Retrophisch

A compliment from MDJ

MacJournals recently released the third installment of its 2005-2006 MDJ Power 25. The Power 25 is a ranking of the twenty-five most influential persons with regard to the Macintosh platform. These persons are voted on by a select group of Apple insiders, developers, and media types.

In the “Unheralded” section of the final installment, MDJ had this to say:

Only writers from TidBITS and Macworld made the list again, blanking out the talented staffs at print publications like MacAddict and at online journals such as About This Particular Macintosh (whose editor, Michael Tsai, is also the author of DropDMG and SpamSieve, two best-of-class shareware products).

I have long thought that we have a fantastic staff working on ATPM, one reason why I continue my involvement with the publication.

Unlike the other publications noted in the MDJ quote, our staff is all-volunteer; we all have “real” jobs. (Well, most of us do, any way.) Each month our writers churn out reviews and how-to columns, as well as opinion pieces, you won’t find anywhere else. We don’t regurgitate product specs and marketing materials, throwing in a few hours of the product use. We live with these items, attempting to integrate them in to our daily workflow or play time. Many a reader has told us how much they like our publication because of that depth. We strive, each issue, to be the “e-zine about the personal computing experience”.

I feel as though this publication is, in a way, an extension of my family, and I always like to see my family’s work recognized and appreciated. Thanks, Matt, for the recognition. Kudos, and thanks, to the staffers of About This Particular Macintosh. You guys and gals rock.

ATPM 12.07

The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Paper or plastic?

Wes ponders the news of Mark Pilgrim’s publicized switch from the Mac OS to Ubuntu Linux, as well as the ensuing conversations around the blogosphere. He also points to items on OS X’s kernel, the Apple v Does case, Apple conspiracy theories, John C. Dvorak’s admission that he trolls for Mac users, and Windows Vista running on a MacBook Pro.

We have another double-dose from the prolific Mark Tennent, who loves Call of Duty, but wonders where Apple’s next design inspiration will be springing from. Ted takes a rabbit trail off the outlining pathway in this month’s ATPO, exploring some of the nature and philosophy behind outlining. Chuck looks at script parameters and results for you FileMaker jocks. Miraz Jordan notes how iWeb’s current incarnation isn’t a friend to web accessibility, and Sylvester gets around to using Automator.

This month’s desktop pictures are of Alaska, and are courtesy of John Lowrey. Some of you may know John from Northern Softworks. I have several of John’s photos in my desktop rotation, and we thank him for sharing his work with our readers.

This month’s Cortland features a radical departure as artist Matt Johnson explores a corner of the web comics universe.

Looking for a solution to his DVD-burning needs, Chuck reviews DiscBlaze, then turns his attention to Dobry Backuper, which, if you failed to infer from its title, is yet another data backup app. Wes wasn’t blown away by Google Map Hacks, while Matthew attempts to find out if he indeed did assassinate the President in XIII.

I hope ATPM offers some cool news as the northern hemisphere slides through the hot days of summer, and as always, we thank our readers for…well, reading.

Miscellany

It’s not a full-scale semi truck, or even a VW Beetle, but it is a real-life Transformer.

[Via Firewheel Design.]

Brent informs us that Mississippi is very dog-friendly at its rest stops.

As Lee said when he pinged me via IM, “What a waste of a Countach.”

For some reason, I can’t believe John blogged iStache.

Miscellany

I must have a Gnome-be-Gone. Must.

[Via Uncrate.]

Why is it I’m learning about Pete’s Famous from Brent, rather than my parents, who have lived in the Birmingham metroplex for a decade? (I can actually answer this one; my parents bring their lunch to work, and don’t go out.) I wonder how far Gus’s place is from their respective offices?

Eric Blair:

Of course, I could see this eating into the PowerMate’s market. I mean, who needs a flashing knob to notify you of email when you can have a flashing keyboard?

One reason I turned off that particular functionality of my PowerMate was the distraction of the blinking light…

Presenting the iCarta. iDon’t think so.

[Via Firewheel Design.]

Killing .Mac, part 1

I renewed my .Mac subscription last year, though I did so with reservations. That was the last time I will renew, and come October, I will be .Mac-less for the first time since the service was the original, free iTools. With every feature “update”, I am finding less and less value in the service for myself. I am not alone in my feelings, and Khoi Vinh sums up a lot of how I feel. Your own mileage may vary.

I thought I would begin the process of replacing the features I use with .Mac, keeping in mind the sum total of the replacements not exceed .Mac’s annual price tag of $99.95. Steven Frank offers alternatives, and I will likely touch on many of those as well.

Anti-Virus
To begin the replacement process, I started with virus protection. When McAfee began to have issues with Virex 7.5, before and after the introduction of Mac OS X Tiger, I went looking for another anti-virus solution. Granted, we have yet to have a serious virus infection of the OS X community, but it never hurts to be prepared.

I now use ClamXav to fend off the nasties. The only downside to ClamXav is a lack of protection from Visual Basic-based macro viruses, which infect Microsoft Office documents. Personally, though I own Office, I use its components rarely, so this isn’t a showstopper for me. If the applications of Office are some of your mainstays, however, you might want to investigate Norton AntiVirus or VirusBarrier.

It should be noted that Apple no longer includes any anti-virus package with .Mac, so even if I were to pay for NAV or VirusBarrier, it wouldn’t be counted against the $99.95 cost of .Mac.

E-mail
Besides the former use of Virex, another feature I’m using with .Mac is the @mac.com e-mail address. At the last revision of the .Mac feature set, Apple increased the default storage limit to one gigabyte. This is shared space; it is utilized by your .Mac e-mail, as well as any files you upload to your account.

Contrast this with Google’s Gmail, which gives you, currently, 2.7 GB of space, and counting. (Google slowly increases the storage amount each day.) My Gmail account has become my main e-mail account, with my account on my own domain coming in second. The Gmail web interface is much faster, for me at least, than the .Mac web interface, though with both accounts I use the POP protocol to route the mail to my local e-mail client.

So for now, I’ve replaced the anti-virus software Apple no longer offers, and I’ve replaced the e-mail service with one that offers more storage and a faster user interface, both at no cost. More on my personal quest to rid myself of .Mac in a future post.

Miscellany

You know, I find it quite amusing, given Al Gore’s connection to Steve Jobs (Gore serves on Apple’s board of directors, in case you didn’t know), that at the same time An Inconvenient Truth is released, so is Cars.

Since Textpander has become TextExpander, and now comes with a thirty-dollar price tag, all of its little quirks may send me back to TypeIt4Me, of which I am a registered user already.

The biggest quirk? If I misstype an abbreviation with Textpander, but backspace and fix the abbreviation’s spelling, it won’t trigger the full text. TypeIt4Me does. With Textpander, I have to delete whatever part of the abbreviation I’ve typed, and start over.

I really like the FIFA World Cup smiley-faced logo. It’s just so cheery.

When you see “Fédération Internationale de Football Association”, does Monty Python and the “Department of Redundancy Department” come to mind, or is it just me?

ATPM 12.06

The June issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Mirko von Berner celebrates the new MacBook in this month’s cover art. Wes Meltzer waxes nostalgic on the Mac blogosphere’s round-up of the MacBook, as well as noting Apple’s new commercials, Microsoft Vista delays, and other blog posts of interest to Mac users.

Mark Tennent has a triple dose of MacMuser for us this month: Mac vs Windows network printing; the value of iDisk; and how black is the new black. In this issue’s FileMaking, Chuck devles in to FileMaker scripting. Sylvester ponders the modern technological conundrum of the digital lifestyle not always being all it’s cracked up to be.

Chris Lawson offers us another dose of photos from last year’s Oshkosh AirVenture event for this month’s desktop pictures section. This set features some of my favorite prop planes: the P-51 Mustang, aptly named “Gunfighter”; the P-40 Warhawk, defender of Chinese airspace in the days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; the P-47 Thunderbolt; Supermarine’s Spitfire, defender of Britian’s skies; and the venerable DC-3.

In this month’s Cortland, Todd lands a date and a job interview on the same night, but neither is what it seems. Plus, Chad is taken down a notch by the Boss Control Squad.

Paul reviews photo manipulation newcomer PhotoComplete, while Wes has a double-shot look at products from Waterfield Design. If you’re not a briefcase type, such as moi, you may want to give the Racer-X a look; it could change your feelings about briefcases. But if you go with the Racer-X, or any of Waterfield’s other cases, you’ll want to use their SleeveCase in conjunction with the larger bag. My PowerBook rides in a SleeveCase, no matter what other bag I use, and I second Wes’s recommendation, though unlike our Mr. Metlzer, I prefer the full flap on the SleeveCase.

What happens when worms gear up with mil-spec hardware and wage war? Worms 3D, of course, which our Matthew Glidden puts through its paces. Eric runs Yojimbo through the wringer to close out the June issue, available any way you like.

Miscellany

The iPatch.

This likely has made its rounds through the blogosphere already, but I just read in the latest dead-tree edition of Wired that Choose Your Own Adventure books are getting republished, updated for the 21st century.

Though he’s not old enough yet to read on his own and appreciate them, I may have to pick up these titles for my little phisch. I had a great time with them when I was eleven, though I don’t believe I was ever able to successfully navigate The Abominable Snowman without “cheating”.

What happened to all that wreckage from the Twin Towers after 9/11? Twenty-four tons of steel girders ended up in one of the Navy’s latest ships.

Miscellany

Good tip, courtesy of TUAW, on pairing your Apple Remote with its intended system. Very useful in a mutliple Apple-Remote-Mac home. I went ahead and paired my iMac with its remote, even though it’s the only such capable Mac we have. You never know what might be around the corner.

42 Climbers Reach Summit of Mount Everest. Note to self: “May is considered the best month to climb Everest. Climbers in Nepal have to complete their mission by May 31 before the weather deteriorates during monsoon season.”

“Elvis impersonators can relax: No one’s coming after their bespangled jumpsuits.”

Damn.

This story is encouraging me to let the little phisch have a cheap point-and-shoot digital in a few months. He loved using a Fujifilm disposable camera a couple of months back, and even framed a shot or two pretty well.

Miscellany

As is so often the case with video or film, the music totally makes the FedEx pilots drive around thunderstorm short film.

I sincerely hope JPMorgan Chase & Co. realize they just flushed $150 million.

This may have been posited elsewhere, but I think when the Power Mac G5 replacement ships, it will simply be called “Mac Pro”. You have the Pro designation separating the portable models, and they’re not going to call a tower/desktop without a built-in monitor “iMac Pro”. Apple will still want to differentiate the line from the consumer series, so it will just be Mac Pro.

MacBook

So it’s all over the Mac blogosphere and online news world: the iBook replacement has been released, and as many reckoned, it is simply called MacBook.

Available in the snow white we’ve all come to know and love, as well as in black-is-the-new-black black, the new MacBook features either a 1.83 or 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up to 2 GB of RAM, starts with an 60 GB hard drive, going up to 120 GB, comes with the same MagSafe power adapter as the MacBook Pro, has a 13.3-inch screen with a 1280 x 800 resolution, and can be had with either a Combo optical drive, or the DVD-burning SuperDrive. The new MacBook has a built-in iSight, and features integrated Intel graphics which shares the system’s main memory, a deal-killer for me personally.

To the joy of a lot of Mac users, Apple has now released all of its products from mirroring-only on an external monitor, as the MacBook joins the Intel-based iMac in supporting extended desktop on an external display. The MacBook can drive up to a 23-inch display through it’s Mini-DVI port, which requires an adapter for full DVI or VGA compatibility. One FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, Airport Extreme, and built-in Bluetooth round out the package. Just as with the MacBook Pro and iMac, a modem is now optional, external, and costs $49.

It should be noted that the black MacBook is only available with the 2 GHz Core Duo, and features a $200 markup over its white brethren; this gets you a baseline 80 GB hard drive instead of a 60 GB model. Otherwise, you’re paying extra for the alternative color. Still, I believe Apple is going to sell a ton of both, and will be hard pressed to keep black models in stock. Time will tell if the black cases are as susceptible to scratching as their similarly-colored iPod cousins.

I’d love a black MacBook in the future, but I have a problem with integrated graphics and their sharing of the system memory. It may be an irrational dislike, but it keeps my eye on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, with hope that the new MacBook signals a 13.3-inch version in the Pro series.

A pair of Apple miscellany

“Apple simplifies .Mac Web access”. So common sensical, I wonder why they didn’t think of this sooner.

“Apple actively courting the Beatles”. I like the Beatles, but I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to download any of their music from anywhere. For the sake of Apple, I would love for the iTunes Music Store to carry their full catalog; I believe, as one online commentator wrote, that the Beatles could make up any lawsuit-related losses easily through iTMS sales. Unlike myself, there are lots of people, including TUAW’s Dave Caolo, who want individual Beatles albums.

Personally, I have all the Beatles’ songs I could want on my iPod already. It’s called “1”.

ATPM 12.05

The May issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

We welcome Mark Tennent to the ATPM staff this month. Mark’s been providing us plenty of reading material over the past few months, and we felt it only fair to reward him with the glamorous and career-enhancing position of Contributing Editor. Welcome to the team, Mark!

Wes notes the Boot Camp roundup from the Mac blogosphere, while going insane with award…er, awarding. Mark gives us a double-blast of his regular column, MacMuser, raising the concern over data composting, how valuable cultural artifacts might be lost to future generations, as well as hoping that Apple’s dual boot strategy pays off.

Paul scours the web for sites you didn’t know existed, so you don’t have to. Want to discover new music, solve an online puzzle, listen to the U.S. tax code via podcast, learn how to get to a human operator as quickly as possible in a phone tree, or explore the world of cylinder recordings? Paul’s your new hero.

Chuck delves in to text parsing with FileMaker this month. Ted shares his thoughts on using ConceptDraw in your outlining workflow, as well as noting how outlining concepts are showing up in myriad applications we don’t think of as outliners.

This month’s desktop pictures selection is brought to us by ATPM jack-of-all-trades Chris Lawson. A prophead with his sights set higher—and I mean that in all of the best ways—Chris took his Canon digital SLR to Oshkosh last year for the annual EAA AirVenture. Aircraft lovers are sure to appreciate Chris’s efforts.

We learn Cortland is a James Brown fan, and there’s a lot more to Brody than meets the eye. Much more.

Sylvester opens this month’s reviews with a look at Footlights Pro 2.1. Frank Wu chimes in, noting Axio’s Hardsleeve lives up to its name. It’s the Lee and Lawson show on the fifth-generation iPod, the daring duo bringing you the lowdown on Apple’s latest digital media player. Lee also has a solo act this issue, in a look at iTunes Catalog. Finally, yours truly closes out the issue with my analysis of Datadesk’s SmartBoard ergonomic keyboard.

As always, each issue is available online, or in one of three formats for your offline reading pleasure.

Miscellany

Dan Wade has too much time on his hands.

Gavin Shearer:

If I were Sony, or Toshiba, or HP, I’d be freaking out right now.

I cannot begin to express how broken up I am over the fact that Michael Jackson has to restructure his debt. Oh, look, something shiny…

It’s about time. Pooh is certainly more deserving than most of the blithering glitterati that populate the Walk.

[With a wave of the phin to the Firewheel boys and John.]

Boot Camp

When I was in ROTC, our drill instructor told us…

Sorry, wrong boot camp. And we didn’t really have a drill instructor, since the drilling was done by the uppperclassmen. And there was never something called “boot camp” for ROTC. Anyway…

The web is ablaze with the news of Apple’s Boot Camp. (Not to mention Wall Street.) When I first heard the news—from my non-geeky wife, no less—I admit feeling a little sour. It’s one thing for hackers to find a workaround because Apple’s now using the same underlying hardware as the latest and greatest Windows machines, but to actually support it?

Blessedly, reason soon took hold. As I went about my day, mulling this over in the back of my mind, I came to look at this development as a good thing. Yesterday afternoon, looking through some of my feeds in NetNewsWire, I saw I reached conclusions similar to those of people I know and trust.

Michael sums it up perfectly:

[P]eople would have found a way anyway, so it’s better for Apple to make it work right and take the credit than to pretend it isn’t happening.

Amen. This is no third-party hack that could wipe out your entire system. This is a straight-from-the-source solution. (That could wipe out your entire system; but the odds are more in your favor with Boot Camp.)

Tom has a couple of theoretical examples of how the dual-boot nature of Intel Macs can benefit Apple.

I would have to agree with Erik, however, in that if I were to run Windows on my Mac, I would rather have it in the vein of Virtual PC, where I can switch in and out of the different OS environments with a keystroke. As Welch noted on the MacJournals-Talk list, having to quit everything in one environment and boot in to the other one gets old if you have to do it more than two or three times a day. Even then…

As for me, I have a XP box five feet away, on my wife’s desk in our study. It’s the PC I built for her, and I have my own account on it. The reason I have this iMac is so I don’t have to put up with such nonsense such as the USB driver we wrestled with earlier tonight on her machine for an IR receiver. Then again, why would I want to pass up the chance at something like seeing the blue screen of death on my iMac? That’s just aces.

Miscellany

To get back at phishers (as opposed to a phisch), use PhishFighting. It’s certainly a much better use of CPU cycles than looking for aliens that don’t exist.

[Via IM from Lawson.]

Lee has no sense of adventure.

Memo to Skip Bertman, Director of Athletics, Louisiana State University: in the future, Final Four-bound teams are not allowed to come back to Baton Rouge prior to the semi-final game. Apparently, there’s something in the water that results in “chucking”, better known as “the shooting of bricks”.

It was painful enough watching the men’s team lose the game last night due to their inability to put the ball in the basket (as opposed to UCLA’s winning by making it difficult for the Tigers to do so), but the ladies seemed to have the same problem tonight against Duke, a team which was making it difficult for the Tigers to put the ball in the basket.

Two shots at a championship, two shots blown. Kudos to UCLA and Duke. There’s always next year.

And it’s baseball season.

ATPM 12.04

The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

You’ll notice (hopefully) a new look to the publication this month. Simon Griffee put in time working on the design, and put in time with my and Michael’s tweaks. Thanks so much, Simon!

As Apple celebrates thirty years as a company, it seems more and more notable online personalities are joining the ranks of the Switchers, and Wes has a complete round-up. He also notes the booting-XP-on-Intel-Mac solutions running around the ‘net, but we’re not going to allow such blasphemy to darken our door, much less come inside for dinner with the family. Reader Heather Isaacson took advantage of an abundance of offline time to concentrate on her art, and now wants to build a web site to sell it from. Alas, her old Mac wasn’t up to the task, but she perseveres in a heartwarming tale of old Mac love lost, and new Mac love found.

We feature a double-shot of Mark Tennent this month, as he first delves in to how “Copyleft” software such as Firefox is changing the world’s perception of copyright, then does a little ego-surfing via Google.

We also have a double-shot farewell from Tom Bridge, who is stepping down as an ATPM Contributing Editor. This would be the part where I’d get all weepy and emotional over a staffer’s departure, but I talk to Tom practically every day, and I don’t see that changing, no matter how much he might like it to.

Tom likes the new calendar creation in iPhoto, and I believe I’ll be utilizing this later in the year for the annual family calendar featuring our little phisch. Tom also reviews the TV Mini HD, a ready-for-primetime (provided you get good antenna reception) “Mac TiVo”.

