Mac Advocacy January-June 2001

June 28, 2001
I detest Microsoft with the white hot passion of a supernova, but even I must confess that some of the US Court of Appeals ruling which today vacated the breakup ruling and remanded the penalty phase back to a lower but different court was at least somewhat correct.

Whether Microsoft should be broken up is open to debate (though it still strikes me as a pretty good remedy for their continuing monopolistic behavior), but there's little question that the presiding judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson, should never have spoken to journalists and made the comments had did—however correct they might be—about Microsoft and the behavior of their upper management.

I'm not sure how hopeful to remain long-term about the Microsoft case. Regardless of the outcome of this one, there will be other anti-trust cases against Microsoft of varying scope and size. Realistically, though, I continue to advocate the the best solution as switching to Macintosh or Linux. Minimally, that eliminates the operating system leverage of Microsoft, which is the primary (though not only) weapon they wield to force consumers to use their products.

Personally, I continue to use Microsoft Office as little as possible. I use Microsoft Internet Explorer primarily to check web sites I've created (I use Navigator 4.06 reguarly and I'll switch to iCab when it leaves beta). I will never use Microsoft Outlook Express. I have Virtual PC and use Windows 95 very infrequently and then mainly to check web sites I've created.

That someone who loathes Microsoft as much as I do should be forced to use their products as much as I am speaks volumes about their monopolistic power. I suspect for many people—particularly those outside the computer industry—the need to use Microsoft products might be somewhat less. I'd say the less you can use, the better.

June 22, 2001
Dennis and I gave it the old college try, but Baldur's Gate just doesn't work all that well via Internet. Dennis had a DSL connection and I'm on cable modem, and I'm sorry to say that it's not good enough to be playable. All the combat sequences were wildly out of joint, to the point where we were trying to heal dead people and we kept shooting at already killed monsters. The lag just ain't gonna let this happen (though maybe it would work if we had a dedicated server? Hmm).

I do think that Baldur's Gate will run okay in a LAN (local area network) environment, and given that you can customize the portrait and the sounds for each individual character, I'm thinking that it could be not only fun but personalized fun (which as we all know is the best kind). Hehe.

June 18, 2001
The open beta of Baldur's Gate was released today (version 1.02f7) and it includes a Game Ranger plug-in, so Internet-based action should a-happenin' before too long. Dennis and I are going to try it out on Thursday. I also learned that you can do a complete install of BG if you have a free 2.5 GB of hard drive space. Just copy all the files off the CDs, and there you go.

I received Beta 2 of the program I'm testing. Some pretty cool new features (which I'm obviously unable to mention here until later) and I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces.

June 11, 2001
I had a chance over the weekend to put in a few hours on Baldur's Gate (see also Baldur's Gate.net), a fantasy role-playing game based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition rules. Baldur's Gate is, in short, an amazing game. It ships on a 5-CD set, and after literally hours of playing, I've not even touched discs 4 or 5 yet. The game world—which includes forests, cities, mines, dungeons, and so on—is huge.

I'm thrilled to be able to say that the game is remarkably faithful to AD&D, and that being the case, I find the game utterly addictive even in single player mode. There are multiple story arcs on-going in the adventure, making for very realistic game play. The combat is very well done, and it's the foolish party indeed who doesn't save the game early and often (as I've discovered repeatedly and much to my detriment).

(An aside: I've also discovered the utter necessity of having a Thief in the party. Thieves can hide in shadows, explore ahead of the group, then report back without being spotted. It can get a little exciting if the Thief fails to remain hidden, though. Hehe. A Thief is also very helpful in spotting and disarming traps and picking locks.)

For all the greatness of the single player game—and I'm highly recommending Baldur's Gate to any fan of AD&D—I'm sorry to say that I've been unable to test the multiplayer section since it requires one set of CDs per computer. I may burn a second copy just so I can test this though, because I'm very curious to know how this would work in a LAN environment. (FYI, the online multiplayer GameRanger support is due any day now.)

June 7, 2001
Word on the net is that there is an AppleScript/Outlook Express Worm now circulating. It has something about the Simpsons in the title and generally causes no harm other than emailing everybody in your Outlook Express address book. If you're not using Outlook Express (and I've always recommended against it), no worries.

