Comdex,billed as the largest computer show in the world. It didn’t
take me long to see why! The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) has to be about the size of two football fields. It also encompassed the convention centers at the Sands and Hilton hotels, which I never got to see. The reason being; I didn’t plan this trip in advance, I just happened to be passing through as part of my real job as a truck driver and the price of admission, (as I heard it) was well beyond my ability or desire to pay. One figure I heard bandied about was in the $650 range for a one week pass (5 days). Whether this was true or not, I can’t say. Once I heard that number, I vomited on my shoes and didn’t inquire any further. However, I did want to see what all the hype was about, concerning COMDEX.

Unable to get in touch with our friendly editor here at My Mac, so he could Fed Ex me a press pass in exchange for an on the scene report, I was left to improvise.

Soooo, what does a truck driver do when he’s in Vegas with a couple days to kill, and wants to attend the big event but can’t afford it? Take his loaded dice to the craps table and hope they don’t notice? Approach a rich looking couple outside the Hilton and ask them to give me the price of admission to the big event? How about putting on some of my dirty work clothes, smearing mud on my face and hair, then stand on the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvds with a cardboard sign that reads " I’m not homeless but sure would like a pass to COMDEX"?

I’m sure any of the above would have worked eventually, but my time was limited, and I didn’t want to bail myself out of jail – so I did the next best thing!

Some of you may remember me having mentioned my brother in my article, "CD ROM Today and the Good Coasters" in issue #7 of My Mac. His name is Lloyd, and it just so happens that he works for a computer company back in Massachusetts.One of his jobs is to attend these trade shows and make sure all the hardware and software his company is show casing is working the way it’s suppose to.

I arrived in Vegas on the afternoon of Nov. 15th ,which was a Wednesday. I delivered my load of Isuzu Rodeos’ to the dealership, and parked my truck at the King 8 truck stop, just across the freeway from the Tropicana Hotel, where Lloyd was camping out while he worked at the Expo.

We met in the lobby and went to his room so I could get cleaned up. He informed me that I picked a good day to show up as that was the evening that his company was having their big party in the banquet room of the hotel. Turns out that I missed Microsofts’ party the night before. Damn! I really wanted to here what Bill Gates had to say. (Not!!!)

All Lloyd had to do was procure an invitation for me to get into this shindig. That took all of 2 minutes, once we were seated at the bar in the lobby having pre-party cocktails. The party started at 6:00PM. Free food, open bar and live entertainment. It doesn’t get any better than this. A good time was had by all. Lloyd tells me that 1200 people were invited and 2500 showed up. Lloyd was able to borrow a COMDEX pass for me to wear, from a co-worker who did not have to work on Thursday, so I was able to roam freely about the LVCC, but my name had changed to Carrie Ann SomthingOrOther. A minor detail. I hung the pass around my neck and went to work with my brother.

I left Lloyd at 10:00AM when the exhibits opened and commenced my day long stroll through COMDEX 95. My first stop was the PowerPC exhibit. I think the people at Intel (makers of the Pentium chip) must have bribed someone at the LVCC to inform the people at Apple, IBM and Motorola (makers of the PowerPC chip) that there was no room inside the convention center for a PowerPC exhibit. Did this deter the PowerPC crew? No way, they just brought there own building and set it up outside in the parking lot. It was one of those huge inflatable buildings. After checking for leaks in their blowup building I went inside and witnessed a great laser graphics display while waiting for the demonstration to begin. After watching grown men and women jumping out of their seats and waving their arms foolishly trying to catch the few PowerPC T-shirts that the stage girls were tossing into the crowd, we were given a demonstration which was projected onto a giant movie screen. The screen showed two monitors, one was a computer running the Pentium chip and the other had the PowerPC chip, both were operating at 130mhz. The girl started both computers at the same time, and had them do some complicated PhotoShop filtering, shading, and rendering. Guess which one finished first? Duh! Actually, the PowerPC finished about 30 seconds before the Pentium. Witnessing this marvelous display of technology didn’t change my life any, but it was fun just the same! As I was leaving, I apologized to the elderly lady sitting next to me for giving her a bloody nose and stepping on her foot while I was trying to reach for that T-shirt. I would have caught it too, if the old gal hadn’t been in my way!

Walking back into the LVCC, there was a tiny stage just inside the door, upon which, was a girl holding the PowerPC logo between both her hands, in a pose somewhat like Arnold Schwarzenegger gets into when he does his "pump you up" routine. Only this girl didn’t look real, she looked like a mannequin! She was a mime I had seen earlier, so I was watching this fellow, who was looking at her. As he kept getting closer and closer to her she jumped in his direction and screamed "Boo!" That poor guy stumbled backwards till he tripped, falling flat on his rump! Before he hit the floor, the mime on the stage was back to her perfectly still pose. The guy on the floor kept repeating, "I had no idea she was real!!". I wonder if those mime’s carry heart attack liability insurance?

The first thing one does upon entering COMDEX is pick up a free IBM suitcase. It’s a cardboard box with a handle and is 12"X 18"X 4" and has an 11" slot in the side of it to slip in all your pamphlets, magazines, floppy disks, ink pens, buttons, bumper stickers, mail order catalogs and other paraphernalia someone is sticking in your face every 30 seconds or so. Some people were carrying 2 and 3 of these IBM suitcases. I guess those were the people who couldn’t say "no" to a free handout. I mainly limited myself to Apple related paraphernalia, and definitely drew the line when a guy asked me if I wanted a free copy of Computer Shopper. I said, "No thank you", thinking, "I’d have to go get my truck to lug that thing around."

I still haven’t opened my IBM suitcase to see what kind of goodies I stuffed in there. I’ll save that till after the holiday’s when I might have time to read through it all. Gee! I hope I didn’t put any uneaten pizza in there, I might open it up and find I have a month’s supply of penicillin also.

I learned that if I was ever in the market for a removable storage drive, I will get the SyQuest EZ135 instead of the Iomega Zip Drive. It’s uglier and bigger than the Zip Drive but I saw it copy 1.2MB of data from a floppy to it’s 135MB cartridge about twice as fast as the Zip, just like it says in their advertisements. Seeing is believing.

I had a question to ask the people at Supra Corp. about my SupraFax Modem 288 so I meandered over to their booth and waited for one of the four exhibitors to approach me and offer assistance. I waited for about 2 minutes but I guess I didn’t look important enough or whatever it was the 4 of them were B/S ing about was more important than helping a customer. You all know the feeling you get when your standing at a counter at your local mall and the 2 salespeople behind it see you standing there but continue on with their conversation about uncle Harry’s gall bladder operation. I turned and walked away, remembering Macworlds article on modems and how they listed Supra Corp’s. technical help as "unacceptable". Another bullseye for Macworld as far as I’m concerned.

I can’t describe everything I saw at the Expo, but all you have to do is imagine the largest computer store you have ever been into, and then multiply that by 10,000 or so and you come up with COMDEX. (Minus a few bells and whistles), like a dozen or so cars spread around, to be given away. Some new, some older classics, some with laptop computers built in, where the headlights should be! (Digital Equip. Corp).

I found one amazing thing at COMDEX that I’ll bet nobody but me will ever write about, so keep reading, cause this is an exclusive My Mac report!

