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.
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 […]
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.
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.
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.
So, You Think You’re a Writer, Eh?
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.
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 […]
August 2001 – These prestigious Lite Side awards are hereby awarded to the award-winning awardees who won them.
2001 – I received a very interesting letter with a lot of information about the Quadra 840av.
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.
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.
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.
2001 – While on vacation in California, I ended up with a Quadra 840av with 8 MB RAM, a 230 MB hard drive, and no CD-ROM. Two weeks after I got home, I got another 840av, this one with 40 MB RAM, a 230 MB hard drive, and a CD-ROM. Since these machines are so […]
The question of color takes up much space in these pages, but the question of color, especially in this country, operates to hide the graver questions of self. – 1961, James Baldwin, expatriated Black-American writer and gay activist Blood, darky, Tar Baby, Kaffir, shine, moor, blackamoor, Jim Crow, spook, quadroon, meriney, red bone, high yellow, […]
Last week I talked about Quicken. At one level, Quicken is a boring product – a database – but at another level it is a revolutionary tool for self-knowledge that can improve your relationship with money. Mac users who consistently apply Quicken’s tools are better off than those who don’t.
McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and a host of other businesses successfully sell franchises around the country – and sometimes around the world. Last week John Scheeser proposed Apple do the same thing with its retail store in an article published on The Mac Mind.
Owning a portable computer is great. In the world of computing, mobility has its benefits. You can use your computer virtually anywhere, which is definitely splendid to channel a burst of creativity and produce work. Here are a few tips to learn how to use your portable for best results, sometimes for security purposes.
Last week I wrote about revolutions and participation. Revolutions in technology are rarely what we think they are. When something is termed revolutionary, it is usually a marketing ploy. For something to truly be revolutionary, I think that it requires participation from the users. Revolutions can’t be done for you by someone else.
2001-07-27: LapBottom keeps ‘Books cooler. PC Card drive from CMS. PowerBook hoods. More ‘Book news. Willow i/Ti Slipcases Ease Slip-Sliding Away The LapBottom CMS Launches Mac Support with Pocket and PC-Card Hard Drives New PowerBook G4 Sleeve from J.R. Hill and Company Hoodman PowerBook Hoods Reconditioned PowerBooks Apple Is Honoring Both PowerBook Sales Promotions Bargain […]
For math and science teachers, entering equations into typewritten (or word processed) documents is often a challenge. For the novice, many tabs, spaces, underlines, and struggles with the Symbol font yield unsatisfactory results.
This is my guide to Macs that you probably don’t see every day and that might be worth more than the average Mac a few decades from now. Many of them are very solid systems and are rare for reasons other than their design, while several others are Road Apples.
THIS is for all the times you followed me round in stores…. And THIS is for the times you treated me like a nigger…. And THIS is for G. P. – General Principle….. – Nate McCall, Makes Me Wanna Holler It makes me wanna holler And throw up both my hands…. – “Inner City Blues,” […]
July 2001 – Last week’s Macworld Expo was a disappointment for many people attending the show. People wanted to be amazed or surprised – flat screen iMacs were hoped for by many. The surprise was that the products were evolutionary.
2001-07-20: Macworld Expo report. New iBook and TiBook bags. PowerBook upgrade center. More ‘Book news. Macworld Expo Spire Introduces the Icon Backpack for TiBook and iBook Dr. Bott LLC Has iceBook Bags for iBook Tom Bihn BrainBag MadsonLine G4 Saver SmartDisk Introduces 8x FireWire Portable CD-R/W and FireWire Portable Thin Drive Designed to Match PowerBook […]
July 2001 – This week, Apple will undoubtedly make several announcements at the Macworld Expo in New York. Among these will be some product revision announcements, Mac vs. PC benchmarking demonstrations, and sales figures showing how Apple has regained the lead position in educational sales. What won’t be announced are some of the unfortunate tactics […]
Code named Quicksilver, this was the fiftth computer to share the name Power Mac G4, but the first to be housed in an obviously different case. With processor speeds ranging from 733 to 867 MHz, the G4had the power to outperform any Pentium 4 machine made at the time. The top of the line was a […]
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.
The July 2001 iMac came in speeds of 500, 600, and 700 MHz, although the 700 wasn’t available until August. All models included CD-RW drives and at least 128 MB of RAM. Except for the $799 indio-only model, each version was available in snow (white). The 500 MHz models were available in indigo, and the […]
July 2001 – A recent news article said that IBM had made a breakthrough in semiconductors. Typically computers have been getting faster because the transistors in the CPUs have been getting smaller. Which each decrease in size, the chips get faster or use less energy.
2001-07-13: Apple Store selling Brenthaven cases. Tiny KangururMicro USB flash drive. Get OS 8 for $22. More ‘Book news. Brenthaven ‘Book Cases at Apple Store MacCase and MacPacks on Special at Jam Online Store Interactive Media Corporation USB Flash KanguruMicro Drive My Replacement WallStreet Power Adapter Is on Its Way A Really Expensive PowerBook Hinge […]
Monday, July 9, 2001: I finally got DSL up and running over the weekend. It’s been a long story that started last summer when EarthLink announced DSL service for Grand Rapids (MI). I put my name on the waiting list – and waited and waited and waited.
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.
I detest the background noise of computers; I’m not alone. On several other websites (especially Slashdot), the topic of quiet computers comes up on a regular basis.
BBEdit Lite (BBEL) from Bare Bones Software is a program I use daily. It looks like a simple text editor, but I don’t use it for designing pages or writing; I use it because BBEL has a blindingly fast search-and-replace function. In fact, that’s the feature I use most of the time.
