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Glider Pro for free Glider Pro is now free - Since Casady & Greene went bankrupt, the rights to the game Glider have reverted to the author, John Calhoun. He decided to make the games available as free downloads from his homepage. [MacMegasite]
Photo Mechanic 3.2.5 update offered An update to an image browser popular with professional photographers, Photo Mechanic 3.2.5, is available today. The $150 program offers batch captioning, renaming, and speedy browsing, and it is optimized for use with professional camera from Nikon, Canon, and Olympus.
Cheap file servers Macintouch has started a new reader report dealing with one reader's quest to find a cheap and reliable file server to use with his Macs. This could be useful.
The neverending question: To AppleCare or not Slashdot has a discussion underway about the pros and cons of buying AppleCare for a PowerBook. My take: AppleCare may not be perfect, but even at its current cost it has saved me at least $800-1,000 in the past year...
GraphicConverter updated to version 4.8 Better support for Canon EOS RAW format and a new unskew effect are just a couple of the many new features and improvements in GraphicConverter 4.8. Other additions: DDS, Foto PDB, and Palm image stream import; the ability to swap channels, the browser can now sort by label and name, and more. GraphicConverter is a $30 image editing and conversion tool.
Quark XPress 6 demo Quark XPress 6 is available in a feature-limited demo version today, but be prepared for a large download, especially if you are on a slow net connection. It weighs in at 103MB...
Tinderbox 2.0 offers major speed boosts Tinderbox 2 is the latest major release of the information management tool from Eastgate Systems - the program I use to create and manage Mac Net Journal and a few other Web sites. The biggest changes in this new version include a 30% speed boost in loading files and user agents that run 10 times faster than in the previous version. Tinderbox 2 also offers better integration with programs such as Blogger, MoveableType, and Radio Userland, and a new Tinderbox Weblog Assistant can help set up a complex weblog. Tinderbox 2 is a free upgrade for those with current one-year licenses. It costs $145 for new users, and $70 for a one-year renewal with free updates for the next year.
To rip or not to rip, that is the cliche Derrick Miller offered a little insight into his project to rip all of his music collection into digital form. The verdict: It can take much longer than you may imagine at first.
What are your experiences with ripping an entire music collection or significant amounts of a collection? Discuss
Woz on Your Mac Life tonight Steve Wozniak is guest on tonight's Your Mac Life - Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak will be one of the guests on tonight's episode of Your Mac Life, the Internet show about all things Mac. He'll talk with YML host-producer Shawn King about his new company, Wheels of Zeus, and their first product, WozNet. [MacCentral]
Fighting the itch to change email clients If you are like me, you might get tired of the limitations of your current email solution from time to time, and when that happens it can be hard to fight the urge to switch from one email program to another. In my case, I have been using the latest Eudora betas since the first versions of Eudora 6 for Mac OS X arrived in May, and while this new version is a big step above Eudora 5.x, mostly due to integrated junk mail filtering, there are still shortcomings to the aging email application. Eudora still looks like it is a vintage 1995 program. Its user interface is far behind the times. But it is one of the most customizable and feature filled email applications today, and so far it handles anything I throw at it without a hickup. The problem is, the grass always sounds greener with other email apps. Must...fight...time wasting...temptation... What programs are tempting? Well, there is a preview version of PowerMail, the application I used up until my recent switch to Eudora (this version is not a public beta, however...), and reading Matt Neuberg's article about Mailsmith made it sound like that could be a good option to explore, although I will admit that the $80 cost of licensing Mailsmith through a competitive upgrade is enough to make me think twice about that program right now. And from the looks of the previews of the Mail upgrade in Panther, which should be available later this year, it may or may not become a better choice for heavy duty emailing. Right now Mail is a very capable program, but it looks even better with the updates in Panther. The problem with the temptation to switch email applications is that no Internet-based application is harder and more complex to switch that an email app. It can take hours at the very least and days at the most to move email from one program to another, to set up filters, and to make sure that all of your favorite email addresses are accessible in the new program. Not to mention how long it can take to learn a new user interface, keyboard shortcuts, etc. In short, switching between email applications is just too hard. This is why I am fighting the temptation, limiting my switching possibilities to maybe go back to PowerMail and not something unfamiliar. How about you?
More flack on Apple's G5 marketing spin Apple's Power Mac G5 claims 'simply not true' - A senior analyst for the Microprocessor Report has described Apple's claims that the Power Mac G5 is the world's fastest PC and the first 64-bit system as "simply not true."... [MacMinute.com]
Care and feeding of an iPod I have yet to be able to jump into the gang of iPod owners, but those who have an iPod will appreciate the tips in a new article from the MacDevCenter: The Care and Feeding of Your iPod...
Mac.ars - a new column about Macs Mac.ars is a new column about issues related to Macs from the folks at Ars Technica...
Initial report on the MacResQ SuperDrive upgrade Accelerate Your Mac has an early report on the results of the MacResQ PowerBook G4 SuperDrive upgrade that may be of interest to some people.
Refilling inkjet cartridges - Is it worth it? Reuters had a story yesterday about the growing value of empty inkjet cartridges and efforts underway from mainstream inkjet manufacturers to stop the spread of refilled cartridges. Since photo enthusiasts and even photo pros are printing their own digital photos at home these days, I am curious how many have dipped into the world of refilling their own cartridges and whether the prints you are seeing after refilling a cartridge is as good as the quality with first-time-use cartridges? I purchased relatively inexpensive new ink cartridges for my Canon printer earlier this month, and the new ink is working great, but I could have bought the refill kit and at least been able to refill most of the cartridges in my photo printer at much lower costs. The other potential plus of refilling is that I could go without the guilt of throwing out more waste. Each cartridge is packaged in plastic, and the cartridge itself is plastic. Over time, this waste stream from inkjet printers could grow to be pretty large. What do you think about refilling inkjet cartridges?
An hour on WiFi on KUOW.org Starting in 18 minutes will be an hour-long discussion about WiFi will be held on KUOW.org, the Web site for a local public radio station in Seattle. You can listen to the show in streaming audio through iTunes, as I am doing now, or listen to the archive when it becomes available later today... FOLLOW UP: This report is pretty good, but the folks at KUOW missed the boat on their guests. The guests include a head of the Seattle Wireless free WiFi group and Frank Catalano, a reporter, but they are missing the biggest WiFi expert in Seattle by not having Glenn Fleishman on the panel....
Views on technical support Macintouch has another good reader report underway, this time examining issues related to the technical support offered by vendors...
TidBITS: True confessions of a Mailsmith switcher Matt Neuberg writes about his move from being a long-time Eudora user to becoming a convert to Mailsmith in True confessions of a Mailsmith switcher. Just what I need, more temptation to switch to another email client...
Late summer butterflies 
I have been watching our lavendar patch over the last few days to track when the Woodland Skipper, a common urban butterfly in Puget Sound country, would show up in our yard. Yesterday the little jet-shaped skipper in the photo above showed up on the scene, and many of his brethren are sure to join the feeding frenzy soon! Discuss
Xtar - a free backup utility Xtar lets you clone, back up Mac OS X disks - Helios Software GmbH has released HELIOS Xtar for Mac OS X, a free utility that can be used to clone a Mac OS X system disk for backing up and restoring disks, files and folders -- all with full HFS (Mac OS Standard) support. [MacCentral]
One view of Apple, DRM, and me The Mac user whose posts about problems playing his tunes purchased from the iTunes Music Store when he moved to Canada offers a follow up that holds his summary of the situation:
I should add that at this point, from my perspective as an iTunes Music Store user firmly planted in the U.S., I can live with the limitations placed on AAC files I download from the iTMS...
A question for those using Google Adsense If you use Google Adsense on your site, I am curious if you are seeing periodic problems... Discuss
4D WebSTAR gets an update 4D WebSTAR V update adds Dynamic Data Indexer, more - 4D Inc. on Monday released an update to its 4D WebSTAR Server Suite V software. 4D WebSTAR Server Suite V provides Web service, e-mail service database publication, file sharing and other functions for Mac OS X users. The new version adds CGI, FTP and other reliability improvements and plug-in enhancements, according to 4D, along with Norton AntiVirus e-mail filtering support, spam filtering in 4D WebMail Pro, and a new 4D Dynamic Data Indexer (DDI). [MacCentral]
Script Editor 2.0b2 Apple has released a new beta version of its AppleScript editor, Script Editor 2.0b2. It only runs with Mac OS X 10.2 or higher, and it offers a number of enhancements, including the removal of the 32K limit on script size and a new dictionary browser...