Microsoft had the largest exhibit there. (Is anyone surprised!) IBMs was big, and so was Digitals. AT&Ts was futuristic and Sony’s was a blast. (A short 3D movie, digitally enhanced. We even got to wear those cardboard and cellophane glasses that makes everyone look like a goof ball.) Of course the one I felt most comfortable at (and spent most of my time) was Apple Computer. It was respectable in size. (Almost as big as Cupertino, Ca. I would guess.)

As I was trying to talk one of the girls into giving me that Powerbook 190 that kept crashing while I was trying to test drive it, I started thinking about my feet. The more I thought about them,the more I thought I might be on to something! I gave that Apple girl one last chance to be rid of that bothersome Powerbook, but she wouldn’t give it to me, so I left in search of what I thought would be a front page discovery.

I walked around all the larger exhibits, as well as some of the smaller ones, and by golly my feet where trying to tell me something! The carpet! It’s a different thickness in each of the exhibits! Are these companies trying to lure people into there exhibits with the plushiness of their floor coverings?!? Of course they are, why else would it be a different thickness in each exhibit? After closer scrutiny, I was able to make an educated and informed analysis of which company had not only the thickest, but the most comfortable carpet to walk on, thus enticing more people to visit their exhibit. This, of course, enticed them to stay longer, and maybe order 5000 more of the product they were looking at! Very good strategy, don’t you think?

Okay, drum roll if you will: I will now release my dramatic findings.

Most of the smaller exhibits had much too thin padding under their carpets. Some didn’t have any padding whatsoever, which led me to start a campaign to banish these companies from all future expos.!

My Top 5 List

5) Microsoft- You people do everything full bore. You must have been thinking that everyone was going to be barefootin’ around your exhibit. Had we all been barefoot, you would be #1. But do you know how difficult it it is to walk on 2 inches of carpet padding in shoes, let alone high heels? Bet the number of your female visitors were way down.

4)Sony- Good try! It wasn’t to bad, unless you walked from Microsofts exhibit onto yours. In which case yours felt like a cement floor. Your 3/4 inch pad was a little shy. Next year don’t park your exhibit right next to Bills!

3) Digital- You guys may have tide for first, because I think your inches were right where they had to be to begin with. What messed that up was the three automobiles you put on top of the carpet, which had a sinking effect on the padding. Officially, you ended up with 7/8 inch. Just a tad shy.(Buy the way, thanks for inviting me to your party Wednesday.)

2) IBM- Real close. You knew what to shoot for. I’m sure you had every intention of winning this prestigious award. You always had a crowd of people at your exhibit, which tells you how close to the best you were. Let me give you a piece of advise for next year? When calculating the thickness of you carpet, use a machine with a PowerPC chip installed instead of that bumbling Pentium that can’t add. Your 1-1/16 inch pad was 1/16 inch shy of the perfect comfort carpet.

1) Apple- At 1-1/8 inch in padding, You people in Cupertino may not be #1 in market share but you sure know how to lay a rug. No wonder I spent most of my time at you exhibit. Your not only user friendly, your feet friendly as well!

There you have it folks; My first annual Carpet Award!

The Internet is a tremendous and constantly growing wealth of
information. Since you are reading this E-zine, you either have Internet access yourself or know someone who does. For many of you, it is through a major On-line service, such as America Online, CompuServe, etc. Some may have gone with the direct Internet connection, like a PPP or slip account. Some have both. I have a Power Mac 6100/66 hooked up to the Internet directly using a dial up PPP account and I log on to AOL for a few hours a month right over the Internet using AOL’s TCP/IP access method, but more on that later.

What I will try to do in this column is provide some interesting and diverse areas for you to explore as well as discussing and answering your questions about all aspects of the Internet. Are your on-line charges too high? Do you have to sign off just when you find what your looking for because the meter is getting too high? Well, there may be an Internet solution for you that will lower your costs. Have you found some exciting Web sites? Let me know and I will share some of your favorites with the rest of the Mac community. Everyone has different tastes so hopefully I can
generate some excellent feedback. So write in and let us know what you have discovered out there.

The first thing I want to discuss is how you are accessing the Internet. If you are a serious Internet fanatic and your not hooked directly to the Internet, as in a PPP, or SLIP account, then perhaps you should be. Does your AOL bill exceed the national debt? If your paying more than $30.00 per month you could probably save some money and stay on-line longer by accessing the Internet using an Internet Provider. These providers usually charge about 25 to 30 bucks a month, which includes unlimited access and all the software you need to connect. If there isn’t a provider in your local calling area, there will be soon. They are springing up all over the place quickly, and the competition is great so the prices are all coming in line. The major On-line services do provide a nice user friendly
interface that you just can’t find on the raw Internet, but once you get familiar with browsing the World Wide Web you won’t miss it. Some folks (myself included) need the best of both worlds. You can access AOL from the Internet by going through the back door. You stay connected to the Internet and fire up your AOL software. Just select TCP-IP from the main pop-up menu and click sign on as you normally would, and your off and running. You still have to pay the monthly fee, and you are still limited to 5 free hours, but since you have unlimited Internet access you probably only need to log on to AOL for a few hours a month. I log on to AOL for the latest news, surf
their monthly software section, then sign off and go browsing the Web with Netscape. It’s a real nice combination, and the total monthly cost is less than 35 bucks.

If you sign on for just a few hours a month, than a On-line service is probably just right for you. You can still get access to the World Wide Web from AOL, although somewhat slower and less impressive than some of the other commercial browsers out there, like Netscape Mosaic, and many others. The major on-line services have local access numbers all over the country, but what if you don’t live near one? If you have to call long distance to log on with AOL then there may be an alternative. America Online offers an 800 number you can use to log on with. There is a catch, though: They charge you $4.95 /hour just for the phone call. Add the monthly fee and you have about 35 bucks for 5 Hrs. So if there is an Internet Provider in your local calling area., for the same 35 bucks you might be able to get unlimited web access plus your five hours with AOL.

Now for a few Internet Sites! One of the most important sites for us Mac folks is of course Apple’s Home page. You have probably already visited them, but in case you haven’t you should point your browser over to http://www.apple.com/ for all the latest Apple news. What do you use for a surfboard while your surfing? Search engines provide us with an excellent way to search the Web. Yahoo has an easy to use search engine that you can find at http://www.yahoo.com/ This search engine has many extra features that will point you to what’s new, or what’s cool, and many others. The Webcrawler is another nice search engine. Those of you who use AOL will recognize it. You can access it with almost any browser at http://webcrawler.com/ Bob LeVitus has a Web page concerning his new book called Webmaster Macintosh home page. Anyone interested in Web publishing and Mac’s should head over to http://www.versa.com/webmastermac/ for some great information and software!

That’s it for this month’s Internet Connection, I hope you enjoyed it. Next month I’ll have room for more Web sites. As I mentioned before the beauty of the Internet is it’s size and scope. Write me with your favorite sites and I will share some of them in this column. Is there something you can’t find, let me know and Tim and I will see what we can come up with. You can E-mail me at orchard@wn.net or Evz1@aol.com, I’ll be looking forward to hearing some feedback.

In next month’s issue of the Internet Connection I’ll answer some of the letters, give some helpful tips, and share some new Web sites sent in by My Mac readers.

