LaCie DataBank 20GB FireWire/USB Combo Portable Hard Drive
Company: LaCie
Price: $299.00
http://www.lacie.com
LaCie’s stylish DataBank arrives in a simple, elegant black box with no accompanying literature. The silver drive enclosure is protected within an unusual foam brick. Accessories are one each of the shortest FireWire and USB cables ever produced, plus a “User’s Manual” with “Storage Utilities” installer CD.
Letters and numbers are stamped into the cover, meant to replicate a silver ingot, with “DESIGN BY F.A.PORSCHE.” Top is flat, sides are gently tapered outward, and bottom is cushioned with four rounded plastic corner supports. Too bad the bottom of the case has such sharp edges, because a gently rounded base would add additional classiness and safety to the overall form factor.
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Interarchy 6
Company: Stairways
Price: $45.00
http://www.interarchy.com
Interarchy is, by all accounts, the single most popular FTP client on the Macintosh with an estimated 650,000 users. Since changing it’s name from Anarchie 3.x to Interarchy 4.x, it has added a host of networking tools, SFTP, FTP/SSH tunneling, HTTP, and a specialized form of WEBDAV called FTPDisk and sold over 100,000 copies. It has an active user group of over 1000 members. It has customizable, skin-able parts, and every command available to it is also Apple Scriptable. If you haven’t tried Interarchy in awhile, take a look. It runs natively on Mac OS 8.5 through Mac OS X 10.2.5. The current shipping version as I write this is 6.1.1, but by the time you read this version 6.2 may be available, which adds some improvements as well as bringing back the popular Classic networking tools for the Mac OS X users.
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We who love the Macintosh have been accused, sometimes rightly so, of being sort of Johnny-One-Notes. When you write for a Mac site on the Web, the Mac is what you speak of. We do reviews of products for the Mac, and we write about what the new Macs are like when they come out. We are pretty good about defending our favorite platform of choice: That’s what we do.
But there is more to life than the Macintosh, obviously. Most of us have families, and we also have other interests and even different jobs. Some of us are teachers, instructors, or artists. A few of us fight monumental health issues on a daily basis just to be able to apply our fingers to the keyboard. I am usually amazed and humbled by witnessing the others around this cyber place, knowing what they must do to write, and how well they do it. Puts me right in the shade, folks.
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Owing to recent experiences, I have concluded that either a: The very wealthy do not like to use their hands or b) they like to use their hands but the not so wealthy are afraid to let them actually do so. I base these conclusions on a recent trip to New Orleans. My long suffering hard working wife was rewarded for months of toil in the sales industry with a pretty sweet trip to the Big Easy.
Going from my modest twelve hundred square foot tract housing abode to a nine hundred square foot luxury hotel suite was an experience I was not quite prepared for. Apart from the visual shock of tasteful decoration (my dwelling is “post college eclectic”) the servile manner of the staff was a bit discomfiting. In short, should I ever become fabulously wealthy, I’m staying in the motel six.
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Moving to Mac OS X Painlessly
Gene Steinberg
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 0-7645-2627-8
234 pages
US $19.99 CA $29.99
Moving to Mac OS X Painlessly (hereafter referred to as MMOSXP, to save my typed-to-the bone fingers) is another successful book for prolific author Gene Steinberg.
MMOSXP is written specifically for the beginner to intermediate Macintosh user who wants to jump from the warmth and security of OS 9 to the unknown Aqua world of OS X. MMOSXP is NOT about how to use OS X, although it does cover some OS X fundamentals. Rather, MMOSXP is about how to count from 9 to 10; it tells you what to do, and in what order, to make the transition as safe and easy as possible.
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BookIt 3.2
Everyday Software
Price: $12.00
http://www.everydaysoftware.net
Do you surf both from a Desktop Mac and a PowerBook? Do you run multiple Web browsers? How do you keep your Internet bookmarks (also known as favorites) straight? Most people in these situations end up with different bookmarks on different browsers or different computers. Even worse, most OS X uses don’t even know where their various bookmarks/favorites files are located, let alone try to manage different ones!
BookIt 3.2 is Everyday Software’s application for comprehensive bookmark management. This slick little app lets you synchronize bookmarks between multiple web browsers, on one or more computers. Currently, BookIt 3.2 supports Internet Explorer, Camino, Mozilla, OmniWeb, Opera, and Apple’s Safari. That list covers the waterfront (unless you use Lynx)!
