Cover by Mike Gorman
MyMac Magazine #30, Oct 1997
On October 6 three years ago, I purchased my current computer, a Performa 636CD. The total cost was (US) $1811, which was very reasonable for a CPU, monitor, and software. This Macintosh continues to function efficiently, and I’m in no special hurry to replace it.
In 1994, owning a modest Performa made me a “low-end-Macintosh- user,” or LEMU. Serious Mac users had heavyweight Quadras, or the new 6100 or 7100 Power Macs, all of which were beyond my finances. I accumulated additional software and peripherals on an as-needed basis, always with an eye on the checkbook balance. In this respect, I probably am similar to many of you. My budget grudgingly accepted monthly expenditures for America Online (AOL), and then an Internet service provider (ISP). I certainly have received plenty of value from these online accounts.
Using the humble calculator desk accessory, I recently added up all my
computer-related expenditures during the past three years. The grand total is over $4,000, which averages approximately $4 per day. This dollar amount certifies me as a bona fide LEMU, don’t you think?
When I originally acquired the Performa, my e-pal, Paul Martin, advised that I would be very lucky to be using the same Mac in three years. Technological advancement is a mixed blessing for the humble computer purchaser on a limited budget.
In my case, $4 per day represents $1 – $2 per hour on an annualized basis. Notwithstanding crashes, freezes, bombs, error messages, and my never-ending learning curve, $2 per hour is an splendid price for using a Mac and participating on the Internet.
Last month, I used humor to get my message out about the Macintosh. This month I’m going to try a more ‘in your face’ approach. As consumers, we tend to think in a certain way based upon our first influences. No matter how wrong those thoughts may be we stick with them until we are faced with one of two situations: Irrefutable evidence, or the more likely scenario, total embarrassment and humiliation. Since the latter of the two is not a good way to get people to like you, especially when it involves the separation of money, here are two commercials using the irrefutable evidence concept…
Macintosh Makes Reading Continue reading »
SCENE: Black screen appears, famous Apple ad voice, ” All these magazines and newspapers depend upon us to bring you the information you need.” Images of famous magazines flash across the screen in rapid fashion with newspaper banners interspersed in them. At the end, each appears in a checkerboard fashion across the screen for several seconds. The screen blackens, then the Apple logo appears with Steve Jobs new favorite phrase, “Think Differently”.
DoubleScroll 2.2b3
Author: Edward Voas
Shareware: $10.00
http://www.amargosa.com
Many long time Macintosh users may know of a Control Panel called DoubleScroll, which places double arrows at the top and bottom of your scroll bars. But what many Mac users may not know is that DoubleScroll is now Mac OS 8 compatible and that a few new features have been added with the new release.
DoubleScroll lets you have double arrows at both ends, or only at the bottom right of your scroll bar, greatly limiting the amount of mouse movement required to scroll up and down in a window. In addition to the double arrows, DoubleScroll enables live scrolling and many modifier key shortcuts. Option-clicking the arrows will act as a page up/page down, Command-clicking the arrows will act as a home/end feature, and Shift-clicking in the elevator region of the scroll bar will automatically cause the thumb to jump to the location you clicked and start tracking from there.
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The Power to be Mediocre Continue reading »
Watching the face of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appear on screen at Macworld, my mind immediately leaped to that famous 30 second Super Bowl commercial first aired in 1984 where Big Brother’s address to a room full of passive nerds was interrupted by a lithesome blond who charged down the aisle, threw a sledge hammer into the screen, and introduced Macintosh – ‘the power to be your best.’. Almost by instinct I glanced over my shoulder, but the doors to the theater were blocked by corporate security…the rebel days were over.
Backing up is the most important thing that can be done in any computer user’s life. Every file that you’ve had for years may not be on a backup disk. Take a look at your hard drive and imagine losing all of it. It’s a horrible thought, but it could happen.
I had never made backup disks of my information. For years, nothing ever happened to it. Some of these files were created on my old SE and transferred through each computer thereafter. As I had never lost any information from a crash, I never saw the need for backups. Then one day, that all changed.
I shut down the computer normally. Nothing strange had happened the whole day while I was using my computer. But the strangest thing happened the next day when I turned on the computer; a disk with a blinking question mark appeared on my screen. I have seen this before, so I put in the Mac OS system disk and went on my merry way.
Something was different this time, however. The hard disk icon did not appear on the desktop. Usually, when I restart with a system disk, the hard drive appears like normal and I continue working. So I ran Disk First Aid. It checked the hard drive and said that it could not repair the damage.
