Photoshop 6 Shop Manual
by Donnie O’Quinn
Webster’s New World Books
ISBN 0-7357-1130-5, 1074 pages
$39.99 US, $59.95 CAN

When I am working on a car, I love to have the shop repair manual close by for reference. As we all know, each automobile is very different from every other types of car or truck. What may work to repair a Chevy may not fix a problem on a Ford. That is what the shop repair manual is for. To tell you how to fix something quickly and more easily, saving you time in the process.

Photoshop 6 Shop Manual really won’t show you how to fix Photoshop, but it will teach you how to use the programs myriad functions. Every aspect of Photoshop is covered by writer Donnie O’Quinn. Want to learn how to use the Distort filter? It’s in there on page 470-486. How about creating a 1-bit halftone? Yup, on page 783-785.

Photoshop 6 Shop Manual does not take a beginners route, however. The author assumes you already know your way around Adobe Photoshop 6 somewhat. This is a good thing, as there are many other “how-to for beginner” Photoshop books on the market, but far too few advanced guides. This book is definitely for a moderate to advance user, although even a new Photoshop user will be able to get a LOT from the book.

Donnie O’Quinn generously uses photos and screen snapshots (all using the Mac version!) to illustrate what he is writing about throughout the book. This is very handy, but never does he go overboard with the pictures. At over a thousand pages long, you may think that much of the space is pictures, acting as filler. It is not. The author goes very in-depth in each and every aspect of Photoshop.

One of the very best aspects of the book is “Issues to Consider” Here, the book will give you very helpful tips on the subject you just read. These can be either tips or tricks, or helpful ideas on the subject. They read like an old pro giving you advice, and are very enlightening.

Why would you need this book, when it is a well known fact that Adobe products ship with very good documentation and manuals? Simple. Donnie O’Quinn is a ten year Adobe Photoshop veteran, and he sprinkles the book with real-world scenarios and such. As I said, it is very much like an old pro standing behind you, giving advice when you most need it.

You will not find any tutorials in this book. Time is money, as the author states in the book. When your using this book to look up an answer or solution to a problem, you don’t need any witticisms, you need a quick answer. Photoshop 6 Shop Manual gives you those answer, quickly and easily understood, along with the above mentioned “Things to Consider” bonus.

Any book of this size needs both a well written listing of chapters, as well as a very detailed index. Neither are absent here. Both are very thorough, and I find that the index pages of my copy has seen the most use. I am constantly using the 65 page index to find the information I need.

All in all, Photoshop 6 Shop Manual is one of the very best books on Adobe Photoshop 6 I have. When Adobe moves the program over to version 7, or to Mac OS X, I know that I will be looking for the next version of this book as well.

At US$39.99, the book is not cheap. But neither is the advice or solutions provided in the book. If you make your money using Photoshop, this would be a wise investment. (And you can save money by buying the book at Amazon.com, where I have seen it for as little as $27.99, a true steal!)

MacMice Rating: 5 out of 5

Tim Robertson

Keyspan USB 4-Port Mini Hub
Company: Keyspan
Price: $49.99
http://www.keyspan.com

Wow. Can they really make a 4-Port USB hub this small and have it really work well? In a word, yes. They (Keyspan) did it, and did it very well.

The USB 4-Port Mini Hub is a sleek little thing, easily fitting in my hand. (See picture below.) It has a little door, which is where they hide in male-USB cable that plugs into your Mac. In both sides of the unit are two USB plugs, equaling four all together.

The unit is really meant for PowerBook users, those who may need extra USB connections while out on the road. The Keyspan unit will draw power from the USB port on your Mac, but there are times when this is not enough, thus the unit also ships with an equally small power cable.

In extensive use, I found no faults with the unit. It easily ran four USB devises (a printer, a scanner, a Wacom tablet, and flash media card reader) without a problem. However, with that many connections, I did need to use the external power cord.

The only draw back to the unit is its price. I have seen many four-port USB hubs going for as little as $15, though none were as small as the Mini-Hub, and most have a rather large external power supply brick cord.

All things considered, I would recommend the Keyspan Mini-hub if you are a frequent user of many USB devices on the road, and need the extra ports. If you spend most of your time in one location and desktop space is not at a premium, consider a less expensive model.

MacMice Rating: 4 out of 5

Tim Robertson

It would be a gross understatement to say that a lot of bad things have happened this year, to all of us as a nation, and as a culture. The two things which come to mind right away are the botched presidential election, (which almost lead us into a constitutional crisis), and the hideous, tragic terrorist attack on our nation, the shock waves and aftereffects from which, will be felt for years to come. But in this column entry, I would like to talk about some good news. It’s something I have recently learned, and it has given me some hope, that maybe, just maybe, we’ll be all right. And what is this great thing I have learned?

You can still buy Tinker Toys!

Yes indeed. Now I know that all of my fellow baby boomers remember these wonderful toys, consisting of wooden spools with numerous holes in them, and sticks of different colors, made to fit into the holes. I played with them as a kid, and so did everyone else. ( Oh, and mommies, the answer to your question is yes, they are “Gender Neutral”, at least to the best of my judgment. ) They are sold the way they always were, in canisters of various sizes and prices. The more you yak up at the register, the more of the cool little wooden wonders you get. Today, I marched right into a “Toys R US” toy store ( They don’t like grown men, without kids, in toy stores, but that’s just too damn bad. ) and bought myself a canister of the wooden wonders. The price was $29.99, for the Jumbo Builder Set, consisting of one hundred and two pieces. A fair chunk of cash, in these post-technology boom times, ( And it is over, so just get over it! )but I suppose there is that “inflation thing”. I got home, opened the canister, and there they were, the same as when I was about six or so. The only difference being that all the pieces are slightly larger, but only slightly. This is a design change for the better, as the wooden sticks are now more robust, and less likely to break. I send a virtual pat-on-the-back, to whoever made this decision.

I immediately went about doing what guys do: I picked out several fist full’s of the well-sanded wooden spools and sticks, and made a “thing”, sort of in the shape of a big cube. I had no plan, of intention to make anything definite. I just wanted to start sliding the wooden pieces together and see where I wound up. Dang, these things are fun! And then I realized something: Tinker Toys are among some of the best toys ever made, ever, for all ages.

I guess a little history is in order, so here goes: Tinker toys were invented by Charles H. Pajeau and Robert Pettit, about 1913, after Pajeau observed some youngsters playing with empty thread spools and sticks. This, according to the web site of Hasbro Toys, which presently owns Tinker Toys, and markets them through their division called “Oddz On”. There was apparently a period when Tinker Toys were owned by the Playskool division of Hasbro. During this time, from 1992 to 2000, they were made of plastic, and sold in blister packs. This was just wrong, and the product was almost dropped entirely, due to slow sales. But thankfully, the powers that be at Hasbro/Oddz On, saw the light, and in 2000, they were once again made of real wood, and sold in their unmistakable canisters. ( Sometimes, these guys in executive jobs really do the right thing after all! ) Hasbro does still produce a set made of plastic, with large soft pieces, so they are fine for the small hands of the very young, but the “real ones” are wood.

Tinker Toys have been around for a long time. And, if I am right, they will be around for a lot longer. They are truly wonderful. They last a long time, and they really stimulate the imagination, and mathematical ability of kids. ( But the kids don’t need to know this.) My specialty as a kid was making geometric shapes, as big as I possibly could. Different kids have different gifts for this sort of thing. Some kids can do some fast thinking, and quickly produce a house, or odd-looking boat with Tinker Toys. And, as I stated earlier, Tinker Toys totally cross gender lines. Girls love them as much as boys, and can easily produce some stuff which is equally cool. ( Are you listening, all you “new age” mommies? Yes, I thought you probably were.)
Give a kid a set of Tinker Toys, and some room to work, and check back in a few hours. They are that good. Oh yes, Tinker Toys do not require batteries, which almost seems like it should be against some obscure federal law today. ( And what is it with the number of devices which require an odd number of batteries, and the fact that batteries are only sold today in packages of even quantities? Is there some sort of “battery conspiracy” at work?)

I hope they sell a lot of sets of Tinker Toys this holiday season. It is so refreshing to see toys that are not tied in to a TV show, movie, or lame cartoon. And how much of that garbage will still be produced a hundred years from now? Oh yes, here is something to make American parents very happy: You won’t have to go to a mall at 3 AM, to stand in line, because you heard that a shipment of Tinker Toys is due to arrive, and that they will be sold on a “first come, first served basis.” You had to do that, didn’t you, with “Tickle me Elmo”, and those “Power Ranger” things. And you did it again, last year, when that Sega game system came on the Market. ( Or was it Nintendo? I’m not up on this stuff at all. )

Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, (another great classic, but now made from plastic, and never as much fun as Tinker Toys) Lego’s, and the long gone “Erector Set” all have something that the toys of our modern times don’t have. They are fun, and they stimulate the imagination. ( I think “Erector Set” is history, but I have no information on it’s fate. If anyone does, would you e-mail me? Thanks. ) They are inexpensive, when you factor in the facts that they last a long time, and require no batteries. All those plastic junk toys, which all seem to be tied in to a tv show or movie, offer none of these qualities, and they seem awfully expensive. Tinker Toys seem downright cheap by comparison. Here is a question: How much of the “Jurassic Park” junk is now gracing a dark corner of the closet, or damp corner of the basement? Uh-huh.

Oh yeah, “there’s one more thing”: ( I love quoting Steve on that! )

You can still play with them, as an adult!

And if someone, a coworker perhaps, spots you playing with Tinker Toys, don’t be surprised if they want to play with them too. This especially applies if you work in an engineering environment, as I do And if your kids spot you playing with their Tinker Toys, I would suggest you buy a set for yourself. Go ahead, you won’t regret it. And since this is the new century, There is indeed a website for Tinker toys.

Time to Play.

Bruce Black

Why do we write?

We write because of the Human Condition. Life as we know and experience it must find some outlet in those of us who live it, love it, or endure it. We must express these things somehow.

We write because we are made in the Image of God. He is ultimately creative, therefore we all must create, being his children.

Art, poetry, music, writing, our imagination, along with the pain and beauty we feel — is of the very same essence, which is of our souls. And each of our souls long for a way of expressing the all of the joy and terror that weaves its way through our lives.

As for writers, we are compelled to make our art by using the most intimate media for humans, which is our birth language. We first learn to speak from our parents, especially from our mother. It is our first medium of expression, which is probably why there are many more writers in the world than there are in all the other arts, in all their various media. What we first learned to speak we are much later learning to write, endeavoring to capture afresh our close feelings of love, joy and acceptance, as well as pain and loss.

So, we have established that all of us are creative, even gifted, and that many of us are writers.

But as with any other art, there must be years of discipline, struggle and effort for that which we express to begin to have real meaning and power to move and bless others. Only few of us will do this.

The essence of writing

Two kinds of people write. One kind writes because that is what they do. The other is a writer because that is what they are. There is a world of difference between the two. The same can be said about someone who is a draftsman or illustrator making their living with their skills, compared to someone who lives and breathes art, and who passionately creates just by living. You see what I mean? Therefore, you must discover, if you haven’t already, which kind of writer you are.

Practically speaking, it is going to be much easier to talk about the tangible and the mundane things about writing, than it would be to talk about those creative urges within you and I that move us to write in the first place. Greater people have already talked about those intangible things that move us to write. For example:

You and I could add several more chapters or even volumes of prose and verbage here. I include these quotes because they spoke to me about the creative urges and passions within us that is almost impossible to put into words. (And no, I will NOT comment on that last one!)

There is a practical side to writing excellent things. The best writing disappears. You read something and you are suddenly hearing and seeing the characters and the places where they are. You don’t notice the words. They transport you. This is what the best writing does.

You need to master your language, in its meter and even its rhyme, not to be poetic, but to say things in the best possible way with the fewest words. You also need to write continuously and rewrite your work until it gets to that point. You will know it when it does, and so will your readers.

One more thing. Learn critical thinking. Debate. Practice thinking games and puzzles. Take classes in critical thought if you can find them. Few people in the world are critical thinkers, and even fewer people in the world are awake. This practice alone will improve your writing no end.

As for the practical things you can do to become a published writer, you must first ignore the myths and the boojums that surround what writers do. Then you can begin that long patient trek to becoming a published author. Read on.

Myths about writers
(They will all kill me for this!)

Writers are compulsive

You who are writers are driven, even compelled to write because of those passionate things within you. But your talent and your ideas are under control. This compulsive business is different.

People like what they do, mostly, else they get therapy. People who are in pain or torment as they create are not being creative at all. They need to get help. Writing, or any art, should not cause you great pain, nor is this necessary for your words or your art to stand on their own in the world.

Writers do NOT need to write down what is moving them at any particular moment. Sometimes they are struck by a thought, an insight, or something funny, so they get up from what they are doing and go write it down, sometimes for hours or even days at a time.

Many writers would like for us all to think they are compulsive, but that is just a cover so that they can have their freedom to do what they want, selfish artists that they (we) are. Hey, it beats wearing a beret.

Fact is, Life happens. They might be some place where they can’t stop and write at the moment, but that’s OK, because when they do get the time, they will sit down and write it all out without missing anything. This means they are not compulsive, but they have their thoughts and skills under control. They just like to do what they do when they write, more than they like to spend time with you, or someone else, or in doing something else.

Writers must follow their Muse

Another myth. Someone somewhere said that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets themselves. This means that your Muse will wait for you, and you do not have to jump when it says jump. Your typical writer will tell you otherwise. He MUST write, he says. He has no choice, else he will lose his Muse.

Bull! He just wants to do what he wants to do, that’s all. The truth is his muse, his inspiration, comes from the same place all good inspiration comes from, which is a person’s own subconscious mind, their dreams, and imagination. The myth of the Muse is just another cover, and a way to claim divine inspiration for what they write about to get a little respect for their craft.