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iPodDock
Company: BookEndz
Price: $44.95 US
http://www.bookendzdocks.com
The first time I plugged my iPod into the G4 to transfer songs from iTunes to the iPod, I thought “This is not an elegant solution” as the FireWire cable ran from the back of the Mac to the iPod. Plugging in and pulling out the smaller FireWire cable every time seemed cumbersome, at least as far as keeping a clutter-free desk top is concerned. I like things to have their place, and a dangling FireWire cable laying about is not something I enjoy.
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HOLES – A Movie – viewed opening night, on April 25, 2003
Comments by Isidore Shapiro:
The moment I walked into the theater, I wondered if I belonged with so many young children. Had I made an error reading favorable reviews and fallen into the usual trap of going to a film that some writer thought was unusual?
The story is ludicrous, but in such a charming way! It is a fanciful fairy tale with an elaborate plot that comes together so warmly, even poignantly, that the viewer is glad to have been part of it all. There is a wonderful logic to the adventure, as the different pieces of the plot begin to coalesce. We smile and cry as we shake our heads in wonder at the ingenuity of the writer, director, and the wonderful characters superbly portrayed by the good and bad guys.
By the mid 1990s, Apple was in trouble. It was losing money and market share. Apple computers were expensive compared to generic beige-box PCs, not by a little, but by a lot. Windows 95 made IBM-compatible PCs truly easy to use for the first time, making it increasingly difficult for consumers to understand why they should pay more for an Apple computer when they could get everything they wanted in a PC costing half as much. If there was a “Macintosh advantage” a succession of uninspiring corporate officers had been unable to get that message out, and Microsoft aggressively pushed their Windows operating system in the key home and office markets.
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The Sunday Boston Globe includes a really nice magazine, called, interestingly enough, the Boston Globe Magazine. So, on the first day in months when it has been warm and nice outside, I was stuck inside my apartment. With a very nasty head cold. I always seem to get the “deluxe” variety, complete with chills, totally blocked sinuses, and a feeling that I have just been put through a wringer. Swell, just freakin swell. You know these people, who, when they have a head cold, dance and twirl about, saying “Oh, it’s just a head cold! I plan on going dancing tonight!” They must be on some wicked good cough syrup. Jeesh, I hate those people, but I wish they would share some of that cough syrup with me.
So, I read through the magazine, and came across something toward the back, which runs every year at this time. It’s all the ads for various summer camps, and some of these ads are hilarious. For Suburban mommies who are convinced that their little bundles of joy are the next Venus Williams or Anna Kournikova, there are plenty of Tennis Camps. For aging jock dads, convinced that their McDonalds fed sons are destined for a spot on a big NHL team, or the New York Yankees, there are sports camps galore, always bearing the name of a well-known sports figure. Heh, if the kids who attend these camps are lucky, the famous sports figure will make one appearance, and maybe grant a few autographs, if he’s in a good mood, and if his contract demands have all been met, and (Most important) if his blonde bimbo is not “getting too impatient” while she waits in the Corvette.
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Nemo Memo Guest Essay – Joyce Hardin
Joyce Hardin, who moved to Tucson from Philadelphia in 1973, is a retired writer and editor. In Philadelphia she worked for the American Friends Service Committee and was Managing Editor for the national Quaker publication Friends Journal. In Tucson, her major work was as editor of the Pima County employee newspaper. Hardin also was a member of the collective that published five editions of New West Trails (Tucson People’s Yellow Pages) between 1974 and 1980. She is an active board member and participant in Tucson Macintosh Users Group
Introduction
In 1984, Apple and the Macintosh challenged the world with the dramatic portrayal of a revolutionary woman hurling a hammer at an image of the establishment. With the Twentieth Anniversary of that event approaching, now is a good time to take a look back at this revolution and take stock of the new revolution that the Mac OS X operating system offers.