There are a pair of other reviews, with Paul weighing in on Password Retriever (not impressed), and yours truly getting my backup groove on with SuperDuper! (very much impressed). Consequently I have realized I’m not one of those guys who can really pull off a “getting my groove on” sort of line, but it’s late and I don’t feel like coming up with anything else, since my muse tucked itself in after a nightcap about two hours ago.

Cortland learns there’s no accounting for taste, as desperation sets in for Chad while Angie may find that love is even closer than she thinks. Finally, this month’s desktop pictures are of the English Lake District, courtesy of Mac user Andy Bannister. Andy’s work is remarkable; I spent hours on the site looking through photos. Thanks, Andy, for allowing us to showcase part of your portfolio.

As usual, the new and improved ATPM is available in three fruity flavors for your reading pleasure.

Put AutoPairs to work on your Intel Macs

Late last night, I received an e-mail from AutoPairs developer James Walker. James and I had exchanged some messages previously regarding AutoPairs working on Intel Macs. Now, he has discovered a workaround.

1. If you have a PowerPC Mac, which I do in the form of my PowerBook G4, copy the System Preferences application from that Mac to your Intel Mac. In my case, I copied the AutoPairs pref pane from the PowerBook as well, putting it in ~/Library/PreferencePanes.

2. Rename the copied System Preferences application. I renamed my copied app to “SysPref PPC AP config”, so I would know at a glance what it’s sitting on my desktop for.

3. Launch the renamed application.

4. The AutoPairs pref pane showed up and I was able to click on it to activate it and open its configuration window.

Quitting, I switched to BBEdit, and tried out some parentheses and quotes, and it worked like a charm! Thanks, James!

Miscellany

My favorite band contains big Apple fans apparently. Way cool.

I downloaded the new iChat icons for .Mac members, but I’m fairly certain I won’t use any of them.

Europe at night: a digital composite of archived satellite images.

If you have a Nick-N-Willy’s in your area, and you haven’t tried a pizza from them yet, I encourage you to do so. No, they won’t hold a candle to those from a real NYC- or Chicago-style pizzeria, but the pizzas are way better than any you’ll get from the typical fast-food pizza guys. I’m now discarding all of the Papa John’s coupons we receive each week.

“But Macs are still more expensive…”

Winn Schwartau, on conducting a total cost of ownership (TCO) breakdown comparing a Windows PC to an Intel Macintosh, what he refers to as a “MacTel”:

The results of this TCO astounded me. For my small enterprise, owning a WinTel box for three years costs twice as much as owning a MacTel.

Somehow, this just seemed to go hand-in-hand with my previous post.

The greatest trick

John Gruber:

There’s a line in The Usual Suspects where Kevin Spacey’s character Verbal Kint says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

The greatest trick Microsoft has gotten away with is convincing the public that the Wintel PC platform is open.

I think the familiarity John talks about in his piece is the main reason (coupled with the just-a-year-old PC they have) my parents haven’t switched.

Miscellany

Earlier tonight at Costco, I happened upon the Samuel Adams Brewmaster’s Collection Mix Pack. It’s basically a sampler case of different Sam Adams brews. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a regular drinker, so when I want to have a beer, I want a good one, and a Sam Adams happens to fit that category.

However, I’ve never had any of their brews other than the Boston Lager. So when I saw the Brewmaster’s Collection, I knew I had to give it a try. In addition to the Boston Lager, it features the Boston Ale, the Scotch Ale (one of which is currently chilling), the Black Lager, the Hefeweizen, and the Brown Ale.

Also at Costco, Boylan Bottling Company had a table set up where you could sample their various sodas, and buy mix-and-match cases. I have had Boylan sodas in the past, due to their being sold at a Jersey boardwalk-style deli we frequented. (Sadly, said deli has since closed up.) Our case contains Diet Black Cherry (my favorite), Diet Root Beer (better than Barq’s), and Orange Creme (you will never look at any other orange soda the same).

If you use iCal, you owe it to yourself to download and register Aram Kudurshian’s High Priority. It’s well worth the $6 license.

This afternoon, I finally got around to syncing my new iMac Core Duo with my still somewhat new iPod Video. Only iSync doesn’t recognize the iPod. What?!?!? I’m sure this issue was covered elsewhere on the Mac news and in the blogosphere, but I missed it. You now use iTunes to sync your Address Book and iCal info with your iPod. Thanks, Apple, for making what was once a one-click move now something that takes two applications.

ATPM 12.03

The March issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Ellyn ponders the notion of just because you can do something doesn’t mean you necessarily should do it, especially when it comes to system upgrades. This makes me think about all those people wailing over the new Intel-based Macs; it’s not like your two year-old Mac is suddenly obsolete. Is it still running all the apps you were running on it yesterday? Yes? Fine, carry on, and stop sniveling.

Wes looks at how February appeared to be an iPod month, and also notes the discussions on Smart Crash Reports and dual-core processors that have been making the rounds in the Mac blogosphere. Ted looks at Dossier, a new-to-ATPO outliner, as well as outliner web interaction. His columns continue to simultaneously fascinate and overwhelm me. The “Attractive Futures” section at the end is not to be missed.

Mark Tennent notes Microsoft’s struggles in the European Union, and the potential effect on Mac users. (I wrote the blurb, I can reuse it here.) Sylvester dives in to the world of video extraction, which prompted Lee to note via instant message that he wishes he had this information a couple of years ago. This from a guy who deals with video production on a fairly regular basis, or obviously Sylvester has some enlightening suggestions. Matthew extends the life of his Cube with the installation of a SuperDrive.

This month’s desktop pictures are still shots of Quartz Composer models created by Futurismo Zugakousaku. I’m partial to the fish (not surprising), and I like the Iron Wave shots, too. Definitely check out Futurismo’s work. Frisky Freeware is on a short hiatus, but Cortland finds love with Angie, while Chad ponders life outside of work.

Matthew plays with Chessmaster 9000—do these Feral Interactive guys have a time machine or something? Chessmaster 9000?!?! Does chess change that much in 7,000 years?—while Eric cleans his iPod with Newer’s Clean and Polish Kit.

Paul examines an app that should be in every troubleshooting toolkit, Data Rescue II. Miraz Jordan reviews Path Finder 4.0.2, a Finder replacement I hope to get to know better. Finally, Chris puts the X-Slim EL keyboard through the wringer.

As usual, this month’s issue is available in a variety of flavors.

Note to self re: Command- and Option- commands

Command-Tab switches between applications.
Command-tick (`) switches between windows within an application.
Option-Tab, via Witch, switches between windows and applications.

SpamSieve 2.4.2

My favorite spam-killing application has been updated, and now kills spam better than ever. Michael has been rocking on SpamSieve’s efficiency with each update; I see very, very few false negatives, and no false positives with the app.

One updated feature which should be noted is the improved phish detection. That’s phish, not phisch, got it? We phisch are more sneaky…

Leap-A tutorials

Rob Griffiths has an excellent piece on Macworld regarding the Leap-A malware which could infect your Tiger-based Mac, if, well, if you’re either not paying attention or are just stupid. Mark Allan has what should be the obvious, common-sense approach to not getting infected:

1. Are somehow sent (via email, iChat, etc.) or download the “latestpics.tgz” file
2. Double-click on the file to decompress it
3. Double-click on the resulting file to “open” it

…and even then, most users must also enter their Admin password.

You cannot simply “catch” the virus. Even if someone does send you the “latestpics.tgz” file, you cannot be infected unless you decompress the file, and then open it.

Developers needed for Intel updates

Mark Allan is seeking a Mac developer with an Intel Mac to help with an update to ClamXav so it will run on the the new Intel-based Macintosh systems.

The one utility it seems I cannot live without on my new iMac Core Duo is James Walker’s AutoPairs. A preference pane, AutoPairs will not run on an Intel Mac. I contacted James, and he doesn’t have access to an Intel Mac to do further development and testing. I’ve offered my services as a tester, but if any developers with Intel Macs would like to give James a hand, please contact him.

(From a totally selfish standpoint, if anyone knows of a replacement for AutoPairs that works on Intel Macs, drop me a note.)

The Return of Lemonade Stand

When I was in seventh grade, I began computer programming classes. First it was BASIC, on Radio Shack TRS-80 systems (affectionately known as “Trash-80s”). Then it was more BASIC and Turbo Pascal on Apple II computers. Lemonade Stand was a game, along with Oregon Trail, we spent our free time at the end of class goofing around with.

When my parents bought a used Apple IIe from one of my high school teachers, Lemonade Stand and Oregon Trail came with it, and much joy was had playing them again, as well as in seeing my younger sister happily plugging along on them. Now, Lemonade Stand is back, and ported to Mac OS X.

[Via Erik.]

It’s Official

Camino, which is fast becoming my favorite browser, has finally been officially released.

The RSS auto-detect feature, a la Safari, is what is keeping me from completely switching from Apple’s browser.

[Via Chris.]

I love the International Date Line

I received an e-mail notification from the Apple Store just after midnight this morning. It told me they had transmitted the shipping info to FedEx for the pickup of the iMac Core Duo I had ordered.

At 1:53 PM local time, the iMac was picked up in Shanghai. Thanks to the beauty of the International Date Line, it arrived in Anchorage (that’s Alaska, for the geographically ignorant) at 11:54 AM local time, the same day. It has subsequently departed Anchorage as of 1:13 PM local time, and should arrive here on Friday. Yay!

Open Source Mac

I was actually kind of surprised by the number of applications listed at Open Source Mac I use. I suppose on some level, they are elegant enough that I don’t think of them any differently than the commercial software I use.

Calendar hosting

If you find yourself wishing you could have your very own online calendar to sync with iCal, but

1. Have not the resources available to you, or
2. Have not the desire to learn how to set up PHP iCalendar

then Tom can help you out with his new calendar hosting service. Just be sure to tell him the Retrophisch™ sent you.

Rise of the Core Duo

The 17-inch iMac G5 has been removed from the online Apple Store, leaving only the 20-inch G5 version. If you’re looking for a G5 iMac instead of the new Intel Core Duo version, now would appear to be the time to buy.

[Via Al W. on the MacJournals-Talk list.]

Update: John notes what I missed: the remaining 20-inch iMac G5s have been marked down $200, to $1,499. Apple is definitely clearing out last year’s model.

Printing the day’s schedule in iCal

Since MacHome doesn’t post all of its magazine’s monthly content to the web, I’m archiving for my own use this hint from Editor at Large Chris McVeigh, found in the Q&A section of the February 2006 issue.

You can however print an entire day’s schedule, complete with any notes you may have added to the event. Choose View > Go to Date and enter the date you want, or to see the current day’s events, choose View > Go to Today. Now choose View > Day View to see only that day. Finally, choose File > Print.

You’ll see a preview of the print job, which lists appointments along a timeline at the left and the details of these appointments in a separate column at the right. This is a bit awkward, though. In the Print window, choose View > List. You’ll see that the events are now listed one after another (there is no timeline) and include the event details. Click Continue and then click Print. In a few seconds you’ll have a printed copy of your appointments and notes.

ATPM 12.02

The February issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Ellyn examines Google’s noncompliance of demands by the Justice Department, while Wes has the best of the Mac blogosphere’s reaction to last month’s Macworld Expo. Miraz Jordan, noting his enjoyment of podcasts, chimes in with this month’s Pod People. (We’re looking for readers to share their own iPod experiences. If you would like to write a Pod People column, please e-mail the editors.) Ted looks over two outliners new to the Macintosh sandbox. Speaking of sand, Angus Wong dives in to the waters of the Macintosh life and discovers on the sandy bottom the triumph of the Macintosh revolution.

This issue’s desktop pictures section features numerous reader submissions, ranging from flowers to Mount Baker, St. Louis to Thailand, New Hampshire to the Dominican Republic. Thanks to Torben, Bill, Jerry, Steven, and Grover for sharing!

In this month’s Cortland, Lisa makes peace with her maker, the other Steve steps in to foil plans of world dominance, Chad returns to the throne at Weiser Graphics, and Cortland decides the fringe benefits are worth going in-house again.

Ellyn fools around with Bubblomania, while Tom peers between the sheets of the Cult of iPod. Mark Tennent shares his experience with CyTV, and Chris tests the alliteratory Lapvantage Loft. Finally, Tom asks that if you’re going to delve deeply in to the guts of Mac OS X, you do so with a good manual at your side, kid.

Drive capacity envy

Seagate is now shipping 160 GB laptop drives. These are in the Momentus line, and run at 5400 rpm, with an Ultra ATA/100 interface. The Serial ATA version is coming later in the year. What’s interesting to note is that the drives are shipping, but no pricing is available.

I had thought I would rather a 7200 rpm 100 GB drive, over a 5400 rpm 120 GB drive, should I upgrade my PowerBook. Depending upon pricing, I would gladly run a 5400 rpm 160 GB drive. Lee, who passed on the above link via IM, is hoping this announcement will drive down the cost of 120 GB drives.

Update: Lee, again via IM, points to OWC’s listing, with a price of cough, cough $399.00.

MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro.

How soon do you think it will take for a spoof ad to show up that shows the new Intel-powered Macintosh portable, with the golden arches in place of the Apple logo, and the tagline “Do you want fries with that?”

I realize this may be part of some new marketing scheme by our favorite fruit company to get “Mac” into all of its Macintosh product names. It’s just shocking that Steve and Company would ditch “PowerBook,” which has for so long almost been a brand unto itself, not unlike “iPod”.

Google Apple’s best friend?

Tim Beyers ruminates that if the rumors are true, and Google is set to introduce either a low-priced computer running the “Google OS”, or roll out the Google Pack software package, or a for-pay video download service, or any combination of the above, this could drive more Windows users in to the open arms of Macintosh.

Calendar fun

In my pursuit to not renew my .Mac subscription this year, I decided to install PHP iCalendar. Since we use only SFTP on our box, and none of the the iCal FTP apps out there support that protocol, I was left with publishing from iCal via WebDav.

After I confirmed with him that WebDav was available on our box’s installation, Jim, our sysamdmin, walked me through setting up authentication for publishing and viewing. This was not without its little hiccups.

Being the brilliant guy he is, Jim soon figured out the issue, and now I am happily publishing my calendar to the web. A quick bookmark, named oh so originally “Cal”, in Safari’s Bookmark Bar, and I’m set.

Smooth Guy

Do you want to know why Guy Kawasaki was made the head evangelist by Apple in the mid-1990s? Because Guy’s so smooth:

You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector.

Actually, the entire post is about Guy’s optimal PowerPoint presentation. (He sees a lot of them as a venture capitalist.) If you give presentations, it’s a worthwhile read.

ATPM 12.01

About This Particular Macintosh begins its twelfth year of publishing with the release of the January 2006 issue.

Ellyn starts things off by noting something is rotten in the state of Wikipedia. Personally, I try to avoid linking to Wikipedia, and encourage fellow bloggers to do the same. Wes has a round-up of the latest Macworld Expo/Intel-based Mac rumor-mongering, something I simply cannot condone. (The rumor-mongering, not the gathering thereof. I believe it’s important to know, and point out, how badly these rumor sites hurt Apple and rarely help consumers.) Sylvester ponders how even long-time Mac users can encounter newbie moments.

A rare treat for the ATPM readership: publisher Michael Tsai returns with a Personal Computing Paradigm column on coping with Mac OS X’s font rendering. Michael and I share a common Microsoft love: Verdana. It’s my main screen font, too, and the first one I specify in the stylesheets for my blogs. I also like Microsoft’s Georgia, and use it as my main serif font. Look for Georgia to make an appearance in an upcoming redesign I’m working on.

Your humble author again submits some photos from Wyoming as this month’s desktop pictures. These feature the Jenny Lake area of Grand Teton National Park, the part of the vacation I believe I enjoyed more than our time in Yellowstone. This could largely be due to the differences in weather we had between the two parks.

This month’s Cortland, rated PG-13 for violence, attempts to allude to as many science fiction motion pictures as possible, as several plotlines converge.

Tom kicks the reviews off with the software I wish I had the hardware to handle, and that’s turning the digital photography world on its ear, Aperture. Ellyn listens different with Griffin Technology’s EarThumps, while Matthew examines Quicken alternative iCash.

Tom continues to make me jealous with a review of the hardware I hope to be able to run Aperture on in the future, the 20-inch iMac G5. Yours truly got to make a few other staffers jealous with my own product review, that of Tivoli Audio’s iSongBook. While the review was turned in before the Christmas holiday, we did take the iSongBook on the road with us, and it proved its worth for us during our stay at my grandmother’s. It pulled double duty as bedtime lullaby player for our toddler, and alarm clock for us.

Lee, who got plenty of experience with virtual tours last year during his house hunt, looks at an alternative to QuickTime VR for creating virtual tours, Mapwing Creator Pro. Chuck wraps the first reviews of the year up with an examination of the latest version of REALbasic.

Our thanks to our readers who have stuck with us for the past eleven years, and we’re looking forward to the next eleven!

iCalFix

Like Merlin, I have longed for the ability in iCal to have alarms automatically created for new events. Now, thanks to Robert Blum gives us iCalFix, which does exactly that. Robert notes version 0.2 will be out some time in January, but I’ve been using today with no issues. (Note: iCalFix requires the installation of SIMBL.)

Pulling the plug on Info-Mac

Adam Engst details the plan for retiring the Info-Mac Network, noting that it has outlived its usefulness given the Internet’s current climate.

The retirement will not be immediate, though the ceasing of new software acceptance will be. The Info-Mac server will remain online for a few months, as mirror sites make the necessary decisions regarding supporting the now-frozen archive. If you want your very own mirror of the Info-Mac archives, you’ll need a mere seven gigabytes of storage and a simple Unix command.

And the Macworld Eddy goes to…

Given this news, John Gruber makes an excellent point:

This puts Macworld in an awkward spot if they ever again want to review or compare RSS aggregators. If they say NetNewsWire is the best (which it currently is) they’re wide open to accusations of bias; if they say it’s not the best, then they’re stuck admitting that their readers who use the bundled version of NNW are getting something less than the best.

Does anyone else remember when the press, in general, was not burdened by corporate ownership? I just turned 35, and I can recall it being a near-industry standard not that long ago, in my lifetime, where press bodies operated independently.

John is dead-on in his analysis: how are we ever to take seriously any review Macworld conducts of any news reader from this point forward? The fact notwithstanding that a large amount of the Macintosh news reader community, this author included, agrees that NetNewsWire is, in fact, the best news reader out there, on any platform, and, the fact notwithstanding that said Macintosh news reader community likely applauds Macworld’s decision to go with NetNewsWire, given that same would likely ridicule Macworld for choosing what it would perceive to be a lesser application if something other than NetNewsWire was chosen, one has to wonder what the thinking is amongst the editorial staff of Macworld to essentially paint themselves in to a corner when it comes to an ever-increasingly important segment of the software arena.

ATPM mentioned in NYT

I don’t often link to The New York Times, but when the publication I work on gets a mention, well, I have to throw the Times some link love.

James Fallows notes the plethora of Macintosh thought-organization applications (free registration required), and About This Particular Macintosh gets a mention in the last paragraph.

This is due to the incredible work of Ted Goranson, and his About This Particular Outliner series. Thanks, Ted, for all of your hard work!

