AirPort Beats Wires

2000: When wireless networking first starting coming on the scene, I was very against it. All sorts of bizarre ways were coming out to make my PC access my network wirelessly. I remember the idea of using your power outlets as some sort of conductor to carry the signals and achieving about one megabit per […]

Computers in the Science Classroom

The reason this column is called Mac Lab Report is that these articles will chronicle the steps I took to go from a classroom with one computer to a classroom with 10 fully networked Power Macs in less than three years – at virtually no expense to our science department budget.

The Ultimate Mac: 10 Things that Could Make the iMac a PC Killer

2000 – When I am converting Windows users or introducing new users to the computer for the first time, there are a number of conceptual hurdles that it takes repeated instruction to get across. These include problems with getting a disk out of the computer, distinguishing between the Finder and the dialogs in Open and […]

The World Wide Intercom

My occupation requires that I work in many parts of the world for extended periods of time. Due to this, I meet and associate with a very diverse cross-section of society. The one interest that transcends language, social status, and background is the vibrant desire to learn about computers and the Internet.

The Growing Microsoft Empire

2000: Microsoft to the rescue again! Corel, a company that has had its fair share of “beleaguered” articles, has been hauled from the brink by its most hated enemy, Microsoft.

Sold on Mac for 10 Years

2000 – I was sold on the Mac a few months earlier, after having taken introductory classes on both the PC and Mac at a local university. The PC class was interesting but very code driven. It was DOS 3.3 on those big old IBM 8088s with the green or amber screens.

Trade-offs for Mac OS X Beta

2000: I seem to be experiencing a bit of déjà vu lately in regards to Mac OS X Beta and everything that surrounds it. It reminds me of when Windows NT came out – everyone was trying to figure out what to make of it. While technically superior to Windows 95, there were many trade-offs […]

I Love My iBook, but I Miss My Mac SE

Ten years ago this month I started graduate school, and I was determined not to wait in line at the computer center or rely on the kindness of friends who had their own computers. I needed my own machine. I had used PCs at work, but a friend let me use his Mac Plus to […]

Bring Back Beige

2000: The buzz in building around Mac OS X. If early signs are any indication, OS X will be the hit Apple hopes it will be. A good indicator of the popularity of the new operating system is the demand from the Wintel side to have OS X ported to their hardware of choice. With […]

Mac Classic II Benchmarks

The Mac Classic II uses the same 16 MHz 68030 CPU and 16 MHz 68882 FPU as the SE/30, the model it replaced. The computer was tested with the same external drive used for Speedometer 3 on the SE/30; the internal hard drive was also benchmarked.

Mac Plus Benchmarks

The Mac Plus uses the same 8 MHz 68000 CPU found in the original Macintosh and the 512K Fat Mac. The attached hard drive is a 160 MB Quantum, and the computer has 4 MB of memory. Because it is an older design, the Plus is generally considered to be about 15% slower than the 8 […]

My First Mac Was the First Mac

In 1985, I bought a Macintosh 128K from a friend who couldn’t grasp the potential of this little miracle (let alone a tenuous brush with reality). It came with an ImageWriter I printer, no hard drive, just the internal 400K floppy, and a mouse! The keyboard had no numeric keypad, function keys, or anything, but […]

Blame the Cube?

2000: There’s no nice way to say it: Apple stock tanked on Friday. AAPL opened at $53.50 on Friday, dropped immediately below the $30 mark, and closed the day at $25.75.

Will Apple Stock Tank Again?

2000: In light of Apple’s recent stock surge,* I am seriously considering investing in Apple stock. It has made substantial (to put it mildly) gains in the last year and seems poised to go even further.

The One-Year Metamorphosis

2000.09.27: When I first started Mac Metamorphosis, I wasn’t quite sure how far this would go. The idea came to me when I was daydreaming at work and surfing all the Mac-oriented websites.

Tangerine Fusion’s Fun Facts: FireWire iBooks

2000: The new iBook SE has a new feature called processor speed-stepping. Working similarly to the technology that prevents Mobile Pentium IIIs from running down notebook PC batteries too quickly, it allows you to slow down the G3 processor from 466 to 366 MHz, the same speed as the base model.

Internet Grandma

With all due respect – what a wonderful phrase. Often used as a precursor to a negative reply, but equally useful for a compliment or a sincere statement. It is with all due respect that I write this article about my 70-year-old mother and her first computer and Internet experience.

Software Piracy and the Mac

2000: In the age of broadband Internet access, pirated software (or “warez,” as it’s called) is easier than ever to obtain and use. Many users these days are getting DSL or cable internet and have CD burners, which is all you need to get and use warez from the Internet.

Macintosh vs. Windows 95

I ran across this memo on my hard drive at work. It was written in late 1996, when Windows 95 was making serious inroads by claiming to be “almost as good as the Mac.” This was not a good time for Apple: Between authorized Mac clones dividing the Mac OS market and Win 95 siphoning […]

iBook SE (FireWire)

The second-generation iBook Special Edition (SE) adds key lime as an alternative to graphite. It replaces the 366 MHz G3 processor of the earlier iBook SE with the new G3e running at 466 MHz. The G3e includes an on-chip L2 cache that runs at full CPU speed for improved processor efficiency (the larger backside cache […]

iBook (FireWire)

The second-generation iBook replaces the bright blueberry and tangerine of the original iBook with a more sophisticated indigo blue and a bright key lime. New features include FireWire and video output.