Low End Mac's Link Archive: April 2005
Links Around the Web
Review: Mac OS X 10.4
Tiger, John Siracusa, ars technica, 04.28. "Tiger includes
updates that are at least twice as significant as any single past
update."- News: Apple releases
SuperDrive update for Power Mac, eMac, MacMinute, 04.28.
"...software 'delivers updated SuperDrive firmware to improve
reliability when accessing DVD and CD media'" - for Power Mac G5
(2004) and eMac (2004).
- Opinion:
The value of your legacy portable?, Garrison Gunter, O'Grady's
PowerPage, 04.27. "...what do you do with that old ibook/pbook that
just isn't worth getting rid of?"
Rights: Dutch
plans for iPod tax could kill MP3 industry, The Register,
04.27. Netherlands preparing to place a steep levy on digital music
players because they could be used for piracy, could add $200+ to
60 GB iPod.- Analysis:
Paul Thurrott re-raises specter of Apple switching to Intel,
Bryan Chaffin, The Back Page, Mac Observer, 04.27. "My long
standing analysis of this issue is that there are too many barriers
to Apple switching to Intel, and that there aren't enough benefits
to doing so."
- Oops: Amazon leaks dual
2.7GHz Power Mac G5 details, MacMinute, 04.26. With retail
partners like this - not to mention those who shipped Tiger a week
early - who needs rumor sites?
- Analysis: The Apple
price myth: Will they ever learn?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night
Owl, 04.26. A comparably equipped $399 Dell system ends up costing
$945, so how can Consumer Reports call the Mac mini expensive?
- News:
Belkin USB 2.0 hub doubles as iPod shuffle dock, Larry Angell,
iPodlounge, 04.26. Unlike other USB 2.0 hubs, Belkin's new one has
a dock so you can charge and sync your iPod shuffle. US$30.
- OS X: 50 random
observations on Mac OS 10.4 'Tiger', Chris Biagini, Assorted
Geekery, 04.25. Lots of interesting tidbits, including, "TextEdit
can export to valid HTML or XHTML, with embedded, inline, or no
CSS. Really."
- OS X: iChat
3.0 users can now talk to MSN Messenger users, übergizmo,
04.25. "The iChat 3.0 Instant messaging (IM) that's bundled with
Mac OS X Tiger allows iChat users to communicate with other IM
platform, such as MSN messenger." Hooray for standards!
Rights: French
court bans DRM for DVDs, Boing Boing, 04.23. Man sues after
being unable to dub a DVD he owned to VHS. Private copying is
considered and a consumer right in France.- OS X:
Uptime without restarting, Charles W. Moore, OS X Odyssey,
Applelinks, 04.25. "I've gone more than three months without
rebooting my WallStreet PowerBook in daily but light duty use, but
I think my previous record in OS X was 21 days."
- Review: Newer
Technology RoadTrip! 87.9 FM transmitter, Jeremy Horwitz,
iPodlounge, 04.25. US$15 FM transmitter plugs into car's lighter
socket, sounds great, uses an essentially unused frequency.
- Hardware: Mac mini Mini
Dock, Forever Geek, 04.22. "Well it took a little while, but
someone finally made a [USB 2/0/FireWire] hub/external hard drive
to match the Mac Mini perfectly."
- Humor:
It's pretty much my favorite operating system, Forever Geek,
04.22. Favorite operating system? Why, Mac OS 10.8 'Liger" of
course! Gosh.
- Oops: Mac
OS X 10.4 (Tiger) arriving in users' hands, MacFixIt, 04.22.
"Apparently someone at PCMall decided it was OK to unleash the
Tiger early - I received my copy of Mac OS X 10.4 today at my
office."
- Advice: A
(near)-complete list of Mac keyboard shortcuts, Nancy Carroll
Gravley, Computing with Bifocals, Mac Observer, 04.22. "Some people
prefer to use a keyboard to execute commands rather than a
mouse."
