The Low End Mac Link Archive, December 2000
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.
- Opinion: Why
Newer failed and how Apple may follow, Bob Moriarty, MacCPU
Café, 12/29. "You can have truly superior products and
unlimited demand and still fail. All you have to do is consider
your customers the enemy."
- Opinion: Darek's
dirty little secrets: Things every Mac and PC user should
know!, Darek Mihocka, Emulators Inc. Lots of very helpful
information for Mac and PC users.
- Analysis: Everything you
ever wanted to know about CPRM, but ZDNet wouldn't tell you...,
The Register, 12/29. "Content Protection for Recordable Media is a
mechanism for controlling the copying, moving and deletion of
digital media...."
- Opinion: Step backward to go
forward, John Holmes, osOpinion, 12/29. "...Apple's only hope
for survival is to get OS X on as many boxes as they can, as
quickly as they can."
- Consumer: Week's
best iBook, PowerBook deals, PowerBook Central, 12/29.
- News: Newer
Technology closes doors, MacNN, 12/28. A real loss to the Mac
community, since Newer made some of the finest accelerators on the
market. Also see article on MacCentral.
- Software: iCab
Preview 3.3 available, iCab.de [Macs Only!]. iCab now supports Mac
OS X.
- OS: LinuxPPC
200 Q4 released, LinuxPPC.com, [
Slashdot]. Latest rev available on bootable CD for Cube, dual
processor G4s, "Pismo" PowerBook.
- Analysis:
Slower than its predecessor: Pentium 4, David Pogue, NY Times
(registration required), 12/28. Unthinkable? Not to Intel, whose
1.5 GHz P4 is slower than a 1 GHz PIII.
- Opinion: Apple
is beleaguered! Everybody off the bandwagon!, Michel Munger, On
the Flip Side, Mac Observer, 12/27. "...such situations are complex
and nobody could pretend to grasp all of them."
- Analysis: Pentium 4: In depth,
Emulators, Inc., 12/27 [
Slashdot]. "...Intel's new flagship Pentium 4 processor turns
out to be an engineering disaster...."
- Advice: Printable
guide for new Mac users, Nancy Carrol Gravley, Mac Observer,
12/27. Getting started with the Mac, step by step.
- Analysis: Top UI grievances
of Mac OS X, Dave Giovannini, osOpinion, 12/27. Read this
article to better understand why OS X is different.
- Opinion: Vaporware
2000. missing in action, Wired, 12/27. List includes Bluetooth,
Itanium (aka Itanic), OS X,
and several games. Which is #1?
- Opinion: Something
to ruin your holiday digestion, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks,
12/26. Piracy preventing hard drives? Proposal protects copyright,
but wrecks lots of other things. (Also, good
discussion on Slashdot.)
- Charity: Washington
Apple Pi delivers 25 refurb Macs to families in DC, Mac
Observer, 12/26. "One of the beautiful things about the Mac has
always been its longevity as a useful machine"
- Humor: Zap the PRAM,
Macboy.com. This week, an animated cartoon.
- Opinion: Ode on a Blue G3 (dead link), Niko Coucouvanis,
MacAddict, 12/26. "That's right- I use a machine that's nearly two
years old, and I love it, Moore's law be damned. "
- Opinion: Top
10 security stories of 2000, ZDNet, 12/24 [Win98 Central]. Three Windows
worms, site hacks, stolen credit card numbers- and no mention of
the Mac or Unix.
- Opinion: Cube-PowerBook
hybrid a bad idea?, MacSlash, 12/22.
- Benchmarks: Dual G4/500 smokes 1.4 GHz
P4, Bare Feats, 12/22. Power Mac G4/500MP beats 1.4 GHz P4
machine in Photoshop, Cinema, Bryce, and Quake III Arena tests.
Just wait until we close that MHz gap. ;-)
- Analysis: The LCD update: Still
no headaches, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl. After several
months with LCD monitors, headaches remain at bay. Also, prices
should drop in the coming year.
- Tech: Table
of RAM compatibility for 68k Macs, Jag's House. Almost
everything you'd want to know about memory upgrades for Macs
(except what capacity SIMMs each model supports).
News: Classic
Mac club plans Xmas party, Macworld UK, 12/21. Stuart Bell and
"the pickle" will be in attendance at Dec. 28 get-together for
members of Mac UK list.- MacInSchool: A gaggle of
LC IIIs, part 2, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom, 12/21.
Ongoing project to provide special ed students with take-home
computers.
- Advice: Enough
Mac (& other) holiday links to choke a Microsoft exec,
Nancy Gravley, Mac Observer, 1/20. You might also want to read her
Mac
cookie recipe.
