This iBrotha article was originally published at MacAddict.com by Rodney O. Lain. In honor of Rodney’s death, a good friend and contributor, we are reposting here with the permission of MacAddict. We would like to thank them for their generosity in allowing us to remember Rodney by keeping this archive of his work.
Apple’s Deal With The M$ Devil
fri apr.28.2000
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Continue reading »
This iBrotha article was originally published at MacAddict.com by Rodney O. Lain. In honor of Rodney’s death, a good friend and contributor, we are reposting here with the permission of MacAddict. We would like to thank them for their generosity in allowing us to remember Rodney by keeping this archive of his work.
In defense of Microsoft’s 63,000 bugs
fri apr.14.2000
Each time you edit your own writings, you increase the chance that you will introduce more typos or grammatical gaffes.
Continue reading »
We have been contemplating the ad
campaigns of Apple and Microsoft. They are summarized
by two slogans as we all know: “Think Different,”
and “Where do you Want to Go Today?” Companies
adopt slogans to produce certain mental associations
in the consumer’s minds. They should be positive
and/or humorous associations. But after thinking
about them, and how, in fact, both companies act
in light of their slogans, we are convinced that
each assumes a different theory of human freedom.
We think this also explains the difference in
people’s experiences with each platform.
AQUA
IS NOT MEANT FOR YOU AND ME
(IT’S FOR THE PC USER)
Apple’s new OS X with the Aqua inteface is completed. Its design, good or bad, is set in concrete. Here it comes, ready or not!
After carefully reading all the verbiage about Aqua, especially the excellent writeup by Charles Moore, I believe I understand where Apple, and particularly Steve Jobs, is coming from with the new Aqua interface and OS X.
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I REALLY LOVE THE MAC
BUT IT WASN’T MY FIRST LOVE
As much as I absolutely love the Macintosh, it wasn’t my first Graphical User Interface. In ’81 or ’82 I was doing graphics at Vandenberg AFB, California. I was in very much in LOVE, and playing with the very first commercial Xerox Documentors! We had 25 of them delivered to us one day where I worked as an artist, at ITT Federal Electric.
Oh Man!
Continue reading »
“A 3-D Experience
(Denny, Donna, and David)”
Part One: Denny
I run into Denny Morton, a professional photographer, once a month in the locker room. I’m usually wiggling into my Speedo, and he’s changing into his machine-workout sweats. The conversation normally goes:
Denny: Hiya, John. Wow, you sure are thin. Doesn’t all that swimming ever put any muscle on you?
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Sweet Nostalgia
I’m sitting here surrounded by half-packed boxes planning what I’ll take in my truck to the new house tomorrow. The computers and the booze, definitely. Everything else is somewhat incidental to my life. I’ll drain the waterbed tomorrow. I won’t mind sleeping on the couch for a few days.
Memories are running through my head. Five and three quarter years in this place, it’s a record for me. The little house on Cherry Street in Spokane is the second longest running streak of any abode I’ve graced in my years. It was hard to leave there; my son was born in the bedroom of that house.
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In a special BONUS capsule-comments section this issue, Book Bytes is pleased to offer eight new “updaters” or revised editions of titles previously covered in earlier reviews. Readers are encouraged to visit the Book Bytes archives at , where we have longer reviews of preceding versions of many of the following books:
Continue reading »
Macworld Mac OS 9 Bible
by Lon Poole and Todd Stauffer
http://www.mac-upgrade.com
IDG Books Worldwide
http://www.idgbooks.com
ISBN 0-7645-3414-9, 899 pages
$39.99 U.S., $59.99 Canada, £36.99 U.K.
If I were stranded on a desert island, I wouldn’t care if I had Madonna, Metallica, or Mozart in my MP3 player, as long as I had Lon and Todd (or their books) to keep me company. These two authors consistently deliver Book Bytes Award-winning titles on a huge range of Macintosh subjects. I wish each of them (and their editorial and publication teams) a long life full of royalties and appreciative readers.
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It’s not often I get to review software and its upgrade back to back (“Bill, It’s not often that you review software period!” – yeah, yeah, yeah…) but I have to say that I don’t mind it when the product is good and comes in at a good price.
“Talking about Animation Master again, Bill?”
None other.
“So, why the big hoopla?”