Virus:
Virus pits itself against music pirates, Dan Ilett, Cnet,
04.22. Nopir.B worm spreads via peer-to-peer networks, attempts to
delete all MP3 files, legal or not. Windows only, of course.- Analysis:
Apple mythology and desktop security, Paul Murphy, CIO Today,
04.21. If security concerns have you looking for a new OS and
Microsoft Office compatibility is important to you, "switching to
Macs actually offers you the best of all possible worlds."
- Web: Hackers learn
to 'think different', Gene J Koprowski, CRM Buyer, 04.20.
Speculation that hackers will be able to compromise Mac via Firefox
security holes. Talk about a small target....
- News: Apple
shareholders face green protest, Jonny Evans, Macworld UK,
04.20. "According to the campaigners . . . by 2008 the US will have
'10.5 million old Macs needing recycling or disposal'."
- Virus: Sober
worm shakes Windows security, John Leyden, The Register, 04.19.
"Sober-N is the fourteenth incarnation of a worm first seen in
October 2003." There seems to be no end to this!
- Analysis:
Adobe and Macromedia: Bad news for online tools, Nico
Macdonald, The Register, 04.19. Adobe gains some great Web-oriented
software - long an Adobe weakness - but will they continue to
develop Macromedia's apps?
- Huh?:
What's up with the transparent window in Safari?, Laurie
Duncan, Unofficial Apple Weblog, 04.18. "My question is... WHY????
No seriously - what purpose does [a transparent browser window]
serve?"
- Advice: A
fix for broken Java after 10.3.9 upgrade, Mac OS X Hints,
04.18. "The workaround is to reinstall the latest Java update [26MB
download]. However, OS X won't allow you to install it without a
bit more work."
- History: TidBITS
anniversary: looking back over 15 Macintosh years, Adam C.
Engst, TidBITS, 04.18. "...we wanted to take a trip back through
the last 15 years of Macintosh models, looking briefly at the
models that meant the most to us from each year so you can see just
how far we've come."
- Opinion: Anticipating
your favorite features, Gene Steinberg, The Tiger Report, Mac
Night Owl, 04.15. Smart Folders feature "is going to change the way
many of you organize your Macs."
- Dark Side:
Survey shows admins avoiding SP2, Slashdot, 04.15. "AssetMetrix
is cited in the article as reporting that fewer than 24% of over
136,000 Windows XP PCs in 251 North American corporations even had
SP2 installed."
- Hardware: Which
iPod do I have? Guide to iPod differences, iPodGear, 04.14. How
to tell 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation iPods apart.
Rights:
Online Freedom of Speech Act introduced in House, Slashdot,
04.14. "...Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) introduced
[legislation] to exclude the Internet from the definition of
'public communication' in the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform
Act of 2002."- Opinion:
Mac OS X Tiger time: What you'll really like, Bambi Hambi,
Mac360, 04.13. "Amazingly, Tiger appears to be a greater leap
forward than Panther was to Jaguar."
Opinion: So how many
Mac minis did Apple sell last quarter? Don't ask!, Gene
Steinberg, Mac Night Owl, 04.14. How well is the Mac mini selling?
Does the eMac still have legs? Apple isn't telling.- Review: Apple Mac mini 1.42
GHz, Eric Schwarz, SchwarzTech, 04.14. "Overall, the Mac mini
is a great choice for anyone who is on a tight budget, doesn't need
lots of power, or wants a small, space-saving computer."
News: Independents
make stand against combined music chart, Macworld UK, 04.14.
Independent musicians call UK's combining of retail sales and
downloads unfair to small labels. Solution: Work with Apple instead
of complaining.- News: Apple
iTunes sales tally passes 350 million, Tony Smith, The
Register, 04.14. "...if Apple continues selling songs at this rate
of growth, it's on its way to passing the billion-song mark before
the end of 2005."
- News:
Majority of taxpayers now file online, Macsimum News, 04.14.
"Sixty-eight percent of people have either filed their taxes online
or are still planning to do so...." If only the IRS would allow us
to e-file for free.
