Mac Musings Archive for 1998

1998 was the Year of the iMac. Announced in May, it didn’t ship until August, and it killed off all those legacy printer, AppleTalk, hard drive, keyboard, and mouse ports with something new called USB. The iMac quickly became the most popular computer on the market.

Resolution Independent Display

1998 – Thanks to utilities like SmoothType, ATM, and the anti-aliasing built into Mac OS 8.5, type today can look better on the screen than ever before. For instance, in the black and white sample to the right, anti-aliasing (courtesy of Photoshop) uses shaded pixels in spots where neither black nor white best fits the […]

iMac Saves Apple?

1998.12: Charles Piller, in Fast-Selling iMac Model Is a Singular Sensation for Apple, writes: “While the sensational new iMac has doubled Apple Computer’s share of the consumer PC market to about 10%, according to the latest data, so far the popular machine has no coattails. Sales of Apple’s more costly and capable G3 desktop computers […]

Burned by 7200 Upgrade Options

1998 – JB writes: I have a question about upgrading the Power Mac 7200. I am rather irritated because, when I bought the machine in winter 95/96, the 7200 was advertised and promoted as upgradeable (to a 7300). Having been burned twice before with Macs that had no upgrade path, I thought I was making […]

Changing Computing Paradigms

1998: Paradigm is a buzzword of the 90s. A paradigm is a mental picture, a way of thinking of things. Significant changes take place when we think outside the box or shift our paradigm. This is what Apple was talking about with the Think Different campaign.

From Mac to PC and Back Again

Have you ever had a really good friend of yours make a bad decision? No matter what you did, you couldn’t convince them to change their mind. Well this is a story of good friend of mine who went to the dark side and came back. -B.H.

Mac vs. PC

This is not a regular article, but more like a follow up on Brad Harrison’s Mac vs. PC article last month. Brad you told the world why Macintosh knocks the competition cold, and I want to tell how it does just that. Worry – it gets technical. 😉

Menagerie of Macs #2

It’s back! I got some positive feedback and a few submissions, and it looks like the Menagerie of Macs might just survive. I have to remind all of you about some of the things I said last month. I really do need help. I need submissions, mostly for articles, but art doesn’t hurt. I think […]

iMac More than Skin-Deep

1998.12: If you surf the Mac sites, you’ve probably run across links to “Skin-Deep Beauty: The iMac’s Performance Doesn’t Live Up to Its Snappy Appearance” (no longer online) by John Breeden, published by The Washington Post on December 17. The article raises a few valid criticisms of the iMac, but also contains some inaccuracies.

Video Editing on a Power Mac

1998 – JW writes: I have a Power Mac 7600/120 with 96 MB RAM and a 2 GB hard disk. I intend to upgrade it in order to use it as a video editing machine for freelance work. Is it worth it to upgrade at all? What kinds of upgrades are viable: graphic card, video card, […]

How Can I Improve My 5200 on the Internet?

1998 – JT writes: I have what I think is a simple question: Which (if any) hardware or software enhancements should I consider to improve the Internet performance of my Performa 5200 CD? The model I own came with an external modem – a 14.4 Global Village – and the computer has its originally installed […]

How Should I Upgrade My Quadra or Performa 630?

1998 – ABV writes: Which version of the Mac OS would you recommend running on the following Quadra 630? The system has 20 MB of RAM, a 250 MB hard drive, an external Chinon 2x CD-ROM drive, 14″ Apple Trinitron Monitor, 33.6 kbps Supra Faxmodem, and a StyleWriter II inkjet printer. I want a version […]