SmartDisk FireWire 16x10x24 Portable CD-R/W Burner
Company: SmartDisk Corporation
Price: $249.99 MSRP
http://www.smartdisk.com
When I noticed this product on the shelf at the rear of Apple’s new Los Angles retail store my heart skipped a beat, literally. SmartDisk promised us an early review unit, but due to personnel changes at their headquarters we had to wait until now to get our hands on it.
The shipping carton from SmartDisk was so lightweight I thought they must have forgotten to include the product, but its petite box was inside, as promised. You can read all the specs on this stylish CD-R/W unit at: http://www.smartdisk.com/Support/Specs/FWCDRW-V16.asp.
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The patient in Room 401A awoke in a semi-stupor. He felt disoriented and confused. He looked about at the room but recognized nothing. The pain was excruciating and some sort of bandage encased his head and partially covered his right eye. At that moment, a male nurse entered.
“Good to see you awake professor. How’s the head?”
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Recently John Nemerovski posted a message to the My Mac Staff asking what everyone thought was the greatest Mac app ever. The question prompted an immediate response from everyone, which has now turned into a group effort that you will find below.
ClarisWorks/AppleWorks – the kitchen sink of Macintosh apps
By Ralph J. Luciani
When the gang at My Mac Online came up with the idea of a collective article on what we thought was the most outstanding Macintosh application, the suggestions grew faster than the offspring of procreating rabbits. My choice is purely personal and it is AppleWorks – formerly known as ClarisWorks.
Ten years ago when I first started to use a computer it was an abandoned Mac Classic. Times were tough and my primary job had been reduced to a three-day week. In order to survive I took on a second job with a contractor specializing in renovations. My new boss had received the Mac as part payment of a debt and the original all-in-one Classic was gathering dust in a closet because no one knew how to use it. Without any instructions I plugged it in and played with this fascinating “toy.” The only application that was installed was ClarisWorks. My hit and miss introduction garnered more hits than misses and I marveled at the easy to use computer and this amazing multi-faceted piece of software.
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System 10? More like System 6!
One of the surprising things about the OS X System Preferences panel is its similarity to the Control Panel in the early versions of the Mac operating system, up to System 6. Both are single panel devices which use a buttons to change the contents of that panel to display specific sets of controls. For those that don’t remember (or never saw) System 6, the Control Panel was accessed via the Apple Menu. It consisted of a palette with a series of buttons along the left hand side that changed the contents of the rest of the panel. Below is a screen shot of the Control Panel taken from my 1987 vintage Mac Plus; you can see the General, Close View, Keyboard and Map buttons along the side. The panel is displaying the General fields, allowing the user to configure things like the desktop pattern and volume.
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System 10.2 Hardware Requirements
Mac OS 10.2 ‘Jaguar’ is the latest and greatest version of OS X and comes on two CD-ROMs. It is important to note that the disks can be used to install a fresh set of OS X system files and applications as well as for updating earlier OS X installations. As such, Mac OS 10.2 is best considered a new operating system release, rather than merely an incremental upgrade as was the case with Mac OS 10.1.
Unsurprisingly, this new version of OS X retains the same stiff hardware demands as previous versions of OS X, requiring a stock G3 or G4 computer and plenty of RAM and disk space. Certain third-party SCSI and video cards are incompatible with the OS X installer and need to be removed for the installation. Although OS X will work on a machine with 128 MB of RAM, with OS X the more RAM the better, and 256 MB seems to be the minimum for comfortable performance. Disk space requirements are just as steep, 2.5 GB for the standard install, a few hundred megabytes more if you install some of the developer tools as well. On top of this you’ll need space for your System 9.2 system folder, your applications and all your documents.
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Macworld Mac OS X Bible
By Lon Poole and Dennis R. Cohen
John W. Wiley Publishers
ISBN 0-7645-3467-X
779 pages
$34.99 US $52.99 CA
Lon Poole has been writing computer books for quite a long time. A quick search on Amazon shows 33 titles with his name on the cover, with some titles dating back to the Apple II and Atari 400 (!) days. Dennis Cohen, while not quite as prolific as Poole, has a substantial amount of computer writing experience. He also has spent time as a professional Macintosh programmer.
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I need to explain a few things: First, I am not what you would consider a “political person”. Oh sure, I care about who gets elected to which public office and all, but aside from that, I find the entire thing to be something of a snoozer. Secondly, I am not into “political parties”. I am registered to vote and all, as an “independent”. (This is called “un-enrolled” here in the Bay state.) I don’t like political parties. In fact, I think it is time for the entire party system to be tossed in the garbage disposal of history. Boy, could you imagine how efficient everything would run, if there were no constant bickering just because Senator X is a Republican, and Senator Y is a Democrat? No “party whips” (that always sounds kinky to me), and none of this committee garbage. Talk about efficiency to the max. Legislative process, the way it was meant to be.