- Deal:
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger family pack - 5 client, Amazon.com, 04.14.
Five-user Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) family pack - US$199.99 shipped
plus US$50 mail-in rebate.
- OS X:
Tiger: The upgrade path clarified, Charles W. Moore, OS X
Odyssey, Applelinks, 04.13. "Tiger requires a minimum of 256MB of
memory and is designed to run on any Macintosh computer with a
PowerPC G5, G4, or G3 processor and built-in FireWire." But what
about Pismo?
- Opinion:
The ultimate low end Mac with high cool factor, Bambi Hambi,
Mac360, 04.13. "Hands down, Apple's Mac mini with Mac OS X Tiger
owns the low end."
- Review: Son of the
USB 2.0 hi-speed flash drive roundup, Matt Woodward, ars
technica, 04.13. All USB 2.0 flash drives are not created equal.
ars tech looks at read/write speed, construction, and price for 10
vendors.
- Upgrade: OWC intros
Mac mini upgrades with 72-hour turnaround, Mac Observer, 04.13.
OWC offers US$99 overnight shipping both ways. Upgrades include 1
GB RAM, faster SuperDrive, several hard drive options.
- News:
Firefox draws 2.6 million surfers in March, Dinesh C Sharma,
CNET News, 04.13. "Firefox has come on like gangbusters since last
year, and now holds approximately 5 percent of the browser
market."
- Opinion: The Tiger
roars at Longhorn, Microsoft Monitor Weblog, 04.12. "For
Microsoft, the loss in mindshare is greater risk than any potential
shift in marketshare."
- OS X:
Will your 'Book be orphaned by Tiger?, Charles W. Moore, Road
Warrior, Mac Opinion, 04.12. "According to reader reports on
MacInTouch and Slashdot, OS 10.4 Tiger may not support Macs that
shipped without a factory DVD drive...."
- Advocacy:
Call to Apple: Open source AppleWorks!, Benjamin Horst,
osOpinion, 04.12. "...Appleworks itself is still available from the
Apple Store, yet it hasn't received any major developer attention
in years."
- Rights:
Free speech? Company rights? Who wins?, Dennis Sellers,
Macsimum News, 04.12. "IF employees leaked info, violating
non-disclosure agreements and possibly California's Uniform Trade
Secrets Act, all parties who knowingly participated were
wrong."
- Opinion: Leaving Eden: My
experience at Apple Computer, Eric Gruber, Grubesteak, 04.11.
Thoughts on six months working in an Apple retail store.
- Analysis:
HP remains No. 1; Apple, not Sun, bright, SiliconValley.com,
04.11. "The Cupertino company is now shipping more than four times
as many iPods as Macintosh computers."
- News:
Gateway, Microsoft reach antitrust settlement, Dawn Kawamoto,
CNET News, 04.11. "Microsoft has agreed to pay Gateway a total of
$150 million over four years, as part of an agreement to settle
antitrust claims brought by the computer maker, the two companies
said Monday."
- Advice: Should
you fix your iPod or replace it?, Gene Steinberg, Mac Night
Owl, 04.11. Replacing a dead hard drive can be costly - but it may
also cost less than replacing your current iPod.
- Review: Moneydance eases a
tax burden, Jeff Carlson, TidBITS, 04.11. Quicken on the Mac is
simply deficient in some areas. Moneydance gives Mac users features
that Quicken has on Windows but not on the Mac.
- Rights: Apple vs. the
press, Scott Rosenberg, Salon, 04.11. "The applicability of the
newsgatherers' privilege is determined . . . by the reporter's
functional conduct in gathering information with the purpose of
disseminating widely to the public."
