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Am I the only one finding it ironic that Microsoft is demanding that Fair Use be recognized, while shutting down Autopackager and infringing on the right of first sale, even in cases where the software isn't even opened?

Sorry, I'm just frustrated that I spent thousands on two MSDN subscriptions and have been trying to activate them for a week, and have spent over 115 minutes on the phone, with the last two calls assuring me with 100% certainty that the problem is now resolved, only to discover they are STILL not activated and I have to call them yet AGAIN. GRRRRRRRRR!!! This is why I run Linux for everything except for client projects. Ugh.

Because blogs are a way to reach audiences that are not reached through traditional marketing outlets

Yeah, because Apple has a real problem "reaching audiences." I mean, who ever heard of an iPod? They seem to think that TV commercials and word-of-mouth alone will sell the things.

they increase the amount of feedback you receive from your customers, and they provide a way to mine your user base for ideas.

If only there were some website where Apple could gather user opinions and feedback.

-- Brian Boyko
-- Professional Blogger.

It shows.

Yeah, because there are no backup solutions available for the Mac...

Take your FUD elsewhere.

This is why you should choose Linux, BSD, or another open-source or at least free-as-in-beer solution, like Ernie Ball did after that fiasco. Even when you're legit, you can still get screwed by proprietary software vendors in any number of ways.

I've removed Microsoft software from production at my office because a) I am not about to pay for exchanged AGAIN when we expand and Exchange 2000 CALs are no longer available b) maintenance can be fully automated on Linux without having to resort to insecure vbscripts and c) No worries about Windows Update patches breaking the info store service ever again (yes this happened last year, M$'s solution was "reformat, reinstall, and restore the IS then reconnect the mailboxes to the user accounts" - Uh, no thanks. I worked on it for about 20 hours and managed to get the IS mounted again, and immediately started evaluating Linux groupware solutions, eventually settling on free-as-in-beer Scalix). Now all we use is our MSDN licenses for development/staging, no more Microsoft products in production. I'd put the old licenses up on feeBay, only Microsoft has a habit of suing customers for reselling unused or retired licenses despite the fact that boxed software sold over the counter is actually SOLD and not licensed, as established in many prior court cases.

Of course, I expect some Microsoft fanboy to mod my post down. Go right ahead, you know you want to. I used to really like Microsoft until they instituted anti-customer policies when they saw Linux looming on the horizon.

You can't go wrong choosing open-source and free-as-in-beer solutions. The up-front setup time may be a little bit higher, but you can rest assured that:
  * you will always be able to access your data
  * There is a much higher chance you can fully automate maintenance
  * if the BSA comes knocking on your door, you can point them at the GPL and BSD licenses and say "here's all the info you need. Thanks, you can leave now. Don't let the door hit you in the ass."

1: More Flaming Laptops? (And This Time They're Not PowerBooks!)

The PowerBook 5300 has been unfairly saddled with a reputation as "the incendiary PowerBook" since one test unit caught fire in an Apple lab back in 1995. Actually, it was the Sony-supplied lithium ion battery and not the 5300 itself that started the conflagration, but that hasn't stopped even some Mac advocates who ought to know better from propagating the "flaming 5300s" myth.

So wearily, once again, are the facts:

- Only one 5300 caught fire
- Apple quickly recalled the few machines in distribution channels at the time and replaced the suspect li-Ion batteries with NiMH units.
- No consumer machines caught fire
- The 5300 has proved to be no more fire-prone than any other laptop -- less so in fact than the G3 Series 'Books, a handful of which actually have caught fire in consumer use.

2: a few units used at Apple actually burst into flames [2] due to problems with then-novel Lithium Ion batteries made by Sony (earning the 5300 the nicknames "FireBook", and "HindenBook", after the Hindenburg disaster). While no consumer models suffered this fate, Apple was forced to recall the entire product line and delay its availability while they downgraded to proven nickel metal hydride batteries

3: Before the system was released in a few rare instances the battery caught fire. This was fixed before the computer was released, but this problem helped create a lot of bad press for Apple.