[From Michael via e-mail.]

ATPM 11.12

The December issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading and downloading pleasure.

Our continued thanks to Bare Bones for their sponsorship of the publication. ATPM is an all-volunteer effort, and any monies made from sponsorships or ads go to support the ever-growing hosting costs for our eleven years’ worth of issues. If you are a hardware or software developer for the Macintosh community, and you would like to become an ATPM sponsor, please contact the editors.

Rob reminds us of December issues past, present, and takes a peek at the future. Ellyn notes how the gadgets of Star Trek are slowly appearing today. As usual, you can depend on Paul for an eclectic mix of sites to explore: tractors, Mac browsers, sudoku, Lowe’s library, and a porcelain throne in a pear tree.

Ted wraps up some loose ends in this month’s ATPO, and puts the call out to the outlining community for users to help out with future ATPO columns, as well as proposing something of a formal gathering of the outlining community: an e-mail list, forum, or web site. If you’re a hard-core outliner, and any of Ted’s proposal strikes you, drop him a note.

Johann delivers a column on how a formerly-derided technology is now changing the way he interacts with his PowerBook and mobile phone. Tom provides a quick how-to on Apple’s PhotoBooth, and Sylvester offers part deux of his music server series.

Tom weighs in on Docktopus, which I’m still trying to figure out if I like or not. Lee convinces me the iFM, in its current state, isn’t for me given my listening habits. Eric reviews a book I will have to take a serious look at, as well as the tome Rob read for this month’s issue. Andrew delivers a double-shot of trackball reviews, with the X-Arcade, and my trackball of choice, the Logitech Trackman Wheel. (I have the corded version.) I’m not a gamer (and if I were, I’d probably use a console), so Andrew’s concerns on using the Logitech for games is moot for me.

Yours truly contributes some shots from the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, taken this past June on a family vacation, for this month’s desktop pictures section. In this month’s Cortland, the Lisa turns on her creators, while Cortland is rewarded for his forward-thinking when it comes to backups. Frisky talks about one of my favorite media apps, VLC, which I’ve been using to watch those episodes of Joey I’ve missed and had to download from the ‘net, because the TiVo is recording someone else’s shows during that time slot.

As usual, you can download the latest issue in one of three flavors. Just don’t spill the egg nog.

I’ve always said, “If you want to play games…”

John Gruber:

[N]ext-generation consoles seem set to surpass the PC as the premier platforms for gaming, which means anyone who’s resisted switching from Windows because of the lack of games for the Mac will have one less reason not to switch. I think there a lot of guys out there who are starting to think they’d be better off with a new Mac and an Xbox/PS3 than with a new Windows PC.

Years ago, when I was more fanatical about evangelizing the Mac, whenever the gaming argument came up my reply was always along the lines of “If you want to play games, go buy a Nintendo.” (Update the phrase with the console of your choice.)

This is what is known as “hitting the nail on the head”

Jeff Harrell:

It kind of amazes me what shortcomings the people who buy Windows computers are willing to live with. It used to be the case that Macs were more expensive than other kinds of computers, pound for pound. This is no longer true, of course, and hasn’t been for some time, but even if it were, it seems like it would be only proper. It seems like people who buy Windows computers have to spend a lot of time finding and downloading (or buying) programs to make their computers do stuff my computer does all by itself.

“I ain’t missin’ you at all…”

Erik posits he really isn’t missing windowshade functionality in OS X. Neither am I. I began using windowshade less and less in the waning days of OS 9, thanks to LiteSwitch. Like Erik, I have rarely found myself in a situation where windowshade functionality would be necessary with Mac OS X. I hardly ever use Exposé, either.

My extensive use of cool-switching via Command-Tab and Quicksilver has also rendered the usage of multiple desktops as moot. Lee reviewed You Control: Desktops, and I looked at the product, and have experimented with Desktop Manager, but right now multiple desktops don’t fit in to my computing habits.

Michael Hyatt: Judge, Jury, Executioner

Relax, mouth-foamers, we’re talking about software. I like Michael’s system, sequestering apps for a specific amount of time to see if they’re truly needed or not. I need to do something along these lines, though I’ve already pared down to 110 items in the Applications folder from a clearinghouse earlier this year.

TMTOTH

Today’s “Too Much Time On Their Hands” installment is again brought to you by TUAW:

Turn a classic Macintosh SE in to a 3 GHz PC.

What a waste of a SE case.

TMTOTH

Today’s “Too Much Time On Their Hands” episode is brought to by TUAW:

Stick the guts of a modern optical mouse in to a classic Apple ADB mouse.

Dear MacAddict

Thank you so much for the magazines you keep sending, even though we’re coming up on the fifth month since my subscription expired. I don’t really care about the fact that these “teaser” issues do not contain the CD, as I often found the CDs included with MacAddict to be out of date and the original content mostly useless. The only reason I re-subscribed in the first place was because of the $10 off the regular subscription price offer through Apple’s .Mac service. Your magazine hasn’t been worth much more than that for a number of years.

But feel free to keep the teaser issues coming. I can use the laughs.

Today’s miscellany

And thus Apple’s plans at world domination were dashed.

Regarding HTML in e-mail: what Tom said. I’m not even an admin like Tom that has to deal with this crap on a day-to-day basis. E-mail is for text. The Web is for graphics. No co-mingling of the two. I realize I’m in a rapidly dwindling minority on this issue, Jeff, but that’s my area of Ludditism, I guess.

The Tetran doesn’t look too terribly comfortable to be sliding in to one’s front pants pocket. [Via Lee.]

I’ve noticed the severe lack of updates to Apple’s iCal Library section, too. Now I just get whatever I want from iCalShare.

Google continues to intrigue me. Really.

An excellent illustration.

I pronounce it like the peanut butter, with a hard J. [Via John.]

Today’s miscellany

Yeah, it’s been up a few days, but I’m just getting to it, okay? John Gruber has come around, much as I have recently, to the notion of PowerBook-as-main/only-system, a concept Lee has been a proponent of for some time. John also has an in-depth review of the latest 15-inch PowerBook, outfitted just as I would like, with his usual attention to detail.

It’s Monday evening, and I’m still sore from the neighborhood tree planting from Saturday morning. Eleven ten-gallon trees to go in the neighborhood’s greenbelt area. Seventy homes, with an average of two adults per home. Seven people showed up, including myself. Yeah.

An interesting tip I picked up from No Plot? No Problem! shows an innovative use for all that spam that gets collected for me. This one writer keeps a list of names that show up in the From field of spam e-mails, so she always has a pool of character names to pull from. I really like this, since usually when I’m working on fiction, I can come up with two or three good character names, then I start really pulling stuff out of bodily orifices. A simple text document in BBEdit now has 305 names, one per line, and the built-in Kill Duplicates filter ensures I don’t have the same name twice.

Today’s miscellany

I’ve been trying to send some e-mails with attachments via Gmail, from within Safari. Frustrated, I launched the 1.0b1 version of Camino, and it worked the first time I tried.

If Camino could mimic the easy subscribability of Safari when it comes to RSS and Atom feeds, there would be no looking back. Based on my own usage, Camino is consistently faster than Safari at rendering, uses less RAM over time, and remains more stable.

Then Tom has to go and remind me why Safari kicks butt when it comes to designing for standards.

An article in the latest Macworld has prompted me to look seriously at del.icio.us. My personal work habits have evolved to the point where I’m no longer worried about keeping bookmarks synced between two systems, but the prospect of an online backup of my bookmarks, that I could access from any where, is appealing. I’m coming closer all the time to my own personal death knell for .Mac.

Anthro’s eNook is so cool it almost makes me wish I didn’t have enough space to get one. Almost.

A happy belated to Tiffany.

Finally, my thanks to Tom. He knows why.

Widgets smidgets

So Leander posits Apple is prepping a WYSIWYG widget-creation app. TUAW’s David Chartier whines “what took so long?” I can’t help but think, “So what?”

I know I’m not alone in minimal widget use. I see the myriad widgets being created and updated daily fly through my RSS feeds, and I can easily imagine users with 20-30 of these things flying around at once, bogging down their system’s background process time. At least now to create a widget you have to have some Javascript and HTML knowledge, and it helps if you’re design savvy. God help us if “Dashcode” is for real; it will unleash untold useless and ugly widgets on the Mac-using populace.

I do see a lot of widgets where I think, “Hey, that would be cool/convenient to have.” Then I realize that a particular widget wouldn’t be one I would want running all of the time. Then I realize that in the time it takes me to activate Dashboard, go in and make the widget active in the Dashboard environment, and have it refresh, I could just as quickly pull up my web browser and point it to whatever page I needed for the same information.

Ah, you say, but what happens when you’re using your PhischBook some place where you don’t have ‘net access? Granted, this is an instance when widgets would be useful, provided the widget itself doesn’t require an Internet connection to load its information. For my own use, there’s not a non-Internet-using widget out there that I cannot live without. A scenario where such a widget would come in handy when I am without Internet access has not arisen, and even if it had, I believe it would be for something that could just as well keep until I had access again. I probably activate Dashboard between eight and a dozen times a day.

For the record, the widgets I run:

• Dictionary, Phone Book, Stocks, and Weather, all widgets that come with Mac OS X Tiger
• SysStat
• Backpack
• BibleSearch
• DailyVerse
• Scoreboard, during baseball season

I had been using iCal Events, but I’m giving MenuCalendarClock for iCal a try, and am attempting to determine which one I like better for everyday use.

Your thoughts on widgets? What are you running? Drop a note in the comments.

C-Command Blog

Michael now has a dedicated blog for C-Command products. Since the illustrious Mr. Tsai has not yet posted feed links, allow me to help you out: RSS, or if you prefer, Atom.

[Big wave of the phin to Lee for the pointers to the feed links.]

ATPM 11.11

The November issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. I’m wondering if Charles Anthony’s cover art will be the last to feature the Power Mac G5.

Daniel Jalkut, of Red Sweater Blog, was kind enough to contribute this month’s Pod People column. We are actively seeking new iPod stories each month, and if you would like to share yours, please e-mail the editors.

In this month’s FileMaking, Chuck Ross takes a break from the usual how-to to examine the new features of FileMaker 8. Sylvester Roque sets up a Mac music server, while Matthew Glidden upgrades his Cube’s video card. I’ve performed the latter operation myself, though instead of the Radeon Matt uses, I went with a nVidia GeForce2 MX.

Lee Bennett is kind enough to share with us his photos of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis as this month’s desktop pictures selection. I especially like numbers four and eight.

In Cortland, Chad Wieser finds himself beginning a new phase in life, while Cortland collects the last of a client’s bill. Frisky Freeware notes the return of a Classic classic: FinderPop! Turly O’Connor is porting the venerable productivity app to OS X, and I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces. I’ve been thinking that I wouldn’t get as much use out of FinderPop now, since I use Quicksilver, but I’m also thinking of the two apps as compliments rather than competitors. For those times when you’re mousing around, it’s easier to activate FinderPop, rather than going to the keyboard with both hands for Quicksilver.

Yours truly shares the review spotlight with my fellows this month. Lee puts the AirClick and AirClick USB from Griffin Technology through their paces, while Matthew goes behind enemy lines with the Commandos Battle Pack. Tom Bridge examines the third edition of Derrick Story’s excellent Digital Photography Pocket Guide. Eric Blair gives OmniGraffle Professional 4 a workout, while I chime in with a look at RadTech’s Portectorz for the 12-inch PowerBook.

We still have openings on the editorial staff, and we are always looking for new writers, and need new cover art each month. If you are interested in volunteering some time to ATPM in any of these areas, please e-mail the editors.

It is about time…

With thanks to John for the post title and link:

Rich Siegel, of Bare Bones fame, is finally blogging.

As if it weren’t enough that Rich is responsible for two of the applications I use the most each day, he is a fellow scotch and peanut butter lover. Rich, drop me a line when you’re in Dallas; there’s 12-year Glenfiddich Special Reserve in the pantry.

MarsEdit lives!

Brent Simmons announced tonight that development of MarsEdit will continue. w00t!

Apple’s new iron and bits

So yesterday was the latest in a slew of product announcements from Apple. In just over a month, we’ve seen the iPod nano, the iPod with Video, the new iTunes Music Store from whence you can download videos and television shows for your video iPod, and now new Power Macs, PowerBooks, and a new piece of pro software.

Power Macs

The new Power Macs are slower than the ones they replace—from a clock-speed perspective, anyway. And let’s be honest: most people don’t understand how a dual-core 2.5 GHz processor is faster than a non-dual-core 2.7 or 3 GHz processor. They see numbers. They understand numbers. The higher the number, the faster it must be. So Apple has a bit of education to do for users, who aren’t as hip and in-the-know as you or I when it comes to the technobabble, contemplating new Power Macs. Then again, maybe those sorts of people are just better off with an iMac or a Mac mini.

Every gearhead, yours truly included, of course is lusting after the dual-core, dual-processor 2.5 GHz Power Mac. This means there are four cores on two chips, and is why Apple refers to this beast as the “Quad.” Should you care to shell out as much money for two video cards—the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, with 512 MB of SDRAM—as the Quad costs, you can drive four 30-inch Cinema Displays from a single box. Every gearhead, yours truly included, is also lusting after the funds to accomplish this. I can barely fathom having two of those 30-inch monsters on my desk, much less four, and I would be in happy-happy dream land with only one.

PowerBooks

While it’s fun to have fantasies about high-end desktop hardware, I was realistically focused on the new PowerBooks. The missus mentioned the possibility of new mobile iron after the first of the year, so I was hoping to see some improvements, given that this may be the last revision of PowerPC-based ‘Books before Intel-based hardware ships.

I was disappointed that the line-up didn’t see a speed bump. It would have been nice to get a 1.8 GHz PowerBook. The added pixels in the 15- and 17-inch models are indeed welcome, though the 15-inch’s resolution is now higher than the 19-inch LCD I would normally hook it up to. Right now, my 12-inch PowerBook—with a resolution of 1024x768—drives the 19-inch panel, with its resolution of 1280 x 1024. My normal habit is to run the PowerBook closed, given the extra real estate on the 19-inch LCD. With one of the new PowerBook models, I’m looking at the prospect of reordering my workspace, so the PowerBook could be run in extended-desktop mode with the LCD. This is certainly not a bad thing.

John notes the simplified line-up of the PowerBook models, and I concur this is a good thing. I wonder, though, if the simplified product line-up isn’t so much a result of Apple’s desire for simplification, but rather the aforementioned fact that there are no speed-bumps. Historically, when you saw the different versions of a PowerBook, other than screen size, there was a processor speed difference as well. With yesterday’s announcement, Apple killed the slower-speed model for the 15- and 17-inch PowerBooks.That notwithstanding, again, I agree; the simplified line-up is much better. When I went to price a new 15-inch, I only made one change, the hard drive. (I’ll buy my 2 gigs of RAM elsewhere and save a few hundred bucks, Apple, thanks.)

Aperture

Likely the main reason I’m gear-lusting after a Power Mac G5 Quad is because I’m also lusting after Apple’s latest piece of pro software, Aperture. Think Final Cut Pro for digital photographers. (I know I read that phrase somewhere, but haven’t been able to recall where yet.) I wasn’t crazy about the name at first, thinking Tom had come up with a much better one, but it’s growing on me.

Aperture is a one-stop shop of digital photo post-production, and while it is geared toward—and priced for—professional photographers, as a burgeoning “prosumer,” I can see how much I would gain from Aperture’s abilities. Alas, none of my current hardware can handle the app, and while I know I will begin pushing the limits of iPhoto in the near future, I’m not there yet.

Many see Aperture as a shot across Adobe’s bow, and while I’m sure it will steal some screen time from Photoshop, I see the two applications working in complement with one another rather than competition. Given what Aperture brings to the table, Adobe is going to have to look at something other than just workflow solutions for Photoshop. Their flagship application is already suffering from featuritis, with no real room to grow except through the implementation of workflow solutions, so future development should be interesting to watch.

Regarding the new Apple hardware, Leander Kahney remarked, “I actually don’t like product announcements like this. It makes my 18-month-old PowerBook and G5 look feeble and decrepit.” Leander, I’m plugging along on a 4.5-year old Cube and 2-year old 12-inch PowerBook. How do you think I feel?

Keep your iCal window the same size

King of Mac OS X Hints Rob Griffiths has a great tip for keeping your iCal window the same size no matter which view (Day, Week, Month) you’re using. Very handy.

Why stock analysts are worthless

(Alternative title: There’s an reason the word “anal” is in “analyst”)

Apple quadruples its profit, but the stock takes a ten percent-plus dive because the company “missed” the number of iPod sales stock analysts —who are not employees of Apple, do not sit on the Board of Directors, and who are not Apple executives— said they thought the company should have sold? They sold 6.4 million iPods in a three months. How many Rios did Creative sell in the last three months? Oh, that’s right, they canned that music player.

Hold on, it gets better.

Those same analysts, who are poo-pooing Apple for failing to sell as many iPods as the analysts thought they should have sold, seem to think Delphi is a good buy. No wonder monkeys are just as good at the stock market as these guys.

[With thanks to John Gruber, and Matt Deatherage and W.R. Wing on the MacJournals-Talk list.]

That smart FontExplorer

So like a lot of the Macintosh-using world, I’ve been dinking around with Linotype’s FontExplorer X, and I like it. I used Suitcase when I worked in the graphic design support world, and it was a good app, but always felt cumbersome. Not so with FontExplorer X.

Jon Armstrong notes the use of the app’s Smart Set feature, and I can see myself taking advantage of this quickly. Being able to sort fonts in to their own foundry sets is at the top of my list. I’m curious to see how many Fontosaurus types I still have kicking around. (Go, buy from Dan, support a one-man font shop.)

More on the NetNewsWire acquisition

Tom’s not happy with Brent and Sheila’s sale of NetNewsWire to NewsGator. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that he’s literally on drugs.

If you’ve spent any time on the Ranchero beta lists, exchanged e-mail with Brent, or read his blog posts on development, you know Mr. Simmons does not go off half-cocked with major business and development decisions. Despite Tom’s dislike of NewsGator, I’m sure Brent and Sheila were quite careful with whom they chose to sell NetNewsWire. After all, this company is Brent’s new employer. He would have to be convinced the company would foster the sort of development environment in which he would have the freedom to make NetNewsWire all it could be.

As he notes, there are things he’s wanted to do with NNW that he has been able to not get to, having to deal with the business and support aspects of being an independent software developer. By going in-house with NewsGator, Brent is now free from those other constraints, absent anything he may wish to do on the side with Ranchero’s other products that NewsGator did not purchase. With regard to NetNewsWire, all Brent has to worry about right now is programming. One would reasonably believe this is a Very Good Thing™.

I have no opinion about NewsGator, as a company or with regard to any of its products. They have never been on my radar before. Perhaps Tom knows something I do not, but again, I believe Brent would have done his research regarding the company before making such a commitment.

With regard to selling out to Apple, I don’t see that ever happening. Apple’s nod to RSS is the feature built in to Safari. I don’t see a standalone news reader in Apple’s future, nor do I see Apple devoting the depth of features you can find in NetNewsWire in to the RSS cabinet of Safari.

