Macking 117

Happy Birthday to Me
Twenty-one years ago this month I got my first Mac. I already had a VIC-20 and knew it didn't do anything I wanted it to. I was a typesetter using Compugraphic Editwriters which were code-based (no WYSIWYG) and was sick of it. Along came this thing with fonts and page layout (MacPaint) and I was hooked. I had just celebrated my 38th birthday and most of my friends had been involved with computers since the end of the '70s. As a result, I consider myself a late bird at this particular worm feed.
I can hear you laughing your heads off. Shut up.
Things have improved. CompuGraphic is dead, the entire typesetting industry has disappeared through a hole in time, replaced by graphic designers doing all the work themselves. I've made my livelihood off of this computer almost ever since, as have millions of other people planetwide. Let's not talk about the dozens of millions of people, now chained in dank basements, surrounded by rats, typing away at Excel spreadsheets on Microsoft computers and hating every minute of their lives. No, really. Let's just not talk about them. It's too depressing.

Bank Security Through Macs
A recent article in The Register, a British site focused on computer and other issues, reported on a small business in Miami who had his Microsoft PC hijacked by a trojan horse that sent his bank info to Latvia. The crook then effected a wire transfer of $90,000. When the error was caught, $20K had been withdrawn and the remaining $70,000 was frozen at the Latvian bank.
He then sued Bank of America because he claimed that the bank was negligent in not protecting his account from known risks. (He routinely did business via wire transfer.)
The lesson? Well, he had a Microsoft computer. Need I say more? There is a lesson, however, and an opportunity here for the Bank of America and other banks. Right now, there is no protection offered business customers in case of such events. A bank could, however, offer free insurance/indemnification to any account holder who uses Macs instead of PCs. These Trojans do not work on Macs, and due to the inherent security built into OSX, it's a lot less likely that any will come along that do.
Therefore a bank could save itself a lot of money while offering a low-cost way to protect its customers' accounts and itself against future lawsuits: "We offered $1 million protection for free; all you had to do was use a Mac for your online banking." The entire industry could pick up on this and it wouldn't cost them a thing. An insurance indemnification policy would be quite cheap if it excluded PCs or surcharged them for the increased risk - say, $1,000/year.
This whole thing is extra ironic because BofA had recently dropped their Mac support for online banking (through Quicken) because Intuit charged them a hefty, and separate, fee for the license to support Quicken on Macs.
Let's hope they lose this suit. That should light a fire under the banking industry and encourage a lot more Mac use. Remember, a simple KVM switch will let a Microsoft user add a Mac Mini to their system for only $500 and they can take their PC off the Internet entirely. As they say, the only secure PC is one that is not plugged in.

Jef Rasken Dies
Jef was the 31st employee of Apple Computer, and, more than any other single individual, was the designer of the original Macintosh. He is credited with the choice of a one-button mouse, deviating from the Xerox PARC design of three buttons. He has since stated that were he to redesign the interface today, he would have used a two-button mouse. (Most Mac users buy 3rd-party mice with two buttons and a scroll wheel, which is supported natively in OSX.) Hear an interview with Jef and see a documentary about his early work here. Cause of his death was pancreatic cancer, the same disease that killed my lady in 1998. Horrible disease.

Save Me
While OSX is quite stable, applications have been known to Unexpectedly Quit at the most inconvenient times. Now a company called Goldfish Soft has released a utility called SaveMe for only $25 shareware fee. You can configure it to save as often as you want, every minute if necessary, and you can make separate settings for different applications. It works on any application with a Save menu. Requires Panther.

HP Ripoff Scheme
It seems HP is building expiration dates into their printer cartridges to prevent people from refilling them. Epson has been using smart chips in their cartridges for the same reason, but HP's methods are even more onerous: an expiration date makes users have to replace perfectly good cartridges that have aged through limited use.
Visit this site for one idea on how to remove the printer's PRAM battery and reset the date. Then vow to never buy another HP printer until they change their policies, while keeping a very jaundiced eye on Epson as well.
This kind of scammage has been outlawed in Europe. Too bad we don't have a government in the USA that represents the interests of voters over corporations.