The Muse we claim to own works in funny ways. I would swear that when I am writing a story, I do not have clue how it will turn out. Sometimes I keep writing just to see what will happen next. Sometimes I wake up with a story already completely written, down to the last detail. I just need to get to a keyboard to put in on paper. Amazing, how it works, isn’t it?

So, writers claim to have a fictional Muse as their inspiration, rather than taking full credit for their work and admitting it really came from their own minds, their inner thoughts, and life experience. Why is that, I wonder?

Writers cannot do anything else

Many writers have a mental image of a successful writer. Real writers (they say) do not hold jobs. Rather they sit around all day in their pajamas, absorbing their favorite nutrients or other substances, only to complain about having writer’s block. Like I said, this is in the same vein as artists who wear berets, and musicians who act like Beatniks (look it up). None of this posturing is necessary.

Most successful writers already have other jobs in some other field, which, BTW, also gives them more experience and writing material than the fictitious guy hiding in his dreary apartment. There is another reason that most writers have another job. You have heard the expression, “Don’t give up your day job?” Having that profitable job in no way diminishes their talents as a writer.

Fact is, I got my best writing done while I was working a job with permanent overtime. When I was not working at all, my writing was not all that great. No matter what else I was doing, I found the time to be inspired and to put it all down in print, because I loved what I was doing, which was to write. Still do, AAMOF.

Writers suffer writer’s block

This WB is not necessarily true. The only cure for not being able to write is to sit down and write about something other than what is being blocked. Before long, you will be writing about what needs to be written about and the blockage will go away. This takes some discipline, and the best writers are the ones who are the most militant both about their writing and their routine.

Writer’s block is usually an excuse for something else.

If they still cannot write, then the writer may be at a point in their work where they cannot see beyond the place where they stopped. One story I had written demanded a sequel. It took me a year to get to the place where I could understand how a plot point was possible, for there to even be a sequel. Once I could do that, the story flew out of my fingers. This did not keep me from writing other things though.

Writer’s block can be very real to a writer, but still be imaginary. People cannot do any number of things because they have never given themselves permission. Therefore, “It cannot be done!” The truth about the matter is that when a few writers cannot write, they haven’t given themselves permission to write. There may even be a fear of failure lurking about, which needs to be faced.

Some people have sort of a script that they follow for their lives, which always ends in failure. If they could change the script, their lives would be different. The writers with this kind of problem have more than writer’s block, and they should have it looked at, because the world is deprived of their very unique talents and life experiences in the meantime.

Once it is written, it cannot be changed

Amateurs believe this one. “I cannot change a word. It is perfect like it is!”

More bull! To be a successful writer, you must EDIT, EDIT, EDIT! You will almost never get to a point where you think there cannot be one more slight change, a different word, etc., in your story. Do not be afraid to look at your work with a detached viewpoint. Try to tear it apart. Argue the other side. Look for flaws and plot failures. Then sit down and rework it. You will be a better writer for it, and your writing will improve enormously.

Some writers are on a deadline, and that can’t be helped. Yet even they, who are some of the best writers out there in the real world, hammering out their thousands of words a day on their word processors and typewriters, would all agree to this.

Nothing is worse for a writer than to look the next day at their work in print and wish with all their might that just a few words could be changed. You are in a better position than they are. You can sit down and edit your work ahead of time, because if you look closely, it probably needs it, right?

I will never find a publisher

You will be published. It just takes time. Lots of time. Hey, you aren’t going anywhere off planet, are you? You still have a life to live right here and now, right? Therefore, don’t worry how long it will take. If you keep broadening your experiences, stay at your keyboard, keep perfecting your writing skills, and continue to send your stuff in everywhere you can find to submit it — hey, it will happen.

The average writer gets his book, novel, or major work rejected about 20 or 30 times before someone picks it up. You have to be more persistent than those cretins the publishers hire to automatically reject the best writing the world has ever seen! Therefore, learn how this whole publishing thing works.

If nothing else, you can write about how it all works so others who want to write can be informed about this barrier to being published. (Yeah, I know.)

How to get published
(What? We got too many writers now!)

You can freelance

Trials and travails await those who work on spec, writing some article for a publication, spending hours researching, and polishing their piece, only to be turned down at the end. Never write on spec. Take a down payment (1/4 or 1/2) in advance, with a written contract, if you must. Although most pubs now only take material on spec, even from their seasoned stable of writers. It’s tough out there.

You know your time is limited. Therefore, you should not waste it writing about things some publisher might or might not want. Why spend hours writing something you possibly won’t get paid for, and which you cannot sell anywhere else? You will do better writing about what you love or hate, and submitting that those magazine publishers you think might pick up your work. Or you can try to send in just article ideas or clips to see if they are interested. Also, keep your day job.

Newspapers rarely take something, but they might do a story on what you do if you are good at it. If you are interested in writing for them, get your Journalism degree.

You can publish your writing on the Internet

Sure, you can build a home page, and transform your writing into something sort of readable, or downloadable on the World Wide Web. Many writers do this because they just have to see their work published. Yet you must be aware of several things here concerning what you write and publish on the Web.

One. Almost no one will see your work, except the friends and family members you drag over to your computer, or into whose unwilling hands you press a Xeroxed copy of your pride and joy! Publishing your work this way is a minor ego trip, and never profitable. However, your family and friends might think your work is pretty good after all, so perhaps this is worth doing anyway.

If you want to see what kind of excellent writing there is out there, so you know what it looks like, you need to look at some websites. The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and places like Applelinks, MacCreator, MacObserver, MyMac, and Zoozone, have the very best creative writing there is. They don’t all take submissions, though, sorry.

To submit your writing, you would do better to find one of the precious few serious sites that do publish writer’s submissions. If you write science fiction, sffworld.com is a good place to start. If your work is good, they will publish it. If you write other things, such as articles and informative stuff, find the webzine sites that publish on that subject, and submit to them. You are reading this article on one such webzine, BTW.

Two. No money is involved here. No webzine pays for articles and stories. Even if you want to submit to paper magazines, their pay is pennies per word, and they almost never accept submissions from anyone outside of their writers stable. If you want to make your living as a writer, be a journalist, and get your Masters Degree in that field, or else get a couple of dozen novels or scripts published or produced.

So there not will be money changing hands for the typical writer, unless of course you pay them to publish your work on their website. Stay away from that sort of thing, for they have no more eyes on their substandard site with their third rate content, than you will draw to your own great looking and professional site that features real writing and interesting work. Erm, you did set up the preamble of your site for search engine hits, right?

Three. If you publish your work on the Internet, you will almost never find a book or magazine publisher for that particular piece of writing. Publishers never touch previously published work. You have to think hard about this one. The bulk of your work is of a quality that you would not mind it only being published on the Web, but there is some part of your writing that is far above this. Your best work must be published in the traditional way, so keep it off the Web.

Of course, there are the big Web Publishers like Mightywords, and a few others. They charge a bit of a monthly fee for you to post your book for sale on their site, and promise to spread the news about your excellent work all over the Net. I did this with a book a few years ago. I charged $2.50 a book for anyone who would buy an electronic copy. Not expensive. Never sold a one. I had a great topic too, but no one ever visited that site, which is not surprising, considering they had over 10,000 books for sale there! You might have better luck with this, but I suspect your own website with appropriately chosen keywords might be a better bet for people to find your work.

All editors are alike?

I want to take a detour here to talk about editors. This is one of the biggie myths for writers. Real editors are very rare. Almost anyone who puts out a webzine also consider themselves to be an excellent editor. Most of them cannot even spell, which becomes apparent when they do rewrites to your work and then publish it that way. They believe that you giving them your work gives them license to rework your writing, and to leave out what they consider offensive for the content of their publication. Most of them are wimps who are afraid of offending or driving off readers, so your best and most controversial work will become insipid and even pointless in their hairy hands.

This is what an editor/publisher does, right? Never! Any real editor will always ask you first before they change anything you write. If they don’t, run, do not walk, to the nearest exit! Your work should never be seen on their website if they are not real editors. Your work is more than just copyrighted, it is inviolate, and you should consider it to be so. Never allow any editor to change anything in your writing, unless they can first give you a powerful reason for changing it.

So you found a great place to publish your articles, and now your most excellent owner/editor has asked you to change something. You must decide here. Is your work going to stand as it is? Or can you change something to make it more palatable for your reader, so as not to offend them to the point that they dismiss your POV outright. Sometimes this great editor is right, given the vast experience he has, and his innate understanding of his readers. He is watching your backside for you. You still may defer changing anything in your work. You know you have a great editor when he will go ahead and publish your work anyway, regardless of what kind of heat he and his publication will get for doing so.

Such people as these deserve your best work. Don’t shop around on them just to get a few more readers somewhere else. Their publication is likely to be the better place for your work simply because of their brave and honorable stance in publishing things the way their writers intended for it to be said.

You are reading this article at such a publication, BTW. MyMac is the best webzine on the Internet, period. Why? Yeah, mymac.com has great writers, (all those other guys and gals here) but their Editor/Publisher is by far the best one of any publication anywhere. That makes the crucial difference in this business, for what readers get here is the real deal.

You can put your writing in books

Over the years of your writing, everything you ever wrote, and all those “freebies” you put out on the Web, have served to hone your talent and your improve your skills for writing your Magnum Opus. Do not deny the world the opportunity to read your singular and world-class work in a well made and professionally published hardback book!

This is the way things work. Once you have “Arrived,” and your work is published in the mainstream, then you can look to other media, such as electronic copies for PDAs, eBooks, scripts for television, and movies, theme parks, etc. — or not.

You control your story, regardless of what your publisher tells you. You can take it as far as you want, or keep it in whatever medium you want, provided you have not signed the rights to your work away in your passionate desire to see your work in print. You read the small print before you sign anything. If you cannot understand it, get your own attorney to tell you what it says before you sign it. A publisher who sincerely wants to publish your work will agree to this, you Amateur, you! (G)

You can self publish, if you are wealthy, or willing to go into debt. To do this, do NOT use the publisher you found in the phone book. Do your research and find one who actually does books for people who want to self publish. Be sitting down when they give you the estimated cost per book. Make room in your garage for all the boxes you will soon own. If you are lucky, you might also find bookstores and dealers who will stock and sell your books. Plan on selling them for a long, long time. You may even break even in a few years.

They don’t like my format!

Face it. Book and magazine publishers are Neanderthals! They want their “Manuscript” which is your very best writing contorted into an obscure format, which no one knows the origins of. You take your finely developed story which has been not only well written, but already formatted to perfection in your word processing software, and you must strip it of any character whatsoever, just to be able to submit it to one of these book publishers.

Here it almost goes without saying. You need to spell correctly, at the very least. Unless your name is E. E. Cummings, you should also know how to write in a format that is grammatically correct. If you wish to be a journalist, this is a requirement. If you are an author, it is no less true. If you are a writer of anything, this is always a must. Your language is your craft, and how well you use it is very obvious to your readers. Learn your language. Learn how it works, and begin to understand the beauty of its forms. For no matter how passionately you share your ideas, if your writing has visual flaws it will not be read, and your POV will be dismissed outright by your readers and whoever you try to submit it to.

Manuscript format requires that you call ahead before you send it to a particular publisher to make sure of how it’s formatting must be, to be accepted by them. Most of them will tell you they do not accept manuscripts. So ask them that if they ever did possibly accept manuscripts some day, what format might it need to be in, just for your reference. Be polite. Play dumb. Maybe they will acquiesce and tell you. If not, you need to contact some writer they have published and ask.

Good luck finding many of these publishers anyway, for they do not advertise their whereabouts, and even search engines do not turn them up on the Internet. You must rather go to a bookstore and get a couple of magazines called “Writers” and “Writers Digest” in order to find out where these publishers are and how to contact them. These rags aren’t bad for writing tips either.

Do NOT pay someone who offers a service for getting publishers to read your work, for they have no more chance than you do of getting any publisher to look at your writing.

Your manuscript

So now you created a mailing list of publishers to submit your work to. What now?

The format for your hard copy manuscript generally requires it to be double spaced, in serif font, sans formatting, and printed on single sides of 8 ? by 11 inch plain white paper. Your pages are to be numbered at the bottom, and they are to be placed unbound into a standard cardboard box with a lid, to be mailed to the publisher. Strange, huh?

Do not send disks, electronic copies, or email your work to them. There are legal reasons they will not accept these, but for the most part most of them do not even own a computer, which is why we writers call them Neanderthals.

There are only a few hundred book and magazine publishers in the business. Many of these are marginal, and their readership is also marginal. But, hey, any publisher is better than no publisher, right? Consider sending your manuscript to all of them, starting at bottom end of your list. This will take both time and money, so send out one or two manuscripts every month to spread the cost out a bit. You will have time, because it can take a more than a couple of years to find a publisher for your book anyway. In the meantime, polish the words of your novel or subject.

If your work is of a particular genre, you might consider looking for publishers who deal in only that particular subject. This will make your efforts that much easier, but it will narrow your list.

You could also consider publishing off shore in other countries, depending on what you are writing. Beware if you do, for other countries and off shore publishers have a very different understanding of copyrights, publishing and editing rights, etc. If you publish in another language, make sure you know the person who does the translations. They should be your best friend, or spouse, BTW. But, the world is large, and those markets are not saturated, so consider it.

Who will read your manuscript?

Will your expensively printed manuscript be read when you submit it to a publisher? Probably not. Even if a publisher will accept your work, odds of it actually being read are slim. Publishers are in a business with ultra tight profit margins. Books require tons of cash to be printed and bound. Bookstore shelves are crowed with unread books already. Only certain topics or genres are considered worthy of publication in any given season.

If your work, by its TITLE does not fit the subject matter they are seeking, it likely goes right into a large warehouse of unread, unopened manuscripts, which periodically gets cleaned out and shipped for profit to some paper recycler. Therefore, do not expect a publisher to mail your manuscript back to you, even if you request it, and even if you try to pay for its return, for they usually do not do this.

