Mac Net Journal

Nikon to release new range of digital SLR cameras - Nikon Corp. is planning to release a new range of digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras, including a model called the D50, the company said Thursday. [MacCentral]

Business 2.0 on what's next for Apple
Monday, March 28, 2005, 9:55 PM

Business 2.0 digs into Apple's possible futures, including some interesting artist's conceptions of possible Apple products. Interesting reading, even if much of it is pure fantasy...

Firefox or Safari? Or even OmniWeb?
Monday, March 28, 2005, 9:44 PM

Free Firefox Browser Is Better Than Safari - Two superior features stood out: Firefox can save entire Web pages locally and provides an outstandingly easy yet powerful bookmark system. By Al Fasoldt, Newhouse News Service [myapplemenu]

I post this because today I made the switch to using Firefox as my main browser, after using OmniWeb as my default browser for the last few months. I may still find myself returning to OmniWeb for its full list of features and great looks - and despite the slowness of the browser. But now that I have loaded the Session Saver extension in Firefox, which ensures that the browser will continuously reload the same tabs each time I restart the browser, even in the event of a crash - something that I relied on with OmniWeb - then I can rely on Firefox. Things are feeling speedy now!

Apple releases Security Update 2005-003
Monday, March 21, 2005, 9:24 PM

Despite the awkward name - why can't Apple come up with a better naming scheme? - Apple advises all users to install Security Update 2005-003.

Here are the release notes from Apple:

Security Update 2005-003 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components:

AFP Server

Bluetooth Setup Assistant

CoreFoundation

Cyrus SASL

Folder permissions

Safari

Samba

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798

Would you buy a 2005 PowerBook?
Wednesday, March 16, 2005, 12:30 PM

Given the long list of problems that are being widely reported with the new batch of 2005 PowerBooks, I have to wonder why anyone would buy one of the machines right now? Feeling lucky? |

As a follow up, so far most folks say that their new PowerBooks are working fine. That is good news!

The value of online collaboration
Wednesday, March 16, 2005, 12:27 PM

A trio of Mac writers dig into the benefits of instant online collaboration in an article on Macworld:

Instant Collaboration - We've used SubEthaEdit to shave hours off projects -- from building outlines and ocnducting group meetings to revising articles. We think it's only the first of many programs that will promote collaborative processes. By Glenn Fleishman, Jeff Carlson and Adam Engst, Macworld [myapplemenu]

On why you can never have too much RAM
Tuesday, March 15, 2005, 9:28 PM

In Most Cases, You Can't Have Too Much RAM - No matter what you do with your Mac, treat it to a RAM upgrade and it will run better, faster and smoother. By Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle [myapplemenu]

MacDevCenter on the OS X firewall
Tuesday, March 15, 2005, 9:23 PM

Exploring the Mac OS X Firewall - Like so many tools built in to Mac OS X, the firewall just works. But what is really going on inside it? Peter Hickman explains why the firewall works so well, and then takes you inside and shows you how to fiddle with things. In the end, he returns you safely to the default settings. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

New restrictions rolled out quietly with iTunes 4.7.1
Monday, March 14, 2005, 10:39 PM

iTunes 4.7.1 Quietly Brings Sharing Restrictions - With the update to iTunes 4.7.1, Apple has quietly introduced a limit to the number of users who can access your iTunes shared music per day, according to several posts on websites and Apple's own support area. By MacNN [myapplemenu]

AOL backtracking on evil AIM policy
Monday, March 14, 2005, 9:39 PM

AOL clarifies IM privacy guarantee - Company admits its privacy policy was "inartfully" worded and is revising it to respond to concerns about IM privacy. [CNET News.com]

Is it time to houseclean your hard disk?
Monday, March 14, 2005, 3:23 PM

With the current rumor that the new Tiger release of Mac OS X is coming within the next month or so, a lot of Mac users will be looking to make more space on their hard drives prior to installation.

The MacDevCenter writes about The big clearout - It's amazing what you can find when you start digging around in the darker corners of your hard disk... [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

An iPod shuffle in the house
Friday, March 11, 2005, 10:46 PM

It took nearly two months to arrive, but we now have an iPod shuffle in the house. In mid-January I ordered a 1MB shuffle from Amazon for Natalie's birthday. It finally arrived today. I'll have to write about how it works once Natalie has a chance to open the box and try it out...

Winning the legal battle, losing the public relations war
Friday, March 11, 2005, 10:36 PM

New York Times: Apple can demand names of bloggers, judge says

And the public outing of the public relations folks at Apple as complete morons continues. I wonder if the current PR folks are the same people who were marketing geniuses who helped turn Apple from a creator of the public computer market in the 1980s into the textbook examples of how to fumble a company to death's door in the 1990s?

