iPhoto has turned our Macworld upside-down. Continue reading »
It is, in an interesting way, very different from from
iMovie and iTunes, though each is equally a spoke in
our digital hubs. I
have written about the human context which makes
iPhoto a slick reminder of our own, and of other’s,
mortality. But it is different in another way as well.
Start saving your nickels and dimes, ’cause this column is going to cost you.
Have you been to MacFixIt lately? Well, if you want to figure out what’s conflicting with that QuickTime extension on your Mom’s iMac, you’re going to have to pay.
Want the inside scoop from MacOS Rumors? Well if you “donate” to them, they’ll put you on their Sponsor’s e-mail list! Wow, donate? You mean rumors are now Tax Deductible?
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The Lie
One of the oddest abilities of Man is the ability to believe a lie. No other creature has this dubious distinction. The current Lie of the decade is the one that every computer user is faced with, as they are deluged with all the propaganda and misinformation out there, and as they face their employers and every IT person who is promoting it. The Lie is everywhere, and few people there are who do not succumb to it.
What is the Lie? It is that Microsoft is the only business software supplier, and that the PC is the only business computer there is.
Amazing! Business computing today is like the final days of the Third Reich, or the last days of the Taliban, where everyone says “Everything is fine, fine!” and where no one dares to voice the truth of the situation.
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Okay, one of my 2007 predictions has already gone by the wayside. It was -12° F at my house this morning and it never got above zero as I drove to Burlington this morning. I just got a call from my neighbor who I share a water system with and it is frozen so we are thawing some pipes, too! Yes, there is still a winter. Nevertheless, we are getting seed catalogs and the days are getting longer so it won’t be long and we will have broken the back of winter!
Anyone have a spare SuperBowl ticket? Finally, all the New England Patriots fans in my office shut up. Well, except for Rob Amon who, in a state of denial, declared “they didn’t really lose!” This Bears fan on the other hand has two whole weeks to gloat and get ready for the SuperBowl. Geoff tried to convince me to go to Miami but once I started looking at the prices of tickets on eBay, I decided that a SuperBowl celebration at my house will do just fine! All I can say is DA BEARS!
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BAM!
What the heck was THAT? Well, we did have a heck of a thunderstorm brewing, with very heavy lightning, thunder, and pea-sized hail. It lasted a few hours, and was really neat to watch. After the novelty wore off, my wife and kids had just finished dinner when the very loud BAM! sounded.
Could not find anything in the house, but we did notice a water stain on our dinning room drop ceiling. Those tiles are only a few years old, so I will have to replace at least four of them. Still and all, the new and old ones should match fairly well. If not, I will have to replace all of them.
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I was going to write about something darkly funny this time, but something has come up this week, and I feel the need to vent. It involves the near total collapse of our nations health care system. Sooner or later, it’s going to hit you where you live. I know, because that’s exactly what happened to me, here in Waltham, Massachusetts, this past week. I mean this literally. It has, quite simply, hit us Waltham residents like a scud missile. (And no, that’s not a reference to the urban myth about an Iraqi scud missile hitting the city of Lowell during the gulf war, and causing ten million dollars worth of improvements.)
First, let me explain that in my first forty-five years here, I have been blessed with good health. I’ve been getting annual physical checkups since I turned forty, and everything checks out ok. I’ve had a few minor problems though, such as suffering a “small ligament tear” during the height of bicycling season, two years ago, the occasional bout of winter time colds and flu. Big deal. So, what’s my problem, when there are so many with serious health issues? It’s this: The well-respected, much loved Deaconess-Waltham Hospital is going to close. Yes indeed, another local hospital, with a lot of patients who depend on it for their health care, is going to be shut down, by its parent corporation, Caregroup Health Systems.
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Tri-BACKUP 3.0.4
Company: Tri-Edre
Price: $49.00
(Online Download – English version)
http://www.tri-edre.com
One of the most important things that any computer user must do is backup, backup, backup, their hard drive and any important files. The staff of My Mac has reiterated that statement time after time.
That’s why when the situation presented itself to try out Tri-Edre’s Tri-BACKUP software, I jumped at the chance. Yes, I already back up my hard drive using two other programs that afford me two different ways of doing this but I’m always interested in seeing what else is out there for Mac users.
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As memories of goodwill to men and the singing of Christmas carols fade from the hearts of the faithful let us turn our thoughts to a subject that is less sacred. My favourite topic is this realm is, of course, Microsoft – the Evil Empire, the Wicked Monopoly or the pearly Gates down under. But, as loathed as I am to admit it, the house of Bill has much that is holy – not blessed to be sure by definitely holy.
April 2, 2001
Microsoft is issuing a security patch for its Internet Explorer web browser, which could automatically open corrupted e-mail attachments without user intervention.
June 8, 2001 Continue reading »
A computer virus that targets Web systems using Microsoft software packs a double punch. This time the worm is selective, attacking only Microsoft software and sending profane e-mail bombs to founder Bill Gates.
Right now, Apple owns less than 5% of the computer market place in new computer sales. (Ever notice they never measure installed user base, those with older computers still in use? Apple would be WAY over 5% if they measured that one.) Many writers on the Mac web write columns and articles on what Apple could/should do to increase that number. Apple never reads those articles, of course, nor do they (Apple) really care what opinion we hold on the matter. But every week, on at least one Mac centric website, some writer is telling us how Apple can get a larger market share.
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Recently on the MyMac.com e-mail list Ralph J. Luciani one our terrific writers gave us a great heads up on a whole special report that BusinessWeek.com had posted. Not one to pass up a chance to read about Apple, especially from the business press I anxiously clicked the link Ralph had supplied.