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One in a series
I now own a PC…
Yes, you heard me right. Your beloved My Mac writer has actually purchased a PC and has it set up in his home, allowing all varieties of “PCism” to invade the area. A copy of Windows 95 and Microsoft Office now lie in my room… beckoning to me in the night. But I do not answer their calls. Instead, I stay here at my faithful, if slightly jealous, Macintosh.
Alas, let me explain. This hunk of pure Windows was practically forced upon us. In order to “keep up with technology,” a member of my family was moved from the office to home. Since the office was Windows-based, they would have nothing to do with Macs. Fortunately, they were fine with the idea of Virtual PC, as long as it was fast and reliable. Unfortunately, our Mac cannot support Virtual PC. Therefore, buying a PC was inevitable. At least we got it for a good price.
Don’t get me wrong, though. For a PC, this is an exceptional unit. It’s a Dell 200Mhz MMX machine complete with groovin’ speakers, a 4GB hard drive, a 56K modem, 32MB RAM, a 4MB 3D video card, and a load of other princely goodies (Dell systems have always impressed me… maybe it’s the 500+ ads they have in “PC World” each month).
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For those of you who don’t know, I do all of my computin’ on a Performa 550 that was manufactured in October of 1994. I bought it on New Years Day 1995, and its been a regular member of the Miner clan ever since. And although this inanimate member of the family was never formally given a name, it has informally come to be known as “the computer.”
Recently I’ve been thinking I might have been better off buying a Wintel PC instead of this lowly 68030 Mac I have sitting in front of me. Not because I’m unhappy with this machine, mind you; on the contrary, “the computer” does everything I need it to do and does it well. But had I purchased, let’s say, a 386 PC on that cold and wintry first day of 1995 instead of this Macintosh, I most likely would have been forced to upgrade to the much faster Pentium or even a Pentium II machine by now, keeping me on the cutting edge of this ever changing computer technology.
Why…?
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There I was, quietly dithering about a contribution for October’s “My Mac” when the bottom dropped out of the Apple Cart. Apple had apparently swallowed Power Computing whole and spit out the rest of the clones along with their licensing, their future and even their ready to ship, hot into the box, next generation Macs. I scrapped the column for this story – a story that wrote itself. So, is there a silver lining behind each cloud? Who knows. But I have finally learned how to spell ‘license’. Which reminds me, why a multiple choice ending? Maybe I’ve been a teacher too long.
The Kid Who Would Be Captain
A MacTragedy With A Multiple Choice EndingOnce there was this kid who wanted to be Captain. He was a dreamer, a schemer, a genius. And, as is the way of those who shift the world, he burned with a maniacal fire. Marbles were his passion. Not just any marbles. His marbles. He wanted to reshape the world as he remade the game. He would make the most marvelous marbles ever made. When kids called “Roundsters”, it would be his aggies that rolled across the ring; his shooters that brought ease and delight to sore knuckles. Someday his name would echo through the Marbles Hall of Fame.
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Mac users constantly complain about the coverage of Apple/Mac products by the press and the way that the reporting is constantly slanted in the negative point of view. Mac users long for positive coverage and speak of what a difference more even-handed reporting would make in influencing people to purchase a Mac.
Well, I’m here to tell you that I have proof-positive that unbiased reporting by the press can result in positive results for Apple. For example, the September 1997 Consumer Reports’ review of computer systems for the home office gave the Power Macintosh 6500/250 a glowing report, citing Apple as earning one of the highest overall brand ratings, plus high marks for reliability and service. Personally, I know it’s been such a long time since I’ve seen a good/great report on an Apple product that I went out and purchased the issue just to make sure that it was actually in print.
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Hello out there to all you My Mac readers! I’m back after my one month college-adjustment-leave-of-absence. In that time, I have learned a couple of valuable lessons:
1. You don’t have as much free time in college as you think you do.
2. Homework always takes longer than you think it will.
3. College football is tougher, more demanding, and more time-consuming than high school football.
4. Always be careful about what you write when you send something to your publisher, because you never know when it might see print.
I couldn’t resist that last one; I had fully expected to not see my column at all in the last issue. And of all the things to see reprinted, that letter to Tim was the one I least expected! After that, I’m glad to have some fresh material to publish, and I don’t plan on missing too many more months in the near future!
