Tomorrow’s iMac

1999.06: No, this article isn’t about C2, the second-generation iMac expected Real Soon Now. This is about where computers, including the iMac, are going over the next few years.

Third Voice and Copyright

1999: I received the following email from Larry Rosenstein in response to Hands Off My Site. He raises some good points that those interested in the Third Wave debate should consider.

iMac Talks to PowerBook

1999 – Many iMac users want to be able to do their work on the road, but we have come to the painful realization that it is quite hard to put your iMac on your lap during an airplane ride. So many of us have bought a PowerBook to be able to compute on the […]

Multi-Processing: Benefits of a Secondary Processor

How an application runs, and what gains in speed may be seen on a multi-processor (MP) Mac OS computer, can be confusing. Understanding a little of how multi-processing works with software applications will help you properly set your expectations when selecting applications designed for MP and begin using them.

Hands Off My Site

1999: Have you heard about the new electronic sticky notes that Third Voice lets users put on websites? Maybe not – after all, the software only runs on Windows computers with Internet Explorer. Although a lot of visitors to this site use Windows and IE, my target audience is Mac users.

What Is BlackBerry?

1999: “BlackBerry is the first complete, secure, integrated, wireless email solution for the mobile professional. Microsoft Exchange users can now enjoy untethered access to their corporate email wherever they go.”

Cal State Is Going Windows

June 1999 – An employee of Cal State informed me that the final decision has been made: The California State University (Cal State, CSU) Chancellor’s Office has put a freeze on future Macintosh purchases and will begin buying Dell PCs over the summer.

The Apple Store

1999: Have you heard that Gateway now sells as much equipment through its storefronts as it does via phone, mail, and online orders? Talk of the Web for the past week has been that Apple should do the same thing. After all, they have very little control over CompUSA and Sears, let alone the hundreds […]

Feeling Left Behind?

1999: Change is the very nature of the computer industry. From the first computer kits to the first personal computers. From the 8-bit Apples, Commodores, and TRS-80s to the pseudo-16-bit IBMs, and then to the graphical Lisa and Macintosh.

iCab, Pro and Con

1999: There’s a lot to like about iCab, the Mac-only browser from Germany – but is it good enough to replace Netscape or Internet Explorer?

MacFlagstone Creek State School

Nestled in the foothills below the range from Toowoomba, Australia, and surrounded by lucerne fields, lies Flagstone Creek State School. For more than 100 years this school has served as the hub for the community and it is far from being a an old fashioned little school.

The Macintosh’s Secret Weapon

The very first computer that I really ever used (excluding the Tron, Spy Hunter and Gorf arcade games) was a VIC-20. I got it for Christmas when I was 6, back in 1984. I was absolutely happy to have something that would allow me to play video games on my computer, and I didn’t have […]

Macs Have Personality

They really do have personality, don’t they? Mac users think of their computer as a member of the family. We’re a little eccentric, we admit that, but there is something really endearing about that hunk of plastic and silicon on your desk.

Menagerie of Macs #6

A few words before we get started. I didn’t unsubscribe anyone who asked to be taken off the list last month, because I did in fact ask you not to do so since I was busy trying to keep this ‘zine alive at the time.

Mac OS X and the econoMac

1999: Our friends at the Macintosh Broadcasting Company (MacBC) are thinking different. In the article Is It Time for a Cheaper Mac?, they propose that Apple wait to release a new inexpensive modular Mac until it can ship with Mac OS X Client installed.

iMac iMpact

1999 – They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery. Well, Apple, I hope you’re flattered. Lately I’ve seen many iMac iMitations. From a real computer that had the same colors as the iMac to the iToaster, iToilet, and chiaMac.

It Isn’t Censorship, It’s Something Else

1999: In the wake of the U.S. Senate’s unanimous passage of a measure to require ISP’s to provide filters to subscribers, much debate has sprung up. Charles Moore warned of the thin edge of the wedge that this measure walks (Thin Edge Of The Wedge: Why Internet Censorship Is A Bad Idea, MacTimes [no longer […]

Censorship and Filtering

1999: To begin, I want to thank Charles W. Moore of MacTimes for bringing up the subject of censorship and Web filtering (see Thin Edge Of The Wedge: Why Internet Censorship Is A Bad Idea [no longer online]). Over the past two days, AppleLinks (It Is Too Censorship!) and MacBC (Is Filtering the Same as […]

A New Type of G3 Daughter Card

1999 – With the Power Mac 7500, 8500, and 9500, Apple introduced a new way of upgrading their computers: the CPU daughter card. Prior to this, all of Apple’s upgrades (except for PPC upgrades to 68K Macs) meant changing the system board.

A Student Bill of Rights

“Since Littleton, the cost of being different has gone up. Thousands of powerful e-mail messages have chronicled an educational system that glorifies the traditional and the normal, and brutalizes and alienates people who are or who are perceived as different under various names – geeks, freaks, nerds, Goths and oddballs. One of the powerful messages […]

It Isn’t Censorship

1999: Charles W. Moore objects to the United States government requiring larger ISPs to provide content filtering to its customers for free or at cost (see Thin Edge Of The Wedge: Why Internet Censorship Is A Bad Idea [no longer online]). Although I agree with Moore in general that censorship is a bad thing, I […]

SCSI Termination Power

Apple has used the SCSI bus since introducing the Mac Plus in 1986. The SCSI bus must have termination power for clean data transmission. Most Macs provide termination power for the SCSI bus, so most SCSI devices for the Mac don’t need to provide it.