After reading all of the articles, I came away really irked by the whole thing. There were a some glaring mistakes made by a couple of the writers and it made me realize that Apple may never get a fair shake from the business press.
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Prologue: Continue reading »
I’m not an unintelligent person, at work I have root access to the UNIX machines, I’ve outfitted my desktop Mac with RAM and Video upgrades. I even installed a SCSI card and drive and was able to make it work in OS X. Some of you may know that I’m an accomplished public speaker and can speak in front a live audience, without notes even! I’ve written and been published here at MyMac.com. I can discuss the philosophical possibilities of quantum physics, find extension conflicts in Classic Mac OS as well as hack OS X at the root level. But if you ask me to begin a home improvement project you had best not even be in the same county ’cause the odds are, it’s going to blow!
Nope, It doesn’t surprise me at all.
As I have mentioned in some previous columns, I like to bike ride. I don’t race at all, save for a brief flirtation with low-level, “category 5″ racing in the mid-80′s. I ride for the physical enjoyment, the exercise, all the usual “feel-good” reasons. I’ve been doing it for some time, I guess, having gotten my first “ten speed” as a teenager. ( And Parent units; Bikes don’t have ten speeds any more. It’s an old term and you give yourself away when you use it, so please stop using it. ) I’ll digress for a moment, and mention that for a long time, say the 1890′s, until approximately the 1930′s, indoor track bicycle racing was more popular in this country than baseball or football are today. It’s hard to imagine people packing into New York’s Madison Square Garden, not to watch the New York Knicks (whoever they are.), but to watch powerful, skilled athletes race fixed-gear bicycles around a banked track at blinding speed. And none of them used steroids! Imagine that.
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(c) 01-16-02
David Schultz
As my wife and I sat there on Pacifica Continue reading »
State beach, to catch my very first Pacific Ocean
sunset, I couldn’t help but think the experience seemed
to encapsulate the whole MWSF Expo for me. The truth
dawned on me as the sun slowly hid itself behind the
horizon, sinking into the Ocean: “The Sun had set
on many things this week,” I thought, “especially
in the Macintosh Community.”
How Apple is following Pixar’s blueprint of success
Some of us may still be wondering when Apple will break out of its niche market and gain a bit more market share. It isn’t that Apple has to turn the tables on Microsoft’s 95% of the computer market. I’d just like it if I could pull out my PowerBook and not have two thirds of the people at the table point, laugh and ask, “Do they still make Macs?” I’d like it if Apple could send out the press release that Citigroup or maybe General Motors is replacing all of their corporate computers with Macs. Something that would make the PC world sit-up and take notice that the Macintosh is a serious business platform.
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Cool Blogs
MacNightOwl Continue reading »
The website of Mac author Gene Steinberg, he posts almost daily on everything Macintosh (and technology) related. A good read.
Astra 4000U
Company: Umax
http://www.umax.com
Price: $249.00
I am an aspiring cartoonist. A few times every year I send some drawings off to the major syndicates and get soundly rejected. It’s a lesson in humility that I count as a character building experience. Still, there is a less rational part of my psyche that insists my stuff is, in fact, good enough. This part insists my toons just need to be presented a little better.
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Which blank CD media should you use with your new 24x CD-RW burner?
I just came back from an exploratory shopping expedition to Sam’s Club. (Sam’s web site doesn’t reflect what I found at the physical warehouse store.)
CD-R
Doing a comparison pricing of CD-R blank disks was easy at Sam’s because only one brand is carried. Verbatim has a vast empire of recordable media, with inventory listed in profusion on their web pages.
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Is Aqua Great?
There have been quite a few articles written about Aqua, the graphical interface for Mac OS X. For the most part, Macintosh fanatics, those who refuse to see anything bad when it comes to Apple, write these articles. There have been a few very honest articles, those that point out the shortcomings of the interface, such as Andrew Orlowski’s “The Register” column, as well as a good follow up by Charles Moore at AppleLinks.
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If you have read any of my previous Byte Me! articles you may be aware of my slightly slanted views re: Computers and Operating Systems in particular. With the latest Windows XP and Mac OS X, we have the ongoing push by Microsoft and Apple to collect monies from the faithful. There have been many comparisons on the net about which system is best . My analogy below has to do with the emotional rather than the practical. You may find, however, that practicality may sometimes lead you astray while emotions give a truer sense of reality.
For this impractical but emotional exercise, let us look at the two operating systems above and how they might tackle the art of translation and meaning of a selection of French terms. May the best OS win.
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La Befana vien di notte
con le scarpe tutte rotte
col cappello alla romana
viva viva la Befana!
More years ago than I care to remember, my mother first told me the story of La Befana. It stayed with me through the years and I retold it to my son when he was a child. La Befana is one of Italy’s oldest and most celebrated legends, a marvelous story about a good Christmas witch. Perhaps the term “witch” may be too strong. I think “fairy” would be more correct. However, because the Befana was old and ugly with a pointed chin and hooked nose I suppose that, by necessity, this made her classification as a witch seem appropriate. Still, she is as much a part of the Christmas spirit in Italy as the German Christmas tree, the English mistletoe or the increasingly popular American Santa Claus who the Italians have dubbed Babbo Natale. Even today, in modern Italy, on twelveth night, the evening between January 5 and 6, she makes her rounds, just as the Magi do. The name Befana is thought to be a derivative of the word Epiphany or Epifania in Italian which is a celebration of the manifestation of the Christ child to the gentiles (the three Magi, in particular, and the world in general.)
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384