In the end, it appears this is a good thing for the Simmons, and a good thing for Mac users. NetNewsWire simply rules the news reader market, on any platform. No doubt this is the number-one reason NewsGator was interested in it, and I don’t see any other product, much less an open-source initiative, knocking it from that perch any time soon.

Brent and Sheila sell out

Gruber points out that Ranchero Software has sold NetNewsWire to NewsGator. Big, big news in the Macintosh community it is. It appears this is a good move for Brent and Sheila Simmons, and will not affect NetNewsWire aficionados, yours truly included. I am a little concerned about MarsEdit, which Brent says, in the above-linked interview, they are searching for a new home for.

I’m sure Brent will take some heat from certain zealots in the Mac blogosphere and beyond, but he will get none from me. He and Sheila have to do what’s best for them, and by throwing in with NewsGator, it would appear the sky is suddenly the limit. Our best wishes to the Simmons, and we eagerly await the next version of NetNewsWire!

Update, 9:35 PM CST: Gruber notes the post in Brent’s blog regarding the acquisition.

ATPM 11.10

The October issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Ellyn ponders the day we watch movies on our mobile phones, while Wes covers the fact that our mobiles are now playing music, thanks to the iTunes-compatible ROKR from Motorola. He also looks at the incredible iPod Nano, file formats, OS X UI, and other bits from the Mac blogosphere.

Ted takes TAO and OmniOutliner Pro head to head, while Chuck’s FileMaking rolls on with Common Functions.

ATPM reader Mark Dickson is gracious in sharing photos from his June trip to Italy as this month’s desktop pictures selection. In this month’s Cortland, the Lisa returns, and Terry is targeted by…well, some people you think you know. Frisky notes backup freeware PsyncX.

On the reviews front, Johann examines Airfoil’s audio hijacking and broadcasting capabilities (when paired with an Airport Express Base Station). Chris Lawson tries out Business Card Composer, and puts the Mercury Elite-AL Pro RAID through its paces. Michael compares two disk catalogers, Catalog and CDFinder. I used to use Disk Tracker, but eventually got out of the disk/CD cataloging habit. Now that my digital photo collection is growing by leaps and bounds, there is a need to pick that habit up again, and this review helped. Finally, Tom tells our readers what he thinks of the new iPod nano.

As always, the publication is available in three fruity flavors for your reading enjoyment.

“Mac” is a no-no for Google AdWords users

Sometimes, Apple can be so stupid.

It must be .Mac renewal time

Matt Deatherage used the above line as the title for an e-mail on the MacJournals-Talk list, and he’s right. You usually don’t see updates and new features added to .Mac until fall arrives.

You can read the gory details, but the gist is .Mac members now get 1 GB of storage, split between mail and data, there’s a new version of Backup, and .Mac members can now congregrate in to groups.

As of five minutes ago, looking at my iDisk space inside the .Mac preference pane, I saw it was still at 200 MB. I logged in to my .Mac Account Settings, and it reflects the 1 GB increase. You will have to click on the Storage Settings button to see the change reflected in your e-mail/iDisk breakdown. Quitting System Preferences, then relaunching and clicking on the .Mac pref pane will have the storage update reflected there.

I have been debating renewing my .Mac subscription, and these updates really don’t change much for me. I’m not ready to transition everything in the next 12 days, when my account is set to renew, so I’ll be a .Mac member for at least another year. Watch for an upcoming post about .Mac value.

Enough said, indeed

The Oz has spoken.

Is there a name for this sort of illness?

I use Safari Enhancer to kill the brushed metal look of Safari. I just used iTunes Unified to change iTunes 5’s Unifed-Metal look to normal Unified.

So why is it my chat client has to have brushed metal? What the hell is wrong with me?

ATPM 11.09

The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Wes had a great idea for the cover, and we like how the art turned out. We’re just sorry we couldn’t have run it last month, but that’s the way it is some times.

Speaking of Mr. Meltzer, in this month’s Bloggable, Wes covers the latest Mac-on-Intel musings from the Mac blogosphere, as well as blips on the Mighty Mouse, browsers, and Apple rumors. David Ozab shares a moving tribute to Robert Moog, the man responsible for popularizing the modern synthesizer, which many a Macintosh has played in concert with. Sylvester shares his digital music experiences in this month’s Pod People.

Regarding the Pod People column, we seem to have run through the staffers interested in contributing, and we are seeking future columns from our readership. If you would like to share your iPod experiences, please drop us a line.

Chuck Ross’s critically-acclaimed FileMaking series continues with a look at Fields and Calculations. (I kid not; reader feedback on Chuck’s articles has been incredibly positive. Congrats, Chuck! It’s our pleasure to offer your work to our readers.)

Our own Matthew Glidden shares some photo textures from Louisville, Kentucky, and New Orleans, taken in August of last year, in this month’s desktop pictures section. My good friend Francisco also has a contribution, a picture of what the night sky in Manhattan may have looked like, starting in 1998…

Cortland decodes corporate buzzwords while missing a golden opportunity. Meanwhile, the plan of the evil geniuses is temporarily foiled due to their inability to read a map. Once again, I wrote the blurb (ahem, Lee), so I’m using it here. It took me long enough to come up with that; why reinvent the wheel?

Frisky Freeware notes the Nvu web authoring system. It’s free, and cross-platform to boot, and looks fairly nice. If I wasn’t such a text editor nerd-wannabe, I would probably look in to it more, but most of my web design and development is done inside BBEdit.

David Blumenstein puts the ABSmini one-touch storage system through its paces, while Tom Bridge does the same with Apple’s new Mighty Mouse. (I’m still trying to scrape together funds for a Kensington trackball.) The Dean, Frank Wu, examines the NeoCase from RadTech. I had many a neoprene case for my old PowerBooks, and it’s cool in a retro way to see them still around. Andrew Kator works over the PhoneValet 3.0, while Marcus Albers logs in to Tron 2.0. Light-bike races are still my favorite. Finally, Lee reviews You Control: Desktops, which, for the special price You Software is offering ATPM readers, is worthy of consideration for your multiple desktop needs.

We have some staff vacancies, as you can see on our cover page, we need Pod People authors, as I stated earlier, and we always need cover art each month. If you’d like to contribute to ATPM in any way, please let us know.

About that Safari update

Dear Apple,

Is it really and truly necessary for a x.0.x upgrade of a web browser to force an full-blown system restart? Think of the minutes of productivity lost for this single user. Think of the total hours lost by large corporate entities.

Oh, Safari is closely tied to Mac OS X? How very Microsoft of you, Steve.

Get your act together, gang. It’s a web browser. Updates and upgrades shouldn’t force restarts.

Thanks,

Annoyed Retrophisch™

Quicksilver + Dictionary

Tim Brayshaw has a great tip on combining the use of Quicksilver with Mac OS X 10.4’s Dictionary.

[Via TUAW.]

Giving Adium that iChat-fresh feeling

As I’ve said before, I like the look of iChat. So when I made the switch yesterday to Adium, so I could use both the AIM and Google Talk (viz: Jabber) protocols at the same time, I began a hunt to have Adium replicate the look of iChat. If you feel similarly, I’ll save you some time.

First, don’t download the official Adium client. Instead, download Metal Adium X by Mike Barca. That will give you the metal look for the chat window(s) and the Contacts list, as well as Aqua-y goodness for progress bars, etc. As he explains on the Metal Adium site, Mike updates the app within 24-48 hours of a new release of the official Adium client.

Second, download iChadiumMod, so your message view will have the iChat-style balloons. Next, be sure to change your sound set to “iChat” in the Events preferences. Finally, you’ll need a new Dock icon. There are a few iChat replica icons on Adium Xtras, but I didn’t want an exact duplicate. I’d like to be able to tell my apps apart, thank you, so I went with the iChat Adium derivative.

Looking at my chat setup now, I can’t help but wonder if this is near to what iChat would look like with tabs:

I’m sure Steve would have the tabs at the top, a la Safari, but otherwise, pretty darn close, no?

Accordance Seminar, Dallas

If you’re an Accordance user, and aren’t on the OakTree Software e-mail list, there is a free seminar on getting the most out of the company’s flagship product coming up in September:

Saturday September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Todd Academic Center — Room 114
Dallas Theological Seminary
3909 Swiss Ave., Dallas, TX

Refreshments will be provided, though you’re on your own for lunch. You are encouraged to bring your own laptop to follow along with. E-mail Dr. Helen Brown for further details and to RSVP.

Gtalk

Jon reports that Google Talk has gone live. The IM product builds on Gmail accounts and the open-source Jabber IM service.

I’m already up and running on it with AdiumX, so I guess iChat will be taking a hike, and my fun balloons won’t be used in the future. (Can anyone point me to a reasonable substitute for Adium?) If you want to jaw via Jabber courtesy of Google, use my site name at gmail dot com, but you have to have a Gmail account to play along. Let me know if you’d like an invitation via the e-mail address noted in the previous sentence.

ClamXav

MacDevCenter recently featured an article about ClamXav, a free virus scanner for Mac OS X. ClamXav is based on the open-source, antivirus engine ClamAV.

With the loss of Virex as an incentive for purchasing .Mac, François Joseph de Kermadec’s article convinced me to download ClamXav and give it a whirl. I now have it configured to automatically scan my home account every night at 3 AM, after it checks for the latest updates. It also will scan, in the background, any file that ends up in my downloads folder.

The app is Java-based, so it’s a little slower than I’d like on my 1 GHz PowerBook, but hey, it’s free. It does appear to be put together well, otherwise.

We have very few virii to worry about on the Macintosh side of the fence, but it never hurts to be prepared.

In search of a good web whacker

That’s web whacker, not weed whacker. The latter is taken care of by our Black & Decker Grass Hog.

A friend is looking for a Mac- or Java-based web whacker/sucker program for a project. According to what he’s tried so far:

• Web Dumper doesn’t work
• PageSucker stops working while in use
• Site Orbiter doesn’t save files for browsing offline properly
• Safari’s Web Archive feature isn’t cutting the mustard, either

The project in question is taking a dynamically-generated web site (which does not output HTML files), whacking/sucking it to a local machine in HTML format, then moving it offsite to another web server.

Please leave suggestions in the comments. Thanks!

You learn something new every day

John Gruber, via GUIdebook:

…[Y]ou can use Command-Tab switching when you’re in the middle of a drag. So you can start dragging something in one app, then use Command-Tab to switch to another app, and then complete the drop in the new app. I don’t even know when this happened – it might have been like this on Mac OS X all along, but I don’t think I noticed until sometime during the 10.2 era. This also works with things like Exposé and Dashboard.

It sounds obvious, but doing something like that was completely unheard of on the old Mac OS.

What should they do with the company, Michael?

The company Michael Dell said should be sold off and the money given to its shareholders is kicking his butt:

Overall customer satisfaction with the PC industry is unchanged from a year ago at 74, but changes within the industry give Apple a commanding lead. The PC maker maintains big improvements from 2003 and 2004, holding at 81 for a second year. Apple’s sales are up 33%, net income has grown 300% and its stock price has nearly tripled over the past year. A slew of product innovations and an emphasis on digital technologies and customer service have been very successful for Apple with a high degree of customer loyalty as a result.

Dell is a different story. Based on a strategy of mass customization, the #1 PC maker worldwide has been a leader in customer satisfaction for several years. This quarter, it suffers a sharp drop in ACSI, down 6% to 74. Customer service in particular has become a problem, and service quality lags not only Apple but also the rest of the industry. Customer complaints are up significantly with long wait-times and difficulties with Dell’s call-center abound. Still, competitive pricing as a result of Dell’s direct-sales business model keeps overall customer satisfaction slightly above other competitors, with the exception of Apple. Whether Dell’s declining satisfaction will have a negative impact on the company’s stock performance remains to be seen; however, ACSI history has shown that changes in customer satisfaction often signal similar changes in future financial performance. Apple’s stock price is up 35% for the year-to-date, whereas Dell’s is flat.

[Via MacInTouch, emphasis in quoted text added. —R]

DropDMG 2.7

Michael has released a new version of his disk image creation utility, DropDMG. The big, new features are disc burning and improved progress windows. Very groovy. I may have to revise my own backup procedures in light of this new release.

OS X on non-Apple Intel iron

Jon notes the challenge to get the Intel version of OS X running on non-Apple, Intel-based hardware has been met.

It will be interesting to see how this affects both Macintosh hardware and software development moving forward. It would seem that, since this is a development build of Tiger, it would be relatively easy to pull this off. I’m sure the shipping version of the first for-Intel Mac OS will have appropriate countermeasures in the code to prevent this from happening.

Gmail on Mailsmith

I finally attempted, once again, to set up POP access to my Gmail account in Mailsmith. I used all of the settings found on the Configuring other mail clients page, made sure to check “Leave Mail on Server”, and like any good technology, it all just works.

ATPM 11.08

The August issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Kudos to Lee on the cover art. We were in dire need of cover art, and he stepped up big time. We are always looking for cover art, so if you are graphically inclined, and wish to contribute something, please contact us.

Speaking of contributing, we’re also looking for another copy editor, a publicity manager, and contributing editors to help us with reviews, opinion columns, how-to pieces, and interviews. We’re an all-volunteer publication, but if you’d like to help out in one of these areas, please drop us a line.

Back to the issue at hand, there has been a lot of good news coming out of Apple this past quarter, as Rob reminds us. Wes takes, well, just about everyone involved in the business world to task for underestimating and misunderstanding Apple, as well as sharing bits from all over the Mac blogosphere. Eric, my 3G iPod brother, tells his tale with the little white digital music player in this month’s Pod People.

Ted shares part two of Outlining and Styles in the latest ATPO, discussing, among other things, on-screen readability, font choices, and style sheets. Chuck continues his FileMaking series with Fields and Calculations. If you’re just getting started with FileMaker, be sure to go read his first column, too.

As Managing Editor, part of my job description is to strong-arm columns out of writers subtly hint at a possible column to staffers when they broach interesting technical subjects. Such was the case when Sylvester was having RAM issues with his new G5, and he shares his experiences with memory testing.

Tom has an interview with John Hart, Mac modder extraordinaire. Sorry, John, but I still have severe reservations about embedding my beloved Cube in the middle of a fish tank, no matter how utterly wicked cool that would be. Maybe when I get a G5 we can sacrifice the Cube to the modding gods.

This month’s desktop pictures selection is a melting pot of various submissions from ATPM readers. We thank John, James, Jim, Bill, and William for the privilege of showcasing their work. Frisky Freeware notes App Stop, which is software I’ll have to look in to. Cortland wraps up dinner with his parents and friends, Wieser Graphics rises from the ashes, and Matt pays homage to influential Web comics. Yes, that’s word-for-word from the blurb on the Welcome page and the RSS feed, but I wrote it when the blurber got stuck, so I’m using it. (Michael, take note. I have just created the official staff position of “blurber”.)

Tom and his fiancé, Tiffany, have a review of Backpack, the latest web service from 37signals. I’m really enjoying the free version so far, and my wife and I have used it to track RSVPs for the little phisch’s upcoming birthday party, sharing a page online so both of us can access it. Wes looks at Boswell 4.0, sharing how it helps him keep things straight as he writes reviews about software that helps you keep things organized, like reviews about software that help…

Then there are the reviews which make this “The Issue of Apple Portable Computing Computer Bags.” (See, this is why Michael doesn’t let me declare names for issues.) David hauls around the Brenthaven Pro 12/15, while Lawson bombs about with the MaxSleeve from MaxUpgrades. Frank Wu uses booq’s Vyper XL, and yours truly was underwhelmed with Timbuk2’s Detour.

Savvy readers may notice that Ellyn’s Candy Apple column did not appear this month. Ellyn’s taking a break from the writing gig for awhile, but she continues working tirelessly in the trenches, copy editing for the rest of us. Rest assured, when she has something to say, you’ll read it in ATPM.

Yet another solid issue from the staff. Thanks, gang!

A terabyte for less than a grand

OWC announced today it is now offering 1 Terabyte (TB) of RAID storage for $979.99. Wow.

Arlo’s revenge

What do you do when you perceive a major computer company has totally ripped off your software and tout their version as a major feature of their latest operating system?

Why, you sell out, of course.

MDJ publisher Matt Deatherage, ever the trooper, offers this bit of analysis on the MacJournals-Talk list, even though he’s laid up with an illness:

Kind of a “widget wow” moment. Anyone think there will be about six billion more new Konfabulator widgets in the next 3 months? Apple just got trumped on the “we’re making our widget format available for free to more users” strategy; now Dashboard may be the underdog in the long-term.

(Just for the record, my original notification of the sale came from Matt’s post to the list.)

Types of Windows users and I wish we’d bought a Mac Mini

Wil Shipley, in a DrunkenBlog interview:

The two types of Windows users I’ve identified at my café are:

a. I use Windows to run Word and Excel and browse the web (and read e-mail in my web browser), and b. I’m a programmer and I spend all my time in a Windows IDE or hacking around with my system.

I’m sure there may be a third category of user out there, but this has been my observation as well. My wife and parents clearly are the first type of users, and could just as well be served on a Mac. The SuperToad falls in to the second camp; he makes his living as a Windows programmer, but he does so with a Mac on his desk as well. Plus, he’s still getting mileage out of a decrepit, original orange iBook.

Since my switch to Macintosh over a decade ago, one of the reasons we have kept a PC or two in the house was due to my wife’s work. She’s a corporate attorney, and could always work from home, if need be. After our move to Dallas, the firm she worked for here had a VPN system set up, and she could work on items in the firm’s document management system from home, just as if she was sitting in the office.

Her new employer, however, being tied in to the stock market and the myriad regulations therein regarding insider trading, etc., does not have such a system in place. You work at the office, or you work on a company-provided laptop, or you don’t work. Also, my wife’s position also is not as intensive in outside-normal-business-hours work as her former firm life was. She doesn’t need a PC at home any more.

Last year, when her old desktop PC was giving up the ghost, and I set out to build her a new one, if we had known then she was going to change jobs, I wouldn’t have bothered. I would have milked the old PC until after she moved in to her new career, then replaced it with a Mac Mini. Hindsight is always 20/20.

iChatting

iCal Day

Today is iCal Day. Like Erik, I use iCal for my scheduling needs, because right now anything else is overkill. Plus, it syncs easily with my iPod and Sony Ericsson T616.

Backpack widget

Well, a widget I can actually get some use out of…

Chipt Productions has released a widget for the Backpack service from 37signals.

Darned if Gruber didn’t beat me to it.

iSync 2.1 breaks T616 synchronization, sort of

After reading Colin Robertson’s report that his Sony Ericsson T616 would no longer sync with his PowerBook via iSync, I set out to test this myself, since I have the same phone.

I have a 12-inch, 1 GHz PowerBook running Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.1, and I had just installed iSync 2.1 yesterday when it was released by Apple. It was then that I noticed I hadn’t synced my PowerBook with the phone in a while, though the ‘Book had synced with .Mac.

When I attempted to sync the two devices, iSync told me it was unable to do so with the T616. I decided to remove it as a device, then re-add it. iSync picked up the phone during its device scan, but informed me it would be unable to sync with it.

I then turned to my other Mac, a 450 MHz Cube still running 10.3.9. I added the phone to the older version of iSync installed there, and it synchronized with no problem.