Third, I promised myself, and my readers, (Both of Them!) that I would not write about the technical side of Mac ownership, or do product reviews, (There are plenty of good, well-qualified people doing that already), or politics. My reasoning is that if you want a political column; just pick up any major market newspaper on any given weekday. Alas, I must break that promise, after watching what I saw on the evening of Thursday, September fifth, on the major market Boston TV stations.
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I’m one of those teachers who just can’t stay away from school during the summer. Part of the reason is due to my being the technology person in addition to my regular teaching duties. Summer allows me to check out each of the 45 computers on our campus, cleaning out the bugs and emptying the student folders. This summer I was also preparing each machine for the leap into networking (more on that down below). This summer I decided to keep a collection of all the faxes and mailings from computer manufacturers. To my disappointment and total amazement, Apple failed to send even one piece of advertising. As a comparison, Dell and Gateway each sent a half dozen colorful brochures. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THE EDUCATION DIVISION AT APPLE?!!!!!!
In July I wrote a column entitled, “Apple’s Blind Spot“, in which I detailed the virtual non-existence of OSX educational software and a possible solution. I received a tremendous number of emails from other educators across the country equally frustrated with this issue. Usually, I also get a couple of emails from Apple Ed people telling me that their division is listening and reading, and was developing a plan of action (no specifics, ever) to address educators concerns. After the Blind Spot article all has been silent from Cupertino. HELLO APPLE!!!!!!!!
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iPhoto 1.1 For Mac OS X: Visual Quickstart Guide
Adam C. Engst
Publisher: Peachpit Press 2002
ISBN: 0-321-12165-1
Price: US $19.99, Canada $31.99, UK £14.99
http://iphoto.tidbits.com
My college graduation present from my mom was the most eagerly anticipated of them all: a digital camera. A Canon PowerShot A10, to be exact. I felt a whole new aura of digital-hubness as soon as I took it out of the box. Now I’m snapping pictures everywhere I go.
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Photoshop Studio
Author: Bert Monroy
Publisher: New Riders
Price: US $45.00
ISBN: 0-7357-1246-8
Photoshop Studio is like a taking a ride with a Photoshop master for a few hours at a time, and learning the tricks of the trade. Bert Monroy does some really amazing things in Photoshop (and Illustrator), and guides you step by step on how he did it. From creating window blinds to creating handles on a photo-realistic filling cabinet, this book is filled with great pictures and easy to read language many Photoshop users will find useful.
(I should mention, though, that while you can create the great looking scenes Bert did in Photoshop, why would you want to? I mean, with 3D software so low in price today, you can get even more realistic graphics with a program such as Strata than you can with Photoshop. In MUCH less time. But Bert Monroy is an artist, and Photoshop is his tool, so this is more a practical thought on my end, and has no bearing on the quality of this book or the techniques applied therein.)
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SmartSound Sonicfire Pro
(OS X Compatible)
Company: Sonic Desktop
Price: $349.99
http://www.sonicdesktop.com
If you’ve reached the stage in life where you’ve decided to make videos for a living I say congratulations and I hope that beating you take from the assembled members of Metallica isn’t too bad, hopefully nothing worse than a ruptured spleen. Why would your entry into the video-making marketplace coincide with a beat down of epic proportions? It turns out when you drop that John Hartford .mp3 in for background music you’re violating copyright laws. The moment you use copyrighted music you’re essentially stealing from the creator, and those guys want their cash.
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“I’m going to Graceland, Graceland
Memphis Tennessee, I’m going to Graceland.”
Paul Simon.
“The curse of human nature is imagination.
When a long-anticipated moment comes,
we always find it pitched a note too low.”
Gertrude Atherton
I’ve been to Graceland ladies and gentlemen. I’ve finally been to an actual Apple Retail store. For those of you who’ve not made it to Apple’s equivalent of Graceland, this story is for you.
Ever since the first Apple Retail stores originally opened like all Mac users who’ve been to Best Buy or CompUSA (prior to Apple installing their own sales people) I’ve been waiting to visit one myself. With the recent openings of the Apple Super stores in New York and LA along with my recent story on why I want to work at an Apple Retail store had definitely reawakened my desire to walk in to a bona fide Apple Retail store.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384