Well, before I get into that, let me get into the dry statistics:
Hash Animation Master 2000 Continue reading »
1 CD with the program, tutorial files, and models
Animation Master Handbook
Registration Card
Cost: $299.00
The Apple Report Card
In the February 1999 Mac Factor I suggested ten positive steps Apple could take to solidify support, improve sales, and offer a more realistic alternative to Microsoft Windows. Most of the suggestions were based on common horse sense and I hold no illusions that Mr. Jobs and company actually listened to my advice. Still, it’s remarkable how Apple’s actions paralleled my recommendations. This column assesses Apple’s progress and offers even further guidance. (Note: text from the earlier column is in Italics.)
Continue reading »
Keeping Up With ViaVoice
I have now spent another month working with ViaVoice. One thing that stands out is that proper and consistent placement of the microphone attached to the headset is crucial to recognition. I find that, for me, placing the adjustable mic just below and about a finger-width away from my mouth works best. The program puts a small volume meter at the top left which indicates whether your speech is too loud (red), too soft (dark green), or appropriate (light green). It is wise to keep a check on the meter, especially if you see more errors than usual.
The headsets, with their matching color inserts, are lightweight and reasonably comfortable, which leads to certain observations. These headsets are not compatible with drinking coffee, eating cookies, or biting fingernails. It’s unwise to leap from the chair to answer the phone while plugged in. And, no matter how attractively color-coded, I will never look like the ageless blonde on the cover of MacWAREHOUSE.
Continue reading »
Hey, how are you? Everything all right in your world? Good. Me too.
Picture this: Sicily… no, no, no, try again. You’ve been a Mac user since the dawn of time. You’ve always tried to keep ahead of the curve (within budgetary constraints, of course) when it came to Mac equipment, but you’ve had to use an older Mac now for the past 3 years. You’ve got a nice flatbed scanner that you’ve been using and an external Zip drive. Life is good. Now you want to move into the new millenium and get one of those new, fancy, shmancy Graphite iMacs with the DVD player. What a fashion statement! You order it from one of the catalog companies and it arrives at your door. You are so pumped! It looks so cool. No floppy drive? Who cares! You’re gonna use your Zip drive anyway. You plug your keyboard and power cable in and you reach for your scanner and… what’s this? No SCSI port!?
Continue reading »
Okay, so you’re doing pretty well with your Mac now. You upgraded your memory and you know how to surf the web. You’re even using AppleWorks, Quicken, and that cool graphic program, all of which came with your new iMac. Now it’s time for you to bite the bullet and go buy some new programs. But what to get?
Utilities Continue reading »
This is an important type of software which will let you do some amazing new things with your Mac. There are thousands of utilities out there, but you’re not sure which ones you want or even need. Sure, you’ve read some reviews, but those don’t really tell you if you need the software or not, or whether it would be of any use to what you do with your Mac.
>Multi-Key Value List Window
Example file: Storess
One of the under-documented features of FileMaker Pro is its ability to use separate entries in a field as if they were actually separate records. Combined with relationships, this unlocks the power of many-to-many linking, without even having to use a join file.
In fact, a few otherwise knowledgeable writers have criticized FileMaker for not having this ability, when it fact it does; it’s just hidden.
The entries have to be separated by paragraph returns, which is only allowed in text type fields (incl. global text fields), and there is the usual text limit of 64,000 characters.
Continue reading »
When I was a child, my mother instilled in me a love of opera. She rarely missed the Metropolitan Opera broadcast on Saturday afternoons. The house would reverberate with the strains of countless composers. On the rare occasion when the performance was not to her liking, I soon came to realize that the opera was not Italian. I would like to share this love of opera with the readers of My Mac Magazine. Let it not be said that this pioneering Internet publication offers class but not the classics.
The Marriage of Mela – by Joe Green
Cast in order of appearance:
Act I, Scene 1 Continue reading »
Villa Courtyard of Count William Cancello
The townspeople and the peasants from the surrounding countryside have gathered to protest the Count’s tax on window glass. As the curtain rises they sing the melancholy and deeply moving, “Willie is a pain inna da neck.” William and his twin brother, Intello, enter the courtyard on horseback. The two are inseparable. Indeed, rumours of an unnatural relationship abound, but no one has the intestinal fortitude to confront them. Even Padre Pulito, their personal confessor, looks the other way, preferring to keep his lucrative position than to anger the brothers. They are enraged when they see the crowded courtyard. William venomously sings “I’m tho mad I cud thpit.” When he is finished, his brother Intello reprises with, “I’m tho mad I cud thpit, too.” They force their way through the throng and enter the villa with Padre Pulito following.
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MyMac Podcast #385
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