-
SETI@home breaks 500,000 years, Slashdot, 12/20. No sign of ET,
but 2.6 million users have completed over 2.5 billion work units.
(See SETIonMac for more
info.)
- Virus:
Kriz virus makes return appearance, ZDNet/Yahoo, 12/20. Virus
piggybacks on other viruses, strikes on Dec. 25, wipes hard drive
and BIOS on PCs, currently ranked #8 infector by Trend Micro.
- Tech:
Can disk drives keep up with faster PCs?, Cnet, 12/19. Serial
ATA designed to replace parallel ATA for drive, compete with
FireWire, improve performance, and reduce cost.
- Science: Time for
change, Fox News, 12/18 [
Slashdot]. Proposal for "human calendar" with 13 months of
28 days seems sensible, but we're such a change-resistant
species.
- Review:
Three photo printers, Digital Camera Resource Page, 12/17.
Quality, speed, consumables, and more.
- Tech:
What is an HFS Wrapper?, Ask Al, Alsoft, 12/19. "Only the Mac
OS 9.0.x System file contains the errant wrapper System file
startup code."
- Tech: Multiprocessing
in Mac OS X, David Read, MacWeek, 12/19. Good explanation of
cooperative vs. preemptive multiprocessing and support for multiple
CPUs.
- Opinion: Mac
Daddy psychoanalyzes George Clinton, Apple spiffs & other
Cupertino flaws, Rodney O. Lain, iBrotha, 12/19. "Each product
has a fatal flaw in it. You know, you could be on to
something!"
- Analysis:
Macintosh fellowship, David Schultz, Applelust.com, 12/18.
"This is the best argument I know that Apple needs its own retail
stores: Only a Mac lover can sell Macs- one cannot fake it."
- AAPL: Apple's
K-10 and Apple's future, Wes George, Apple Trader, Mac
Observer, 12/18. "...complex systems never fail for simple
reasons."
- Technology: Ten passed
technologies, Nick Montfort, Technology Review [Slashdot]. Elegant technologies that are
disappearing.
- Virus:
More than 54,000 virus threats exist today, ZDNet Asia, 12/18
[Win98 Central]. And
99.9% of them can't touch the Mac. :-)
- Opinion: Corporate
arrogance and fan websites, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks,
12/18. "Warner Bros has . . . provided Apple with an object lesson
in how to address the issue of fan support websites...."
- Web:
We now interrupt your browsing for this commercial message,
Susan Stellin, New York Times, 12/18 [free registration required].
I usually stop visiting sites with popup ads and can't see why
advertisers would prefer them. (Good discussion on
Slashdot.)
News: Canadian
government goudges recordable media consumers deeper, Charles
W. Moore, Applelinks, 12/18. Levy ranges from 21-77 cents for CD-R,
CD-RW, audio tape.- Humor: Zap the PRAM,
Macboy.com, 12/18. Today, a look at mammals.org.
- Opinion:
Rid thyself of angst concerning OS X on pre-G3 Macs, Bryan
Chaffin, Back Page, Mac Observer, 12/15. "...if you are doing the
things you do today two years from now, your Mac will still be
performing just as well then as it does today"
- Analysis: End of an
era: 3dfx selling assets & shutting down, Bryan Chaffin,
Mac Observer, 12/15. "The bad news is that this leaves ATI as the
only participant in the Mac market."
- Hack: Wrappers
for your G4 Cube, Patrick O'Kelly, ResExcellence, 12/15. How to
change the appearance of the Cube- the computer itself, not the
desktop.
- News: Flat-panels
prices "set to halve," Macworld UK, 12/15. By next Christmas,
flat panel displays may cost half as much. $2,000 Cinema Display
anyone?
- Advice: Putting your
old fax machine to rest, Paul Shields, Business Mac, 12/15. A
look at Mac fax solutions.
- Software: Apple Disk First
Aid v8.6 covered at Macs Only!, 12/15. Among other things, this
fixes a "Wrapper System file error." It has found this error on
almost every partition we've run it on- and fixed it.
- Opinion: Should
OS X be dumbed down?, Rodney O. Lain, iBrotha, Mac Observer,
12/15. "...the computer needs to take on a level of complexity that
would never have been accepted by the masses of old."
- News: Microsoft
says profits will miss forecasts, Yahoo/Reuters, 12/15. Apple,
Gateway, Compaq, Intel, Microsoft- the list keeps growing.
- Opinion: Why
Apple didn't die, Marc Zeedar, Mac Opinion, 12/14. "No ordinary
PC company could have survived the mistakes Apple made."
- Opinion: It's like a little
office, John Holmes, osOpinion, 12/13. "Wasn't the whole reason
for the Mac's creation, to allow all of us to feel comfortable in
front of our machines?"