How to use a Linux box as an iTunes server Use a Linux box as an iTunes music server - My wife and I are slowly running out of hard drive space on our iBooks. We both have huge music libraries (we ripped all our CDs). I decided I would try to setup my Linux server (which serves up files to our Macs via Samba)... [Mac OS X Hints] You can also use a spare Mac that runs Mac OS X as an iTunes music server. Or, if you are like me and you have a machine that you can hook to your stereo system, you can use that older Mac not only to hold and serve files but also to play them through your stereo system, creating a real digital hub...
About that Panther...it's 32-bit Apple confirms Mac OS X 10.3 'Panther' will be 32-bit - According to The Register today, Apple has confirmed that its next major OS release, Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther," will be 32-bit, but "tweaked" to support 64-bit addressing... [MacMinute.com] Apple really should have stated this up front, but I am sure making the announcement of a 64-bit machine that won't be fully supported by a matching 64-bit operating system until sometime in 2004 wouldn't have made a big splash at the developers' conference. Again, when truth and marketing meet, marketing wins...
Online music limits outside the U.S. The New York Times digs into the problems with accessing the iTunes Music Store and playing previously downloaded AAC files from the store while outside the U.S. The crux of the problem - licensing...
Mac OS X project management software MacMegasite offers a profile of PMX, a project management solution for Mac OS X that offers a great buy-in price - $35...
1GB memory module for 17-inch PB G4
Spreading the iTunes love Derrick Story offers some nice iTunes info in Unsung heroes and other iTunes tips.
Why you too should use beta browsers I have done a fair amount of harping on the state of Mac Web browsers this week, since the browser is my lifeline to connect to work I do as a freelancer and contractor with a number of different companies. In the comments thread following my post many pointed out the obvious fact that I would be better off using stable versions of browsers. I don't agree. Ever since the arrival of Mac OS X, I have used beta and even alpha versions of browsers because doing so is the only way to contribute to the process of creating a more meaningful Mac Web browser. Sitting back with the stable release and never having a crash may seem like a great idea to some, but those stable releases are yesterday's technology. Sure, they work, but they are not evolving to add to and expand the capabilities of Mac OS X. And in my case, no Mac OS X browser today has the ability to access as many pages and behave as accurately as Microsoft Internet Explorer did under Mac OS 9.x. I find this a sad fact, since I have been using Mac OS X for nearly three years and since the Web browser is one of the most important applications that any computer user uses daily to access the information on the Internet. The key step on the road to creating a bettter Mac browser is using beta versions and submitting crash reports so that programmers can fix the many problems that still plague Mac OS X browsers. And so, while I may belly ache a bit about the current state of Mac OS X Web browsers, I will go on using the latest and greatest, hoping with each new beta version that I will finally have a browser that handles Java, Javascript, and complicated Web page layouts as effectively as IE did under Mac OS 9.x. It isn't there yet... Discuss
MacSlash on .Mac subscriptions MacSlash has a discussion underway about the pluses and minuses of signing up for another year of .Mac service. The discussion starts with a very valid point: If you are still unsure whether you will re-subscribe, you might want to stop by the mac.com site and look at your auto-renewal status on your .Mac account. Apple automatically changed all subscribers to automatically renew - a less than up front business practice - and so it is your responsibility to go change the auto-renewal settings if you don't want to see a charge appear on your credit card automatically when your account is up for renewal...
My first browser crash of the day Chalk my first browser crash of the day up to Mozilla X 1.5a... Discuss
Moving from one PowerBook to another with ease Tim Jarrett writes about moving his files from an older G3 PowerBook to his new 15-inch PowerBook G4 today: Making a move. Tim has since added: Making a move: more details
New PowerBook G4 SuperDrive upgrade MacResQ offers PowerBook G4 SuperDrive upgrade - MacResQ announced today a new PowerBook G4 SuperDrive upgrade as part of the company's PowerBookResQ repair program. [MacMinute.com] According to the MacResQ site, the upgrade is $399...
'Right-sizing' and other corporate sayings Yesterday marked a first in more than a year of covering corporate earnings calls each quarter that I actually laughed out loud during an earnings call. While listening to the earnings call for AT&T Wireless, I burst into sick laughter when the company's CEO touted a new corporate restructuring program that will result in the firing of current employees as "right-sizing." You've got that right, it isn't "down-sizing" any more. Given the fact that I am reading George Orwell's book "1984" right now, the whole biz-speak thing was pretty funny, in a sick, lot's of people are about to be out of work kind of way...
Safari bugs hamper Web developers In some ways this ties in with my post yesterday about How many Web browsers have you crashed today? Discuss
BBEdit updated to 7.0.4 BBEdit 7.0.4 is a free update for owners of current versions of the text editor and programming tool. Bare Bones Software describes this as a maintenance update...
Notes on DiskWarrior 3.0 Late yesterday afternoon I received my upgrade copy of DiskWarrior 3.0, which I had ordered more than four weeks ago from the Alsoft Web site. Contrary to some user reports I have read about this release of the disk tool that rebuilds and replaces your Mac OS X disk directory, I had no problems booting from the OS X-native CD and running DW 3.0 on the 60MB disk in my 12-inch PowerBook G4. Although it took nearly 45 minutes to run through the whole process on my disk, DW did repair some fairly serious directory problems that neither Apple Disk Utility nor running the fsck utility built into Mac OS X could fix. I did have one minor panic when I first tried to insert the DiskWarrior CD into the SuperDrive in my PowerBook. For the first time since I bought this machine I couldn't get it to accept a CD. It appeared that the eject arm had become stuck, probably after the last time I ejected a disc. Simply restarting the machine fixed the problem, with a loud "thunk" emminating from the SuperDrive when the OS tried to check for a disc during startup. Problem solved...
Resetting the PMU in a PowerBook If you use a PowerBook or iBook, you need to create a permanent link to this Apple Knowledge Base document: Resetting Power Management Unit (PMU).
Another Apple Security Update Apple offers new OS X Security Update - Apple has begun distributing a new security update which shores up the security of both client and server systems running Mac OS X v10.2.6. According to Apple, the new update changes the way new account security is handled slightly: A "disabled" password is added to a new account created by the Workgroup Managers until that account is saved for the first time. In this way, the new account can't be accessed by an unauthorized individual. The 1MB download is available from Apple's Web site. [MacCentral]
How many Web browsers have you crashed today? One downside of testing and using so many browsers every day on Mac OS X is that I regularly have my browsers crash, which wastes a lot of time. Yesterday I managed to crash Safari, the latest sneaky peak version of OmniWeb, the latest daily build of Mozilla, and of course Internet Explorer. Either I am hitting all of the wrong Web sites, or something. I am just curious how often others are crashing their browsers of choice and sending in crash reports to help make this browser mess on Mac OS X more tolerable? Discuss
Salon: Congress to bikers - get a car OK, the bone-headed political decisions coming out of the U.S. government are taking another giant leap backward. Salon offers a story today about Congress completely cutting funding for bike paths and all other pollution-free transportation programs, a total of $600 million, which is a drop in the bucket. Although I seldom use bike paths when I ride around town and around the state with my PowerBook neatly tucked in a pannier, completely cutting out transportation alternatives that can keep cars off the road, keep people from using more fuel, and reduce the need to go to war to secure oil assets seems very short sighted. Time to write to my Congressional reps... Discuss OK, back to the Mac news...
Sparkpod - a Mac-based weblog service Sparkpod is a new weblog service catering to Mac users. It offers pre-designed templates, RSS generation (not sure which version of RSS) and a 60-day trial offer. The service costs $24.99 per year. The web site for the service is short on many details this morning, but this could be something of interest to those looking for other weblog and Web site management options...