About half an hour later, I decided to revisit the PowerBook’s iSync version, and this time, the software recognized the phone, added it as a device, and synchronized with it. Since then, after making minor modifications to some contacts, I have made two more successful syncs with the T616. It would appear one simply needs to remove the device from iSync, wait a bit, then add it again.

ATPM 11.07

The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

The issue kicks off with some amusing, original artwork from former staffer Grant Osborne. I need to pester him for some high-resolution copies to use as desktop pictures. Crikey, but did we get a lot of reader e-mail last month. Keep those e-mails coming, folks. We love interacting with our readers!

This issue marks a milestone, as we move from what has been our traditional publishing method for many years to a new system. Michael explains it all in a fascinating look back at our old publishing methods, and the transition to the new one. Having had a front seat to the development process, looking at alpha and beta publications over the course of a couple of weeks, I can tell you that Mr. Tsai poured a lot of effort in to our new publishing system, which should allow ATPM more flexibility for the future. On behalf of the entire staff, thank you, Michael!

I agree with Ellyn’s take on the Apple-to-use-Intel brouhaha, and wish her well on her upcoming Jeopardy appearance! Ellyn also notes a worthwhile project wherein you can “adopt” a serviceman: Books for Soldiers. My personal favorite program is Adopt a Sniper; snipers have different equipment needs than most other soldiers, beyond simply the difference in arms. Yet the inflexibility of the military’s purchasing process precludes snipers from getting a lot of this more flexible and specialized equipment before they are deployed. Kudos to the individual citizens who have banded together to help provide what the most cost-effective warriors in our services require. (One shot, one kill.) And thanks to Ellyn for pointing out another program supporting our soldiers I was unaware of. I’ve got some books winging their way to the Middle East very soon.

Sorry for that tangent; let’s veer back on track. Angus Wong delivers an introspective look at the Mac’s history and current market, in light of the recent move-to-Intel announcement. Paul Blakeman offers up his iBook love story. We welcome David Blumenstein as a full-time ATPM staffer, and he reciprocates the love with a look at podcasting.

Charles Ross has a great FileMaker database How To, and Marcus J. Albers goes Dashboard widget hunting. We are pleased to offer desktop pictures from ATPM reader Mark Montgomery. Thanks for the guitars, Mark! My favorites are the Dobro and the Rickenbacker. Cortland’s parents come for a visit, and Frisky’s freeware pick this month is MacMAME.

Chris Lawson has a pair of speaker reviews, and Matthew Glidden explore’s graphic design aid Curio. Paul Fatula gets to know Wacom’s Graphire Bluetooth edition, while David Zatz compares headphones from Pro Tech Communications and Sennheiser. Finally, Andrew Kator details vSpace Master 2.0, a 3D/VR presentation system.

Tiger snuggles up to OfficeJet

Thanks to a tip from a MacInTouch reader, my PowerBook, running Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.1, is successfully printing to my HP OfficeJet d145 again. It was quite simple.

First, in the Hewlett-Packard folder that would be installed in your Applications folder, run the HP Uninstaller application. When it’s done, restart your Mac.

Next, make sure you have the latest HP driver software for your OfficeJet, in my case the d145 on Mac OS X. After mounting the disk image, quit all other running applications. Or just run the HP All-in-One Installer, as it is going to ask to do this for you. Let the installer run as normal, and run through the Setup Assistant stuff at the end. The Setup Assistant saw my OfficeJet sitting on its assigned IP on the internal network.

After that was done, I launched TextEdit, typed in a line, made several copies of said line, and sent it to the printer. Voila! Happy days are here again in the Phisch Bowl™. Your mileage may vary, but this is what worked for me. I have not tested any other functions, such as faxing or scanning, from the HP Director software, since I didn’t really use those functions before.

DropDMG 2.6.1

Michael announces the release of DropDMG 2.6.1. This update of the easy-to-use disk image creation tool adds support for bzip2-compressed disk images, for those of you in to that sort of thing. The usual assortment of bug fixes and tweaks abound. Go. Download. Register. Help an independent software developer out by buying his worthy product.

The usual disclaimer: I have no vested interest in C-Command and its products other than I like seeing my friends happy and sane, and when you reward their hard work, that’s what they are.

Rumor sites still costing Apple money

Matt D. and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things outside the realm of technology. But when it comes to an intense loathing of the rumor sites, which continue to cost Apple money, Matt and I are blood brothers:

Any writer who believed that rumor sites were “cowed” into not reporting items that might adversely affect Apple should have checked the news from Friday, 2005.06.03 - the stuff everyone forgot that same night when CNet broke the Intel story as a done deal. The previous day, AppleInsider reported that Apple was “seemingly overstocked on most iPod models with about a month remaining in its third fiscal quarter.” Attributing the information only to “one source” and “reliable sources of information,” the rumor site said Apple’s sales “appear flat or declining” because none of Apple’s products appears constrained. Yes, read it for yourself - the site said that not having a shortage was, in itself, a sign of weak sales.

Despite both the flimsy sourcing and the site’s complete unawareness of the impending Intel transition, the market acted. To quote Reuters, “Shares of Apple Computer Inc. fell 5% Friday [2005.06.03], fueled by an Internet report of swelling inventory of its iPod digital music players.” When a rumor site can cost Apple’s shareholders 5% of their value in one day by printing an unsourced report based on specious inventory logic, it’s hard to call that being “cowed into silence,” and it just doesn’t have the same ring to say the rumor sites have been “cowed into incompetence.” (If your stock in trade is “inside” or “secret” information, and you have no sources on the biggest Apple-related story of the next two years before the mainstream media does, you’re losing your touch.)

A subscription to MDJ or MWJ isn’t cheap, but it’s the best money you’ll spend on Apple and Macintosh-related news you won’t get any where else. I’m not affiliated with MacJournals, just a happy subscriber.

Mac hacking

A dual reading selection today, mostly because both are sitting next to me, waiting to ship up New England way to my friend Rich, and both deal with the same topic. Mac OS X Hacks, by Rael Dornfest and Kevin Hemenway, was one of the early—if not the first—books in O’Reilly’s Hacks series. The authors, along with numerous contributors, take the reader through many different aspects of the Mac OS X operating system. The book was published in 2003, and covered OS X up through the Jaguar edition.

The second title, Mac OS X Panther Hacks, is the follow-up to the aforementioned book, and will soon be supplanted, I’m sure, by Mac OS X Tiger Hacks. Credit must be given to Rael and co-author James Duncan Davidson for not regurgitating hacks from the first book, but rather, again with the help of contributors, introducing one hundred new ways to make using OS X easier, more efficient, and more fun. Both tomes are highly recommended for those who want to get under the hood of Apple’s great operating system.

Now I just need to find money to give to a broker

There are many reasons why I read Jeff’s blog as often as possible. Brother, I need to buy you a beer some time.

Does that mean that Apple will never go after the commercial-computing market? No, I don’t think so. I think that as Apple continues to own the creative-professional market, reasserts its dominance over the mobile-user market, gains momentum among home users and makes incremental moves into sci-tech, demand in the commercial-computing market will grow all on its own. Sooner or later, folks are going to start asking why salesmen or accountants or factory managers aren’t using Macs. And when that happens, Apple will be there, ready to make small advances with sure footing, working its way into the commercial market a little at a time.

But you know what? Maybe that’ll never happen. Maybe by 2010, Apple will own as much as 25 or 30 percent of the computer market, but still show no sign of making a move into commercial computing. Would that be seen as success or failure? I guess it depends on who you ask. Which brings us back to the three blind guys with the elephant. The guy who looks at the computer industry and sees only commercial computing would see an Apple that doesn’t compete in the commercial space as being a failure. Somebody who sees only the home market would see an Apple that dominates that space as a shining success.

Me? I just sit back and think about what it would be like for Apple to own thirty percent of a multi-billion-dollar global industry. And then I consider calling my broker.

Tiger Sync does suck

I wholeheartedly agree with Dave Golden that syncing in Tiger is a step back from what it once was in Panther.

Before, if I wanted to sync my PowerBook with my phone and .Mac, it was a one-shot deal. Click on the iSync icon in the menu bar, tell it to “Sync Now,” and it was done. When that finished, it was a simple matter to switch over to the Cube to sync it and my iPod with what had just been uploaded to my .Mac account.

This has now become a two-step process on the PowerBook, which runs Tiger, while it remains the easy one-shot on the Cube, which still runs Panther. (The reason for the latter still running the older operating system is that with a HP d145 OfficeJet all-in-one printer in the house, it would be nice to have at least one Mac that can print. Where are those drivers, HP?)

The iSync button in the menu bar now only runs the sync to .Mac. To get changes to sync to my T616, I have to manually launch the iSync application, and tell it to sync with the phone. Can we please fix this in 10.4.2?

ATPM 11.06

The June issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available, and apparently Rob was in a rhyming mood when he wrote the Welcome.

Ellyn looks at the advantage of age, through the eyes of a sport I have recently rediscovered as a favorite. Amongst myriad other happenings, Wes covers the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (there’s a mouthful) in this month’s marathon Bloggable. Our Reviews Editor, Paul Fatula, takes his turn with the Pod People column, doting on his first-generation iPod. We’re looking for writers who wish to contribute to the Pod People column, so if you’re interested, drop me a line.

Ted discusses outlining and styles in this month’s ATPO, while Scott Chitwood, of ResExcellence fame, looks at skinning your OS X interface with Appearance Themes. David Blumenstein delivers another thought-provoking column, as he ponders the possibilities presented by the Mac Mini. No, I cannot bring myself to not capitalize the second word, at least on my own blog. Tom Bridge presents readers with an overview of the new features in Tiger.

Lee has a good how-to column on getting widescreen output in iDVD 5, or at least as close as you can come. Sylvester delivers a Tiger installation instruction manual for those who haven’t gone through the upgrade process yet.

Cortland proves he knows where his towel is, while leaping the hurdles of the design world. College student Dan Klein was gracious in providing photos from Moraine State Park for this month’s desktop pictures section. Frisky Freeware discusses Apple Jack, a utility that has piqued my curiosity.

Eric lays out the goods on the AppleScript Missing Manual, Michael provides yet another keyboard review, this time with the iceKey, and Frank H. Wu offers his review of the iLugger, designed for you to tote your iMac G5 around the town. Eric reviews a staff-favorite, the news reader NetNewsWire, while Lee shows that Shoebox Pro isn’t quite deserving of the professional moniker just yet. Marcus J. Albers wraps up this month’s reviews section with his take on Unreal Tournament 2004.

I want to thank the staff and all of our writers. This month’s issue is solid and well packed, and you should all be proud.

Safari 2 window positioning

I have noticed that Safari 2 likes to launch and not remember where its last window position was. I like my application windows to “stick” to the bottom of the menu bar, and Safari was launching with it quite a few pixels south. Damien and I discussed the issue via instant messages, as he was noting the same issue. Turns out the problem is with Safari’s plist preference file, and the good Mr. Barrett has the gory details.

Baton? I don’t see a baton

Because that so-and-so Tom publicly foisted this meme upon me, and Michael tagged me, too, here goes:

Total size of music files on my computer: Tunaphisch is loaded with 25.72 GB of music, exactly 5,000 songs at the moment. Only one of those is a purchase from the iTunes Music Store, and “purchase” may be stretching it, since I redeemed a Pepsi cap to get the song.

Last CD I Bought: Where Angels Fear to Tread by Matt Redman. Most people know Matt’s work from the worship hit “Blessed Be Your Name,” and this is the album it’s on.

Song playing in iTunes: “Come Down ” from the Vineyard Music album Just Like Heaven, the second-to-last CD I bought.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me: There are a lot of songs that I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me, so here’s what you could call the current batch of such songs, and since I couldn’t decide which one to give up, you get six.

“Callin’ Baton Rouge” by Garth Brooks - it’s not often a song contains the name of your hometown, and it was while at LSU I met my wife.

“Love of a Lifetime ” by Firehouse - the song we danced to at our wedding. I wish the slower acoustic version had been available then.

“May Your Wonders Never Cease ” by Third Day - this song became incredibly important to me when our son was born, nine weeks early, and he spent the first seven weeks of his life in the hospital. Today, you would never know our toddler was a preemie, and God’s wonders do indeed never cease.

“Barely Stay Inside of My Own Skin” by Ceili Rain - like the song says, “Can’t believe the life I get to live.” Despite being unemployed, despite all of the other bad things that have happened to my family over the past two years, I still have a really great life. This is a great pick-me-up song.

“Be Unto Your Name ” by Robin Mark - this is one of my favorite worship songs, and I come back to it again and again.

“A Living Prayer ” by Alison Krauss & Union Station - I saw them perform this on Leno during the Christmas 2004 season, and Ms. Krauss’ vocals cut right to the bone.

The five victims I’m cursing with this meme:

Since Michael stole the bulk of the ATPM bloggers, and most of the other bloggers with whom I am friends have already gone through this torture, here’s my hit list.

Wes Meltzer, because he needs to blog about something other than interning at Popular Mechanics.
Jim Riggs, because he always has something I like, but may not know about.
Brian Borden, because the SuperToad needs to blog about something other than politics.
Tiffany Baxendell, because Tom foisted it on me, babe, so you get to suffer, too. (And I like what Tiff has previously recommended.)
Damien Barrett, because while we don’t always agree on things, he’s a good guy to hang out with, and he gave me my Newton 2100.

Widget fun

Two new Dashboard widgets in service tonight:

Courtesy of Erik, the Gun Self Defense Counter, which uses a formula developed by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz of Northwestern University to show how many times in a calendar year firearms are used to save lives.

The other Michael I call friend IM’ed me about the SysStat widget, which is now in use, replacing MemoryStick. If the developers at iSlayer are feeling adventurous, I’d love a field that would show the front-most application’s (sans Dashboard) memory usage, a la MemoryCell.

Tiger is nirvana

Michael Gartenberg:

If you spend too much time organizing your stuff or just can’t find it, you need to take a close look at Tiger. There’s a real experiential difference. What’s missing? Not much. I’d like to see more RSS support so I can better read and search off-line, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Microsoft add Spotlight support for Entourage. Otherwise, this operating system is near nirvana for productivity.

There’s no doubt that a lot of similar concepts will be included in the next version of Windows. But Longhorn won’t be here for at least 18 months. It will be interesting to see what Apple has for us by then.

Where’s my copy of Tiger?

So rather than futz around with having to mail in a rebate form by ordering from Amazon, I ordered my copy of Mac OS X Tiger from OWC. Having done business with them in the past, I have always been pleased with their level of customer service, and their prices are always competitive.

OWC sent out an e-mail last week to its customers explaining they were having issues getting stock of the new operating system, and would ship orders on a first-come, first-serve basis. Some orders might not ship until May 5th. Fair enough.

Please note I’m not upset with OWC here. I’m a wee bit ticked at Apple and/or Ingram Micro (or whichever distributor is responsible) for leaving out the smaller vendors in getting the stock they need, especially in light of MacMall having received and shipped Tiger to customers days in advance of the official release.

I realized my savings of $30 by ordering from OWC would likely mean I wouldn’t see the new OS until today. But at this rate it’s going to be next week. Live and learn…

Microsoft fonts still in Tiger

John Gruber notes that the Microsoft fonts typically associated with and installed with Internet Explorer are still present in Mac OS X Tiger. Good news for web designers, and all those who appreciate a good font; Verdana and Georgia are among my favorites in their respective categories. Verdana is my default web and e-mail reading font, and I generally use Georgia for all of my styled text editing. As a matter of fact, it’s the font my resume is set in.

ATPM 11.05

The May issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure.

Ellyn discusses generic vs brand-name, and though she never states it—and maybe I’m just reading my own bias in to it—I’m sure there’s a Mac vs PC thing in there as well. Wes’s romp around the Mac blogosphere covers Photoshopped Apple products, how more Unix-heads are turning to OS X, stupid accessory manufacturers offering cash for someone to write a Mac virus, Apple plagiarizing CSS tutorials, and oh so much more. Paul’s roaming through the ether reveals a solar-powered van, the excitement of watching lard via the web, the dumbest girl in on the planet (she’s riding through Chernobyl’s radiated zone), finding out just what the file extension’s application is, and where to find a place to get a cup of coffee other than Starbucks.

Tom Bridge checks in with this month’s Pod People, and for that, we are grateful. David Blumenstein looks at how he has turned the Apple Store SOHO in to his own private office. Matthew Glidden, though tempted by the Mac Mini, decides to upgrade his Cube instead. (Ah, another kept within the brotherhood!)

Cortland notes the Adobe-Macromedia “merger”, reader Bill Jastram shares photos he and his wife took in the Canadian Rockies, and Frisky Freeware takes the plunge with Cyberduck.

Chris Lawson continues his impressive slate of product reviews with Kensington’s Expert Mouse 7.0, the Keynamics Laptop Stand, and the latest 15-inch PowerBook G4. Wes puts MacJournal through its paces, Paul shares his thoughts on Mind Hacks, and yours truly reviews the TransPod FM.

As usual, the issue is available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure.

Spotlight gotchas

Jeff Harrell has a good article on things to keep in mind when using Mac OS X Tiger’s new Spotlight.

Adobe’s markets

Gruber sums up quite well my feelings about Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia:

Rather than expand into untapped creative markets, Adobe seems hell-bent on expanding into the jerks-wearing-suits market, a market that’s completely at odds with the creative market they’ve dominated for nearly two decades.

Which is what happens when you put a sales guy in charge of a company that makes creative products. Which is Gruber’s point.

What’s in the Retrophisch™ Bag

Recently, Michael Hyatt revealed what was in his business carry-on, and posed the question to others of what is in their’s. So here’s the official inventory from the Phisch Bowl:

The PowerBook 1 GHz 12-inch rides in a Waterfield Designs Sleevecase (with flap). This is tucked in to a sapphire-blue, Tom Bihn Brain Bag. (Anyone want to trade me a black Brain Bag?) The Sleevecase replaces the original Brain Cell I got with the pack, as it is for a 15-inch PowerBook no longer in my possession.

In a WD medium Gear Pouch, I have stashed: my AC adapter for my third-generation, 40 GB iPod; three packs of iKlear Travel Singles screen cleaners; a Boostaroo for possible use with the iPod (it might came in handy while flying, so your mate can watch the movie on your PowerBook with you, instead of the in-flight entertainment—if there is any); a small voltage tester; and a wall socket circuit tester.

The rest of my cables—with the exceptions of 25-foot RJ-45 (Cat-5 Ethernet) and RJ-11 lengths—reside in a black Tom Bihn Snake Charmer. These include: the long AC adapter for my PowerBook; a Madsonline MicroAdapter (it’s good to have a spare); a Madsonline Auto/Air Adapter; a six-foot Ethernet crossover cable; a PowerPod; two Dock-connector FireWire cables; and a Fellowes Transient Surge Suppresser (a single-plug surge suppresser, complete with RJ-11 In and Out jacks).

Stashed elsewhere in the Brain Bag’s pockets and compartments, as well as in a Freudian Slip, also by Tom Bihn, are the following: a Kensington PocketMouse; a pair of Aiwa noise-cancelling headphones (the cans are actually more noise-reducing than they are cancelling, but for $50, they’re a great value); a pad of stickie notes; 4 ink pens of various colors; the one-foot FireWire cable I use with the portable FireWire hard drives I pick and choose from; the AC adapter for my mobile phone; the VGA and DVI video adapters for my PowerBook; the battery recharger for my digital camera; a deck of playing cards; and a pocket first-aid kit.

