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Monday, March 4, 2002 |
Site news: After thinking about it over the last few weeks, I have decided to start accepting donations to help support Mac Net Journal. Thanks to all of you who stop by this site every day, the traffic is going through the roof! And while all that traffic is a great thing, it also comes with some cost. I haven't incurred any extra bandwidth charges from the host of my site, Digital Forest, but I have started to spend a lot of time and resources on maintaining the site.
Like anyone else out there, I would love for my web site to become a money maker, but I have no illusions about this. I am a writer. There are few riches in being a writer and an information maven - something I learn over and over again in my work writing books. I offer the information in Mac Net Journal because I want to share what works for me. It might just work for you too. If you find that valuable, please support this site!
Now...back to our regularly scheduled programming... 
10:24:02 PM 
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From the Cry Me a River department: Ballmer: Sanctions would destroy Windows. Microsoft's CEO says the software giant would have to withdraw Windows from the market if a federal court approves sanctions being sought by nine of the states in the antitrust case. [CNET News.com]
9:02:18 PM
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Audiocorder X 3.3b2 looks like an interesting audio recording application for OS X that could come in handy if you need to record lectures or spoken notes on a computer.
8:07:48 PM
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Hmmm...it looks like I am not the only OS X user who has had problems with the update to OS X 10.1.3. PowerPage advises against installing the update on PowerBooks, mainly because of DVD player issues. My problem has been Web browser related. Since the upgrade to Java 1.3.1 Upgrade 1, I cannot access some Java applets, including the Java chat client I have to use for my work with Lycos
7:46:03 PM
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I shouldn't have praised my present Internet connection earlier today, because it looks like I jinxed it. Around 3 p.m. PST my cable connection went dead. I made a couple of calls to my ISP and they let me know that the problem was with ELI, the connection point for Click Network in the area around the University of Washington in Seattle. A power outage had shut down services for ELI (the power outage first happened this morning, so ELI's battery backup must have died around 3 p.m.) and once the power was restored, I was back on the Net.
Of course, since Mac Net Journal is not actually hosted on my home machines anymore - for just this reason, I might add - the outage was not a factor for anyone visiting my sites!
Big kudos to Harbornet, my ISP that I mentioned earlier today. They called back twice after my initial report of the problem, first to explain the power outage and again to let me know that the connection should be working again. Think I would get that kind of service if I was still with Qwest? No way...
6:50:49 PM
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Yahoo glitch trips up e-mail. An outage on Yahoo Groups, a collection of discussion lists based on various interests, prevents millions of members from receiving e-mail from their cohorts. [CNET News.com]
That would explain why I haven't seen any e-mail on some of my mailing lists today, since about 7 a.m. PST
5:47:43 PM
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iMsafe 1.1 updates the OS X backup and synchronization tool to support backing up resource forks and offers other minor fixes for the $13 utility
4:06:26 PM
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The face of the Net is a-changin'. Long the playground of the young, affluent and geeky, the Internet is now attracting a more diverse crowd, Jupiter Media Metrix says, including people over 50. [CNET News.com]
This is good news...it looks like the Net is maturing! Diversity and maturity are both something that the Net could use...
3:00:19 PM
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iTunes and home theater is an excellent site from Kent Tidwell. He explains his methods of hooking a Mac to his home stereo and creating a true digital hub...
1:58:52 PM
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News item: This may only be of interest to geology buffs like me, but below is the latest information about the second major earthquake in Afghanistan since Saturday:
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake in the HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN has occurred at: 36.54N 70.45E Depth 229km Sun Mar 3 12:08:20 2002 UTC
Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sun Mar 3 12:08:20 2002
Eastern Standard Time (EST) Sun Mar 3 07:08:20 2002
Central Standard Time (CST) Sun Mar 3 06:08:20 2002
Mountain Standard Time (MST) Sun Mar 3 05:08:20 2002
Pacific Standard Time (PST) Sun Mar 3 04:08:20 2002
Alaska Standard Time (AST) Sun Mar 3 03:08:20 2002
Location with respect to nearby cities:
40 miles (65 km) SSW of Feyzabad, Afghanistan (pop N/A)
90 miles (145 km) SW of Khorugh, Tajikistan (pop N/A)
95 miles (155 km) WNW of Chitral, Pakistan (pop N/A)
155 miles (250 km) NNE of KABUL, Afghanistan
For additional information, including a map for this event please
consult this web page, which should be available shortly:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/020303120820.html.
