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2003

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2002

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OS X multimedia info

WebMonkey - Great HTML authoring stuff

WhatIsMyIP - Wherever you are, there you are...

rob@whiterabbits.com

rmchuff

Personal Organizer

PowerMail

Fire

OmniOutliner

Tinderbox

NetNewsWire

Chimera

Safari

OmniWeb

URL Manager Pro

GraphicConverter

PhotoShop

iView Media Pro

BBEdit

AppleWorks

iTunes

Transmit

System Preferences

Terminal

Backup

Internet Explorer (Classic)

- White Rabbit Publishing

- The Equinox Project


tinderbox

Driving through the driving rain
Friday, January 31, 2003, 8:54 AM

Today I am away from the home office and on the road, driving through some of the worst rain this winter on our way south through Oregon to the small town of Gold Beach on the coast. Updates to MNJ will be limited over the next few days as Natalie and I are away from home to visit her grandmother who lives in Gold Beach, near the mouth of the Rogue River.

If the rain ever lets up we could see some cool birds on this trip. Excellent!


iPhoto 2 and iMovie 3 coming tomorrow
Thursday, January 30, 2003, 3:04 PM

"On Jan. 31, iPhoto 2 and iMovie 3 will join iTunes 3 as free downloads available at www.apple.com." That is the announcement sent to all .Mac members in an email today, so be ready to play with new iApps tomorrow if the inclination strikes you!


GraphicConverter 4.5.3 update released
Thursday, January 30, 2003, 8:58 AM

The latest update to the must-have graphics toolbox application GraphicConverter brings the program to version 4.5.3 and adds MRW import, improved display quality in slideshows, better Photoshop plug-in compatibility, and a host of bug fixes to the $30 program. Complete release notes about this update are here, and if you use GC and you have never checked out the AppleScript collection offered on the Web site, do yourself a favor and check it out.


A useful file conversion tool using QuickTime
Thursday, January 30, 2003, 8:49 AM

AppleScript Studio App: QuickTime Quick Batch
AppleScript Studio application for one-click conversion of multiple media files using 18 export settings in QuickTime Player. Options available for getting full conversion info on media files, choice of recent or default conversion settings and file replacing. Found in QuickTimeStuff folder. Requires Mac OS 10.2 or better and QuickTime Pro. [Studio Log]


A Toast patch for iView MediaPro users
Thursday, January 30, 2003, 8:04 AM

Toast patch for MediaPro users
There is a problem where version 5.2 of Toast does not accept MediaPro files for backup. This has been identified as a Toast issue and Roxio and provided MediaPro users with an interim patch. [iView MediaPro Weblog]

I really love that the makers of iView MediaPro have created a Weblog to disseminate this information. Every company should do this to offer critical updates to their users, and the URL of the blog should be included on the packaging for their products. It takes customer support beyond the current realm of forcing users to come find what they need in a crisis to offering tips ahead of time that oncoming crisis. Excellent!


A couple of useful Apple Kbase articles
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 5:51 PM

Apple posted a couple of very useful Knowledge Base articles today:


Apple's incredible iLife deal for educators
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 5:26 PM

MNJ reader Andy Smith offers a great perspective on Apple's new deal for educators that lets them buy iLife and Keynote for a tiny price of $14.95.

While this may only apply to a few of your readers, Apple just announced an incredible buy for educators. They can get both iLife and Keynote for 14.95, including shipping. Not a typo. That's a savings of $113. Offer good until March 31st. I'd call that aggressive pricing!

For people who already have iLife ordered, they've sent an email explaining how to cancel the old order. Fortunately, they're giving people like me who already bought Keynote a credit at the Apple Store.

On second thought, this might be interesting to others, as it shows Apple's aggressive fight for the education market.

Great point, Andy! Of course, I should have mentioned this great deal earlier, but I have been swamped with paying work (that I hate, but that is another story...) over the last couple of weeks, so MNJ has not had the kind of attention it deserves.

On another iLife note, a number of sites are confirming that iLife is shipping now...


Frustrated by Chimera
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 5:06 PM

For the last few days I have not been able to use Chimera at all, because for whatever reason, even after running Disk Warrior on my disk and a number of restarts and downloads of the newest daily builds of Chimera, the program crashes on startup for me every time I try to run it. Have others run into this? Solutions?

While Chimera hasn't been working, Mozilla is rock solid and I have been using Safari as my main browser. Safari still has shortcomings and it hasn't been updated in a couple of weeks now, but it works pretty well with a daily restart of the app, in my experience. Hopefully some of the rendering problems will be addressed soon.

I am also using OmniWeb for some critical work as well. Most notably, OW handles sites that use certain private security certificates that cause every other Mac OS X browser to choke and die...


Notable recent software releases
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 4:16 PM

Here are a few highlights from recent software releases as found on Macupdate:

  • Interarchy 6.1 - Update to the $45 full-featured FTP client.

  • Drop Drawers X 1.6.1 - Work with a wider range of URL types in the latest incarnation of this shareware file launcher.

  • ComStats 1.1.1 - Freeware that helps you track the time you use with Mail.app, iChat, or Fire.

  • Mac Messenger 2.0a4 - A free MSN chat client.

  • WorksWell 2.0.4 - A $99 application for creating top-notch PDF documents.

  • PTHPasteBoard 3.0 - A freeware clipboard extender app. If you cannot afford to buy CopyPaste, grab this freeware alternative.

  • IOXperts 802.11b Driver X 1.0b17 - Latest version of the wireless driver.

  • Jotz 1.2.02 - A $17.50 enhanced notepad app, now with database functionality with note-sorting on up to eight attributes.

  • Lexmark printer drivers version 1.7 - Drivers are available for the C910, the C720, and the C750.

  • MacBreakZ! X 3.5 - Shareware that helps you work with your Mac in a more ergonomic manner. $24.95.


.Mac Address Book syncing goes live
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 3:33 PM

Apple Activates .Mac Address Book Syncing
While the .Mac page still lists the feature as "Coming Soon," when we logged-in to our Address Book a page asked if we wanted to turn the feature on. (MacCentral via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]


O'Reilly on adding voice overs to slide shows
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 8:31 AM

Another installment of The DigiCam Chronicles on the O'Reilly Network delves into ways to add sound to you photo slide shows under Mac OS X...


A glimpse at my new Pismo workstation
Tuesday, January 28, 2003, 2:45 PM

A few people expressed an interest in how my desk looks now that I have integrated the new 17-inch Princeton LCD display with the built-in display on my aging Pismo PowerBook. The shot above shows how I currently have the machine set up on a desk in the kitchen, where I can look out the windows to the south and west with present views of a church spire through the branches of the ash tree in the back yard and billowing clouds building up against the Cascade Mountains to the east. Sure, I can't see the mountains from here, but they are there...


New Spring beta version integrates RSS
Tuesday, January 28, 2003, 7:17 AM

User Creations has rolled out a new beta version of its Spring application that adds RSS headlines with support for all flavors of RSS except 1.0. Spring 1.1b2 also offers drag-and-drop of feeds from NetNewsWire and for most feeds dragged directly from a Web browser. For complete info about the new release, check the weblog of User Creations president Robb Beal or click here to download the new version.


New Power Macs unveiled at 1.42 GHz, and new LCD pricing
Tuesday, January 28, 2003, 6:45 AM

New Power Macs faster, cheaper
Apple launches Power Macs with twin 1.42GHz processors, as it seeks to close the gigahertz gap with Windows-based PCs. [CNET News.com]

Apple also dramatically cut the cost of the 23-inch Cinema Display from $3,499 to $1,999 and introduced a new 20-inch Cinema Display at $1,299. The 17-inch digital flat panel display dropped from $999 to $699.