It started out as a question a freind asked me at work. Everyone has thought about it from time to time, but it is still fun to think about. What would you do if you won the lottery? This being a magazine dedicated to Macintosh computers and user’s, I thought it would be fun to poss this question to the readers! So I sent out a request to everyone who subscribes, asking just that.
Here is the body of that message.
_____________________________________________________________________
Hello My Mac readers!

Let me tell you why I am writing. This is a survey for the December issue of My Mac (#8). If you do not want to participate, I understand.

Here’s the deal. You have just won the lottery. (Say ten million)
The catch, however, is that you MUST buy some computer equipment
with it. So, what would you buy?
What I am looking for is three or more items, listed, that you would buy.
Such as…
#1. Power Macintosh 9500
#2. A Zip drive
#3. ect…

You get the point! I want to publish the results in the December issue, so I will need this back by 11/17/95. If you get this request after said date, please send it in anyway! I may update the list in the January issue!
_____________________________________________________________________

The reponse was overwelming! But before I give you the results, here are a sample of the letters I recieved for this survey…
_____________________________________________________________________
To DS9DS9,
#1–Power Mac 9500 (Do I need it? Hell no! But with ten million, why not buy a machine that could run all of NASA!)
#2–A honkin’ huge monitor (20" at the absolute min.). God damn do I hate a small screen!
#3–A PaperPort Vx, cause I hate snailmail and dead trees lying around the desk.
#4–Are you kidding? Call up MacWarehouse and say: "One of each please."
From: CZEL

(I like CZEL’s #4 the best myself!-Ed.)
_____________________________________________________________________
Hi Tim,
Here are my survey answers:
1. Daystar Genesis MP
2. ISDN or Fractional-T1 line… What the heck, if I have 10 million to spend, I might as well go with a full T1
3. A joystick
There’s a reason why mice aren’t found on arcade game machines.
From:George Louie

(I feel like this should be on a test,"Pick the one that does not belong." Answer:#3, A joystick! By the way, George, last I heard, the Daystar Genesis Mac clones were behind,and that as of early October, they could not yet provide a working prototype?-Ed.)
_____________________________________________________________________

To: DS9DS9
First, I would buy a BIG monitor (21 in). Then more hard drive space, a gig I guesss. Plus, I need a faster modem, 14.4 just isn’t cutting it. Also, I would love a Color Laser printer, or at least one that can take 11×17 paper. Have I used up the alotted moolah yet? If not, then software, software, software!!! Would like to see what Ray Dream Designer is all about. Hope this helps!
From: Drybean
_____________________________________________________________________

Here’s what I would buy with money in hand:

Now, if I had enough moolah, I would get a new PowerMac or PowerComputing machine with a 100mz or better., but who wouldn’t want that? And If I got that I’d want at least 32 Megs of memory and an Apple or Sony 16-17 inch monitor.
From: JimMoravec
_____________________________________________________________________

To: DS9DS9
A scanner? I don’t know much about them, and want to learn more before I sink some money in one…could you do an evaluation and review on several of the more modest type’s?
From: MKlemm4844

(Tell you what, I will test any scanner you wish, as long as you can convince a company to send me one!-Ed.)
_____________________________________________________________________
Tim,

(For those wondering, I also posted my question on our local First Class Server, and Allan is our resident PC guru. A really nice guy, if you look beyond that annoying PC thing!-Ed.)
_____________________________________________________________________

Now on to the results!

#5. 28,800 bps modem. Many different models were listed.

#4.Power Mac 9500 with all the toys. Humph. I thought this would be a sure number one, myself!

#3. A Scanner. Again, many different models listed. Seem’s a lot of you want to start scanning stuff into your computer!

#2. A big monitor. Either many readers have bad eyesight, or everyone has the "bigger is better" mentality. Radius and Sony got the most votes here.

#1.A Color Laser Printer. (To print what you scanned?) Hewlitt Packard won this one hands down!
_____________________________________________________________________

So what do these results tell us? For one, many of you are happy with the computer you already have, and really just want more toys for it. I really did think more people would choose a high end computer than what they did, what with the 9500 coming in forth.

Why a Color Laser printer at the number one spot? On most returned list’s, almost no one chose this as number one, but almost everyone listed it. Thus, it got more "votes" than the others.

These results also tell us most My Mac readers are practicle people. Many of you chose items in the $1,500-$6,000 range. There are many products that cost a lot more money, and if you won ten million, what’s the problem?

Me? I say what CZEL said. Call up MacWarehouse and say: "One of each please."
 

File Buddy™ 3.2

The first time I saw the name of this very handy utility, I was hooked! "File Buddy". I keep hearing that song for a doll or something in my head: "My buddy, my buddy, my buddy and me!" (I need a vacation.)

File Buddy 3.2 does so many things, and does them well, that I am not sure where to even begin!

File Buddy is very fast at most of it’s functions. I was more than surprise at the speed, so on a Power Mac, it must fly! File Buddy is only 509K in size, so you’re looking at a four-minute download time with a 14.4 modem. Not a bad deal when you look at all the features you get! And File Buddy only needs 700k of memory to run, so if you have a small amount of memory to worry about, there is no need to adjust size from "get info.".

Features:

First, File Buddy will let you scan not only your hard drive, but removable media as well. (Like a SyQuest or Zip drive).

Search for Duplicate files, empty folders, unused preference files, invisible file’s, alias that have lost their way home (unconnected), and more. It’s built in search criteria is much better than the finders! (i.e. "search for files over 100K with nothing in the Preference folder")

After a search, you can do many thing thanks to the menu displayed in the report window. Find a unconnected alias? You can reconnect it to "momma", or to a different program. Find a duplicate file? File Buddy lets you move it to the trash right now. Do you have a few empty folders with no resource fork? Move it to the desktop or the trash. Find a Read Me file that does not belong to a parent program on your disk? Print it right now!

File Buddy has more. It will let you update or rebuild your desktop. Create custom icons. Create an alias and place them automatically wherever you want, like the Apple menu or the launcher. File Buddy 3.2 supports Drag & Drop as well.

All these features, and more, make File Buddy a great download, and a good edition to anyone’s utility collection. And at $25.00, well worth it. I highly recommend this product. Download it today!

To subscribe or not to subscribe. A good question, and one I have been asking myself for quite a while. I love Macintosh magazines. Macworld. MacUser. Mac home Journal. But at the moment, I do not subscribe to any of these publications. Sure, I read them all every month, but that means a trip to the book store anytime a new issue comes out. (By now, I know the day my store usually gets each magazine in!)

So why not subscribe? I would save money, not only in the price of the magazine, but in time and gas money I spend going to and from the store. It would seem that it would be a good idea, right? Maybe not… Let’s look at the December issue’s I bought so far. (I have not bought MHJ yet, as of this writing.)

Macworld. My favorite magazine, mostly due to the fact that I really look
forward to David Pogue’s “The Desktop Critic”, and Guy Kawasaki’s “Wise Guy” columns. (Yes, I know Guy is gone!) I also enjoy Lon Poole’s “Quick Tips”. And the December 1995 issue was no exception. Great all around issue! But if I was a subscriber, I would have missed a lot! Like what, you ask? The bonus CD Rom that Macworld only ships with the newsstand edition.