- 2000. Year
in review, MacFixIt, 12/13. Well, someone had to be first.
- Opinion: On
bloatware and good enough software, Charles W. Moore,
Applelinks, 12/13.
- Opinion:
The quality issue: Are Macs built as well as they should be?,
Charles W. Moore, Road Warrior, Mac Opinion, 12/12. "American
technology companies accept 'good enough' quality for the sake of
speed and constant innovation."
- AAPL: One for
the money, Andrew Shalat, MacWeek, 12/12. "Back in September,
when Apple's stock dropped to 20, I bought about 50 shares."
- Opinion: The
best Mac OS ever?, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 12/12.
"...crashes of any sort, were virtually nonexistent running this
setup, and it was speedy, even with the puny 8 MHz 68000 processor,
and a paltry 2.5 megabytes of RAM."
- Opinion: Dueling
email client proponents, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 12/12.
Emailer vs. Eudora vs. Outlook Express. Hint on speeding up
OE.
- Low end: Vintage word
processors, System 6 Heaven. Writing tools for the System 6
user.
- Justice: Spammer
gets seven years, CNN.com, 12/12 [Slashdot]. Jason Garon hijacked mail
server, spammed millions.
- Opinion:
Apple's innovations welcomed by creative types, Hugh Peebles,
San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/12. A very nice feel-good read.
- Opinion: Microsoft
& bloatware revisited, Michel Munger, On the Flip Side, Mac
Observer, 12/12. "The dirt: quite a few applications that people
describe as bloatware are actually full of the types of features
that are far ahead of everybody's needs."
- Opinion: The many flavors of
spam, Mike, osOpinion, 12/12. "The spambots have been working
overtime...." As if we didn't already know that. ;-)
- Opnion: One step forward,
none back, John Holmes, osOpinion, 12/12. "'...what was so
great about the SE/30, that a PC machine of the same generation
couldn't do.' I told him, evolve."
- Opinion:
Moore's pretty good law, David Coursey, ZDNet, 12/11. "Most
people already have more megahertz on their desktops than they can
really use."
- Oops: Mac USB not 1.2
Mbps, MacFixIt, 12/11. Quoting from the Roxio/Adaptec
newsletter: "Apple's USB device driver . . . has a maximum data
transfer rate of 680 KB/sec." and is therefor unsuitable for 4x CD
burns.
- Analysis: BusinessWeek
slams Apple with erroneous data & flat out lies, Bryan
Chaffin, Mac Observer, 12/11.
- Oops: MacAddict
January disc has virus infection, MacCentral, 12/11. The
DarkRage Public Beta game is infected with a strain of nVIR.
- News: Mac Web loses a
beloved member, big g media, 12/11. Scott J. Gray of
Appleholics-Anonymous and big g media passed away on Saturday,
December 9.
- Web: MacCards back
with "Just Think" ecards, 12/11.
- Humor: New Zap the PRAM
cartoon, Macboy.com, 12/11.
- News: Verizon clears
backlog of spam, Webmaster Inc., 12/10 [Slashdot]. Some email delayed for hours
by tens of millions of junk emails flooding mail servers.
- Analysis: Apple's
recordable CD options, David Read, MacWeek, 12/9. A look at
CD-RW and other options.
- Advice: Ethernet/LocalTalk,
MP3 to WAV, cheap stock trading, Dave Hamilton, Ask Dave, Mac
Observer, 12/8.
- Low end: System 6
Heaven, Marten van de Kraats. "System 6 will make any vintage
Macintosh computer as fast as a G3."
- Opinion:
Apple's pain is your gain, Bryan Chaffin, Back Page, Mac
Observer, 12/8. The best time to buy a new Mac may be before
Macworld Expo, not after.
- Review: Ecrix VXA-1
tape drive, Paul Shields, Business Mac, 12/8. This is the drive
we use for backup at Low End Mac- recommended!
- Consumer: Week's
best PowerBook, iBook deals, PowerBook Central, 12/8.
- Review: iListen,
Charles W. Moore, Moore's Views and Reviews, Applelinks, 12/8.
"...iListen offers functionality that has never before being
available on the Macintosh."
- Analysis: Reasons to keep your old
Mac, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 12/8. Some things a lot of
low-end Mac users already know.
- Dark side: Microsoft's Y2K
security holes: 93 and counting, The Register, 12/8. "The trend
in security breaches, particularly with respect to any software
package carrying the popular Microsoft brand name, is clearly
up.