Opera about to abandon the Mac because of Safari?
Monday, January 27, 2003, 10:29 PM

Want evidence that Apple's effort to develop its own Web browser could backfire? Ever heard of Opera? It looks like the fat lady is singing, in the words of Dick Motta:

Mac Opera gored on Safari?
Opera Software says the future of its browser for the Mac is clouded now that Apple is producing its own, revealing a larger trend where Apple's efforts squeeze out third-party software vendors. [CNET News.com]


More Macworld Expo highlights from TidBITS
Monday, January 27, 2003, 9:07 PM

TidBITS also follows up with the second part of its Macworld Expo superlatives article tonight...


TidBITS goes on Safari
Monday, January 27, 2003, 8:54 PM

TidBITS' Adam Engst takes a measured look at the pros and cons of the Safari Web browser in its second incarnation. His conclusion:

"It will be fascinating to see where Apple takes Safari. Currently, Apple is clearly focused on speed and elegance above all else, and that's a fine goal for a 1.0 product. But I hope that future versions of Safari incorporate additional features that simplify life on the Web, much as AutoFill, tabbed browsing, and other features have in the past. Safari shouldn't merely settle for recreating those features, though, and I hope to be surprised by innovative new approaches to using the Web."


A new beta of NetNewsWire Pro
Monday, January 27, 2003, 8:43 PM

NetNewsWire 1.0b14
This release includes several small changes, including a new command in the Services menu for making it easier to subscribe to RSS channels. See the change notes for more details. [ranchero.com]


Wow...this is one bright LCD
Monday, January 27, 2003, 3:30 PM

I broke down and bought one of the 17-inch Princeton LCDs on sale for $350 at Costco this week, making a run to the mecca of consumerism early this afternoon. Setting the large silver-colored beast up on our kitchen table was a snap, and it works great with my Pismo PowerBook, especially when I set up the PowerBook on a laptop stand so that the height of the built-in LCD and the external LCD are about the same. It will take some time to get used to the fact that the Princeton LCD is so much brighter than my Pismo's aging LCD though. I turned the brightness on the 17-inch LCD down to about 50% and it still is much brighter than my Pismo. I am definitely being spoiled with the new screen real estate though. I have often hooked my PowerBook to a 15-inch Sony Trinitron CRT monitor while working in the office, but the difference between a 15-inch CRT and a 17-inch LCD is huge.

One final note about the built-in speakers in this Princeton LCD monitor: They are not all that great, but they seem to have a little better range than the built-in speakers in the Pismo...


eWeek comments on Apple's latest moves
Monday, January 27, 2003, 3:25 PM

Apple Moves Boldly Forward
Let's see if Apple's willing to up the ante enough to make things truly interesting. (eWeek via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]


More heat reports on the 12-inch PowerBook
Monday, January 27, 2003, 11:42 AM

My friend John called this morning to say he had just been playing with one of the new 12-inch PowerBook G4 machines, and he offered some good and some bad news about the machine from his perspective. The good: The keyboard felt more solid to him than the keyboard on the Pismo PowerBook. The bad: The heat generated by the little machine was very noticeable. As John said, that may not be a huge issue unless you do a lot of typing on your PowerBook.

One interesting note was that as we talked about the 12-inch PowerBook I reminded John that it doesn't have a PC Card slot. He didn't even notice that fact when he had his hands on the machine. Like many people, he assumed that a full-fledged PowerBook would have the full collection of ports for connectivity. Not having a PC Card slot is a deal killer for John to consider buying a 12-inch PowerBook. Sure, he could buy a FireWire media reader to get big image files from his digital camera into the machine, but why bother when he is already set up to work with PC Card slots?

This is just another example of the compromises built into any of the PowerBook products. Maybe Apple will hit the sweet spot for more high-end users with a new 15-inch PowerBook G4...


Why would you want Steve Jobs as President?
Monday, January 27, 2003, 11:11 AM

There must be a kernel of humor in all of the stories on Mac sites and on Wired today about the idea of having Steve Jobs run for president of the United States. What is it with the cult of personality around Jobs? I just don't get it...


The rise of the Uber-browser
Monday, January 27, 2003, 11:00 AM

The maker of NetNewsWire offers his perspective on Safari developer David Hyatt's comments about integrating RSS reading into the browser:

Rise of the Uber-Browser
Dave Hyatt on browsers and RSS: "Now that I've started using NetNewsWire to read blogs, I find it frustrating to be constantly switching back and forth between NetNewsWire and Safari. This led me to wonder: should RSS capabilities and browsing capabilities be merged into a single "uber-browser" application?

My opinion is, of course, no. NetNewsWire should use Safari's renderer so you don't have to switch to a browser (unless you want to). [inessential.com]

My thoughts: Rolling RSS reading into Safari would be the first step down the road to building yet another bloated browser. I think it makes more sense to have Safari work with other apps that can add capabilities when tied in with the browser...


Recent notable software releases
Monday, January 27, 2003, 8:50 AM

Here are highlights from recent software releases, as noted by Macupdate:

  • Gimp-Print 4.2.5 - Printer drivers for using Gimp with Canon, Epson, and Lexmark printers under Mac OS X.

  • NewtSync 0.3j - A $34 tool for synching Jaguar apps with a Newton handheld.

  • Typeset 1.5.3 - $15 shareware font viewing utility.

  • VueScan 7.6.8 - Scanning software for many scanners and film scanners.

  • ImageConverter 1.3.5 - A $5 shareware image format converter.

  • Excalibur 4.0.2 - A freeware spelling checker that can check documents created in a wide range of applications as well as in the Mac OS X clipboard.

  • Phoenix 0.5 - Freeware alternative Web browser.

  • Sh-Out! My Brain 1.3.1 - This is the latest version of the idea management and outliner program formerly known as Brain Juicer. $20 shareware.

  • WhereDidAllMyMoneyGo 3.1.2 - $25 financial tracking shareware.


Nisus reminds everyone that Writer is still coming
Monday, January 27, 2003, 8:28 AM

Nisus reminds Mac users that the native Mac OS X version of its Writer word processor is still in the works, though there is no release date nor any pricing information available in the short article on MacCentral. A couple of interesting notes from the article: A public beta version could be available in late February or early March, there will be an upgrade price from the Classic version of Nisus Writer, and Nisus is working on a translator to enable moving documents from Word's .doc format to Nisus Writer and then back again. The translator may not be part of the first OS X version of Nisus Writer.

It will be great to see Nisus join the rest of the world on Mac OS X. The sooner, the better...


Just how bad was yesterday's bug?
Sunday, January 26, 2003, 4:49 PM

CNET takes a look at the combination of laziness and the lack of serious attention paid by Microsoft to fixing critical bugs in a day-after story about the Sapphire worm today. Meanwhile, the portion of the Lycos site that I work on is finally back online after paying a big price for building parts of its site on faulty Microsoft code. Now the question is whether things will be even worse tomorrow morning...


A question for those using LCD monitors
Saturday, January 25, 2003, 10:51 PM

Before I plunk down $350 on a LCD monitor from Costco, is this Princeton 17-inch LCD Slim Monitor worth the money? Does anyone have experience with using Princeton LCDs with a PowerBook?

Since I am not going to rush into buying a new PowerBook anytime real soon, my next major purchase will be an LCD to hook to my Pismo PowerBook as a second monitor. The aforementioned Princeton LCD is on sale next week at the local Costco. I just want to get something worthwhile rather than plunking down money on something that won't be good to use with not only this PowerBook but with a new PowerBook later this year...


Comic relief of sorts, at Microsoft's expense
Saturday, January 25, 2003, 10:33 PM

After reading the self-righteous comments from Microsoft officials in many reports this morning that attempted to absolve the company of the worm that was slowing down the Internet and spreading around the world today by infecting Microsoft SQL servers - after all, the bug that allowed this attack was discovered months ago and MS released a patch to close the hole - it was hilarious that Microsoft's own Windows XP verification servers were offline today due to problems caused by the SQL worm. For many hours, if you wanted to use your newly updated Windows XP system after doing something like adding a new hard drive then you had to sit back and wait for MS to get its act together and its servers back online in order to use your machine.

