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.)

The Politics of Silicon Valley

Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard has an intriguing look at the politics of Silicon Valley. Hint: incumbents are despised, “disrupters” are loved.