MacUser. Those guy’s over at Ziff-Davis are great. MacUser is usually smaller size-wise than Macworld, but it does cost a dollar less! It also has one of the best writer’s in Mac publications around, Andy Ihnatko! Andy is a brave writer, who really let’s you know how he feels. His “Word 6.0” columns come to mind. And his “Crash, Boom, Bang” column in the December issue was pure reading pleasure. And the ever “-dark” writings of John C.Dvorak are a must for any Mac user! Of course, I could not go a month without reading Christopher Breen’s and Bob Letvitus’s “Help Folder” column, MacUser’s answer to MacWorld’s “Quick Tip’s.” And what would I have missed had I been a subscriber? The bonus CD Rom, of course!

I bet you see a pattern developing here.

Most months, I just get a new AOL or CompuServe disk, which I erase and use for other things. As of late, however, these magazines have shipped with CD Rom’s full of very cool stuff.

In the Macworld CD Rom, it was game and learning demos. I like this, as I am not much of a game player myself, but at times would like to see what is out there for the offerings. Not being a game player, I have no idea what is good or bad! But thanks to Macworld, I have found a few game’s I really liked. And I may just buy some of them soon, after playing the demos.

For those who missed it, here is what is on the disk:

Foul Play, Full Throttle, DOOM, Onslaught, Rebel Assault 2, and Buried in Time, Dark Forces, Diamonds 3D, F/A-18, HAVOC™ Preview, Links Pro CD, Marathon 2, PowerPete, Sensory Overload, and Total Distortion.
   
And that is just the Entertainment demos! They also have a few home learning demos as well. As you may know, I am a father, so these were particularly helpful. They included…..

80 Days, Airport, BODY, Dr. Seuss’s ABC, Freddi, How Animals Move, Math Munchers, MFIAD, Oregon Trail II, Paws, SCIENCE, Sesame Street Letters, Sesame Street Numbers, The Magic Applehouse, and Zoo.
   
Now, if I had been a Macworld Subscriber, I would have missed these great demo’s, and thus may not buy some of them. All this for $4.95? A truly great deal. Sure, I can download most of these demos from AOL or the internet, but I bet it would cost much more on connect time alone than MacWorld’s $4.95 cover price! That, and I would have to store them on disk, costing me even more money. This way, I have it all on one CD Rom.

I saved MacUser for last because it is the best CD Rom I have ever seen ship with any magazine. I had trouble finding this issue because I was a few days late getting to the bookstore! A mistake I won’t make again! Not only did this CD Rom has a few back issues of MacUser in PDF format (Viewable in Adobe Acrobat, which was included on the disk!), but also a few clip art images. (You can never have enough clip art!)

Also on the disk is stuff people on AOL only do not have access to. ZMac Exclusives! You can only get these puppies on eWorld or CompuServe. What are they? Programs developed by ZMac that cannot be uploaded to other BBS’s or online services. Some are utilities, programs, and the like.

Included are:

ZMac’s PIXs 1.0, ZMac’s TabMania 1.0.1, ZMac’s SoundSmith 1.1.3, ZMac’s QuickLaunch 1.0, Smooth Move, ZMac’s Mad ppatter! 1.1, ZMac’s Find Pro III, ZMac’s Custom Icon Pack II, ZMac’s Clean Sweep 1.1, and Thumbnail 1.0.
 
The best part, however, was its demo versions of some of Adobe’s best products. (Demo versions do not let you save or print work, but with a screen capture utility, like Snapz…)

These demo’s included: Adobe Dimensions 2.0, Adobe Illustrator 5.5, Adobe Pagemaker 5.0, Adobe Streamline, Adobe Photoshop 3.0, Adobe Premiere 4.0, and Adobe Persuasion 3.0.
   
I looked on AOL. I could not find anyplace to download these demo’s there. I know for a fact that I may never buy any of these products, or at least wouldn’t have until I tried them out first. And thanks to MacUser, I did just that. Photoshop and Pagemaker in particular really got my attention!

So now we return to my original question: To subscribe or not? Well, after flying my FA/17, checking out Marathon, drawing some cool pictures in Photoshop, and adding some clip art to my library, I think not. Besides, next month I may get another AOL disk, and lord knows I can use that to store my screen snapshots of Adobe Illustrator on!

When Tim asked me to write something for My Mac, I happily agreed. Being asked to do something besides tie shoes and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches really makes my day. (Then again, sometimes, the dog not throwing up in the house and the toilet not over flowing makes it, too.)

I am a mother with 4 young children, a loving husband, a meaningful part time job, and a growing home business. My life was full, happy, complete…until 18 months ago. My story begins that day in the Spring of 1994 when I bought a used LC lll. Now there is no turning back the clock to a simpler time when I knew not a Mac from an IBM.

Hello, my name is Carolyn, and I am a MacAddict.

How do I know I have crossed the line from casual user to MacAddict? In response to a column Guy Kawasaki wrote for MacWorld this past summer (“Mac Attack Test, May 1995), I felt compelled to examine my conscience, ruthlessly bringing to light the hidden truths of my daily habit. The resulting revelations clearly show the warning signs of my obsession:

• I think of my time in terms of "Working on the computer" and "Doing other stuff while Iwait to get back to my computer."
• I let my husband’s Car and Driver subscription lapse so I could afford both Mac World and MacUser magazines.
• I have begun to refer to my children as “extensions” and yesterday told my husband to, “Load the little INITs in the car.”
• I do my weekly shopping at the Warehouse Club because I can record the check under the Quicken category “groceries” and still come home with a surreptitious $50.00 worth of new software. (They only let me out to buy Fruit Loops and Barney videos so I have to be creative.)
• I covet my neighbor’s peripherals.
• I harbor secret fantasies of waltzing into CompUSA with a start up disk and hacking all their demo programs.
• The last time my husband and I made love I found myself whispering in his ear seductively , "Hey big boy, want to make an alias with me?"
• I prefer to think of diaper changes as "doing a clean install."
• I can remember the key combinations to zap the PRAM (command-option-P-R) and bypass the internal hard drive (command – option – shift – delete), but I can’t remember my mother-in-law’s phone number.

(One woman computer addict wrote to Guy for advice, saying that her daughter has accused her of loving her Mac more than her little girl. To which I reply: as a mother, you are entitled to use the definitive response handed down from Mothers through the ages, “Of course not honey, I love you both equally.”)

Since then, the situation has intensified at our house. As it is, the 18 month old is the only one I don’t have to fight for computer time. Until now, I have been able to outwit the rest of the little hackers by resorting to refurbished ‘mommyisms’: “You’re-goin-to-ruin-your-eyes-stunt-your-growth-your-mouse-finger-will-freeze-that-way if you don’t let Mommy have the computer.”

However, this is at best only a stopgap measure. It won’t be long before they expose my addiction and ‘pull the plug’, so to speak. Already, the older children have learned a powerful little secret: when Mom is messing with her Mac, they can pretty much call the shots and get away with just about anything. This includes inviting all the neighborhood kids in to pillage the fridge and setting up a pond life ecosystem in the bathtub….replete with ‘wildlife’.