On the brighter side and in a wholly unrelated matter, Baldur's Gate showed up today. I've yet to install it, but I'm hoping to be able to give an early report on the game (particularly its multiplayer potential) within the next few days.

June 4, 2001
I purchased Baldur's Gate and StuffIt Deluxe 6.01 online last night. The former is a role-playing game that uses Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules and which should have the long-awaited multiplayer patch available for download this week. (Indeed, I don't even care about it as a solo game.) As a multiplayer game it will even allow players to hook up via the Internet and to use GameRanger, a program designed to facilitate Internet gameplay. Since the multiplayer end of it is cooperative—as opposed to the competitive nature of Quake, Unreal Tourney, and heck, just about everything else—I'm particularly excited.

StuffIt Deluxe is a relatively minor upgrade to the version of 5.5 that I already own, but crucially, it's a Carbonized application. That means it's ready-to-roll under MacOS X, and ultimately, that will be the only type of software worth having. I consider StuffIt Deluxe important software (it compresses and decompresses files in a variety of formats), and having an X-ready version was high on my list prior to a move to X (which for me will probably come late summer/early fall depending on Apple's updates).

By the way, anyone looks for a good, inexpensive source of Mac software or hardware might try Mac-O-Rama, which is where I bought the 5-CD(!) game Baldur's Gate for $18 plus shipping.

Although as I've mentioned previously I'm under an NDA regarding the software I'm beta testing and therefore can't give out much in the way of details, I will say that—like StuffIt Deluxe 6.01—it is a Carbonized application which will run under MacOS 9.x or X. Anybody moving to X (and eventually that should mean all Mac users) is gonna want a copy.

May 21, 2001—World Wide Developers' Conference
Apple announces price cuts on all their LCD monitors and, get this, says that they're done with the standard CRT monitor. Everything they ship (iMac excepted) will be LCD if it comes with a monitor, and all external displays will be LCDs as well. New pricing: 15" LCD is $599; 17" LCD is $999; 22" LCD is $2499.

My worries? LCD screens tend not to have as good color fidelity as CRTs. Graphic designers will not be pleased unless this is fixed. I'm also not sure if the refresh rate on LCDs is high enough for gamers, but given Apple's marketing demographic maybe that's not the biggest of issues.

Those concerns aside, LCDs and other types of flat-panel displayers are clearly the wave of the future. The 19" beast I've got parked on my desk here will certainly be a dinosaur within 3-4 years.

The other huge announcement of the day was that MacOS X will be pre-installed on all shipping Macs effective immediately. That's 2 months earlier than previously announced, so Jobs and Co. must be pretty happy with the current build of Mac OS X (10.0.3). Now, the pre-installation will include MacOS 9.1 as well in a dual boot configuration, so the user can launch either OS.

This should all be seen as a solid step forward, but I think the average Joe Mac user is well advised to keep waiting before taking the OS X plunge. Personally, I'm waiting for a major revision before I step up to the plate.

May 18, 2001
Okay, I'm now an official beta tester for some Mac software. I'm under a non-disclosure agreement so I can't say what software, what I think about the software, I can't give anybody copies of the software, or do anything else you'd all find interesting. However, I will say that I've long considered this program essential—something no computer user should be without. It's literally true that using this software has changed my life, and I've long considered it "best in class" even if I haven't always been thrilled with what I've thought to be some pretty marginal upgrades.

Ah well, now I get the chance to make it better! Once the beta testing is concluded I promise to give ya all the scoop.

Rumor on the net has it that we'll see MacOS 9.2 within the next few weeks, and the a major MacOS X upgrade code-named "Puma" (10.0.4?) is due at MacWorld. Here's hoping!

May 15, 2001
Day 2 with MacOS 9.1 and so far, so good. I've reset my AsantéTalk ethernet-to-LocalTalk adapter, and I've upgraded the PowerLogix cache control software I use to slightly speed up Trinity, but other than that, everything's the same. Now, there's no way I can test all the software in two days time, but so far Adobe GoLive, Adobe Photoshop, Canon ImageBrowser, SoundJam MP, WriteNow 4, Quicken 2000 Deluxe, Netscape Navigator 4.06, Internet Explorer 5, Palm Desktop 2.6, SimpleText 4.1, and Reunion 6.02 all work as before. I have yet to find software which breaks for me under 9.1.