Using Tinderbox and RSS to build a calendar Brent Simmons notes another interesting use for RSS and RSS newsreaders, this time involving the unique capabilities of Tinderbox:
I am writing something about another Tinderbox user who has done something similar to what the author of the article above mentions...
Easy tip for installing an IrDA USB adapter MacOSXHints offers a great tip today for anyone trying to install the Belkin IrDA FSU230 USB adapter. Save yourself some trouble and read this if you need to install one of these puppies...
New digital SLR and lenses from Nikon Digital Photography Review has news about the new Nikon D2H 4 megapixel digital SLR camera this morning. It can shoot at eight frames per second and offers an optional accessory for direct wireless transfer of images through a WiFi connection. Pricing and availability for the new camera are not available just yet...
On using a mobile phone as a modem
Hydra adds live HTML rendering to writing tool Hydra 1.1.1 offers in-line HTML rendering thanks to integration of the Safari WebKit into the collaborative writing and editing program. The update to the free program also offers better stability. The program is available in localizations for French, German, Japanese, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Ukrainian.
Buy.com rolls out its BuyMusic service The devil is in the details and it sounds like in its rush to beat the Windows version of the iTunes Music Store into going live, Buy.com is repeating the same mistakes that have limited the popularity of other online music buying services. Here is what MacDailyNews offers about the developments:
A reminder: Ad clicks help MNJ A quick commercial note that clicking on the ads on the Mac Net Journal Web site help support the site, along with those who make donations to support the site. Every little donation and every click helps. Thanks!
Temperature Monitor for judging how hot is hot Thanks to a freeware app called Temperature Monitor, I can now tell just how hot the processor is running in my 12-inch PowerBook G4. The application can display a temperature reading in either the Dock, in the Menu Bar, or both. My current temperature, which has the fan running on my Little AlBook = 140.5 degrees. It is cooling down now. It was running at 147 degrees just a few minutes ago... Discuss
Woz creates a tool for Big Brother? A number of sites are talking today about Steve Wozniak's latest project, called Wheels of Zeus. The first products slated to come from the project are small chips that can be attached to people and things are track them through a combination of wireless technologies and Web site interfaces. While the premise of "helping everyday people track everday things" sounds laudible, it takes no mental leap at all to imagine this system as a boon for Big Brother - a low-cost way to track people, stalk, etc. Interesting ethical questions ahead... Discuss
BackJack - an online backup option for Mac users BackJack is an online backup service for Mac users, now with a version that works on Mac OS X. The cost: $8.50 per month for 40MB of storage for personal plan users in the U.S. and international, and $0.12 per MB for additional space; $17.50 per month for 200MB of storage for business plan users in the U.S. and international, with varying rates depending on the total file storage space used for additional storage... Although this is not exactly a cheap option, it does show another alternative to Apple's .Mac services. Discuss
The Omni Group profiled The Seattle Times profiles Will Shipley and The Omni Group in Omni sees Macintosh future in Microsoft's back yard...
PowerBook G4 survives rugged bike ride PowerBook is rugged on the road - I'm back from a 281-mile bicycle ride called the Michigander and about the only thing that worked perfectly was my Apple PowerBook G4 12-inch laptop. I carried it on a trunk bag on the back of my bike much of the route, stuffed inside an Incase bag that I bought a the local Apple store for $39. Despite very bumpy unimproved trails, it survived unscathed. I'd plug in the Pentax OptioS digital camera, transfer the pictures and then upload them to my ride blog or the Free Press. Look for a big story and pictures in tomorrow's Body and Mind... [Mac-Mike.com]
Class and competition If you are a fan of cycling and missing the finish of today's stage of the Tour de France, you are missing high sports drama at its best. Lance Armstrong crashed during at attack on the final climb after tangling his handlebar with a fan, then he nearly crashed again in trying to catch up to the pack while Jan Ullrich and Tyler Hamilton held off on taking advantage of the crash. Then, as soon as he caught up, Armstong attacked and pulled away. What a classy move from Ullrich and what a competitor in Armstrong! UPDATE: Armstong has won the stage and expanded his lead over Ullrich to 67 seconds. Amazing...
iTunes and radioio are a great combination I know I am the last person on the planet to discover it, but radioio is offering some great music streams for iTunes users. It's too bad that the radioio Web site reminds me over and over that I cannot run a Windows Media Player plug-in it wants to load, because otherwise the service is excellent and the streams are awesome. I've been listening to the radioioAcoustic feed a bunch, which for some odd reason is under the Americana area in iTunes Radio (as is CelticMelt, for all of those Americana fans into Celtic music...ahem), while also checking out the eclectic and other feeds. Looks like another Internet-based service I will be paying to support. Discuss iTunes Radio
12-inch lap warmer on a 90-degree day A quick note for Apple engineers...forget about squeezing a G5 into the current 12-inch PowerBook body. From my experience over the last six months working with my 12-inch PowerBook G4, the machine is comfortable in winter, a bit warm in spring, and not suited for laps when outside temperatures reach 80 degrees F or more. It's been pushing 90 degrees on recent days in the Pacific Northwest, and my PowerBook is effectively only a laptop in the early morning and very late night hours... For those who wish to flame these comments or offer wise cracks, yes, I knew this machine would get warm when I bought it. And no, I am not bitching. It's still a great machine. Just too hot to handle on some days. Tips for working with the machine on hot days:
One final caveat: I am from the Pacific Northwest, where we don't bat an eye at receiving an inch of rain per day in the fall and winter, but where temperatures in the 90s make us wilt - at least those on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. And for those of you laughing while sitting in the desert with your air conditioning running on high, also know that most people in the maritime Pacific Northwest don't have air conditioning. Now to go rub some burn ointment on my thighs (...just kidding...) Discuss PowerBook heat management
A few reasons to use iView Media Pro I am spending time today editing photos for our upcoming Birding Washington book, and in the process I have been reminded of a few of the reasons I prefer using iView Media Pro rather than iPhoto for heavy duty photo organizing.
There is much more. Of course, it has been a while since I used iPhoto, so maybe some of this is being handled better by the current version. I know the library limitations and speed problems still exist, which were the major drawbacks that sent me running to GraphicConverter and then iView Media Pro for image management. Discuss image management
Macintouch: G5 shipping and pricing changes On the heels of stories that IBM may have manufacturing problems with producing the chips in the new Power Mac G5 in quantities needed for Apple's shipping target dates, one Macintouch reader comments today that his G5 order is being seriously delayed. Another reader notes that his ship date on an education order was actually accelerated, and that Apple appears to have dropped the education market price for his machine by $200...
An email alternative for .Mac email Writing in his Seattle Times column, Glenn Fleishman offers some notes about the text chat options for Mac OS X users as well as an endorsement for the value of .Mac services for some mobile Mac OS X users. Buried in the article is a good recommendation for a more mature email service than the service rolled into .Mac - Fastmail.fm. I have written quite a bit about .Mac services and my being on the fence about renewing in a couple of months when my service will go dead without the addition of $99. My main complaint is about the quality and reliability of .Mac email services, and last night I had my concerns crop up again when neither Natalie or I could connect to our mac.com addresses for much of the night. For the second time in the last two months, I removed my mac.com email account from those that I check with Eudora. I may not turn it back on... Discuss
An interesting interview with Jeffrey Zeldman AppleMatters has an interesting interview with Jeffrey Zeldman today...
Passing the buck, or 25, to MacSurfer As a firm believer in passing the buck, in a good way, I just paid $25 for a one-year subscription to Macsurfer's Headline News. The site is still free, but it is looking for support. Sounds familiar. They've been showing me Mac news headlines for years, so $25 is a bargain!
iBooks with shipping with MCE DVD-R built in MCE shipping iBooks with internal DVD-R/RW drives - MCE Technologies today announced that it has begun shipping Apple's new 12 and 14-inch 900MHz iBooks with an internal DVD-R/RW drive as standard equipment instead of the normal CD-RW/DVD combo drive... [MacMinute.com]
More summer sky watching Space.com has another great article for summer sky watchers today: Top 10 summer sky targets.