I was forced to confront my weakness the day I recognized that my standard Mommy cliches had slipped into a parallel universe and mutated into MacMomma expressions:

All is not lost, however. I am making progress in the fight against my addiction. Although I cannot claim a complete cure, I am showing signs of recovery. Yesterday, I stopped reading my email immediately and ran for the room where I had left my 3 year old playing with the baby as soon as I heard “Giddy up, little baby!” Today, after I meticulously Q-Tipped every nook and cranny of my new computer desk, I went ahead and dusted the mantle and the piano, too. Tomorrow I may actually talk on the phone without simultaneously checking my email. Who knows, I may even let my subscription to MyMac lapse………….NAH, now THAT’s going too far!

Why I HATE my Macintosh Part II

For all you folks that didn’t get to read Part I of Why I Hate My Macintosh, I suggest you run out to your favorite download hangout and grab a copy of issue #7 of this fine E-mag, MY MAC. Otherwise, in some instances you may not know what the hell I’m talking about, or referring to in this, Part II of my 2 part Saga of Why I Hate My Macintosh. I have already covered my background and what has brought me to the point of finally telling anyone who’ll listen, Why I Hate My Macintosh. So go ahead and get Part I, read it, and let me know when your ready for Part II. I’ll wait, take your time, I’ll still be here when you get back. I don’t have a real life anyway.

So, how are the rest of you folks doing? Really! That’s great. Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah, that can be a real bummer for sure.
(Hey! Editor, These people think they have problems! Hmmph!!)

(Editor’s note: Peter is o.k., no need to send for a doctor!)

Oh! Your back, great, everyone up to speed then? Good. Lets go.

Keep in mind my occupation, if you would. It is arguably the biggest reason why I have come to despise my Mac.

If you recall my main reason for wanting a computer in the first place was a simple one. To keep my truck records, expense records, miles per gallon, cost per gallon, cost per mile, dollar per mile, freight rates, uncle Sam, who was screwing me out of money, and all the other business related records that I wasn’t keeping up with too well, by hand.

Jan. 1st 1995, Performa 550 Day. Also some other, lesser known holiday if I’m not mistaken. What a sight. My wife, 4 daughters and myself gathered around the big box with the big colorful apple on the side. My wife saying more than once " Are you sure this is what you wanted, I never heard you mention a Macintosh before, I thought you had that Packard Bell all picked out." My response to this being. " Your right honey, but you know, I think Sales kid, I mean Rick, might have saved us from making a big mistake. I think this machine will be a much better one than that piece of crap, Packard. " So, open the box we did. Just as I was about to set this extremely heavy computer onto our new oak dinning room table, my wife screamed, " No, let me get something to put under it, so it won’t burn a whole in the table top." "Good idea, honey," I said. We didn’t know how hot the bottom of these things got.

Now, I hate putting things together, although I’ve done my share of it, mostly around Christmas and birthdays. The reason being, one time while assembling a little trike for one of the girls, I stuck a flat head screwdriver through the palm of my hand that almost, but not quite, found its way through to the other side. For a long time afterwards, if it needed a screwdriver to be assembled, it didn’t get assembled, period. Also, I was never one to read the instructions first, and always seemed to end up with extra parts. Yeah, I know guys, you’ve been there, done that. Most dads have. It was months later that I found out, not reading instructions was a sure sign of a true Mac user.

So, true to form, I commenced setting up my machine to compute stuff with. While the instruction booklet lay neatly inside its clear plastic bag.

Bingo! It’s ready. That was almost too easy. All the cables were plugged into their proper receptacles, no extra parts lying around, we’re ready for liftoff.

After about an hour of experimenting and drilling my daughters with questions like, "What’s this for, what’s this do, where the hell did that pointing arrow go?" "Move the mouse dad." "Oh yeah, I get it." My family slowly withdrew themselves one by one and shuffled off to bed. The last thing I heard was," You can’t leave that thing on my new table when you go to work. Good night dear."

I think the sun was coming up when I snuck into bed.

OK. OK. OK. You want to know why I ended up hating this thing. I’m getting to that, good Lord, be patient, people.

That’s all for Part II. No. No. Just kidding. Though it is time for a break. Anyone want a Pepsi? Sorry, but I think I’m out of adult beverages. Maybe I can rustle up some cookies, and put on a pot of coffee. Oh yeah! "Smoke em’ if you got em’."

Feel better? Good, me too. I see a few of you still haven’t returned from the bathroom yet, so you’ll have to catch up to the rest of us when you get back. These other nice people can’t wait all day for ya. Hey, they told me to say that. It wasn’t my idea.

A couple months go by and I’m ass and elbows deep into ClarisWorks. Making one spreadsheet after another. Transferring all my hand written information into these little neat rectangular boxes of my variously ( is that even a word ) chosen spreadsheets. I never did figure out why I had to type my information into the box at the top of the screen and then click on the box I wanted the information to appear in. Why couldn’t I just click on the box I wanted and type it in directly? If anyone knows the answer to this, don’t bother e-mailing me an explanation, cause I don’t really care. I did it their way and it worked.

Remember, I couldn’t do all this catching up on my record keeping at a nice leisurely pace, like say a couple hours a night when I got home from work. My work desk has a steering wheel and 18 tires under it, and when I sit down at that desk I don’t see the home office again for 10 to 20 days.

So, when I did get home for 2,3 maybe 4 days,it was another frantic marathon sitting at the Mac trying to get caught up, and tax time was just around the corner.

I finally got caught up for the tax year 1994. I Bought MacInTax, did it myself, and Bingo, I’m in debt to the IRS once again.

Did this make me hate my Mac?

Nah, all the above was my own fault. I should have gotten a computer the day I bought my truck, or at least done a better job of keeping up with my records by hand.

No, up to this point I still thought my 550 was sliced bread. Although any computer would have had the same effect on me, I believe.

This is where things started to go bad.

What I had been doing so far was, a little word processing, lots of spreadsheets ( for me it was a lot ) and even a little data basing. Now, I ask any of you nice folks out there, "Could you, in the wildest stretch of your imagination consider this fun?" Handy, yes, necessary, yes, time saving, yes, fun, I don’t think so. Unless your a CPA. But they get paid for doing it, it has to be fun for them, else they go insane.

What I’m saying here, is I could have done the same thing on a PC as well as a Mac and probably not have noticed one bit of difference in my fun factor. If any of you disagree, I don’t want to hear about it. This is my story, remember? So humor me O.k., or I won’t invite you over for cookies and coffee anymore.

Now that I got the dirty, un-fun stuff caught up, i.e. record keeping, I decided to check out all the fun things I’ve been hearing about, that the Mac has to offer. So I dinked around with the painting and drawing parts of ClarisWorks, made a birthday card for my wife’s cousin and sent it off and printed out some color graphics on my color printer. Yeah buddy, this is fun stuff all right!

Time to get hooked up on-line. That seems to be the big rave. "Let’s give it a whirl shall we," I told myself. So I did.

Holly Schmolly, what’s all this stuff laying around up here? Free graphics to download, free files of all sorts. Lookee here, actual programs to install on Mr. 550 to make him do all kinds of tricks. Hey! Does anybody know you have all this stuff just lying around up here? No answer. I’ll just fill my basket and get out of here. But how? Oh yeah, download manager. Beam me to the surface Scotty! I’ve learned a bit more since that first Easter egg hunt online, but it’s still fun. I got reacquainted with two of my brothers I hadn’t seen or talked to in 11 years, via e-mail. That was fun. I’m writing this for whoever cares to read it. If no one does, I’ll read it, and that’ll be fun.