I reiterate my old standby: If you want to avoid computing problems, the first and biggest step you can take is to remove any Microsoft code from your computer. Of course, as I write this in a non-Microsoft program, I am writing chapters for our Birding Washington book using Word 98 under Classic in another window. Where is Nisus Writer for OS X?


NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b13 adds posting to categories
Saturday, January 25, 2003, 6:08 PM

NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b13
This release includes category editing support for Radio, Movable Type, and Manila (news items) sites. For more details read the change notes. [ranchero.com]


Are you feeling the Web slowdown?
Saturday, January 25, 2003, 10:33 AM

The SQL virus that is causing a big slowdown in Web surfing today hasn't been felt much here in my home office, but I did suffer from an email outage from about 10:30 p.m. last night until 6 a.m. this morning. This is the fourth major email outage in the last couple of months with my current provider...

If you sent me critical email between those hours last night, Pacific Time, then please resend. Otherwise, Scripting News has a nice compilation of info about the SQL worm:

SQL virus reports 6:30AM Pacific. Heard a report on NPR that some kind of Internet-wide denial of service attack is underway. They quote Microsoft saying it's serious. If you have more information, esp Web pages I can point to, please post a comment on my Radio weblog. Thanks.

Reports: CNN, BBC, Slashdot, Beta News, Google, AP, Reuters.

Lawrence Lee: "Here's a chart from the Internet Traffic Report with global packet loss for the past 24 hours."

Freedom.Org: "Quick fix is to firewall port 1434/UDP traffic, and reboot the affected SQL servers."

Slashdot: "If you run Microsoft SQL Server, make sure the public Internet can't access it."

Beta News: "The attack used a buffer overflow to execute code on a vulnerable SQL Server, causing that system to randomly seek out other computers to infect and in the process consume massive amounts of bandwidth."

[Scripting News]


O'Reilly: Tips for emerging software developers
Friday, January 24, 2003, 4:45 PM

Software Strategies for Emerging Developers
When considering what type of software you want to bring to the market, which appeals to you: proprietary, shareware, open source, or freeware? Ruffnex, the creator of StreamRipper X, puts some cards on the table for you to consider how to play your hand. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]


Mariner Software's DocDrop: Just what the .doc ordered
Friday, January 24, 2003, 10:50 AM

If you have Microsoft Word format .doc files and need to convert them to a more accessible format, Mariner Software's free DocDrop utility is what you need. DocDrop converts .doc files to .rtf files that can be opened with many other word processors such as Mariner Write, AppleWorks, and others. Better yet, you can drop a whole folder of .doc files onto DocDrop and it will work its magic. DocDrop is an open source product under the GPL license. It works with Mac OS X and Mac OS 8.6 and higher...


Comictastic 1.1.3: Freeware comic-strip viewer
Friday, January 24, 2003, 10:38 AM

Spiny Software has released a new version of its comic strip viewing app Comictastic. The app makes finding and viewing comic strips as easy as using an RSS news reader - choose your favorites from the 50 supported strips or add support for others and you can read them each day in Comictastic.


ImageCaster 1.0.4: A Webcam app for OS X
Friday, January 24, 2003, 10:18 AM

ImageCaster is a scriptable webcam broadcasting solution for OS X. It can take virtually any image, from video camera or other sources, and broadcast it on the WWW. It can add overlay text and graphics and upload schedules can be customized. Among the many changes in this release: Improved error reporting to the activity log when script execution fails. Data-fork only AppleScripts will now be correctly executed. Eliminated an exception that was being raised when a blank path was specified for a pre- or post- delivery script. The "Anonymous login" and "Maintain connection between uploads" FTP options can now be accessed/altered via AppleScript. [AppleScript Info]


Senate to Pentagon: Enough with the database idea
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 10:13 PM

Citing a story in tomorrow's New York Times, Dave Winer is one of the many people tonight pointing out that the U.S. Senate has sent a message to the Pentagon and the Bush Administration about its idea of building a national database to spy on the American people:

NY Times: "The Senate voted today to bar deployment of a Pentagon project to search for terrorists by scanning information in Internet mail and in the commercial databases of health, financial and travel companies here and abroad." [Scripting News]


On a political note: Blogging for voters
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 9:55 PM

There is some interesting and deep content on Britt's Escapabe Logic blog tonight, including a volley about what it means to be a hero and how to apply that to today's political scene in Blogging for Voters.


Scheduler 3.4: Control your Mac with AppleScript
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 9:51 PM

Scheduler 3.4
Scheduler offers reminders with many scheduling options. It is able to schedule the launch of applications, AppleScripts, documents (in the desired application), web pages (in the desired web browser) and file downloads (in the desired web browser). When used to schedule scripts, Scheduler can target specific script handlers and pass arguments to them. [release notes] [AppleScript Info]


Apple confirms Keynote bug
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 9:43 PM

Apple Confirms Keynote Glitch
"Apple has identified a bug in the driver software for certain ATI graphics chips which can affect a small number of systems when used with Keynote," the company said. (CNET News.com via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]


User upgradable parts for the 12-inch PowerBook G4
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 5:01 PM

If you have dreamed of doing work on your own diminutive 12-inch PowerBook G4 then you should read the AppleCare Knowledge Base article with instructions for working with the user-serviceable parts in the machine: the AirPort Extreme card and memory only...


My Audion findings
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 2:52 PM

I spent time across two different days this week to play with the capabilities of alternate MP3 player and recorder Audion 3. The program has quite a few pluses over the free iTunes:

  • Better quality streaming audio according to my ears.

  • Built-in alarm clock abilities.

  • More ripping options, including the MP3 Pro format.

In the end though I found it ripped files from my CDs much slower than iTunes and I was frustrated by the MP3 organizer features enough that I have ended my testing. Maybe I will revisit Audion when I get a G4-based PowerBook rather than this aging G3-based Pismo PowerBook.

One definite positive for Audion is the support advice I received from Panic's Steven Frank. I wrote to Steven about the kinds of ripping speeds I was seeing and he offered some good advice - speed depends a lot on which ripper you are using and the quality settings. I was trying to rip files at high quality using each of the different MP3 rippers for testing purposes...


In response to the RSS feed discussion
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 2:11 PM

I am now experimenting with new options for the MNJ RSS feed. If you see something odd my next few posts, know that I am tweaking things...


Apple iDelays iLife
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 1:46 PM

iDon't know what to do with my iLife now that I read on MacMinute that iLife has been iDelayed... (iCouldn't iResist...)


Discussion: Should RSS feeds be headline-only or full text?
Thursday, January 23, 2003, 6:38 AM

When I moved Mac Net Journal to Tinderbox as my authoring program last November I also made a switch in the type of RSS feed that those who read MNJ see in newsreaders like NetNewsWire. Where once the full text of each MNJ story could be seen in my RSS feed, now just the headline is offered. Why do this? For one, it helps cut the costs of the RSS feed bandwidth involved with running a site like MNJ. It also encourages more people to actually visit the Web page that I work hard to maintain. But not everyone is thrilled with headline-only feeds.

The folks on the Unsanity weblog have a discussion underway (Half-assed RSS feeds) about RSS feed issues and I wonder what MNJ readers think of the current MNJ feed?


OmniOutliner 2.2b1
Wednesday, January 22, 2003, 8:54 PM

Late yesterday The Omni Group released a new beta version of its excellent OmniOutliner application. OO 2.2b1 adds XML exporting, which enables export to Word's outliner among other things, as well as new support for importing and exporting with Apple's new Keynote app. In addition, more column types can be formatted and styled in this beta release and there are a few AppleScript changes rolled into the mix as well. Check the release notes for complete details.

In addition there will be a disk image available soon with tips for how to use the XML export option with Word.


Signs that life is too hectic
Wednesday, January 22, 2003, 8:04 PM

As someone who has been under some serious deadline pressure, money-making pressure, and just general pressure from too many things on my plate at the moment, I can offer a couple of clear signs that help show when I need to step back and set a schedule and re-prioritize:

  • I bought a new Canon photo printer before Christmas and a month later I still haven't had a chance to do a test print on the danged machine.