Programs I have been testing this week Although this has been a busy week, topped off by yesterday when I had no time to even update MNJ, I have been toying with some different software as I write and work. Here's what I've been looking at: iKey 1.0.2 is $20 shareware from Script Software, the makers of CopyPaste, which I rely on every day in my writing duties. iKey is the latest incarnation of the program Youpi Key - a macro utility that can launch applications, files, simulate mouse movements, work with the clipboard and much more. I haven't done a lot with iKey yet, so I haven't forked over the shareware fee, but if it proves as useful as CopyPaste then this program is a steal. Mozilla Firebird is the browser that is supposed to be the future of Mozilla. The freeware browser is blazingly fast with some Web pages and slower than most browsers with others, and while it appears that the version of Firebird for Mac OS X is a bit behind the versions for other platforms, it looks like a good start. I tried using Firebird as my main browser for a full day and just couldn't do it. I need to have links from NetNewsWire open in new tabs, but with Firebird the link not only opens in a whole new browser window but also that new window looks like a regular Mozilla window - some sort of morphed Firebird/Mozilla hybrid - and the URL of the link displays in the URL field of this odd browser window as "unknown." Seriously odd... The last program I have been testing is the freeware recording program, WireTap. I haven't tried using the AppleScript capabilities of the program to do timed recording, but I have recorded audio from my Mac to see how well the program works, and it simply works. If you have concerns about how much disk space recordings will take up then you will need to tweak the recording settings, since this program records to aiff format rather than some compressed format like mp3. But I certainly cannot complain about the features for the price. For casual recording, this will do. For more full-featured recording, check out shareware... Discuss trying out new apps
More additions to the Mac OS X apps ranking I am getting great response to my update to Mac OS X apps ranked by category today! Keep the suggestions for other apps I should check out coming. Simply use the discussion link at the end of this post. One thing I should note: When I created this application ranking the idea was to offer rankings based on software that I actually used and tested. I am branching out and adding programs and categories, but I will only rank those programs that I use. That only seems fair. Discuss
Missing Sync for Pocket PC Missing Sync For Pocket PC Now Available - Pocket PC users can synchronize with iCal, Mac OS X Address Book and AvantGo, as well as transfer music and photos from within iTunes and iPhoto. (MacMinute via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]
Not good news: Gunfire over the DMZ in Korea Reuters: South Korea exchanged machine gun fire with communist North Korea Thursday along the Demilitarized Zone, the divided peninsula's heavily fortified frontier, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. North Korea fired four shots at a South Korean army position along the DMZ around 6:10 a.m. The South answered with a warning broadcast and returned fire, the statement said, adding no one was injured on the South side. Shooting incidents are rare along the DMZ. [The Agonist]
A comment on iTunes sales saving Apple While CNET and others are touting sales from the iTunes Music Store for Apple's third-quarter results, the truth is that the iTMS didn't even break even in the quarter. iPod sales were huge, but in the words of Apple's Fred Anderson, the iTunes Music Store nearly broke even in its first full quarter...
Speaking of financial results A quick update on my experiment of using Google Adsense ads on Mac Net Journal. Thanks to the clicks from MNJ readers, the program has earned nearly $100 through the first half of the month. Not too bad! As a reminder though, if you find MNJ a useful site and you can afford contributing to keep the site up and running and improving, please visit the MNJ web page and use either the PayPal, Amazon, or personal check links to donate to support MNJ.
Apple's third quarter beats expectations Music makes Apple earnings sing - Buoyed by the debut of its online music store and new iPod digital music players, the company reports third-quarter earnings that topped expectations. [CNET News.com] More details about Apple's earnings should be available shortly during a live presentation via QuickTime at 2:30 p.m. PDT. Despite the fact that I listen to these reports way too often for my work, I plan to listen for any new nuggets of info... Other interesting notes from the earnings call: Fred Anderson's comments -
From the question and answer session -
I steered clear of the hard numbers in this quick report, just getting to the meat of what might be of interest to regular Mac users and trying to offer a little insight into where Apple may be heading, according to its statements as of today. Hopefully this is useful for some people...
New digital cameras from Nikon MacCentral notes that Nikon is showcasing three new cameras at the Macworld Creative Pro Expo in New York - consumer models the Coolpix 2100, the Coolpix 3100, and the Coolpix SQ. Nikon is also showing off the 5.1 megapixel Coolpix 5400. The 5400 looks interesting, while the shape of the Coolpix SQ is intriguing...
Contribute 2 offers Mac support Contribute Comes to the Mac - Macromedia today released Contribute 2, which among other things runs on OS X. Contribute is sort of a simple man's content management system, and has been eagerly anticipated from Mac based web designers for some time. Other new features in this release include built in PayPal support which allows you to easily do e-commerce. [MacMerc]
Apple unveils SoundTrack SoundTrack is a new $299 audio recording tool for Mac OS X with loop preview and searching, full track controls, and audio mixing and effects capabilities.
RadioSHARK looks interesting RadioSHARK is a soon-to-be-shipping $50 device from Griffin Technology that allows Mac OS X users to play and record AM and FM radio and pull off tricks much like many personal video recorders - pausing live radio, recording radio shows for playback later, etc. This sounds like a great option for building your own archive of favorite shows.
If this article were available for online reading... As an example of Web content that I would pay for, here is an interesting article teaser from Discover. Alas, there is no way for me to read the article online, so they won't get my $2 or so that I would be willing to pay for the service. Instead, I'll read it at the local library. Where is the equivalent of an iTunes News or Article Store? Discuss
How to stay in sync with CVS In Sync with CVS - Apple's Backup and iSync applications are great for Dot-Mac subscribers, but some folks prefer to "roll their own" when synchronizing data among machines. The open source tool, CVS, is a good solution for "do it yourself" types. James Duncan Davidson shows you how to set it up. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]
The new Mozilla Foundation Mozilla Foundation launches - The open source browser gets a new institutional framework, with initial funding from AOL. Press release is here. Mitch Kapor of OSAF will be the chairman. This can only be a positive thing for the long-term growth of a healthier software ecology not dependent on closed methodologies and closed markets. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]
Let's hope they get this iChat AV problem fixed An Apple Knowledge Base article today offers bad news for iChat AV users who connect to networks using wireless networking. In short, if you see delays or skipping in audio or video performance, or you see the message "No packets have been received for the last 10 seconds," then you need to connect to a Ethernet connection and reconnect for your chat to work. If the Quality section under the Audio>Connection Doctor is running at less than 100% then the packet loss is likely and problems are inevitable... Hopefully Apple gets a handle on this problem soon, since many people are using PowerBooks with AirPort network connections these days, and telling them to plug in to use iChat AV seriously cuts into the potential uses of the software. Discuss troubleshooting iChat AV
Finally, an update to my Mac OS X apps rankings I took some time over the last hour to update my Mac OS X apps ranked by category report, reflecting new dates for the latest versions of the software included in the list and updated descriptions. I plan to revise this list regularly from this point forward, and to add new product categories. The apps ranking started as a spur-of-the-moment project in April of 2002... Discuss
Report: Microsoft to cut OS X app pricing Microsoft Watch offers a report today claiming price drops and new versions of Microsoft Office are on the way to Mac OS X soon: Microsoft shakes up its Mac lineup.
OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC coming to OS X soon OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC is the newest update to the open source office suite. The new version, which should be available for Mac OS X users running Apple's X11 software soon, offers the ability to update existing OOo 1.0.x single user installations, integrated Bitstream Vera fonts, support for working with Microsoft Excel 95 and older form controls, built-in proofing tools and hyphenation for many languages, and better Microsoft Office filters. OpenOffice.org is a free, though sizable, download, and it is the software I am using to write and edit our current book project, Birding Washington. I also use OOo to open any Word or Excel files sent to me, and I have yet to find a file that it can't open and print. In my experience with Mac OS X word processors, OOo is the only word processor other than Word itself that is completely compatible with Microsoft's offering, and since OOo has the ability to use the Track Changes feature that is a standard in Word, it is currently my only option for working with writers and editors that require the use of that function - other than spending $300-plus to buy Word or Office for Mac OS X... Discuss OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC
Space.com: The 10 brightest stars If, like me, you find yourself lingering outside in the cool summer night air to look up at the stars, then you may find Space.com's latest article about the 10 brightest stars interesting...