Again, the 9.1 application switcher is very nice. Moving between programs is very quick compared to previous OS versions, and while that's not enough by itself to warrant an upgrade, it's a pretty cool feature since it really does make the OS feel more responsive.

May 14, 2001
All right, I've gone ahead and taken the plunge to MacOS 9.1. I'm eventually headed to MacOS X, so it's just a matter of time before I would have had to do this anyway. I thought it might be useful to give myself I little bit of time to get familiar with 9.1 and shake out any bugs or problems I find.

Happily, the install went very smoothly. I downloaded 9.1 from Apple's servers, rebooted using a CD, and installed 9.1 in about 13 minutes time. In very limited testing, I have several observations: First, Apple's rewrite of the Application switcher into PowerPC native code is a notable improvement. The switch between various applications is much faster than under 9.04 or earlier. It also seems to me like quitting applications is faster. Second, it seems to me that boot time is a little bit faster as well, though I didn't time anything so it's hard for me to say definitively. Third, everything seems compatible so far. Who knows how far that goes, though?

I'll continue testing throughout the week and post what I find. At least initially, it looks to me like 9.04 owners are safe to upgrade at this point. Do check out the 9.1 report on MacFixIt first, though.

May 13, 2001
It's not even two months past the release of MacOS X, and Apple's already made it to 10.0.3. That's three updates to the system software in less than 60 days. Of course from my vantage point, Apple's gonna need to keep churning these things out for awhile before I'm ready to jump on board.

And it's not just Apple. Of all the software I use, almost none of it has been carbonized (made ready for native use with MacOS X). Until that happens all the software has to run in emulation mode under X, and that's just not what I'd call real high on my list of things to do in life.

Initially, I was hoping to do an upgrade to X this summer, but given the release schedules of most software, I don't think I'm going to be able to meet that deadline. I think an October-November timeframe is much more realistic.

May 9, 2001
How does Apple's new iBook compare with similarly priced PC laptops? Pretty darn well. In head-to-head comparison's with the Gateway Solo 1150c, HP Pavillion n5310, Dell Inspirion 2500, IBM ThinkPad i, Compaq Presario 1200, and Toshiba Satellite 2805-S201, I'd say the new iBook really wipes the floor with them. It's smaller, faster, lighter than anything else out there in this price range. (Note that the Sony laptop starts at $1500 and wasn't included in this comparison. I don't know how the iBook would stack up against the Sony. Pretty well, I'd guess.) It's not a universal victory, but substantive enough that any potential laptop purchaser would want to take a long look at the iBook.

Let's start, however, with where the iBook falls short. The 66-MHz bus is a little slow compared to today's 100-MHz standard, and 64 MB of RAM isn't enough any more (though RAM is so cheap you could load up an iBook at very little cost). Notably, the iBook's maximum RAM of 576 MB is higher than any other laptop in this field, in some cases by more than 2 to 1, so lack of initial RAM shouldn't be considered a major black mark.

I think a DVD-ROM or CD-RW should have been included in place of the 24x CD-ROM drive. Yes, you can buy these things and attach them externally, but that's lame. Even iBook owners ought to be able to enjoy DVDs or burn their own CDs. Why did Apple release the free iTunes software, anyway?

As I've said before elsewhere, I'm not sure that the 12.1" screen is sufficient, especially at 1024x768 resolution. Both of the laptops that operate at this rez have 13.3" LCDs, and I think that's instructive. The iBook doesn't support PCMIA cards, a move which limits internal expansion. It's open question as to how important that is, though. Personally, I don't think it's a big deal.

On the plus side, besides winning outright in size, weight, and speed—which I'll return to in a minute—the new iBook also offers built-in 10/100 BaseT ethernet. I consider this utterly essential, and 3 of the 6 competing laptops don't offer it at all. On two of those that do offer it, it's a $125 add-on. Ouch.