  • We are 22 days into the month and I still haven't had a chance to update my daily photography and writing site, the Equinox Project.

  • When updates to Mac Net Journal have slowed due to being busy with other things during the daytime hours.

  • When I haven't been able to squeeze in a run all week...

Thankfully, this has been a slow week for Mac news, but things have been crazy enough around here to point out that I am burning too many candles at both ends...


12-inch PowerBook G4s showing up, but 17-inch machines pushed back
Wednesday, January 22, 2003, 7:30 PM

It is great to see that some Apple Store locations and other computer shops are receiving initial shipments of the new 12-inch PowerBook G4 machines, but it sounds like Apple is pushing back the ship dates on many people's orders for the 17-inch PowerBook G4. There is also word that Apple's claims that the DVD-R SuperDrive in the 17-inch machine would burn at 2x are nowhere to be found on the new spec sheets...


Notable software releases
Wednesday, January 22, 2003, 10:13 AM

Here are some highlights from the software releases over the last day, from Macupdate:


Making RSS news aggregators easy
Tuesday, January 21, 2003, 11:42 AM

Should Apple integrate a new category of Internet preferences to account for the growing trend of people using RSS news aggregators into Mac OS X? That is the proposal of Michael Aldrete on his weblog last week. Interesting idea...


TidBITS offers its superlatives from Macworld Expo
Tuesday, January 21, 2003, 8:41 AM

TidBITS continues its tradition of wrapping up the most notable highlights from Macworld Expo in its look at this year's superlatives from San Francisco. If you are interested in new products as well as the best-of-the-best from the show floor, this should be required reading...


Notable software releases
Tuesday, January 21, 2003, 8:19 AM

Here are highlights from recent software updates and releases as found on Macupdate:

  • Timbuktu Pro 6.0.3 - Control your Mac or Windows computer of a network, dial-up, or the Internet with this $160 software. There is also an updater available for owners of previous versions.

  • URL Manager Pro 3.0.4 - The ability to import and export Safari and Chimera bookmarks are among the highlights of this new release of the $25 bookmark manager that works with all OS X browsers.

  • NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b12 - Update to the beta version RSS newsreader and weblogging tool.

  • InterMapper X 4.0 - Shareware network monitoring and alerting program.

  • Brother Drivers for OS X - Free printer drivers that work with OS X 10.2.1 and higher.

  • ExecutiveSync 1.2 - $19.95 shareware file sync utility that can sync with Microsoft Windows File Servers, work with long filenames, and Unicode.

  • Small Business Tracker Deluxe X 1.5.5.1 - $99 shareware solution for managing common information used by small businesses - contacts, expenses, schedules, invoices, and inventory.

  • iHam on iRye 2.0b1 - Freeware that allows you to control iTunes from another computer on a WAN or LAN network.


Looking at Audion
Monday, January 20, 2003, 2:05 PM

Audion 3 from Panic looks like an excellent MP3 player and encoder, but I am running into problems in testing my trial version today. Most notably, the encoding speed is about one-third to one-half the speed of encoding files in iTunes. If you use Audion 3 for MP3 encoding, can you offer any tricks? Or is this pretty much the state of working with Audion in this current version?


Safari downloads top 1 million mark
Monday, January 20, 2003, 9:18 AM

According to Apple, since its announcement and release on Jan. 7, the public beta version of the free Safari Web browser has been downloaded by more than 1 million users...


Burning multi-session CDs with DiskCopy
Monday, January 20, 2003, 8:25 AM

An AppleCare Knowledge Base article offers great tips for how to burn multi-session CDs with a CD-R under Jaguar. If you use a CD drive and do backups to CD, or you just want to be able to shoe-horn more data onto a CD-R, this is required reading.


Panic's Steven Frank writes about 'free' software
Monday, January 20, 2003, 7:21 AM

Writing on his weblog, Panic developer and co-founder Steven Frank offers his perspective on 'free' software:

If you've ever been frustrated with, say, a Microsoft product, you understand the value of competition. Making a product free drives away the competition. Unless the product is so unwieldly that it cannot be used or understood within a reasonable amount of time, people will almost always value "cheap" more than they value "good" (See also: Apple's marketshare). If your only business is in competing with a free product, your business won't last long.


Is Chimera dead?
Monday, January 20, 2003, 6:56 AM

Signs of the end of the Chimera development efforts in the wake of the arrival of Safari and the departure of major programmers is the topic of MacSlash's latest discussion: Is Chimera Dead?.


AirPort blog is offering great coverage
Saturday, January 18, 2003, 10:06 AM

As you would expect given that it is run by two veteran writers, the new Apple AirPort Weblog is offering excellent coverage of AirPort Extreme and the general state of wireless on the Mac. To really understand what AirPort Extreme is and isn't, check out the 802.11g and AirPort Extreme Update posted yesterday...


TinyBooks: A simple single-entry bookkeeping app
Saturday, January 18, 2003, 9:54 AM

Ken Winograd offered up his TinyBooks accounting application for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.x yesterday. It is billed as a flexible, non-bloated, single-entry bookkeeping program designed for home users and small businesses.

I haven't used the $49 TinyBooks application just yet, but it looks like a great bare-bones program for its target audience. And I love looking at shareware programs like this. It was created to be Ken's own bookkeeping solution and it worked well enough that he wants to share it with the rest of the Mac community. Excellent!


Writer stacks up XP and Linux, comes away appreciating Mac
Saturday, January 18, 2003, 9:34 AM

Seattle Times columnist Paul Andrews writes about his experiment of trying to compare the installation and setup process for Windows XP with the same process on Linux in How does Linux stack up against Windows XP. The article reinforces my previous experiences with running Linux, but the conclusion of the piece is why I mention it here.

Ironically, my two-month experiment (which I will continue) gave me a greater appreciation for a third platform: the Apple Macintosh. Built like Linux on a Unix base, Mac's OS X offers the reliability of Linux and even better digital-content features than Windows.

In fact, the Mac is still a fun computing experience, in contrast to the PC's cross-your-fingers exercise in driver installation, setup and reboots.

If Apple offered a $400 computer, there would be no comparison at all. As with doctors and dentists, pain eradication apparently costs extra.

That is a nice endorsement for the Mac, even though it alludes to the higher costs of Apple products.


WebCore not ready for business, other than with Safari
Friday, January 17, 2003, 5:44 PM

While there has been talk about how Safari and the WebCore services in OS X will help independent developers add better HTML rendering to their applications, Safari team member Dave Hyatt asked developers to stop it for now. Here is how Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire fame responds to the command:

Stop it
Dave Hyatt (Safari guy): If you're trying to embed the Safari layout engine right now, stop it! :)

Done!

Actually, I stopped a few days ago. A real HTML renderer for NetNewsWire will have to wait until embedding the Safari renderer is actually do-able.

I strongly considered using Gecko, but it adds just a ton of size to the app - nearly 20MB. (Even stripped and optimized and all that.) [inessential.com]

To be clear, this is not a criticism of Apple or Safari, but it does show how far the browser has to go before it is ready for prime time...


Safari hits #2 in MNJ user agent list
Friday, January 17, 2003, 3:30 PM

Although the large majority of Mac Net Journal readers hit the site with an RSS newsreader, or NetNewsWire to be exact, the second most popular browser for looking at MNJ is Safari...


Register Keynote, get a year of Macworld
Friday, January 17, 2003, 1:55 PM

MNJ reader and supporter Andy Smith offered the following a couple of days ago:

If anyone purchased Keynote, make sure to register via the net. Registration gave me a free year of MacWorld, and according to the sign-up site, it can extend an existing subscription.


Mr. Barrett: It's not just Quark's fault
Friday, January 17, 2003, 1:46 PM

Damien Barrett offers a great round of the reasons that many people are still not ready to make the switch to Mac OS X. Number one: The cost of switching is exhorbitant when OS X doesn't run well or at all on older Apple hardware, when Office costs a ton of money, when Quark is still not available in a native OS X version, etc. It is no one thing that is holding people back but rather a host of smaller problems led by the fact that upgrading costs a lot of money, and money is scarce in today's slipping economy...


