1999: Some people fish, others play golf, and I play computer games. Being that I am single, live alone, and have an anti-responsibility rule in my lease, I spend a lot of my free time playing games. I am not just any gamer – I am a “die-hard” gamer.
I’m the news director of a small TV station in upstate New York, and a few weeks back we decided to put more effort into our station’s web site. “More effort,” in this case, meant two or three updates during the working week, and still pictures to go with the stories.
1999.11: One of the new iMac’s best improvements is the new Harman/Kardon Odyssey sound system, which was three years in the making. It’s this easily overlooked feature that makes the new iMac really stand out from its hushed relatives, not to mention it’s PC competitors.
1999 – My old Mac has the maximum RAM in it (or the maximum that I will install). I have 4-14 MB. What options do I have for Internet access?
1999 – I’ve never been able to do a prerelease column about a Mac OS update or upgrade, as either I’ve not had access to them before release or have been gagged by an Apple NDA. After reading that Tom McKenna of the G3 All-in-one Stop Shop had received his copy of Mac OS 9 […]
1999 – Should I wait for the Voodoo3 retail Mac specific version, or should I buy the PC version of the card and use the firmware flasher to convert it over to Mac?
The Power Mac 6100s these days are getting cheaper and cheaper. What are some good uses for them as a secondary computer?
1999: So how’s the Mac user for a month doing? Well, not good. My Power Mac 7200/120 never showed up due to a snafu courtesy of Ubid.
1999: The “I” in iMac must stand for inferior. Because after installing Mac OS 9 on your iMac, you’ll feel inferior to your little computer. OS 9, Apple’s latest operating system for the Mac, is sure to make your iMac work for you.
1999 – I’m writing this column under duress. I’m writing while conducting a conflict test. I’m also kicking myself for not doing this test before I dropped my excellent editor and publisher, Dan Knight, a note this week saying that Claris Home Page appears to break with Mac OS 9. Both Dan and I are […]
1999: Transistor density has been doubling roughly every eighteen months like clockwork for 40 years now. That’s Moore’s Law in a nutshell.
1999: This week Apple released the final version of its Mac OS 9 compatible version of MacsBug app, version 6.6. MacsBug also finally has its own, dedicated web page on the Apple Website, where you can go to get information on or download the latest MacsBug version.
1999 – Last week’s news that Dell Computer had displaced Apple, taking the lead in educational unit sales for two straight quarters should have shaken the Macintosh world to its knees. Instead, the Dataquest report went essentially unnoticed at first by the various Mac news and rumor sites.
1999: Adobe Type Reunion and Apple’s Font Manager turn out to be the culprits.
1999 – I’ve found/been given/bought on the cheap a 68030/68040 Macintosh. I’m a broke college student, and I need to set this machine up to do word processing and surf the Internet as cheaply as possible. What should I do? (A common question around here.)
The Mac II uses a 16 MHz 68020 CPU. The hard drive is an ancient 5.25″ 80 MB Apple-branded Quantum drive – the one that originally shipped with this machine in 1987 – formatted with Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5.
Supporting a over 80 Macs in three locations, consistency is very important. Most of the Macs at work are still running System 7.5.5. Newer ones are generally on Mac OS 8.1 or 8.6. We use the Apple ADB Mouse (in its various incarnations) almost exclusively, along with the Contour UniMouse on Macs without ADB ports.
1999 – Occasionally you just stumble into a job that gets bigger and bigger the more you look at it. I’d airily made a promise early last summer to help our school’s technology coordinator clean up the machines in our two elementary computer labs. “It shouldn’t be too difficult,” I thought, “just wipe the drives, […]
1999: One of the more interesting stories of the past week was the decision of MacTimes to close its doors and try to auction off its domain name on eBay for a cool $100,000. As I write this, there are 12 hours to go – and no bidders.
1999: Basic training is over, and it’s time to put my newly acquired skills to the test. As the title suggests, I am going to be a 100% Mac user for one month. I am unsure of what the results are going to be, but I am really looking forward to this. An old colleague […]
I just got a Mac Plus, Mac SE, or Classic. What can one do with this ancient Mac today? (This is a typical Mac Daniel question.)
1999: This week, Britannica.com Inc. announced that the entire 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica, which sells for $1,250 in its traditional book form, will now be available on the Internet free of charge.
In this business you either sink or swim or you don’t. – David Smith The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling. – Ambrose Bierce When Apple introduced the Power Mac G4 (technically, it was when Apple introduced the G4 commercials) you could almost see final nails being […]
1999 – Should I leave my computer on all of the time? Some people say keeping it off is better for the computer, and others say keeping it on is better. Can you please clarify this issue for me?
1999: Free internet access is a big thing in the Windows world. Many people are currently using free ad-based internet services instead of pricier ones, such AOL and Erols. Free internet services was a relatively unfilled niche in the Mac computing world, except for a few companies that offered Mac versions of their software. However, […]
Intel recently christened “the chip formerly known as Merced” with the newly coined name ITANIUM. (Yes, they really do want it in all caps. Tough.)
Five years ago, my employer was spending about $3,600 for a Power Mac 6100/66 with 16 MB of memory (so much!) and a 230-500 MB hard drive. And Apple’s extended keyboard, which was a separate item back then. And an Apple 14″ color monitor.
The Power Macintosh 6100 (a.k.a. the Perform 6110 series) shipped in two speeds: a 60 MHz version introduced on March 14, 1994 as one of the first Power Macs, and a 66 MHz version introduced on January 5, 1995. Until I benchmarked a 6100/60, 6100/66, and 6100/66 with 256 KB level 2 (L2) cache, I assumed the […]
1999: With apologies to Accelerate Your Mac! for the headline, I hope you were as shocked at Apple’s arrogance on Wednesday as I was.
1999: A couple of years ago, Time magazine was in the vanguard of mainstream media publications predicting Apple’s imminent demise. This week (Oct 18 issue) Steve Jobs is on the cover of Time, which features a spread of four Jobs/Apple related stories.
1999 – This week’s edition of A View from the Classroom will be appearing right here on MacInSchool sometime . . . next week! While I’d like to emulate some of my students and shift responsibility somewhere else, i.e., “But Dan, the dog ate my homework column,” I’ve got to fess up and say it […]
1999: Extensions, System Folders, ROMs – such simple things to the average Mac user. However, to the PC user, they can become your worst nightmare. At first.
1999 – My Mac dials in successfully, but when I try to browse the Web, I get the error message, “This page does not have a DNS entry.” What’s wrong?
“No, I still don’t like Apple products very much. But increasingly, I hate Windows even more. Its constant crashes. Its inconsistent interfaces. Its lack of new, innovative software. Meanwhile, Apple is on a roll….” – Jesse Berst, Editorial Director of ZDNet AnchorDesk, Think Different? Why Jesse Wants an iMac, 1999.10.07. Surreal. Yeah, that’s the word […]
1999.10: If you’ve ever ordered a pizza with someone, you’ve experienced it. No two people ever want the same thing. I guess this is the same when ordering a computer. Now people can finally have the computer that’s suited to them – last week, Apple introduced it’s new iMacs. These are the new iMacs that […]