Part of my everyday kit that would also travel with me: Sony Ericsson T616, paired with a SE Akono HBH-602 Bluetooth Headset (silver plate, not the blue shown); the aforementioned 3G, 40 GB iPod; and a Canon PowerShot S500 with a 1 GB Compact Flash card. These tech toys ride in, respectively, a horizontal Krusell case, a Contour Design Showcase, and a Lowepro Rezo 20.

Whew! I think that about does it. What’s in your bag?

Lorem Scriptsum

Whenever I need to generate filler text, I’ve been using MacLorem. It’s a handy little app, it’s freeware, and it can generate text in Hawai’ian, which amuses me to no end. It generates text in other “dead” languages, though being a “dead language” is hardly the case with Hawai’ian.

If you’re looking for one less program in your Applications folder, however, you should check out Steve Wheeler’s Lorem Scriptsum, an AppleScript that will generate the Lorem Ipsum dummy text and place it in the Clipboard for your use. I’m going to have to give this a try…

[Via MacInTouch iWork Reader Report.]

Does this look like a monopoly to anyone else?

Adobe to acquire Macromedia.

Whoa.

Seeking VNC help

I’ve been futzing around with OSXvnc on my Cube and Chicken of the VNC on my PowerBook, and I cannot get the latter to connect to the former. Is anyone out there using this combination, and can offer guidance? Or recommend a different VNC client?

What would we do without stock analysts?

Today’s MDJ provides good background information on Apple’s quarterly financial conference call coming later this afternoon. Matt & Company’s analysis of the stock “analyst” situation is spot on:

If Apple beats its own estimates by 10%, those results are merely “in line with analyst expectations.” If Apple’s estimates were spot on, then the company didn’t live up to those “analyst expectations.” In a sane world, the market would punish the analysts for missing their forecast, but that’s not where we live. The analysts would blame Apple, not themselves, and issue feverish research notes accusing the company of “underperforming” and “bursting its bubble.” The stock price, in turn, would summarily fall.

[Emphasis added. —R]

So like many segments of our society, the “analysts” will play the blame game if Apple’s figures don’t match up with theirs. It’s not their fault their projections were wrong; it’s Apple’s fault for failing to meet the analysts’ expectations, even if Apple’s figures fall in line with Apple’s projections. Much like how a certain Mr. O’Grady and other rumor-mongers blame Apple when new product specifications fail to match up to their caffeine-driven imaginations. MDJ’s taking-to-task of the anaylsts continues:

Still, one shouldn’t ignore the possibility that Apple will post a solid quarter that looks “bad” simply because it doesn’t meet the fantasies of analysts who are busily inventing video iPods, media servers, and Apple-branded cell phones in their feverish little heads. The exuberance has placed Apple in the uncomfortable position of needing to beat its own guidance by 10% or more just to keep up with expectations.

UPDATE, 7:55 PM: It’s all moot, at least this time, as Apple blows away everyone’s projections. [Via Matt D..]

Layers?

In what yours truly believes is a huge branding mistake, Mac Design is changing it’s name to Layers. Ick.

Publisher Scott Kelby reasons:

The magazine has grown, changed, and evolved so much over the past few years that the word “design” doesn’t really explain all that we are anymore. If you’ve read us for any length time, you know we’re also a magazine for digital photographers, with digital photography news, tips, tutorials, and camera and printer reviews in every issue. Plus, from the very beginning, we’ve been the only Mac magazine to have an entire section dedicated to digital video editing. But we found that most photographers and video editors didn’t really know that because they don’t generally reach for a magazine that has the word “Design” in big letters on the cover.

I’m not sure how changing the name to Layers is going to draw the digital photography/video crowd that isn’t already reading the publication. I know about the use of layers in Adobe products. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s a pretty stupid name for a magazine that already has a great, all-encompassing name. This will not have an effect on the fact that I am a reader and subscriber. I just think it’s a bad name.

[Via Macsimum News.]

Six Apart-GoLive intergration

Adobe GoLive CS2 is going to have integrated tools from Six Apart for MovableType and TypePad users. Maybe this will be a way to speed up generation of new site looks.

ATPM 11.04

The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Ellyn looks at the ongoing Apple trade secret lawsuits, which Wes covers as well. His Bloggable column is chock-full this month, as March was chock-full of Apple- and Macintosh-related news and bloggings. Yours truly is even quoted in the column, for which I am humbled and grateful.

Paul takes another lap around the Internet, bringing back sightings of baby naming, credit reports, Canadian flag proposals, and ad blockers. Oh, and “three dozen kinds of fried dough.” Ellyn has this month’s Pod People, and discusses the use of digital music vis-a-vis le iPod for exercise purposes.

Ted starts a new chapter of ATPO, with a look at the history of outline exchange and XML. Reader David Blumenstein shares his first Macworld Expo experience, and Scott Chitwood checks in with customizing your Mac with desktop pictures. Ever the mad scientist of multimedia experimentation, Sylvester shares some tips for your next multimedia project.

The Ellyn Ritterskamp issue continues with her review of the iPod Shuffle, while our Mr. Lawson looks at three backpacks from Axio and the iLite. Marcus J. Albers reviews the latest king of Tetris games for the Mac.

Cortland deals with designer networking, and the iTrolls ask “What’s In A Name?”. Frisky Freeware notes Firefox’s kissing cousin, the Thunderbird e-mail client. Finally, Eric was kind enough to offer up desktop pictures from his trip to Arizona last year.

This issue marks a milestone for ATPM. This e-zine has now been continuously published for 10 years. I am happy to say that I have been involved with the publication in one aspect or another for nearly seven of those ten. Since leaving college, this is the longest relationship I have had with anything or anyone other than my marriage to my wonderful wife. This publication has given me an outlet for writing. It has given me my best friend in the virtual world, and other close pals as well. The staff—all volunteers—approach the work as professionally as they would if this were a monthly print magazine that actually paid them. It’s a top-notch crew that I am thankful to be a part of. I’m looking forward to the next 10 years.

More on the Apple trade secret cases

If you’re not subscribing to MDJ or MWJ, you’re missing out on what is the very best and most comprehensive coverage of the ongoing Apple trade secret lawsuits. Matt Deatherage has worked to the point of failing health to deliver a knock-out of an issue this past Sunday that features the most intensive news of the cases I’ve seen. Matt & Co. deliver brilliant point after brilliant point, with so many good ones, I’d have to reprint the entire article to get them all in.

There is one example on why these cases are important for businesses, and why this is not about the political right to free speech as set forth in the First Amendment.

How many people would have looked twice at the original iMac if its Bondi Blue design had leaked out two months in advance, and competitors had already released similar-looking PCs? Apple actually introduced the machine at an event that everyone thought was for some of O’Grady’s long-rumored PowerBooks, and it was - plus “one more thing.” It’s said that only about 30 people within Apple knew what the machine looked like or that it would be announced that May day in 1998, and the press coverage conveyed the shock at Apple’s bold move.

The iMac’s design influenced everything from rival PCs to peripherals to pencil sharpeners, but because Apple kept its work secret until it was ready, all those products were rightly seen as iMac copycats. If Think Secret had leaked the iMac like it did the Mac Mini, would the world have seen those products are iMac knock-offs - or seen the iMac, the original idea that was stolen and released prematurely, as “just part of a trend?”

That sums it up. If the latter had happened, would Apple have recovered as quickly from its doldrums as it did? Would it have recovered at all? One could make the argument that the success of the iMac fueled the development of iTunes, the iTunes Music Store, and the iPod. Without the runaway success of the iMac, Apple as we know it today might not exist at all. That success could have been placed in serious jeopardy with rumors of the new machine leaking out.

If you could spend your money on only one Macintosh publication, I would recommend MDJ or MWJ. (I have no affiliation with these publications, or their parent company, GCSF, Inc., other than as a satisfied subsriber.)

Installing BT module in G5

Going thru a backlog of RSS reading, I came across this post on installing the Bluetooth module in a Power Macintosh G5. One of my duties in the former job was performing this precise installation for part of a Genius Bar Apple Store client project. I did something on the order of 70 of these…well, a lot. It is not fun, and I have average-sized hands. I cannot imagine the pain a pair-of-meathooks-wielding tech must have to endure.

Pimp My Safari

Jon Hicks has set up the definitive Safari extensibility site. I say that only because no one else has, so as the first, Jon gets the honor of “definitive.” I prefer my Safari to be as stable as possible, so the only extensibility I’ve engaged in is the use of Safari Enhancer and SafariSource. Your mileage may vary.

[Via TUAW.]

Camino’s new digs

Mozilla offspring Camino has a new site. I like the new look, and downloaded the latest nightly build. Maybe it will be more stable on my system than 0.8.2. I really want to use Camino more, as I feel it’s faster than Safari on my systems, but it doesn’t seem as stable when it comes to running out of real RAM and having to subsist on virtual memory.

[Via DF via Daniel Bogan.]

UPDATE, 10:30 PM CST: After downloading and installing the latest nightly build, I happened across the site again, and was greeted with this banner near the top of the main page:

Fun, fun, fun!

UPDATE 2, 11:30 PM CST: You can find all of Camino’s keyboard shortcuts on one handy page. And its hidden preferences, too.

Windows: The Bloated Cow

Michael Hyatt:

I understand that the code name for the next version of Windows is “Longhorn.” Note: this is not an improvement over “Whistler.” All I can say is that they must not have longhorns in Redmond. I went to high school and college in Texas where longhorns were a regular feature of the landscape.

Let’s start with the fact that a longhorn is a cow. Is that really the image you want people to connect with the newest version of Windows? What were you guys thinking!

But that’s not all. A longhorn has one distinctive feature that separates it from all other cattle—its long horns. On a Web page called Longhorn Country, the author, a longhorn expert, writes:

There was probably no meaner creature in Texas than a Longhorn bull. The slightest provocation would turn him into an aggressive and dangerous enemy. The bull’s horns usually measured six feet or less from tip-to-tip, but could measure over eight feet long. In addition, the sharpness of horns of any length, the speed and muscle power of the bull, and the ease with which he could be aroused and enraged, made him a dangerous and uncontrollable animal.

Sadly, some would say that this aptly describes what Windows has become. A bloated cow that, when provoked, can become “dangerous and uncontrollable.”

On the Apple lawsuits

I have refrained thus far from commenting on the lawsuits by Apple against Think Secret, PowerPage, and Apple Insider, none of whom I will dignify with a link. There are others who are doing a far better job of shedding the real light on this issue, in that is has nothing to do with the First Amendment.

Notably, John Gruber and Jeff Harrell have gotten it right. Think Secret, PowerPage, and Apple Insider should have to reveal their “sources,” and they should suffer some form of punishment. I don’t think hefty fines or jail time is necessary, but something punitive enough to ensure they will discontinue this nonsense, because it is hurting Apple.

My disdain for Jason O’Grady’s rumor-mongering goes way back, and my thoughts then still hold true now. By combining real facts leaked by insiders and NDA-holders with utter speculation, these rumor-mongers set up false expectations for unannounced Apple products. This leads consumers, as well as Wall Street “analysts”, to be disappointed when the real product is announced, and downplay the significance of the product because it is not exactly what the rumor-mongers said it was going to be. These sites are hurting Apple by revealing sensitive and private corporate information, and it has to stop.

Tiger RSS screensaver

I’m sorry, but you just won’t see something so insanely, wicked cool as this on Windows.

Being hijacked

I am not referring to an airline hijacking.

Michael informed me this morning that our host for ATPM told him we went over our bandwidth limit for the month of February by 17 GB.

After further investigation, we learned that most of this extra bandwidth is going toward serving up various JPEGS to other sites. In other words, rather than downloading the desktop pictures we offer to our readers each month, and hosting it on their own server, people are linking directly to the file on our server for display on their sites. They are hijacking these images, and our bandwidth. This is nothing new. It’s just never happened on such a large scale before with any site I’ve been involved in.

People, this is not cool. First off, those desktop pictures are the copyrighted property of a photographer or artist who graciously donated their use to ATPM, and subsequently to our readers, as desktop pictures. This means if you want to use said picture on your web site, or any other medium, you should be contacting that photographer or artist for permission. Second, if said photographer or artist grants you permission for usage, you then host the picture on your own site. To link to the picture directly on ATPM means you are stealing our bandwidth, and driving up our costs.

We are not a for-profit publication. Our staff is all-volunteer, from the top down. Any moneys generated from ads and sponsorships goes in to our hosting costs, and after ten consecutive years of publication, those costs can be considerable. Thus, bandwidth is not something we can afford to give away, and certainly not at the rate of an extra 17 GB every month.

If you are one of the many persons out there linking directly to one of our pictures, please stop. You are violating legitimate copyright and stealing bandwidth from a group of people who do something each month out of love and joy.

ATPM 11.03

The March issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Ellyn opens with a look at a life in—or on, rather—Jeopardy, and Wes’s Bloggable delves in to the issue of Napster’s resurgence, as well as noting other happenings in the Macosphere.

Lee weighs in with the second edition of Pod People, and reader David Blumenstein shares his switching story. Ted wraps up his look at outlining task managers, a favorite mini-series of mine, though I’m not sure if I’m any closer to selecting any sort of app to help me in this arena than I was when he started writing it. Marcus J. Albers offers some hints and tips toward getting the most out of OS X.

Andrew reviews the addictive Apeiron, and Chris Lawson examines the Cobra.XM from BOOQ. Michael runs LaunchBar 4 through its paces. While LaunchBar has long been a staple in my computing toolbox, I do have my eye on Quicksilver. I actually learned something new from Michael’s review, and I’m pleased to see that like a fine wine, LaunchBar is getting better with age.

Conversely, Chris was rather disappointed with PolyRingtone Converter, in his words, “a good idea ruined by a horrible interface and poor features.” Finally, Eric puts WireTap Pro through the wringer to test its audio-capturing capabilities.

A new chapter begins in the Cortland saga, and Frisky Freeware notes my favorite IRC client, Conversation. Lee has generously donated some inspiring cloud photos for the desktop pictures section this month. (My favorite is “clouds-6.jpg”.)

Yours truly was supposed to have a book review in this issue, but writer’s block and a sick toddler this past week foiled my attempts at finishing it. (Hey, don’t laugh about the writer’s block; I don’t want my review to be a simple regurgitation of the table of contents.) Look for it, and other awesome stuff from the staff, next month.

Mapping the tax man

Since Google Maps now works in Safari, and I had to get our property taxes paid today, I thought I would give the new service a whirl. I prefer it to the other map sites, since the interface is contained inside a single browser window. It’s also fast compared to the other sites; it’s snappiness reminded me of using Gmail, which is the fastest web-based e-mail system I’ve ever used.

And the winner of my almost twenty bucks is…

Last night, my Movable Type installation decided it wanted to keep me from further posting on any of my blogs. This wasn’t simply an authentication error with my login and password. Something in MT’s lib directory wasn’t playing nice, and I kept getting this error:

MT/App/CMS.pm did not return a true value at /www/retrophisch/public/movabletype/mt.cgi line 21.

Now I had been considering upgrading to Transmit 3, since as a registered user of version 2.x, I could do so for $17.95. Or I could, as a registered user of version 4.x, upgrade to Interarchy 7 for $19.

This really wasn’t a fair contest, as I was using Interarchy 7.3.1 and the last 2.x version of Transmit, 2.6.2, not the new version 3. For whatever reason, whenever I SFTPed in to my domain with Transmit, the transfer mode always turned to Auto, with no way to turn this off so I could transfer in ASCII, or Text, mode. Interarchy saved the day. It reuploaded MT’s lib directory from the local installation copy I had, preserving permissions, etc. And while they’re so similiar, I’m not sure there’s much of a differece, but I like Interarchy’s “Edit in BBEdit” implementation better than Transmit 2’s.

Transmit’s a great app, don’t get me wrong, but this time around, my money went to Interarchy.

iScrolling

I just installed the temporary version of Daniel Becker’s iScroll2 on my 12-inch PowerBook G4 1 GHz. I’m loving it. Provided it proves stable, I’ll load the permanent version. It’s certainly worth checking out for pre-2005 PowerBook owners.

In my right mind

So I’ve been thinking about Daniel Pink’s article, “Revenge of the Right Brain”, over the past couple of days, and it’s amazing how much my own feelings toward a future career mirror his piece.

One would have to consult my parents as to when I may have first exhibited artistic sensibilities, but as I grew up, I was very fond of writing, drawing, and music. I was always doodling, tracing, sketching. Making up stories, or just bits of stories. In seventh grade, I started playing the clarinet in band, was quickly moved to the bass clarinet by Mr. Dawson, our fantastic teacher-director, and continued all the way through high school. I did not attempt to gain a music scholarship to LSU; I had a partial academic scholarship, and the Air Force wanted to pay the rest of my way, so long as I was willing to be an electrical engineer.

By the end of my freshman year, my Air Force scholarship was gone. My grades tanked, and they yanked it. I was not a party animal, I did not go hog-wild upon becoming a college student. I simply goofed off.

Looking back, maybe there was a subconscious effort on my part to sabotage my academic and future professional careers. I was a right-brain person, suddenly thrust in to a left-brain world. No longer burdened with studies related to engineering, I remained in Air Force ROTC, and switched majors: criminal justice. When LSU’s Criminal Justice department was terminated as a separate division the following year, swallowed by the larger Sociology department, I was forced to change majors again. Not particularly interested in a sociology degree, I opted instead for political science, a decidedly more right-brained course of study. I minored in history. I excelled in English classes, testing out of Freshman English 101, or whatever it’s technically called.

The large part of my professional career since college, however, once again led me in to left-brain land. I have been involved with computer technology, troubleshooting, and support, for over a dozen years. When I was laid off in October of 2003, I was both devastated and optimistic. My son was only two months old, and I was looking forward to spending a lot of time with him, which has been great. Perhaps this was the opportunity to move in to a new field as well.

I have not kept completely out of the right-brain sphere these past twelve years, however. I began volunteering as a copy editor with ATPM in the summer of 1998, and began writing the occasional review or opinion piece shorly thereafter. Today, I’m the Managing Editor, and quite happy to work with the fine staff of our little publication, all of whom do what they do because we enjoy the Macintosh platform. I also believe a goodly number of the staffers are like myself, and enjoy having this right-brain outlet, compared with the left-brain professions they may be involved with.

This blog, like its predecessor, is nothing more than an outlet for those right-brain skills yearning for exercise.

Which brings us back to Pink’s article, in which he hypothesizes that the coming “age” will be devoted to more right-brain activities, as opposed to where we currently are now, and have been, where more left-brain occupations have reigned supreme. I’m all for it. I feel as though I have a couple of books in me, and I love the editing thing. Just ask some of my online friends and acquaintances how many times I’ve annoyed them over misspellings and other grammatical gaffes on their blogs. Likewise, they are quick to point out my own brain burps, in large part because they know I care about such things. (Though with Lawson, I suspect it’s just out of spite.)