OmniGraffle as an RSS reader
Friday, January 17, 2003, 10:45 AM

Jesse Shanks: Using OmniGraffle as an RSS News Reader with Applescript. [Scripting News]


Time to fess up: I'm using Safari a lot
Friday, January 17, 2003, 9:57 AM

While Safari still can't handle all of my Web browser and Web work duties, it is showing itself to be quite decent at dealing with most everyday tasks. Problems remain though:

  • I cannot access my online banking

  • Safari locks up with many sites that require security certificates

  • As much as Safari's bookmark managing is an improvement, I wish it would support Shared Menus so that I could use my chosen URL Manager Pro and its much more advanced features to be used to their full advantage with the speedy new browser.

  • Safari still chokes at displaying some Web pages or updating the page when content has changed.

In other words, Safari in its current state is a good start, but it isn't ready to completely replace any of my other Web browsers. However, it has allowed me to remove Internet Explorer from my Dock...


Notable software releases
Friday, January 17, 2003, 9:32 AM

Here are some highlights from recent software releases noted on Macupdate:


Engst and Fleishman launch an Apple AirPort Weblog
Thursday, January 16, 2003, 7:12 PM

The Wireless Networking Starter Kit authors Adam Engst and Glenn Fleishman have launched a new companion blog, the Apple Airport Weblog:

As Apple introduces its AirPort Extreme update to its wireless networking system, we thought it was time to launch an Apple AirPort-specific Weblog that would cover news related to using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other wireless devices under the Mac OS operating system. AirPort is the center of the universe, but other wireless technologies spin around it.

To add the RSS version of the blog to NetNewsWire Pro or your newsreader of choice, paste in the URL: http://wireless-starter-kit.com/airportblog/index.rdf.


Make Mine MPEG-4 version 4.0.1
Thursday, January 16, 2003, 4:45 PM

Make Mine MPEG-4 v4.0.1
This AppleScript Studio application automates the process of ripping and then encoding iTunes CD tracks as MPEG-4 audio files using QuickTime 6.x Pro. Changes in this version: .mov files now include track number annotation. "Save as .mov" now handles long filenames. Removed "encoder branding" in Comments field. [AppleScript Info]

This program is an excellent example of putting the cutting edge Apple software built into AppleScript, AppleScript Studio, and QuickTime Pro to use to create some of the highest quality compressed sound files available...


Mail now allows attaching AppleScripts to rules
Thursday, January 16, 2003, 11:20 AM

Attach AppleScripts to Mail.app rules
The version of Mail included with 10.2.3 can execute Applescripts as part of a rule. [Studio Log]

How much do you use AppleScript to add features and capabilities to OS X programs? I just wonder because there is a lot of customization possible, but I get the feeling most people avoid AppleScript.


iCommune may be iGone
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 2:43 PM

MacMegasite notes iCommune threatened by Apple: "The author of iCommune, a file sharing plugin for iTunes, has received a "Notice of Breach and Termination of License" letter from Apple, stating that he violated my license to the Device Plug-in API which iCommune uses. For the time being, he's making the download unavailable, while he try to sort things out with Apple. Any good lawyers in the house?" [MacMegasite]


Apple posts $8 million loss for last quarter
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 1:57 PM

MacMinute offers details of Apple's 1Q03 earnings report. The numbers: An $8 million dollar loss or $0.02 per share. Apple also announced it expects flat revenues looking into the rest of 2003...


Eudora updated to 5.2.1b2
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 1:20 PM

A new update to Eudora today adds a number of bug fixes, including making the program use less CPU cycles when running in the background, re-enabling the battery check under OS X, fixes for crashes caused by malformed HTML messages, and more. Check the release notes for complete details. Eudora 5.2.1b2 is a 3 MB download...


Disk Warrior 3 coming in early February
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 11:00 AM

According to a post on O'Grady's PowerPage at the end of a story about Alsoft's Disk Warrior utility, Rusty Little from Alsoft offers what he says is the scoop about the upcoming DW 3.0 that will boot from OS X and work like a charm with the new PowerBook G4 models:

"Here's the real story...period. :-) The target for getting DiskWarrior 3.0 out in final form is February 1st to February 14th. There is nothing to indicate this will not happen. However, if something serious were to be discovered, we will not ship a product that has a known problem. I did not tell anyone that DW3 would not ship until late March, there must have been a misunderstanding or miscommunication. I probably did a poor job of explaining something. We took upgrade orders for DW3 for registered customers at MacWorld Expo last week. Those that got their order in will be the 1st existing customers to receive the new CD. Those that wait until after the release of DW3 could get caught in a back-order situation and maybe that's what I was speaking about. Alsoft has never "run out" of upgrade CDs. When we have released a new version or a new CD with an updated System version, we have occasionally been overwhelmed with upgrade/update orders that cause a back-order situation where shipping a CD may not take place until a few weeks after an order is placed. It has taken a long time to produce a DiskWarrior for Mac OS X because there is no way to "Carbonize" a disk utility. We have to create a Unix disk utility with a Mac OS appearance that operates on Macintosh disks. Working at such a low level in Unix is much more challenging than it was for Mac OS 9 and earlier. Believe me, if we could have finished DW3 earlier, we would have. I could have taken a vacation already. I hope this information has helped. I am very happy that our product has been well received and people are interested in it enough to discuss an upcoming release. Like every other business we cannot exist without customers, and satisfied customers keep us in business. We are doing everything we can to deliver a product for Mac OS X that is even better than what we had for Mac OS 9 and earlier versions of the Mac OS. I wish you a Happy New Year! Rusty Little Alsoft, Inc.

This will remove one red flag about buying one of the new PowerBooks, and it is great news for all OS X users since it will mean that the ability to boot into OS 9.x will no longer be required!


Comment catch up
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 10:35 AM

A few people sent email comments about yesterday's stories about Apple and how it should commit to making Safari the best browser on OS X, bar none:

Al Willis writes:

"In terms of speed and user interface, it's (Safari) already head and shoulders above the other browsers on Mac OS X. Because of the strategic importance of Safari, I believe Apple is in this for the long haul and will invest the resources to make it happen. I doubt Apple is going to charge for Safari--being in control of their browser destiny is far more important that whatever revenue they'd get from attempting to charge for Safari. Besides, people expect their web browser to be free."

And Willis adds:

"It's not clear at all that any 3rd party has the ability to create a killer browser for Mac OS X. And it's not like they haven't tried--look at OmniWeb, iCab and Opera. Actually, the only company besides Apple that has the resources to create a killer browser is the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft and they aren't talking about their plans for the next version of IE. And even if there's a new version of IE in the wings, Apple wants it's own browser to be the default browser for OS X--not IE.

So far, I'm encouraged by Safari. It's based on open source and developers will be able to use the engine that Apple's developing (WebCore) for their own applications. That means that a program like Eudora, which has poor HTML rendering, can use WebCore to properly display HTML e-mail. (Entougage does a much better job because it uses IE's engine). This will end up being a huge win for 3rd party developers on the Mac--every developer can use IE's engine on Windows to display HTML, so this really helps Mac developers."

Meanwhile, Andy Smith writes:

"It's interesting to compare the results of printing a web page in the various browsers. I printed the same online calendar page (http://www.calsnet.net/sms_band) in Internet Explorer, Chimera, and Safari. IE's print made no efforts on my laser printer to do shading, and differed the most from the actual web page. Chimera did a decent job, but Safari's print was the clearest. It's possible some of the quality could be due to the default fonts Safari uses, but even the cell borders are cleaner and crisper in Safari.

Thanks again... enjoying the site a lot!"