4: Given the hysterical and mythologically persistent exaggeration of the problem with the PowerBook 5300 back in '95, it's understandable that Apple would be hypersensitive about this matter. The reality check is that, as far as I've been able to determine over the past 11 years of following this story, there was one Sony Lithium Ion PowerBook 5300 battery that spontaneously caught fire in an Apple test lab. The 1000 or so 5300s that were in distribution pipelines at the time were immediately recalled and refitted with Nickel Metal Hydride batteries (which were already in production for the lower-priced but identical form factor 68k-based PowerBook 190), which proved completely reliable. The PowerBook 5300 had other issues, but catching fire in consumer hands was not one of them, despite it's mythological "blazing PowerBook" reputation.

5: Apple announced it has stopped shipments of the new PowerBook 5300 product line due to potentially dangerous problems with the product's lithium-ion battery packs. The problems do not impact any other PowerBooks, including Apple's new PowerBook 190 and Duo 2300 models (see TidBITS-292). Apple has recalled the roughly 1,000 units shipped to dealers and resellers, and reports indicate only about 100 units actually reached customers.

this is what i'm refering to. http://www.applelinks.com/articles/1999/06/1999061 7103847.shtml

The Yorktown's failures encompass a large number of flaws and single points of failure. I guess it's more a testament to bad architecture than any one single bug.

There is hardly anything in the world that someone can't make a little worse and sell a little cheaper -- and people who consider price alone are this man's lawful prey.

I agree with the grandparent post that the linked article is more of a blog comment than a review. In sum, I think he probably got it as a "Microsoft rip-off of Photoshop" not to be taken seriously.

Instead, I suggest you look at the following list. They are more professional and in-depth reviews of Microsoft Expression (formerly Creature House Expression - the basis of Acrylic) by various magazines online:

• Graphics Unleashed
• All 'Bout Computers
• creativepro.com
• Designer-info
• Creative Mac
• Applelinks
• MacWorld
• About.com

Notice that Mac version has always been available except for this Beta Acrylic release. So I bet Expression was designed to appeal to artists among the Mac community to begin with.

Expression has made use of a unique technology called Skeletal Stroke (the review by creative.com has some explanation), which adds substance & complexity of raster graphics along vector paths. So I believe this vector drawing & painting package, while not as popular as Adobe Illustrator, has always been targetting a niche market with its own appeal.

In fact, it can produce some of the amazing effect found in Chinese water painting and other fine art drawing handily, even easier than you can do with Illustrator. The downside is a steeper learning curve to tap the full power of this unique & different app.

You can find more tutorials & resources on Expression at Wikipedia

http://www.lipsticklibrarian.com/blog/archives/000 025.html http://www.applelinks.com/articles/2002/04/2002042 3140855.shtml http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/a/021969.htm None of the stuff on it matches up to reality. It's funny, sure. But it's not real.

Damn. That's not a Pismo. The Pismo has a white apple over the screen, and the Powerbook logo below. So does the Lombard. No, that laptop has to be a 14" Wallstreet. And I'm typing this on a 14" Wallstreet. I feel so dirty.

Halo PC is not the way people were meant to play Halo. It was released 3 years later with neglible changes. It was born on the console, and thats where the gameplay really belongs.

Halo was just the next version of Marathon, a long cherished Mac only game. Eventually a Windows 95 port was made, but it started as a Mac only game. Halo was announced for the Mac long before the X-Box. Microsoft bought Bungie to make it an X-Box game and intentionally delayed the release of the computer versions even though they were started first.

But, the full version runs fine (except I can't demorec) on my iBook (1 Ghz G4, 640 MB RAM, Radeon 9200 w/32MB VRAM), provided I just keep the detail settings low. But, I can run it at 1024x768 with workable framerates (25-40 fps), or at 800x600 with better framerates. And the demo ran smooth on a dual 1.8 GHz G5 I played it on before as well.

I really want to try UT2004 on a dual 2.5 GHz G5 with 8 GB RAM and a GeForce 6800 Ultra, though...

Oh, if you want to read a review of UT2004 on Mac, there's a few to read:

GamesAreFun (yeah, I wrote it, so I get to plug myself)
Inside Mac Games
Applelinks

And others like GameSpy and such.

Just like the AppleMaster himself would have used.