Getting to the root of all this blabbering ( real word?)

Now that I’m having all this fun, I can’t be away from home for more than a couple of days, and I start thinking, I have to get back and catch up on my record keeping. After 7 days I amuse myself by reading my old copies of Macworld, MacUser, TheNet, CD-ROM Today, oops, scratch that last one, I don’t read that rag anymore, ( read my other article, also in Issue #7 of My Mac, to find out why,) and probably my favorite, Mac for Dummies, I keep in the truck. When I finally get headed back in the direction of Seattle Wa. ( my home ) I’m making a list of what I need to do on the Mac to get caught up in my books. But when I finally make it home and sit in front of Mr. 550, I go right back to doing, you guessed it, the fun stuff.

Now, I ask you, would this be happening to me if I had that crappy Packard? No.
Would I be getting my book work in order, if I had that crappy Packard? Yes, not much fun in that system. At least not as much easy fun, near as I can tell.
When it’s not easy fun, one tends to do his work and get the hell away from it.
Would my social life be more active if I had that crappy Packard? Maybe.
Would I be sitting here at 5:48AM, having not gone to bed last night, finishing this story if I had that crappy Packard? I really doubt it.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Why I Hate My Macintosh.

Will I sell it, trade it in on a PC or give it away?

Yeah, right. What turnip truck do you think I just fell off of?

I guess if I had a PowerBook to take in the truck with me, I wouldn’t be so stressed about being away from my 550, and things might settle down and real work might get done on the computer as was the original purpose. I could do a little record keeping at night in the truck while parked alongside the Freeway in a rest area out in the middle of the Mojave desert or on a mountaintop in Colorado. I might even find the time to do some fun stuff on the PowerBook in the truck. I’m sure this would alleviate all my schizophrenic tendencies I’m having about being away from my Mac for long stretches at a time. This would make me like all you normal, well adjusted people that have a Mac at work and at home.I’ll bet I would even start liking my Macintosh again.

Yeah, that’s it, that’s the ticket! Get a PowerBook.

How can I swing a major purchase like that, at this time? Hmmmm, I got it!!

Listen up everybody!! This is the deal of the century. You suit and ties in Cupertino Ca. are also eligible for this deal. I will trade, to the first person who contact’s me via email, that has a near new PowerPC 5300c PowerBook. OK, maybe that’s asking for to much. I’ll settle for a 520c PB. Must be near new though. In trade, across the board, even Steven, they will get from me, a near new (used only once) GV 2400bps data/fax (send only) modem. How bout those apples. So what if you can get one for $15. This is all I have to trade with, and besides, I said this would be the deal of the century, didn’t I?

If this deal doesn’t strike your fancy, then give this a little thought.

Would you rather be sharing the freeways across this great land of ours with a stressed out, schizophrenic man behind the wheel of 80,000 pounds of metal going down the road at 70 mph.

Until next time…… Sleep well……

Copland Hi-Tech Add-On 1.0.1

So, you have the ~Aaron extension to give your Mac that cool, 3-D look. Now, you want to change it! With these very nice ResEdit icons, you can do just that. However, to perform the changes, you MUST use ResEdit, Apple’s Resource Editor. If you do not know what ResEdit is, then you really don’t want to attempt this until you learn. ResEdit can be found on AOL.

Now, you have ResEdit, and know how to use it. It’s time to change ~Aaron into a very cool, Hi-Tech look. Above, you will see what the new folders look like. Every finder created folder will look like the one above, but that is not all you can change. (See below for more pictures of the Hi-Tech icons).

The draw back to Copland Hi-Tech Add-On 1.0.1, is that you must learn ResEdit, and to perform this "Hack", it will take you close to an hour to do, if not longer. The process is pretty much straight forward. You open both Copland Hi-Tech Add-On 1.0.1, and ~Aaron, and copy-paste until your hand falls asleep. But when you are done, the work is well worth it! You now have some very cool new icons, and the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself.

Copland Hi-Tech Add-On 1.0.1 is created by SH Stealth. He did a great job of drawing all these icons, and they look very good on your desktop. I really like the new Trash can! SH Stealth is not asking for any fee with this ~Aaron add-on, but you should pay the ~Aaron shareware fee if you use it. Copland Hi-Tech Add-On 1.0.1 has been approved by the makers of ~Aaron.

Now, lets see what some of the other icons look like!

Hat’s off to SH Stealth for some very nice icons! I found this program on AOL. So if you are looking for a change, and know how to use ResEdit, give these icons a try!

AppleSauce

First of all, AppleSauce is not Software. However, I do not have any other place in this issue to bring the attention to it that it deserves, so I will do so here.

AppleSauce is a small newsletter by Only Boys Productions, the very same
people that brings us "About This Particular Mac". (See My Mac #2 , mid-August for more on APTM). AppleSauce is a one page newsletter about the goings on in the Mac community, and the computer world in general. It is written by the Infinite Rangers, people who scour the streets for news worthy items! As of this writing, there are three issues available. (Do a keyword search on AOL under "AppleSauce")

You can subscribe to AppleSauce by sending a letter to "ilrangers@aol.com", and be sure to ask for a free subscription. It really is worth it! It is written by many different people who find news worthy items, most of which you may never hear about without AppleSauce and the ∞Rangers! (∞ is Infinite)

While your at it, send a note to "RDNovo@aol.com" and ask for a free subscription to ATPM! You won’t regret it! Be sure to tell him My Mac sent ya!

Over a three week time period, My Mac conducted a survey of the top sellers of Macintosh related products. Some of the companies would not talk to me, or wanted me to call their corporate offices. I wanted to talk to the operators, the heart and soul of any mail order operation.

The purpose was simple. I wanted to find out what you (those of you who have the money!) are out there spending money on! What are the top sellers in software, hardware, and related products? For those businesses that sell them, how are the Mac clones doing? I found the answers to many of these questions, and more!

MacWarehouse
Well, I decided to start with one of the biggest mail order retailers of all. MacWarehouse. My first attempt to get ANY info. From them was met with caution. They simply referred me to the office. Undaunted, I called back, pleaded with my operator Tony, and got some answers!

One word: Zip. Seems Iomega has a real winner with the somewhat still "new" Zip drive. I myself would like one, but alas, no money!
Another hot MacWarehouse seller is the Speed Doubler-Ram Doubler bundle. And Grolier’s Encyclopedia is still doing real well.
Here is a fact I also learned: Hewlett Packard printers out sell Apple printers by a huge margin!
Competitive upgrades are also hot. (Like QuarkXpress to PageMaker, or Freehand to Illustrator.) Quad speed CD Rom drives are doing very well, also. Seeing as how MacWarehouse does sell Mac Clones, I asked Tony how they are doing. It seem they do sell a few (though not many) but most people still want the Apple Mac’s.

Mac Bargain$
Mac Bargain$ was the next call I made. They were only too happy to talk to me! The new Zip drive is selling very well, I was told, but SyQuest drives were still moving out the door. This should come as no surprise, as SyQuest has been around for a good long time now, with a faithful following of users.
On the software side, Mac Bargain$ informs My Mac that Adobe Photoshop does better than most other high end programs. Do not look for this to change anytime soon.