Suppose a publisher actually reads your work. First it goes through a minimum wage employee who is hopeful of being a Publisher some day. (They aren’t really cretins.) He or she will look over your work, and they might even read your manuscript if they find it interesting. Then they will perhaps pass it on to the owner of the publishing company with a recommendation that this one is at least readable and will not be a waste of their time to look at it. From that point it most likely will go to the warehouse unread by them — or not. They must consult their zodiac first.

If they do read it and actually like it, you will hear from them. You DID put a return address or phone number on it when you sent it to them, didn’t you?

Don’t be alarmed by this process. Normally you will get a REJECTION LETTER in the mail soon after you submit your work. It will be polite and it will praise your creative efforts, but the “Market is fickle and we just cannot publish your pride and joy at this time. Don’t call us, we will call you if things change.” This is the letter you will get if they didn’t read your work.

If they actually read your work, your rejection letter can be much more specific about changing your book’s title, it’s entire contents, it’s plot, all the characters, and your writing style, – and the publisher might even include an invitation to submit something to him again. These are the letters you frame and hang on the wall.

Then one fine day, out of the blue, comes an acceptance letter and possibly a large retainer from some obscure publisher you forgot you ever wrote to. Your work is going to be published!

After you celebrate with everyone, call the newspaper, and run up your credit card bill, you actually talk to this publisher and discover that they have to make some “minor” changes to your inviolate work. If you have ever read the stories about authors whose work was made into a movie, you begin to get my drift here about what most publishers can do to your writing.

Do you dig in your heels and demand your writing stand as it is, or do you allow them to do their dirty work? At least it will still have your name on it, unless of course, they want you to pick up a pen name like Rocky Strong, or something. You must decide what is to become of your hard work. Best of luck to you. I would recommend you stand by what you wrote, and the way you wrote it, except for the most minor details. It is here you will find out what kind of writer you are.

Why is it we write, again?

Does it sound like every writer’s manuscripts just goes to Publisher’s Clearing House in Florida, along with all the millions of hopeful but losing tickets and lost ballots people mail in? You would not be far from the truth here.

A very small fraction of everything written ever gets into print. Of those books that do get into print, they compete with a million other tomes published each year for the reader’s attention. (Been to a bookstore lately?) Your effort to publish your work has a little bit better chance than your song making the Top Ten, or your painting being hung in the Louvre. But only a bit.

Don’t despair over this. Things are as they should be. The years of labor you spent on your original and seminal work may yet be published one day. If you keep trying. If you keep writing.

You need to write for a much more important reason. If for nothing else, write for your family, your children, and your friends, who all take great comfort in knowing that a real writer in their midst, whose opinions and imaginative works are a source of enjoyment and pleasure to them.

More important than this, in the historical perspective, your writing might become as well known publicly as those rare geniuses of past centuries. Think about it. Austen, Shelly, DeFoe, and Browning were giants in their centuries, but only because they lived in a less populated world. Even then, few people knew of their work out of all the population of their nation and their day. We in our generation know them better than anyone did in their own generation.

The world is much more peopled today, isn’t it? Therefore, your sphere of influence could already be as big or bigger than theirs, because of your immediate access to communication and media that they could only dare dream of.

Take pride therefore in what you write. Make it the best the world will ever see. You get pleasure out of it, don’t you? You like what you do, right? Your writing is sacrosanct. It is original, and it is that precious and intimate part of who you are and of the life you have lived. In the future, you will never know who will read your work, or how it will impact their lives because of what you wrote.

But only if you write it down and make multiple hard and data copies of it, and share it with as many people as you can through whatever medium you can. Or only if you never, ever give up trying to get published.

Then wait for Life to go on, for someday, no matter how long it takes, someone will read what you have written, and they and their world will be better for having read what you wrote.

Remember, writer, in Life the prize goes not to the fastest, or the wisest, or to the richest, but it goes to the one who has the most rejection letters.

Be well, and please write.

Roger Born

Roger Born

Timbuktu Pro 6.0 for Mac OS X
Company: Netopia, Inc.
Price: $99.95
http://www.netopia.com

Let’s face it, though many of us do not want to, all of us are going to have to upgrade to Mac OS X sometime. We are going to have to leave our platinum, extension filled world and plunge into Aqua with all of its UNIX underpinnings. However, where does that leave many of our everyday, indispensable utilities? For utilities that interact with the computer at a very low level, like Timbuktu Pro, that leaves them in the dust. Luckily, companies are hard at work rewriting and modifying their applications to work with this new operating system. I am happy to report that one of those companies is doing a great job: Netopia, with Timbuktu Pro.

The week prior to Mac OS X 10.1′s release was the first time I seriously considered upgrading to OS X. Even though I knew a faster version of OS X was being introduced in a few days, I knew that some of my more vital utilities were going to have to work with OS X, or upgrading was out of the question. Netopia had already released Timbuktu Pro 6.0, so I went ahead and upgraded to 10.0.4, and 10.1 a few days later. I’ve been using OS X with Timbuktu Pro for almost a month now, and its functionality and backwards compatibility is no less than a miracle.

Its Purpose
Timbuktu Pro is high-performance remote control and collaboration software that takes full use of the Internet, but also functions on Local or Wide area networks with ease. Timbuktu Pro supports dial up connections for applications where a high-speed connection is not available. With Timbuktu Pro you can literally control your computer from another computer (known as a host-to-guest connection), which means that you are never more than a few mouse clicks away from having your entire computer at your fingertips–even if you are literally thousands of miles away.

Timbuktu Pro’s remote control feature works best over local area networks where bandwidth is high, and becomes slower as you go down in connection speed. Fortunately, Timbuktu Pro offers you the options of hiding the desktop picture/pattern when you connect, and also connecting in black and white, so even if you are on a modem-to-modem connection, remote control is still useable. What’s more, Timbuktu Pro allows you to exchange files freely, so if you suddenly need a file that you left on your computer at home, you can easily connect and grab it–quickly and efficiently.

Timbuktu Pro also supports sending and receiving of text messages, live chat (like an Instant Message), and voice intercom features, which allow you to collaborate with anyone. In my experience, the voice feature does not work really well, though that can be expected, especially over today’s Internet where bandwidth is at a premium.

Applications
Timbuktu is useful in many situations; Network administrators will love its TCP/IP Scanner, which lists all of the clients on your network that are available for a Timbuktu connection. As a SOHO user, I can remote control and exchange files with my computer when I am at work, thus enabling me to answer e-mail and post columns on the MyMac.com web site during the day. When remote controlling a computer, Timbuktu Pro opens a separate window with your entire desktop environment within it. That window can be in scroll or scale mode, depending on your preference and your like for mouse movement. And you don’t have to worry about remembering that complicated IP address number, because Timbuktu Pro has an IP locator built in, where you can type your e-mail address instead of the IP address to connect to the guest computer.

Multiplatform
Timbuktu Pro’s most useful feature, though, is that it is cross platform. That means you can remote control a windows computer from a Macintosh, and vice-versa. Exchanging files between platforms is seamless also, and Macintosh users will be happy to know that Mac OS 9 computers can easily be controlled from OS X computers, just as OS X machines can be controlled from OS 9 machines. Moreover, Timbuktu Pro is backwards compatible, so you can still connect to machines that have version’s 4 and 5 of Timbuktu, even if you are using version 6.

It’s Aqua!
Timbuktu Pro 6.0 is no quick port to Mac OS X. Netopia has completely re-done Timbuktu to include a full aqua interface, as well as adding some features that OS X users will appreciate. Timbuktu Pro 6.0 is now more secure, because it scrambles the guest-to-host stream, and according to Netopia, screen information is now gathered more efficiently, which speeds up connections. Perhaps the best feature in version 6.0, though, is that you can send a force quit to a Mac OS X computer, thus enhancing the stability of your computer. Unfortunately, a force quit can only be sent if both the host and the guest computers are using version 6.0 and Mac OS X.

Quirks and Quivers
Like many OS X applications, Timbuktu Pro is not without it’s quirks. First and foremost, Timbuktu Pro’s connection menu now resides below the system clock instead of alongside it in your main menu bar. At first I thought that perhaps applications could not use this real estate as they could in Mac OS 9. However, I quickly learned that it is useable because both Stuffit Deluxe and QuicKeys X have menus that reside next to your system clock. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed in future versions.

Update: Mike Silverman of Netopia has informed me that you can move the Timbuktu Pro menu anywhere on your screen (including the menubar) simply by holding down the control key and dragging it. It works!

Timbuktu Pro 6.0 also fails to take full advantage of OS X’s new GUI with its remote control window. The window still appears in a black border, which is fine, however the controls still mirror those of OS 9. Though the window shade icon does minimize the window into the dock, why not use the red, yellow, and green buttons in the left hand corner instead of the “classic” appearance.

Finally, where is AppleTalk support? While I agree that TCP/IP connections are far superior, if OS X supports AppleTalk by option, Timbuktu Pro should also, just as it does in the OS 9 version. If network administrators are going to upgrade to 6.0, they’re going to want an upgrade that does not break their legacy networking.

Requirements/Availability
Timbuktu Pro 6.0 is available immediately for download or boxed version from Netopia’s web site, and a fully functional, time-limited evaluation version is available. Single user copies are $99.95, while twin packs retail for $209.95. If you choose to download the software rather than receiving a boxed version, the price will reduce five dollars for a single user and thirty dollars for a twin pack. Further pricing information and upgrade information is available at Netopia’s online store.

The Summary
Timbuktu Pro 6.0 is an elegant, useful, and downright indispensable utility for network administrators, business professionals, and small office/home office users alike. Its feature set is expansive enough for the IT professional, yet it is easy enough for any home user. And with the rise of cable modems and other forms of broadband connections, its user base is only bound to expand. The icing on the cake, however, is the remarkable job that Netopia has done bringing this utility to Mac OS X.

Unfortunately, as with many programs in the transition to X, Netopia still has a few bugs and quirks to iron out, and that is preventing Timbuktu Pro from getting a perfect rating from MyMac.com. However, the full functionality is in place, and it works unbelievably well. Simply put, Timbuktu Pro is the type of utility that should ship with your Macintosh. It’s that good.

MacMice Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Adam Karneboge

The iPod

The advertisement reads “1,000 songs in your pocket”. How can they make that claim? Maybe I listen to really long songs. Or really, really short ones. Either way, I would either get more than 1,000 songs on it, or less.

Sorry, but that was just bugging me. Time to get into the nitty gritty of the new product from Apple Computer, the lame named iPod. (Enough with the “i” names already! Time for Apple to think different, or at least pick another letter for a change.)

Priced at $399, the iPod will sell a hundred thousand units in the first six months. Come Macworld Expo in January, I expect to hear Steve Jobs brag about the early success of the iPod. I envision something along these lines: “Let’s talk about iPod.” (clap-clap-clap) “When we created the iPod, we really thought we had a winner on our hands. Since its release last October, Apple has sold over 100,000 units!” (Louder “clap-clap-clap” from the sheep in the audience. Including me.)

So the iPod will be an early success. No doubt about it. But after the initial wow factor of the Mac faithful wears off, sales will plummet, the price will be cut in half, different color choices will be made available, and it will become compatible with PC’s. And it still won’t sell as many units as Apple had hoped it would. The reason is simple, and can be summed up in one word. Sony.

Sony will soon jump in with both feet with a unit that is small, plays MP3s, will work with a PC and a Mac, and will cost a third less than the Apple unit. You will be able to buy it everywhere from WalMart to CompUSA. There will be ads for it all over the place. It will support RCA audio in to rip CD’s right from your home CD player to its built-in hard drive. (Which will be twice the size of the current iPod.) There will be an adapter for cars, which will broadcast the audio from the Sony model over an car audio system via FM. The adapter will boast the signal, and clean up the music some, giving you CD quality sound.

This is, of course, just my guess. But I think it is an educated one based on current technologies and needs. People simply don’t carry music around with them like they did in the 80′s, via a walkman. Sure, some people do, mostly teenagers, but how many of those teens can buy a MP3 player for $399, providing they are a Mac user to begin with? It is all about Car audio today.

The iPod is a great looking product. It looks like an Apple product inline with their new Titanium theme products, which is a good thing. I actually like the Mac OS system 7.1 style interface to it. I think it is probably the easiest to use MP3 player out there. Unfortunately, Apple is marketing this thing to a VERY small market. (Got an iMac with no FireWire port? Sorry, sucks to be you.) Very few of the installed user base of Mac user can actually use the damn thing, let alone the rest of the computing world.

And again, at $399, this thing is WAY overpriced.

Don’t get me wrong. I want one. I would have already ordered it had the price been reasonable, which to me would be under $150. At the current price-point, however, the only people who will buy it is diehards, those who HAVE to have the latest and greatest from Apple. (Which is usually me.) But even those people will think twice at this price.

All in all, the iPod, as currently priced and marketed, will be a failure. But gosh, I hope I am wrong.

Tim Robertson

It started about a month ago when a friend of mine, Tad, bought a guitar. He did not know how to play it, but said, “I had always wanted to play.” This reminded me of a program which we had reviewed right here at MyMac.com, a CD-ROM based guitar learning program titled eMedia Guitar Songs Vol. 1. I told Tad about the program, and he went and picked up eMedia Guitar Method 1. (Works on both Mac and PC.)

That was on a Friday. Monday at work, I asked Tad how it was going. “The program really works! I learned more than I thought I would pretty quickly. Thanks for recommending it.” High praise indeed, coming from him. Tad has high standards in software, and anything that was impressive to him, I knew, would have to be a good program. This gave me hope as well, for you see, I, too, had always wanted to learn how to play guitar.

My checkbook a little lighter than before, I returned home with a new guitar and my own copy of eMedia Guitar Method 1. Now, a week later, I can actually produce sounds from a guitar that resemble something that could one day turn into music!

