Permanent Email Addresses

1998: I couldn’t believe the headline. The Clinton administration is asking the United States Postal Service to devise a system of permanent email addresses. The great benefit of a permanent email address is that, once you have it, you can use it forever, even if you change Internet service providers. How forward-looking!

Original iMac (Rev. A)

Hello (again). Do you remember the first Mac, the one that didn’t even have a model number? The amazing 8 MHz 68000 CPU, crystal clear 9″ b&w screen, huge 400 KB floppy drive, and radical mouse? Fast forward from 1984 to 1998. Using up-to-date technology, Apple created a worthy successor to the original Macintosh as […]

Here’s the Beef

August 1998: In iMac-ulate Conception: How Apple Made a Miracle Out of a Mere PC on ZDNet, Robert Lemos disparages the iMac as featuring “very little new technology and . . . missing some standard features found in other computers, such as a floppy drive and built-in printer connectivity.”

iMac vs. the First Macintosh

August 1998: The iMac is Apple’s most important product roll-out since the original Macintosh. A column by Jim Davis on Cnet (The iMac’s Ancestors) reminded me how like and unlike the two computers are. Here’s a comparison of features.

USB and the OfficeJet

August 1999: Last November I said that Macs needed parallel ports. I got a lot of letters on that, some saying I made a lot of sense. Others said parallel ports would soon be obsolete, replaced with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and FireWire.

iMac vs. $999 Windows PCs

August 1998: I’ve been looking forward to the latest issue of PC Magazine, the one that looks at sub-$1,000 (sub-$1K) Windows systems. So many “experts” are chiding Apple for releasing a $1,300 computer when (they say) buyers really want sub-$1K PCs.

Operating Systems: Past, Present, and Future

1998: Once upon a time there were no computers. We’ve come a long way, baby! The first computers were pretty primitive by any standard. There was no software – you had to wire the computer for its intended task. Then came neat things like software on punch cards, paper tape, and eventually hard drives.

The iMac Cometh

1998: On August 15, Apple Computer will launch a revolutionary new personal computer – the iMac. “It looks like it came from another planet – a good planet, one with great industrial designers!” quips Steven Jobs, Apple’s interim CEO.

USB: Where No Mac Has Gone Before

August 1998: Three months ago it looked like a risky move: The iMac would use the universal serial bus (USB), but not ADB, SCSI, or a standard Mac serial port. Although Microsoft and Intel have promoted USB, and the vast army of clone makers have been building USB into their computers, I don’t know of […]