Analysis: Losses to
file sharing greatly exaggerated, Ken 'Caesar' Fisher, ars
technica, 04.10. "Michael Geist . . . has written a brilliant
rebuttal to the Canadian Recording Industry Association's claim
that P2P piracy is costing the Canadian music industry
billions."- Advice: Speeding up
Safari [and NetNewsWire], Ranchero Software, 04.09. "I spent a
few minutes cleaning out the cookie jar, and&emdash;amazingly
enough&emdash;Safari's a lot faster. I haven't seen the
beachball of death since I cleaned up the cookies...."
- Analysis: What,
exactly, is a blog?, Ken 'Caesar' Fisher, ars technica, 04.09.
"A weblog, web log or simply a blog, is a web application which
contains periodic time-stamped posts on a common webpage."
Discuss.
- Huh?: Man
arrested for using $2 bills at Best Buy, morons.org, 04.08.
"Unfortunately for him, the cashier did not seem to understand that
the $2 bill is indeed legal US tender, since the bill itself is not
often used."
- Advice: Security
through obscurity, easement, flikr, 04.08. "I didn't have a way
to lockdown my new Mac Mini, but I did have an old Dell case I
wasn't using anymore. After gutting the drive bays, it was almost a
perfect fit."
- Spam: Nine-year
sentence for spammer, Wired, 04.08. "A Virginia judge sentenced
a spammer to nine years in prison Friday in the nation's first
felony prosecution for sending junk e-mail...."
- News: Apple
signs 'widescreen iBook' contract, Tony Smith, The Register,
04.08. "The news that Apple may be preparing widescreen iBooks
plays to recent suggestions that the company will shortly begin
branding certain . . . Macs as HD models...."
- Analysis:
The state of my Mac, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 04.08. "My
700 MHz G3 iBook is now into its 28th month of flawless service."
And the ancient Pismo and WallStreet keep working nicely, too.
- Opinion:
Quest for the silent laptop, Charles W. Moore, The PowerBook
Mystique, PowerBook Central, 04.07. "One of the things I love about
my iBook is that its little 20 GB hard drive is whisper quiet, even
after 27 months of fairly intensive use. It is definitely the
quietest laptop...."
- Tech:
New, cheap battery outshines alkalines, David Pogue, Cnet,
04.07. Panasonic's Oxyride AA and AAA batteries claim to outlast
alkalines - and cost less. But how well do they test?
- Web:
Net outage strikes Comcast, Scott Ard, Cnet, 04.07. "Comcast,
the largest provider of broadband Internet access with 6.5 million
customers, suffered a general outage Thursday evening." We
know!
- Advocacy:
Making the leap, Rob Carrigan, Newspapers & Technology,
04.07. How one publisher migrated their Macs - including three 233
MHz G3 desktops - to Mac OS X 10.3 and InDesign.
- OS X: It
depends on what the meaning of the word 'replace' is, John
Gruber, Daring Fireball, 04.07. "...when the Finder replaces a
folder or file, it should move the replaced items to the Trash
instead of instantly nuking them."
- Advice:
Maximizing the life of the G4's battery, J D Biersdorfer, New
York Times, 04.07. "...Apple recommends fully discharging and
charging the battery at least once a month."
- Virus: Proof-of-concept
Mac OS X Trojan horse, Damien Barrett, mrbarrett.com, 04.06.
"When you log in as an administrator on your Mac OS X 10.3 system,
there's a five minute window where sudo is enabled, allowing you to
perform any admin-level tasks without reauthenticating."
- OS X: Braindead
Finder behaviour, Matthew Mullenweg, Photo Matt, 04.06. New Mac
user is confused because when the Mac replaces a folder, it
replaces it. For some reason, Windows merges when you tell it to
replace....
- Review:
URL reminder, Dan Frakes, Mac Gems, Macworld, 04.06.
"...URLwell is specifically designed for temporary URLs - those you
just want to check once."
- Advocacy: 10
features Longhorn needs, Brad Wardell, winCustomize, 04.05. It
sounds like the author want Longhorn to be a lot like Mac OS
X....
- Rights: Microsoft's
army of lawyers was no match for a kid from Kent State, Denise
Grollmus, Cleveland Scene, 03.30. Student sells unopenned copies of
WinXP, Office on eBay when unable to return them for refund.
