1998: I sincerely hope my experiences with HFS+ are not typical.
Author Archives: Daniel Knight
1998: If you cut your teeth on the Mac or even a Windows machine, count yourself fortunate. A graphical operating system lets you play around and figure out how things work. It’s user-friendly, which is why the Macintosh caught on and influenced the shape of the dominant PC operating systems. The same concepts are playing […]
1998: This is a story with a long background. Most of you are fortunate: You’re not responsible for keeping dozens of Macs running, just one – or maybe a few. I support not just dozens and dozens of Macs, but dozens of different models.
If they got you with Y2K, what will they do for an encore?
1998: The future of Claris Emailer looks bleak. Although Apple says it is considering its options for the popular email program, Emailer owners are already acting as if the program is history.
The Mac Portable uses a 16 MHz 68000 CPU, so performance is about twice that of the 8 MHz Mac SE and Classic. The Portable and PowerBook 100 were the only Macs to use a 16 MHz 68000. The installed hard drive is a 40 MB Apple-branded Conner CP-3045 formatted with Apple HD SC Setup 7.0.1 […]
The Mac SE uses an 8 MHz 68000 CPU. The tested hard drive is a 40 MB Apple-branded Quantum LP40S formatted with Apple HD SC Setup. This was not the original hard drive, which had been a much slower 20 MB mechanism.
1998.10: With USB, Apple is in the odd position of strongly promoting a technology invented on the Wintel side – but not yet embraced there. Despite the pain of early adopters (iMac buyers), there are now USB printers, keyboards, mice, trackballs, and more.
1998.10: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Dickens said it first, but the words could just as easily have been written about Apple Computer in the year since Steve Jobs became interim CEO – or iCEO – for life.
1998: In one way, the Macintosh is the less popular cousin of the Wintel PC. I’ve heard there are now over 20,000 viruses for DOS and Windows computers. Twenty-thousand! Until this year, the Mac was stuck at 44. I think it was about five years since the last new Mac virus was created and discovered. […]
1998: I don’t usually write editorials on a Saturday morning, but an article on MacCentral (Apple Canada Scaling Back?) got my attention. Although I’ve lived in the States most of my life, Canada is my homeland and the place most of my relatives call home.
1998.09: Apple’s iMac probably had the most successful rollout of any computer in history. Sales are estimated at about 360,000 units from its launch on August 15. (Today ends Apple’s fiscal year – maybe we’ll see some hard numbers soon.)
Sometimes you just have more Macs than monitors – or wish you could free up some space in your network center. But you need a keyboard and mouse to run your Macs, and a monitor to see what you’re doing.
1998 – Whether you’re using a 44 MB, 88 MB, or 200 MB SyQuest cartridge, a 100 MB, 250 MB or 750 MB Zip drive, or some other removable media drive of similar or greater capacity – or even have spare low-capacity hard drives sitting about – here are some practical things you can do.
1998.09: Last week I suggested that Apple produce a set-top version of the iMac with a DVD player, infrared keyboard, and the ability to display as clearly as a TV screen allows. (See I Want iMacTV.)
1998: From the original Macintosh of 1984 through March 1987, there was one Mac case: a compact beige box with a 9″ screen. (For more details, see last week’s Still Useful After All These Years: The Mac Plus.)
1998.09: It was the first “gotta have it for looks alone” Macintosh since the first Mac shipped in 1984: Mac TV.
1998: The original Macintosh of 1984 was an incredibly cool computer – but impractical. With just 128 KB of RAM and a single 400 KB floppy drive, using it was an exercise in frustration involving a lot of disk swaps. A second floppy drive made the Macintosh a much more practical computer, but it was […]
1998: Some machines are designed to do a simple job simply. The best even do it with elegance. But some make you wonder what their creators were thinking.
1998.09: A compact iMac? Isn’t the iMac already small enough? Yes, the iMac is remarkably tiny for a computer with a built-in 15″ monitor. But I’m thinking smaller: modular.
1998: Once upon a time, LCD panels were incredibly expensive, adding $1,000 to the cost of a laptop or portable computer. These were mostly passive matrix with 640 x 480 resolution. The best were backlit, supertwist LCDs. Most were only about 10″ on the diagonal.
1998: If you’re a webmaster, one thing you want to do is have people visit your website. There are lots of ways to get people’s attention:
The greatest obstacle to third party mice is the quality of Apple’s mice. Although the early Lisa/Macintosh mouse was a rather chunky affair, it was good enough – and the Mac market was small enough to attract little competition. Also, Apple’s mouse came free with the computer.
There have been alternatives to the Apple keyboard since the Mac Plus era. Macs introduced from 1984 through 1986 were plagued with a particularly thick, clunky keyboard.
1998 – I’m practically ancient for this industry. I remember lusting after the TRS-80 in Radio Shack flyers back in 1977. I think it was in 1979 that I first put fingers to keyboard and used a personal computer (an Apple II+).
1998 – I’ve received a lot of feedback to The iMac: Not for Me. Several readers applauded my honesty in admitting that the iMac isn’t for everyone.
1998 – Boy, was I ever wrong! Back in April, I wrote No $500 PC This Year. I didn’t see how anyone could combine a decent motherboard, hard drive, CD-ROM, case, power supply, floppy drive, keyboard, mouse, and a copy of Windows for under $500.
Sept. 1998: It’s a bit embarrassing to admit it, especially since I run one of the more successful iMac sites, but I don’t own an iMac, haven’t ordered an iMac, and doubt I’ll buy an iMac.
A big screen will absolutely spoil you.
1998: Did you ever buy a computer, only to have them introduce a faster, more powerful model within months – sometimes at an even lower price? Better yet, did you ever have it not happen?