CDW
I talked to Pat, a very nice lady with CDW, who was more than happy to take a break from her work to talk to me.
The Power Mac 8500 is so hot, Pat told me, that they sell out almost as soon as they get any in stock. Seems Apple cannot produce them fast enough! (I wonder how many other computer manufactures can say that?) The Newton 120′s, however, is not doing as well as the 100 line. Not a big surprise, really, when you look at the price!
And what had become a regular theme, the Iomega Zip drive is selling really well. In fact, all the mail order businesses listed here sell a lot of them.

Mac Connections
Ann was very kind the day I called Mac Connections. At first, she prompted me to call the sales department, but I convinced her that she would be of more service to My Mac than any sales division. She agreed, and told me a few interesting things.
A lot of people seem to be calling for the new Jazz Drive. At the time of My Mac’s survey, however, Mac Connections did not have any of the Jazz Drives in stock, but it was Ann’s observation that they would soon outsell the Zip Drive, no small feat. (I tend to doubt it) Time will tell if Ann has a gift for predicting the future!

ClubMac
Not able to spend much time with me on the phone, Brian nonetheless gave me a few items on the hot list. Once again, Iomega’s Zip Drive top’s the charts. They also sell many of the Quad-speed CD Rom drives for $199.00, a very good price! Hard Drives also top the hot sales list for ClubMac. When asked what does not sell so well, Brian (after a brief pause) told me he does not remember EVER selling a Optical drive! I guess the price for CD-R and DAT is just still too much money for the average buyer.

MacMall
Of course, no article on mail order retailers would be complete without MacMall. They were the hardest to get ANY information out of, let me tell you! I waited on hold while one person after another directed me to someone else, trying to find anyone able to answer a few question! After twenty minutes of this, I gave up (read: hung up), and called back a few days later. This time, after convincing an operator (who does not wish to be named), I got some basic information.
Once again, I hear tales of Apple’s inability to produce Power Mac 8500′s fast enough! MacMall cannot get enough of them, and they sell out almost instantly. Looks like Apple has another winner with the 8500, if they can meet demand, that is!
When asked how the Zip Drive is doing, I was informed that the new SyQuest EZ 135 is starting to close the gap. Brand recognition and 35MB more storage space, for only $39.00 more, I am sure, has a lot to do with it.

From talking to the various mail order retailers, a few things become clear.
External Hard drive’s and removable storage is the hot items for this Christmas season. And with so many choices, from the ultra hot Zip Drive from Iomega, to the new EZ 135 from SyQuest, the prices are coming down.

Apple once again has a very hot computer in the Power Mac 8500, but for whatever reason, they are unable to make them fast enough. Not a good way to win customer loyalty.

More people now ask for the CD versions of software rather than 3.5 diskettes. Not Really a surprise, as almost every new computer now produced has at least a dual speed CD Rom drive.

Software bundles sell VERY well, if the offered bundle is the right Merchandise. Speed Doubler and Ram Doubler is a good example. MacWarehouse reports that they sell just a ton of such bundles, so look for more of this type of bundled software in the future.

Companies that offer the competitive upgrade are indeed luring customers to their products. Claris MacDraw or Adobe Illustrator users can upgrade to Macromedia’s Freehand 5.5 for only $149.00! Or ClarisWorks owners can upgrade to Microsoft Office 4.2.1 for $279.00. Good deals, and they work. More companies will follow suit to be sure.

High-end software, such as Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXpress, still sell very well, even if the price is beyond the average user. With luck, maybe some of these products will lower in price in an attempt to garner even more sales.

Sales of the 14,400-baud modems are slowing way down, as more people buy the faster 28,800 models. And prices for both have been falling for the last three to four months! Two years ago, a 14,400 modem was selling for close to, and over, $225.00! Now the same modem is under $100.00! And 28,800′s are falling into the $179.00 range.

So, is it best to wait for prices to dip even lower? Or should you buy now? The choice is yours, but now is a good time to find some very reasonable prices on hot items! And if it is an 8500 you want, be prepared to wait!

Tim Robertson, Editor.

To:DS9DS9

I just read MYMAC Times #5, The October Issue. I really enjoyed it. I would like to subscibe. Also could you send me past copies #1,2,3, and 4. This way I can read all of them and be up on what is happening.

In addition, I would like to mention that there are a few other programs that should receive mention in the top ten list. Window Shade, WYSIWYG, MenuChoice, and Snap-To, just to state a brief list. There are many others that have converted my Mac Quadra 660AV into a real powerhouse operating machine! I pity those IBM and clone users, they don’t know what they are missing.

Thanx,
PhillX

  Thanks for the letter, Phil! I wish I could send you all back issue’s of My Mac, but I really cannot afford that big of a On-Line bill! However, anyone wanting back issue’s can find them all on AOL. Do a keyword search from Computing for "DS9DS9", and you should find them.All newer issue’s can be found on Macworld online.(keyword "Macworld") Look in "New Uploads".

To:DS9DS9@aol.com

Just a few thoughts about your seventh issue, which I consider your best:
Love the Enterprise cover! Like you said, who cares if it isn’t related to the mag? It’s cool, so use it!!!

Glad to see you liked Mr. Lu’s article, too. Also glad Mr. Lu allowed all of us to use it freely.

Tim! Leave eWorld! How could you!? I see your points, but I still think that eWorld is the greatest thing since the invention of the modem.What’s there not to like about it? I’ve never had a resource that I needed that I couldn’t find there, so I don’t know what the big deal is about AOL having more info. Info is one thing, overkill is another.Besides, Web Browsers are available for both services. If I really need something that I can’t find, there’s got to be a URL or two I can try… I won’t bore you with more reasons, b/c I wrote a whole article full of ‘em not too long ago, but I will end by saying ZMac’s worth the ten bucks a month anyway. MacWEEK and ZMac-exclusive utilities and stuff – it don’t get any better!

You mentioned something about Internet via online service vs. Internet via your own account.I have tried only the former, so I can’t compare the two. However, people have complained the eWorld Web Browser being slow or not as good as, say, Netscape. Again, I can’t compare, but I find the speed more than tolerable, especially at top-speed 19600 baud!

I also enjoyed your guest writers – they do a great job.

Once again, keep up the great work. It’s good to see you gaining
support and readership, you certainly deserve it. This issue was a tad longer than previous ones, but I don’t mind – it still took only two minutes! I spend 10 downloading MacSense (OK, that annoys me a little bit). You could easily make it a three or four minutes d/l and I wouldn’t mind one bit. Once more, this was your best yet – keep ‘em comin’!

Later,

Mike Wallinga/eWorld
Editor, Wall Writings

  I am still trying to get Mike to write for My Mac, but he has been to busy with his Football team so far.(They were doing great last I heard!)
For more information on Internet Connections, see Evan McCarthy’s new column by that very name every month here in My Mac, starting this very issue!
About eWorld. Like I said in my column in issue #7, there are a lot of reasons not to leave eWorld. But not enough. And now, what with eWorld converting to a Internet Provider, it is kind of a moot point.
Oh well, live and learn. Apple seems to be doing just that.

To: DS9DS9

I recently viewed your November issue of My Mac. I enjoyed it, greatly and would like to subscribe for additional issues.

