In Just for Fun, Linus Torvalds’ recent memoir of the early days of Linux, Torvalds recounts meeting Steve Jobs and Apple technical chief Avie Tevanian.
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 […]
Sometime the IRS doesn’t seem to be living in the real world – depreciating new computers over a five-year period is one example.
2001 – In 1991, I got my first Mac. It was a Mac IIsi with an 80 megabyte hard drive, which was considered a big drive then. Fast forward ten years, and we have 80 gigabyte drives that occupy the same niche in the storage environment. Compared to my first drive, a current 80 gig […]
2001-05-25: Top end Dual USB iBook gains Combo drive as a standard feature. Compaq laptop/desktop prototype. New iBook teardown. More ‘Book news.
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 […]
I’m a bipolar extensions user: I go from one extreme to another. First I’ll go download a bunch of cool extensions that improve my user experience. Extensions are part of what make the Mac so fun. Over time, the extensions build up to the point where I feel like I have too many. Maybe I […]
In the past few weeks, Microsoft has been getting some bad press. Okay, I don’t suppose that is particularly a news item. The current issue is the change in Microsoft’s software license. In layman’s terms, Microsoft is switching from selling its software to leasing it.
2001-05-18: BookEndz docking station for Titanium PowerBook. MadsonLine power adapter for TiBook. Another source of 512 MB modules for PowerBook G4. More ‘Book news.
A few weeks ago I got a letter from my friend David in Western Samoa. I lived next to David in Vaitoomuli village for two years while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. We taught at the local high school together. I trained him on Macs, because I wanted to have someone to troubleshoot the […]
The science fiction world lost a great humorist and the Mac community lost a great advocate on Friday, May 11, 2001, when Douglas Adams unexpectedly passed on at the age of 49.
2001-05-11: Super Mini Optical Mouse for notebooks. How Dual USB iBook keyboard differs from Clamshell iBook layout. New TiBook accessories from SmartBook. More ‘Book news.
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.
2001: Apple has been making CRT monitors since the late 1970s. Their last model, the Apple 17″ Studio Display with ADC, ended the line of perennially pricey displays with a myriad of off-the-wall features and ever-changing proprietary connectors. Yet there probably hasn’t been one model that somebody doesn’t love.
When I first wrote about BeOS, several readers were careful to point out the good sides of Apple picking NeXT instead of Be. Without the purchase of NeXT, we never would have gotten Steve Jobs back as iCEO, and there would be no iMac or iBook. But Apple got much more than Steve and a […]
2001 – Apple has hit several home runs in the past few years, but it never did anything as fine as the latest iBook. The 4.9 pound portable is an almost incredible combination of strength, small size, good looks, and technology at a good price.
2001-05-05: Apple introduces new iBook design. More 512 MB modules available for TiBook. AppleCare on Apple refurbs. More ‘Book news.
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.
The Dual USB iBook had been the subject of great speculation in the weeks before its introduction. Gone were the tangerine orange, key lime green, graphite gray, and indigo blue colors of the past – the new iBook is simply white. Gone are the curves – the new iBook is a white box with rounded […]
In my past couple articles (BeOS or NeXT: Did Apple make the wrong choice? and User Interface: Mac vs. BeOS), I’ve described parts of BeOS. It’s a technically impressive OS that lacks some of the finesse that the Mac OS has.
2001-04-27: New iBook announcement rumored for next week. Tutorial on upgrading hard drives in iBooks. 512 MB modules for TiBook allow 1 GB of RAM. More ‘Book news.
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.
Last week I talked about some of the advantages that BeOS has over Mac OS X. When Steve Jobs first demonstrated Mac OS X, Mac users got a taste of their own medicine – we’re used to having a superiority complex.
I’m glad that my previous article has generated some interest and that David Puett took the time to clarify some points that I skimmed over in his BeOS or NeXT: Did Apple Make the Wrong Choice. I agree that I oversimplified some things in my article. Still, I think some of my ideas were generally correct, […]
2001-04-20: PowerLogix trims price of 466 MHz G3 upgrade for WallStreet. PCMCIA tutorial updated. FireWire Depot intros titanium laptop drive case. More ‘Book news.
2001: The “Read Before You Install” document on the Mac OS X install CD says that installing Mac OS X on a FireWire or USB drive is unsupported. That means it doesn’t work, right?
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 […]
It’s hard to believe it has been four years. In early 1997, Power Computing announced that they would ship BeOS with its clones. An upstart clone maker shipping an upstart OS, if you will. This was big news, since BeOS fixed many of the problems that System 7 faced. The discussions from then sounds all […]
2001-04-13: Used Lombard PowerBooks from $1,399. 333 MHz PowerBook 1400 and 466 MHz WallStreet G3 upgrades on sale. More ‘Book news.
2001 – Now that you know how to import and organize a library of MP3 files, you may want to take advantage of a very powerful feature offered in iTunes: CD burning.
In a previous article, I talked about creating an MP3 server out of a Quadra 630. At that time, I asserted that it could handle the job, but I hadn’t really tested it out. Now I’d like to put a few numbers on my Quadra’s performance and talk about optimizing it.
2001 – Four years ago, there was no Low End Mac. There were good resources for PowerBooks and Power Macs, but support for older models was spotty. You might find a really good Mac Plus page or a site with excellent Mac IIfx info, but I couldn’t find a comprehensive resource covering the oldest Macs.
2001-04-06: Apple’s Mobile Newsroom deal built around Titanium PowerBook. New FireWire hard drive enclosure. Bargain ‘Books. First refurbished TiBooks available. More ‘Book news.
2001: Microsoft recently announced it’s Hailstorm initiative. In a nutshell, Hailstorm is a storage system for the personal information of its users.