I was so impressed with eMedia Guitar Method 1, I wanted to learn more about the company and people who created it, eMedia Music Company

A Little Background
Adrian Burton founded the eMedia Music Company in 1994. From their own history text, Adrian “…was working long hours as a software developer for Microsoft Corp., he wanted to learn to play guitar, just as many of us have at one time or another. He visited the local sheet music store, where he purchased a popular guitar method book. He frequented neighborhood music stores for referral to a private teacher. He even enrolled in group classes at the state university. His progress, however, wasn’t what he had hoped: The learning process was far more frustrating and time-consuming than it needed to be. Books couldn’t tell him whether he was playing correctly, and private lessons were not only costly, but difficult to work into a busy schedule.”

Adrian, being a software developer, looked for a CD-ROM based learning solution, but “It didn’t exist. No product presented high-quality educational content in an easy-to-follow lesson plan, nor did any take full advantage of the rich capabilities of multimedia.”

Adrian did what any great entrepreneur would do: he filled a niche with a product. Adrian used his skills honed by years at Microsoft programming such titles as Microsoft Encarta, Bookshelf and Cinemania. He also turned to a former guitar teacher, Kevin Garry from the University of Washington, his mother Sabina Skalar, a New York City Ballet violinist, as well as some friends from Microsoft.

Today, eMedia Music Company employs 12 people, and continues to produce not only the guitar learning multimedia CD-ROMs, but eMedia Bass Method, as well as a planned Piano/Keyboard title coming soon. Current products include: eMedia Guitar Method 1, eMedia Guitar Method 2, eMedia Bass Method, eMedia Guitar Songs, eMedia Blues Guitar Legends, and eMedia Guitar Toolbox.

I had a chance to talk to Adrian, and I asked is he would be interested in chatting about himself and his company.

Interview with Adrian Burton

MM: You started eMedia in 1994. Before that, you worked for Microsoft. How long did you work there?

Adrian: I left my hometown of New York City in 1990 to join Microsoft and worked at the Redmond campus for more than four years before starting eMedia Music.

MM: What other software companies did you work for?

Adrian: While still in school, I founded a company to market a product called QuickTran, a file transfer utility designed to make transfers easier and faster. During college I worked for a small Wall Street software company called Spectrasoft, which after graduation placed me in a position to become an on-site consultant for Merrill Lynch.

MM: I know eMedia got its start in 1994. When was the first product released?

Adrian: The first product, eMedia Guitar Method, was released in December 1995, with a hectic drop shipment to our first major retailer, Egghead Software. Its stores across the nation had all available hands packing and sealing our boxes.

MM: You mean, Egghead Software’s employees actually boxed your product? What was shipped to them, then? Just the CD-ROM and manual? Sounds like quite a story, can you elaborate some?

Adrian: Whoops, sorry about the confusion… What I meant was that, in a rush to get our product into Egghead stores for Xmas of ’95, all us at eMedia Music spent hours packing Guitar Methods into priority mail boxes addressed to each individual Egghead store (in industry parlance, this is known as a “drop ship”). With hundreds of Egghead stores, this was quite a feat for our small team. Then, with priority mailboxes practically hanging out of the windows of our cars we rushed over to the post office 5 minutes before it closed. The folks at our small post office branch were none too thrilled to get several carloads of boxes to process that late in the day, but those boxes made it to Egghead stores in time for Xmas!

MM: Was eMedia your full time job when it first started, or did you stay at Microsoft during the “lean years”?

Adrian: eMedia has always been a full-time commitment. To really do a good job on the product requires undivided effort and dedication.

MM: What was the hardest part of starting your own business?

Adrian: Being responsible for absolutely everything, from product development to making the office phone system work. There weren’t any other “departments” to turn to for help as in larger companies. But it was also a lot of fun to be doing what I wanted to, and a great opportunity to learn a variety of new skills.

MM: How long does it take to create a new Method CD-ROM?

Adrian: It varies based on the instrument and any new technology that might have to be developed for the lessons. As a rough estimate, I’d say it takes about one year. It’s very important to have high-quality, easy-to-understand lesson material that carefully builds on previously introduced techniquesÐand that takes time to do well.

MM: Speaking of new techniques, do you have any plans on streaming tutorials via the Internet?

Adrian: Certainly, we’ve discussed that and even done prototypes. There’s a great deal of potential in that area and we do expect to eventually offer a web-based version of our tutorials.

MM: Any immediate plans to support Mac OS X?

Adrian: Fortunately, the Director platform we use works fine with OS X, though there are some audio input issues we hope will be resolved in updates to OS X.

MM: Your inspiration for starting eMedia was that you wanted to learn guitar. How good can you plan today?

Adrian: Well, I’ve certainly gotten past the basics by now and would say I’m somewhere on the intermediate level. I’ve been able to enjoy playing quite a few songs. Sometimes I wish I had more time to practiceÐthis running a business thing sure has a way of keeping you busy <g>. I’m also working on picking up bass guitar now that we’ve completed our Bass Method CD-ROM.

MM: Thanks for taking the time to answer some of my questions, Adrian.

If you are interested in learning Guitar or Bass, check out eMedia. If your just learning Piano/Keyboard, they will soon have a CD-ROM for you as well. And seeing their current crop of products, and how easy they are to use to learn, it should be well worth your time and money to pick up.

Tim Robertson

Mac Bashers, and Other Tales of Halloween Horror.

One of the things I promised myself, when I decided to start contributing to MyMac.com, was that I would not write about the technical side of Mac ownership and use. The reason? There are already plenty of help sites out there, and plenty of information, from people who know the platform to a much higher degree than I do. The fact that I have been using and loving the Mac since it was introduced in 1984 does not make me a “Mac Genius” by any means. Oh sure, I know some tricks, and I have yet to get into a situation that I couldn’t get out of by myself, but still, I don’t consider myself to be a Mac Genius. ( For example, I still don’t know what an “error of-47 has occurred” means, although I guess I could find out if I wanted to know badly enough. ) Oh, I help people out if I am able to do so, and if I can’t, I refer them to people who can and will.( And if any of you are using system 7.1, I cannot help you. You must get a more modern system, sorry. ) Oh yes, for some odd reason, younger users are fascinated by my tales of such arcane things as “teletype interfaces,” and “Paper punch tape readers,” from those dark days of the 1970′s. Some 20-somethings actually believe that there were dinosaurs roaming the planet back then. Oh well. But enough of that. Today, I have to break my own promise, sort of.

No doubt that as a Mac user, you have encountered that strange species known as the “Mac Basher”. You know them as the ones who say things such as “Ugh! I hate Macs, they’re so stupid!”. Or maybe something more personal, such as “You’re a fool for using a Mac!”. Or the now classic one, “Apple’s going out of business any minute.” Then, there’s this: “I feel sorry for anyone using a Mac. They should get themselves a real computer!” (Actually, we feel sorry, for you) The list goes on and on, but you know exactly what I am talking about. An associate of mine had a story involving a “consumer electronics chain store.” You know the chain, it’s the one where the teenaged employees wear blue shirts, instead of red ones. He went in to check out the iMacs which had been advertised in the chain’s Sunday circular. In the store, he found two iMacs, one of which was totally frozen, and the other had hard drive icons all over the screen, many with obscene names. Apparently, some savvy youngster had learned how to make aliases, and had himself a grand old time. Anyway, after finally getting the attention of one of the “blue shirts,” he mentioned he was interested in an iMac. The response from Mr. Blue Shirt? “We don’t really recommend Macs, what you really want is a PC, with Windows”. Understand this now, this is a teenager, telling a man in his early thirties, with a degree in engineering, what he really wants. Now, what’s wrong with this picture? I have heard of similar tales from such intellectually driven stores as Sears, and everyone’s favorite whipping boy, Comp USA. No doubt, many of you have heard these stories as well, enough to know that it does indeed happen.

No sale was made that day, needless to say, and it was the constant, very repeatable stories such as this one which finally made Apple take the step of opening their own retail stores. ( C’mon Cambridge! ) But I have finally realized something: After experiencing Mac Bashers for so long, I have realized two facts undeniable, about them: Fact number 1: Mac Bashers have either never used a Mac at all, or 2: If they have used a Mac, it has been at least ten years since. There is a third item, not a fact, but a belief: They don’t know what they are talking about at all. There is “One more thing”: Most Mac Users, myself included, have, and do, use other platforms, including Windows NT, with very little trouble.

Now there are those among us who avoid Windows NT, and all things Microsoft, as they would avoid the “high risk” area of the Center for Disease Control. ( But you just gotta love that neat “Bio Hazard” symbol. It has definite “Klingnon appeal.”) But for some of us, using NT on the job is a sort of painful, but necessary, evil. I set up an NT box myself recently, and much to the chagrin of a few PC zealots in the area, I had no trouble at all with the installation. This was on a fresh hard drive, and I was quite pleased to learn that one could indeed boot from the CD, by giving the classic “control-alt-delete” command. Of course, it took about forty five minutes to format the drive for the NT file system, and to install the OS took me to over an hour. I then had to go on a quest through various panels to type in the IP address and gateway numbers. (Heh, on the Mac, it is all done on one control panel, and “poof!” you’re surfing away. Oh yes, installing OS 10.1 on my iMac took about 20 minutes, upgrading from 10.0.4) So anyway, after installing the necessary apps on this NT box, one of the PC zealots of my workplace happens by. He spots the beige, generic-brand box on a work table, then glances over to my happily running iMac. His comment: “So, you’re finally growing up!”. He then walked away, in the classic, “I sure told him!” style, as so many Mac Bashers do.

No, I’m grown up, thank you. Grown up enough to know what a better operating system and computer is, and grown up enough not to make infantile comments about someone elses choice. I’m grown up enough to weigh the pro’s and cons of both major systems with objectivity. I’m able to use NT, ( Win 2K, if you must ) but it is not, nor will it ever be, my system of choice. Nor will Linux, despite recent advances from such companies as Red Hat, and Yellow Dog, which have made it much more “accessible” to people outside the secretive, “long haired geek” circles. ( I use Linux on the job as well. It’s fun to experiment with, but no thanks, not for a main system And has anyone noticed that you just don’t hear as much about Linux as you did a year and a half ago?)

There is some good news about NT 2000: It does seem to be very stable, as promised, and it does run well on this generic PC, despite the machines only having a 400 MHz PII processor and 128 megs of installed ram. ( Another PC zealot, who has some people believing every word he utters, told me “It will never run on anything less than a PIII!” Wonder how he likes the taste of his own foot? ) The other good thing is that the multi-user feature is nice, especially when a computer is going to have more than one user, as this one will. And of course, “big time” science applications, such as the much ballyhooed Matlab, run well on it. Mathworks, the company which makes Matlab, is “standing by their decision” and refusing to resume development on Matlab for the Mac. Apparently, that old bugaboo, “market share” is the reason. Interesting, considering they develop it for Linux, which has a market share number almost too small to be measured. ( That’s only if you believe market share numbers at all, and I don’t. It’s too easy for someone in an expensive suit to manipulate them for his own ends. ) Gee, one might be tempted to think there were other reasons, such as an executive with an ego problem, involved. But that couldn’t be, could it?

So, with all this, I have to wonder precisely why PC zealots bash the Mac so much. And why won’t they even sit down and try one out? ( And I mean a new one, not a ten year old Mac IIFX which has been sitting in someones damp garage for years. I’m also not suggesting that Mac users are totally innocent of this behavior. Mac users, if you are going around slamming Windows users, stop it. You are not helping. ) I must ask this question of the bashers: What are you afraid of? Could it be that maybe, just maybe, you might (choke!) enjoy using a Mac? Now, before you PC zealots crank up your ßame machines, consider this: I’ve already told you that I use NT, with no major difficulty, and that it has it’s uses. I’ve already told you that a lot of Mac users are perfectly fine using NT, and other operating systems. I even like being able to move the task bar to any side of the screen, even to the top. ( But I don’t see anyone doing this. ) Heck, I have learned that inside Apple’s corporate labs, you will find NT machines being used for a lot of things, just as you will find Macs in use at Microsoft. ( And you knew that Microsoft is one of the largest developers of applications for the Macintosh, right? ) So, the point is that we, the Mac users you accuse of “not being grown up,” are not afraid of using your platform, should the given situation call for us to do so. Now, why are you afraid of ours?

Maybe it’s best to leave that question for a dark Halloween night.

Bruce Black

My brain hurts, and I am tired. In the aftermath of the event (what will we end up calling it, because it has no fancy name yet; the horror? the destruction? September 11? the terrorist act?) my brain has frozen. Words cannot be formed, my opinions change daily. Too much information yet not enough, and who does one believe? CNN, the alternative press, the government of the US, the governments of the middle east, individuals, groups with agendas, close personal friends, family, everyone it seems has an opinion of who and why and what can be done or not done about it.

I’m Jane Bland, and my brain hurts.

I was never much of an active feminist. I rejoiced when women burned their bras, as that meant that I too could discard that instrument of uncomfort which was mean for women who were built more voluptuously than I. Because there was something in it for me, I adopted that agenda. I became a Vietnam War Protester probably because some boy I admired was doing the same. Which was the same reason I started smoking. I lost my virginity for the same type of reasoning; because the boy/man I was with didn’t believe I was a virgin. I love to say I Told You So! And also because I’ve always somewhat enjoyed the underdog aspect. I am a moderate conservative liberal with no personal agenda, going with the prevailing underdog opinion of the time.

Because I have always lived a life of personal freedom it was very hard for me to accept that women in Afghanistan were denied even the most basic, essential rights of life. Several years ago I took education of their plight as one of my agendas. I asked people to visit the RAWA site and applaud the courage of the women who were bringing these horrors to light, at the risk of their lives. Not at the risk of their livelihoods, their liberty, but their very lives. Of course, I didn’t actually do anything about it, other that spout my indignation. I didn’t contribute money or goods to their relief effort, I just yammered on about the horror. “Isn’t it sad, isn’t it too bad? Just LOOK at the lives these women are forced to live!”