There is a part of me which has enjoyed my past dozen years in the tech field, and I would heartily welcome another job in that arena. Yet another part of me yearns for something different, something more right-brained, and this is reflected in some of my Monster search agents. In the mean time, I’ll concentrate on editing, writing, digital photography, and most of all, being a dad.

Bayesian Logic intro

Computerworld has an article on “Bayesian Logic and Filters” in their QuickStudy section this week. This is the sort of logic behind many of the spam-killing applications out there, such as SpamSieve. If you’re using an anti-spam program that utilizes Bayesian logic, this article may help you understand a bit more how it works. Don’t miss the sidebar on the Reverend Thomas Bayes.

Secure your Mac the NSA way

If you’d like to secure your Macintosh in the same manner as the National Security Agency, you can download a PDF explaining how here.

[Via the March 2005 issue of Macworld, not yet online.]

About that PowerBook G5

So my previous rumination on the G5 in a PowerBook and the Mac Mini bears a little updating.

On Monday, Apple announced new PowerBook G4s, showing the G4 processor still has plenty of life left in it as they bumped up the top speed to 1.67 GHz. CNET looks at the expected PowerBook G5:

The computer maker is well aware that Mac fans want a G5 PowerBook, and technically, the company could offer one now. But given the relatively power-hungry nature of the IBM PowerPC 970FX processor—Apple has dubbed the 970FX and its predecessor, the 970, “G5” chips—a G5 PowerBook would require compromises in size, weight and other aesthetics such as noise production. Apple, and likely most of its customers, wouldn’t be willing to live with that.

So while the G5 works in the iMac form factor, not so much in the PowerBook’s. Which means not so much in a Mac Mini, perhaps not even within the possible timetable I outlined earlier. Which is why I’m not in the rumor business.

Boingo for Mac

In case you aren’t a T-Mobile HotSpot subscriber, you can now use your Macintosh on the Boingo Wireless network. I can’t get the word “Oingo” out of my head now.

PulpFiction nabs 4.5 mice

So the March issue of Macworld arrived today, and I was reading through it over lunch. One of the articles is a round-up of news reader apps, and congratulations are in order to Erik and Company for PulpFiction being awarded four and a half mice. Erik, has, however, beat me to the punch with the news.

That’s okay, I’m still using NetNewsWire. ;-)

Kudos, amigo!

Mac Mini to cannibalize older Mac sales

Yeah, I know, there’s a shocker of a realization, right? But it’s true.

Since the Mac Mini was announced, I’ve had many instant message conversations with current Mac die-hards who see the Mini as a great second, third, or even fourth system in their home or office, for xyz kind of use. The kinds of use that would normally be reserved for a two- or three-generation-old Macintosh.

For myself, I was thinking a Mac Mini would be the best way to transition my grandmother to OS X. She’s currently running OS 9.2.2 on a Power Mac 8500 I got dirt cheap from a fellow ATPM staffer, and that was when the iMac G4 was brand new. I had been thinking that a blue-and-white G3 would be the next step up for her (she already has a monitor, so an iMac would be overkill), but now I’m thinking why bother with that? All she needs is the $499 Mini and a RAM upgrade, and she’s good to go.

Everyone knows that Steve could care less that the Mac Mini is going to cannibalize those older Mac sales, especially among the more savvy, long-time Mac users out there who know better than to pay most of the prices one sees on eBay. Apple needs to move units, and for those sort of Mac users, Mac Minis aren’t going to cannibalize Power Mac G5, PowerBook, or even iMac sales. Certainly not enough for Apple to not have come out with the Mini. Apple doesn’t care about the so-called “gray market” of its products’ sales, because those products are already out of Apple’s inventory. The Mac Mini is the here and now, and that’s what counts.

It’s nice to know we’re cool

Christian Science Monitor:

Paul Saffo, a director of the Menlo Park-based Institute for the Future, a technology forecasting firm, says Apple’s two new slimmed down products are the newest harvests in what will be an array of hand-held devices catering to the demand for digital entertainment and serious computations. “Apple has been cool all along,” he says, praising Jobs’s talent for including “little details,” in Apple products. “The public wasn’t. But now because of Apple, the public has become cool.”

[Via DF.]

ATPM 11.02

The February issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure.

Ellyn notes the need for healthy skepticism on the web, while Wes’s Bloggable column looks at the miniature life, courtesy of Apple’s new releases. The Wizard of Oz(ab) notes how the Mac Mini may affect musicians, while Ted’s About This Particular Outliner column continues with part two on the usage of outliners for task management. Sylvester has a follow-up column about what to do with those old Macs.

The ATPM staff is pleased to welcome Scott Chitwood, editor of the Mac GUI customization site ResExcellence. Scott’s first column is about customizing your Mac’s icons. Yours truly also kicks off a new column for the ‘zine, focusing on the iPod.

Wes delves in to Mariner Software’s ultimate productivity tool, Desktop Poet, while Chris Lawson looks at the FriendlyNET FR1104-G Wireless Firewall Router and Griffin Technology’s radioSHARK. Frisky Freeware notes a favorite chat client of some staff members. Cortland and the iTrolls continue their adventures. Lee and I were blown away by Mark Montgomery’s nature photos, which he offered as this month’s desktop pictures. I’ve already got a black bug on my desktop. Thanks, Mark!

The Mac introduction

If you’ve followed every Macworld Expo keynote QuickTime stream since, well, since Apple’s been offering them, and you wonder what it would have been like to be able to watch the introduction of the original Macintosh, now you can. Recorded in January 1984 by Scott Knaster, and digitized by TextLab. Link from Tom.

MacInTouch on the Mac Mini

Ric Ford, the original Macintosh blogger, has a review of the Mac Mini.

Looking ahead to the G5 Mini

So looking around a bit at the Mac web this weekend, it appears the PowerBook G5 rumors are about to start gaining steam. Supposedly the current PowerBook G4 line is about to be EOL’ed. EOL is retail/manufacturing talk for End of Life, as in, we’re not making this any more, and when we’ve sold what’s out there, that’s all there is.

I won’t dignify the rumor-mongers with links, but I do have a couple of thoughts.

First, if we see a PowerBook G5, I’m not sure we’ll see a PowerBook G5 12-inch right away. I would like to be wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a G5 available in only the 17- and 15-inch PowerBooks to start with. It all boils down to how well Apple and IBM have managed to work around the heating issues with the G5 in the smaller spaces.

Second, if Apple solves its heat issues and wedges the G5 in to the PowerBook form factors, it’s not a stretch to then dump the G5 in to the Mac Mini. Not that this would occur any time in the near future after a PowerBook G5 release, but one could reasonably surmise when it will be coming, because it will eventually happen.

If you look at the six product lines of Apple’s computers, two are already on the G5: the Power Macintosh towers, and the iMac. Next up for the new processor is the PowerBook line, which would leave the iBook, the eMac, and the just-released Mac Mini.

Those same rumors hinted at above also say that the eMac is about to be EOL’ed as well. Should that prove true, then this means Apple is pushing the Mac Mini in to the education market, and schools will have to buy cheap third-party monitors, because they sure as hell aren’t buying 20-inch Apple flat-panel displays that cost twice as much as the baseline Mac Mini. Seeing as how these schools never purchased displays from Apple before, Apple’s not losing revenue there, though one can theorize their margins on Mac Mini sales will be lower than on eMacs. As John Gruber has observed, Apple looks to make up for reduced margins with volume. So if the eMac is indeed dead in the near future, Apple’s computer product line falls from six to five, and after the PowerBook G5 is released, only the iBook and Mac Mini will be on the G4.

The G4 is just about tapped out in Apple’s product line. The 1.5 GHz processor is the highest speed being offered, but third-party upgrade vendors are offering faster G4 processors. Apple may bump up the G4’s speed in its product line one more time, but it all depends on how aggressive they want to be with the G5.

I can see Apple bringing out the PowerBook G5 some time in the first half of the year, before or after the release of Tiger. At some point within the following six months, the speeds of the Power Macintosh G5 will be increased. At Macworld Expo next year, you’ll see increased speeds for the iMac G5, and by mid-year, faster PowerBook G5s. This would open the door to then add the G5 to the iBook line, and maybe at the same time the Mac Mini line, though Apple is known for only refreshing one line at a time, for the most part. Earliest time for a G5 Mini? I’m betting on Macworld Expo in January 2007. It all hinges on IBM’s G5 fabrication, however, so it’s not all up to Jobs and the Apple brain trust. And hell, I was way wrong on the flash-based iPod and the iCheap, aka the Mac Mini, so what do I know? This has all been stream-of-consciousness blogging any way.

LSU goes Xserve

MacMinute reports that my alma mater has put online a 24-Xserve G5 cluster named Nemeaux. So I guess this proves that Tigers eat Apples…or something.

The price of being a Mac user

Michael opines on the increased software value of an iWork-loaded Mac Mini, when compared to purchasing iLife ‘05, iWork, and an OS upgrade separately.

ATPM founder Danny Novo has a similar analysis, including .Mac. The Mac Mini looks better and better when you factor in all four of these software prices. Maybe a Mac Mini will be in the phisch bowl’s future, later this year, after Tiger is released and iWork comes loaded. Maybe around the time my own .Mac registration is due for renewal. However, I don’t think I’ll wait too long to purchase iLife ‘05, as I’ve decided to begin using iPhoto for my digital photo management needs, and I’d like to do so starting with the new version.

Another Mac master

Michael Crichton:

Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: Small room. Shades down. No daylight. No disturbances. Macintosh with a big screen. Plenty of coffee. Quiet.

Chained notes

I rediscovered a gem by former ATPM staffer Kirk McElhearn from the June 2004 issue of Macworld. In the Working Mac column, Kirk is discussing built-in ways to protect data in Mac OS X. I found the use of the Keychain as a storage place for secret notes intriguing.

To turn Keychain into your security guard, open Keychain Access (Applications: Utilities), and click on Note in the Keychain Access toolbar. Enter a descriptive title in the Name field of the window that appears, and then type or paste the data you want to protect into the Note field. You’re not limited to short things, such as a password or a credit card number. I pasted several megabytes of text into one secure note.

To access your secure notes later, open Keychain Access, find the note in the list of protected items, and click on its name. Select the Show Password option and enter your password; you’ll then see the note’s contents. To enter the contents in another program, click on Copy Note To Clipboard, enter your password again, and paste into any text field or document.

Apple Dev on Delicious Monster

For the programmers out there, Apple’s Developer Connection has an article on Delicious Monster, and their use of Cocoa Bindings in the development of Delicious Library.

The application Delicious Library gets top marks for its user-friendliness, its devoted adherence to the Macintosh human-interface guidelines, and its imaginative uses of Macintosh platform technologies—for example, its ability to use an iSight camera to scan an item into the application’s database.

However, Wil singles out one Apple technology, Cocoa bindings, as being central to his company’s success so far.

The value of Cocoa bindings, he says, is that, “it makes it really easy for programmers to present data in a way that’s very clear and intuitive to the user. It makes every app look and feel like an iApp.”

BBAutoComplete 1.4

Michael has released BBAutoComplete 1.4. BBAutoComplete gives you word auto-completion in scriptable applications like BBEdit, Mailsmith, Tex-Edit, and with the new version, Smile.

If I weren’t already using a combination of AutoPairs and TypeIt4Me, I would probably be using BBAutoComplete. The latter is “smarter” than TypeIt4Me in that TypeIt4me has to be “taught” the abbreviations and expansions to use in place of those abbreviations. BBAutoComplete guesses what you’re wanting to type by checking out expansions in your app’s open docs. For most of my typing needs, though, especially in the apps BBAutoComplete supports, I simply have no need for it. Programmers, however, will find it a boon.

BBAutoComplete is freeware, and be sure to check out Michael’s excellent commercial software, SpamSieve and DropDMG, while you’re at it. Both are Retrophisch™ Recommends selections, and you can support a developer who gives back to the user community.

Still no OmniWeb for this phisch

Michael’s analysis of OmniWeb’s shortcomings, and Gruber’s comment to the post, leave me wondering why I continue to download and install the thing, since I hardly ever use it.

ATPM 11.01

The January issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. Ellyn resolves not to make resolutions, while Wes digs in to the ugly world of Apple rumors. Ted takes a break from the frenetic world of Mac outliners, but still manages an update column. Eric has a brilliant piece on the upcoming iTunes-compatible Motorola phone and what that means to the mobile music and mobile phone marketplaces. Sylvester explores the world of tech recycling, a public service for those who were lucky enough to receive new Macs for Ramahanakwanzmas.

Just in time for New Year’s, Lee has submitted Fourth of July photos for use as desktop pictures. Go ahead and use them, no one will know that they weren’t taken New Year’s Eve and immediately uploaded. Well, no one who doesn’t read about it here, that is. Cortland and iTrolls continue, and this month Frisky Freeware explores OSXplanet.

Lee runs down the latest darling of the Mac software world, Delicious Library, while Wes reviews the blogging tool, MarsEdit. Paul’s look at PhotoReviewer and Michael’s review of Kensington’s StudioBoard will likely have me spending some money shortly. Eric explores PreFab’s UI Actions, of interest to you script junkies out there.

Happy New Year from all of us at ATPM!

Retrophisch™ on the Eddys

Taking a cue from Michael, I’d thought I’d look at the 2004 Macworld Editors Choice Awards to see how they fit in my hardware and software toolbelt:

• GarageBand 1.1 - I used it once. It needs more oomph than my 1 GHz PowerBook can provide.
• BBEdit 8.0 - as with Michael, I use it every day
• Toast - has saved the bacon more than once, and again, as Michael says, nothing else can touch it
• Snapz Pro X 2.0 - still using the last 1.x version, and I rarely take screen shots

That’s about it as far as the items I have actual experience with. That said, a few comments on others that made the list:

• Photoshop Elements 3 - I could maybe get excited about Elements if (a) I didn’t already have Photoshop, and (b) it offered photo organization and competed against iPhoto (which I do not use for photo organization)
• FileMaker Pro 7 - I want to like it, really I do, but I feel 4D still outmatches it; granted, I haven’t played with either in three years, so I’m just going off what I read and hear from people I trust
• Halo: Combat Evolved - like many Mac users, I was looking forward to Halo, until Bungie was bought by Microsoft and the entire project was lost for three years while the Evil Empire ripped off Sony and Nintendo created the Xbox; I’m not sure my PowerBook’s 32MB of video RAM would do it justice, and the Cube’s processor won’t even touch it. Plus, it’s still fifty bucks.
• QuarkXPress 6.5 - not that they will ever tell us, but I’m curious to know how much market share Quark has lost to InDesign. Not only because Quark’s customer service feeds on the bottom of the scum pond, but also because it took them a couple of years to come out with a native OS X version. I personally know of more than one shop that has made the conversion to InDesign, and plans to never return.
• OmniWeb 5.0.1 - I want to like OmniWeb, really I do; I download every beta and play around with it, but always return to Safari and Camino. I’m addicted to tabs and Safari’s bookmark implementation.

Mid-range Mac comparison

Ric Ford found some surprising results in a mid-range Macintosh face-off with today’s Performance Comparison: eMac G4, iBook G4 and iMac G5.

Having a blast with BlastApp

Ever have one of those moments where something gives a swift kick to your memory box and you suddenly rediscover an old joy? Such it was this evening as I’ve spent the past hour playing BlastApp, the OS X version of the NeXT classic helicopter game. You’ll need the Developer Tools installed to have access to the game.

DropDMG 2.5

Michael has released DropDMG 2.5. The latest version adds the ability to create Zip archives in OS X 10.3 Panther, very handy for when you need to send files to Windows users. It can also convert Zip archives to images and vice-versa. The release also allows for the creation of StuffIt X archives, converting those to images, and vice-versa. You can now convert .tar, .tgz, .tar.gz, and .tar.bz2 archives to disk images (as well as to .zip and .sitx). Michael added support for .cdr (DVD/CD-R master) images, which I think I’ll find very handy. I know in my former corporate life, I would have liked DropDMG’s new ability to create a custom icon for the mounted image. With the different images we had to maintain, the feature of saving named Configurations of DropDMG’s preferences would have been very handy, too. “By switching between different configurations, you can instantly recall different combinations of options.” You can read about all of the other changes here.

If you work with image files, you cannot afford to be without DropDMG.

ATPM 10.12

The December issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.

Ellyn explores self-sufficiency in the digital age, while David’s accidental click of the mouse results in GarageBand loop pleasantness. Wes looks forward to Tiger, the inroads being made against Microsoft, and looks in to the past as the year draws to a close. Ted explores outliners and task management, and Sylvester offers advice on getting better video.

On the Reviews front, Ellyn games with Corregon, while newly-minted pilot Chris Lawson examines LogTen, flight log software for the Mac OS. Matthew puts BeLight’s Mail Factory to the test, and Wes discovers he doesn’t like the RSS-as-mail paradigm of Pulp Fiction. Finally, Matthew delves in to Jeff Duntemann’s Wi-Fi Guide (2nd edition).

Lee contributes some truly awesome desktop pictures this month, from his recent trip to northwest Washington state. Frisky’s monthly freeware review covers Radio Recorder, billed as a TiVo for MP3. Cortland and iTrolls round out this month’s issue.

Pogue’s Posts

Macintosh author extraordinaire David Pogue now has a daily blog, courtesy of the New York Times.

Audion ends at 3

Yes, I’m a wee bit behind in my web reading, having been on vacation last week, and I’m still getting caught up.

So Panic has retired Audion. Co-founder Cabel Sasser has a simply outstanding story of Audion that every Mac user should read. There is no boo-hooey, “why us?” whining, but rather a brutal examination of core business principles and personal desires, combined with a can-do, what’s-next? attitude.

I have long admired Cabel and Steven Frank, the “Panic guys” as I’ve personally referred to them. I see a kindred soul in Steven, and his office products-fetish, what’s-the-latest-and-greatest-PDA blog postings. I was an Audion 2 registered user, before converting full time to iTunes when I got my first iPod. I have been a registered user of Transmit since the days it was called Transit, and will continue to be so until something better comes down the pipe. Outside the command line, Transmit is, for me, the best FTP client out there right now on the Mac.

Personally, it is their rational reasoning, bereft of any whining on the part of big, mean, ol’ Apple—unlike other Mac developers who shall remain nameless— regarding their decision to retire Audion, rather than the decision itself, that further endears this company to my software-consuming wallet. Keep doing what you love doing, guys, because there are users out here who appreciate it.

ATPM 10.11

The November issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Lee’s cover is inspired. Mondo thanks to Gruber for playing along.

Ellyn explores the basics of the stock exchange, while Wes explores the discussions between “brushed metalheads and Aquaphiles”, and other happenings, in the Macintosh blogosphere. Reader Jon Allen Boone relays his computer-using saga, and how he came to switch to Mac OS X. Andrew Kator has a How-To on sharing web content.

Yours truly reviews Waterfield Design’s Medium Cargo bag, Wes examines the FrogPad USB, and Watts Martin weighs in on Nisus Writer Express 2.0. Andrew also looks at Stuffit Deluxe 9, and David Zatz compares the IOGEAR and Dr. Bott KVMs.

Cortland and iTrolls continue their strips, and we have some great desktop pictures from Ireland, courtesy of reader Mark Dickson. My favorite new segment, Frisky Freeware, explores Meterologist this month.

As always, ATPM is available in a variety pack for your reading pleasure.