- Analysis: Why aren't more
Macs being sold?, Gene Steinberg, Arizona Central, 12/7. it's
our fault - we hold onto our Macs too long. :-)
- Mac-N-DOS: SoftMac 2000, Emulators,
Inc. Stuck working on a PC at work, home, or school? SoftMac
emulates a 68k Mac, runs Mac OS 8.1, and reads Mac floppies.
- Web: MacFixIt Toolbox
Awards, MacFixIt, 12/7. Best new/updated software for 1999 and
2000.
- Consumer: Refurbished G4 Cube, $1,299, Apple Store, then click
Special Deals. Save $500, and no need to buy an Apple display to
obtain a $300 rebate.
- News: Author
of Fetch wins half-million on Millionaire, Charles W. Moore,
Applelinks, 12/7. Fetch is a popular Mac FTP program. Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire? is a popular TV show.
- Reap what you sow:
Californians told to cut power use, AOL/AP, 12/7 [Slashdot]. 2,500 megawatts due to from
plants closed because they reached the state's annual limit for
pollution.
- Advice: Small
office networks: Wired or wireless?, Paul Shields, Business
Mac, 12/7. Probably a bit of each.
- Opinion: Down
with TLDs!, Marc Zeedar, Mac Opinion, 12/6. "What matters is
your actual domain name, not the extension. What good is getting a
.net version of your domain name when someone else owns the
dot-com?"
- Analysis: AAPL: How
low can it go?, Wes George, Mac Observer, 12/6. Apple stock
below $15 after news of anticipated quarterly loss.
- Consumer: FCC
weighs 10-digit dialing for all calls, LATimes, 12/6 [Slashdot]. Every call would include
current area code.
- News: Apple
to report disappointing first quarter results, Apple, 12/5.
Apple expects a net loss of $225-250 million, the first loss since
Steve Jobs became iCEO.
- Analysis: Apple's
CD-RD strategy, xYankee, AppleInsider, 12/5. Jobs notes Apple
"totally missed the boat" on recordable CD. Sources expect Apple to
address this soon.
- Opinion:
Will the next PowerBook be a "WideBook"?, Charles W. Moore, Mac
Opinion, 12/5. Thoughts on "Mercury" rumors.
- Web: My Heavenly
Memories, John C. Foster. Clever use of QuickTime on the
Web!
- Software: Connectix
unveils Virtual PC 4.0, MacCentral, 12/4. Faster, more space
and memory efficient, allows multiple concurrent Windows sessions.
Requires G3 or G4.
- News: G3
available at 700 MHz, IBM [Accelerate Your Mac]. "Models
include the new 350-700 MHz PowerPC 750CX and 750CXe."
- AAPL: Apple's
stock: A double your money gamble?, Wes George, Mac Observer,
12/4. "Is AAPL a good buy at this point?"
- MacInSchool: Macs headed for
extinction in Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools, Macs
Only!, 12/4. School apparently bought PC-only registration/grading
software "by accident" and needs to replace Macs with PCs so they
can use it. Huh?
- Humor: Zap the PRAM,
Macboy.com, 12/4. Latest cartoon from William Levin.
- Virus: Virus
writers send Christmas gifts, Yahoo/Reuters, 12/4. "...the
first two Christmas viruses already spreading fast." In the Windows
world, of course.
- Advice: Using
System Picker to change OS on a single volume, Bob LeVitus, Ask
Dr. Mac, MacCentral, 12/2. It's an old trick, but a very useful
one.
- Analysis: Upgrades
in store for the Cube?, MacWeek, 12/1. Faster CPUs, better
video cards, larger hard drives, and higher capacity DIMMs all
possible.
- Virus: "Creative"
virus spreading quickly, Cnet, 12/1. "The virus, dubbed
'Creative,' carries no destructive payload, but automatically
emails itself to a victim's entire email address book." Windows and
Outlook Express; user must run file "creative.exe".
- Digicam list,
Leben Lists. General discussion about digital cameras.
- Benchmarks: FireWire vs. SCSI Orb
drives, Bare Feats, 12/1. Compares SCSI drive with three
different FireWire solutions.
- Opinion: Video CDs: Movie viewing on non-DVD PowerBooks, John
C. Chen, PowerBook Source, 12/1. Video CD also works on many Power
Macs and clones.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized,
sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Opinions expressed are
those of their authors and may not reflect the opinion of Cobweb
Publishing. Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one
may not work for all.
Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2016 by
Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All
rights reserved. Low End Mac, LowEndMac, and lowendmac.com are
trademarks of Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh,
iPad, iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, Mac Pro, and AirPort are
registered trademarks of Apple
Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Please report errors to
.
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to
any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a
frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for
publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission,
and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be
edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal
information unless you explicitly provide it, and we don't share the
information we have with others. For more details, see our
Terms of Use.