I’m Jane Bland, and I did nothing.

When the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas I was outraged. Not because of their religious significance, but because of their history, their artistic merit. What arrogance, I thought. It was the same type of outrage I felt when they dammed Glen Canyon, putting ancient petroglyphs under gallons of water for the benefit of irrigating the golf courses of Las Vegas. Now I would never have the opportunity to see those magnificent stone carvings, those ancient words left on the canyon walls. I had suffered a loss. Never mind that I ignore all the other wonders that surround me. Never mind that I would never actually VISIT those places. There are dinosaur tracks nearby that I’ve never visited. Will I be outraged when the State of Utah fails to come through with funding to preserve them before the thousands of visitors to the site destroy them? Probably. Will I volunteer my time, money and talents to help save them before the fact, rather than after? Probably not. More likely I will just spout my indignation.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about God these days. I’ve heard people tell God to bless America. I’ve heard people say that God does indeed Bless America, and that Liberty is a Gift from God. I wondered at my luck in being born American. I’m not an anything-American. I can claim no particular heritage other than middle-European-breeding-stock. I’ve spent most of my life around white people, in small towns in various parts of this America that God blesses. I’ve lived in poverty, or what this government defines as poverty, and I’ve lived in middle-class comfort. I’ve raised two children to manhood who did not, despite my lofty dreams, become astronauts or political leaders or college graduates. These boys do not want to go to war. They are pacifists. One has a wife, and child to raise. The other said he might be a stretcher bearer, or take some other Conscientious Objector role. But he could not kill another for this war. They are like me, they spout their outrage. As they say, the apple does not fall far from the tree. Despite all this, God continues to bless us, as we are Americans.

I’m Jane Bland, and I’m outraged.

The Boy Scouts came and planted a flag in my yard. It was because I had subscribed to their yearly fundraiser which puts an American flag in the neighborhood yards on major American holidays. They came every day at dawn to put it there, and every night at dusk to put it away. They did this for an entire week after the event, the horror, the terrorist act, September 11. Before this happened I had decided privately that I would not subscribe to their service this year in protest of the Boy Scouts not allowing gay leaders. Now I feel obligated to give them money for services performed. My personal agenda, my OPINION, has become confused and unsure.

I have always considered myself a good and kind person. I have always considered myself relatively intelligent. I liked taking on-line intelligence tests that proved I could reason out complex problems as well or better than the average white mongrel blessed American. I used to volunteer in Hospice, and with the Association for Retarded Citizens (which has changed it’s name to something more politically correct now, but since it’s been years since I’ve worked with that group, I couldn’t tell you what it is.) Yet in the aftermath of the event, the horror, the terrorist act, September 11, I became frozen. I did not donate blood. I did not donate money or goods to the American Red Cross. Privately I prayed for no war. Privately I prayed for George Bush, my prayer taking the form of asking God, who blesses all Americans, to especially bless this man with wisdom and courage. Privately I dispaired.

Now we are at war. America’s New! Improved! War! against Terrorism. We drop bombs and medical supplies and politically correct food. One would hope our war against terrorism will turn out to be more successful than our War! Against! Drugs!

My personal agendas no longer have the same meaning. The women in Afghanistan will now suffer even more horribly. The Boy Scouts will still not allow gay scout leaders. Glen Canyon dam will still remain in place, and I still won’t wear a bra. My brain will still hurt, and I’ll still do nothing.

I’m Jane Bland, and I’m an Outraged American. God bless Me.

Beth Lock

Well, here it is, that time of year when the big TV networks dump the shows that are stink bombs, (or, those programs that are not pulling in the “desired demographic”, apparently teenagers who spend their time and money at the mall.) and replace them with, you guessed it, more stink bombs. So, being the good little writer that I am, I am once again trying my fingers at writing for tv.

Hey look, I cannot be worse at this, than the people who are doing it now, right? So, here goes: (And I admit, I was wrong about “Dark Angel”. It’s a decent show, and Jessica Alba is a hottie. My “Dirty Old Man” extensions are loaded and active.)

So, here are some television programs I conjured up, all by myself. Given the present taste the American public has in tv shows, I am sure that all of these would be huge hits. Enjoy.

“That’s My Pi!” Sitcom starring Pamela Anderson as a woman with a PhD in Physics, working at a large, federally funded research lab, and struggling to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of science and engineering.

You’ll howl with laughter as Pam tries to present her latest published work while wearing her trademark mini, low-cut blouse, and high heels. Watch the antics of all the male employees at her lab as they try to sneak peeks down, up, and through her clothes. Laugh with hysteria as “Old Mike” the supervisor of maintainence, drills a large peek hole in the women’s bathroom, using a huge auger bit, and no one seems to notice! Could things be any nuttier? Also stars Shelly Long as Pam’s “plain jane” secretary, who cannot understand why the men don’t notice her the way they notice Pam. ( She really is clueless. )

Fun for all. From the same producers as “Ally Mcbeal”. On CBS. ( Note: The producers have assured us that there is nothing sexist about this family comedy. )

“Three’s Company, Again!” This series reunites the original cast members of the 1970′s sitcom, John Ritter, Joyce Dewitt, and Priscilla Barnes. Today, Jack Tripper ( Ritter ) is the owner/manager of the finest restaraunt in L.A. His clients consist of a “Who’s Who”, of the Hollywood “A” list, and the L.A. banking and real estate industries. But alas, his former roomates, Janet and Terri, have not been so lucky. Seems they lost everything when their dot-com companies went down the tubes, and now they are, well, homeless and flat broke. Being a good-hearted guy, Jack let’s them move in with him, in his luxury condo. Right away, things get crazy, as Jack passes them off to his strict condo association as his cousins from France. Things get even nuttier when Janet wears her thong bikini to the pool by mistake, during “Senior Water Aerobics” class, and a couple of old timers discover they really didn’t need viagra after all. Watch for a cameo by Don Knotts, playing his old role of Mister Furley. ( He still believes Jack is gay! ) On ABC. ( The Ropers will not be appearing because, well, they died. Jack’s original sidekick, Larry, played by Richard Kline, will also not be appearing because no one knows where he is.)

“Beverly Hills White Trash”. 1/2 hour sitcom on ABC. Westwood Heights is a gated community, full of self-indulgent yuppies with the latest fashions, SUV’s, hairstyles, and beautiful children. And their worst nightmare comes true, when Roy Bertaneau, a “White Trasher” from the most run down mill town in the state, wins twenty million dollars on a lottery scratch ticket, and moves into their gated community, with his trashy family in tow. Laughs fly when Roy’s fat, foul-mouthed kids mingle with the yuppie kids. ( “Dad, they’re so Retahded!”) And when Roy’s pet Doberman, named “Blackie” goes after the neighbor’s pure-bred female golden retriever, well, you know what happens. The doo-doo really hits the fan when Roy brings in all his old junk cars, and puts them up on blocks in the front yard. Yep, it’s a downright hilarious look at the funny, funny, growing caste system in America.

“Lawsuit!” Reality series, with different participants each week. Follows a selected group as they try to sue large corporations for the most ridiculous reasons ever conceived. First up: A a trio of overweight women in the mid-west try to run a “slip and fall” scam on a fast food restaraunt. The scam is uncovered by security cameras, which reveal the trio plotting the “fall” move”. In the second segment, a suburban mommy sues the makers of a ballpoint pen, because her daughter swallowed the plastic cap. Her argument is that “they should have known that children would swallow it, and put on warning labels”. Third, A high schooler sues a large hair salon chain, over what he believes is a “bad haircut”. He sues for “pain and suffering, which he had to endure for three whole weeks!” Series will be hosted by former Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates. On Fox.

“Naked Town”. Set in the fictional dessert town of Golden Gulch, (Somewhere in the Mojave Dessert, just off Route 66.) This town of 30 permanent residents decide to go around totally naked, all the time. At first, it’s just for fun, but they are surprised when the town catches on with the tourist trade! It’s fun galore, when the all-american families pull in, and toss their clothes off! Lots of laughs, when the towns residents “convert” some prudish seniors! Stars Farrah Fawcett, ( she runs the local gas station ) Heather Locklear ( she owns the towns only radio station. ) Rosanne Arnold, ( Shes the town manager. ) And Lee Majors. ( He’s the town’s constable, annoyed because he has to wear his badge on a lanyard. ) Look for Rosie O’Donnell in a recurring role as “Doris”, who owns the towns only convenience store, and has a “thing” for microwave burrito’s. ( On the FX Cable Network. )

“Swedish Barn” The wacky goings-on at a trendy furniture store. In the pilot, the store manager ( Matt LeBlanc) is aghast when a consultant hired by the central office puts all his salespeople on a quota system, whereby whoever sells the least each month gets fired. Laughs galore as the sales people scheme, backstab, and sabotage each other. Other parts not yet cast, but Jennifer Anniston will co-star as “Julie” a regular customer whose orders always get screwed up. Also stars Lance Henricksen in a recurring role as “Ralph”, a homeless guy with really wicked lice, who frequently breaks in to the store after hours, and makes himself at home on the expensive designer couches and sofas. Laughs a-plenty! ( ABC)

“Wheels”. Stars Yasmine Bleeth, as an un-employed waitress who inherits a Boston bike messenger service from an uncle she never knew she had. Watch as Yasmine butts heads with the rough bike messengers, who don’t quite know what to make of the equally rough Yasmine. The jokes and “Double Entendre’s” fly. Co-stars Ice-T as “The homless guy in Post Office square”, and Richard Greico as “Greaser” the top messenger who has a mysterious past.

“Split Ends”. Suzanne Somers returns to weekly tv, as the owner of a new Hair Salon, located near Boston’s Financial District. Her clients include the “Cream of the Crop” of the Boston big-buck elite, and the occasional “Big dig” worker. The jokes and “Double Entendre’s” fly in this fast-paced sit-com. co-stars Sarah-Michelle Gellar as a hair-stylist/Escort girl, and Ice-T as “The homless guy in Post Office square”, Watch for a “Crossover Episode” with “wheels”, and a Cameo by Acting Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift, who comes in to “have her Bangs Trimmed”.

“The Off-Season”. One hour surreal drama, shot in Black and white, that takes place in the fictional town of Seacrest, Massachusetts. Seacrest is one of those “Summer Boom Towns”, which becomes all but deserted after October. Among the bargain priced hotels and condo’s, you’ll find mystery aplenty. You never know who you might come across. There’s “Paula”, ( Heather Locklear ) The mysterious young woman, who walks the empty beach every morning, as though waiting for someone. There’s “Sam” ( Terry O’Quinn) the conspiracy buff, who never gives his last name, and is hiding in seacrest from what he claims are “enemy agents”. And there’s “Ruth”, (Roseanne arnold ) who owns and runs the only Diner/motel that stays open year Ôround. Ruth seems to know everyone’s dirty laundry and likes to talk. In the opener, (Directed by David Lynch) two men in dark glasses rent a motel room at Ruth’s, and spend a lot of time watching the area of the beach where Paula does her walking. What do they want? What are the strange signals that keep appearing on everyone’s tv? And who is the “Newcomer”, a mysterious tall woman, who always dresses in black, and only comes out on grey, bleak days? ( “Chyna” of the WWF in her first tv series role) Series will premier on the WB network.

And there you have it. So, why the rant and jabs against television? Well, it’s simple: I remember a time when tv was actually fun and interesting to watch, a time when programs challendged the imagination and caused you to think. Now I know, you’re probably thinking, “He’s just another baby boomer, nostalgic for “the good old days”. No, not quite right, but it’s a good guess. I really think that television blows chunks, compared to the programming I grew up with. Need proof? Well consider why “The Twilight Zone” is still on the air, both on cable, and on certain UHF stations in some markets. Graduate thesis papers have been written on it. Think that in thirty years, the same will be true about garbage programs such as “Love Cruise” and “Survivor”? No, of course not. Those shows will have done well, if anyone remembers them in a year. Want more proof? Look at the number of old programs which have been brought back in a new form. Now granted, some have been successful and some have not. The classic early sixties science fiction program, “The Outer Limits” enjoyed a very successful seven year run, as a new program, on Showtime, and in a “toned down” version, in syndication. It ended, but demand is so strong for it, that the scifi channel is now picking up rights for new episodes. Some “Classic” shows which have been brought back have not done so well. “The Fugitive”, which starred Tim Daly as the wrongly convicted Richard Kimball, did not fare well in the all-important ratings, despite being well-acted and boasting fine production values. Alas, maybe it wanted people to think too much.

I’ll close up with this statement: If I had kids, mine would probably be a “TV free” household. Granted, this would mean some sacrifice on my part. I would certainly miss the new “Enterprise”, and the “X-Files”, but that’s about it. ( Sorry, Anhueser-Busch, but I don’t watch sports on tv. ) I just cannot fathom allowing kids to watch the constant mind pollution that is commercial television today.

And that’s that.

Bruce Black

I am a Mac user. I am a die-hard Mac user.
It empowers me insofar as it transfers
the power of a Turing Machine into my hands much
more easily (a higher power-transfer-rate) than Windows
at least. I feel empowered with my Mac because it in
fact empowers me, and in this case I trust my ‘subjective’
feelings because they have objective grounding.

Passion and Loyalty

Many Mac users feel the same way. They
are all-out loyalists to the Mac. We know all the
metaphors and talk of the “Mac cult”. I think, wait,
I know, that while it can be taken to extremes, Mac
loyalty is well-grounded. Once this loyalty has bitten
you, and you succumb to the bite, there is no going
back. You become a loyalist and begin to demand the
same of others. The first thing you want to know before
you propose to your special sweetie is, “Do you use
a Mac and only a Mac?” It may not be as bad
as never using Microsoft products (I depend on Office),
but you get the point.