The iBook has 2 USB ports while the PCs tended to have additional serial, parallel and PS/2 ports in addition to USB. I don't consider all the legacy junk to be a plus for the PC—frankly, that's probably why their machines are so much heavier. There are enough USB and FireWire peripherials out there now (plus USB adapters if necessary) that the extra PC ports are a very questionable value.

The iBook is the only laptop to have a FireWire port, another technology I consider crucial. It's also the only one to have wireless networking antennas wired into the casing, and it's also the least expensive if the lot ($99 for an Airport card) to make wireless. That might not be a "must-have" it's getting closer by the day. The iBook's 5 hour battery life is tops in the field as well, as most manufacturers opted not even to mention battery life in their advertising. (Toshiba gets 2 hours.)

The real victory of the iBook, though, ultimately boils down to the size, weight, speed issues. This laptop is considerably smaller than its rivals, and perhaps more importantly, at 4.9 lbs., its well over 1 lb. lighter than its nearest competitor (the ThinkPad i at 6 lbs.). Most of these laptops weigh in at around 7 lbs. (My Pismo is 6.3 lbs with DVD drive / 5.9 lbs. without, and I assure even that I find 6.3 lbs. to be plenty. No laptop owner says, "I wish my laptop were heavier.")

But the iBook's impressive size and weight would be nothing if it didn't deliver on performance, and deliver it does. 500-MHz G3 cooks the sad little Celeron chips powering most of these machines. The Inspirion and the Presario are at least powered by Pentium IIIs but not for long: The Inspirion battery life is about 1.5 hours and the Presario doesn't even bother to advertise the battery life. The PIII sucks juice that fast. Not that it matters, though. The G3 speeds past the 750- and 700-MHz PIIIs anyway.

All this, and the biggest iBook advantage may be that you don't have to run Windows.

April 25, 2001
Just a quick reminder to Oregon- and southwest Washington-based readers that the Portland Mac Business Expo is coming up on May 2. Apple will be there in force, not mention Adobe, Epson, Wacom, etc. Admission is free, though I think parking is $5. Dave and I went a couple of years ago and came back with lots of free goodies (aka swag). You can too.

April 23, 2001
Apple releases QuickTime 5.01 (final) available for immediate download via the QuickTime updater. Although the interface retains the brushed metal look of QuickTime 4, the controls have been reworked to provide both better and additional functionality. As a longtime opponent of the QT4 interface changes, I welcome the QT5 improvements here. Interestingly, the QT5 interface supports "skins" so the interface can be completely reworked. I expect a "classic" looking skin by a 3rd party before too long.

Under the hood improvements are similarly dramatic: Support for Macromedia Flash 4, MPEG-1 Streaming, 360-degree Cubic VR, enhanced AppleScript support, a new DLS-compatible music synthesizer, and more.

Mac system requirements are a PowerPC CPU (including obviously G3 or G4), MacOS 7.5.5 or higher, Open Transport 1.2 or higher, and 32 MB of RAM. I think that's every machine Apple's put out in the last 4 years, and I'm sure there's some older ones which can run it as well.

QT5 basic is a free download; the Pro version is $30 at the Apple Store. (Note that QT3 and QT4 Pro users have no upgrade path. QT5 Pro requires you spend another $30.) QT5 Pro adds a lot of features, so it may be worth the $30 for even the casual user. (It's a no-brainer for me.)

In related news, Apple announced that digital camera manufacturers including Canon, Casio, Kodak, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sanyo have integrated QuickTime technology into their products. There are now more than 75 camera models which support QuickTime. Sweet.

April 20, 2001
Apple announced the other day that it had sold its 5 millionth iMac, which is a pretty nice achievement. Rumors have it that the iMac line will be "refreshed" this summer with wide-screen monitors and faster processors, but who really knows? Besides Steve Jobs, I mean.

Meanwhile, apparently the new Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power models are accounting for only 20 percent of current iMac sales, and though CFO Fred Anderson lauded that 20 percent in the recent conference call, it doesn't sound all that impressive to me. Maybe he knows something I don't, though. Nonetheless, I hope they change patterns soon (build-to-order would be nice!).