The only signifcant drawback to the current material used in the regular iPod is its tendency to pick up scratches/fingerprints on its back.

Sure, but then again that applies to most portable devices. On the other hand you get some case for the iPod. Did a search with google:

- Applinks review
- iSkin evo, which even come in a choice of colours

[quick blink, "you must be kidding me"] looks like even Gucci is offering an iPod case. Now that's saying something.

For the Google impaired, here's the Tactile Pro page and a review.

You may want to use a "controlled" browser. Ie, one with "parental" protections built in so the teens don't go porning up the church atmosphere too much.

Nope, that was the USS Yorktown (CG 48), a Ticonderoga class missile cruiser. Completely different breed of ship than this one.

Linky

Ha! I never cease to be amazed at what explanations floor-lore can come up with... reminds me of the Q-Link days when we used to tell customers to wrap their disk drives in tinfoil. (Which, to be fair, actually worked sometimes on Commodores, since they were usually hooked up to TVs which emitted huge amounts of radiation in close proximity to the poorly-shielded external floppy drive..)

I worked in development, not operations, so I don't remember specific episodes, but it sounds like Earthlink was getting caught up in AOL's spam filters. Here's a cite showing it happening at least once.

Apple Liks

Interesting that Apple is the only ones leading the way into new markets in a convincing way with the iPod.

As more people play with Cocoa, there's a good chance developers will like it enough to write software for it. It's a very solid environment. That plus all the Unix goodness under it with Fink and Darwinports, and even in this Windows-world, I'm thinking.... there a few million potential customers on Mac, and they are loyal and spend money for quality. If I get $10 of of every 10th customer....

Remember that Apple is a cult of personality -- Steve Jobs' personality. Newton did not come from within the RDF (Reality Distortion Field - that surrounds Steve) and therefore it is bad. The technological pieces are still held by Apple and they show up in odd places. The HWR from Newton is in OSX. It's called "inkwell" and hooking up a cheap (sub $99) usb tablet to a Mac lets you use it. Some people aren't fond of it. Apparently doesn't do cursive even though Rosetta (the actual name of the technology) does support it.

I don't know how this can be debatable.

Everything that I have heard and read show that Macs are cheaper when factoring in TCO. In addition to less support (how many times have heard "...my company has 1000 PCs with 100 PC support techs and 2000 Macs with 3 Mac support techs...") and longer lasting hardware ("...we have a SE/30 that we still use as a mail server...") to increased productivity ("...virus? What stinking virus?...It just works!)

Here's a few examples I found when googling for info on Mac vs. Windows TOC:

Macs Shine In Total Cost Of Ownership
"The TOC (total operating cost) for the Wintel machines amounts to $253.86 per year, every year until it is retired," Canterbury told Sellers. "The Macs run us $53.25 per year. Quite a difference and one our board and parents heard loud and clear."

Return On Investments between the Macintosh and Windows platforms.
[NOTE: of course this is where the Mac shines but I think that it translates to other areas of general productivity]
"This benchmark supersedes a common but misleading bench-mark: cost-of-ownership. An ROI benchmark correlates the cost of ownership and productivity of media producers to revenue and profit. Detailed ROI analysis reveals that a Macintosh-using creative professional produces $26,441 more annual revenue and $14,488 more net profit (per person) than a Windows user of comparable skill engaged in similar work."

Why most people should buy a Macintosh rather than a Windows PC
A study from technology research company, Gartner has found Apple Macintosh computers to be up to 36 percent cheaper to own and run than competing PC products. The study utilised Gartner's Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) methodology, which takes into account the direct and indirect costs of owning IT infrastructure.

And there are just so many other ones that I grow tired of providing the information

Apple Net Revenue:

2003 : $6,207 million
2002 : $5,742 million
2001 : $5,363 million ...
1999 : $6,134 million
1998 : $5,941 million

Microsoft Net Revenue:

2003 : $32,187 million
2002: $28,365 million ...
1999 : $19,747 million
1998 : $15,262 million

Looks to me like Apple is barely where it was at the peak 4 years ago (+1.2%)... and Microsoft is +62% ... Oh yea, Apple's doing really well...