Intrigue around Rendezvous and networking problems I wasn't at OScon in Portland last week, but it appears there were some networking problems and that network admins jumped to the conclusion that, since Apple's ad-hoc Rendezvous networking was the only thing still working when the rest of the network melted down, then Rendezvous must be the problem. Apple engineer Stuart Cheshire responds to this in a new article by Tim O'Reilly:
The discussion that follows the article includes some interesting reading...
iDVD 3.0.1 Apple has released an update to iDVD, bringing the program to version 3.0.1. Here are the release notes:
iDVD 3.0.1 can be downloaded through the Software Update panel in your System Preferences application, and it is a 6.5MB download...
Dantz Retrospect 5.1 update released Bootable Mac OS X disaster recovery and support for the newest CD/DVD backup drives are among the features in an update to Dantz Retrospect, the backup software solution. Dantz Retrospect 5.1 is available at $799 for the server edition ($159 for the version upgrade), $499 for the workgroup edition ($99.95 for the upgrade), or $129 for the single user version ($59 for the upgrade). Dantz is also offering a 60-day special offer for existing Retrospect customers who purchase annual support contracts. Buyers of annual contracts before Sept. 15, 2003 will get the upgrade to Dantz Retrospect 5.1 for free...
Data loss bug in Mail.app Potential Data Loss Bug In Mail.app; Workaround - We are investigating a potentially serious and now confirmed issue with Apple's default Mac OS X e-mail client, Mail.app, that causes loss of sent messages when working with a large volume of e-mail. (MacFixIt via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]
Apple releases Security Update 2003-07-14 Make a visit to the Software Update panel in your System Preferences application to grab the latest security update for Mac OS X today. Apple details the changes in this update in the release notes:
The 1.7MB download and installation requires that you restart your machine...
Mac OS X management tips Mike Bombich, the maker of CarbonCopyCloner and other Mac OS X utilities, offers a page with Mac OS X management software and tips that should be useful for a number of users. A nod to macservers.org for pointing out the resource!
Macintouch's laptop battery report If you are a PowerBook user, take a moment to read the tips in Macintouch's new reader report on laptop batteries.
New Photoshop plug-in from Kodak MacNN offers details about a new $80 Photoshop plug-in from Eastman Kodak, the Digital GEM plug-in for automatic noise and grain reduction. A free trial of the plug-in is available...
Macworld in New York Wired News's Michelle Delio takes a look at Macworld's last tango in New York. It sounds like a very toned down affair, but I will hold out hope for something interesting to emerge from the event. Maybe some third-party goodies!
The shortcoming of ad programs like Google Adsense On July 1 I joined the Goodle Adsense program as an experiment, to see if the ads could help supplement the user donations that Mac Net Journal relies on to continue publishing. In the first week of the program it was very successful, adding more than $50 to help offset the time and hosting costs of maintaining the site. But over the last week the number of people clicking on the ad links on the MNJ home page dropped drastically, and unless I reminder site users that clicking the links would benefit the site, clickthrough percentages which Goodle Adsense uses to determine how much a site will receive for each ad clicked dropped to less that 1%. Yesterday the ads registered 1,238 impressions, but just two people clicked the ads, resulting in a 0.2% clickthrough rate and $0.86 of income - the worst single-day results since I started using the Google Adsense program. So, why are the ad clicks dropping off? That's simple. Sites like MNJ concentrate on one topic, more or less, and since most of the stories on the site relate to the Mac and Mac OS X, the same handful of advertisements show up on the site each day. When the ad stock is pretty much static then everyday readers of MNJ are not likely to click on the same ad time after time, so the usefulness of the ad program drops over time. This is the same problem that plagues other ad programs on the Web - while repeatedly seeing the same ad does help build name recognition for advertisers, it does little to encourage people who see the same ad over and over to keep clicking on the stale ad. In other words, to be more successful for both advertisers and weblog creators, programs like Google Adsense need to find a way to mix up the ads and offer fresher ad content. The key thing going for weblogs and sites like MNJ that use the weblog format is how fresh the sites remain, with updates throughout the day as things happen. Why can't ads stay fresh as well? Discuss
Petition drive for a Google toolbar in Safari A group of Mac users has started a petition asking the folks at Google for a Google Toolbar compatible with Apple's Safari Web browser. To learn more or to sign the petition, check the site for Gopple.org...
A concise AppleScript resource online? Tinderbox developer Mark Bernstein asks a relevant question on his personal blog this morning that could be useful for many other people:
Visit his blog to email him an answer, or offer your tips here. Discuss online AppleScript resources
The house is a rockin' One downside of living within 50 miles of Fort Lewis in Western Washington state (or the Yakima Firing Range in Eastern Washington) is the periodic artillery training that takes place on the site. This morning it is cloudy outside and as a result of the clouds and intense artillery fire from Fort Lewis our house is rocking like we are experiencing a series of 4.0 and 5.0 earthquakes. The local joke is that this barrage is the sound of freedom. Patriotic as that sounds, I would prefer some sounds of silence right now... As a side note, when we have experienced 4.0 and 5.0 earthquakes here in our Tacoma home, we don't react to the start of the shaking very quickly. The first assumption is that Fort Lewis is blasting the hell out of something again. When the shaking continues, then we move for cover.
iChatUSBCam beta software iChatUSBCam is beta software that allows users to get USB Webcams to work with iChat AV. The program is an Application Enhancer module and requires installation of that freeware program from Unsanity. Sounds like an interesting addition to extend the capabilities of iChat AV...
Eudora 6.0b26 for Mac OS X It has been two months since I made the move back to using Eudora for my email duties under Mac OS X 10.2.6, and so far I have avoided the temptation to either venture back to PowerMail or to switch to yet another email client. Why have I stuck with Eudora? The built in spam filtering is very good at removing the annoying spam that I had to manually remove with PowerMail, and I was just too lazy to want to install a third-party spam filtering application. Eudora 6.0b26 for Mac OS X was released last night and it offers some improvements to the spam filtering capabilities along with bug fixes.
OmniWeb 4.5b3 update released The Omni Group has updated its Web browser to OmniWeb 4.5b3. The update offers a number of bug fixes and it is a recommended update for anyone using the previous beta version of OmniWeb.
Nisus Writer Express 1.0 released Nisus Writer Express 1.0 available for download - Nisus Writer Express 1.0, a US$59.95 word processor for Mac OS X (10.2 and higher), is now available from Nisus Software. Nisus Writer Express can read and write documents in Unicode, RTF, RTFD, plain text, and Microsoft Word format. It sports a customizable interface; AppleScript and Perl macros; noncontiguous selection; keyboard shortcuts; a Document Manager; three-level Find and Replace including Regular Expressions (GREP); multiple editable clipboards; and document window zoom. [MacCentral]
iChat AV - How to toggle off audio and video chat While the audio and video chat capabilities of iChat AV can be a useful addition, some people are already noting that receiving audio chat invitations at all times of the day from people they have never met or heard of can be a real distraction. There is a solution for stopping audio and video chat invites during times when you need to get work done. Under the Audio pulldown menu when running iChat AV, click the menu and select either Microphone enabled to uncheck that option and halt the audio chat capabilities or Camera enabled to disable the video chat capabilities. You can always toggle them back on when you feel like accepting calls. Hopefully Apple will offer keyboard shortcuts for toggling the audio or video capabilities on and off in the final version of iChat AV...
OmniOutliner 2.2.2 OmniOutliner 2.2.2 is a small update to the excellent outlining application from the folks at The Omni Group. The update fixes problems with the localizations for French and Japanese users...
