Macking 114

by Michael Pearce
From the January, 2005 Computer Bits

Your Experience Could Be My Column Fodder
I have been warning people away from MSN ever since they appeared. They are so bad they even outstink AOL when it comes to vaguely incompatible Internet standards support, intolerance for mail reader programs that aren't Outlook Express, and unreliable service.
To that add completely incompetent tech support, at least for Mac users.
One day their system stops responding correctly to a client's attempt to send email. Checking is okay, but sending isn't. An error message regarding authentication is returned, which is incorrect and irrelevant. Call tech support? Two attempts, two failures. The techs aren't permitted or willing to stay on the phone while their "fixes" are tested, so repeated callbacks are necessary.
After the second failure, the client asks for a supervisor. Reluctantly, a connection switch happens and a human appears on the phone long enough to say "please hold and I'll be back" and then disappears forever. After 30 minutes, added to the two-plus hours already spent on the phone, she finally gives up.
I couldn't help her because I confirmed that all of her settings were correct. The problem was on MSN's end. Since the mail had to be sent right away, and an attachment was necessary, she tried her Hotmail account, which was included with her MSN account, and it refused to accept attachments. Finally, I told her to just put the file on a floppy and drive it over to me and I would send it out for her.
She's considering DSL, so I pointed her in the direction of my own ISP, SpiritOne, with whom I have planted dozens of people since joining them in 1997. I told her that even if she doesn't want DSL she should get off of MSN as soon as possible. I pass that warning on to all of you: Mac, Windows or Linux, avoid MSN at all costs.
If you have an interesting story/warning that deserves exposure here, let me know.

For Example
This very day I ran across, for the 2nd time, a bizarre problem in AppleWorks 6. The document looked fine on the screen, but would print blank pages and in Preview, would display only a blank window and no pages in the thumbnails list.
The cause: For some unknown reason, the Page Setup window had the document size set at 2,970% instead of the normal, default 100%. I changed it and then the text disappeared from the AppleWorks window!
That led me to the Format menu and the Document menu item. I opened that and discovered that the margins were set at 30" right, left, top and bottom. That doesn't work very well when the page size is 8.5" x 11". I set the margins to one inch and then it displayed and printed perfectly.
I checked a bunch of his other documents and many had the 2970% setting. Interestingly, the Format Document window said the margins were one inch. Change one, you gotta change the other. As soon as I saw the 2970% I remembered that I had seen this before, so it has to happen randomly at times to people. If it ever happens to you, this is where you go to fix it.

Scientology Protests
I got a letter from Barbara Roland (broland@teleport.com) denying the ban on Macs had ever happened. She says that many followers now use Macs. I admit my info is fairly out of date, probably back to the W98-W2K days. At the time, members had to accept filters built in that could block access to sites critical of Scientology. Maybe someone got a clue that they were treating people a little too much like children, and maybe they figured out suppressing critical info (like http://www.xenu.net/) simply motivated people to see what they were missing. In any event, they aren't doing it now so Mac away, Scientologists, Mac away.

Buy Mac Magazines
Even if you don't know much about your Mac, and Macworld and MacAddict seem to be targeted to someone else, you should subscribe to both. Every issue there is usually one or more item that will justify the expense of the subscription.
This month for me, the Ask Us column in Macworld had an answer to a question that I had since buying a new LaCie DVD+/-R external drive and discovering that iTunes would not recognize it to burn CDs. "Another example of Apple making us buy their own overpriced internal peripherals," I thought. The answer pointed me to a set of patches written as part of PatchBurn III, a tool that installs drivers for all the major brands of drives. I downloaded it and sure enough, iTunes recognized my drive. Thanks to Macworld; Cristian Moller, the author of the utility; and the correspondent who wrote Macworld with the same question I had, two months before me.

Oh, It's Big, All Right
Finally saw an actual 30" display in the store. It's worth a trip to your local Mac dealer (call first to see if they have one) just to check it out, even if there is no way you could buy one and the needed G5 to drive it. It's the equivalent of FOUR 15" PowerBook displays stacked in a square. Actually setting up a workstation to use two of these beasts, which is supported by the graphics card, is difficult to imagine once you see it in person. Naturally, I placed my order immediately. (Not.)