April 18, 2001
Apple announced a $43 million quarterly profit today, easily topping street estimates. The company shipped 751,000 computers during the quarter, including some 115,000 PowerBook G4s. Channel inventory is now down to 4 weeks (which was one of Apple's goals) and cash on hand equals $4.1 billion.

Good quarter.

April 10, 2001
MacOS Rumors is reporting that new dual-processor G4 towers and new iBooks are headed our way either late this month or early next. With the tower machines, they're supposedly going to offer 733-MHz and 667-MHz dual systems at the same price point as the current single processor machines. If so, that's a very impressive upgrade.

April 5, 2001
Got to talk with Apple Tech Support today for an hour or so after Trinity refused to boot from the hard drive. Tried every trick I could think of without result, and finally had to just break down and give Apple a call.

Turned out that somebody at Apple screwed up and made the Startup Disk control panel 9.2.1 update available via the Software Updates control panel to computers running 9.04. That version of the Startup Disk control panel, as I found out, is for Mac OS 9.1 or higher.

Reinstall of the old 9.04 Startup Disk control panel solved the problem.

I was just happy that the problem had a logical solution and resolution. One of my biggest complaints about Windows (and I have many) is that solutions are frequently nonsensical.

While I was on the phone with Apple, I picked up some interesting trivia:

Apple has two support centers in the United States, one in Sacramento, California and another in Austin, Texas. All told, there are about 300 support personnel.
Tech support isn't receiving very many calls about MacOS 9.1. Most issues are third-party software compatibility problems. The OS itself is pretty solid.
Not many issues with the Pismo PowerBooks. From a tech support perspective it's been a great machine.
The biggest issue with the new Titanium PowerBook seems to be a DVD eject mechanism which gets stuck. This was a problem with some early models, but it has now been corrected.

March 23, 2001
Since MacOS X launches tomorrow, I thought I'd issue one final warning for those considering taking the plunge: Don't be a moron. If you use your Mac for anything that even approaches mission-critical work, you'd be foolhardy indeed to jump on the MacOS X bandwagon this early. Let others install what some are calling "public beta 2" and reap the rewards yourself a few months hence.

Realistically, there's almost no MacOS X-native applications available yet anyway, so there's not much to be gained by upgrading immediately. Save yourself headaches and let Apple's team of overworked software engineers crank out a revision or two. I'd bet that if we wait four months, not only will we see a whole bunch of MacOS X-native applications, but we'll see a lot more functionality in the OS itself as well.

I'm as eager to get X's protected memory, multithreading, etc., but I'm not able to sacrifice machine usability for a few months to do it. I'm advising you don't either.

March 18, 2001
This is livin'. I'm sitting in bed, typing on my Pismo PowerBook and uploading these web entries to my web site via Airport, Apple's wireless networking system. The Airport Base Station is connected to the Local Area Network (LAN) downstairs in the office. The LAN includes a cable modem, and the Base Station just takes that signal, encrypts it, and broadcasts it throughout the house (and surrounding area).

Upstairs here, the PowerBook has an Airport card installed. The card receives the signal from the Base Station, the computer decrypts it and -presto!- instant Internet access. It's full-speed access too, given that the Airport signal runs about 10x faster than a regular cable modem.

In all, it's a very impressive technology, and one which I would highly recommend to anyone with a large house. Airport literally eliminates the need to wire ethernet, and though that's not a major deal if you're building a new house, if you've got an old place like we do, it's a huge money-saver versus the alternative.

* * * * *

We're about a week away from the release of MacOS X, and allow me to be one of many to tell you the following: Don't do it yet! This is a monumental upgrade. This is an operating system with completely new foundations. This is software you want to migrate to in time, after the bugs have been worked out.

That said, it's getting much closer to the time where 9.04 users can safely upgrade to MacOS 9.1. A lot of patches and upgrades are out, and many of the initial issues have been dealt with. Of course if you're running 9.04 successfully, there's no compelling reason to do 9.1 unless you're ultimately planning on going to MacOS X.

If you are headed to MacOS X, then 9.1 is a "must-do" at some point. That's because the emulation layer of MacOS X (called "Classic") uses MacOS 9.1 for its emulation, not 9.04 or earlier. So I think it makes sense to upgrade to 9.1 first, make sure everything works the way you expect, then upgrade to MacOS X.