Letter
At 8:18 PM -0800 2/15/05, Dave Brook wrote:
The MiniMac seems perfect for ex-Windows users (or perhaps the spouses of Windows users, ex or otherwise) who have a decent old monitor, keyboard and printer kicking around. (Unfortunately, Windows switchers will find that right clicking and wheel mousing are not fully implemented on all Mac programs yet but they're getting there.)
Since control-click and wheelmouse are native to the OS, it's pretty well integrated. Control-click has been part of the MacOS since version 8.6; the developers know about it. I don't have experience with Windows which depends on it, but it seems pretty useful while allowing users with the no-button mice to survive. Also: KVM switches work fine with Macs, but Windows has a real hard time re-establishing contact with the keyboard and mouse after being switched away. Why am I not in the least surprised.
Regarding Apple's new word processor Pages: Anyone who's used both Word and Appleworks knows the serious limitations of AWks, even for casual writing needs. The lack of serious Preferences options is a huge limitation all by itself, not to mention a million other things continually repeated on the Apple Support discussions. I have no beef with the value of a simple word processing tool as I certainly no power user. Apple should have put it rest a long time ago and it's not doing its brand any favors keeping AW alive just to be able to give a spreadsheet and database away on new computers it sells. Here's hoping they've done MUCH better with Pages.
Pages still a paid, not bundled, program. I think that eventually they want to either revise Works or include a database and spreadsheet with Pages at some point. Pages biggest weakness: While it can import files created by AppleWorks 6, it won't read AW version 5's files. That's getting a lot of people mad.
I do all my writing in AW and do not feel limited, but for a writer it's fine as long as you don't need previous version strikeouts, line numbers and other important esoterica.
What we HAVE been needing is a Mac answer to MS Publisher. All the page-layout programs are grossly expensive but for ReadySetGo, which, mostly unknown in the USA, now has an OSX version.
Hopefully we will see an iWank 2.0 by summer that combines the two programs and that it is bundled free with all Macs (at least the consumer models that bundle AWks).

Update That G3 iMac Firmware
Recently a client had his slot-feed iMac, on which he was running 8.6, fry itself into oblivion. On my past recommendation, and that of the Mac Store, he purchased a copy of Disk Warrior, the utility for dealing with directory problems, that has superceded Norton Utilities.
He inserted the disk and rebooted with the C key held down just like you are supposed to. He heard a protracted whirring and then smelt smoke! His logic board had been toasted. What happened? How can simply starting from a CD kill hardware?
He had not implemented an iMac Firmware Update that Apple had released years ago. I carry that update and run it on any old iMac that I upgrade to OSX, but this was my first experience with a Mac dying simply by trying to boot off of a CD.
You can get this updater from Apple here.
If you have a slot-loading iMac G3, you should download and run this. Even if you have no plans to install OSX on it, be prepared. If you don't need the update the installer will tell you, and at less than 1 megabyte it can be downloaded by modem users. It will not change anything about the Mac that you are used to, and it will protect it forever from potential disaster.

eMac On Way Out
According to Think Secret, Emacs have disappeared from the Apple online store and are being replaced by 17" G5 iMacs in the children's section of the physical Apple Stores. Since this was the last CRT-based product from Apple, it's no surprise that it's being abandoned, especially now that there is a cheap alternative in the MiniMac.
If you want one, check with the Mac Resellers and the online dealers to see if any remain available. But be aware that the eMac is way behind the other models in speed and capacity. My own recommendation? Go for a Mini.

New iPods
Apple dropped the gold Mini and all but one of the monochrome-screen standard iPods. Their plan is to phase out monochromes in favor of color-screen models, and incorporate picture display capability in all of them, along with advanced features for future exploitation. The iPod Photo 60-gig is now $479, down from $599, but they removed all the extra cables and dock that used to be included. All you get is a USB 2.0 cable, which works properly only with the most recent Macs. To use FireWire, you will need a cable that costs an extra $19. The 30-gig color model is $349. Only the 20-gig monochrome remains at $299, and the black-and-red plastic U2 20-gig is $349. Since you can buy hundreds of cool iPod covers and surface tattoo decals, you really gotta like U2 to spend the extra $50 for something of limited collectability.
Expect to see a 6-gig iPod Mini soon; those drives have just come on the market at a reasonable price. They will also have color screens. As to the Shuffle, they have more capacity for functions than is exploited in the stock models; dissections have revealed controllers for micro drives, displays and whatnot. Rumor sites expect them to reach 2.5 to five gigs this year and will be priced accordingly. I am finally going to become one of the 'Pod People too, because in May sometime I will be taking delivery of my next Mini Cooper, which includes a plug for the built-in radio to control an iPod. I am so sick of Portland radio I will be happy for something to listen to during the endless commercial breaks on Air America. By the way, if you want a nice used 2003 MiniCooper S, contact me.

Remote Your Mac
I recently got a USB remote control for my iTunes server. This little box lets me start, stop, pause, cut volume, and skip ahead in iTunes, as well as in the QuickTime Player, Windows Media (amazingly; I'd have thought it be incompatible) and RealPlayer. Supposedly it also handles iDVD and iMovie too, as well as the DVD Player. The receiver plugs into a spare USB port (yeah, what's that?) and the controller runs off of hearing-aid batterie$.
This is the one thing missing if you use iTunes through your stereo system but are not at your Mac when you want to pause or quiet it down for a phone call. $60 from Keyspan. You can get cheaper remotes to control presentations only, but this does so much more. It's also possible that I could have the same power with Salling Clicker software and my Sony-Ericsson phone, but then I would have to start leaving it on all the time; now I only turn it on to call out. Yeah, I know, I'm a dinosaur.
In my favor, I just today discovered that you can also get Salling Clicker for your Bluetooth PalmPilot.

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

email mp at moonmac dot com. (I took out the mailto link because that's how the spammers find me.)