Second Mac OS X Innovator award winners Hydra, VoodooPad, Win 2nd OS X Innovators Contest - Congratulations! Hydra won in the new International category; LaunchBar came in second. VoodooPad won in the U.S. category; Audio Hijack Pro came in second. [ranchero.com]
iPods back at Target iPods return to Target - Target is once again selling Apple's iPod after it stopped carrying the digital music player in April... [MacMinute.com]
And the second butterfly emerges 
Around 6 p.m. last night the second butterfly emerged from its chrysalis, just a couple of hours after we had released the first on in our yard. This second Red Admirable emerged too late in the day to be released last night, so this morning I went out in the sunshine and let the bright red, black, and white butterfly find its way into a larger world...
iChat AV is a cool tool, but replace my phone? Alex Salkever's column in BusinessWeek is getting a lot of pointage, with many Mac sites hyping the premise that With iChat, who needs a phone. But back here in the real world, it doesn't take many brain cells to determine that, despite the fact that the audio and video chat capabilities of iChat AV are cool and even could be useful for many Mac users, there is no threat to mobile or land line phone providers from this technology. Not yet at least... Points to remember:
Not to be a wet blanket though. With the growing number of wireless access points around the U.S., I can see how it would be great to be able to place calls to friends and business colleagues from coffee shops and other locations. I would look pretty silly making the call with a PowerBook, but looking silly hasn't stopped me before... Discuss iChat AV possibilities
Coursey: Why laptops shouldn't replace desktops ZDNet columnist David Coursey is getting a strong response to his latest article: Why laptops shouldn't replace desktops. He raises some good points, but until either my eyesight gets too bad to handle working on a laptop or something else drastic happens to change my mind, I am a laptop-only user for the long haul... Discuss laptops vs. desktops
Apple releases Backup 1.2.3 Apple has released another revision to its Backup application. Although I haven't seen official release notes for the program, I would assume that this new version offers the improvements originally touted for Backup 1.2.2, which was pulled after Apple realized it had a bug that made it impossible to back up to CD and DVD disks. Backup 1.2.3 is available on the .Mac Web site...
.Mac Bookmarks introduced Apple introduces .Mac Bookmarks - Apple has introduced .Mac Bookmarks, a new utility that lets .Mac members use their Internet bookmarks on any computer... [MacMinute.com]
A butterfly emerges! I knew it would happen soon, but a few minutes ago I looked up from my PowerBook to see a freshly emerged Red Admirable butterfly walking around inside the jar where we have been raising it first as a caterpillar and then watching it through its chrysalis phase. There is one more chrysalis to go, and I wonder if, since this one is a little larger, it will turn out to be a Lorquin's Admiral...
More comparisons of Panther and Jaguar John Manzione explains why he keeps going back to the developer release of Panther, even though it is not ready for full time use, in an article on MacNETv2.
What are you using as a backup drive? Everyone should know by now that the easiest way to save yourself from the grief of computer disasters is to back up your data. I know that most people don't take this step, but everyone should. Until recently, I was among those who wasn't doing daily backups, but now that I have my multimedia Pismo PowerBook hooked up on the network with a 40GB FireWire drive connected and live on the network, I can run scheduled backups from any machine on the network. The question is, what is the best FireWire hard drive to use for backups? Let's talk about backup routines and tools. My setup is pretty low tech, but functional. I use the program ChronoSync from Econ Technologies to run my backups. Since it allows scheduling of automatic backups, I have created a daily backup set and a weekly backup set, backing up critical data every day and my entire User directory once a week. All I have to do is connect to the network drive and leave it connected and ChronoSync does all of the rest. What is your backup strategy? And what tools do you use and why? Discuss backups
Dot Mac Reloaded The MacDevCenter offers a look at reasons to renew .Mac service for another year, especially in light of improvements to iDisk coming before the end of this year in Panther. The changes look beneficial, but I sure have a hard time stomaching the idea of spending $200 to renew two .Mac memberships in a few months... Discuss
AIM 4.6 adds new features and ICQ support AIM 4.6 adds SMS mobile phone, ICQ support - AOL Instant Messenger 4.6 brings the ability to send IMs to a buddy's SMS (Short Message Service) enabled mobile phone or have messages delivered to your mobile phone when you are away from your Mac... [MacMinute.com]
WireTap allows recording of any audio on OS X Ambrosia releases free audio capture utility - Today Ambrosia Software, Inc. announced the release of WireTap 1.0.0 for MacOS X 10.2 or later. WireTap is a free product for that allows you to record any audio playing on your Mac, saving it to a file for later listening or processing. This allows you to record news from Internet radio stations such as the BBC News, sound snippets from your favorite DVD movie, record the audio from a game, or even iChatAV conversations. [MacMegasite]
iData Pro lives on, and was updated today One valuable program that used to be sold by Casady & Greene, the company that went out of business last week, was iData Pro. Today Mike Wright has announced that he is continuing development of iData Pro and he hopes to start selling the program again soon. iData Pro X 1.0.8 was released today.
An ode to computer keyboards Derek Miller from Vancouver, B.C. writes a wrap up of his all-time favorite computer keyboards. Good reading!
PayPal scams and other Internet fraud Macintouch's reader report about Internet fraud is a must-read if you use services such as PayPal. Like the folks at Macintouch, I received a pair of well-crafted PayPal scam mails yesterday. The giveaway that it was a scam: I received two of the same kind of messages, both sent within a few minutes of each other, and I knew that if there was the need to verify information on my PayPal account that I would go to the PayPal site to do so, not some site with a link in an email of nefarious origin. Do yourself a favor and read Macintouch's Internet fraud report. It could save you some grief...
A call out to Canon printer users I need to buy new ink for my Canon S900 printer, since the black cartridge ran out yesterday. I see that Canon branded ink cartridges run around $11-12, but there are third-party cartridges available for around $7. If you use a Canon printer, what ink have you found to be best?
Make the Alt key work as it should with OOo A useful hint on Mac OS X Hints for users of OpenOffice.org, the open source office suite that can run on Mac OS X by using Apple's X11 software:
Will Apple's iApp movement hurt users? Yesterday the fall out from Apple's move to create bundled and free iApps as part of its Mac OS X strategy hit a new high when Adobe announced the new version of Premiere that will not run on OS X. Many Mac users will say, "So what?" Right now it looks like the video editing products coming from Apple are powerful, the price is right, and for consumers programs like iMovie and iDVD are great incentives to buy into Mac OS X. But behind the scenes other software vendors like Adobe are deciding not to compete with Apple's free apps, and the net cost to users will be less competition for Apple and less innovation due to a lack of competition. Associated Press reporter May Wong writes about this in a story on The Mercury News:
This story is nothing new for programmers like Dan Wood, whose ideas implemented in the excellent Watson program, which was just updated with enhancements to work with Panther last night, were later co-opted and included in the Sherlock utility in the Jaguar release of Mac OS X. Wood writes about this in the FAQ section of his site at Karelia Software. Other instances of Apple co-opting software categories with free iApps abound, and in some cases it has arguably created better solutions in application categories that are already filled with free apps, such as with the development of Safari in the Web browser space. But even in the case of Safari, the development of an Apple-created browser is being used as an excuse by Microsoft to discontinue development of Internet Explorer, which, despite its shortcomings and lack of rendering speed compared to other browsers, is still the only browser to work with a number of Web sites. Will the short-term user benefits created by free Apple apps be long-term benefits for the development of software on Mac OS X? It's too early to tell today, but the developments over the last few weeks show that some developers are abandoning developing for the Mac market because they don't want to compete with Apple. Discuss competing with Apple
Re-arranging my day for butterflies If you are interested in butterflies, do yourself a favor and tune in over the Net to listen to a 10 a.m. PST interview with butterfly expert and author Robert Michael Pyle on KUOW.org. Pyle is from Washington state and his writing on butterflies has been the inspiration for my interest in butterflies over the last few years. I had lunch with Pyle last summer after he did a local talk about his guidebook, Butterflies of Cascadia. While I am on the butterfly tangent, right now on our kitchen table is a large jar that holds two butterfly chrysalids that could emerge any day. Over the last couple of days we have watched the short, gold-tinted chrysalids rattling from side to side as the butterflies inside them wriggle about in preparation to emerge. We brought the butterflies home with a batch of nettles when they were still caterpillars a couple of weeks ago...