My personal favorite Mac-in-car mod is the Pathintosh (which looks much better than the Tatra Mac G4, IMHO).

http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=3111

It appears that the official Pathintosh page is down, but the specs can be found here.

While it's only a G3, it's plenty powerful for its purpose. It has plenty of RAM and is capable of running Mac OS X. A Pismo PowerBook might be the better option for those looking to do this for themselves.

APM Tuner Quiets Noisy PowerBook Hard Drives

According to the Mac News Network, independent sources put its latest sales figures of desktop systems at around 3.8% market share.

CNet News.com puts Apple's latest (3rd Quarter 2003) market share figures slightly lower: "Apple, meanwhile, saw shipments rise, but not as fast as the market. The company's U.S. market share is now 3 percent, while its worldwide share is below 3 percent."

While it is true that Apple has taken as much as 7% market share in the laptop market of the US in some months (see this MacLinks article) this only translates to 4% worldwide share. And HP is still the world laptop leader.

Apple, despite what you might think, has not significantly improved its market share over the last few years, except in laptops. You could make the argument that they have managed to keep market share from declining (which was the trend up until 1999), but they have failed to translate their new products into market share leadership.

I know it's hard to believe all of this when you get your news from Slashdot posters, but luckily industry analysts don't.

hey that already exists: check this out

See article...

Yes, this link explains a lot. Don't bother reading the comments - they all talk about Chrysler cars.

According to this page it seems the small tube of liquid serves as a heat pipe. Not there so much for cooling reasons as it is for space constraints. But I could be wrong, today is the first I've heard of it... If I had mod points you'd definitely get a +1 for Mac trivia :-)

Hard to believe the parent was modded as "insightful".

Cool! Where are the numbers to support [Mac Total Cost of Ownership lower than Windows]? Probably isn't going to cut it. [More uncontrolled ranting...]

Sad, people never learned to search the internet before pressing the flame button. There are a lot of studies that support Cringley's statement etc., and you'd be hard pressed to find a single study in the reverse!

BTW, I've seen studies supporting Linux as having a good TCO vs. Windows NT. I've never seen a study comparing Linux vs Mac TCO on desktop, and there are only a few studies comparing Linux vs Mac TCO in servers (the Mac usually comes out on top, but the studies are recent and may have bias).

Apparently you've never used your iBook with an iPod, then -- iPods do implement DRM.

You must not have support for MPEG4ish technologies, such as Quicktime, either -- it seems that Apple has been working on copy protection for MPEG4.

What about the "dragon" from Adventure!?

Who needs a laptop mod when the original Toilet Seat Powerbook from Apple is available?

Isn't this what everyone wanted: a bright-green toilet seat? A pity Apple never went forward with the idea of a G4 Cube shaped like a chamber pot.

I word of advice: never leave a toilet-seat powerbook sitting out in a public lavatory.

Chimps can drive!

And use a computer!

And even go to the Moon --or at least get pretty high!

Hey man, Koko makes art too.

...then I'd think about moving them onto the same level with us.

Luckily, it's not up to you.

According to this piece by John Martellaro, Microsoft might not be able to drop Office for Mac if Apple released a direct competitor: Microsoft would either look like a monopolist crushing a platform to stop competition, or like a company whose product just got its ass handed to it. Martellaro figures Microsoft's only possible response would be to work on a better, cheaper Office -- something they don't necessarily have to do right now.

Man, I was hoping someone would talk about the real AppleWorks -- for me it was version 1 on the IIe and version 3 on the IIgs (AppleWorks GS was a bit buggy at the outset, and printing on an ImageWriter was slow). My whole high school career, such as it was, depended on that app.

Shining Technologies is releasing a Firewire (400 Mbps AND 800 Mbps (IEEE 1394b)) and USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) bridgeboard. This would allow connection for a variety of host controllers, if that would interest anyone. The kit is going by the model number of FUIDE900.

Gone are the days when one could compare performance between setups. I suppsoe there are too many variables.

I've been using Chimera on a 400 MHz G4 w/300+ Mb RAM and a 466 iBook w/ 192 Mb RAM. Also, OS X 10.2 was a significant performance improvement, as I think was generally reported -- esp. with graphics. Maybe you haev some bottleneck somewhere that Chimera can't handle ... SpeedChimera has improved performance here. Also, I watch the little status bar to see what the broser is doing, and my impression is that the slow part is the remote servers.