Microsoft sues - and loses.
- Tech: Reports:
Flash media market to explode; prices to plummet, Brad Gibson,
Mac Observer, 04.05. Flash memory prices could drop by over 50%
this year. Maybe a 2 GB iPod shuffle at US$149 for Christmas?
- Rights:
U.S. blogger thwarts Canadian gag order, Declan McCullagh,
Cnet, 04.05. In Canada, it's illegal to report on certain court
proceedings, but that hasn't stopped one American from covering
"Adscam" on his blog.
- News: Giga
Designs offers first 2 GHz G4 upgrade, Mac Observer, 04.05.
Upgrade works in AGP Power Macs, runs 1.6 GHz 7447A CPU at 2.0 GHz.
US$499.
- Analysis: Mac
or PC, no longer a problem, Mark Kellner, Washington Times,
04.05. "The migration of applications - and file formats - between
the Microsoft Windows world and that of the Apple Macintosh and
even the open-source Linux community is a welcome change...."
- News: Best Buy stores now
selling Mac minis, MacMinute, 04.04. "Following our report
earlier today on Best Buy stores planning to carry the Mac mini,
several MacMinute readers note that they have already seen the
low-cost computer at the retailer."
- Rights:
Despite claims, Apple could honor warranties, Dave Gussow, St
Petersburg Times, 04.04. Apple tells Mac and iPod owners that they
can't sell AppleCare in Florida, but the truth is they choose not
to file the necessary forms with the state.
- Review:
Laptop USB speaker systems compared, Dan Frakes, Playlist,
04.04. Want better sound from your laptop? Playlist reviews four
USB speaker systems, and their top choice is the least
expensive.
- Rights:
San Francisco attempts to regulate blogging, Slashdot, 04.03.
"The San Francisco Board of Supervisors [announced] yesterday that
it will soon vote on a city ordinance that would require local
bloggers to register with the city Ethics Commission...."
- Analysis: DVD
profit margins double that of VHS, Ken 'Caesar' Fisher, ars
technica, 04.02. Selling DVDs is far more profitable for movie
studios than selling VHS.
- News: BTI
intros Tunestir iPod FM receiver/transmitter/remote,
iPodlounge, 04.01. iPod-sized triple-function device gives 3G/4G
iPods FM radio, FM transmitter, and remote control. US$69.95.
- Analysis:
Where's the FireWire?, Grant Buckler, ITBusiness.ca, 04.01.
"Let's be clear: Apple didn't drop FireWire support from iPods. The
company simply stopped including a cable...."
- OS X: Will Tiger deliver
speed improvements? Our tests reveal the answer, Lisa Swanson,
MacNETv2, 04.01. After using the Tiger beta, going back to Panther
made the author's PowerBook feel sluggish. Is Tiger really
faster?
- Humor: Tiger
Woods signs long-term deal with Apple Computer as Mac OS X 'Tiger'
spokesperson, MacDailyNews, 04.01. "'It is always important
that I align myself with the best brands in each product category,'
said Tiger Woods."
- Software:
Battle of Web Page editors: Free, great, strange, Bambi Hambi,
Mac360, 04.01. "Here's the tale of a Free Web Page Editor, a Great
Web Page Editor, one of the oddest Web Page Editors, I've ever
seen, and a quick review of all the others (except those not on the
list)."
- Opinion:
OS war? OS war!? Ahahahaaa, Paul Thurrott, Windows IT Pro,
04.01. "In other words, Tiger will sell a few million copies and do
absolutely nothing to change the Mac's market share, which is now
less than 2 percent...."
- Opinion:
Computers vs. thinking?, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 04.01.
"Does your computer help you work more efficiently and
productively, or does it just make you think you do?"
- Advice: Break up
audiobooks, Mac Hints and Tips, 04.01. "I download audiobooks
from iTunes, but the files are too big to burn to a CD. Is there a
way to break apart the file?"
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