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My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted
articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things
Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your
submission to Dan Knight
.
Having the choice of whether or not to see ads is fine. Well, I
hate 'em. And I don't see them at LEM anyhow, because I use iCab (registered user).
And I have all your ads blocked, one by one, time after time. I
hate 'em.
But the thing I am very unhappy about at MacFixit is that they are
following the path so many others have since the Web came into
being - trying to capture things people have been writing in public
for the good of everyone and locking up access, or the archive, so
only paying customers can see it.
That strikes me as the worst kind of stealing from the common
shared body of knowledge.
MacFixit is certainly not the first (nor the thousandth) company
to try to do this.
They all basically are trying to siphon off the good will and
generosity that has built up around the world thanks to the Usenet
newsgroups.
Why is there any hope they can succeed? In one word - no
killfile tool on Web browsers.
Google's "groups" is polluting the newsgroups by
bringing in users with an interface that doesn't allow
killfiles. It undercuts, belies, destroys, makes
almost unimaginable the single, simple form of self-restraint that
allowed the newsgroups to function for so many people for so long -
the killfile tool on all the good newsreaders.
Again we see people flaming those they don't want to see - and
being unable to imagine what in the newsgroups was the
overwhelmingly standard advice, use your killfile.
So rip open the newsgroups with the 20 year archive (Google);
start leading in new users using tools that lack killfiles
(everyone); make the commons less attractive (ditto); start setting
up alternatives (many groups, including LEM and MacFixit and
Google).
And then steal from the poor - by making money be the gatekeeper
for the information.
So, I very much applaud LEM for not going to the locked
archive/paid user model, and staying with the
annoying-but-filterable advertising model.
I hope you will appreciate that it's worth paying you, not to
avoid the ads that I don't have to see, but to applaud you for
keeping the information all your readers have put on your page
available to future readers.
Thanks.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
Recent My Turn articles
Using Low End Macs for Internet Radio, 08.18.
When the local public radio station moved classical music to HD radio, it was time to find another way to listen. An old iMac with iTunes solved the problem.
'That's Not a Computer', 07.30.
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My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28.
The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
Mac of the Day: Mac LC III, Feb. 1993 - The first LC without compromise: 25 MHz 68030 CPU, 32-bit memory, up to 36 MB of RAM.
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Listen to Just the Music with the V-Moda Vibe Earbuds, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 09.05.
Well built, the noise canceling earbuds will let you hear all the nuances of your music without letting through background noise.
Best iPod touch Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05.
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Flash drives are great but have some shortcomings. Some thoughts on building better SSDs and notebooks to use them.
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Used 1 GHz, $779; 1.33 GHz, $799; 1.5 GHz, $859; 1.67 GHz, $910.
11 Mac Browsers Compared, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 09.03.
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Psystar Strikes Back, Countersues Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 09.03.
Psystar is trying to paint Apple as a monopoly and force it to license the Mac OS.
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