Seriously, this month I will tell you the story I had meant to last month, but some unforeseen circumstances made it impossible for me to do so. Here we go!
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The following is an actual letter from a friend of mine, unedited except for his name.
Date: Wed, Sep 10, 1997 6:51 PM CST
From: [A Friend]
Subj: Re: Jokes from Jim
To: JimMoravec
Jim, sorry I have not answered your mail. Damn puter was down again,for almost a week. I must have a virus or sumpin. Got it fixed once then went down again last night. Just got everything back to normal a few minutes ago.
Thought I had better say “hi” in case it goes down again. I have found
several strange files in my auto exec which I have not seen before.Things
like “Ghostme”. I know this stuff didn’t come with the ‘puter.
Well,better try to get all my mail answered.
Thank God for tape back-ups.
What is the press up to? Find out every month here in Bits & Pieces!
THE LITTLE GUYS Continue reading »
On September 6, the New York Times had a very interesting article detailing some of the current waves being made by previously deposed Apple co-founder and current acting CEO Steve Jobs. (Let’s see him put that on a business card.) First, as his recent repeated run-in’s with the clone-makers should have prepared us, Jobs has killed the idea of letting another piece of Apple’s business, in this case Newton, get spun off from the parent company. A decade ago, it was an internal battle between Jobs and then-CEO-to-be John Sculley over the Newton (and the entire concept of hand-held computing) that eventually led to Jobs leaving the company. He didn’t believe in Sculley’s vision and thought the Newton was the wrong path to follow. Sculley took over the company, followed the path, and Apple has been trying to make Newton viable ever since. But now that Jobs is back and calling the shots, he’s keeping Newton in-house amid speculation that it will undergo a corporate cross-breeding with Apple’s eMate education computers.
Dear Readers:
More interesting changes are taking place in the world of Apple. I read Apple bought out the Power Computing license. Is this the end of the clones? Maybe, maybe not. One thing I do know: It means one more Windoze maker (Power Computing responded by letting the world know they will become another Windoze manufacturer.) Depressing.
Now, I’ve heard both sides of the argument. One side says purchasing clones takes money and market share away from Apple. The other side states that, as a longer term strategy, clones equal more people using the Mac platform, and hey, Apple does receive royalty payments. Whichever argument you prefer, the bottom line is Apple never came across as particularly committed to their clone makers. Because they are perceived as uncommitted (or is it noncommitted?), the clones never had a chance of making money for Apple. And for users? We have fewer choices, at least for now. We’ll see what Apple has in store for us. Maybe I’m panicking…only time will tell.
On to other topics: One of the nice things about being located near a major metropolitan area are all the free seminars that come up. For instance, Apple, Adobe, and Xerox of New England are holding a “Color in Concert” seminar, showcasing the “latest Apple and Adobe updates” as well as the “newest additions to the Xerox color family.” (If you recall, the college student who color-copied $10,000 worth of $20.00 bills for his tuition used a Xerox color copier!) They always have nice giveaways at these things, too. This one is holding drawings for:
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First of all, though I have what could be considered a small business (landscape), I’m not a business kind of guy. I’m not an engineer, either. I also know only a little about databases. I imagine that makes me like a lot of you.
I needed something to keep track of my business, however. I was doing OK with spreadsheets in ClarisWorks, but I thought it would be easier to have all the information in one place, more integrated. I had different things to keep track of; some accounting, but also things like jobs, To-Do lists, materials to buy, etc., so I needed something flexible. Since I was going to have to spend time with it every day, it had to be both convenient and aesthetic-no boring prefab Windows-looking do-it-our-way crap
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Usually, I will save the e-mail I receive for the e-mail page, but I recently got an e-mail to which I wanted to reply not only to the letter writer, but to all My Mac readers. First, the letter from Tim O’Neill:
Dear Tim:
I am outraged you are doing this “campaign” against Apple.
First of all, the cloning would have eventually took Apple sinking down, which would make the clones insupportable. A lot like when someone is trying to save someone drowning in the water with their bare hands, and the victim drowning the person trying to save them in order for the victim to live.
Like Apple, the lifeguard for the clones, the clones were trying to drown Apple in order to save themselves.
Yes , the difference is this- if the clones drowned Apple, there would be none to support them on their efforts (this includes the 60 million Mac OS users, who use the Mac OS, which is developed by Apple).
Apple drowned their victims in order to have at least one of them live. You are not taking a wise train of thought by thinking otherwise.Think this over: If Apple died, who would support the clones with OS development & marketing? None.These clones were not as large as Apple to cover such broad areas in the market.