Some Mac users are not like this. They
use a Mac. And that is all. They are too busy to be
enraged by any platform debates. The Mac is there,
as Heidegger would say, as a “standing reserve (something
just for our use, a resouce).” Sometimes we talk of
it as a “only a tool.” They are not fanatics or loyalists,
they just like to use a Mac. Or maybe it was just
the first machine they used. But as matter of fact,
many Mac users, I would dare say, are serious about
their computer commitments.

So when a Publisher such as myself
tries to build a site for Mac users I have to think
about this. Now, granted Applelust is not just any
old Mac site. We fill a gap for thinking Mac users
and academics and technicians. (MacWrite
is doing a good job though.) Ask my writers: Applelust
is very hard site to write for because its audience
so demanding and the other writers set such high standards.
But I digress…

As a Publisher I have to consider that
my audience has serious loyalties to the Mac. This
does not mean that we fail to point out flaws with
Apple and Jobs. Reality may get distorted, but it’s
still there if we look close enough. We have taken
them to task many times. But what I have to consider
is that these flaws appear to my audience as effronteries
to their tastes and strong loyalties. It’s serious
business, they think, not just a lackluster keynote
or bug. No, it’s downright personal with them.

Loyal Mac users look for loyal Mac
sites. They want brothers and sisters not reporters.
A site had better be serious in serious readers’ minds.
Simple as that. If a loyal Mac user thinks I am just
placating him with words I would never utter under
oath, he will leave. If he thinks I am only inflaming
passions when I myself lack any passion, he will leave.
If he thinks I am being baptized just to score points
with the family, he will leave. If he thinks I take
the posture of prayer when in reality I am thinking
about the big game, he will leave. If he thinks there
is any disingenuousness on my part, he will leave.
In a word: Serious Mac users
want the people they look to for information (web
sites, ‘zines, all of it), to be as passionate and
as loyal as they are. Nothing less will do.
Why else does CNET have such a bad reputation among
many Mac users? Divided loyalties. To a die-hard loyalist
divided loyalties are no loyalty at all, in the end.

We are a Mac
Community, as I have said many times. We are of
like-mind, for the most part. We have our squabbles
and fights, but in the end we are all Mac users. We
depend on each other. We trust each other. We have immediate
fellowship when we meet. We know the secret passwords
and handshakes. We speak the same language; we know,
and sometimes believe, the same myths; we have a certain
framework we think within. We are undivided.

I have to think of this when I publish.
I know that I cannot be fake. I know that I cannot
fabricate issues (too much of that and at some point
people stop taking you seriously). In a word, genuine
Mac users want genuine Mac web sites run by genuine
Mac users. Passions run high (though not as
high as before September 11th). If they think you
have divided loyalties you immediately hurt your credibility
in a Community where credibility is measured by loyalties.
If people think I am just in for a buck, just a company,
that too is not good enough, for Apple, they think
is not just a company out to make a buck. Jobs has
a larger vision.

I have to think about this when I publish.
All my writers do. It puts us publishers and writers
in a very awkward position. “Awkward, how?” you ask?
Moral awkwardness, I answer. Seriously…

When passions run so very high, as
they do among some Mac users, people are more likely
to be manipulated. It’s a matter of probability mind
you; people don’t desire to be manipulated. I am saying
high passion opens up the possibility to a greater
degree. That means we as Mac publishers and writers
have a responsibility not to abuse that passion. In
a word, to enflame this passion to no good end is
morally questionable at best.

When the dot com bust started I wrote
that I was worried about what Mac sites would do to
make up lost revenues. Would content suffer? (Would
it suffer more, that is.) Would we see gimmicks?
Tricks to get page views? To make up for lost ad revenue
one has to get more page views. One might think more
content is the answer. It is not. Let me put it this
way: To make up for lower ad revenue, I feared that
we’d see more content of a superficial nature. Link
to anything. Talk about anything. Fabricate issues.
Get people mad. Bait people in editorials (“baititorials”
we call them). Make up anything. Reduce article size;
increase article quantity. Break articles up into
five pages so one can get more page views. Keep it
short. And lots of it. Quantity is king. Half-baked
news stories. Rumors. Degrading others. Pettiness.
Unreliability. Reactionary language. Superficial,
short articles that waste readers’ time. (And we must
be careful about wasting people’s time, because in
fact most people are at work when they read our
sites! Our logs show that high-traffic times are
between 11AM and 3PM, when people should be working!)
All are abuses of predisposed Mac passion.

Art and Technology

And you know what? All these tricks
work. Well, they will work for a while. But it can’t
last. A web site is like a piece of art: We
only know a real piece of art because it lasts, and
keeps bringing us back. I am not talking about
bringing us back this Friday or next Monday. We have
enjoyed Monet and Homer for longer than that. Art
lasts because it has depth, because there are new
truths to be discovered every time we go back to it,
because it touches something in us, because it is
universal and appeals to something high in our nature.
We call it “the test of time.” Artifacts that
pass the test are few and far in between. Obviously.

So what does this musing about art
have to do with abusing Mac passion? Let’s think about
it… Why would one simply try to arouse predisposed
passions? On the Web that is? It’s clear — page
views (i.e., revenues).

Some say Steve Jobs does the same thing
in his keynotes to get people to buy Macs. I am not
that cynical though. I think Steve Jobs is a serious
person and serious thinker, someone who truly believes
that he can make a difference in the world. He’s rich,
of course, and so doesn’t have to worry about money.
But this in no way detracts from what he might view
as his larger goals, goals larger than simply making
sure Apple survives. Apple employees I have talked
with in Cupertino, for example, share a vision that
they are out to make a difference, not just sell computers.

Now, when one manipulates the predisposed passions
of the Mac user by some of the things I spoke of above,
such as fabricating issues, arousing anger and other
emotions, then neither the product nor the result
will pass the test of time. And the test of time is
(might be?) an accurate test because it accurately
captures something in us, something in all
of us, no matter what point in history we live in.
For Homer it was homecoming (in the Odyssey),
for example. The product, in this case a Greek poem,
lasts because the theme is lasting. But a fabrication
cannot stand the test of time.

Now most editors, writers, and publishers
on the web don’t sit down each time they write and
ask themselves, “How can I write something lasting?”
They (I don’t do it consciously anyway) do not ask
themselves, “What will become of this article and
idea in 5 years?” But maybe that is not the right
question. (It’s a hard question with no clear answer.)
Though the question might not be right, the intention
of asking the question is. The intention, if what
I have said about the test of time is true, is to
find something that lasts, and something can last
only if it illustrates a lasting theme. Something
illustrates a lasting theme only if it touches us
in the ways I mentioned. It might be as simple that
the reader learns something he didn’t know before
reading. In my view, the push for page views and the
resultant products spoken of above will not pass the
test of time. People will tire of it; people will
see through it; people will find it repetitious and
finally boring. But Monet and Homer? Never.

Passion Play

By playing with predisposed strong
Mac passion, which is manipulation in the final analysis,
one cannot have a lasting influence. “What,” you ask,
“a lasting influence about a computer?” Yes. Why not?
The trick is to use the passion to reach beyond it,
and not arouse the passion as an end in itself. What
this means is that the great loyalties people have
for the Mac presents us with great possibilities to
teach, to grow, to reach beyond the Mac to higher
truths and universal themes, have fun, build relationships,
and nurture feelings that we are part of something
larger than ourselves that might be meaning-conferring
(Community). When people bring a predisposed passion
to the table it gives us all kinds of opportunities,
opportunities must be handled with care, but which
can form the basis of something good in the world.

If the world is a classroom and all
of us are merely students, then pedagogical rules
apply. One rule is that you have to find a “hook”
in the students to get them interested in the subject
(what William James called a “live option”), and lead
them from there to new ideas — to learning. But
if my students had the same passion for philosophy
that many Mac users have for the Mac I would be "Teacher
of the Year". And what we can teach ranges
from rules of design to abstract metaphysical principles;
it can be a good belly laugh; it could be about justice
even. (But keep in mind what I said, “all of
us are students” if the word is a classroom.)

Conclusion

The Mac passion we see and deal with
as writers, editors and publishers, is at once fragile
and powerful. We must be careful with it. We must
take care not to enflame it for lesser ends. We must
use it right. And using it right means not abusing
it for lower ends or creating issues out of thin air,
or not settling down to divide people, or not wasting
a reader’s time who has taken his time to come to
your site. Our readers entrust passion to us, after
all. We must respect and not abuse that trust. Who
knows, someone’s life may be changed, and that lasts
most of all.

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Price: $585
($292 introductory price as of September 2001)
Downlaodable demo available
http://www.pixologic.com

Pixologic ZBrush 3D Modeling and Painting Application
High End 3D Graphics Modeling and Manipulation Without The High End Price

The first thing you will notice when using ZBrush is that it does not use the standard Mac interface, the appearance reminding me of a custom designed software application used at Hollywood digital effects houses. I have to admit, this bothered me a lot. I, meaning myself and a great many Mac users, feel uncomfortable when the tried and true Mac OS protocols and familiar menu interface are substituted for something else. Deviations from this are rarely tolerated, and unless the application has something special to offer which makes it worth your while for the additional time you’ll invest in the learning curve, very few programs are worth recommending for purchase.

ZBrush is one of those few exceptions.

To begin with, ZBrush is a painting application program which incorporates 2D modeling and 3D rendering. ZBrush offers the user a plethora of tools which will allow you to explore your artistic creativity in ways you never considered.

ZBrush is an application best suited for the professional artist; people who work in advertising, as Hollywood production designers, engineering firms, computer gaming designers, occupations requiring a person with a strong visual sense to realize ideas and images with a high degree of clarity. I am not an artist, though with ZBrush I felt like one (and a highly paid one at that). This is because ZBrush is based on their “Pixol” Rendering technology which allows for the creation of objects and models possessing texture and depth while being created. And this is done in real time without the aid of a graphics accelerator, something you would expect for an application delivering warp speed performance.

Quite literally ZBrush allows you to manipulate images as if they were made out of a digital form of Silly Putty. You can stretch, pull, change depth and perspective with incredible ease. There is also a feature in ZBrush which I call â”intelligent brushes.” If your image is rendered as a 3D object, then your brush will follow the topography of the image as if it were a solid object, as well as interact with the lighting scheme you establish (which can be defined in very precise terms) with ZBrush calculating the appropriate level of highlights and shadows—again, in real time. Another neat feature you’ll love is the ability to paint with a textures—metal, plastic, chrome, wood and even reptilian skin among others with precision control over their attributes including reflection. And their Fiber Tool makes it a snap to add hair with exact control over fullness. Length, color, and waviness. This feature alone allows you to accomplish in seconds what packages require hours to create. As with its other features, this too is done in real time. The Hook and Snake Tools let you pull, stretch, and literally “snake” your image as if it were made of digital taffy, and the Deformation Tool Set alone has: Resize, Rotate, Twist, Noise, Bend, Spherize, Mirror, Optimize, and Subdivide. Other features include an ability to airbrush, layering, masking, fog, blurring, glow, color and texture control, and much more. This is one loaded stand-alone package!

Although there is an on-line tutorial, you should download their free manual, which is a 300 page pdf file. Personally, I would like to see a DVD al la Mac Academy showing (or more to the point, showing off) the various features this powerful rendering program offers. Even so, the best way to understand how powerful ZBrush is to simply play with it.

About the only major drawbacks I have found is that ZBrush only allows you to work with one 3D object at a time, and the antialiasing feature. Also, ZBrush cannot handle animation, a feature I would love to see in future versions if possible. Why? Imagine if you will a program this powerful incorporating animation. Quite literally, ZBrush could do for animation what Aldus PageMaker did for desktop publishing. A PC Pixar Studio on your desktop? Now that’s something that will end up on your must have list.

BOTTOM LINE: If you can get over the nonstandard Mac interface and invest the time in learning how to navigate ZBrush’s operating environment, you’ll find that ZBrush most likely will redefine what the serious digital artist demands from their software. And at the introductory price currently being offered, I doubt you’ll find more power for the dollar anywhere.

System Requirements: PPC G3 processor 128MB RAM (can be virtual memory) 1024×768 monitor resolution Mac OS 8.1 or later (Windows version also available)

Steven M. Adelson

I see strange things going on with my neighbors these days. Much more than usual. One such member of our little community is busy selling off most of his possessions, only to buy other things such as survival gear, guns, and quantities of canned goods. His next door neighbor just bought an expensive new SUV complete with a power winch and off road tires, which he could not afford.

Like everyone of us, these people are responding to the events of September 11th, and the suddenly hostile world around us. Before that time, the biggest doings around here was the yearly Bar-B-Que on our little cul-de-sac.

So, times being what they are, let’s pose the question: If you could only take with you what you could fit in your vehicle, what would you take?

For someone like my wife, who never throws anything away, this would be an impossible dilemma. For myself, who considers himself somewhat of a minimalist, my list would be very short.

You and I should stop for a few minutes and sort this out. This is a very real question for a potentially real situation.

I understand that by being Americans this should automatically make us Consumers above all else, right? Therefore, we must load into our modest means of transportation all of our goods, our computers, our televisions, our appliances, etc. (How trite!)

I will dare to take the stance that being American means I am NOT a Consumer above all else. I know that by doing this, I might single handedly TANK the Economy, but I will dare nonetheless.

Those of you who know me might already guess where I am going with this, don’t you?

I think it is very ironic that something so simple as determining what to take and what to leave in a crisis situation is an accurate barometer of who we are as individuals or as a nation.

Therefore, we need to talk about Minimalism. And we need to talk about Extravagance. There is a place for each of these in our lives today.

A true Minimalist actually would need to take nothing with him in a crisis. Think about how he might live. A table. A chair. A lamp. A bed. A hook to hang his clothes. Maybe he might have a special book, a portable computer, a radio or a TV. You see, he already has almost nothing to leave behind, and thereby would be able to walk away from it quick and easy. (How un-American!) You ask him about his favorite book, he already has it memorized. Same with his music. Those songs he loves play in his head. His memory is no better than yours or mine, he just uses it more than we do.

