Cover by Tim Robertson
MyMac Magazine #64, Aug 2000
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.
How will I measure my manhood in OS X?
fri aug.18.2000
Why should the masses bother with free software when stealing from Microsoft is practically patriotic?
from an AvantGo article describing blatant, “fashionable” Windows piracy in China
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. . a nihilist is a man who judges of the world
as it is that it ought not to be, and that of
the world as it ought to be that it does not
exist.”
“I do philosophy
with a hammer.”
(Nietzsche,
The Will to Power)
If I were to describe much Continue reading »
of the Mac Web and even Apple’s philosophy and
“Think Different” and “1984″
ads in one word, it would have to be-nihilism.”
Actually, our whole culture is nihilistic to a
great degree; I even work with some nihilists.
They are nice guys who believe in nothing, literally.
Let me explain.
We all know the Apple
award winning ‘Think Different’ commercials. It’s
a toast, a tip of the hat, to the misfits, the
round pegs in square holes. Picasso. Coppola.
Feynman, and the rest. While many have written
commentaries on these ads, I think Apple is saying
more, something deeper, than has been made obvious.
And what it is saying has radical consequences
for many areas of our life. What it says can also
be abused rather easily, I will also show.
What is simple to forget: Continue reading »
‘Think Different’ is an ad campaign. I know, I
know, but Mac fanatics can forget things like
this. It is designed to sell computers and brand
the company. It is designed to get into people’s
minds and develop certain beliefs and desires
about and for a product. It has its roots back
in the ’1984′ classic commercial with its theme
of over throwing the status quo, a vision of non-conformity
and rebellion. Thinking different is this vision
stated in a new way.
When it comes to reality, I am a Continue reading »
realist. The danger of the web, however, is how
it affects this realism. One danger of webbing
(a verb, mind you), if there are any dangers at
all, is that it changes the way we think about
the world in ways that are not always good. Permanence
is one example. It is fundamental concept we all
have. We believe in permanence. If we catch a
killer twenty years after a murder we still convict
him. We do so with a clean conscience because
we believe some things are permanent, like the
killer’s identity and guilt.
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.
When cultural life is dominated by people with similar backgrounds and outlook and similarly trained sensibilities — when there is indeed a cultural establishment — the limits of the range of taste tend to become rigid.
— Ernest van den Haag,
The Jewish Mystique, quoted in Richard Kostelanetz’s The End of Intelligent Writing: Literary Politics in America
(MALIBU, CA… 7/30/00) — Yeah, that’s right. I admit it; I’m an addict…and if I get the chance, I’ll do it again.
I’m talking about my trip to Mac Mall’s flagship store yesterday, where I blatantly molested an Apple Cinema Display without getting kicked out of the store.
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What will the future of the Mac be like? What about Windows, IBM and Microsoft? Watching how our freedoms on the Web and in our country are eroding almost daily, this short story is looking more like the real thing!
MARY 147 – THE CONTINUUM
Page 1 of 9
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by Roger Born, ©2000, USA
“It is a WinTel world!” Stevo faced the manager across the table. He was thinking to himself, “Why is it that the boss always gets the biggest computer, but does the least amount of work on it for his company? I wonder if he even knows how to use it?”
iOpener
Company: Netpliance
Estimated Price: $99.00
plus $21.95 monthly service
http://www.netpliance.com
When Sheba, my daughter in Chicago, sent me an email message insisting she “MUST HAVE” an iOpener, I immediately became interested. She does not own a computer, but has occasional access to her friend’s Mac for a web-based email account.
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If you have not yet done so, today is the day to use Sherlock to index your hard drive(s). The procedure is easy and automatic, and will give you instant access to all your files by content.
When you won’t be needing to use your computer for several hours, or overnight, here is what to do:
1. In your Apple Menu, scroll down to Sherlock to launch it.
2. Click on the “Find By Content” tab at the top of the open Sherlock window.
3. Click once on “Index Volumes …” in the lower left corner.
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When we accepted the offer to house sit in San Francisco again this summer, Barbara and I couldn’t know in advance the weather would be the coldest, foggiest, gloomiest in years. Coming from sunny Arizona to dismal SF was a shock, and we suffered from a sudden bout of seasonal affective disorder. Our part of the city, Outer Richmond, was especially dismal.
Remedies? Over the Golden Gate Bridge we did go, on day trips up to genuine summertime in Marin County. The traffic can be intense, but the “terrible heat” complained about by the locals felt warm and comfy to our bones and brains, and was much more temperate than the genuine hot weather we left behind in Tucson. Other outings took us into regions of San Francisco more blessed with sunshine than the Richmond area: Noe Valley, Mission, and Marina.
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A hub is a hub is a hub. Or so you would think. What distinguishes a good USB hub from a lousy one are the details, and Keyspan gets almost all of them right.
The key merit of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) is its simplicity for users. You can plug and unplug with ease, at any time, without fear of hardware damage. Device drivers load as you need them. You can connect all sorts of devices such as mice, keyboards, printers, handheld computers, and external storage devices to the same ports, with the same cables, on Macs or Wintel PCs, desktops or laptops.
USB is useful enough that, until the recent introduction of the FireWire-equipped iMac DV, all of Apple’s iMacs and iBooks had USB ports, and nothing else, for expansion. Previous generations of Macs, on the other hand, included Apple serial ports for printers and modems, Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) connectors for input devices, and SCSI for external drives.
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PREFACE
As My Mac online magazine goes through a major transition during the next year, Book Bytes also will be changing. Instead of cranking out endless book reviews on computer topics each month, we will have a mixed bag.