Of course if you're running MacOS 8.6 or earlier, just buy MacOS X. It includes MacOS 9.1 free in the box, so you might as well purchase X and kill two birds with one stone.

But I wouldn't do it for a few months.

February 21, 2001—MacWorld Tokyo
Apple introduces new iMacs and lowers the price of the G4 Cube. Here's the low-end iMac specs:

It's interesting to note that Apple has raised the low-end price from $799 to $899. Of course that $100 gets to 50-MHz processor speed, 4 GB of hard drive space, and 2 FireWire ports, so it may be worth it.

The iMac SE, priced at $1499, is the same as the mid-range model except that it adds or changes these items:

Notably, the mid- and high-range iMac models are available in patterns called "Flower Power" and "Blue Dalmatian" in addition to Graphite and Indigo. While most techies are not fond of either of the new patterns, teenage girls across the world are probably yelping with delight. At least that's my guess as to the marketing demographic.

The G4 Cube prices are now reduced to $1299, $1599, and $2144. For the image-conscious professional or for anyone who needs a bigger display size than the iMac's 15" screen, the Cube is now a reasonable alternative. I continue to believe that that market segment is relatively small, but hopefully Apple will find otherwise.

iTunes, Apple's free MP3 player/burner software, has been upgraded to version 1.1. Download available at the Apple web site.

Significantly, Apple announced that it will partner with nVidia to bring their awesome GeForce 3 graphics chip to the Mac before any other computer platform. This is mind-blowing video power, and for professional users, represents the biggest news of MacWorld Tokyo.

February 20, 2001
A little birdy tells me that MacOS X goes Golden Master this week. You heard it here first.

February 18, 2001
The benchmarks and reviews of the PowerBook G4 are starting to hit the street, and the news is interesting. While the G4s offer a bigger screen size and lower weight (and really cool titanium style), they're not the barnburners you might expect compared to the Pismo models.

They are much faster in Alti-Vec (aka Velocity Engine) enabled tasks like running certain Photoshop filters, encoding MPs, and using QuickTime, but overall, the PowerBook G4 400 is virtually identical or slower than the Pismo PowerBook 500 in most things. This makes sense, since the G4 and G3 chips are virtually the same except that the G4s have Alti-Vec bolted on.

Pismos also have the advantage of an analog sound in port and a second FireWire port. The G4 relies on USB and FireWire for microphone input, though there's a built-in mic as well. The second FireWire port is probably an "extra" since FireWire peripherials can be daisy-chained, but it's something of an advantage nonetheless.

Ultimately, I'd say that Pismo owners like myself really have no compelling reason to upgrade to a G4 PowerBook. That may change with the release of Mac OS X which is said to be optimized for Alti-Vec, but for now the Pismo remains a very viable machine, and anyone looking at laptops would be well-advised to consider getting one at close-out prices.

Rumors say to expect new iMacs and iBooks at MacWorld Tokyo later this week. Don't know about new colors, but I think CD-R/RW drives are a no-brainer as are faster G3 (G4?) chips. Beyond that, I think it's wait and see.

Canon has gone and gummed up my digital still camera wish list by introducing the S300 (aka Digital Elph 2) which presumably is a replacement for the S100 (aka Digital Elph). These cameras are small, easy to use, and great picture-takers. Image quality is high for such a small camera, and for 5 x 7 shots they're supposedly super. (They can also do 8 x 10, but the results aren't as good.)

The S300 adds a 20 frames-per-second movie mode and about 2 oz. of weight (making it an 8 oz. camera.) It's already got a stitch assist mode for creating panoramas or QuickTime VRs.

I played around with the S100 at MacWorld and it's been on my "to buy" list ever since. Leave it to Canon to go and introduce something better.

February 16, 2001
I ordered a four-year AppleCare extended warranty for Trinity this morning. An additional advantage is that it will include coverage for the Airport BaseStation which apparently has a couple of capacitors prone to blowouts.