Tinderbox 2.4 arrives!
Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 8:44 PM

With more than 80 improvements, Tinderbox 2.4 should be quite a treat for old-time users like me and new folks who are just starting to discover the idea manager, Weblog tool, writing tool and more. I had no problems upgrading, and so far I appreciate the new look of outlines as a first impression.

A thoughtful piece on the legal status of bloggers
Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 11:24 AM

Dan Frost writes a thoughtful piece on the legal status of bloggers today in the San Francisco Chronicle: Legal status of bloggers debated - Journalists' shield claimed in response to Apple's lawsuit.

Microsoft updates Office for Mac OS X
Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 11:05 AM

If you use Microsoft Office on Mac OS X, you may want to check out the latest upgrade. MacFixIt offers notes about what has been fixed in the new release...

Equating Apple and Richard Nixon
Monday, March 7, 2005, 1:17 PM

I had to chuckle while reading this pull quote from Declan McCullagh's column about Apple's lawsuit, Apple goes to the source: "Apple Computer is trying to win the argument that Richard Nixon lost."

Priceless.

The New York Times on blogger rights
Sunday, March 6, 2005, 7:17 PM

The New York Times takes a look at the bigger implications of Apple's suit against three Web sites for divulging company secrets and then refusing to reveal the sources of their stories:

On its face, the lawsuit brought by Apple has to do with theft of trade secrets. But Susan Crawford, a law professor at Cardozo law school of Yeshiva University (and a blogger herself), says that the steps Apple has asked the court to take open a broader question.

"Under what circumstances should an online forum be forced to disclose a source behind information that they're posting?" Ms. Crawford said. "There is no principled distinction between a New York Times reporter and a blogger for these purposes. Both operate as news sources for wide swaths of the general public."

So, why should any blogger still write about Apple?
Saturday, March 5, 2005, 8:10 PM

I have been silent and digesting the news about Apple's efforts to silence and control bloggers in order to squelch secrets being spilled by its own employees. Enough silence.

Apple is making a fatal mistake. By pitting its vain desire for secrecy against its biggest fans - those who write endlessly about Apple's wares - it is trading the good will that has made the company everyone's favorite underdog for a big legal hammer that not only stands to silence bloggers that cover Apple but to limit the legitimacy of all bloggers who do real reporting on the Web.

Shame on Apple. And shame on any court system that decides that since bloggers don't work for old time media companies that they are second class citizens when it comes to covering what is happening in their world. Bloggers should be able to protect their sources with the same rights as NBC, the New York Times, or the weekly rag in any small town in America. In fact, some blogs have larger staffs and larger budgets than some of those weekly newspapers, but the courts appear to have a double standard here just because they don't understand the Web or the way news is covered today.

Dan Gilmor offers a good perspective:

The Gathering Storms Over Speech - We're moving toward a system under which only the folks who are deemed to be professionals will be granted the status of journalists, and thereby more rights than the rest of us. This is pernicious in every way. By Dan Gillmor, Grassroots Journalism [myapplemenu]

JD Lasica adds: "Sometimes all it takes is one judge with no vision to set us all down a dangerous path."

And so I have to wonder why any blogger should continue to write about Apple? |

Is it OpenDoc or Publish and Subscribe?
Saturday, March 5, 2005, 7:18 PM

There's an interesting debate going on about the LinkBack feature unveiled this week by Nisus, The OmniGroup and others. Is it like OpenDoc or Publish and Subscribe? I vote the latter.

Here are two sides of the discussion:

OpenDoc Rides Again...??? - A trio of lesser-known Mac OS X developers has announced an Open Source initiative called LinkBack designed to enable users to edit in place content copied and pasted from other applications. This kind of software creates what is called in the software biz a compound document, one whose content can come from multiple applications and be edited seamlessly.

A number of years ago, Apple Computer and some partners developed a technology called OpenDoc that did this same thing. It was a beautiful thing. The architecture was object-oriented and working with it as a user was about as transparent as such a process is likely to get... ... [Eclecticity: Dan Shafer's Blog Space]

Or the answer that I favor:

Return of Publish and Subscribe - I have tons o' respect for Adam Engst, but his piece on LinkBack: Son of OpenDoc? gets it wrong. LinkBack isn't the return of (the thankfully dead) OpenDoc, it's the return of (the sorely missed) Publish & Subscribe.

So far, it's supported by Nisus Writer Express, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and ChartSmith but given that it's just been announced, who knows who'll be next? [Backup Brain]

Home | About