1:33:20 PM
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Qwest could default on debts. A default would probably cause credit-rating agencies to downgrade the carrier's debt and make it more expensive for the company to raise capital. [CNET News.com]
This is just the latest hit against the regional telephone company that I feel has to be one of the most heinous corporate citizens on the West Coast. I think so little of Qwest that I moved my broadband connection from Qwest DSL to a local cable connection, through Tacoma's Click Network and a local ISP called Harbornet, and if I had a viable option I would get rid of my telephone service from Qwest as well.
This brings to mind an interesting phone conversation I had with a telemarketer from Qwest last week. The fellow was trying to sell me on additional phone services from Qwest at a rate that would actually save me a buck a month over what I pay now. I told the guy no, I wasn't interested, and when he asked why I didn't want more service for less money I interjected: In my experience with Qwest, the fewer changes I make in my service then the fewer chances Qwest has of fucking up my service." I have never had a telemarketer get off the phone so fast...
1:15:23 PM
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Scripting flaw ripe for Web worm. Security experts warn system administrators to patch a flaw in a scripting module widely used among Apache Web sites, before the Internet's seedy side develops a worm to exploit it. [CNET News.com]
1:05:55 PM
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Macintouch proves why it is such an essential Mac news and information resource today. Just look at the number of reader reports updated today! Amazing. This proves why I put it at the top of my resources list...
12:32:30 PM
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OmniWeb 4.1sp52 is another update to the Web browser from The OmniGroup. It looks like OmniGroup is making it harder to get a hold of the sneaky peek releases though. I cannot find the link to the sneaky peek from the OmniWeb page, but you can use this link to dig out the latest version yourself.
12:01:50 PM
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Internet news sources continue to dig up angles on the copy protected CDs being pushed by the recording industry, which as a referesher will not play on Macs. Wired notes that despite criticisms from Congress over concerns that creating copy-protected CDs may be against federal law, music executives are pushing forward. And an interesting section in the story notes the vehemence with which Heidi Rosen halted any talk of an independent review of how the copy protection mechanism affects the audio quality of the protected CDs.
Meanwhile, MacCentral notes a story from the Wall Street Journal quoting Steve Jobs saying that the recording industry needs to loosen its grip on music.
What it boils down to is this: The recording industry wants to turn your CDs into video tapes or DVDs. They want a business model where you will buy the music once and then you are stuck with that single copy. They don't care about what you want to do with your music. They don't even want to think of it as your music. They see music as their asset, and you are simply borrowing the right to play it in the manner that they see fit.
11:33:04 AM
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The Mutsu Repository of AppleScript Studio applications has added several new apps: RSSX 1.0b2, Simpleshade 1.2, and SimpleFind&Replace 1.1. [mac.scripting.com]
11:23:30 AM
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It is interesting to watch which web site features take off and which fail to create a stir. The "comment" feature at the end of every post in Mac Net Journal have so far failed to draw much response, and in fact I used to get more substantive feedback from readers through the e-mail capabilities of this Radio 8-based site than I have seen through the "comment" feature. But I keep hoping that comments will catch on, because it offers a two-way street for communication. I respond to people's comments, when they come in...
10:23:43 AM
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Give me a break. No way should the court believe their words if Microsoft argues as reported in today's Washington Post that they would have to pull the latest version of Windows from the shelf and stop developing the operating system if strong antitrust actions are taken against the company. Someone at MS must have missed hearing the story about the boy who cried "wolf" too many times... That or the MS folks are firm believers of picking up their marbles and going home. That may have worked for little Billy on the playground, but the adult Billy won't walk away from his money pit.
10:06:54 AM
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This morning's New York Times (Monday, 3/4) has two superb stories on Wi-Fi in the business section: one covers Wi-Fi's community networking angle, and how the bursting energy in that unfederated movement may be the nucleus of the next big cool thing - mesh networks that use tiny cells to bypass conventional infrastructure. This time, that cool thing will be mostly free. The other article focuses on Wi-Fi's remarkable popularity and growth, centering around the accidental and purposeful availability of service at coffee shops, in neighborhood, and used for interesting purposes. [80211b News]
9:03:33 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Rob McNair-Huff.
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