Doc Searls on Safari
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 10:29 AM

Writing on his Weblog, Doc Searls offers his comments on Safari:

Bagging Explorer

eWeek likes Safari. So do I. It's now the default browser on my OS X laptop. A brief wish list:

  1. Tabbed browsing
  2. Editable (not just purgeable) History
  3. Autocomplete form-filling
  4. One-click selection of the URL in the location bar (progressively coloring the location window as the page loads — making it a progress bar— is a clever touch, but it misleads the user into thinking the text there is highlighted when it's not... and when the user would like it to be
  5. Image icon generation for images dragged to directories

[Doc Searls]


The rumor mill already talking about a TiBook replacement
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 10:15 AM

Insanely Great Mac and other sites are already talking about rumors of a replacement for the current line of TiBooks. For once, these rumors make sense. I doubt that Apple will do anything to shoe-horn Bluetooth and Airport Extreme into the current TiBook design, but that it will rather unveil a new design with better Airport antenna wiring and other enhancements to bring the mid-level PowerBook G4 in line with the new 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4. The only question is when Apple will unveil a new mid-level PowerBook? I imagine it will be a few months.

Meanwhile, if you want to get a high-powered PowerBook that can still boot into OS 9.x as well as OS X, get a current TiBook now. Supplies are bound to grow thin...


A useful timed AppleScript
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 9:57 AM

Mac OS X Hints: An AppleScript to create timed screen captures
ClarkGoble: "To set up a script that takes a screenshot of your desktop every hour, use the following Applescript." ... [AppleScript Info]


Some great digital photography tips
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 9:50 AM

Derrick Story does a great job offering digital photography tips in the first article in his series of digital photo how-tos on the O'Reilly Networks site called The DigiCam Chronicles. Today's installment looks at how he took the shots he took at last week's Macworld Expo. I am sure to learn some useful new tips for using my now three-year-old Nikon CoolPix 950 and its 2 megapixels of digital goodness.


Notable software releases
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 9:20 AM

Here are some recent notable software updates and releases, as found on Macupdate:

  • Synchonize Pro X 2.0.2 - $99.95 solution for backing up your OS X system. Also can simply sync files from one computer to another.

  • Spamfire X 1.3.1 - Commercial email filtering program to filter spam from your in box. It works with any email software.

  • Launch Items X 1.3.8 - $14 shareware tool that provides a contextual menu to launch applications, folders, files, URLs.

  • ProjectTimer X 1.4b1 - Record the amount of time spent on projects with this $20 shareware from the makers of CopyPaste.

  • Keep-It-Up X 3.2 - $22 shareware that monitors applications that you tell it to in order to make sure they keep running. KIU can also restart your Mac at scheduled times. This program can be used to ensure that a Web server keeps running, that a VNC program keeps running, etc.

  • iSpeak It 1.1 - Shareware that converts any document into an MP3 file in iTunes using text-to-speech. The program costs $8.95.


NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b10
Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 8:37 AM

Brent Simmons keeps refining his excellent RSS news reader and Weblog editor NetNewsWire Pro with a new release:

NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b10
This release includes under-the-hood fixes for the news reader. The goals are stability, less memory use, and faster performance. [ranchero.com]


A technical note about the Comments feature
Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 2:08 PM

It appears that the site I use to provide comments on MNJ is having technical difficulties today. If this continues I will switch to another commenting system. Meanwhile, if you would like to send a comment and the link is not working, you can always email me with your comments at whiterabbit@whiterabbits.com.


A MNJ reader's Macworld Expo impressions
Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 10:20 AM

Mac Net Journal reader Brian Caldwell made a trip to Macworld Expo late last week and sends the following comments about what he saw on the show floor:

It was an interesting trip! The show overall, in terms of numbers of exhibitors and exhibit square-footage was smaller than any show I can recall. I can remember MacWorlds of previous years where the show was literally wall-to-wall. Not so, this year. Lots of closed off areas, wider aisles, and unrented spaces too. Odd exhibitors too - the IRS, Bank of America credit cards, and a distributor of windows (the kind that go in your houses' walls).

I think I would have to agree with comments that others have made. I think the era of the big trade show, such as MW has passed. I got the feeling that the show has seen it's peak in the rear view mirror and has not yet determined that it's time to leave the stage. Sad to say but that's the feeling I got. Other than the expected product announcements from Apple and other vendors, I didn't really sense that there was any "energy" to the show. I've been to lots of MW's on both coasts, as exhibitor and as attendee, so I have some basis for comparisons.

I got an opportunity to try out the new 12" AlBook. Size wise not terribly different from the 12" iBook. I didn't care for the keyboard feel at all. As one who spends a lot of time using a keyboard every day, keyboard feel is a paramount concern. I use a PB G3 Lombard now; it's not as good as say the PB1400 but it's decent. The iceBooks I think have a different but fine keyboard feel as well. But typing on this new one was like tapping on metal. I just think at the end of a long day of keyboarding my fingers would be rather sore and achey. Not much "give". Some smart vendors may come up with replacement keyboards. Also, the heat this little AlBook puts out could literally double as an alternate heating source. Toasty!!!

The personal highlights for me were: Being able to get a standby seat at the Adobe hands-on demo of InDesign 2. And, being able to chat with Riccardo Ettore, creator of the great utility TypeIt4Me.

Thanks for the comments, Brian! I especially appreciate the comments about the keyboard and heat emanating from the 12-inch PowerBook G4. Both of those comments are troubling and they lend more credence to the idea that I will wait until I can get my hands on one of the new PowerBooks before making any buying decisions...


Cool Safari features
Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 10:00 AM

MNJ reader Andy Smith offers notes about one of the feature in Safari that he finds quite useful:

I was playing around with Safari and noticed how nicely Apple has Safari and Rendezvous interacting. Safari has an option to show Rendezvous in the bookmarks area of the toolbar. On our school network, an HP printer in another part of the school shows up in the Rendzvous bookmark menu. Clicking on it brings up the configuration/status page of the printer, without having to supply the IP address or any other info. Anyone could check the toner level, availability of the paper trays, etc., from anywhere in the network, as long as they had Safari up. Nice touch!

What is your favorite new feature included with Safari?


Now that Apple has started, it had better finish the Safari
Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 7:50 AM

I have posted a number of skeptical and questioning items about Apple's decision to launch its new Web browser Safari. But now that the Jaguar has been sent out into the browser jungle, I want to offer a few words.

First, Apple needs to make Safari a serious browser. The resouces being spent on developing this browser will be wasted if Safari is approached like other Apple applications, which are fraught with compromise. Yes, Apple should maintain its push for simplicity, but it also needs to make Safari a killer app that runs circles around all other OS X browsers. Forget about simply matching IE feature for feature. How about making Java run as well on Safari as it does on Windows machines? At this point, no OS X Web browser can handle Java as well as Windows browsers. I know because Java limitations force me to choose to use IE under Windows or IE under Classic every day on my Mac.

Second, Apple needs to position Safari to innovate the stagnant browser market. In the last year the only major new feature to come to browsers is tabbed browsing. Safari needs to integrate tabbed browsing, but don't stop there.

Third, Apple needs to cater to the creative community of writers and content creators who flock to Macs and make Safari the best WYSIWYG weblog editing browser on the planet. Offering spell checking in input fields in this first public beta version is great, but this isn't enough. After all, OmniWeb has offered this since the arrival of the OS X Public Beta. Try to come up with new features that will make Safari and OS X the logical choice for serious webloggers.

What worries me about Safari and about Apple's efforts to create applications in general is that Apple will make an initial product and then not take the effort far enough to make the product appeal to more than the most basic of Mac users. This is the shortcoming of Apple's iApp strategy. Sacrificing power for simplicity makes sense if all you want to create is a proof-of-concept kind of program. But if Apple's goal is to make Mac OS X the ultimate destination for both beginning as well as high end users who want to use the Mac as a digital hub then they need to think beyond the obvious first steps. Otherwise, Safari will be yet another toy in the stable of useful but underpowered iApps.

Do I think Apple will make the serious effort to make Safari stand head and shoulders above the rest of the Mac OS X browsers? Not really. To do so will take money and time, and it will take a commitment to risk it all by charging OS X users to use a killer browser when the project is done.