Despite Time Magazine’s 80 Days That Changed The World, it would appear that Apple doesn’t get much credit for the revolution it sparked in personal computing. As the leading innovator in the computer market, and with a balance sheet holding of four billion in cash, neither its stock value nor its market share is very high. Every few months or so, a journalist reports on impending trouble for Apple Computer. Part of the reason for this negative press is that its main competitor has a 95% market share and billions more in cash. By any other standards, Apple would be judged to be an astonishing success, but a bigger question remains: Why is the Apple market share so small when it has a superior product? Blaming Microsoft for the “ills” of Apple really misses the point. Both companies were formed early in the computer age, both had product, innovation and opportunity at a critical time, but their history is vastly different. Apple’s small market share must be the result of its business model.
Mac OS X Headaches
Curt Simmons
McGraw-Hill Osborne
ISBN 0-07-222886-5
404 pages
US $24.99 CA $37.95
Some books are not what they seem.
Mac OS X Headaches How to fix common (and not so common) problems in a hurry is really a how-to book that purports to be a trouble-shooting book.
That’s too bad, because Mac OS X Headaches (MOSXH) would be an adequate novice or intermediate level how-to book. Unfortunately, MOSXH comes across as a weak trouble-shooting book.
Here’s MOSXH‘s schtick: Take a common newbie issue, such as the difference between active and inactive windows, and present it as a “MAC OS X Headache.” “A window seems grayed out: I can’t use it” is how you’ll see this common question in the book. Simmons then presents the “Painkiller” remedy of clicking in the grayed-out window to activate it.
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Cinema 4D R8 XL Bundle
(3D modeling and animation application)
Company: Maxon
Price: $1695 US
http://www.maxoncomputer.com
Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a 3D application can be? With Cinema 4D XL, that’s where! This bundle of 3D modeling and animation software is packed with more features than your local Blockbuster. And with Release 8, you’ll find that even Hollywood is falling in love with it. Cinema 4D software has been used in such recent films as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and DareDevil and by such large filmmakers as Industrial Light and Magic. Yet even as the big boys are using it because of its rock solid stability, ease of use, and lightning fast rendering engine, 3d modeling and animation hobbyists can also have a program that delivers a powerful set of tools at realistic prices. There’s a lot to love.
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Mac OS X Version 10.2 Jaguar fast & easy
Lisa A. Bucki
Premier Press
ISBN 1-59200-044-4
460 pages
US $18.99 CA $29.95
Mac OS X Version 10.2 Jaguar fast & easy is a good addition the Fast & Easy series. Prolific author Lisa Bucki (40 titles to her credit, dating back to the Harvard Graphics days), combines clear writing with many screenshots to give the new OS X user plenty of help learning the new OS.
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HP Color LaserJet 2500 Printer
Company: Hewlett-Packard
Price: $900 – $1800 US, including all four different models
http://www.hp.com
SHORT REVIEW: Great prints, reasonable price, easy to recommend.
LONG REVIEW: Why bother? Keep reading!
Delivery, Setup, Headaches, and Surprises
Sitting in the carport eight weeks ago was the biggest, heaviest carton ever delivered to this address since our Viking range arrived in 1996. No bodybuilder came with it, so I slowly hauled the massive box to my small home office using a barely-adequate two-wheel dolly.
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The Little iTunes Book, Second Edition
Author: Bob LeVitus
Peachpit Press
ISBN 0-321-16886-0
202 pages
US $19.99 CA $31.99
The Little iTunes Book Second Edition (LiTB for short) is a slim volume, and needs only a slim review. Bob LeVitus, also known as Dr. Mac, has penned a worthwhile book for those who need to know the ins-and-outs of iTunes 3, Apple’s free audio player.
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If you have spent any time at all with the new Apple Music service, chances are you are disappointed. I am, my iBook-toting daughter is, and chances are if it ever gets to the PC world, the other 97% of computer users will be too.
Apple claims it is a revolution. If it is, it is a counter-revolution. With 200,000 songs from a vault of 20+ million, the grand wizards of the musical clans have played Steve Jobs as a fool. Apple has put up the cash, lent its credibility, and created a wonderful technology, but the music industry has only allowed access primarily to the junk in the cut-out bins. And reportedly, the music company gets 65 cents per song. So who is the real winner here?
And don’t plan on cherry-picking this sparse collection. Not all the albums available are complete. If you ever wanted that one great song, like Loan Me A Dime by Boz Scaggs, it is conveniently missing from the album, even though most of his collection is available.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384