Hmm. I'd like to see benchmarks -- not that they'll mean anything. :)

Chimera is not set up for broadband out of the box for some reason. That's what SpeedChimera does, changes a fes of the properties for you. Here is a casual benchmark over a SLOW modem; Apple stats show near-parity with differences of maybe 15% except on launch (Safari wins naturally .. but dontcha think iBench returns more than three numbers?). I bet the types of sites one visit matters a lot, too.

I don't care ... so long as IE gets creamed, and it is the dog in this horserace. I dount MS can work backwards with the same product to speed it up. Perhaps it would be clever to whip up a fast IE Lite. We'll see.

>Why is it people think they can just make up whatever crap they want about apple and people will believe it?

I didn't author any of those links. Sorry you seem to think the entire world is against you (including PBS).

>The G4 Cube had no quality problems that I've ever heard of

Please search the web a little, and/or read more magazines, or talk to more people. Your choice.

I'll provide you with some G4 Cube problem links:

One
Two
Three - Admittance from Steve Jobs himself that G4 Cubes don't have the quality users expect from Apple
Four
Five

And so on. It doesn't matter if they were cracks or mold lines -- either way they show a lack of quality assurance. If this were my car and Apple said "Oh, those ripples on the bodywork are just caused by the type of paint we used" I'd still say it stinks.

>ARe you really so stupid you believe what you're shovelling?

Are you so blinded by your mac fanatacism that you can't admit Apple could have made mistakes in its engineering of the G4 Cube?

>You cant even remember the show, and what steve said was "Mcirosoft, just doesn't have a sense of style"

You can't remember the part where he ignores Woz, his partner, for the company. A total lack of sympathy is an emotional problem, IMHO.

Not to mention the Newton thing -- what's your excuse for that? Or did you skip over it because you have no answer and are again blinded by Mac zealotry?

Totally patently FALSE. Here's some references:

• 1999: Dungeon Masters moderating online games will be able to create their own scenarios using BioWare's Solstice Toolset.
• 2000: From the very start of our development cycle, we have been designing Neverwinter Nights not only to be multiplatform but also to be fully interoperable between the different OS versions," says Oster. "We want a Be OS player and her Windows friend to be able to play together on a Mac server under the guidance of a Linux-based dungeon master.
• 2000: Neverwinter Nights will support the Windows, Mac, Linux, and the ever-popular BeOS operating systems, and all versions will be completely interoperable.
• 2001: * The powerful and user-friendly Neverwinter Aurora Toolset allows players to create entirely new adventures, campaigns, and worlds of their own devising. The toolset is a major features of the title and will receive full post-product support. * Single-box release across multiple Operating Systems (Windows, Linux, Macintosh and BeOS). All versions will be fully interoperable.
• 2001: So the big question in everyone's minds seems to be "Why did you wait this long to tell us that the toolset is Windows-only?" That's a fair question and the honest answer is that we didn't know, we still don't know. [...] The truth is that we want our toolset to be available on all platforms.
• 2002 (right now): We are planning a simultaneous PC/Macintosh/Linux release for Neverwinter Nights, with all three versions to be included in a single box.

Applelinks had a preview a few months ago, and it's worth noting the differences between that review's projected features and the ones revealed in today's review.

But even more important than that is to remember that this Office suite isn't only aimed at Linux. It's also aimed squarely at the MacOSX crowd, which could help expand its market penetration. (Businesses that are slow to adopt Linux on the desktop are often less tentative about permitting MacOSX installations.)

Google is your friend!

The title said UNIX, and then later he said he was using Linux, so this may not be as applicable as he wanted.

This morning I saw a review on IBM ViaVoice for MacOS X that piqued my interest. Overall, it looks like a pretty solid product for doing voice input into any program.. but can you imagine using vi without a keyboard?

As a recent MacOS X convert -- it's good to have a UNIX with supported commercial apps.

Well, I guess the game I'm most into right now is "Space Tripper". It's released on Linux, Mac and Windows. Check out the demo if you're looking for an old fashioned style shooter.