People who are extravagant about their possessions are actually possessed by those same possessions. They cannot leave in a crisis. How could they leave any of the great and wonderful things they own? How could they leave their collections, and their expensive treasures? How could they leave their expensive home? Such people might actually die in a crisis, unable to move to safety because they chose the apparent safety of all their belongings.

Most everyone I know lives somewhere between these two extremes.

So, how will you chose what to take? Forget the car. What if you could only take with you what you could carry?

I would like to offer a completely different choice for you to consider, if you are having a problem deciding what to do in such a crisis.

First, you must consider what is most valuable to you in life. Is it what you own? Or is it the relationships that you have with other people? What of your spouse, your children, your parents, your brothers or sisters, or your friends? How important are they to you? Are they more important than your Collection of rare things? Your house? Your hobby? Your business?

I believe that if you sat down and thought seriously about it, you would discover that those people you have a relationship with are much more valuable to you than anything else you possess.

If this is not true for you, perhaps your life is somewhat upside down.

Let us consider my Survivalist neighbor again. He recently cut off his relations with his spouse, his kids, and his family. Probably in a few days or weeks he will quit his job. I expect him to move soon as well, as this neighborhood is likely not a safe place to be in his mind. Will he survive in a crisis? Most surely he will. Because he lives the Law of the Jungle, the Survival of the Fittist. He will sit in safety and watch his neighbors and friends starve. I think you would agree that his life, as he is living it, is not worth saving!

In his mind he probably considers himself to be a Minimalist, cutting every tie to Consumerism. Yet this is a lie he tells himself, for he is still an extravagant Consumer of weapons, survival gear and canned goods. Only the best will do, right? Would you trust your life to something less?

Where did he go wrong? He should have been extravagant with his relationships with those he loved. They might have kept him from going off the deep end somewhere in the wilderness of Montana.

So what about you?

You and I would do well to be less extravagant with our possessions. Being a Minimalist instead of a Consumer is a very good idea in this new World we live in.

America consumes about 80% of the world’s production of consumer goods, while the rest of the world’s families live on an average income of about $300 a year. Facts like those are an indictment against us in the world’s eyes.

When you think of the rest of the world you must also think about the billion or so who are homeless. You must also regard the fact that half of the children in the world go to bed hungry every night.

When you consider the great disparity of our extravagance of possessions and the forced minimalism others in the world must endure, you might begin to see why there are avowed Terrorists in the world, determined to make things equal by causing our destruction and downfall. Yes, their cause is evil and must be stopped, but perhaps we were the ones who set them on their course.

We all could use a big dose of Minimalism today. I think our Economy would survive if we did so. Stop buying so many things. Pay down your credit debt. Find some group you can fund and sponsor who are helping those who have nothing. Spread some of this great wealth around in places where they don’t even have an Economy. Our survival in this world depends on this, IMO.

Then be Extravagant. Be extravagant in your relations with others.

I know when I was young I had it all backwards. I spent on cars, boats, golf clubs, hobbies, and sports and exercise equipment, while giving minimal attention to my wife and children. I was a minimalist with my family. I paid the price for my stupidity, so I know whereof I speak.

Now I treasure my relationship with my wife and children, with my parents and friends. I invest my time, my money, and my heart in those precious people in my life.

A good friend of mine died recently. He was very wealthy. His home was a showcase of elegance and good taste. He worked very hard for what he had, and he had it all. Yet he was alone. He once confided to me that his search for a mate was going nowhere. He admitted that it made him upset to see someone else in his home, messing things up, and touching his things. He was fearful of losing what he had worked so hard for, but when he left this world, he left it all behind.

I pity him, for few attended his funeral. No one wept over his passing. What a wasted life!

I have another friend, a young man who by my judgment is richer than Bill Gates. He has a wife and four little kids. He drives an old car, and in his rented house he has a few sticks of furniture. This guy knows how rich he is, for he loves his wife and kids. He is loved by them in return. He loves his friends too. He even loves the guy on the corner begging for a handout. What a rich life he has!

Therefore, in telling you to be extravagant in your relationships with others, I am really telling you a profound secret of Life.

Don’t just love those who love you. Spend your time and money on those who cannot do the same for you. Make friends of those who have none. Be extravagant toward those who cannot return the favor. Why? Because in doing so, your will have the finest relationships to be found on earth.

So, if you had to leave suddenly what would you put in your vehicle? Those you love, of course. If all you had was the clothes on your back, that’s OK. You will rebuild. You will own things again. But those people you love are not replaceable are they?

Think about this some more. What of your community, your neighborhood, or your town? If there were a crisis, would you stand or fall together?

Somehow, in watching the people in New York, in the aftermath of September 11th, I caught a glimpse of such a community. People were helping each other. People were sacrificing their own safety for strangers in their community. People lined up to donate blood. People praying for others.

What you and I did not see were thousands of people loading their cars and heading for safety.

I was very proud to be an American right then. I believe as a nation we will stand or fall together, for we are a united people. THAT is the America I want the world to see, not the besotted Consumers they think we are!

Therefore, when a crisis comes, leave your vehicle in the driveway. Decide that you and your loved ones will stand or fall with your neighbors, and your friends, and your nation.

Minimalism and Extravagance–this is your choice in Life.

Extravagance of possessions should not define us as a people. Therefore, practice Minimalism in what you own. Because whatever you or I own of this world’s goods, we will one day leave it all behind.

But our courage and bravery which we exhibit in our extravagant and loving relationships with others, and how well we have treated those who are poor, THAT is something tangible and solid that each of us can possess for all eternity.

Be well,

Roger Born

Roger Born

As a denizen of modern society I suppose all the information I receive is meant to empower me – however most times I am simply numbed by it. At the office, armed with my wireless head set, I am battered from all sides with time consuming emails, unnecessary phone calls, Post-its, and a generic PC that dies at regular intervals regardless which year OS is loaded. What’s a poor slob to do?

I have long ago given up on the Information Age hype that having the latest electronic gadget is next to godliness or that the new DSL connection will bring me the Nirvana I crave. Did you know that an average daily newspaper carries more information than a contemporary of Shakespeare’s would acquire in a lifetime? Am I better off then he?

Willie’s friend, when not struggling on the farm or shoeing horses, would spend his time at the local tavern quaffing a tankard of ale or perhaps romancing the young lass with the abundant bosom. Me, I answer a fax with “urgent” slashed across the top even as the ink is still wet, then, after three days, I follow up with letter when he doesn’t respond. Protect yourself and cover your ass – no one else will. Ooops, cell phone! Is that yours or mine?

I wonder, after reading all those %*&$@) emails, why I get home late (that’s Kevin Smith speak for those of you who didn’t guess). Kevin and I are soul mates. I sincerely believe he knows what I go through at work by the way he articulates the dialogue he gives the characters in his films. Pardon me while I check my Palm hand-held.

Both at work and away I seem to be rotating the Information Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms. I’m depressed most of the time and constantly feel anxiety. I suffer from insomnia and the inability to focus because of my headaches. My doctor told me I have high blood pressure and to try to overcome my social withdrawal.

Perhaps I’m a workaholic or information junkie. Last year I answered my cell phone while in my regular session with my shrink. It was my broker advising me to buy Nortel. Did I mention I took his advice and bought it big time? That was in August 2OOO. Another question for you. Which falls faster a 2″ diameter stone or a 5″ diameter rock? Doesn’t matter if they both have Nortel stamped on them.

One more question. I promise this is the last – and I’ll throw in the answer at no charge. What is Wall Street? Answer: Las Vegas on the Hudson.

Ralph J. Luciani

I hope you just read Bruce Blacks column “Banks” before you read this. His is an excellent article; one I wish I had written myself. Then again, that has been true of all of Bruce’s columns so far. Great writer, and I am pleased as punch to have him here. (Pleased as punch? I never talk like that “in real life” so why do I here? Of course, in real life, I would have said, “Having Bruce at MyMac.com is awesome. Anyway, banks. Bruce made some really great points, as is his usual. There are a few more personal observations I just HAD to make after reading his column.

Credit Unions seem to me the last refuse for good customer service in the banking world. Banks HATE the credit unions, and have for years been trying to get legislation passed to cripple their business. It has not worked yet, which tells me either our elected officials are not completely stupid or they themselves belong to credit unions. I think the later is the case.

There is a new bank around my area now. It is called “Fifth/Third Bank.” Excuse me, but what the fuck does THAT mean? Fifth/Third? Are you kidding me? What the hell is that shit? Some little marketing prick probably spent a million dollars of the banks money to come up with that name, with all the case studies and other garbage to support his name choice. And then the same idiot sold this idea, somehow, to a bunch of dip-shits. “Gee, Gary, that is a fine name! That will defiantly garner some brand recognition for us! Good work!”

Me? I refuse to ever bank there for that reason alone. If you name your bank a dumb-ass name like that, you don’t deserve to treat me rudely when I come in. I mean, you don’t deserve me as a customer. Oh, wait, those are the same things. Sorry.

But I think Bruce’s column has more meaning than just banks. I won’t sit here and analyze his column, but rather tell you what I think the meaning is. (Or at least what I got from it.)

People are sheep. People don’t question ANYTHING anymore. Crap service. Insulting advertising. Dumb-ass names. No one really cares, because they figure they can’t do anything to change it anyway, so why put forth the effort. Oh, sure, you may bitch about it to your family and friends, but you won’t DO anything about it. When was the last time you went to the “insert-fast-food-restaurant-name-here” drive-thru, only to get home and find you did not get what you ordered? Did you call the place back? Did you get back in your car and demand they fulfill the order correctly? Or did you simply eat the food, pissed off, vowing never to go there again? But you will. And when you do, you will excuse your own inaction from the last time they messed up your order one way or another. “They were really busy. Mistakes happen. Could have been someone’s first day on the job. Forgive and forget. They don’t get paid much, so what should I really expect?”

When it comes right down to it, the bank teller is not the problem. The idiot who runs the bank is not the problem. The moron who named it “Fifth/Third” is not the problem. (Although I do think he should be legally forced to change his legal name to Idiot Moron the First) Hell, it is not even Idiot Drive Thru guys fault. It is YOUR fault. Yes, it is YOURS. YOU let this happen.

I call the restaurant back. I yell at them. Well, sometimes I am nice about it, but I CALL or DRIVE back. I paid for what I wanted, and I WILL get what I ordered.

It is the people who turn a blinds eye that lets this crap continue. The same morons who don’t vote, EVER, and then complain when the government officials turn out to be dumb-shits who can’t do anything right. Well, duh! He is a product from our society, so what do you expect?

Sorry. I just had to get that off my chest. And if I offended you, sorry. Well, no, not really. If I offended you, too bad. Send me an email and bitch at me. Hey, I would if I was offended! In fact, if this DOES offend you, I INSIST that you let me know. Otherwise, you prove my point for me. People get mad, frustrated, and DO NOTHING about ANYTHING. (Unless what is making them mad interferes with sleep or threatens the paint job on their car.)

Sleep well tonight. And remember, change is up to YOU.

Tim Robertson

Mac OS X: The Complete Reference
by Jesse Feiler
Osborne / McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0-07-212663-9, 763 pages
$39.99 US, £29.99 UK

and

Mac OS X: Little Black Book
by Gene Steinberg
Coriolis Technology Press
ISBN 1-57610-701-9, 456 pages
$29.99 US, $44.99 CN, £20.99 UK

OS X is going to be a veritable gold mine for Macintosh authors in the upcoming year or two. OS X is both a radical departure from, and a continuation of, the existing Macintosh body of knowledge. How do you explain X both to the new and experienced Mac user? The first author who
gets it right for both target markets will sell lots of copies.

Amazon.com lists 37 books dealing with OS X. Twenty-four have not yet been published. Two books that hit the shelves early are Mac OS X: Little Black Book by Gene Steinberg, and Mac OS X: The Complete Reference by Jesse Feiler. Both were been covered briefly by Nemo in Book Bytes earlier this summer.

These two titles are directed at somewhat different audiences from one another. Jesse Feiler is not kidding when he call his tome a complete reference to OS X. The publisher should list the weight of the book instead of the page count! Feiler even has a section on programming in the OS X environment. In contrast, Steinberg is targeting a readership more interested in getting up and running, and doing some mild troubleshooting.

I read the Steinberg book first. When I read it, I had been running OS X for several months, but I did not consider myself an expert (I still don’t). I am very experienced in using OS 9, so I read Mac OS X: Little Black Book from the standpoint of an experienced OS 9 user who wants to understand how best to transition to the brave new world of Aqua.

Steinberg logically lays out his book to assist new OS X users. He covers (but too briefly) the new features in X. Given the amount of time, money, and frustration almost anyone will expend in making the operating system transition, a more detailed discussion of what you get for your investment would be worthwhile. Everyone knows that Aqua looks better and is supposed to crash less, but there’s much more to X than pretty colors and fewer bomb boxes.

The chapters on installing and configuring are well done. Perhaps old heads like myself do not need reminding to back up EVERYTHING before upgrading, but Steinberg cannot be faulted for insisting that backups and up-to-date software are critical. Less experienced readers should heed all the cautions!

His networking section is very well done. The Internet is an integral part of the computing experience, and Steinberg clearly explains how to set up X’s networking settings, how to use the new features like drop boxes, and how easy it is to create a network of Macs across the Internet.

I could continue to recite more brief comments about each section of the Mac OS X: Little Black Book, but that would not provide the best overview. Rest assured that each important aspect of the OS X experience is covered, from application usage to AppleScript, for the average user.

One important point to note is how Steinberg structures chapters with an “In Brief” overview, and concludes them with an “Immediate Solutions” section. He also has “New in OS X” banners in the margins, where appropriate. This feature is extremely useful. Often, I found myself skipping the bulk of the chapter and going right to the Immediate Solutions section, after noting the “New in OS X” items. More experienced users probably do not need the more basic explanations of some of the material, and instead can go right to the problem areas about which they need
information.

