Service and Freedom

In light of last week’s events and a lifetime of watching kids grow up in America, on Monday I suggested the time is right for mandatory national service when each American turns 18.

Processor Envy

2001: Oh great, my little 350 MHz G3 upgrade is about to look even pokier: Motorola Completes 1.6 GHz PowerPC G5. My tired but indefatigable workhorse PowerCenter Pro is chugging along nicely, thank you very much. Darn it.

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11, people who believed in strong military, mighty intelligence services, and significant defense funding were an outdated species from the past who did not jump the hurdle of modernity.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: The New ‘Normal’

Change is the only constant. Last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center are changing everything for the United States and the world. Things are getting back to normal – but only because normal has moved. This Monday is very different from last Monday.

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 […]

‘It Can’t Happen Here’

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was truly a shocking event for everyone, whether they knew people working at these places or not. I guess we all thought that the U.S. was immune to terrorist attacks such as this. Hopefully the government will learn from this how to better protect […]

Reflections on 9-11

What an extraordinary week. My condolences to the families and friends of those who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. My prayers for the victims – and for their families and friends who are alive. Life is continuing.

Why Can’t We Be Friends?

I actually had something related to Macs, but a little while before I was ready to send it, the events that took place on Tuesday happened. I felt it more appropriate to not write about iMacs at this time, but rather to write regarding the terrorist attacks. I will warn you now – this article […]

Class Act, Mac Web

At about 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a hijacked airliner smashed into one tower of the World Trade Center. Within two hours both towers had been hit and become piles of rubble. A third airplane caused massive damage to the Pentagon, and a fourth hijacked plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

9-11: More Questions than Answers

Was it just a coincidence that the terrorist attack on America took place on 9-11 – the phone number we dial in an emergency? Or was it only a coincidence that the attack took place on the first day of celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year? Again, maybe the perpetrators just wanted to […]

Linux: The Tragic Flaw?

Last week I talked a bit about Linux and the low end. Linux offers some of the same modern foundations of Mac OS X, but it can run well on older computers. Last week I hinted that I would talk about the fatal flaw of Linux.

Reclaiming the MHz Lead?

2001: It’s no secret that Apple (courtesy of Motorola) has been lagging quite badly in the Megahertz War. Stuck at 867 MHz, Apple has stood on the sidelines as Intel and AMD offerings have soared past the 1 GHz mark and have now reached 2 GHz.

Low End Linux?

Last week I was reading an article [no longer online] about how one county was saving several million dollars a year by implementing Linux on all it’s desktops. It wasn’t only the Information Technology department – it was secretaries, receptionists, firefighters, police officers, and other county employees.

Uncluttered Organization

Nothing is more annoying that a cluttered desktop. It is nice to create aliases to your favorite applications and files, but it is not very nice to have them all over your desktop. Just like for a real desk, a cluttered computer desktop can be less functional and can distract you from your work.

Dead (and Undead) People Don’t Use Windows

2001 – In light of the recent admission by Microsoft that “funded advocacy groups” have sent letters from dead people to newspapers in support of the beleaguered* computer software company, Apple Computer has issued a press release noting the tremendous advantages the Macintosh computer has for “the dead or recently unliving.”

Boring Old Software in Paris?

2001: For the first time in recent memory, Apple has announced the contents of Jobs’ keynote for the Paris Expo: Jobs: No New Hardware at Apple Expo 2001 (no longer online) Nouveaux Ordinateurs? Non! (no longer online) Steve Jobs to Keynote Apple Expo, Says “No New Hardware In Paris” Let the games begin.

The Paperless Office

2001 – I remember first reading a review of the original PaperPort scanner from Visioneer* in the mid 1990s. It was brilliant – a tiny sheet-fed scanner that could slurp up a typewritten page and automagically turn it into a word processing document.

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 […]

Working Around File Sharing’s ‘Wall of 10’

2001 – If you have ever set up a small Mac network, you know creating a server is as easy as pie (see Transferring Files from Your Old Mac to Your New One: Classic Mac OS Edition for more on this topic), and it’s a snap to setup login names and passwords using Users and […]

Abandonware and Copyright

Yesterday we took a strong line against pirated MP3s, warez, and other copyright violation. We received some excellent feedback, particularly with respect to discontinued or abandoned software.

SETI@home: Team 6100

2001 – Team 6100 has 18 members and has completed 301 work units since May 2, 2000. Over the last dozen work units, we are averaging 111 hours, 42 minutes. The total contribution of Team 6100 is 3.68 years of CPU time.

Point One Shootout

August 2001 – With Mac OS X 10.1 Puma on the horizon, I want to step back and look at Apple’s other point one releases: 7.1, 8.1, and 9.1.