Needless to say, you will lose plenty of readers by taking such an ignorant viewpoint on the subject.
Sincerely, Continue reading »
Tim O’Neill
The Weird Wide Web
by Erfert Fenton and David Pogue
IDG Books Worldwide, www.idgbooks.com
ISBN 0-7645-4004-1, 131 pages.
$12.99 USA $17.99 Canada £11.99 UK
*****
David Pogue is at the top of the heap of Macintosh writers with enough books and Macworld columns to his credit to topple a large bookcase. Erfert Fenton is a technical writer, with both magazine articles and books, including Peachpit’s The Macintosh Font Book.
The World Wide Web (WWW) is the ideal medium for contemporary info-tainment, but it also contains a hearty quantity of frivolity and triviality. Erfert (www.fentonia.com/erf) and David (www.concentric.net/-Pogue) combined forces to assist us in enjoying many bizarre and outrageous Web sites.
This book is very silly. If your taste in offbeat humor includes extensive discussion of “Rude Things in My fridge,” or “Dermatology in the Cinema,” this book is for you. The back cover of The Weird Wide Web promises “answers to life’s most profound mysteries,” but this opus redefines the meaning of “profound.”
The Weird Wide Web is a lightweight in another crucial aspect. At 131 pages for $13/$18/£12, this book is worth barely 25 percent of its price. A few of the full-service Internet directories have listings for unusual sites, such as Chapter 13 in What’s On the Web 1997 (Eric Gagnon, editor; Internet Media).
Black and white photos and screen shots illustrate many of the “bizarre back roads of the Web.” The book is just that; a book, with no CD-ROM disk. There is a dedicated URL (Uniform Resource Locater, or Internet address) for the book, at
Are you in the market for UFO Abduction Insurance (www.gslink.net/~ufo) or a juicy Shakespearean Insult (www.nova.edu/Inter-Links/cgi-bin/bard.pl)? If so, plunge right into The Weird Wide Web. If not, however, the book will seem to be an IDG Books-sanctioned April Fool’s Day joke.
The authors also advise us to “Lighten up. Our advice: laugh.” David and Erfert suggest Yahoo’s Useless Pages Index and the “Centre for the Easily Amused.” My advice is to dredge up your own personal set of weird wonders of the Web.
How do I say this diplomatically? I’m disappointed. Next time, authors and publisher, please give us a better book at a better price.
P.S.- David Pogue reminds me that: “It’d be silly indeed to pay $13 for the book when it’s available from www.pogueman.com or Amazon.com for $10.40, no tax. And our Web site for the book includes excerpts, a guided tour of 20 of the Weird sites, picture of the cover, and so on. Hope this helps!”
Apple is playing the numbers game. It’s doing this because it is trying to bring its revenues up higher than its expenses. If it can achieve this, then it is profitable. If it is profitable, then it can stay in business. If it can stay in business, then it may be more liberal towards the clone makers. If it is more liberal towards the clone makers, then it can concentrate on the Mac OS and new exciting technologies. If this happens, then it would be a wonderful day for all of us.
If, if, if… there are so many ifs that we are not sure if we want to even believe any more. It’s apparent that there has to be something done at Apple. They cannot continue to operate in the way that they have been in the past few years. I’ve been told “turn-arounds are sometimes messy.” This, I have no doubt, is true. However, how can this be done? If it is successful, then the end justifies the means. What happens when it fails? Do we just walk away, shake our heads and say “what a damn shame”?
There is no doubt that Apple is trying. We may not like what they’re doing, but they are trying. This is better than not doing anything at all, because the eventuality of not doing anything for Apple is death. By doing something, there is a chance. If you are faced with a terminal disease and you had a choice to sit and do nothing or try some kind of radical medication, which would you choose?
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This page is where we give one of our readers a voice to express his or her thoughts and views regarding the Macintosh experience. Whether you’re upset with Apple, have a shareware review you want to share, or just want to inform everyone about your current AOL problems, the choice is yours. Please send all submissions for this page to tim@mymacpro.com.
This month, we turn this page over to Daniel Corkery, who originally wrote this piece to shut everyone up on the whole Apple/Power Computing deal. He was gracious enough to send it over My Mac’s way, and we are happy to present it here for your reading pleasure! Be sure to send him some e-mail after you read it.
Comments. Be heard!
MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384