Oh yeah, some rave reviews here , here and here

Brant

All MS would have to do is include an encrypted movie with XP, and then get you arrested for violating the DMCA when you cracked it.

Strangely enough, it is possible

Story Submitted and rejected, essentially:
ASF ~= Another Security Flaw.
WMP ~= Windows Monopoly Protection.

Sounds just like what you're saying now, IMO. "If we don't stop the [communists/terrorists] this time, they'll go on to [conquer the world/blow up more stuff], so we have to [send in the military/send in the military]".

In any case, I don't give a rat's ass about the moral arguments. If they mattered (other than as propaganda), we would have dragged Saddam out of Baghdad (and not supported him in the first place).

I'm talking about practical chances of success, and that's where the Vietnam analogy fits like a glove. We have no idea where the al Qaeda leaders are hiding. If we start getting close, they can hide in several other countries. And even if we catch them, there's plenty of other guys ready to take their place.

But most importantly, take a look at Vietnam today. They're turning capitalist. They love cell phones and american stuff. We lost with guns; we won with butter.

More propaganda. Islamic militants don't "hate freedom", and all that "Allah commands you" stuff is just there to recruit more Red Shirts.

The leaders do it because American foreign policy often results in a whole bunch of refugee muslims who are willing to be led. If the CIA had kept out of Afghanistan in the 1980s, today it would be another poor but stable former Soviet state (like all of the other *stan's to the north of it).

The War on Terrorism (tm) is going to be just like the War on Drugs.

(prelude: Read this link over at applinks. Some responses to the racial law suit that is being levied at apple. Excellently written commentary and responses. A must read)

Political correctness, anyone?
This to me was and still is the greatest mind phuck of all times.

Censoring something via law, violence, flames, war all pale in comparison to making you afraid of saying the wrong thing because you did not use the right code-word of "society-speak".

The kick in the balls is this:
Politically Correct speech such as "African-American" belittles those of color as "less than American".

To hell with this -American shit...YOU...ARE...AN...AMERICAN.
That is first and formost.
Yes, your fore fathers before you came from another country...guess what? All Americans, save for the Indians (the original 'Americans') came from other countries.

Censoring people is one thing, making them censor themselves is another. Making people force censorship upon themselves is more incidious than burning books, forbidding knowledge, denying access to content of anyform.

One day the EU, and maybe our own government, will wake up and realize this simple fact:
Laws (like locks) keep an honest man honest.

If a criminal, scholar, rich/poor man, tech, politician or whomever wants something bad enough they will get it.

As far as Nazi paraphenalia goes? Don't want to see it? Don't go looking for it, dammit.

And one question to the EU:
Considering this and the measures you are taking agianst Microsoft, I am forced to ask, could you please tell us ahead of time which face will be talking, and when.

The right'ing wrongs and wrong'ing rights gets confusing after a fashion.

(sigh)

You know, there's another thing about games of the 80s... I think adventure games were the right kind of game for the kind of person who was playing, particularly the PC people. I really believe that if you could run DOS and figure out all the stupid, crazy stuff like extended memory and how to put drivers in high memory and memory management that you had to do if you were going to be successful with a PC back in the 80s, then you just had to be a puzzle solver.

And remember command lines, where you type in commands? Adventure games really played right into the strong suit of those engineer types who were
good at that. I remember vividly back in the late 80s, Ken [Williams] and I had a conversation; "Won't it be great when everybody has a computer and can play our games?" We figured that when computers were in 50% of homes, that was probably as far as it was gonna go. The other half probably didn't need one or care. Although now it looks like we were underestimating. But what we didn't take into consideration was that when 50% of people have computers, they're gonna want to watch FOX! They're not gonna be interested in PBS and thinking games, you know?

Ignore the apologists. Rage on.

"I don't have pet peeves, I have major psychotic fucking hatreds." - George Carlin

The only thing I've so far been able to find is this which isn't exactly an ergonomic keyboard, but does look comfortable.

Really, the only thing I can recommend you do is attach an ergonomic keyboard if your laptop has a ps2 port. I doubt that there's really a market for ergonomic laptop keyboards since the design would be very, very large.