Sites connect iChat AV users New site links iChat AV users around the world - A new site has launched that allows users of iChat AV to coordinate "calls" to each other around the world... [MacMinute.com]
What kind of PowerBook bag do you use? Let's talk about which PowerBook bags work best for your machine. I spent some time looking at laptop bags last night while having a chat with an MNJ reader about bags and it made me wonder what other people are using for specific machines. The small bag I use comes from Eagle Creek, and it is actually a bag I purchased seven or eight years ago when I had a PowerBook 2400c, the smallest PowerBook before the arrival of the 12-inch PowerBook G4 that I own now. I set the bag aside for a few years after I sold the PB 2400c and it just so happens that the Little AlBook fits in the bag, though a little more snuggly. It appears the exact bag I own has been discontinued... I am also curious what criteria is most important to people - ruggedness, padding, appearance? And if you have to do something extraordinary with your bag, like bike across town with it every day, that would be interesting to hear as well. Discuss PowerBook bags
Another .Mac outage As a case in point, here is living proof of the reason I won't be renewing my .Mac membership:
It appears this problem is limited to a subset of .Mac users...
BookEndz dock for 12-inch PowerBook G4 BookEndz docking station for 12" PowerBook shipping - Photo Control Corp. today announced that the BookEndz Docking Station for Apple's 12-inch PowerBook is now shipping... [MacMinute.com]
How to support Mac Net Journal Supporting the publication of Mac Net Journal is now as easy as clicking on the advertisements on the left side of the web page, but at its heart MNJ remains a site devoted to helping users get the most of their Macs under Mac OS X. If you find the stories, headlines, and occasional photos published in MNJ, consider making a direct donation to support the site through our links for donation options through PayPal, Amazon, or by sending a personal check. Your support helps keep MNJ alive and thriving. Thank you.
Evidence of the impact of Hydra on Mac OS X Look no further than an article just posted by Glenn Fleishman for proof of how the innovative collaborative writing and editing program Hydra is impacting how Mac OS X users can get things done:
I am happy to see the buzz around Hydra growing, and to hear about people putting it to use in real world situations. This is also a great endorsement for what iChat AV can bring to collaborative working. Does anyone else have any examples of how they are using Hydra or other network aware programs in a unique way under Mac OS X?
If you go into the backwoods, read this Paul Andrews writes about Personal Location Beacons or PLBs in the Seattle Times today, for those who go into the wilderness and could run into trouble: Taking search out of search and rescue.
A modern digital photo how-to Derrick Story details how he uses his digital cameras, iPhoto, and wireless connections to photograph events these days:
The Register on why Panther will not be 64-bit The Register notes that Panther, aka Mac OS X 10.3, will not be a 64-bit operating system, even if you run it on a G5. And the article adds that it could be some time before Mac OS X makes the leap to become a 64-bit OS...
Have you switched to iChat AV? Like thousands of other Mac OS X users, I grabbed a copy of iChat AV and put it through its paces as soon as Apple unveiled the now free and later to cost you either $30 or $129 program (iChat AV will be bundled with Panther, which will sell later this year for $129) that lets you not only chat but also do audio and video conferencing. But now that I have been using the beta software for a few weeks, the novelty of the couple of audio conferences I have done has worn off and some of the shortcomings of iChat AV are starting to make me wonder if I will stick with the program. Here's a look at some pros and cons for using iChat AV: Pros
Cons
As I ponder switching back to Fire, the multi-protocol chat client that offers most of the features in iChat other than the AV capabilities, I am wondering if others have noted shortcomings or areas where Apple should improve their beta chat client? Discuss iChat AV pros and cons
Will a 12-inch PowerBook G4 hold up? Mike Wendland's 12-inch PowerBook G4 may get a real-world stress test next week when he is considering taking it on a six-day rugged bike ride across Michigan. Mike is pondering if carrying the PowerBook in a pannier for the whole ride is worthwhile, or whether he will write on his weblog about the trip using a T-Mobile Sidekick. I hope he goes for it and uses the PowerBook...
So, were any Mac-based sites defaced? After reading the stories about a number of small Web sites that were defaced by "hackers" over the long weekend, I am left to wonder if any Mac-hosted sites suffered any problems? Of course, I think most of the talk of a hack attack was bluster without anything to back it up. Just as well... Any Mac sites hacked?
Adobe abandoning the Mac? A new version of Adobe Premiere is out tonight, but not for Mac users:
MacMinute reports on the story as well...
Tips for travellers Dan Gillmor offers some travelling tips today for those who need to take themselves and their computers to far-flung destinations. Good reading if you need to travel...
Bill Palmer's growing list of Mac-using businesses Bill Palmer is adding a list of businesses that use Macs to get their work done to his weblog. Excellent! Stop by his site if you want to add the name of your business...
Did anyone else think of this while watching fireworks? For the first time in the last few years, I wasn't all that interested in watching our local fireworks and then dealing with the drunk drivers on the slog across town back to our home, so Natalie and I returned home and watched what we could see of the fireworks show from the top of the roof on the east side of our house. It was a good show, but as the shells exploded in their carefully orchestrated patterns of shapes and colors, and as the sounds of the explosions reverberated through the night air, I couldn't help but think of the similarity between the sounds of fireworks and the live televised sounds of U.S. forces bombing Baghdad earlier this year. I wonder if anyone else made that connection last night?
A Tinderbox Wiki in progress In an effort to create a Tinderbox resource that works more efficiently than the current user forums, Mark Bernstein has started a Tinderbox Wiki. This could turn out to be a real boon for TB users.
iChat as an answer to big long distance bills Writing in the Seattle Times, Glenn Fleishman points out what may be the most compelling reason to pay for a .Mac membership - the benefits of iChat AV as a way to cut down big long distance bills. The column also offers a great nod to Brent and Sheila Simmons from Ranchero Software for their excellent RSS newsreader, NetNewsWire. I use the pro version of NetNewsWire all day, every day...
Let the Tour de France begin! Lance Armstrong takes his shot at winning a fifth straight Tour de France starting with today's prologue. The race against the clock is on right now...
OmniWeb 4.5b2 released OmniWeb 4.5b2 is a new public beta version of the alternative Web browser. This update offers the same WebCore and JavaScriptCore performance as Apple's Safari browser, with - in my opinion - better looking page rendering and much greater customization capabilities. As I mentioned in referring to the beta version I was using last night, what OW 4.5b2 is missing so far is the ability to do tabbed browsing...
A word of thanks Thanks to those who are visiting MNJ and checking out the new ads being offered through the Google Adsense program. Yesterday's clicks boosted the site's clickthrough percentage and added more than $20 to the coffers that help defray the costs of publishing the site. Thanks!
Happy Fourth For the American readers of MNJ, here's wishing you a happy Fourth of July! For all MNJ readers, here's to a great weekend ahead!
Power Mac G5 doc for developers Power Mac G5 Developer Note - Apple has posted a preliminary version of its definitive reference document on the Power Mac G5 for developers. [MacInTouch]
Testing a new beta of OmniWeb I will be in meetings with the Tahoma Audubon Society and then working on our book, Birding Washington, most of the night, but in the moments in between I am testing out the new beta version of OmniWeb that became available earlier this morning. This version, which is only available to paid users of OW, includes the same version of the WebCore/JavaScriptCore v85, the same version that Apple uses in Safari 1.0. This could be sweet - the best of both worlds with first-rate rendering from the folks at The Omni Group and the speed offered by WebCore! Still no tabbed browsing for OW users though...
WebDesktop 2.0 makes your desktop a browser WebDesktop 2.0 integrates Apple's WebKit - Panic developer Steven Frank has released WebDesktop 2.0, an update to his software that layers a fully-functional Web browser over your Mac OS X desktop... [MacMinute.com]
Using iSync with Palm Desktop Apple posted a Knowledge Base article today with tips for how to integrate using iSync with Palm Desktop. Could be useful for those not buying into the underpowered capabilities of the current version of iCal...
A quick update on the MNJ ads Nearly 48 hours ago I placed ads from the Google Adsense program on the Mac Net Journal Web page and so far, without any promotion or urging folks to click the links to help support the site, the ads have brought in $7.46. Yeah, it isn't much money, but just as reader donations help support MNJ, clicking on the ads in this new program will help cover the costs of hosting the site as well. So, click if you see something you are interested in. My clickthrough rate is woeful...
CNET on Apple's push for .Mac renewals CNET digs into Apple's current push to get people to fork over $99 for another full year of .Mac services.
I noted in brief that I think Apple would be wise to actually make .Mac services work better if they want people to renew, but I thought today I would offer a few more details on the shortcomings I see with .Mac:
Am I missing something that makes the $99 investment in .Mac worth it for other users? I would love to hear your thoughts... .Mac: Is it worth it?