Book Bytes is expanding to cover general interest titles, in addition to our usual diet of Macintosh, Internet, graphics, and technology subjects. I can’t predict how many of each we will publish, so stick around and enjoy the ride.
Please take this opportunity to request new subjects, authors, and publishers, and keep your suggestions pouring in. Thanks!
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Miracles on 34th Street
Along with Macys, New York’s 34th Street also hosts the Javitz Conference Center and the annual summer MacWorld convention. Though July might seem far-removed from Christmas, I can reliably report that, based upon what happened at the July MacWorld Expo, “Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus.” There will be those that will argue that I was prey to a ‘reality distortion field’ or that I’m just another ‘true-believer,’ but I was at the keynote speech and I saw the (not so) “jolly old elf” pull out a sack of presents. I even took one with me and it is a dandy!
Though Steve Jobs has often been accused of sleights of hand in front of the press and/or distorting the public’s perception. The truth is that Steve and the creative folks at Apple often change the reality of computing for millions of Mac and PC users. The list of past Apple innovations that transformed personal computing is truly staggering and at MacWorld 2000, Apple, once again, demonstrated what is meant by true innovation.
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This month’s article is going to be a bit of a departure. Rather than being just about FileMaker Pro (FM), it is going to include some AppleScript (AS) as well. They work quite well together, and if you like working in FM, you may find that AS can lend a helping hand for tasks that FM can’t or is not well-equiped to handle natively.
(The following is a Internet Chat conducted during one of our “My Mac Chats” at World Without Borders. Special thanks to the folks at the WWB for all their help in providing this transcript.
10-14-98
GCSPhotoBug // We know you’ve seen My Mac Magazine, a monthly electronic magazine for everyday Mac users, dedicated to bringing its readers commentary, product reviews, information, humor, great links to other Macintosh resources and a renewed dedication to being a Mac enthusiast. Now you can join us here each week at World Without Borders, and chat with them online! Today, we meet Susan Howerter, who will be talking about writing and ideas.
GCSPhotoBug // Susan, glad you could be here today. Let’s start with you, Continue reading »
shall we? What took you on the path towards writting?
In June, My Mac lost one of our own. Susan Howerter, columnist and author or the “Stocking Stuffer Steve book” passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.
What does one say after losing someone like this? While Susan and I had never met in person, she had become a very dear friend, one I could confide in. Susan meant a lot to me, and indeed the entire staff, that news of her passing was like a bucket of ice-cold water in our faces.
Susan first came to my attention in August 1997. At the time, we had a column titled “The Reader Voice” in which we let our readership send in their own samples for publication. This was one of the best ideas I had ever had, as it netted us not a few regular columnists, reviewers, and indeed friends for years to come. Susan send it an article titled “DUEX ex Machina” in August, hoping I would print it in the magazine. She had sent it to another Mac publication as well, but they passed. I was blown away! It was a brilliant piece of writing, so I not only published the piece in our September 1997 (#29) issue, I also asked her to join our staff as a regular writer. Happily, she agreed.
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There has been a lot of discussion and interest in Mac OS X, and through it all I have been amazed by one thing: many people appear to be making major decisions based on a complete lack of information. People appear to be distraught over the purported inability of Mac OS X to run on their computers. Yet when I ask them why they need to run Mac OS X, they are unable to provide an explanation. Clearly there is something going on here. I think it’s time to take a calm, rational look at Mac OS X. Let’s examine the new OS along with the existing installed base of Macs; and the people who own those Macs; and the applications they want to run. I urge you to take a few moments to look through this missive. It should prove interesting.
Over five years. That is how long My Mac Magazine has been publishing a monthly digital magazine. Our first issue was released at the end of July, 1995. At the time, the My Mac staff consisted of one person, me. Who knew that more than five years would pass before the downloadable monthly edition would finally cease to be? Who knew how many more staff members would come and go in all that time?
As of October, 2000, My Mac will become a web-only publication. That is not to say we will no longer offer downloadable editions of our content. We will. Though not only a regular monthly basis.
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I feel rather guilty about taking an unscheduled half-year absence from these pages; it was rather unintentional. But one missed deadline quickly became another, and soon, my third year of college was complete and it was summer. Wow. I guess time flies when you’re… um… studying.
But these last few months have been beneficial for me as a Mac user. Oddly enough, I’ve used the Mac OS less in these last six months than I ever have since my family first bought that original Mac LC when I was in seventh grade. And truthfully, there was a period of time during this half-year when I became rather disillusioned with the Mac OS.
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Looking back at the My Mac archives, I see that my lone column from the first half of this year, in March, related my desire for a more powerful computer than my PowerBook 1400c/133. A bigger hard drive, more RAM, bigger screen, more powerful graphics card, USB, FireWire, all the trimmings. And I also decided that I wanted an iMac, because Apple’s desktop offerings clearly (and understandably) offer more punch than their portable counterparts ‹ at least twice the video memory, larger hard drive sizes, etc. Sure, the PowerBook line offers tremendously impressive bang for a notebook computer, but you pay for that portable power, and I really can’t justify that much cost. Unfortunately, the same applies to the dual-G4 minitowers and the new Cube ‹ they have looks and power to drool over, but a price tag that the average college student can’t afford. However, the July Macworld announcement of the new iMacs (fresh with beefed-up specs, new colors, and lower price tags) had me eyeing those $799 and $999 stickers pretty closely. No sticker shock here! It was sure tempting.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384