My biased opinion is that Apple should have worked with third-party browser developers to create the killer Web browser. It would have done more to build a solid base for OS X outside the halls of Apple's offices in Cupertino. But once again Apple has decided to do everything in house, third-party developers and partners be damned. Time will tell if this is just another half-hearted volley, or a geniune effort to create something great.


Low End Mac: Avoid the OS X only PowerBooks for now
Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 7:33 AM

Dan Knight makes a good point in urging PowerBook fans to think twice before leaping to the new PowerBooks, which will only boot into Mac OS X. The reason: Many OS X disk utilities such as the excellent Disk Warrior app I use to keep my Pismo in good shape will not work on the new Macs. Why? Disk Warrior has to boot from a CD or an external drive running OS 9.x to work its magic on my OS X hard drive...


NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b8
Monday, January 13, 2003, 7:51 PM

NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b8
This release focuses on the news reader. Changes include displaying the time for the next refresh, remembering column sizes, and fixing an OPML subscriptions importing bug. (See the change notes for more info.) [ranchero.com]


Apple objects to court settlement
Monday, January 13, 2003, 6:14 PM

CNET notes that Apple objects to Microsoft settlement: "The Microsoft competitor says an antitrust settlement between California and the software giant is more beneficial than punitive."

Amen to that. Since when did court penalties involve giving away vouchers for discounts on more Microsoft software? Let's all feel sorry for MS, as many news anchors were trying to make us do when this ridiculous settlement was announced on Seattle area news the other night...


Jaguar Bluetooth problems
Monday, January 13, 2003, 3:38 PM

Michael McCracken writes on his site:

Jaguar forgets the USB Bluetooth adapter

It seems like Jaguar will forget about the (D-Link) USB Bluetooth adapter if you leave it plugged in and put the computer (iBook) to sleep. After doing that, I can't get Bluetooth sync to work, but USB cradle sync works fine. Anyone else had this trouble?

comments

[Michael McCracken - Weblog]

If you are using Bluetooth, have you seen this behavior? Is there a solution?


CopyPaste X 1.5 adds features
Monday, January 13, 2003, 12:49 PM

CopyPaste X 1.5 adds a new contexual menu that lets users manipulate CopyPaste as well as other enhancements for the program that adds multiple clipboards to Mac OS X and offers other text utilities. The program remains $20 shareware.


Microsoft Office v.X 10.1.3 updater out
Monday, January 13, 2003, 12:14 PM

MacCentral notes that Microsoft is offering an update to Microsoft Office v. X today. It looks like most of the enhancements deal with bugs related to Italian and French languages in Office. Check the story for more...


iCab X 2.9 arrives
Monday, January 13, 2003, 12:05 PM

In what may be the first response to Apple unveiling its own OS X Web browser last week, the makers of iCab have released iCab X 2.9 today. Among the changes are new cache management to deal with the increased speed of this release, new search features that let you use any search engine from the URL input field, and fixes to add better performance under Jaguar.


iCommune: Share iTunes across a network
Monday, January 13, 2003, 10:57 AM

iCommune 1.0b2 is the latest version of a freeware app that lets you share iTunes libraries across a network, bringing the capability that Steve Jobs previewed many months ago as a possible use of the Rendezvous networking frameworks. Apple hasn't offered the iTunes library sharing as advertised, so James G. Speth came out with this free public beta of iCommune.

iCommune is a plug-in which extends Apple's iTunes software to share music over the network. Your friends' music libraries appear in the iTunes source list. You can browse their collections, and choose to download or stream their music. It also allows you to make your own music library available to others.

The Web site also explains Speth's current thinking on new features for iCommune...


Is Safari your default browser?
Monday, January 13, 2003, 10:26 AM

Do you have Safari set as your default Web browser now? If not, why? What browser are you using instead of Safari?


Launch multiple apps with one click
Monday, January 13, 2003, 9:37 AM

SoftBundler 2.0
SoftBundler allows users to create lists (FileStacks) of documents, applications and/or AppleScript scripts which can be opened all at once by double clicking the file which is generated. In essence, it creates a multi-target launchers via drag and drop and users are able to edit existing FileStacks later if the need arises. [AppleScript Info]


CPU speed shortage leads to PCs kicking Mac ass
Monday, January 13, 2003, 6:40 AM

Professional photography guro Rob Galbraith shows just how much the lack of processor speed in top-of-the-line Macs make Apple's offerings much slower than their Windows counterparts in In pro digital photography, megahertz matters. In his tests, Galbraith shows that PCs running Windows XP Professional surpase dual processor Macs running OS X when it comes to dealing with RAW format photos used by many photo pros.

There are interesting comments in the discussion thread related to the site though, including at least one mention that all RAW image processing programs for OS X are extremely slow...

Update: Macintouch has a reader report started on this topic, including one reader post and an extensive response from Rob Galbraith...


Walking the Open Source walk
Sunday, January 12, 2003, 5:47 PM

A Novelist Who Walks the Walk: Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow, an outspoken advocate of the free publication and copying of digital works, is putting his money where his mouth is. He's giving away his first novel to anyone who wants it. By Paul Boutin. [Wired News]


Binocular follow up
Sunday, January 12, 2003, 11:17 AM

Anyone reading MNJ who also happens to be interested in birding may appreciate hearing what kind of binoculars I picked up during the trip Natalie and I took yesterday. I ended up buying a pair of Pentax 8 x 32 DCF WP bins for about $250 after a $75 rebate. These are not the kind of ultimate, high-end bins that wealthy birders like to brag about, but they are a huge move up from the cheap Bushnell 7 x 15-35 bins that I have used for the last couple of years. The new bins are also lighter weight, and best of all, I was able to put them to use right from the start yesterday by seeing my first-ever Short-eared Owl hunting in the distance around 3:30 p.m. as nightfall approached!

Besides the Pentax binoculars, Natalie and I also each picked up an inexpensive pair of Celestron 10 x 25 bins that are tiny and perfect for carrying everywhere. Now there will be no excuse for not being able to ID birds any old time...


Is Safari overusing caching to achieve speed?
Sunday, January 12, 2003, 10:50 AM

As I continue to play around with Apple's Web browser, Safari, and I deal with its quirks and limitations along with its speedy rendering, I am wondering how many others are just taking the leap and using Safari as their new full-time browsers, no questions asked? Why would I care? Because Safari struggles to keep up with Mac Net Journal, for one.

Often after making a new post to the page I click through to the Web site to make sure everything is fine with the post, and with Safari I often click the bookmark for MNJ and then have to reload the page yet again to even see the new post. My bet: Safari is sacrificing doing proper checks of the Web page each time it is visited in an effort to attain more speed. Instead of loading the page it is loading the page from the Safari cache, which is much faster than actually grabbing new content from the Web. This same behavior would explain why Safari doesn't update the numbers of Comments at the end of each post on MNJ. Improper use of the cache would explain each of these apparent bugs with Safari on the MNJ page.

I also wonder about the caching issue and if it is at the heart of the apparent speed of Safari because when I look at pages like the message board page where I work on Lycos.com, if I have a discussion list on my browser and I make a post and Safari has to reload the page it is 2-3 seconds slower doing so than Chimera. And, in another caching related bug, Safari never updates the number of New or unread posts that is in red lettering next to each discussion title in discussion listings. This lack of completely updating a page upon reload has me using Chimera as my default browser until the bugs are cleaned up a bit in Safari...

Update: Michael McCracken offered a suggestion to add some code to my template for Mac Net Journal that seems to solve one of the problems - the updating of the number of Comments after each story is now updating to reflect the real content of each thread. However, I remain wary of what Safari is doing with the cache that causes it to run slower than other browsers on more dynamic Web sites, such as the discussion listings on Lycos...