Software Update before and after

Dr. Mac has excellent advice for preparation and post-op procedures for working with Mac OS X’s Software Update in his latest column for Mac Design magazine.

We admit we do not always back up prior to running software updates, but then again, we tend to let a few days go by after an update appears, seeing how the world outside our bowl fares with it. Regardless, it is good advice to at least back up your Home folder, or wherever you store your vital data on your drive, before running major updates, like the supposedly-forthcoming 10.3.6. It’s a pain to have to rebuild your boot disk in the event of a major problem after an update, but it’s quite another pain to lose irreplaceable data.

PowerBook goodies

A couple of PowerBook-related goodies were announced yesterday that has the phisch bowl churning. MCE announced a new 100 GB internal drive for every PowerBook out there back to the Kanga G3. However, at US $279, it won’t be finding its way in to the phischbook any time soon.

MacMinute also noted the announcement of Targus’s Notebook ChillHub, a US $50 laptop stand that incorporates two cooling fans as well as four USB 2.0 ports. Further details aren’t yet available, but it appears that it’s necessary to lug around an extra AC adapter to power the ChillHub’s fans and USB ports. Ugh.

MacSurfShop returns!

My favorite merchant of Mac-related apparel has re-opened for business. Mike Yraelbra, the Big Kahuna, has brought back the MacSurfShop, with a new business model that should allow him to keep costs low while still serving up great pro-Apple designs. I’m off to order my Pod People shirt…

Sticking with BBEdit, thanks

Michael, who is much more knowledgeable of such things than I, has an overview of MacroMates’ newly-released TextMate, which purports to be a BBEdit killer. I downloaded and took a look at TextMate, too, and I was fairly unimpressed. If I weren’t using BBEdit, I would likely go with SubEthaEdit. I’ve been using BBEdit since, oh, 1996 or so, and version 8 is the best version yet of the ultra-powerful text editor. Like mi amigo, I won’t be cranking up TextMate any time soon for my own needs, but more power to MacroMates for going after the switcher market.

Happy Tenth, Ric

Yesterday, Ric Ford celebrated the 10th anniversary of MacInTouch. MacInTouch is, to my best recollection, the original Macintosh news blog, from before the terms “weblog” and “blog” were coined. To quote Ric, “here’s to another ten years!”

A prettier Firefox?

There seems to be a movement afoot to pretty-up the Mac version of Firefox. Jon Hicks came up with some native-looking widgets, and Kevin Gerich has been busy with new button icons, as well as other widgets.

Not being a Firefox user—though I do plan to install the latest preview release—I am left wondering: why not just use Camino and all of its native Mac GUI goodness? It’s my browser backup of choice behind Safari.

ATPM 10.10

The October issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. We are thrilled to have as sponsors Bare Bones Software, developers of the powerful BBEdit, and staff-favorite Mailsmith.

Ellyn finally upgrades to Mac OS X, which isn’t without its travail. Andrew Kator submits that internet democracy is territory best tread carefully, while Ted’s latest About This Particular Outliner delves in to Tinderbox. In addition to the normal monthly dose of Cortland, Matt Johnson introduces Frisky the Freeware Guinea Pig. I really like Frisky. I don’t know why. I think Matt has a hit on his hands with a software-reviewing rodent.

Lee contributes some gorgeous sunset photos for your enjoyment as desktop pictures. Eric reviews Airport Express, Lee explores the Photoshop add-on I’m drooling over, Optipix, and Johann takes us between the covers of O’Reilly’s Mac OS X Panther for Unix Geeks.

As always, the issue is available for online viewing, or your choice of three delicious flavors.

ATPM 10.09

The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Ellyn sneaks in a word on integration, while Matt pontificates over the new iMac. David Ozab discusses a recent copyright case, and Paul has the latest from the world wide web.

It’s the Chris Lawson review issue, as the licensed pilot (be afraid, be very afraid) examines a hardware hacking book, the iRac, and the MicFlex. Oh, and Eric looks at DEVONnote while Michael puts my next keyboard through its paces. Some great renderings by Mark Feemster are available as desktop pictures.

Enjoy the fruits of our volunteer labor on behalf of the Macintosh-using public!

The Apple Table

For the Apple Macintosh lover who has everything, there is now the Apple Table. It’s actually kind of ergonomic, in the way that the cutouts allow the user to slide up much closer to the table. (Via the PowerPage.)

About that halo effect

USA Today:

Apple’s trendy iPod digital music player, which has revitalized the company, is giving laptop sales a boost during back-to-school season.

Many students, after falling in love with the iPod, are packing for college with new Apple Macintosh computers.

Of course, the “journalists” at USA Today could head on over to Microsoft’s Mactopia and verify that Outlook is not part of Office for Macintosh, but I suppose that would be too much trouble. I guess it’s just one more rag I really need to stop reading…

iPods, Real, and real choices

John Gruber:

RealNetworks’ battle cry in the Harmony debate is “Choice!” Consumers demand and deserve “choice”, and despotic Apple isn’t offering it to them. (Microsoft has also played the “choice” card — cf. last year’s “Closed Is Open”. Look for Microsoft to reiterate the “choice” angle when their own music store platform launches.)

But when RealNetworks whines about choice, they’re only talking about choice between rival DRM platforms. And it’s true that Apple denies iPod owners this choice.

But what Apple provides is a larger and more important choice: the choice not to use DRM protected audio at all.

Harmony is not going to help Apple sell more iPods. Harmony is simply an attempt by RealNetworks to sell songs to iPod users. There’s no shame in that — but no benefit to Apple, either.

Happy Birthday, MDJ!

Belated birthday wishes to Matt Deatherage and the entire MDJ on their eighth anniversary of publication. The August 12th issue of MDJ marked the special occasion.

Apple shoulda woulda coulda

It is analysis like this, on the “Apple should have licensed the Mac in the ’80s” unconventional wisdom, which merited my support of Mr. Gruber.

Pool tunes

I have an Onkyo SE-U55 USB Digital Audio Processor hooked up to my Power Mac G4 Cube. This allows me to run all Cube audio through my Aiwa shelf stereo system (which happens to reside on my desk instead of a shelf).

My wife and I have been wanting to get some speakers for use on the patio and by the pool, preferably wireless. We picked up a pair at The Sharper Image, and the set includes a 900 MHz transmitter. The transmitter plugs in to the headphone jack on the front of the Onkyo. This allows us to hear the audio on the Aiwa’s speakers as well. So, for the pool party this Saturday, we will have iTunes playing the party mix on the Cube, and getting tunes out by the pool, without having to have the beloved iPod within drenching distance.

(Yes, I know this could have been accomplished via Airport Express, but I would still have to have the speakers for outside, and in this instance, the transmitter was included.)

But we’re not done yet…

Now we have Salling Clicker installed on the Cube, and synced with my Sony Ericsson T616 via Bluetooth. I can now control iTunes remotely with my phone, so long as I’m within thirty feet of the Bluetooth adapter hanging off the back of my Cube. The study, where said Cube is located, is in the back corner of the house, just outside of which is the patio and pool.

Now I’m thinking of other possibilities. My clock radio has a crappy cassette deck built in to it, but I could put one of the speakers next to my nightstand. A cron job could start playing iTunes in the morning at the appointd time. And before you can say, “No snooze bar,” don’t forget about the phone! Just hit the appropriate control key for “Pause.”

This is how technology is supposed to work: enriching our lives, making it easier to accomplish a goal or dream, no matter how simple—or simple-minded—those might be.

Apple does batteries

Just in case you’ve ever wondered.

What’s your chat preference?

Totally unscientific, totally biased, comment-based poll:

What is your favorite chat protocol and client?

Here at Retrophisch™ Central, we prefer AIM, and use either iChat or AdiumX.

Leave a comment with your choices.

ATPM 10.08

The August issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Ellyn reminds us to take some time out, while Ted dives in to mindmappers in his latest outlining column. Wes has the complete coverage of the Dashboard vs Konfabulator from the Mac blog world. Sylvester walks readers through making a silent movie, which, alas, was the last great task of his beloved FrankenMac before it gave up the ghost.

This month’s desktop pictures section is a bazaar of reader-submitted photos from around the world. Greg looks at Excel Hacks, and Kirk reviews the Rolls-Royce of mini-speakers, while Ellyn offers her thoughts on Wil Wheaton’s Just a Geek. Finally, fellow Dallas metroplex resident Adam Zaner reviews the Belkin Media Reader, an iPod accessory I have long had my eye on.

As always, the issue is available in regular, premium, and super.

Whip antenna for smallest PowerBook

As a 12-inch PowerBook owner, the blurb on MacMinute about QuickerTek’s new Whip Antenna for the smallest PowerBook piqued my interest. However, after looking over the product page, I’m left wondering if this wouldn’t just be something that would easily break off. It appears to be a permanent or semi-permanent installation; how does that affect my three-year AppleCare warranty? The kicker: 90 bucks. Sheesh. Fifty I could understand, but it seems a little overpriced as is.

Why Macs Rock

James Duncan Davidson:

Unnsse Khan wrote me yesterday and asked the question, “Why are Macs better than PCs?” I thought about it for a while and decided that I’d write my reply as a public blog entry. After all, I’ve been a poster boy for Macs for a while. Almost every serious programmer I know and respect now uses one—and many of them asked me that question before they took the jump and bought a PowerBook. Boy, if I had a kick back for every Mac I’ve helped sell… well, I’d be living in a penthouse suite instead of an apartment. But it doesn’t matter. I like working on my platform. And I don’t mind telling people why.

Tiger Support for Boy Bands?

Wittiness like this is one reason why I decided to support our Mr. Gruber. (The latter of which won me an iLife ‘04 book + DVD from Jim Heid! Thanks, John!)

A dashing konflagration

So it seems that just about everyone has weighed in on the Dashboard vs Konfabulator issue. I happen to firmly echo the sentiments of John Gruber, and, like Michael, feel the bigger picture is getting lost in the melee.

I have tried Konfabulator and its many widgets. I was initially impressed, but in the end, I feel the widgets are nothing more than extra eye candy that, as Gruber points out, takes up even more memory from my system. I fooled around with Panic’s Stattoo, which seeks to provide the same sort of feedback that most of the widgets available for Konfabulator do. Stattoo, however, is an application running different “capsules” within its environment, whereas each Konfabulator widget is running as a separate app, each loading the Konfabulator runtime engine. If I were going to use one over the other, I would go with Panic’s offering, based on the types of capsules vs widgets involved.

In the end, the point is moot, as neither will find a permanent home on my systems. I just don’t see the point. I can tell the time and date because it’s already up in the menu bar. I can tell how much battery charge is left on my PowerBook because it’s already up in the menu bar. I can tell my iChat status because it’s already up in the menu bar. I can tell what the weather is, and what it’s going to be, because I already have WeatherPop Advance running—you guessed it—in the menu bar. I keep iTunes minimized, and position the window where I can always tell what song is playing, so I have no need for that particular widget, either. For that matter, I use Synergy as my alternative iTunes controller, because the buttons reside—drumroll, please—in the menu bar. If I have new mail, the bouncing Mailsmith icon in the Dock is sufficient to warn me.

I realize there are many other widgets out there for Konfabulator that do other things, but after looking through the gallery, there are some that are cool, but none that I cannot live without. I would rather have my system resources back.

Which brings us back to Dashboard, and how it differs from Konfabulator in that regard. Gruber has an excellent summary of this, and I see that the impact on system resources will be less when using Dashboard gadgets than Konfabulator widgets.

Like Michael, I personally am more inclined to fool around with building my own Dashboard gadget, because I already know some HTML and CSS, and can build on that knowledge. There is a greater reach toward the hobbyist market with Dashboard, versus Konfabulator. It will be fun to play around in.

Of course, the Dashboard gadgets are going to have to evolve beyond the typical widgets and capsules I have already mentioned. I’m not about to go with eye candy that replicates what the system, or another app, is already telling me in another format.

ATPM 10.07

The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Ted’s amazing ATPO series continues with a look at the future of outlining, while Ellyn takes a chance with a public appearance, and how the digital lifestyle has made it easy to share such a moment.

Yours truly shares some more desktop pictures from Kilauea Volcano National Park, and posts a review of the BOOQ BP3 System. Lee reviews the iTalk, next on my own iPod accessory list, and Eric looks at a shell script book that actually discusses Mac OS X. Other reviews and articles abound. As always, available in three different flavors for your reading pleasure.

Taking the gloves off?

Apple publicly acknowledges what Mac users have known all along.

Sweet Southern Summer

So, yeah, I’ve been playing with GarageBand.

Yes, it is inspired by the southern rock, classic rock, rockabilly, and country music I grew up with. Yes, it’s all done using GarageBand loops. Yes, you can leave a comment and tell me how much it sucks, but I kind of like it. Heck, even Lawson told me the composition wasn’t bad at all, and I can always count on him to be brutally honest. Flame on!

Fun with Apple toys

You can now have your iPod fully integrated in your over-priced German automobile.

Apple product managers have an iChat AV video conference while one is at 35,000 feet over Canada.

(Danke, Lee.)

Tempting

GigaDesigns announced today a 1.5 GHz G4 upgrade for the Power Mac Cube. However, at six hundred smackers, I believe I’d rather put that toward a new G5.

Dock? What Dock?

From my days of working on 15-inch LCDs, I have long hidden Mac OS X’s Dock. After all, I wanted to maximize my screen real estate. I still do this on my 12-inch PowerBook, for the same reason. On my Cube, however, I have a 19-inch Princeton LCD and my Apple 15-inch Studio Display. Plenty visual expanse, right? Yet old habits die hard, and I have found that I do not miss the Dock at all.

I am not one of the many whom have not cared for the Dock since OS X first rolled out. On the contrary, I rather enjoyed having it. But the addition to the operating system of cool switching via Command-Tab, and my usage of—nay, addiction to—LaunchBar, has rendered for me the Dock irrelevant. If the current beta of LaunchBar 4 is any indication, the final release of this new revision is going to ensure my hands stay on the keyboard even more.

Finder usage will not be going away any time soon. I still need that for moving files about via drag-and-drop, and I have customized my Finder toolbar with various apps for such drag-and-drop operations. One example would be opening archive files of various denominations by dropping them on Stuffit Expander. I know the command-line junkies will tell me that I can do all of that from the Terminal, thus ensuring my hands stay on the keyboard even more. However, for some operations, such as the example above, I believe I am faster with the mouse than typing in pathnames to drill down to the file I want.

ATPM 10.06

The June issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Matt Coates discusses online offers and gives us a glimpse of his personal network. Andrew Kator has a wicked cool tutorial on combining the power of Blender with Xgrid. Paul Fatula reviews Mariner Write 3.6; I last reviewed version 2.0.5 in January 1999. The second part of Lee’s desktop pictures from Puerto Rico are available. Other columns and reviews fill out the issue, and as usual, it is available in different formats for your reading pleasure.

iMac G5

No, Apple hasn’t made any new product announcements, but Peter Kellner resurrected an old iMac in new clothing. (via MacInTouch)

Mac OS version builds

This handy chart of Mac OS version builds that shipped with various systems since 1998 is incredibly valuable. (via MacInTouch)

Book return

Thanks to the newly-introduced PowerBooks, and getting back some of our hard-earned dough from Uncle Sam, there is a new phischbook in the house.

I was able to score a now-previous generation PowerBook G4 12-inch 1 GHz system, with a SuperDrive, from my local Apple Store for a song. It was one of their demo units, refurb’ed by one of the in-store techs, most of whom I know from my previous employer, and trust to be thorough. I carefully inspected it before finalizing the purchase, and it appears immaculate.

Along with the three-year AppleCare, a must-have with portables, and an Airport Extreme card I purchased, it was still less than a brand-new PowerBook in the same part of the line-up. A 512 MB SO-DIMM purchase from the fine folks at Other World Computing brings it up to 768 MB of RAM.

This purchase settled three wishes I’ve had since being laid off this past October: (1) a PowerBook; (2) a faster Mac in general (my Cube is still at the original 450 MHz); and (3) a way to burn DVDs. I love the ultra-portability of the smallest PowerBook!

ATPM 10.05

The May issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Ellyn makes a wonderful observation on social contacts on the Internet, which I know has been positive for me. I have a local friend whom I met online first, and like Ellyn and one of her friends, I have doubts on whether we would have become friends if we had met in meatspace first.

I know Lee, Michael, Raena, and Eric through our meetings online. Granted, all are part of the ATPM staff, but our friendships have developed beyond this commonality. These are people who have come to me for advice or my opinion, and I have sought the same from them. (And likely the latter moreso than the former!)

Eric is the only one I have met (twice!) in the physical world, meeting at the New York Macworld Expos in 2001 and 2002. My various web sites wouldn’t be where they are, design-wise, without Raena’s expertise. Michael’s SpamSieve, for which I was an original beta tester, has made my online life immeasurably better. I’m assisting Eric as a tester with a kick-butt product he is developing, and I get to tease him when the Rangers sweep his beloved Red Sox, as happened this past weekend. Thinking of all the people I know solely from my online journeys, I would have to say that Lee is my best friend in cyberspace. Ellyn’s point is well taken with yours truly.

Wes has yet another extensive round-up of the latest Mac blogosphere happenings, Paul always finds something that makes me laugh, and Sylvester discusses the latest in the cloning front. Lee’s friend Andy McConnell has a report from this year’s National Association of Broadcasters Convention, and Ted takes NoteTaker and Notebook head-to-head in an eagerly anticipated match-up.

Lee contributes desktop pictures from his very recent vacation to Puerto Rico, the latest Cortland and iTrolls toons are accounted for, and we have a plethora of great reviews. Available in the usual fruity flavors.

ElleBook

My eyes! My eyes!

Just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should do something.

(via Kahney)

NASA Space Flight Patch icons

Maury McCown of RAILhead Design has released a massive, 146-icon collection of NASA space flight patches. The patches range from the Freedom 7 flight in 1961 through 2003’s ill-fated Columbia mission. Maury obviously put in a lot of work on this icon set, and it is a must-have for NASA/space fans.

Sorry, Windows users, for Macintosh only.

ATPM 10.04

The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Yours truly contributed desktop pictures for this month’s issue. Of note is Evan’s Soundsticks review, Ted’s announcement of a new outliner, and would someone please send Wes some feedback so he’ll stop whining? Geez, you’d think Tom was writing again…

Marginalizing IE

The Mac Marginalization report at MacInTouch has seen a spurt of activity in recent days, notably about certain web sites not working with Safari or other non-IE browsers. In today’s postings, MacInTouch reader “Steve” suggests:

Safari users often are subjected to annoying web page redirection to inform them that their browser is not supported. Microsoft’s subversion of web standards deserves a similar tactic: “Your browser does not adhere to international web standards. Please contact Microsoft support to request standards compliance so that we can provide a better web experience for everyone. You will be redirected to our non-standard pages momentarily…”

If every web page handled MSIE this way, the stream of customer support inquiries might eventually annoy Microsoft enough that they would clean up their act.

While I highly doubt the latter would ever happen, it is amusing to consider the former nonetheless. Windoze users reading this, and other web standards-composing web sites, would do well to look to Firefox/Mozilla.

ATPM 10.03

Development halts on VLC Mac client

iPod mini thoughts

ATPM Chicago outing