More comments on Bush's 'Bring them on' taunt Greenspun : "Having been a passenger on...
Detour 1.0 offers more audio control Detour 1.0 is a new application from Rogue Amoeba Software that lets you customize what will happen with audio output from OS X applications. The $12 software lets you lower the volume of specific applications, or to send audio output from an application like iTunes to one set of speakers while piping audio from other applications like iChat through another set of speakers. This sounds like a useful addition for managing sound on a Mac!
Tim O'Reilly: All software should be network aware Tim O'Reilly: All software should be network aware. Good reading...
A laughable reason to stay out of the iTunes Music Store As another sign of how out of touch the boys from Metallica really are, here is a note about why that band as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and others are keeping their music out of the iTunes Music Store:
Apparently no one has told the boys in these bands that they can require purchasers of their music on the iTMS to buy the whole album rather than individual tracks. Ah, to be an out of touch musician...
What happens when the US loses credibility? It looks like George W. has some splainin' to do if he wants to convince the rest of the world that he knows what he is talking about in his gun slinging manner, as was so notable in today's "bring them on" comments. Why do I say this? Check this story, noted from The Agonist:
This is one of the many reasons I am paying more attention to candidates that have the ability to unseat King Georgie, such as Howard Dean.
Is the weblog world about to derail? Tinderbox creator Mark Bernstein is among those raising questions about the hasty moves by the folks at Blogger to trash the underpinnings of the way weblogs work in a move to a new proposed syndication standard called Echo. It seems the Blogger folks want to trash not only RSS, or Really Simple Syndication - the thing that makes using newsreaders like NetNewsWire be able to grab the latest news from a myriad of sources, but now the Blogger people want to kill off the work done in creating XML-RPC tools that are already built into operating systems such as Mac OS X. All of this is too boring to dwell on in MNJ, but people need to realize that making drastic changes to weblogging tools for what appear to be minimal gains will have an effect on end users as well as those who build the technology that makes all of this work. Creating a proprietary format now sounds like a big waste of time...
Early reports of Panther running on a Pismo A Macintouch reader posts his impressions of running the developer release of Panther on a Pismo PowerBook. It looks like good news for my wife, who now uses my former 400MHz Pismo with its 1GB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive as her main computer...
Apple launches .Mac referral program Apple has rolled out a new promotion that offers price breaks on .Mac renewals for current subscribers who refer friends to the service. It is a good move from Apple's standpoint, but while the marketing folks are dreaming up new promotions, the technology folks should be fixing .Mac so that it works. .Mac has been around for nearly a year and Apple still can't get it right - email servers are laggard, the Backup application isn't stable. .Mac may work great for some people, but it is too little for too much for this Mac user. No thanks. At this point Apple should be worried about people renewing at all... .Mac: Is it worth it?
Congrats to Vancouver, 2010 Winter Olympics hosts Here's a shout out to my neighbors to the north in Vancouver, British Columbia, for winning the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games! Bring on the snow and ice!
Making movies with an iSight Making Movies with the Apple iSight - Online conferencing is great, but what else can you do with your new iSight? Actually, quite a bit. In this first installment of an ongoing series, Derrick Story shows you how to make professional-looking QuickTime movies with just an iSight and some very inexpensive software. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]
Mac OS X software for birders Since the content in MNJ often crosses the cultural barrier between the technology world and the bird watching world, it is only fitting that I mention a birding database application I am starting to use called Wings2003. The freeware program is a complex database with a great user manual in PDF format for anyone interested in trying the program. And if you decide you like the program, all that program creator Steven Furino asks is that you send him an email to let him know you are using the program. Furino is a math professor from the University of Waterloo who has, as he puts it, "a keen interest in natural history." Have any other tips for Mac-based birders? Let's talk birding and Mac OS X...
Recent notable software releases Since I have been so tied up with other work over the last few days and weeks, today is a great time to catch up on some recent software updates and releases that should be useful for MNJ readers:
Ads on Mac Net Journal As you will notice if you visit the Mac Net Journal site, I have added small advertisements to the left-hand side of the main MNJ page from the new AdSense program from Google. I am doing this as an experiment to see if the program can help generate funding to keep MNJ a viable site and to compliment user donations that have kept the site going over the last year. Let me know what you think...
Speaking of Tinderbox, a quick tip Speaking of Tinderbox, which is a tool I use for writing and research as well as for publishing Mac Net Journal, let me say a little about the routine I use at the beginning of each month to change the templates and create an archive of my site. When each new month begins I create a new file in my Tinderbox outline for MNJ, and so this morning I created a file for July called July2003. When I create the file I also go in and set some of the attributes of this protoPage item by using the Cmd-Opt-i command. I make sure to set the HTML export attributes, including adding the export file name, making sure that children are not exported, and then setting the sorting attributes to sort by PublicationDate, and setting SortBackward to true. Once this is done, I go into the boilerplate section of the outline for MNJ and edit the sidebar to add a link for the new monthly archive for July, and I use BBEdit to edit my item.html file so that the permalinks of any new posts for the month of July will start with the id of July2003... Another step in the process of starting a new monthly archive is going into the attributes for the main_page outline item and again using Cmd-Opt-i to edit the file name that the agent that creates the front page of the Mac Net Journal site uses to grab notes and spin them into the final HTML you see on the Web. In this case I simple edit the AgentQuery field and change the reference to grab the last 10 posts from the new file July2003. The final AgentQuery looks like this: #first(July2003,10) The last step is something I have learned to help speed up saving and exporting to HTML in Tinderbox 1.2.3. I open up an outline I created to keep archives of past posts to MNJ - one file for each month - and I copy any old monthly archive files I have in my main MNJ outline and paste them into the archive. After doing the copying and pasting and confirming that the outline items are fine in my MNJ archive outline, then I remove the old monthly files from my main MNJ outline. Why do this? Well, with this current version of Tinderbox the application can slow down considerably as the number of outline items in your main outline grows. By cutting out these old monthly archive files then Tinderbox has less rendering work to do and less work to save each time I hit Cmd-s. This speeds up working with a Tinderbox outline considerably! I should note that there is a new beta version of Tinderbox being tested right now, and one of the main benefits of the new version is supposed to be faster saving and exporting, so it is possible that I won't need to use my archiving tricks to speed up the application when TB 1.3 arrives. UPDATE: Tinderbox creator Mark Bernstein emailed me with a tip that would make my monthly archiving duties even easier to handle:
This is why Tinderbox is such a great tool. The deeper you dig the more powerful the program becomes... Discuss Tinderbox tips
An Independence Day special on Tinderbox Mark Bernstein notes: "Big fireworks at Eastgate for the Fourth of July, including a spectacular price for Tinderbox and a chance to try Tekka for just $20." The price break on Tinderbox is $50 off...
AppleMatters declares independence from OS9 Are you ready to throw out the last remains of OS9 and Classic, as the folks at AppleMatters are with their Declaration of Independence from OS9? Me, I still have a few Classic apps, so I am not tossing out the old OS just yet... Discuss eliminating Classic
TimeSlice 2.5.2 for Mac OS X TimeSlice is a time-tracking application for use by consultants and small businesses. In addition the $49 application offers billing capabilities. TimeSlice is now offered by Modesitt Software.
Donate to support Mac Web sites Ric Ford offers a wake up call about the current economic realities of running a Mac Web site based around advertising in today's edition of Macintouch. Macintouch is an excellent publication, the kind of site that originally inspired the creation of Mac Net Journal so many years ago. If you find Macintouch as critical to your understanding of developments in the Mac market as I do, consider making a donation to help keep the site alive. Meanwhile, MNJ is facing the same struggle as Macintouch. If you find the articles and news boiled down in the pages of MNJ, consider offering a donation to help defray the costs of hosting the site and the time spent creating and maintaining the site. Thanks!
The departure of a long-time Mac developer TidBITS offers a sad note in last night's latest publication that Casady & Greene, makers of great software like iData Pro, is shutting its doors after 19 years developing Mac software. |
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Copyright 2003 White Rabbit Publishing. |