A Decade of Progress, 1997-2007

2007 – There’s no feeling like putting your foot down on home soil when returning from a trip abroad. I have the impression that this is what I’m doing by returning to Low End Mac on its 10th anniversary.

No Need to Worry about Apple’s Switch to Intel

2005 – Switching the Macintosh platform to Intel x86 processor architecture is not a panacea, but Apple’s adoption of Intel processors should not be a major source of headaches – except for the eventual lack of support for Classic Mode on Intel-based Macs.

Visions of the Past: A Historical Perspective on Peace and War

Until the morning of September 11, people who believed in strong military, mighty intelligence services, and significant defense funding were an outdated species from the past who did not jump the hurdle of modernity. Since the end of World War II, our world has lived through peaceful times, except for eternal local wars and a […]

9-11: How Should the U.S. Respond?

I was in the subway – here in Montreal – and a woman from the Middle East was wearing a veil. This piece of clothing indicated her Muslim faith, and the other passengers saw that she was of Islamic origin. They were staring, nay, glaring at her. Do I really need to draw you a […]

Avoid Mac Obsolescence

Low End Mac readers have one thing in common – we are not the biggest fans of frequent upgrades. On the other hand, the computer industry loves you if you keep buying stuff, which is why hardware and software manufacturers work to make their products so attractive. They want you to lust for what they […]

Ergonomics Tips to Avoid Pain and Stress

When you use a computer frequently, whether it is for leisure or work, you risk repetitive stress injuries. Most stress injuries can be avoided easily if you are careful enough to position your body correctly and remember to spare your wrists from unnecessary strain.

Setting Up a Personal Firewall

2001 – You are not very likely to face direct attacks from hackers because you use a computer, because those people mostly target businesses and large networks. On the other hand, the security of your files is never 100% guaranteed, even though you use a computer that less people know to hack than, say, Windows.

Solving Simple Hardware Problems

2001 – This week’s piece could be named iSimples because of the simplicity of the problems we’ll solve. Some little bugs can make a difficult day an even more annoying one. Let’s go through them and solve them, one by one, to make your life a little easier.

Writing and Editing with Microsoft Word

2001 – Everyone knows how to type, and many typists use Microsoft Word, since it is a standard for word processing. Word has plenty of unused and unknown features that facilitate the writer’s work. Whether they help to improve your writing, make word processing easy on the eye, or provide powerful editing techniques, those features […]

The No-No’s of Computer Use

2001 – This tutorial is a bit different from the others. Most of the time I teach tricks and tell you how to do stuff on your Mac. This time, I wish – with all the arrogance that this implies – to educate you regarding things that you should not do, whether on a Mac […]

Make Your Classic Mac OS Machine Faster

2001 – Your Mac was so darn fast when you bought it. It was a top-of-the-line and state-of-the-art computer, but it suddenly seems older than you. You have the impression that with all its power, it could deliver the goods in much less time than it does now.

Make Your Own Desktop Pictures

2001 – Isn’t it great to have a cool looking desktop picture in the background when you do your work or surf the Net? Most people like to have a decent picture and have a hard time finding the one they like.

Using Internet Explorer’s Advanced Features

2001 – We explored ways to increase the browsing speed of Internet Explorer (IE) a few weeks ago. As IE offers more than mere “get to the pages” browsing, we want to take advantage of all its features. With IE 5.0, Microsoft has added some great features.

Organize Your Files and Never Lose Track of Them

2001 – Before we get started, let me introduce a new feature to iBasics. I will rate tips in terms of difficulty, from easy to intermediate to expert. As the focus of the column is basics, we will mostly go through easy and intermediate topics, but sometimes an “expert” tip will be useful, especially as […]

The Virtues of a G4

I don’t understand why Low End Mac readers stick with your old clones or pre-G3 computers. I’ve been using Macintoshes since 1994, and most of the time I’ve had one of the latest machines. To me, living without the latest, most powerful stuff is unthinkable.

Using Outlook Express 5, Part 3

2001 – Welcome to the third and final segment of this Outlook Express (OE) tutorial. We went through the most important features of OE in parts 1 and 2. To put the icing on the cake, let’s examine a bunch of convenient features available at your fingertips. They are mostly useful to personalize OE or […]

Using Outlook Express 5, Part 2

2001 – Last week, we went through the basics of Outlook Express (OE). Now it is time for slightly more complex operations to take advantage of the power that begs to be used. In this case, more complexity means more power. OE has a variety of tools that make importing, filtering, and sorting easy. They […]

Using Outlook Express 5, Part 1

2001 – Outlook Express (OE) 5 is the default email application for Macintosh when you install any recent Mac OS. Despite the fact that many folks choose Eudora, Claris Emailer, PowerMail, and other capable clients, many stick with OE since it is free and it satisfies them.

Speed Up Internet Explorer on the Classic Mac OS

2001 – Since the release of version 5, Internet Explorer became the Mac world’s number one browser, with many Netscape users dumping the Navigator or Communicator 4.x in order to get Microsoft’s latest offering. In any case, Explorer is very popular in the Mac crowd, and a few of you may want to maximize its […]

Personalize and Customize Microsoft Word

2001 – Hi everybody and welcome to iBasics.* The intent of this weekly column is to help you to tame your Macintosh and get the most out of it, whether it is old or new. Not everybody is a power user who relies on the use of a Macintosh for a living, but everybody wants […]