for the operating system so that MS could patch up trouble spots prior to releasing a "final" version to customers. (Never mind that many businesses are already installing Window 2000 beta because NT 4 isn't (1) reliable, (2) scalable, or (3) Y2K compliant.)

Unfortunately, hackers never got the chance to crack the server, as the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards without any outside intervention. Too bad MS isn't offering prize money to those who take down the Windows 2000 server, or they could pay themselves.

August 2, 1999
Apple released a font-fixing update for MacOS 8.6 the other day, and since it cures the PDF problem with Adobe GoLive 4.0, I've upgraded my system software. My first impressions:

  1. I like that the opening Mac screen gives the OS number. Very handy for troubleshooting efforts.
  2. Stability seems just fine. No crashes so far.
  3. My Internet connection feels faster. I don't have any tests or specifics to back up this general impression, but I can feel a difference, so we're probably talking about at least a 10 percent increase.
  4. The new resizable Sherlock if a pleasant upgrade. Sherlock II in MacOS 9 is where the real deal is, though.
  5. Total install time (including the font fix) was 11 minutes. So far every program I've tried works great.

I'll issue an update to the above if I find any quirks or anomalies.

July 31, 1999
Quick note on the recent MacWorld NY: Number of attendees was 45,000—up 35% from last year. The number of exhibitors was also markedly higher, making this one of the best MacWorlds in recent years.

Apple has invested $100 million in Samsung, an LCD display manufacturer, to help guarantee a steady supply of screens for their PowerBook and iBook products. Apple also announced an instant messaging product agreement with America OnLine, but no details were provided.

July 25, 1999
I've downloaded and started using the TechTool Pro 2.51 update. In short, it's excellent. The Protection Extension and Control Panel is now a fully functional "undelete" for the Trash can, and both protection and diagnostic functions can be set to run at startup or shutdown. There doesn't appear to be a lot of new diagnostic tools in the main body of the program, but those which I've tested run much faster than version 2.11. Owners of Tech Tool Pro 2 are definitely advised to give this free upgrade a go, and those who are considering buying a system utility would be well-served to check this one out. Norton Utilities is great (and also highly recommended) but it doesn't have the breadth of Tech Tool Pro.

July 21, 1999—MacWorld NY
I watched the QuickTime 4 streaming audio/video of the MacWorld NY keynote. Man, those 9 AM east coast start times are killers for us on Pacific Standard Time. The streaming content over my 33.6k modem cut out more often than I'd like (about 10 times over the course of the hour and 30 minute webcast), but the quality of streams—both audio and video—was dramatically better than previous live streaming receptions I'd attempted with RealPlayer. Except for the cutouts, video was fairly good (versus Real's virtually nonexistent) and audio was excellent (versus Real's fair to poor). QuickTime 4 is a winner, so it's probably only fitting that Apple CEO Steve Jobs started everything off by talking about it.

Additionally, a whole slew of companies were busy making Mac product announcements:

July 18, 1999
Adobe has released the combined package of Photoshop 5.5 and ImageReady 2.0. I'll be ordering immediately, so expect an online review in this space shortly.

The Portland Macintosh Users Group (PMUG) will be holding its semiannual swap meet on August 9 at the Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center, 1819 NW Everett St. The swap starts at 6:45 PM and admission is free. If anyone else is interested in attending, email me and we can carpool. I'm looking to swap a Mac LC, a couple Mac books, and some software. I'll be interesting to see what I come home with.

This is the week for MacWorld NY, so expect big news out of Apple and various third-party vendors. (MicroMat, for example, has announced TechTool Pro 2.5.1.) The long-awaited consumer portable should be introduced on Wednesday, and that alone should be fascinating.

July 14, 1999
Apple announced its seventh straight profitable quarter with quarterly profits of $203 million, including a one-time $89 million gain from the sale of ARM stock. Other highlights include:

Apple stock closed at just end $56 per share, its highest point in six years.

July 13, 1999
Went to a Portland Macintosh Users Group (PMUG) meeting last night. The keynote presentation was on X-10 technology, a means by which a person can automate their house. X-10 allows for the controlling of lights, alarms, garage door openers, computers, coffee makers, stereos, door bells—pretty much anything you can think of that has an electrical component to it. Using AppleScript and a Quadra-based Mac server, you can pretty well run the whole enchilada and pretty affordably, too. Details on all this available at www.shed.com.

Don't you hate it when telemarketers call? Of course you do. Well, I'm happy to report that a Mac program called "Enigma" will henceforth make these calls a lot more fun. Enigma is a small database of telemarketer information, which allows you to ask the telemarketer questions and record their answers. The fun thing here is they are legally obligated to answer your questions, and Enigma is more than happy to show you the relevant federal law at the click of a button. Even better, Enigma is free. Download it today, and let the games begin!

July 1, 1999
I've been experimenting lately with the latest incarnation of the Mac-only web browser iCab, and it shows a ton of promise. Not only is the memory footprint dinky (4 MB of RAM), it also offers web page download speeds faster than either Netscape or Explorer. In some cases, much faster. (The iCab download itself is only 900k.)

The major version 1.6a downsides are these: no Javascript support, no Cascading Style Sheet support, and no inline plug-in support (like Flash or Shockwave). This is all a big deal, but the final version of iCab plans on adding at least the first two items. I'm sure that plug-in support (it already works with QuickTime and RealPlayer) will be coming shortly thereafter.

But all of this not to say that iCab isn't worth trying right now. It is a very full-featured browser, and at 900k, a pretty quick download. What does iCab offer right now? How about:

Granted it's not the most graphically pretty browser out there (Explorer is), but there is a helpful patch which can beautify iCab considerably. Want to know more? Check Joshua Allen's informative Hailing iCab. I'm not quite ready to switch from Navigator 4.08, but I'm close. If the final version of iCab delivers, I'm there.

Unless otherwise noted this web site and its content, including all graphics, text, audio, and video, are
© 1997-99 by Ty Davison. All rights reserved.

Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
All other trademarks are property of their respective holders.