The Feiler book, Mac OS X: The Complete Reference, is almost double the size and weight of the Steinberg book. For some readers, that may be good. For others, it may simply mean useless detail they do not need.

Mac OS X: The Complete Reference is targeted at the power user. One trick I used when looking over OS X books is to see the amount of detail provided about NetInfo (a database application that keeps track of various networking and administrative settings). The Steinberg book does not mention NetInfo. In contrast, the Feiler book devotes three pages of useful discussion to it. Some more specialized books on OS X Server covers it in excruciating detail. The coverage that Feiler gives NetInfo is appropriate to a power user who is not going to be actually running a server. Steinberg’s coverage (none) is appropriate for the average user, who does not need to know NetInfo from a hole in the ground.

Feiler has excellent coverage of AppleScript in OS X; it’s far more comprehensive than Steinberg’s. You could actually do something useful after reading the AppleScript chapter in Mac OS X: The Complete Reference. At the opposite end of the usefulness spectrum is Feiler’s discussion of programming OS X. I find it hard to believe that even a “Power User” would be able to DO anything after reading these pages. I hope that an aspiring programmer would get the proper resources to learn programming. The 50 pages devoted to “programming” Carbon and Cocoa would be better spent by being eliminated, and lightening the book!

I found the Feiler book had many more interesting tidbits of information on the subtleties of OS X. I came away knowing much more than I did before I read it. The fundamental concepts behind X are well explained. Some of that knowledge was immediately useful, and some of it may be useful in the future. Feiler does not present the sequential, step-by-step installation and troubleshooting procedures that Steinberg does.

If you are looking for a no-muss, no-fuss, how to get OS X running book, buy Gene Steinberg’s Mac OS X: Little Black Book, which I rate for the average user at:

MacMice Rating: 4 out of 5

If you want a more comprehensive volume that explains more about the whats and whys of OS X in more detail than a novice-intermediate level book, buy Jesse Feiler’s Mac OS X: The Complete Reference, rated for the power user at:

MacMice Rating: 4 out of 5

David Weeks

A little more than a year ago, I purchased a G4. It is a dual processor 500MHz system, and has thus far been the most reliable machine I have ever owned. More on this machine in a moment.

Two years ago, when people would ask me “Should I buy a computer now, or wait? I don’t want to buy something that will be obsolete in a month.” I would give them the best answer at the time I could. “Buy it now. No sense in waiting. It will be obsolete within six months anyway, so buy what you can afford now and learn to live with it.” (By obsolete, we are referring to speed and features, not usability.)

But is that as true today as it was two years ago?

To answer that, I only have to look at my home computer. As I said, it is a dual-processor 500MHz G4. It runs both Mac OS 9.2.1 and Mac OS X. It has four hard drives. The internal stock ATA 40GB is where most of my applications reside, as well as Mac OS 9.2.1. I have another internal, a Seagate Cheetah 36XL 36.7GB U-160 SCSI 68PIN10 Hard Drive. That one is running Mac OS X.

Besides the two internal drives, I also run two external Firewire hard drives, 40GB and 80GB respectively. The 40GB holds all my MP3′s, and is about 3/4 full. The 80GB is for backing up the other three drives via retrospect express.

That is, total, 196GB of storage space on my home computer.

Memory-wise, I have four slots. (Can ANYONE tell me why Apple only put three memory slots in the new G4′s? How stupid is that? With memory as cheap as it is, they should be adding memory slots, not taking them away.) I have a 256MB chip in three of the slots, and a 512MB chip in the other. That is 1.2GB of memory in that machine. (A funny side note: did you know you can’t use virtual memory when you have over 1GB of physical memory in your Mac? In the memory control panel, it says “too much memory to use virtual memory.”)

My G4 also has a mini-jack audio out-port, unlike the current batch of new Macs. Why did Apple take THAT away I wonder?

So, I figured my Mac is about as tricked out as I need it to be, once you add in a few of the other do-dads I have connected to it: a Firewire 24X CD burner. Two scanners. Two printers. Internal DVD player. DV to Analog Bridge an external USB ZIP drive (brand new, used it once in eight months now. CD-R rules!) Cable modem and router. VST Flash Media Reader. 19″ monitor. Eliminator GamePad Pro (Used it a few times after my review, and is gathering dust now.) And, of course, a digital camera that sits right along side the monitor.

None of the above, save the Mac itself, cost much money at all. None of the above items are out of date or obsolete, even though most of it is at least a year old. Is there a better sub-$200 printer I would rather have? No. Is there a better sub-$200 scanner I would rather have? Nope. How about a faster CD burner? Nahh. 24X is plenty speedy, let me tell you.

I have MORE than enough hard drive space. I have enough memory to run any application I own five times over. (That includes Photoshop.) The Machine is already a dual processor, which Mac OS X will take advantage of, giving me even more power and speed.

So I ask you, what do the new Macs hold for me?

Is the 800MHz Dual processor Mac all that much faster than my machine? I have used one. Even in Adobe Photoshop, there was no REAL difference between it and my machine at home. I mean, sure, it IS faster. But is it a few thousand dollars worth faster? No way. Not even close. Hell, it was not even $500 worth faster to me.

So are we there yet? Where, you ask? Why, the golden state of “It’s fast enough” of course. And I think the answer is a loud and clear “Yes!”

This is true also if you’re a PC user. If you have a 900MHz or higher computer, do you REALLY benefit from a 1.2GHz chip? Nahh. Not really. At least not enough to justify the cost of said upgrade.

But maybe you disagree? If so, let me know and I will share your thought on why we are “NOT there yet” in a few days.

Tim Robertson

Impossibilities

Chaos Management. That term is such an oxymoron! As if anyone
could manage what is intrinsically unknowable as well as
impossible to control.

Yet we are all called upon to do such things, aren’t we?
You know, if you have been reading these monthly postings here at
MyMac.com, that I have been working on the Dark Side. I work in a
great and productive company. I am lucky to be surrounded with
really good people here. The only fly in the ointment is that all
of us must use Microsoft’s OS and their Office suite of software.
For us there are no options here, or Plan B, or anything around
that can rescue us when it all hits the fan. Believe me, when you
use Microsoft products, it always hits the fan!

Part of the basic structure of Chaos is the occasional Nodes we
call Impossibilities. Sometimes in trying to manage the Chaos,
you will strike one of these, or rather, they strike you.
Lately, there have been such Impossibilities in my life, both at
work and at home. (Isn’t this true for all of us right now?)

At work, we must be productive. Competition demands it. We work
for a customer, a Branch of the US Government. One of the things
that is absolutely essential is that what we do for them must
work on their systems. Failure there is fatal. Nothing in our
contract allows for that.

Along comes our friendly Microsoft Upgrade Person, who is
demanding that our company sign expensive new Licensing
Agreements. (Didn’t we just do this a couple of months ago?)
Those Licenses also include mandatory upgrades of everything we
use. OK, so maybe those upgrades are less secure. Perhaps they
require much more personal information about each of us. These
new upgrades to an early prerelease version of WindowsXP might
even secretly police each of our computers to see where we go,
and what we write, and what software we use that is not theirs.
You would be amazed at how normally clear headed people can just
sign away all their computing rights for an upgrade.

My PC is to be upgraded too. No choice in the matter. It is a
done deal. Alarms went off in my head the first time I sat down
to the new system. “Hey, none of my old files will open!” (!!!)
Oh No! If I cannot open these files, then that might mean that
all the new files I work on will not run on the Government’s
computers!

Sure enough, very quickly we all found out that we have a major
and fatal problem. See, the Government is not required to upgrade
their software like we are. They are exempt, and Microsoft is
smart enough not to try and make them upgrade their Windows2000
OS and their Office2000 applications just yet. The Government
still tells Microsoft what to do, at least in some areas of life.

That is great, but it is not great for us who are building
products for the Government, because suddenly we cannot
communicate, nor can we share files between their Office2000
applications and our new and improved OfficeXP apps.
That means we are dead meat. We go screaming to Microsoft, to get
them to put Office2000 back on our computers so we can go back to
work.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that Dave.” We just had a HAL moment with
our local Microsoft guy. He seems incapable of understanding why
we would have a need to go backwards.

“Look, we will pay for the upgrade, but we are putting the old
Windows2000 OS back on our machines, and reinstalling the old
Office2000 software suite on all our PCs.”

“You are not allowed to do that. We own that software, and you
will not be allowed to go backwards here.”

“But our customer’s computers are no longer compatible with ours.
They did not upgrade, and now we cannot do our work.”

“That is not Microsoft’s problem. You work it out yourselves.”

Well, we did make a work around. Some bright person among us used
StarOffice on his PC, and found that our old files would not only
open, but they could be read by our customer, the US Government.
Hooray! We are saved!

Or at least we are until the MS Gestapo gets wind of this, for
everything in our contract with the Government and with Microsoft
dictates that we use only MS software to do our work. But that is
a crisis for next week or next month. At least now we can get our
work done.

Chaos Management, at its best!

You see, Chaos Management is really the management of
Impossibilities. There are a lot more of those around us today
than we ever imagined there could be, arenât there?

My country is in great pain. We have been struck as never before
in our history. People are responding, and they are managing much
better than I would ever have thought they could.

The world wobbled. It is still wobbling, even now. No one is as
sure of the future as we once were. Yet I see people rising to
the occasion, filling roles none of them imagined they could
fill.

I see people doing much more than that. Long lines at blood
donation centers. Money and gifts given by strangers. People
meeting together in stadiums and churches, praying and weeping
openly. If someone had said THAT would happen in our country, I
would have said it was an Impossibility!

Chaos Management requires you to do those things you did not
think was possible to do just a few days before. More
Impossibilities.

I used to thrive on Chaos. Attempting to manage it was a great
game, and never boring. Lately, I do not think that way.

I mean, I commute 250 miles each week down to Sandy Eggo from my
little home in the Upper Mojave Desert. I love it up here, but
even this place is not exempt from Chaos.

Our little church just sort of died recently. Too few people, too
many of them retired, and all the young families got transferred
out from the nearby Navy base. So now where do we go? There is a
denominational church in town that is almost a viable
alternative. More good people, friendly and accepting. So we go
there now. Yet I will never completely subscribe to a few of
their doctrines, nor will I ever wear their name. I am “this”
kind of a believer, not “that” kind. (Yeah, you don’t need to
ask.) Still more Impossibilities.

How much Chaos can I take in my life? How much can you?

In a world gone mad, where people and nations are choosing sides
for a very possible World War Three, there are also all the other
sudden Impossibilities of life that so many of us must face.

Perhaps it is a marriage going bad, which to us was something
impossible to conceive of before.

It might be the sudden loss of friends, family members, parents
or children in accidents or battles.

Perhaps you lost someone in the bombing of the World Trade
Centers or the Pentagon. Even our little town lost one person
there. Impossible!

Perhaps the ordinary resources and everyday paradigms that we
depend upon might no longer be there.

The good old faithful Mac that we know and love is not the
computer we once knew. Its OS is new and different, but that is
required for the continued survival of Apple in the future.
Oh, I know Apple will survive. I still have faith that one day I
will work on a Mac again.

I also know, and am convinced, that America will survive. It will
win over Terrorism eventually.

Even Microsoft, as capricious as it is, will not always be the
Evil Empire that it is now. History tells us that nothing stays
the same, if it tells us anything. What goes round will come
round, and every foe will get their just desserts – eventually.

So, what does your heart tell you? Some things in life are worth
fighting for, aren’t they?

Fight for those things that are worth your best effort!

Do your best to make those things right again!

Take back your office from the Dark Side.

Fight to make your country free from fear once more.

Work hard to make your world free from tyranny and fear at the
hands of violent madmen.

Fight the Good Fight to make the world a safer place to live for
every man, woman and child in it!

Fight for your right to have privacy where you work.

Fight to keep the computer nazis from taking over your workplace.

Fight for what you believe in!

(You and I have lots of choices here, don’t we?)

We live in Chaos. Chaos contains Impossibilities. We fight those
things with new Possibilities and Hope.

Our daily battle is not against the Chaos, but against those
Impossibilities that come our way. In those battles, it is
ourselves that we must overcome, which is our lack of faith in
our ability to do the Impossible.

This is where we must exercise Faith, and consider something as
Possible, which we never considered before. That is how we face
all the Impossibilities.

These past few weeks, we have watched in amazement all the
ordinary people who were doing extraordinary feats of heroism and
self sacrifice for utter strangers. Somehow they found that one
thing to do that was suddenly possible.

I am comforted by this, for that means that if they can do those
kinds of things in their interaction with Chaos, then so can I,
– and so can you.

Choose your battles well. Know which ones you can win, and which
ones it is better for you to walk away from. This is also a part
of good Chaos Management.

And for the battles that choose you, and when you must tackle a
sudden Impossibility, have faith that even in this, you will
overcome. People as individuals always do, and no one is more
surprised by their survival than they are.

Yeah, I work on the dark side. So what? That has NO parallel with
all that I have seen recently in New York and Washington D. C.
where people faced utter madness and hatred with courage and
sacrifice.

I must laugh at myself after all, because sometimes here it gets
to look like a movie scene about the war between freedom loving
Americans and Nazis, played out in some gray business Ghetto.
Working for the Dark Side is also a bit like the watching a
comedy of the Keystone Cops. Surreal!

You know, right now I actually miss that recent world, where it
was just Bill Gates who was the meanest man around, and where
only Microsoft was the worst enemy we ever had. Don’t you miss
that too?

The fact is, that world we knew is gone, (such an Impossibility!)

Yet even in this new and fearful world we must live in, each of
us must buck up and face our own daily enemies of freedom and
liberty, even if it is just with those annoying nazis in our
workplace.

Write me, and let me know how your battles are going, and how you
are dealing with your own Impossibilities. I would really like to
know.

Thanks for your time.

Be well,
Roger Born

Roger Born