Birds a plenty, and photos to boot
Saturday, January 11, 2003, 8:49 PM

We are back home after a day of great birding and a side trip to buy new binoculars. What a day! We drove 250 miles, saw 4,000-plus Snow Geese, and most amazing of all, watched as a two-year-old Bald Eagle flew over and sent the entire flock of Snow Geese up into the air in one great wave of black-tipped white wings. To top off the day, around 3:30 p.m. we watched a Short-eared Owl hunting near Samish Island in the northwest corner of the state. It was a great day for birding, and luckily the rain held off until the dark, drenching drive home...


Dave Winer notes how Safari can hurt
Friday, January 10, 2003, 6:12 PM

Ooops. Reading Jim Roepcke's weblog ,...
Ooops. Reading Jim Roepcke's weblog, I just realized that Apple crushed a couple of small developers by shipping their own Web browser. I fell into the same trap so many other people do -- thinking only of Microsoft. Users may not worry, but they should. It's in their interest to have small innovative developers trying out new ideas. No matter how they spin it, it's bad news for a developer when Apple bundles a competitor to your product. [Scripting News]

The good news is that the people at The Omni Group sound like they already have a new strategy, and at least in my case, they still have a loyal user who, although I don't spend a lot of time using OmniWeb 4.1, just paid a shareware fee to support further development of the browser. I already own OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle...


Safari updated for the weekend
Friday, January 10, 2003, 6:01 PM

Safari Update 1.0 Beta (v51) 1-10-03 is a 3 MB upgrade to the beta Web browser that Apple says is recommended for all Safari users. Get it while it's hot...


Another bird watching weekend
Friday, January 10, 2003, 1:45 PM

While Natalie and I should be getting a bunch more chapters written for Birding Washington, instead this weekend we will be venturing out into the warm winter weather here in Puget Sound country to take photos of Snow Geese in the Skagit River flats and watch hawks and falcons hunt. With a little luck, maybe we can see some Short-eared owls hunting over the marshy fields near Samish Island!

As a bonus addition for tomorrow's trip up north, we plan to stop by a great binocular and telescope shot in Anacortes - originally enough, called Anacortes Telescope - to shop for some new birding binoculars.

I'm not sure where we will head Sunday.... Maybe the Olympic Peninsula, or even stay closer to home and write...


ChimeraKnight updated to 1.9.3
Friday, January 10, 2003, 11:49 AM

ChimeraKnight 1.9.3 automatically updates Chimera to the latest nightly version. New in this version: Added gopher image installation to html resources. Changed method to test for BSD subsystem. Fixed bug that would repeatedly ask for Navigator path in OS X 10.1.5. Fixed bug when accessing log tab manually. Made with AppleScript Studio, it requires OS X 10.1.5 or later, AppleScript 1.8.3 or later, and the BSD subsystem. [d/l]

Also available from the same developer is ChimerIcon. ChimerIcon allows you to change Chimera Navigator's user interface by installing icons and splash screens as well as other application resources such as nib files and preference panes. ChimerIcon comes bundled with a small set of icon themes. [d/l] [AppleScript Info]


Need a laugh?
Friday, January 10, 2003, 10:51 AM

Thanks to Mr. Barrett for pointing out the funniest link I have seen on the Web this week: Fans outraged over new character in 'The Return of the King'.

On a not-so-funny note, the email server that I use at Digital Forest has been down for more than an hour and I know that email being sent my way is bouncing. If you have an email that needs to get through pronto, send it to pugetsnd@mac.com...

Update: My regular email address is working again...thankfully...


Five reasons Macworld Expo was worth it
Friday, January 10, 2003, 9:36 AM

Derrick Story offers his Five Favorite Things from Macworld SF- "Here are five cool products, that alone, were worth the trip to San Francisco." [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

It looks like I am not the only person enamored with the 12-inch PowerBook. I think it will be a favorite of many writers on the go...


New ways to support MNJ
Friday, January 10, 2003, 8:52 AM

Mac Net Journal's Web page looks a little different today as I add new options for ways to donate to support the site. Now in addition to the PayPal donation option I have added a link that lets you donate using Amazon's honor system. Some people are not comfortable with PayPal, so this offers another way to donate with your credit card.

If you would like to support MNJ without using a credit card at all then you will want to check the page I am creating here in a couple of minutes, which will let you know how to send a check to support the site.

Many thanks to those who submitted donations for MNJ so far in 2002!


MacNN digs into 12-inch PowerBook details
Friday, January 10, 2003, 6:45 AM

MacNN writer Sean Yapez offers some more fine details about the feel of the new 12-inch PowerBook in In-depth: 12-inch PowerBook. Here are a few of the details:

  • Keyboard - "The key touch is slightly improved, smoother than the later Titanium PowerBook G4's..."

  • Speakers - "Unique to the 12-inch is a very interesting speaker design. In the rear of the unit, two rear-firing speakers reflect sound off the bottom part of the display bezel. A speaker in the center of the unit provides mid-range response through a seperate channel."

  • Heat generation - "The machine generates a considerable amount of heat, and the backlit, frosted Lucite counters at the Apple booth certainly don't help the machine stay cool. On the show floor, the aluminum notebook was not noticeably cooler or warmer than an iBook."

There is a lot more in the article, including photos at the end of the piece.

The reason I point to this, yet another article about the 12-inch PowerBook, is partly selfish, since I still lean toward this svelte and rugged yet pretty full powered machine as my next PowerBook. It will be dangerous when I get to actually try the keyboard of this machine for myself in the coming weeks.

Why would I even consider a machine with such a small screen? Especially when I am doing so much digital photography? Simple: Over the last year I have lugged my Pismo PowerBook all over Washington state while taking photos and doing research for the Birding Washington book, and weighing in at about 6 pounds, the Pismo is about as heavy a machine as I would consider using on the road. The Pismo is also rugged, much like the 12-inch G4 PowerBook. The liability of a small screen is not a huge issue since I can do my actual photo editing back at home, hooking up to a second larger screen for editing.

It will be a little while before I actually make the move to buy a new machine, but at this point the drawbacks of the 15-inch TiBook remain the same - poor wireless reception and a notable lack of ruggedness - and it will likely be at least six months before the 15-inch machines get new features like AirPort Extreme with a new wireless antenna configuration, if these features ever come to the current TiBook. In short, I didn't like the compromises involved in buying a 15-inch TiBook before Macworld Expo, and nothing has changed on this front. Meanwhile, a smaller option has arrived with a G4 processor to beat the old iBook options, much better battery life than my Pismo, and weighing in at about 1.5 pounds less than my current machine...


Safari should work with Blogger, but it is being blocked
Friday, January 10, 2003, 6:36 AM

Blogger Pro Blocks Safari: Blogger, if you're listening, you can treat us just like Mozilla. We will work. What do you think I used to post blogs on the Mac before you started blocking it?[I wonder why? (Source: Surfin' Safari)][Archipelago]


A sneak peak at iPhoto 2
Thursday, January 9, 2003, 10:21 PM

Derrick Story says that iPhoto 2.0 Steps, Not Dashes, Forward with "Lots of other little improvements, such as easier access to your iTunes library, make iPhoto 2.0 a worthy download." (O'Reilly Network via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]

Among the things not improved: Performance. iPhoto apparently still chokes on big file libraries...


HomePod looks like an interesting music device
Thursday, January 9, 2003, 4:05 PM

HomePod is a wireless music playing device that lets you play music stored on your Mac in one room through your stereo in another room. Quoting from the CNET story:

The device, which resembles a wireless base station with a couple of added buttons and a small LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen, uses a built-in wireless networking technology called Wi-Fi to connect to a wireless-equipped Macintosh or PC. A small Java program on the computer scours the PC or Mac for music and sends that information to the HomePod. The device can even receive playlists created with iTunes digital music software. The HomePod downloads songs one at a time and plays them either through a stereo or by connecting directly to speakers. The back of the HomePod has a FireWire port, allowing it to connect directly to a hard drive, and, perhaps at some point, to Apple's iPod digital music player.

At $200 and available in late March, this looks like an interesting device...


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