As far as extended warranties go, I'm not normally a huge fan. Most items—particularly Apple products—work great out of the box and continue to work great for years (far more than most PCs, btw). At the same time, given that the cost of LCD screen replacement is about $1,000, it's foolish not to protect an investment in a PowerBook or iBook.

Because they're moved around, portables tend to break more easily, and given my reliance on Trinity, I can hardly afford to have that happen. This gives me piece of mind through 2004, which should be long enough.

Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, which we'll theoretically see later this year, is such a blatant rip-off of MacOS X in so many ways I find it almost unbelievable. Nonetheless, I noted it retains the Windows "Start" button at the bottom left of the screen, so obviously Microsoft still doesn't have a clue when it comes to human interface design. That made me feel a lot better.

February 4, 2001
We're starting to get some news about MacOS X, and it's sounding promising on the whole. Apparently, X will ship with MacOS 9.1 for backwards compatibility, so anyone currently running MacOS 9.04 would be well-advised to download and install the free MacOS 9.1 upgrade at least a few weeks before any MacOS X upgrade.

That's not to say that I'm recommending anyone jump on 9.1 bandwagon just yet—there are plenty of issues still being sorted through—but eventually it'll be the thing to do.

January 18, 2001
Early word on MacOS 9.1 seems about par for the course. Sounds like it is faster and more stable than 9.04 but breaks a fair bit of software (though nothing major). I'd still advise sticking with 9.04 or 8.6 for a few more weeks as things get ironed out. Best to let others play beta tester when it comes to operating systems. I'm confident that eventually it will be worthwhile for everyone who can to upgrade, but the keyword here is eventually. Patience is a virtue.

January 10, 2001—MacWorld SF 2001
I've still not made my way through any sort of indepth look at many of the vendors in the South Hall. I got a lot of them though, and I've seen everything in at least a cursory fashion. Let's face it: I've sorted through a lot of Mac crap so you don't have to. (Hehe.) Here's some of the show highlights:

I'll be taking Day 3 off (so I can recover). But I'll be going back again on Friday to follow up on things. I'll issue a MacWorld Wrap up report by Sunday at the latest.

Three tee-shirts and a heavy bag of paper-filled nonsense later, Day 1 at MacWorld SF 2001 was complete. It'll take me a little bit of time to sort through all the flyers I picked up, but tomorrow I hope to have commentary on the non-Apple products I saw.

Tomorrow ought to be a fascinating day. I'll probably have a report posted on it later in the evening. Despite the temptation to take Trinity to the Expo, log onto one of the Airport networks Apple runs, and upload everything on site, I probably won't do this until later in the week—Wednesday or Thursday—because I want to be able to explore the show floor rather unconstrained as it were. Regardless, though, I'll try to have show updates posted here as soon as possible—at least nightly.

January 5, 2001
I've now completed my first major project with Adobe InDesign 1.52, the page layout program which succeeded Adobe PageMaker and promises to be, the words of Adobe loyalists, the "Quark Killer."

Trust me, it's not. At least not yet. It may be wonderful for smaller projects, but our 48 page full-color catalogue was a crash-happy experience the likes of which I hope I never see again. On a G4/400 with 256 MB RAM—150 of which was allocated to InDesign—we see snail-like performance and more crashes than Evel Knievel.

I tried working with InDesign on Trinity—that a G3/500 with 384 MB RAM and a gigantic 200 MB RAM allocation to InDesign—but it was more of the same. Whatever InDesign's issues, having gobs of RAM apparently won't solve them.

It's a shame, too, because InDesign has a lot of neat features, and I think it's got a lot of promise. But unless you've got the patience of a saint (not to mention a killer computer system), InDesign isn't worth the effort when it comes to longer documents with lots of graphics. ("Longer" in this context means anything over about 36 pages.)

January 3, 2001
We've got MacWorld SF 2001 right around the corner and while that usually means some new Mac hardware, potential computer buyers would be hard-pressed to find better values than the price-reduced Macs that are currently available.

Besides revisions/upgrades to the above lines, I think we might see speed-bumps to both the iMac and iBook lines and distribution of MacOS 9.1, the last classic MacOS upgrade before MacOS X ships (probably in late February).

Latest update on June 28, 2001
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