Macking 54

Mad Ignores Us
Recently I wrote about how stamps.com does not have a Mac version and encouraged everyone to call and ask for one.
The same thing is true about the Mad magazine CD collection; the whole bloody lot is pressed on Windows-only cds using an interface that can't be read by us without VirtualPC. Even if you don't want this for yourself, call their 800 number anyway and ask for a Mac version. The publisher is Broderbund, who used to be very big in the Mac market. They need to know that they are losing sales right and left by being recalcitrant. Plus it wouldn't hurt to send a letter to Mad magazine too.
And speaking of stamps, there is a company that does make electronic postage for Macs called Simply Postage. They require you to use their printer instead of just printing on anything, but the device incorporates a digital scale which weighs and calculates postage based on the kind of mailing it is. Keep up the pressure on stamps.com, but check out these guys too. You need to be running a lot of mail to make this economical to use, but for the small business it looks like a good product. Requires a serial or USB connection to any Mac, PowerPC or later.

Quicken 2K problems
J. Schwartz writes,
"After reading what George Chrones had to say in your Nov. 1999 column in Computer Bits, I installed Quicken 2000 to upgrade from Quicken 98. The data from my 98 portfolio accounts was transferred to the 2000 upgrade and the data was correct except that the market values for my various accounts (stocks, mutual funds) were generally (60% of the time) wrong. These values were either significantly higher or lower than they should have been. There was no consistency to the errors and no obvious way to correct these errors.
"In the ReadMe file that accompanies the upgrade, it says that technical support 'may be available for most current versions of Quicken at no charge.' The Quicken representative advised that free tech support has not been available for some time and that that statement must be an error. Because I was perfectly happy with my Quicken 98 version and did not want to give my credit card number to pay for tech support, I will be returning Quicken 2000 for its 60 Day, Unconditional, Money Back Guarantee."

21" iMac
From the MacAddict web page, the story of a guy who built a 21" iMac using a Nokia monitor. Took a lot of work and resulted in some great pictures. The monitor, of course, is beige, but the embedded pieces are pure iMac, as are the guts. Because the iMac ships with 6 megs of video RAM, it has the horsepower to drive this big monitor. Apple, are you listening?

No more credits
Speaking of "are you listening, Apple?" the Mercury News ran an article that stated that Apple is getting militant about keeping Easter eggs out of its software, and banning credits in applications. They have all kinds of corporate-sounding justifications, but it looks like another tradition goes down the loo. Such a shame. My response to this: Subvert! Subvert! OK!
Those of you who don't know how to find "easter eggs" (fun and games animated images, other silly stuff) embedded in applications, try holding down the Option key when accessing the About This Computer window from under the Apple menu in the Finder, typing "Secret About Box" in Stickies, or simply searching on the phrase Easter Eggs at MacDownload.com. They have a file that lists dozens of these little bits of programmer whimsey scattered about the Mac universe. They are a tradition that goes back to the earliest days of computing and can be found in all platforms. You just have to look.

AirPort base
Today (11/29) I got my AirPort base station. Setup was a snap because I had already run the setup application when installing the AirPort card in the iBook. Results: Works as advertised. I go to the AppleTalk control panel and choose AirPort Ethernet instead of Built-In Ethernet and close. Now I can do anything I could do before, wired in, but with nothing touching the iBook. I can run Timbuktu and control any Mac on the network (I have three now), mount shared volumes, open documents across the net, etc. Lovely, but the lovliness was diminished on 12/5 when the base station spontaneously stopped working! I had to run the Setup Assistant again to re-establish contact. I think the problem was that I tried to incorrectly apply a password to the network after it had already been set up. Next task: configure things so I can access the Net via the base station's internal modem from both the iBook and the G3 at the same time.
The documentation included with the AirPort (and the iBook itself) is the most sparse, minimal-info docs Apple has ever published. They are assuming either that the customer is too dumb to do any of their own troubleshooting, or they want to make us all access the info on their web site.
For security I disabled Guest access in Timbuktu and Sharing Setup, and assigned passwords to everything. I hate passwords, but what're you gonna do? I don't want somebody parked in a van out front sneaking into my network; if I get the @home service from AT&T some day, their security is nonexistent - much more open than DSL service. I also look forward to surfing neighbors' machines if they hook up without passwords or firewalls. Portland, of course, isn't going to get @home until the courts decide if AT&T can keep it all to themselves, or must sell access at wholesale prices to competitors. Seems fair to me, but then I'm not a megacorporation seeking to control the Internet. Not that I wouldn't like to, you understand.

Playing MP3 files on the iBook
Since it is a G3 PowerBook in colorful clothing, any MP3 player will work fine but you need to disable sleep mode completely or the music stops after the preset interval.
The long battery life has almost eliminated the reason for power-saver features; the micro-sleep that the processor performs does not occur when continuous demands are being made on it (specifically, real-time MP3 decoding) so all you need to do is open the Energy Saver control panel and set Sleep to Never under both battery and external power.
Then stop by your local stereo shop and get a cable with mini-phono plug on one end and left/right RCA male jacks on the other. Plug this into your stereo system, boom box or amplified speakers (which may come with their own mini phono cable) and listen away. If you stuff a CD-ROM with MP3 files you will get over 12 hours of play time from it, more than enough to run down the battery three times over. Sound: phenomenally good.

New Used Stuff Shop
Just off MLK under the Morrison bridge is a new store that recycles PCs and software. I talked to the owner and he is open to buying and trading used Mac software and hardware. Visit Exchange HQ at 326 SE Morrison, 231-2739 with your warez and maybe make a deal. No Mac stuff yet, so this might be the place to unload that Color Classic or MacTV. And if you need one, check there. He plans on paying special attention to games so swap out your old game CDs, especially if they are multi-platform.

Useless Waste
This rant copied, with pleasure, verbatum from the newly-reformed EvangeList.

Subject: [Rant] US West ISP Platform Bias
From: "Jan Steinman"

So I got the promo CD in the mail from US West touting its Internet 
service. "More junk mail," I thought, but what the heck -- I'll take a 
look at it.

It said I needed a "66MHz 486 or greater." Well, regardless of your 
position on the platform wars, it doesn't take a genius to understand 
that a PowerMac G3 at 250MHz is "greater" than a 66MHz 486, so I popped 
the CD-ROM in the drive.

Huh? It has only one file: "SETUP.EXE" -- what do I do with that? Gee, 
even AOL is smart enough to send out dual-platform CDs! This isn't rocket 
science, folks! If you are a Mac user in Useless Waste territory, why 
don't you call them up today and protest their brain-dead "least common 
denominator" Internet service marketing?

(If you're a Wintel user with a Useless Waste domain, I won't demean you 
for your choice of platform, but be aware that companies like Useless 
Waste only strengthen Mr. Bill's grip on your private parts. I won't 
insult your choice, but at least you HAD one, which might not last long 
with co-monopolies backing each other up like this!)

Jan

PMUG Basement Sale
The 2nd Monday in January, instead of the normal Portland Mac Users Group meeting, we host a garage sale and swap meet from 6:30 to 8pm. This is a good place to unload that old Quadra you aren't going to use for a firewall or word processor, and a good place to pick up older software and peripheral devices. Come to the Northwest Community Center on NW Everett and 19th St. for the fun, and bring plenty of money. Want a table to sell your stuff? Call Dick Loucks at 642-7386 or write dick_loucks at pmug.org.

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.)