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.
OWC: NewerTech miniStack FireWire/USB 2.0 HD & Hub Up to 1.0TB of Performance Storage + FW/USB2 Powered Hubs - convenient & sleek 6.5" x 6.5" x 1.5" Featured: 500GB $169.99; 750GB $209.99; 1.0TB $339.99
I got lots of great feedback on Jaguar on the
800 MHz iBook from readers. Thank you to everyone who took the
time to write me.
The greatest amount of feedback came from readers pointing out
that you can drag things to the dock in any view that you
bloody well please. However, this isn't strictly true. I have the
Dock set to show/hide automatically, and while this option is checked
you cannot drag any item from Column View to the Dock. You can drag
items to the Dock from Column View if you grab the icon from the
preview pane.
This problem seems very strange, and I hope Apple will fix it at
some point. (For the record, OS X 10.2 seems to be working as
expected now. Go figure.)
Another note came from David Weber, pointing out that I had mixed
up multithreading and multitasking. OS X includes
preemptive multitasking, which controls tightly how much of
the processor time each task gets. OS 9 includes
cooperative multitasking, meaning that any one program can
bully every other program and take all of the processor's time.
Cooperative multitasking is sort of like a free-for-all - each task
dives for the pile and tries to latch on to as much processor time as
it can.
Many people also responded to my strange iMovie bug and thought it
might be due to bad third party RAM. I neglected to mention that
these kernel panics occurred with the stock 128 MB configuration from
Apple. Since adding the RAM, I have not tried to replicate the
problem.
Onto more interesting things. I downloaded the Mac OS X
10.2.2 update last week. It seems to work nicely, and I didn't
experience any other problems. The biggest new thing is a Journaling
File System (JFS). Basically journaling uses an 8 MB cache space
on your drive to insure that if you have a hard crash or have a
kernel panic, the hard drive won't get corrupted.
In order to enable JFS, you must use the Terminal (ack! scary!).
Here's what you have to do:
Launch the terminal.
Type the command sudo diskutil enableJournal / This
will enable JFS on all of your volumes. You'll be required to type
in your root password.
The terminal should say report Allocated 8192K for journal
file. Journaling has been enabled on /
If you want to see other commands for the Disk utility, just
type sudo diskutil
Close the terminal. JFS is now enabled. The only drawback is a
decrease in write performance of 10-15%.
Another interesting thing that Apple has made available through
their Developer page is IP over FireWire preview. It only works in
Jaguar, but if you install it on two computers with Jaguar, you are
able to connect them via a 6 pin FireWire cable for very fast file
sharing or LAN gaming. With an iBook
800 and an iBook 600,
transfer was about 130 Mb/s - better than ethernet, but not as fast
as FireWire's potential of 400 Mb/s. A caveat: If you have lots of
complicated network locations in your Network control panel, it will
break them all. You will have to set them up again.
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.
Salvaging a broken PowerBook by turning it into a desktop computer.
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: Centris 650, Feb. 1993 - The replacement for the Quadra 700 has room for an internal CD-ROM.
List of the Day: Old Mac MP covers 604-based multiprocessor Macs and clones.
September 7 in LEM history: 98: Banner exchanges - 00: Tips from the Mac manager - Getting a Mac job - 01: Apple and the gray market - Repositioning the 'Books - 04: Tray loading iMac a good choice for OS X? - Pismo CPU upgrades - 06: Mac mini value equation - Setting up a Mac Classic II - Putting the Intel transition in perspective - 07: Region free DVD viewing, - My Newton - Solving Mac disk and hardware problems - 2 apps every MacBook should have
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.
Refurb 8 GB, $199; new, $284; refurb 16 GB, $299; new, $370; refurb 32 GB, $399; new, $453.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05.
Used 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $999; 2.16, $1,125; new, 2.2, $1,450 after rebate; refurb 2.4, $1,699; 2.5, $1,999; 2.6 Santa Rosa, $1,849; rebates on new.
Best iMac G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05.
Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $279; 800 Combo, $300; 1 GHz $390; 17" 800 MHz SD, $439; 1.25 GHz, $449; 20", $569.
Tomorrow's Solid State Drives and Notebooks, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 09.04.
Flash drives are great but have some shortcomings. Some thoughts on building better SSDs and notebooks to use them.
Best Mac mini Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04.
Used 1.25 GHz G4 SD, $549; 1.42 Combo, $409; new 1.83 Core2 Combo, $569 after rebate; 2.0 SD, $769 after rebate.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04.
Used 867 MHz Combo, no APX, $490; 1 GHz, $550; SuperDrive, $625; 1.5 GHz w/o APX, $660; w/APX, $675.
Best 17" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04.
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.
The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Shiira, iCab, Radon, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, SeaMonkey, Flock, and Camino tested in Leopard.
Best eMac Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03.
Used 700 MHz Combo, $120; 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $150; 1.42 GHz, $349.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03.
Mac OS X 10.5, single user, $99; 5 users, $140; 10.5 Server, 10 users, $395; unlimited, $850.
Best MacBook Air Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03.
Refurb 1.6 HD, $1,499; new, $1,690 after rebate; refurb 1.8, $1,699; new, $1,919 a/r; refurb 1.6 SSD, $2,099; new, $2,294 a/r; refurb 1.8, $2,299; new, $2,400 a/r.
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.
All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For
price quotes and advertising information, please contact
at BackBeat Media
(646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.
Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer
5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We
recommend Firefox
for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more
secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox
than any other browser.