Dismounting a drive
Laurent writes, "Needing lots more storage space, I bought an external Lacie hard drive. It has an on-off switch. Instructions are sparse.
Does one turn it on BEFORE booting the computer? Can one turn it off while the computer is on? Should it be turned off AFTER the computer is shut down? Should it be turned on all the time?"
Like a floppy, it should be dismounted before turning off. LaCies will go into sleep mode when ejected so you can leave it in or on all the time. Select the drive icon, type Command-E or drag to the trash. OS9 users type Command-Y instead (Put Away).
To remount it unplug the firewire cable and plug it back in. When done with it, eject it again. You can leave it on and mounted on the desktop all the time, if you desire.
It doesn't have to be on before bootup. The only thing you shouldn't do is unplug it or turn it off without dismounting. When things are working normally, the icon will appear after you finish starting up. If it doesn't, unplug and replug it to bring it up, then check to see what extensions conflict or other problem is causing the initial failed mount in the first place.

February, September and Beyond
Oh, everyone loves to speculate about the future of computing. Remember the Jetsons? In the far-off year of 2002 we would all have mobile sidewalks and air cars, but still use punch cards. Our real future seems a little less obvious, though. Creatives will want faster and better Macs with bigger and sharper displays, although it will be hard to beat the 30" model.
Apple's just soldiering along, putting out products to make it fun and comparatively easy for people to produce art, magazines, web pages, movies and videos, while keeping a sharp eye on the home market's desire to merge their computer into their A/V receiver and wireless projection TV or stand-up 3D holographic environment. Think Star Trek's holodeck, without touch feedback.
Where there should be some action soon is in eyephones. Right now, the ones you can buy offer less than VGA resolution; merely 640x480 with limited color. This is, of course, in a 1/2" screen with lenses to make it look like a 60" monitor floating five feet in front of you.
The early attempts at Virtual Reality eyephones with head-position-tracking capabilities were a notorious failure due to the delayed response to your head movements. That caused immediate and embarrassing nausea in some of the users. Sales, as they say, plummeted.
So here is your 2007 iMac, yours for just $699:

Or, you could just get a Wintel laptop running the newly-released Longhorn OS with much better and more powerful exploits and a processor strong enough to bear the weight of all the spyware and viruses. Strangely, most people do but a few install RedEye or Slackworthy Linux and then download an Aqua window manager.

January Laugh at Microsoft
From RISKS digest, a forum for discussing computer problems on Usenet:
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 19:30:49 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Wanted by police: a few good icons...

Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface
Katie Hafner, *The New York Times*, 11 Nov 2004
San Jose has a reputation as one of the safest large cities in the nation, with the fewest police officers per capita. Yet a number of the 1,000 officers in this city of 925,000 in the heart of Silicon Valley have been worrying about their own safety of late. Since June, the police department has been using a new mobile dispatch system that includes a Windows-based touch-screen computer in every patrol car. But officers have said the system is so complex and difficult to use that it is jeopardizing their ability to do their jobs. [...]
This article reads like a casebook for your class Risks 201: "How NOT to build a system..."
"Do you think if you're hunkered down and someone's shooting at you in your car, you're going to be able to sit there and look for Control or Alt or Function?" said Sgt. Don DeMers.
A) Single-tasking - Recall the Star Trek spoof when Data can't shoot back because his console has a rotating hourglass as he raises shields....?
B) Non-intuitive.
C) Too much data for the audience.
D) No consultation with end-users. "We know what's best for you..."
Now I'll grant cops can be a tough crowd for technology; I recall decades ago explaining to several, in slow detail, how you adjusted the squelch control, and yes, it DOES matter if you put the mike up to your mouth. [Several would leave it on the dash and just yell...]
But the vendor should KNOW that.
PS: As for Sgt. DeMers, maybe Mr. Clippy will show up and help him out....

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this column.

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