I’ve recently been working for Apple on their "Demo Day Program" at Best Buy. It’s great watching customers ponder over the various DOS machines in the store, and the only program they can demo or run easily is the solitare card game, must be the only thing DOS does well. My mission is to save some souls from the dreadful mistake of DOS.
Keep up the great work…

Arnie Loukinen

  Go get them, brother Arnie! Convert the sinning masses! Bring them to the fold! We shall show them the TRUE way! For we are the righteous! We are the truth! we…..
Sorry, the TV was on late last night, I must have subconsciously picked up something. Not sure what, though?

Hi Tim,
While searching for interesting anything (especially things for my Mac) I came across the description of your magazine and decided to download it and give it a try.
Now, you must know, that I read almost anything I can get my hands on having to do with Macs (it’s like a disease, I even read every catalog I have received). I’ve downloaded a few magazines and have been disappointed and have had no reason to try them again. I am very glad that I found yours, IT’S GREAT!
I have not finished it yet but what I have read, I like. The writing is done by knowledgeable people and not written to the professional computer user. So many times I don’t know what they are talking about in the magazines I receive at home (I read it anyway thinking someday I’ll know it). I am just a teacher trying to enjoy a tool I can use at work while I’m at home.
I want to know about little utilities that I may or may not want to use, that may or may not make using my Mac easier. When I read a description I don’t always understand what the utilities do. I hope that with the help of your magazine and your little reviews I will understand a little better.
Anyway, I would like to recieve your magazine PLEEZ!
Thank You,
LuckyV27@AOL

  I have also read many eZines that either "talk down’ to the readers, or talk about stuff most casual computer users would never understand. I hope that I never fall prey to doing so myself. It is not easy at times! I know what they are talking about, but often find myself wondering how they ever attract new readers? That is what My Mac is for. Mac users, people just like you, as well as the professional users. And while a computer is really a tool, it is also fun! I hope My Mac can help you learn a few things, as well as have a good time while reading. After all, all the writers here started out as a subscriber, so it really is just us Mac folks talking to each other!

With that, I invite you all to write in. Have something on your mind? Or learned something neat about your computer? Share it with us! As Mac user’s, we only make up 10-12% of computer users, and we need to stick together!

Last month in my Notes column, I ran a piece called Mac OS vs. Windows 95. In it, I never said one was better than the other, but as most of you suspect, I think the Mac is the best operating system. Period. However, once again, we look at
 

Windows 95 Vs, Mac OS Part II

And the winner is….Microsoft Windows 95.

WHAT!?!? Yes, in the business world, Windows ‘95 is easily the clear winner. And that is the fault of Apple Computers, and their lame advertising campaign. Microsoft has convinced the business world that it needs Windows ‘95, and the sales figures reflect that. (Although sales of windows ‘95 is only HALF of what Microsoft had predicted)

“Imagine That”. That was the big battle cry from Apple, in combat of the Windows campaign? Wow. Apple really knows how to hit them hard, eh? What Apple needs to do is stop laying on it’s laurels and kick that advertising campaign into high gear. So what if Windows ‘95 is just a rip of Macintosh ‘87? In some respects, like multitasking, Windows ‘95 blows the Mac OS away. Of course, Windows ‘95 is suppose to work with hundreds of other manufactures computers, while the Mac OS only needs concern itself with one. (Not counting the clones makers like Radius and Power Computing).

“Imagine That”. Who cares if the Mac had long file name first? Or plug and play? OR a trash/recycle bin? Who cares? They have it now, and truth be told, that’s all that really matters. How often does a car shopper ask which automobile had the first air bag? Or which had the first all wheel drive? Once every manufacture has these features, it really becomes a moot point, correct?

So, Apple, stop preaching to the choir. We already bought a Mac! WE KNOW! What you need to do is focus on the business market, new buyers, and hire a better advertising firm. (Or hire out, if it is in-house). Better yet, give me a call. I have some awesome ideas that could turn your sales around faster than you can say “Newton”.

Besides, what do you have to loose? So far, you are loosing. And Microsoft, with Windows ‘95, is winning. You have the better product. It’s time to let the rest of the world know.

It’s true. As many of you already know, Apple has given up on eWorld, as reported in Macworld, MacWEEK, and other publications. By mid-1996, eWorld will lose its “America Online” like interface, and become an Internet Access server.
Perhaps my “Farewell to eWorld” column (My Mac #7, November 1995) did not get there early enough?
I still think Apple could turn eWorld around, and make it THE place for Mac user’s to be. It’s really not to late. But Apple, in all their wisdom, will turn it into an internet provider? Yeah, there are not enough of THOSE around already…
I really wish Apple would hire me. I could turn that company around so fast; it would outsell EVERY computer manufacturer in the world. What would I do? Look for the answer to that in the January issue of My Mac!

They say the only difference between men and boy’s is the cost of our toys. A truer statement has never been written!
Before I got “into” Mac’s (and computer’s in general) I was what many of you would call an Audiophile. While in high school, as all my friends bought cars and such, I was out there spending big money (for me) on Audio equipment. And though I still consider myself a true audiophile, my taste in high-tech toys now favors more the computer variety than the audio type. But at times, I still feel like buying the latest high-tech goodies offered by companies like Onkio, Eclipse, Adcom, Carver, Harman/Kardon, and Paradigm.
The two industries, audio and computer, really share a lot of similarities: Brand loyalty. High end vs. low end. Upgrading. Specialty stores. And many others.

My wife, when we first bought our house, thought it was silly to have the TV. and VCR wired to the Stereo. “What difference could it really make?” or “You hear all the important stuff, like music and voices, just fine on the TV. Speakers” she would say. Well, after a long year of listening to that, I have come to suspect she is a converted Audiophile.
How so? I heard her comment, while watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine, that without the stereo on, you could not hear the deep bass rumble of the space stations power plant. Or that the sounds of the computers in the background were barely audible. It really “took the whole feel out of it”
Spoken like a true Audiophile!

And now, with Multi-Media the big rage, the two industries have truly merged! You don’t know what a “Quack’ sounds like until you hear it in surround sound at 150 watts! Yeow! So get out those old speakers, that old Amplifier you never use, and wire your computer into it! Trust me, if you have even halfway decent home speakers, it will sound better than the small speaker in your Mac, as well as most of the “Multi-Media” powered speakers on the market today. My Paradigm speaker system has never before sounded as good as when I play “Mist” over them! And don’t even get me started on what my Sony MDR-V4 headphones sound like;-)

Question, what do ALL of the following people have in common?

Sly Stallone, actor, Tom Hanks, actor, Tim Allen, actor, Tom Cruise,actor,Nicole Kidman, actress, Harrison Ford, actor, Sandra Bullock, actress, Rosie O’Donnell, actress/comedian, Wesley Snipes, actor, Sinbad, actor/comedian, Dustin Hoffman, actor, Mel Gibson and family, actor, Kevin Costner, actor, Dan Aykroyd, actor, Ann Jillian, actress,Jodie Foster, actress, Lauren Bacall, actress, Valerie Bertinelli, actress, Samuel L. Jackson, actor, Sharon Stone, actress Geena Davis, actress, Andrew Shue, actor, John Laroquette, actor,Dabney Coleman, actor,Mariel Hemingway, actress, Sally Field, actress, and SEAL, musician

Answer, they all use Macs!